Five vehicles rented by the Secret Service to protect President Biden and his family during a trip to Nantucket were destroyed in a mysterious fire on Monday morning. 

The Nantucket Current reported just after 0530 ET on Monday, and less than 24 hours after Secret Service agents dropped off the vehicles at Nantucket Memorial Airport, a fire erupted in at least one and spread to the other four. 

The vehicles were among numerous cars that had been rented by Hertz to the Secret Service during President Biden’s stay on the island for the Thanksgiving holiday, two sources told the Current. They had been returned to Hertz less than 24 hours before the fire broke out. — The Current. 

The vehicles — including a Chevy Suburban, a Ford Explorer, a Ford Expedition, a Jeep Gladiator, and an Infiniti QX80 — were all rented from Hertz. Agents used the vehicles for security purposes, and the president nor his family road in any of the SUVs, a Secret Service spokesman told Bussiness Insider. 

“We had no issues when we drove the vehicles and they were returned without incident.

 “We look forward to following up with local fire authorities on their review of the incident,” Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said

The Nantucket Current pointed out investigators have been “focused on a white Ford Expedition as the initial source of the fire.” They say the vehicle was under a safety recall by Ford due to faulty wiring that has caused fires elsewhere, noting the defective part had yet to be fixed. 

The local newspaper obtained footage of the blaze at the airport’s parking lot, just 40 feet from a jet fuel tank farm. 

Nantucket Memorial Airport’s Twitter account tweeted an image of the damage. 

Press Release. @InkyM @ACKCurrent @977ackfm pic.twitter.com/Nuwq6w054U

— Nantucket Airport (@AirportACK) November 28, 2022

An investigation has been launched into the incident. Nantucket Fire Chief Michael Cranson has already determined that the blaze was not suspicious. Still, it’s fueled a lot of conspiracy theories online. 

Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

The Biden administration approved a possible military sale to Qatar on Tuesday worth an estimated $1 billion.

The announcement of the approval by the State Department was posted during the World Cup 2022 match between the United States and Iran, held in Doha.

The notice of the potential sale is required by law. In it, the State Department said the government of Qatar requested to buy 10 anti-drone systems—referred to as “Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS) System of Systems.”

The Qatari government also asked for 200 “Coyote Block 2 interceptors,” which are used to defeat drones, as well as a slew of related equipment and technical and logistics support services.

Qatar, along with other Gulf Arab states, faces threats from Iranian-backed proxies in the region.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” said the State Department.

It added that the proposed sale will also “improve Qatar’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing electronic and kinetic defeat capabilities against Unmanned Aircraft Systems.”

“Qatar will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and/or services into its armed forces. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.”

Five U.S. government and 15 U.S. contractor representatives will be sent to Qatar for five years “to support fielding, training, and sustainment activities,” the department stated.

The main contractors will be Raytheon, SRC, and Northrop Grumman.

The United States and Qatar in 2017 previously signed a $12 billion arms deal for Qatar to purchase up to 36 F-15 fighter jets and other U.S. weapons. At the time, the Defense Department said the sale “will give Qatar a state-of-the-art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the United States and Qatar.”

Former President Barack Obama’s administration in November 2016 approved the potential sale, which was estimated at the time at $21 billion. Leading up to the $12 billion deal, then-President Donald Trump denounced Qatar as a “high-level” sponsor of terrorism and called on the country’s government to “take a hard line” on funding extremism.

While Qatar denies supporting extremism, its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, have accused it of funding terrorist groups, including al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, and of supporting Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Because of Qatar’s alleged support for terrorists, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt in 2017 had cut off diplomatic ties with the country.

President Joe Biden in March this year designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States—a special status granted to close, non-NATO allies that have strategic working relationships with the U.S. military. It allows Qatar to be provided with certain defense and security benefits with the United States.

Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Air Base, one of the largest U.S. military bases in the Middle East that hosts the U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters and the Pentagon’s air operations center for the region. The base is regarded as a key player in the fight against the terrorist ISIS group.

In August 2021, the air base played a major role and hosted thousands of refugees which aided U.S. efforts to evacuate people from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, after U.S. troops withdrew from the country.

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Are some of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers being targeted by someone?  We just learned that a 53-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire named Vyacheslav Taran has died, and he is the third big name to suddenly meet his maker in recent weeks.  So is this just one giant coincidence, or is there some common denominator that links all three of them?  There is so much that we don’t know right now, but it is interesting to note that all three of these deaths have happened at a time when the cryptocurrency community is going through an unprecedented amount of turmoil.  The collapse of FTX is threatening the legitimacy of the entire industry, and many that were once crypto millionaires on paper have had their fortunes completely wiped out.

