Home » Posts tagged 'the telegraph'

Tag Archives: the telegraph

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Report: Lab Leaks Have Increased By 50% Since COVID Pandemic

January 8, 2024

Report: Lab Leaks Have Increased By 50% Since COVID Pandemic

“The apparent lab leaks in the UK alone show we are all sitting on a ticking time bomb.”

The Telegraph reports that it has found a FIFTY PERCENT increase in leaks and accidents at laboratories in the UK since the outbreak of COVID in 2020, warning of “potentially catastrophic consequences” in the future.

The report notes that a Freedom of Information Act request sent to all British universities, government research bodies and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) yielded results showing that “dozens of dangerous viruses and bacteria including anthrax, rabies and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome) are being stored close to large populations, potentially placing citizens at risk.”

The investigation also found that since January 2020, there have been 156 reports of lab leaks or accidents, around 42 per year. That is a rise of 50 per cent on the years between January 2010 and December 2019, when 286 incidents were recorded in total, approximately 28 per year.

Some of the incidents recorded since 2020 include a worker dropping plates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bug responsible for TB at a former Public Health England lab at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham. At the same lab a worker was pricked with a needle containing HIV, human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2, and Candida albicans.

At other facilities, avian flu leaked from a cracked sample tube, an accident involving the bacteria responsible for life-threatening sepsis was recorded, and a worker was stabbed by a needle containing the Vaccinia virus, similar to smallpox.

At another lab, workers “lost” a mouse that they had genetically modified.

The Telegraph notes that not all incidents were disclosed because “some of the biological agents involved are listed in the Terrorism Act.”

American molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright, who has been vocal regarding his opinion that the COVID pandemic was a gain of function lab leak, further highlighted several terrifying quotes from the Telegraph report:

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Rising flood waters surround aid camp in South Sudan putting tens of thousands at risk

November 23, 2021

Rising flood waters surround aid camp in South Sudan putting tens of thousands at risk

Aid workers fear that protective mud dikes could soon break, leaving thousands of children in 1.5m deep murky water

A displaced persons camp with the same population as Oxford is surrounded on all sides by rising flood waters.

Aid workers fear that the mud dikes could soon break, leaving tens of thousands of children in 1.5m deep murky water.

At the start of the year, the situation was already desperate for the 100,000 people living in rows upon rows of scrappy NGO tents in the Bentiu IDP camp in South Sudan. But when the largest floods came in six decades, it became unbearable.

Aid workers estimate the camp’s population swelled by another 30,000 people fleeing the waterlogged land all around. Because the extreme floods have cut off the local sewage plant, only one in ten of the toilets on the camp now works and clean water supplies are well below emergency levels.

“We are effectively an island protected by these dikes,” said Jacob Goldberg, medical emergency manager at Doctors without Borders (MSF), told The Telegraph.

“The dikes are three metres high. The water is now 1.5 above the level of the ground inside the camp. It’s an extremely worrying situation. The water level is very slowly rising by two to three centimetres a day,” Mr Goldberg.

“People are now drinking the stagnant water, which poses an enormous health threat.”

A dike was already breached near the camp earlier in November, and the risk of those around the camp breaking is “huge”, according to MSF.

The aid agency also added that food was a huge problem. Rations from the World Food Program were cut to 50 per cent of the needed amount in April 2021 because of funding cuts. These do not cover the thousands of new arrivals.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Third of UK’s remaining energy suppliers are at imminent risk of collapse

November 15, 2021

About a third of the UK’s dwindling number of domestic energy suppliers are at imminent risk of collapse amid soaring wholesale energy prices, new analysis suggests.

Wind turbines© Provided by The Telegraph Wind turbinesFourteen electricity and gas suppliers are deemed “maximum risk” under their credit score, accountant Price Bailey found, indicating they will find it difficult to access funding.

It comes amid little sign of respite from the high wholesale natural gas prices caused by a global supply crunch, which have already pushed 19 energy suppliers out of business since the start of September.

