dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Anonymous ID: 2ea942 Feb. 3, 2023, 8:11 p.m. No.18281509 🗄️.is 🔗kun

I saved this one

Murder hornets, pachinko machines, and the Harvard misinfo beast getting fired. Balloons are so last bread

https://pachinkorestorations.com/product-category/restored-pachinko-machines/

Four Takeaways from Treasury Secretary Yellen’s Trip to Africa

The visit launches a year of high-level U.S. engagement with Africa to build a relationship of ‘mutual cooperation and greater ambition.’

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 / By: Edward A. Burrier

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen’s recent 10-day trip to Africa kicks off a year of sustained, high-level U.S. engagement, aimed at demonstrating that the Biden administration is “all in on Africa, and all in with Africa” following December’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. With trips from the president, vice president, and other cabinet secretaries in the works, this “super-charged” U.S. diplomacy is moving beyond the typical secretary of state visits. A close look at some of the issues encountered by Yellen on her trip demonstrates that showing up on the continent may be the easy part of going all in with Africa.

Here are four takeaways from Yellen’s trip to Senegal, Zambia and South Africa.

The United States recognizes that “Africa will shape the future of the global economy” and is ready to boost its partnerships across the continent.

Yellen began her trip in Senegal by noting “Africa will shape the trajectory of the world economy over the next century,” pointing to the benefits of a rising educated, urbanized and more digitally connected population. Indeed, in the next dozen years, the number of working-age Africans will be greater than that of the rest of the world combined. More workers can drive growth and create wealth, a growing middle class and a larger market for U.S. goods and investment opportunities.

But as the secretary rightly warned, Africa’s youth explosion could go in the opposite direction: “Throughout history, young populations without opportunity can spell greater risk of unrest and conflict.” She described the need to provide inclusive economic opportunity for the next generation of Africans as the continent’s “most daunting and most promising task.”

While African economies have made great strides over the last two decades, the need for fundamental foundations such as quality infrastructure, reliable power and transparent business practices continues. Indeed, Africa’s only representative in the G-20, South Africa, has trouble simply keeping the lights on.

The United States has stepped up its rhetoric behind supporting “game-changing” infrastructure projects in the developing world through the G-7’s five year, $600 billion Partnership for Global Infrastructure. For such projects to succeed, they cannot simply be dictated by government officials alone but must be closely linked to the needs of the private sector.

For its part, the United States would do well to step up its focus on bolstering Africa’s digital infrastructure. This would help connect African economies, play to the United States’ comparative advantage and speak to the young African tech entrepreneurs that are changing the face of African economies. At the recent Africa summit, President Biden announced a new $350 million digital initiative to expand internet access and provide Africans with increased digital skills.

Overall, in the last two years, Yellen said Washington has helped facilitate more than 800 trade deals across the continent and is “strongly supportive” of the African Continental Free Trade Area that will encompass 1.3 billion people.

Zambia’s debt crisis has far-reaching implications — and China is a “barrier” to resolving it.

In Zambia, Yellen rightly called out Beijing for being a “barrier” to ending the major copper producer’s debt crisis and noted that it had “taken far too long already to resolve.”

In 2020, Zambia defaulted on about $17 billion of debt, leaving its economy severely weakened and in need of “desperate debt relief.” More than a third of this debt is owed to Chinese lenders. To help get out of the red, Zambia has worked with the International Monetary Fund to secure a $1.3 billion bailout package. But Lusaka won’t be able to access this relief until its underlying debt is restructured. The prolonged stand-off threatens to put more into poverty and joblessness with an inability to access loans to build for the future.

Years ago, such restructurings would be handled through the Paris Club of wealthy, mostly Western nations. But over the past two decades the lending landscape has changed, with China especially — as well as the private sector — rapidly accelerating overseas lending with little transparency.

U.S. estimates of Chinese lending range from $350 billion to a trillion dollars. This type of opaque lending “can leave countries with a legacy of debt, diverted resources, and environmental destruction,” Yellen warned Africans as she began her trip.

As the pandemic exposed significant debt vulnerabilities of developing countries, the international community increasingly realized that a new structure must be put in place to account for the shifting lending landscape. In the fall of 2020, G-20 countries — including China — announced the establishment of a Common Framework for Debt Treatments to provide relief to indebted countries, buttressed by credible policy reforms to help them stabilize and grow their economies. Such “fair burden sharing” among all creditors is essential to ensuring one lending country isn’t benefiting at the expense of others.

Despite agreeing in principle to provide relief alongside other lenders, Beijing has dragged its feet for the past two years. One aspect hampering Beijing’s response is coordinating the sheer number of Chinese institutions that have been lending to the developing world.

