Aug 11

Today’s News 11th August 2020

  • Turkey Sends Military For 'Gunnery Drills' Off Rhodes As Contested Gas Exploration Resumes
    Turkey Sends Military For ‘Gunnery Drills’ Off Rhodes As Contested Gas Exploration Resumes

    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 08/11/2020 – 02:45

    Greece’s military is once again said to be in a state of high alert with all troops prevented from leaving their duty stations or going on temporary leave. Not only has Turkey’s Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced Monday that the Oruc Reis seismic exploration ship has been dispatched to the Mediterranean, but Bloomberg reports Turkey has launched naval exercises in the same region.

    “Turkey launched naval exercises off two Greek islands and announced energy exploration research in the same area, projecting its military might amid heightened territorial tussles in the eastern Mediterranean,” according to the report.

    The naval drills are described as east and to the south of Rhodes and Kastellorizo, both which are among Greece’s easternmost islands, and not far from Turkey’s coast. The drills are expected to go multiple days running through this week.

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    Turkey’s military engaged in exercises earlier this summer of Libya, via TRT World.

    Greece’s defense ministry says it’s prepared to “counter” any Turkish military maneuvers in a worsening situation which appears ripe for conflict, also given Turkey’s oil and gas exploration plans have been source of intense controversy for the past year, resulting in threatened EU sanctions for violations of Greek and Cypriot waters. This as an urgent Greek Government Council for National Security meeting is expected to kick off Monday in Athens.

    “Turkey doesn’t recognize Greece’s claim that its territorial waters start immediately south of Kastellorizo, the most distant Greek outpost,” Bloomberg continues. “The gunnery exercises that will run through Tuesday, according to a Turkish navy website, are a message that Ankara won’t accept any agreement or move that would limit its own maritime interests in the Mediterranean.”

    Though as of a week ago it appeared a cooling of tensions could be on the horizon, with Athens and Ankara said to be in negotiations, Turkey abruptly halted its diplomacy after the announcement of a Greece and Egyptian deal defining their exclusive economic zones in contradiction to Ankara’s interpretation.

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    Turkey denied the agreement as “null and void” — which means Turkey’s expansionist claims are being contested by pretty much every Mediterranean country, also including Israel. The exception of course, is the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), which lately inked its own agreement with Turkey defining broad swathes of the Mediterranean as within Turkey’s rights.

    Erdogan’s office has since said that the Greece-Egypt deal effectively cut Turkey out of crucial dialogue, so it is forced to resume its energy exploration. “We were engaged in talks with Greece for the last two-and-a-half months in Berlin and had even agreed on a joint statement but Greece announced its deal with Egypt just a day before it,” the Turkish presidency spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told CNN-Turk television on Sunday.

    Turkey has sought to argue that the so-called Turkish Republic of Cyprus, which remains unrecognized internationally, gives it expansive rights encompassing the whole of Cyprus, including areas that cut into Greece’s waters. The EU, with France’s Macron lately leading the way, has consistently sided with Greece and Turkey, condemning Turkey’s maritime violations of EU member states’ Exclusive Economic Zones.

  • Seattle Police Chief Resigns After City Approves Plan To Defund Department, Axe 100 Cops
    Seattle Police Chief Resigns After City Approves Plan To Defund Department, Axe 100 Cops

    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 08/11/2020 – 02:16

    Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best has announced her resignation, effective September 2nd, after the City Council voted to slash spending on the Seattle Police Department by roughly $4 million out of the department’s $400 million annual budget – or around 1%.

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    While the cuts may be largely symbolic – aside from the 100 or so of the city’s 1,400 police officers ,who will be laid off or not replaced through attrition – the move, which also reduced Best’s $285,000 annual salary, was enough to make her leave the force after 28 years with SPD.

    Best, who in addition to trying to maintain order during the BLM protests while operating under a ban on tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs, has been dealing with protesters showing up to her Snohomish County house. She also says she hasn’t been included in any city council discussions regarding budget cuts, according to KING5.

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    In a Monday night letter, Best wrote:

    “To the Women and Men of the Seattle Police Department –    

    I wanted to notify you that I will be retiring from the Seattle Police Department, effective September 2nd, 2020. I wanted you to hear this from me, but some media have reached this conclusion on their own.   

    This was a difficult decision for me, but when it’s time, it’s time.”

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    Responding to Best’s resignation, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement:

    “Know that while I understand the Chief’s reasons, I accepted her decision with a very heavy heart. I have had the privilege to be with Chief Carmen Best in so many situations: with her family, at roll calls, in community meetings, and in nearly weekly meetings addressing public safety in Seattle. Her grit, grace and integrity have inspired me and made our city better. These last months, I knew Chief Best was the person to lead our city through this challenging time, to reimagine policing and community safety. Her leadership is unmatched nationwide, which is why it is a sad day for our City to lose her.

    Carmen Best is still devoted to this department and our city. I regret deeply that she concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was a change in leadership, in the hope that would change the dynamics to move forward with the City Council.”

    A press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday with Durkan and Best.

    The approved cuts to SPD fall far short of the 50% cut demanded by Black Lives Matter protesters, while several council members said on Monday that the changes were a starting point in what will be a lengthy process to reshape policing and public safety, according to AP.

  • Sweden's Success Is Kryptonite For Lockdown And Mask Advocates
    Sweden’s Success Is Kryptonite For Lockdown And Mask Advocates

    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 08/11/2020 – 02:00

    Authored by Jordan Schachtel via ‘The Mass Illusion’ subastack,

    Here in the United States, we have become inundated with tales of COVID-19 doom and gloom. In America, the mainstream narrative is rife with hopelessness. We are told that there is simply no way to stop this virus without repetitive lockdowns, healthy quarantine, even of asymptomatic individuals, and universal mask mandates. And even with all of those extreme policy measures put in place, the politicians and public health officials tell us that we will have to wait for a vaccine for the country to even think about our “new normal” following the COVID-19 pandemic.

    There’s one country that they don’t seem to want to talk about – Sweden. And for good reason. Sweden debunks the hysteria.

    Sweden shows how unnecessary all of the interventions to “fight” the virus are.

    Sweden shows us that a rational, evidence-based approach to the pandemic is now thriving.

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    In Sweden, there’s no mandatory masks, no mandatory lockdown, no vaccine, and most importantly, no problem.

    Life has largely returned to normal in Sweden, and it all happened without the economy-destroying non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) demanded by the “public health expert” class, who guaranteed that chaos would come to every country that disobeyed their commands to hit the self-destruct button for their nations.

    The Swedish government has provided its advanced metrics on the COVID-19 pandemic to the public, and the data includes the ever-important statistics on actual day of death, and other useful information. I ran the numbers month by month so you can get a very clear picture of Sweden’s downward trend.

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    In August, Sweden has registered just one death (!) with/from the coronavirus. Yes, you read that correctly. One death so far. 

    For the month of July, Sweden reported 226 deaths. They’ve accounted for 805 June deaths, 1646 in May, and 2572 in April. The deaths attributed to COVID-19 went from about a 50% reduction to falling off of a cliff.

    The story is the same in the hospitals. COVID-19 is hardly registering as a blip on the radar. Sweden has reported just 4 new COVID-19 patients in their ICUs in August. The month of July saw only 52 COVID-19 patients in ICUs.

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    It doesn’t take a math whiz to come to the conclusion that the epidemic appears to have been wrapped up in Sweden for months. It’s unclear whether this is a result of having achieved the herd immunity threshold, or if the seasonality of the virus is providing indefinite relief. But it’s become absolutely clear that Sweden’s long term pandemic strategy is working.

    Sweden did not do everything perfectly. Stockholm, like much of the West, failed to protect its nursing home population. The majority of the COVID-19 deaths in Sweden have come from the senior care population, with the average age of death (82) being the same as the average lifespan in the country. But remember, people in nursing homes are not mobile. They live in their own ecosystems and are not particularly impacted by COVID-19 policies. It was Sweden’s general population that was supposed to be plagued by their open society model to respond to the virus. We were told that the hospitals would be overrun, and that bodies of all ages would be dropping in the streets. This dystopian pandemia projection never came to fruition. Even during the worst months of the pandemic, Sweden’s general population never pressed their healthcare system. The same is true in the United States, but for whatever reason, many U.S. officials and “public health experts” have pushed the idea that everyone is equally impacted, which could not be further from the truth.

