Aug 26

Today’s News 26th August 2019

  • EU Citizens Moving To UK Halved Since Brexit Vote

    New statistics published by Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of EU citizens moving to the UK for work has halved since the Brexit referendum.

    As Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, in the year ending June 2016, the number of people moving to the UK for work stood at 190,000 and in the year ending March 2019, that plummeted to 92,000.

    Infographic: EU Citizens Moving To UK Halved Since Brexit Vote | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    The ONS said that the figures are based on “adjusted estimates” after admitting that EU migration had been under-estimated.

  • Turkey Affirms Its Claim On Cyprus Oil And Gas

    Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

    Turkey will continue exploring for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean waters around disputed Cyprus, and “No project can be realised if Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are not involved,” President Recept Erdogan said, as quoted by Cypriot media.

    “We will continue to defend the rights of Turkish Cypriots with the same dedication,” Erdogan said following a meeting with the head of the Cypriot Turks.

    Turkey, which recognizes the northern Turkish Cypriot government and doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the internationally recognized government of EU member Cyprus, claims that part of the Cyprus offshore area is under the jurisdiction of Turkish Cypriots or Turkey, and they are entitled to part of the potential oil and gas resources in the area. Turkey doesn’t recognize the agreements that Cyprus has signed with other countries in the Mediterranean over the exclusive maritime zones either.

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    Last month, tensions between Turkey and Greece regarding the Cyprus drilling rights spiked again when Greece’s newly elected government said Turkey undermined the security of the eastern Mediterranean with its drilling operations off the Cypriot shores.

    “The illegal actions of Turkey, which defy international law are placing the security of the region at risk. As such, they are absolutely condemnable,” Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said,

    adding “We discussed this flagrant violation of the sovereignty and the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus perpetrated by Turkey.”

    A string of natural gas discoveries in the waters around Cyprus have turned the divided island into one of the new hot spots for gas, along with Egypt and Israel. Just recently, the island greenlit a consortium involving Eni and Total to drill for gas in a new part of its exclusive economic zone.

    Turkey’s strong position on the issue of oil and gas suggests that internal tensions in Cyprus will continue and the newly found gas wealth will not help their resolution.

  • As Long As Enemies Of The State Keep Dying Before Trial, No One Should Trust The State

    Authored by Ted Rall via The Unz Review,

    There is no other way to say it: It was a political assassination.

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    Osama bin Laden was unarmed. SEALs captured him alive. Following brazenly illegal orders from Washington, they executed him. “The (Obama) administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead,” The Atlantic reported on May 4, 2011.

    State-controlled media outlets like The Atlantic claimed that President Barack Obama was desperate to avoid a trial that would give the al-Qaida leader a “high-profile platform for spreading his extremist views.” Left unsaid, as so much is in the American steno-journalism reminiscent of the Soviet Union, was a more pressing reason to silence the Saudi scion.

    As much as the families of 9/11 victims craved justice, it was infinitely more important to the U.S. political establishment to deny bin Laden an opportunity to publicly expound on his ties to the CIA and the CIA-funded Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, who were training and funding the “Afghan Arabs” who fought Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Letting people learn that 9/11 would likely never have happened if not for the CIA would have been… awkward.

    Such is the fate of enemies of the state.

    Last week, not so much an enemy but a man whose existence had become inconvenient, not exactly to the state but certainly to a cabal of powerful men, including a former president as well as the sitting one, joined bin Laden in the kingdom of the dead.

    The official narrative of billionaire accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s death shifted faster than a New York subway rider when a homeless guy plops down next to them on a hot day. First, they said Epstein had been on suicide watch, and then that he hadn’t. Prisons are full of cameras, yet there’s still no video of Epstein’s death. Then, suicide watch or not, they claimed he’d been checked on every 30 minutes. Then more like every three hours. The medical examiner said his injuries were consistent with strangulation by a second person, but then thought better of it and ruled Epstein’s convenient demise a suicide.

    I tweeted the morning of Epstein’s passing: “Bill Clinton is the happiest man in America today.” Clinton flew on Epstein’s infamous “Lolita Express” private jet at least six times, including to such sex-tourism destinations as Thailand and Hong Kong. Perhaps he refrained from partaking in the underaged prostitutes and rape victims Epstein stands accused of procuring for his traveling companions. Whatever happened or didn’t, the Epstein-Clinton connection is sketchy.

    As is Epstein’s suicide — the first at the Manhattan Correctional Facility since 1998.

    At this writing, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever know who killed Epstein, whether it be himself or someone else. What we do know is that, if we take the government at its word, they were incompetent and negligent to an unfathomable extent. Being insanely stupid and lazy is their defense.

    Now we’re descending into the usual idiotic post-death debate between credulists (those who believe anything the government and its pet media says) and conspiracy theorists. Truth: No one knows anything. We weren’t there. The video was, but they deep-sixed that.

    We don’t know how Epstein bit it but the fact of Epstein’s death tells us everything we need to know about America today. No matter what, Epstein died because the government let it happen. He was a ward of the state, the highest of high-profile prisoners, a man whose trial stood to expose extreme wrongdoing at the expense of numerous horribly violated victims, yet no one in charge took steps to make certain that he appeared at every hearing healthy and alive.

    The carelessness of the powers that be reflects their confidence that they shall never, ever, be held accountable for anything.

    So another man vanishes, and the few questions asked are left unanswered — intentionally.

    So it was with Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator who signed a deal with the U.S. to rid Libya of a nuclear program only to be blown up by one of Obama’s assassination drones lest he say too much about his relationship with the Bush administration.

    So it was with Chris Dorner, the police officer who went on a shooting spree after he was fired by the LAPD, apparently in retaliation for reporting a fellow cop’s excessive force against a mentally ill suspect, before being hunted down and killed in a cabin the police set ablaze with “pyrotechnic tear gas” canisters.

    So it was with Sandra Bland, the African-American woman who apparently killed herself after being beaten and jailed by the police for the crimes of failing to signal a lane change, sassiness and the likelihood she would have spoken out about being brutalized.

    So it was a bunch of Nazi war criminals who escaped judgment at Nuremberg.

    So it was Lee Harvey Oswald, whom the authorities couldn’t resist parading before reporters, without screening attendees like Jack Ruby for weapons.

    More will die.

    It’s better for those in charge.

  • Buddy Fletcher's Connecticut Castle Liquidated In Foreclosure For Pennies On The Dollar

    Hedge fund manager Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher has been forced to sell his Cornwall, Connecticut mansion for just pennies on the dollar, according to Bloomberg.

    The estate, called Cornwall Castle, has seen its prestigious owners arrive in vehicles like pink Cadillacs and helicopters over the years. Among the list of previous owners, Saul Steinberg, the lead chairman of Reliance Group Holdings and Macy’s executive Joseph Cicio.

    Fletcher bought the castle in 2001, before his American dream-style narrative of wealth and success ended in bankruptcy. For years, Fletcher and his wife, Ellen Pao, were well-known figures on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

    And like any good criminal, Fletcher has been falling back on the race card for a living. He gained notoriety in 2011 when he sued The Dakota, one of Manhattan’s most exclusive co-ops, for racial discrimination. This was after he had also sued his previous employer, Kidder Peabody, for racial discrimination, in 1991. He won a $1.26 million award in NYSE arbitration as a result. In 2012, his wife filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her employer, Kleiner Perkins.

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    But in 2012, the real problems under the surface for Fletcher started to rear their heads.

    Fletcher’s funds were forced into liquidation or bankruptcy amid fraud allegations and an investigation by the SEC. Fletcher was accused of inflating his returns and using his clients’ money as a piggy bank. He was ordered to return $212 million in a default judgment in 2015 and divorced with his wife two years later.

    The bankruptcy trustee trying to recoup the funds said: “We never located any meaningful assets.”

    This brings us back to Cornwall Castle. In 2001, Fletcher took out a $4.4 million mortgage to pay $5.9 million for the 330 acre property – a record high price for a home in the area. Neighbors recalled his helicopter hovering overhead and annual parties thrown on Halloween. Fletcher, meanwhile, kept tacking on debt to buy more land, and eventually bought more than 1000 acres.

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    Fletcher, thinking about his next racial discrimination lawsuit

    In 2013, he put the castle on the market for $8.9 million and there were no takers. In 2014, he started to fall behind on the payments and JP Morgan began foreclosure proceedings the next year. And so the grand building and land have now been sold off in pieces to pay his debts.

    In March, a local conservation group agreed to buy 107 acres for $622,000. In June, JP Morgan sold the 16,800 square-foot castle and 275 acres for $1.6 million. The remaining portions of his land will hit the market over the next few months.

    Former owner Cicio said: “To me, it was out of a storybook. Sadly, in the very recent past, they let it dramatically deteriorate.”

    Cicio is right – the house needs a significant amount of work. A barn on the property was ruined by a fire in 2013. Meanwhile, pipes burst, grass was overgrown and the roof developed leaks. The HVAC systems need to be replaced and there’s a mold problem that needs to be dealt with.

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    This condition belies the once prestigious nature of the castle. Built in 1925, it was supposed to be a fairytale retreat for New York society couple Charlotte Bronson Hunnewell, who had developed Manhattan’s Turtle Bay Gardens, and her second husband, Dr. Walton Martin. 

    David Bain, a real estate broker who handled the foreclosure sale said: “It needed everything. Not a pretty picture for most buyers.”

    Jeffrey Jacobson, who wrote a book about the history of the castle said: “What kind of a sensible, logical person wants to buy a castle?”

    Most wealthy buyers today would likely have no tolerance to make improvements to an old castle, according to Graham Klemm, a local real estate broker. 

    However, it appealed to one man: Russell Barton, a developer who recently transformed a former jail into a mixed use complex featuring residences and a restaurant. Barton was taken back by the gargoyles on the building and the original lead windows, stonework and seclusion. Being a developer, he also has the resources and the know-how to fix it. He has spent the past month renovating the castle with 20 workers on site, doing eight hour shifts each.

    Barton said: “This is a small job for me. The jail took two years. This will take two months.”

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    Barton and his wife

    He thinks the renovations will cost about $150,000, which is far less than the $3 million to $4 million estimated by some real estate professionals. His goal is to use the castle as a permanent home for himself and his wife and to use the castle’s servant quarters as his company’s headquarters. For now, the couple is living with their Jack Russell terrier in a one bedroom stone cottage by the pool.

    Barton concluded: “I like this old lady. Everything about it is spectacular.”

    Meanwhile, we’re sure Fletcher is busy preparing another racial discrimination suit, perhaps against the SEC or his home’s new owner, as we speak.

  • Duke University Shrink: Trump May Be Worse Than Hitler, Stalin, And Mao

    Authored by Dave Huber via The College Fix,

    The former chief of the Duke University Psychiatry Department went on CNN this weekend to claim President Trump is mentally unfit for the office, and proceeded to up the hyperbole quotient to unprecedented levels.

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    Appearing on “Reliable Sources,” Dr. Allen Frances said comparing Donald Trump to the mentally ill is “an insult” to the latter.

    While he differs with Yale’s Bandy Lee regarding the so-called Goldwater Rule – the American Psychiatric Association’s decree that “members never publicly discuss the mental health of a public figure” – Frances’ diatribe fit in well with Lee’s crusade to convince anyone who will listen that Trump’s mental state is endangering all Americans.

    According to the Washington Examiner, Dr. Frances said

    Well, I think ‘medicalizing’ politics has three very dire consequences. The first is that it stigmatizes the mentally ill. I’ve known thousands of patients, almost all of them are well-behaved, well-mannered good people. Trump is none of these. Lumping that is a terrible insult to the mentally ill and they have enough problems and stigma as it is.

    Second, calling Trump crazy hides the fact that we’re crazy for having elected him and even crazier for allowing his crazy policies to persist.

    The kicker: Trump “may be” culpable for “many more million deaths” than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, Frances continued.

    “Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin and Mao were in the last century. He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were,” Frances continued.

    “He needs to be contained but he needs to be contained by attacking his policies, not his person.”

    “It’s crazy for us to be destroying the climate our children will live in,” Frances continued.

    “It’s crazy to be giving tax cuts to the rich that will add trillions of dollars to the debt our children will have to pay. It’s crazy to be destroying our democracy by claiming that the press and the courts are the enemy of the people.”

    With such insane comparisons, Frances sounded like he needed to lie down on his own couch.

    “There is absolutely no doubt that Trump is dangerous,” Frances claimed, arguing that Trump was “dangerous because he’s a bad, evil con man” rather than because he was mentally ill.

    He then suggested that it would be acceptable to lie about Trump’s mental state if there was a way to use that false narrative to get him out of office.

    “I think it’s very clear that he’s dangerous because he’s evil, he’s not dangerous because he’s mentally ill, and the mentally ill argument, if it would get him out of the office, I would say go with it even if it’s inaccurate,” Frances continued.

    “Anything to get this man out of office. But it won’t work, so piling on inaccuracy, stigma, the press will get people who know nothing about psychiatric diagnosis spouting off at the mouth, it won’t add to the discussion, it will distract from the political stuff and we have to focus on how evil…”

    But all host Brain Stelter could muster was this odd facial expression…

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    (Stelter later claimed on Twitter that his show was suffering from technical difficulties and thus did not hear Frances’s statements.)

    Dr. Lee sat quiet during the Frances segment; nevertheless, a month ago she and several peers testified in an online gathering that President Trump was psychologically unfit for the presidency.

    In that testimony, James Merikangas  of George Washington University said Trump’s campaign rallies are like the “Nuremberg rallies that Adolf Hilter had,” while NYU’s James Gilligan added the president is “dangerous to an unprecedented degree in our history.”

    Dr. Frances’s Twitter timeline is chock full of material like this:

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    Read the Examiner article…

  • Plunge Protection Team Arrives: Lifts Stocks & Currencies, Slams Gold

    Update (2245ET): China’s Vice Premier Liu told online news provider Cailian that China has enough macro-economic policy tools to ensure sound economic fundamentals and “firmly opposes escalation of the trade war” (which is ironic given that they just did); and suddenly Yuan and USDJPY spikes, US equity futures surge, and gold slides…

    Right on cue…US equity futures have almost erased their losses…

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    Yuan spikes and USDJPY has erased all of its losses…

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    And gold is offered heavy…

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    In early Asia trading, offshore yuan has extended Friday’s collapse, testing the lower edge of the PBOC’s Yuan trading band once again.

    Yuan traded as weak as 7.1925 against the USDollar…

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    Source: Bloomberg

    Pressuring the weaker end of the Yuan peg band…

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    Source: Bloomberg

    At the same time, USDJPY is tumbling (Yen strength), testing the lows of the flash-crash from early January…

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    Source: Bloomberg

    Spot Gold has exploded higher, testing $1550…

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    Source: Bloomberg

    With gold rising and yuan plunging, the Chinese currency is at its weakest against the precious metal since 2012…

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    Source: Bloomberg

    US Equity futures are reeling with Dow Futures down over 400 more points…

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    Treasury futures opened up dramatically, implying a 10Y yield of around 1.36% (around 8bps lower in yield).

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    Source: Bloomberg

    And oil prices are plunging…

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    Turmoil is coming.

  • Russian Space Capsule Carrying Humanoid Robots Fails To Dock As Planned At International Space Station

    A space capsule that was carrying a Russian humanoid robot failed to dock as planned with the International Space Station, according to AP. 

    Russia’s space agency said that the failure involving the planned docking on Saturday was due to faults with “the docking system” and that the Space Station and the 6 person crew were both safe. A new docking attempt will be made on Tuesday. 

    We reported on Friday that Russia had launched an unmanned rocket carrying its first life-sized humanoid robot to the International Space Station. The robot, named Fedor (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research), was supposed to spend 10 days learning to help astronauts in space.

    Now, it looks as though the project could be in jeopardy. 

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    As we reported, the humanoid blasted off Thursday “in a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft at 6:38 am Moscow time (0338 GMT) from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.” He was scheduled to dock at the International Space Station on Saturday and stay until September 7. No word on whether or not that schedule has changed a result of the docking failure. 

    The launch was unmanned in order to help test new emergency rescue systems on board. The humanoid was strapped into a specially-made pilot seat with a small Russian flag in its hand before being launched into space. It even said: “Let’s go, let’s go,” during the launch, an homage to the famous phrase used by first man in space Yuri Gagarin.

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    The human-like robot stands about 5‘11“ tall and weighs about 353 pounds. And of course, what would a scientific technological advancement be without having its own Instagram and Twitter accounts? Fedor’s social media accounts update its followers with posts on when it acquires new skills, like opening a bottle of water.

    “The first stage of in-flight experiments went according to the flight plan,” Fedor Tweeted after reaching orbit. 

    If it can dock with the International Space Station successfully, the robot will have a chance to try these skills in a low gravity environment.

    Russian space agency’s director for prospective programmes and science, Alexander Bloshenko, said: “That’s connecting and disconnecting electric cables (and) using standard items, from a screwdriver and a spanner to a fire extinguisher.” 

    Fedor copies human movements, which is a key skill that allows it to help astronauts remotely while humans are strapped into an exoskeleton. These humanoids could eventually carry out dangerous operations, like spacewalks, instead of putting humans at risk.

    The humanoid is also described as being potentially useful for high radiation environments and tricky rescue missions. The robot was initially developed for the emergencies ministry, but it can also be seen seen shooting at targets using two handguns in a video posted by Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin.

    If the capsule can dock successfully, the plan is for the humanoid robot to perform tasks supervised by a Russian cosmonaut who docked at the ISS in July. The cosmonaut will “wear an exoskeleton and augmented reality glasses in a series of experiments later this month.”

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    Fedor’s legs will be immobilized on the space station because it isn’t yet trained to grab handles and move in microgravity conditions. While showing President Putin photographs of the humanoid robot, space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin told him: “In the future we plan that this machine will also help us conquer deep space.”

    Russian media also speculated that these types of robots will be used in Russia’s moon program.

    Although Fedor is the first Russian humanoid robot to make it to space, he is not the first robot globally to make the journey. In 2011, NASA sent up a humanoid robot developed in conjunction with General Motors that had a similar aim of working in high-risk environments. It experienced technical difficulties and was flown back to the earth in 2018.

  • Peter Schiff: The Media Has Flipped The Narrative On Trump

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    Last week, the yield curve inverted, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling below the yield on the 2-year for the first time in 12 years. This has historically been a good predictor of recessions. US stock markets sold off on the news, with the Dow shedding 800 points. As Peter Schiff noted in his most recent podcast, the mainstream also suddenly started talking about the possibility of an economic downturn.

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    As Peter put it, the media has flipped the narrative on Trump.

    All of a sudden, a media, which was pretty much buying the booming economy narrative, now is questioning whether the economy is actually strong.”

    Peter said Trump is now accusing the media of being involved in some kind of conspiracy to make the economy look bad. He’s basically saying that all of the negative economic data we’ve seen coming out is nothing but “fake news.”

    Trump has worked himself into a political corner. His claim to fame is that he’s created the greatest economy ever. He has a vested interest in ensuring that the narrative continues. He won’t likely win a second term if the economy is in recession, or if stocks appear to be in a bear market.

    If stocks are going down, if we’re in a recession, well then by his own standard, he is a failure. And if his presidency failed, then why should the public reelect him?”

    When Trump was running for office, he said the numbers were fake – that the economy was worse than the data indicated. Now he’s saying the numbers are fake and the economy is much better than the data indicates.

    Peter said that ironically, some of the best evidence that the economy is in trouble comes directly from the policies that Trump is demanding – particularly a 100 basis-point cut in the interest rate. As Peter pointed out, that would take the interest rate down to 1%. That was the level Alan Greenspan took interest rates down to during the recession after the dot-com bubble burst.

    Donald Trump wants rates to be at 1% again. Well, if the economy is so great, why do we need to return interest rates to the level that we had during a recession following the bursting of a stock market bubble and the 9/11 terrorist attacks?”

    In fact, we already have monetary stimulus with the recent Fed rate cut and the end of quantitative tightening. And as Peter noted, we also have massive fiscal stimulus. The US budget deficit for FY2019 has already eclipsed last year’s shortfall.

    But that’s not enough for Trump. Now there’s all these rumors, and I’m sure they’re true, that the Trump administration is thinking of cutting capital gains taxes, having an emergency temporary payroll tax cut … that is a stimulus. That is a pure Keynesian stimulus. Why do we need more stimulus when we’ve got so much stimulus?”

    Trump wants all of this stimulus and yet says we aren’t close to recession.

    Well, this is a bunch of BS! Obviously, if we weren’t close to recession, the president wouldn’t be looking for monetary and fiscal stimulus to prop up the economy. Strong economies don’t need to be artificially propped up. It’s weak economies that need to be artificially propped up. I mean, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t claim that the economy doesn’t need a stimulus, but then advocate for a stimulus.”

    The media is having a field day with this. It’s finally questioning the narrative.

    It should be noted that Peter has been talking about a looming recession for months. Back in January, Peter was already saying “the recession is a done deal.”

    Peter goes on to analyze the economics behind the looming recession and the political ramifications. Peter said that analysts and pundits who are now suddenly predicting a recession are right, but they still don’t realize just how bad it’s going to be.

  • Homicides Of Young Brazilian Males Higher Than Syria And Iraq, Report Says

    According to a recent UNICEF report, examined by The Hindu, the number of homicides of young males in Brazil is higher than warzones in Syria and Iraq.

    “Homicide victims are mostly black boys who live on the outskirts of the major cities. They are out of school and come from low-income families,” said the report.

    Brazil is a culturally diverse country, with about 50% of the population defined as mixed. The racial divide is vast, and government officials mostly avoid the debate on racial inequality. But several studies in recent years have started looking at the role of race in murders — both criminal as well as by government forces.

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    One report, titled “Atlas of Violence,” was recently published by the Institute of Applied Economic Research in Brazil shows that in the Rio Grande do Su, Brazil’s southernmost state, bordering Argentina and Uruguay, has a population of 82% white population, but the number of black youth murdered nearly doubled between 2007 and 2017.

    With limited economic opportunity, young black males in the country resort to gangs for stability. This has led to a surge in black killings by police, which has spiked in recent years, mostly in the name of “fighting crime.”

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    Earlier this year, we reported how a rash of gang violence across the country forced President Jair Bolsonaro to crackdown on crime — which includes military takeovers of Brazilian cities and shoot-to-kill orders carried out by teams of sharpshooters.

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    According to the State Institute of Public Security (ISP), Brazil’s military police killed 1,544 people last year in Rio de Janeiro state.

    “Summary executions are being carried out in favelas and other peripheral areas,” said Renata Souza, a local politician. “It is a barbaric state policy that amounts to genocide.”

    President Bolsonaro has even threatened to make new laws that will enable police and civilians to “shoot suspected offenders” without concern of prosecution.

    “These guys are going to die in the streets like cockroaches — and that’s how it should be,” he said in a recent interview. He told Brazil’s police should be decorated for using rifles, not taken to courts.

    In an interview, broadcasted on YouTube on August 05, Bolsonaro said if congress passed his changes to the criminal code, it would see criminals gunned down in droves.

    The only way to reduce Brazil’s violent crime is to provide “legal cover” to police officers so they can kill suspects, he added.

    With murders surging across 14 states, and high rates of young blacks murdered, The Hindu warned: “the last thing Brazil needs is an out-of-control police force. But that may just become legal.”

    And if you didn’t think The Purge, a movie where murder is legal for 12 hours, could’ve come true, well, think again in Brazil.

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