08-05-2019, 02:37 PM
** 05-Aug-2019 World View: News summary
Things are supposed to slow down in August, but there's a lot going
on.
*** Hong Kong
Protesters are using new "flash protest" techniques. Instead of
holding a protest in one place, where they can be driven away by the
police, they block one intersection or train station, and then move on
to the next one when the police come.
This has been going on for nine weeks. The CCP is not going to
tolerate this much longer.
I saw the city governor Carrie Lam give a press conference, almost in
tears, saying "this is very dangerous for Hong Kong, the city we love,
the city we built."
*** Kashmir, India
India send tens of thousands of troops into the Indian-controlled
portion of Kashmir last week, for no apparent reason.
Now we know the reason. They're revoking Article 370 of the
constitution, which gives autonomy to the mostly Muslim population of
Kashmir. Article 370 was at the heart about why Kashmir joined India
in 1947, so revoking it is a very big deal. The Muslims in Kashmir
are furious, and the government of Pakistan is also furious.
It strikes me how similar this situation is to Hong Kong. Kashmir and
Hong Kong are semi-autonomous regions of India and China,
respectively, and the central governments are trying to limit that
autonomy.
*** Ebola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Ebola is spreading through Goma, the DR Congo city of over two million
people on the border with Uganda. Officials are becoming increasingly
pessimistic that the outbreak can be contained any time soon. They're
talking about 2-3 years.
It's interesting -- the 2014 outbreak caused international panic.
This outbreak is barely being covered outside of the region. This
outbreak may turn out to be even more dangerous to the world than the
2014 outbreak.
*** Idlib, Syria
Russia has always used a UN Security Council veto to prevent a UN
investigation of human rights and war crime violations by Russia and
Syria in Syria's Idlib province.
Westerners have used a trick to get around the Russian veto.
The UN had supplied the coordinates of hospitals and schools in Idlib
to Russia with the understanding that the Syrians and Russians would
not bomb the buildings at those coordinates. Not surprisingly, the
sleazebags in Damascus and Moscow used that list in order to target
hospitals and schools purposely.
So this is considered such an egregious crime against the UN, that the
UN will do an investigation of that issue -- and at the same time will
undoubtedly reach broader conclusions about war crimes. The Russian
sleazebags are furious.
*** US-China trade talks
The latest round of US-China trade negotiations have collapsed
completely. The Chinese refused to commit to anything, and are now
demanding that they won't even negotiate any more unless we first
remove all the sanctions, allow Huawei free entry into the US, and
release the Huawei CEO being held in Canada.
Trump announced a new set of sanctions to be implemented on September
1.
*** Sharp selloff in stocks, fall in bond yields
The collapse of the US-China trade talks and Trump's announcement of
new sanctions have led to a sharp selloff on Monday on Wall Street.
At the same time, yields (interest rates) on Treasury bonds have been
falling sharply, which means that investors are selling stocks and
buying bonds.
Things are supposed to slow down in August, but there's a lot going
on.
*** Hong Kong
Protesters are using new "flash protest" techniques. Instead of
holding a protest in one place, where they can be driven away by the
police, they block one intersection or train station, and then move on
to the next one when the police come.
This has been going on for nine weeks. The CCP is not going to
tolerate this much longer.
I saw the city governor Carrie Lam give a press conference, almost in
tears, saying "this is very dangerous for Hong Kong, the city we love,
the city we built."
*** Kashmir, India
India send tens of thousands of troops into the Indian-controlled
portion of Kashmir last week, for no apparent reason.
Now we know the reason. They're revoking Article 370 of the
constitution, which gives autonomy to the mostly Muslim population of
Kashmir. Article 370 was at the heart about why Kashmir joined India
in 1947, so revoking it is a very big deal. The Muslims in Kashmir
are furious, and the government of Pakistan is also furious.
It strikes me how similar this situation is to Hong Kong. Kashmir and
Hong Kong are semi-autonomous regions of India and China,
respectively, and the central governments are trying to limit that
autonomy.
*** Ebola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Ebola is spreading through Goma, the DR Congo city of over two million
people on the border with Uganda. Officials are becoming increasingly
pessimistic that the outbreak can be contained any time soon. They're
talking about 2-3 years.
It's interesting -- the 2014 outbreak caused international panic.
This outbreak is barely being covered outside of the region. This
outbreak may turn out to be even more dangerous to the world than the
2014 outbreak.
*** Idlib, Syria
Russia has always used a UN Security Council veto to prevent a UN
investigation of human rights and war crime violations by Russia and
Syria in Syria's Idlib province.
Westerners have used a trick to get around the Russian veto.
The UN had supplied the coordinates of hospitals and schools in Idlib
to Russia with the understanding that the Syrians and Russians would
not bomb the buildings at those coordinates. Not surprisingly, the
sleazebags in Damascus and Moscow used that list in order to target
hospitals and schools purposely.
So this is considered such an egregious crime against the UN, that the
UN will do an investigation of that issue -- and at the same time will
undoubtedly reach broader conclusions about war crimes. The Russian
sleazebags are furious.
*** US-China trade talks
The latest round of US-China trade negotiations have collapsed
completely. The Chinese refused to commit to anything, and are now
demanding that they won't even negotiate any more unless we first
remove all the sanctions, allow Huawei free entry into the US, and
release the Huawei CEO being held in Canada.
Trump announced a new set of sanctions to be implemented on September
1.
*** Sharp selloff in stocks, fall in bond yields
The collapse of the US-China trade talks and Trump's announcement of
new sanctions have led to a sharp selloff on Monday on Wall Street.
At the same time, yields (interest rates) on Treasury bonds have been
falling sharply, which means that investors are selling stocks and
buying bonds.
