Mich. Progressive Dems to Undercover Journo: 'Ballot Harvested' Out Of Office By Muslim Vote Fraud Net

 While we've all been told there's no such thing as election fraud, former progressive Democrat officials in Hamtramck Michigan say they were cheated out of office by the all-Muslim City Council, claiming in undercover footage from Project Veritas that secret "midnight meetings" were held where blank absentee ballots are auctioned to the highest bidder - who is then elected to office.

Following a five month investigation in Hamtramck after the newly-elected Muslim leadership banned the LGBTQ pride flag on city property, Project Vertias spoke with dozens of locals, including Democrat officials and liberal activists, who described how Muslim politicians are using illegal ballot harvesting operations to secure permanent power. Of note, ballot harvesting is illegal under Michigan law.

More via Veritas:

Prominent media figures and government officials insist that election fraud is a myth. They actively work to use propaganda and lawfare to shut down any dissenting voices with evidence to the contrary. But after a decade of successful election fraud investigations leading to arrests and voting law changes, Project Veritas is determined to uncover the truth of these allegations in Democrat-ruled Hamtramck, and once again document systemic voter fraud.

Hamtramck’s Democrat officials admitted to Project Veritas that ethnic minorities have been using absentee ballot fraud to win city elections for over twenty years. But it was the election of Conservative Yemeni Muslims to the mayorship and council in 2021 which put an end to 100 years of continuous Polish political power. Locals expressed to our journalists that life under Muslim leadership isn’t the Democrat unity that many had hoped. The growing influx of Arab immigrants means that burqas, animal sacrifice, and the Muslim call to prayer blasting through city loudspeakers five times a day is now common.

Progressives who once eagerly welcomed Middle Eastern immigrants now express a feeling of betrayal and fear that their progressive LGBTQ sanctuary may be lost forever as Muslim politicians appear to perfect the use of voter fraud.

Hamtramck’s first woman mayor told our journalist she is “absolutely positive” she was ballot harvested out of office. Karen Majewski lost her election bid in 2021 after serving the city of Hamtramck for 18 years, first as a city council president, and then 16 years as mayor. A true Hamtramck insider, Majewski shepherded her city through major ethnic, racial, and religious shifts only to see the town’s progressive open door policy result in her ouster.

“This is another thing that you can’t say out loud. The absentee ballots are being filled out in people’s dining rooms by the candidates.” - Karen Majewski, Former Hamtramck Mayor (2006-2021)

Hamtramck Democrats apparently fear allegations of racism and discrimination if they bring attention to election fraud coordinated by Bangladeshi and Yemeni ethnic minorities.

“So, who’s going to say ‘brown-skinned people are… doing election fraud?’” - Karen Majewski, Former Hamtramck Mayor (2006-2021)

Multiple Hamtramck residents in the know say that voter fraud is primarily committed within closed ethnic communities within the city, where immigrants who are unfamiliar with the voting process are intimidated and bullied to turn over their ballots by harvesters working for the candidates.

August Gitschlag, a Michigan certified election official with nearly a decade of experience as Hamtramck’s city clerk, explained to a Project Veritas journalist how voter fraud occurs through intimidation and threats.

“They go around the neighborhood with the AB (absentee ballot) applications, and they have people sign the application. They bully them and they give them their ballots. [They] say, ‘if you don’t vote for me your cousin has nowhere to live next year when he comes in.’ It’s ethnic communities… whoever gets here can run the show.” - August Gitschlag, Michigan Elections Clerk

Despite the legacy media’s claims that widespread voter fraud doesn’t exist, Gitschlag, a Michigan Democrat has seen it up close, even confronting the corruption within his own party. “I’ve busted other Democrats… I got three people busted back in 2013,” he said.

