Feb 242020
 
 February 24, 2020  Posted by at 10:43 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


John Vachon Rain. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1941

 

 

Wuhan Eases Coronavirus Lockdown As Xi Warns Of Historic ‘Crisis’ (G.)
Large Parts Of China Relax Coronavirus Curbs, Many Report Zero New Cases (R.)
Coronavirus China’s Fastest-Spreading Public Health Crisis – Xi Jinping (SCMP)
Chinese Workers Refuse To Go Back To Work Despite Beijing’s Demands (ZH)
Coronavirus Credit Crunch Hits Millions Of Chinese Firms (BBC)
85% Of Chinese Businesses Set To Run Out Of Cash In 3 Months (ZH)
“Tsunami-Like” Coronavirus Floods South Korea With New Cases (ZH)
COVID19 Did Not Originate In Wuhan Seafood Market – Chinese Scientists (SCMP)
Austria Stops Passenger Train Traffic With Italy Amid Coronavirus Panic (RT)
North Korea Quarantines Foreigners Amid Virus Fears (BBC)
Record Two Million Britons At Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes (Ind.)
What If Bernie Has Already Won This Thing? (Hill)
Chris Matthews Faces Calls For Resignation (Hill)
Chief Magistrate In Assange Case Was Funded By Shadowy Groups (DMav)
An End of Aboriginal Rights and Title (IC)

 

 

Before we get to the virus news, an observation: I was watching Trump arrive in India today on CNN, and thought: poor CNN, they have no choice but to cover this. How can they make him look bad now? Imagined Jeff Zucker, who wanted ONLY impeachment news as that circus went on, pacing up and down his office trying to find an angle. Then they found it: one of the talking heads said Trump and Modi are both right-wing populists who don’t like Muslims! AND they made sure that during Trump’s speech a bit later, there was always a talking head talking, so nobody could hear what Trump said. Well done!

 

As the virus continues to spread, rapidly, China starts to relax lockdown measures in certain regions, citing zero new cases there. For some reason this coincides with plummeting western stock markets and an incredible surge in gold (almost 3%). “As virus fears mount” says the media. “As China relaxes lockdown measures”, says I.

In reality, China makes a Russian roulette (Chinese roulette?) kind of gamble. Beijing realizes that if it doesn’t restart the economy real fast now, problems risk becoming insurmountable. So they say: no new cases in 1-2 days? Let’s go! Workers are less eager to get back, however. After all, they see President Xi declaring this the biggest health crisis, and 2 minutes later telling them it’s safe to take the subway or bus to work.

South Korea (red alert, 800 cases), Italy (152 cases) and Iran (12 deaths) are in various stages of exponential outbreak, and maybe Japan should be in that list as well, if only because infections aboard the Diamond Princess rose to 691. Oh well, maybe it’s good news that the Worldometer mortality rate has dropped to 9% (see below).

Turkey, Pakistan have closed borders with Iran, while Austria and soon others closed them with Italy. Note that the Schengen Treaty is under severe threat from this. Oh, and Axios reports shortages of 150 essential drugs likely.

 

Cases 79,707 (+ 841 from yesterday’s 78,866).

Deaths 2,626 (+ 162 from yesterday’s 2,464, a sharp rise from 102)

 

From SCMP:

 

 

Note: Worldometer mortality rate has dropped to 9%

 

 

 

 

The vast majority of cases and deaths are still in Hubei province, but who cares, we must produce. The economy forces us into the worst possible decisions.

Wuhan Eases Coronavirus Lockdown As Xi Warns Of Historic ‘Crisis’ (G.)

Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in China, has loosened lockdown measures and several provinces have lowered their emergency alert levels, as top officials sought to assure the public that the virus is being contained. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported its highest number of deaths in 11 days, with another 150 dead and 409 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in China to 77,150. All but one of the fatalities and 11 of the new infections were in Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak.


Officials had delayed the daily announcement of the data, a day after a major speech and meeting held by China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Xi warned the Covid-19 crisis was “both a crisis and a big test” for the country, according to Xinhua News agency. Xi said the virus was a major public health emergency, which had spread quickly, causing the most extensive and difficult-to-contain infection since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. “The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia will inevitably have a relatively big impact on the economy and society,” Xi said, but added that the impact would be temporary and generally manageable. Some observers greeted Monday’s figures with scepticism and as part of efforts to project a sense of control over the crisis. Chinese officials have twice changed the criteria for confirmed infections, making the data harder to parse.

Read more …

Key: “China’s GDP may slow in the first quarter, possibly easing to 3% growth or even lower..”

Large Parts Of China Relax Coronavirus Curbs, Many Report Zero New Cases (R.)

Urged to restore economic activity by President Xi Jinping, large parts of China relaxed curbs on transport and movement of people on Monday as reported new cases of the coronavirus outside the worst-hit province fell to the lowest in a month. Figures released by the national health authority on Monday showed 24 out of China’s 31 provinces and regions – including Beijing, Shanghai and populous provinces such as Henan and Anhui – reported zero cases of new infections on Feb. 23, the best showing since it began publishing nationwide figures on Jan. 20. There were just 11 new cases in six other provincial-level jurisdictions, while in Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, the number of new cases fell to 398 from 630 a day earlier.

On Sunday, President Xi hailed the positive trend, and urged businesses to resume work and safeguard jobs. He also told low-risk provinces to restore economic activity and output, while high-risk regions focused on controlling the epidemic. Yunnan, Guangdong, Shanxi and Guizhou on Monday lowered their coronavirus emergency response measures from the most serious level, joining the provinces of Gansu and Liaoning in relaxing restrictions on traffic and movement of people. The coronavirus has infected nearly 77,000 people and killed more than 2,500 in China in one of the most serious public health crises in decades. The pathogen has also spread to other countries such as South Korea, Italy and Iran. Whether or not China can defeat the epidemic is “a major test of (Communist) Party organizations, party members and cadres of all levels,” Xi said, warning officials to avoid complacency.