Vyacheslav Taran died when the helicopter that he was riding in suddenly slammed into a hillside.  He was the co-founder of a trading platform known as Libertex, and his involvement in the cryptocurrency industry had made him a very wealthy man.

Unfortunately for Taran, he won’t be able to spend any more of that wealth because his life is now over…

A Russian billionaire has become the third top cryptocurrency trader to die suddenly in recent weeks.

Vyacheslav Taran, 53, the co-founder of trading and investing platform Libertex, died after his helicopter mysteriously crashed in a resort town near Monaco.

The vehicle plummeted on November 25 afternoon, killing Mr Taran, who had lived in Monaco for a decade, as well as a veteran pilot.

As we have seen so many times over the years, riding in helicopters can be extremely dangerous.

And it is interesting to note that “another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute”…

The finance titan was flying with an experienced pilot, 35, from the city on the shores of Lake Geneva after another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute.

The single-engine light helicopter Eurocopter EC130 operated by Monacair collided with a hillside near Eze village at around 2pm, Monaco Life reported

Hopefully we will find out the identity of the “other passenger” that decided not to go at the last minute .

That may give us a clue about what really happened.

In the end, this may have just been a tragic accident, or Taran may have been targeted for a reason that does not involve cryptocurrency.

A lot of prominent Russians have been dying lately, and so this could just be another instance where wealthy Russians are being targeted.

We just don’t know.

But what we do know is that another co-founder of a prominent cryptocurrency company was suddenly found dead last week.

It is being reported that 30-year-old Tiantian Kullander died unexpectedly while he was sleeping…

Tiantian Kullander, co-founder of Hong Kong-based digital asset company Amber Group, died unexpectedly last week in his sleep. He was 30 years old.

The company confirmed the news in a statement, saying that Tiantian, also known as “TT,” had “passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on November 23, 2022.”

Once again, it is certainly possible that this death could have absolutely nothing to do with the cryptocurrency industry.

Throughout 2022, lots of seemingly healthy young people have been dropping dead, and Kullander may just be another to add to the list.

But just like Taran, Kullander was one of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers…

“Besides co-founding Amber and building it into a multi-billion fintech unicorn, TT sat on the Board of Fnatic (one of the world’s most successful e-sports organizations) and founded KeeperDAO (the first on-chain liquidity underwriter) before giving it back to its community,” the company’s statement continued. “TT was a devoted husband, a loving father and a fierce friend. His passing is a tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He is survived by his wife and their beloved son. We kindly request that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

It is often said that two is a coincidence, but three is a trend.

Well, there is one more mysterious cryptocurrency industry death that I would like to discuss in this article.

On October 28th, 29-year-old Nikolai Mushegian was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach.

In this particular case, Mushegian actually predicted ahead of time that he would soon be killed…

A brilliant young cryptocurrency pioneer named Nikolai Mushegian tweeted on Oct. 28 that intelligence agencies were going to murder him — and was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach hours later.

“CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands,” Mushegian, a developer of blockchain-based decentralized finance platforms who wanted to end global banking corruption, tweeted at 4:57 a.m. “They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex [girlfriend] who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”

Of course we can’t actually prove that shadowy forces killed him.

All we know is that just hours after his ominous tweet his body was found in the waves on Ashford Beach.  Interestingly, he still “had his wallet on him”…

The 29-year-old then left his $6 million beach house in the luxe Condado area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a walk. A little after 9 a.m., a surfer off Ashford Beach, a spot considered so rife with riptides that local hotels warn against ocean swimming, discovered Mushegian’s body in the waves. He was wearing his clothes and had his wallet on him, sources told The Post.

If some criminals jumped him on the beach, they would have certainly taken his wallet.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was murdered.

He could have simply drowned after going for a swim, and there is also the possibility that he could have killed himself.

According to those that knew him, he had very serious mental health issues that he was dealing with, and it appears that he was also a heavy drug user…

A person who knew Mushegian very well for years until they had a falling-out two years ago said that the developer was “very very smart” but also suffered from extreme bouts of paranoia.

“He had mental problems,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He saw a psychiatrist at times. He smoked a lot of pot. A tremendous amount.”

