Ecuador rolls back @JulianAssange isolation after UN meets with president
Background: https://justice4assange.com/ http://www.itv.com/news/2018-10-14/julian-assanges-communications-partly-restored-by-ecuadorian-government/ …
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Ecuador has partially restored Julian Assange’s communications in their London Embassy after UN officials met with Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno on Friday, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
Assange, who has lived in the embassy for over six years, had his phone and internet access taken away in March over political statements he made in violation of “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states.” His visitor access was also limited to members of his legal team.
Ecuador rolls back @JulianAssange isolation after UN meets with president
Background: https://justice4assange.com/ http://www.itv.com/news/2018-10-14/julian-assanges-communications-partly-restored-by-ecuadorian-government/ …
“Ecuador has told WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it will remove the isolation regime imposed on him following meetings between two senior UN officials and Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno on Friday,” WikiLeaks said in a statement.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, added: “It is positive that through UN intervention Ecuador has partly ended the isolation of Mr Assange although it is of grave concern that his freedom to express his opinions is still limited.
“The UN has already declared Mr Assange a victim of arbitrary detention. This unacceptable situation must end.
“The UK government must abide by the UN’s ruling and guarantee that he can leave the Ecuadorian embassy without the threat of extradition to the United States.” –Belfast Telegraph
Assange, having been granted political asylum by Ecuador, will not leave the embassy out of the belief that he will be arrested by UK authorities and extradited to the United States, where a Clinton-friendly DOJ awaits the arrival of the man Hillary once “joked” about murdering via drone strike.
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From yuan-denominated oil futures (and soon to be yuan-denominated metals contracts) to Europe’s decision to use Yuan to pay for Iranian oil; and from non-dollar settlement systems for Russia/Chinese trade to Turkey’s call for citizens to dump the dollar, it appears each action of the Trump administration deepens the distrust in the dollar hegemony, coalescing the world against Washington’s reserve currency unipolar order.
All of which leads to this…
In a well-placed interview in China’s Xinhua news – the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China – officials from Africa are seen calling for more yuanification of the massive continent’s economies.
There has been a general consensus among some eastern and southern African countries that there should be more usage of the Chinese yuan in the region because of China’s growing influence in business and trade, a financial expert said Thursday.
Executive director of the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) Caleb Fundanga said a forum for financial experts earlier in the week had agreed that there was need to use the Chinese yuan as a reserve currency because China was playing an active role in their economies.
The forum was attended by deputy central bank governors and deputy permanent secretaries of finance from 14 countries that fall under MEFMI.
“The general conclusion is that we should use the yuan more because its time has come. We are doing more business (with China) so it’s natural that we use the currency of the country with which we are trading.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Back in November, Credit Suisse highlighted an alarming – yet altogether unsurprising – milestone in the increasing concentration of global wealth that has been perhaps the most influential force behind the populist revolts that rocked the US in 2016 and have continued to unfurl across Europe. According to the Swiss bank’s annual “global wealth pyramid,” for the first time, the wealthiest 1% of the world’s population had accumulated more than half of its aggregate household wealth.
Credit Suisse’s researchers describe in stark terms how global wealth inequality had actually improved somewhat in the years between the start of the new millennium and the financial crisis – but in the years after, the gap between the world’s richest and poorest individuals widened dramatically, one of the most pernicious aspects of the Fed and the global cabal of central banks pumping easy money into the global financial system.
The researchers said that “our calculations show that the top 1% of global wealth holders started the millennium with 45.5% of all household wealth. This share was about the same until 2006, then fell to 42.5% two years later. The downward trend reversed after 2008 and the share of the top one percent has been on an upward path ever since, passing the 2000 level in 2013 and achieving new peaks every year thereafter. According to our latest estimates, the top one percent own 50.1 percent of all household wealth in the world.”
But while CS’s report was unequivocally dire, a recent report published by the UK Parliament is even more harrowing.
According to the Guardian, projections produced by the House of Commons library suggest that the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest individuals will own roughly 64% of the planet’s wealth by 2030.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Ten days after the reality of “rampant manipulation” in VIX was exposed yet again, perhaps because this time the market went down, US regulators are reportedly escalating their investigations into whether any wrongdoing occurred within VIX ETPs.
Following previous reports that The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) was scrutinizing whether traders placed bets on S&P 500 options in order to influence prices for VIX futures, and a whistleblower’s detailed explanation of how easy it is to spoof VIX’s tail to wag the market’s dog; Bloomberg reports that The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have been conducting a broad review of trading since Feb. 5, when volatility spiked and investors lost billions of dollars, several people familiar with the matter said.
As a reminder, according to his letter, the whistleblower blames this VIX manipulation as the driver of last week’s volatility complex collapse:
“We contend that the liquidation of the VIX ETPs last week was not due solely to flaws in the design of these products, but instead was driven largely by a rampant manipulation of the VIX index,”
And, Bloomberg notes that after the losses, SEC officials reached out to Credit Suisse, a person with direct knowledge of the conversations said. Neither Credit Suisse nor ProShares have been accused of any wrongdoing. The regulators’ examinations are at an early stage and won’t necessarily lead to sanctions or new rules.
As another reminder, in May of last year we academic confirmation of the rigged nature the US equity market’s volatility complex, when a scientific study found “systemic VIX auction settlement manipulation.”
Two University of Texas at Austin finance professors found “large transient deviations in VIX prices” around the morning auction,“consistent with market manipulation.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
While we await the latest details on the ongoing trade war between the US and China, currently focusing on escalating steel and aluminum tariffs and China’s reciprocal response could be, the threat of a real war is looming.
Speaking to Congress, the navy admiral nominated to be the next US ambassador to Australia said that America must prepare for the possibility of war with China, and added that the US relies on Australia to help uphold the international rules-based system in the Asia-Pacific.
In an excoriating assessment of China’s increasingly muscular posture in the region – which some say is merely a response to similar, long-running posturing by the US in the region – Admiral Harry Harris said Beijing’s “intent is crystal clear” to dominate the South China Sea and that its military might could soon rival American power “across almost every domain” according to the Guardian.
Harris, who is set to retire as the head of US Pacific Command in Hawaii, told the House armed services committee that the US and its allies should be wary of Beijing’s military expansionism in the region, and condemned China’s foreign influence operations, predatory economic behaviour and coercion of regional neighbours.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order.”
At least he didn’t accuse China of also hacking the US election: so far it’s only Russia that gets to pick and choose the next US president.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Amid escalating tensions between Cyprus and Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea, the two countries could be headed towards a resource war.
On Monday, the Cypriot government released a report according to which Turkish warships continue to heavily restrict one of its deepwater drilling rigs from reaching its intended site off the Cyprus coast, where Italian energy company Eni is planning to conduct a drilling operation.
Cyprus officials announced on Monday that Turkey is breaching “international law” by blocking the Italian ship from the drilling site, said the Russian Times. According to the Cyprus News Agency, Italy’s energy giant Eni S.p.A. said that its gas drilling ship was ordered to halt its travels by Turkish warships last Friday, citing “military activities in the destination area” as it sailed through Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone.
Cyprus Government Spokesperson Nicos Christodoulides told state broadcaster RIK that the rig remains moored about 30miles (50 kilometers) from the drill site located off the island’s southeastern coast. Christodoulides further noted that Turkey’s military maneuvers expire Feb. 22. Nevertheless, Cyprus strongly condemns the illegal actions by Turkish warships. According to Marine Traffic, the rig’s status remains in “restricted maneuverability” with two other support vessels.
“We are keeping calm in order to avoid any crisis and taking all diplomatic steps necessary so that finally the Republic of Cyprus’ sovereign rights can be respected,” President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters on Sunday adding that “we are handling the situation by trying to avoid anything that could worsen the situation without ignoring the fact that Turkey’s actions are in breach of international law.”
When a powerful country doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, it resorts to gunboat diplomacy & bullying to achieve its otherwise unattainable claims. #Turkey War Ships Harass Drillship off #Cyprus coast http://www.ekathimerini.com/225726/article/ekathimerini/news/turkey-ships-harass-drillship-off-cyprus-coast …#EEZ#EastMed#RuleofLaw#Lawofthesea#UNCLOS
When a powerful country doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, it resorts to gunboat diplomacy & bullying to achieve its otherwise unattainable claims. #Turkey War Ships Harass Drillship off #Cyprus coast https://t.co/lxJIwWZY76 #EEZ#EastMed #RuleofLaw #Lawofthesea #UNCLOS pic.twitter.com/zDwnvLGp5Y
— Euripides Evriviades (@eevriviades) February 11, 2018
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Last week, when reporting that at least according to the White House,Russian presence in Syria is no longer disputed, we said that regardless if Russian troops are indeed on the Syrian ground, this admission that the current Syrian state of play “effectively ends the second “foreplay” phase of the Syrian proxy war (the first one took place in the summer of 2013 when in a repeat situation, Russia was supporting Assad only the escalations took place in the naval theater with both Russian and US cruisers within kilometers of each other off the Syrian coast), which means the violent escalation phase is next. It also means that Assad was within days of losing control fighting a multi-front war with enemies supported by the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and Putin had no choice but to intervene or else risk losing Gazprom’s influence over Europe to the infamous Qatari gas pipeline which is what this whole 3 years war is all about.”
Moments ago, following ever louder hints – if still unconfirmed by the Kremlin – that Russian forces are either en route to Syria or already there (Russian soldier’s VK post stating troops are in Syria, interceptedcommunication from a Russian An-124 military cargo plane en route to Latakia, Russian Roll-on/roll-off shipallegedly carrying military equipment to Syria), the US made a dramatic diplomatic escalation ahead of what is now assured to be the second major showdown between the US and Russia in Syria, over a Qatari gas pipeline no less, when according to Reuters, it asked Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria, a Greek official said on Monday, after Washington told Moscow it was deeply concerned by reports of a Russian military build up in Syria.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…