Like the former mayor, Democrat city council hopeful Lynn Blasey, also claims to have experienced the seedy side of Hamtramck elections up close. Blasey, who identifies as asexual queer ran as the only non-Muslim candidate for Hamtramck city council in 2021 and 2023. Blasey told our Project Veritas journalist that her Muslim political opponents, current Councilmen Mohammed Hassan and Abu Musa, won because of coordinated ballot harvesting campaigns.

“They hire black people to go to black houses. They hire Bangladeshi people to go to Bangladeshi houses… they pay them for their ballots.” Lynn Blasey, Hamtramck City Council Candidate (2021, 2023)

Blasey spoke to our journalist about a secret late-night meeting where the harvested ballots are then auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“The people who have participated in that late night auction before and have been in the room when it’s happening have told me about it. They get together late at night. They jokingly call it ‘the midnight meeting.’” - Lynn Blasey, Hamtramck City Council Candidate (2021, 2023)

Project Veritas arranged a meeting with Councilman Abu Musa to play him the audio recordings detailing these allegations of voter fraud and secret ballot auctions. When confronted with the claims, Musa did not deny the existence of the “midnight meeting,” but in fact claimed fellow councilman Hassan had admitted to an illegal purchase of 300 ballots in 2023.

Journalist: “Is it true that he [Hassan] paid for 300 ballots?”

Hamtramck Councilman Abu Musa: He, [Councilman Mohammed Hassan] said so. I don’t have any proof. He [Hassan] told, ‘Yeah, I did those things.’ If somebody properly, or unproperly handled the ballot, he’s the one.”

To see how these alleged ballot harvesters would react to an offer of unmarked absentee ballots, a Project Veritas journalist contacted Councilmen Hassan and Musa with an opportunity to acquire what they believed to be ballots gathered for their benefit. They accepted the fraudulent ballots and Hassan explained how they could get those fraudulent ballots counted: by dropping them into a ballot drop box.

Hamtramck Councilman Mohammed Hassan: “This is a trap. We have to see the name, is it Muslim, or not? If it is not signed… give me the address. I’ll go there. If everything’s good, we can drop [the ballots] to the City Hall. City Hall [sic] parking lot has that [ballot] box. We can drop it there.”

Hamtramck Councilman, Mayor Pro Tem Abu Musa: “You touched my heart, brother. Thank you very much. Listen, I’ll come up. I’ll meet you. How about this evening?”

Rather than rejecting the illegal offer, both councilmen agreed to meet our journalist to retrieve the imaginary illegal ballots.

August Gitschlag told our journalist that Michigan and Attorney General Dana Nessel is pursuing an investigation of voter fraud among the Muslim city council. “We know who’s doing it and the attorney general is on to them,” he said.

Nessel, a Democrat and Trump critic, became controversial in 2023 when she charged 16 Michigan GOP electors with felony fraud charges and other crimes for signing certificates based on their belief that Donald Trump won the state in 2020. A key issue in that felony case is whether there was any reasonable belief that ongoing, systemic, voter fraud is ongoing in Michigan.

Progressives face real problems as the issues of election integrity and cultural diversity appear to be colliding for Democrats in Hamtramck.

How will the city fare now that Muslims are securing power through apparent ballot harvesting?

Stay tuned as Project Veritas intends to present our findings to Michigan’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer: Attorney General Dana Nessel.

The Michigan Democratic primary is on August 6th and Councilman Mohammed Hassan hopes to advance from city council to become commissioner of Wayne County’s 3rd district. Musa, who has also faced questions over his residency status in Hamtramck, will not face reelection until 2025.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/progressive-dems-michigan-tell-undercover-journo-they-were-ballot-harvested-out-office

US battleground states PA, WI seen vulnerable to post-election chaos

 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two states seen as must-wins in the Nov. 5 presidential election, have failed to adopt electoral reforms intended to avoid a repeat of the chaos that followed Republican Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump are locked in a tight contest in those two states, public opinion polls show. They are the heart of the "Blue Wall" states of America's former industrial heartland that are likely to play a critical role in either candidate's path to victory.