Natural gas prices have climbed as much as six times since last summer, but Britain’s price cap on energy bills prevents companies from passing those costs on to customers immediately.

Matt Howard, partner at Price Bailey, said: “The energy supply sector is facing complete carnage as we head into the winter months.

“Over a third of suppliers have already gone bust and another third are at imminent risk of going under in the coming months.”

Price Bailey, a top 30 accountant, checked the Delphi credit scores of all the household electricity and gas supply licence holders registered with Ofgem, excluding the Big Six and two whose credit scores were suppressed.

Video: Former energy and climate change Minister: UK has been ‘very complacent’ about gas market (CNBC)

Of the 29 companies checked, it found that 19 had above average credit risk scores, and 14 are deemed maximum risk.

The figures are likely to trigger alarm among regulators, who have already had to transfer more than two million customers to new companies after

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

World Trade Suffers Biggest Collapse Since Financial Crisis

April 17, 2019

World Trade Suffers Biggest Collapse Since Financial Crisis

The recent collapse in world trade volume is the worst since the financial crisis and as dangerous as during the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, according to The Telegraph.

Data from the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis revealed that world trade volume dropped 1.8% in the three months to January compared to the preceding three months as a synchronized global downturn gained momentum.

“An industrial slump has been triggered by a perfect storm of factors, including China’s slowdown, the car industry downturn, Brexit paralysis and Donald Trump’s attempt to upend the international trade system with tariffs on European and Chinese goods,” explained The Telegraph.

A further escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and China could spark a world trade recession. Already, Washington has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese imports worth $250bn in a tit-for-tat battle with industrial centers in Asia and Germany experiencing sharp drops in trade in recent months.

The Telegraph describes the sudden loss in trade momentum is equivalent to the months after the dot com bubble imploded in 2001 when trade volumes sank as much as 2.2%. Today’s current move is the biggest fall since the financial crisis of 2007–2008 when global trade plummeted, diving as much as 12.7%.

The International Monetary Fund warned last week that this is a “delicate moment” for the global economy as many countries are in the midst of a severe slowdown.

The global economy has “lost further momentum” in the last six months, said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Lagarde pinned trade volume deterioration on decelerating global growth and “the impact of increased trade tensions on spending”  on producer goods.

The global downturn in trade is widespread geographically. The synchronized slowdown is expected to stabilize beyond 2020; however, in the meantime, it’s likely the world could be headed for a trade recession, if not already in one. 

The Next Flu Explosion: Rise In Obesity And Diabetes Will Exacerbate Future Pandemics

October 20, 2018

The Next Flu Explosion: Rise In Obesity And Diabetes Will Exacerbate Future Pandemics

Scientists involved in a new study published this month in the research journal, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, have sounded the alarm over their ability to contain future flu pandemics in relation to the rise of obesity especially in the West today.

The study finds that growth rates in obesity and diabetes, along with populations which are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, could turn even a mild flu outbreak into an explosive global pandemic.

Image source: Getty via ABC News

One of the authors of the study, Dr Kirsty Short, virologist at the University of Queensland, told The Telegraph of the link between obesity and spread of dangerous diseases: “There’s been an incredible rate of increase of diabetes and obesity even in my lifetime.” She explained: “This has significant implications on infectious diseases and the spread of infectious disease.”

Dr. Short continued, “But because chronic diseases have risen in frequency in such a short period of time, we’re only starting to appreciate all of the consequences.”

Reflecting on the now century old Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918, which infected a third of the global population and is estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people, she said of the next big outbreak, “we know that there will be one”.

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic occurred as WWI was winding down. Historical photo via AP

“As our population is ageing and chronic diseases are becoming so prevalent, that could turn even a mild pandemic into a chronic one,” Dr. Short concluded.