Ultimately, we may never know if all three of these deaths are connected somehow.

But I find it very interesting that all three of these men were key pioneers in the industry.

And now they are all gone.

Life is so short, and for some it ends far sooner than they were anticipating.

*  *  *

It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

While it’s among the least relevant points of this week’s data deluge as it looks at a quarter that ended nearly 2 months ago (and much has changed since then), moments ago the BEA reported that according to its 2nd estimate of Q3 GDP, the US rebound from the “non-recession recession” of H1 when GDP was negative for 2 quarters, was even stronger than expected, with Q3 GDP revised up from 2.6% to 2.9%, above the 2.8% consensus estimate, with the BEA reporting that the increase “primarily reflected a smaller decrease in private inventory investment, an upturn in government spending, and an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by a larger decrease in residential fixed investment and a deceleration in consumer spending. Imports turned down.”

Digging deeper we find that the third-quarter increase in real GDP reflected increases in exports, consumer spending, business investment, and government spending that were partly offset by decreases in housing investment and inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

In terms of the revisions from the first to the second estimate, the update primarily reflects upward revisions to consumer spending and business investment that were partly offset by a downward revision to inventory investment.  Quantifying the Q3 GDP revision changes we get the following :

• Personal consumption rose 1.18%, up from 0.97% in the first estimate. The increase in consumer spending reflected an increase in services (led by health care and “other” services) that was partly offset by a decrease in goods (led by motor vehicles and parts as well as food and beverages). 
• Fixed Investment was less of a detractor, dropping -0.74%, vs -.89% in the first estimate. The increase in business investment reflected increases in equipment and intellectual property products that were partly offset by a decrease in structures. Specifically, nonresidential fixed investment, or spending on equipment, structures and intellectual property rose 5.1% in 3Q after rising 0.1% prior quarter. The decrease in housing investment was led by new single-family housing construction and brokers’ commissions.  
• The change in private inventories however offset this, dropping by -0.97%, more than the -0.70% in the first estimate. The decrease in private inventory investment was led by retail trade (mainly clothing and accessory stores and “other” retailers). 
• Exports saw a modest gain, adding 1.72% to Q3 GDP, up from 1.63%
• Less imports resulted in a bigger contribution to GDP, boosting it to 1.21% up from 1.14%. The decrease in imports reflected a decrease in goods (led by consumer goods).
• Finally, government consumption boosted GDP by 0.53%, up from 0.42% previously. The increase in government spending reflected increases in state and local as well as federal (led by defense spending).  

In other word, the entire GDP boost (2.93%) was attributable to net trade (2.93%) which in turn was driven by energy exports to Europe and weapons exports to the Ukraine, while a slowdown in the US economy meant fewer imports.

Finally, looking at the all-important PCE components, the GDP Price index came in at 4.3%, above the 4.1% expected, while core PCE Q/Q rose from 4.5% in the first estimate to 4.6%, also above the 4.5% est; this may explain why the market reaction has been rather negative to the GDP report, as the continue heat in PCE may, in the eyes of algos, offset the disastrous ADP print.

Gross domestic purchases prices, the prices of goods and services purchased by U.S. residents, increased 4.7 percent in the third quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point. Excluding food and energy, prices increased 5.0 percent, an upward revision of 0.2 percentage point. Personal consumption expenditure (PCE) prices increased 4.3 percent in the third quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point. Excluding food and energy, the PCE “core” price index increased 4.6 percent, also revised up 0.1 percentage point.

Finally, we should remind readers that this data is largely meaningless as it looks at the state of the economy during the summer, while what matters for the Fed is the here and now, and how fast the US slides into recession; which means what Powell says at 1:30pm today will be even more important.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who came to power after the Tiananmen Square massacre, died on Wednesday at 96 of leukemia and multiple organ failure, state media reported. 

Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 30, 2022

Xinhua News Agency published an open letter by the ruling Communist Party, parliament, Cabinet, and the military, about the loss of the former president. 

“Comrade Jiang Zemin’s death is an incalculable loss to our Party and our military and our people of all ethnic groups,” the letter read, expressing the announcement was with “profound grief.” 

Zemin ascended to power after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre that left at least 10,000 people dead, according to UK documents released by BBC News in 2017. Under his leadership (from 1993 to 2003), China peacefully regained Hong Kong in 1997 and entered the World Trade Organization in 2001. 