Their failure to embrace a 2022 federal law could attract the post-election attention of Trump and his Republican allies, who falsely claim that his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud and claim without evidence that Democrats are encouraging people living in the United States to vote illegally.

That rhetoric has stirred worries among democracy advocates, lawmakers and legal experts who say the Republican presidential candidate and his supporters could try again to overturn an election loss, this time with a more coherent effort and a strategy aimed at just one or two states.

"Anybody, not just Democrats, but anybody, should be worried that this is going to happen again with even more chaos and violence than happened in 2020 and 2021," Democratic former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt told Reuters.

After Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss, which included more than 60 lawsuits and culminated in his supporters' Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Congress sought to stave off any recurrence by passing the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act.

The reforms set a new mandatory Dec. 11 deadline for states to submit certified slates of presidential electors to the Archivist of the United States, provided expedited court access to resolve challenges and raised the threshold for objecting to election results in Congress.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Other states expected to play a deciding role in the election have passed legislation to ensure that canvasses, recounts, audits and legal challenges are completed before the new deadline. Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina acted after Congress, while Georgia acted before.

Arizona specifically updated its deadlines for post-election canvassing and recounts, while Nevada set new deadlines for recounts and for resolving legal challenges.

Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, however, have made no such adjustments, leaving their electoral systems - and a potentially decisive 29 of the 538 Electoral College votes - vulnerable to partisan lawsuits and political pressures that could force them to miss the certification deadline.

DEADLINE RISKS

Advocates fear a missed certification deadline could present a hurdle for presidential electors to cast their votes by the Dec. 17 federal deadline, add grist to political claims of a faulty election system and raise the possibility of a state's election results getting rejected by Congress.

"It is a problem," said Rex VanMiddlesworth, an attorney focused on threats to American democracy. "States can mess this up so badly that their votes aren't counted, or states could deliberately want to screw it up so badly that their votes aren't counted."

Other democracy advocates see a limited danger, given that the Democratic governors of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are unlikely to hold up certification and that reforms provide expedited court access if the deadline is missed.

"That should be a pretty good assurance that the process has been completed fairly and accurately," said Adav Noti, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center.

Legal experts say the greatest danger would be a contested election that hangs on the outcome of a single state, especially with a narrow margin of victory.

"The closer it is, you know, the more pressure is going to come to bear," said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame University law professor who advised the Senate on drafting the 2022 legislation.

Democracy advocates warn that a contested election could lead to protests, or even violence similar to the Capitol assault, especially ahead of state electors' Dec. 17 deadline.

Muller predicted the legal transfer of power would remain intact, given the readiness of the courts to intervene, candidate Trump's inability to wield presidential power and the unlikelihood that a majority of Congress would reject a state's results.

'LITIGATION ON EVERYTHING'

Earlier this year in Wisconsin, legislation that would have aligned the state's electoral system with federal reforms easily passed the Republican-controlled state Senate. But it failed to reach the floor of the Assembly, also Republican controlled, before lawmakers adjourned for the year in February.

"The bill would have ensured everything went smoothly. I have faith that Wisconsin should be okay. But unfortunately, we don't know for sure," said state Representative Lee Snodgrass, top Democrat on the Assembly's election committee.

"The danger is that if we don't meet the deadline, we open ourselves up to further litigation," she added. "There could be litigation on everything."

Wisconsin technically missed a certification deadline in 2020 due to Trump's efforts to invalidate its election results. Democratic Governor Tony Evers filed an initial certificate identifying the state's electors and followed up with a second, final certificate three weeks later, after the state Supreme Court ruled against Trump.

In Pennsylvania, a bipartisan electoral reform bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on July 10. But there is no sign that the Republican-led state Senate will take up the measure when lawmakers reconvene in September.

