GOLD PRICE CLOSED UP $3.05 TO $2502,80

SILVER PRICE UP $0.39 TO $29.22

Gold ACCESS CLOSED $2505.10

Silver ACCESS CLOSED: $29.39

Bitcoin morning price:$58,262 DOWN 1554 DOLLARS.

Bitcoin: afternoon price: $59,091 DOWN 725 DOLLARS

Platinum price closing UP $1.40 TO $957.50

Palladium price; DOWN $14.65 TO $93.60

END

*CANADIAN GOLD: $3416.45 DOWN 15.40 CDN dollars per oz( * NEW ALL TIME HIGH 3,431.95 CDN DOLLARS PER OZ//AUG 16 2024)

*BRITISH GOLD: 1,928.28 DOWN 8.62 Pounds per oz// *(NEW ALL TIME HIGH//CLOSING///1937.75 BRITISH POUNDS/OZ) AUGUST 16/2024

*EURO GOLD: 2,260.35 DOWN 13.41 Euros per oz //* (ALL TIME CLOSING HIGH: 2.273.50 EUROS PER OZ//AUGUST 16 //.2024)

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EXCHANGE: COMEX

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: AUGUST 2024 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 2,498.600000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 08/16/2024 DELIVERY DATE: 08/20/2024
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

118 H MACQUARIE FUT 129
190 H BMO CAPITAL 537
323 C HSBC 426
365 H MAREX CAPITAL M 1
555 H BNP PARIBAS SEC 144
624 H BOFA SECURITIES 230
657 C MORGAN STANLEY 56
661 C JP MORGAN 1 868
661 H JP MORGAN 504
686 C STONEX FINANCIA 7
690 C ABN AMRO 44
709 C BARCLAYS 98
726 C PLUS500US FINAN 1
732 C RBC CAP MARKETS 8
737 C ADVANTAGE 33
880 H CITIGROUP 3285
905 C ADM 4 54
991 H CME 166

TOTAL: 3,298 3,298
MONTH TO DATE: 21,509

JPMorgan stopped 1372/3298

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR AUGUST/2024. CONTRACT: 3298 NOTICES FOR 329,800 OZ or 10.258 TONNES

total notices so far: 21,509 contracts for 2,150,900 Oz (66.902 tonnes)

FOR AUGUST:

SILVER NOTICES: 14 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 70,000

OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month : 831 for 4,155,000 oz

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GLD/

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE FRAUDULENT VEHICLES//THEY ARE NOW RAIDING GLD AND SLV FOR PHYSICAL

THE CROOKS ARE STEALING GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE GLD/SLV AND REPLACING THE PHYSICAL WITH PAPER DOLLARS.

WITH GOLD UP $3.05 INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (PHYS) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD/ HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A MONSTER DEPOSIT OF 7.19 TONNES OF GOLD VAPOUR INTO THE GLD/

/ /INVENTORY RESTS AT 854.97 TONNES

INVENTORY RESTS AT 854.97 TONNES

SLV/

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP $0.39 AT THE SLV

HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.506 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV/

// INVENTORY AT 465.423 MILLION OZ/

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV.

CLOSING INVENTORY: 465.423 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI ROSE BY A FAIR SIZED 1397 CONTRACTS TO 148,236 AND CONTINUING ON ITS MARCH TO THE RECORD HIGH OI OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020, AND THIS STRONG SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH MAJOR LIQUIDATION OF OI FROM OUR SPREADERS/TAS WITH OUR HUGE GAIN OF $0.49 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON FRIDAY’S TRADING. LOTS OF OUR OI LIQUIDATION ACCOMPANIED OUR HUMONGOUS GAIN OF 822 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES AS WE HAD CONSIDERABLE LIQUIDATION OF T.A.S. CONTRACTS DURING FRIDAY’S TRADING//. WE HAD ZERO COVERING BY OUR SPECS WITH THE HUGE GAIN IN PRICE AS WE HAD A STRONG 425 CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE ACCOMPANIED BY ANOTHER HUGE 1041 CONTRACT T.A.S ISSUANCE. IN ESSENCE WE GAINED 822 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES WITH THE HUGE GAIN IN PRICE.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CROOKS NEED A HIGHER SILVER/GOLD T.A.S. TO CARRY ON THEIR CROOKED MANIPULATION ON A DAILY BASIS BUT DEMAND IS JUST TOO HIGH FOR THEM. THE HIGHER ISSUANCE OF T.A.S. IS NOW USED TO TEMPER OUR SILVER/GOLD PRICE RISE OR RAID AS WHAT HAPPENED SEVERAL TIMES LAST MONTH AND AGAIN YESTERDAY. THE ACCUMULATED T.A.S. IS BEING USED TO MANIPULATE PRICES AT THE COMEX NOW EVERY DAY..

CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT THAT THE CROOKS USE THE MID MONTH FOR MANIPULATION AS THEY SELL THEIR BUY SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD FIRST AND THEN KEEP THE SELL SIDE TO LIQUIDATE AT A LATER DATE. THUS WE HAVE TWO VEHICLES THE CROOKS USE FOR MANIPULATION AND BOTH ARE SPREADERS: 1) AT MONTH’S END/SPREADERS COMEX AND 2/ TAS SPREADERS, MID MONTH. TOTAL TAS ISSUED ON FRIDAY NIGHT: 1041 CONTRACTS. DESPITE MANY COMPLAINTS THAT THE CROOKS HAVE VIOLATED POSITION LIMITS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE TAS ISSUED HAVE A VALUE OF ZERO (AS TO POSITION LIMITS FOR OUR CROOKED BANKERS). THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT THE CROOKS DO NOT LIQUIDATE THE TAS TOGETHER BUT SELL THE BUY SIDE FIRST AND THEN LIQUIDATE THE SELL SIDE TWO MONTHS HENCE. IT IS OBVIOUS MANIPULATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE BUT IT NATURALLY FELL ON DEAF EARS WITH OUR REGULATORS (OCC) WHEN THEY RECEIVED OUR COMPLAINTS.IT NOW SEEMS THAT THE OCC HAS ORDERED THE BANKS TO REDUCE ITS NEW LEVEL OF 1/2 TRILLION DOLLARS IN GOLD/SILVER DERIVATIVES AND THUS THE REASON FOR CONSTANT RAIDS BUT TO NO AVAIL. IT ALSO LOOKS LIKE THE FED (GOV’T) IS BEHIND EVERY DAY TRADING.

WE HAVE IN THE PAST YEAR SET ANOTHER RECORD LOW AT 114,102 CONTRACTS ///JULY 3.2023// OUR BANKERS WITH THE HELP OF SPECULATORS AND HIGH FREQUENCY TRADERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.49) AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SILVER LONGS FROM THEIR PERCH AS WE HAD A HUMONGOUS SIZED GAIN OF 822 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

WE HAD A STRONG 425 CONTRACT ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS) iiii) AN INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 3.005 MILLION OZ (FIRST DAY NOTICE) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING RISES TO 4.405 MILLION OZ

//NEW STANDING FOR SILVER//AUGUST IS THUS 4.405 MILLION OZ

WE HAD:

/ HUGE SIZED COMEX OI GAIN //STRONG SIZED EFP ISSUANCE/ VI) HUGE SIZED NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE 1041 CONTRACTS)/

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL REMOVED A HUGE 646 CONTRACTS//

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS AUGUST ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S SILVER/JPMORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES/STARTING FROM FIRST DAY/MONTH OF AUGUST

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 13 DAYS, total 12,700 contracts: OR 63.500 MILLION OZ (976 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 63.500 MILLION OZ

LAST 23 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

YEAR 2022:

JAN 2022-DEC 2022

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 2022: 207.140 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE

APRIL: 114.52 MILLION OZ FINAL//LOW ISSUANCE

MAY: 105.635 MILLION OZ//

JUNE: 94.470 MILLION OZ

JULY : 87.110 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 65.025 MILLION OZ

SEPT. 74.025 MILLION OZ///FINAL

OCT. 29.017 MILLION OZ FINAL

NOV: 134.290 MILLION OZ//FINAL

DEC, 61.395 MILLION OZ FINAL

TOTALS YR 2022: 1135.767 MILLION OZ (1.1356 BILLION OZ)

JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL

FEB: 2023: 100.105 MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.

MARCH 2023: 112.58 MILLION OZ//FINAL//STRONG ISSUANCE

APRIL 111.035 MILLION OZ(SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAN LAST MONTH)

MAY 66.120 MILLION OZ/INITIAL (MUCH SMALLER THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 110.395 MILLION OZ//MUCH LARGER THAN LAST MONTH

JULY 85.745 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 171.43 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE HUGE //2ND HIGHEST ON RECORD

SEPT: 72.705 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THIS MONTH)

OCT: 97.455 MILLION OZ

NOV. 50.050 MILLION OZ

DEC. 66.140 MILLION OZ//

TOTAL 2023: 1,104.10 MILLION OZ/

JAN ’24 : 78.655 MILLION OZ//

FEB /2024 : 66.135 MILLION OZ./FINAL

MARCH: 143.750 MILLION OZ// 4TH HIGHEST ON RECORD.

APRIL: 161.770 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH WILL BE A WHOPPER OF ISSUANCE OF EFPS//3RDHIGHEST EVER RECORDED FOR A MONTH)

MAY: 135.995 MILLION OZ //WILL BE A STRONG MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

JUNE 110.575 MILLION OZ ( WILL BE ANOTHER STRONG MONTH ISSUANCE)

JULY: 108.870 MILLION OZ (WILL BE A STRONG ISSUANCE MONTH/ A TOUCH OVER 100 MILLION OZ/)

AUGUST; 63.500 MILLION OZ//THIS MONTH WILL PROBABLY BE STRONG FOR ISSUANCE BUT LESS THAN JULY.

RESULT: WE HAD A FAIR SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 397 CONTRACTS WITH OUR HUGE GAIN IN PRICE OF SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX//FRIDAY.,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A STRONG EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS: 425 ISSUED FOR SEPT AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS. WE HAVE A GOOD INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR AUGUST OF 3.005 MILLION OZ ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP

//NEW TOTAL STANDING FOR JULY 4.405 MILLION OZ

WE HAVE A HUMONGOUS SIZED GAIN OF 822 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES WITH THE GAIN IN PRICE…..THE TOTAL OF TAS INITIATED CONTRACTS TODAY: A GIGANTIC SIZED 1041 CONTRACTS,//SOME FRONT END OF THE TAS CONTRACTS WERE LIQUIDATED DURING THE THURSDAY COMEX TRADING WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR A PORTION OF THE HUGE COMEX OI GAIN//// MASSIVE ATTEMPTED SHORT COVERING FROM OUR SPEC SHORTS AND ZERO LIQUIDATION OF LONGS. ALSO SOME OF OUR LONGS EXERCISED THEIR RIGHT AND TENDERED FOR PHYSICAL SILVER.

THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE FRIDAY NIGHT (1041) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED AT A LATER DATE//AND MOST LIKELY TODAY., .

WE HAD 14 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 70,000 OZ

THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY LONDONERS ET AL.

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A MEGA HUMONGOUS SIZED 24,114 OI CONTRACTS TO 525,957 AND CLOSER TO THE RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,733 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110, BUT WE ARE NOW MUCH FURTHER FROM OUR ALL TIME LOW OF 390,000 CONTRACTS.

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI IN GOLD TODAY: REMOVED 604 CONTRACTS

WE HAD A HUGE SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI (24,114 CONTRACTS) OCCURRED WITH OUR STRONG GAIN OF $44.65 IN PRICE/FRIDAY. THE FRBNY SUPPLIED THE NECESSARY SHORT PAPER.. WE ALSO HAD A HUGE INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR AUGUST AT 65.55 TONNES ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1200 OZ QUEUE JUMP AS FINALLY GUYS ARE STANDING FOR GOLD AT THE COMEX

NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 67.794 TONNES

/ ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR STRONG $44.65 GAIN IN PRICE WITH RESPECT TO FRIDAY’S TRADING. WE HAD A HUMONGOUS SIZED GAIN OF 31,604 OI CONTRACTS (98.30 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES, WITH MANY LONGS, REMAINING AT THE END OF THE DAY, TENDERING FOR PHYSICAL GOLD VIA THE EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ROUTE, MUCH TO THE ANGER AND HORROR EXHIBITED BY OUR MAJOR BANKER, THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK. MONDAY SHOULD BE A DANDY FOR TRADING AS CENTRAL BANKS EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS FOR PHYSICAL GOLD

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A HUGE SIZED 7492 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 525,957

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A MEGA HUMONGOUS SIZED INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 31,614 CONTRACTS WITH 24,114 CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX// AND A HUGE SIZED 7492 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 31,614 CONTRACTS.. WE HAD THE FOLLOWING TAS CONTRACTS INITIATED (ISSUED): A FAIR 1224 CONTRACTS,

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A HUGE SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (7492 CONTRACTS) ACCOMPANYING THE MEGA HUGE SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI OF 24,114 CONTRACTS/TOTAL GAIN FOR OUR THE TWO EXCHANGES: 31,614 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE ( 1) NOW RETURNED TO OUR FORMER FORMAT OF BANKERS GOING LONG AND SPECULATORS GOING SHORT ,2.) STRONG INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR AUGUST AT 65.55 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1200 OZ QUEUE JUMP AS THESE BOYS JUMP THE QUEUE TO STAND AT THE COMEX./

//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO: /AUGUST 67.794 TONNES.

/ 3) HUGE T.A.S. LIQUIDATION//SPREADER CONTRACTS WITH ZERO NET LONG SPECS BEING CLIPPED,

4) HUMONGOUS SIZED COMEX OPEN INTEREST GAIN 5) HUGE ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL PAPER///FAIR T.A.S. ISSUANCE: 1041 CONTRACTS

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2023-2024 INCLUDING TODAY

AUGUST

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST. :

TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED: 66,804 CONTRACTS OF 6,680,400 OZ OR 207.788 TONNES IN 13 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 5139 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 13 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES 207.788 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2023, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 207.788 DIVIDED BY 3550 x 100% TONNES = 5.85% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO 2023

JANUARY/2021: 265.26 TONNES (RAPIDLY INCREASING AGAIN)

FEB : 171.24 TONNES ( DEFINITELY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN)..

MARCH:. 276.50 TONNES (STRONG AGAIN/

APRIL: 189..44 TONNES ( DRAMATICALLY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN//GOLD IN BACKWARDATION)

MAY: 250.15 TONNES (NOW DRAMATICALLY INCREASING AGAIN)

JUNE: 247.54 TONNES (FINAL)

JULY: 188.73 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 217.89 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE.

SEPT 142.12 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE ( LOW ISSUANCE)_

OCT: 141.13 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE (LOW ISSUANCE)

NOV: 312.46 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE//NEW RECORD!! (INCREASING DRAMATICALLY)//SIGN OF REAL STRESS//SURPASSING THE MARCH 2021 RECORD OF 276.50 TONNES OF EFP

DEC. 175.62 TONNES//FINAL ISSUANCE//

TOTALS: 2,578.08 TONNES/2021

JAN:2022 247.25 TONNES //FINAL

FEB: 196.04 TONNES//FINAL

MARCH/2022: 409.30 TONNES //FINAL( THIS IS NOW A RECORD EFP ISSUANCE FOR MARCH AND FOR ANY MONTH.

APRIL: 169.55 TONNES (FINAL VERY LOW ISSUANCE MONTH)

MAY: 247.44 TONNES FINAL//

JUNE: 238.13 TONNES FINAL

JULY: 378.43 TONNES FINAL/SECOND HIGHEST ON RECORD

AUGUST: 180.81 TONNES FINAL

SEPT. 193.16 TONNES FINAL

OCT: 177.57 TONNES FINAL ( MUCH SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

NOV. 223.98 TONNES//FINAL ( MUCH LARGER THAN PREVIOUS MONTHS//comex running out of physical)

DEC: 185.59 tonnes // FINAL

TOTAL: 2,847,25 TONNES/2022

JAN 2023: 228.49 TONNES FINAL//HUGE AMOUNT OF EFP’S ISSUED THIS MONTH!!

FEB: 151.61 TONNES/FINAL

MARCH: 280.09 TONNES/INITIAL (ANOTHER STRONG MONTH FOR EFP ISSUANCE)

APRIL: 197.42 TONNES

MAY: 236.67 TONNES (A VERY STRONG ISSUANCE FOR THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 172.667 TONNES (WEAKER ISSUANCE THIS MONTH)

JULY: 151.69 TONNES (WEAKER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 195.28 TONNES (A STRONGER MONTH)//FINAL

SEPT: 254.709 TONNES (WILL BE LARGER THAN LAST MONTH AND A STRONG MONTH)

OCT. 248.09 TONNES. LIKE SILVER, THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE A STRONG E.F.P. ISSUANCE.

NOV. 239.16 TONNES//WILL BE STRONG THIS MONTH,

DEC. 213.704 TONNES. A STRONG MONTH//

TOTAL FOR YEAR 2023: 2,569.57 TONNES VS 2578 TONNES LAST YEAR

JAN ’24: 291.76 TONNES (WILL BE MUCH GREATER THAN LAST MONTH.//3RD HIGHEST EVER RECORDED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL)

FEB’24: 201.947 TONNES

MARCH 2024: 352.21 TONNES//2ND HIGHEST EVER RECORDED EFP ISSUANCE.

APRIL: 267.05TONNES (WILL BE AN EXTREMELY STRONG MONTH BUT LESS THAN MARCH 2024)

MAY; 316.606 TONNES (WILL BE ANOTHER STRONG MONTH// 3RD HIGHEST RECORDED EFP ISSUANCE )// NOTICE THE HUGE INCREASES IN EX FOR PHYSICAL THESE PAST FEW MONTHS. THESE CONTRACTS ARE CIRCLED BACK FROM LONDON WHEREBY METAL IS REMOVED FROM THE COMEX.

JUNE 175.11 tonnes HEADING FOR A WEAKER MONTH AND MUCH LESS THAN THE THREE PREVIOUS MONTHS

JULY: 351. 65 TONNES (3RD HIGHEST EVER RECORDED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL AND THE HIGHEST EVER RECORDED POST BASEL III)

AUGUST: 207.788 TONNES//THIS MONTH WILL NO DOUBT BE A HUGE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S SIMILAR TO LAST MONTH.

SPREADING OPERATIONS

(/NOW SWITCHING TO GOLD) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF AUGUST. WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF GOLD

HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR ;MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF NOV HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB., FOR GOLD: AND MARCH FOR SILVER

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (AUG), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”

WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

The crooks also use the spread in the TAS account (trade at settlement). They buy the spot TAS (e.g. June) and sell the future TAS two months out (e.g. August). Then they unload the front month (i.e. unload the buy side first so the price of gold/silver falls. This occurs in the middle of the front delivery month cycle. They unload the sell side of the equation, two months down the road. The crooks violate position limits as the OCC refuse to hear our complaints.

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1.TODAY WE HAD THE OPEN INTEREST AT THE COMEX IN SILVER ROSE BY A FAIR SIZED 397 CONTRACTS OI TO 148,236 AND CLOSER TO THE COMEX HIGH RECORD //244,710( SET FEB 25/2020). THE LAST RECORDS WERE SET IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 6 YEARS AGO. HOWEVER WE HAVE NOW SET A NEW RECORD LOW OF 114,102 CONTRACTS JULY 3.2023

EFP ISSUANCE 425 CONTRACTS

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

SEPT 425 and ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 425 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI GAIN OF 1043 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 425 E.FP. ISSUED

WE OBTAIN A HUMONGOUS SIZED GAIN OF OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 822 CONTRACTS

THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES TOTALS 4.110 MILLION OZ OCCURRED WITH OUR HUGE $0.49 GAIN IN PRICE

END

OUTLINE FOR TODAY’S COMMENTARY

1a/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

b, ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,//GOLD COMMENTARIES

(Peter Schiff)

c) Commentaries from: Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Pam and Russ Martens

ii a) Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

b. Other gold/silver commentaries

c. Commodity commentaries//

d)/CRYPTOCURRENCIES/BITCOIN ETC

2.ASIAN AFFAIRS//

MONDAY MORNING/SUNDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 14.24 PTS OR 0.49% //Hang Seng CLOSED UP 139.81 PTS OR 0.80% // Nikkei CLOSED DOWN 674,05 OR 1.77%//Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED UP 0.06%///Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) CLOSED UP TO 7,1420 CHINESE YUAN OFFSHORE CLOSED UP TO 7.1392/ Oil DOWN TO 75.94 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT UP AT 79.02 Stocks in Europe OPENED MOSTLY ALL GREEN

ONSHORE YUAN TRADING BELOW LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN STRONGER

A)NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA

outline

b) REPORT ON JAPAN/
OUTLINE

3 CHINA
OUTLINE

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
OUTLINE

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
OUTLINE

6.Global Issues//COVID ISSUES/VACCINE ISSUES
OUTLINE

7. OIL ISSUES
OUTLINE

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES
9. USA

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

1. COMEX DATA//AMOUNTS STANDING//VOLUME OF TRADING/INVENTORY MOVEMENTS

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A MEGA HUMONGOUS SIZED 24,114 CONTRACTS TO 525,957 WITH OUR HUGE GAIN IN PRICE OF $44.65 WITH RESPECT TO FRIDAY’S TRADING. WE LOST A HUGE NUMBER OF SPREADER/T.A.S. CONTRACTS AS SHORTS PANICED BIG TIME THROUGHOUT THE SESSION AND COVERED WHAT THEY COULD AT MUCH HIGHER PRICES. THE FED IS THE MAJOR SHORT OF AROUND 148 TONNES+ OF GOLD OWING TO THE B.I.S. THE FED NEEDS TO COVER AS THEY ARE VERY WORRIED ABOUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO GOLD PRICES ONCE THE BRICS BEGIN THEIR INITIATIVE AND ABANDON THE US DOLLAR. THIS IS SCHEDULED TO HAPPEN LATE SEPT 2024.

OUR LONDONERS ALSO BOUGHT NEW MASSIVE QUANTITIES OF LONGS AND THIS WILL BE TENDERED FOR PHYSICAL ON A T + 1 BASIS. BECAUSE GOLD IS BASEL III COMPLIANT, GOLD MUST BE DELIVERED IN A VERY TIMELY ONE DAY. CENTRAL BANKS AROUND THE WORLD, BEING REPRESENTED BY OUR LONDONERS, ARE THE REAL PURCHASERS OF THIS GOLD.

WE HAD A STRONG T.A.S. LIQUIDATION ON FRIDAY’S GAIN IN PRICE WITH ZERO LONGS BEING CLIPPED (AS YOU WILL SEE BELOW) BUT WE DID HAVE MAJOR SHORT COVERING. THE PROBLEM FOR THOSE PROVIDING THE SHORT PAPER IS THE SHOCK TO THEM ON RECEIVING NOTICE THAT THE LONGS WANT THE PHYSICAL GOLD AS THEY TENDER FOR THAT SHINY YELLOW METAL.

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

WE ARE NOW ENTERING INTO THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF AUGUST.… THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A HUGE SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS.,

THAT IS A HUGE SIZED 7492 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: : OCT/DEC 7492 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 7492 CONTRACTS. THESE EFP;S CIRCLE AROUND LONDON ON A 13 DAY BASIS AND ARE NOW USED BY GLOBAL CENTRAL BANKS TO EXERCISE FOR PHYSICAL GOLD WITH THE OBLIGATION TO DELIVER BEING FORCED ONTO COMEX BANKS. THE GOLD DELIVERED COMES FROM LONDON.

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE GAINED THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A MEGA HUGE SIZED TOTAL OF 31,614 CONTRACTS IN THAT 7493 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A MEGA HUGE GAIN OF 24,114 COMEX CONTRACTS..AND THIS VERY STRONG GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES HAPPENED WITH OUR SHUGE GAIN IN PRICE OF $44.65/FRIDAY COMEX. THE EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS WILL BE USED BY CENTRAL BANKS, TO EXERCISE FOR PHYSICAL GOLD AS MENTIONED ABOVE.

AS PER OUR NEWBIE TRADE AT SETTLEMENT (TAS) MANIPULATION OPERATION (WHICH CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT HAPPENS DURING MID MONTH IN THE DELIVERY CYCLE), THE CME REPORTS THAT THE TOTAL T.A.S. ISSUANCE FOR FRIDAY NIGHT A FAIR SIZED 1224 CONTRACTS. ALMOST ALL OF THE TRADING AND SUPPLY OF CONTRACTS WAS ORCHESTRATED BY GOVERNMENT (FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK)

THROUGHOUT THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS, THE BANKERS CONTINUE TO SELL OFF THE LONG SIDE OF THE SPREAD WHICH OF COURSE CONTINUES TO MANIPULATE THE PRICE OF GOLD SOUTHBOUND. (THEY KEEP THE SHORT SIDE OF THE CALENDAR/T.A.S. SPREAD WHICH WILL BE LIQUIDATED IN DAYS HENCE//. IT SEEMS THAT OUR CROOKS ARE HAVING A HARD TIME TRYING TO CONTROL THE PRICE OF GOLD AND THUS THE NEED FOR STRONG T.A.S. ISSUANCE. THE USE OF T.A.S. IS OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE TO OUR CROOKS IN LAST WEEK’S TRADING//RAIDS AS WELL AS THIS WEEK AND ESPECIALLY ON FRIDAY’S HUGE TRADING DAY.

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING: AUGUST (67.794 TONNES)

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 42 MONTHS OF 2021-2024:

DEC 2021: 112.217 TONNES

NOV. 8.074 TONNES

OCT. 57.707 TONNES

SEPT: 11.9160 TONNES

AUGUST: 80.489 TONNES

JULY 7.2814 TONNES

JUNE: 72.289 TONNES

MAY 5.77 TONNES

APRIL 95.331 TONNES

MARCH 30.205 TONNES

FEB ’21. 113.424 TONNES

JAN ’21: 6.500 TONNES.

TOTAL YEAR 2021 (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

YEAR 2022:

JANUARY 2022 17.79 TONNES

FEB 2022: 59.023 TONNES

MARCH: 36.678 TONNES

APRIL: 85.340 TONNES FINAL.

