Emerging Market Mayhem: Economist Warns Of “Debacle” as Currencies, Bonds Collapse

/0 Comments/in , /by

downloadThings are getting downright scary in emerging markets. Just ask Bill Gross:

Or have a look at this week’s headlines:

– UK rate hike fears recede, emerging markets on edge
– EMERGING MARKETS-Currencies retreat on talk of a Fed rate hike
– Lost Decade in Emerging Markets: Investors Already Halfway There
– Some Greek Lessons for Emerging Markets
– Currencies in Freefall Handcuff Bankers From Chile to Colombia

And on, and on.

One particularly alarming case that we’ve been keen to document lately is that of Brazil which, you’ll recall, is “up sh*t creek without a paddle” both figuratively and literally. For one thing, as Goldman recently noted, there’s not a single period in over a decade “with a strictly-worse growth-inflation outcome than that of 2Q2015.” In other words, “since 1Q2004 there has not been a single quarter in which we had simultaneously higher inflation and lower growth than during 2Q2015.” (Read more from “Emerging Market Mayhem: Gross Warns Of “Debacle” as Currencies, Bonds Collapse” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Report: Russia Hacks the Pentagon

/4 Comments/in , /by

Pentagon-Building-in-Wash-007U.S. officials tell NBC News that Russia launched a “sophisticated cyberattack” against the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system, which has been shut down and taken offline for nearly two weeks. According to the officials, the “sophisticated cyber intrusion” occurred sometime around July 25 and affected some 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Sources tell NBC News that it appears the cyberattack relied on some kind of automated system that rapidly gathered massive amounts of data and within a minute distributed all the information to thousands of accounts on the Internet. The officials also report the suspected Russian hackers coordinated the sophisticated cyberassault via encrypted accounts on social media . . .

Almost immediately after the cyberattack was detected, the Pentagon took the aggressive step of shutting down the entire Joint Staff unclassified email system and Internet during its investigation. The system should be back online before the end of this week. (Read more from “Report: Russia Hacks the Pentagon” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Watch: Most-Wanted Terrorist Emerges From Shadows to Issue Chilling Threat to America

/3 Comments/in , /by

downloadIn a new video, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Khalid Batarfi called for more lone wolf attacks on America and glorified the attacks in Tennessee and Texas as part of the overall jihadist offensive against the United States.

He praised the July attack in Chattanooga, Tenn., in which a gunman killed five American servicemen at a military installation. He called for blessings upon Mohammad Abdulazeez, who “penetrated the base killing and injuring American marines in a blessed Jihadi operation.”

The gunman who sought to attack a cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, in May was also praised as part of the exhortations supporting more such attacks:

And our words cannot give justice to their sacrifice and heroism, of which the later (operations), was the killing of many among those who insult Islam and the honorable Prophet. In … the targeting of an offensive drawings exhibition in Texas, supported and protected by the American government. By the Grace of Allah, lone jihad (has) proven to be and always will prove to be a strategic weapon successfully hitting and penetrating the enemy’s fort.

In the video, Batarfi condemned “America, France, and other kufr [disbeliever] nations” that “assist and make legislations to protect those who abuse Islam and the Prophets.” To that point he stressed, “And as you put limits to freedom of expression and punish whomever goes against them, it is upon us to punish whoever transgresses out boundaries and sanctities.” (Read more from “Most-Wanted Terrorist Emerges From Shadows to Issue Chilling Threat to America” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Malaysian Prime Minister: Found Wing Part “Conclusively Confirmed” to be From MH370

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

When a piece of plane debris was found last week on a remote French island in the Indian Ocean, family members of Chinese passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 made it clear what they expected: Certainty. . .

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the wing part, known as a flaperon, has been “conclusively confirmed” to be from Flight 370. . .

Boeing officials have concluded that the part’s technical features — such as its color and the structure of its joints — confirm that it’s from a 777 aircraft, the same model as MH370, he said.

Drawing on documentation provided by Malaysia Airlines, the prosecutor said, experts also identified “common technical characteristics” between the flaperon found on Reunion and that of Flight 370. But he stopped short of making a definitive link.

The softer language used by the French prosecutor highlights the complex, multinational nature of the investigation into what happened to MH370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. (Read more about the statement from the Malaysian Prime Minister HERE)

US Allows Ally Turkey to Bomb Only Group Effectively Fighting ISIS

/0 Comments/in , /by

Syria1_0Late in July, the Anti-Media reported that Turkey joined the U.S. led coalition conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL). Since then, it has become clear that Turkey’s strategy is part of a larger agreement with the U.S. to conduct a war against “extremism” in the region.

The deal between the U.S. and Turkey has the following contours: Turkey will allow the U.S. to use its military base at Incirlik to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State. In exchange, the U.S. will allow Turkey to create a buffer zone on Syrian soil free of Islamic State and Kurdish fighters. The stated aim of the “safe zone” is to create a refuge for internally displaced Syrian civilians inside Syria. According to the New York Times,

“The plan would create what officials from both countries are calling an Islamic State-free zone controlled by relatively moderate Syrian insurgents, which the Turks say could also be a ‘safe zone’ for displaced Syrians.”

For Turkey, however, the real aim is to prevent the YPG Kurdish fighters from linking up their three zones of control (Efrin, Kobani, and Cizir pictured below; Tal Abyad is already under YPG control) in northern Syria with each other. These Kurdish fighters also happen to be the sole force that has shown the ability to effectively defeat ISIS in battle. However, the real aim of Turkey was voiced by the leader of the Kurdish opposition party—HDP— in the Turkish parliament, Selahattin Demirtas:

“‘Turkey doesn’t intend to target IS with this safe zone. The Turkish government was seriously disturbed by Kurds trying to create an autonomous state in Syria,’ he said, adding that ‘the safe zone is intended to stop the Kurds, not IS.'”

(Read more from “US Allows Ally Turkey to Bomb Only Group Effectively Fighting ISIS” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Investigation Into Child Sex Abuse by Political Elites Uncovers Child Rape Allegation Against Great Britain’s Ex-Prime Minister

/5 Comments/in , /by

By Martin Robinson. Sir Edward Heath was today accused of raping a 12-year-old runaway as police faced a corruption investigation into whether they let off a brothel madam who threatened to expose him in the 1990s.

The alleged rape victim, now 65, claims he was walking along the A2 in north Kent in 1961 when the former prime minister slowed down and asked if he wanted to stay at his flat in Mayfair.

It was only four years later he recognised Sir Edward as his alleged abuser when he saw a photo of him in the paper sharing a joke with Margaret Thatcher and Tory peer Dame Pat Hornsby Smith.

He claims two months after the alleged attack he went to the authorities who dismissed him as a ‘fantasist’ and a ‘liar’.

It also emerged today Sir Edward is being investigated by Scotland Yard as part of Operation Midland, an inquiry into claims a VIP paedophile ring operated in the 1970s and 1980s. (Read more from “Investigation Into Child Sex Abuse by Political Elites Uncovers Child Rape Allegation Against Great Britain’s Ex-Prime Minister”, HERE)

_______________________________________________________________

Elites Using Positions of Power to Abuse Children “A Staggering Scandal”

By Agency. A fifth police force has received allegations against Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister at the center of historical child sex claims.

It was known that detectives in Wiltshire, London, Kent and Jersey were looking at sex abuse claims linked to the late politician. Now Hampshire Constabulary have confirmed they are also investigating claims.

The latest development comes after The Telegaph revealed that a Filipino brothel keeper is at the centre of the child abuse storm. Myra Ling-Ling Forde is alleged to have had a prosecution dropped after warning she would expose Sir Edward as a pedophile. . .

On Monday, Wiltshire Police appealed for potential victims and witnesses to come forward after Sir Edward became the most high-profile figure embroiled in historical child sex claims.

Operation Midland is part of a wider umbrella of investigations by Scotland Yard, dubbed Operation Fairbank, into allegations of abuse involving senior politicians and high-profile figures. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

This Country is on a Verge of a Recession

/0 Comments/in , /by

Statistics Canada revealed on July 31 that the Canadian economy shrank by 0.2% on an annualized basis in May, perhaps pushing the country over the edge into recessionary territory for the first half of 2015 . . .

The poor showing surprised economists, who predicted GDP to remain flat, but [instead it contracted] in the first quarter at an annual rate of 0.6%. Canada’s economy may or may not have technically dipped into recession this year — defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — but it is surely facing some serious headwinds.

Attempts to rebound: Canada’s central bank slashed interest rates in July to 0.50%, the second cut this year, but that may not be enough to goose the economy. With rates already so low, there comes a point when interest rate cuts have diminishing returns. Consumer confidence in Canada is at a two-year low.

There are other fault lines in the Canadian economy. Fears over a housing bubble in key metro areas such as Toronto and Vancouver are rising.

“In light of its hotter price performance over the past three to five years and greater supply risk, this vulnerability appears to be comparatively high in the Toronto market,” the deputy chief economist of TD Bank wrote in a new report. (Read more from “This Country Is on a Verge of a Recession” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Israeli NGO Calls on British Authorities to Probe New Palestinian Resistance Curriculum

/0 Comments/in , /by

An Israeli NGO called on the British authorities to investigate an offensive new curriculum developed by the National Union of Teachers that educates young students about Palestinian “occupation, freedom and resistance.”

“An immediate, thorough and independent investigation by the Charities Commission as well as the U.K. education authorities is clearly required,” demanded the president of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, Gerald Steinberg.

Steinberg called the curriculum, which was developed by NUT together with a Christian charity called Edukid that aims to educate children living in poverty or conflict zones, “a fictitious narrative that promotes hate and incitement.”

Some have said the “extremist agenda” attempting to describe the often violent and unresolved Palestinian struggle for a state does not belong in a classroom with three-year-old students.

“We need to be more vigilant about the politicization of British classrooms,” said Tom Wilson of the Henry Jackson Society, according to the U.K. Daily Telegraph. (Read more from “Israeli NGO Calls on British Authorities to Probe New Palestinian Resistance Curriculum” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Police Warn of Criminally-Controlled No-Go Zones in Germany

/2 Comments/in , /by

Spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by immigrants from the Middle East and the Balkans are turning parts of Duisburg, a key German industrial city, into “areas of lawlessness” — areas that are becoming de facto “no-go” zones for police, according to a confidential police report that was leaked to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

The report, produced by the police headquarters of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany (and also the state with the largest Muslim population in Germany), warns that the government is losing control over problem neighborhoods and that the ability of police to maintain public order “cannot be guaranteed over the long term.”

Duisburg, which has a total population of around 500,000, is home to an estimated 60,000 mostly Turkish Muslims, making it one of the most Islamized cities in Germany. In recent years, however, thousands of Bulgarians and Romanians (including Sinti and Roma “gypsies”) have flocked to Duisburg, creating a volatile ethno-religious cauldron . . .

The leak of the document comes amid a spike in attacks on police by mobs of immigrants, not only in Duisburg, but across the country . . .

Germany is now home to the largest number of immigrants (8.2 million) of any member state of the European Union. Germany also has the second-largest Muslim population (5 million) in the EU. (Read more from “Police Warn of No-Go Zones in Germany” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Chinese Christians Defend Rooftop Crosses, Prepare for Confrontation [+video]

/1 Comment/in , /by

Chinese officials in Wenzhou, a city of the Zhejiang province with a high concentration of Christians, have given Christian communities a deadline to remove rooftop crosses from their churches, but some of the local pastors have responded with defiance, placing guards at their churches to defend the crosses.

It is “likely that there will be clashes,” said a church representative in Tengqiao town.

The government ultimatum is the latest in a long-running campaign against the crosses. Authorities have already demolished hundreds of rooftop crosses from Protestant and Catholic churches, and in May, they enacted new regulations against any placement of the Christian symbol on top of buildings.

The new regulations for religious structures stipulated that any crosses must be affixed to the façade of buildings rather than above the roof, and could not measure more than one-tenth of the height of the façade. Crosses also must fit in with the façade and the surroundings.

Following the government crackdown on crosses, a number of church pastors defied the ruling, going so far as to replace demolished crosses, and in some cases, to put up bigger ones. (Read more from “Chinese Christians Defend Rooftop Crosses, Prepare for Confrontation” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.