Michael McDonald, policy director at the Pennsylvania Department of State, said court rulings following a flurry of recount petitions during the 2022 election made it clear that county officials do not have the discretion to delay certification.

He said the state launched a training program to remind county officials about their obligations under federal and state law, which include certifying their results by the third Monday after a general election, which this cycle falls on Nov. 25.

Still, some observers said they worried that the failure of the state's legislature to act raised the risk of challenges.

"If a state like Pennsylvania can't get their act together to certify the election results in the presidential election because of ongoing litigation, then it throws the reform act out of kilter," said John Jones, a former federal judge in Pennsylvania appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush.

Jones, Gephardt and VanMiddlesworth are affiliated with the nonpartisan group Keep Our Republic, which seeks to reinforce trust in the electoral system through community outreach.

"There are legal theories that I, in my wildest dreams, probably can't think of, that will be espoused by folks bringing these suits," Jones said.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/two-us-battleground-states-seen-100335291.html

Bunge, ADM to benefit as US farmers sell cheap crops in 'haul of shame'

 A spike in bargain-basement crop sales by U.S. farmers needing to make room in storage bins for autumn harvests could boost profitability at grain handlers such as Archer-Daniels-Midland and Bunge Global.

Both companies, which trade and process soybeans and corn and benefit from geographic differences in supply, recently flagged slow farmer selling as a drag on second-quarter earnings.

Eight farmers in the key Midwestern crop-growing states of Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio told Reuters they are emptying storage bins of corn and soybeans harvested in 2023 after holding tight to supplies all year, as favorable weather for crop development finally dashes their hopes for higher prices.

Farmers earlier resisted sales as corn and soy futures prices sank to 2020 lows this year under pressure from large supplies.

Low prices are also driving some to use less crop chemicals, which could create a short-term pinch for agribusinesses like Corteva Inc and Syngenta, analysts said.

Increased sales should result in cheaper soybean ownership for ADM and Bunge, which process the crop into soybean oil and meal used for livestock feed, said Heather Jones, founder of Heather Jones Research.

More farmer selling also helps ADM and Bunge obtain supplies to use any excess manufacturing capacity, said Arun Sundaram, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.

"Agribusinesses operate with a lot of overhead and have high fixed costs, so running manufacturing plants at or near capacity is key to preserving efficiencies and margins," he said.

'HAUL OF SHAME'

Growers, who are projected to suffer the largest ever year-to-year dollar drop in farm income in 2024, previously hoped that poor weather or geopolitical disruption would spark a rally.

"I'm throwing in the towel and making room for the new crop," said Ron Heck, a farmer in Perry, Iowa. Farmers start harvesting what the U.S. government expects to be the third largest corn crop and second largest soybean crop in September.

Heck said he recently hauled corn as fast as he could to a local plant owned by POET LLC, the world's largest ethanol producer, that offered to pay cash prices 42 cents per bushel, or about 10%, higher than futures.

Selling accelerated in the Midwest in late July as forecasts for hot, dry weather lifted futures to two-week highs, grain dealers said. The gains were short lived, as markets again collapsed to 2020 lows last week.

"We didn't get the hot, dry predicted weather, and there was no point in waiting for a weather rally," Heck said.

One grower in Illinois described farmers taking grain to local facilities for sale as the "haul of shame" because they should have sold earlier when prices were higher.

SELLING AT A LOSS

Justin Campbell, who farms outside Terre Haute, Indiana, is among those who booked sales last week as corn prices declined.

"I thought, 'We haven't found a bottom yet in prices,' so I wanted to get some of it priced," Campbell said.

Another Indiana farmer, who requested anonymity because he does not want neighbors to know about his sales, said he recently finished selling last year's corn to an ADM elevator for $3.54 per bushel, below his cost of production. He needed cash to make a payment that was coming due on an equipment loan.