His death comes as President Xi Jinping’s zero Covid policy has backfired, and worsening Covid outbreaks have sparked some of the worst social unrest since Tiananmen. 

David Shambaugh’s 2021 book “China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now” said Zemin was first viewed as an ornamental “flowerpot” with a limited practical purpose. 

“The initial foreign impressions of Jiang were that he was a dull, classic bureaucrat-apparatchik, lacking in intelligence and persona … As time passed and Jiang emerged on the world stage, it became quickly apparent that he was the very opposite of those descriptors.

“When compared with Xi Jinping’s hardline repression today, or Hu Jintao’s relatively limited impact, we look back wistfully on Jiang Zemin’s rule as relatively liberal and tolerant politically, socially and economically,” Shambaugh wrote.

Zemin continued to influence Chinese politics even after he stepped down in the early 2000s. In 2015, People’s Daily, the party’s flagship newspaper, warned retired leaders to sit on the sidelines and out of politics as Jinping was furious Zemin was wielding power behind the scenes. 

“Jiang Zemin continued to wield influence even after he stepped down, but that hurt his reputation.

“He did that because he was comfortable with power, but also because around him there was a circle of people who relied on him and puffed him up to make him think he was indispensable,” Yang Jisheng, a Beijing historian, told NYTimes. 

After Mao Zedong’s chaotic rule, Zemin was instrumental in formalizing a two-term limit for China’s leaders. However, last month, Jinping shattered the term limit as he positioned himself for lifetime dominance over the world’s second-largest economy. 

Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

In Part one of this series, Our Currency The World’s Problem, we discuss the vital role the U.S. dollar plays in the global economy. With an understanding of the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, it’s time to discuss how the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy machinations influence the dollar and, therefore, the global economy and financial markets.

Given the Fed’s recent extreme monetary policy actions, which haven’t been seen in over 40 years, it is more important now than ever to appreciate the potential global consequences of the Fed’s stern fight against inflation.

Triffin’s Paradox

In Part 1, we highlight the following two lines, which help describe Triffin’s paradox.

“To supply the world with dollars, the United States must consistently run a trade deficit. Running persistent deficits, the United States would become a debtor nation.”

“Simply the growing divergence between debt and the ability to pay for it, GDP, is unsustainable.”

Increasingly borrowing without the means to pay it off is unsustainable. The terms zombie company or Ponzi Scheme come to mind when considering such a system. That said, because the printer of the currency and taxer of its citizens is in charge, we can only ask how long the status quo can continue.

The answer is partially up to the Fed. The Fed can use QE and low-interest rates to delay the inevitable. As we now see, the problem is that those tools are detrimental when there is high inflation. Fighting inflation requires higher interest rates and QT, both of which are problematic for high debt levels.

Financial Tremors

The Bank of England is bailing out U.K. pension funds. The Bank of Japan uses excessive monetary policy to protect its currency and cap interest rates. China encourages its banks to buy stocks. The dollar, the world’s currency, is on a tear, interest rates are surging, and the financial world is fracturing.

As we noted in Part 1, financial tremors are providing early warnings that hawkish Fed actions are starting to lead to serious problems.

Most foreign nations’ economic and financial well-being is closely dependent on the value of the dollar and the supply of dollars. As such, the Fed’s actions in expanding or contracting dollar liquidity can ripple through the global financial markets. The Fed’s monetary policy is the monetary policy for the world, whether anyone agrees with it.  

ECB’S PRESIDENT LAGARDE: WE HAVE TO BE ATTENTIVE TO SPILL-OVERS FROM THE FED POLICY.

The strong dollar is a problem for some countries- Jerome Powell

2020-2022

Over the past few years, the Pandemic drastically changed the course of monetary and fiscal policy. Since 2020 the U.S. government has accumulated over $10 trillion in debt. To help markets absorb the enormous supply of bonds, the Fed bought nearly $5 trillion in debt. As a result of fiscal spending, the money supply surged higher, and inflation soon followed.

Prices spiraled higher due to weakened supply lines and massive fiscal handouts. Despite economic normalization and signs of brewing inflation in 2021, the Fed continued buying bonds and kept interest rates pinned at zero.

The ultimate time to fight inflation was before it was a problem. Being late to the game makes the inflation fight harder. In 2022, after inflation became entrenched, the Fed finally started acting.