MAY: 20.11 TONNES FINAL

JUNE: 74.933 TONNES FINAL

JULY 29.987 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST:104.979 TONNES//FINAL

SEPT. 38.1158 TONNES

OCT: 77.390 TONNES/ FINAL

NOV 27.110 TONNES/FINAL

Dec. 64.000 tonnes

(TOTAL YEAR 656.076 TONNES)

2023:

JAN/2023: 20.559 tonnes

FEB 2023: 47.744 tonnes

MAR: 19.0637 TONNES

APRIL: 75.676 tonnes

MAY: 19.094 TONNES + 1.244 tonnes of exchange for risk = 20.338

JUNE: 64.354 TONNES

JULY: 10.2861 TONNES

AUGUST: 38.855 TONNES(INCLUDING .6842 EXCHANGE FOR RISK)

SEPT: 15.281 TONNES FINAL

OCT. 35.869 TONNES + 1.665 EXCHANGE FOR RISK =37.0355 tonnes

NOV: 18.7122 TONNES + 16.2505 EX. FOR RISK = 34.9627 TONNES

DEC. 47.073 + 4.634 TONNES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 51.707 TONNES

TOTAL 2023 YEAR : 436.546 TONNES

2024

JAN ’24. 22.706 TONNES

FEB. ’24: 66.276 TONNES (INCLUDES 1.723 TONNES EX. FOR RISK)

MARCH: 18.8398 TONNES + 1.1695 EX FOR RISK = 20.093 TONNES

APRIL: 2024: 53.673TONNES FINAL

MAY/ 2024 8.5536 TONNES + 3.3716 TONNES EX FOR RISK/PRIOR= 11.9325

JUNE; 95.578 TONNES. + 1.045 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK =96.623 THIS IS THE HIGHEST RECORDED GOLD STANDING SINCE AUGUST 2022

JULY: 11.692 TONNES

AUGUST 67. 757 TONNES

THE SPECS/HFT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE( IT ROSE BY $44.65 //// AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING OFF ANY SPECULATOR LONGS AS WE DID HAVE A MEGA HUMONGOUS GAIN IN OUR TWO EXCHANGES. CENTRAL BANK LONGS , EXERCISED FOR PHYSICAL. WE HAD A CONSIDERABLE T.A.S. LIQUIDATION FRIDAY/COMEX.

WE HAVE GAINED A TOTAL OI OF 98.30 PAPER TONNES FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR INITIAL GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR AUGUST (65.55 TONNES) ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1200 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING: 67.794 TONNES.

NEW STANDING FOR AUGUST: 67.757 TONNES

ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR HUGE GAIN IN PRICE TO THE TUNE OF $44.65

WE HAVE REMOVED 608 CONTRACTS FROM THE COMEX TRADES TO OPEN INTEREST (CROOKS)//PRELIMINARY TO FINAL

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 31,614 CONTRACTS OR 3,161400 OZ (98.30

TONNES)

confirmed volume FRIDAY 241,588 contracts/good

//speculators have left the gold arena

END

AUGUST 19 AUGUST GOLD CONTRACT

/ /// THE AUG 2024 GOLD CONTRACT

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	NIL .
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nil
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	NIL oz
No of oz served (contracts) today	3298 notice(s) 329,800 OZ 10.258 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	287 contracts 28700 OZ 0.8926 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	21509 notices 2,150,900 oz 66.902 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	x

0 dealer deposits:

total dealer deposits: nil oz

we have 0 customer deposits

total deposits NIL oz

withdrawals: 0

TOTAL WITHDRAWALS NIL oz

adjustments: 1 DEALER TO CUSTOMEER ASHAI: 37,461.801 OZ

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR AUGUST

For the front month of AUGUST we have an oi of 3585 contracts having LOST 68 contracts.

We had 80 contracts served on FRIDAY so we gained an additional 12 contracts or 1200 oz will stand for gold at the comex

SEPT. GAINED 47 CONTRACTS TO STAND AT 5516 CONTRACTS.

OCTOBER GAINED 2052 CONTRACTS UP TO 53,163 CONTRACTS

We had 3298 contracts filed for today representing 329,800 oz

This is a major assault on the comex for gold and this time it is physical that will be requested.

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer and 1 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equate to 3298 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 1372 notice(s) was (were) stopped (received) by J.P.Morgan//customer account

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for AUGUST /2024. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (21,509) x 100 oz ) to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of August 3585( CONTRACTS) minus the number of notices served upon today (3298 x 100 oz per contract( equals 2,178,400 OZ OR 67.757 TONNES. Somebody was in great need of physical gold on this side of the pond today

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the AUGUST contract month: No of notices filed so far (21,509 x 100 oz +we add the difference for front month of AUGUST (3585 X// , OI} minus the number of notices served upon today (3298) x 100 oz which equals 2,179,600 oz (67.794 TONNES)

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING FOR AUGUST: 67.794 TONNES WHICH IS HUGE FOR THIS VERY ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH IN THE CALENDAR.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

241,794.285 oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 5.94 TONNES

204,937.290 OZ PLEDGED MANFRA 3.08 TONNES

83,657.582 PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690 tonnes

265,999.054, oz JPM No 2

1,152,376.639 oz pledged Brinks/

Manfra: 33,758.550 oz

Delaware: 193.721 oz

International Delaware:: 11,188.542 oz

total pledged gold: 1,742,209.881 oz 54.19tonnes

TOTAL OF ALL GOLD ELIGIBLE AND REGISTERED GOLD: 17,493,781.059 OZ

TOTAL REGISTERED GOLD 7,873,348.414 ( 244.89 tonnes).

TOTAL OF ALL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 9,620,432..645 OZ

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 6,131,139 oz (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD)= 190,70tonnes //

END

SILVER/COMEX

AUGUST 19/2024

INITIAL

//2024// THE AUG 2024 SILVER CONTRACT//INITIAL

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	106,361.900 OZ cnt .
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	NIL
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	NIL
No of oz served today (contracts)	14 CONTRACT(S) (70,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	50 contracts (0.250 million oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	831 Contracts (4.155 MILLION oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

i) 0 dealer deposit/

total dealer deposit : NIL oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: 0 oz

We had 0 customer deposits:

total customer deposit 0 oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 134.771million oz/307.812 million or 43.84%

adjustment:1

i) DEALER TO CUSTOMER ASAHI 601,249.144 oz

withdrawals: 1

i)ut of CNT 106,361.900 oz

total customer withdrawals: 106,361.900 oz

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 69.904 MILLION OZ//.TOTAL REG + ELIGIBLE. 307,812 million oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE NEW STANDING FOR SILVER FOR AUGUST:

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF AUGUST/2024 OI: 64 CONTRACTS HAVING LOST 5 CONTRACT(S).

WE HAD 19 NOTICES SERVED ON THURSDAY, SO WE GAINED 14 CONTRACTs OR AN ADDITIONAL 70,000 OZ WILL STAND FOR SILVER AT THE COMEX.

SEPT SAW A LOSS OF 1785 CONTRACTS TO 59,913. SEPT NOW BECOMES THE NEW FRONT MONTH

OCTOBER SAW ANOTHER GAIN OF OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS OF 44 CONTRACTS AND THUS WE HAVE 478 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FOR OCTOBER.

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 14 for 70,000 oz

CONFIRMED volume; ON FRIDAY 73,459 gigantic

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in AUGUST we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 831 x 5,000 oz = 4.155 MILLION oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of AUGUST( 64) and the number of notices served upon today 14 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the AUGUST/2024 contract month: 831 notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of AUGUST (64)x number of notices served upon today minus (14)x 5000 oz of silver standing for the AUGUST contract month equates to 4.405 MILLION OZ.

New total standing: 4.405 million oz.

There are 69.904 million oz of registered silver.

The record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price on that day at $18.42. The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44.

Now that we have surpassed $28.40 the next big line in the sand for silver is $34.76. After that the moon

END

GLD AND SLV INVENTORY LEVELS//

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE MASSIVE FRAUDS!

GLD

AUGUST 19 WITH GOLD UP $3.05 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A MONSTER DEPOSIT OF 7.19 TONNES OF GOLD VAPOUR INTO THE GLD./ //////INVENTORY RESTS AT 854.97 TONNES

AUGUST 16 WITH GOLD UP $44.65 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: //////INVENTORY RESTS AT 847.78 TONNES

AUGUST 15 WITH GOLD UP $13,70 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 847.78 TONNES

AUGUST 14 WITH GOLD DOWN $26.20 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.03 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 845.76 TONNES

AUGUST 13 WITH GOLD UP $3.35 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.88 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 849.79 TONNES

AUGUST 12 WITH GOLD UP $30.00 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 846.91 TONNES

AUGUST 9 WITH GOLD UP $10.50 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.87 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 846.91 TONNES

AUGUST 8 WITH GOLD UP $31.50 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.02 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 844.04 TONNES

AUGUST 7 WITH GOLD UP $1.90 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 3.16 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 848.06 TONNES

AUGUST 6 WITH GOLD DOWN $13.10 ON THE DAY; SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD” A WITHDRAWAL OF .57 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 844.90 TONNES

AUGUST 2 WITH GOLD DOWN $9.95 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.58 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 845.47 TONNES

AUGUST 1 WITH GOLD UP $9.15 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.88 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 846.05 TONNES

JULY 30 WITH GOLD UP $26.55 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// A /////INVENTORY RESTS AT 843.17 TONNES

JULY 29 WITH GOLD UP $27.35 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.98 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 843.17 TONNES

JULY 26 WITH GOLD UP $27.35 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// A DEPOSIT OF 3.45 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 845.19 TONNES

JULY 25 WITH GOLD DOWN $60.45 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 841.74 TONNES

JULY 24 WITH GOLD UP $12.75 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A DEPOSIT OF 1,73 TOONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 841.74 TONNES

JULY 23 WITH GOLD UP $12.75 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 840.01 TONNES

JULY 22 WITH GOLD DOWN $4.40 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD// ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 840.01 TONNES

JULY 19 WITH GOLD DOWN $56.10 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;:A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.01 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD// ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 840.01 TONNES

JULY 18 WITH GOLD DOWN $2.20 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;: ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 842.02 TONNES

JULY 17 WITH GOLD DOWN $6.60 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;: A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 5.49 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 842.02 TONNES

JULY 16 WITH GOLD UP $38.60 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;: A DEPOSIT OF 1.44 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 836.53 TONNES

JULY 15 WITH GOLD UP $8.15 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;: /INVENTORY RESTS AT 835.09 TONNES

JULY 12 WITH GOLD DOWN $0.25 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;: A DEPOSIT OF 1.72 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 835.09 TONNES

JULY 11 WITH GOLD UP $43.05 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD;:INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.37 TONNES

JULY 10 WITH GOLD UP $12.00 ON THE DAY; HUUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD; A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.44 TONNES OF GOLD VAPOUR FROM THE GLD//.//:INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.37 TONNES

JULY 9 WITH GOLD UP $5.00 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD.//:INVENTORY RESTS AT 834.81 TONNES

JULY 8 WITH GOLD DOWN $26.60 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD.//:INVENTORY RESTS AT 834.81 TONNES

JULY 5 WITH GOLD UP $29.90 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD..A DEPOSIT OF 1.10 TONNES OF GOLD VAPOUR INTO THE GLD//:INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.37 TONNES

JULY 3 WITH GOLD UP $35.25 ON THE DAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD..A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 5.76 TONNES OF GOLD VAPOUR INTO THE GLD//:INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.37 TONNES

JULY 2 WITH GOLD DOWN $4.45 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD../:INVENTORY RESTS AT 827.61 TONNES

JULY 1 WITH GOLD DOWN $.30 ON THE DAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/:INVENTORY RESTS AT 829.05 TONNES

GLD INVENTORY: 854.97 TONNES, TONIGHTS TOTAL

SILVER

AUGUST 19//WITH SILVER $0.39//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.506 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV. .///./// /INVENTORY AT 465.423 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 16//WITH SILVER $0.49//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: .///./// /INVENTORY AT 466.929 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 15//WITH SILVER $1.14//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 1.186 MILLION ON INTO THE SLV.///./// /INVENTORY AT 466.929 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 14//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.40//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:///./// /INVENTORY AT 465.743 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 13//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.19//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:///./// /INVENTORY AT 465.743 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 12//WITH SILVER UP $.37//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:///./// /INVENTORY AT 465.743 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 9//WITH SILVER DOWN $.03//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:///./// /INVENTORY AT 465.743 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 8//WITH SILVER UP $.70//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 3.241 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////./// /INVENTORY AT 462.502 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 7//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.27//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 4.552 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////./// /INVENTORY AT 462.502 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 6//WITH SILVER UP $0.05//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY:///./// /INVENTORY AT 458.851 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 2//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.01//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.243 MILLION OZ OF SILVER OUT OF THE SLV ///./// /INVENTORY AT 460.961 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 1//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.46//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 1.608 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR INTO THE SLV///./// /INVENTORY AT 462.204 MILLION OZ

JULY 31//WITH SILVER UP $0.45//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: /./// /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 460.596 MILLION OZ

JULY 30//WITH SILVER UP $0.61//SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.456 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR INTO THE SLV/./// /INVENTORY RISES AT 460.596 MILLION OZ

JULY 29//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.07//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 4.382 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR INTO THE SLV/./// /INVENTORY RISES AT 461.052 MILLION OZ

JULY 26//WITH SILVER DOWN $0.07//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY./// /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 456.670 MILLION OZ

JULY 25 WITH SILVER DOWN $1.37//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.124 MILLION OZ OF SILVER OUT OF THE SLV./// /INVENTORY FALLS TO 456.670 MILLION OZ

JULY 24 WITH SILVER UP 3 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 15.880 MILLION OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV./// /INVENTORY RISES AT 439.780 MILLION OZ

JULY 23 WITH SILVER UP 3 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 15.880 MILLION OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV./// /INVENTORY RISES AT 439.780 MILLION OZ

JULY 22 WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 3.920 MILLION OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV./// /INVENTORY RISES AT 439.780 MILLION OZ

JULY 19 WITH SILVER DOWN 94 CENTS//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY/// /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 435.854 MILLION OZ

JULY 18 WITH SILVER DOWN 13 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY” A DEPOSIT OF 2.374 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/// /INVENTORY RISES TO 435.854 MILLION OZ

JULY 17. WITH SILVER DOWN 75 CENTS//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY// /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 433.480 MILLION OZ.

JULY 16. WITH SILVER UP 30 CENTS//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY// /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 433.480 MILLION OZ.

JULY 15. WITH SILVER DOWN 24 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.145 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV.// /INVENTORY LOWERS T0 AT 433.480 MILLION OZ.

JULY 12. WITH SILVER DOWN $.65 CENTS//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY /INVENTORY REMAINS CONSTANT AT 435.625 MILLION OZ.

JULY 11. WITH SILVER UP $.72 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.731 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR OUT OF THE SLV.: /INVENTORY FALLS T0 435.625 MILLION OZ.

JULY 10. WITH SILVER DOWN $.04 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A MAMMOTH WITHDRAWAL OF 3.744 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR OUT OF THE SLV.: /INVENTORY FALLS T0 436.356 MILLION OZ.

JULY 9. WITH SILVER UP 13 CENTS//HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A MAMMOTH WITHDRAWAL OF 3.744 MILLION OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR OUT OF THE SLV.: /INVENTORY FALLS T0 436.356 MILLION OZ.

JULY 8. WITH SILVER DOWN $0.73//SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A MAMMOTH DEPOSIT OF 3,292,000 OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR INTO THE SLV.: /INVENTORY RISES T0 440.100 MILLION OZ.

JULY 4. WITH SILVER UP $0.85//SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A MAMMOTH DEPOSIT OF 3,292,000 OZ OF SILVER VAPOUR INTO THE SLV.: /INVENTORY RISES T0 440.100 MILLION OZ.

JULY 3. WITH SILVER UP $1.08//SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY A SMALL WITHDRAWAL OF 639,000 OZ: /INVENTORY LOWERS T0 436,808 MILLION OZ.

JULY 2. WITH SILVER UP $0.19//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: /INVENTORY REMAINS AT 437.447 MILLION OZ./

JULY 1. WITH SILVER UP $0.05//NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 182,000 OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV./.// /INVENTORY RISES AT 437.447 MILLION OZ./

CLOSING INVENTORY 465.423 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

1.PETER SCHIFF SCHIFF GOLD/MIKE MAHARRAY

Peter Schiff: The Fed Still Isn’t Data-Driven

MONDAY, AUG 19, 2024 – 09:30 AM

Via SchiffGold.com,

In this episode, Peter analyzes recent PPI and CPI reports, reiterates his September rate-hike prediction, and comments on the Tump-Musk X interview that garnered the country’s attention on Monday. He also diagnoses the source of high housing and education costs that have made the economy feel so brutal to everyday Americans.

Peter notes how this week’s PPI report, which came in better than expected, may reveal margin pressure on American business:

“Trade services actually includes a lot of the markups that retail companies would charge, and so the fact that this number went up less than expected may indicate there’s some pressure on margins going forward and that companies are eating a larger percentage of their increased costs. And so that doesn’t bode well for earnings if that’s the case. People like Elizabeth Warren are always accusing greedy companies of gouging the customers with price hikes, but more often than not, most companies do everything they can to insulate their customers. Raising prices is almost a last resort!”

The media is celebrating a slightly better-than-expected CPI report as well, but Peter reminds us how long it took to make this progress. Such a meager improvement is not the sign of a job well done:

“The headline number, which had gotten above 9% at the peak – it first went down to 3% in June of 2023. So 13 months ago, the CPI was at 3%. Now it’s at 2.9%— 13 months later. So what? It took us 13 months to shave one tenth of one percent off the CPI? … Why should the Fed be cutting rates? If anything, the Fed should be looking at these numbers and say, ‘You know what? Rates are too low. We stopped too soon.’”

With expectations building for rate cuts next month, the Fed will likely deliver:

“I still believe that, despite this data, we’re gonna get a rate cut in September. And the main reason we’re going to get a rate cut in September is because now the markets are counting on a rate cut in September. That’s why we rallied back from the sell off on Monday! And so now that the market is pricing in a September rate cut, there’s no way that Powell is not going to deliver. … He always meets market expectations. … What he doesn’t want to do is pull the rug out from under the market.”

Peter comments on the Trump-Musk interview that aired Monday and has since drawn fire from the United Auto Workers union. They seem to be unaware of the role they played in exporting the American auto industry:

“The UAW— they helped destroy the American automobile industry. Elon Musk is trying to rebuild it! They killed jobs in the auto sector. He’s creating jobs. … The only two the UAW didn’t destroy were Ford and General Motors. There were only two auto companies left in America thanks to the UAW.”

Peter agrees with Trump’s take on the Department of Education:

“The Department of Education is a waste of money. It doesn’t educate anybody! Just like the Department of Energy is a waste. It doesn’t produce any energy! In fact, we didn’t even have the Department of Energy until Jimmy Carter. So we don’t need it. Get rid of it! As well as a lot of other departments.”

In his closing remarks, Peter explains the source of two major problems hitting Americans’ wallets— housing prices and the diminishing value of college degrees:

“The free market brings quality up and price down. The government brings quality down and price up! … Now they say, ‘You gotta go get a college degree so you can get a job at McDonalds serving french fries.’ This is what the government has done to a college degree, and they did the same thing to housing, and Elizabeth Warren just doesn’t understand that.”

2. ALASDAIR MACLEOD/JIM RICKARDS/PAM AND RUSS MARTENS/ JAMES RICKARDS/ VON GREYERZ//GOLD AND SILVER COMMENTARY//BILL HOLTER:

3.CHRIS POWELL AND DAILY GOLD/SILVER DISPATCHES

China issues new gold import quotas after pause, sources tell Reuters

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2024-08-16 15:42 Section: Daily Dispatches

By Ashitha Shivaprasad and Polina Devitt
Reuters
via Yahoo News, Sunnyvale, California
Friday, August 16, 2024

Several Chinese banks have been given new gold import quotas from the central bank, anticipating revived demand despite record high prices, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The new quotas, aimed at helping the People’s Bank of China control how much bullion enters the world’s leading consumer of the precious metal, were granted in August after a two-month pause largely due to slower physical demand in the wake of a bullish market.

Spot gold has gained 21% so far this year, having hit successive record highs, striking a peak of $2,500.99 per ounce by 1354 GMT on Friday as the dollar weakened and markets increasingly see U.S. monetary easing on the horizon in September.

Strong Chinese buying was a key factor in bullion’s March-April rally and if demand picks up again, it could further boost prices, analysts said.

“The quotas have been issued but the local premium to offshore is low so there is no guarantee that the quotas will be used until things improve,” one of the sources said. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-issues-gold-import-quotas-141914527.html

end

Taiwan’s central bank says gold reserve supports country’s currency

Submitted by admin on Sun, 2024-08-18 09:50 Section: Daily Dispatches

From the Central News Agency, Taipei
Friday, August 16, 2024

TAIPEI — Taiwan has about 422 tonnes of gold in reserve, held by the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to support the value of the national currency, a central bank official said today.

Of that amount, 410 tonnes is retained as an asset for the issuance of New Taiwan Dollars, the official added.

The remaining reserve is utilized, normally once every four years, to mint commemorative gold coins for the inauguration of Taiwan’s newly elected president and vice president, the official said.

According to the World Gold Council’s latest rankings as of Aug. 2, Taiwan ranked 12th in global gold reserves in the first quarter of 2024, with the top three countries being the United States, Germany, and Italy,

Based on New Taiwan Dollar banknotes already in circulation, the central bank said, it has the equivalent amount in liquid assets, currently in the form of gold and foreign exchange.

The purpose is to support and guarantee the value of the national currency as gold has always played an important role in the international monetary system, it added. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202408160016

an excellent read.

(Chris Powell/GATA)

Gold Revaluation Is A More Responsible Money Creation by Tyler Durden

Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 – 10:30 AM

Authored by Chris Powell via Money Metals,

Last week, financial analyst Mike Maharrey of Money Metals revisited the recent dream of inflationists…

…to increase the U.S. money supply by means of the U.S. government’s creation of one or two platinum coins with trillion-dollar denominations.

The idea would have the U.S. Treasury Department mint the coins and deposit them with the Federal Reserve, whereupon the Fed could create and distribute U.S. dollars matching the trillion-dollar deposits.

Since a longstanding obscure statute authorizes the Treasury to mint platinum coins of any denomination, this would be a way of increasing the U.S. money supply in a big way without addressing the stupendous and rapidly growing U.S. government debt and without obtaining approval from Congress.

But the trillion-dollar coin idea is similar to a policy change that gold advocates long have been rooting for: a formal revaluation of gold by governments and central banks, including the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve.

For if the U.S. government really has full control over what it long has claimed — a reserve of 8,133 tonnes of gold — gold revaluation also could support a lot of money creation.

Gold researcher Jan Nieuwenhuis has been noting for months that many governments and central banks recognize the money-creation potential of gold revaluation and provide for it explicitly with gold revaluation accounts.

Back in 2012, the U.S. economists Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance described the potential of gold revaluation.

They even hypothesized that it was already the plan of major central banks, by which they would redistribute gold reserves among themselves and then with gold revaluation devalue government debt and society’s debts generally while reliquefying themselves:

Writing in 2013 under a pen name — Koos Jansen — Nieuwenhuis called attention to a discussion of gold revaluation at the highest levels of the U.S. State Department in 1974, where Assistant Undersecretary of State Thomas O. Enders explained to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that gold reserves are the crucial “reserve-creating instrument” of government.

Enders said Western European governments, having then acquired more gold than the U.S. government had, were in a position to control not only the gold price but also, through gold revaluation, the price of all currencies and assets.

Enders told Kissinger that to protect the dollar and its power in the world, the United States had to prevent Western European governments from revaluing gold and indeed had to kick gold out of the world financial system entirely.

“It’s against our interest to have gold in the system because for it to remain there it would result in it being evaluated periodically,” Enders said.

“Although we have still some substantial gold holdings — about $11 billion — a larger part of the official gold in the world is concentrated in Western Europe. This gives them the dominant position in world reserves and the dominant means of creating reserves. We’ve been trying to get away from that into a system in which we can control. …”

Miles Franklin’s Andrew Schectman, on LFTV, reviews how the BIS is shifting the world back to gold

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2024-08-16 21:44 Section: Daily Dispatches

9:42p ET Friday, August 16, 2024

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Bullion dealer Andrew Schectman of Miles Franklin in Minnesota, the guest on this week’s installment of Kinesis Money’s “Live from the Vault” program with London metals trader Andrew Maguire, discusses the Bank for International Settlements’ orchestration of a shift away from the U.S. dollar to gold as the primary world reserve currency.

The discussion is 67 minutes long and can be watched at YouTube here:

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

end

5 B GLOBAL COMMODITY ISSUES/FOOD IN GENERAL//FREIGHT/RARE EARTH

6 CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS

END

ASIA TRADING/MONDAY MORNING/SUNDAY NIGHT

ONSHORE YUAN TRADING BELOW LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN STRONGER

1.YOUR EARLY CURRENCY VALUES/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN BOURSE MOVEMENTS/AND INTEREST RATE SETTINGS MONDAY MORNING.7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED UP TO 7.1420

OFFSHORE YUAN: DOWN TO 7.1392

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 14.24 PTS OR 0.49 %

HANG SENG CLOSED UP 139.41 PTS OR 0.80%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 674.04 PTS OR 1.77%

3. Europe stocks SO FAR: MOSTLY ALL GREEN EXCEPT LONDON

USA dollar INDEX DOWN TO 102.07 EURO RISES TO 1.1035 UP 16 BASIS PTS

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: RISES TO. +0.889 Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA cross now at 146.31…… JAPANESE YEN NOW RISING AS WE HAVE NOW REACHED THE REIGNITING OF THE YEN CARRY TRADE AFTER DISASTROUS POLICY ISSUED BY UEDA

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well ABOVE the important 120 barrier this morning

3e Gold DOWN /JAPANESE Yen UP CHINESE ONSHORE YUAN: UP OFFSHORE: UP

3f Japan is to buy INFINITE TRILLION YEN worth of BONDS. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion USA

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and NOW they will have OVER 50% of all Japanese debt.

3g Oil DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR BRENT this morning

3h European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund YIELD DOWN TO +2.2260/Italian 10 Yr bond yield DOWN to 3.598 SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD DOWN TO 3.057%

3i Greek 10 year bond yield DOWN TO 3.285

3j Gold at $2490.40//Silver at: 28.91 1 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $34.40//AFTER 28.40

3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble DOWN 0 AND 26/ 100 roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 89.69

3m oil into the 75 dollar handle for WTI and 79 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits moving out of China// huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 CONTINUES NIRP. THIS MORNING RAISES AMOUNT OF BONDS THAT THEY WILL PURCHASE UP TO .5% ON THE 10 YR BOND///YEN TRADES TO 146.31/ 10 YEAR YIELD AFTER FIRST BREAKING .54% LAST YEAR NOW EXCEEDS THAT LEVEL TO 0.889 % STILL ON CENTRAL BANK (JAPAN) INTERVENTION//YEN CARRY TRADE IS NOW UNWINDING.