    For this pandemic, the global public health expert class threw the pandemic playbook out the window, disregarding hundreds of years of proven science on herd immunity, in order to attempt to assert human control over a submicroscopic infectious particle. It hasn’t worked, to say the least. There is no evidence anywhere in the world that lockdowns or masks have *stopped* the spread of the virus. Sweden was one of the few places where cooler heads prevailed, and the scientists realized that attempts to stop the virus would be worse than the disease itself, in the form of economic and social ruin.

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    Thanks for reading! I would be honored if you are willing to support my work and subscribe to The Mass Illusion, my newsletter for people concerned about our “new normal.”

  • Huawei Ends Production Of Kirin Smartphone Microchips As US Sanctions Capsize Supply Chain
    Huawei Ends Production Of Kirin Smartphone Microchips As US Sanctions Capsize Supply Chain

    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 08/11/2020 – 01:00

    Back in May, we reported how TSMC, one of the biggest contract chipmakers in Asia, and a critical component of China’s high-tech supply chain, would be forced to cut off supplies of US-designed microchips used in Huawei smartphones. That, in turn, would create serious problems for the company as it seeks to supplant Samsung as the world’s largest seller of smartphones.

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    More than three months later, the situation hasn’t changed much: The full force of the newest restrictions out of the US are starting to bite, and on Friday, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, confirmed to an industry conference that Huawei’s new high-end Mate40 handsets, set to debut this fall, will be the last smartphones featuring the company’s most advanced processor (Huawei has had plenty of time to stockpile components). 

    But starting on Septl 15, the Kirin processors used in these handsets will no longer be produced.

    “From Sept. 15 onward, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced. Our AI-powered chips also cannot be processed. This is a huge loss for us. Huawei began exploring the chip sector over 10 years ago, starting from hugely lagging behind, to slightly lagging behind, to catching up, and then to a leader. We invested massive resources for R&D, and went through a difficult process.”

    Before Washington added Huawei and a bunch of its subsidiaries to an American blacklist,

    a subsidiary of Huawei produces its own chips based on designs owned by ARM

    He called it a “huge loss” to the company. But it’s a problem that Huawei can only face once, as it seeks to mimic Apple by producing more of its own chips.

    But since Huawei hasn’t developed nearly as much in terms of resources to developing their manufacturing capacity (as opposed to the company’s design capacity, which has thrived, bolstered by plenty of stolen IP). And the death of Huawei’s Kirin9000 chipsets, manufactured for the company by TSMC, appear to already creating new constraints for Huawei’s 2020 and 2021 smartphone shipments.

    Here’s more on that from Caixin, the Chinese financial news organization:

    The Kirin9000 chipsets have been produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) with U.S. equipment. In July, the Taiwan contract chipmaker said it stopped taking new orders from Huawei in May.

    Yu said Huawei’s smartphone shipments this year will be less than last year’s 240 million units reflecting the chip shortage caused by the U.S. trade ban. Huawei’s global shipments in the second quarter totaled 55.8 million phones, surpassing Samsung for the first time to become the world’s largest mobile phone vendor.

    However, facing disruptions in its supply chain, Yu said he regretted that Huawei had only invested in developing chips, not in manufacturing them. “After Sept. 15, we will neither be able to produce our flagship chipsets, nor our chips with AI processing capabilities — this is a huge loss to us,” he told the event.

    He said Huawei is determined to solve the problems by making breakthroughs in technology innovations on operation systems, chips, data and cloud services. He also called on China’s chip industry to make advancements on chip manufacturing and new generation semiconductors.

    In the first-half of the year, Huawei’s consumer business garnered 255.8 billion yuan in sales revenue and sold more than 105 million smartphones.

    Since winding up on the Commerce Department’s trade ‘blacklist’, Huawei has invested heavily in R&D. But no matter how fast it innovates, the company still can’t escape the reality of a globally diversified supply chain illustrated in the chart below:

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    Huawei has still managed to eclipse Samsung in terms of sales, but it is still overwhelmingly dependent on the Chinese market.

    In the second quarter, over 70% of its device shipments were in China, where the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lock-downs is thought to have contributed to boosting sales by 8%. Its shipments in markets outside China, however, dropped 27%.

    “Strength in China alone will not be enough to sustain Huawei at the top once the global economy starts to recover,” said Mo Jia an analyst at Canalys. “Its major channel partners in key regions, such as Europe, are increasingly wary of ranging Huawei devices, taking on fewer models, and bringing in new brands to reduce risk.”

    To be effectively compete against Samsung, Huawei needs to dominate. And the Trump Administration’s sanctions are about to make that much more difficult.

  • From "Corona-Totalitarianism" To The Invasion Of The "New Normals"
    From “Corona-Totalitarianism” To The Invasion Of The “New Normals”

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 23:55

    Authored by CJ Hopkins (satirically) via The Consent Factory,

    They’re here! No, not the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

    We’re not being colonized by giant alien fruit.

    I’m afraid it is a little more serious than that.

    People’s minds are being taken over by a much more destructive and less otherworldly force… a force that transforms them overnight into aggressively paranoid, order-following, propaganda-parroting totalitarians.

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    You know the people I’m talking about. Some of them are probably your friends and family, people you have known for years, and who had always seemed completely rational, but who are now convinced that we need to radically alter the fabric of human society to protect ourselves from a virus that causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms (or absolutely no symptoms at all) in over 95% of those infected, and that over 99.6% survive, which, it goes without saying, is totally insane.

    I’ve been calling them “corona-totalitarians,” but I’m going to call them the “New Normals” from now on, as that more accurately evokes the pathologized-totalitarian ideology they are systematically spreading. At this point, I think it is important to do that, because, clearly, their ideological program has nothing to do with any actual virus, or any other actual public health threat. As is glaringly obvious to anyone whose mind has not been taken over yet, the “apocalyptic coronavirus pandemic” was always just a Trojan horse, a means of introducing the “New Normal,” which they’ve been doing since the very beginning.

    The official propaganda started in March, and it reached full intensity in early April. Suddenly, references to the “New Normal” were everywhere, not only in the leading corporate media (e.g., CNN, NPR, CNBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Forbes, et al.), the IMF and the World Bank Group, the WEF, UN, WHO, CDC (and the list goes on), but also on the blogs of athletic organizations, global management consulting firms, charter school websites, and random YouTube videos.

    The slogan has been relentlessly repeated (in a textbook totalitarian “big lie” fashion) for going on the past six months. We have heard it repeated so many times that many of us have forgotten how insane it is, the idea that the fundamental structure of society needs to be drastically and irrevocably altered on account of a virus that poses no threat to the vast majority of the human species.

    And, make no mistake, that is exactly what the “New Normal” movement intends to do. “New Normalism” is a classic totalitarian movement (albeit with a pathological twist), and it is the goal of every totalitarian movement to radically, utterly transform society, to remake the world in its monstrous image.

    That is what totalitarianism is, this desire to establish complete control over everything and everyone, every thought, emotion, and human interaction. The character of its ideology changes (i.e., Nazism, Stalinism, Maoism, etc.), but this desire for complete control over people, over society, and ultimately life itself, is the essence of totalitarianism … and what has taken over the minds of the New Normals.

    In the New Normal society they want to establish, as in every totalitarian society, fear and conformity will be pervasive. Their ideology is a pathologized ideology (as opposed to, say, the racialized ideology of the Nazis), so its symbology will be pathological. Fear of disease, infection, and death, and obsessive attention to matters of health will dominate every aspect of life. Paranoid propaganda and ideological conditioning will be ubiquitous and constant.

    Everyone will be forced to wear medical masks to maintain a constant level of fear and an omnipresent atmosphere of sickness and death, as if the world were one big infectious disease ward. Everyone will wear these masks at all times, at work, at home, in their cars, everywhere. Anyone who fails or refuses to do so will be deemed “a threat to public health,” and beaten and arrested by the police or the military, or swarmed by mobs of New Normal vigilantes.

    Cities, regions, and entire countries will be subjected to random police-state lockdowns, which will be justified by the threat of “infection.” People will be confined to their homes for up to 23-hours a day, and allowed out only for “essential reasons.” Police and soldiers will patrol the streets, stopping people, checking their papers, and beating and arresting anyone out in public without the proper documents, or walking or standing too close to other people, like they are doing in Melbourne, Australia, currently.

    The threat of “infection” will be used to justify increasingly insane and authoritarian edicts, compulsory demonstration-of-fealty rituals, and eventually the elimination of all forms of dissent. Just as the Nazis believed they were waging a war against the “subhuman races,” the New Normals will be waging a war on “disease,” and on anyone who “endangers the public health” by challenging their ideological narrative. Like every other totalitarian movement, in the end, they will do whatever is necessary to purify society of “degenerate influences” (i.e., anyone who questions or disagrees with them, or who refuses to obey their every command). They are already aggressively censoring the Internet and banning their opponents’ political protests, and political leaders and the corporate media are systematically stigmatizing those of us who dare to challenge their official narrative as “extremists,” “Nazis,” “conspiracy theorists,” “covidiots,” “coronavirus deniers,” “anti-vaxxers,” and “esoteric” freaks. One German official even went so far as to demand that dissidents be deported … presumably on trains to somewhere in the East.

    Despite this increasing totalitarianization and pathologization of virtually everything, the New Normals will carry on with their lives as if everything were … well, completely normal. They will go out to restaurants and the movies in their masks. They will work, eat, and sleep in their masks. Families will go on holiday in their masks, or in their “Personal Protective Upper-Body Bubble-Wear.” They will arrive at the airport eight hours early, stand in their little color-coded boxes, and then follow the arrows on the floor to the “health officials” in the hazmat suits, who will take their temperature through their foreheads and shove ten-inch swabs into their sinus cavities. Parents who wish to forego this experience will have the option to preventatively vaccinate themselves and their children with the latest experimental vaccine (after signing a liability waiver, of course) within a week or so before their flights, and then present the officials with proof of vaccination (and of their compliance with various other “health guidelines”) on their digital Identity and Public Health Passports, or subdermal biometric chips.

    Children, as always, will suffer the worst of it. They will be terrorized and confused from the moment they are born, by their parents, their teachers, and by the society at large. They will be subjected to ideological conditioning and paranoid behavioral modification at every stage of their socialization … with fanciful reusable corporate plague masks branded with loveable cartoon characters, paranoia-inducing picture books for toddlers, and paranoid “social distancing” rituals, among other forms of psychological torture. This conditioning (or torture) will take place at home, as there will be no more schools, or rather, no public schools. The children of the wealthy will attend private schools, where they can be cost-effectively “socially-distanced.” Working class children will sit at home, alone, staring into screens, wearing their masks, their hyperactivity and anxiety disorders stabilized with anti-depressant medications.

    And so on … I think you get the picture. I hope so, because I don’t have the heart to go on.

    I pray this glimpse into the New Normal future has terrified and angered you enough to rise up against it before it is too late. This isn’t a joke, folks. The New Normals are serious. If you cannot see where their movement is headed, you do not understand totalitarianism. Once it starts, and reaches this stage, it does not stop, not without a fight. It continues to its logical conclusion. The way that usually happens is, people tell themselves it isn’t happening, it can’t be happening, not to us. They tell themselves this as the totalitarian program is implemented, step by step, one seemingly harmless step at a time. They conform, because, at first, the stakes aren’t so high, and their conformity leads to more conformity, and the next thing they know they’re telling their grandchildren that they had no idea where the trains were going.

    If you have made it through to the end of this essay, your mind hasn’t been taken over yet … the New Normals clicked off around paragraph 2.

    What that means is that it is your responsibility to speak up, and to do whatever else you can, to stop the New Normal future from becoming a reality. You will not be rewarded for it. You will be ridiculed and castigated for it. Your New Normal friends will hate you for it. Your New Normal family will forsake you for it. The New Normal police might arrest you for it. It is your responsibility to do it anyway … as, of course, it is also mine.

  • Mapping The World's Nuclear Reactor Landscape
    Mapping The World’s Nuclear Reactor Landscape

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 23:35

    Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the most severe nuclear accident since Chernobyl, many nations reiterated their intent to wean off the energy source.

    However, as Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach details below, this sentiment is anything but universal – in many other regions of the world, nuclear power is still ramping up, and it’s expected to be a key energy source for decades to come.

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    Using data from the Power Reactor Information System, maintained by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the map above gives a comprehensive look at where nuclear reactors are subsiding, and where future capacity will reside.

    Increasing Global Nuclear Use

    Despite a dip in total capacity and active reactors last year, nuclear power still generated around 10% of the world’s electricity in 2019.

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    Part of the increased capacity came as Japan restarted some plants and European countries looked to replace aging reactors. But most of the growth is driven by new reactors coming online in Asia and the Middle East.

    China is soon to have more than 50 nuclear reactors, while India is set to become a top-ten producer once construction on new reactors is complete.

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    Decreasing Use in Western Europe and North America

    The slight downtrend from 450 operating reactors in 2018 to 443 in 2019 was the result of continued shutdowns in Europe and North America. Home to the majority of the world’s reactors, the two continents also have the oldest reactors, with many being retired.

    At the same time, European countries are leading the charge in reducing dependency on the energy source. Germany has pledged to close all nuclear plants by 2022, and Italy has already become the first country to completely shut down their plants.

    Despite leading in shutdowns, Europe still emerges as the most nuclear-reliant region for a majority of electricity production and consumption.

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    In addition, some countries are starting to reassess nuclear energy as a means of fighting climate change. Reactors don’t produce greenhouse gases during operation, and are more efficient (and safer) than wind and solar per unit of electricity.

    Facing steep emission reduction requirements, a variety of countries are looking to expand nuclear capacity or to begin planning for their first reactors.

    A New Generation of Nuclear Reactors?

    For those parties interested in the benefits of nuclear power, past accidents have also led towards a push for innovation in the field. That includes studies of miniature nuclear reactors that are easier to manage, as well as full-size reactors with robust redundancy measures that won’t physically melt down.

    Additionally, some reactors are being designed with the intention of utilizing accumulated nuclear waste—a byproduct of nuclear energy and weapon production that often had to be stored indefinitely—as a fuel source.

    With some regions aiming to reduce reliance on nuclear power, and others starting to embrace it, the landscape is certain to change.

  • China Faces Food Shortage As Droughts, Flooding, And Pests Ruin Harvest
    China Faces Food Shortage As Droughts, Flooding, And Pests Ruin Harvest

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 23:15

    By Nicole Hao of Epoch Times

    Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua recently asked the governors of each province in China to make sure the sown areas of agricultural crops would not shrink and crop yield won’t be reduced this year. At a food security meeting held in Beijing on July 27, he warned that governors would be punished if they failed to uphold the promise, including with dismissals.

    And when Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited northeastern Jilin Province on July 22, he told the local government to treat grain production as a priority task. The top officials’ emphasis on food supplies raised questions about whether China is facing a severe food shortage this year.

    In early July, the government organ China National Grain and Oils Information Center released its estimates that the corn supply gap in the 2020-2021 fiscal year would be 25 million metric tons—more than double the previous estimated 12 million metric tons.

    On Aug. 5, the Center estimated that China would import six million metric tons of wheat in the 12 months from June 2020 to May 2021, which would be the highest amount in the past seven years. The Center said the wheat would likely come from France, Russia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan.

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    Farmers work in the fields in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China on June 6, 2018. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

    In late January, Chinese authorities mandated that people stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, farmers among them. Around March, restrictions eased and most farmers were allowed to go out again. But not long after, extreme weather across large swathes of China led to the destruction of crops. Since early June, heavy rain has befallen the country’s south, center, and east. Meanwhile, parts of the northwest and northeast are suffering from droughts. Pests such as locusts and fall armyworms have also invaded crops.  Farmers told The Epoch Times that they suspected that they would lose their harvest this year.

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    China’s Vice Premier Hu Chunhua speaks at the Brazil-China Business Seminar in Beijing, China on October 25, 2019. (MADOKA IKEGAMI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

    Flooding

    Chinese farmers plant rice in 13 provinces, including Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Fujian. All these provinces were impacted by flooding in June and July. Farmers plant rice at three different times of the year. The early season is planted in late March, and harvested in late June. The middle season is planted in early May and harvested in late September. The late season is planted in late June and harvested in mid-October. The flooding in June and July impacted all three seasons of rice planting.

    Mr. Li is from Poyang county, Jiangxi Province. He told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on July 18: “The early rice in our province was ruined before harvest. The mid-season rice was destroyed by the floods. Now it’s too late to plant the late rice.” While sobbing on the phone, Mr. Chen from Hunan Province said farmers in his area had no harvest this year. He and his fellow villagers were worried that they might not have enough food to eat, as flooding has hit the region continually.

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    A sports ground along the Yangtze River was inundated in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei Province on July 28, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

    Droughts

    Wheat is mainly planted in central and northern China. Farmers only harvest once a year in late May to early June. Wheat production in Henan Province contributes to roughly a quarter of China’s total agricultural production. However, droughts killed the crops in Henan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Jilin, and other northern provinces.

    Privately-run Chinese grains and oil wholesale platform CCTIN visited wheat production areas of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces and reported that the quality of wheat in 2020 was worse than that in 2019, and production was 15 to 30 percent less than previous years.

    The situation in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang is worse. State-run media Xinhua reported on June 16 that 50.7 percent of Inner Mongolia’s land suffered heavy droughts this year. The region mainly grows wheat, as well as soybeans and corn. Crops and wild grass were unable to grow, impacting local animal husbandry.

    State-run China News reported on June 3 that the dry bout led to almost no harvesting in Gansu Province this year. “I’m 50 years old. I had never seen a drought like this year,” a farmer in Yuzhong city, Gansu said in the report. One woman in Xinjiang shared a video on social media on July 17, showing large wheat fields that have dried up.

    “You think this yellow color is harvested [wheat]? They all died. Our farmers have no harvest at all this year,” she said.

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    Chinese media reports also noted that due to a two-month-long drought, two-thirds of the corn crops in northeastern Liaoning Province have dried up.

    Pests

    Meanwhile, nearby Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces reported native locust plagues in June. In late June, a foreign locust invasion entered China’s Yunnan Province in the southwest, from Laos, and continued moving to other regions. On July 27, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized a drill to wipe out locusts in Yunnan and estimated that more locusts would keep on entering China from Laos before late August.

    Farmers in southern Guangxi and Hunan provinces have also reported native locust plagues in June.

    And the fall armyworm, which enjoys feeding on corn, was reported to have destroyed crops in Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, and other provinces in July.

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    An armyworm, which usually comes out at night, is seen on corn crop at a village of Menghai county in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, on July 12, 2019. (Aly Song/Reuters)

    Other Signs

    Recent trends in the Chinese market also indicated that there was a food shortage. China’s leading producer and supplier of processed agricultural products, state-run China Agri-Industries Holdings, announced on Aug. 3 that the central government released 3.6 million metric tons of state-reserved rice to the market recently, which were harvested from 2014 to 2019.

    China has a national grain reserves system in order to maintain food security, but how much the country actually possesses in reserve has been called into question. Meanwhile, all domestic grain prices have gone up in the first week of August, compared to the same period last year, according to data issued by Orient Securities and Huatai Securities.

    Soybean prices, in particular, jumped up 37.83 percent, from 3,454 yuan ($484.85) per metric ton in Aug. 2019 to 4,761 yuan ($682.1) per metric ton in Aug. 2020. The Chinese regime also recently made record purchases of U.S. agricultural goods. On July 29, China purchased its biggest-ever order of U.S. corn, 1.937 million metric tons, which will be delivered during the 2020-21 marketing year that begins on Sept. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    Orders in July also broke previous records. On July 14, USDA reported that China bought 1.762 million metric tons of corn and 129,000 metric tons of soybeans. On July 10, China ordered 1.365 million metric tons of U.S. corn, 130,000 metric tons of U.S. hard red winter wheat, and 190,000 metric tons of U.S. hard red spring wheat.

    Qin, an agriculture researcher in China who only gave his last name because he was not authorized to speak to foreign media, explained that grains have three primary uses in China, which are: food for human consumption, feed for livestock, and raw materials to make wine and other industrial products.

    He said the current shortage “won’t be as serious as people not having food to eat… The key is no feed for livestock and poultry. Then, people don’t have enough meat to eat,” Qin said.

    One final observation confirming that food in China is indeed becoming scarce: food inflation has been in the double digits for the past 12 months.

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  • Krugman Says Gold's Rise Has Nothing To Do With Investors Expecting Soaring Inflation
    Krugman Says Gold’s Rise Has Nothing To Do With Investors Expecting Soaring Inflation

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 22:55

    Even in the most obvious of circumstances – the Fed printing trillions of dollars within the span of one fiscal quarter – Paul Krugman seems unable to make the basic link between purchasing power, the money supply and the price of gold, and refuses to even consider the recent worldview reversals in such prominent former deflationistas as Russell Napier, Albert Edwards and Russell Clark (all discussed previously).

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    Everyone’s favorite financial muppet took to Twitter over the weekend to offer his perfunctory take on an op-ed  written in the New York Times, titled “Why Is Everyone Buying Gold?” in which none other than the chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley, Ruchir Sharma, validated long-ridiculed goldbugs:

    Gold bugs — investors perpetually bullish on gold — have long been seen as a paranoid fringe of the financial world, holding the shiny asset as a hedge against a disaster they always think is near. But lately, they appear to be on to something.

    This year, gold is the best performing traditional asset in the world. Its price just topped $2,000 an ounce for the first time. From serious investors to newly minted day traders, everyone is talking up its virtues.

    “It seems we’re all gold bugs now,” the op-ed capitulates, without mocking that other “expert” from the WSJ who five years ago called gold a “pet rock.”

    It also attributes the rise in gold to Central Banks having lost control (or rather, as Russell Napier put it, conceded control to the government) and that inflation is a foregone conclusion, stating: “But the gold mania is also driven by a hunch that the easy money pouring out of central banks and government stimulus programs could trigger inflation, which makes it a more worrisome economic omen.”

    He’s spot on – but for the fact that the inflation, as defined by an expansion of the money supply and not rising prices, has already been created. 

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    Likely irked by the fact that the NY Times published something on finance that redirects attention from his clueless echo chamber, Krugman took to Twitter in response. “Gold prices aren’t rising because investors expect inflation,” Krugman Tweeted. Instead, he claimed that gold prices were rising because bond yields are falling.

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    Hiding behind the central bank’s definition of inflation, which according to Keynesians doesn’t even happen until it shows up in the heavily manipulated CPI, Krugman argued: “The implied inflation forecast is actually lower than it was last year; what’s happened is a plunge in yields, reflecting economic pessimism,” he continued.

    He then Tweeted out two charts showing the 10 year breakeven inflation rate. But apparently, during his deep dive for his Twitter rant, the Nobel Prize winner wasn’t able to locate and post a chart of the M2 money supply, which may have offered up more clues as to why everyone bidding up gold. 

    In other words, nobody cares about the inflation forecast, Paul. They care about this:

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    Incidentally, one other thing that Krugman never even considered, is that gold is now a hedge to both runaway inflation and deflation, something we have discussed extensively here over the past decade.

    Then again, this is the same guy who said the internet’s effect on the world economy would be “no greater than the Fax Machine” (and yes, even the vacuous libtards at Snopes were forced to admit that their econ god is clueless). This is also the same “Nobel prize winner” who the day after Trump won boldly predicted that “markets will never recover” from a Trump victory and that “we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight.”

    Krugman concluded: “The thing is, we went through exactly this story in 2008-9: rising gold prices without rising inflation expectations bc of falling yields, and even a blip in TIPS prices during the post-Lehman financial disruption. No excuse for being confused now.”

    So thanks for the advice, but the only one confused here is you, Paul.  

  • Three Percent Of The Fed's Corporate Bond Holdings Are Junk Rated
    Three Percent Of The Fed’s Corporate Bond Holdings Are Junk Rated

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 22:30

    It is only appropriate that on the day Ball Corporation sold a bond with the lowest “high” yield ever for a junk bond, at 2.875%…

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    … that the Fed would publish its latest corporate bond purchase data, in which we find that as of July 31, some 3% of the corporate bonds purchased by the Fed in its SMCCF facility, and 2.8% of corporate bond purchased via the Fed’s SMCCF broad market index were junk, or BB, rated (technically, some BB credits are likely IG, but for the sake of simplicity we will “round down” and assume all BBs are sub-investment grade).

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    Some other notable facts: as of last Monday, the Fed owned 916 CUSIPs outright, with a par value of $3.349BN, which include among others bonds issued by Berkshire Hathaway, foreign automakers such as Toyota, Nissan, Daimler, BMW and Hyundai; US giants such as Walmart, General Motors, General Electric, Visa, Microsoft, McDonalds, Novartis and Pfizer; REITs such as Simon Property, Duke Realty, National Retail Properties; Energy companies such as Exxon, Spectra Energy, Sempra Energy, Sabine Pass, Phillips 66, Kinder Morgan; non-ESG names such as Philip Morris and J&J and, of course, Apple.

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    Looking at just ETFs, as of July 31 the Fed had purchased $8.7ZBN in mostly IG ETFs, but also some high pardon “low yield” junk bond ETFs such as JNK, HYG and so on.

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    For brokered trades, the Fed purchased $2.37 billion directly from Wall Street firms, of which Morgan Stanley, Amherst Pierpont, Wells Fargo, Goldman and Barclays Capital were the biggest sellers of their own inventory.

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    Finally, when buying bonds in the open market, the Fed is infinitely generous purchasing CUSIPs at prices far, far above par, which we can only assume is in line with market prices however since the Fed must purchase these bonds, the broker on the trade can declare any offer and the Fed will have to lift it.

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    Source: The central planning hedge fund known as the Federal Reserve of the USSA.

  • 35% Of Small-Business Owners Tapped Personal Savings To Pay Rent, Wages During Pandemic
    35% Of Small-Business Owners Tapped Personal Savings To Pay Rent, Wages During Pandemic

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 22:15

    As the federal government steps in to bail out overleveraged borrowers in the commercial real estate space, a growing body of evidence is highlighting the fact that Congress’s ‘PPP’ lending program – despite the fact that it has been extended through Aug. 8 – still wasn’t enough to save many small business owners from ruin (though there was unsurprisingly no shortage of fraud).

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    A survey published by CreditCards.com shows that 35% of small-business owners were forced to dip into emergency savings to help tide their business or businesses over.

    * * *

    Our July 2020 Small Business Poll uncovered a worrisome fact – 35% of American small-business decision-makers have tapped into personal funds to finance their businesses since the Coronavirus pandemic struck. That includes those who have dipped into a personal savings account (21%), used a personal credit card (24%) or both (10%).

    “It’s commendable how far these dedicated business owners are willing to go in search of their dreams,” says Ted Rossman, industry analyst at CreditCards.com. “I worry, however, about the debt they’re taking on, and how they’re potentially putting their personal finances at risk.”

    Also notably, 38% of business leaders have turned to either business or personal credit cards during this time, with 20% of those polled leaning on business cards.

    Paying off credit card debt can be stressful, but there’s a way to do so efficiently. Negotiating interest rates and paying more than the minimum are two ways to reduce the total time and amount of money repaid. “Many of the normal debt reduction tools are in shorter supply these days – for instance, 0% balance transfer offers have dried up due to worries about the economy. That’s why it’s so important to be creative and ask for a break,” Rossman added. Another good strategy: If you have multiple cards with balances and are able to put some money toward your debt, prioritize the highest interest rates in order to reduce the total interest expense.

    Meanwhile, the single most popular form of funding was Paycheck Protection Program loans from the Small Business Administration, used by 30% of small businesses.

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    Unfortunately, the negative effects of the pandemic are ongoing for many small-business owners, many of whom see trouble on the horizon. The majority of small-business leaders (53%) agree that they will need either an increase in sales or some type of assistance just to stay in business this year.

    • To stay afloat until 2021, small business decision-makers say they will need:
    • An increase in sales (32%)
    • Government assistance, such as stimulus funding (19%)
    • Any type of loan (13%)

    “I’m encouraged by the spirit behind these findings. Even in an incredibly difficult year, small businesses remain resilient and optimistic – they’re taking matters into their own hands. They’re important parts of our communities and our economy, and we’re rooting for them,” says Rossman.

    Methodology

    CreditCards.com commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 499 small-business decision-makers. Fieldwork was undertaken from July 14-20, 2020. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a non-probability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.

    * * *

    Source: CreditCards.com

  • As US Bans 'WeChat', Chinese Turn To 'Signal', But Decentralization Is The Answer
    As US Bans ‘WeChat’, Chinese Turn To ‘Signal’, But Decentralization Is The Answer

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 21:55

    Authored by Mathew Di Salvo via DeCrypt.co,

    Signal could help worried Chinese based in the US look for solutions to the ban on Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. A decentralized platform could be the best option…

    President Donald Trump this week announced his intentions to ban US companies from transacting with Chinese payment and messenger app WeChat, leading to a spike in downloads for privacy-first messenger app Signal – and reigniting the debate on decentralized platforms. 

    The US President’s Thursday executive order is so far vague but “any transaction” with the platform from US companies will be prohibited. The order, which also bans such transactions with social media app TikTok will come into effect on September 20.

    Talk of banning TikTok started this year because the Trump administration was worried about the app collecting users’ data and the potential links its parent company, ByteDance, has with the Chinese government. 

    The WeChat ban had also been on the cards for a while. The two countries continue to aggressively clash heads during the coronavirus pandemic. 

    But while the US government was warning of banning WeChat, downloads of private messaging app Signal were soaring in China, according to a CNBC report. Unlike other messaging apps – Telegram, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp – Signal isn’t banned in China. 

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    So worried Chinese people living, studying, or doing business in the US can turn to the highly secretive app in place of WeChat to communicate with family and friends without fear of government snooping or being shut down—for now. 

    Signal downloads were also on the up in Hong Kong after Mainland China’s new security law hit the region. Despite WeChat’s popularity in China, it doesn’t have the same level of encryption as apps like Signal and WhatsApp.

    The case for blockchain-based chat apps

    But even though Signal is secure, it could technically be banned by the Chinese—or US—government tomorrow. That’s why decentralized chat apps or messaging systems are a must, some say. 

    “Decentralized chat would completely solve this problem [of government bans and snooping],” said Brad Kam, the co-founder of Dapp Unstoppable Domains, a decentralized domain name registrar that has built an Ethereum-based decentralized chat app, Unstoppable Chat.

    “The issue is that user data is sitting on Tencent’s [WeChat’s owner] servers and gets passed directly to the Chinese government. If WeChat were a decentralized chat app, then users would control their own messages stored on P2P storage networks. Not even WeChat would be able to read the messages,” he said.

    He added that Signal can still shut off users and any messaging app can be “hacked or shut down.”

    “Communication channels should not be pawns for geopolitical games,” he said.

    “They should be utilities for the people of the world.” 

    Chris Troutner, a Bitcoin Cash developer, also told Decrypt that decentralized messaging systems are the way forward.

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    He said that although Signal and Telegram are highly praised for their privacy features, they could still be banned by governments. 

    “Decentralized, open-source, and end-to-end encrypted,” he added. “You really need all three [with a messaging app].” 

    His highly encrypted messaging system based on Bitcoin Cash transactions, bch-encrypt, went live this year. His team is working on refining it: an end-to-end encrypted messaging system that will look and feel a lot like email. 

  • "Game-Changing Capability" – Air Force One Is Going Hypersonic 
    “Game-Changing Capability” – Air Force One Is Going Hypersonic 

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 21:35

    The U.S. Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate announced they have partnered with an Atlanta-based company called Hermeus to develop a hypersonic Air Force One. 

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    The partnership will allow for the development of a hypersonic aircraft for the presidential fleet, that can travel as fast as Mach 5. Hermeus successfully tested a Mach 5 engine prototype earlier this year. A demonstrator vehicle using the Mach 5 engines could be seen within the next five years. 

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    Mach 5 is about 3,300 mph, would travel 2.5x faster than the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde and about 43% faster than the Virgin Galactic Holdings’ proposed supersonic jet. 

    Here’s an excerpt from the Hermeus press release describing the new contract to build a hypersonic Air Force One: 

    Hermeus Corporation, the aerospace company developing Mach 5 commercial aircraft, has partnered with the U.S. Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to work toward hypersonic travel for the Department of Defense.  This award comes under an Other Transaction For Prototype Agreement Direct to Phase II contract through AFWERX after Hermeus successfully tested a Mach 5 engine prototype in February 2020.

    The effort is focused on rapidly assessing modifications to Hermeus Mach 5 aircraft to support the Presidential and Executive Airlift fleet.  Early integration of unique Air Force requirements for high-speed mobility and evaluation of interfaces between high-speed aircraft and existing communications, airport, and air traffic control infrastructure lays the groundwork for a seamless transition to service.  Additionally, Hermeus will prepare test plans to reduce technical risk associated with these modifications to support Air Force requirements. –Hermeus press release

    Brigadier General Ryan Britton, Program Executive Officer for Presidential and Executive Airlift, commented on the project: 

    “Leaps in capability are vital as we work to complicate the calculus of our adversaries. By leveraging commercial investment to drive new technologies into the Air Force, we are able to maximize our payback on the Department of Defense investments. The Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate is proud to support Hermeus in making this game-changing capability a reality as we look to recapitalize the fleet in the future.”

    Hermeus’ cofounders are ex-Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Generation Orbit could be the team that develops the first hypersonic aircraft for the president. 

  • Predicting The Price Of Gold
    Predicting The Price Of Gold

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 21:15

    Authored by Ritesh Jain via WorldOutOfWhack.com,

    Real Rates (Inflation-Nominal rates) are currently at -1% levels and it seems they may go down even lower. But they have been negative before during the 1940s in the post WW2 Era and in the 1970s STAGFLATION.

    Decline in real rates sometimes can be a deliberate policy to reduce the Debt burden of govt because the real value of debt falls with rising negative real rates. The policy of negative real rates is always preferred over the bitter pill of allowing companies to go bust.

    The US policy response post-COVID has been to print loads to money to reliquify the banking system and avoid defaults. With the rate of US M2 growth reaching 23%, and no chance of increase in policy rates in next couple of years the real rates can fall further in coming years.

    US real yields collapse as specter of inflation returns

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    Source: Bloomberg

    When real rates decline, gold’s value tends to go up more because GOLD is a perpetual Zero coupon bond and holding Zero coupon asset with limited supply is better than holding negative real rate asset like US treasury whose supply is unlimited by issuance.Negative real rate also mean that you need to be an asset owner to maintain the purchasing value of depreciating paper currency.

    I strongly believe that we are like ( 1942-51 ) headed to -3% to -4% real rates and if that is the expectation on real rates is there a way of mathematically finding the value of GOLD in that environment?

    While I was grappling with the question of having an input (-3 to -4%) value but not the output i.e value of GOLD at that level of negative real rates, there came along an article from the Bloomberg columnist on this subject.

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    [ZH: we note that during the late ’70s negative real yield period, gold soared above $3,000 on an inflation-adjusted basis]

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    The analysis by Ven Ram (Currency and rates strategist for Bloomberg’s Markets) shows that the duration of gold is 17 when interest rates go up and 20 when yields trend lower, suggesting that the second derivative of the shift in rates is alive and kicking. Back in 2018, Pimco found a duration of almost 30.

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    Gold has been on a tear this year, having surged 35% in response to a 120-basis point slump in real interest rates. Other catalysts include low global yields; erosion of confidence in global fiat money in general and a weaker dollar in particular; unbridled global monetary and fiscal stimulus; investor purchases through exchange-traded funds in response to uncertainty about the evolution of the pandemic.

    However, the outlook for gold gets murky once it goes to around $2,500 an ounce. Beyond that level, it would imply a massive plunge in real rates and an even sharper rally in breakevens than what we have already seen.

    Correlations suggest these factors would also imply a big decline in nominal 10-year yields, which currently sit near 0.50%. Such a move would essentially mean the markets are pricing in a depression-like scenario. Should it play out, the study indicates gold may be propelled toward $3,000 should real yields slump to -3.15%.

    Given that gold has a longer duration than linkers, the metal offers a balance sheet-economical way to hedge against inflation.

    Conclusion

    We believe that US is going to have real rates south of -3% and the time period it is analogous to is the 1940s when real rates averaged -3.14%.

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    On this basis we believe that gold may reach levels of $3000 and go even higher if real rates go below -4%.

  • "Financially Devastated" – 83% Of NYC Restaurants Unable To Pay July Rent
    “Financially Devastated” – 83% Of NYC Restaurants Unable To Pay July Rent

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:55

    The state of the New York City restaurant industry is in dire straits. July proved to be another disastrous month for restaurants, bars, and nightlife establishments across the city with a majority unable to pay rent in July, a new survey found.

    NYC Hospitality Alliance surveyed about 500 owners and operators of eateries in the city, with 83% of respondents indicating they couldn’t pay the entire rent in July while 37% paid no rent at all. 

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    “Restaurants and nightlife venues are essential to the economic and social fabric of our city, but they are struggling to survive and absent immediate and sweeping relief so many will be forced to close permanently,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of The Alliance.

    “While complying with the necessary pause, our industry has been uniquely and financially devasted. Small businesses urgently need solutions from government leaders at the city, state, and federal level, inclusive of extending the moratorium on evictions, extending the suspension of personal liability guarantees in leases, pausing commercial rent taxes, providing landlords with needed support, and infusing small businesses with enough cash to weather the storm,” Rigie said.

    To make matters worse, 71% of owners and operators said landlords “would not waive portions of rent due to COVID-19.” About 61% said, landlords “would not defer rent payments,” while 90% of landlords “would not formally renegotiate leases.”

    Indoor dining in the city remains halted, “outdoor dining service is not generating sufficient revenue to cover rent and other expenses, small business owners in the industry continue to express significant concerns about surviving the pandemic and staying viable in the future,” said The Alliance.

    Through July, OpenTable restaurant data reveals foot traffic at eateries remains depressed. 

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    We recently outlined how high-frequency data suggests New York City’s recovery has stalled, as well as the US recovery has reversed. 

    Some restaurants in the city are just calling it quits, liquidating everything they have on Facebook Marketplace. 

    Is New York City in a depression? 

  • Watch: The Moment Secret Service Shoots Gun-Toting Man Outside White House
    Watch: The Moment Secret Service Shoots Gun-Toting Man Outside White House

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:54

    Video has emerged of the man shot by Secret Service Monday afternoon, said to be a -year-old who walked up to an agent and told them he had a weapon. He made a “drawing motion” and “crouched into a shooter stance” before he was fired upon.

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    *  *  *

    In the latest indication of just how chaotic things are becoming in America, on a day when the city of Chicago is being overrun by violent criminal gangs, President Trump was abruptly pulled from the podium at the start of Monday night’s WH press briefing.

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    Trump left the podium after a Secret Service agent appeared to speak to say something to him privately. Another agent outside the room locked the doors. No reasons were given. Rumors of a lockdown and shots fired surged through the crowd.

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    However, Trump soon returned, and explained that a shooting had just taken place outside the White House.

    “There was a shooting outside of the White House,” Trump said. “There was an actual shooting and somebody’s been taken to the hospital.”

    He added that Fox News reporter John Roberts had heard two gunshots. Asked if he was rattled, Trump replied “do I seem rattled?”

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    An individual was shot by the Secret Service outside the White House at 17th and Pennsylvania. The armed suspect has been taken to a nearby hospital.

    Reporters at the briefing tweets photos of locked doors and generally sounded more panicked than the situation probably warranted. And especially since so many of them have actively supported violent rioters and looters.

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    Some found humor in this discrepancy.

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    Watch a live feed below.

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  • Chaos In Chicago: Bridges Raised To Prevent Gun-Toting Looters Getting Downtown
    Chaos In Chicago: Bridges Raised To Prevent Gun-Toting Looters Getting Downtown

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:43

    Hundreds of ‘mostly peaceful protesters’ swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

    As The Chicago Tribune reports, officers had stopped several people on Lake Street near Michigan Avenue when shots were fired from a passing car around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern.

    No officers were shot but a squad car was hit, he said. It was not known if anyone in the gunman’s car was shot.

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    Police made “a lot of arrests” and recovered at least one gun, officials said.

    And that escalation, as Summit News’ Paul Joseph Watson details, prompted Chicago authorities took the decision to raise all major bridges in an effort to prevent looters reaching the downtown area after a night of chaos.

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    Luxury department stores were ransacked as hundreds of looters caused mayhem in response to the police shooting of an armed suspect in Englewood.

    Police sent to respond to the looting were physically attacked, prompting authorities to raise major bridges in order to keep more people out of the area.

    “All bridges are being raised along the river throughout The Loop,” reports CBS Chicago. “Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management announced street closures throughout areas in the Magnificent Mile, Gold Coast and South Loop.”

    Numerous bus and train services have also been suspended, while large areas of downtown Chicago are also closed.

    Bridges were previously raised last month in an effort to keep Black Lives Matter protesters away from the business district, but the call to do so this time around appears to have come too late.

  • Iran 'Accidentally' Sank Mock US Aircraft Carrier In Wrong Place
    Iran ‘Accidentally’ Sank Mock US Aircraft Carrier In Wrong Place

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:35

    Via AlMasdarNews.com,

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted a large-scale military exercise in the Persian Gulf in late July, as they showcased their naval capabilities and new weapons. During the exercises, the IRGC was seen attacking a mock U.S. aircraft carrier that was positioned near the Strait of Hormuz.

    It was expected that Iran would not fully destroy this replica of the U.S.S. Nimitz, as they would use it for future military drills; however, as shown in the photo below, the aircraft carrier is submerged in the Persian Gulf.

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    As pointed out by South Front, who quoted an expert from the Forbes article that was previously posted about the vessel, this aircraft carrier was not meant to sink.

    In fact, during the military drills in the Persian Gulf, the IRGC’s soldiers could be seen landing on the aircraft carrier from one of their transport helicopters.

    “The Iranian armed forces, particularly the IRGC-N (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy) delight in attacking the mock U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. It makes their war games more dramatic. And it may be intended to symbolize that they could, if called upon, sink an American carrier,” the Forbes article said.

    “The carrier itself, actually an elaborate target barge, is not intended to sink, however. It is meant to be reusable and has been symbolically ‘destroyed’ twice already. But now it really has sunk. And in very much the wrong place,” the report continued.

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    Iranian media image showing military drills utilizing the mock carrier. 

    The Iranian drills have since been condemned by the U.S. because of the IRGC’s exercise near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

  • Global COVID-19 Pandemic Surpasses 20 Million Confirmed Cases: Live Updates
    Global COVID-19 Pandemic Surpasses 20 Million Confirmed Cases: Live Updates

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:17

    Summary:

    • Global COVID count tops 20 Million
    • Cali sees “encouraging signs”, Gov Newsom says
    • “Big Ten” cancels season
    • California reports 7,751 new cases, says it has fixed reporting issues
    • NJ transmission rate shows virus no longer spreading in state
    • Arizona COVID outbreak continues to slow; ICU rates decline again
    • NY reports just 2 COVID deaths as positivity rate lingers near record low
    • Florida cases continue to decline
    • World on the cusp of 20 million confirmed COVID cases
    • WHO praises Paris mask order
    • Paris mandatory outdoor mask rules take effect
    • WHO warns “majority of world still susceptible” to COVID
    • Germany warns of “alarming” rise in new cases
    • Former Indian president tests positive
    • Situation in Pakistan improves as lockdowns ease
    • Lebanon suffers worst jump in infections yet

    * * *

    Update (2000ET): As expected, Johns Hopkins has just confirmed that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 20 million since the start of the pandemic. Of those, more than 700,000 have died.

    It comes just days after the US, the world’s biggest outbreak, topped 5 million, and Brazil, the No. 2, topped 3 million.

    Meanwhile, Cali Governor Gavin Newsom said trends point to “encouraging signs” in California’s virus outbreak. Hospitalizations have dropped 19% in the last 14 days, while the number of people in intensive care fell 13% over the same period.

    Millions more cases are likely unconfirmed…

    * * *

    Update (1600ET): “Big Ten” just became the first major college football conference to cancel the upcoming season, despite insistence that the conference would do whatever it could to continue with play.

    The Big Ten became the first “Power Five” conference to cancel football for the upcoming season, forgoing a major revenue source as the pandemic upends college sports, the Detroit Free Press reported.

    School presidents voted Sunday to cancel fall sports and an official announcement is expected Tuesday, the newspaper said. The tally was 12-2, with only the University of Nebraska and the University of Iowa voting to play, Dan Patrick said Monday on his radio show. Over the weekend, the Mid-American Conference became the first in the FBS, or Football Bowl Subdivision, to scrap its 2020 season.

    It follows UConn’s decision to cancel college football last week.

    A preliminary reading on new US cases found they slowed again on Monday.

    • U.S. VIRUS CASES RISE 0.9% VS 7-DAY AVERAGE GAIN OF 1.1%

    * * *

    Update (1420ET): California reported 7,751 new cases on Monday, slightly above yesterday’s total, though officials said that some of the cases might belong to prior days, as the state has only just finally fixed its lab reporting issues supposedly caused the state to undercount cases for weeks.

    • CALIFORNIA DATA MAY INCLUDE CASES FROM PRIOR DAYS
    • CALIFORNIA SAYS LAB REPORTING ISSUES HAVE BEEN CORRECTED
    • CALIFORNIA SEES 7,751 NEW VIRUS CASES VS 7,240-DAY AVE
    • CALIFORNIA 14-DAY POSITIVITY RATE DROPS TO 6.0% FROM 6.1%

    * * *

    Update (1325ET): NJ has just celebrated a promising milestone: Its statewide transmission rate has hit a promising new low, suggesting that the virus is no longer circulating in the state…

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    …for the first time since July 25.

    That’s good news, after a handful of distressingly high readings on the transmission rate sparked fears of a northeastern 2nd wave.

    * * *

    Update (1150ET): Arizona reported just 600 new cases on Monday, along with just 4 new deaths, as the outbreak in the state continues to slow, spurred by Gov. Doug Ducey’s quick reaction time on reimposing restrictions on bars and restaurants, along with other measures, when the numbers started to climb.

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    Meanwhile, ICU bed availability continues to increase as the number of occupied beds falls.

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    Here’s a summary of Arizona hospital assets from Monday.

    * * *

    Update (1135ET): NY Gov Andrew Cuomo on Monday revealed that the state’s positivity rate remains just above its record lows set last week, while deaths have declined to just 2 New Yorkers.

    Those are some good numbers, and will undoubtedly help strengthen the governor’s case for most of the state to return to “hybrid” learning when schools reopen later this month.

    * * *

    Update (1110ET): South Dakota Gov. Kirsti Noem, who recently was accused by the NYT of angling for VP Pence’s job, just tweeted her critics a dose of perspective.

    Are you saying the government has an obligation to defend personal liberty even during periods of excessive fear? But…but…but

    * * *

    Update (1040ET): Florida reports 91 new COVID-19 deaths for Monday, which was slightly higher than the total from the prior day, while Florida cases increased by 4,155 to 536,961 as a slowdown in newly confirmed cases continued.

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    Almost as notable: the statewide positivity rate declined to 8.6%, the rate for all tests declined to 12.3%.

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    Meanwhile, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, a local paper that has, in our view, done a fantastic job covering local COVID-19-related issues, reported that boaters and partiers at Lake Boca are starting to get on the nerves of state public-health officials.

    The party continues on Lake Boca despite the COVID-19 crisis, and a lack of enforcement by police and state authorities means boaters could be spreading the coronavirus as they soak in the sun.

    Dozens of boaters anchor at the popular site on weekends, some tying their boats together in a practice known as “rafting.”

    Government orders on social distancing prohibit rafting, but no one agency — the city police, the county sheriff or the state wildlife commission – is responsible for policing the boaters’ behavior. And all three say they rely on warnings rather than citations to encourage correct behavior.

    Some local officials say it’s time for things to change.

    Boca Raton City Council Member Andy Thomson said he has heard complaints about rafting on many waterways, including Lake Boca, as people get increasingly eager to return to normalcy.

    “As time has gone on in the midst of the pandemic, more and more people are wanting to go out on the boats,” Thomson said. “They can still go out on their boats; they can go wherever they want. They just can’t be rafting.”

    Others feel the same. Some took to social media expressing concern with the crowds they’ve seen over the past few weeks.

    On July 19, a user posted Facebook photos of dozens of boats gathered with the caption “This is NOT social distancing on lake boca!!!”

    Maybe everybody who has a problem with the way they social distance in ‘Boca can go ‘social distance’ somewhere else.

    Either that, or stop complaining.

    * * *

    As global confirmed COVID-19 cases near 20 million (with potentially millions more that were never catalogued), an uptick in new cases has inspired Paris officials to impose dramatic new restrictions involving mandatory mask wearing. Masks must now be worn in public, even outdoors.

    The order was announced over the weekend. it applies to people aged 11 and over, and covers busy outdoor areas in the French capital and more than 100 streets, although tourist sites such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees boulevard are not included, as French politicians continue to extend concessions to the badly battered tourism industry.

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    As the BBC points out, the Paris mask rule is part of a trend of localized restrictions sweeping Europe.

    The new mask rule in Paris is part of a pattern that is spreading across the country – indeed across Europe – as governments try to stamp down the new virus embers.

    It has been obvious for weeks that in some much-frequented parts of the capital, keeping the one-metre (3.2ft) rule is a challenge.

    On the Seine quays for example, walkers, joggers and cyclists brush past revellers at the many riverside bars.

    Masks are already obligatory in France in all enclosed public spaces – including inside tourist attractions like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

    And across the country, well over 1,000 towns and cities have prescribed face coverings in certain streets and neighbourhoods.

    The main target of the rules are young people who gather to enjoy the holiday and the sunshine.

    All the evidence shows that they are the group among whom infection is growing fastest.

    They may be at a lower risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus than older people. It is their role as vectors that is a cause for concern.

    A top US health official has praised Taiwan’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, hailing it as “among the most successful in the world”, during a rare diplomatic visit to the island.

    Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s economy minister warned of an “alarming” rise in infections. “We need to flatten the curve and turn this around,” Peter Altmaier told German press as schoolchildren in Berlin return to classrooms for the first time in months. Germany has also seen its single-day case count top 1,000 for the first time in weeks.

    With the world on the cusp of reporting 20 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the WHO delivered a stark warning during a Monday morning press briefing from Geneva: the majority of the world’s population remains susceptible to infection.

    Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, famously the agency’s technical lead on COVID-19 research who once caused an uproar by declaring asymptomatic transmission a “rare” event, and seemingly undercutting the case for compulsory mask-wearing, told reporters on Monday that there was “no indication that there is seasonality with this virus” and urged people to do everything they could, including physical distancing, wearing a mask where appropriate and avoiding crowded settings, to prevent the spread of infection.

    Earlier, the WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the UK’s decision to take “targeted action” by imposing ‘partial lockdowns’ in parts of Leicester and parts of northern England.

    Dr. Tedros told the briefing: “Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilizing every tool at our disposal, are key to preventing any resurgence in COVID-19 and allowing societies to be reopened safely.”

    After crossing the 2 million mark last week, infections in India have slowed slightly as antibody surveillance testing suggests that some of the worst-hit slums in Mumbai and New Delhi have achieved roughly 50% infection rates, not far from levels where ‘herd immunity’ might come into play.

    What’s more, on Monday, Pranab Mukherjee, India’s president from 2012-2017, has just announced that he has tested positive for the virus.

    But the world’s second-most-populous country hasn’t had nearly as much success as its neighbor, Pakistan, where the outbreak has continued to wane as the country’s ‘partial lockdowns’ have been slowly unwound.

    Here’s more on that from the BBC:

    With restaurants, cinemas and tourist spots reopening (albeit with some restrictions in place) life in Pakistan is returning to “normal”.

    Partial lockdowns have been in place since March, but have been progressively eased.

    With just over 6,000 coronavirus deaths in a population of about 230 million, despite the country’s weak healthcare system, Pakistan appears to have fared far better than many in the West.

    Finally, as anti-government protesters return to the streets, clashing with security forces, Lebanon reported its highest daily increase in coronavirus infections yet on Monday, compounding the country’s problems after a devastating explosion tore through Beirut last week.

    Another 294 cases were recorded on Sunday, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 6,517, per health ministry data.

  • Police Comb "Thousands Of Hours" Of CCTV Footage, Make Looting Arrests Months After George Floyd Protests
    Police Comb “Thousands Of Hours” Of CCTV Footage, Make Looting Arrests Months After George Floyd Protests

    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 08/10/2020 – 20:15

    Police across multiple US cities that months ago were scenes of often deadly rioting linked to George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests are pouring through thousands of hours of surveillance footage to nab suspects far after the crimes.

    This comes after business owners whose stores were subject of severe vandalism and mass looting pressured authorities to act after many police departments appeared helpless when the mayhem was initially unleashed during those spring and early summer weeks.

    Philly Voice reports this is especially the case in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where “Police Chief Henry White announced the arrests Thursday, pointing to a lengthy investigation that relied heavily on video evidence recorded by public and private cameras.”

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    AP image, looting in Minneapolis 

    At the time of the riots, which hit Atlantic City particularly hard starting at the end of May, there was national media pressure for law enforcement not to act, as people unleashing mayhem in the streets, even including looters, seemed to be lionized somehow as part of advancing civil rights. This even as some among protest leaders themselves urged for an end to looting and destruction, saying the movement must remain peaceful.

    The belated arrests were part of a herculean joint effort between law enforcement and local business owners. Philly Voice underscores that after police chief White set up a task force to comb through literally “thousands of hours” of street video surveillance, they identified at least 200 criminal acts, after which specific photos of individuals were released to the public.

    “On June 30, authorities released photos of more than 200 people who they said were involved in criminal acts but whose identities were unknown to the authorities,” the report says. “After following up on every tip and working directly with 57 business owners, police said they have been able to file charges against 95 people.”

    We noted in June that the FBI has its own program for combing through social media and video footage, identifying suspects.

    For example in Chicago people were caught openly bragging about how many goods they stole during the riots, posting their own pictures to boot, leading to arrests.

    Meanwhile, just this weekend in Chicago, police will have more video to examine:

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    However, it remains unclear the degree which other major cities will go deep into investigations looking to nab vandals and looters. For many police chiefs and elected city officials, it won’t be a politically correct move and thus is likely to conveniently remain on the back burner, if pursued at all.

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