To their credit, they have been highly forceful, raising rates by 3.75% in just ten months and commencing an aggressive QT program in June. The Fed was the first major central bank to combat inflation vigorously. While other countries sat idly by, the Fed became extremely hawkish.

Money gravitated toward dollars in large part due to Fed aggression. Confidence was growing among currency traders that the Fed was taking inflation seriously. Adding considerable strength to the dollar was that most other central banks were doing nothing about inflation. 

Big Macs and Why Exchange Rates Change

Purchasing power parity (PPP) explains why currencies move against each other. In 1986, the Economist magazine popularized PPP with its Big Mac Index.

The theory underpinning the Big Mac index and PPP states that the exchange rate between two currencies should equalize the prices charged for a Big Mac or an identical basket of goods.

Simply, as prices rise by more in one country versus another currency, the exchange rates between the two must change to offset the difference. Not surprisingly, with the Fed leading the charge against inflation, currency traders flocked to the dollar. Based on PPP and two other currency measures, the dollar is now the most overvalued currency.

Why Does Dollar Strength Matter to Foreign Nations?

There are two primary reasons. For starters, many foreign borrowers borrow dollar-denominated debt. Second, changing currency exchange rates impacts the costs of goods bought and sold with other nations.

Foreign Borrowing

The BIS estimates over $13 trillion of foreign dollar-denominated debt outstanding. This debt poses a unique problem for its borrowers.

In Dollar Appreciation Threatens The Global Economy, we provide an example via the hypothetical Loonie Tire Company to help readers appreciate the impact of dollar strength. The table below from the article shows that a five-cent appreciation of the U.S. dollar versus the Canadian dollar has a significant effect on the firm’s debt terms.

Because the debt’s repayment occurs in dollars, the loan amount and the interest payments increase with the USD/CAD exchange rate. In our example, it boosted the company’s funding costs by roughly seven percent.

The current dollar strength is significantly raising borrowing costs for unhedged foreign borrowers. Dollar strength resulting from aggressive Fed policy is forcing the Fed’s hawkish policy upon the world.

Importing Inflation

Most commodities and other goods are traded in U.S. dollars. As such, price changes for said goods in foreign nations are due to the combination of supply/demand dynamics and changes in the currency exchange rate.

We present the graph below to help appreciate how dollar strength impacts foreign prices. It shows the price of crude oil rose 11% more when priced in euros versus U.S. dollars since January. 

Again, dollar strength resulting from the Fed’s more aggressive policy is generating more inflation in foreign nations.

Summary

“We are addicted to our reserve currency privilege, which is in fact not a privilege but a curse.” –James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.

The key takeaway we hope to impart is that Fed policy is the de facto monetary policy for the world. Whether foreign nations want or need tightening or easing, they are stuck with the monetary policy that the Fed decides America needs.

Today, aggressive Fed policy is creating havoc abroad. Like Japan, nations with slower economic growth and more debt can ill afford a monetary-tightening Fed policy. They are trying to counteract the Fed with zero interest rates and QE, but the result is a plunging yen and increasing inflation. Europe, China, and almost all other countries face variations of the same theme.

The world is finally facing Triffin’s Paradox.

The Midterms are over and so any pretense of a ‘strong as hell’ economy are out of the window, providing some ammo for folks to believe this morning’s ADP report (ahead of Friday’s payrolls print) may come in very ugly.

After a notable rise in October (despite an aggressively tightening Fed), expectations were for a smaller +200k print in November but instead ADP reports only 127k jobs were added in November – the lowest since Jan 2021

Source: Bloomberg

Service-providing jobs rose 213k while goods-producing jobs fell 86k with manufacturing job losses soaring… but fear not, we added 224k bartenders and waiters

*AMC NETWORKS TO LAY OFF ABOUT 20% OF ITS U.S. EMPLOYEES: DJ

As long as the US hires 5 million waiters and bartenders in November, all is well

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 29, 2022

Nela Richardson, ADP Chief Economist said:

“Turning points can be hard to capture in the labor market, but our data suggest that Federal Reserve tightening is having an impact on job creation and pay gains. In addition, companies are no longer in hyper-replacement mode. Fewer people are quitting and the post-pandemic recovery is stabilizing.”

Pay growth remained elevated even as it continued a modest but broad-based deceleration.

Job changers notched their fifth straight slowdown and the smallest increase in pay since January.

Pay growth for job stayers edged down, too, led by leisure and hospitality, which had a rapid run-up in 2021 but has been falling since March.

Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams, 

An Amnesty International campaigner on Tuesday led calls for “truth, justice, and compensation” after Qatar’s World Cup chief admitted that hundreds of migrant workers died during the construction of projects related to the FIFA tournament.

In an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan aired on TalkTV, Hassan Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Qatar World Cup Supreme Committee, was asked how many migrant workers—who make up 90% of the nation’s workforce—have died during the construction of $300 billion worth of tournament-related infrastructure including stadiums, hotels, highways, railways, and an expanded international airport. “The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500,” Al-Thawadi replied. “I don’t have the exact number, that’s something that’s been discussed. One death is too many, it’s as simple as that.”

World Cup boss Hassan Al-Thawadi tells Piers Morgan 400-500 migrant workers have died as a result of work done on projects connected to the tournament.

“Yes, improvements have to happen.”@piersmorgan | @TalkTV | #PMUQatar pic.twitter.com/Cf9bgKCFZe

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) November 28, 2022

Responding to Al-Thawadi’s remarks, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice, said that “the continued debate around the number of workers who have died in the preparation of the World Cup exposes the stark reality that so many bereaved families are still waiting for truth and justice.”

“Over the last decade, thousands of workers have returned home in coffins, with no explanation given to their loved ones,” he noted. An analysis by The Guardian found that more than 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka died in Qatar since the repressive Gulf monarchy was awarded soccer’s premier international tournament in late 2010. The Guardian‘s estimate, however, has been criticized for counting all foreign worker deaths in the country over the past decade.

“Qatar’s extreme heat and grueling working conditions are likely to have contributed to hundreds of these deaths, but without full investigations, the true scale of lives lost can never be known,” Cockburn continued. “Meanwhile, families are suffering the added anguish of severe financial insecurity that comes from losing the main wage earner.”

“There is nothing natural about this scale of loss and there can be no excuse for denying families truth, justice, and compensation any longer,” he added. “Until all abuses suffered by migrant workers in Qatar are remedied, the legacy of this World Cup will be severely tarnished by their mistreatment.”

Al-Thawadi asserted that conditions are improving for migrant workers in Qatar, noting the implementation of a 1,000 riyal, or about $275, minimum monthly wage and increased attention to safety. “I think every year the health and safety standards on the sites are improving, at least on our sites, the World Cup sites, the ones that we’re responsible for, most definitely,” he said.

A spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy appeared to backpedal Al-Thawadi’s remarks in a Tuesday statement reiterating the Qatari government’s claim of just three work-related and 37 non-work-related migrant worker deaths during the World Cup construction period.

“Separate quotes regarding figures refer to national statistics covering the period of 2014-2020 for all work-related fatalities (414) nationwide in Qatar, covering all sectors and nationalities,” the agency said.

Hari, a 27-year-old Nepalese builder who earned 700 riyals a month in a country where the average Qatari household makes more than 100 times more, described working conditions to CNN earlier this month:

It was too hot. The foreman was very demanding and used to complain a lot. The foreman used to threaten to reduce our salaries and overtime pay. I had to carry tiles on my shoulder to the top. It was very difficult going up through the scaffolding. In the pipeline work, there were 5-7 meters deep pits, we had to lay the stones and concrete, it was difficult due to the heat. It was difficult to breathe. We had to come upstairs using a ladder to drink water. At some places, they didn’t have water. Some places, they didn’t provide us water on time. At some places, we used to go to houses nearby asking for water.

It never happened to me, but I saw some workers fainting at work. I saw one Bengali, one Nepali… two to three people faint while working. They took the Bengali to medical services. I’m not sure what happened to him.

A 2019 study of 1,300 Nepali migrant worker deaths in Qatar published in Cardiology Journal found a “strong correlation” between toiling in extreme heat and dying from heart problems.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a Tuesday press briefing issued an ultra-provocative statement telling Ukraine that “NATO’s door is open”. 

He pledged that one day the eastern European country which has for nine months been under Russian invasion will become a NATO member. This of course is a prime issue for Moscow which triggered Putin’s “special operation” in the first place. 

Stoltenberg issued the reaffirmation in the presence of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats of NATO countries, who are currently gathered in Romania to discuss continued support to Kiev headed into the harsh winter months. 

Stoltenberg further touted (and seemed to directly taunt Moscow) that Scandinavian countries Finland and Sweden are soon to be the next full members of the Western military alliance: 

“Russia does not have a veto” on countries joining, he said about the recent entry of North Macedonia and Montenegro into the security alliance. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will get Finland and Sweden as NATO members” soon.