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this 0.8648 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF: 0.9542 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.880 DOWN 2 BASIS PTS…

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 4.128 DOWN 2 BASIS PTS/

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.053 DOWN 2 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 33.73…

10 YR UK BOND YIELD: 3.951 UP 2 PTS

10 YR CANADA BOND YIELD: 3.081 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

2a New York OPENING REPORT

Futures Flat As Jackson Hole Looms; Dollar Tumbles As Yen Soars

MONDAY, AUG 19, 2024 – 08:17 AM

Futures are flat after trading in a narrow overnight range, with small-caps outperforming. As of 7:45am ET S&P futures are up 0.1% at 5,581, after last week’s face-ripping rally which pushed the S&P to within 2% of the all time highs, while Nasdasq futures are unchanged as Mag7 and Semis start the week lower but broad-based strength is limiting losses. Bond yields are 1-2bps lower while broad dollar weakness sees USD/JPY re-test 145 level before rebounding back above 146, while WTI crude oil futures drop around 1%, underpinning Treasuries. Commodities are lower with Energy and Metals weaker while Softs are catching a bid. This week is expected to be a low liquidity week with events centered around the DNC and Jackson Hole with NVDA earnings looming next week. The macro data focus is on Flash PMIs, Housing Data, and Regional Activity updates. Fed Minutes are not expected to be catalytic with Jackson Hole kicking off on Aug 22. Q2 earnings season approaches its close with consumer-related / Retailers earnings this week and NVDA next week.

In premarket trading, AMD shares rose 2% after the company agreed to buy server maker ZT Systems in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.9 billion, adding data center technology that will bolster its efforts to challenge Nvidia. Shares in European defense firms including Rheinmetall AG tumbled after a report that Germany will no longer grant new requests for aid to Ukraine as the government seeks to rein in spending. Here are some other notable premarket movers:

Estee Lauder falls 6% after forecasting annual revenue growth below analysts’ expectations, a sign that the cosmetics company’s long-awaited recovery has hit another roadblock.
FuboTV shares rise 13%, poised to extend gains after Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney were blocked by a judge from launching their streaming sports service one week before its rollout.
HP slips 2% as Morgan Stanley issued a downgrade, saying the computer hardware company now offers limited upside to estimates and on valuation.
Liquidia drops 37% after the FDA said the company’s Yutrepia inhalation powder can’t be approved until May next year as a treatment for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension.
Shake Shack and Dutch Bros shares fall after Piper Sandler cuts to neutral as the broker tempers view on the fast casual sub-sector. Shake Shack -3%, Dutch Bros -2%
Xperi rises 19% after the company said late Friday that it agreed to sell Perceive assets to Amazon.com for $80m in cash.
ZIM Integrated Shipping gains 14% after boosting its adjusted Ebitda guidance for the full year.

Traders are starting a relatively quiet week on a cautious footing after recovering risk appetite last week left the S&P 500 close to a record high. After the Aug. 5 swoon, some buyers are re-emerging to help the main US stock gauge recoup more than half its summer losses even as hedge funds are once again shorting the bounce (having done the same in most of June and July).

“Things have come back, things feel more measured now,” Louise Dudley, portfolio manager for global equities at Federated Hermes, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “In that medium term there is some volatility and we’re definitely looking to take advantage of some of those price moves. Some of the large-cap cap names are still offering some of the top-growth opportunities.”

The key event is slated for Friday, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to give fresh insights on the course of US monetary policy at the central bank’s Jackson Hole economic symposium in Wyoming. “We expect Powell to hold forth on the medium-term strategy for the Fed,” Seth Carpenter, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note.

Soft-landing bets are also helping to drive the recovery in equities. Goldman Sachs at the weekend trimmed the probability of a US recession in the next year to 20% from 25%, citing last week’s retail sales and jobless claims data, just days after raising it from 15% to 25%. If the August jobs report set for release on Sept. 6 “looks reasonably good, we would probably cut our recession probability back to 15%,” Goldman economists led by Jan Hatzius wrote in a report to clients on Saturday.

Elsewhere, the Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday in Chicago as party officials and celebrities rally around Kamala Harris, who may or may not be an idiot.

European stocks inch higher with the Stoxx 600 up 0.1%, and looking to extend its winning streak to five sessions. Basic resources is the strongest performing sector, while technology and energy stocks are the biggest laggards. Here are some of the biggest European movers on Monday:

Plus500 shares rise as much as 7% to a record high after the financial trading platform said it expects annual results to be ahead of expectations, which analysts believe will lift consensus estimates. Analysts also noted its cash balance exceeded $1 billion for the first time, providing the firepower needed to keep returning cash to shareholders as it launched a new buyback.
Metso Oyj and Sandvik AB gained when trading started on Monday after Swedish business daily Dagens Industri reported that large shareholders in Metso were pushing for a merger between the mining equipment operations of both companies.
Rheinmetall falls as much as 5% after the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Germany will no longer grant new requests for aid to Ukraine as the government seeks to rein in spending.
Other defense firms also fell: Hensoldt -6.9%, Renk -3.6%, Kongsberg -2.5%, Saab -4.1%, BAE Systems -2.6%, Dassault Aviation -3% and Leonardo -2.7%.
DSM-Firmenich falls as much as 5.7% as traders pointed to a free-float adjustment announcement from index provider Stoxx.

Earlier in the session, stocks in Asia advanced for a second session, helped by gains in regional currencies and a further rally in Chinese technology shares following some earnings beats. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose as much as 0.9% after jumping 2.5% on Friday. Japan’s Seven & i Holdings Co. was the biggest contributor to gains on the benchmark after a report on a buyout offer. Shares of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com extended a post-earnings rally.Equities in Hong Kong were among the top performers in Asia, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index closing up 1%. Onshore Chinese shares also rose. More cities have scrapped official sale price restrictions on newly-built homes, a step to allow steeper price declines to amid sluggish demand, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Monday. Japanese stocks were an outlier, weakening as a stronger yen dimmed the earnings prospect of export firms.

In FX, the dollar slipped, with some traders unwinding bets on a return to the White House by Donald Trump. On the other end, the Japanese yen surged amid broad weakness in the US dollar as traders positioned ahead of key central bank events later in the week. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda appears in parliament on Friday, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at Jackson Hole later the same day. USD/JPY is down 1.1% against the greenback at ~146.05, having dropped as low as 145. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index falls 0.3%.

“If we look at the polls, if we look at Harris’s solid performance in the last three weeks, the market has got to be thinking, were we hasty in putting on that Trump trade in June or July?,” Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “The market has to rethink that. If the market is less inclined to be putting on Trump trades, that could soften the dollar.”

In rates, treasuries hold small gains across long-end of the curve, where 30-year yields are ~1bp lower vs Friday’s close, as bunds outperform over early London session. 10-year TSY yields fall 2bps to 3.86% with bunds outperforming by 1bp in the sector and gilts trading broadly in line.

In commodities, oil prices decline, with WTI falling 1% to trade near $75.90 a barrel; oil declined for the fourth time in five sessions as traders tracked US-led efforts to secure a cease-fire in the 10-month old conflict in Gaza, while the Russia-Ukraine war is escalating. Spot gold falls $7 to around $2501/oz. Bitcoin falls 2%.

Looking at today’s calendar, the data slate includes July Leading Index at 10am New York time; ahead this week are manufacturing and services PMIs and new home sales, and July 31 FOMC meeting minutes on Wednesday. Fed speakers scheduled for the session include Waller at 9:15am

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures little changed at 5,573.50
STOXX Europe 600 little changed at 511.94
MXAP up 0.5% to 183.72
MXAPJ up 0.8% to 573.15
Nikkei down 1.8% to 37,388.62
Topix down 1.4% to 2,641.14
Hang Seng Index up 0.8% to 17,569.57
Shanghai Composite up 0.5% to 2,893.67
Sensex little changed at 80,435.57
Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 0.1% to 7,980.45
Kospi down 0.8% to 2,674.36
German 10Y yield little changed at 2.22%
Euro up 0.2% to $1.1044
Brent Futures down 0.5% to $79.27/bbl
Gold spot down 0.1% to $2,506.51
US Dollar Index down 0.32% to 102.13

Top Overnight News

The race for the White House will reach a fever pitch this week, with Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump battling for momentum — and attention — around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Republicans warned Donald Trump to get serious on policy or he could lose and cautioned that his ‘showman’ tactics could cost him the chance of a second term in the White House, according to The Telegraph.
Wall Street is betting that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will confirm that interest-rate cuts are coming at the central bank’s annual confab in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But as the debate shifts from “will they or won’t they?” to “how big will they go?” — stock traders may be left wanting.
The yen rallied against the dollar, leading gains among Group-of-10 currencies before comments from top central bank officials this week.
Just as bond traders grow more assured that inflation is finally under control, a camp of investors is quietly building up protection against the risk of a future spike in prices.
Fed’s Daly (voter) said recent data gave her more confidence that inflation is under control and it is time to consider adjusting rates from their current level, while she noted the Fed needs to take a gradual approach to reducing borrowing costs, according to FT.
Fed’s Goolsbee (non-voter) said on Friday that he has concerns for 2024 and that they have crosscurrents. Goolsbee added he is concerned that the Fed set this level of rates over a year ago and inflation and the labour market are cooling faster than expected, while he thinks the Fed should take a step back and think about it.
Goldman Sachs cuts the probability of a US recession in the next 12 months to 20% from 25%; cites last week’s Retail Sales and IJC metrics. Says could lower it to 15% in the event that the August jobs report “looks reasonably good”.

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks were mixed with a somewhat cautious tone amid geopolitical uncertainty after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and as participants await this week’s key events including the Jackson Hole Symposium. ASX 200 traded rangebound as outperformance in gold miners and utilities was offset by weakness in consumer stocks. Nikkei 225 swung between gains and losses and traded on both sides of the 38,000 level after mixed Machinery Orders data, while the index was then pressured again later in the session alongside a firmer currency. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. gained amid stimulus hopes after Premier Li hinted on Friday at targeted measures to smooth the economic cycle and promote consumption, while a recent report noted weak Chinese data raised the pressure for Beijing to provide support and revived talk of regarding the idea of China issuing shopping vouchers.

Top Asian News

China’s Vice Premier is to co-chair a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian leaders with Russia’s Deputy PM on August 19th-20th, according to Chinese state media.
Singaporean PM Wong warned that increasing tensions between the US and China will have an impact on Singapore’s economy and the broader region, according to FT.

European bourses, Stoxx 600 (+0.1%) began the week on a mixed footing and generally traded on either side of the unchanged mark. European sectors are mixed with the breadth of the market fairly narrow. Basic Resources takes the top spot, in a paring to some of the hefty selling pressure seen in the prior session. Healthcare is found at the foot of the pile, joined by Tech. US Equity Futures (ES -0.1%, NQ -0.1%, RTY +0.1%) are mixed and also trade on either side of the unchanged mark, ahead of what will be a catalyst packed week.

Top European News

Metso Dismisses Media Report of Mining Merger With Sandvik
UK Energy Bills Set to Rise This Winter on Higher Gas Prices

DXY is on the backfoot, going as low as 102.00 predominantly amid gains in the JPY and EUR. From a macro perspective, Fed’s Daly and Goolsbee have delivered dovish remarks ahead of Powell on Friday.
EUR/USD has extended its rise on a 1.10 handle and printed a fresh YTD peak at 1.1050 with the pair now at levels not seen since December last year.
GBP is firmer vs. the broadly softer USD with not much in the way of UK-specific newsflow ahead of flash PMI metrics on Wednesday. Cable has been as high as 1.2975 with attention on a test of 1.30.
JPY is by far the best performer across the majors vs. the USD as traders continue to focus on the expected upcoming Fed cutting cycle in the run up to the Jackson Hole Symposium this week (note, a 25bps hike by the BoJ is now priced for September 2025).
Antipodeans both gaining vs. the USD with AUD benefiting from some of the positivity surrounding China amid the revival of talk over the idea of China issuing shopping vouchers to boost consumption.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1415 vs exp. 7.1548 (prev. 7.1464).

Fixed Income

USTs are bid, but not quite performing as well as Bunds are; holding at 113-09+ highs with resistance from Friday & Thursday at 113-12 & 113-23 respectively.
A firmer start to the week with Bunds leading the complex marginally after Germany came to a deal on its 2025 budget which will not fund any new Ukraine aid, as part of a measure to limit spending. Thus far, Bunds to a 134.58 peak, just shy of Friday’s 134.65 best with little of note until 135.00.
Gilts are in a very narrow 99.98-100.09 range, which is entirely within Thursday’s 99.67-100.19 spread. UK-specific docket is light.

Commodities

Crude is subdued intraday but largely in consolidation mode following Friday’s losses. The Dollar weakness has done little to prop up the crude complex in recent sessions, whilst the geopolitical risks appear to be overshadowed by demand concerns. Brent sits near the lower bound of a USD 78.94-79.81/bbl parameter.
A mixed picture across precious metals despite the softer Dollar and as catalysts over the weekend were light. Spot gold trades on either side of USD 2,500/oz.
Mostly firmer trade across base metals, albeit largely as a function of the softer Dollar. Desks have cited the recent trimming of losses by copper on alleviating fears of a US recession amid recent economic data.
Norway’s Equinor said production at Gullfaks C Platform in the North Sea is shut and it evacuated some workers from the platform as a precaution following a well incident, while it is unclear when production will restart but output at other Gullfaks platforms are running as normal.
Algeria is to immediately supply Lebanon with fuel to operate electric power stations and return electricity to the country, according to Algerian state radio cited by Reuters.
Iran said it is ready to tranship Russian gas through its territory, according to TASS.
BHP Escondida workers union said it could relaunch a strike if the Co. does not rectify its position over contract talks as soon as possible.

Geopolitics: Middle East

Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike in Lebanon’s Nabatieh which targeted a Hezbollah depot, while it was separately reported that Israel targeted the towns of Houla and Beit Leif in Lebanon during airstrikes on Sunday night, according to Al Jazeera. Furthermore, an Israeli airstrike targeted agricultural land northeast of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and it was also reported that 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Zawaida.
IDF said it detected the launch of a number of suspicious air targets from Lebanon towards areas in the Western Galilee.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli negotiating team expressed cautious optimism in advancing a Gaza hostage deal. PM Netanyahu’s office also said Israel is in complex negotiations and there are things it can and cannot be flexible about, according to Reuters.
Hamas on Sunday rejected an updated US proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza and blamed Israeli PM Netanyahu for moving the goalposts and the US for indulging him, according to Axios.
Hamas said the new ceasefire proposal presented by the US at talks in Doha responds to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal from Gaza, while it added that the proposal placed new conditions in the issue of a hostages exchange and retracted other issues hindering a deal, according to Reuters.
US President Biden said they will not give up and a Gaza ceasefire is still possible. It was separately reported that US Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Israel to renew the push for a Gaza ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Blinken says “This is the best and perhaps the last chance to release the hostages and reach an agreement”; “We have decisive efforts to deploy troops and deter any attacks on Israel”, via Sky News Arabia.
Iranian Foreign Ministry says “we affirm our right to respond to the attack on our sovereignty and we will do so at the appropriate time”, via Al Jazeera

Geopolitics: Other

Chinese Premier is to visit Russia from August 20th to August 22nd, according to Interfax; Premier Li will meet with Russian and Belarussian counterparts, and will hold in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations.
Pipeline at oil and chemical plant in Russia’s Bashkiria set on fire, via Tass
IAEA said nuclear safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter, while it stated there were no casualties and no impact to equipment, but there was an impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.
Russia captured the village of Svyrydonivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk, according to TASS.
Belarusian President Lukashenko said troops were deployed along the entire border with Ukraine, according to RIA.
North Korea condemned Ukraine’s attack against Russian territory as an act of terror and invasion backed by the US and the West. North Korea said the anti-Russia policy of the US is driving the global security environment to the brink of World War 3, while North Korea will stand with Russia as it seeks to protect its sovereignty and realise international justice, according to KCNA.
US, South Korean and Japanese leaders pledged to consult on regional challenges, provocations and threats, while they said they are resolved to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s Coast Guard said Philippine Coast Guard vessels illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal without permission from the Chinese government and one of the Philippine vessels ignored China’s repeated solemn warnings and deliberately collided with the Chinese vessel in an ‘unprofessional and dangerous’ manner. The Philippines later commented that the Philippine Coast Guard encountered ‘unlawful, aggressive maneuvers’ in the South China Sea from Chinese Coast Guard vessels which resulted in structural damage to both Philippine Coast Guard vessels.

US Event Calendar

10:00: July Leading Index, est. -0.4%, prior -0.2%

Central Bank Speakers

09:15: Fed’s Waller Gives Welcoming Remarks

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

As we move into the latter part of August, this week’s centre of attention for investors will be the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that runs from Thursday evening through Saturday. Markets approach this in a much better mood than looked likely two weeks ago as the extreme volatility seen at the start of August seems almost a distant memory. The S&P 500 is on its best 7-day run since October 2022 (+6.82%) and has moved to within 2% of its all-time high, while the VIX ended last week at 14.80, down to below 15 for the first time in over three weeks. This comes as a 50bp Fed rate cut in September is now just over 30% priced, down from being fully priced on August 5 and 55% a week ago.

The overall title at Jackson Hole this year is “Reassessing the Effectiveness and Transmission of Monetary Policy” and central bankers will surely feel more satisfied with their policy levers than the last two times they met at the Wyoming retreat. The 2022 symposium came as inflation neared double digits across many developed economies with rates markets undergoing a sharp hawkish repricing, while a higher-for-longer focus saw Treasury yields reach post-GFC highs in the run-up to the 2023 gathering, with the 10yr yield then touching 5% last October. By contrast, this year’s event comes with US PCE inflation down to 2.5%, the unemployment rate up by 0.6pp since the start of 2024 and the Fed keeping rates on hold for the past 12 months. 10yr Treasuries are back below 4% as markets are pricing 95bps of Fed rate cuts across the remaining three meetings this year and 200bps of easing by next October.

In this context, investors will be keenly watching for signals on the timing and pace of rate cuts, especially from Fed Chair Powell’s speech at 10am EST (3pm LDN) on Friday. Our US economists don’t expect him to pre-commit to any particular rate cut trajectory but to signal that the Fed has gained sufficient confidence that it will soon be appropriate to begin easing policy, with rate cuts justified by both sides of the Fed’s dual mandate. They see rate cuts as likely to be framed as dialling back restraint, leaving the exact path data dependent. With r-star uncertain and policy risks evident following the election, rate cuts beyond the first 75-125bps are more uncertain.

Other scheduled Jackson Hole speakers include BoE Governor Bailey late on Friday and ECB Chief Economist Lane on Saturday. Ahead of this, we will also get the latest Fed and ECB meeting minutes on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, which may offer some colour on the strength of the conditional September rate cut signals that both central banks sent at their July meetings. Elsewhere, tomorrow Sweden’s Riksbank is expected to deliver a second 25bps cut of its easing cycle, with markets pricing a c. 20% likelihood of a larger 50bps cut.

On the data front, this week’s main event will come with the flash August PMIs out in the US, euro area, UK and Japan on Thursday. Last month’s slippage of the US manufacturing PMI to below 50 (at 49.6) contributed to a rise in US recession fears that has since ebbed, while in the euro area activity surveys have consistently disappointed over the past two months. Another notable release will be Wednesday’s Q1 Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) in the US, which will provide preliminary benchmark revisions to the payrolls data. Our US economists see a negative revision as likely but, with this covering the period up to March 2024 that had seen particularly robust strong payrolls gains, any broader negative read-though may be limited.

Turning to politics, today will see the start of the US Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which comes as Kamala Harris enjoys a stabilising modest lead over Donald Trump in opinion polls for the November election. The FiveThirtyEight national average gives her a +2.6pt lead, with a smaller advantage on average across the swing states. Politics will also be in the headlines in Japan as on August 20 the LDP is due to finalise the schedule for its September leadership election. This follows Premier Minister Kishida’s announcement last week that he would not run again, with our Japan economist addressing the implications of the change of PM in his latest outlook here.

Overnight in Asia, a weaker dollar is putting pressure on stocks in Japan and Korea, with Chinese equities outperforming. The dollar is -0.97% weaker against the yen this morning, touching the 146 level for the first time since 8 August, and is down -1.39% against the won, with the Nikkei 225 and the Kospi falling -1.68% and -0.61%, respectively. The moves are in stark contrast with a +1.06% jump in the Hang Seng, with the CSI 300 also advancing (+0.41%). Chinese assets will stay in focus amid tomorrow’s 1-yr and 5-yr loan prime rate decision. In US contracts, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are near flat overnight. Treasuries are also little changed, with the 2yr yield +0.5bps higher.

Recapping last week now, a US CPI print that was soft enough to affirm the disinflation narrative coupled with strong retail sales data served to cement a soft landing narrative. Friday’s data added to the general optimism, with the University of Michigan sentiment survey for August posting its first increase in five months at 67.8 (vs 66.9 expected) and the NY Fed services business index returning to positive territory for the first time since May, rising from -4.5 to 1.8.

With these data releases suggesting both a successful disinflation process and resilience of the US economy, equity markets were in a buoyant mood, with the S&P 500 rising +3.93% in its largest weekly gain since November 2023. Friday saw the S&P (+0.20%) extend its run to seven consecutive daily gains, its joint longest run this year. Tech outperformed, as the NASDAQ powered ahead by +5.29% (+0.21% Friday). The Mag-7 were up +6.23% as Nvidia stole the show with an +18.93% rally, its largest weekly gain since May 2023. Over in Europe, the equity gains were slightly more modest, with the STOXX 600 rising +2.46% (+0.31% Friday). Credit markets also benefited from the risk-on mood, with US IG spreads (-6bps) seeing their largest weekly decline since January.

In bond markets, Friday’s -4.3bps decline left 2yr yields little changed over the week (-0.3bps). On the other hand, 10yr yields retreated -5.7bps (and -3.0bps on Friday), to 3.88%. In Europe, 10yr German bunds saw a modest sell-off (+2.2bps) despite falling -1.5bps on Friday. Amid the risk-on mood and lower rates, the broad dollar index retreated -0.65% (-0.50% Friday) to its lowest level since January, with the euro closing above 1.10 against the dollar for the first time this year (+1.01% on the week to 1.103).

Lastly, in commodities, gold had a very strong week. Spot gold prices rose +3.16% (and +2.13% on Friday), moving above $2,500/oz for the first time ever. Oil whipsawed on the week, with a -1.58% reversal on Friday leaving Brent +0.13% over the week at $79.66/bbl.

2B) European report

Equities are mixed, DXY as low as 102.00, JPY bid & Crude lower; Fed’s Waller due – Newsquawk US Market Open

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 05:46 AM

Equities are mixed and struggling to find clear direction in catalyst thin trade
Dollar is lower, JPY sees significant strength as USD/JPY holds around 146.00
Bonds are firmer to varying degrees, Bunds lead as Germany reaches a deal regarding its 2025 budget
Crude is lower and resides near session lows, XAU holds around USD 2500/oz, base metals benefit from the softer Dollar
Looking ahead, BoC SLOOS, NZ Trade Balance, US Democratic Convention, Comments from Fed’s Waller, Earnings from Estee Lauder & Palo Alto Networks.

More Newsquawk in 3 steps:

1. Subscribe to the free premarket movers reports

2. Listen to this report in the market open podcast (available on Apple and Spotify)

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EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

European bourses, Stoxx 600 (+0.1%) began the week on a mixed footing and generally traded on either side of the unchanged mark.
European sectors are mixed with the breadth of the market fairly narrow. Basic Resources takes the top spot, in a paring to some of the hefty selling pressure seen in the prior session. Healthcare is found at the foot of the pile, joined by Tech.
US Equity Futures (ES -0.1%, NQ -0.1%, RTY +0.1%) are mixed and also trade on either side of the unchanged mark, ahead of what will be a catalyst packed week.
Click for the sessions European pre-market equity newsflow
Click for the additional news
Click for a detailed summary

FX

DXY is on the backfoot, going as low as 102.00 predominantly amid gains in the JPY and EUR. From a macro perspective, Fed’s Daly and Goolsbee have delivered dovish remarks ahead of Powell on Friday.
EUR/USD has extended its rise on a 1.10 handle and printed a fresh YTD peak at 1.1050 with the pair now at levels not seen since December last year.
GBP is firmer vs. the broadly softer USD with not much in the way of UK-specific newsflow ahead of flash PMI metrics on Wednesday. Cable has been as high as 1.2975 with attention on a test of 1.30.
JPY is by far the best performer across the majors vs. the USD as traders continue to focus on the expected upcoming Fed cutting cycle in the run up to the Jackson Hole Symposium this week (note, a 25bps hike by the BoJ is now priced for September 2025).
Antipodeans both gaining vs. the USD with AUD benefiting from some of the positivity surrounding China amid the revival of talk over the idea of China issuing shopping vouchers to boost consumption.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1415 vs exp. 7.1548 (prev. 7.1464).
Click for a detailed summary
Click for NY OpEx Details

FIXED INCOME

USTs are bid, but not quite performing as well as Bunds are; holding at 113-09+ highs with resistance from Friday & Thursday at 113-12 & 113-23 respectively.
A firmer start to the week with Bunds leading the complex marginally after Germany came to a deal on its 2025 budget which will not fund any new Ukraine aid, as part of a measure to limit spending. Thus far, Bunds to a 134.58 peak, just shy of Friday’s 134.65 best with little of note until 135.00.
Gilts are in a very narrow 99.98-100.09 range, which is entirely within Thursday’s 99.67-100.19 spread. UK-specific docket is light.
Click for a detailed summary

COMMODITIES

Crude is subdued intraday but largely in consolidation mode following Friday’s losses. The Dollar weakness has done little to prop up the crude complex in recent sessions, whilst the geopolitical risks appear to be overshadowed by demand concerns. Brent sits near the lower bound of a USD 78.94-79.81/bbl parameter.
A mixed picture across precious metals despite the softer Dollar and as catalysts over the weekend were light. Spot gold trades on either side of USD 2,500/oz.
Mostly firmer trade across base metals, albeit largely as a function of the softer Dollar. Desks have cited the recent trimming of losses by copper on alleviating fears of a US recession amid recent economic data.
Norway’s Equinor said production at Gullfaks C Platform in the North Sea is shut and it evacuated some workers from the platform as a precaution following a well incident, while it is unclear when production will restart but output at other Gullfaks platforms are running as normal.
Algeria is to immediately supply Lebanon with fuel to operate electric power stations and return electricity to the country, according to Algerian state radio cited by Reuters.
Iran said it is ready to tranship Russian gas through its territory, according to TASS.
BHP Escondida workers union said it could relaunch a strike if the Co. does not rectify its position over contract talks as soon as possible.
Click for a detailed summary

NOTABLE DATA RECAP

UK Rightmove House Price Index YY (Aug) 0.8% (Prev. 0.4%); MM -1.5% (Prev. -0.4%)

NOTABLE US HEADLINES

Fed’s Daly (voter) said recent data gave her more confidence that inflation is under control and it is time to consider adjusting rates from their current level, while she noted the Fed needs to take a gradual approach to reducing borrowing costs, according to FT.
Fed’s Goolsbee (non-voter) said on Friday that he has concerns for 2024 and that they have crosscurrents. Goolsbee added he is concerned that the Fed set this level of rates over a year ago and inflation and the labour market are cooling faster than expected, while he thinks the Fed should take a step back and think about it.
Republicans warned Donald Trump to get serious on policy or he could lose and cautioned that his ‘showman’ tactics could cost him the chance of a second term in the White House, according to The Telegraph.
Goldman Sachs cuts the probability of a US recession in the next 12 months to 20% from 25%; cites last week’s Retail Sales and IJC metrics. Says could lower it to 15% in the event that the August jobs report “looks reasonably good”.