Though modern medicine and vaccines are better prepared to mitigate the impact of a major outbreak than in 1918, issues like obesity and diabetes more broadly present in society will likely provide a significant hindrance to prevention and treatment, scientists fear, as these conditions could alter the body’s immune response, leading to greater rates of hospitalization and even death.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Doomsday Device

April 10, 2017

Doomsday Device

Disappearing Credit

All across the banking world – from commercial loans to leases and real estate – credit is collapsing. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writing for British newspaper The Telegraph:

Credit strategists are increasingly disturbed by a sudden and rare contraction of U.S. bank lending, fearing a synchronized slowdown in the U.S. and China this year that could catch euphoric markets badly off guard. Data from the U.S. Federal Reserve shows that the $2 trillion market for commercial and industrial loans peaked in December.

The sector has weakened abruptly as lenders tighten credit, especially for non-residential property. Over the last three months it has dropped at a rate of 5.4% on annual basis, a pace of decline not seen since December 2008.

C & I loans, y/y growth. Readers may recall that we recently showed this chart in “Libor Pains”, in which we discussed corporate debt. Actually, y/y commercial & industrial loan growth peaked in early 2015 already, not just “last December”… but lettuce not quibble (Pritchard likely meant to refer to total commercial bank credit, the growth rate of which reached an interim peak in late 2016 – shown further below). The point remains that credit growth is falling fast – click to enlarge.

If new loans aren’t made, the supply of credit money will contract. That’s the “doomsday device” embedded in our credit money system: It is subject to sharp and disastrous drawdowns in the money supply.

When loans are paid or written off, the outstanding credit (money) ceases to exist. This reduces the money supply and triggers corrections, recessions, or market crashes.

Real money doesn’t disappear in a credit contraction. But our fake “credit money” does. This makes the entire system vulnerable to the credit cycle. Credit increases. Then it decreases. And as credit money vanishes, the recession deepens… causing the credit market to tighten further and causing more money to disappear.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Diversify Into Gold As An “Insurance Policy” Against Geopolitical Risk

March 26, 2016

Diversify Into Gold As An “Insurance Policy” Against Geopolitical Risk

“Investors could be forgiven for heading for the hills given the tumultuous start to 2016,”  so writes Andrew Oxlade in The Telegraph today who advises investors to diversify into gold as an “insurance policy”:

We have long been advocates of exposure to gold as an insurance policy. This was demonstrated once again in the recent sell-off when the price of bullion surged from $1,061 (£762) an ounce on New Year’s Day to $1,246 (£895) by early February. In times of fear, gold is in demand. The price also rises when inflation becomes a danger.

Deflation remains the bigger threat for now, which is partly why gold has been a poor investment in recent years, but the money printing excesses of central banks could yet unleash inflation. In the meantime, the gold price offers some protection during repeat episodes of buckling confidence.

Gold_GBP
Gold in GBP – 5 Years

The Telegraph, like GoldCore, had warned of such turbulence at the start of the year. John Ficenec, editor of the Questor column, warned of the real risk of volatility and falls in stock markets.

We believe that the tragic events in Brussels show the continued very high degree of geopolitical risk and the need for an insurance policy.

Further attacks are quite possible, including in the U.S., and this should support gold.

Geopolitical risk is frequently underestimated and it would be unwise to discount the risk of a September 11 style attack in the coming months. Intelligence agencies and ISIS themselves are warning of such attacks and investors need to be diversified to hedge this growing risk.

It gives us no pleasure to be the bearer of this bad news but it is important that the reality of the real risks of today are considered in order to protect and grow wealth in these uncertain times.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How a secretive elite created the EU to build a world government

November 29, 2015

How a secretive elite created the EU to build a world government

Voters in Britain’s referendum need to understand that the European Union was about building a federal superstate from day one

As the debate over the forthcoming EU referendum gears up, it would be wise perhaps to remember how Britain was led into membership in the first place. It seems to me that most people have little idea why one of the victors of the Second World War should have become almost desperate to join this “club”. That’s a shame, because answering that question is key to understanding why the EU has gone so wrong.