In the rest of China, factories, businesses and construction sites have already gradually restarted. Large state-owned enterprises have been told to spearhead a recovery in industry while policymakers roll out measures to support struggling small and medium-sized companies. China’s GDP may slow in the first quarter, possibly easing to 3% growth or even lower, from 6% in the previous quarter – which was already the weakest pace in nearly 30 years, economists estimated. “The risk is that, with the emphasis on the economy and a differentiation of regions based on the number of new infection cases, the quality of new infection data reported by local governments could be compromised again,” Nomura wrote in a research note. “Cover-ups could lead to slack preventions…” it said.

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But do go to work!

Coronavirus China’s Fastest-Spreading Public Health Crisis – Xi Jinping (SCMP)

In a meeting on an unprecedented scale, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the coronavirus epidemic was the country’s most serious public health crisis and promised more pro-growth policies to help overcome it. According to state news agency Xinhua, Xi’s address via teleconference on Sunday was open to every county government and every military regiment throughout the country. He said the epidemic was “the fastest spreading, with the most infected and was the most difficult to prevent and control” since the founding of the People’s Republic. “This is a crisis for us and it is also a major test,” he said, acknowledging that the country needed to learn from the “obvious shortcomings exposed” in its response, so it could improve its ability to handle future crises. But Xi also told the Communist Party cadres that “the party Central Committee’s assessment of the epidemic is accurate, all the work arrangements are timely, and the measures adopted are effective”.


“The effectiveness of the prevention and control work has once again demonstrated the significant advantages of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics,” he said. He said that controlling the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and the wider province of Hubei as well as preventing the epidemic from spreading to Beijing, China’s political centre, were the country’s top two strategic goals. “First, [we must] resolutely curb the spread of epidemic … increase the rate of treatment and cure, and reduce the infection and death rates effectively in Hubei and Wuhan,” he said. “Second, [we need to] make every effort to prevent and control the spread in Beijing … strengthen joint defenses and control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and cut off the source of infection as much as possible.”

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Your virus or your money…

Chinese Workers Refuse To Go Back To Work Despite Beijing’s Demands (ZH)

When we commented earlier that the coronavirus pandemic means that the vast majority of Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have at most 2-3 months of cash left, a potentially catastrophic outcome that will not only crippled China’s economy but its $40 trillion financial system, we summarized the circular quandary in which Beijing finds itself, to wit: “… unless China reboots its economy, it faces an economic shock the likes of which it has never seen before in modern times. Yet it can’t reboot the economy unless it truly stops the viral pandemic, something it will never be able to do if it lies to the population that the pandemic is almost over in hopes of forcing people to get back to work. Hence the most diabolic Catch 22 for China’s social and economic system, because whereas until now China could easily lie its way out of any problem, in this case lying will only make the underlying (viral pandemic) problem worse as sick people return to work, only to infect even more co-workers, forcing even more businesses to be quarantined.”

Shockingly (or perhaps not at all in light of China’s tremendous human rights record), Beijing has picked output over life expectancy, and in a furious scramble to restart its economy, which as we showed earlier remains flatlined… … according to most high-frequency metrics, it has been “advising” people to get back to work, even as new coronavirus cases are still coming in, in the process threatening to blow out the current epidemic with orders of magnitude more cases as places of employment become the new hubs of viral distribution.

As Bloomberg picked up late on Sunday, following what we said earlier namely that “local governments around the country face a daunting question of whether to focus on staving off the virus or encourage factory reopenings” China’s central and local governments are one again easing the criteria for factories to resume operations “as they walk a tightrope between containing a virus that has killed more than 2,400 people and preventing a slump in the world’s second-largest economy.” This schizophrenic dilemma for a government which faces two equally terrible choices, was best summarized by the following two banners observed in China:

And yet, even with both options equally terrible, Beijing also has no choice but to pick one. As a result, as Bloomberg writes, “the rush to restart has been propelled by China’s leader Xi Jinping and top leaders, who are urging companies to resume production so the country can continue to meet lofty goals for growth and economic development in 2020.” Regular Zero Hedge readers know the rest: with most of Chinese economic output paralyzed, officials in China’s provinces have taken up Xi’s call, with one region after another relaxing rules that had kept more than half the nation’s industrial base idle following the Lunar New Year holiday.

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Why I warn for too much focus on Apple and iPhones: “Small- and medium-sized companies account for 60% of the economy and 80% of jobs..”

Coronavirus Credit Crunch Hits Millions Of Chinese Firms (BBC)

Mounting debts have hit Chinese companies struggling to pay workers and suppliers amid the coronavirus outbreak. President Xi Xinping said on Sunday that China faces a “big test” to combat the virus. The government has asked banks to offer more credit for an economy stunned as the virus spreads rapidly. But a survey of small and medium Chinese firms found millions at the edge of survival. The Chinese Association of Small and Medium Enterprises said around 60% could cover regular payments for only one to two months before running out of cash. Only 10% said they could hold out six months or longer. At the same time, the industry group said that “nearly 60% of the enterprises (surveyed) have resumed work.” Small- and medium-sized companies in China are a particular focus because they account for 60% of the economy and 80% of jobs, according to the People’s Bank of China.

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“..as of last Monday, only about 25% of people had returned to work in China’s tier-one cities..”

