"Coordinated Sabotage" Paralyzes France's Rail Network As Olympics Begin

A "coordinated sabotage" has paralyzed France's high-speed train network, impacting a quarter million travelers. The number is set to rise to 800k by the end of the weekend, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

In a post on X, French state railway company SNCF described the overnight fire and cutting of critical signal cables near the tracks in Courtalain, northern France, impacting services to Paris, as a "massive attack aimed at paralyzing the high-speed line network."

SNCF said a "large number of trains were diverted or canceled" and requested that "all travelers who can postpone their trip and not go to the station."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/coordinated-sabotage-paralyzes-frances-rail-network-olympics-begin

Boeing, Money Printing, & The Military-Industrial Complex

Boeing’s commercial jets struggle, but its military machines thrive, all fueled by endless fiat money…

Not-so-mysteriously, none of the problems now associated with Boeing passenger planes seem to be affecting the weapons of annihilation they produce for the Military-Industrial Complex’s borderless global war machine, which is fueled by infinite fiat money.

Myriad problems with Boeing passenger jets have put the company into the news just about every day for months, but the company makes much more than just planes for commercial passenger airlines. Boeing is also a major aerospace contractor that produces fighter jets, attack helicopters, predator drones, missiles, and even the president’s airplane, Air Force One.

To be fair, Boeing’s record as of late beyond commercial jets is far from perfect — its Starliner, a crewed craft designed to bring astronauts to the ISS, was plagued with issues on the way to the space station that are now being investigated by its astronauts. And Boeing’s main rival in the space industry, SpaceX, has had its own problems with similar craft.

But when was the last time you heard about an Apache helicopter breaking down on its way to deliver a payload of highly-combustible “democracy” to a country unfortunate enough to be on the ever-expanding list of nation-states roped into unnecessary wars waged by the US or one of its global proxies?

Somehow, the systemic quality control issues at Boeing appear much more likely to get a handful of hapless air travelers injured than to cause problems with a military operation that has the “righteous” cause of protecting the petrodollar hegemon. The printing of fiat money fuels both phenomena in different ways.

Boeing’s corner-cutting and quality control issues are just one symptom of living in a fiat money system. As the dollar is debased, the incentive and ability to create solid, long-lasting products is degraded in kind. Manufacturing costs rocket upward as supplies, materials, logistics, storage, maintenance, insurance, wage demands, and every other production factor all increase, leading to a degradation in quality across the process as the irresistible temptation intensifies to prioritize minimizing costs over producing reliable, well-made, quality goods such as safe airplanes.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/boeing-money-printing-military-industrial-complex

Seller On Amazon Sold Merch Reading "The Only Good Trump Is A Dead One"

"Why are you allowing a shirt to be sold that seems to encourage lunatics to attempt to kill members of the Trump family?" commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck asked Amazon & founder Jeff Bezos on X, referring to Amazon allowing a seller earlier this week to offer merchandise with the slogan "The Only Good Trump Is A Dead One."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/amazon-sold-merch-reading-only-good-trump-dead-one

Israel gave US Congress weapons wishlist – Politico

Benjamin Netanyahu’s entourage reportedly asked lawmakers for seven weapons systems this week

Israeli officials handed US lawmakers a list of weapons they want fast-tracked during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, Politico reported on Thursday. President Joe Biden’s administration denies that it is delaying these arms transfers.

The list in question was given to lawmakers and senior Biden administration officials before Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, anonymous sources told the news site. Politico’s sources said it includes seven weapons systems, which they would not name for fear of revealing Israel’s battlefield plans.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told Politico that the Biden administration asked Congress to approve these weapons deliveries two months ago, and that both the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees had informally agreed. However, McCaul claimed that the administration never returned to ask for a formal approval.

“That hasn’t happened, and it typically would be a matter of days, and now it’s been two months, so it’s obvious they’re withholding them,” McCaul claimed.

During his speech on Wednesday, Netanyahu hinted that he was frustrated with the pace of weapons deliveries from the US. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said, adding that Israel “will settle for nothing less” than “total victory” over Hamas.

“There is no policy guidance to slow down transfers to Israel,” a State Department official told Politico. “We are looking tactically at the timing. It is not a question of whether, it is a question of when.”

McCaul, however, said he believes Biden is either delaying the weapons to give himself leverage over Netanyahu, or to bypass opposition by seeking approval when Congress is in recess next month.