Most students seem to think that Britain was in dire economic straits, and that the European Economic Community – as it was then called – provided an economic engine which could revitalise our economy. Others seem to believe that after the Second World War Britain needed to recast her geopolitical position away from empire, and towards a more realistic one at the heart of Europe. Neither of these arguments, however, makes any sense at all.

The EEC in the 1960s and 1970s was in no position to regenerate anyone’s economy. It spent most of its meagre resources on agriculture and fisheries and had no means or policies to generate economic growth.

“When we entered the EEC our annual growth rate was a record 7.4 per cent. The present Chancellor would die for such figures”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one minute to midnight as central banks lose control

August 17, 2015

Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one minute to midnight as central banks lose control

China currency devaluation signals endgame leaving equity markets free to collapse under the weight of impossible expectations

When the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal.

Time is now rapidly running out. From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.

The FTSE 100 has now erased its gains for the year, but there are signs things could get a whole lot worse.

1 – China slowdown

China was the great saviour of the world economy in 2008. The launching of an unprecedented stimulus package sparked an infrastructure investment boom. The voracious demand for commodities to fuel its construction boom dragged along oil- and resource-rich emerging markets.

 

The Chinese economy has now hit a brick wall. Economic growth has dipped below 7pc for the first time in a quarter of a century, according to official data. That probably means the real economy is far weaker.

The People’s Bank of China has pursued several measures to boost the flagging economy. The rate of borrowing has been slashed during the past 12 months from 6pc to 4.85pc. Opting to devalue the currency was a last resort and signalled the great era of Chinese growth is rapidly approaching its endgame.

Data for exports showed an 8.9pc slump in July from the same period a year before. Analysts expected exports to fall only 0.3pc, so this was a huge miss.

The Chinese housing market is also in a perilous state. House prices have fallen sharply after decades of steady growth. For the millions who stored their wealth in property, it makes for unsettling times.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Europe is blowing itself apart over Greece – and nobody seems able to stop it

July 8, 2015

Europe is blowing itself apart over Greece – and nobody seems able to stop it

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras never expected to win Sunday’s referendum. He is now trapped and hurtling towards Grexit

Like a tragedy from Euripides, the long struggle between Greece and Europe’s creditor powers is reaching a cataclysmic end that nobody planned, nobody seems able to escape, and that threatens to shatter the greater European order in the process.

Greek premier Alexis Tsipras never expected to win Sunday’s referendum on EMU bail-out terms, let alone to preside over a blazing national revolt against foreign control.

He called the snap vote with the expectation – and intention – of losing it. The plan was to put up a good fight, accept honourable defeat, and hand over the keys of the Maximos Mansion, leaving it to others to implement the June 25 “ultimatum” and suffer the opprobrium.

• Greece crisis live on Wednesday

This ultimatum came as a shock to the Greek cabinet. They thought they were on the cusp of a deal, bad though it was. Mr Tsipras had already made the decision to acquiesce to austerity demands, recognizing that Syriza had failed to bring about a debtors’ cartel of southern EMU states and had seriously misjudged the mood across the eurozone.

Instead they were confronted with a text from the creditors that upped the ante, demanding a rise in VAT on tourist hotels from 7pc (de facto) to 23pc at a single stroke.

Creditors insisted on further pension cuts of 1pc of GDP by next year and a phase out of welfare assistance (EKAS) for poorer pensioners, even though pensions have already been cut by 44pc.

They insisted on fiscal tightening equal to 2pc of GDP in an economy reeling from six years of depression and devastating hysteresis. They offered no debt relief. The Europeans intervened behind the scenes to suppress a report by the International Monetary Fund validating Greece’s claim that its debt is “unsustainable”. The IMF concluded that the country not only needs a 30pc haircut to restore viability, but also €52bn of fresh money to claw its way out of crisis.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress