- New Climate Study Warns London As Hot As Barcelona By 2050
A recent climate change study has found that London’s weather could feel more like Barcelona’s in 2050.
Even though that might sound like a dream for Londoners, Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes that the change could be accompanied by severe drought. The research focused on 520 major cities and it was published in journal Plos One. Its most concerning finding was that residents in around a fifth of all cities including Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur will experience climate conditions that have never been seen in any major cities.
You will find more infographics at Statista
By 2050, it is forecast that Madrid will feel like Marrakech, Stockholm will feel like Budapest, Seattle will feel like San Francisco and New York will be like Virginia Beach.
In the UK, the temperature increase would see the country’s average temperature during its hottest month soar around six degrees to 27C.
- Eye-For-An-Eye: UK Caught As Trump's "Useful Idiot" In Dangerous Iran Policy
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,
The UK fell for a US trap when it seized an Iranian ship on July 4. Iran struck back last Friday.
Useful Idiots
Eurointelligence provides interesting commentary of tit-for-tat ship seizures first by the UK, then by Iran in response.
The extraordinary story behind the capture of the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero is a cautionary tale on many levels. It has the potential of turning into a major diplomatic calamity for both the UK and the EU.
Simon Tisdall tells the story in the Observer that this confrontation was masterminded by none other than John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Several weeks ago, US intelligence services tracked an Iranian oil vessel headed for the Mediterranean, bound for a refinery in Syria. The Grace 1 sailed under a Panama flag. As it was too big for the Suez Canal, it undertook the longer journey from Iran around Cape Horn and up the Atlantic towards Spain. Washington alerted the Spanish government 48 hours before the tanker was due to enter the Strait of Gibraltar, but without giving any details that the ship might be in breach of US sanctions. The Spanish Navy escorted the ship but took no action at the time. Spain later said it would have intervened if it had been given information that the ship was in breach of US sanctions.
Bolton instead tipped off the British, who felt compelled to intercept the Grace I as it entered the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4, dispatching a force of 30 marines who stormed the ship.
The US managed to accomplish three things at the same time: escalating the conflict with Iran; dividing the Europeans by pitching the UK against Spain, which distanced itself from the UK manoeuvre off Gibraltar; and turning the UK once again into the useful idiot of US diplomacy. Not bad for a few days’ work. But it is also a clear indication of the EU’s total lack of preparedness to deal with a hostile Trump administration.
Unsurprisingly, the EU’s response is divided. Spain is furious about the UK’s unilateral action in international waters off the Spanish coast. The EU’s external-action service, soon to be headed by Josep Borrell, Spain’s foreign minister, is silent. Germany and France are backing the UK – at least diplomatically – for now. Russia, Japan and China are with Iran. They do not want to risk oil supplies.
Excellent News?!
Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions. America & our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran & Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) July 4, 2019
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Dangerous Trap
The Guardian comments How Trump’s Arch-Hawk Lured Britain Into a Dangerous Trap to Punish Iran
Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise. But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident. The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap.
In short, it seems, Britain was set up. As a result, Britain has been plunged into the middle of an international crisis it is ill-prepared to deal with.
Much of this angst could have been avoided. Britain opposed Trump’s decision to quit the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the trigger for today’s crisis. It has watched with alarm as the Trump-Bolton policy of “maximum pressure”, involving punitive sanctions and an oil embargo, has radicalised the most moderate Iranians.
Yet even as Britain backed EU attempts to rescue the nuclear deal, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, foreign secretary, tried to have it both ways – to keep Trump sweet.
Eye for an Eye
The Financial Times comments on the ‘Eye for Eye’ Ideology Behind Iran’s Seizure of UK Tanker.
“Eye for eye and hand for hand is our Islamic ideology. An American eye or a European hand are not more valuable than an Iranian eye or hand,” said Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, a reformist politician.
Lovely.
Nothing But War Will Do
Bolton wants war. Nothing less will do.
To get it, he is willing to radicalize the Iranian moderates and trap allies into doing his immoral bidding.
I am sick of this administration’s war policy and treatment of allies.
- Largest Builder Of Bootleg Luxury Vehicles In Brazil Busted: Police Raid Secret Fake Lambo Factory
Police in the city of Santa Catarina, Brazil recently raided a secret factory that was used to create bootleg replicas of luxury vehicles, according to CNN.
Santa Catarina Civil Police’s investigative unit seized eight nearly assembled replicas of Lamborghinis and Ferraris during last Monday’s raid, according to a police press release.
