iftttwall

Yesterday, WSJ published this photo of Jeff Bezos and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman during happier times.

And a few hours later, Bloomberg reported that the scandal began during MbS’s two-week ‘goodwill’ tour of the US back in 2018.

Following the revelation that MbS personally ordered, and even helped to orchestrate, the hacking of Bezos’ phone via a Whatsapp phishing message, the UN demanded a probe of the allegations, even as the Saudis vehemently denied the reports.

But as it turns out, a meeting between the two men during that ‘goodwill’ tour sowed the seeds of one of the most bizarre political scandals during an age where bizarre geopolitical scandals seem to break almost daily.

When the two men met in 2018, each wanted something from the other: Amazon had been pushing to expand AWS and its e-commerce business in the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia. However, there was one major obstacle: Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist at the Washington Post, had been intensely critical of MbS, much to his chagrin. In one column, Khashoggi accused Bezos of “replacing old tactics of intolerance with new ways of repression…” MbS feared that Khashoggi was a major liability given his service inside the royal court, and his status as an insider-turned-dissident.

The men met at a small dinner in Los Angeles on April 4. It’s not clear what they discussed, but the meeting went well enough that the two men exchanged phone numbers.

And that’s how it all began, as Bloomberg reports. Because nearly four weeks later, on May 1, Bezos received an unexpected WhatsApp message from MbS. Per BBG, which cited a report by FTI Consulting, it arrived “unexpectedly and without explanation, meaning it was not discussed by the parties in advance of being sent.”

That message included a 4.22 MB video. And within hours of receiving the message, “a massive and unauthorized exfiltration of data from Bezos’s phone began.”

Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, had successfully phished by the Crown Prince.

The infiltration wasn’t discovered until Gavin de Becker, the investigator hired by Bezos to find the source of leaked racy photos depicting Bezos with his girlfriend, TV personality, Lauren Sanchez, commissioned an analysis of Bezos’s iPhone.

But the investigation wasn’t over. De Becker hired FTI Consulting on Feb. 24, 2019 to do an analysis of Bezos’ iPhone X, according to the company’s report. The analysis was conducted in a “well-equipped and secure lab environment, including forensic imaging of Bezos’ phone and analysis of phone behavior in a sandboxed network,” the report says.

What the FTI investigators found was that the amount of data being transmitted out of Bezos’s phone changed dramatically after receiving the video file from the crown prince’s account. His phone averaged about 430 KB of egress per day in the six months prior to receiving the WhatsApp video. Hours later, the egress jumped to 126 MB, according to the report.

The FTI Consulting report was completed in November, and was passed along to experts at the U.N. who were already looking into the Khashoggi murder. One of those experts, David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said evidence shared with his team was reviewed by four independent experts, who asked some questions of the authors, leaving the U.N. team ultimately satisfied with the results.

Kaye said they sent a letter to the Saudi government warning that their statement was coming.

“The allegations here are very grave, they’re about a foreign government compromising the communications account of a phone of an American citizen,” Kaye said in an interview. “There’s clearly enough for federal authorities to examine this.”

MbS has yet to weigh in on the report. But yesterday, a WSJ report surfaced with an obviously ridiculous claim: Citing officials close to MbS, the paper reported that the prince’s inner circle was aware of the plot to hack Bezos’ phone, but not of the plot to blackmail him by leaking the photos to the National Inquirer (remember how well that worked out?) .

One Twitter wit made an amusing comparison illustrating exactly how ridiculous this claim is.

Next: Saudi officials close to MBS tell WSJ that they were aware of a plan to dismember Khashoggi, but not of any attempt to kill him. https://t.co/eGdnHp5OGe

— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) January 22, 2020

The UN is investigating Saudi Arabia’s role in the scandal, as well as Sanchez’s brother Michael, who is believed to be responsible for getting the photos to the National Inquirer.

Whatever revelations lie in wait, it looks like this extremely tawdry scandal is just getting started.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the world’s elite face-to-face at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, admonishing the grown-ups in the room for their lack of panic:

“We don’t want these things done in 2050, 2030, or even 2021,” Thunberg said. “We want this done now.”

The 17-year-old demanded participants “from all the companies, banks, institutions, and governments” in attendance to immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, end fossil fuel subsidies, and divest from all fossil fuels.

“I’ve been warned that telling people to panic about the climate crisis is a very dangerous thing to do, but don’t worry—it’s fine—I’ve done this before and I can assure you: it doesn’t lead to anything.”

“Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour. We are still telling you to panic, and to act as if you loved your children above all else.”

Quite a speech, and the billionaire crowd at Davos soaked it all up, proudly patting themselves on the back and supporting Greta and her ‘movement’.