85% Of Chinese Businesses Set To Run Out Of Cash In 3 Months (ZH)

And here is the stark reality of China’s T-minus 3 months countdown: 85% of 1,506 SMEs surveyed in early February said they expect to run out of cash within three months, according to a report by Tsinghua University and Peking University. And forget about profits for the foreseeable future: one-third of the respondents said the outbreak is likely to cut into their full-year revenue by more than 50%, according to the Nikkei. “Most SMEs in China rely on operating revenue and they have fewer sources for funding” than large companies and state-owned enterprises, said Zhu Wuxiang, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management and a lead author of the report.

The problem with sequential supply chains is that these also apply to the transfer of liquidity: employers need to pay landlords, workers, suppliers and creditors – regardless of whether they can regain full production capacity anytime soon. Any abrupt and lasting delays will wreak havoc on China’s economic ecosystem. “The longer the epidemic lasts, the larger the cash gap drain will be,” Zhu said, adding that companies affected by the trade war face a greater danger of bankruptcy because many are already heavily indebted. “Self-rescue will not be enough. The government will need to lend help.”

So where are we nearly two months after the epidemic started? Well, as of last Monday, only about 25% of people had returned to work in China’s tier-one cities, according to an estimate by Japanese brokerage Nomura, based on data from China’s Baidu. By the same time last year, 93% were back on the job. And making matters worse, as we first noted several weeks ago, local governments around the country face a daunting question of whether to focus on staving off the virus or encourage factory reopenings, as the following tweet perfectly captures.

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“..bringing the total of 763, a 25-fold increase in cases in one week,..”

“Tsunami-Like” Coronavirus Floods South Korea With New Cases (ZH)

Update (2200ET): In a release that was about 4 hours late, China’s Hubei province said it has 398 New Coronavirus Cases As Of Feb 23 and 149 New Coronavirus Deaths. Overall, China reported an additional 409 coronavirus cases across the entire nation, and 150 additional deaths as of February 23 vs. 648 additional cases and 97 deaths on February 22. This brings the total number of cases across China to 77,150, and total deaths to 2592. None of these numbers are even remotely credible any more, and serve merely the propaganda purpose of giving the impression that Beijing is winning the war against the spread of the Coronavirus, when in reality nobody has any idea anymore what is going on on the ground in China, and is why workers refuse to show up to their place of business.

Consider this: two days ago, WaPo reporters pointed to a clear case of manipulation where the authorities suppressed the true number of cases. Authorities in Hubei province reported good news Thursday: There were only 349 new coronavirus cases the previous day, the lowest tally in weeks. The bad – and puzzling – news? Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, reported 615 new cases all by itself. And then there was the Hunan doctor who said he had treated no less than 50 patients with coronavirus on the same day official data reported just one new case.

Update (2015 ET): The epidemic in South Korea is accelerating exponentially, with the country reporting 161 additional virus cases, bringing the total of 763, a 25-fold increase in cases in one week, along with two more deaths bringing the death toll there to seven. The Kospi is continuing its decline and is down 3.0% and approached the 2100 level on the downside. More ominously, the number of cases under inspection is nearly 10,000. Earlier in the day, S.Korea elevated the virus alert level to “red”, the highest in its four-tier system. According to Yonhap, in escalating the virus alert level, President Moon said, “a few days from now is a watershed moment.” In the first 30 days, S. Korea seemed to have been effectively combating the Covid-19. But within the past few days, the number of confirmed cases spiked, first linked to a religious sect and now starting to spread across the country. Yet, the city of Daegu and the Gyeongbuk area have a higher concentration of virus cases – representing 84% of the total number of infections – than other regions.

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Let’s check that lab, shall we?

COVID19 Did Not Originate In Wuhan Seafood Market – Chinese Scientists (SCMP)

The novel coronavirus that has claimed the lives of more than 2,400 people did not originate at a seafood market in the central China city of Wuhan as was first thought, according to a new study by a team of Chinese scientists. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was instead imported from elsewhere, said researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research. The team, led by Dr Yu Wenbin, sequenced the genomic data of 93 SARS-CoV-2 samples provided by 12 countries in a bid to track down the source of the infection and understand how it spreads.

What they found was that while the virus had spread rapidly within the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, there had also been two major population expansions on December 8 and January 6. According to the study, which was published on the institute’s website on Thursday, analysis suggested that the coronavirus was introduced from outside the market. “The crowded market then boosted SARS-CoV-2 circulation and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019,” it said. Earlier reports by Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organisation said that the first known patient showed symptoms on December 8, and that most of the subsequent cases had links to the seafood market, which was closed on January 1.

The research went on to say that based on the genome data it was possible that the virus began spreading from person to person in early December or even as early as late November. “The study concerning whether Huanan market is the only birthplace of SARS-CoV-2 is of great significance for finding its source and determining the intermediate host, so as to control the epidemic and prevent it from spreading again,” the research team said.

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Note the use of the word “panic”.

Austria Stops Passenger Train Traffic With Italy Amid Coronavirus Panic (RT)

Authorities in Austria have stopped an incoming train at the Italian border, after it emerged that two passengers may be infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus. Later, all train traffic to and from Italy was halted.
The Eurocity 86 train was stopped at the Brenner Pass border crossing on Sunday, after officials at Italian State Railways told their Austrian counterparts that two passengers on board had fever symptoms consistent with the Covid-19 coronavirus.The train, bound for Munich in Germany, was halted and returned to the Italian side of the alpine crossing, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer confirmed.

Austrian authorities later stopped all train traffic to and from Italy, tabloid newspaper OE24 said on its website. The stoppage marks the first time European borders have been shut following the outbreak of the deadly disease, which surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has to date spread to more than 30 countries worldwide, killing nearly 2,500 people. At least 100 cases and three deaths have been recorded in Italy, making the Mediterranean country Europe’s coronavirus hotspot, and the only European country to see fatalities. Cities and towns in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto have been placed on lockdown, and Venice’s world-famous carnival has ended two days early, as authorities grapple to stop the spread of the illness.

