Month: August 2024

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The World Health Organization’s director-general said the United Nations health body is considering declaring an emergency for mpox, also known as monkeypox, amid an outbreak in Africa.

“But more funding and support for a comprehensive response are needed,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday.

“I am considering convening an International Health Regulations emergency committee to advise me on whether the outbreak of mpox should be declared a public health emergency of international concern.”

By Tuesday, it was unclear when the WHO would declare the emergency or issue any warnings about the virus.

A statement from Tedros published by the journal Science added that “this virus can and must be contained with intensified public health measures including surveillance, community engagement, treatment and targeted deployment of vaccines for those at higher risk of infection.”

“A further scaling up of the mpox response underway in affected countries is urgently needed amid the expanding outbreak,” his statement said, calling for “more funding for a comprehensive response” that factors in diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

A public health emergency of international concern is the strongest designation for an outbreak. Notably, such a declaration was made for COVID-19 during the early onset of the pandemic in 2020.

Later, WHO made the designation for an mpox outbreak that lasted from 2022 to 2023, while President Joe Biden’s administration declared an emergency over the virus. During that outbreak, which impacted Europe and the United States, officials say mpox primarily spread via sexual contact between men.

The latest announcement was made as the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report last week that mpox has now been detected in 10 African countries this year, including Congo, which has more than 96 percent of all cases and deaths.

Officials said nearly 70 percent of cases in Congo are affecting children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85 percent of deaths.

There have been an estimated 14,250 cases so far this year, nearly as many as all of last year, the Africa CDC said. Compared to the first seven months of 2023, the Africa CDC said cases are up 160 percent and deaths are up 19 percent, to 456.

Burundi and Rwanda both reported the virus for the first time this week, while new outbreaks were recently reported in the Central African Republic and Kenya.

“We are very concerned about the cases of monkeypox, which is ravaging (the capital region),” the Central African Republic’s public health minister, Pierre Somse, said on Monday.

Two cases were confirmed in Uganda, according to an Aug. 4 notice published by the International Society for Infectious Diseases, citing the country’s health ministry.

“Both individuals presented with symptoms such as skin rash, swollen lymph nodes, and general malaise, which are consistent with mpox,” the Ugandan Health Ministry stated.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Health Ministry recently said it found mpox in a passenger traveling from Uganda to Rwanda at a border crossing in southern Kenya. In a statement, the ministry said that a single mpox case was enough to warrant an outbreak declaration.

Over the weekend, health officials in South Africa announced the country now has 22 cases of mpox, including three deaths.

“Contact tracing and monitoring activities are ongoing in the affected communities in both provinces, and the Department urges all the identified contacts to cooperate with health officials during contact tracing for screening and possible diagnosis to prevent further transmission of this preventable and treatable disease,” the South Africa Health Department said in a statement, published on Aug. 4.

Signs and symptoms of mpox, according to the U.S. CDC website, include a rash that might be located on the feet, hands, face, chest, and mouth, or near the genitals. The rash can form scabs and initially look like blisters or pimples, which may be itchy or painful.

Other symptoms include fever, swollen lymph nodes, chills, aches, exhaustion, and respiratory symptoms such as a cough, nasal congestion, or sore throat, according to the health agency.

Authored by Savannah Fortis via CoinTelegraph.com,

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework is gradually coming into effect in line with its planned implementation timeline. The initial set of regulations, which took effect on July 1, focused on stablecoins and their issuers.

These clear guidelines have both cleaned out the market of players not able to meet regulatory requirements and created a favorable environment for stablecoins pegged to local currency.

One example is a new partnership between the France-based fintech company Next Generation and Ireland-based electronic money institution (EMI) Decta, which announced a plan to reintroduce a euro-pegged stablecoin, EURT, on the Stellar blockchain.

According to the involved parties, the initiative, which launched on Aug. 5, is fully MiCA compliant.

MiCA rebirth

Next Generation has strong ties to the renowned fintech player Tempo France. This company initially launched EURT in 2017 in collaboration with the Stellar Foundation, pioneering one of the first euro-pegged stablecoins. 

However, the absence of a regulatory framework then led to the project’s suspension. However, under MiCA, stablecoins are classified as electronic money tokens (EMTs), aligning them with traditional e-money and necessitating that issuers possess an EMI license or be a credit institution.

This regulatory clarity has transformed the euro-backed stablecoin market, making it more predictable and attractive to investors.

At the time of MiCA’s enactment, one industry analyst told Cointelegraph that they anticipate a potential shift toward euro-backed stablecoins as demand picks up in European markets.

Stablecoins on the rise?

Decta is already authorized by the Central Bank of Ireland as an EMI, which it will utilize to license to issue EURT, ensuring full regulatory compliance.