Israel declared war on Hamas in October, after the Palestinian militants killed around 1,100 people and took roughly 250 hostages in a surprise assault on the Jewish state. In the months since, Washington has given West Jerusalem $6.5 billion worth of military aid, a Biden administration official told the Washington Post last month. That figure will likely rise, as a foreign aid bill passed by Congress in April allocates a total of $14.1 billion in aid for Israel.

This support for Israel has angered the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, many of whom skipped Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday. Among those who attended was Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, who held up a sign reading “Guilty of Genocide” and “War criminal” as the Israeli prime minister spoke.

Back in May, Biden froze the delivery of around 1,800 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as an apparent gesture to the progressives. However, his administration has given Israel more than 14,000 of the same bombs since October, Reuters reported last week.

According to Politico’s sources, the Israeli weapons list did not include 2,000-pound bombs.

https://www.rt.com/news/601710-israel-weapons-list-congress/

India and China vow to stabilize bilateral ties

New Delhi and Beijing have resolved to improve relations amid an ongoing border dispute

“It is hoped that China and India will work in the same direction and explore how the neighbouring countries can get along,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after speaking with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday.

Wang said China-India relations have an important impact beyond just the two nations, according to a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “It is in the interests of both sides to get China-India relations back on track,” he stressed.

Earlier this month, the two diplomats met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, where they agreed to “redouble efforts through diplomatic and military channels” to find an “early resolution” to long-standing border disputes.

https://www.rt.com/india/601719-india-and-china-border-ties/

Sinaloa Drug Cartel Co-Founder Tricked Into Flying To Small US Airfield, Greeted With Handcuffs

In a story destined to be dramatized on the big screen, a major Mexican drug lord was tricked on Thursday into flying aboard a small plane that landed near El Paso, Texas, where federal agents greeted him on the tarmac with handcuffs.

That big prize was 76-year-old Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who co-founded the infamous Sinaloa cartel with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in the late 1980s. El Chapo was extradited to America in 2017 and is serving a life sentence at the federal supermax penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. El Chapo's son, Joaquín Guzman Lopez, may become his "so close and yet so far" neighbor at the Alcatraz of the Rockies, as he was also nabbed in the creative scheme – and reportedly participated in it.

“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world…Both men are facing multiple charges in the United States for leading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks."

According the Wall Street Journal's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) sources, El Mayo was led to believe the small aircraft he was boarding would take him to survey covert airstrips inside Mexico. The scheme was months in the making, and was a joint project with the FBI.

Adding to the cinematic intrigue, a high-ranking cartel member is said to have tricked the two into boarding the US-bound airplane. Plot twist: The New York Times reports that it was Guzman Lopez – El Chapo's son who was also aboard and arrested. Fox News' Bryan Llenas reports that a source tells him Guzman Lopez was said to have turned on El Mayo because he blamed him for his father's apprehension.

While the DOJ and DEA statements didn't identify the airstrip, reports from Reuters and KTSM indicate the plane landed at Santa Teresa International Jetport, which is located in New Mexico, just across the state line from El Paso. "One worker at the Santa Teresa airport…[said] that he saw a Beechcraft King Air land on the runway, where federal agents were already waiting," Reuters reports.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sinaloa-drug-cartel-co-founder-tricked-flying-small-us-airfield-greeted-handcuffs

https://youtu.be/-ToWdKu4Fz0

Israel Warns France that Iran Is Planning Attacks at Paris Olympics

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reportedly warned the French government on Thursday that Jerusalem has reason to believe state sponsor of terrorism Iran is planning to attack its citizens during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, scheduled to begin on Friday.

The suspicion — reportedly relayed in a letter to French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne — surfaced in a report following public safety alerts for Israeli citizens from Israel’s national security authorities and a barrage of death threats directed at the Israeli delegation. The Paris Olympics will feature ambitious presentations expected to require tens of thousands of police and security personnel, beginning on Friday with an unprecedented Opening Ceremonies parade of vessels down the river Seine.

“We currently have assessments regarding the potential threat posed by Iranian terrorist proxies and other terrorist organisations who aim to carry out attacks against members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympics,” the letter from Katz to Sejourne, which Reuters claimed to have obtained, read in part. Reuters reported that the letter did not offer any more detail, and the French government did not comment on the matter.

The French sports newspaper L’Equipe reported on Friday that French police are investigating at least one threat against Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is in Paris to attend the Opening Ceremonies. The threat allegedly surfaced on social media, and the report on the matter did not directly implicate the Iranian government in the possible attack.

The Iranian government rapidly condemned the Reuters report, though its state-run propaganda outlets have, for years, published materials meant to inspire hatred against Israel and, recently, active unrest in Paris against the presence of Israeli athletes at the Olympics.

“Terrorist acts have no place in the principles of resistance groups,” the Iranian mission to the United States said in a statement on Friday, according to the Iranian propaganda outlet PressTV. “Lies and deceit cannot switch the roles of the plaintiff and the accused.”

The “axis of resistance” whose “groups” the mission referred to is a consortium of violent groups widely recognized as terrorist organizations that benefit from Iranian funding, including Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthi organization, and Hamas, the Palestinian group responsible for the unprecedented massacre of 1,200 people and abduction of more than 200 others from Israel on October 7, 2023.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/07/26/israel-warns-france-that-iran-is-planning-attacks-at-paris-olympics/

Mossad planning false flags!

Patrick Howley Tells Paul Harrell: Kamala Harris Has A MASSIVE Child Sex Trafficking Scandal On Her Hands

What will come out next in National File's THE KAMALA FILES?

I appeared on The Millstone Report with Paul Harrell to discuss Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ child sex trafficking scandal, which you can read about below. Kamala Harris has a lot of big questions to answer about her record on human trafficking, which President Donald Trump should bring up as the election moves forward.

Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris personally worked as a lawyer for the U.S. government to take a child named Jonah Rief away from his mother and the child was allegedly sex trafficked. Additionally, Harris as California attorney general oversaw a system of child sex trafficking in the foster care system where missing foster kids don’t get an Amber alert but are merely registered as “runaways” by the state. Harris’ office also met with families of children victimized by CPS child trafficking, but chose not to intervene to stop the problem.

I produced Save the Babies: A Documentary on CPS Child Trafficking (WATCH IT HERE) to expose how CPS snatches kids from homes and hospitals and allegedly funnels them into the underground world of child sex slavery. States collect Title IV Social Security money for every child adopted out of foster care, thus creating potential financial incentives for social workers to grab kids from their families and place them into foster care with no hope for family re-unification. In California, missing foster care children do not even get an Amber Alert sent out for them. They are all just labeled as runaways. Kamala Harris served as California attorney general when this system was in place. Kamala Harris’ office also met with relatives of CPS kidnapping victims but refused to follow up on the interaction and take any kind of action to help the children.

The film spotlighted Contra Costa County, California, where children have died in the CPS system a short distance away from Bohemian Grove, where globalist elites reportedly practice Moloch worship.

In the film, I explain how Kamala Harris represented the government against a mother named Tammi Rief, whose son Jonah Rief was taken away from her by a judge and allegedly sex trafficked.

https://nationalfile.com/patrick-howley-tells-paul-harrell-kamala-harris-has-a-massive-child-sex-trafficking-scandal-on-her-hands/

https://youtu.be/QwO06p6xf3I

https://casetext.com/case/people-v-rief

>>21298020

100 gunmen killed in Khan Younis

Meanwhile, the IDF said Friday that more than 100 terror operatives had been killed by troops with the 98th Division during a new operation in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The offensive in Khan Younis was launched on Monday after the IDF said it had identified Hamas terrorists regrouping there, three months after the IDF withdrew from the city in southern Gaza. The offensive was also aimed at enabling an operation on Wednesday to recover the bodies of five slain hostages.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-volunteer-soldier-slain-in-south-gaza-fighting-100-gunmen-killed-in-khan-younis/

Israeli Snipers Firing at 'Anyone Who Is Moving' in Khan Younis

The southern Gaza city is the latest region where Israeli forces have issued an evacuation order, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

At least 129 people have been killed in the last five days of Israeli shelling and artillery fire in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where the Israel Defense Forces earlier this week gave people "a couple of minutes only" to evacuate earlier this week, according to Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary, before the bombardment began.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/khan-younis-attack

True the Vote launches app that will allow people to report election tampering and irregularities in real time, severely hampering efforts to manipulate a free electoral process..

https://x.com/DougAMacgregor/status/1815528053092856183

'You Just Lied' - Elon Musk VS The BBC

https://youtu.be/XaCBhBYlOZk

Trump Reveals JUST WHO Is Preventing Peace In Israel!

https://rumble.com/embed/v566y8l/?pub=4

The Global Risks Report- Top Insurance Execs ‘Alarmed’ by ‘Sudden Surge’ in Deaths Among Jabbed Young People

Executives at the largest insurance companies in the United States say they are ‘alarmed’ at the ‘sudden surge’ in deaths among fully jabbed young people.