Zambia’s president said he hoped to see movement on the restructuring in the next few months. And despite her frustrations, Yellen reported recent “constructive” talks with a top Chinese economic official and said she was “encouraged that progress may become possible shortly.”

Let’s hope this optimistic view wins the day. After all, appropriately structured debt relief is in the interests of both debtors and creditors. And the outcome of Zambia’s talks will have an impact beyond its borders. Faced with rising borrowing costs as the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates and high inflation, a series of defaults and instability across the developing world is possible. Governments heavily indebted to China are looking at Zambia as a test as to how they might be treated.

Like in the West, energy transitions in countries like South Africa will be challenged by vested political interests.

While in South Africa, Yellen traveled to the heart of the country’s coal-producing region to tout the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

Coal makes up approximately 85% of South Africa’s electricity needs, making the country the world’s 14th largest emitter of carbon. Its state power utility is inefficient, plagued by corruption and failing — robbing the country of the reliable power it needs to propel its economy forward and tackle the country’s poverty.

In 2021, the United States, UK, Germany, France and the EU committed $8.5 billion to help move South Africa away from coal through the JETP. After all, South Africa has an abundance of wind resources and is considered to have one of the top potentials for solar energy in the world. The funding, accompanied by private sector investment, will tackle infrastructure changes, as well as worker training.

But such grand efforts require committed partners. South Africa’s government is deeply reluctant to press the coal industry, one of the few sectors of the economy that shifted to black majority ownership since the end of apartheid and a key source of jobs. There is also suspicion of the private sector. Until recently, government policy inexplicably curtailed the amount of power private operators could produce — even as the country underwent 100 days of rolling blackouts last year. Officials are also pressing for more of the $8.5 billion to be in the form of grants, not concessional loans.

The JETP envisions government dollars “catalyzing” private sector investment into South Africa’s energy transition. But until South Africa creates an environment where the private sector can flourish, its energy transition is likely to remain stalled, with everyday South Africans suffering the most.

South Africans understandably see hypocrisy in the focus on green transitions, as Europe has kept coal burning to blunt the impact of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — even importing coal from South Africa. More broadly, Yellen noted that while 17 of the world’s top 20 climate-vulnerable countries are in Africa, the continent is only responsible for two to four percent of global greenhouse emissions. To help deal with climate adaptation and conservation, the Biden administration has said it intends to provide $1 billion to support African-led climate efforts.

Ending Russia’s war on Ukraine is the best way to help Africa’s economies.

In addition to China’s growing influence in Africa, the other country hanging over Yellen’s trip was Russia and the economic fallout from Vladimir Putin’s nearly year-long assault on Ukraine. Prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war, Africa boasted seven of the world’s top 10 fastest-growing economies. But those two world-changing events have kicked millions of Africans back into poverty and hunger.

Yellen said that Washington was providing support to mitigate the impact of rising food and energy costs on Africans. In Senegal, she said that a U.S.-Africa strategic partnership on food security is being established and touted U.S. efforts to stabilize global energy prices and reduce Russian revenues, which could potentially provide billions in saving to Africa’s oil-importing countries.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to South Africa, just days before Yellen’s, was a reminder that Russia is far from isolated in the developing world. Indeed, South Africa is scheduled to host Russian and Chinese naval exercises on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

While U.S. officials stress they are not asking African partners to pick a side, Yellen did not shy away from laying blame on Moscow: “… the actions of a single man — President Putin — [are] creating an unnecessary drag on Africa’s economy.”

Yellen even went so far as to declare that “the single best thing we can do to help the global economy is to end Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine” (emphasis added). That such a statement comes from the U.S. secretary of the treasury and former chair of the Federal Reserve should focus attention. Judging from the recent extensive back-and-forth over the transfer of tanks to Ukraine, Africans aren’t the only ones who need to hear the secretary’s words.

https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/02/four-takeaways-treasury-secretary-yellens-trip-africa

Anonymous ID: 2ea942 Feb. 3, 2023, 8:28 p.m. No.18281594 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1622

>>18281552

>Someone check the water!

All the time, what you wanna know?

>>18281520

Canada #39 >>18277444

Thailand To Become First Country In The World To Declare Its Pfizer Contracts Null And Void

Feb 3, 2023

NaturalNews.com / Ethan Huff

(Natural News) A Thai government spokesperson told Professor Sucharit Bhakdi this week that his country could soon become the first in the world to nullify and make void its contracts with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

According to Bhakdi, the spokesperson said, in reference to the company’s experimental covid “vaccines,” that “we will see to it that Thailand is the first country in the world to declare this contract (with Pfizer) null.”

We are told that the Royal Family in Thailand was directly impacted by Pfizer’s covid injections, which reportedly harmed the king’s daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha. Because of this, Thai authorities are working towards ending the country’s relationship with Pfizer.

(Related: Thailand was among the many countries that were bullied by Pfizer into pushing covid jabs so the company could rake in billions of dollars in profits.)

Bhakdi says he met with top government advisors and explained to them how the entire premise behind the “vaccines” is built on a throne of lies. Pfizer fraud is the only thing backing the jabs as there is no safety data to show they work as claimed.

Upon hearing this, Thai government advisors were shocked and assured Bhakdi that they are making preparations to sever Pfizer’s contracts with the country.

Thailand seeks billions in retribution from Pfizer for fraudulent covid injections

In addition to ending the Pfizer contracts, the Thai government also plans to seek retribution to the tune of billions of dollars in payback from the company. That money will then go towards compensating all Thai people who “lost their existence” as a result of the Pfizer covid jab rollout.

“The discussion he cited having with the Thai government spokespeople, in conjunction with their advisors to the Thai Royal family, is significant,” writes Nicholas Creed for The Daily Bell.

“The monarchy is revered by Thais, to the point of being sacrosanct and beyond reproach; subject to strict Lèse-majesté laws being invoked when criticism is made of the Royal family.”

In short, the Royal Family of Thailand holds great sway and influence over affairs such as this. The Thai people trust its decisions and are sure to support this move to remove Pfizer from their nation.

It was reported back in December that Princess Bajrakitiyabha collapsed from a heart attack after getting jabbed by Pfizer. This is the basis upon which the Royal Family is now moving towards holding Pfizer accountable for its crimes against humanity.

“If anything was going to awaken the Thai people from indoctrinated slumber, incurring their wrath and outrage at the scale of how badly they have been duped – this would probably be it,” Creed says, noting that up until now the Thai people fell for the mass psychosis and “uniformed worship of the new normal ideology.”

“I want to wake up from this nightmare.”

In the comments, someone wrote that Pfizer not only bullied but also bribed government officials, many through blackmail, into buying and distributing Pfizer’s covid shots to their populations.

“Fraud vitiates everything,” this person added, noting that contract law, which is color of law, is chartered under Roman Canon law.

More:

https://www.truth11.com/untitled-816/

>>18281641 (me)

Maybe this?

Canada #39 >>18266291

Burisma-connected oligarch who funded Zelensky's campaign, acting career raided by Ukrainian security forces

Prior to becoming president, Zelensky played one on tv, and that sitcom was on a network owned by Kolomoiskiy. His presidential campaign, too, relied heavily on funding from the now-raided oligarch.

Feb 1, 2023

Ukrainian security forces moved in to search the home of Ihor Kolomoiskiy, a prominent billionaire who was once called the billionaire behind the president. Prior to becoming president, Zelensky played one on tv, and that sitcom was on a network owned by Kolomoiskiy. His presidential campaign, too, relied heavily on funding from the now-raided oligarch.

Kolomoiskiy is accused of embezzlement of over $1 billion from two oil companies with which he was connected. Both companies were seized by Zelensky's government in November under martial law.

Kolomoiskiy and Zelensky were very tight during Zelensky's presidential run, as well. "During the campaign," the Atlantic Council reports, "Zelenskyy appointed Kolomoisky’s personal lawyer as a key adviser, traveled abroad to confer with the then-exiled Kolomoisky on multiple occasions, and benefited from the enthusiastic endorsement of Kolomoisky’s media empire. Unsurprisingly, many viewed Zelenskyy as Kolomoisky’s candidate."

Reuters calls Kolomoiskiy a former "sponsor" of Zelensky's while referring to the search as a "war-time anti-corruption purge." Kolomoiskiy was linked to gas company Burisma in 2014, which is the company on which Hunter Biden sat on the board, coming aboard after the Maidan Revolution.

Hunter Biden's contact at Burisma, Vadym Pozharskyi, to whom he introduced his then-VP father, was reported by the New York Post in 2020 to be connected to Kolomoiskiy. Kolomoiskiy has been under sanctions by the US since 2021. In February 2021, Zelensky bypassed pandemic restrictions in Ukraine to attend a birthday bash for Kolomoiskiy.

Under Zelensky's leadership in Ukraine, "government officials deemed a threat to Kolomoisky’s interests have been removed from their posts," the Atlantic Council reports. These included Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka who was investigating Kolomoiskiy, as well as Zelensky's first prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk who was attempting to "loosen Kolomoisky’s control of a state-owned electricity company."

Kolomoiskiy previously held a stake in two of Ukraine's biggest oil companies, Ukrnafta and refiner Ukrtatnafta. Zelensky seized both of those companies in November under martial law. This after he had revoked Kolomoiskiy's citizenship in July 2022, along with two other men.

Kolomoiskiy has denied any involvement with Burisma, though Russian writer and investigator John Helmer "suggested that Zlochevsky and Pozharskyi were front men for Kolomoisky at Burisma," the Post reported. Other sources indicate that, despite the off-shore financial obfuscation, the oligarch was connected to Burisma.

After Vice President Biden was introduced to Pozharskyi, he pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was allegedly looking into Burisma. Burisma was "described as a big shell company network of a classic British kind, with ownership and control completely obfuscated.'"

On Friday, Zelensky said "We are preparing new reforms in Ukraine. Reforms that will change the social, legal and political reality in many ways, making it more human, transparent and effective." He did not give details at that time, saying they would come later.

Kolomoiskiy, according to the Pandora Papers, gave millions of dollars to companies that were close to Zelensky and his associates.

More:

https://thepostmillennial.com/burisma-connected-oligarch-who-funded-zelenskys-campaign-acting-career-raided-by-ukrainian-security-forces

>>18281668 (me)

Perhaps a bit of this?

'South Africa #10 >>18180904

Shift in southern African economic landscape following Zim’s lithium ban

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2023

Johannesburg - The African continent is seeing a shift in its economic landscape, with Zimbabwe recently banning all raw lithium exports after the government said it was losing €1.7 billion from exporting it as a raw mineral and not processing it into batteries in-country.

Lithium is a mineral used as a component in electronic batteries for mostly cars, cellphones and computers. It is so valuable that it is known as “white gold”, and its price has gone up by 1 100% in the past two years alone.

The alkali metal is found in small amounts in minerals such as spodumene, petalite, lepidolite and amblygonite, as well as in indigenous rocks and waters of some mineral springs. It’s produced through the electric decomposition of molten lithium chloride and potassium chloride.

Zimbabwe holds some of the world’s largest reserves of hard-rock lithium, a vital mineral in the production of clean energy technologies.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba said the law had been drawn up following “a beeline of 30-ton trucks full of lithium ore from Sandawana (mine) to the sea en route to different destinations of the world”.

“When the government caught up with the mischief, it looked for an appropriate law to deal with the illicit flow of high-value ore,” he said.

He said the ban came days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa said a new law would target hordes of artisanal miners who were drawn by the mineral’s high prices and invading abandoned mines to dig for lithium-bearing rocks.

Mnangagwa said the raw lithium was being exported through neighbouring countries.

Charamba explained that miners for a long time had been aware of the government's stance on value-addition driven by its long-term economic vision.

"Government has for a long time been having conversations about value-addition, so no one here has been caught unawares. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s vision is to industrialise the economy, and we have to be serious in terms of value-addition so that we fully industrialise the Zimbabwean economy," he said.

According to him, the paradigm policy shift by the Second Republic is the first by any country on the continent, whereas for years Africa has not benefited fully from its rich natural resource endowment. Hence the government's move demonstrates its determination to industrialise the economy in line with Vision 2030.

Energy experts weighed in on Zimbabwe's ban, saying it was a good move for Zimbabwe in terms of taking control of the raw materials produced by the country.

“Zimbabwe holds Africa’s largest lithium reserves – the fifth-largest globally. The province of Masvingo is home to the Bikita mine (with reserves amounting to 10.8-11 million tons of lithium ore. With a grading of 1.4%, this would amount to around 0.15 million tons of usable lithium,” he said.

Reddy said this was similar to a move made by Indonesia early last year which banned the export of unprocessed nickel ore.

“Indonesia has approximately 22% of the world’s nickel reserves, and this policy shift also aimed to attract investment towards the local beneficiation of key minerals in the lithium-ion battery and EV value chain.

“South Africa has the world’s largest reserves of manganese, another strategic mineral in the lithium-ion battery value chain. Co-operation with neighbouring African countries that have strategic mineral reserves is imperative if South Africa aims to develop a local lithium-ion cell manufacturing capacity in the years to come,” he said.

Full article:

https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/shift-in-southern-african-economic-landscape-following-zims-lithium-ban-02d4ce18-d00d-4ba1-8800-ecbe147c7b12

Anonymous ID: 2ea942 Feb. 3, 2023, 9:05 p.m. No.18281776 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1948

>>18281670

Do you know what the Roman Empire was able to accomplish with slaves? Some of the roads and aqueducts are still in use today. Two or three harbors as well, I don't remember where they are these days but they are out there.

BTW, the slave markets in Morocco are still functioning

>>18281711

Switch personas won't you? Your shit is old and boring. Recycle some of that Digital Storm at least

>>18281795

MAGA Patriots/MAGA Extractions/MAGA Civil War/MAGA Ex-Military/MAGA Mercenary/MAGA Code Red/MAGA Black Ops/MAGA Cyber/MAGA Point Blank/MAGA BlackOut Ops/MAGA Cyber/MAGA Internet Key

Maga Patriots, the Patriot Front of 8Kun