Suren Hayriyan, the president of Next Generation, said that the current demand for euro-backed stablecoins is around $30 billion with a supply of less than $300 million. The partnership aims to address this gap, with projections indicating a significant growth trajectory for EURT.

At the moment, the euro-back stablecoin market has major players such as Circle, with its EURC stablecoin and Tether’s EURT, which Hayriyan called their “main competitors.”

“However, our robust regulatory compliance and technological infrastructure position us strongly in this evolving market,” he said. Next Generation and Decta are targeting a launch of EURT by October.

Circle became the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with MiCA and chose France as its European headquarters, citing the country’s “forward-looking” stance on digital asset regulation.

The activation of MiCA is expected to drive substantial growth in the euro-backed stablecoin sector. Market predictions forecast a minimum market capitalization of 15 euros by 2025, reaching 70 billion euros by 2026 and potentially surpassing 2 trillion euros by 2028.

As of July 31, stablecoin market capitalization of stablecoins was on the rise, with an increase of 2.1% to $164 billion in July. This marked the highest levels since April 2022, and stablecoins such as USD Coin saw their trading volume soar by 48%.

Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com,

• Russia’s Arctic Northern Sea Route allows the country to continue exporting oil to China despite sanctions, highlighting the route’s strategic importance.

• Russia aims to significantly increase the NSR’s cargo capacity, supported by vast Arctic oil and gas reserves.

• This Arctic development serves both economic and geopolitical purposes, including reducing dependence on the US dollar in energy trade.

The continued use of the Arctic Northern Sea Route (NSR) by Russian oil tankers sanctioned following its 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine underlines the ongoing critical importance of this route and the country’s Arctic hydrocarbon fields to President Vladimir Putin. That the final destination of one such high-profile vessel using the NSR path is China highlights one reason why Putin has pushed the expansion of the NSR and of Russia’s Artic operations so forcefully since the invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, as analysed in my latest book on the new global oil market order. Geopolitically, China is not just another major world power to Russia, but rather it crucially holds one of only five Permanent Member seats on the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council – these being occupied by the U.S., UK, France, China, and Russia itself. Just one veto on this Council is needed to block any significant U.N. Security Council resolution, including the authorisation for the stationing of any collective peacekeeping force in a country or indeed military action against one. It is China that has ensured that neither of these serious moves have been made against Russia either after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea or the widescale 2022 invasion. 

Aside from a pledge to do the same thing for Beijing in the event of it undertaking a similar ‘reunification’ of the territory it believes should be part of its own ‘mainland’ – such as Taiwan – Russia’s principal reciprocation for this diplomatic largesse remains a steady stream of oil and gas exports to China costing less than the official OPEC+ pricing benchmarks. A large portion of these goes through pipelines, including the ‘Power of Siberia’ gas transit route, which is set to deliver 30 billion cubic metres (Bcm) this year and 38 Bcm in 2025. Another growing part of Russia’s energy deliveries to China is planned to come from liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the years ahead, with an additional 10 Bcm of gas intended to be supplied in this form by the end of this year, as also detailed in my latest book on the new global oil market order. LNG became the world’s emergency energy source following the sanctions placed on Russian gas flows after its invasion of Ukraine. Unlike gas delivered through pipelines, LNG does not require years of costly infrastructure build-out before it can be moved, and it is not necessarily subject to long-term contracts priced to reflect these expenses. Instead, it can be bought quickly in the spot market if needed, and shipped to wherever is required extremely quickly. It is safe to say that any further major military escalation in the world – resulting perhaps from China making good on its threats to forcibly retake Taiwan if necessary – would only exacerbate LNG’s importance in the global energy sector.

Ensuring that China receives the oil and gas that Russia can continue to leverage into ongoing geopolitical support is crucial to Moscow, in addition to providing the increasingly sanctioned country with vital financial support. In a global energy shipping market in which Russia finds itself increasingly blocked off due to international sanctions, the NSR still enables it to deliver energy to China with relative ease. The only problem has been that due to its location in the frozen Arctic, ships have been unable to sail at all during March, April, and May, and have struggled to do so at other times as well. Consequently, Russia has been working on a major initiative to ensure that the NSR remains fully functional all year round, according to a senior Moscow-based oil analyst exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com. “Thirty-three million tonnes of cargo was moved in 2021, 34 million [tonnes] in 2022, and just over 36 million [tonnes] last year,” said the Moscow-based analyst. “Rosatom [the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, which manages a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, among other things] and Novatek [Russia’s second-largest gas producer and spearheading its Arctic LNG developments] have told the Far East and Arctic Development Ministry that they can support an increase to 100 million tonnes by 2026 and 200 million tonnes [or cargo] by 2030,” he added. 