The replicas were being sold for between $48,000 and $66,000 – a small fraction of the list price for an original. The starting price for a Ferrari, for instance, is generally around $215,000. In addition to seizing the replica vehicles, tools, molds, fibers and frames used to manufacture the cars were also seized.
The shop was owned by a father and son duo who now both face criminal charges for falsifying commercial property. They are being called “the largest manufacturers of bootleg luxury vehicles in Brazil”.
Ferrari and Lamborghini representatives had contacted the Santa Catarina civil police, which prompted the investigation to begin with.
- How Imperial Washington Rules The World: Sanctions & The Weaponization Of Global Commerce
Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Futures of Freedom Foundation,
Ruler Of The World
Recently released secret documents from Chinese company Huawei provide insights into how the U.S. Empire rules the world. According to the Washington Post, the documents reveal that Huawei secretly helped North Korea “build and maintain the country’s commercial wireless network.”
What’s wrong with that? you ask.
It violates U.S. sanctions against North Korea!
What do U.S. sanctions have to do with commercial relations between a Chinese company and North Korea?
Well, as the ruler of the world – or, in common parlance, as the world’s sole remaining empire – the U.S. Empire’s rules and regulations apply to everyone in the world. If anyone anywhere in the world is caught violating them, he will be summoned to the United States to face criminal and civil prosecution.
What about President Trump’s lovefest with North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-Un?
Irrelevant! Just because the president of the United States has fallen in love with North Korea’s communist dictator and salutes his communist generals, that still does not relieve foreigners from complying with the Empire’s edicts prohibiting commercial ties with North Korea without the official permission of U.S. officials.
That’s how the Empire works – its rulers are free to fall in love with anyone they want but that still doesn’t relieve foreign governments and foreign companies of their duty to comply with and obey the rules and regulations of the U.S. Empire.
Anyway, everyone is supposed to know that North Korea is a communist regime and that communism is bad. That’s in fact why the Empire has maintained a harsh economic embargo against the Cuban people for more than 50 years. Since the Cuban people have refused to oust their communist regime with a coup or a violent revolution, the U.S. Empire has continued to target them with impoverishment and death through economic sanctions, the same thing they are doing to the North Korean people and, well, for that matter, the Iranian people.
Like Huawei’s helping North Korea to build and maintain a wireless commercial network, woe to the foreigner who does business with communist Cuba in violation of the U.S. embargo. He will be prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned for daring to violate the rules and regulations of the Empire.
In fact, woe to the American citizen who travels to Cuba and spends money there without the official permission of his rulers. He too will be viciously prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned by the Empire.
Notice the operative words: “without the official permission of his rulers.” You see, apparently trading with the Cuban Reds is not bad per se because U.S. officials do grant official permission to some Americans – the privileged ones – to travel to Cuba and spend money there. That’s how the Empire works – if you approach it, show respect, bend the knee, and plead for permission to trade with others, they might (or might not) let you. What’s important is that you ask permission. That’s how “freedom” works under an Empire.
Of course, there is a big exception when it comes to trading with the communists. That exception is North Vietnam or, excuse me, Vietnam, a country that is headed by a communist regime that killed more than 58,000 American men who were sacrificed by the U.S. Empire in a violent war against communism. Apparently Vietnam’s communism is not so bad anymore because U.S. Empire officials have granted Americans official permission to trade with the Vietnamese Reds.
In his Fourth of July, 1821, address to Congress, entitled “In Search of Monsters to Destroy,” U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams accurately predicted what would happen if the U.S. government were ever to abandon its founding principle of non-interventionism in favor of a worldwide interventionist empire:
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world.
- Busted Billion-Dollar Bagholders Hire Private Eyes To Probe Goldman-Led Airline Bailout
Several years ago, when ZIRP and NIRP was (again) raging, investors jumped at the chance to buy $1.2 billion in bonds whose proceeds wound up with a cluster of airlines linked to Etihad Airlines. As Bloomberg details, the deal was unusual in several ways: Goldman had teamed up with two relatively obscure brokerages and controversial German financier Lars Windhorst was helping structure the deal behind the scenes.
Ultimately, the deal wound up going bust and a group of creditors has now hired a private eye firm to dig out the details into how the deal came together, including the roles played by Windhorst, Goldman and others.
The deal and its ensuing investigation are bad PR for Goldman Sachs and highlight the company’s “willingness to raise large pools of capital in unorthodox or risky deals.” It also pairs the company with Windhorst, who has been under scrutiny in recent weeks especially over his role in the blow up of the ill-named H20 fund.
Roger King, an analyst at research firm CreditSights said:
“There were a lot of strange characteristics. It was a bizarrely complicated deal. A hairy deal no matter who brought it.”
One of the main questions about the deal was why did Goldman Sachs step in after another notoriously law-breaking bank, HSBC, dropped out. The financing likely wouldn’t have taken place without the help of a global bank.
Now, creditors including investment managers BlueBay Asset Management and Gramercy Funds Management have enlisted private investigators to help them push for maximum recoveries from the busted bonds. While it is not unheard of for bondholders to hire intelligence companies for due diligence purposes, it’s relatively rare that they will employ them in these types of scenarios.
Etihad had an issue in 2015. It had bought stakes in several smaller airlines but some of them, like Air Berlin, kept bleeding cash. Windhorst, who was once the airlline’s largest shareholder, was looking to help fix these issues. He proposed that a special purpose vehicle close to Etihad could sell bonds and then turn around to slice up the proceeds to many of the smaller carriers. Those companies would then pay back the special purpose vehicle.
Anoa, a small brokerage that was contracted to work out the details by Windhorst, was an affiliated company of his investment arm. Anoa has since gone bust and its former CEO is now the CEO of Windhorst’s private investment vehicle. Anoa helped design the transaction but it lacked fundraising firepower. HSBC was initially recruited to lead the deal, but the bank suddenly and inexplicably dropped out before the sale. It was reportedly the participation of Anoa that caused HSBC’s skepticism. Others wondered whether or not the smaller brokerage would be able to commit to carrying out the complex transaction.
That’s when Goldman Sachs stepped in.
The deal needed to be cleared many times over at Goldman because of its complexity and because of the involvement of a sovereign entity, Abu Dhabi. Windhorst’s involvement was also an issue.
The SPV issued its first set of junk rated bonds in the amount of $700 million in September 2015. In April 2016, Senior Etihad executives and a Goldman Sachs banker were given an industry award for the structuring of the plan. Two months after that, the financing team raised another $500 million, bringing the total to $1.2 billion. 93.5% of the proceeds went to the airline group.
However, right after that last deal, things began to go south. Smaller airlines in the partnership like Air Berlin, Alitalia and Jet Airways fell victim to their financial woes and the bonds created. At the same time, Etihad decided it was no longer going to support the affiliate airlines and instead embarked on a management overhaul.
The bond offering documents didn’t explicitly guarantee support from Etihad, but there was always an “implicit understanding” that they would be there for support if needed. And now, the investor group in the bonds is left holding the bag with no choice left but to hire law firms and private investigators to try and maximize their recoveries.
Goldman’s dealings with Windhorst were formerly the topic of a lawsuit by a former executive, Chris Rollins. Seth Redniss, a lawyer for Rollins said: “Whether in public or private, the evidence shows that top execs allowed these very large, risky deals to happen.”
In other words, the buck – as in the case of 1MDB – stopped with none other than Lloyd Blankfein… who conveniently retired last year just as the heat was starting to build.
- Every Flaw In Markets Is Worse Under Socialism
Authored by Chloe Anagnos via The American Institute for Economic Research,
As the granddaughter of a survivor of communism and socialism, I find it almost unfathomable that the political ideology my family left a continent for is creeping into my neighborhood.
I was alerted to an event on Facebook called “Summer Socialism 101 classes,” which will be hosted at the Indianapolis Central Library this August. The group will offer the following classes: “Why we need a revolutionary party, Introduction to Marxism, and Contradictions of Capitalism.”
You can imagine my disbelief and frustration when I saw this event shared on Facebook by people urging others to learn more about a political ideology that killed at least 100 million men, women, and children — more than all the deaths of all the major wars of the 20th century – combined.
Published by Harvard University Press, The Black Book of Communism documents the victims of each Marxist socialist regime in, but not necessarily limited to,
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China under Mao Zedong
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North Korea under Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un
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Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh
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Cuba under Fidel Castro
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Cambodia under Pol Pot
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Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile
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Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro
Greece is no exception.
After World War II, a civil war broke out in Greece between the Greek government (backed by the U.S. and the UK) and the military branch of the Communist Party of Greece (supported by then-socialist states Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria).
During the war (1946-49), Greeks either publicly supported or joined the Communists or were thrown in jail. My Yiayia’s (grandmother’s) oldest brother and both of her parents didn’t join the Communists, so they quickly became political prisoners.
(My great grandparents – the Antonakes family.)
As best as my Yiayia can recall, they were held as political prisoners for more than three years.
When the war broke out, my Yiayia was the youngest of the family — just eight years old. While her parents were in prison, she and her siblings were raised by family and neighbors. Although this conflict started after World War II, the internal political struggles began during the German occupation of Greece in the early 1940s.