According to an Oct. 26 report in InsuranceNewsNet, U.S. insurance execuives are worried about the crippling payouts they are being forced to make due to the unprecedented number of young, healthy adults dropping dead following the jab rollout.

Expose-news.com reports: Insurers saw death benefits rise 15.4% in 2020, the biggest one-year increase since the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, followed by a record $100.28 billion — nearly double the historic norm — in total death benefits paid out by the industry in 2021.

“The numbers were naturally forecasted to climb during the pandemic, but some industry and health authorities are concerned the rates haven’t greatly diminished as COVID infection rates have declined,” InsuranceNewsNet reported.

According to InsuranceNewsNet, insurers are especially concerned by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that show “mortality rates alarmingly rising for different categories,” including younger adult mortality rates that are up more than 20% above historic norms in 2023.

The CDC numbers reported in August show the death rate for Americans ages 15-45 rose 20-24% above normal in 2020, and soared in 2021, to a nearly 30% death increase for 15-year-olds and a more than 45% increase for 45-year-olds.

Most troubling to insurers, CDC data reported in August showed that Americans in the period January-May 2023 were still dying at abnormally high rates with the pandemic long over. Mortality rates were 25% higher than normal among 15- to 19-year-olds and 20% higher among 45-year-olds considered in the prime of life.

Even twenty-somethings were dying at a rate nearly 15% above normal and thirty-somethings at a pace 20% higher than usual, the CDC data show.

Samantha Chow, global leader for Life, Annuity and Benefits Sector at Capgemini, a large, multinational Paris-based consulting company, told InsuranceNewsNet, “The surge in excess deaths caught carriers off guard” and the issue demands urgent attention by the industry.

The issue is, “Can the industry handle a sudden spike in claims?” She added, “The real concern for life insurers lies in preparing for an unexpected wave of death claims and the impact on their assets under management.”

“Do they have enough reserves to weather these outflows, given the excess deaths? It’s not just about death or health,” Chow said. “It is about the industry’s ability and readiness to manage this monumental outflow.”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/07/no_author/the-global-risks-report-top-insurance-execs-alarmed-by-sudden-surge-in-deaths-among-jabbed-young-people/

Russian Hackers Leak Data About 3,200 Mercenaries Fighting in Ukraine

RaHDit has disclosed information on more than 3,200 foreign mercenaries fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Among them is Evelyn Aschenbrenner, born in 1981, who is a senior soldier and assistant commander in the personnel unit of the 1st Battalion of the International Legion in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. Aschenbrenner is an LGBT* person who also uses the “they” pronoun.

Tanner Pierce Reed, born in 1993, a US citizen, is a former Oakland Police Department officer. On July 26, 2023, he was arrested in the state of Indiana for molesting a minor and aiding and abetting juvenile offenses.

The list of mercenaries also includes Kristaps Maurins, born in 1991, a Latvian native. Kristaps competed in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, where he came in 21st place in luge. In Latvia, he served as the general secretary of the Latvian Luge Federation.

Pablo Garrido Mancedo, a Spanish citizen, who has a record of partaking in various military conflicts prior to going to Ukraine. In particular, he fought on the side of Kurdish militants in Syria.

Juris Alberts Ulmanis, born in 1959, is an entrepreneur, professor, climber, and polar explorer. Today, he serves in the ranks of the 67th Mechanized Brigade of the International Legion (unit A4123). He has participated in fighting against Russia on the Ukrainian side multiple times and has provided various goods to Ukrainian forces, including financial aid. He wrote a book titled When War Becomes Personal, and is known for his Russophobic rhetoric. He has served in Ukraine's National Guard for five years.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has repeatedly warned foreign citizens against traveling to Ukraine and emphasized that under international humanitarian law, mercenaries are not considered combatants and do not have the right to prisoner of war status.