However, as Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, explained during a brief (and uncomfortable) interview on CNBC, it’s all bullshit.

“…remember there’s a cognitive dissonance at the heart of Davos.”

“Publicly, you have to agree with Greta Thunberg and you have to be part of the virtue-signaling community on climate change, on ESG.”

“Privately, you’re quietly agreeing with Trump.”

For the ultra wealthy, Ferguson said Trump remains the obvious favorite if faced with a choice between Trump and Democratic front-runners Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. 

“The dirty little secret of Davos 2020 is they all need him to get re-elected,”  told Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christophorus, when asked if wealthy attendees are begrudgingly rooting for President Donald Trump. “Nobody wants to say that out loud.”

But the real point of note from Ferguson was his honest angst at Greta’s platform of lies.

“The reality is that the Green Deal [and its massive debt load] will amount to a drag on German manufacturing and the eurozone economy as a whole.”

“Privately, a lot of people are admitting that Trump is doing the stuff we should be doing – fiscal stimulus.”

Simply put, Ferguson dares to say that all the virtue-signaling is not in any way candid, because if it were, they would admit that

“60% of CO2 emissions since Greta Thunberg was born is attributable to China… but nobody talks about that. They talk as if its somehow Europeans and Americans who are going to fix this problem… which is frustrating because it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter.”

Ferguson comfortably admits that there is a climate change problem, but that’s not the point. The point is what are we going to do about it, to which he asks rhetorically…

“If you’re serious about slowing CO2 emissions and temperatures rising it has to be China and India that are constrained.”

But Greta goes to New York or Davos:

“I don’t see her in Beijing or Delhi.”

Hard to argue with “facts” and “science” that this is true…

Global Pollution

Source: WHO

As cases of the new coronavirus popped up around the globe, Chinese health officials managed to assuage the worries of the public, and the market, by insisting that the new, deadly coronavirus that emerged late last month in Wuhan had been ‘contained’ and that the outbreak would swiftly die down.

Despite imposing some draconian travel bans, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this isn’t going to happen. Even after quarantining an entire city of 11 million people – Wuhan is the 7th largest city in China and larger than any US city – experts are warning that it’s too late: The cat is already out of the bag.

But that won’t stop Beijing from trying: Now that Wuhan has been effectively cut off, Chinese officials announced another city-wide quarantine on Thursday: Huanggang city, which is in Hubei province and situated close to Wuhan, will suspend outbound train and bus services, as well as all bus services within the city effective Friday. All public places, including movie theaters, have been ordered to close until further notice, practically guaranteeing that the quarantine will take a bite out of GDP. Though even after authorities cut off all flights, Reuters reports that a few airlines were still running flights out of Wuhan.

As the SCMP pointed out, Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak, is five times larger than London.

The decision comes as more than 600 cases of the virus have now been confirmed. The death toll has been steady since yesterday at 17, as the WHO ponders whether to label the outbreak as a global pandemic risk.

Chinese state broadcasters shared images of Wuhan’s ghostly transport hubs, including the Hankou rail station, with all gates barred or blocked. Highway toll booths were shutting down as guards patrolled major highways. Inside the city, residents crowded into hospitals and rushed to buy up essential supplies from supermarkets and gas stations.

Interestingly, at least one Western journalist is reporting from Wuhan. We imagine Beijing allowed ABC access to the city to try and calm the growing panic in the West.

.@ABC News’ @BobWoodruff travels to Wuhan, China, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 17 people, and gives an inside look on how airports and travelers are trying to prevent the virus from spreading. https://t.co/ofUij4RhlH pic.twitter.com/MEmMWoJFbT

— ABC News (@ABC) January 23, 2020

As more barriers rise, one well-known public health expert known for his work on the SARS outbreak warned that the quarantines likely wouldn’t be enough to stop the virus from becoming a global pandemic, according to the New York Times.

Dr. Guan Yi, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong who visited Wuhan earlier this week, warned there was a potential for the virus to spread rapidly despite the controls put in place Thursday morning.

“We have a chance to have a pandemic outbreak,” said Dr. Guan, who was part of the team that identified the coronavirus that caused the deadly SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003. SARS infected more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800.

Dr. Guan also told Caixin, an influential Chinese magazine known for investigative reports, that he had traveled to Wuhan earlier in the week hoping to help track the virus’s animal source and control the epidemic. But he left, he said, feeling “powerless, very angry.”

Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who advised the Chinese government and the World Health Organization during the SARS outbreak, said that infected people outside Wuhan would continue to spread the disease.

“The horse is already out of the barn,” he said.

Another expert warned that there could already be as many as 4,000 cases of coronavirus in Wuhan, meaning that the vast majority of infections likely haven’t yet been reported.

Meanwhile, regulators around the world are scrambling to cut off flights from Wuhan (even though Beijing has supposedly cut off all rail and plane travel out of the city): The Philippines is the latest country to cut off flights from the city. The country’s Civil Aeronautics Board added that flights from elsewhere in China would be placed under ‘strict monitoring’, according to CNN Philippines. Manila, the Philippines’ crowded capital city, has started handing out 100,000 face masks.

The director of the country’s Civil Aeronautics Board explained that, even though Beijing is quarantining entire cities, it’s up to the Philippines to take their own steps to curb the outbreak.

“When you look at the seriousness of the outbreak, Wuhan should be the focus of attention,” CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla told reporters.

“Even if they lift it, we have to look at our side first and make our own assessment. So our assessment is different from theirs, I mean, even their decision is different from ours,” Arcilla said.

Experts have warned that quarantining an entire city of 11 million would be virtually impossible. But the nabobs in Beijing refuse to be deterred: Videos circulating on social media show Chinese police setting up barricades across roads leading out of the city. Anybody in Wuhan who had New Year’s travel plans should probably cancel them and ask for a refund.

Roads leading to and from Wuhan have now been blocked as the city has been placed in quarantine to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus #China #Wuhan #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/ONlDM0T9Oe

— CNW (@ConflictsW) January 23, 2020

After a suspected case of coronavirus was discovered in Macau yesterday, officials in the special autonomous region warned that they might close all casinos in the territory, a move that would spoil the vacation plans of millions of Chinese planning to travel to Macau for the Chinese New Year. A second case was reportedly discovered on Thursday.

Across the world, a mildly risk-off mood is once again dominating markets. That means US stocks are one outbreak headline away from deeper declines.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Feminist author Verena Brunschweiger has called on Germans to stop having babies to save the planet, despite the fact that the country’s native fertility rate is already at just 1.4 children per woman.

In an interview with Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, Brunschweiger warns “we are on the brink of ecological collapse” and that the only solution is “the renunciation of one’s own reproduction.”

Claiming that this topic is being kept hidden in “pro-natalist Germany,” Brunschweiger, who herself is childless, remarked,

“It is…above all because of the masses of people that we have such big environmental problems. We are just too many and hardly anyone wants to limit themselves. If we were fewer people and restricted ourselves, we could save something.”

Brunschweiger claimed that she felt like she was “in Saudi Arabia in the 14th century” when trying to voice her message, but that she had received support from a lot of women.

The feminist is directing her message to Germans despite the fact that the country’s native fertility rate is around 1.4 children per woman, well below the necessary 2.1 replacement rate.

“Since 1972, Germany has not seen a single year in which the number of newborns has exceeded the number of deaths,” reports Arutz Sheva.

Despite her passion for population reduction, Brunschweiger’s “virtue-signalling has not yet reached the continent of Africa,” reports Free West Media. “Africa’s child population will reach 1 billion by 2055, making it the largest child population among all continents.”

Indeed, sub-Saharan Africa will produce the most births for the rest of the century, so if Brunschweiger really cared about lowering the global population to save the planet, she would be telling Africans to stop breeding, which would of course be racist.

And after all, to progressives it’s better to be dead than called racist!

*  *  *

My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

According to the U.S. Army Public Affairs, one of the most massive war drills across Europe is about to being, called DEFENDER-Europe 20. 

The war exercise is the largest in 25-years, will begin Thursday with over “37,000 U.S., allied and partner-nation service members are expected to participate, with roughly 20,000 soldiers and 20,000 pieces of equipment deploying from the United States,” the Army said. 

Next year, 20,000 U.S. troops will go from forts in America to ports in Europe to take part in #Defender2020 – a signal of how committed the United States is to transatlantic security. pic.twitter.com/5X8GGNiTH5

— Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) December 30, 2019

More than ten different nations will be participating in the exercise with much of the action across Germany and Poland.

“Readiness is not only about having the right forces and capabilities in place throughout the theater, but it’s also about exercising our ability to quickly receive and integrate forces with our own and those of our allies and partners,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, U.S. Army Europe commanding general, told Stars and Stripes in a statement. “This ability is critical in projecting force at a moment’s notice.”

During the Cold War, similar mobility exercises were seen as a preparation for a potential conflict with the Soviet Union. The drills allow U.S. and NATO allies to move combat troops and equipment across the European Union to quickly respond to a potential crisis. 

The Pentagon has shifted its focus in the last five years from Middle East wars to large-scale conflicts between Russia and or China. 

The exercise will involve more than a dozen air and seaports in eight European countries: Belgium, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, and Poland.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kramer, who leads EUCOM exercise programs, said DEFENDER-Europe 20 is the most massive exercise since the Cold War.