GEOPOLITICS

MIDDLE EAST

Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike in Lebanon’s Nabatieh which targeted a Hezbollah depot, while it was separately reported that Israel targeted the towns of Houla and Beit Leif in Lebanon during airstrikes on Sunday night, according to Al Jazeera. Furthermore, an Israeli airstrike targeted agricultural land northeast of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and it was also reported that 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Zawaida.
IDF said it detected the launch of a number of suspicious air targets from Lebanon towards areas in the Western Galilee.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli negotiating team expressed cautious optimism in advancing a Gaza hostage deal. PM Netanyahu’s office also said Israel is in complex negotiations and there are things it can and cannot be flexible about, according to Reuters.
Hamas on Sunday rejected an updated US proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza and blamed Israeli PM Netanyahu for moving the goalposts and the US for indulging him, according to Axios.
Hamas said the new ceasefire proposal presented by the US at talks in Doha responds to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal from Gaza, while it added that the proposal placed new conditions in the issue of a hostages exchange and retracted other issues hindering a deal, according to Reuters.
US President Biden said they will not give up and a Gaza ceasefire is still possible. It was separately reported that US Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Israel to renew the push for a Gaza ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Blinken says “This is the best and perhaps the last chance to release the hostages and reach an agreement”; “We have decisive efforts to deploy troops and deter any attacks on Israel”, via Sky News Arabia.
Iranian Foreign Ministry says “we affirm our right to respond to the attack on our sovereignty and we will do so at the appropriate time”, via Al Jazeera

OTHER

Chinese Premier is to visit Russia from August 20th to August 22nd, according to Interfax; Premier Li will meet with Russian and Belarussian counterparts, and will hold in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations.
Pipeline at oil and chemical plant in Russia’s Bashkiria set on fire, via Tass
IAEA said nuclear safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter, while it stated there were no casualties and no impact to equipment, but there was an impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.
Russia captured the village of Svyrydonivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk, according to TASS.
Belarusian President Lukashenko said troops were deployed along the entire border with Ukraine, according to RIA.
North Korea condemned Ukraine’s attack against Russian territory as an act of terror and invasion backed by the US and the West. North Korea said the anti-Russia policy of the US is driving the global security environment to the brink of World War 3, while North Korea will stand with Russia as it seeks to protect its sovereignty and realise international justice, according to KCNA.
US, South Korean and Japanese leaders pledged to consult on regional challenges, provocations and threats, while they said they are resolved to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s Coast Guard said Philippine Coast Guard vessels illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal without permission from the Chinese government and one of the Philippine vessels ignored China’s repeated solemn warnings and deliberately collided with the Chinese vessel in an ‘unprofessional and dangerous’ manner. The Philippines later commented that the Philippine Coast Guard encountered ‘unlawful, aggressive manoeuvres’ in the South China Sea from Chinese Coast Guard vessels which resulted in structural damage to both Philippine Coast Guard vessels.

CRYPTO

Bitcoin is slightly softer and slips below USD 59k, whilst Ethereum manages to hold above USD 2.6k.

APAC TRADE

APAC stocks were mixed with a somewhat cautious tone amid geopolitical uncertainty after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and as participants await this week’s key events including the Jackson Hole Symposium.
ASX 200 traded rangebound as outperformance in gold miners and utilities was offset by weakness in consumer stocks.
Nikkei 225 swung between gains and losses and traded on both sides of the 38,000 level after mixed Machinery Orders data, while the index was then pressured again later in the session alongside a firmer currency.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. gained amid stimulus hopes after Premier Li hinted on Friday at targeted measures to smooth the economic cycle and promote consumption, while a recent report noted weak Chinese data raised the pressure for Beijing to provide support and revived talk of regarding the idea of China issuing shopping vouchers.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

China’s Vice Premier is to co-chair a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian leaders with Russia’s Deputy PM on August 19th-20th, according to Chinese state media.
Singaporean PM Wong warned that increasing tensions between the US and China will have an impact on Singapore’s economy and the broader region, according to FT.

DATA RECAP

Japanese Machinery Orders MM (Jun) 2.1% vs. Exp. 1.1% (Prev. -3.2%); YY (Jun) -1.7% vs. Exp. 1.8% (Prev. 10.8%)

2C) ASIAN REPORT

Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, Fed’s Daly & Goolsbee featured – Newsquawk Europe Market Open

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 01:31 AM

APAC stocks were mixed with a somewhat cautious tone amid geopolitical uncertainty after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal.
Fed’s Daly (voter) said it is time to consider adjusting rates from their current level, Goolsbee (non-voter) said inflation and the labour market are cooling faster than expected.
European equity futures indicate a slightly positive open with the Euro Stoxx 50 future up 0.1% after the cash market finished with gains of 0.7% on Friday.
DXY is on the backfoot alongside gains in the JPY, antipodeans are also notably firmer vs. the USD.
Hamas on Sunday rejected an updated US proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.
Looking ahead, highlights include BoC SLOOS, NZ Trade Balance, US Democratic Convention, Comments from Fed’s Waller.

More Newsquawk in 3 steps:

1. Subscribe to the free premarket movers reports

2. Listen to this report in the market open podcast (available on Apple and Spotify)

3. Trial Newsquawk’s premium real-time audio news squawk box for 7 days

US TRADE

EQUITIES

US stocks eked marginal gains on Friday with the upside capped after mixed data releases and amid the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, while participants also reflected on cautious rhetoric on the economy from Fed’s Goolsbee.
SPX +0.20% at 5,554, NDX +0.09% at 19,508, DJIA +0.24% at 40,659, RUT +0.27% at 2,141.
Click here for a detailed summary.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

Fed’s Daly (voter) said recent data gave her more confidence that inflation is under control and it is time to consider adjusting rates from their current level, while she noted the Fed needs to take a gradual approach to reducing borrowing costs, according to FT.
Fed’s Goolsbee (non-voter) said on Friday that he has concerns for 2024 and that they have crosscurrents. Goolsbee added he is concerned that the Fed set this level of rates over a year ago and inflation and the labour market are cooling faster than expected, while he thinks the Fed should take a step back and think about it.
Republicans warned Donald Trump to get serious on policy or he could lose and cautioned that his ‘showman’ tactics could cost him the chance of a second term in the White House, according to The Telegraph.
Goldman Sachs cuts the probability of a US recession in the next 12 months to 20% from 25%; cites last week’s Retail Sales and IJC metrics. Says could lower it to 15% in the event that the August jobs report “looks reasonably good”.

APAC TRADE

EQUITIES

APAC stocks were mixed with a somewhat cautious tone amid geopolitical uncertainty after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and as participants await this week’s key events including the Jackson Hole Symposium.
ASX 200 traded rangebound as outperformance in gold miners and utilities was offset by weakness in consumer stocks.
Nikkei 225 swung between gains and losses and traded on both sides of the 38,000 level after mixed Machinery Orders data, while the index was then pressured again later in the session alongside a firmer currency.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. gained amid stimulus hopes after Premier Li hinted on Friday at targeted measures to smooth the economic cycle and promote consumption, while a recent report noted weak Chinese data raised the pressure for Beijing to provide support and revived talk of regarding the idea of China issuing shopping vouchers.
US equity futures kept afloat after last Friday’s mild gains but with price action contained amid a lack of key drivers.
European equity futures indicate a slightly positive open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures up 0.1% after the cash market finished with gains of 0.7% on Friday.

FX

DXY remained subdued after last Friday’s selling pressure and with comments from Fed’s Daly over the weekend who stated recent data gave her more confidence that inflation is under control and it is time to consider adjusting borrowing costs.
EUR/USD mildly extended on its recent advances after having reclaimed the 1.1000 status.
GBP/USD marginally added to last week’s gains albeit with upside capped near the 1.2950 level.
USD/JPY experienced a dead cat bounce overnight with early upward momentum thwarted by resistance around 148.00, while the pair then continued to decline throughout the session and eventually slipped beneath the 146.00 handle.
Antipodeans benefitted from the dollar weakness with prices also helped by Chinese stimulus hopes and recent gains in the metals complex.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1415 vs exp. 7.1548 (prev. 7.1464).

FIXED INCOME

10-year UST futures lacked direction ahead of this week’s key events culminating with the Jackson Hole Symposium.
Bund futures were rangebound after last Friday’s whipsawing with short-term supply and the monthly Buba report scheduled later.
10-year JGB futures retreated from the open amid mild gains in Japanese yields despite mixed Machinery Orders data.

COMMODITIES

Crude futures were little changed in the absence of any major catalysts and as geopolitical uncertainty lingered.
Norway’s Equinor said production at Gullfaks C Platform in the North Sea is shut and it evacuated some workers from the platform as a precaution following a well incident, while it is unclear when production will restart but output at other Gullfaks platforms are running as normal.
Algeria is to immediately supply Lebanon with fuel to operate electric power stations and return electricity to the country, according to Algerian state radio cited by Reuters.
Iran said it is ready to tranship Russian gas through its territory, according to TASS.
Spot gold took a breather after climbing to above the USD 2,500/oz level for the first time ever late last week.
Copper futures remained underpinned following Friday’s intraday rebound and alongside the positive mood in China.
BHP Escondida workers union said it could relaunch a strike if the Co. does not rectify its position over contract talks as soon as possible.

CRYPTO

Bitcoin gradually edged higher but remained beneath the USD 59,000 level after retreating from resistance at USD 60,000 over the weekend.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

China’s Vice Premier is to co-chair a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian leaders with Russia’s Deputy PM on August 19th-20th, according to Chinese state media.
Singaporean PM Wong warned that increasing tensions between the US and China will have an impact on Singapore’s economy and the broader region, according to FT.

DATA RECAP

Japanese Machinery Orders MM (Jun) 2.1% vs. Exp. 1.1% (Prev. -3.2%)
Japanese Machinery Orders YY (Jun) -1.7% vs. Exp. 1.8% (Prev. 10.8%)

GEOPOLITICAL

MIDDLE EAST

Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike in Lebanon’s Nabatieh which targeted a Hezbollah depot, while it was separately reported that Israel targeted the towns of Houla and Beit Leif in Lebanon during airstrikes on Sunday night, according to Al Jazeera. Furthermore, an Israeli airstrike targeted agricultural land northeast of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and it was also reported that 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Zawaida.
IDF said it detected the launch of a number of suspicious air targets from Lebanon towards areas in the Western Galilee.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli negotiating team expressed cautious optimism in advancing a Gaza hostage deal. PM Netanyahu’s office also said Israel is in complex negotiations and there are things it can and cannot be flexible about, according to Reuters.
Hamas on Sunday rejected an updated US proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza and blamed Israeli PM Netanyahu for moving the goalposts and the US for indulging him, according to Axios.
Hamas said the new ceasefire proposal presented by the US at talks in Doha responds to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal from Gaza, while it added that the proposal placed new conditions in the issue of a hostages exchange and retracted other issues hindering a deal, according to Reuters.
US President Biden said they will not give up and a Gaza ceasefire is still possible. It was separately reported that US Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Israel to renew the push for a Gaza ceasefire.

OTHER

IAEA said nuclear safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter, while it stated there were no casualties and no impact to equipment, but there was an impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.
Russia captured the village of Svyrydonivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk, according to TASS.
Belarusian President Lukashenko said troops were deployed along the entire border with Ukraine, according to RIA.
North Korea condemned Ukraine’s attack against Russian territory as an act of terror and invasion backed by the US and the West. North Korea said the anti-Russia policy of the US is driving the global security environment to the brink of World War 3, while North Korea will stand with Russia as it seeks to protect its sovereignty and realise international justice, according to KCNA.
US, South Korean and Japanese leaders pledged to consult on regional challenges, provocations and threats, while they said they are resolved to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s Coast Guard said Philippine Coast Guard vessels illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal without permission from the Chinese government and one of the Philippine vessels ignored China’s repeated solemn warnings and deliberately collided with the Chinese vessel in an ‘unprofessional and dangerous’ manner. The Philippines later commented that the Philippine Coast Guard encountered ‘unlawful, aggressive manoeuvres’ in the South China Sea from Chinese Coast Guard vessels which resulted in structural damage to both Philippine Coast Guard vessels.

2D JAPAN

3 CHINA

CHINA/

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS//UK /SCANDINAVIAN AFFAIRS

IRELAND

Tiny village in Ireland, Tipperary overrun by migrants

(zerohedge)

Tiny Village In Ireland Overrun By Government-Relocated Migrants

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 – 08:45 AM

The ‘Great Replacement’ comes to Ireland? Public concerns surrounding government supported open immigration plans in the UK have been consistently treated as “xenophobic” and “overblown” by the media and authorities alike. The typical M.O. of politicians has been to ignore all scrutiny and attack anyone that dares to question the agenda.

Reports that migrant relocation programs were going to flood rural Irish locations with foreign elements raised eyebrows (and raised questions) last month as to the purpose of transplanting the third-world into outlying villages in the UK. These same villages have been demographically unchanged for centuries.

The theory, which holds considerable validity, is that western countries are being destabilized from within by corrupt progressive leaders with the intent to upend traditional western society and replace it with a self-devouring multicultural soup that is easier to convert to globalism. Rural areas of the west are commonly viewed as safe havens away from the corrosive politics of woke socialism, and the targeting of these places seems to verify everyone’s worst fears about open borders.

This brings us to the tiny hamlet of Tipperary in Ireland (population 165), where the Gardaí assisted Department of Integration had used a manor property called the Dundrum House Hotel to bring hundreds of Ukrainian refugees into the country. Locals noted they had few problems with the Ukrainians because they seemed to easily integrate into the already existing community. However, now that the government has their foot in the door of the village, they have decided to move the Ukrainians out and replace them with third-world migrants with non-western value systems.

Because of numerous examples of rampant criminality and violence (from rape gangs to mass stabbings) brought by such migrants to major cities throughout Europe and the UK, locals worry that same ideology of dominance and exploitation will now take over their once quiet corner of Ireland. The fact that around 80% of these migrants are single military age men gives little comfort to the residents.

Protests have erupted in Tipperary after it was revealed that at least 265 migrants would be relocated there, greatly outnumbering the indigenous population.

📍Dundrum, Tipperary.

This tiny Irish village of 200 people was forcibly planted this morning. 280 ‘asylum seekers’ are to be housed in this hotel, replacing the local population overnight.

Ireland is ground zero for population replacement. pic.twitter.com/L4x1x7QMbV
— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) August 13, 2024

Other more discreet and suspicious migrant compounds have been cited in rural areas of Ireland, protected by government security and housing only military age males from predominantly third-world and Islamic countries. The presence of these compounds reads more like a covert invasion rather than an attempt at integration.

Something very sinister is happening in Ireland.

Thousands of strange foreign men are being planted all around the country in sites which resemble military camps.

Locals are living in fear as masked foreign men patrol rural Ireland. pic.twitter.com/54zdz6UUkD
— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) August 13, 2024

Keep in mind that a common argument made by UK officials is that these migrants are “needed” in order to fill gaps in the service sector labor market. Yet, rural regions like these have no demand for such labor because they rely predominantly on tourism. Why are these foreign men being sent to these places?

Locals report that when concerns are raised by the public the government will assert that only women and children and families will be transplanted to these centers, and most of them will be Ukrainians. But when the media cameras are gone and the protests die down, military age males from Africa and the Middle East are quietly dumped into the community by the hundreds (and strangely, many men from Caucusus nation of Georgia).

With a majority of UK citizens (69%) opposed to open immigration according to polls and riots erupting after migrant attacks, UK governments have doubled down on “diversity” and are refusing to take public opposition seriously. When patriot protests are organized, progressive NGOs with extensive resources bus in leftist activists to disrupt or silence them.

The transplantation of young migrant men has also proven to be a buffer for the government, as gangs of foreigners patrol the streets and attempt to intimidate locals into silence. The trade-off is clear: Leftist officials give migrants access to the bounty of the west, and migrants protect those officials from popular uprisings in return.

The last places for western citizens to go to for safety are rural enclaves, and even now those are being taken away.

END

GERMANY/UKRAINE

Germany is furious that Ukraine was responsible for the NordStream bombing. Now they are ending all military aid to Ukraine.

(zerohedge)

The Beginning Of The End? Germany To Ban All New Ukraine Military Aid

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 – 03:45 PM

Three days ago, in the aftermath of the WSJ report seeking to radically shift the narrative over the Nordstream sabotage, where instead of the CIA being blamed for the explosion of the critical gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, unnamed “intelligence” sources forged on with a hilarious script according to which a top Ukraine general (operating initially under the instructions of Zelensky but then going rogue wen Z got “cold feet”) was responsible for coordinating the sabotage using a handful of rank amateurs who somehow managed to sneak to the bottom of the Baltic sea and conduct an unprecedented military operation, we said that – no matter the laughable veracity of the report – relations between Germany and Ukraine are “about to turn ugly”, and we asked why this story is coming out just now?

Looks like relations between Germany and Ukraine are about to turn ugly: Zelensky was behind the Nordstream sabotage (even if he allegedly got cold feet at the end, but was unable to halt it). The question: why this story coming out now.

10:25 PM · Aug 14, 2024

377.9K Views

We didn’t have long to wait to get the answer: as German media reports, this U-turn in the narrative (which according to some meant that NATO should now unleash its full military power against…. Ukraine, which had single-handedly attacked German assets by blowing up the Nordstream) was meant to soften the blow from Germany’s decision to finally cut off Ukraine’s – and Zelensky’s – unprecedented grift.

According to a Saturday report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the German government will stop new military aid to Ukraine as part of the ruling coalition’s plan to reduce spending. The report, which cited non-public documents and emails as well as discussions with unnamed sources, goes on to note that the moratorium on new assistance – which is already in effect – will affect new requests for funding, not previously approved aid,

In a letter sent to the German defense ministry on Aug. 5, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that future funding would no longer come from Germany’s federal budget but from proceeds from frozen Russian assets, according to the German newspaper. And since we already know that recent attempts to liquidate Russian assets crashed and burned over fears of escalating Russian retaliation, this effectively means no more aid for Ukraine.

Berlin, which is Europe’s main supplier of military aid to Kyiv, had previously signaled a change in course on Ukraine last month, when the governing coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals adopted a preliminary deal on a draft budget for 2025. The compromise detailed plans to slash future assistance to Ukraine by half to €4 billion to fulfill other spending priorities. And, it now appears, that even this token amount is about to be cut to zero.

As we reported in June, the G7’s decision to extend a USD 50 billion loan to Ukraine, backed by immobilized Russian assets, was this summit’s most significant step forward. This loan structure reflects a typical compromise between the US and Europe. While the straightforward solution would involve seizing all of Russia’s frozen assets (estimated at USD 280 billion) to directly fund Ukraine’s war efforts, European countries – particularly France, Germany, and Belgium – aggressively shied away from this, viewing it as too aggressive and fearing Russian reciprocation. Instead, they opted for using the interest on matured assets, which amounts to only a few billion dollars per year. The first option would be a game changer, we said, “whereas the second option falls embarrassingly short.”

And now Ukraine will have to be satisfied with receiving whatever meager interest seized Russian funds generate.

Meanwhile, the primary source of funding for Ukraine – the Biden family and various deep state operatives – is about to dry out, after Biden finally leaves the White House and quit politics forever in three months.

Speaking after the Cabinet approved the draft budget in mid-July, Germany FinMin Lindner said Ukraine would have to rely more on funds from “European sources” as well as the frozen Russian assets. But it’s still unclear if, and when, that money will flow.

According to Politico, contentions over Ukraine aid reportedly deepened the rifts in the ruling coalition in Berlin, already tattered by weeks of internal fights over a series of issues from the budget to welfare. Green leader and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said this week he plans to run for chancellor as the Greens’ candidate in the 2025 federal election, casting doubt on the survival of the governing alliance of which he is a member.

“It’s quite obvious that this coalition has major problems finding common ground,” Habeck said regarding the recent disputes.

“The ideas are falling apart.”

Which is also why Zelensky will have no choice but to resort to ever-more-desperate and shocking provocations and diversions to keep the money flowing, as the alternative is complete devastation for Ukraine and its Western backers.

END

GERMANY UKRAINE/

Lawmaker states that Ukraine must pay for the damage caused by the NordStream bombing. Question? with what money?

(zerohedge)

Ukraine Must Pay Germany Back For Damage From Nord Stream Bombing: Bundestag Lawmaker

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 04:15 AM

We previously highlighted that the recent “bombshell” WSJ Nord Stream report is yet another major attempt by mainstream gatekeepers to radically shift the narrative over the Nord Stream sabotage, and to put official distance between President Zelensky and his supposedly ‘rogue’ top general at the time who ‘oversaw’ the covert op. Still, the following is now crystal clear and fully established at this point, as even mainstream media now fully admits: Yes, Ukraine did it. No, Russia did not do it. And yes it had the involvement or at least foreknowledge of the CIA.

We further pointed out that this sudden U-turn in the narrative was meant to soften the blow from Germany’s decision to finally cut off Ukraine’s – and Zelensky’s – unprecedented grift. Already and to be expected, some German lawmakers are pissed at being so obviously used and abused by Kiev. After all the NS2 pipeline had been a years-long, multi-billion dollar Russia to Germany natural gas vital infrastructure project which cost $11 billion to build.

In the wake of the latest revelations, member of the German Bundestag, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel has been among the loudest Berlin officials in denouncing Kiev. She is calling for Ukraine to compensate Germany for the damage caused to its economy as a result of the September 26, 2022 underwater bombings.

Here’s what she posted to X on Friday in the wake of WSJ’s reporting and the latest disclosures surrounding the ‘mystery’ sabotage (according to machine translation from the German):

The economic damage to our country caused by the demolition of Nordstream presumably ordered by Zelensky – and not Putin as we were led to believe – should be “billed” to Ukraine.

Any “aid payments” that burden the German taxpayer should be stopped.

The firebrand and populist conservative politician is essentially telling Ukraine at this point: ‘you bombed it, you pay for it and stop taking advantage of our taxpaying citizenry.’ Or in other words, the gravy train has ended as the truth comes out.

Alice Weidel

@Alice_Weidel

Der wirtschaftliche Schaden für unser Land, der durch die mutmaßlich von #Selenskyj – und nicht etwa #Putin, wie man uns weismachen wollte – angeordnete Sprengung von #Nordstream entstanden ist, sollte der #Ukraine “in Rechnung” gestellt werden. Jegliche den deutschen Steuerzahler belastende “Hilfszahlungen” sind einzustellen. #DeshalbAfD #AfDTranslate post

4:00 AM · Aug 16, 2024

678.5K Views

Der wirtschaftliche Schaden für unser Land, der durch die mutmaßlich von #Selenskyj – und nicht etwa #Putin, wie man uns weismachen wollte – angeordnete Sprengung von #Nordstream entstanden ist, sollte der #Ukraine "in Rechnung" gestellt werden. Jegliche den deutschen…
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) August 16, 2024

Berlin-Kiev relations have further strained as the German Prosecutor General’s Office also lately issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian citizen suspected of involvement in the pipeline sabotage plot. The suspect is also described as having at least two accomplices, identified as experienced divers who directly assisted in installing explosive devices to the pipelines.

All of this is indeed having swift effect, given soon after news of the arrest warrant was made public, a Saturday report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) said that the German government will stop new military aid to Ukraine as part of the ruling coalition’s plan to reduce spending. The report, which cited non-public documents and emails as well as discussions with unnamed sources, goes on to note that the moratorium on new assistance – which is already in effect – will affect new requests for funding, not previously approved aid.

Berlin, which is Europe’s main supplier of military aid to Kyiv, had previously signaled a change in course on Ukraine last month, when the governing coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals adopted a preliminary deal on a draft budget for 2025. The compromise detailed plans to slash future assistance to Ukraine by half to €4 billion to fulfill other spending priorities. And, it now appears, that even this token amount could be cut to zero.

It will also be interesting to see how much traction Alice Weidel’s enough is enough messaging and calls for getting German public funds back from Ukraine will have among the German populace. Likely it will resonate strongly after well over a year of ‘war fatigue’ and as tensions could escalate into nuclear-armed showdown between Russia and NATO.

Longtime investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says alternative NS2 sabotage theories in NYT and German press were ‘concocted’ by CIA….

And likely the last shoe has still yet to drop on the still unraveling Nord Stream sabotage narrative. Legendary US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh predicted all of this ‘official narrative manipulation’ months ago.

end

ENGLAND/FRANCE

What is wrong with Starmer’s Labour government allowing these rebellious migrants to enter England?

(zerohedge)

Same Sh*t, Different Govt: Channel Migrants Record Daily Crossings For Starmer’s Labour

Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 – 08:10 AM

Authored by Dénes Albert vioa ReMix News,

More than 700 illegal immigrants crossed the English Channel from France to the U.K. on Sunday as the new left-wing government in Westminster struggles to contain the long-running crisis…

Home Office figures released on Monday revealed a total of 703 migrants were escorted to British shores, a new record since Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour Party took office last month.

The figure is the third-highest daily total this year, with illegal immigration showing no signs of slowing down under the new administration.

Illegal immigration and asylum are at the forefront of the political debate in Britain currently and were key issues during the general election campaign.

The left-wing Labour Party pledged to scrap the former Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, which would have seen all migrants who arrive illegally in Britain deported to the African country for offshore asylum processing — a policy former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hoped would deter migrants from making the perilous journey across the waterway and thwart the criminal gangs exploiting the crisis.

Starmer scrapped the scheme in his first few hours in Downing Street, a move that has certainly not helped stop the boats.

Since the start of the year, 18,342 asylum seekers have been registered arriving on British shores, a 13 percent increase over the same period last year. So far this year, 25 people have died during the dangerous crossing.

Mass immigration and a lack of integration have dominated political discourse in Britain recently following the mass stabbing of young girls at a dance class in the northwest town of Southport by a 17-year-old son of two Rwandan asylum seekers last month.

The attack led to mass rioting across the country and a controversial crackdown on free speech by Starmer’s party with dozens of people consequently jailed for posting comments about mass immigration that were deemed to have incited racial hatred.

END

5/RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

ISRAEL/HAMAS/SUNDAY

IDF kills 20 Hamas terrorists in Rafah

(JerusalemPost)

IDF kills 20 Hamas terrorists in Rafah, destroys rocket launchers aimed at Israel

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck targets in the area from which the projectiles were launched into the Nirim area on Friday.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAUGUST 18, 2024 09:57

https://player.jpost.com/public/player.html?player=jpost&media=3756500&url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-815159IDF troops operate in Gaza, August 18, 2024. (credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

https://trinitymedia.ai/player/trinity-player.php?language=en&pageURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2Fisrael-hamas-war%2Farticle-815159&unitId=2900003088&userId=0984023a-6fcf-4b29-a5e6-1be85cfd6d0a&isLegacyBrowser=false&isPartitioningSupport=1&version=20240815_fec3147aa24fc1c3984fc22c5b4290a50465133c&useBunnyCDN=0&themeId=140&unitType=tts-player

post.com/israel-hamas-war/article-815159

Nahal Brigade soldiers killed over 20 armed terrorists, targeted terrorist infrastructure, and found weapons, including a machine gun, Kalashnikov rifles, grenades, and military equipment while operating in the Rafah area over the past day, the IDF reported Sunday morning.

Under Division 162, soldiers continued to operate in the area of Rafah, above ground and in the tunnels.

Additionally, troops under Division 98 deepened their operations in the Khan Yunis area and the outskirts of Deir al-Balah.

Israel Air Force activity

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck targets in the area from which the projectiles were launched into the Nirim area on Friday.

IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, August 18, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) — IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, August 18, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

They also identified and destroyed launchers that were loaded and ready for firing in the Khan Yunis area.

end

ISRAEL HAMAS/SATURDAY

I doubt that there will ever be a hostage deal

(JerusalemPost)

Deal or no deal: Hamas denies Israeli, US claims ceasefire-hostage deal progressing

“Netanyahu undermined the agreement from the ground up,” senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al-Mayadeen.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAUGUST 17, 2024 11:13Updated: AUGUST 17, 2024 13:02

Ghazi Hamad, member of Hamas Political Office, delivers remarks on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, October 28, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/AMR ALFIKY) — Ghazi Hamad, member of Hamas Political Office, delivers remarks on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, October 28, 2023.(photo credit: REUTERS/AMR ALFIKY)

https://trinitymedia.ai/player/trinity-player.php?language=en&pageURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2Fisrael-hamas-war%2Farticle-815094&unitId=2900003088&userId=0984023a-6fcf-4b29-a5e6-1be85cfd6d0a&isLegacyBrowser=false&isPartitioningSupport=1&version=20240815_fec3147aa24fc1c3984fc22c5b4290a50465133c&useBunnyCDN=0&themeId=140&unitType=tts-player

Multiple Hamas officials on Saturday denied US and Israeli claims that a ceasefire-hostage deal was progressing – insisting that it was an “illusion” and that parties abide by the July 2 agreement presented by US President Joe Biden.

American officials, including Biden, stated that major gaps had been bridged in the ceasefire discussions spanning from Thursday to Friday which are anticipated to continue next week.

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ‘undermining’ the current hostage and ceasefire negotiations in a Friday interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen.

Hamad told Al-Mayadeen that Netanyahu was “practicing deception” and claimed that he was “setting new conditions and undermining what was previously agreed upon.”

Hamad pushed the idea that Netanyahu was not interested in a deal and was actively preventing the conclusion of negotiations.

“Netanyahu undermined the agreement from the ground up,” he said.

Hamas Political Bureau member Hossam Badran insisted that the terror group would adhere only to the terms discussed in the July 2 mediation attempts, it was announced on Hamas’s Telegram channel.

Badran noted that the July 2 discussions centered on a proposal made by United States President Joe Biden, which he credited to Israel. Citing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Badran claimed that Netanyahu was obstructing parties from reaching an agreement.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zohri mirrored similar sentiments to Badran and Hamad, according to Ynet, claiming that Hamas is “not facing a real negotiated agreement, but the imposition of American dictates.”

Zohri claimed that current efforts to reach a deal, and claims that an agreement would soon be reached, were an “illusion.”

“What we heard from the mediators indicates a major withdrawal from the agreement from the beginning of July,” the spokesperson claimed, while adding that US is “fully embracing Israel’s position, which has withdrawn from previous commitments.”

Consistent accusations

This is not the first time that Netanyahu has been accused of blocking negotiations with Egyptian mediators. Israeli negotiators and even US President Biden have accused him of working to prevent a deal from being made.

Addressing the recent attempts at negotiations, Hamas said, “The proposed paper does not contain anything ambiguous, but the Israeli side was procrastinating in providing an answer about what was proposed.”

Hamad accused Israel of introducing new conditions relating to the Philadelphi corridor after both sides had previously agreed on a total Israeli withdrawal.

He reiterated that Hamas would not allow Israel to remain in any part of the Gaza Strip, claiming that Israel was leaving loopholes in the agreement to allow them to return to war later.

Hamad pinned all of the issues during negotiations on Israel, saying, “Israel has thwarted all the mediators’ efforts to reach an agreement. Israel has thwarted the Doha negotiations today, and there was no progress.”

He called for mediators to put more pressure on Israel but seemingly distanced the negotiations from the expected Iranian-Hezbollah response to the twin assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr, saying, “The Iranian response and Hezbollah’s response are their right and have a different path from the path of negotiations.”

“Talk about negotiations, coexistence with the occupation, and peace is all lies,” he said.

end

ISRAEL/HAMAS/SUICIDE BOMBER

This is the first suicide bomber in 18 years. Israel must now have heightened security and make sure no Palestinian enters from the West Bank. There is now no way that Israel will allow any Palestinian to have a work visa in Israel. The Palestinians just signed their death warrant

(zerohedge)

Suicide-Bombing Strikes Tel Aviv For 1st Time In Many Years, Hamas Vows More To Come

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 01:05 PM

On Monday Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ) claimed responsibility for a rare terrorist attack which targeted the heart of Israel’s Tel Aviv. That’s when a powerful explosive device ripped through a south Tel Aviv neighborhood. A suicide bomber was observed carrying a backpack before it apparently detonated early, killing the culprit and injuring an innocent bystander who was on a motorized scooter.

Times of Israel reports that “The Shin Bet said it was still working to confirm the identity of the bomber, a man in his 50s, although Hebrew media outlets reported that he was believed to be a Palestinian from the Nablus area in the West Bank.” The last suicide bombings in Tel Aviv were in the early and mid-2000s.

Israeli police and intelligence have labeled it a terror attack after their initial investigation. Not long after, Hamas and PIJ confirmed that they were behind the joint operation, and promised more suicide attacks to come.

A statement confirmed responsibility for “the implementation of the martyrdom operation that took place yesterday evening Sunday in the city of Tel Aviv.” In reference to suicide attacks, the groups said the “martyrdom operations” in occupied lands will “return to the fore as long as the occupation’s executions and civilian displacement operations continue and the policy of assassinations continues.”

Such individual suicide bombings in Tel Aviv or other densely populated areas of Israel has become more of a rarity over recent years, and were more frequent in the 1990s and early 2000s during the Second Intifada.

It was particularly the period of the early 2000s which saw hundreds of Israelis wounded and killed by a series of suicide attacks.

As for this latest, authorities have speculated that a nearby busy synagogue may have likely been the intended target:

“It may be that the terrorist planned to go to a nearby synagogue or maybe a shopping center. We can’t understand yet why it exploded at that point,” he said.

A Tel Aviv resident told Ynet that at the time of the explosion, more than 80 people had been inside the nearby synagogue for evening prayers.

On Monday local reports say there has been a noticeable increase in police patrolling the streets and a heavier security presence around Tel Aviv.

Likely any entry points into Israel from the West Bank are also being more closely guarded and monitored, as Israeli society remains fearful of a potential return to that prior era of suicide attacks from the Intifada eras. The last big terror suicide bombing to hit Tel Aviv may have been as much as 18 years ago.

ISRAEL: TERROR AVERTED: An explosion in Tel Aviv appears to have been caused by a suicide bomber in failed major terror attack that detonated too early. The terrorist was the only one killed. His backpack was loaded with nails for maximum damage H’Y.

0:09

5:13 PM · Aug 18, 2024

11.4K Views

ISRAEL: TERROR AVERTED: An explosion in Tel Aviv appears to have been caused by a suicide bomber in failed major terror attack that detonated too early. The terrorist was the only one killed. His backpack was loaded with nails for maximum damage H’Y. pic.twitter.com/ZBqOewx7PS
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) August 18, 2024

ISRAEL HEZBOLLAH

Slowly but surely they are picking off these heads of the terrorist organizations

today: the head of Hezbollah Radwan

WATCH: IAF eliminates Hezbollah Radwan Commander Hussein Ibrahim

The IDF also announced that, earlier in the day, two soldiers were wounded as a result of projectiles launched from Lebanon that landed in the area of Misgav Am.

By DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARDAUGUST 17, 2024 12:24Updated: AUGUST 17, 2024 15:06

https://player.jpost.com/public/player.html?player=jpost&media=3756067&url=https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-815099IDF strike on Hezbollah Radwan Force commander Hussein Ibrahim Kasseb. August 17. 2024. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

https://trinitymedia.ai/player/trinity-player.php?language=en&pageURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2Fbreaking-news%2Farticle-815099&unitId=2900003088&userId=0984023a-6fcf-4b29-a5e6-1be85cfd6d0a&isLegacyBrowser=false&isPartitioningSupport=1&version=20240815_fec3147aa24fc1c3984fc22c5b4290a50465133c&useBunnyCDN=0&themeId=140&unitType=tts-player

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-815099

An Israel Air Force drone hit the motorcycle of Hezbollah Commander Hussein Ibrahim in the Tzur area in southern Lebanon on Saturday shortly after Hezbollah fired 55 rockets into northern Israel, the IDF confirmed.

Ibrahim was a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force – a force which has the main goal of infiltrating northern Israel.

The IDF confirmed on Saturday afternoon that shortly after sirens sounded in the area of Ayelet HaShahar in northern Israel, approximately 55 projectiles crossed from Lebanon.

Some of the barrages fell into open areas in northern Israel.

While initial reports indicated that there were no injuries, the military later confirmed that two people were receiving treatments for wounds incurred during the barrage at Rambam Medical Center.

Two men were hit by shrapnel and were transferred to hospital by helicopter. Their conditions were described as mild and moderate. The wounded man in moderate condition is undergoing surgery.

Fighting in the North (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

While the barrage did not lead to any fatalities, the IDF noted that the rockets ignited multiple fires, which the Israel Fire and Rescue Services are currently tackling.

The IDF confirmation came shortly after a correspondent for the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news agency Al-Mayadeen reported the terror group fired over 40 rockets in two successive salvos toward the Galilee.

Hezbollah later said in a statement that it had struck the Ayelet Hashahar Kibbutz in northern Israel in retaliation for the Nabatieh strike.

end

then

ISRAEL/HEZBOLLAH

another deadly strike by Israel into Southern Lebanon.

(zerohedge)

Ten Killed In Southern Lebanon In One Of The Deadliest Israeli Strikes Since Oct 7

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 – 02:35 PM

An overnight airstrike on southern Lebanon by Israel is being called one of the single deadliest attacks since the daily tit-for-tat exchange of fire began last October. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health announced the devastating attack killed at least ten people including “a woman and her two children” – and that five others were wounded, two critically. Some of the deceased were Syrian refugees.

While Lebanon says that a residential building was hit, Israel’s military maintains that its air force struck a weapons warehouse run by Hezbollah about seven miles from the Israeli border, in Nabatiyeh.

Al Jazeera says that some kind of factory building was struck in the attack, but that there was a residential floor with families and employees living there.

“We are a well-known family in the area. We have no political affiliation and are not aligned to any political party. We are concerned only with our business and livelihood,” Hussein Tahmaz, the factory owner, told Al Jazeera. He rejected that Hezbollah used it for weapons storage.

Hezbollah appeared to quickly retaliate, with Israel’s military conforming “approximately 55 projectiles” being fired into northern Israel on Saturday, resulting in no injuries.

However, a separate attack resulted in a soldier being severely injured and another lightly wounded after a projectile from Lebanon struck

Meanwhile, international diplomats have been scrambling, talking to both sides in an effort to avoid all-out war, which still looms. For at least a month now, there has been a greater urgency of countries to get their foreign nationals out:

Many foreign nationals are gone, heeding the advice of their governments. Plenty of Lebanese have fled too. Others cannot tear themselves away – like the 30-year-old chef of a hip café (Beirut has too many of these to count). She is tattooed and candid but prefers not to be named.

“Living in Beirut is like being in a toxic relationship you can’t escape,” she tells me.

“I am emotionally attached. I have family abroad, and I could leave, but I don’t want to. We live day to day. And we joke about the situation.”

In the next breath she admits business has suffered, and she has post-traumatic stress disorder. “It’s like a cold war for us,” she says. She is expecting a hotter one but hopes it will be short.

Lebanon’s economy had already for the last couple years been in free-fall, with a severe banking crisis and runaway inflation, and with common Lebanese blocked from accessing their own savings by local banks.

At least 9 people killed in an Israeli warplane attack on Wadi Al-Kfour in Nabatieh. There are children among those killed. pic.twitter.com/aiuVjumtg2
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) August 17, 2024

Israel has warned that if all-out war breaks out it will send not just Hezbollah but all of Lebanon back to the “stone age”. Many Western carriers have for weeks suspended service to both Beirut and Tel Aviv, citing safety concerns.

end

ISRAEL/HAMAS/SUNDAY

no surprise here!

Hamas rejects US ‘bridging’ offer as Blinken lands in Israel to advance hostage deal

The US proposal essentially corresponds to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and a refusal to allow for the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza, Hamas said.

By TOVAH LAZAROFFAUGUST 18, 2024 21:31Updated: AUGUST 18, 2024 22:19

Hamas under pressure to accept US hostage proposal; Cairo talks loom. (photo credit: Canva, REUTERS) — Hamas under pressure to accept US hostage proposal; Cairo talks loom.(photo credit: Canva, REUTERS)

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Hamas rejected America’s “bridging proposal” to help finalize a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel Sunday night amid a major diplomatic blitz by the Biden administration to finalize an agreement this week.

The “bridging proposal” placed new conditions on the exchange of hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel, Hamas said as he referred to Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists that would be released in the deal. Other agreements previously arrived at have been retracted, it explained.

The US proposal essentially corresponds to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a permanent ceasefire and a refusal to allow for the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza, Hamas said.

The terror group spoke up after Netanyahu’s office released a statement that left no room for doubt as to where Netanyahu stood on the issue of a permanent ceasefire, which has been a key Hamas demand.

The Prime Minster’s Office stressed that Israel has not given up on one of its most fundamental demands, that it must be allowed to continue to battle Hamas in Gaza until such time as it has ousted the terror group from the enclave, a goal it has yet to complete ten months into the war.

Relatives of hostages and supporters take part in a protest calling for their release in Tel Aviv (credit: REUTERS/SUSANA VERA)

Hamas has insisted that the deal must include an Israeli agreement for a permanent ceasefire.

The US has hoped to get the deal out the door with an agreement from both sides, that the issue of a permanent ceasefire would be negotiated during phase one of the deal.

That phase would allow some 18-33 hostages to be freed during a six-week period.

PMO says Hamas retracts deans

The Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday that Hamas had retracted that demand. For months there were those that claimed “Hamas would never agree to give in on ending the war as a condition for a deal, and proposed giving in to Hamas’s demand.

“They were wrong then – and they are also wrong today. The Prime Minister has strongly insisted on this fundamental demand, which is vital to achieving the goals of the war, and Hamas changed its position,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

It also charged that “There are serial leakers who are harming the ability to advance a deal.”

In particular, the Prime Minister’s Office stressed, that Israel wants to hold onto the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors.

“Even today, the Prime Minister insists that we remain in the Philadelphia Corridor to prevent the [Hamas] terrorists from re-arming,” Netanyahu’s office stated.

It spoke of the importance of ensuring that the maximal number of live hostages would return to Israel in the first phase of the three-phase deal US President Joe Biden unveiled on May 31.

“The Prime Minister will continue to work to promote a deal that will maximize the number of live hostages [to be returned} and that will enable the achievement of all the war’s goals,” Netanyahu’s office stressed.

The Prime Minister’s Office issued the statement after a weekend in which the United States and Israel had expressed optimism that the final stage of the hostage talks would be held in Cairo on Wednesday.

Netanyahu spoke Sunday with the team that will represent Israel at those Cairo talks, with KAN reporting that the mandate he gave the negotiators was a narrow one.

Professional-level Israeli teams were in Doha and Cairo on Sunday to continue talks for the release of the remaining 115 hostages.

Egypt and Qatar with the help of the United States have been the main mediators for the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, since the terror group led an invasion of Southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the Gaza war.

CIA Director William Burns held two days of negotiations in Doha ending Friday, with the participation of a high-level Israeli delegation led by Mossad Chief David Barnea aimed a bridging the gaps between Israel and Hamas over the hostage deal.

Erasing the gaps

During those talks, which did not directly include Hamas, the United States put what it referred to as a “bridging proposal,” which it said erased the gaps between Israel and Hamas with regard to the implementation of the May 31 proposal.

The Prime Minister’s Office statement, however, reflected an Israeli position that did not seem to have differed much from its stance before the Doha talks and after.

Among the sticking points has been Israel’s insisting that it must continue to hold a critical buffer zone area between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, as well as another security line in central Gaza knows the Netzarim Corridor.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum accused Netanyahu of dragging his feet on a deal, a move that comes at the expense of the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

It’s presumed that out of the 115 remaining there, 76 of whom are presumed to be alive.

The forum recalled that the maximal number of live hostages had been released during the first hostage deal in November, when 105 were freed, to underscore the point that an agreement was the best method to bring the hostages home.

“We would like to remind the Prime Minister that the absolute majority of the hostages were released in that [November] deal,” the forum stated, adding that since then the government has failed to close a second deal.

“The 115 hostages are waiting for their country to bring them home. We will not allow another failure. Until the last of the hostages returns home, one can say that the State of Israel and its leader have not done everything in their power to return them,” it said.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera this weekend, accused Netanyahu of not wanting to achieve an agreement.

There was an agreement, which Israel proposed and which Hamas accepted, and then Israel introduced new demands into the proposal.

Hamdan said that the agreement it supported already in July was the one put forward by Biden on May 31 and backed by the UN Security Council.

Israel’s response to Hamas’s acceptance of the deal was to assassinate its leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, he said. Israel has not taken responsibility for that killing, but it is widely presumed to be behind Haniyeh’s assassination.

Israel had already said it would withdraw from Netzarim and Phladelphi and now it doesn’t want to, he said.

Hamas, Hamdan said, wants a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza.

Israel wants the right to attack Gaza, even if there is a “prisoner exchange” and that is unacceptable, Hamdan said.

“We want to push them out of Gaza in order to secure the lives of the Palestinians, and not give the Israelis the right to attack whenever they want,” he stressed.

Netanyahu, in turn, accused Hamas of refusing to accept the deal as he called for strong pressure to be leveled against it.

Pressure should be on Hamas, not Israel

“The pressure needs to be directed at Hamas and [its leader Yahya] Sinwar, not the Government of Israel,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly government meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday as he stressed his commitment to freeing the hostages.

“This is a national mission of the highest order,” Netanyahu told his government.

“We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate,” he said.

Netanyahu defended himself against charges that he has put obstacles in the way of the deal, by standing on some principled points as he explained that it was important not to cave to every Hamas demand.

Israel is “conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give.

“There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well,” he said.

“Alongside the major efforts we are making to return our hostages, we stand on the principles that we have determined, which are vital for the security of Israel,” he said.

Israel has maintained its adherence to the proposal unveiled in Washington, he said, adding that the stumbling block has been Hamas.

“Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha,” Netanyahu said, adding that “strong military and diplomatic pressure is the way to secure the release of our hostages.”

END

LEBANON/MONDAY

This bankrupt nation has now been plunged into total darkness as the last operational power plant runs

out of fuel. Dangerous as power to water sewage is out and drinking water pumps

(zerohedge))

Lebanon Plunged Into Darkness As Last Operational Power Plant Runs Out Of Fuel

Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 – 07:15 PM

The entirety of the Lebanese capital and the whole nation has been plunged into darkness amid a crippling power outage which has been in effect since midday Saturday.

That’s when the state power provider Electricité du Liban (EDL) announced in a statement that “the last operational unit at the Zahrani power plant was forced to shut down completely, due to the complete depletion of the plant’s fuel oil reserves, resulting in a total power outage across all Lebanese territories.”

The official statement identified that the shutdown affects “essential facilities such as the airport, port, water pumps, sewage systems and prisons.”

The situation could grow dangerous for the citizenry given that even wastewater treatment facilities and drinking water pumping stations have been impacted, resulting in the South Lebanon Water Establishment to issue a statement “urging citizens to conserve water as much as possible due to the expected reduction in water supply.”

Separate regional reports say that the government anticipated the depletion of fuel, and prepared for electricity generators to temporarily supply power to Beirut Airport for two days.

The General Director of Beirut Airport expressed hope that it can still be operational until additional fuel arrives, while caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad indicated a timeline of 24-48 hours for the resumption of regular power operations across the capital.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayyaz is seeking to assure the public that new gas shipments from Egypt will soon arrive at Lebanese ports to resupply the fuel required for power plants. Algeria too has in a fresh statement said it is ready to send emergency fuel assistance.

While Lebanon’s economic and electricity and resource woes have been exacerbated by the de facto state of war between Hezbollah and Israel in the southern border, the reality is the country has already suffered energy shortages and rolling blackouts for at least the last two years following the banking and currency crisis.

Neighboring Syria too has also had regular blackouts and periods where the water is turned off going back years. The whole region came under severe wartime economic strain going back to the height of the Syrian proxy war, and the full impact on smaller Lebanon is now being felt full force. But is also a story of severe mismanagement by the Central Bank of Lebanon, also amid long-running and historic corruption and elite cronyism.

Lebanon is currently experiencing a blackout, which is not related to conflicts but rather to the government’s failure to pay its bills.

12:53 PM · Aug 17, 2024

2,606 Views

Lebanon is currently experiencing a blackout, which is not related to conflicts but rather to the government's failure to pay its bills. pic.twitter.com/cpR0SnA7VJ
— SuperGirlBunny_TheChamp (@SuperGirlDChamp) August 17, 2024

Some Western analysts have blamed Hezbollah for stealing and diverting fuel and electricity from Beirut airport, and for holding the country’s resources hostage, but the economic woes are a much bigger force which have been felt for a long time before the current conflict with Israel.

end

RUSSIA/UKRAINE

How should Moscow respond to threats from its Baltic neighbors – Global South

The sad reality is that confrontations with Russia are likely to continue in a number of regions.
In the Western part of Ukraine there are huge protests over mobilization and losses being reported from Kursk region. Death is death and ordinary people do not wish to see loved ones die. At some point it just overwhelms and protests occur as does local violence.
Tragic as this is, such death has always historically been accepted and encouraged until it beats closer to the sponsors. Today, it is likely that economic realities will serve to guide more sensible folk while those bought and delusional will continue to be sacrificial lambs.
Capital investment will coldly understand this and act accordingly and this will unleash a new realignment of opportunity. While battlefield tactics will be augmented by more efficient weapons systems being developed in real time. It should be noted that Russia already has a wartime economy parallel to a consumer one and is growing reasonably balanced. While the West is drowning in debt sown by mindless waste and greed. Afghanistan is a perfect example of waste.

How should Moscow respond to threats from its Baltic neighbors

end

Ukraine Destroys 3rd Bridge In Russia’s Kursk, Zelensky Stresses He’ll Keep Territory

MONDAY, AUG 19, 2024 – 08:50 AM

Following the Friday destruction of the strategic bridge in the Russian town Glushkovo, which lies in Kursk oblast, and the taking out of another bridge across the River Seym on Saturday, Ukraine has attacked and damaged a third bridge in the same region, Moscow has confirmed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee on Monday announced that yet another bridge located along the River Seym, which winds through the Kursk region, was destroyed in a Ukrainian attack.

Ukraine’s military has said that the targeted attacks are intended to disrupt Russian supply lines and make Russian troop and armory movement much more difficult.

“Minus one more bridge,” Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram while publishing footage of the attack.

“The Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision air strikes,” Oleshchuk said further.

In follow-up to this Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined his stated aims in detail:

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory,” he said in his evening address.

He also explained how the hundreds of Russian troops captured in Kursk since the brazen cross-border operation began on Aug.6 will be used to bolster the countries “exchange fund” – a reference to the ability to get Ukrainians back through prisoner swaps.

RT has noted that “Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last month that the number of POWs held by both sides is five to one in Russia’s favor,” but now “Ukraine claims to have taken dozens of Russian border guards prisoner during the first phase of its Kursk offensive.”

Ukrainian officials have of late talked about prioritizing the return of those “who defended Azovstal” in future prisoner exchanges, many of which were made of the infamous Azov Battalion, which is well-known to have neo-Nazis in its ranks.