According to the Ministry, over 13,000 foreign mercenaries have arrived in Ukraine to fight for the Kiev regime since the start of the special operation. During this period, about 6,000 fighters have been eliminated.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240726/russian-hackers-leak-data-about-3200-mercenaries-fighting-in-ukraine-1119514030.html

James OKeefe OMG Journalists Found Campaign Finance Fraud From ActBlue Targeting Seniors In New Jersey

https://twitter.com/i/status/1816815165599547737

Netanyahu’s lies in Congress speech debunked amid huge boycott

Netanyahu has vowed to continue his war until Hamas is eliminated, sought guarantees from the Biden administration that US support will continue despite tensions over Israeli conduct in the Gaza Strip and the postponement of American arms shipments.

Repeated lies

Netanyahu presented Congress with a slew of claims for which he failed to provide evidence, again.

Since the beginning of the war on October 7, sparked by Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel, Netanyahu and the Israeli defence establishment have tried to win global backing and sympathy by repeating claims that have been comprehensively debunked.

They said that Hamas beheaded babies and placed them in ovens in an Israeli kibbutz during the group’s Oct. 7 incursion, a claim that was initially reiterated by US President Joe Biden, who later retracted. There was no proof this happened, but Netanyahu repeated the claims during his speech in Congress.

The use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas has also been a prominent claim repeatedly used by Israel to justify striking schools and hospitals, decimating Gaza’s healthcare system and UN-run schools used as shelters. This claim has also never been proven.

One moment which shocked viewers the most on Wednesday was when Netanyahu suggested that Israel had not killed civilians in southern Gaza.

“I asked the commander there, how many terrorists do you take out in Rafah? He gave me an exact number, 1,203,” Netanyahu said, referencing a chat he had with an Israeli commander in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.

“I asked him, how many civilians were killed? He said, prime minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot, and unintentionally killed two dozen people,” he continued.

“The answer is, practically none. You want to know why? Because Israel got the civilians out of harm why, something the people said we could never do, but we did!”

https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=291872

Globalists Plotting ‘Planetary Emergency’ Ahead of 2024 Election

Globalist elites are plotting to launch a “planetary emergency” ahead of the 2024 election in November that will force “sovereign” nations to surrender their powers to a single world government.

In September, the United Nations’ 79th General Assembly will host the highly-anticipated “Summit of the Future” where nations will sign the “Pact of the Future”, representing a major step towards the creation of a world government.

As the United Nations prepares for the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, the general public seems dangerously unaware of the UN’s plans for the “Summit of the Future.”

It is at the Summit where member states are expected to declare a “planetary emergency” as part of the so-called “Pact for the Future”.

Although the UNGA is an annual meeting, this year’s gathering is unique because of the addition of the Summit of the Future, which will take place in New York City on the 22nd and 23rd of September. The summit has been in the making since at least 2022 after repeated calls by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to shift financial resources to rapidly complete the Agenda 2030 goals set by the UN in 2015.

In September 2021, the Secretary-General released his report, Our Common Agenda, which called for accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the commitments contained in the UN75 Declaration. Our Common Agenda also called for a Summit of the Future to “forge a new global consensus on readying ourselves for a future that is rife with risks but also opportunities”.

The Summit of the Future website says the outcome of the Pact for the Future will be “a world – and an international system – that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now”. The Pact for the Future is likely to be another piece of the shift towards a world governed by unelected internationalist politicians.

During the Summit of the Future, UN member states are also likely to vote to radically alter the UN itself — what some are calling UN 2.0 — and the very nature of how nation-states make decisions regarding the future of the planet.

The UN has also recently announced their plan to sign a “Global Digital Compact” at the Summit of the Future.

The stated purpose of the GDC is “to establish an inclusive global framework, essential for multi-stakeholder action required to overcome digital, data and innovation divides.”

https://newsaddicts.com/globalists-plotting-planetary-emergency-ahead-2024-election/

Fourteen Members of the Traveling Vice Lords/Junk Yard Dogs Street Gang Sentenced in Federal Court

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtn/pr/fourteen-members-traveling-vice-lordsjunk-yard-dogs-street-gang-sentenced-federal

Wall Street Funded the Bolshevik Revolution - Professor Antony Sutton

https://youtu.be/PaFklTLNy8c

We control US politicians like marionettes Former Israeli politician

Do Zionists control America?

Yossi Sarid, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, seems to think so. In a February 2015 Haaretz column, Sarid wrote:

In these very moments, the protocols are being rewritten. Rich Jews are writing them in their own handwriting. They, in their wealth, are confirming with their own signatures what anti-Semites used to slander them with in days gone by: We, the elders of Zion, pull the strings of Congress, and the congressmen are nothing but marionettes who do our will. If they don’t understand our words, they’ll understand our threats. And if in the past, we ran the show from behind the scenes, now we’re doing it openly, from center stage. And if you forget our donations, the wellspring will run dry.

The candid admission is one of many from Israeli politicians and Jewish commentators who openly boast of their power over the United States government, media and financial world.

https://alethonews.com/2015/04/07/we-control-us-politicians-like-marionettes-former-israeli-politician/

Israeli woman dressed like the Statue of Liberty standing in fake blood near the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, protesting the U.S. unconditional support of the genocide in Gaza, during Netanyahu's speech to the Congress. Many Israelis oppose their government policies, but like us, they are trapped.

African Countries Are Turning To Gold

A growing number of African countries are turning to gold to hedge geopolitical risk and protect against currency losses.

Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and several other African nations have made moves to increase gold reserves, bring their gold home, and even back their currencies with the yellow metal.

South Sudan is the latest country to turn to gold. Last weekend, the country's central bank governor said he plans to expand the country's gold reserves.

Earlier this month, the Ugandan central bank announced a domestic gold-buying program to purchase gold directly from local artisanal miners to help "address the risks in the international financial markets."

In June, Tanzania announced a plan to spend $400 million on six tons of gold. Tanzania Finance Minister Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba also issued a directive to curb the widespread use of the U.S. dollar in the country.

Nigeria has launched a domestic gold-buying plan to bolster its reserves. In addition to buying locally sourced gold, the Nigerian central bank has announced plans to bring its existing gold reserves back into the country “to mitigate risks associated with the weakening U.S. economy.”

“Economic indicators such as rising inflation, escalating debt levels, and geopolitical tensions have raised apprehensions among Nigerian policymakers about the stability of the U.S. financial system.”

Last year, the Central Bank of Madagascar implemented a domestic gold purchases program as income from vanilla exports declined.

As an analyst explained to Bloomberg, “Central banks can add gold to their official reserves using their local currency, allowing them to grow reserve assets without having to sacrifice other hard-currency reserves."

Meanwhile, a presidential candidate in Ghana recently said he would back the country’s currency with gold if he wins the election.

“Ultimately, my goal is that we are going to back our currency with gold and that is where I want us to go, increasingly backing our currency with gold.”

This would follow the lead of Zimbabwe, which created a gold-backed currency earlier this year. The ZiG (Zimbabwe gold; ZiG; ZWG) replaced the Zimbabwean dollar (RTGS; 1980-2008: ZWL). The currency is a “structured currency” backed primarily by gold but also by other forex reserves including U.S. dollars (USD).

To some degree, African leaders and central bankers are trying to fix problems they created by printing too much money and running up dollar-denominated debt. But they are also concerned about America's weaponization of the dollar and other risks associated with the greenback including the profligate spending and growing national debt.

A Tellimer (Dubai) emerging market equity strategy told Bloomberg the move makes sense.

"For countries taking a view that either the price of gold is going to go up, the price of the U.S. dollar is going to go down, or their access to U.S. dollars may be compromised by sanctions then increasing the allocation of gold in their reserves might make sense.”

https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2024/07/25/african-countries-are-turning-to-gold-003338

Pentagon’s Ukraine Aid Accounting Errors Reach $8.2 Billion

This discovery compounds the $6.2 billion overestimation previously disclosed, bringing the total to an alarming $8.2 billion in misallocated funds.

The discrepancies arose from the Pentagon’s use of “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” in calculating the aid provided under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA). The PDA, authorized by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, allows the President to direct the transfer of defense articles and services from U.S. stocks to address foreign crises. Since August 2021, this authority has enabled nearly $24 billion in drawdowns for Ukraine.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-24-106934.pdf

Revealed: US officials are investing public funds in Israeli bonds in deals that raise ethics concerns

State and local officials have invested $1.7bn of the public’s money in Israel Bonds since 7 October. An investigation reveals contacts between buyer and seller that experts say may cross a line

In August 2023, an executive at Israel Bonds – an organization that sells Israeli bonds to fund that nation’s government and buttress its military – emailed the Ohio state treasurer’s office a sales pitch: could the state of Ohio buy a batch of Israeli bonds for $5m?

In less than 40 minutes, the treasurer’s office approved the purchase, bringing Ohio’s Israeli bond purchases to a total of $35m for that year.

The fast deal was made between parties that were on exceptionally friendly terms, according to a trove of emails and other records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). And it was not the only matter being discussed with Israel Bonds. At the same time that the Ohio treasurer, Republican Robert Sprague, allocated millions in state funds to the bond purchases, he was also making arrangements with the bond seller’s business development team to join an exclusive guided trip to Israel, scheduled for later that year.

Six weeks after the Ohio treasurer’s $5m purchase, Hamas launched its deadly 7 October attack, which killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel. Another 250 were taken hostage.

In the following days, there was an outpouring of public support from lawmakers at all levels of government in the United States for the country’s closest ally in the Middle East. While Israel launched its retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip – and Joe Biden shepherded billions in funding and military aid through Congress – many state and local governments showed their support through a lesser-known financial mechanism: investing in sovereign bonds issued by Israel.

Since the start of the war, US states and municipalities have bought at least $1.7bn in Israeli bonds, with Democratic and Republican officials around the country boasting of their investments demonstrating support for an Israel at war.

This is an area of ethics where there are many potential conflicts of interest

Richard W Painter of the University of Minnesota

Israel Bonds, which is headquartered in New York, has meanwhile found itself caught up in a global political maelstrom that followed the Hamas attack and the war in Gaza. Activists have singled out Israel Bonds in demanding that corporations and institutions divest from financial instruments seen as supporting Israel’s government.

The more than 2,000 pages of emails and other records obtained by the ICIJ, largely through records requests, offer an unprecedented glimpse inside Israel Bonds’ extensive efforts to court public officials in the US while delivering highly personalized sales pitches in a stream of pro-Israel messaging. The documents show how some officials who buy these bonds have gained access to an often-glitzy world that includes gala dinners, cocktail celebrations and private meetings with top Israeli leaders and senior military officials – and how these dealings with Israel Bonds sometimes blurred the lines between private life and official business.

In a statement to the ICIJ, a spokesperson for Israel Bonds said that the bonds were a safe investment and that the group places importance on building relationships with its customers, partly to keep continuity if key decision-makers change due to elections or other reasons. “Investors usually choose to invest for a simple reason: Israeli bonds offer strong credit as well as strong and steady returns,” Nathan Miller, a spokesperson for Israel Bonds, said. “The state of Israel has never missed an interest or principal payment in almost 75 years of issuing bonds.”

When an elected official tasked with investing taxpayers’ money buys government bonds, it’s usually a dry and straightforward process with little interaction between the seller and buyer. Government officials are generally discouraged from taking actions that could be construed as creating a conflict of interest – that could cause them, for instance, to favor certain assets for any reason other than selecting the best investments available. Ethics experts say some state officials may have crossed an ethical line in their dealings with Israel Bonds.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/25/us-officials-israel-bonds-ethics

BBC Pro-Israel Bias Exposed by Leaked Emails and Internal Studies

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has faced repeated accusations of pro-Israel bias, not only from the public but also internally. On July 16 and 18, leaked emails between BBC staff highlighted the extent of these grievances, accusing the outlet of complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Jadaliyya, an independent magazine by the Arab Studies Institute, obtained leaked emails from May between Beirut-based BBC correspondent Rami Ruhayem and BBC Director General Tim Davie. Ruhayem also sent these emails to several BBC News departments. The emails and attachments detail instances where the BBC missed key context, allowed guests to make unsubstantiated claims, and provided “evidence of a collapse in the application of basic standards and norms of journalism that seems aligned with Israel’s propaganda strategy.”

While Ruhayem detailed various pieces of evidence, he highlighted the BBC’s response to a prominent atrocity propaganda story spread on-air four times:

A guest on the BBC stated: “… just yesterday I heard one of the women that was pregnant there, this terrorist put his hand in, took out her foetus killed it while the umbilical cord was still attached to her…” The presenter let the claim pass without making any inquiries.

Days later, another guest said: “…they pulled a baby out of a pregnant mom and then beheaded the baby, beheaded the mom.” This, too, passed without any inquiry by the presenter.

Days later, the guest again stated: “… we now know that there was a pregnant woman who had her belly cut open, the baby was removed from her stomach and beheaded in front of her. There’s videos of this.”

The BBC presenter responded: “Which is unverified, we haven’t seen these videos.”

The guest replied, “You haven’t seen it. I know many people who have seen it. These videos are in existence, there’s countless others…”

https://www.mintpressnews.com/bbc-pro-israel-bias-exposed-leaked-emails-internal-studies/287965/