On this front, Turkey’s government has recently described “progress” made by Finland and Sweden regarding Ankara’s demands that they take more action against the Kurdish PKK and associated individuals living in their countries. 

Turkish foreign ministry officials assessed the following to come out of the latest talks: 

“We exchanged a series of ideas with the police and their colleagues in Türkiye to speed up the fight against the terrorist threat to Türkiye from the PKK,” Oscar Stenström told local radio after Turkish, Swedish and Finnish delegations met in Stockholm on Nov. 25.

…A joint statement issued by the three countries after the meeting stated that Türkiye had accepted that “NATO candidates had taken steps that fulfilled their commitments.”

“We had a very good tone, and for the first time in a joint statement, we signaled that progress was being made,” Stenström said.

Norway’s government has meanwhile seconded Stoltenberg’s call for eventual Ukraine admission into NATO: “We stand by that, too, on membership for Ukraine,” a Norwegian official said.

Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The so-called “golden era” of the Sino–British relationship is over, the UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday.

But Sunak dismissed what he said is “simplistic Cold War rhetoric,” saying he will stand up to the UK’s competitors with “robust pragmatism” instead of “grand rhetoric.”

Giving his first major foreign policy speech at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet at Guildhall in London, Sunak also vowed to “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” promising to maintain or increase military support next year.

But the speech heavily focused on the communist-ruled China, which he said is “conspicuously competing for global influence using all the levers of state power.”

“Let’s be clear. The so-called golden era is over, along with a naive idea that trade would automatically lead to social and political reform,” Sunak said, adding, “But nor should we rely on simplistic Cold War rhetoric.”

The prime minister said he recognises the authoritarian regime poses “a systemic challenge to our values and interests,” citing the suppression of anti-zero-COVID protests and the arrest and beating of a BBC journalist on Sunday.

But he also said the UK “cannot simply ignore China’s significance” on world affairs, global economic stability, or issues like climate change.

‘Robust Pragmatism’

Sunak spoke against what he called “short termism or wishful thinking,” saying the UK’s adversaries and competitors plan for the long term.

He said the UK will “make an evolutionary leap in our approach,” including strengthening defence of “our values and the openness on which our prosperity depends” and the economy at home, and standing up to competitors “not with grand rhetoric, but with robust pragmatism.”

The prime minister said the government is “reinvigorating” the UK’s European relationships, “taking a longer-term view” on China, strengthening the UK’s resilience and economic security, and building relationships in the Indo–Pacific region.

Citing the government’s recent decision to order a Chinese-owned company to sell the UK’s biggest microchip company it had acquired, as well his recent visit to Indonesia, Sunak said the UK, the United States, Australia, Japan, and many others will “manage the sharpening competition” with diplomacy, engagement, and improving resilience, particularly economic security.

More details will be set out in the government’s updated Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development, and Foreign Policy, Sunak said.

The speech marks a clear softening of rhetoric since his leadership campaign when he said the Chinese regime poses “the largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century,” and his recent description of the regime as posing the “biggest state-based threat to our economic security.”

It’s also in contrast with his hawkish predecessor Liz Truss, who in April called for a “global NATO” to tackle international threats and warned the Chinese Communist Party against invading Taiwan.

Parts of Sunak’s speech were published earlier on Monday in a press release. Commenting on the prime minister’s approach of “robust pragmatism,” Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns said she believes the UK should engage with China, but urged Sunak to draw “red lines” in the relationship.

Kearns agrees with a pragmatic approach, she told the BBC, adding engagement should mean “having those tough conversations” and “drawing red lines.”

“We don’t want to see illegal police stations operating on British soil. We don’t want to see their consul general beating up those who seek refuge in our country. And we don’t want to see our fantastic journalists like [Edward Lawrence] beaten on the streets of China, [and] that they have to recognize and respect human rights,” Kearns said.

On Sunday, BBC reporter Edward Lawrence was arrested and allegedly beaten by the Chinese police when he was reporting on protests in Shanghai.

It’s unclear what Sunak’s China policy will look like in practice, but the prime minister’s softened rhetoric was met with sharp criticism from former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who expressed his disappointment in Sunak’s tone towards Beijing.

“No idea if British [government] has any sense of irony, if not, they should,” the China hawk said on Twitter.

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