Bunge, the world's largest oilseed processor, expects more farmer sales after its profit margins suffered in the April-June quarter from slow selling in North and South America, CEO Greg Heckman said last week. Bunge raised its full-year outlook, citing improving processing margins, following a 56% decline in adjusted second-quarter agribusiness earnings from a year earlier.

"The weather, it looks good," Heckman told analysts on an earnings call. "I think as you see that North American crop develop, we'll see some more marketing there."

Without making much money from farming, some growers said they are buying less fungicide, insecticide, fertilizer and equipment.

Chris Gibbs, who farms about 375 acres in Ohio, said he was not going to buy and pay for fungicide to be applied across all his fields to prevent plant disease as he normally does.

"I'm going back to walking the beans and corn rows, looking for problems in the field and only treating areas that absolutely need the help," Gibbs said.

Illinois farmer Dave Kestel said he is spraying fungicide on less than half his corn fields, cutting his use of a Corteva product called Aproach. Corteva on Wednesday cut its annual sales and operating earnings forecasts due to tighter farmer margins.

Still, farmers tend to pay up for seeds that promise to produce hefty yields, said Seth Goldstein, strategist at Morningstar Research Services. And deciding to cut back on chemicals can be tricky because growers want to produce big harvests to make the most money they can at low prices.

"Even in a down market, you still have to protect the crop," said Kristen Owen, executive director of equity research at Oppenheimer & Co.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-bunge-adm-benefit-us-100425635.html

Tyson Bucks Selloff as Chicken Bonanza Drives Profit Beat

 Tyson Foods Inc. shares surged, bucking a broad retreat in equity markets, as quarterly earnings beat the highest of analyst estimates on a rebound in chicken profits.

Earnings excluding some items were 87 cents a share for the three months ended June, almost six times higher than a year earlier and above the 67-cent average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Tyson’s poultry business made 307 million in operating profits in the quarter, the highest since 2016 for a fiscal third quarter and roughly 62% of the company’s total.

Tyson raised the midpoint of its outlook range for 2024 adjusted operating income by $100 million to $1.7 billion, mostly driven by improved estimates for its chicken business.

Shares gained as much as 4.4% to the highest level since February 2023, before paring some of the gains. The meat giant was among the top five gainers in the S&P 500 index, which slumped as much as 4.3%.

The latest Tyson’s result was the highest since the last quarter of 2022, and underscores a stronger-than-expected recovery in the chicken industry. Producers are benefiting from lower prices for corn and soybeans, which are used to feed birds, and stronger consumer demand.

The performance also comes amid Tyson’s efforts to improve profitability, which included the shutdown of several plants last year and the reintroduction of antibiotics use in animals. The company said capacity use at its chicken operations surged to the highest since the fourth quarter of 2018, with egg fertility and bird livability indicators also improving.

“The operational improvements we have been driving are enabling us to benefit from the market tailwinds,” Chief Executive Officer Donnie King said during the conference call.

Tyson reported a $69 million loss in its beef business, which has struggled with a shortage of cattle in the US and soaring costs for slaughter-weight animals. While pasture conditions have improved this year, “clear signs of meaningful herd rebuilding have not emerged,” meaning supplies are not expected to rebound anytime soon, King said.

The company’s pork operation — which also benefits from lower grain prices — reversed year-earlier losses, beating analyst estimates. The prepared food business, which produces sausages and snacks under brands such as Wright and Jimmy Dean, saw slightly lower profits than a year earlier.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tyson-bucks-selloff-chicken-bonanza-145942213.html

Trump reacts to global stock-market sell-off: ‘I told you so!!!’

 Former President Trump on Sunday night appeared to gloat in response to the global market sell-off and suggested his Democratic rivals were to blame.

“STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!! KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Sunday night.

U.S. stock markets plunged Friday following a weaker-than-expected jobs report that raised fears the economy could be slowing down faster than analysts had predicted. By Monday, the sell-off was intensifying, with stock futures for the S&P 500 down more than 2 percent and down more than 4 percent for Nasdaq.

Markets around the world declined, especially across Asia and Europe. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index fell 12.4 percent, and the Topix index fell 12.2 percent.

Stock markets have generally been climbing since the beginning of 2023 on a foundation of strong economic data, as employment levels have continually surpassed expectations in the face of the Federal Reserve interest rate hikes meant to slow the economy.

Trump, who tied himself to the stock market during his presidency, has frequently tried to claim responsibility for stock market records set under President Biden.

Earlier this year, he said the market was doing well “because they think I’m going to be elected.” He also said investor sentiment was soaring because his polls against Biden were “so good.”

The Biden campaign mocked those comments in response, saying Trump was “desperately trying to take credit for the stock market hitting record highs under President Biden.”

The Hill has reached out to Vice President Harris’s campaign for a response to Trump’s recent comments.

https://thehill.com/elections/4811132-trump-reacts-stock-market-selloff/

Every: The End Of The Beginning

 By Michael Every of Rabobank

The end of the beginning

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Churchill

Last week saw pure market panic. Rates markets are now pricing in 50bps cuts from the Fed at multiple 2024 meetings, or even intra-meeting: it’s not higher for longer, but when we see zero rates and QE again, apparently.

July payrolls were weak (114K vs. 175K expected) with a surprise rise in unemployment to 4.3% triggering the so-called Sahm ‘recession’ rule --suddenly a thing-- after initial jobless claims had also risen more than expected. However, there might have been distortions to data from Hurricane Beryl: if so, August’s data will be better. True, there are also issues over the BLS births/deaths model’s ‘assumed’ jobs, and revisions, and payrolls stripping out demographic change, whether official or unofficial – but they didn’t appear Friday. In short, the labor market is cooling, but not collapsing, which is what the Fed wants.

We also saw a plunge in tech stocks. Few in markets or financial media had much bad to say when that bubble(?) was blowing, but when things flip, they demand rate cuts: heads I win, tails I don’t lose. But taking the froth off stocks is also what the Fed wants.

A few months ago, USD/JPY chatter was 170 or 180, because the BOJ couldn’t hike much without blowing itself and the Japanese economy up, while the Fed couldn’t cut much. Regardless of the 15bp BOJ rate hike and hawkish rhetoric from Governor Ueda last week, driving markets to talk of 140 in USD/JPY, that remains true. We already have a plunge in Japanese stocks which hardly backs demand-side inflation there; and we know services-demand and supply-side inflation pressures still lurk in the US. Short covering alongside unwinding the Yen carry trade that’s lifted US (and other) stocks surely doesn’t have much further to run; then huge rate differentials will kick in again - unless the Fed is going back to Covid-era monetary policy.

Even if so, it’s still just the end of the beginning.

With populism surging, can Western society take a deep recession? And we would start with huge fiscal deficits and post-WW2 levels of public debt. More austerity would create chaos, so, we’d surely see massive state spending backed by the central bank instead. That would make bond bulls happy; but it would also make the case to the public --and the parts of the world that *makes the things we buy*-- that our system is broken. We can push yields down and hold them there, as post-2008: but only with weaker currencies vs. hard assets, key EM FX, and commodities – which means supply-side inflation.

Moreover, beware more populist anger. This is already a problem in the EU, and even the UK just saw violent country-wide riots against mass migration and “Two-Tier” policing. PM Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service during the last riots in 2011, and cracked down hard: yet, as a journalist asked him, will another hardline approach, with no change to other policies, resolve this issue or pour oil on troubled waters? Won’t ‘vanilla’ rate cuts and QE just allow house prices and stocks to rise further, with that inequality leading to more anger?

So, the West still might have to adopt protectionism and/or more closed borders to reflate and recycle capital internally, as already proposed in the US. In which case, it’s the 1930s redux or 1930’s lite: that’s not the bullish ending markets foresee when they shout, “rate cuts!” and “QE!” in a political vacuum.

