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Russia Agrees On Further Oil Export Cuts, Will Reveal Deal Parameters Next Week

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Russia Agrees On Further Oil Export Cuts, Will Reveal Deal Parameters Next Week

By Julianne Geiger of Oilprice.com

Russia will disclose the details of the deal with OPEC+ next week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Novak did not specify exactly which details would be disclosed.

Putin asked Novak at a televised government meeting if he had reached an agreement with OPEC+ to reduce oil supply. It was not immediately clear whether the deal involves production cuts, export cuts, or both.

“We have agreed, but we will announce the main parameters next week, publicly,” Novak replied.

The current deal Russia has with OPEC+ would see the country’s oil exports cut by 500,000 bpd. On top of this, Moscow has also promised to reduce its oil exports in August by another 500,000 bpd and to cut September shipments by 300,000 bpd.

The oil output cuts in Russia have been holding back its top producer Rosneft from fully realizing its potential, the chief executive of the state-controlled oil giant, Igor Sechin, said just one day earlier, on Wednesday.

“I should note that Rosneft has been limiting crude oil production in one way or another since 2017, which prevents the Company from fully unleashing its potential,” Sechin said in a statement discussing Rosneft’s first-half performance. Sechin has voiced repeated arguments against the production cut deal with OPEC+. In June this year, Sechin said that Russia is exporting a smaller share of its oil output, losing market share compared to other OPEC+ members. Some OPEC+ members are exporting up to 90% of their oil output while for Russia, the share is around 50% of the total, according to Rosneft’s top executive.

Bloomberg has, however, named Russia the victor in the oil production cuts, reducing production even more starting in July, while Saudi Arabia, for example, started making extra cuts in May.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 07:20

EU’s Top Copper Produce Warns Of Massive Theft, Shares Plunge 

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EU’s Top Copper Produce Warns Of Massive Theft, Shares Plunge 

Shares of Europe’s top copper producer in Frankfurt trading plummeted following an announcement that it might have fallen victim to a massive theft, potentially leading to losses of several hundred million euros –adding to the series of turbulence to rock the global metals sector in recent years. 

Bloomberg reported that Hamburg-based Aurubis ‘found discrepancies’ in its metal inventories. It said suppliers had manipulated details about the scrap metal shipments, with even its employees in the sampling department covering up the scam. 

“What we currently know is that some of our recycling suppliers appear to have manipulated details about the raw materials they deliver to us, and they have been working with employees in our sampling department to hide the shortfall from us,” Angela Seidler, vice president for investor relations and corporate communications, told Bloomberg by phone. 

Seidler continued, “Then, in the production process, we have found that the metal is missing, but it is something we have discovered over time because in the case of copper, for example, it takes four weeks for the material to be processed.”

Aurubis expects a detailed report will be completed by the end of September. It said preliminary figures show losses could be in “the low, three-digit-million-euro range.”   

The news of the metal theft forced the company to admit its previously forecast operating earnings before taxes of 450 to 550 million euros for this fiscal year is no longer attainable. 

“It’s a very serious incident, but the impact of it will be digested within our current fiscal year, and it will not have an impact on our expansion plans and our strategic priorities,” Seidler said.

Shares of Aurubis crashed as much as 17% in Frankfurt trading. Salzgitter, which has a 30% stake in Aurubis, sank 7.3% as it slashed guidance. 

Morgan Stanley analyst Ioannis Masvoulas told clients the revelation of the scam is a “negative surprise, which raises uncertainties around inventory management.”

More from Masvoulas’ note (breakdown courtesy of Bloomberg):

  • Shows a more extensive impact related to alleged criminal activities than previously anticipated 

  • While suggests an inventory writedown in the order of about 3% of market cap, the impact may be bigger on market sentiment toward the company

  • This setback follows a weaker operating performance that translates to a soft exit rate for FY23

There have been a series of scandals to rock the global metal market. The latest was “Giant Commodity Trader Faces Massive Losses After ‘Missing Nickel’ Fraud Uncovered.” 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 06:55

“No Other Sector Can Even Compare”: US Tech Stocks Are Soaring, But French Luxury Blows Them Out Of The Water

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“No Other Sector Can Even Compare”: US Tech Stocks Are Soaring, But French Luxury Blows Them Out Of The Water

By Dhaval Joshi, Chief Strategist at BCA Research

Summary

  • The stock market’s pre-eminent growth sector is not US tech, it is French luxuries. No other sector can compare with French luxuries’ massive and sustained pricing power.