There are widespread reports that Ukraine has utilized US-supplied munitions, including the HIMARS system (last Friday) to strike some of these bridges. The below video is from the third bridge to be blown up.

JDAM strike on a Bridge near Zvanne, Kursk. Single hit. I remember seeing multiple attempts on the Bridges near Kherson when the AFU was preparing to retake the city. Ukraine’s proficiency with precision munitions has become very accomplished over the last year.

0:16

4:42 PM · Aug 18, 2024

978 Views

JDAM strike on a Bridge near Zvanne, Kursk.

Single hit.

I remember seeing multiple attempts on the Bridges near Kherson when the AFU was preparing to retake the city.

Ukraine’s proficiency with precision munitions has become very accomplished over the last year. pic.twitter.com/2A9gNRhKWV
— 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐯™ (@Shavghan) August 18, 2024

Though impossible to confirm, Ukraine is now claiming to have seized 440 square miles of Russian territory. It also says the Kursk operation has been able to divert Moscow’s attention from the front lines in Donbass, though the degree to which infantry troops have had to be pulled and relocated to Russia’s southern oblasts for defense remains uncertain.

end

RUSSIA/USA/GERMANY

Lavrov Says ‘Clear’ That US Ordered Nord Stream Attacks, Demands Answers From Germany

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 11:05 AM

Russia is calling out the last several days of Western media reporting on the Nord Stream gas pipeline bombing as essentially a limited hangout.

Suddenly all of this ‘new information’ has come out of the German investigation and leaked to the press, and seems by design an attempt to shield both the Ukrainian president and Washington from any culpability, as we’ve been detailing. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has responded to the WSJ’s recent reporting, saying Monday it was “clear” the US ordered the Sept 2022 attacks on the vital Russia to Germany gas pipelines.

The central thesis of last week’s Wall Street Journal report is that a Ukrainian crew conducted the covert attacks with the oversight Kiev’s then-military commander-in-chief, but that Zelensky tried to stop it when he got a call from the CIA. But the general went ‘rogue’ and carried out his own op anyway.

Lavrov responded during a visit to Azerbaijan on Monday by stressing “It is clear that to carry out such a terrorist attack, there was a command from the very top, as they say. For the West, the very top is, of course, Washington.”

As to the WSJ’s narrative that the idea to blow up the pipelines was hatched among Ukrainian officers and businessmen having a wild boozy night, Lavrov told the Izvestia outlet that the this is “not serious.”

Lavrov further expressed frustration and anger at Germany, posing that Moscow has long demanded real answers of the German investigation, but has been stonewalled. Instead, German officials are now making sensational assertions to international media, he complained:

“Germany must answer all questions. First, they must stop categorically refusing to present the facts that they could not but discover. When at least some of the information we demand is not provided through official channels, but pops up in newspaper articles, and simultaneously in three, I think, German periodicals and in the Wall Street Journal in the United States, this induces the thought that all this was plotted in advance,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov said the sophistication of such a deep underwater bombing would have to have American or government intelligence or military support.

“Now we are witnessing attempts to blame everything on a group of some drunken officers who, together with businessmen who was partying with them, either hired someone or decided to learn diving skills themselves. This is not serious,” Lavrov asserted in the comments.

“Even if any of the persons mentioned in the German press, Ukrainians, were somehow involved in this, it is clear that they could not have done that alone. It is clear that such a terrorist attack required orders from on high, from the very top, as we say, and the top for the West is Washington, of course,” the top diplomat added.

Lavrov then concluded that one thing remains certain… “this whole operation was conceived to somehow divert the public’s attention both in Germany and in the whole world from the true perpetrators, the culprits, and the end beneficiaries of this terrorist act,” he explained.

Exclusive image of the drunken Ukrainian diver placing the bomb on the Nord Stream pipeline.

Exclusive image of the drunken Ukrainian diver placing the bomb on the Nord Stream pipeline. pic.twitter.com/V81RTle36m
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) August 15, 2024

“We will insist on a transparent international investigation,” he underscored. “It is a disgrace for Germany to just silently accept the way it was deprived of the long-term basis of energy supplies and, consequently, of economic prosperity, which was, in general, the key to its development for many decades in the form of steady supplies of reasonably priced Russian gas. Germany [swallowed [this] silently, without any comment.”

However, as we noted earlier, some Germany politicians are angry enough over the recent ‘revelations’ to demand repayment from Ukraine for the lasting and permanent damage done to the German economy, and the brunt borne by the German taxpayer.

END

Hanseler has it correct!

(Hanseler)

Kursk: Invasion, Outbreak Of War, Distraction, Pawn?

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 12:45 PM

Authored by Peter Hanseler via VoiceFromRussia.ch,

Ukraine’s attack in the Kursk region is prompting Western media and “experts” to make statements that have nothing to do with reality. It will fail…

President Putin

Snapshot

There are currently around 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region. To date, the Ukrainians have succeeded in capturing around 50 villages and the town of Sudzha. The entire conquered area measures approx. 1,000 km2 – this corresponds to 0.0058% of the area of Russia.

The aim seemed to be to capture the nuclear power plant located southwest of Kursk in order to gain control of it. In the meantime, the Russians have succeeded in stopping the Ukrainians’ advance to the north and east. There the Ukrainians are digging themselves in. In the west of the deployment zone, the Ukrainian forces are moving in a westerly direction. The momentum is slowing down noticeably.

Red line: Russia-Ukraine border – colored yellow: Approximate territorial gains as of August 17, 2024 – Source: Military Summary

At the same time, on the night of August 17, the Ukrainians once again tried to destroy the Crimean Bridge using all available means – drones, cruise missiles, HIMARS, etc. They did not succeed.

The operation in the Kursk region marked the first time Russia had been attacked since 1941. At that time, almost 4 million soldiers invaded Russia. They failed before Moscow in the winter of 1941. However, the war lasted over three years longer and left behind a mountain of corpses of around 40 million people.

What are Ukraine’s goals – have they been achieved?

If one looks at the scale (troops deployed and territory gained), the question arises as to what the Ukrainians are aiming to achieve with this military action.

What is important in this context is the fact that the military situation for Ukraine on the almost 2,000 kilometre-long front is dire. The Russians are advancing faster and faster. Ukrainian losses in the last two months have totalled over 60,000 per month. This means that the loss rate has doubled this summer in a long-term comparison. The Ukrainians are unable to compensate for these losses despite the extremely aggressive forced recruitment. At the moment, conscripts in Ukraine are being hunted down and thrown onto the front line after a quick bleaching period of a few days – a human tragedy.

The Ukrainian leadership is well aware of this and a few weeks ago (President) Zelensky announced that the Russians would have to be involved in the next round of possible peace negotiations. On the one hand, this is an admission that the ‘peace negotiations’ at the Bürgenstock in Switzerland, as predicted by us, were a complete failure and that (President) Zelensky has lost all initiative and political freedom of movement.

However, the endeavour to negotiate with the Russians was already doomed to failure before the action in the Kursk region. The legalistic Russians no longer recognise (President) Zelensky as the legitimate leader of Ukraine. And rightly so: (President) Zelensky has been ruling without a constitutional basis since May. Consequently, we put the title of the president in brackets in our articles. A negotiated solution involving (President) Zelensky was therefore ruled out even before the Kursk offensive.

Consequently, the Ukrainian leadership is seeking a liberating strike with the action in Kursk; this may well make sense from the Ukrainian perspective if a sustainable result could be achieved in the medium term.

It can be assumed that the Ukrainians are pursuing several goals with this action: On the one hand, they hoped that with their invasion of the Kursk region, the Russians would withdraw their troops from the front and thus halt or at least reduce their advance along the entire line of contact. In this way, the Ukrainians hoped to achieve what the Russians had achieved with the opening of the Kharkov front a few months ago.

The Ukrainians have demonstrably failed to achieve the first objective: the advance of Russian troops in the various sections of the front continues unabated.

The second objective was to hold the spoils for possible negotiations by capturing the Kursk nuclear power plant and taking as many Russian civilians as possible hostage.

These goals do not appear to be achievable either. The capture of the Kursk nuclear power plant has failed and appears to be out of reach in the future. Nevertheless, this nuclear power plant poses a real threat to a large part of the Russian population, for example if it were to be hit by HIMARS missiles. By taking civilians hostage, the Ukrainians will indeed ensure that the Russians will hold back in their fightback with heavy weapons, which will lead to a delay in the recapture.

However, the Ukrainians will buy their initial success at a very high price. As with the drone attacks in Moscow at the beginning of the conflict, the Ukrainians have not succeeded in frightening the Russians with this action either. What’s more, in the past – as was the case during the Second World War, for example – such terrorist actions have not borne fruit at all, but have led to implacability on the Russian side. This time will be no different.

A comparison with the Battle of Kursk is ridiculous

Incidentally, a comparison with the Battle of Kursk is ridiculous: almost 800,000 soldiers took part in Operation Citadel in July 1943 on the German side and almost two million on the Russian side. The respective sides were led by the finest commanders. Wehrmacht: von Manstein, von Kluge, Hoth, Kempf, Model, Guderian, Jodl, etc. Soviet Union: Zhukov, Rokossovski, Vatutin, Konev, etc.

It is considered the largest battle ever fought in world history and the last offensive of the Wehrmacht on the territory of the Soviet Union, which ended disastrously for the Germans and left behind a mountain of corpses totalling around 800,000 people.

A comparison is therefore in no way appropriate.

How does the West portray these events?

On 15 August, the Ukrainians speak of 75 villages taken, the Russians of 40.

I know the area around Kursk personally. Huge plains, interspersed with small villages or hamlets with a few houses, sometimes a petrol station, a few small shops and possibly a police station. Everything completely open – no Russian army for miles around. If two armoured personnel carriers with twenty soldiers drive in, that village is considered conquered. To describe this occupation as a ‘conquest’ is therefore misleading and pure propaganda. It is true that the Ukrainians have set up a Kursk military command. However, this does not change the fact that 1,000 km2 of sparsely populated territory will not bring about any strategic change. In addition, the troops now in the region must be supplied. This can only be done at the expense of the troops on the main front.

The fact that this coup is nevertheless being celebrated in part as a turning point in the war is merely an indication of the desperate overall situation in Ukraine.

In December 1944, the Wehrmacht attempted to turn the tide in the Ardennes in a similar way (Battle of the Bulge). After a rapid advance by the last well-equipped German armoured troops that lasted a few days, the offensive quickly collapsed under the overwhelming forces of the Allies, who were initially taken completely by surprise. There is every indication that this military action will meet the same fate for Ukraine.

Optimism in the West is a chimera

The West has already announced that it will supply even more weapons. The Ukrainians’ main problem, however, is that the huge losses mean that no personnel – and certainly no qualified personnel – is available. This clearly reflects the West’s perfidious strategy: fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

The Ukrainian people are aware of this.

The Ukrainian people are unable and unwilling to go on

I have established good contacts in Ukraine. I cannot go into detail about the nature of these contacts, but they are sources that allow me to gain a relatively good impression of the mood of the people. These are not political sources, but sources that cut across all social classes and the whole country. What do they actually mean and say – what is the real mood in Ukraine?

The people have had enough – of the war, of the corruption, of the power cuts, of the heat, of Zelensky, who came to power with the promise of peace with a fantastic result and betrayed his people. The people want peace.

The question of whether they would give up Crimea, Donbass, Kherson and Zaporizhia in order to achieve peace is not really an issue. 90% answer ‘yes’. Western media report 25% to 45%. It is worth remembering that as recently as December, the remnants of the Ukrainian middle class still largely assumed that they would be able to win the war. There is nothing left of this optimism.

The only question that now remains is whether, how and when the people will be able to assert their will. Only time will tell.

The Western media, which constantly pretend to be on the side of the Ukrainian people and to represent their interests, show through their deliberately false reporting that they are completely indifferent to the fate of those people.

Conclusion

History teaches us that a last stand by a sinking army does not lead to lasting results (see the Battle of the Bulge in 1944).

This action in the Kursk region was only possible thanks to a surprise effect – the Ukrainians succeeded in doing this, the Russians actually allowed themselves to be surprised. Whether this military action was made possible by negligence, betrayal or a deliberate but incorrect risk analysis is completely unclear and ultimately irrelevant. The Russians always stand behind their leadership in times of need and will push the Ukrainians back out of Russia despite any sacrifices.

Anyone who claims that this action was carried out without close leadership from Washington and London has still not recognised the nature of this conflict: The US and the UK are waging a proxy war against Russia, Ukraine is merely an implementing agent.

Ultimately, this incident is just one piece of the mosaic in a threatening overall picture that has been keeping the world on tenterhooks for months now and will probably continue to do so for some time to come.

6.COVID ISSUES/VACCINE ISSUES//DRUG AND HEALTH ISSUES

Thousands seek compensation after Covid vaccines ‘left them disabled’

Payments have been awarded for conditions including stroke, heart attack, blood clots, inflammation of the spinal cord and facial paralysis

Sarah Knapton, Science Editor17 August 2024 • 1:03pm

Leona Sanders, 52, was left hospital-bound after three jabs — Leona Sanders was left hospital-bound after three jabs. Her husband Seb, a champion flat race jockey, has been fighting on her behalf

Nearly 14,000 people in Britain have applied for payments from the government for alleged harm caused by Covid vaccines, new figures show…To continue…

The Telegraph free

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/17/covid-vaccine-astrazeneca-sick-victims-compensation-scheme/

end

First Monkey Pox and now Polio. The real problem is worldly lack of immunity

(Wilkins)

WHO Raises Outbreak Alarm As Once Eradicated Polio Returns To Gaza

Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 – 02:00 PM

Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams,

Following over a month of warnings, Gaza recorded its first case of polio since the highly contagious virus was eradicated there 25 years ago, prompting a Friday call by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for a temporary truce to enable a vaccination drive in the embattled strip.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that an 10-month-old infant in the central city of Deir al-Balah “who has not received any polio vaccine dose” has tested positive for the virus, which often causes paralysis and can be fatal. The ministry said the baby is one of “a number of children” who have presented with symptoms consistent with polio in recent days.

“The continued brutal Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has caused a health disaster as witnessed by international organizations,” the ministry added, citing “the lack of basic hygiene needs, the lack of sanitation services, the accumulation of waste on the streets and around the shelters of the displaced, and the lack of safe drinking water” as factors that “have created a conducive environment for outbreaks.”

Responding to the news, Guterres implored Israeli and Palestinian forces to lay down their arms so that U.N. humanitarian aid workers can launch a campaign to vaccinate half a million Gazan children.

“I am appealing to all parties to provide concrete assurances right away guaranteeing humanitarian pauses for the campaign,” he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” Guterres stressed. “But in any case, a polio pause is a must.”

The U.N. World Health Organization and other groups sounded the alarm after poliovirus type 2 was found in Gaza wastewater last month. The discovery prompted the Israel Defense Forces to offer polio vaccines to its soldiers taking part in the invasion of the coastal enclave. Earlier this month, the Gaza Health Ministry declared the entire strip a “polio epidemic zone.”

Guterres said Friday that Gaza’s health, water, and sanitation systems “have been decimated” by Israeli attacks, which have destroyed or damaged most hospitals and primary care facilities and created fertile ground for the spread of disease.

As Leslie Roberts wrote recently for Science:

The poliovirus is transmitted through the “fecal-oral” route—by contact with the feces of an infected child or consumption of water or food contaminated by fecal matter. The conditions in which the 1.9 million displaced Gazans are living—crammed into unhygienic camps with little access to clean water and sanitation and untreated sewage flowing openly between tents—create an ideal environment for the virus to thrive.

Since the war began in October 2023, 70% of water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have been significantly damaged, and about 340,000 tons of solid waste have accumulated in or near populated areas, according to an estimate from the U.N. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Cluster. In June, Oxfam estimated there is just one toilet for every 4,130 people in Al-Mawasi, a supposed “safe zone” west of Khan Younis that recently came under Israeli attack.

In addition to polio, Israel’s assault on Gaza and its disruption of medical supplies have fueled the spread of other preventable diseases including measles and hepatitis A.

A delegation from the UN finally made it into North Gaza. The video footage from the car shows a harrowing level of destruction. pic.twitter.com/wDRljMh8MR
— AHMED | أحمد (@ASE) August 17, 2024

“We know how an effective polio vaccination campaign must be administered,” Guterres said. “Given the wholesale devastation in Gaza, at least 95% vaccination coverage will be needed during each round of the two-round campaign to prevent polio’s spread and reduce its emergence.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said that it has been working with the U.N. and other international organizations “over the past weeks on developing an integrated comprehensive plan for the implementation of an expanded polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip,” and that it will “carry out a vaccination campaign in the next few days targeting children under the age of 10.”

Children, who make up around half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, have been particularly hard-hit by Israel’s 316-day Gaza onslaught. More than 16,000 of the at least 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and bullets are minors. The “complete siege” of Gaza—which has been entered as evidence in the International Court of Justice genocide trial against Israel—has disrupted the entry of food, medicine, and other vital supplies, fueling a famine that has killed dozens of Palestinian children.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 1.1 million doses of a two-dose, orally administered type 2 polio vaccine have been provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund, with another 400,000 doses on the way. UNICEF said it “is coordinating delivery efforts and the cold chain equipment needed for storage.”

Medical teams from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—which is the largest healthcare provider in Gaza, even as Israeli forces have killed around 200 of its workers—said they are ready to administer the polio vaccines and assist in their distribution.

The Gaza Health Ministry renewed its “appeal to the international community and the international health organizations to speed up intervention to immediately stop the barbaric Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, work to prepare the ground conditions in order to rescue what can be salvaged, and provide immediate healthcare services to… our people.”

As the poliovirus is now circulating in Gaza, the @UN is poised to launch a vaccine campaign for more than 640,000 children.

It's impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign amid a raging war.

Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio in Gaza is peace and an… pic.twitter.com/gle5FZDzTt
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 16, 2024

The agency also made an “urgent appeal” for “the necessity of immediate action to rebuild safe drinking water and sanitation systems, dispose of medical and solid waste, work on importing fuel to pump clean fresh water, and allow unconditional entry of medical supplies, medicines, and special materials used for personal hygiene.”

Guterres underscored the need to “defeat a vicious virus that, left unchecked, would have a disastrous effect not only for Palestinian children in Gaza, but also in neighboring countries and the region.”

“Polio does not care about dividing lines, and polio does not wait,” he said. “Polio goes beyond politics. It transcends all divisions. And so it is our shared obligation to come together. To mobilize—not to fight people, but to fight polio.” However, he stressed, “it is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.”

“A successful polio vaccination campaign needs safety,” Guterres added. “Safety for health workers to do their jobs. Safety for children and families to get to the health facilities. And safety for those health facilities to be protected from bombardment.”

end

Please do not take the vaccine as it will cause you great harm. The drug of choice is ivermectin along with interferon

(zerohedge)

Drug Company Announces It Will Produce Millions Of Monkeypox Vaccines By Next Year

MONDAY, AUG 19, 2024 – 05:00 AM

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Shares of mpox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic saw an increase this week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency and as the company’s CEO announced it could provide 10 million doses of the vaccine.

“We have inventory and we have the capabilities. What we’re missing are the orders,” CEO Paul Chaplin told Bloomberg this week.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) previously said it needed 10 million doses to deal with an mpox, also known as monkeypox, outbreak that has spread from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to other African nations. WHO and other health officials say that the strain of mpox appears to be more deadly than another variant that caused a worldwide outbreak in 2022 and 2023.

In the interview, Chaplin said his firm has has 300,000 doses of the vaccine ready to be distributed right away, while adding that 2 million doses could be provided to Africa by the end of 2024. “We are in late August already, so it really does need some speed in the decision making to be able to do that,” he said.

Over the past five days, his company’s stock has increased by about 49 percent, raising to about $14.11 per share as of Friday afternoon.

Bavarian Nordic on Friday also submitted vaccine-related data to the European Union health regulator to extend use of its vaccine to cover children aged 12 to 17.

“Children and adolescents are disproportionally affected by mpox in the ongoing outbreak in Africa, highlighting the importance and urgency to broaden the access to vaccines and therapies for this vulnerable population,” Chaplin said in a statement.

Emergent BioSolutions, a U.S.-based company that acquired a smallpox vaccine manufacturer from Sanofi in 2017, also saw its stock increase 54 percent over the past five days, raising to about $10.64 per share.

In the current mpox outbreak, have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in Congo since it started in January 2023.

Emergency Declaration

The WHO declared the recent outbreak of the disease a “public health emergency of international concern,” or the agency’s highest form of alert. It is announced when diseases are spreading in new or unusual ways, and is aimed at galvanizing international co-operation and funding to tackle an outbreak.

A similar declaration was made for the mpox outbreak in 2022 and 2023, for COVID-19 in 2020, and for about a half-dozen other pathogens since 2005.

The WHO’s declaration follows a similar label from the Africa CDC earlier this week. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a health alert earlier in August for doctors and physicians to be alert for mpox symptoms.

No cases of mpox have been detected in the United States so far, according to the CDC notice. However, Sweden confirmed its first case of the more severe mpox strain—the first time it’s been found outside of Africa—earlier this week.

“We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called clade I,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed said during a news conference.

Europe’s CDC, meanwhile, has said that more imported cases of mpox will be likely across the continent. It came as the agency raised its risk assessment, but it added that the risk of transmission remains low.

Mpox is a viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and while usually mild, it can kill. Children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are all at higher risk of complications.

It spreads through close contact and is classified into two distinct viral groups known as clades. They are Clade I, which includes a variant that has the more severe form of the virus, and Clade II, a variant of which caused the 2022 outbreak.

Reuters contributed to this report.

end

Robert H…..

New Oxford study shows ONLY the kids who took the COVID shots had heart problems and died

Crazy and they think people would not figure it out ?

https://kirschsubstack.com/p/new-oxford-study-shows-only-the-kids

end

This is due to lack of immunity

(zerohedge)

Panic!!! CDC Says “Very High” COVID-19 Levels Reported In 32 States

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 11:25 AM

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that COVID-19 levels across the United States are currently “very high” in more than half of states, with Omicron variants KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 accounting for about half of all cases.

Citing wastewater data as of Aug. 15, the CDC said that “very high” COVID-19 levels are being observed in 32 states as well as Washington, D.C., and “high” in 11 states. All the states along the West Coast and the Mountain states are in the “very high” range, according to the CDC.

A separate CDC dashboard shows that, for the week ending Aug. 10, COVID-19 emergency department visits were slightly down from 2.5 to 2.4 percent while hospitalizations were slightly up at 3.3 percent from 3.2 percent. During a previous increase in cases in December 2023, emergency department visits peaked at 3.4 percent, according to CDC data.

COVID-related deaths, according to the same CDC data, have been at record low levels for the past three months or so. For the week ending Aug. 3, there were 618 deaths recorded across the country, far lower than the 2,000 or so deaths that were reported every week for the winter 2023-2024 when there was the last nationwide increase in COVID-19.

In the winter of 2020–21, upward of 25,000 COVID-related deaths were tallied each week, according to CDC data.

In the current wave of COVID-19, the agency’s Nowcast tracker, which displays virus estimates for two-week periods, shows the Omicron-derived KP.3.1.1 strain accounting for 36.8 percent of positive infections, while the KP.3 variant is at 16.8 percent.

A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times earlier in August that the KP.3.1.1 variant “is very similar to other circulating variants in the United States, and all current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023.”

“At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants,” the CDC spokesperson said, adding that the health agency is monitoring the severity of variants and whether vaccines are effective.

There is no information “currently indicating that this variant causes more severe COVID-19,” and it is expected to cause similar symptoms as other variants, the CDC added.

Also in August, the CDC reported that COVID-19 is no longer a top cause of death in the United States, with the disease being listed on 49,928 death certificates last year. That’s down from 86,552 in 2022 and a peak of 416,893 in 2021, according to agency data.

COVID-19 is now the 10th leading cause of death. Early in the pandemic, the virus was the nation’s third leading cause of death. It dropped to fourth in 2022.

The leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer, and a category of injuries that include gun-related deaths and drug overdoses.

There were nearly 3.1 million deaths last year in the United States, down from 3.3 million in 2022. For many years before the pandemic, deaths usually rose year-to-year, in part because the nation’s population grew. COVID-19 accelerated that trend, making 2021 the deadliest in U.S. history at 3.4 million deaths. But the number dropped in 2022 as the pandemic ebbed.

Meanwhile, an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in June that major U.S. vaccine makers should now target any COVID-19 variants that are derived from JN.1. Those vaccines should be rolled out in the fall of 2024, officials said.

Last week, drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech said that a late-state trial of their experimental mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 and influenza found that the shot did not meet one of the trial’s two primary goals, according to a news release.

“We remain optimistic about our combination COVID-19 and influenza program, for which we are evaluating the next steps,” Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer’s head of vaccine research and development, said in the release.

END

Special thanks to Robert H for sending this important article to us:

The big question: what took them so long to write this? Journal of Antibiotics is the premier journal.

Ivermectin: enigmatic multifaceted ‘wonder’ drug continues to surprise and exceed expectations | The Journal of Antibiotics

“In human ovarian cancer and NF2 tumor cell lines, high-dose ivermectin inactivates protein kinase PAK1 and blocks PAK1-dependent growth. PAK proteins are essential for cytoskeletal reorganization and nuclear signaling, PAK1 being implicated in tumor genesis while inhibiting PAK1 signals induces tumor cell apoptosis (cell death).

PAK1 is essential for the growth of more than 70% of all human cancers, including breast, prostate, pancreatic, colon, gastric, lung, cervical and thyroid cancers, as well as hepatoma, glioma, melanoma, multiple myeloma and for neurofibromatosis tumors.110”

Small wonder why this information about Ivermectin is scarce. https://www.nature.com/articles/ja201711

WORLD EVENTS NOTEWORTHY

END

MARK CRISPIN MILLER

In Italy last week, 13 “died suddenly” in or near the water

If you’re “vaccinated,” don’t go near the water.”

Mark Crispin MillerAug 16

READ IN APP

ITALY

13 “died suddenly” in the waters, on the beach:

Sickness while at the seaside with her mother: 24-year-old dies

August 8, 2024

Riviera Romagnola (Emilia Romagna) – Silvia Coppolino reportedly felt ill. She died after being admitted to intensive care. The information is still fragmentary, the only certainty is the most dramatic: Silvia Coppolino died at only 24 years old while on vacation with her mother on the Riviera Romagnola, in Igea Marina. According to initial information, the girl was the victim of an illness, most likely cardiac arrest. Despite prompt medical attention and attempts to resuscitate her in hospital, she never recovered.