In Milan, grocery stores were emptied by panic-stricken shoppers, and shortages of disinfectant and respirators have been reported. Europe’s largely porous borders could pose a serious risk for further transmission across the continent. However, EU officials have told the public that “there is no need to panic.” “The EU has full confidence in the Italian authorities and the decisions they are taking,” the bloc’s economic affairs commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said on Sunday.

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If they have an outbreak, will we ever know?

North Korea Quarantines Foreigners Amid Virus Fears (BBC)

North Korea has quarantined 380 foreigners in a bid to stop the coronavirus from breaking out. The foreigners are mostly diplomats stationed in the capital Pyongyang, said news agency Yonhap, quoting the Korean Central Broadcasting Station. Around 200 foreigners had already been confined to their compounds for the past 30 days – but as that came to an end, the quarantine has been extended. There have not been any reported cases of Covid-19 in North Korea. It’s not known how long the new quarantine for foreigners will last. [..] North Korea has not confirmed any cases – but there are clearly fears of it spreading, as the country shares a border with China.


All foreigners coming into the country must be quarantined for 30 days. There are relatively few foreigners in North Korea, and only around 200 westerners, according to one expert. North Korean authorities have also cancelled the annual Pyongyang marathon, which typically sees people from all over the world participating. Around 3,000 people in North Pyongan province – a north-western region bordering China – are also now under monitoring for reportedly showing suspected symptoms, said state media.

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Reminds me of a doctor in the southern States who said a few years ago: We’re raising a generation of blind amputees.

Record Two Million Britons At Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes (Ind.)

A record number of people are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, increasing their chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, the NHS has warned. A “growing obesity crisis” has led to nearly two million people in England being exposed to the condition that causes the level of sugar in the blood to become too high. As part of efforts to tackle the problem, a radical new liquid diet will be available on the NHS to put type 2 diabetes into remission. Five thousand patients will be restricted to 800 calories per day for three months in a pilot to be rolled out from April.


This will be followed by a further nine months of support to help them maintain weight loss. According to new NHS figures, there are 1,969,610 patients registered with a GP who have non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, a condition that puts people at risk of type 2 diabetes. The health service warned the problem could become greater still due to the rise in obesity levels. Projections indicate the growing number of diabetes sufferers could lead to 39,000 extra people suffering a heart attack in 2035 and more than 50,000 experiencing a stroke. One in six hospital beds are now occupied by someone with diabetes, the NHS said.

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If it were just about the votes, sure.

What If Bernie Has Already Won This Thing? (Hill)

Virtually all of the political oxygen in the room over the past two weeks has been consumed by former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg’s recent rise in the polls. After skipping almost an entire year of campaigning, more than half a dozen debates, as well as the first four caucuses and primaries, suddenly Bloomberg is finding himself taken seriously. Spending nearly half a billion dollars will buy you some attention, it turns out. Certainly, Bloomberg is due for scrutiny, with his extensive history of horrifying statements about the trans community, the financial collapse, stop and frisk, sexual harassment, the NSA — honestly pick a topic and Bloomberg has been on the wrong side of it…

…but I want you to consider the possibility that this 24/7 Bloomberg media frenzy is hiding the real story of the 2020 Democratic primary: Has Bernie Sanders already won this thing? I know. I know. I’m probably getting ahead of myself. We hit Nevada, but we’re still waiting on a Super Tuesday and the truly delegate-rich states. There’s a lot of campaign left to be had, and any number of twists and turns could develop between now and the (possibly contested) Dem convention. But hear me out. By every traditional standard, Bernie Sanders is in a stronger position at this point in the primary process than any Democratic candidate stretching back decades. Bernie received the most votes in the disastrous Iowa caucuses and won the New Hampshire primary as well.

South Carolina follows, and while Bernie is not yet positioned to definitively take first there, he has turned Biden’s once-dominant lead into an effective tie. In the most delegate-rich Super Tuesday states, the RealClearPolitics polling average for California has Bernie up by 12, and Texas effectively tied between Sanders and Biden. He’s looking quite strong in a number of other states. Nationally, Bernie Sanders now holds a 15 point lead over second-place Joe Biden. That’s a jump of 8 points in just one month, as Biden has plummeted. The story is effectively the same when you turn to the much talked about “electability” measure, with Bernie now leading at 30 percent when asked who has the best chance to defeat Donald Trump.

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Bernie the Jewish anti-semite.

Chris Matthews Faces Calls For Resignation (Hill)

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is under fire after comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) decisive win in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, with some on social media calling for the “Hardball” host to resign. “I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940,” Matthews said during MSNBC’s live coverage of the caucuses on Saturday. “And the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over.’ And Churchill says, ‘How can that be? You’ve got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over.'” Criticism quickly poured in on social media over Matthews using the analogy.


Sanders, who is Jewish, had most of his family killed in the Holocaust. One such response came from Mike Casca, who serves as Sanders’s 2020 communications director. “..never thought part of my job would be pleading with a national news network to stop likening the campaign of a jewish presidential candidate whose family was wiped out by the nazis to the third reich…but here we are.”

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Please let something good come out of Julian’s extradition hearing today. Only 16 spots for the media, that’s not a good sign.

Chief Magistrate In Assange Case Was Funded By Shadowy Groups (DMav)

The senior judge overseeing the extradition proceedings of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange received financial benefits from two partner organisations of the British Foreign Office before her appointment, it can be revealed. It can further be revealed that Lady Emma Arbuthnot was appointed Chief Magistrate in Westminster on the advice of a Conservative government minister with whom she had attended a secretive meeting organised by one of these Foreign Office partner organisations two years before. Liz Truss, then Justice Secretary, “advised” the Queen to appoint Lady Arbuthnot in October 2016. Two years before, Truss — who is now Trade Secretary — and Lady Arbuthnot both attended an off-the-record two-day meeting in Bilbao, Spain.

The expenses were covered by an organisation called Tertulias, chaired by Lady Arbuthnot’s husband — Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, a former Conservative defence minister with extensive links to the British military and intelligence community exposed by WikiLeaks. Tertulias, an annual forum held for political and corporate leaders in the UK and Spain, is regarded by the UK Foreign Office as one of its “partnerships”. The 2014 event in Bilbao was attended by David Lidington, the Minister for Europe, while the Foreign Office has in the past funded Lord Arbuthnot’s attendance at the forum. The Foreign Office has long taken a strong anti-Assange position, rejecting UN findings in his favour, refusing to recognise the political asylum given to him by Ecuador, and even labelling Assange a “miserable little worm”.

Lady Arbuthnot also benefited financially from another trip with her husband in 2014, this time to Istanbul for the British-Turkish Tatlidil, a forum established by the UK and Turkish governments for “high level” individuals involved in politics and business. Both Tertulias and Tatlidil are secretive gatherings about which little is known and are not obviously connected — but Declassified has discovered that the UK address of the two organisations has been the same. Lady Arbuthnot personally presided over Assange’s case as judge from late 2017 until mid-2019, delivering two controversial rulings. Although she is no longer personally hearing the Assange extradition proceedings, she remains responsible for supporting and guiding the junior judges in her jurisdiction. Lady Arbuthnot has refused to declare any conflicts of interest in the case.

The new revelations follow previous investigations by Declassified showing that Lady Arbuthnot received gifts and hospitality in relation to her husband from a military and cybersecurity company exposed by WikiLeaks. Declassified also revealed that the Arbuthnots’ son is linked to an anti-data leak company created by the UK intelligence establishment and staffed by officials recruited from US intelligence agencies behind that country’s prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder.

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Canada’s Supreme Court was very clear in 1997. But various governments, including Trudeau’s, piss on them. Love the photo, and the cape.

No Surrender: An End of Aboriginal Rights and Title (IC)

The Wet’suwet’en Nation has never signed treaties or ceded territory to the Canadian government — a fact that its leaders have defended fiercely in court as well as on the ground. Its hereditary chiefs were behind a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1997 known as Delgamuukw vs. the Queen, which recognized the existence of aboriginal title, whereby Indigenous people have the right to “exclusive use and occupation” of territory. However, because of a technicality, the court did not resolve the boundaries of the Wet’suwet’en’s claim to 8,500 square miles of land, stating that title would have to be sought through separate legal or treaty-making proceedings, which were never completed.

Documents obtained by the Canadian publication The Narwhal show that the Delgamuukw decision sent chills through Canadian extractive industries. The documents indicate that the government of British Columbia, a province largely made up of unceded territory, rushed to reassure industry officials, inviting them to provide input on a treaty-making process meant to settle questions over authority on unceded land. In one memo, describing a meeting held in the wake of the ruling, Marlie Beets, then vice-president of the B.C. Council of Forest Industries, told B.C. officials that Indigenous nations must hand over their land to Canada. “The decision makes the need for certainty through surrender all the more clear,” she said. “We see no other alternative.”

Other industries echoed the alarm. “The oil and gas industry in particular has expressed concern about their ability to continue to do business in the province absent a clear direction from the government on how it will address the implications of the Delgamuukw decision,” stated a memo by a Delgamuukw strategy team formed by the government. At a meeting set up by British Columbia’s treaty officials, one lawyer, whose client is unclear, underlined that “what is needed is a clear exchange and an end of Aboriginal rights and title for a defined set of treaty rights.”


Ts’akë ze’ Howihkat, Freda Huson, passes an installation of red dresses as she waits for police to enforce Coastal GasLink’s injunction at the Unist’ot’en healing center on Feb. 9, 2020. The red dresses are a symbol of the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Photo: Amber Bracken

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 24 2020

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  • #54317

    John Vachon Rain. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1941     • Wuhan Eases Coronavirus Lockdown As Xi Warns Of Historic ‘Crisis’ (G.) • Large Parts O
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 24 2020]

    #54318
    #54319
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Intolerant America with the Greek/Russian Orthodox church in the background, already built by 1941 without any trouble, filled with Greek/Russian speakers. It’s almost like we’re a melting pot that receives everyone for a better life, then gives it to them in exchange for hard work. You know, going back to 1650, to a million immigrants a year today, all of whom think we’re better than where they came from. Us evil Nazi, racist, oppressive bad guys. …You know, except less than every other nation on earth where they came from. Worst system ever, except all others.

    “Boeing Forced to Buy Rocket Parts from Russia for New ‘Made in USA’ Starliner Spacecraft”
    RussiaRussiaRussia! This is part of a Russian conspiracy to prevent us from having to go to work in the morning and make functional parts!

    You know like this:
    EUw
    https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/GD-Info-1.png?itok=0cYgNzma

    We don’t make, plan, or do anything. But don’t worry! We’ll be on top forever and it’ll all work out because: reasons. Failing that, our opponents could have an unfortunate accident that shuts down their factories for a year.

    They’re having a very hard time getting to a brokered convention that they can cheat and steal from Bernie. The people hate Neo-Libs and billionaire Bloombergs just so, so much. With good reason? I’ve been saying that for years, decades. Downside: DNC has been promising people they’re not Socialist, not open border world-wide communist brotherhood revolution, not coming for your guns, Bibles, and free speech for 100 years, since Wilson and the Progressives signed up with the segregationists at the KKK. Well, now they have all those things between one candidate or another, and applaud it all while being against hard work, nation, family, ownership, and being left alone to your own desires.

    But don’t worry, for the 40 or 50 years we’ve been saying this, we were crazy and making it all up. It only JUST happened in this last month! Honest!

    If that’s what they are, great! It’s a free country, believe what you want. However, like whether your guy is gay, sleeping around, whatever, just be HONEST about it. They sort of are, at least in political terms, so good. Now we can vote if we want those things like normal folks.

    Oh and Russia – which is not Socialist – wants to elect Sanders, a Socialist, AND Trump, a Capitalist, AND Gabbard, an Army Major and moderate, AND everybody else except Buttigieg, who we all know is just a super-tough guy. Weird, huh? And weird how a country the size of New Jersey runs every election on earth and is still being surrounded by nukes with all their allies attacked to standstill. It’s almost like that doesn’t make any sense. But that’s just #Logic! Better than logic: CNN/NBC logic.

    With a WHO that – with 1 BILLION people on watch or lockdown, still says “Nothing to see here, no pandemic” — China FINALLY gets rid of the ridiculous food market nonsense: “Chinese Scientists Find Coronavirus Did Not Originate in Wuhan Seafood Market” Huh. So you’re going to apologize and reinstate all the people who were banned BY the WHO for saying that obvious, obvious thing back in January? And by denying, got unknown scores of people killed?
    N. O. P. E. But don’t worry, they have out their Wuhan report this morning, so they can get in a LOT more lies and a LOT more banning of people who call them on it and tell the truth. Same as yesterday.

    “The vast majority of cases and deaths are still in Hubei province, but who cares, we must produce.”

    This doesn’t have to do with money. It has to do with keeping things running to get food, gloves, delivery truck parts, cell towers working. You’re not going to fight Covid from a cave, collecting rainwater. If not, then things need to function. I’d ask them back to the factories and quarantine them there, with cots in the back. Would you rather sit at home on Netflix-and-Starve? I’d rather keep my country running with a decontamination fog on the back dock. Cash or profit is not the point. It’s a given they – the world – is just going to print cash and profits.

    In Milan, grocery stores were emptied by panic-stricken shoppers, and shortages of disinfectant and respirators have been reported.”

    This is the point. Somebody has to make those things. Profit doesn’t make them, people do. Money is a symbol, a joke, it doesn’t matter, physics do.

    Record Two Million Britons at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes (Ind.)

    Meanwhile a far deadlier epidemic nobody cares about. It hits all the right people and generates nice lifetime profits. Probably deadlier than opioids. #Winning! Hey, what were those 50s films about healthy eating, healthy life? Gross. How dare you be pro-health, pro-children, pro-nation. You can’t oppress me and tell me what to do! Even if it’s naming the obvious consequences of my voluntary actions, you Nazi!

    How helping and hurting are all mixed up now in #OppositeLand. Preventing you from running in traffic is #Hate. Stopping black babies from being killed is #Racism. And of course: “the campaign of a Jewish presidential candidate whose family was wiped out by the Nazis [is now] the third Reich.

    When you’re core #AntiLogos, it goes on and on; on and on forever, with more time than I have to describe it. The only logic is #AntiLogic. The only truth is #Lies.

    “The red dresses are a symbol of the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”

    What was that “first they came for me”? First they came for the native girls, rape and disappear them, in Pine Ridge, then Skid Row, then the girls of Milwaukee and Minnesota, setting up Epstein’s cottage on a girls’ band camp, for best worldwide recruitment…THEN of course accidental murder. Oh and then in U.K. grooming gangs, still not looked at “Because the girls liked it, and did it voluntarily” every government since it started still claims. And I’d say it’s “You’re Next” but it’s been you already, every day of my natural life. No adults cared, anywhere, put my picture on a milk carton and walked away, to go have their friend at work watch pron and sleep with the babysitter. You can’t judge me!

    Actually, I can. And I have. But it’s not my judgement you should be worried about.

    #54322
    John Day
    Participant

    @zerosum
    About when a person will show sick with a virus.
    Maybe never. We are carrying chronic low level viruses, not investigated if we are not ill. Herpes family includes Herpes-1 and 2 and Chicken pox. They stay in you for life and your immune system keeps them down until it has a bad day.
    This Wuhan coronavirus can be mildly symptomatic in the upper airways, nose and throat, where you can spread it like a cold. That Chinese girl from Wuhan infected her 5 family members and never got sick.
    This virus seems to run the gamut of short to ultra-long to maybe-never incubation from exposure to symptoms.
    Man, that makes it hard to stop with that cloak of invisibility.

    #54323
    John Day
    Participant

    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/02/communist-virus-for-president.html
    A lot of powerful flows are suddenly feeding into the year 2020, here in Exceptional America, the home-base of the New-World-Order.
    The NWO is getting long in the tooth, and the petrodollar has been ideologically threatened for decades by oil-producing countries like Iran, Iraq , Libya and Venezuela threatening to sell oil in some currency that is not the $US. Still, it’s still how the game is played, and all those countries have been made to suffer intensely for their attempts.
    China has posed an imperial threat with the New Silk Road plan, so now there is a “trade war”, which China is inconveniently losing, due to this lab virus that either got out of their bioweapons lab a few months after they obtained it, or was seeded near the lab by the sneaky NWO, to put them in their place.
    That epidemic is out of the bag now, and it is destroying China’s real, productive economy, the one that sends things at all levels of almost all production chains all over the world.
    How many things need just a few Chinese parts? What happens when those production lines stop?
    Fix global warming?
    Americans who lost their jobs to the NWO outsourcing to China are still out of jobs, or selling some meth to keep themselves supplied, but it’s a lousy life.
    Nobody is really putting a good alternative up for them this election year, except “Crazy Bernie”, who “Crazy Donald” would like to run against, but the Democratic Party deep pockets would sooner fold the party and go home than let Bernie Communist Sanders use their hard-earned (by somebody else) money to un-billionaire them.
    It’s survival-of-the-richest, after all.
    As far as the billionaire-class in the NWO sees, everybody needs to keep manning their battle stations and drive-through-service-windows while this storm from China blows over. China is breaking all the rules. It’s China’s fault. Communist China’s virus is going to break Communist China’s economy and will to steal American patents.
    Trust capitalism. Socialists are stupid, everybody knows that.
    That pervasive doctrine has sure worked well for the last 40 years or so, but the wheels are about to come off the American economy, too, since maximizing-shareholder-value required moving all those factories and jobs to China over the last 30 years. Without flows of goods and services, all those just-in-time efficiently coordinated global supply lines freeze, and those workers don’t get paid, and they are living paycheck to paycheck, so they don’t pay rent, utilities, can’t get groceries or gas, and so on, everywhere…
    Dividends stop. Stocks plummet. Shareholder value is minimized. Defaults, defaults, defaults.
    That’s OK, America has socialism-for-the-rich. Remember the bank bailout that Barack Obama MADE all those powerless elite bankers accept, even though they felt so small being made to do so?
    It’s socialism for deplorables that’s the existential threat to The American Way Of Life.
    We all know that.
    Americans Hate Socialism, right? We’ve said it a million times.

    So the stage is set. If the billionaire-class gets distracted by the implosion of their rent-collection on all the working parts of the global economy, and all those stupid young people, and Hispanics, and welfare-mothers keep actually voting, Bernie Communist Sanders will keep getting too many votes to deny. He’ll win on the first ballot at the Democratic convention, and the Democratic Party will get it’s life support withdrawn.
    POOF! No more Democratic Party. Bankrupt, so how can their candidate beat Donald Trump the Capitalist Evil Clown?
    How can anything happen at all? The election might have to be postponed this year due to circumstances beyond our control.
    Sanders will just keep promising free socialized Medicare for All, and food stamps for all, probably gasahol for all, free college, massive jobs program to put everybody to work.
    He runs his mouth like that day and night, and these kids and minorities and poor white trash are fool enough to believe it and vote for him.
    You see how this could turn out, right?
    They’ll be stringing you up and burning you alive if you let this happen. Your kids, too, maybe even in front of you.
    Anyway, Putin wants Sanders to run against Trump so he’s in total control of the whole situation.

    #54324
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Raul thank you for covering the Wet’suwet’en Nation story. After oil, their culture maybe the future and our western unsustainable period may well be a ugly middle character on their future totem pole.

    #54326
    zerosum
    Participant

    “This virus seems to run the gamut of short to ultra-long to maybe-never incubation from exposure to symptoms.
    Man, that makes it hard to stop with that cloak of invisibility.”

    I agree.
    This flue could be part of our end of life for the foreseeable future.
    Right now, it appears that its a 10% disposal factor for the most vulnerable, the elderly and the sick.
    You can only die once. Therefore, the % for other cause of death will probably go down.
    —–
    • Record Two Million Britons At Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes (Ind.)
    “One in six hospital beds are now occupied by someone with diabetes, the NHS said.”
    Change is in the air.
    10% of those bed will become vacant.
    —–
    The AE is not alone in seeing the possible future that the virus will bring.
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2020/02/when-will-we-admit-covid-19-is.html
    Sunday, February 23, 2020
    When Will We Admit Covid-19 Is Unstoppable and Global Depression Is Inevitable?
    ———-
    Wait for the good news.
    China made health care free for those admitted for covid-19.
    I predict, USA will also have free health care before you die of covid-19.

    #54327
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Sanders will just keep promising free socialized Medicare for All, and food stamps for all, probably gasahol for all, free college, massive jobs program to put everybody to work. He runs his mouth like that day and night, and these kids and minorities and poor white trash are fool enough to believe it and vote for him.”

    The thing is, even now, there’s the means to do this. But it would require the evil overlords (gotta call ’em something) to lose their wealth, position, power, etc., in a racket over 2000 years old and weirdly closely associated with Abrahamic religion: private-for-public banking.

    ‘private-for-public banking’: I think you can find this in the AntiLogos Dictionary. (I don’t write hashtags lest Zucker’s flying glove monkeys DisLike me for all eternity and steal my soul. Mongo just pawn in game of life.)

    So it looks like this virus thingie (I still like Kung Flu best) has several new vectors: lateral time interactions. It can stay hidden but very infectious for days, it can charge in gang-busters, it can reinfect as a senile afterthought. This makes for a slow underswell that periodically blips as it passes by an island in its transoceanic journey but mostly is invisible until it reachers the coast and reveals a tsunami of infectious momentum.

    Dance Macabre

    #54328
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    #54329
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “even now, there’s the means to do this”

    Except the gasahol. Stupid concept: turn your food into fuel and pollution! I prefer poopane: turn your poop into fuel!

    #54333
    John Day
    Participant

    @ boscohorowitz
    You have to be able to tell when I’m being humorous.
    I can tell that you can tell.
    Agreed on burning cornahol. It’s a political business niche to strip-mine Nebraska’s topsoil for an overall loss, as long as Archer Daniels Midland comes out ahead.

    #54334
    Dave Note
    Participant

    With the Chinese lying about everything related to Covid-19, we need to extrapolate from other countries whose numbers might not be as overtly false as the tripe pedaled by the CCP.

    Corona NON China nations

    It’s looking like South Korea and Italy have really dropped the ball.

    This graph should begin to allow us to see just how bad the Chinese situation is. They have ZERO credibility on the world stage as other nations post a better glimpse of the exponential nature of this Beast.

    If the CCP is between a rock and a hard place with Public Safety and Welfare vs the Economy, I’m confident they will choose the economy.

    They will then have to conceal a Holocaust of deaths as people spread the virus at work.

    They can only be planning to have special units, probably of the Army (PLA) instantly take away any and all diagnosed at work and make them ‘disappear’ to hidden locations. Anyone in these special hidden locations that needs anything more than minimal care to recover will be disposed of and cremated ASAP with no evidence. Kinda like the Nazis and WWII style.

    There, problem solved.

    #54335
    WES
    Participant

    Dave Note:. As you point out, the CCP has chosen the economy. That means they have accepted that the coronavirus will now run its course.

    Nobody will notice China, as it is now everybody’s problem.

    If you show symptoms, you will be removed.

    Xi’s death total may yet exceed Mao’s death totals.

    #54336
    WES
    Participant

    John Day:. Being green these days means using more energy to create less energy!

    #54337
    WES
    Participant

    Bosco:. Are those the Fed’s new digital face masks?

    #54338
    WES
    Participant

    Last two:. Hate to disappoint you but Canadian native culture was totally destroyed when the socialist introduced the natives to welfare!

    Sadly, their culture is now one of dependency.

    Yeah, we might be headed that way too, except can the natives support us?

    #54339
    WES
    Participant

    The coronavirus hitting Iran is really bad news.

    Iran has a far weaker medical system than say China does.

    The coronavirus will run its course in Iran.

    The world will have to isolate itself from Iran.

    #54340
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Wes

    Sadly, their culture is now one of dependency.

    Yeah, we might be headed that way too, except can the natives support us?

    I agree mishandled from start to finish . Even if they could would they?

    I hope we have a different future. We would have to start making changes soon.

    #54341
    zerosum
    Participant

    Money . You’re in the USA. Nothing is free.

    ” Why did the Trump Administration give away so many hundreds of thousands of face masks and other medical supplies like virus tests to China if the shortage here was so dire?”

    #54342
    zerosum
    Participant

    USA troops under siege and lock down

    Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Afghanistan – reported their first cases of the virus, with those infected all having links to Iran. A WHO team is due to arrive in Iran on Tuesday.

    #54343
    Dave Note
    Participant

    One more note about China ‘disappearing’ plague victims. All they have to do is inform anyone complaining about a missing a relativefrom the virus that they had better STFU or they, and their extended family, will also ‘disappear’ without a trace.

    Problem solved, nothing to see here folks, move along.

    The the rest of the world governments will follow in lock step and not make a peep because they will be faced with the same choice too.

    Omertà

    #54344
    Dave Note
    Participant

    As soon as any country’s ICU unit capacity is reached and threatens to overwhelm the medical system and produce even more general suffering for those not critical, the only option left is either to provide a dark quiet place for the ‘over capacity’ victims to go die in, or go the disappear/cremate route.

    Mileage will depend on where the country is on the totalitarian bell curve.

    Think about the real death toll from the Katrina hurricane vs the news reporting that vastly underestimated how many people died.

    #54345
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Another superb video covering the latest on Covid-19 by Dr Chris Martenson

    Coronavirus: Time To Prepare Is Running Out

    The sub-adult media whores in the U.S. MSM are criminally negligent.

    The 14 infected people the US State department allowed on the evac flight back to the US from the Disaster Princess cruise ship infected 25 people on the airplane ride home.

    Get this, the 14 infected people on the flight were “isolated’ from the rest of the passengers with a thin sheet of film duct taped to the cabin walls. Wow, sounds like it worked perfectly, nothing but Net!

    In the video,checkout how Singapore has been handling it, textbook on the money response, they learned from SARS.

    #54346
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Chris Martenson’s month long Youtube coverage got more than 10 million hits and Youtube Demonetized his channel because it does follow the ‘official’ narrative coverage.

    #54347
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Thousands of American Left Coaster are in voluntary quarantine. So far, a super spreader cluster has not appeared there unlike South Korea, Iran or Northern Italy. Why is unknown.

    The incompetence and the avoiding of planning for the future must be due to the fear of looking into the abyss. Also, the ruling class has to tamp down panic to avoid unrest.

    China won’t be able to restart the economy while the epidemic is still ongoing, and workers are in fear for the lives. The Coronavirus will taint Chinese goods and travelers well after this is all over. The United States will be extremely lucky to avoid a full-blown quarantine of a West Coast city and the overwhelming of the local healthcare system. A depression will start as soon as just in time shipping runs out of stock.

    Globalism is dead. The neo-Western Empire cannot withstand a global pandemic, endless wars and an economic depression all at the same time. A divided, failed federal government will result in the splintering of the USA. Goodbye California!

    #54348
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-administration-expected-congress-for-1b-to-combat-coronavirus
    Trump administration asks Congress for $2.5B to combat coronavirus
    Andrew O’ReillyBy Andrew O’Reilly, Chad Pergram

    The request included $1.25 billion in new money, with the rest coming from unspent funds. The measure would help the federal government, as well as state and local agencies, potentially prepare to respond to an outbreak and allocate cash for vaccine development, a senior administration official told Fox Business.

    #54349
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    FISA Court judge had been provided official cover with a designated FBI patsy.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbis-case-agent-1-stephen-somma-primarily-responsible-for-fisa-failures

    #54350
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. D. Rich:. I see you are very jaded! I suspect if you ever served in a jury where the evidence was provided by the FBI, you would probably vote “Not Guilty”!

    #54351
    WES
    Participant

    Dave Note:. Somehow I get the impression nobody on this site is following the party line! thanks

    #54385
    restless94111
    Participant

    Excuse me, but WHO GIVES A SHIT about the Cornoavisur? It affects 76 year old Asians. Sorry to hear it Why are you incessantly talking about this nonsense? What is wrong with you, man?

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