  • The risk for French luxuries is not a China slowdown, the risk is that the structural increase in super-wealth comes to an end. Yet if anything, the coming disruption from generative AI will boost super-wealth.

  • Own an outright structural exposure to French luxuries. As well as being the pre-eminent growth sector, the very different economics of luxuries gives the sector excellent diversification qualities.

  • Structurally overweight French luxuries versus US tech. While French luxuries and US tech are trading on broadly similar valuations, the moat around French luxuries profitability is more impregnable than the moat around US tech profitability.

  • Structurally overweight France (CAC 40) versus the euro area (Eurostoxx 50). The French stock market’s 40 percent exposure to luxuries will continue to give it a big advantage over its euro area peers.

The recent surge in major economy inflation into the mid-single digits has been dubbed the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation, a crisis that is still far from solved. But for the super-wealthy, the cost of living ‘extremely well’ has been inflating in the mid-single digits for decades. Suffice to say, this sustained inflation in luxury prices has not been a crisis!

Every year for the past forty years, Forbes has calculated a ‘cost of living extremely well index’ based on the prices of must have goods and services in a typical billionaire’s spending basket. For example, the current basket includes a black wool and silk Gucci dress priced at $2800, a Hermès Maxi 2.55 black handbag priced at $10,000, and of course the obligatory 1oz. of Chanel no. 5, a snip at just $345. For decades, the price of this luxury basket has inflated at a consistently reliable 5 percent, far outpacing ordinary inflation (Chart 1).

Therein lies the investment case for the luxuries sector. No other industry or sector in the world can boast such a massive and sustained pricing power.

French Luxuries Trump US Technology

With all the buzz around AI, you could be forgiven for thinking that the stock market’s pre-eminent growth sector is US technology.  But you would be wrong. The stock market’s pre-eminent growth sector is French luxury goods.

On most time horizons over the past decades, French luxuries have trumped US technology on profit growth, price performance and total return performance. This includes during the first internet revolution (Web 1.0), during the social media revolution (Web 2.0), and even during the post-pandemic recovery (Charts 2-4).

The pre-eminence of the luxuries sector is because its economics differs from other goods and services in three important ways.

  • First, unlike other goods and services, luxuries have a price elasticity of demand that is greater than one. Meaning that, while for most goods and services, a higher price reduces demand, for luxuries it is the opposite. The higher the price of the luxury, the greater is its cachet, exclusivity, and ultimately demand. This explains luxuries’ massive and sustained pricing power.

  • Second, because of this massive and sustained pricing power, the luxury sector is much less reliant on sales volume growth. Yes, luxury brands want to penetrate new markets such as China, but the unrestricted sales growth of a luxury within a market would diminish its key quality – exclusivity. So, while Apple might want everybody to have an iPhone, Hermes certainly doesn’t want everyone to have a Maxi 2.55 black handbag!

  • Third, the luxury sector has a massive barrier to entry. This is because it takes decades – or even centuries – to build the trusted quality, cachet, and exclusivity required in a luxury brand. Thereby, the leading luxury brands have built a massive moat around their profitability, making it near-impregnable for competitors.

As I explained in BCA Research – Can Tech Supercharge Profits? Don’t Bet On It, the equivalent moat around US tech sector profitability during the social media (Web 2.0) revolution was the so-called ‘network effect’. Once you get networks, the value of a network to a user increases as the number of users increases, resulting in a ‘winner-takes- all’: Amazon for shopping, Google for searching, or Facebook for socialising.

In this way, and helped by lax regulation, a handful of US tech companies became the Web 2.0 oligopolies with large moats around their profitability. The question now is, do the creators of generative AI have a moat around their profitability, as impregnable as the moat around French luxuries.

For Luxuries, The Real Risk Is Not China

For luxury brands, the obvious cloud on the horizon is the slowdown in China, which has been their fastest growing market. Yet as I explained in BCA Research – China’s Engine Is Failing, And The World Economy Is Losing Altitude, China has  generated 41 percent of the world’s economic growth through the past ten years. Thereby, China’s stellar growth has made it the fastest growing market for almost all products, not just luxuries.

In fact, French luxuries’ overall sales exposure to Asia ex Japan is only slightly above the region’s 25 percent weight in global GDP – albeit Hermès is overexposed at 48 percent of sales, while LVMH is underexposed at 20 percent.

However, to reiterate, luxuries sales and profits growth does not rely on volume growth. A significant part comes from luxuries’ massive and sustained pricing power (Chart 5).

Crucially though, luxuries’ pricing power also depends on the super-wealthy’s ability to absorb it, which it has been doing very easily. The simple reason is that through the past forty years, super-wealth – as measured by Forbes 400 total net worth – has increased at 10 percent a year, far above luxuries inflation.

The real risk for the luxuries sector is not a China slowdown. The real risk is that the structural increase in super-wealth comes to an end. If anything though, the coming disruption from generative AI will boost super-wealth – by hollowing out middle income jobs while enhancing the positions of the superstars. The irony is that the best investment play on generative AI might be French luxuries.

Three Investment Conclusions

We reach three structural investment conclusions:

First, own an outright structural exposure to the French luxuries sector. As well as being the pre-eminent growth sector, the very different economics of luxuries gives the sector excellent diversification qualities.

Second, structurally overweight French luxuries versus US tech. While French luxuries and US tech are trading on broadly similar valuations (Chart 6 and Chart 7), the moat around French luxuries profitability is more impregnable than the moat around US tech profitability. Because, as previously discussed, there is no obvious network effect moat around generative AI.

Additionally, the recent underperformance of French luxuries versus US tech has reached a short-term collapsed complexity that signals a good entry point (Chart 8).

Third, structurally overweight France (CAC 40) versus the euro area (Eurostoxx 50). The CAC 40 has a near 40 percent weighting to luxuries (counting L’Oréal as a quasi-luxury company). The large exposure to French luxuries has given, and will continue to give, the French stock market a big advantage over its euro area peers.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 06:30

Tucker Warns Of Trump Assassination, Hot War With Russia

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Tucker Warns Of Trump Assassination, Hot War With Russia

Tucker Carlson says that if legal efforts to block Donald Trump from running for president again fails, the next steps could be assassination and a hot war with Russia to maintain power and unite the population.

“No one will say that but I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion. Do you know what I mean? They have decided, permanent Washington and both parties, have decided that there’s something about Trump that’s so threatening to them, they just can’t have it,” Carlson said on the Adam Carolla show.

“If you begin with criticism, then you go to protest, then you go to impeachment, now you go to indictment, and none of them work, what’s next? Graph it out, man. We are speeding towards assassination, obviously,” he continued.

Once you start indicting your political opponents, you know that you have to win or else they’re going to indict you if they win. So they can’t lose. They will do anything to win. So how do they do that? They’re not going to do Covid again, I know everyone on the right is afraid they’re going to do Covid and mask mandates — they can’t do that. They’re already been exposed. That won’t work,” he continued. “What are they going to do? They’re going to go to war with Russia is what they’re going to do. There will be a hot war between the United States and Russia in this next year.”

And what might precipitate WW3? According to Carlson, “I think we could Tonkin Gulf our way into it where all of a sudden missiles land in Poland and “the Russians did it” and we’re going to war. I could see that happening very easily.”

Carlson then urged the GOP-held Senate to rally behind de-escalation, particularly in Ukraine, arguing that the stakes have never been higher for avoiding an apocalyptic scenario.

Watch:

Carlson also opined on former president Barack Obama, who the former Fox News host says was smoking crack and having sex with men, but the media was too afraid to report it ahead of the 2008 presidential election.

Carlson was referring to repeated claims by a man named Larry Sinclair, who maintains that Obama bought and smoked cocaine before they had sex in 1999.

“A guy came forward, Larry Sinclair, and said “I’ll sign an affidavit” and he did, “I’ll do a lie detector” and he did,” said Carlson. “‘I smoked crack with Barack Obama and had sex with him”, that was obviously true.”

According to Tucker, nobody dared repeat the accusation due to threats from the Obama campaign.

“‘Nobody reported it not because they were squeamish about sex or drugs but because the Obama campaign said anyone who reports on this gets no access to the Obama campaign,” he said. “So, they didn’t report on it.”

“It’s not going to change the world that Barack Obama likes dudes, I think this was well-known,” Carlson continued, adding that Obama himself acknowledged his gay impulses in a letter to a former girlfriend.

Amazing…

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 06:11

Labor Day Weekend Gasoline Prices Highest In Over A Decade

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Labor Day Weekend Gasoline Prices Highest In Over A Decade

While we are sure that the Biden administration will loudly proclaim their victory by crowing that pump prices for gasoline are down over 20% from the highs last summer (June), they may be a little less forthcoming about the fact that gas prices are also up over 23% year-to-date

Source: Bloomberg

Also, we hate to say it but gas prices are up over 80% since president Biden’s election – probably just a coincidence.

After adjusting for inflation, retail gasoline prices going into this Labor Day weekend are 4% lower than the prices ahead of Labor Day 2022, but on a nominal basis they are the highest since 2012

Source: Bloomberg

According to the EIA, cuts from Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC+ producers have raised international crude oil prices in recent weeks, which are the largest component of the gasoline price in the U.S. Lower-than-usual inventories and refinery outages in the U.S. have also put upward pressure on gasoline prices in America this summer

“Record temperatures in the South also caused unexpected refinery disruptions, contributing to a nearly 35-cent jump” so far this summer, fuel-savings app GasBuddy said on Tuesday.

“While gas prices have started to ease as the summer winds down, there still could be one last hurrah at the pump before things cool off this fall,” according to GasBuddy.

However, given where wholesale gasoline and crude prices are, we suspect there is some more pain to come at the pump for the average American…

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, commented,

“If we can escape further unexpected oil production cuts and outages due to hurricanes, we may avoid an unexpected surge in gas prices, with the downturn accelerating as we get into late September and stations transition back to cheaper gasoline.”

Hope remains, but President Biden is running out of options to stem the tide here as the administration has started to refill the SPR in recent weeks…

Albeit at a glacial pace compared to the tsunami drains last year.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 05:45

EU Firefighter Count Declines Despite Climate Crisis

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EU Firefighter Count Declines Despite Climate Crisis

Ten EU member states saw a reduction in the number of firefighters in their respective forces between 2021 and 2022, according to an analysis of Eurostat data carried out by the European Trade Union Confederation.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, France saw the biggest drop in its firefighter force of some -5,446 people in the space of a year followed by Romania with -4,250 people and Portugal with -2,907. However, it was Slovakia that recorded the highest percentage of losses, with its number of firefighters down by 30 percent over the same period.

Although the total number of firefighters employed across EU countries dropped by more than 5,000 overall, Spain, Italy and Greece all increased their forces.

Infographic: EU Firefighter Count Declines Despite Climate Crisis | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

“Cutting the number of firefighters in the midst of a climate crisis is a recipe for disaster”, Esther Lynch, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary, said in a statement.

“But it’s clear from these figures that investment is already insufficient and I’m concerned more cuts could be on their way if the EU reintroduces austerity rules next year.”

“It would mean the majority of member states would have to make cuts at the very time the EU are asking them to increase investment in the fight against climate change.”

These staff reductions are taking place as the workload of firefighters and other emergency services has increased with devastating wildfires, which have affected several member states in recent months, including Portugal, Greece and Italy.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 04:15

COVID Mask Wearers Could Be Exposed To Toxic Chemicals: Study

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COVID Mask Wearers Could Be Exposed To Toxic Chemicals: Study

Authored by Mary Gillis via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

(Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Some have heralded masks as the gold standard of protective gear against COVID-19. However, they may be causing more problems than expected.

Results from a study published in the Journal of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety in May have indicated that masks pose significant risks to wearers due to toxins emitted by the tight-fitting face coverings.

Researchers from South Korea measured the number and concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from several different masks, including cotton masks and KF94 masks—a popular type of disposable mask similar to the N95 mask.

Four types of VOCs were detected in KF94 masks at 22.9–147 times higher concentrations compared to other masks comprised of fabrics like cotton. The total number of VOC particles was 14 times that in cotton masks. In some KF94 masks, numbers reached a threshold high enough to pose a serious risk to human health.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), VOCs are manmade chemicals that can evaporate at room temperature and are often “used and produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants.”

Inhaling them may cause the following:

  • Eyes, nose, and throat irritation.
  • Difficulty breathing.
  • Headaches.
  • Nausea.
  • Damage to the central nervous system and other organs.
  • Cancer (some cases in animals, and suspected or known cases in humans).

VOC Concentrations Worse at Certain Times and Temperatures

Researchers found that VOC concentrations fluctuated depending on environmental temperature and when the KF94s were removed from their packaging. When the temperature of the KF94 masks was raised to 104 F (40 C), concentrations increased by 119 to 299 percent. Levels decreased by 80 percent 30 minutes after removing the masks from the packaging.

Risks can be mitigated to reduce harm, the study authors noted.

It is clear that particular attention must be paid to the VOCs associated with the use of KF94 masks [and their] effects on human health,” they wrote.

“Based on our findings, we suggest that prior to wearing a KF94 mask, each product should be opened and not worn for at least 30 min, thereby reducing total VOC concentrations to levels that will not impair human health,” the authors concluded.

Other Toxins and Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome

One 2022 study also highlighted toxic chemicals found in several masks and a long list of the possible consequences of covering up.

Phthalates are widely used chemicals that disrupt human endocrine systems and impact human health. While phthalates are said to make masks more versatile and flexible, there’s a high price to pay when choosing comfort over safety.

Instead of being chemically bonded to the material, phthalates are used as an additive that can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin. Exposure is detrimental to reproductive and neurological development.

Researchers in China found harmful phthalates in 56 mask samples collected from several countries. According to results from the study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, nearly 90 percent of the samples contained potential carcinogens, suggesting any benefits of masking may be outweighed by the risks unless types and levels of chemicals are managed to be within safe limits.

A comprehensive review published in Front Public Health in April found significant negative impacts of both surgical and N95 masks. Adverse effects correlated with mask-wearing included:

  • Decreased oxygen saturation.
  • Decreased minute ventilation.
  • Increased carbon dioxide in the blood.
  • Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature.
  • Higher levels of discomfort.
  • Shortness of breath.
  • Headaches.
  • Acne.
  • Skin irritation.
  • Dizziness.

“Masks interfered with O2-uptake and CO2-release and compromised respiratory compensation,” the review authors wrote. “Outcomes independently validate mask-induced exhaustion-syndrome (MIES) and down-stream physio-metabolic dysfunctions. MIES can have long-term clinical consequences, especially for vulnerable groups. So far, several mask related symptoms may have been misinterpreted as long COVID-19 symptoms. In any case, the possible MIES contrasts with the WHO definition of health.”

The study was retracted a month later. The reason given for the retraction was that “the article does not meet the standards of editorial and scientific soundness for Frontiers in Public Health.”

Read more here…

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 03:30

Radioactive Wild Boar Roam Central Europe

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Radioactive Wild Boar Roam Central Europe

Cesium-soaked truffles from weapons tests after the Second World War in Central Europe and the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have created an unexpected consequence: Radioactive wild boar roaming forests and fields, rendering them unsafe for human consumption.

In a new study published in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Environmental Science and Technology journal, researchers from the Vienna University of Technology said Europe was covered in radioactive cesium contamination following the Chernobyl power plant accident four decades ago. Most of the radioactivity was cesium-137, but a much longer-lived form, called cesium-135, from nuclear fission was also found. Over the years, cesium-137 declined in most wild animals, but what piqued the interest of researchers was why wild boars’ radioactivity remained unchanged. 

In a simplified summary, ACS explained in a press release how the researchers were able to determine nuclear explosions from the mid-20th century were responsible for today’s radioactive boar in Germany:

The researchers worked with hunters to collect wild boar meat from across Southern Germany and then measured the samples’ cesium-137 levels with a gamma-ray detector. To determine the origin of the radioactivity, the team compared the amount of cesium-135 to cesium-137 with a sophisticated mass spectrometer. Previous studies showed that this ratio clearly indicates sources: A high ratio points to nuclear weapons explosions, whereas a low ratio implicates nuclear reactors.

Here’s a summary of the findings:

The team observed that 88% of the 48 meat samples exceeded German regulatory limits for radioactive cesium in food. For the samples with elevated levels, the researchers calculated the ratios of cesium-135 to cesium-137, and found that nuclear weapons testing supplied between 10 and 68% of the contamination. And in some samples, the amount of cesium from weapons alone exceeded regulatory limits.

Researchers believe the nuclear fallout from the nuke tests contaminated the soil soaked up by underground mushrooms. These mushrooms are primarily eaten only by boars, hence why radioactivity levels in these animals were high compared with others. 

“This is one of the ultimate case studies showing how legacy soil pollution can haunt generations to come,” James Kaste, a geochemist at the College of William & Mary, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Science. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 02:45

German Museum Denies White People Entry To Colonial Exhibit On Saturdays, Only BIPoC Allowed Inside

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German Museum Denies White People Entry To Colonial Exhibit On Saturdays, Only BIPoC Allowed Inside

Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,

A German museum of industrial heritage in Dortmund only allows “Black, Indigenous and People of Color” to enter the museum on Saturdays between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. for the “That’s Colonial” exhibition, with the prohibition sparking claims of racism.

The Zollern Colliery museum argues it is a “safer space” intended to protect people of color from “further discrimination.”

The exclusive access is “an offer for BIPoC and black people to be able to withdraw and exchange ideas openly,” reads the museum’s website. “For BIPoC, such safe spaces are rarely found in everyday life or in museum rooms.”

The exhibit partly focuses on racial grievances, with the introduction to the exhibition on the website writing: “The morning cup of coffee, a street name or certain prejudices: Colonial history is still present in our everyday lives – even in Westphalia.”

A small team belonging to Antenne Frei radio station filmed themselves trying to enter the museum, but were blocked because they are White people.

The employees struggled to explain why their prohibition was not racism when confronted by a host from the radio station.

If there’s a People of Color in there now, and he says I don’t want that White guy in here, then you must go out,” said a male employee. The host then asked, “Because we have the wrong skin color?

The employee responded: “I can’t explain that. I can’t explain that.” When he was told that he should know because he works there, he repeated that he could not explain how or why the rule was in place.

“But that’s racism,” responded the radio host.

Inside the museum building, the radio host said: “If we turn it around now and say Blacks are not allowed in, can you imagine what an impression that would make? Now, it’s the case that the Whites can’t go in…”

A female employee responded: “There’s nothing to say.” The host then said, “You don’t want to say anything,” to which she responded, “I don’t want to.”

He then stated he wanted his entry fee back since he did not find the policy appropriate, and the female employee agreed.

The Zollern Colliery museum is one of the LWL museums, which are funded by taxpayers. The official website states: “The LWL museums bring together the history of the Westphalia-Lippe region in the areas of industry, handicrafts, technology, art, natural history, archaeology, monastic and everyday culture. They take on current topics and present attractive and lively exhibitions for people of all generations.”

Similar anti-White policies are spreading throughout the West. For example, a Black artist collective in Switzerland occupied a theater last year and demanded a non-White theater space, arguing that “there is no racism against Whites.” The group managed to collect hundreds of thousands of francs from the Swiss government despite openly discriminating against Whites.

Many Whites across the West are growing increasingly concerned, and despite claims that racism against Whites does not exist, polling shows that 80 percent of French say that anti-White racism exists.

In that country, a “Blacks only” Christmas market caused widespread controversy in 2021.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 02:00

Escobar: NATOstan Robots Versus The Heavenly Horses Of Multipolarity

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Escobar: NATOstan Robots Versus The Heavenly Horses Of Multipolarity

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains.

We will all need plenty of time and introspection to analyze the full range of game-changing vectors unleashed by the unveiling of BRICS 11 last week in South Africa.

Yet time waits for no one. The Empire will (italics mine) strike back in full force; in fact its multi-hydra Hybrid War tentacles are already on display.

Here and here I have attempted two rough drafts of History on the birth of BRICS 11. Essentially, what the Russia-China strategic partnership is accomplishing, one (giant) step at a time, is also multi-vectorial:

– expanding BRICS into an alliance to fight against U.S. non-diplomacy.

– counter-acting the sanctions dementia.

– promoting alternatives to SWIFT.

– promoting autonomy, self-reliance and instances of sovereignty.

– and in the near future, integrating BRICS 11 (and counting) with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to counter imperial military threats, something already alluded to by President Lukashenko, the inventor of the precious neologism “Global Globe”.

In contrast, the indispensable Michael Hudson has constantly shown how the U.S. and EU’s “strategic error of self-isolation from the rest of the world is so massive, so total, that its effects are the equivalent of a world war.”

Thus Prof. Hudson’s contention that the proxy war in Ukraine – not only against Russia but also against Europe – “may be thought of as World War III.”

In several ways, Prof. Hudson details, we are living “an outgrowth of World War II, whose aftermath saw the United States establish international economic and political organization under its own control to operate in its own national self-interest: the International Monetary Fund to impose U.S. financial control and dollarize the world economy; the World Bank to lend governments money to bear the infrastructure costs of creating trade dependency on U.S. food and manufactures; promoting plantation agriculture, U.S./NATO control of oil, mining and natural resources; and United Nations agencies under U.S. control, with veto power in all international organizations that it created or joined.”

Now it’s another ball game entirely when it comes to Global South, or Global Majority, of “Global Globe” real emancipation. Just take Moscow hosting the Russia-Africa summit in late July, then Beijing, with Xi in person, spending a day last week in Johannesburg with dozens of African leaders, all of them part of the new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 (actually 134 nations), presided by a Cuban, President Diaz-Canel.

That’s the Russia-China Double Helix in effect – offering large swathes of the “Global Globe” security and high-tech infrastructure (Russia) and finance, manufactured exports and road and rail infrastructure (China).

In this context, a BRICS currency is not necessary. Prof. Hudson crucially quotes President Putin: what’s needed is a “means of settlement” for Central Banks for their balance of payments, to keep in check imbalances in trade and investment. That has nothing to do with a BRICS gold-backed supra-national currency.

Moreover, there will be no need for a new reserve currency as increasingly more nations will be ditching the U.S. dollar in their settlements.

Putin has referred to a “temporary” accounting unit – as intra-BRICS 11 trade will be inevitably expanding in their national currencies. All that will develop in the context of an increasingly overwhelming alliance of major oil, gas, minerals, agriculture and commodities producers: a real (italics mine) economy capable of supporting a new global order progressively pushing Western dominance into oblivion.

Call it the soft way to euthanize Hegemony.

All aboard the “malign China” narrative

Now compare all of the above with that piece of Norwegian wood posing as NATO secretary-general telling the CIA mouthpiece paper in Washington, in a unique moment of frankness, that the Ukraine War “didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014”.

So here we have a designated imperial vassal plainly admitting that the whole thing started with Maidan, the U.S.-engineered coup supervised by cookie distributor Vicky “F**k the E” Nuland. This means that NATO’s claim of a Russia “invasion”, referring to the Special Military Operation (SMO) is absolutely bogus from a legal standpoint.

It’s firmly established that the spin doctors/ paid propagandist “experts” of Atlanticist idiocracy, practicing an unrivalled mix of arrogance/ignorance, believe they can get away with anything when it comes to demonizing Russia. The same applies to their new narrative on “malign China”.

Chinese scholars which I have the honor to interact with are always delighted to point out that imperial pop narratives and predictive programming are absolutely useless when it comes to confronting Zhong Hua (“The Splendid Central Civilization”).

That’s because China, as one of them describes it, is endowed with a “clear-minded, purposeful and relentless aristocratic oligarchy at the helm of the Chinese State”, using tools of power that guarantee, among other issues, public safety and hygiene for all; education focused on learning useful information and skills, not indoctrination; a monetary system under control; physical assets and the industrial capacity to make real stuff; first-class diplomatic, supply chain, techno-scientific, economic, cultural, commercial, geostrategic and financial networks; and first-class physical infrastructure.

And yet, since at least 1990, Western mainstream media is obsessed to dictate that China’s economic collapse, or “hard landing”, is imminent.

Nonsense. As another Chinese scholar frames it, “China’s strategy has been to let sleeping dogs lie and let lying machines lie. Meanwhile, let China surpass them in their sleep and cause the Empire’s demise.”

Poisons, viruses, microchips

And that bring us full circle back to the New Great Game: NATOstan versus the Multipolar World. No matter the evidence provided by graphic reality, NATOstan in advanced seppuku mode – especially the European sector – actually believes it will win the war against Russia-China.

As for the Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe”, they are regarded as enemies. So their mostly poor populations should be poisoned with famine, experimental injections, new modified viruses, implanted microchips as in BCI (Brain Computer Interface) and soon NATO As Global Robocop “security” outfits.

The coming of BRICS 11 is already unleashing a new imperial wave of deadly poisoning, brand new viruses and cyborgs.

The imperial master issued the order to “save” the Japanese seafood industry – a few scraps as quid pro quod for Tokyo acting as a rabid dog in the imperial Chip War against China, and dutifully pledging alliance at the recent Camp David summit side by side with the South Korean vassals.

The EU vassals, in synch, lifted Japan food import rules just as Fukushima nuclear wastewater was to be pumped into the ocean. That’s yet another instance of the EU continuing to dig its own grave – as Japan is set to suffer a Typhoon Number Ten type of blowback.

Radiation spread across the world through the Pacific will breed endless cancer patients around the world and simultaneously destroy the economy of several small island nations relying heavily on tourism.

In parallel, Sergey Glazyev, Minister of Macroeconomics at the Eurasian Economic Commission, part of the EAEU, has been among the very few warning about the new trans-humanist frontier: the Nanotechnology Injection craze ahead – something quite well documented in scientific journals.

Quoting Dr. Steve Hotze, Glazyev in one of his Telegram posts explained what DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been doing, “injecting nanobots in the form of graphene oxide and hydrogel” into the human body, thus creating an interface between nanobots and brain cells. We become “a receptor, receiver and transmitter of signals. The brain will receive signals from the outside, and you can be manipulated remotely.”

Glazyev also refers to the by now frantic promotion of “Eris”, a new Covid variety, named by the WHO after the Greek goddess of discord and enmity, daughter of the goddess of night, Nykta.

Those familiar with Greek mythology will know that Eris was quite angry because she was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Her vengeance was to plant at the feast a golden apple from the gardens of Hesperides with the inscription “Most Beautiful”: that was the legendary “apple of discord”, which generated the Mother of All Catfights between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. And that eventually led to no less than the Trojan War.

In the White Room, with black curtains

It’s oh so predictable, coming from those “elites” running the show, to name a new virus as a harbinger of war. After all, The Next War is badly needed because Project Ukraine turned out to be a massive strategic failure, with the cosmic humiliation of NATO just around the corner.

During the Vietnam War – which the empire lost to a peasant guerrilla army – the daily briefing at the command HQ in Saigon was derided by every journalist with an IQ above room temperature as the “Saigon follies”.

Saigon would never compare with the tsunami of daily follies offered on the proxy war in Ukraine by a tawdry moveable feast at the White House, State Dept., Pentagon, NATO HQ, the Brussels Kafkaesque machine and other Western environs. The difference is that those posing as “journalists” today are cognitively incapable of understanding these are “follies” – and even if they did, they would be prevented from reporting them.

So that’s where the collective West is at the moment: in a White Room, a simulacrum of Plato’s cave depicted in Cream’s 1968 masterpiece, partly inspired by William Blake, invoking pale “silver horses” and exhausted “yellow tigers”.

The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains. They will “sleep in this place with the lonely crowd” and “lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves”.

Outside in the cold, long distance, under the sunlight, away from the moving shadows, across roads made of silk and iron, the Heavenly Horses (Tianma) of the multipolar world gallop gallantly from network to network, from Belt and Road to Eurasia and Afro-Eurasia Bridge, from intuition to integration, from emancipation to sovereignty.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/01/2023 – 00:00