She remembers Nazis occupying her village, one of them shooting a neighbor’s goat in the head in front of her and others while saying something to the effect of “If you don’t fall in line, this is what will happen to you.”
My great uncle lost part of a finger and some of his scalp during the occupation of another village. That is the only injury I’m aware of — or at least the only one anyone is willing to talk about. Miraculously, not only did the family survive World War II and the civil war, but the three were released from prison.
In total, 80,000 Greeks were killed and another 700,000 were left homeless. Soon, parts of my family left for better opportunities. Some went to Canada and others eventually got to the United States. Some stayed in Greece and are still there today.
My immediate family and I are only in Indiana because our first relative who came here from Ellis Island wanted to get to Chicago but didn’t have enough money to get there. Instead, he made a life in Elkhart, Indiana — 108 miles short. From there, four generations have worked to achieve the American dream, which wouldn’t be possible without the free market.
Senior AIER fellow Michael Munger says it best:
“The problem for Marxists is simple: every flaw in markets is worse under socialism. At the micro level, every flaw in consumers is worse, and in fact much worse, in voters. Unless you are willing to advocate monarchism, or actual communist dictatorship, markets and democracy are the only two mechanisms we have for organizing society.”
For those in my home state flirting with Marxist ideals, I suggest you read Munger’s forthcoming book from AIER, Is Capitalism Sustainable? along with the other brilliant publications we offer.
After all, capitalism is what truly lifts the masses out of poverty and into freedom.
Just look at my family.
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- LAPD Spied On And Infiltrated Anti-Trump Protesters
The Los Angeles Police Department spied on anti-Trump protesters and even infiltrated an activist group that was planning anti-Trump protests, according to the Guardian.
An informant working for the LAPD secretly infiltrated a group called “Refuse Fascism” in 2017, recording multiple meetings that the group held. LAPD transcripts that were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump rally were the first admissions that the informant existed.
The undercover officer was equipped with a hidden recording device and attended “Refuse Fascism” gatherings at a local church “in an attempt to elicit information regarding the closure” of the freeway and to express interest in being involved “in any such future activities,” according to the LAPD.
One of the activists who was monitored and recorded as well as charged with misdemeanors, Miguel Antonio, said he would not let the surveillance stop him from organizing:
“We’re not scared. We’re not going to back down in the face of repression. You’re in a church, and you’re meeting about organizing a peaceful protest, and you’re running the risk of being charged with conspiracy or these petty crimes.”
Similar incidents have also taken place across the US. In Sacramento, police pursued cases against left-wing activists at a white supremacist rally. In Berkeley, police collaborated with a “violent pro Trump demonstrator” to prosecute a left-wing group. There have also been similar controversies in Washington DC and Oregon.
The LAPD surveillance was “striking”, given documented evidence of violence from the far right as well as the far left.
Mike German, a former FBI agent and expert on local extremist groups, said:
“This case seems to fall into a pattern of police agencies viewing anti-fascist organizing as terrorism, while overlooking the far more deadly and frequent violence perpetrated by white supremacists and other far-right militants.”
The LAPD reportedly didn’t conduct similar spying operations on far right groups.
The LAPD police chief, Michel Moore, reportedly “ordered a top-to-bottom review to determine whether the department’s stringent requirements for the use of confidential informants were followed”.
On September 27, 2017, Antonio was arrested after he shut down a freeway in downtown LA to protest Trump a year after his election. Shortly thereafter, the LAPD had an informant approach Antonio at a meeting.
During an 11 October meeting, the informant approached Antonio and said, “Are we gonna do like any freeway things again…or major things like that?”, according to a transcript of a secret recording.
“I’m not sure,” Antonio responded.
The informant then said he was interested in joining future activities: “I thought the freeway thing was pretty good.”
At one point, the informant caught someone on a recording say: “That’s an awfully hot coffeepot, should I drop it on Donald Trump?”
Damon Alimouri, Antonio’s lawyer, said:
“The LAPD surveillance was unjust and outrageous. [I] suspect this type of spying [is] likely to escalate across the country. The further left that younger people go, we will continue to see law enforcement infiltrating these groups secretly. To a certain extent, it might intimidate some, and I think that’s the intention of the LAPD.”
Frank Wulf, the pastor of the church, said: “The government is interfering with the rights of protest in America,” he said, adding that he worried about a chilling effect: “You never know if the person sitting next to you is a police informant or not.”
- Iran Legalizes Crypto-Mining As "Official Industry"
After weeks of uncertainty, the Iranian government’s Economic Commission has approved a mechanism of cryptocurrency mining in the country, according to an announcement by the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture on July 22.
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As CoinTelegraph’s Ana Alexandre reports, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Abdolnaser Hemmati said that “a mechanism to mine digital coins was approved by the government’s economic commission and will later be put to discussion at a Cabinet meeting.”Initially, Iranian authorities announced that they are planning to authorize Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining earlier in July, when the CBI governor Abdol Hemmati reportedly claimed that the Iranian government had approved some parts of an executive law that would authorize mining of cryptocurrencies in Iran.
At the time, Hemmati argued that digital currency miners in Iran should contribute to the country’s economy, rather than letting mined Bitcoin escape abroad.
Also, at the Commission’s latest meeting, its head Elyas Hazrati said that cryptocurrency is now recognized as official by the government, adding:
“We do believe that cryptocurrency industry should be recognized as an official industry in Iran to let the country take advantage of its tax and customs revenues.”
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph
Today’s news also follows yesterday’s reports that The Iranian Economic Commission has reportedly finalized a tariff scheme for cryptocurrency miners, according to a report from Iranian economic daily Financial Tribune.
CoinTelegraph’s Aaron Wood details that Energy Minister Homayoon Ha’eri announced that while the tariff scheme has been finalized, it is awaiting approval from the Cabinet of Iran – a governmental body consisting of various ministers and other officials chosen by the president.
While Ha’eri did not elaborate on the exact price scheme, he stated that the price is dependent on market factors such as fuel prices in the Persian Gulf.
The head of Iran Electrical Industry Syndicate, Ali Bakhshi, previously proposed a price of $0.07 per kilowatt hour for cryptocurrency miners. Electricity in Iran is currently very cheap due to government subsidies; one kilowatt hour of electricity currently costs $0.05, with power being cheaper in the agricultural and industrial sectors.
To put these prices in context, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, the Energy Ministry spokesman for the power department, previously stated that the production of a single Bitcoin (BTC) uses about $1,400 in state subsidies.
The Financial Tribune reports that mining one Bitcoin reportedly consumes as much electricity as 24 buildings in Tehran do in one year.
This news follows an announcement from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), in which the banks governor Abdol Hemmati claimed that the CBI was planning to authorize cryptocurrency mining.
Similar to the statements from Energy Minister Ha’eri, Hemmati said that a planned law will require crypto mining in Iran to abide with the price of electricity for export, rather than allowing miners to use the heavily subsidized internal energy grid.
Also today, Deputy President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration Jamal Arounaghi announced that the agency has not yet issued licenses for the import of cryptocurrency mining equipment. While a tariff scheme exists, the final decision on licensure awaits approval from the government.
- FBI Raids LA's Department Of Water & Power, City Hall
Rumors about a federal investigation into Los Angeles city hall have been circulating for months now, and on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI carried out a search of the Department of Water and Power and City Hall.
A spokesman for the FBI confirmed the search.
“There is a search taking place at the DWP building. The affidavit in support of the search warrant is under seal by the court,” said Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles. Law enforcement sources said the FBI was also at Los Angeles City Hall.
A champagne-colored van was parked outside the DWP headquarters with a placard saying “FBI” and “Official Business.”
An FBI van was parked outside City Hall East, which serves as the headquarters for City Atty. Mike Feuer ‘s office and several government agencies.
A spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office refused to confirm whether the FBI agents had entered the City Attorney’s office.
The mayor’s office released a statement saying Eric Garcetti’s office welcomed the investigation.
Alex Comisar, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti, said in a statement: “We were notified earlier this morning that federal search warrants were being executed today. The mayor believes that any criminal wrongdoing should be investigated and prosecuted. His expectation is that any city employee asked to cooperate will do so fully and immediately.”
DWP Commissioner Christina Noonan declined to comment, saying she had been advised to refer all questions to a department spokesman.
LADWP spokesman Joe Romallo did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
Federal investigators have cast a wide net for information about foreign investment in Los Angeles real estate developments. Among those named in the warrant were Councilman Jose Huizar, Curren Price, the former head of he Department of Building and Safety and high-level appointees of Garcetti and Council President Herb Wesson.
Recently, the developers of projects in Councilman Jose Huizar’s district have received grand jury subpoenas demanding they turn over communications with the councilman and other current and former staffers.
The DWP has been struggling with its own series of scandals, including the fallout from a billing system that sent out wildly inaccurate bills to customers, prompting a flood of lawsuits.
The warrant also named executives of Chinese firms bankrolling new residential and hotel towers on Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. It doesn’t say whether the FBI has gathered evidence of criminal activity.
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