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Wednesday 17th of March 2021
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Why 10-Year Treasury Yields Get All the Attention @business World Of Finance |
The result is that the 10-year note is one of the world’s most important benchmarks for the cost of risk-free borrowing and its rate is used to price trillions worth of other securities.
The 10-year yield hovered around 1.61% in mid-March, up from less than 1% at the start of 2021 and as little at 0.31% during the market turmoil of March 2020.
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I find Wilson Airport like a magic portal to another world Africa |
I did not take the ‘ox-cart’ but an aeroplane from Wilson. The airport was once located on the outskirts of Nairobi but today it is in the city. It is very retro and has a style from a bygone era, which is to be treasured in this 21st Century of ours.
I find Wilson Airport like a magic portal to another world.
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Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 2 Vanity[a] of vanities, says the Preacher Misc. |
Vanity[a] of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens[b] to the place where it rises.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance
of later things[d] yet to be
among those who come after.
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US-China relations will not improve until Beijing's economic coercion of Australia stops, a senior White House official said @SMH Law & Politics |
The administration of President Joe Biden has told the Chinese government that “we are not going to leave Australia alone on the field”, according to the President’s Indo-Pacific co-ordinator, Kurt Campbell.
“We have made clear that the US is not prepared to improve relations in a bilateral and separate context at the same time that a close and dear ally is being subjected to a form of economic coercion,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
He said Mr Biden had given his commitment personally to Australia’s leader, Scott Morrison, during the video-link summit of the Quad countries last Saturday (AEDT).
“President Biden was very direct with Prime Minister Morrison that we stood together on this,” said Dr Campbell, the architect of the summit, who was in the room with Mr Biden during the meeting.
“So we’ve indicated both to Australia and China at the highest levels that we are fully aware of what’s going on and we are not prepared to take substantial steps to improve relations until those policies are addressed and a more normal interplay between Canberra and Beijing is established.”
It is the first known intervention of any nation to take substantive steps in support of Australia in its confrontation with Beijing.
The regime of President Xi Jinping has applied trade bans and tariffs on at least $20 billion worth of Australian exports to China.
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08-MAR-2021 Controlling the COVID19 Narrative, suppressing the Enquiry, parlaying the situation into one of singular advantage marks a singular moment Law & Politics |
Xi has taken calculated risks.
The muscular and multi-faceted nature of Chinese Power is seen in its handling of COVID19.
.@FHeisbourg François Heisbourg: «Le coronavirus, c’est un Tchernobyl chinois à la puissance dix»
First, they staged their "exemplary handling" of the pandemic in a very loud manner, in order to avoid interest in the regime.
And then they severely punished countries that demanded an impartial international investigation, made up of the best experts.
Australia, which had insisted on the need for transparency, was imposed economic sanctions and a block on its imports.
The debate on the origin of the virus remains totally open, fundamental and potentially explosive.
Controlling the COVID19 Narrative, suppressing the Enquiry, parlaying the situation into one of singular advantage marks a singular moment and Xi Jinping has exhibited Chinese dominance over multiple theatres from the Home Front, the International Media Domain, the ‘’Scientific’’ domain over which he has achieved complete ownership and where any dissenting view is characterized as a ‘’conspiracy theory’’
It remains a remarkable achievement.
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Lebanese pound crashes to 15,000 against dollar as protests continue @TheNationalNews H/T @michaeltanchum Emerging Markets |
The Lebanese pound fell to historic lows on Tuesday hitting 15,000 to the dollar as hundreds continue to set up impromptu roadblocks in protest at the deteriorating living conditions amid a national economic crisis.
Officially pegged to the US dollar at 1,507.5, the currency has been losing value since last October but in less than a month has nosedived another 40 per cent.
Protester Christophe Khalil, a university student in his twenties, marched in downtown Beirut on Saturday after the lira traded at 12,000 to the dollar.
"If this continues I won't be able to afford an education any more," he said.
"We are fighting just to have a future in this country."
Inflation has wiped out the purchasing power of those paid in Lebanese pounds, pushing more than half of the population below the poverty line, according to data by the UN.
