بهمن شفیق

۲۰ مرداد 1402

11 اوت 2023

General

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1797868/eurozone-euro-eu-france-credit-rating

The difference between the ESM’s nominal size and its lending capacity acknowledged that the guarantees of some member states were not good enough, he added.

Mr Lyddon continued: “This structure is hanging by a thread. Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings attached a ‘Negative Outlook’ to France’s AA rating on June 2, 2023. If at any point France’s rating drops to AA-, the ESM’s roof falls in.”

https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/weve-reached-the-end-of-western-colonialism?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Throughout history, endogenous rebellions have been routinely and successfully put down by the colonizer’s superior and better funded force. But today, the presence of effective air defenses and Russian hypersonic weapons effectively cancel the West’s military superiority (I discussed this in March in the article, “Why Hypersonic Weapons Change Everything.”

If Russia and China are serious about slaying the empire, and I think they are, they will not take their fight half way. Still, we shouldn’t celebrate prematurely. The system of governance that has shaped western predatory imperialism is very resilient and will prove hard to kill. Regardless, killed it must be because its predatory methods aren’t only aimed at foreign colonies: this beast invariably sows mayhem abroad and misery at home. The present struggle is the struggle for all of humanity.

https://tomluongo.me/2023/08/07/france-niger-five-basis-points-continue-change-world/

The EU’s European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is effectively their ‘lender of last resort’ facility. Because of the ECB’s moronic structure (and that extends even farther for the euro) they don’t have the same facility most other central banks have, the ability to blithely print money and create flexible and temporary reserves.

Because of this they need the ESM fund to lend money out to those countries that get into budget trouble. This is why the EU are such hawks during debt restructuring talks. Now this structure served them well for the past 15 years because it gave them (along with negative rates) the hammer to beat on the heads of those countries that got into fiscal trouble thanks to an overly-strong euro.

You can thank a compliant Fed under Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen for this.

The net effect, for example, is that Italy runs a consistent trade deficit with Germany while having its exports to the world choked off. It’s a form of ‘internal mercantilism’ where capital flows within the euro-zone towards the country with the under-valued currency and away from the one with the over-valued currency

Think California and Mississippi in the US.

Germany then buys Italian BTPs with their trade surpluses and holds them as collateral against Italy leaving the euro-zone through TARGET2. When Italy comes to the EU for relief, Germany grinds their old axe against Italy and says, “We’ve already given you enough, now we want XXX.” And XXX is always physical infrastructure or collateral.

The ESM’s lending capacity depends fully on its major members maintaining their AAA rating. So, note Germany has a AAA rating. France a AA. Click here for the full list of sovereign credit ratings. You’ll notice a preponderance of Davos-controlled countries on the AAA list.

China

https://www.luxcapital.com/securities/never-again

Josh Wolf

When it comes to handling China, it’s about principles over profits.

Well imagine in a year, or two, or five that there is a cure for Alzheimer’s. Everybody would be giving it to their mother, etc. But what if we found out that was tested on a million Uyghurs? What would be the morality of that? And I think that it’s really important that we compete.

When I grew up, I grew up in a Jewish household, and I had two words that I heard all the time: “Never Again.” It is happening again, and as people have said, “Indifference to injustice is the gate to hell,” we should not be indifferent about the human rights abuses that are happening there [in China]. We should have more competitive science here, we should fund it, and we should allow the private market to commercialize it.

“Nuclear, I think is critical, not again for proliferation, but nuclear reactors. I don’t think people really appreciate this. And I know… we speak about AI and biotech and quantum, I think a vector spotlight should be on nuclear because I think it’s really serious and here’s why. US went from 104 to 93 reactors. We’re down 10%. China went from 2 to 25 to 55 and they’re on their way to 150. 5% of their electricity is produced by nuclear. It’ll be 20, which approaches ours. But it will be a much larger population. But that’s not what concerns me. What concerns me is they’re beginning to export the technology. And not for nuclear proliferation, but for creating dependency. You think about all the countries on the coasts of the African continent, all the countries in South America and Central America. And the reason… the idea that something is cheaper sometime makes it more attractive. The Georgia plant that was done in nuclear here in the US recently, $25 billion. That’s about $11.5-12 billion or so per gigawatt. China is producing nuclear for $2 billion a gigawatt. So that’s a huge contrast. If you’re a foreign country, China can easily come in and say, we will build it for you, we’ll finance it for you and then, by the way, we’ve got you hooked for the next few decades and dependency on fuel and maintenance, etc. ... this is an area that we should dominate, and as you noted with Westinghouse, the AP 1000 and many other reactors with a lot of other history, we should make sure that these are the ones that the wolrd is buying, not Chinese nuclear reactors.”

https://t.me/craZybear2022/30136

https://www.heritage.org/global-politics/commentary/china-abandons-paris-agreement-making-us-efforts-painful-and-pointless

It was a bad week for anyone who thought China would cooperate on emissions reduction. President Xi Jinping reiterated that his country would set its own path on the issue and not be influenced by outside factors, according to the Washington Post and Bloomberg. This contradicts Xi’s 2015 Paris Agreement pledges to reduce its carbon emissions at the latest after 2030.

Summit France

https://nouveaupactefinancier.org/en.php

Summit for a new global financial pact

Mohamed Bazoum, Président Niger, Malinda Gates, Janet Yellen, Charles Michel, William RUTO, président de la République du Kenya, Bola Ahmed TINUBU (Président du Nigéria), Sabine MAUDERER, vice-présidente de Network for Greening the Financial System, Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, Ajay BANGA, President, World Bank Group, Kristalina Georgieva IMF, Mme Mafalda DUARTE, directrice générale du Climate Investment Funds (CIF)

The event unveiled some of the underlying causes of the panic that had seized French elites over the recent years, and which drove them to break ranks with the Anglo-American establishment, as I discussed in “France Under Attack.” The alliance, which was based on "our shared values" seemed unbreakable, but as it turns out, the French elites prioritized other values.

This, perhaps, was what motivated Macron to ask to be invited to the BRICS Summit in South Africa and why his government invited the leaders of African nations to Paris on 22/23 June for the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact. It was a charm offensive to preserve to colonial status quo in a new and improved LGBT packaging, but always under the auspices of the IMF and World Bank. The initiative did not work as hoped and many African leaders openly berated President Macron. Kenya's William Ruto bluntly told Macron: "You are not hearing us!"

Green Transmission

https://nouveaupactefinancier.org/pdf/a-green-transition-that-leaves-no-one-behind.pdf

By Mia Mottley, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, Emmanuel

Macron, Olaf Scholz, Fumio Kishida, William Ruto, Macky Sall, Cyril Ramaphosa, His Highness

Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Rishi Sunak, Joseph Biden Jr.

Call to Action for Paris Aligned Carbon Markets

https://nouveaupactefinancier.org/pdf/call-to-action-for-paris-aligned-carbon-markets.pdf

https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/weve-reached-the-end-of-western-colonialism?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/world-bank-group-goes-woke.html

In June one Ajay Banga, a former CEO of Mastercard, was installed as the new president. He had worked as an outside adviser for the Obama administration and later for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Africa

https://www.rokfin.com/stream/37389/AFRICA--RUSSIA-NIGER-AND-FRANCE--WITHERING-COLONIALISM-WITH-DR-GERALD-HORNE

Elon Musk

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/08/04/what-to-know-about-south-africas-kill-the-boer-chant-as-elon-musk-sounds-alarm/?sh=114dc6e058e0

Intervention

https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/9327

Herrscht in weiten Teilen der Bevölkerung ohnehin wenig Begeisterung, dass eine korrupte, äußerst repressive Regierung wieder ins Amt gebracht werden soll, so hat die Gewaltdrohung der ECOWAS auch politische Kräfte, die den Putschisten zunächst eindeutig ablehnend gegenüberstanden, veranlasst, zur Unterstützung der Junta überzugehen. So berichtet etwa der Koordinator der Organisation Tournons la page, die den Putsch ursprünglich verurteilte, in den ersten Tagen hätten „die Leute nicht wirklich an [Juntachef] Tiani geglaubt“.[4] Die „extremen Sanktionen“ der ECOWAS aber sowie vor allem ihre Interventionsdrohung hätten „die Leute rings um die Junta mobilisiert“. Auch Tournons la page ist davon überzeugt, ein Einmarsch der ECOWAS oder gar Frankreichs sei „kein Militäreinsatz zur Wiederherstellung der Demokratie“, sondern „ein Angriff auf unseren Staat“; er müsse deshalb verhindert werden. Zudem sind Parteien wie Moden-Fa Lumana, die bedeutendste Oppositionspartei, zur Unterstützung der Putschisten übergegangen. Ihr Vorsitzender Hama Amadou war vor der Präsidentenwahl im Jahr 2016 inhaftiert worden; anschließend entzogen ihm die Behörden in Niamey das passive Wahlrecht, weshalb er bei den Wahlen im Jahr 2021 nicht kandidieren konnte – zum Vorteil von Bazoum.[5] Am vergangenen Sonntag nahmen in Niamey mehr als 30.000 Menschen an einer Kundgebung zur Unterstützung der Putschisten teil.

Gegen einen Einmarsch nach Niger hatten sich auch das nördlich angrenzende Algerien, zudem Mauretanien und der östlich angrenzende Tschad positioniert.

https://tournonslapage.org/en/actualites/tournons-la-page-appelle-au-dialogue-et-a-la-retenue-au-niger

TLP is once again astonished that the sanctions announced following the July 30 summit refer to the 2001 Additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, when it is due to ECOWAS' failure to apply its own rules that the region is experiencing such a dramatic regression in terms of security and politics. Indeed, the institution has never ensured the application of the additional protocol when constitutional coups d'état were perpetrated, when electoral fiddling was denounced or when heads of member states used their country's justice system to get rid of troublesome political opponents, thus depriving their countries of checks and balances. Nor does it react when corruption, even though prohibited by this protocol, gangrenes the sub-region and reduces populations to extreme poverty.

https://apnews.com/article/niger-coup-west-africa-bfd1ddcf075379289475d3f72d85fa16

Delegations of UN, African Union and ECOWAS were banned from entering the country

https://tournonslapage.org/en/le-mouvement

NDI, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Institute

The NDI was founded in 1983, shortly after the United States Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).[3] The NED's creation was followed by the establishment of three related institutes: the Center for International Private Enterprise, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the National Republican Institute for International Affairs, later renamed the International Republican Institute. NED provides funds to these three institutes and an expanding number of private sector groups so that they are able to carry out their programs abroad.[4]

Nicaragua

In the 1980s, the NDI participated in the broader National Endowment for Democracy programs against the Nicaraguan Revolution.[11]

Venezuela

According to an article in the American socialist magazine Jacobin, after the death of Hugo Chávez, the NDI provided funding and training to the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition of opposition parties in Venezuela.

Meloni-Macron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZFF-vQwwaA&t=10s

Russia-Africa Summit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK574AygVLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKNOy7CPnI4

//odysee.com/@AndyInfoKanal:c/news-27-07-2023-putin1:8">https://odysee.com/@AndyInfoKanal:c/news-27-07-2023-putin1:8

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71823

President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni: Your Excellency,

I thank you very much on behalf of our delegation for meeting us today but also for this forum. As I told you when we met before, and as I will be saying in some of my speeches, the relationship between the Soviet Union and Africa was crucial for the liberation of Africa.

As I told you in South Africa, by 1900 the whole of the African continent had been colonised, except for Ethiopia. There were two big events which happened soon after that. One was the formation of the African National Congress in South Africa in 1912. That was the first time Africans started organising to liberate Africa. Then in 1917 the Communists took over power in Russia and they were the first international group to support us. Later on, they were joined by China in 1949. That formed a solid anti-colonial force. So, even when all these things were happening, the Soviet people were the first who stood with us when we were fighting against colonialism. Therefore, this is the starting point.

https://t.me/craZybear2022/29689

Sehen Sie, das Problem Afrikas seit seiner Unabhängigkeit - Afrika hatte in den letzten 600 Jahren viele Probleme: Wir hatten die Sklaverei, dann den Kolonialismus, dann nach der Unabhängigkeit den Neokolonialismus, und damit hatten wir zu kämpfen. Aber eine Facette des Neokolonialismus und des Kolonialismus bestand darin, dass Afrika auf die Produktion von Rohstoffen, Feldfrüchten, wie Kaffee, und Mineralien beschränkt war. Ich kann Ihnen ein Beispiel geben: Das weltweite Kaffeegeschäft ist 460 Milliarden Dollar wert. Das ist der Wert des Kaffeegeschäfts in der Welt. Aber von diesen 460 Milliarden Dollar entfallen auf die kaffeeproduzierenden Länder in der ganzen Welt nur 25 Milliarden Dollar und auf Afrika nur 2,4 Milliarden Dollar. Dieses Problem ist der größte Hemmschuh für die afrikanischen Volkswirtschaften; sie wachsen nicht, weil der gesamte Wert von anderen Menschen genommen wird. Deutschland verdient mehr am Kaffee als ganz Afrika. Deutschland verdient 6,85 Milliarden Dollar mit Kaffee, während Afrika nur 2,4 bis 2,5 Milliarden Dollar einnimmt.

Iran

https://www.seratnews.com/fa/news/628724/به-بهانه-سفر-رئیسی-به-نایروبی-روابط-ایران-و-کنیا-در-گذر-زمان

جعفر برمکی سفیر ایران در کنیا نیز در همین خصوص در گفت‌وگویی با ایرنا گفت: ما در کنیا طی سه سال گذشته عملکرد موفقیت آمیزی را داشتیم و موفق شدیم چهره شاید تا اندازه‌ای منفی که نسبت به ایران وجود داشت را برطرف کنیم و الان با «چهره مثبتی در بازار اقتصادی کنیا مواجه هستیم»، اما لازم است که این چهره را با حضور مستمر و حساب شده بخش خصوصی حفظ و این مسیر را ادامه دهیم.

https://www.farsnews.ir/news/14020520000266/اتحادیه-آفریقا-از-تصمیم-اکواس-برای-مداخله-نظامی-در-نیجر-حمایت-کرد