Russia certainly has the Arctic resources to power this enormous expansion of exports, with an estimated 35.7 trillion cubic metres (Tcm) of gas and over 2.3 billion metric tons of oil and condensate in the region. The majority of these are in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas, lying on the south side of the Kara Sea, as also analysed in my latest book. According to comments from President Putin, the next 10 to 15 years will witness a dramatic expansion in the extraction of these Arctic resources, and a corollary build-out of the NSR as the primary transport route to monetise these resources in the global oil and gas markets, especially to China. It was revealed in late 2021 that a massive new gas field in the Kara Sea itself had been discovered by Russian oil giant, Rosneft. Named after the Soviet military hero Marshall Georgy Zhukov, with natural gas reserves estimated at 800 Bcm, it is located in the Vikulovskaya structure, part of the East Prinovozemelsky-1 licence area, over which Rosneft has exploration and production rights running from 11 November 2020 to 10 November 2040. Rosneft is also developing the Vostok Oil project in Russia’s Far North that includes the Vankor cluster, Zapadno-Irkinsky block, the Payakhskaya group of fields and the East Taimyr cluster. Overall, it is estimated to hold proven liquid hydrocarbon reserves of at least 6 billion metric tons (about 51 billion barrels), all close to the NSR. Rosneft chief executive officer Igor Sechin told President Putin that with exploration underway at the Vostok Oil project, and the design work for a 770-kilometre oil pipeline and port having been completed, the scheme would create a “new oil and gas province” on Siberia’s Taymyr peninsula.

Russia’s Arctic gas and oil drive is also a vital part of Russia’s and China’s continuing efforts to subvert the U.S. dollar-based hegemony in the energy market, as also analysed in my new book, particularly as it features one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers and one of its biggest buyers. Very early in the Arctic LNG projects’ history, Novatek’s chief executive officer, Leonid Mikhleson, said that future sales to China denominated in renminbi were under consideration. This was in line with his comments on the prospect of then-further U.S. sanctions – following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 – that they would only accelerate the process of Russia trying to switch away from U.S. dollar-centric oil and gas trading. “This has been discussed for a while with Russia’s largest trading partners such as India and China, and even Arab countries are starting to think about it… If they do create difficulties for our Russian banks then all we have to do is replace dollars,” he said. Such a strategy was tested in 2014, when the state-run Gazprom Neft tried trading cargoes of crude oil in Chinese yuan and roubles with China and Europe, to reduce Russia’s dependence on crude trading in dollars, in response to the initial Western sanctions against Russia’s energy sector. The thrust of these comments was echoed by former executive vice-president of the Bank of China, Zhang Yanling, in a speech in April 2022 that the then-latest sanctions against Russia would “cause the U.S. to lose its credibility and undermine the [U.S.] dollar’s hegemony in the long run.” She further suggested that China should help the world “get rid of the dollar hegemony sooner rather than later.”

While many countries have their own special days to celebrate beer, one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to humankind, International Beer Day is aimed at beer drinkers everywhere.

Every first Friday in August, special events are held in bars and pubs around the world. According to Statista data, some countries’ inhabitants might be more prone to celebrate than others.

As Statista’s Florian Zandt reports, a recent Statista Consumer Insight survey shows that most Latin American countries exhibit a share of between 41 and 53 percent of regular beer drinkers. Mexico tops the list with 53 percent of survey participants of legal drinking age regularly consuming alcoholic drinks usually made with malted barley, hops, water and yeast. Coming in second and third are Greece and Spain with 52 and 51 percent, respectively. With Italy at 47 and Portugal at 37 percent, the survey suggests that Southern Europe also has a propensity for regular beer consumption.

You will find more infographics at Statista

In Asia, where many of the world’s leading breweries are located, the share of regular beer drinkers is lower. China and South Korea are tied for first place in the region with 41 percent, followed by Thailand with 38, Hong Kong with 36 and Taiwan with 31 percent.

Malaysia and Indonesia exhibit a share of only 16 and 10 percent of respondents who regularly drink beer, which is tied to religious practices. Both countries have a majority of residents adhering to the Islamic faith, where alcohol is considered haram or forbidden.

Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, countries with which many popular beer brands and varieties like wheat beer or Guinness are associated, are closer to the 48-country average of 35 percent.

In all three countries, a third of respondents of legal drinking age said they regularly consumer beer.

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a new bill that aims to counter communist China’s malign activities in Africa.

Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Colin Allred (D-Texas), both sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, said China’s activities in Africa, particularly those under Beijing’s foreign investment program, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road, have caused harmful effects to the continent’s environment, ecology, and public health, according to a press release issued on Aug. 5.

“The PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative coerces developing nations to fall into [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping’s debt-trap diplomacy but also exposes vulnerable populations to harmful ecological, environmental, and public health risks,” Kim said in a statement, referring to the acronym of communist China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

“We cannot allow Xi Jinping to get away with growing his global power and violating international environmental and labor laws in the process,” she said.

Announced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2013, BRI seeks to build Beijing-centered land and maritime trade networks by financing infrastructure projects throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. According to China’s official data, many African countries are BRI participants, including South Africa, Gambia, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia.

The legislation, Stopping PRC Environmental Exploitation and Degradation (SPEED) Act, (H.R. 9265), would establish that it is the policy of the United States to oppose the actions of China-linked entities that do not abide by the host country, international environmental protection, and labor laws in their exploitation of natural resources in Africa.

“I am proud to lead the SPEED Act to counter the Belt and Road Initiative and hold the PRC accountable for its exploitative practices, deliberate environmental degradation, and threat to African communities’ livelihoods,” Kim said.

If enacted, the legislation would also require the secretary of state and the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to submit to Congress a strategy on how the United States will work with African countries to “develop mitigation strategies for the negative environmental impact” caused by Chinese companies, according to the language of the bill.

Additionally, the legislation would authorize the president to impose sanctions on China-linked entities responsible for adverse environmental, ecological, or public health incidents in Africa.

“We cannot allow the People’s Republic of China and Chinese-linked companies to continue their exploitation of African nations as they subject their people to harmful ecological and public health risks,” Allred said in a statement.

The legislation referenced a State Department report titled “China’s Environment Abuses” published during the Trump administration. In the report, it called the BRI projects “not-so-green.”

“In recent years, Chinese-backed projects on several continents have displaced local populations, negatively affected water quality, polluted adjacent land, and spoiled fragile ecosystems,” the report reads.

“A study published in Nature Sustainability suggested BRI projects may lead to ‘permanent environmental degradation’ due to environmental harm through pollution, habitat loss, and wildlife mortality, among others.”

The bill also documents incidents of adverse environmental, ecological, and public health incidents in Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2021, local communities in the Congo accused a Chinese mining company of polluting the Aruwimi River, a tributary of the Congo River. “Locals reported water discolored by waste disposal. The incident sparked an increase in sickness, and dead fish began floating in the river, which locals consumed,” the bill reads.

In Gambia, fishmeal processing factories owned partially or wholly by Chinese investors have been accused of committing illegal and unreported fishing practices and discharging untreated waste into waterways since 2016, the bill said.

A Chinese natural gas plant in Ethiopia’s Somali region has been accused of poisoning drinking water with its hazardous chemical waste, allegedly causing over 2,000 deaths, according to the text of the legislation.

Authored by Luke Widenhouse via RealClearDefense,

In February, it was revealed that Russia has been developing a nuclear-armed anti-satellite weapon. The Biden administration’s response has focused mainly on arms control efforts aimed at preventing Russia from acquiring a space-based nuclear weapon in the first place. These efforts are important, but they are also insufficient. Steps must be taken now to prepare for the possibility that diplomacy fails. Nuclear anti-satellite weapons have the potential to fundamentally alter existing nuclear paradigms, creating a much more destabilizing environment than exists today. The U.S. must take action now to ensure it is ready to deal with the challenges posed by nuclear weapons in space. By preparing now, before nukes are put in orbit, the U.S. can better work to prevent such a day from ever happening at all.

U.S. deterrence strategy has long centered on its ability to tailor both conventional and nuclear response options to a wide range of different contingencies, as well as deliberate ambiguity surrounding when it would use nuclear weapons. Both these concepts would be thrown out the window if a nuclear anti-satellite weapon were detonated today. While the exact capabilities of Russia’s space weapon are unknown, it is likely to pose as much a threat to its own satellites as it is those of the United States.

In May, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb testified that Russia’s weapon would be “indiscriminate,” and “pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe.” The U.S. would therefore likely be left without the ability to retaliate against Russia in space if it detonated its weapon. The only option would be to strike targets on the ground. At present, conventional U.S. forces rely heavily on access to satellite-provided GPS, intelligence, and communications. A conventional strike in this environment would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to carry out. A nuclear strike would be more feasible (though also challenging). A serious conversation should address whether a surface nuclear strike would be an appropriate response to a nuclear attack that does not directly kill people on Earth.

However, it is still critical that the president retain a variety of options to respond to the use of such a weapon. Thus, central to deterrence in a world of nuclear anti-satellite weapons will be the ability of conventional military forces to operate without access to satellites.

If satellites went down in the aftermath of the detonation of a nuclear space weapon, the ability of long-range strike fighter aircraft and bombers to carry out non-nuclear surface attacks against enemy targets would be crucial to maintaining the option of a conventional response to such an action. There have been some efforts to improve the ability of U.S. forces to fight in an environment without access to space, but these have been limited compared to activities aimed at maintaining such access. The latter efforts are important, but they will likely not be options once a nuclear anti-satellite weapon goes off.

The Navy and Air Force, with support from the Space Force, should wargame different “denied space” contingencies aimed at learning how to operate in an environment without access to satellites. The lessons from these wargames should then be applied and continued in actual live military exercises. These exercises would be aimed both at training pilots, aircrews, and commanders to conduct operations in a denied space environment but would also demonstrate to Russia and other potential U.S. adversaries that it will always have the option of retaliating with varying degrees of force to any type of nuclear aggression.

The U.S. should continue pursuing arms control efforts aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in space. However, it must also be prepared for the possibility that these efforts fail. By preparing conventional strike fighter assets to conduct operations in a denied space environment, the U.S. will be adequately ready for a world where nuclear weapons are orbiting the Earth.

Luke Widenhouse is a research assistant at the Yorktown Institute and rising senior at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. 

Some jobs inherently carry significant risks due to factors such as hazardous working conditions, exposure to harmful substances, and the physical demands of the tasks.

Unfortunately, work injuries can sometimes be fatal, with the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recording 5,486 fatal work injuries in 2022.

2022 saw a 5.7% increase from the 5,190 fatal work injuries in 2021, and meant that a worker died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury that year.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the six occupations in the U.S. with the highest rates of fatal work injuries per 100,000 full-time workers, and their number of fatal work injuries in 2022.

The figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and are updated as of December 2023.

What are the Most Dangerous Jobs in the United States?

Some of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. involve significant physical labor and working in hazardous environments, like loggers, roofers, and fishing and hunting workers.

Many of these jobs also are usually done in isolated areas, like logging and fishing, where access to emergency medical attention is limited.

While logging workers saw the highest fatal work injury rate, over 1,000 truck drivers died due to work injuries in 2022—the most fatalities out of any occupation.

Operating extremely large vehicles for many hours, often in remote and unfamiliar areas, are some factors that contribute to the dangerous nature of truck driving as an occupation.

Transportation incidents remained the most frequent type of fatal event accounting for 38% of all occupational fatalities. In 2022, there were 2,066 fatal injuries from transportation incidents, a 4.2% increase from 1,982 in 2021.

It hasn’t been even a full week since the BOJ’s catastrophic decision to hike rates by 25bps in a slowing, deflating economy, a decision which we said the BOJ would make for purely political reasons, yet which touched on in our preview last week….

BOJ preview: whatever is the dumbest possible thing that can happen, is what will happen. 100% guaranteed

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2024

… a decision which we also said would be reversed on very short notice…

Who will cut first: BOJ or Fed

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 2, 2024

… once the Japanese stock markets crashed after the weekend, just as expected…

There it is

*JAPAN’S TOPIX INDEX EXTENDS DROP TO MORE THAN 6% https://t.co/xh4zeBXpZa

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 5, 2024

… and not just any crash but the biggest point crash in Nikkei and Topix history, surpassing even Black Monday and guaranteeing that whatever political considerations were prevalent when the BOJ decided to throw away its own rulebook and follow political pressure to spike the yen in order to contain inflation – while also crashing the stock market by 20% in 3 days – would be promptly overruled and the BOJ would capitulate in due course, as we explained just last night in “After A “Perfect Storm In The Vol Market”, Goldman Says “We Are About To Enter The Central Bank Response Phase“, in which we wrote that “we are not going down because of recession but because of an unwind of circa 20trilion carry trades” adding that “only BOJ can stop this.”

And while we were correct in predicting that “the BOJ has no choice and is merely prolonging the inevitable”…

Why the BOJ has no choice and is merely prolonging the inevitable: “at a gross balance sheet value of around 500% GDP or $20 trillion, the Japanese government’s balance sheet is, simply put, one giant carry trade.” – DB pic.twitter.com/gAtt4eu0HO

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 5, 2024

… little did we know just how soon the BOJ would stop prolonging the inevitable – and admit it has no choice – because less than a day later, the Japanese central bank confirmed everything we said in the past 72 hours when BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida capitulated shortly after 10am local time, when, pressed for answers to the ongoing market collapse, he sent a strong dovish signal in the wake of historic financial market volatility in Japan by pledging to refrain from hiking interest rates when the markets are unstable.

Uchida tried to save face, but in the end the only thing the market heard is that rate hikes are basically over after last week’s teeny, tiny 10-25bps rate increase unleashed a global deflationary tsunami and crashed Japan’s market.

“I believe that the bank needs to maintain monetary easing with the current policy interest rate for the time being, with developments in financial and capital markets at home and abroad being extremely volatile,” Uchida said in a speech Wednesday to local business leaders in Hakodate, northern Japan, where apparently he did not make a Freudian slip confusing “tightening” with “easing” because he actually did mean easing!

Uchida spoke after Japanese stocks crashed in predictable reaction to the BOJ crushing the yen carry trade… or rather predictable to anyone but the erudite policymakers at the BOJ.

More importantly, the deputy chief suggested that the bank will carefully consider the state of financial markets in future decisions on rate policy, and as noted above, will refrain from any more rate hikes when markets are unstable.

“In contrast to the process of policy interest rate hikes in Europe and the United States, Japan’s economy is not in a situation where the bank may fall behind the curve if it does not raise the policy interest rate at a certain pace,” Uchida said. “Therefore, the bank will not raise its policy interest rate when financial and capital markets are unstable.”

Well, dear central banker, a quick primer: this is called passive aggressive forward guidance. The Japanese market will now NEVER become “stable”, in doing so preventing any more rate hikes, and in fact will become so unstable the BOJ will have to cut again.

According to Bloomberg, Uchida, a dovish veteran policy architect, who was heavily involved with designing the BOJ’s massive monetary easing program that ran for more than a decade, is widely known for playing a prominent role in mapping out Governor Ueda’s journey toward normalizing policy. The BOJ ended the ultraeasy policy in March with its first hike in 17 years. And it now appears that the BOJ’s attempts to renormalize policy ended with a thud on the morning of August 7.

For confirmation one has to look no further than the yen which immediately tumbled by more than 2% against the dollar…

…. and Japanese stocks soared immediately after his comments…

… which were not only the first public remarks by a BOJ board member since the bank hiked interest rates on July 31, but also the first remarks to admit that last week’s rate hike had been a catastrophic policy error.

And now, we sit back and watch as the carry trade is put back on, and the BOJ desperately tries to refloat the $20 trillion carry trade titanic which as we reported on Sunday night, is now in the process of sinking. The good news, at least for the Kamala administration, is that the BOJ’s panicked concession will enable US stocks to surge once again as the carry trade is promptly re-established.

The sellside brigades, especially those who were predicting a 130 USDJPY in the very near future, were quick to jump on the realization that the BOJ just capitulated:

• According to Credit Agricole CIB, Uchida comment confirms the BOJ will likely be gun-shy about hiking rates again soon (or ever) which will weigh on the the yen.
  • “The 3-way meeting between the FSA, MOF and BOJ left the BoJ substantially chastized with new Vice Minister for International Affairs, Mimura, saying the BoJ will pay attention to the volatility in financial markets,” said the bank’s FX strategist David Forrester.
• The Bank of Singapore also chimed in, writing that “the outsized yen rally is making policymakers uncomfortable”, which is evident from BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida’s comments on interest rates.

Unfortunately for the BOJ, by admitting defeat it has just dug its own grave for the last time, and having capitulated on further tightening just because of a modest bear market in stocks, the full court press to short the yen is now back on and we expect it won’t stop until the currency hits new record lows in the very near future, with the BOJ now completely powerless to do anything as Japan’s hyperinflation finally kicks in.

Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

It’s amazing. The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump happened a little more than three weeks ago. But if you follow the current coverage in the mainstream media, it’s like it never happened. The mainstream media has moved on. Of course, we’ve had a sitting president end his reelection bid and Kamala Harris ascend to the top spot without getting a single vote. This is the same as with her doomed 2020 bid when she exited the nominating race after getting eviscerated by Tulsi Gabbard in a pre-Iowa Democrat debate.

All that Harris and her campaign surrogates can talk about is how “weird” JD Vance is. This coming from a candidate who made a pre-taped campaign announcement on RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s these Democrat parrots like Donny Deutsch and other droids on MSNBC that have ZERO self-awareness. Their narratives have effectively been debunked.

With that being said, you won’t see this on MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, or just about any MSM broadcast, online outlet, or in print. Those outlets will continue with their Trump-as-Hitler narrative every day up to November 5.

The circumstances surrounding the attempted assassination of Trump and the successful assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 23, 1963, are shockingly similar.

We are still waiting for information on all of the serial failures to protect Trump as well as the actions taken by the shooter in the days leading to the attack, but the motivations of our government seem to be very similar.

It is historically known that Kennedy tried to reduce U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War after the Cuban Missile Crisis and his worry that a nuclear exchange with the Soviets would result in catastrophic loss of life. This compelled him to strongly resist a military-industrial complex comprised of government institutions and wealthy corporate interests that were invested in escalating the Vietnam War effort and keeping the weapons and hardware flowing.

Kennedy made a lot of enemies in government, trying to reform systems that were in place for decades and angering a lot of powerful groups that were heavily invested in America’s war machine. Starting right after the end of World War II, through the establishment of the CIA 76 years ago in 1947, the CIA has been the central linchpin of the U.S. Intelligence community (IC), the so-called Deep State that is accountable to no one (not the president, either House of Congress, or any other serious oversight organization.)

Kennedy pledged to reform the intelligence community (IC) after the Bay of Pigs fiasco that took place under the lead of the IC as a way to depose Fidel Castro. Kennedy was appalled at the usurpation of his authority and made it clear that change was going to come.

We know how this ended. Kennedy’s hurriedly planned visit to Dallas, driven through an unsecured area, in an unprotected, open-air limousine, with very little Secret Service protection, and in line of sight of buildings with multiple opportunities for snipers to hide. If our government did not intend for this assassination to happen, it certainly laid out a very workable plan to fatally ambush Kennedy that could not have been more perfect.

Which brings us to Trump’s brush with death on July 13. In his first term, Trump made efforts to reform the Deep State to at least slow down the expansion of government size and the intrusion into the lives of American citizens. He put the Pentagon on notice to stop warmongering in foreign lands.

He ordered NATO countries to start paying their fair share of America’s commitment to protect them. He slowed the influx of illegal aliens, infuriating a welfare bureaucracy counting on an ever-growing underclass of immigrants to justify their existence.

Trump made a lot of enemies in government just as Kennedy had by trying to reform many of the same systems and angering many of the same moneyed interests. With four years of experience in dealing with these Deep State operators and now knowing how to really reform the administrative state, Trump has a lot of career bureaucrats worried about their jobs, perks, and power. And now Trump looks to be unbeatable in the coming election, even with the soft coup with Democrat power brokers—Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, and others—despite the current media infatuation and love fest with Cackling Kamala.

It is not unreasonable to assume that the organized left operation that runs the federal government from the shadows of Washington, D.C.—which sought to remove Trump from state ballots, drive him into bankruptcy, imprison him, frame him as an asset of Russia, compare him to Hitler, portray him as an existential threat to democracy, and accuse him of an insurrection—would be desperate enough to recruit an Oswald-like patsy to kill him and make sure he had the opportunity to do it.

Let’s remember that these are the same reprehensible people who have spent the last eight years telling us that Trump is a unique threat to all Americans and will imprison his rivals and act as a dictator.

Are they capable of murder? Of course they are. That is why they are demanding that all discussion of the assassination attempt be stopped and that the serial failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) not be explored by anyone. Three sessions before Congress have shown us the game of CYA (cover your ass) going on by the members of the Deep State who have already testified, including disgraced former Unites States Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, current FBI director Chris Wray, and Cheatle’s replacement, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe.

• Serial failures such as:

• Why repeated requests for additional USSS resources were denied by the Biden White House,

• Why Trump’s regular USSS team was replaced by a veritable B-team of ill-trained and equipped agents, including three short females who could not holster their weapons, with one cowering behind Trump as shots were being fired at him,

• How an obvious high-elevation perch only 450 feet away from the rally podium with unobstructed line-of-sight was left unguarded,

• How a 20-year-old with a long rifle and a ladder could enter a secured perimeter,

• How the shooter was seen by rally attendees over an hour before the attack, all the while shouting to law enforcement that milled around but did nothing to confront the shooter,

• How the shooter was identified by police snipers at 5:51 PM, before Donald Trump, the most famous person in the world and the most targeted by his enemies, took the stage at 6:02 PM, without telling him or preventing him from taking the podium,

• How the police snipers had the shooter in their scopes for minutes but waited until after the attack at 6:11 PM, after eight shots were made, before finally neutralizing him,

• Why the USSS chose not to record their radio communications on this particular day at this particular rally, and,

• Why Congressional investigators cannot get any straight answers from either USSS or DHS leadership on how this could have happened.

Only after the assassination attempt failed were Democrats power brokers like Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, and Jeffries successful in forcing Biden out of the presidential race at the behest of the Democrat donor class. Now the question is: will Biden actually serve out his term until January 20, 2025? Biden looked confused when meeting the released Russian hostages at Joint Base Andrews last week, ceding lead at the event to Vice President Harris.

We can surmise that the Secret Service is either completely inept or that it cooperated in a conspiracy to allow for the assassination of a man that the Biden administration wanted stopped after everything else had failed and after he became inevitable as the next elected president.

The entire scenario stinks of conspiracy and cover-up. This is not something we say lightly.

There is no excuse for such a blatant failure to protect the most famous and targeted person in the world. The USSS operates under a $3 billion yearly budget. There is no shortage of resources, human or otherwise, that can justify such incompetence and dereliction of duty. What the testimony found was that the USSS is plagued by management ineptitude. As a place to work in the Federal government, it ranks 319 out of 320 government agencies.

How do we move forward from here? Well, we don’t need a Warren Commission to whitewash this stunning attempt to neutralize the Republican front-runner. We don’t need a compliant legacy media to call this a “Republicans pounce” moment or to minimize their role in ratcheting up the Trump hate on their platforms. We don’t need a sorely compromised FBI to investigate this horrific attempt on Trump’s life—the same FBI that is also known for calling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation” and raiding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for FBI-doctored evidence of classified documents.

Will a House of Representatives probe get to the truth? It might but we’re not holding our breath for that to happen.

What we need here is for someone to come clean. And that someone, interestingly enough, could be Kimberly Cheatle. Yes, the former director of the USSS herself.

Why did she resign as director if there was no malfeasance or conspiracy to kill Trump? As director of the USSS, she reported to the head of DHS, Alejandro Mayorkas. All USSS plans for events, such as the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, would have been signed off by Mayorkas or someone within his direct management. By resigning her post and, assumingly, receiving some form of immunity from prosecution, she could expose the entire plot. A lot of heads could roll.

Or not. As we’ve seen, it’s hard for anyone in government—and Democrat administrations in particular—to face accountability for failure. Even a failed attempt to murder the most famous person in the world live on television. If not for a turn of his head, history would have been far different. As a nation, we literally dodged a bullet.

A bullet that would have resulted in a civil war that would have generated untold acrimony and violence among otherwise peace-seeking patriots. A bullet that would have changed the entire world order. A bullet that would have pulled the mask away from the ridiculous notion that we are being led by a responsible and accountable government that everyone would have finally realized was a fraud.

Is this what our so-called leaders have wanted all along?

One has to wonder. What interesting times we live in.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

The resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday and her government’s replacement with a military-led interim administration was followed by a spree of political violence. The parliament was taken over, Hasina’s palace was stormed, some of the former ruling party’s offices and the homes of its members were looted, and minority Hindus were attacked. Despite being regrettable, retributive political violence and the targeting of minorities are predictable in “revolutionary” situations.

What few could have foreseen though was that symbols of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who’s known as “Bangabandhu” and is revered as the Father of the Nation, were also attacked. This included vandalism against his statues and murals as well as the burning of his memorial museum in the capital, which used to be his home and from where he declared Bangladesh’s independence.  Even though he was Hasina’s father, he’s not guilty of the crimes that the so-called “peaceful pro-democracy protesters” accuse her of.

Some hated him at the time for his secularism as well as his non-Western alignment, thus explaining his assassination in 1975 and the military coup that followed, but much of that anger has passed since most of the population wasn’t even born by then and therefore has no personal memory of him. Regardless of whatever any Bangladeshi’s views might be about his policies, Bangabandhu is still the Father of the Nation, and targeting his symbols during the latest unrest bodes ill for Bangladesh’s future direction.

Only religious and political extremists would attack his symbols, which discredits the participants’ claims that they’re “peaceful pro-democracy protesters” and lends credence to Hasina’s that they’re actually radical anti-state forces. What happened bears all the hallmarks of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and their allies. They’ve been accused of cavorting with religious extremists and being political radicals, the claims of which aren’t unfounded.

The party’s founder Ziaur Rahman implemented Islamist policies upon coming to power two years after Bangabandhu’s assassination and then pivoted towards the West (including its then-Arab and -Chinese partners at the time). The rivalry between the BNP and Bangabandhu’s Awami League (AL) has remained a constant since then, as has the threat posed by the legally contentious Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) movement, which is comprised of Pakistani loyalists who later allied with the BNP due to its Islamist policies.

Nevertheless, attacking Bangabandhu’s symbols in such a high-profile way at this crucial moment in national history sends the message that political violence will continue, with none of the AL’s supporters being safe. Unless the military can restore order, and it’s too early to tell even though everything appears to be moving in that direction, then the BNP-JEI might go on a killing spree against the AL. A huge exodus to India could then follow, which risks destabilizing already demographically tense border regions.

Even if that dark scenario doesn’t materialize, it’s clear that the BNP’s JEI foot soldiers won’t be pleased until their country erases the AL’s legacy of secularism and alignment with India. After all, that’s precisely what Bangabandhu represents, so targeting his symbols conveys their hatred of those policies and implies that some level of unrest might continue so long as they remain in force. Bangladesh has the sovereign right to promulgate whatever policies it wants, but this mustn’t be done under pressure.

It’s too early to predict whether the BNP-JEI will get all of what it wants, but the parliament in which the BNP didn’t participate due to boycotting January’s elections was just dissolved and its jailed leader was released right after, so it’s likely poised to play a role in the interim administration before new elections. In that event, the BNP and its JEI foot soldiers would stand a much greater chance of pressuring the authorities into distancing Bangladesh from India in some way, which could worsen regional tensions.