No cause of death reported.

Link

Young Alberto De Domenico dies after falling ill after diving into the pool

October 8, 2024

Tragedy in Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Sicily). A young man from Messina 22 years old, died this afternoon struck down by a sudden illness after a swim in the pool. Alberto De Domenico suddenly felt ill and according to initial information, the helicopter rescue intervened to take him from Vulcno to the hospital in Lipari. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done for the young man. The tests will establish the causes of death.

Link

A 32-year-old man dies while bathing: tragedy in the municipal swimming pool of Marsciano

August 10, 2024

Marsciano (Umbria) – Tragedy in the municipal swimming pool of Marsciano. A 32-year-old man of Moroccan origins died suddenly while bathing in the pool. The incident occurred in the early afternoon of Saturday, July 10. The 118 medics immediately intervened on site to try to revive the man but, unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.

No cause of death reported.

Link

If you like “News from Underground” (or hate it, but get something out of it), please read this post.

The last farewell to the 30-year-old struck down by an illness in the swimming pool

August 9, 2024

Matteo Di Maio, a destra, con il padre Alessandro (Canali)

In San Donato, the last farewell to 30-year-old Matteo Di Maio, the young victim of a tragic illness in a swimming pool. The tragedy occurred around 1:00 PM on Wednesday, July 24, in the municipal swimming pool where Di Maio ended up under water after being the victim of a sudden illness. The young man was rescued by the lifeguards of the sports facility, who then entrusted him to the 118 paramedics, who upon arrival found him in cardiac arrest. After trying in every way to revive him, the rescuers accompanied him to the hospital where he passed away on July 31, after a week of agony.

No cause of death reported.

Link

Drama at Lake Maggiore, he bathes on the forbidden beach and is struck by an illness: 31-year-old drowns

August 11, 2024

A dive into the waters of Lake Maggiore to try to escape the heat. Then the sudden illness. The afternoon of a 31-year-old of Peruvian origin and resident in the Milan area turned into a tragedy: the man was in the body of water in front of the city beach of the Arena. The help of the 118 operators, who for over half an hour tried to revive him, was in vain. According to initial information, around 6 pm on Sunday 11 August, the man, who was in the company of a friend, called for help while swimming a few meters from the shore. It is likely that he felt ill, but it is not yet clear.

No cause of death reported.

Link

Upgrade to paid

Tragedy in San Salvo: Jude Rodica is the woman who died suddenly on the beach

August 11, 2024

San Salvo Marina (Province of Chieti) – A morning that was supposed to be a relaxing summer day turned into a tragedy on the beach of San Salvo Marina. Jude Rodica, a 64-year-old woman of Romanian origin, died after feeling suddenly ill while she was in the water in front of a stretch of free beach. According to initial information, the woman was in the sea when she began to feel ill. The lifeguards present on the beach intervened immediately, bringing her to shore and starting the first rescue manoeuvres. Shortly after, the 118 doctors also arrived, who continued to perform resuscitation manoeuvres for about 40 minutes. Given the seriousness of the situation, the air ambulance was also requested. Unfortunately, every attempt to save her life was in vain. After about 40 minutes of resuscitation attempts, the doctors could do nothing but declare the woman dead.

No cause of death reported.

No URL

Sickness on the beach, he dies at 70: what happened

August 8, 2024

Giba (Sardegna) – Fatal illness this morning on the beach of Porto Botte in Giba where a man of about 70 years old lost his life while he was in the water. The tragedy occurred mid-morning. According to initial reconstructions, the victim may have been struck by a sudden illness while swimming. The swimmers immediately alerted the emergency services. Despite the timely attempts at rescue by the lifeguards and rescuers, the resuscitation maneuvers were unsuccessful. The helicopter rescue team, which quickly arrived at the scene of the tragedy, attempted to provide further assistance, but there was nothing that could be done for the man.

No cause of death reported.

Link

He dies from illness during a spearfishing trip

August 7, 2024

Tragedy this morning in the waters of Portoscuso, in southern Sardinia. A man died during a spearfishing trip in front of the Baia degli Spaniards. He was probably struck by a sudden illness and there was nothing that could be done for him. The body was seen floating by swimmers on the beach, who carried it to shore and alerted the rescue services. The man was wearing a wetsuit and was equipped with a signal buoy. The 118 doctors who arrived on the scene could do nothing but confirm his death. The victim’s personal details have not yet been released.

No age or cause of death reported.

Link

Gianluca Rapali, 56, drowns during midnight swim

August 6, 2024

Gianluca Rapali, 56 anni, muore annegato durante il bagno di mezzanotte

Sabaudia (Province of Latina) – A carefree evening among friends turned into a tragic loss for the community of Bella Farnia. The sudden death of Gianluca Rapali, 56 years old, has left an unfillable void. It all happened on the Sabaudia seafront, in the Bufalara area, during the night. He dived into the sea after eating but never returned to shore. Probably due to an illness he was unable to return to the beach and found death. The tragedy occurred before the incredulous eyes of his friends, leaving a deep sorrow in the community of Bella Farnia. Condolences for the premature death of Gianluca Rapali have spread rapidly among the inhabitants of Bella Farnia and Sabaudia.

No cause of death reported.

Link

He drowns in the lake before his wife’s eyes: Guido’s drama. All rescue attempts were in vain

August 6, 2024

Lake Iseo – Drama yesterday afternoon in the waters of Lake Iseo. Guido Belussi – 72 years old from Grumello del Monte – drowned in front of the pier of the Lido Nettuno in Sarnico. Belussi knew how to swim and often went to the public beach to take a dip with his wife. It was his wife who raised the alarm, when she did not see him resurface. His body was recovered by rescuers about an hour later, about twenty meters away from where he had dived. It is not excluded that the cause of death was a sudden illness.

No cause of death reported.

Link

Torvaianica, tragedy at sea: man feels ill in water, dead

August 4, 2024

Torvajanica (Lazio) – He had entered the water with two friends, on the free beach in Torvajanica, when a sudden illness struck him shortly after entering. The man, about 70 years old, began to have difficulty, ending up with his head under water. The scene was noticed by other swimmers, who raised the alarm. Rescue operations began immediately, and the man was brought to shore, unconscious. The desperate screams of a woman, who was asking for a defibrillator, echoed along the beach until the machine was brought. The 118 paramedics intervened and began the rescue procedures with the defibrillator. After about 40 minutes of cardiac massage, first manual, then with the defibrillator, the emergency helicopter arrived on site, landing in the nearby supermarket. But despite their efforts, the man’s heart could not take it. The swimmer died after almost 50 minutes of total resuscitation attempts.

No cause of death reported.

Link

Struck down by illness (at home), while resting after a long swim

August 11, 2024

Chiessi (Elba Island) – A sudden illness, which would prove fatal, struck him shortly before 5 pm on Sunday 11 August, while he was inside his home in Chiessi and was resting, returning from a long swim he had taken that morning with a friend. The timely assistance given to the man (a seventy-eight-year-old) by the Volunteers of the Misericordia of Pomonte and the medics of the 118 service was of no avail. There was nothing more that could be done for the man, most likely struck down by a heart attack.

Link

Tragedy in Busto Arsizio, 64-year-old man dies in his swimming pool

August 4, 2024

A 64-year-old man died Sunday afternoon in the swimming pool of his home in Busto Arsizio, in the province of Varese. It is not clear at the moment whether the death was accidental or whether the sixty-four-year-old had a sudden illness. The alarm to the Regional Emergency Agency arrived shortly after 16:30 with an ambulance, unfortunately, the rescuers’ attempts to resuscitate him were in vain.

No cause of death reported.

Link

end

Singapore Officially Releases Annual Birth and Death Report 2023: Post Vax Deaths Continues to Erupt and Stunning Declining Births
Likely true elsewhere

https://metatron.substack.com/cp/147482411

DR PAUL ALEXANDER

BOOM, Tucker Carlson lays down the law joining me in declaring that the Malone Bourla Bancel Weissman Sahin et al. mRNA technology gene vaccine is deadly POISON! Big stones Tucker & I add, Malone,

Bourla Bancel (Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech) Weissman Sahin Katalin Karikó et al. are killers, criminals IMO, they all know they peddled death, untested, unsafe vaccine that has killed, messed up lives!

Dr. Paul AlexanderAug 17

READ IN APP

I appreciate Tucker’s candid statements and he gained more respect from me today, and I add, Malone, Bourla, Bancel, Sahin, Weissman et al., each and all must be dragged into courts with proper judges, juries, courts and examined and placed under oath and if shown by juries and judges that they killed people by their research and recklessness and vaccine, then if judges and juries say the death penalty is in order, then we hang them all…hang all! I am sure Tucker joins me in my conclusions!

Tucker Carlson: The COVID Vax is ‘Poison,’ Refusing It Is ‘One of My GREATEST Achievements’ (ussanews.com)

end

I was 100% correct, I stood up with Scott Atlas, Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon and on the inside at HHS was hitting Fauci & Birx & the cabal working to topple Trump’s re-election; you don’t know

after these types of attacks by CNN, White House had to provide me security, there were reporters outside my apartment opposite the capital building, people calling phone, writing, threatening my life

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERAUG 18

READ IN APP

Gupta reacts to ex-Trump official encouraging herd immunity | CNN

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CNN Admits Tim Walz Repeatedly Lied about His Drunk Driving Arrest CNN has admitted that Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz repeatedly lied about his drunk driving arrest during his congressional election campaign.READ MORE

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EVOL NEWS

NEWS ADDICTS

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MICHAEL EVERY/PHIL MAREY/OR OTHER EXECS //RABOBANK

Confidence Game

MONDAY, AUG 19, 2024 – 10:45 AM

By Benjamin Picton, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank

As we approach the Jackson Hole Symposium later this week the message from Fed speakers, broadly, has been that they are gaining confidence that the economy is reaching the point where the Fed Funds rate can be cut. Speaking to the Financial Times on Friday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that he is “open” to a Fed cut in September and, critically, that the Fed “can’t afford to be late” in delivering policy easing.

Bostic’s comments reflect the emerging dichotomy between cooling inflation indicators and a labour market that is showing clear signs of softening. PPI and CPI figures for July released last week both surprised on the low side, helping to shift the main focus of concerns away from persistent inflation pressures and towards the labor market where a soft non-farm payrolls report of a fortnight ago sent fear-of-recession shocks through markets.

Markets have become increasingly sensitive to labor market data of late. That is why the last two weeks of initial and continuing jobless claims (usually considered second-tier data) have been key points of interest and generate significant price action upon publication. Those claims numbers printed on the low side again last week, further calming nerves that the jobs market might be heading for a crash rather than the carefully managed “soft landing” that the Fed has been aiming at.

Nevertheless, Bostic reminded us of the hackneyed phrase that monetary policy acts with ‘long and variable lags’ (both on the way up, and on the way down). The intuition here is that central banks need to be adding some lift to the economy before the wheels make contact with the tarmac by easing policy rates ahead of (lagged) data confirming that the economy has actually reached the inflation target.

Bostic’s Fed colleagues Austan Goolsbee and Mary Daly sent similar messages over the weekend on the appropriateness of policy easing. Goolsbee pointed to signals in the labour market and signs of deteriorating credit quality as “various leading indicators of recession”, suggesting that “some of those are giving warning lights”. Goolsbee noted (correctly) that when the unemployment rate starts to rise quickly it is difficult to stop. “It [the unemployment rate] tends to go up like a rocket and down like a feather.”

Mary Daly also plumped for cuts, but was a little more circumspect on the risk of deterioration in the labor market. In comments to the Financial Times, she said that she had “more confidence” on the inflation outlook, and that it was now time to consider a cut to the Fed Funds rate. Daly’s assessment of the labour market seems to be less pessimistic than Goolsbee or Bostic. She said that the labour market is softening, but it is not “weak”, and that gradual loosening of monetary policy would be “prudent”.

So, what are we to make of all of this? Well, a September cut to the Fed Funds rate appears to be all but a done deal. Market attention now turns to the pace of easing, the endpoint of easing, and whether labor market pessimists like Goolsbee and Bostic will successfully push for the first cut to be 50bps rather than the standard 25.

Recall that Fed Chair Powell admonished journalists in early May for suggesting that the economy was experiencing stagflation. “I don’t see the stag, or the ‘flation” was Powell’s comment at the time. Fast forward to last weekend and it seems that Goolsbee and Bostic are picking up distinct ‘stag’ vibes, as is our own US Strategist Philip Marey. Philip has had a September cut pencilled in for ages, primarily because he has been expecting the economy to deteriorate toward recession in the final quarter of the year.

Last week’s solid jobless claims figures, in conjunction with a strong retail sales report and a better-than-expected University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading (that showed households simultaneously less optimistic about the present and more optimistic about the future) has probably lessened the case for the Fed to start the easing cycle with a supersized 50 bp cut. US 2-year bond yields were little changed over the course of last week, but the futures market still has ~33bps worth of cuts priced-in for the September meeting, highlighting that Bostic and Goolsbee are not alone in harbouring latent nervousness that the Fed may have dithered too long in reducing policy restrictiveness in therefore seek to play catch-up.

Jackson Hole aside, there is another important gathering occurring this week: the Democratic National Convention. The Convention kicks off today and will run through to Thursday. Having already secured the Democratic Party’s nomination, the event is likely to be a stage-managed coronation for Kamala Harris and a fresh opportunity for the Harris-Walz ticket to attack their Republican rivals. There may also be further meat added to the bones of the Harris policy platform, which started to take shape last week.

In a speech in North Carolina on Friday Harris outlined key planks of her plan to create an “Opportunity Economy”. A Harris administration will seek to enact a $6000 refundable child tax credit for newborns, build 3 million new homes, provide up to $25,000 for first home buyers, and place a federal ban on price gouging in the food and grocery industry.

Much of this is controversial. First home buyer grants have been tried the world over and many economists will tell you that they are effectively a subsidy for home-sellers as they pump up demand in supply-constrained markets. Just ask an Australian millennial or Gen Z’er where those sorts of populist demand-side policies ultimately lead a housing market.

The loudest criticism of the Harris platform (including from traditionally Democrat-friendly outlets like CNN and the Washington Post) has been reserved for the ban on price gouging. Republicans and some media outlets have likened the ban to federally imposed price controls (a-la Richard Nixon) that can ultimately lead to shortages and further inflation when the controls are eventually removed. Curiously, gold hit new all-time highs of more than $2,500/oz ahead of Harris’ speech and following news that the ban on price gouging would be announced.

Since Joe Biden announced that he would not be seeking re-election, and Harris quickly moved to solidify her position as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s polling lead has evaporated, and Harris now leads in many national surveys and key swing states.

The economy has long been a weak spot for the Biden/Harris administration, and the media reaction to Harris’ first major economic policy announcement seems to suggest it could be the first major miss-step of her campaign.

That will give Donald Trump confidence that he is still in the game.

7.OIL PRICES/GAS PRICES/OIL ISSUES

8. EMERGING MARKETS//AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND ISSUES//

BRAZIL

Get a load of this: Brazil’s Darth Vader continues with this secret censorship orders.

(zerohedge)

X ‘Immediately’ Shuts Brazil Office After ‘Darth Vader’ Threatens Lawyer With ‘Secret’ Censorship Orders

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 – 04:55 PM

Elon Musk on Saturday announced that effective immediately, X will be shuttering operations in Brazil due to what it called “censorship orders” from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes (aka ‘Darth Vader’).

According to the company, Moraes secretly threatened an X layer if he did not comply with legal orders to remove content from the platform.

“Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions,” reads a Saturday post from X’s Global Government Affairs account. “Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.”

“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately.”

@GlobalAffairs

Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions. Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process. As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately. The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes. His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes. — Noite passada, Alexandre de Moraes ameaçou nosso representante legal no Brasil com prisão se não cumprirmos suas ordens de censura. Ele fez isso em uma ordem secreta, que compartilhamos aqui para expor suas ações. Apesar de nossos inúmeros recursos ao Supremo Tribunal Federal não terem sido ouvidos, de o público brasileiro não ter sido informado sobre essas ordens e de nossa equipe brasileira não ter responsabilidade ou controle sobre o bloqueio de conteúdo em nossa plataforma, Moraes optou por ameaçar nossa equipe no Brasil em vez de respeitar a lei ou o devido processo legal. Como resultado, para proteger a segurança de nossa equipe, tomamos a decisão de encerrar nossas operações no Brasil, com efeito imediato. O serviço X continua disponível para a população do Brasil. Estamos profundamente tristes por termos sido forçados a tomar essa decisão. A responsabilidade é exclusivamente de Alexandre de Moraes. Suas ações são incompatíveis com um governo democrático. O povo brasileiro tem uma escolha a fazer – democracia ou Alexandre de Moraes.

10:42 AM · Aug 17, 2024

21.2M Views

Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.

Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024

Musk replied to the post, saying “Due to demands by “Justice” @Alexandre in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, 𝕏 has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil.

“He is an utter disgrace to Justice,” Musk continued.

Due to demands by “Justice”

@Alexandre

in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, 𝕏 has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil. He is an utter disgrace to justice.

.com/elonmusk/status/1824839784852013125

According to Musk, X remains available to the people of Brazil.

Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts while he investigated so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news. Moraes also opened an inquiry into Musk after he said he would reactivate X accounts that the judge had ordered blocked.

Musk has called Moraes’ orders “unconstitutional,” and called Moraes himself “Brazil’s Darth Vader.”

In an April post to X, Musk said that Moraes had “brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil,” and should “resign or be impeached.”

De Moraes said that as part of his decision to open an inquiry, that “X shall refrain from disobeying any court order already issued, including performing any profile reactivation that has been blocked by this Supreme Court,” Reuters reported at the time.

The justice said that Musk would face a fine that equates to approximately $20,000 each time an account is reactivated on X.

For an overview:

The TWITTER FILES BRAZIL, reported by investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger, and colleagues David Ágape and Eli Vieira, reveal that “Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice.”

Sitting members of Brazil’s Congress and journalists were among those named by Brazil’s highest court for censoring, Mr. Shellenberger said of his findings, which he has shared on X.

He named lower house members Carla Zambelli of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and Marcel van Hattem of the NOVO party as targets of orders targeting posts the court deemed misinformation.

According to the internal files Mr. Shellenberger shared, Twitter in Brazil was threatened with a $30,000 fine. The company had one hour to remove the Congress members’ posts or pay the court for noncompliance.

The article reports that the justice had even been jailing individuals without trial for things posted on social media.

According to Mr. Shellenberger, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes allegedly made demands to Twitter to allow access to its internal data, in violation of Twitter’s own policies on the handling of user data. –Epoch Times

The “Twitter Files” also show that the justice “sought to weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president @jairbolsonaro,” Mr. Shellenberger said—a similar trend to what the “Twitter files” revealed was happening to former President Donald Trump and conservative voices in the United States.

The origin of the order to censor Brazilians’ posts was also revealed in the internal Twitter files, Mr. Shellenberger said.

Brazilian Attorney General Jorge Messias backed de Moraes, saying in a post on X: “We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities.”

As Shellenberger notes in response to today’s action:

Global elites have made clear that they believe that freedom of speech on a single social media platform, and one that is far smaller than Facebook or Google, is intolerable. This desire for total control is the central characteristic of the totalitarianism that is presently emerging from elites at the corporate and political levels around the world.

In addition to pushing censorship, these leaders and global elites are seeking to overturn liberal democracies and impose a radically different system of iliberal rule in the Western world. Rather than meritocracy and equal justice for all, elites are seeking to impose a Woke racialist hierarchy that gives preferential treatment to some groups and prejudicial treatment to other groups supposedly based on historic oppression.

END

YOUR EARLY CURRENCY/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN CLOSING MARKETS AND EUROPEAN BOURSE OPENING AND CLOSING/ INTEREST RATE SETTINGS MONDAY MORNING 6;30AM//OPENING AND CLOSING

EURO VS USA DOLLAR: 1.1035 UP 0.0016

USA/ YEN 146.31 DOWN 1.17 NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT 1.00% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…//YEN STILL FALLS//END OF YEN CARRY TRADE BEGINS JULY 2024/Bank of Japan raises rates by .15% to 1.15..UEDA END HIKING RATES AND NOW CARRY TRADES REIGNITES//

GBP/USA 1.2951 UP 0.0016

USA/CAN DOLLAR: 1.3682 UP .0011 (CDN DOLLAR DOWN 11 BASIS PTS)

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 14.24 PTS OR 0.49%

Hang Seng CLOSED UP 139.41 PTS OR 0.80%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED UP 0.06%

// EUROPEAN BOURSE: MOSTLY ALL GREEN EXCEPT ENGLAND

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES: MOSTLY ALL GREEN EXCEPT ENGLAND

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SENG CLOSED UP 139.81 PTS OR 0.80 %

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 14.24 PTS OR 0.49%

AUSTRALIA BOURSE CLOSED UP 0.06%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED DOWN 674.05 PTS OR 1.77%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 2491.80

silver:$28.90

USA dollar index early MONDAY morning: 102.07 DOWN 24 BASIS POINTS FROM FRIDAY’s CLOSE.

MONDAY MORNING NUMBERS ENDS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing MONDAY NUMBERS 1: 30 AM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 2.868% UP 1 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.888% UP 1 AND 1/ 100 BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.084 DOWN 1/2 in basis points yield

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 3.627 DOWN 1 points in basis points yield ./ THE ECB IS QE’ ING ITALIAN BONDS (BUYING ITALIAN BONDS/SELLING GERMAN BUNDS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.2595 UP 1 BASIS PTS

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR MONDAY

Closing currency crosses for day /USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1050 UP .0031 OR 31 basis points

USA/Japan: 146.37 DOWN 1.10 OR YEN IS UP 110 BASIS PTS

Great Britain 10 YR RATE 3.9645 UP 1 BASIS POINTS //

Canadian dollar UP .0018 OR 18 BASIS pts to 1.3652

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY ON SHORE CLOSED UP AT 7.1413 (ON SHORE)

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (UP)…. (7.1396)

TURKISH LIRA: 33.74 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WATCH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.//ON DEATH WATCH

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.888

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 2 in basis points from FRIDAY at 3.889% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%)

USA 30 yr bond yield 4.133 DOWN 2 in basis points /12.00 PM

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.068 UP 0 BASIS PTS.

GOLD AT 11;00 AM 2498.80

SILVER AT 11;00: 29.30

Your 11:00 AM bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates: MONDAY CLOSING TIME 11:00 AM//

London: CLOSED UP 45.53 PTS OR 0.55%

German Dax : CLOSED UP 99.29 PTS OR 0.54%

Paris CAC CLOSED UP 52.31 PTS OR 0.70%

Spain IBEX CLOSED UP 152.85 OR 1.40%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 225.51 OR 0.68

WTI Oil price 76.59 12EST/

Brent Oil: 79.26 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN ROUBLE /// AT: 89.83 ROUBLE DOWN 0 AND 39/100

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +2.2595 UP 1 BASIS PTS.

UK 10 YR YIELD: 3.9685 UP 1 BASIS POINTS

CDN 10 YEAR RATE: 3.106 UP 1 BASIS PTS.

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA 1.1085 UP 0.0026 OR 26 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.2993 UP 0.0054 OR 54 basis pts

BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 3.9550 UP 2 BASIS PTS//

JAPAN 10 YR YIELD: 0.890

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 146.58 DOWN 0.877 YEN UP 88 BASIS PTS//

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3637 DOWN 0.0033//CDN dollar UP 33 BASIS PTS

West Texas intermediate oil: 74.37

Brent OIL: 77,61

USA 10 yr bond yield DOWN 3 BASIS pts to 3.866

USA 30 yr bond yield DOWN 4 BASIS PTS to 4.116%

USA 2 YR BOND: DOWN 0 PTS AT 4.062

CDN 10 YR RATE 3.099 UP 0 BASIS PTS

USA dollar index: 101.71 DOWN 60 BASIS POINTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 33.70 GETTING QUITE CLOSE TO BLOWING UP/

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 89,82 DOWN 0 AND 39/100 roubles

GOLD 2,504.85 3:30 PM

SILVER: 29.31 3;30 PM

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: UP 215.54 PTS OR 0.53%

NASDAQ UP 245.25 PTS OR 1.39 %

VOLATILITY INDEX: 14.66 DOWN 0.14 PTS OR .95%

GLD: $231.62 DOWN .37 OR 0.16%

SLV/ $26.83 UP 0.40 OR 1.51%

end

USA AFFAIRS

TODAY’S TRADING IN GRAPH FORM

Stocks Extend Win-Streak Ahead Of J-Hole; Kam-unist Manifesto Accelerates Dollar-Collapse

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 04:00 PM

US equities rallied for the 8th straight day today (amidst little major macro news here or abroad despite Leading Indicators slumping for the 29th straight month), with Nasdaq up 13% off its post-yen-carry-chaos lows – the longest win streak since Nov 2023 – as investors position ahead of Friday’s scheduled speech from Fed Chair Powell and amidst a traditional low liquidity, vacation period for stocks in these last 2 weeks of summer.

Small Caps and Nasdaq led the rip today, The Dow lagged, but all the majors were higher. The last few minutes of the day saw yet more panic-buying pressure…

VIX spiked at the open today (back above 16) but faded all day to end modestly lower with a 14 handle…

Another major short squeeze lifted Small Caps…

Source: Bloomberg

Mag7 stocks continued their dramatic rebound, rallying up to a key technical resistance level…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar continued its collapse, as the DNC unveiled its Kam-unist manifesto…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold held on to its gains amid the dollar weakness, holding near record highs above $2500…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasuries were relatively quiet today (though choppy) with the short-end underperforming (2Y +1bps, 30Y +2bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

The 2y remains above 4.00% (and well above last week’s CPI spike lows), but the 30Y has retraced all of the spike and then some…

Source: Bloomberg

Crypto was hit overnight, but bitcoin rallied back above $59,000 as stocks surged during the US day session, back up near pre-CPI levels…

Source: Bloomberg

Crude was clubbed like a baby seal today, with WTI testing back down to a $74 handle (at post-payrolls drop lows)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, be careful what you’re betting on from Powell at Jackson Hole this week…

Source: Bloomberg

The last few years it’s been a sell-the-news event.