From seas of red to the Red Sea: geopolitics is risk-off bids for bonds, but also with an inflationary tail risk. As soon as today, say some, or symbolically on August 12-13, the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av mourning past calamities, Iran and its Axis of Resistance will launch another missile and drone barrage at Israel. US and European forces will again help shoot these down, but many are expected to get through, and Israel is prepared to strike back hard. Its government has set up a secure bunker, and across the political spectrum there is a view that full war with Hezbollah and/or Iran is required to break the strategic encirclement Tehran has spent years creating around it (and which the US and EU haven’t stopped because they don’t want any more regional confrontation.) Meanwhile, other reports have Iran telling all those entreating it to hold back that will attack hard regardless of whether this causes a war or not; and that Hezbollah was told by Tehran to deliberately target civilian populations. It seems war looms.

Israel will be hit hard if so; but Lebanon far harder; and the US has reportedly warned Iran that Israel could bomb its key energy infrastructure, as it did to the Houthis. Indeed, with Israel (deliberately) lacking US bunker-buster bombs needed to hit Iran’s nuclear sites under mountains, perhaps only oil infrastructure is left to aim for. In a larger war, Axis forces may strike Gulf energy to try to force the West to stay Israel’s hand. In short, we could see the start of a violent oil-shock ahead, with no idea of how it then ends.

One can understand Western reticence about doing anything offensive rather than defensive, especially if Russia and China support Iran, forcing the US to either divert from Ukraine and Taiwan or cede an ally’s security and its own regional influence. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida has claims from a senior Iranian source, which may be disinformation, that the US is desperate to find a way out and back to the 2015 JCPOA deal, and blames Israel for this all, not Iran. However, rapprochement takes two or it’s just retreat, and certainly no deterrent to further violence. On which note, major US non-NATO ally Qatar, which houses Hamas leaders, has reportedly banned any military use of the US Al-Udeid airbase located there vs. Iran.

Meanwhile, other headlines underline how much the market misses on geopolitics in general:

• Astoundingly, the UK Ministry of Defence hired BELARUSSIAN coders to write the software for its nuclear submarines – because ‘they were cheap’? That’s neoliberalism for you, if so.
• The recent Russian-US spy swap incentivizes future hostage taking, and revealed deep agent children growing up abroad unaware they were even Russian until exchanged back to Moscow – how many more are out there? You think none?

Having started with Churchill, I end this Daily warning we have only seen the end of the beginning on multiple fronts with the words of the Bolshevik revolutionary Trotsky:

"You may not be interested in war, but war may be interested in you."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/end-beginning

'US completes troop withdrawal from Niger'

 U.S. forces have completed a troop withdrawal from Niger after the country fell to a coup in 2023 and demanded American service members exit the country, a setback for Washington in its counterterrorism fight in the Sahel.

The Pentagon and Niger’s national defense department released a joint statement Monday saying the withdrawal from Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez was complete, a month earlier than a previous prediction.

American troops left the base in good condition and in an improved state for defense, according to the release.

The U.S. withdrawal began in May after negotiations between Niamey and Washington since the July 2023 coup led to the military junta seeking a full exit. And it comes weeks after the U.S. withdrew from its first base near Niamey.

Niger is now headed by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, who led the military coup that ousted the former President Mohamed Bazoum last year.

Tchiani has been more hostile to Western nations, also forcing the French to withdraw troops from Niger at the end of 2023.

Niger has since moved closer to Russia, inviting Russian military trainers and advisers to the country earlier this year.

The Niger coup follows several countries in the volatile Sahel region that have fallen to military juntas in recent years, including Mali and Burkina Faso.

The developments have endangered U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the U.S. will seek to cooperate with other countries in the region or nearby to ensure the threat of terrorism and insurgent groups doesn’t rise.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4811276-us-completes-troop-withdrawal-from-niger/