The minimum wage of 675,000 pounds was equal to $450 before the crisis. It is now worth less than $50.
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21-OCT-2019 :: The New Economy of Anger Law & Politics |
Paul Virilio pronounced in his book Speed and Politics,
“The revolutionary contingent attains its ideal form not in the place of production, but in the street, where for a moment it stops being a cog in the technical machine and itself becomes a motor (machine of attack), in other words, a producer of speed.’’
We have recently witnessed the ‘’WhatsApp’’ Revolution in Lebanon, where a proposed Tax on WhatsApp calls sent up to 17 per cent of the Lebanese Population into the street
The Phenomenon is spreading like wildfire in large part because of the tinder dry conditions underfoot.
Prolonged stand-offs eviscerate economies, reducing opportunities and accelerate the negative feedback loop.
Antonio Gramsci wrote, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. now is the time of monsters.”
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@PMEthiopia has launched an unwinnable War on Tigray Province. Africa |
Ethiopia which was once the Poster child of the African Renaissance now has a Nobel Prize Winner whom I am reliably informed
PM Abiy His inner war cabinet includes Evangelicals who are counseling him he is "doing Christ's work"; that his faith is being "tested". @RAbdiAnalyst
@PMEthiopia has launched an unwinnable War on Tigray Province.
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Ethiopia: video of Tigray massacre lifts lid on 'war without photos' @FRANCE24 Africa |
Men in uniform slaughtered dozens of people in a small village in the Tigray region of Ethiopia on January 5, 2021, right in the midst of the usually festive Orthodox Christmas season.
Thirty bodies are seen on the ground in a video that has been circulating online despite the current internet blackout in the Tigray region, which has been engulfed in a bloody conflict between the army and rebels.
The soldier filming the video points the camera at an injured person, saying to a comrade, "You should have finished off the survivors!" Our team was able to verify this video.
The footage shows about 30 bodies on the ground on the outskirts of a village.
We examined the location of the buildings, trails and trees in the video, as well as the mountains on the horizon, and compared this with satellite images and topographical information available on Google Earth Pro.
In this way, we were able to determine the exact location where the video was filmed.
It was filmed in a village called Mai Harmaz in the Debre Abay region, which is known for a famous monastery, located about two kilometres from the village.
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Ethiopian general tells diplomats of 'dirty war' in Tigray @AFP Africa |
A "dirty war" causing suffering for "defenceless" victims is unfolding in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, a general said in a private briefing with diplomats last week, according to an audio recording of his comments obtained by AFP.
The statement from General Yohannes Gebremeskel Tesfamariam, head of a task force formed in response to the Tigray conflict, represents an unusually stark assessment of conditions in the region, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government asserts normalcy is returning.
"This is a dirty war because it's affecting everything. You don't see fronts. The cost is immediately to those who are defenceless," Yohannes said during the March 11 briefing in the regional capital Mekele attended by dozens of diplomats.
"On the atrocities, rape, crime... I cannot give you concrete evidence, but I don't think we are going to be fortunate to see that such things have not happened."
He did not indicate which forces might be responsible for "atrocities".
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Seychelles plans to welcome all international visitors, except those from South Africa, beginning March 25, according to the Department of Tourism Africa |
The Seychelles, an idyllic collection of islands off the coast of East Africa, is following in the footsteps of the Maldives — another beautiful collection of islands off the coast of southern India — to restart its tourism.
The destination plans to welcome all international visitors, except those from South Africa, beginning March 25, according to the Department of Tourism.
Visitors won't need to quarantine or be vaccinated, but they will have to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their departure.
The Seychelles opened to all fully vaccinated travelers, including those from the U.S., in January.
The 115-island paradise, where Prince William and Kate Middleton honeymooned, was the first African country to welcome vaccinated travelers, according to CNBC.
It hopes to reach herd immunity by mid-March, when 70% of the local population is expected to be vaccinated, the AP reported.
Visitors to the Seychelles, where George and Amal Clooney also honeymooned, will need to maintain social distance while relaxing on the country's white-sand beaches and frolicking in its turquoise waters.
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