AFTERNOON TRADING///

II USA DATA

This is hard data: USA leading economic indicators plunge for the 29th straight month and now worse than COVID lockdowns

(zerohedge)

US Leading Economic Indicators Plunge For 29th Month – Worse Than COVID Lockdowns

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 12:25 PM

WTF is going on…

We have Kamala-nomics propoagandists expounding that price-controls are good for deflation and half of America believes it…

And now, we have US Leading Economic Indicators down for their 29th straight month – at a level worse than the trough of COVID lockdowns…

…and the head of The Conference Board says ‘nothing to see here’…

“The LEI continues to fall on a month-over-month basis, but the six-month annual growth rate no longer signals recession ahead,” said Justyna Zabinska-La Monica, Senior Manager, Business Cycle Indicators, at The Conference Board.

For context, outside of the great financial crisis, this is the worst decline in LEI since the mid ’70s!!!

She goes on to explain just what a shitshow the data is…

“In July, weakness was widespread among non-financial components. A sharp deterioration in new orders, persistently weak consumer expectations of business conditions, and softer building permits and hours worked in manufacturing drove the decline, together with the still-negative yield spread.”

…but no recession, nope!!

“These data continue to suggest headwinds in economic growth going forward. The Conference Board expects US real GDP growth to slow over the next few quarters as consumers and businesses continue cutting spending and investments. US real GDP is expected to expand at a pace of 0.6 percent annualized in Q3 2024 and 1 percent annualized in Q4.”

And what is behind the ‘no recession’ call… US equity strength!!

So, to summarize – almost all the macro data signals weakening growth for years… but because stocks are up (and credit spreads down), there’s no recession anywhere on the horizon!!??

III USA ECONOMIC COMMENTARIES

New York Times now admits that the dismissal of Biden was a coup. They also slam with economic plan

(zerohedge)

WaPo Slams Harris’ Economic “Gimmicks” While NYT Says “A Coup Is Still A Coup”

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 – 11:45 AM

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris squandered what could have been a golden opportunity to outline a clear economic vision – and instead left many wondering what exactly her plan entails, according to the Washington Post Editorial Board.

With Americans still grappling with high costs for groceries, housing, and even a simple Big Mac, Harris’s response – which WaPo characterized as “populist gimmicks” – was to blame corporate “price gouging” rather than addressing the underlying economic challenges.

According to the Post, Harris’ pledge to crack down on businesses making “excessive” profits felt more like a recycled talking point than a real strategy, drawing comparisons to the failed price controls of the Nixon era.

One way to handle it might be to level with voters, telling them that inflation spiked in 2021 mainly because the pandemic snarled supply chains, and that the Federal Reserve’s policies, which the Biden-Harris administration supported, are working to slow it. The vice president instead opted for a less forthright route: Blaming big business. She vowed to go after “price gouging” by grocery stores, landlords, pharmaceutical companies and other supposed corporate perpetrators by having the Federal Trade Commission enforce a vaguely defined “federal ban on price gouging.”

…

Harris says she’ll target companies that make “excessive” profits, whatever that means. (It’s hard to see how groceries, a notoriously low-margin business, would qualify.)

Her housing plan was also ham-fisted. While Harris correctly identified the lack of housing supply as a key issue she proposed a $25,000 down payment assistance program without addressing how it might drive prices higher—a concern the Post didn’t overlook. And while her ideas around expanding the child tax credit and earned income tax credit had more merit, the speech ultimately fell short of providing the detailed, practical solutions voters are looking for.

As Rabobank notes, Much of this is controversial. First home buyer grants have been tried the world over and many economists will tell you that they are effectively a subsidy for home-sellers as they pump up demand in supply-constrained markets. Just ask an Australian millennial or Gen Z’er where those sorts of populist demand-side policies ultimately lead a housing market.

The loudest criticism of the Harris platform (including from traditionally Democrat-friendly outlets like CNN and the Washington Post) has been reserved for the ban on price gouging. Republicans and some media outlets have likened the ban to federally imposed price controls (a-la Richard Nixon) that can ultimately lead to shortages and further inflation when the controls are eventually removed. Curiously, gold hit new all-time highs of more than $2,500/oz ahead of Harris’ speech and following news that the ban on price gouging would be announced.

Meanwhile, the Post also notes that Harris’ plan would cost money – yet she insists that she’ll hold to President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on households earning less than $400,000 per year – which excludes 80% of taxable income.

The Harris campaign says it will raise revenue to cover these costs, but didn’t say how. And without an answer, Harris’ full plan would add $1.7 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget watchdog.

NY Times: “A Coup Is Still a Coup”

While WaPo is calling out Harris over ‘populist gimmicks,’ the NY Times‘ Maureen Dowd slammed Democrats for executing a ‘coup’ to remove Biden from the 2024 ticket.

In short, what was supposed to be a triumphant gathering in Chicago has turned into a hotbed of tension and betrayal within the Democratic Party. As top Democrats prepare for their convention this week, there’s no hiding the fact that the party’s power players have orchestrated a behind-the-scenes coup to push President Joe Biden out of the 2024 race, handing the reins to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The political backstabbing was reportedly orchestrated by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries all reportedly nudging Biden out the door – leaving the president feeling betrayed by his allies.

Biden, who was eager to hit the campaign trail again, was unceremoniously pushed aside in what amounts to a political putsch. Now, as Democrats rally around Harris, Biden – who went from “forward to getting back on the campaign trail” – now sulks in the shadows.

It wasn’t exactly “Julius Caesar” in Rehoboth Beach. But it was a tectonic shift and, of course, there were going to be serious reverberations. Even though it was the right thing to do, because Joe Biden was not going to be able to campaign, much less serve as president for another four years, in a fully vital way, it was a jaw-dropping putsch.

Donald Trump, never one to miss an opportunity to exploit Democratic discord, has jumped into the fray.

“Kamala wants NOTHING TO DO WITH CROOKED JOE BIDEN,” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday. “They are throwing him out on the Monday Night Stage, known as Death Valley. He now HATES Obama and Crazy Nancy more than he hates me! He is an angry man, as he should be. They stole the Presidency from him — ‘It was a Coup!’”

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/112966113550470036/embed

Democrat leaders have also made fools of themselves covering up their betrayal – suggesting everything from adding Biden’s face to Mount Rushmore to praising his ‘unmatched record.’ As Dowd notes, Biden isn’t fooled, nor are his family members, who are reportedly just as bitter about how things have unfolded.

IIIB USA COMMENTARIES RE ISRAEL/HAMAS WAR/ and PERVASIVE ANTISEMITISM/WOKISM

iiiC USA COVID //VACCINE ISSUES/IMPORTANT MEDICAL ISSUES

end

END

FREIGHT ISSUES/USA/BOEING

END

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON OR NEWT GINGRICH/TUCKER CARLSON

SWAMP STORIES

KING REPORT

The King Report August 19, 2024 Issue 7308

Independent View of the News

The University of Michigan August Consumer Sentiment shows a sharp decline in Current Conditions but a jump in Expectations due to Democrat glee about what Kamala Harris will do to the US economy.

Aug UM Sentiment 67.8, 66.9 expected, 66.4 prior; Current Conditions 60.9, 63.1 expected, prior 62.7; Expectations 72.1, 68.5, 68.8 prior; 1-year Inflation 2.9%, 2.8% expected, 2.9% prior; 5-10-year Inflation 3.0%, 2.9% expected, 3.0% prior

US consumer sentiment rises slightly on Democratic optimism over Harris’ presidential prospects
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index edged up to 67.8 after coming in at 66.4 in July…
    The spirits of Democrats and political independents rose. Republicans’ sentiment fell. The survey found that 41% of consumers considered Harris the better candidate for the economy, versus the 38% who chose Republican nominee Donald Trump… (Who believes this stuff!) https://t.co/xX7oRp5EQN

@M_McDonough: This is one of the most striking charts where politics meets economics: Republicans and Democrats have starkly different inflation expectations: https://t.co/Iav5OvcOev

Consumer sentiment surveys are distorted by politics. Yet beaucoup traders and investors deploy their capital based on them.

Presidential race swings 6 points in two weeks, catapulting Trump to lead and ending Harris surge
Scott Rasmussen says Harris bump has ended after poll that had Trump down 5 on Aug. 2 now has him leading by one… https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/presidential-race-swings-6-points-two-weeks-catapulting-trump-lead-and
    Rasmussen Polls, which is different than Scott Rasmussen, (He left in 2013) has Trump up by 4.
https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1824475769592222208/photo/1

Team Obama-Harris resurrected the Hidin’ Biden campaign strategy for Harris. As long as Biden remained firm in the polls, the strategy was effective. When Biden sank in the polls, they had to put Joe in front of the public. It wasn’t pretty. With the Harris Honeymoon over, Harris must go public.

US Housing Starts for July sank to 1.238m (-6.5% m/m) from a revised 1.329m from 1.353m in June (Bidenomics), -8.5% m/m from the initial June Housing Starts. 1.333m was expected. Single-family homes crashed 14.1%. Permits fell to 1.396m from 1.454m; 1.425m was consensus.

Chinese Convertible Bonds Rocked by Once-Unthinkable Defaults
    Onshore convertible debt sales at their lowest since 2016
The country’s 801 billion yuan ($119 billion) provided shelter even during last year’s brutal market downturn… While the sum of defaulted notes so far is less than 2 billion yuan, at least 50 bonds worth a combined 58 billion yuan are now trading at 90 yuan or lower, a level indicating stress. An index of Chinese onshore yuan convertible bonds is now down nearly 9% from a year earlier, having fallen for six consecutive trading days since Aug. 8 — the longest losing streak since January…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-convertible-bonds-rocked-once-034500261.html

Gold soared to an all-time high of 2509.75. December gold futures hit a high of 2548.30, +55.90 on the day. The last time the Fed cut rates with gold near an all-time high was in July 1974.  Then the DJIA was down almost 50% from its high and the US was in its worst recession since The Great Depression. We cannot find an instance when the Fed cut rates with gold and stocks near all-time highs!

ESUs traded moderately higher but sideways from just after the Nikkei opening until they turned negative near 7 ET. After sinking to a low of 5536.50 at 8:49 ET, ESU rallied to 5570.25 at 10:16 ET. After a retreat to 5551.75 at 10:48 ET, ESUs surged to a daily high of 5586.25 at 13:00 ET. After a drop to 5574.00 at 14:11 ET, ESUs traded sideways until they broke lower after 15:00 ET. After falling to 5571.50 at 15:47 ET, the late manipulation pushed ESUs to 5579.00 at 16:00 ET.

Corporate greed not to blame for price pressures, Fed study shows – Reuters May 13, 2024
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/corporate-greed-not-blame-price-pressures-fed-study-shows-2024-05-13/

Kamala Harris unveils economic plan (in front of a tiny crowd) — including a whopping $1.7T in handouts, fed ban on grocery store ‘price gouging’ https://trib.al/oAyMM6Y

What Kamala’s economic plan didn’t appropriate from Trump (no tax on tips, cap insulin at $35, de-regulate and increase child tax credit) are communist staples (price controls, subsidized housing).

@WarMachineRR: Harris: “I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on price-gauging on food.
(Harris said ‘gauging’ not ‘gouging!’ Even if the Teleprompter was wrong, how could Kamala be so… Maybe the internet rumors are right!)  https://x.com/WarMachineRR/status/1824519266223223160

Who gets to define ‘price gauging’ and what will it be?  Kamala implicitly admits that the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act did not work, and it generated crippling inflation.

@TrumpWarRoom: Kamala Harris ADMITS “Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily lives” after nearly four years of Harris-Biden. Now, she’s asking for four more years.
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1824515112289624236
     KAMALA HARRIS: “The housing market can be complicated, but look, I’m not new to this issue.”
FACT: Under Harris, the median housing payment has increased $1,000/month. Overall housing costs are up 50%. The cost of homeownership is at its highest in three decades.
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1824518213289267302
     CNN SHREDS Kamala Harris’ communist price control plan: “We’ve seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before, Venezuela, Argentina, the Soviet Union.”
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1824526389007224993

Obama economist trashes Kamala Harris’ price control plan: ‘This is not sensible policy’
‘The biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,’ Jason Furman said
https://www.foxnews.com/media/obama-economist-trashes-kamala-harris-price-control-idea-this-not-sensible-policy

‘No upside’ to Harris’ ‘Soviet-style’ grocery price fixing, likely to spark worst shortages since 1970s: economists https://trib.al/ygdyGtD

@jimiuorio: Kroger currently has a profit margin of 1.43%. This is BELOW their average over the last 24 years…if they are, in fact, “price gouging” they are comically bad at it…

@JackPosobiec: The side of the gym isn’t even filled for Kamala in Raleigh.  There’s maybe 150 people there max.   https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1824520444105592938
   This Herald Sun photo shows Kamala spoke from a small set:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/vice-president-kamala-harris-visits-171432769.html

@DefiyantlyFree: DNC paying for people to attend Kamala rallies. https://t.co/I4DsDXF18t

WaPo Editorial Board: The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks.
Harris’s most outlandish plan is her proposal to ban ‘price gouging,’ but that’s just one of many misguided ideas.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/harris-economy-plan-gimmicks/?s=02

@TheFirstonTV: Kamala Harris appears to brag about raising the price of food. (Pundits said Kamala sounded like she was campaigning for DJT!) https://x.com/TheFirstonTV/status/1824532062788796687

@FoxBusiness: ‘THIS IS DEVASTATING’: The internet is going wild over a spliced clip of Vice President Kamala Harris lamenting how much prices have soared along with a disclaimer saying, “I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message.” Watch the viral ad: https://t.co/hrYHfvNafj

@DrewHLivez: After Kamala’s DISASTER event today announcing her SOVIET- STYLE economic proposals, now you know why she is NOT allowed to do one on one interviews or take on a press pool.

Positive aspects of previous session
Stocks rallied moderately; gasoline declined sharply; USU rallied 13/32; best week of year for S&P 500

Negative aspects of previous session
Gold soared to an all-time high; the dollar got hammered.

Ambiguous aspects of previous session
Will the relentless ESU manipulation end after July expiration today?
Was the resumption of corporate share buybacks a factor in the equity explosion last week?

First Hour/Last Hour Action [S&P 500 Index]: 1st Hour from NYSE Open: Up; Last Hour: Down

Pivot Point for S&P 500 Index [above/below indicates daily trend to traders]: 5547.13
Previous session S&P 500 Index High/Low: 5561.98; 5525.17

On Friday, Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal. Biden quickly surfaced to fib about the deal. On Sunday, Hamas stated that the deal is dead due to new hostage conditions (want to see if they are alive?).

@RNCResearch: Biden claims he “may have something” on a ceasefire in Gaza (which he has been promising for nine months) but doesn’t want to “jinx” it.
https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1824480463190151303

DJT assassination conspiracy theories are alive! The shooter’s body was cremated 10 days after attack!

Congressman Blasts ‘Disturbing’ FBI Probe into Trump Shooter
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) says he is especially troubled by the FBI’s decision to release the body of 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks to his family for cremation with so many questions remaining about his motive for the attack… “This pattern of investigative scorched earth by the FBI is quite troubling,” Higgins wrote in a preliminary report sent to task force chairman Mike Kelly…
    “This action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort,” he claimed in the report…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/congressman-blasts-disturbing-fbi-probe-111509976.html

Amazon’s Alexa Says Trump Wasn’t Shot – “No, Donald Trump was not really shot”
https://modernity.news/2024/08/15/watch-amazons-alexa-says-trump-wasnt-shot/

Presently, it appears that all that AI does is what it is programed to do.

White House Quickly Walks Back What Biden Said (He supports a new election) About Elections in Venezuela     https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/08/16/white-house-forced-to-clean-up-bidens-comment-about-the-venezuelan-election-n2643488

Biden says he was VP ‘for 12 years’ and deadly race riots ‘could happen again’ https://trib.al/ehCCMRg

Russia denies (WaPo) report about indirect talks with Ukraine (Implies they are talking) – Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-denies-media-report-about-indirect-talks-with-ukraine-2024-08-18/

@MichaelAArouet: Eye-opening chart, just in 2011 German GDP was about twice as big as GDP of California, now they are about the same. Germany is a country with industry from last century, grotesque overregulation, desolate infrastructure, lack of innovation & green paranoia. https://t.co/h7JsTUzyIp

@spomboy: This is the PERFECT encapsulation of the attitude toward gold. It is viewed, not just with apathy, but with derision.   The fact that it has outperformed over the last 20 years, to say nothing of the last year and YTD, is viewed as unbelievable… Lest the proof were necessary, here it is again.
https://x.com/spomboy/status/1825258691160920130

Today – Traders will play for the Monday and Jackson Hole Rallies (KC Fed soiree). With bulls emboldened by the aggressive ESU manipulation that appeared last week, buying dips will be the rule. As the week progresses, traders are likely to get long ahead of the widely hyped and scrutinized KC Fed’s Economic Policy Symposium at Jackson Hole, WY that begins on Thursday and runs through Saturday. Often the Fed Chair makes important Fed policy announcements at the soiree.  Powell is scheduled to speak at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, August 23.

Expected economic data: July LEI -0.3%; Fed Gov. Waller at 9:15 ET

NQUs are +61.00; ESUs are +10.75 (Jackson Hole Week buying); and USUs are-5/32 at 20:30 ET .

S&P Index 50-day MA: 5464; 100-day MA: 5425; 150-day MA: 5223; 200-day MA: 5064
DJIA 50-day MA: 39,616; 100-day MA: 39,214; 150-day MA: 39,010; 200-day MA: 38,265
(Green is positive slope; Red is negative slope)

S&P 500 Index (5554.25 close) – BBG trading model Trender and MACD for key time frames
Monthly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4983.62 triggers a sell signal
Weekly: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 5628.97 triggers a buy signal
Daily: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 5286.99 triggers a sell signal
Hourly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 5504.67 triggers a sell signal

A new CBS Poll shows Trump leads Harris on the economy (56-43), inflation (61-38), and immigration (76-24). Due to fear of supporting DJT, especially women and minorities, this poll is a better gauge (not gouge) of DJT support. Of course, there are Dems constituents that will vote Dem no matter what.
https://x.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1825202756690317762

Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe Kamala Harris knew about Biden’s mental decline: poll https://t.co/QfXtpk8xmC

PA Gov. Shapiro did NOT show up at the Harris-Walz event in PA. His office cited a schedule conflict.

@Travis_4_Trump: Is she drunk or just that stupid? https://t.co/RP6l4D72lA

@ClayTravis: They took Kamala off the teleprompter today in Pennsylvania. It didn’t go well:
https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/1825259832498323574

@CollinRugg: Kamala Harris goes on very confusing rant, repeats herself multiple times while talking about “democracy.” Not a good look when everyone on X is calling you a drunk. Kamala, who didn’t get any votes in the Democrat primary, was lecturing a Pennsylvania crowd about “democracy.”… https://t.co/404ai0JcIR

@themarketswork: Biden had more clarity in 2020 than Kamala does now. Admittedly, Biden was sober.

@charliekirk11: Truly terrifying clip of Kamala running for president in 2019 threatening to seize private property from corporations: “I will snatch their patent. Yes we can do that. Yes we can. The question is do you have the will to do it. I have the will to do it.” https://t.co/KibwrcEJVF

@TrumpWarRoom: Kamala Harris voted AGAINST President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — which expanded the child tax credit. She called the Trump tax plan “shameful” and “wrong.” Now, Kamala is claiming to be FOR expanding the child tax credit. Explain yourself, @KamalaHarris
.
@nicksortor: These poor high school football players are being forced to listen to a “motivational speech” from Kamala Harris: “You will be undefeated even if you don’t win every game…”
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1825295457968673175

On Sunday, Kamala finally answered a reporter’s question. When asked how she intends to pay for all her spending, Harris used the trite socialist/Dem trope: ‘it’s an investment that will provide a big return.’
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1825314709320413499

@Dylan_Housman: The Harris campaign lied yesterday when it issued a statement claiming Trump agreed to its debate proposal. The Trump campaign tells the @DailyCaller this morning that is not the case. The debate about debates is not over.  https://t.co/ymmz3uPhYR

@paulsperry_: OCTOBER SURPRISE: A source close to Bob Woodward says his forthcoming book, “War,” about the Biden-Harris administration’s inner workings will “not be kind to Biden or Kamala” and will drop several bombshells on Oct. 15 when Simon & Schuster releases the tome … developing …

Washington Post slams Walz’s claim that JD Vance does not support workers https://t.co/GGVPEnLBLm

Radio station threatens to sue Harris’ campaign over fake headlines – altered its headlines in campaign ads to make it look as if the news outlet backed her candidacy…
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/aug/15/radio-station-threatens-to-sue-kamala-harris-campa/

WaPo’s @tylerpager: Ian Sams is leaving the White House and heading to the Harris campaign in a top spox role, per people familiar. He was the White House spokesman for oversight and investigations and served as Harris’s 2020 national press secretary.

@charliespiering: Favorite Ian Sams moment is when Harris was asked about her social media support for Jussie Smollett.  Harris turns to Sams who turns away to look for anyone else as she tries to respond…  https://x.com/charliespiering/status/1824460626829185519

Roughly 100K anti-Israel protesters expected to descend on Chicago to steal spotlight from DNC, Harris-Walz ticket https://trib.al/CaSBK5C

Eerie new photos of Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks minutes before shooting raise questions about assassination attempt – In the picture, Crooks can be seen holding up his cell phone – as if chatting to someone on a call…   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13752085/Photos-Trump-shooter-Thomas-Matthew-Crooks-raise-questions-assassination-attempt.html

BBC: Sniper shot Trump gunman’s weapon and delayed him – report
A police sniper potentially saved lives by shooting the rifle of Donald Trump’s would-be assassin and knocking him down, an investigation says. According to a report by Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins, the sniper’s bullet damaged Thomas Matthew Crooks’s gun and disrupted his aim after he took his first shots in Butler, Pennsylvania. Moments later, a Secret Service sniper killed him…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gl2jqem0eo?at_format=link&s=02

Don Lemon shocked by deep blue New Jersey voters’ support for Trump in 2024 https://t.co/4CRWdIdp4A

Fox: Law enforcement brace as anti-Israel groups vow to bring tens of thousands of protesters to DNC in Chicago (Convention Monday through Thursday) https://t.co/nsYwsVmFpA

@KatiePavlich: There is a heavy police presence at the DNC, interesting from the party of defund the police — whose nominee is still raising money to bail out rioters.

Majority of antisemitic incidents committed by leftists, not Islamists or neo-Nazis, research find
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/majority-antisemitic-incidents-were-done-far-leftists-not-muslims-combat

@DavidRutz: MSNBC anchor, who’s married to Obama’s White House chef, cheers efforts to keep secret how Biden got pushed out, during interview with comedian who did fundraiser for Bid

MSNBC anchor credits secret Democratic ‘inner sanctum’ for effort to push Biden out of race
Wagner argued that the truth of ‘who edged him out’ is a conversation ‘you’re not going to really hear publicly, for good reason’  https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-anchor-credits-secret-democratic-inner-sanctum-effort-push-biden-out-race

@paulsperry_: The Biden State Dept is withholding FOIA’d letters Hunter Biden Biden wrote on behalf of Burisma as an unregistered foreign agent in violation of FARA laws. The White House has been directly involved in the FOIA clearance process concerning these incriminating letters.
    DOJ prosecutor David Weiss has had doc proof HUNTER violated FARA by lobbying State Dept on behalf of Ukrainian oligarch AND “US government agencies” on behalf of Romanian oligarch w/o registering as foreign agent —YET DOJ NEVER CHARGED HUNTER–as it did Trump advisers.

NY Times reporter leaked Jewish WhatsApp group to anti-Israel activists who doxxed and harassed members: report https://trib.al/8q6uAmG

Vance’s plane makes emergency landing over ‘malfunction with door seal’
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/vances-plane-makes-emergency-landing-over-malfunction-door-seal

Trump’s plane had to make an emergency landing the week before Vance’s plane had to land.

@FoxNews: ‘BAFFLED’: Actor Dennis Quaid is speaking out after Facebook throttled efforts to boost marketing for his upcoming biopic “Reagan” in which he plays the 40th president. Watch the full interview: https://t.co/pOeoNtvyRL

Morton Salt joins other major companies moving headquarters out of Illinois
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/morton-salt-joins-other-major-companies-moving-headquarters-out-of-illinois/

Free abortions, vasectomies will be available to DNC attendees in Chicago https://t.co/dRrjkcNWh7

New Video Appears to Show DC Police Units Planting a J6 Pipe Bomb
A man with a bag exits the SUV, points to the bench, pulls up his right coat collar to obscure his face from the camera located across the street, then walks to the bench with the bag. The “pipe bomb” device allegedly was found at 1:05 p.m. by a plainclothes officer from the Capitol Police… https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/08/16/new-video-appears-to-show-dc-police-units-planting-a-j6-pipe-bomb/

—

GREG HUNTER

Paris from Hell, NATO Fights Russia, Bankrupt Economy

Paris from Hell, NATO Fights Russia, Bankrupt Economy

By Greg Hunter On August 17, 2024 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups27 Comments

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 642 8.117.24)

The 2024 Olympics in Paris were straight out of Hell. What was being signaled was not just “woke” but a not-so-subtle public notice of how things were going to go for years to come. First off, they mocked the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In doing so, they also mocked Jehovah because in John 3:16, it says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In the future, these wicked demonic globalists will give you a new god. It might be an alien they dream up or Artificial Intelligence (AI). Christians, especially, were put on notice to comply or die, and that is not over-the-top analysis. This is why Christ Jesus will come back.

The reporting says the Ukraine army is penetrating Russia all by itself, but that it not the case. Now, more than ever, NATO is deeply involved in the fighting INSIDE Russia. How long will Russia play along without attacking NATO on its soil. Be on guard as this fight in Ukraine is not heading for peace talks–just the opposite.

The new inflation numbers came out this week, and you would think that 2.9% inflation was a magic economic potion that has fixed the economy. The real inflation rate is much higher, and that is what the general public is feeling while trying to make ends meet. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 10-Year Treasury is still around 4%, and the 30-Year mortgage is 6.5%. Lending standards are tightening, and home prices are at or near all-time highs. This is not going to help the commercial real estate (CRE) market that is in deep debt trouble. On top of that, you are seeing thousands of companies filing for bankruptcy at a dramatically increasing rate from last year. The general economy looks like it’s bankrupt or headed that way. That is a stunning rebuke of how the economy is really doing.

There is much more in the 49-minute newscast.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 8.17.24.

(To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here)

After the Wrap-Up:

I am starting to post new content, but it is not going to be at the rate as before my heart surgery. I will be working up to full speed in the weeks ahead. So, please be patient.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY//