Category: zerohedge

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

The most important trilateral at the G20 in Osaka was confined to a shoddy environment unworthy of Japan’s unrivaled aesthetic minimalism.

Japan excels in perfect planning and execution. So it’s hard to take this setup as an unfortunate “accident.” At least the – unofficial – Russia-India-China summit at the sidelines of the G20 transcended the fate of an interior decorator deserving to commit seppuku.

Leaders of these three countries met in virtual secrecy. The very few media representatives present in the shabby room were soon invited to leave. Presidents Putin, Xi and Modi were flanked by streamlined teams who barely found enough space to sit down. There were no leaks. Cynics would rather joke that the room may have been bugged anyway. After all, Xi is able to call Putin and Modi to Beijing anytime he wants to discuss serious business.

New Delhi is spinning that Modi took the initiative to meet in Osaka. That’s not exactly the case. Osaka is a culmination of a long process led by Xi and Putin to seduce Modi into a serious Eurasia integration triangular road map, consolidated at their previous meeting last month at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek.

Now Russia-India-China (RIC) is fully back in business; the next meeting is set for the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September.

In their introductory remarks, Putin, Xi and Modi made it clear that RIC is all about configuring, in Putin’s words, an “indivisible security architecture” for Eurasia.

Modi – very much in a Macron vein – stressed the multilateral effort to fight climate change, and complained that the global economy is being ruled by a “one-sided” dictate, emphasizing the necessity of a reform of the World Trade Organization.

Putin went a step ahead, insisting, “our countries are in favor of preserving the system of international relations, whose core is the UN Charter and the rule of law. We uphold such important principles of interstate relations as respect for sovereignty and non-interference in domestic affairs.”

Putin clearly underlined the geopolitical interconnection of the UN, BRICS, SCO and G20, plus “strengthening the authority of the WTO” and the International Monetary Fund as the “paragon of a modern and just multipolar world that denies sanctions as legitimate actions.”

The Russia-India-China contrast with the Trump administration could not be starker.

Those ‘tremendous assets’

BRICS, as it stands, is dead. There was an “official,” pro-forma BRICS meeting before the RIC. But it’s no secret both Putin and Xi completely distrust Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, regarded as a Trump neocolonial asset.

Ahead of his bilateral with Trump, Bolsonaro peddled Brazil’s mineral wealth, claiming the country may now export “niobium trinkets.”

Well, that’s certainly less controversial than the Brazilian military sherpa arrested in Spain for carrying industrial quantities of cocaine (36kg) in the presidential plane, definitely ruining the after-hours party time in Osaka.

Later on, Trump eagerly praised Brazil’s “tremendous assets,” now being fully privatized to the benefit of US companies.

Xi, as he addressed the BRICS meeting, denounced protectionism and called for a stronger WTO. BRICS nations, he said, should “increase our resilience and capability to cope with external risks.”

Putin went one up. Apart from denouncing “protectionist” tendencies in global trade, he called for bilateral trade in national currencies bypassing the US dollar – mirroring a commitment by the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Russia-China, via Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and head of the People’s Bank of China, Yi Gang, have signed an agreement to switch to rubles and yuan in bilateral trade, starting with energy and agriculture, and increase cross-currency settlements by 50% in the next few years.

There will be a concerted effort to increasingly bypass SWIFT, using the Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and the Chinese Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS).

Sooner or later Russia-China will entice India to join. Moscow has excellent bilateral relations with both Beijing and New Delhi, and is decisively playing the role of privileged messenger.

The mini-trade war against New Delhi launched by the Trump administration – including the loss of India’s special trade status and punishment for buying Russian S-400 missile systems – is quickening the pace of the process. India, by the way, will pay for the S-400s in euros.

There were no leaks whatsoever from Russia-India-China about Iran. But diplomats say that was a key theme of the discussion. Russia is already – covertly – helping Iran on myriad levels. India has an existential choice to make: keep buying Iranian oil or say goodbye to Iran’s strategic help, via the Chabahar port, to facilitate India’s mini-Silk Road to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

China sees Iran as a key node of the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative. Russia sees Iran as essential for strategic stability in Southwest Asia – a key theme of the Putin-Trump bilateral, which also discussed Syria and Ukraine.

The leaders of RIC – Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping – hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / AFP

RIC or Belt and Road?

Whatever the psyops tactics employed by Trump, Russia-India-China is also directly implicated in the massive short and long-term ramifications of the Trump-Xi bilateral in Osaka. The Big Picture is not going to change; the Trump administration is betting on re-routing global supply chains out of China, while Beijing advances full speed ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative.

Trump is heavily distrusted across Europe – as Brussels knows the EU is the target of another imminent trade war. Meanwhile, with over 60 nations committed to myriad Belt and Road projects, and with the Eurasia Economic Union also interlinked with Belt and Road, Beijing knows it’s just a matter of time before the whole of the EU hits the BRI highway.

There’s no evidence that India may suddenly join Belt and Road projects. The geopolitical lure of “Indo-Pacific” – essentially just another strategy for containment of China – looms large. That’s good old imperial Divide and Rule – and all the major players know it.

Yet India, now on the record, is starting to spin that Indo-Pacific is not “against somebody.” India getting deeper into RIC does not imply getting closer to Belt and Road.

It’s time for Modi to rise to the occasion; ultimately, he will decide which way the geoeconomic pendulum swings.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XgebHE Tyler Durden

On Thursday, NASA announced that its next space mission was to send a quadcopter named Dragonfly to Saturn’s largest moon, called Titan, looking for signs of life. Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and land on Titan in 2034.

BIG NEWS: The next @NASASolarSystem mission is… #Dragonfly – a rotorcraft lander mission to Saturn’s largest moon Titan. This ocean world is the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere & we’re so excited to see what Dragonfly discovers: https://t.co/whePqbuGBq pic.twitter.com/BQdMhSZfgP

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) June 27, 2019

The quadcopter will be looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. Dragonfly will be the first time NASA operates a multi-rotor vehicle for space exploration on another planet; it is classified as rotorcraft, has eight rotors and flies like a drone. Flying will be difficult and will use a lot of energy. This is because of Titan’s atmosphere is four times thicker than Earth’s.

NASA says the moon is comparable to Earth in its youth, can provide evidence to how life has evolved over millions of years.

Dragonfly will operate on Titian for three years, will explore diverse environments across the moon. It has several sensors that will study how far prebiotic chemistry may have progressed.

“With the Dragonfly mission, NASA will once again do what no one else can do,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“Visiting this mysterious ocean world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe. This cutting-edge mission would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago, but we’re now ready for Dragonfly’s amazing flight.”

Researchers used data from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that started its mission in 2004 and used sensors to scan through the moon’s haze. Cassini was able to detect clouds of methane and various geologic surfaces with only a few crater impacts.

NASA has said Titan’s atmosphere is “the most chemically complex in the solar system.”

Sometime in 2034, Dragonfly will land at the equatorial “Shangri-La” dune fields, which are similar to dunes in Namibia in southern Africa. For the next three years, Dragonfly will leapfrog around the moon, 5 miles at a time. At the end of its mission, it will reach the Selk impact crater, where there could be evidence of water and possible life.

Titan has a nitrogen-based atmosphere similar to Earth. However, Titan has clouds and rain of methane. The moon’s weather and surface processes could have enough to create life.

“Unveiling Titan is like reading a mystery novel,” said Dr. Charles Elachi, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and team leader for the radar instrument on Cassini. “Each time you flip the page you learn something new, but you don’t know the whole story until you’ve read the whole book. The story of Titan is unfolding right before our eyes, and what we are seeing is intriguing.”

While everyone is focused on Mars and the Moon – it seems by the mid-2030s – human beings will get a glimpse of what it’s like on one of Saturn’s 62 confirmed moons.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JiQsNh Tyler Durden

Authored by Tom Luongo via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Donald Trump has boxed himself into a corner. His maximum pressure campaign on Russia, China, Iran and the Palestinians isn’t working. Time is ticking by and we are now, officially, into campaign season for 2020, when these operations were supposed to have been resolved by now.

While Trump still draws nearly unfathomable crowds for his rallies he is staring at an abyss of bad decisions in front of him which will see him either reverse course on all of his signature wins with his base over the past year – getting tough on Iran and China, going after evil socialists in Venezuela – or face a global economic meltdown which his daily Surreality Show is fomenting.

Trump refuses to take responsibility for anything that is happening. Everything is someone else’s fault.

• Trade balance? China. Europe. Mexico. Canada.

• Unrest in the Middle East? Iran. ISIS. Hezbollah. Russia.

• Collapse and conflict in Ukraine? Russia.

• Border Security? The Democrats.

• Interest Rates? The Fed.

His inability to see how his moves affect events in the context of the global arena is his greatest weakness. It should have been a strength, his lack of shame. But it isn’t. Because now he’s gotten himself so far over-extended on Iran he’s been exposed as all bark and no bite.

He’s pushed Iran into a corner and from that corner they decided to finally strike back by downing a Global Hawk drone flying in full stealth mode over Iranian airspace if the Iranian side of the story is to be believed.

And regardless of the specifics of the situation, since we will never know the truth of the matter, the outcome and the way the narratives were handled it’s clear that Iran was sending a very strong message to the US.

Not one more inch.

Because while the US is more than capable of wiping Iran off the map for all intents and purposes, the truth is that for all of that capability, the after-effects of using it would be devastating for the world.

In common parlance the term is ‘blowback.’

The Western financial system is very much a paper tiger. And I do believe someone finally whispered in Trump’s ear after the drone was shot down that if he strikes Iran the consequences would be devastating for everyone.

Remember, Iran has nothing left to lose financially. The US has tried to take it all away. If the sanctions are working they are only doing so to accelerate the timetable which brought us to this point.

And a man who has nothing left to lose is a man who could easily lose it and take everyone with him. Pepe Escobar wrote about this at length recently. And while I agree with his overall thesis I think he’s out over his skis about the numbers themselves.

Suffice it to say that with nearly $13 trillion in negative-yielding debt, Deutsche Bank functionally insolvent and oil supplies vulnerable to supply shock that the aftermath of a series of attacks on infrastructure around the region, that over-leveraged capital markets trading at nose-bleed prices could collapse quickly triggering cascading defaults around the globe.

Regardless of the specifics, chaos would be the order of the day and markets hate chaos.

So Iran shot down that drone knowing full well that any US response would be disproportionate, to use Trump’s words. It took a level of character I didn’t think he or anyone else thought he had in calling off the airstrikes.

So I’ll give him credit for that. He needs to do more of it. And his signaling to Iran that he’s willing to talk with no pre-conditions is proof that he’s got negotiations on his mind. But Iran can no more come to the table with Trump than Trump can back down on his bluster and sabre-rattling with Iran.

Iran is right to say they won’t negotiate at gunpoint. This is especially true when it has been revealed that the guns themselves can’t actually be fired. Their leadership would collapse overnight if they began talks with Trump. That drone is now a rallying point for Iranians to support their government on in the short-term.

They gain nothing by coming to the table. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif went on a charm tour earlier this year to make Iran’s case and was roundly ignored by the US The opportunity was there then and the message from Iran was ignored.

What’s changed now that Trump wants to talk?

The sanctions are working? Please, don’t make me laugh. Russia’s National Security Advisor Nikolai Patrushev made it clear in his remarks that Russia stands behind Iran and that it will not tolerate any more aggression by the US I’m sure John Bolton’s mustache didn’t want to hear that.

“In the context of the statements made by our partners with regard to a major regional power, namely Iran, I would like to say the following: Iran has always been and remains our ally and partner, with which we are consistently developing relations both on bilateral basis and within multilateral formats,” Patrushev said after the trilateral meeting.

“This is why we believe that it is inadmissible to describe Iran as a major threat to regional security and, moreover, to put it on par with the Islamic State or any other terrorist organization,” Patrushev stated.

Russia’s National Security Advisor calling Iran an ally was significant. And I have to think that given some of the circumstances surrounding the drone that part of Iran’s message was 1) we have better weapons than you think we had and 2) the Russians gave them to us while denying it.

So, if you are coming after us it will have to be at a level that will make everyone outside of K-Street very uncomfortable. Trump will literally have to ‘go big or go home.’ Given the circumstances that seems unlikely.

It is in Russia’s long-term best interest to keep Iran stable and relatively prosperous. They cannot afford a failed state and chaos in Iran. Note the timing of violent uprisings in Georgia. Don’t think these things are related? Think again.

Keeping the Russians busy with multiple hotspots is the plan here. But Russia isn’t confused about this strategy. Expect in the coming weeks to see more direct support from Russia to Iran. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Goods-for-Oil program hasn’t already been expanded and that Iran is one of those countries the Bank of Russia mentioned wanting access to Russia’s version of SWIFT, SPFS, to clear transactions sanctioned by the US

It’s not like it would matter one bit to most Russian banks since they are already sanctioned by the US in the first place.

Once that happens and it’s clear the US will not stop Iranian tankers from sailing, all that remains is for the proper financial intermediaries to be put in place to keep the US off balance and Iran’s oil will flow.

The sanctions will be in effect, Iran will be starved of dollars and the medium-term pain will be acute. But it will be another move away from the dollar settling the trade of oil.

So back to my original question, where does Trump go from here?

Iran won’t allow him to save face. I don’t have a good answer for that but Iran is betting that re-election will stay his hand for another year. He can and should start with firing the architects of this failed ‘maximum pressure’ policy and send everyone a clear signal that he’s ready to climb off the mountain they’ve built for him.

As long as the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia look the other way while Iran ‘smuggles’ its oil everything will calm down. If they don’t then things will get ugly from here for all involved.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LxQdR1 Tyler Durden

Why does it seem like these things always happen in Florida?

South Florida authorities are trying to track down a man that they are actually referring to as a modern day “Hamburglar”, according to WSB TV. The man allegedly broke into a fast food restaurant and stole the restaurant’s safe – but not before making himself a hamburger.

And despite the hamburglar traditionally showing up at McDonald’s, this thief broke into a Wendy’s on Sunday, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. The office said that the man used a brick to smash in the door at the restaurant before turning on the oven to make himself a meal. The same suspect also reportedly tried to break into a second restaurant and a nearby gas station.

“I think he was drunk,” said Vinay Solanki, the manager of the gas station.

Yeah. And hungry.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has put out an APB for the man, who has a tattoo on his left upper arm and is described as heavyset and in his mid-30s with facial hair.

He walked out with “more than just a full belly” according to the Sheriff’s office’s Facebook post. 

 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XfQcDQ Tyler Durden

Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,

As much as 73% of Chinese enterprises believe that blockchain is a top-five strategic priority, according to a report by Big Four audit and consulting firm Deloitte released on June 27.

image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

In the report, titled “Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey,” the company surveyed 1,386 enterprise representatives in 11 countries, including 200 respondents in China to provide a greater knowledge about major attitudes and investments in blockchain as a technology.

The research was conducted between Feb. 8, 2019, and March 4, Deloitte noted in the report.

Coverage of Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey. Source: Deloitte

According to the survey results, Chinese enterprise employees have expressed the highest rate of confidence that blockchain tech is one of the top-five critical priorities in the country, while the same metrics in the United States has accounted for 56%.

At the same time, on a global scale, 53% of respondents claimed that they see distributed ledger technology (DLT) as a top-five strategic priority, up 10% from the numbers of 2018, according to the report.

Paul Sin, leader of Deloitte’s Asia-Pacific blockchain lab and consulting partner at Deloitte Advisory, noted in the report that China will be implementing blockchain strategically “more than anywhere else in the world” instead of “tactically.” He wrote in the report:

“More projects [in China] are driven by top management who use blockchain as a strategic weapon rather than a productivity tool.”

While China has been among anti-crypto countries, having banned both initial coin offerings (ICOs) and bitcoin (BTC)-to-fiat exchanges in late 2017, the country has been actively disrupting the underlying technology of crypto. In March 2018, Financial Times reported that the most patent filings for blockchain tech to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2017 came from China.

Since then, blockchain has remained a major focus of the development in China, with the country reportedly leading the world in the number of developed blockchain projects as of April 2019. Alongside, China’s tight policies to crypto have not appeared to soften so far, with the country’s social media giant and payment service supplier WeChat having banned crypto transactions in its payments policy in May 2019.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XiEoAG Tyler Durden

After in early June a mysterious light shooting across the horizon with what onlookers described as a ‘massive tail’ was spotted in the sky, alarming residents across several central China provinces, Beijing has now belatedly suggested it was part of a successful test of its next-generation submarine-launched ballistic missile, the JL-3.

“The scientific research and tests conducted according to plan are normal,” a Ministry of National Defense was cited in Chinese state sources as saying of the June 2 test in comments delivered late last week.

While the statements didn’t precisely confirm it was the next generation JL-3, multiple international outlets are taking this as “confirmation” given the intense month-long speculation and the PLA’s very visible non-denial. 

Throughout June media reports speculated whether it was a “UFO or missile test”.

UFO or missile test? Trailing blaze of light goes viral in China. More here: https://t.co/Rrg5ys1wSr pic.twitter.com/MxxGegiRsi

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 5, 2019

Alarmingly, the JL-3 is capable of delivering a nuclear strike on the American mainland via hypersonic warhead; however, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spokesman was quick to emphasize, “These tests are not targeted against any country or specific entity.”

According to The Daily Mail, “American officials said the JL-3 was launched from a submarine test platform in the Bohai Sea and flew several thousand miles to a missile impact range in western China.”

Prior reports out of Chinese media claimed the JL-3 possesses a full operational range of between 7,400 miles and approaching 9,000 miles – putting the US coast within easy strike distance. 

Videos showing a “mysterious light” went viral during early June on Chinese social media, fueling intense speculation over secretive military tests conducted by the PLA. China’s Global Times said many residents expressed concern over “UFO sightings”.

The PLA spokesman added further in his statements: “China has always followed a defense policy which is defensive in nature and an active defense military strategy. The development of weapons and equipment is to meet the basic needs of safeguarding China’s national security.”

However as the Washington Free Beacon pointed out in its report:

American defense officials disputed the Chinese claim that the test was not targeted at any country and said the missile firing on June 2 coincided with the visit to Asia by then-acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan.

The intercontinental “Julang” series translates to ‘big waves’ – named for being specifically developed to outfit China’s growing nuclear-powered submarine arsenal, something the Pentagon has been monitoring closely with increased alarm.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XELC6d Tyler Durden

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

The average Westerner who hasn’t traveled very much believes Moscow to be a cold, bleak, desolate capital city that’s filled with Stalinist-era architecture and a population that lives in utter misery.

But the reality of this place is nearly the complete opposite.

Moscow is a bright, beautiful, cosmopolitan city. I’ve always found Moscow to feel more European than most European capitals, with gorgeous architecture that never seems to end.

Moscow is easily as nice as Paris, London, or Vienna… with a population larger than all three. I like it here more and more every time I visit.

It has some of the nicest restaurants in the world, beautiful parks and monuments, and a highly sophisticated, educated, cultured population.

The city is quite prosperous too. But it wasn’t always that way.

Moscow was once the capital of the Soviet Empire… the most infamous and failed experiment with Socialism in the history of the world.

Russia’s humiliating tale of Socialism grew out imperial discontent– a period starting in the 1500s when wealth was concentrated in the hands of the Tsar and his key lieutenants. Everyone else lived as peasants in abject poverty.

My friends and I toured a museum at the Kremlin over the weekend and saw endless artifacts from the days of the Empire– golden chalices, diamond-encrusted silverware, magnificent carriages.

No doubt the royals lived absurdly well at the expense of everyone else. And by the early 20th century, the seeds of revolution had been firmly planted.

Lenin and his Bolsheviks finally seized power in 1917. And after they stamped out all remaining resistance and opposition, they set out to remake the country into a communist masterpiece.

It took 69 years for the Soviet Union to collapse. And by the time that happened, there was no private property, private business, or private wealth.

Decades of central planning had extinguished any incentive to work hard, take risks, and innovate. And most people were destitute and impoverished.

Yet over the past 30 years this country has become wealthy once again. Russians enjoy a high standard of living– much higher than many European countries– with some of the lowest tax rates on the continent.

(GDP per capita in Moscow is actually slightly higher than in Washington DC, and much higher than most US cities like Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, or Miami.)

None of this is due to Socialism. And Russians know it.

They still pay lip service to Lenin… there are tombs and monuments and buildings bearing his name, mostly out of reverence for history and traditions.

But Russians embraced capitalism long ago. They had their experiment with Socialism when the Bolsheviks took over in 1917. And they’re not going back.

Meanwhile, over in the Land of the Free, nearly half the country is running as fast as they can to Socialism.

The reasons are much the same as in imperial Russia– there’s growing discontent about the divide between rich and poor.

And as more and more people in the West feel left behind and barely able to make ends meet, the call to Socialism grows stronger.

There have been two formal debates so far among US Presidential candidates, both of which seemed to be Bolshevik beauty pageants.

The candidates talk about guaranteeing a government job for everyone, free education, free healthcare, eliminating private insurance altogether.

They demonize private profit and wealthy individuals, and propose more government as the solution to everything that ails the nation.

These are all Bolshevik principles ripped straight out of the Communist Manifesto – nationalization of private industry, central planning, government controlled labor and education, heavy taxation, and constantly complaining about the Bourgeoisie.

I’ve been looking back lately over the last decade of Sovereign Man (we recently hit our 10 year anniversary two weeks ago.)

Over the years I’ve written extensively about how the Bolsheviks are coming to the Land of the Free… and most of the West.

Well, those days are over. It’s clear that the Bolsheviks are no longer coming. They’re here. And their movement is firmly entrenched.

One of the Presidential candidates was actually booed and jeered at a political rally in California earlier this month by voters in his own party simply because he suggested that “Socialism is not the answer.”

A growing number of constituents believe quite adamantly that Socialism is absolutely the answer. A recent Gallup poll showed that 43% of Americans now prefer socialism to capitalism.

This isn’t some fake news conspiracy theory. It’s happening.

And acknowledging this reality doesn’t make you a doomsayer or even a pessimist. Normal, rational people should be able to see this obvious trend and at least consider having a Plan B.

We’ll talk more about that in the coming days.

And to continue learning how to ensure you thrive no matter what happens next in the world, I encourage you to download our free Perfect Plan B Guide.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JgCziA Tyler Durden

Headlines started hitting the wires after 11 am Monday about a ransomware attack that has brought down Georgia Courts’ digital information operations. Officials confirmed to WXIA Atlanta that the website for Georgia’s Administrative Office of the Courts and Judicial Council of Georgia had been down all morning.

Georgia Courts spokesman Bruce Shaw said all systems hadn’t been affected, but the network as a whole was taken down to quarantine the infection. Shaw said the IT department would be meeting with “external agencies” (FBI Atlanta) on Monday afternoon to asses the severity of the attack.

Shaw didn’t disclose how much the hackers demanded to unlock an unknown amount of computers from the crippling ransomware. There was no mention of what type of payment they required if it was cryptocurrency or US dollars.

Government officials said private data isn’t stored on the systems that were affected, and that no social security or other personal information was compromised.

A ransomware attack is often software code that holds a user’s computer hostage until a “ransom” fee is paid. Ransomware often infiltrates computers as a self-replicating malware that duplicates itself to spread to uninfected computers.

This isn’t Georgia’s first ransomware attack.

Back in March 2018, the City of Atlanta was hit with ransomware that significantly disrupted government operations. In that case, Atlanta officials rejected the idea to pay the $50,000 ransom, ended up costing the city millions of dollars to recover from the incident.

In March, Georgia’s Jackson County paid hackers a $400,000 ransom payment to restore computer systems.

And currently, on Monday morning, the third city in Florida has been attacked by hackers demanding payment to restore servers. Key Biscayne joins Riviera Beach and Lake City in having its computer systems infected by ransomware after it identified a data security breach last week. In all three cities, the ransomware entered the network through an employee opening up a web link that allowed it to be uploaded.

Paying hackers to unlock ransomware isn’t advised for local governments because there’s no guarantee that a decryption key will be provided.

In Baltimore’s ransomware attack in May, hackers wanted approximately $80,00 in Bitcoin – and city officials followed protocol by rejecting the payment – has ended up costing taxpayers $18 million to restore systems.

Increasingly, Cybercriminals are taking American cities hostage, and in many cases they are getting the ransom paid out, no questions asked, confirming that most US cities across are unprepared for ransomware attacks, which ensures that such hacks will only accelerate. This is also why city-hacking will increase to more municipalities across the country into the 2020s, hitting the most vulnerable networks first, and will likely end up a key topic in the 2020 presidential elections.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2RNnYz6 Tyler Durden

Authored by Tom Luongo,

Donald Trump did the unthinkable. He went to North Korea. He stepped over the line in the sand demarked by Washington protocol for nearly seventy years.

And that Washington establishment, predictably, hates him for it. It can be felt from all sides of the political rotunda. They hate that Trump realizes their position, one of maximum pressure, isn’t working.

They despise that Russia and China will benefit from ending this frozen conflict not to mention Koreans on both sides of the DMZ.

The cynic in me thinks they are angry that the American people will benefit as well.

So this weekend was a good one for peaceniks around the world. Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping agreed to back down on the worst of his trade war demands.

Trump presumably had a good meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which likely set the stage for his meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un. Remember Kim met with Putin earlier this year and designated him as his go-between with Trump after the talks in Hanoi fell apart.

The Bile Belt

This event should not be downplayed. Trump showed great humility and generosity towards Kim at the moment of truth. We should be cheering this regardless of what we think of him personally.

Diplomacy is not groveling. It is the acknowledgment of the other person’s basic humanity, a fundamental point lost in the political cesspit that is D.C.

Because of his previous mistakes and belligerence, only Trump could have made the walk across the DMZ to meet Kim on his territory. Only someone as blunt as Trump could cut through the nonsense that North Korea isn’t capable of independent action.

And only people so full of bile and despite would not be happy about this. Only people so enthralled with the thought of war and their own political and social ambitions would look at this event and seek to tear it down.

These are the people who lost yesterday in Trump’s historic and brilliant bit of diplomacy. And they are complaining bitterly about it today.

Everyone else wins.

In the land of the Twitterati, after stripping away the snark masquerading as analysis, we are left with a bunch of malcontents bemoaning their lost relevance.

I’m not praising him today to get back on anyone’s good side. I’ve been very straight about this. When Trump does good I praise him. When he screws up or acts dangerously I lambaste him.

And that is exactly how we should treat, at all times, all politicians everywhere. The telling point today is that the whole of the Washington establishment, Democrats and Neocons, are aghast at the prospect of peace.

The Wrong Path to Peace

I’ve been a harsh critic of most of Trump’s foreign policy moves since April 2017, when he bombed the airbase at Khan Sheikoun in Syria. It was the first inkling that he didn’t understand the rules of the game he was playing.

And those initial bombings would cost him far more in the end then he could ever gain. Not only did he lose most of his first term in office but he lost the trust of most world leaders pandering to establishment forces within the U.S. Deep State and donor class.

We can trace each move since then as a continuum leading up to Iran shooting down a U.S. Global Hawk drone and see we were always going to end up right where we are.

Because the alternative is a world at war. And think what you want about Trump, I’ve never been convinced that he was interested in that. If anything his problem has been allowing his fundamental humanity to be twisted into something ugly, limbicly lashing out at ‘bad guys’ like at Khan Shiekoun and not seeing the lies around it for what they were.

In the past few weeks we’ve seen a smarter, savvier Trump avoid the traps his allies and advisors set for him. He’s showed immense restraint.

And now, Trump is climbing down off the immense mountain of entitlement he and his advisors placed him on. By stepping over the line into North Korea and meeting with Kim for nearly an hour he’s beginning to deliver on the promises he made during the 2016 campaign.

Why wouldn’t I or anyone else be cheering?

When Iran shot down that drone I said on Sputnik Radio that to solve Iran’s nuclear weapons problem Trump should be looking to North Korea. Getting Kim to agree to freezing warhead production, and presumably dissemination, ends the possibility of Iran achieving that goal anytime soon.

After meeting with most of his ‘enemies’ at the G-20, Trump did just that. He pivoted away from Iran, now a source of political pitfalls, back to North Korea which was the right thing to do.

If Iran wanted a bomb they would have one. If Russia and China wanted Iran to have one, they would have one.

So all of this talk is simply theater. Just like the strategic importance of North Korea in 2019 is still relevant with China fully capable of projecting its interests on its own.

It’s time for this insanity to end. Full stop.

The Koreans want it. The Russians want it. The Chinese want it. Japan wants it.

And we should want it too.

Free at Last?

From the moment he began to engage Kim directly Trump’s strategy was to acknowledge the reality that North Korea can stand on its own. That it is not a puppet state of China.

It has been a constant theme of his while his advisory team tells him otherwise.

Well, they were in Mongolia on Sunday, while the best proxy for his antiwar base was on Air Force One.

In the room: N. Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (left) and Tucker Carlson. pic.twitter.com/KrmTOEBiZf

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) June 30, 2019

Trump’s instincts about denuclearization are correct and laudable. It has been his execution of how to achieve that goal that has been the problem.

He has allowed unbridled hawks whose sanity should surely be questioned to define him and his policy. He knows the failure of the Hanoi talks were a mistake.

He knows that the adventure in Venezuela was as well.

In the past ten days he’s called out National Security Advisor John Bolton publicly, called him a hawk and sent him to Mongolia while Trump made history.

Say what you want about him, Trump is pretty good at this messaging thing.

The coming days will be filled with discussion about what this all means.

I’m not going to do that now. Let’s enjoy the first bit of good foreign policy news since April 2017 and realize that the ship is turning and headed back to port.

Trump’s not out of the rough seas yet, but he finally found the right course to steer.

*  *  *

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via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NrC76A Tyler Durden

Apparently, incidentally auctioning off a one-hour lunch date to a crypto evangelist who, we imagine, used the opportunity to harangue Buffett about his bearish outlook on crypto didn’t spoil the billion investor’s appetite for charitable giving.

Because on Monday, the Oracle of Omaha, 88, said he would give away $3.6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to five foundations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is overseen by Buffett’s ‘best bud’ (at least when the cameras are rolling) Bill Gates.

The gift is Buffett’s biggest annual pledge yet.

These are the other beneficiaries of Buffett’s generosity, according to CNBC:

The Oracle of Omaha will convert 11,250 of his Class A shares into 16.875 million Class B shares. About 16.8 million of these Class B shares will be donated to five foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Here’s a breakdown of Buffett’s annual giving, courtesy of Bloomberg.

According to FactSet data shared by CNBC, Buffett is Berkshire’s largest shareholder; he owns 37.4% of the firm’s Class A shares.

Buffett has never sold any of his Berkshire shares, according to the firm. But he has given away some $34 billion in Berkshire stock since 2006 (when he first pledged to give away nearly all of his wealth to charities), roughly 45% of his holdings. He eventually plans to give away all of his shares during annual grants that will continue until ten years after his estate is settled.

But Buffett isn’t the only conspicuously wealthy American giving away large blocks of stock this week: According to Bloomberg, Walmart heir Jim Waltongave gave $1.2 billion of the retailer’s shares last week. Home Depot Inc. co-founder Bernie Marcus said he’s planning to give away all $4.5 billion of his fortune before he dies.

Meanwhile, several other Wall Street luminaries, including Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio, have joined Buffett in calling for higher taxes on the wealthy – something that he has long advocated. At least if President Elizabeth Warren fails in her quest to expropriate the assets of every American billionaire, Buffett has made it clear that he’s perfectly comfortable giving away his wealth.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KR1bSo Tyler Durden