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Will be Updated, All breads were spammed

Alternate South Africa bread on midnightriders

https://8kun.top/midnightriders/res/18.html

Notables are NOT Endorsements

#8

>>16656300 Shutdown is on: Take a look at roads currently closed

>>16656326 National shutdown on Thursday, 7 July 2022

>>16656585 Jonathan Oppenheimer V Revenue & Customs (Income Tax – Whether in UK or RSA) - 2021

>>16657620 Serbian royals asked Hunter Biden for help to restore palaces

>>16664912, >>16664918, >>16664928 “What a Lost Prison Manuscript Reveals About the Real Nelson Mandela” (Parts 1-3)

>>16664951 Makena Capital Management Bun

>>16664952 Tswalu Protocol Bun

>>16664993, >>16671179 Richard Stengel

#7-B

>>15510152 Ex-South African president appeals ruling in corruption case

>>15510185 South Africa's rand recovers, central banks in focus

>>15510222 A crisis of faith in South Africa: ‘People have given up on the state’

>>16264942 South Africa president abandons rally after booing

>>16298848 South Africa-Mandela Attacked Re 'Shoot To Kill (video)

>>16299738 Don’t forget the murders of Prime Minister Dr. HF Verwoerd and Bernt Carlsson (video)

>>16345467, >>16350209, >>16351131 Are Foreign Investors Colonising Africa?

>>16345817, >>16345829, >>16345842 Africa: A possible solution for Europe’s energy troubles Parts 1-3

>>16346727, >>16346735 Government of South Africa and The United Nations in South Africa sign the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework

>>16350432 Zuma's self-survival rooted in being ex-ANC intelligence operative

>>16381002, >>16386558, >>16386621, 163404208 Albie Sachs/Sujit Choudhry Land Grab and judging the judges (videos)

>>16399968, >>16399979, >>16399981, >>16399984, >>16399985, >>16399986, >>16399988, >>16399993 MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards (Parts 1-8)

>>16400008 Bertha Foundation, Clooney Foundation and Amnesty International’s Support of Omar Radi | Morocco Condemns Amnesty International's "Political Interference"

>>16401000 Amandla! Collective Bun

>>16426089, >>16433197 “Amabhungane details alleged cover-up in Ramaphosa farm theft” – Namibia Connection (video)

>>16436536, >>16436544 From poor orphan to billionaire oligarch: how Abramovich made his money (Part 1 & 2)

>>16472313 Farm Murders on the increase again

>>16473707 Chancellor House Bun

>>16473710 Covid Bun

>>16473714 Gershon Kekst Bun

>>16473731 Oppenheimer Bun

>>16473738 Cyril Ramaphosa Bun

>>16473741 Jacob Zuma Bun

>>16473779 Viktor Vekselberg Bun

>>16483557, >>16483581 Former finance minister Tito Mboweni

>>16484048 “South Africa is turning into Congo.” - Electrician killed in shootout involving 150 Zamas at moth-balled Sibanye gold mine (video)

>>16526538 South Africa Connections in Malawi

>>16538743, >>16538769 Business deserves thanks for role in averting SA civil war, say experts ahead of discussion co-hosted by UP (Part 1 & 2)

>>16544387, >>16564540, >>16557915 Eskom warns of stage 6, blames "unlawful industrial action"; Looter may get "ideas"; Beyond Stage 8? Expert says SA ‘one step away’ from TOTAL blackout

>>16544614, >>16557619 South Africa Nightclub Horror: 22 teenagers found dead (videos)

>>16554835 James Rothschild – Investments; Rusal, Glencore, Ukraine, etc

>>16554864, >>16554865, >>16554880 Chronology of how National Party and African National Congress were outsmarted by White Businessmen and Foreign Governments in taking over South Africa in 1989 (Parts 1-3)

>>16558876, >>16558904 Anti-White and anti-Indian bigotry in South Africa: The racism that does not attract the world’s condemnation (parts 1 & 2)

>>16567352, >>16567460, >>16567583, >>16567690, >>16567701 Investec, Hendrik du Toit, Naspers, and Koos Bekker (videos)

>>16569263 Idi Amin Bun | Updated ANC Bun

>>16569269 Gencore/Billiton Bun | Gill Marcus Bun

>>16569271 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part One

>>16569275 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part Two

>>16569280 Gunvor Bun | Sacoil/Efora Bun

>>16569283 Tony Hollingsworth Bun | Trafigura Bun

>>16569285 Trevor Huddleston Bun | United Democratic Front Bun

#7-A

>>16574546, >>16574556, >>16574561, >>16574572 “Mbeki, Chippy and the Greek lobbyist” – – Imvume, Oilgate, Tony Georgiadis and his wife, FW de Klerk, Jacob Zuma, National Pary, etc (Parts 1-4)

>>16574634, >>16574642, >>16574841 The Murder Of South Africa’s Former First Lady [Marike De Klerk]” – FW De Klerk’s former wife & Judge John Hlophe

>>16588176, >>16588187, >>16588192, >>16588194, >>16588199 Cracks in South Africa's White Monopolies, New York Times 1993 (Parts 1-5)

>>16588216, >>16588217, >>16588218, >>16588219 The Rupert, Moolman, Stofberg, Bekker Media Cartel (Parts 1-4)

>>16603573, >>16603578, >>16603583, >>16603605, >>16603609, >>16603617 The Tswalu Protocol: Principles and Guidelines for Peace-Building Missions (Parts 1-6)

>>16603986, >>16604004 Zambia’ downward slid into dictatorship” – Was Jonathan Oppenheimer & co in the process of planting their own ‘dictator’? (Parts 1 & 2)

>>16604052 “Hakainde Hichilema: The Zambian 'cattle boy' who became president”

>>16650259 Barclays Bun | Eskom Bun

>>16650267 Commodities Bun

>>16650472 Lonrho Bun | Oppenheimer Bun

>>16694015

Thank you!

“Meet Ian Cameron, the man who wouldn’t cower to Bheki Cele”

https://youtu.be/BYq5xnPqhZE

“Community policing activist Ian Cameron - who heads up NGO Action Society - made headlines when cops ejected him from a community meeting in Gugulethu after a war of words with Police Minister Bheki Cele. Cameron told BizNews he was the 13th speaker at the event, where he proceeded to tell the minister about the reality of crime and gender-based violence in the area. Cameron said: “I’m tired of the excuses and I’m tired of you making this a political thing. I want to graciously invite you to come and patrol without a bodyguard, without a grand car, in normal clothes with this community tonight to get the sewage on your shoes that they patrol through.” The minister warned Cameron not to provoke him. “You regard me as a garden boy,” Cele said. When Cameron stood to defend himself from the racial assertion, Cele yelled at him to, “Shut up” several times and sit down. “It’s your turn to listen, young man, or get out,” shouted Cele. Cameron will be laying a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate regarding police conduct, as well as criminal charges against officers who attempted to assault him.”

>>16696485

“Why more women in South Africa need firearms for self-defence” – Gender Based Violence (Part 1)

https://firearms.co.za/opinion/why-women-in-south-africa-need-firearms-for-self-defence/

August 17, 2021

Gender-based violence the biggest human rights violation of our generation

The ANC has transformed our country into the rape capital of the world and South Africa is now possibly facing the greatest human rights crisis of our generation. The ANC must never claim the right to celebrate the freedom of women, women’s day and women’s month during their existence in South Africa. 116 women have their livelihoods stolen from them everyday when they are raped and they have an almost 100% guarantee that justice will not prevail.

It must be said that many victims are children and very simply put, would not be able to obtain a firearm for self-defence, but where possibly adult citizens should be legally armed and prepared for different situations they could be confronted with.

Imagine being the mother of a 5 year old little girl that was raped and murdered, then dumped in a pit toilet with severe injuries from being beaten and knowing that the chance of justice being served is less than 7%? Well, that is the case of little Chantal Makwena (5) from Rocklands who was brutally raped and murdered in August 2019. The same suspect that allegedly raped and murdered Chantal was arrested for the rape of a woman in 2018 and was out on bail.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, and a femicide rate that is five times the global average, with an estimated 12.1 in 100,000 victims each year. South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics (GBV) are equal to a country at war. It is important to note that 2 695 women are murdered every year in South Africa that’s 1 woman every 3 hours.

It is because of incompetent officials like Bheki Cele that men like Nicholas Ninow can roam the streets of this country. Ninow destroyed a little 7 year-old girl’s life before it could even begin, when he raped her in a restaurant in Pretoria in 2018. He was not convicted because of DNA- evidence but was caught red handed.

In the plenary debate on the DNA crisis, held on May 11 2021, Police Minister Bheki Cele confirmed that the South African Police Services (SAPS) was already implementing overtime to clear up the DNA backlog of 208 000 cases. “Our goal is to have 40% of human resources dedicated to addressing the backlog and 60% of staff will handle new cases,” said Cele. It is now 3 months later and the backlog has passed the 300 000 mark with no real evidence of Cele fulfilling his mandate and the SAPS obviously failing in their’s.

South Africa has in the last year, maintained it’s spot as the rape capital of the world, with about 132 incidents per 100,000 people. Tshegofatso Pule, Naledi Phangindawo, Alexia Nyamadzawo, Nolundi Dondolo and many others were victims of gender-based violence and were brutally killed at the hands of abusers in 2020

More than 300 000 victims of violence in South Africa have been denied justice by a corrupt law enforcement cluster that cannot ensure that basic forensic procedures are completed. How many children like Chantal are still going to be subjected to rape and murder with no hope of protection or justice?

>>16696485

>>16696498

“Why more women in South Africa need firearms for self-defence” – Gender Based Violence (Part 2)

https://firearms.co.za/opinion/why-women-in-south-africa-need-firearms-for-self-defence/

August 17, 2021

In June 2020, Bheki Cele appointed an oversight commission that gets paid to sort outthe DNA backlog in South Africa, but they have only met once since being appointed. How do you sleep at night, knowing that your failed oversight is denying more victims of gender-based violence and specifically rape from getting justice?

No example is being set as to what should happen to perpetrators that commit these horrific crimes.

South Africa is faced by a pandemic far greater than Covid 19, namely gender-based violence, as the ANC poses as a ruling political party, but is in actual fact a criminal mafia that have become professional in capturing state institutions. Under the supposed leadership of people like Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, Bheki Cele, Khehla Sithole, Jackie Selebi, Nathi Nhleko and Nathi Mthetwa, the ANC has become complicit in the gender- based violence pandemic that South Africa faces. There is only one reason for this: government is led by an intellectually corrupt organisation that has become the biggest criminal network South Africa has ever known. Law enforcement institutions have been hijacked for political gain by the ANC, they abuse these bodies to ensure that justice never prevails. Not one promise Bheki Cele has made during his term as minister of police has been honoured, in fact, further deterioration is happening as I write this.

Cyril Ramaphosa should be ashamed of associating with a minister like Bheki Cele, who started his own round of police destruction when he was made national police commissioner as part of an ANC cadre deployment scheme about a decade ago. Cele was also found unfit for duty by a court of law when he was national commissioner.

Mbali Shongwe, a rape survivor tells the real story of being failed by the South African justice system. After reporting her case and going through all the necessary channels, the case was dismissed. She was told it was due to a lack of evidence but after further investigation she learned that none of the leads were followed, the CCTV footage that was perfectly positioned to witness the crime was not reviewed and the detectives refused to pick up her assailant despite the overwhelming information she provided to them (after becoming hopeless and conducting an investigation to find her assailant herself).

“Not only did my rapist seek to silence and disempower me, but the system, that is designed to protect me, did too. The women of South Africa are tired. What we face daily is a scourge that we can no longer ignore. My rape has irrevocably changed who I am but unfortunately for my abuser and the justice system that failed me, I have emerged stronger than I was before. I have committed myself to the fact that I will never be silent. Until someone listens and the systems and culture change, I will continue to fight for the justice that I and so many other women deserve,” she says.

How many more women need to die at the hands of their ruthless and violent killers? When is enough, enough? How can government justify spending another R26 million on VIP protection while the vulnerable women and children in our communities remain exposed and unprotected?

Women, like so many other citizens should be encouraged to be legally armed and trained to equal the playing field where violent criminals threaten their lives.

Help us to bring justice where the system is failing victims. Join Action Society today and be a voice for the voiceless.

Ian Cameron

Ian leads Action Society’s community safety drive and is an ambassador for the #SafeCitizen Campaign. Ian is the founder of firearms.co.za.

>>16567352

>>16696610

>Brad Fried is the current Chair of the Court of Directors of the Bank of England and the Co-Founder of private investment firm Grovepoint Capital. Brad is the former Chief Executive Officer of Investec Bank and current Chair of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

Sir Bradley Fried – Partners Capital

https://partners-cap.com/team/brad-fried/

Brad was raised in South Africa and trained with Arthur Andersen before moving to the US. After graduating with an MBA from Wharton, he joined McKinsey in New York where he was a partner in the firm’s Financial Institutions Group.

In 1999 Brad moved to London to run Investec Bank in the UK. In 2009 he co-founded the private investment firm, Grovepoint. In 2012 Brad was appointed to the Court of Directors of the Bank of England, becoming chairman of the Bank in 2018.

Brad is a Governor of the London Business School; a Fellow of Cambridge University’s Magdalene College; and was previously the CEO-in-Residence and a Fellow in Finance at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.

Brad is also Chairman of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

>>16696619

>In 2009 he co-founded the private investment firm, Grovepoint. In 2012 Brad was appointed to the Court of Directors of the Bank of England, becoming chairman of the Bank in 2018.

“Bank of England’s Fried to Head Billionaire Kirsh Family Office [Another South African Family]”

https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news-fast-news/bank-of-englands-fried-to-head-billionaire-kirsh-family-office/

October 14, 2015

Fried starts in November and takes over from Ron Sandler, the former CEO of Lloyd’s of London.

Bradley Fried, a member of the Bank of England’s Court of Directors and former chief executive officer of Investec Plc, is joining South African billionaire Nathan “Natie’’ Kirsh’s family office as its new CEO.

Fried will oversee Kirsh Group, the management company that holds Kirsh’s disparate assets, which include two US wholesale grocery businesses, commercial and residential real estate, and private equity investments on four continents. Kirsh’s fortune is valued at $6.2 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“I’ve met many chief executives, many who were outstanding at strategy, outstanding at execution,” said Fried in a telephone interview. “In Natie, I’ve found an extraordinary visionary. At the age of 50 I almost feel as if I’m being apprenticed all over again.”

Fried starts in November and takes over from Ron Sandler, the former CEO of Lloyd’s of London, who Kirsh said will remain working as a trustee and adviser to the family.

Early Ventures

A Cape Town native, Fried worked for McKinsey & Co in New York before moving to London in 1999 to work for UK-listed Investec. He resigned as CEO from the bank in 2010 to found his own investment firm, Grovepoint Capital, which Fried said has completed “a couple billion dollars” in deals since inception.

Fried became acquainted with Kirsh shortly after he relocated to London and credits the billionaire with helping his venture prosper in its first five years. He said Kirsh has advised on all of Grovepoint’s deals, which include acquiring Total SA’s UK downstream assets and buying a stake in Israeli microalgae farm Algatechnologies. He’ll continue to be involved with Grovepoint and remain on the court of the Bank of England until his term’s expiration in May 2019.

The move comes one month after Ashvin Chhabra, the former chief investment officer of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, joined as president of the family office for hedge fund billionaire James Simons. Both appointments were made as family offices worldwide suffered “lackluster” returns, according to a report released in September by UBS AG and London-based research firm Campden Wealth.

Swaziland Mills

Kirsh, 83, made his first fortune in Africa in 1958, starting with a Swaziland corn-milling business that later evolved into a dominant food retailer in his native South Africa. Today the billionaire’s most valuable asset is Jetro Holdings, a New York-based company that manages Jetro Cash & Carry and Restaurant Depot, which had more than $9 billion in combined revenue in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Fried said he won’t be directly involved with the operations of Jetro or Kirsh’s other subsidiary companies, which all have their own CEOs. He said his role will be to oversee existing investments, hunt for new opportunities and prepare the group for a time when Kirsh is no longer involved.

“Natie said to me, over time families make transitions, and I’d like you to be there during one of these transitional moments,” Fried said. “And I said to him, I’d like you to teach me everything you can.”

>>16696637

>Fried became acquainted with Kirsh shortly after he relocated to London and credits the billionaire with helping his venture prosper in its first five years. He said Kirsh has advised on all of Grovepoint’s deals, which include acquiring Total SA’s UK downstream assets and buying a stake in Israeli microalgae farm Algatechnologies.

“Leon Blitz and Bradley Fried made their first investment in Israel. $50 million in Algatechnologies”

https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/06/23/leon-blitz-and-bradley-fried-made-their-first-investment-in-israel-50-million-in-algatechnologies/

June 23, 2013

Blitz and Fried, Grovepoint, have recently concluded their first major transaction in Israel, taking majority stakes in Algatechnologies Ltd.

One of the most successful examples of such a farm can be found on Kibbutz Ketura situated in the south of Israel, close to the popular holiday resort of Eilat.

The Kibbutz branch specialising in the commercial breeding of algae goes by the name Algatechnologies, and has earned an international reputation in the cultivation of micro-algae, which goes into the production of what is regarded as among the most effective and powerful antioxidants available, which goes by the name of astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin is extracted from the algae, in the form of a much more pleasant looking dark red organic pigment. Apart from its many health giving benefits, Astaxanthin also make up a considerable ingredient in the production of cosmetic products, sun creams, food supplements, and even crustacean food colourants.

What’s most important is that Astaxanthin, as a powerful natural antioxidant offers proven health benefits in treating several health conditions related to cardiovascular health joint and muscle function, skin care health among many other medical conditions. The natural astaxanthin goes into the production of AstaPure®, whose benefits are already well known and established in the Japanese health food product markets whilst demand for the product is rapidly increasing in the United States as well as throughout Europe.

These are the reasons why Leon Blitz and Bradley Fried through the investment company Grovepoint has invested an estimated $50 million in exchange for a 56 per cent stake in the business.

Their participation in Algatechnologies marks Grovepoint’s first investment in Israel, who displayed their intentions to create a serious presence in the country by establishing a local office in 2012, with resident managers Hagai Stadler and Gil Meirovich on the lookout for investing opportunities.

Leon Blitz speaking on behalf of Grovepoint after the deal had been completed stated that the company had always wanted to invest in Israel as soon as it was formed. “ We are very keen on the country because of their technological prowess particularly in water, agriculture and food, biotech and clean tech which also enjoys the benefit of being very transportable.” Mr Blitz summed up

Grovepoint also announced their plans to increase Algatech’s production levels by hundred percent over the next few years, and will be making additional capital available to expand the sphere of the business. Their intentions are to increase the coverage of “AstaPure” on a global basis. In addition Grovepoint have made a commitment to investing in increased research and development facilities, to further the development of new algae-derived products.

Both Leon Blitz and Bradley Fried were born in Cape Town, South Africa and confess to being close friends for almost four decades. The pair first met whilst training to be accountants with the international partnership of Arthur Andersen.

Blitz left Arthur Anderson to join international investment company Investec, first working for them in their South African office, before being transferred to London in the early 1990s, going on to become head of direct investments and growth and acquisition finance, and head of private banking in the UK.

Bradley Fried rejoined his friend in London and at the Investec Bank in the UK in 2000, by way of the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he completed his MBA and a spell at merchant bankers McKinsey & Co in New York.

The pair left Investec Bank in 2010 to form Grovepoint , and since its foundation the company has made $1 billion of investments.

>>16696619

>Brad was raised in South Africa and trained with Arthur Andersen

>>16696646

>Both Leon Blitz and Bradley Fried were born in Cape Town, South Africa and confess to being close friends for almost four decades. The pair first met whilst training to be accountants with the international partnership of Arthur Andersen.

“Olympus: Where were the auditors?” – “The ghosts of [Arthur] Andersen may still be with us.” [Enron]

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/olympus-where-were-the-auditors-1177231

November 14, 2011

If you happen to be a connoisseur of accounting scandals, then the past month or so has been about as good as it gets, capped by the unfolding disaster at Olympus. On the flip side, if you are an auditor for a big accounting firm, it just got that much harder to argue that society should value your services.

The scam at Olympus was simple. The Japanese maker of cameras and endoscopes hid losses by treating them as assets. It said it had been doing so since the 1990s.

Where were the auditors? While we still don’t know the full extent of what they knew and when, just looking at who the outside auditors were is fascinating.

Olympus’s auditor in the 1990s was the Japanese affiliate of Arthur Andersen, then one of the so-called Big Five accounting firms. After Andersen collapsed in 2002, KPMG acquired its Japanese practice and took over Olympus’s audit. KPMG remained the auditor through 2009. Olympus switched to Ernst & Young later that year.

The ghosts of Andersen may still be with us. It was indicted in 2002 over its conduct as auditor for Enron. Big accounting frauds turned up later at many of its former clients – names that included WorldCom, Dynegy, Qwest, Freddie Mac and Refco.

The Financial Times reported last month that KPMG had raised questions at some point about Olympus’s accounting. But no disagreements between KPMG and Olympus were disclosed publicly. Nor did Ernst & Young’s opinion letters flag any problems. Its latest audit report, signed June 29, noted that the firm audited Olympus’s financial statements only for the fiscal years 2010 and 2011, and that the company’s 2009 books were examined “by other auditors” whose report “expressed an unqualified opinion”. Now both Ernst & Young and KPMG have egg on their faces.

You can hear the echoes of past scandals, too, in the collapse of MF Global Holdings, which was built partly through an acquisition of Refco’s assets in 2005. MF’s auditor, PwC, as recently as May said its controls were fine, as did MF’s chief executive at the time, Jon Corzine. Whether that was accurate is now in question. More than a week after MF filed for bankruptcy, there’s still about $600 million (R4.7 billion) missing and unaccounted for.

Then there’s last month’s implosion at Dexia, the French-Belgian lender that took a government bailout to avoid collapse. Dexia got a clean audit opinion from Deloitte’s Belgian affiliate in March.

So many large companies have blown up after getting the all-clear from a Big Four accounting firm that many people regard auditor opinion letters as a joke. The client pays the auditor, after all. Regulators for decades have tried figuring out ways to get around this fundamental flaw by passing all sorts of rules requiring that auditors be “independent”. New waves of accounting scandals keep coming anyway.

Yet the next logical step – stripping the accounting profession of its golden goose by making outside audits voluntary for public companies – always has seemed like a horrible idea, because it practically would be an invitation for more frauds.

At least the public can revel in the entertainment value of all these scandals. It may not be much of a silver lining, but it is something to distract us from the obvious conclusion that we’re stuck for now with a system that too often doesn’t work.

The biggest fear for the Big Four cartel should be that someday investors will become so fed up that they demand the status quo be chucked entirely, figuring they’ve got nothing left to lose. We’re not there yet, but give it time. If the auditing industry can’t find a way to re-instill value in its most basic product, even terrible solutions may start to look like drastic improvements.

>>16697445

>Lewis Wolpert

“The casual sexism of Lewis Wolpert” - https://youtu.be/eJTjiOt-q3c

“Lewis Wolpert obituary” – Related to Helen Suzman, distributed communist literature and met Nelson Mandela in 1952

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/29/lewis-wolpert-obituary

29 January 2021

Wolpert was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the only surviving child of William, a manager in a newsagent and bookshop, and his wife, Sarah (nee Suzman). In a frank interview for the British Library’s National Life Stories collection, he remembered his parents with little warmth: his father would tolerate no contradiction, and his mother cared only for appearances in their Jewish social circle. He felt more positively about other relatives: one of his uncles, a distinguished doctor, was married to the anti-apartheid politician Helen Suzman, and he spent some time living in their home.

He studied civil engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he became involved in progressive politics, helping to distribute communist literature in the townships; in 1952 he met Nelson Mandela. After two years working on soil mechanics as assistant to the director of the Building Research Institute in Pretoria, he hitchhiked to Europe, working briefly for the water planning board in Israel before studying soil mechanics at Imperial College London.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34051671/

Lewis Wolpert was a brilliant and inspiring scientist who made hugely significant contributions which underpin and influence our understanding of developmental biology today. He spent his career interested in how the fertilised egg can give rise to the whole embryo (and ultimately the adult) with one head, two arms, two legs, all its organs and importantly how cells become different from each other and how they 'know' what to become. His ideas revolutionised the way developmental biology was perceived and also reinvigorated, in particular, the key question of how pattern formation in embryonic development is achieved. He published over 200 scientific articles and received many accolades over his career for his work and services to science in the UK. These included a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was also a recipient of the Waddington Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology and was awarded The Royal Society's top honour, the Royal Medal in 2018. Lewis was also a gifted teacher and communicator, including being the author of a textbook on developmental biology used around the world to train the next generation of developmental biologists. This contribution was recognised in 2003, by the award of the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society of Developmental Biology in the USA. Lewis always enjoyed giving talks and lectures, having an infectious and persuasive enthusiasm coupled with a sharp sense of humour. He also published articles in popular science journals (aimed at the public) such as New Scientist, Scientific American and The Scientist. Lewis also wrote several popular science books. He was a passionate advocate for the public understanding of science and was the Chair of The Royal Society/Royal Institution/British Association for the Advancement of Science Committee for Public Understanding of Science (1994-1998). For this contribution he was awarded The Royal Society Michael Faraday Medal for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". He presented the prestigious Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1986 entitled 'Frankenstein's Quest: development of life'. These lectures, six in total, are presented by leading scientists and aimed at the general public and broadcast on national television. On a personal level, Lewis influenced all who came into contact with him, shaped his students and postdocs careers and instilled in them, and the community as whole, a life-long love of developmental biology.

>>16694002

>>>16569271 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part One

>>>16569275 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part Two

This article explains how Glencore conducts business, hires employees and it discusses Congo’s Katanga deal to give perspective

“Special report: The biggest company you never heard of”[Glencore] - Willy Strothotte – Part 1

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-idUSTRE71O1DC20110225

February 25, 2011

Yet within the commodities and mining sectors, Glencore is regarded with a mix of admiration and fear. “It’s an incredibly performance-based culture – investment banking times three, probably,” says a second outsider.

Glencore’s client list is a roster of the world’s largest firms including BP, Total, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhilips, Chevron, Vale, Rio Tinto, ArcelorMittal and Sony, as well as the national oil companies of Iran, Mexico and Brazil and public utilities in Spain, France, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Physical commodities traders, like Glencore and its main rivals Vitol, Trafigura and Cargill, make their money finding customers for raw materials and selling them at a mark-up, using complex hedges to reduce the risk of bad weather, market swings, piracy or regime change.

Unlike Chicago traders who scream out bets on the future prices of orange juice or pork bellies, physical commodity traders negotiate prices and arrange shipments of cargo quietly, keeping their positions well hidden from others.

“It’s modern financial engineering meshed with an old-fashioned commodity trading house,” said John Kilduff, a partner at the hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York. “It’s amazing how this formula has flown under the radar for so long, as the profits and growth of these firms has been astounding.”

Glencore’s profit after tax topped $4.75 billion in 2008, not far off its best year ever, 2007, when profit ran to around $5.19 billion. Even in the gruesome market of 2009, it raked in more than $2.72 billion.

Employees are hired young and expected to make a career at the group, where they are known as either “thinkers” bright number-crunchers who design the company’s complex financial deals or “soldiers”, the hard-driven traders who fight to win the transactions.

The company’s 10 division managers are aged 37 to 52 and remain largely anonymous outside Glencore’s business circles. “They’re really bright guys, they are really focused, they play to win every day,” says a mining executive in North America. Or as the second outsider puts it: “They look like kids, really – but they are incredibly impressive individuals.”

THE MARC RICH LEGACY

Glencore likes to promote from within and build a kind of closed, self-sustaining network of senior traders, a culture encouraged by the company’s founder Marc Rich. Not that Glencore likes to mention Rich, a figure so notorious that he’s not even mentioned in the official history on Glencore’s website.

Rich escaped Nazi Europe as a seven year old, and grew up in the United States. He launched the trading group which would become Glencore under his own name in 1974.

Rich was ultimately forced to sell out to his management and hand over control to a former metals trader, the German Willy Strothotte.

The company was reborn under Strothotte as Glencore.

The firm continued to trade, make money – and occasionally become implicated in controversial dealings. It was one of dozens accused of paying kickbacks to Iraq in 2005 by a commission that probed the United Nation’s Oil for Food program. But while Dutch-based rival Vitol was fined $17.5 million after pleading guilty, a preliminary judicial investigation into Glencore by Switzerland’s attorney-general found a “lack of culpable information”. Glencore maintained that if any payments were made by agents it did not know or approve of them.

>>16698270

“Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] - England cricketer Phil Edmonds – Part 2

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-idUSTRE71O1DC20110225

February 25, 2011

A SIGNATURE DEAL

Glencore’s Christmas swoop on Katanga Mining was something of a signature deal for the firm, proof that it can use its role as the trading world’s biggest middleman to its advantage. The company is always on the prowl for opportunities to sell producers’ output. But it also likes to set things up so that when markets tumble, it’s ready to buy those same producers outright.

Katanga had just the right combination of elements: relationships built over time, a project in need of funds and an exclusive marketing agreement, and the scope for equity participation. The losers, in this case, would be the company’s minority shareholders, most of whose holdings were diluted by over 800 percent.

The acquisition was the culmination of 18 months of deal-making in Congo, where the first freely elected government in four decades had embarked on a sweeping review of mining licenses granted by previous regimes.

Workers in Congo’s southeast copper belt had battled for two years to rebuild what had once been Africa’s richest copper mines, but were now littered with rusted hulks. In 2007, when markets had been riding high on cheap credit and commodity prices boomed, Katanga had been the subject of a $1.4 billion hostile takeover bid by a company led by former England cricketer Phil Edmonds. It had the potential to become the world’s biggest producer of cobalt – used in batteries, jet turbines and electroplating.

As the credit crisis began to bite, metals prices tanked and risky companies around the world found it ever tougher to raise finance.

Where others saw risks, though, Glencore scented opportunity. In June 2007, Glencore and partner Dan Gertler, an Israeli mining magnate, paid 300 million pounds for a quarter-stake in mining company Nikanor, which was seeking to revive derelict copper mines next to Katanga’s. That deal gave Glencore exclusive rights to sell all Nikanor’s output – an “offtake” agreement.

Offtake deals are common in risky projects like mining, where banks are reluctant to lend because of uncertainty about how they will be repaid. An offtake ensures a miner has customers before it starts digging, and provides a guaranteed source of raw materials to a trader, which can also act as security if the trader provides finance.

By investing in Nikanor, Glencore consolidated a powerful partnership: half of the stake it bought was on behalf of a trust linked to Gertler, an old Congo hand who industry sources say has close ties to government officials including President Joseph Kabila.

Katanga’s mines were just months from producing copper and cobalt again. The mining company had spent the summer of 2007 fighting off a hostile bid from Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC), headed by Edmonds, the former cricketer. After searching fruitlessly for a “white knight” a big miner willing to pay top dollar to fend off CAMEC Katanga turned to Glencore.

The trading company was ready to oblige. In October it agreed to a 10-year offtake deal and a loan of $150 million that could be converted into Katanga shares. Just one month later, Katanga and its neighbor Nikanor merged, giving Glencore 8.5 percent of the enlarged firm.

>>16698275

>>16698270

“Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] - Toronto stock exchange rules - Part 3

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-idUSTRE71O1DC20110225

February 25, 2011

In June 2008, with the global financial crisis deepening, Katanga Chief Executive Art Ditto resigned for “personal reasons”. Glencore, exercising a clause from its earlier Nikanor purchase, appointed a caretaker chief executive. It was then that Katanga embarked on its increasingly desperate search for new funds.

Issuing a statement that said it was “in serious financial difficulty”, Katanga struck its deal with Glencore, which added $100 million plus outstanding interest to its earlier loan, to give a total of $265 million. The Swiss trading firm subsequently sold on about a quarter of the loans to RP Capital, a hedge fund also linked to Gertler. Then in a linked deal that closed in July 2009, Katanga’s debt burden was slashed by swapping the loans for shares alongside a $250 million rights issue. Most of that equity, too, went to Glencore.

Now Glencore had a mining complex with the potential to be Africa’s biggest copper producer. To approve the arrangement, Katanga had used Toronto stock exchange rules that exempt companies in financial distress from a shareholder vote. That left most of Katanga’s minority shareholdings facing a virtual wipeout from the heavy dilution, a measure they voted through in a subsequent shareholders’ meeting.

“Everybody got taken down. There were a couple of savvy guys who got out early, but most people got taken for a ride. It’s a sad story,” said analyst Cailey Barker with Numis Securities in London.

Barker says Katanga had little choice but to accept Glencore’s terms since it was probably a couple of weeks away from bankruptcy. “The only person that was left was Glencore,” Barker said. “They said we’ll get involved, but we’ll take our pound of flesh.”

This sort of deal with the right to convert debt into equity in the tail has proved pivotal to Glencore as it has built up its mining assets. Analyst Michael Rawlinson at Liberum Capital, who was previously an investment banker for JP Morgan Cazenove and has worked on deals in Congo for Nikanor, says the fact Glencore was on the spot is key.

“If you’re someone like Rio (Tinto) or Anglo (American), often in these early-stage places you have no reason to be there, you haven’t got any assets there,” he says. “But if you’re Glencore, you source concentrate and product from these places, you have trading relationships. They’re on the ground first, so they see these opportunities first.”

Glencore is constantly cutting similar deals, some of the biggest of which it already has in place with its Swiss neighbor and close affiliate Xstrata. In the space of two weeks recently, Glencore agreed offtake deals with London Mining for its Sierra Leone iron ore production and Mwana Africa for nickel output in Zimbabwe. The deals often come with, or are followed by, a financing arrangement: U.S. PolyMet Mining Corp, for instance sealed an arrangement in January that involves Glencore buying shares with the right to convert the company’s debt into equity.

>>16698270

>>16698275

>>16698285

“Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] – Glencore and Xstrata shared a chairman - Part 4

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-idUSTRE71O1DC20110225

February 25, 2011

A NECESSARY EVIL

As one mining industry source puts it: “We all know that Glencore never leaves any crumbs on the table.”

Like Goldman, which floated in 1999, Glencore wants the permanent capital that comes with a listing. In a private partnership, payouts to departing partners shrink the capital base, but public companies’ equity remains intact even if the shares change hands at dizzying speeds.

Raising public capital would help Glencore pay out any retiring employees, whose compensation is now set to be disbursed over five years from the firm’s $20 billion book value.

New equity would also reassure the big credit rating agencies, which rate Glencore debt a notch or two above “junk”. The more flexible capital structure that comes with a listing should also allow it to make really meaty acquisitions.

It has long been Glasenberg’s ambition to merge Glencore with London-listed Xstrata, industry sources say. The companies are already so close that the Financial Times’ influential Lex column has dubbed them the “Tweedledum and Tweedledee” of their industry. Glencore owns 34.4 percent of Xstrata stock, they share a chairman, Willy Strothoffe; and Xstrata’s assets could, in a stroke, fill the gaps in Glencore’s portfolio to create a mining and trading powerhouse.

But when speculation surfaced last year around a Glencore-Xstrata merger, Xstrata shareholders opposed it, arguing a valuation for Glencore should be set by market forces, not agreed to behind closed doors. “It’s very difficult to value Glencore because you just don’t know enough about it. That’s why most investors would prefer an IPO – which will give you more visibility,” one of the top 10 biggest institutional investors in Xstrata told Reuters last year.

Perhaps to force things to a head, Glencore in December 2009 set the clock ticking on a change in its set-up by issuing a convertible bond. A year after picking up Katanga, the firm sold $2.2 billion in bonds that can convert into shares to a select band of investors, including energy-focused private equity firm First Reserve, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, China’s Zijin Mining Group, financier Nathaniel Rothschild plus U.S. fund managers BlackRock, Fidelity and Capital Group.

>>16698270

>>16698275

>>16698285

>>16698352

“Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] – Part 5

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-idUSTRE71O1DC20110225

February 25, 2011

In that light, the company’s most significant departure could be Strothotte, 66, who joined in 1977 and ran the metals and minerals division before replacing Rich as CEO in 1993.

Could the glare of a public listing be less dramatic than some fear? Resource groups such as BP, which houses one of the world’s biggest oil trading operations, have managed to juggle public life without revealing too much about exactly what their trading arms are up to. Gidley-Kitchen says that like many banks, a listed Glencore should also manage to keep most details of its trader compensation under the radar: “Goldmans and Barclays Capital managed to avoid revealing absolutely everything that they are doing and I would think Glencore would be able to do the same.”

Glencore’s huge coal operation in Colombia, Prodeco, was fined a total of nearly $700,000 in 2009 for several environmental violations, including waste disposal without a permit and producing coal without an environmental management plan. Xstrata had to pay the fines during its temporary ownership in 2009, but said the violations occurred before it took over. Prodeco said the violations themselves took place years earlier, before it acquired and ran the network of mines. Xstrata, like many major mining groups, has experience in meeting demands for tough green standards and says it put in place an environmental management system at Prodeco before handing the mines back to Glencore in early 2010.

In Ecuador, the current government has tried to reduce the role played by middle men such as Glencore with state oil company Petroecuador, says Fernando Villavicencio, a Quito-based oil sector analyst. “Glencore has not been transparent in its business in Ecuador,” Villavicencio said. The company “had been a favorite of almost all the democratic governments of Ecuador. It won almost all the contracts it competed for. They signed contracts with apparently low differentials, only to renegotiate the contracts in the middle of their terms, arguing that their costs had risen. Petroecuador usually went along with it.”

Tenders such as those in Ecuador are public and subject to extensions and negotiations which are expressly written into contracts, according to Glencore.

WHO WON’T BUY?

To ready it for public life, Glencore is preparing a sustainability report to bring it into line with mining majors and using Finsbury, a public relations firm whose clients include Royal Dutch Shell and Rio Tinto, for strategic advice. Former Shell spokesman Simon Buerk has been taken on to reinforce in-house communications.

But no matter what Glencore does, some investors will steer clear.

Mike Fox, head of UK equities at Co-Operative Asset Management and the manager of two sustainable funds, says ethical investing can embrace the natural resources sector – his funds have stakes in BG Group, the natural gas producer, and Lonmin, whose platinum is used in catalytic converters - but that it would be difficult to hold shares in many oil and mining companies: “Sustainable investors will always have an issue with the very fundamental nature of these businesses,” he says.

Glencore’s arrival in the FTSE would intensify the London exchange’s shift into natural resource firms. Fox says the increasing domination by a single sector is a “big headache” for smaller British investors who want a diversified portfolio. “It concerns me as much from a financial perspective as a moral perspective,” he says. “Customers will not expect that when they invest in a mainstream UK growth fund that a third of their money will end up in commodities.”

While commodities remain hot, though, that’s unlikely to change. As Glencore ponders a float, Katanga Mining is reaping the benefit of the surging markets and its wealthy, powerful owner. After losing $108 million in 2009, it posted an annual profit of $265 million in 2010.

>>16698367

>As Glencore ponders a float, Katanga Mining is reaping the benefit of the surging markets and its wealthy, powerful owner.

Every time the name "Katanga" comes up it really makes me sit up in my chair

>>16693995

Where we are so far'''

International Q Research Threads

>>16695125 ————————————–——– Australia #25

>>16693938 ————————————–——– Canada #35

>>16694358 ————————————–——– France #7

>>16693716 ————————————–——– Germany #100

>>16693574 ————————————–——– Japan #7

>>16694250 ————————————–——– Nederland #10

>>16694047 ————————————–——– Scotland #7

>>16689629 ————————————–——– UK #47

>>16705462

“Perenco acquires Glencore’s upstream oil interests in Chad”

https://www.energyconnects.com/news/oil-and-gas/2022/june/perenco-acquires-glencore-s-upstream-oil-interests-in-chad/

June 15, 2022

Independent hydrocarbons producer Perenco said on Wednesday it had completed the acquisition of Glencore’s corporate entities holding its entire Chad upstream oil interests, thereby becoming the ultimate sole owner of PetroChad Mangara (PCM).

PCM is the operator of the Mangara, Badila and Krim oil fields in the Doba Basin, southern Chad, and Badila and Mangara fields are two large oil reservoirs where production began in 2014. Both still have significant untapped potential, while Krim is an undeveloped discovery, the company said in a statement.

According to Perenco, operations at PCM will now recommence with an expected return to previous production rates of 16,000 bopd in the near term. Oil production from the Badila and Mangara fields is exported via the Doba oil pipeline to Kribi in Cameroon.

“As we announce our entry into Chad, we are proud to start a new chapter in our history. Perenco has been operating in Central Africa since 1992, a region where our know-how in operating oil and gas fields and developing infrastructure is highly applicable,” Benoît de la Fouchardière, Perenco’s Group General Manager, said in a statement.

“We look forward to working with the Chadian authorities to restart production from these important fields. We believe Perenco is uniquely placed to make a meaningful contribution to the ongoing responsible development of Chad’s hydrocarbon sector for the benefit of all stakeholders and are excited about establishing a long-term partnership with the country,” he added.

As a result of the acquisition, PCM staff will now be integrated into the Perenco Group, joining a network of 6800 professionals in 15 countries.

Founded in 1992, Perenco is involved in the entire life cycle of projects, from exploration to decommissioning.

>>16705462

>>16705467

“IMF chief Georgieva: Creditors of Common Framework countries to meet in July” – Chad owes 1/3 of its external debt to Glencore

https://kdal610.com/2022/07/07/imf-chief-georgieva-creditors-of-common-framework-countries-to-meet-in-july/

July 7, 2022

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Official creditors of Zambia, Chad and Ethiopia are set to meet in July, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva, in a bid to promote efforts to overhaul their debt burdens.

The three African nations have all signed up for debt treatment under the G20 Common Framework – an initiative launched in 2020 and designed to streamline debt restructuring efforts in the wake of poorer countries buckling under the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2021, Chad became the first country to request a restructuring of its $3 billion external debt under the Common Framework.

It struck a deal with creditor nations in June 2021, but has struggled to finalise talks with private creditors. Chad owes one third of its external debt burden to commercial creditors, and almost all of that to Glencore in oil-for-cash deals dating back to 2013 and 2014.

“The oil price going up gave reasons for Glencore and others to challenge the debt sustainability analysis, they say ‘Oh well, it is not so bad anymore’,” said Georgieva, adding that the situation still “requires a debt restructuring and we are pressing for that.”

>>16705467

>“Perenco acquires Glencore’s upstream oil interests in Chad”

“Revealed: The Frenchman, The Model, And Their $10 Billion Oil Fortune” - Perenco (1 of 3)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/02/07/revealed-the-frenchman-the-model-and-their-10-billion-oil-fortune/?sh=263555f42fed

February 7, 2014

With a net worth estimated to be at least $10 billion, Ka Yee (Carrie) Wong Perrodo and her family are set to be one of the wealthiest new entrants to the Forbes list of Global Billionaires this year. The family has previously been listed in the French media with a net worth of 2.8 billion euros.

A former model who in the 1970s founded a modeling agency that continues to this day, Carrie Perrodo (believed to be 65 years old) is more notably the widow of oil tycoon Hubert Perrodo, who founded and built the international oil company Perenco. Mrs. Perrodo remains stunning to this day, as shown in a picture of her here, presenting the Hubert Perrodo trophy for polo; here at a fashion party; and here at a luncheon. This Chinese-language site even features some vintage modeling photos of Carrie in the 1970s.

Perenco is almost as glamorous. The oil company operates in far-flung locales like Gabon, Nigeria and Egypt, has continued to grow since Hubert's death and now enjoys net production of at least 175,000 barrels of oil (and gas equivalents) per day. According to the company, which is believed to be 100% owned by the Perrodo family, its 2012 revenues were $5.9 billion (up from $3.5 billion in 2010). Its 2012 capital spending budget was $1.2 billion.

That year it bought ConocoPhillips' Vietnamese operations for $1.29 billion. And acquired North Sea fields from BP for $400 million. Last year it bought oil fields in Colombia from Petrobras for $380 million. And in Peru, Perenco is attempting to develop oil fields in a section of Amazonian rainforest still populated by indigenous people living in "voluntary isolation." Last year in Peru the company suffered a tragedy when a helicopter crash killed 12 contractors and one employee.

Perenco's founder Hubert Perrodo was a daring entrepreneur who hailed from the fishing towns of Brittany. During his youth he served in the French navy. In 1967 he spent a summer exploring the eastern coast of the United States. There his adventures one day had him working on a yacht owned by big Gulf Oil shareholder Jack Walton. A conversation with Walton convinced Perrodo he wanted to get into the oil business. In the years to come he worked at drilling company Forex, and marine operator Comex, traveling to the likes of Iraq, Gabon, Indonesia and Singapore. In 1975 he acquired some boats and launched his first business Cosnav, renting out barges to oil companies. In 1981 he founded offshore driller Techfor, which he sold in 1992 before forming Perenco. He moved to Gabon where he soon acquired an aging offshore oil field from Amoco. From there Perrodo perfected that model of buying Big Oil's hand-me-downs, building up his company until his death while hiking Courchevel in the Alps in 2006. He was 62. (See the family's tribute to him here.)

Although Hubert's estate has not yet been divided up among his heirs, it is clear that his wife and three children will inherit the fortune. Eldest son Francois Hubert Marie Perrodo (born Feb. 14, 1977) has assumed the role of chairman of Perenco. Francois is also a sometime race-car driver, who competed in last year's European Le Mans Series, driving this Porsche 911. The other children are Nathalie Perrodo (born 1980) and Bertrand Nicolas Hubert Perrodo (born 1984).

In an interview in the British press, Perenco executive John Sewell explained the Perenco strategy of buying unloved assets from bigger companies, then breathing new life into them. Sewell also made it clear who he works for. "We are owned by the Perrodo family, we are not answerable to shareholders, and financially we are in a good position so we can react quickly to opportunities that come along."

>>16485428

>>16485371

>Likely Candidate for involvement.

Origins

Heather Booth, the founder of the Jane Collective

In 1965, University of Chicago student Heather Booth learned that her friend's sister had an unwanted pregnancy that left her distraught and nearly suicidal.[6][7] Booth had previously not given much thought to abortion access; her exposure to the experience of an unwanted pregnancy led her to consider abortion restrictions as unjust laws, saying, "in the face of an unjust law, you need to take action to challenge it".[6] To seek assistance for her friend's sister, Booth contacted the Medical Committee for Human Rights, who connected her with civil rights leader and surgeon T. R. M. Howard. Howard worked at the Friendship Medical Center in Chicago, and Booth sent her friend to his facility. Word spread that Booth was able to help women obtain safe abortions, and she soon began receiving calls from other women. Operating under the pseudonym "Jane",[6] Booth began taking such phone calls at her college dormitory, referring more clients to Howard, who performed the abortions for $500.[6] Booth later switched to an abortionist alternately referred to as "Mike"[8] or "Nick".[9]

Location of Hyde Park, Chicago, where the Jane Collective was founded

Outcomes and legacy

In the seven years that the group existed, they performed an estimated 11,000 abortions.[17] There were no reports of abortion-related death as a result of their work, though one member, Martha Scott, recalled that some of their patients ended up having to go to the emergency room afterwards, while others had to undergo hysterectomies.[11] One obstetrician who provided follow-up visits for the Collective's patients stated that their safety rate was comparable to legally operating clinics in New York.[14]

The story of the Jane Collective has been called a "motivational call to arms".[18] Haven Coalition, a non-profit in New York City that helps out-of-town women access abortions in the city, draws inspiration from the Jane Collective for their operations.[6] Though abortion remains legal in the US, it has become increasingly restricted: By 2018, more than 1,100 abortion restrictions had been passed in the US, and the number of abortion clinics declined by nearly half since the late 1970s.[19] A volunteer with the Haven Coalition stated, "There’s an effort to sort of preserve the vestiges of what used to be an underground railroad and something that might be again", alluding to the possibility that abortion could become illegal in the US once again.[6] The Jane Collective has also been cited as inspiration to a loose network of American women who provide illegal abortions.[19]

Representation in film

The Janes, a feature length documentary which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.[20]

Call Jane, a historical drama starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was directed by Oscar-nominee Phyllis Nagy. [21]

Jane: An Abortion Service, a 1995 documentary about the Jane Collective.[22]

Ask for Jane, a 2018 historical drama film about the Jane Collective. Judith Arcana, a writer, activist, and a real-life member of the Jane Collective is a consulting producer on the film, in addition to making a cameo appearance.[23][24]

This Is Jane, an Amazon Studios historical drama starring Michelle Williams in production as of May 2018.[25]

>>16707723

>>16707737

“Revealed: The Frenchman, The Model, And Their $10 Billion Oil Fortune” - Perenco (3 of 3)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/02/07/revealed-the-frenchman-the-model-and-their-10-billion-oil-fortune/?sh=263555f42fed

February 7, 2014

To that end, consider these comparators, which all have sizable international operations but, like Perenco, no refining operations: Tullow Oil has an equity market cap of 5.7 times its annual revenues. Noble Energy sells for 5.6 times. BG Group is at 4 times sales. Anadarko Petroleum goes for 3 times sales, Apache Corp. 1.9 times, Afren, at 1.9 times and Talisman Energy, 1.7 times sales. Marathon Oil is a laggard at 1.5 times. (As for the integrated supermajors like Shell and BP, they sell for merely .5 times sales).

The average price-to-sales multiple of these 8 international oil companies comes out to 3.2x. If we toss out the highest and the lowest, we get 3x, not much different.

Applying this 3x multiple to Perenco's 2012 revenues of $5.9 billion gives us an implied equity market cap of $18 billion.

When estimating the equity value of privately held companies for the Forbes billionaires list, there's a few reasons why we like to apply an average p/s multiple. First of all, it yields a number that presupposes that the company in question is carrying an average debt load, has average growth prospects and has an average management team. This may be conservative; the company, in its limited disclosures, says that it has a "very low debt/equity ratio." Thus, we should feel pretty confident about that $18 billion.

Another way to value Perenco is by deriving an educated guess of what the company's net income is and applying an average price-to-earnings multiple. How to do that? Well the international oil analysts at Bernstein Research figured in a report last year that the average international oil company generates net income of about $14 for every barrel of oil (or natural gas equivalents) it produces. In Perenco's case, its 175,000 bbl per day amounts to 63.8 million bbl per year. At $14 per bbl that's net income of nearly $900 million (for a net margin of 15%).

So what happens when we apply a p/e multiple to that presumptive net income figure? Those same peer group companies currently trade at p/e multiples of 107x for Talisman, 36x for Tullow, 24x for Anadarko, 22x for Noble, 17x for BG, 14x for Marathon, 13x for Afren, 13x for Apache. Tossing out Talisman's outlier leaves an average p/e of 20. Applying that 20x earnings multiple to Perenco's estimated $900 million in net income gives us – $18 billion yet again. If we apply Afren's lowball 13x multiple, we get an $11.7 billion valuation.

As you may have gathered by now, when we value private companies, we like to err on the side of being conservative. That $18 billion does seem a little rich. When divided by Perenco's net production volumes of 175,000 barrels per day, that $18 billion comes out to $103,000 per flowing barrel. That's certainly in line with what oil companies are currently paying for production in the booming oil plays in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford shale of Texas, or the Bakken play of North Dakota (often as high as $120,000 per flowing barrel). But much of Perenco's portfolio has been cobbled together by acquiring castoffs from the supermajors. A couple years ago Apache Corp. bought ExxonMobil's fields in the North Sea for a price of roughly $61,000 per flowing barrel. And consider Talisman Energy, which produces roughly 400,000 bpd and has a market cap of just $12 billion (no wonder Carl Icahn is agitating for change at Talisman). Using the lower $12 billion valuation generates a more reasonable $69,000 per flowing barrel.

That $12 billion would also equate to just more than 2x Perenco's revenues – a very conservative and comfortable multiple.

But, the thing is, we just don't know what we don't know, and in the interest of being conservative in this valuation, $10 billion is both highly plausible and very defensible.

Not included in our calculations of the Perrodos' wealth: any of their diversified investments, nor the Bordeaux vineyards and chateaux that Hubert acquired. He started with Chateau Lebegorce Zede in 1989. Then bought the castle Abbot Gorsee de Gorsee in 2002. In 2006 he acquired the Labegorce chateau, and in June 2006, just months before his death, he bought the Chateau Marquis d'Alesme Becker (reportedly for $30 million). These jewels of Bordeaux are now believed to be managed by daughter Nathalie Perrodo Samani (who can be seen talking about the wines here).

>>16716492

“US operators ensnared in tussle over host-country debt” – Perenco; CMS Nomeco Congo Inc. and Nuevo Congo Co. (2 of 4)

https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/companies/article/17224959/us-operators-ensnared-in-tussle-over-hostcountry-debt

April 24, 2006

CMS Nomeco

A US District Court in Houston ruled Apr. 5 that vulture fund FG Hemisphere Associates LLC of New York can garnish Congo’s royalty oil and the oil entitlement share of the national oil company, Ste. Nat. des Petroles du Congo (SNPC), through CMS Nomeco, the operator.

Congo courts have ruled the royalty oil is the property of the country and have ordered that lifting by the government proceed of a cargo aboard a tanker in Congolese waters.

CMS, which produces oil from Yombo field off Congo, appealed the Houston court’s decision to the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, said attorney Andrew B. Derman of Thompson & Knight LLC.

The Houston court ordered CMS to post a bond for the value of the royalty oil, Derman said, adding this situation amounts to “trapping CMS between US and Congo court orders and exposing CMS Nomeco to double liability for the value of the oil.”

FG Managing Director Keith Fogerty said his company has a valid order from a Texas court that says CMS owes a debt to Congo, and under Texas law, that is garnishable.

“If you do business in those types of places in the world, you have to accept the consequences,” Fogerty said. “This is not a case of an innocent third party. This is someone working hand in hand with the illegitimate government of the Congo to defeat a lawful garnishment claim.”

Garnishment cases against Perenco’s subsidiaries are complicated and involve federal courts in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Derman said. Perenco has spent “millions” of dollars in litigation costs, he said, refusing to be more specific.

The cases involve an undisputed Congo government default on a highway construction loan from the 1980s, Derman told participants at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual convention in Houston on Apr. 12.

Perenco acquired CMS Nomeco in 2002, a year after a vulture fund started trying to collect oil proceeds from CMS Nomeco. Eventually, Perenco also acquired Nuevo Congo assets after Plains Exploration & Production Co. bought Nuevo Energy Co. in 2004.

>>16716492

>>16716499

“US operators ensnared in tussle over host-country debt” – Perenco; CMS Nomeco Congo Inc. and Nuevo Congo Co. (3 of 4)

https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/companies/article/17224959/us-operators-ensnared-in-tussle-over-hostcountry-debt

April 24, 2006

Immunities law

The legal arguments hinge on whether Congo’s royalty oil is protected as its property under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and whether it can be garnished.

The appellate court’s 2004 ruling on behalf of Af-Cap Inc., another vulture fund, said Congo’s royalty can be garnished in the US, Derman said.

Meanwhile, Congo courts last year ordered CMS to honor SNPC’s contractual right to lift the government’s royalty oil on time, regardless of US court decisions and the garnishment writs. Congo refuses to recognize US court actions, Derman said.

“The issue today is vulture funds are trying to collect SNPC’s share of oil from US oil and gas companies,” Derman said.

More than 70 nations throughout Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia have defaulted on sovereign debt, he said, adding that many US companies have investments in these countries.

“If the decision of the US federal court is upheld, US companies operating abroad will be at the mercy of vulture funds,” Derman said. “There are three critical issues that American companies will encounter if this continues: fear of investing abroad, negative effects on international debt restructuring, and US laws may have to change.”

In the meantime, he said, “Every US company doing business with nations that have defaulted sovereign debt or may default in the future are put directly in harm’s way by the vulture funds’ attempts to use US garnishment law to collect on the paper they bought for pennies on the dollar.”

>>16716499

>>16716492

>>16716505

“US operators ensnared in tussle over host-country debt” – Perenco; CMS Nomeco Congo Inc. and Nuevo Congo Co. (4 of 4)

https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/companies/article/17224959/us-operators-ensnared-in-tussle-over-hostcountry-debt

April 24, 2006

Chevron’s brief

In a brief filed in the CMS case, Chevron said US companies having international operations could find themselves in protracted and costly efforts brought by creditors holding sovereign debt.

“This result will substantially and adversely impact American companies in their efforts to develop foreign mineral resources and will subject them to burdensome and intrusive litigation to collect debts,” the Chevron brief said.

The oil companies, which have no connection with the underlying debt, find themselves as garnishees and are pulled into “limitless garnishment litigation,” Chevron said.

In California, Chevron has responded to three separate proceedings involving Af-Cap garnishment efforts. The oil company said it incurred almost 3,000 attorney-hr over 3 years “at substantial expense.”

Previously, Murphy Exploration & Production Co. International was a defendant in a garnishment case involving Congo (Brazzaville).

The 5th Circuit in December 2004 dismissed that case, which was filed by Walker International Holding Ltd. against Murphy about its signing bonuses.

FG arguments

Fogerty said Congo’s government oil accounts are in question.

“Congo is one of the most predatory, bad regimes in the world where the elite are stealing money left, right, and center. And as all of us know, you can’t steal that type of money without the cooperation of all different kinds of people,” Fogerty said. “Now I’m not suggesting that Perenco is helping them steal that money, but our auditing of the Congo oil accounts shows that somewhere between $500 million to $1 billion has disappeared, probably over the last 5 years.”

Forgerty said, “Our argument is that they [Perenco] are colluding with Congo to try to defeat the court orders. They are not third parties. They are partners who are knee deep in it.”

He added that Congo recently incarcerated two human rights activists who were pointing out the discrepancies in the country’s oil accounts.

Brice Mackosso, of the Congolese Justice and Peace Commission, and Christian Mounzeo, of the Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme, who act as coordinators of the Congolese PWYP Coalition, have been held in Congo since Apr. 7 on civil charges.

Their detention is said to be linked to their campaign for greater transparency in the management of Congo’s oil revenues. ✦

>>16716541

Trident Energy – “backing from leading private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Quantum Energy Partners”

https://www.trident-energy.com/about-trident-energy

Trident Energy was formed with a focused mission: to unlock the value of mid-life oil & gas assets.

We acquired and successfully took over the Ceiba and Okume assets in Equatorial Guinea from Hess Corporation in 2017 and completed the acquisition of Pampo and Enchova, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in 2020.

These acquisitions are in line with our strategy to acquire mid-life producing assets globally.

We focus on oil and gas fields lacking attention and investment, to re-develop them, increase production, unlock reserves, and create value for all stakeholders.

At Trident we have had the exciting opportunity to build our company from the ground up.

So we are flat in structure, entrepreneurial and nimble. We have no unnecessary layers or barriers to clear decision-making. And we never forget that the success of any business is hard-wired to the satisfaction of all its stakeholders:

For host states and governments we are a trusted and productive partner who generates important national revenues. We do not operate remotely – our project leaders and their families relocate in-country, as we fulfil our role as a major contributor to the local economy and community.

Trident Energy stands on firm financial foundations.

Central to our investment plans is a $400 million Line of Equity backing from leading private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Quantum Energy Partners. With their support Trident is well placed to achieve its continued growth and business development.

Warburg bring more than 50 years’ experience in growth investment and have supported over 800 companies with more than $60bn of equity. In the energy space, Warburg has invested, or committed, over $10bn across more than 50 investments. Trident Energy is currently unique in their portfolio as the only specialist in international mid-life oil & gas assets.

Quantum Energy Partners is a leading provider of private capital across the energy ecosystem, including traditional and sustainable energy with a long and proven track record of successfully investing in companies with a partnership approach.

Our respective investment cultures are like-minded: measured, selective growth, coupled with creative thinking and innovative ideas. We also believe in creating value but doing so responsibly.

>>16716562

>Trident Energy – “backing from leading private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Quantum Energy Partners”

>>16716541

>Trident Energy’s first asset in Equatorial Guinea

>>16706185 - Obama with Obiang in Blue Room of the White House

“Geithner grilled over AIG” - https://youtu.be/qWHLEPSwWtA

Warburg Pincus President, Timothy F. Geithner, was in the Obama administration

https://warburgpincus.com/firm/firm-history/

2013 – Former US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner joined Warburg Pincus as President.

https://warburgpincus.com/team/timothy-f-geithner/

Timothy Geithner serves as President of Warburg Pincus. In this capacity, Mr. Geithner helps oversee the investment decisions and the management of the firm. Before joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Geithner served as the 75th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009 to 2013. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009. He began his U.S. government career with the Treasury Department in 1988. Mr. Geithner is Chair of the Program on Financial Stability at the Yale University School of Management, where he is also a visiting lecturer. He is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of the Group of Thirty. Mr. Geithner holds a B.A. in Government and Asian Studies from Dartmouth College and an M.A. in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

>>16716591

“BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | William K. Black | PBS” – “former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s” – Bush, Clinton, Obama administrations, Geithner, etc. (1 of 2)

https://youtu.be/Rz1b__MdtHY

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/transcript1.html

April 3, 2009

WILLIAM K. BLACK: The FBI publicly warned, in September 2004 that there was an epidemic of mortgage fraud, that if it was allowed to continue it would produce a crisis at least as large as the Savings and Loan debacle. And that they were going to make sure that they didn't let that happen. So what goes wrong? After 9/11, the attacks, the Justice Department transfers 500 white-collar specialists in the FBI to national terrorism. Well, we can all understand that. But then, the Bush administration refused to replace the missing 500 agents. So even today, again, as you say, this crisis is 1000 times worse, perhaps, certainly 100 times worse, than the Savings and Loan crisis. There are one-fifth as many FBI agents as worked the Savings and Loan crisis.

BILL MOYERS: You talk about the Bush administration. Of course, there's that famous photograph of some of the regulators in 2003, who come to a press conference with a chainsaw suggesting that they're going to slash, cut business loose from regulation, right?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, they succeeded. And in that picture, by the way, the other — three of the other guys with pruning shears are the…

BILL MOYERS: That's right.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: They're the trade representatives. They're the lobbyists for the bankers. And everybody's grinning. The government's working together with the industry to destroy regulation. Well, we now know what happens when you destroy regulation. You get the biggest financial calamity of anybody under the age of 80.

BILL MOYERS: But I can point you to statements by Larry Summers, who was then Bill Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, or the other Clinton Secretary of the Treasury, Rubin. I can point you to suspects in both parties, right?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: There were two really big things, under the Clinton administration. One, they got rid of the law that came out of the real-world disasters of the Great Depression. We learned a lot of things in the Great Depression. And one is we had to separate what's called commercial banking from investment banking. That's the Glass-Steagall law. But we thought we were much smarter, supposedly. So we got rid of that law, and that was bipartisan. And the other thing is we passed a law, because there was a very good regulator, Brooksley Born, that everybody should know about and probably doesn't. She tried to do the right thing to regulate one of these exotic derivatives that you're talking about. We call them C.D.F.S. And Summers, Rubin, and Phil Gramm came together to say not only will we block this particular regulation. We will pass a law that says you can't regulate. And it's this type of derivative that is most involved in the AIG scandal. AIG all by itself, cost the same as the entire Savings and Loan debacle.

BILL MOYERS: What did AIG contribute? What did they do wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: They made bad loans. Their type of loan was to sell a guarantee, right? And they charged a lot of fees up front. So, they booked a lot of income. Paid enormous bonuses. The bonuses we're thinking about now, they're much smaller than these bonuses that were also the product of accounting fraud. And they got very, very rich. But, of course, then they had guaranteed this toxic waste. These liars' loans.

>>16716614

“BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | William K. Black | PBS” – “former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s” – Bush, Clinton, Obama administrations, Geithner, etc. (2 of 2)

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/transcript1.html

April 3, 2009

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, we've just gone through why those toxic waste, those liars' loans, are going to have enormous losses. And so, you have to pay the guarantee on those enormous losses. And you go bankrupt. Except that you don't in the modern world, because you've come to the United States, and the taxpayers play the fool. Under Secretary Geithner and under Secretary Paulson before him… we took $5 billion dollars, for example, in U.S. taxpayer money. And sent it to a huge Swiss Bank called UBS. At the same time that that bank was defrauding the taxpayers of America. And we were bringing a criminal case against them. We eventually get them to pay a $780 million fine, but wait, we gave them $5 billion. So, the taxpayers of America paid the fine of a Swiss Bank. And why are we bailing out somebody who that is defrauding us?

BILL MOYERS: Who's covering up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him. Geithner is publicly saying that it's going to take $2 trillion — a trillion is a thousand billion — $2 trillion taxpayer dollars to deal with this problem. But they're allowing all the banks to report that they're not only solvent, but fully capitalized. Both statements can't be true. It can't be that they need $2 trillion, because they have masses losses, and that they're fine.

These are all people who have failed. Paulson failed, Geithner failed. They were all promoted because they failed, not because…

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, Geithner has, was one of our nation's top regulators, during the entire subprime scandal, that I just described. He took absolutely no effective action. He gave no warning. He did nothing in response to the FBI warning that there was an epidemic of fraud. All this pig in the poke stuff happened under him. So, in his phrase about legacy assets. Well he's a failed legacy regulator.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: You are.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They're scared to death of a collapse. They're afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we'll run screaming to the exits. And we won't rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it's foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, "We just can't let the big banks fail." That's wrong.

BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We've seen how horrific AIG – and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.

BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we're doing with – no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson's firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn't want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.

Where Congress said, "We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money." And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.

BILL MOYERS: Even though Goldman Sachs had a big vested stake.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive stake. And even though he had just been CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. Now, in most stages in American history, that would be a scandal of such proportions that he wouldn't be allowed in civilized society.

Equatorial Guinea Bun

>>16706185 Equatorial Guinea 2020 Human Rights Report

>>16716541 Jean-Michel Jacoulot – Trident Energy’s first asset in Equatorial Guinea

>>16716562 Trident Energy – backing from leading private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Quantum Energy Partners

>>16716591 Warburg Pincus President, Timothy F. Geithner, was in the Obama administration

>>16716614, >>16716618 Bill Moyers Journal | William K. Black | PBS” – “former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s” – Bush, Clinton, Obama administrations, Geithner, etc (parts 1&2)

“WATCH | July Unrest: A recap of the events as they unfolded 1 year ago” - https://youtu.be/RajqciQHjLI

Last year’s riot was a test run and a smoke screen to steal strategic items but my sense is that it is much bigger than Zuma and he is made the scapegoat… Could it be orchestrated by the state government in order for them to have an excuse to transform South Africa into a totalitarian state? This article is good summary of events which unfolded in 2021…

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 1

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

The government was warned about the July 2021 riots months in advance. They didn’t listen. Daily Maverick spoke to several sources with ties to the State Security Agency, Police Crime Intelligence, the military and the Hawks. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their positions. They predict a terrifying scenario: a repeat insurrection, likely driven by the pro-Zuma RET faction and marked by guerilla-style sabotage. The aim: to keep Jacob Zuma — and his allies implicated in the State Capture inquiry — out of jail.

It’s the night before Christmas for the thieves. Tomorrow, on 13 July 2021, looters will strip bare the Massmart warehouse on Queen Nandi Drive in Durban. But tonight, a band of men secretly break into the facility, shut off the CCTV cameras and escape with survival gear.

“Tents, generators, stuff you need to live rough for weeks,” explains a source in the security sector with knowledge of police operations who spoke to us on condition of anonymity. Then, the source says, word went out on WhatsApp that the building was unguarded and open for business; chaos ensued on the 13th as looters ransacked the store, carrying off large appliances by the truckload in broad daylight. With all the attention on the blatant looting, the theft of the previous evening went unnoticed.

Three independent sources with ties to the police, the Hawks and the State Security Agency told us about the quiet break-in. Sources explained that it was one of five events that took place around the time of the 2021 unrest that were probably aimed at laying the groundwork for a future insurrection. The 2021 looting, says the security sector source, was a “dry run”, and the thefts that took place during the riots were a part of gathering supplies and weapons to equip a small army.

Cash and guns, ammo and comms

The first event took care of the gear.

Event number two was all about the guns: two containers of AK-47-type rifles not destined for South Africa went missing during the chaos that ensued at the Durban harbour when Transnet suffered a cyberattack, sources say. A source with ties to state intelligence explained that the rifles utilised 7.62mm rounds similar to those used in the Russian AK-47 and its Chinese knock-off, the Type-56. Those guns are yet to be found, but, said an intelligence specialist with ties to the public and private security sector who also confirmed the theft, “I’m telling you: those guns are in KZN.”

Number three: The bullets. More specifically, the million-plus rounds of ammunition stolen during the July 2021 riots after it was moved, under suspicious circumstances, to a depot near the Durban harbour with scant security measures in place. According to the sources, the vast majority of the bullets still haven’t been retrieved, despite numerous media reports. “Where’s the manifest? If they had retrieved them, the photos would have been on the front page of every newspaper.”

The intelligence specialist also said that the bullets were still in circulation.

Number four: The comms. During the 2021 looting, several radio stations were stripped bare of their equipment. On the surface, this might seem like straightforward looting, or an attempt to disable communications within the community and disrupt daily life.

But there’s a more sinister element, explains the intelligence specialist. The looters also made off with repeaters — devices that capture fading radio signals, boost them, and then transmit them again.

They are necessary to communicate over long distances and could be used to set up an alternative communications system — exactly what insurrectionists would need if the government shuts down the major providers’ cellular and fixed-line networks. And, explains the source, disabling communications infrastructure is a common technique used by guerilla fighters in Africa.

Sir Bradley Fried & Nathan "Natie" Kirsh Bun

>>16696619 Sir Bradley Fried – Partners Capital

>>16696646 “Leon Blitz and Bradley Fried made their first investment in Israel. $50 million in Algatechnologies”

>>16696664 “Olympus: Where were the auditors?” – “The ghosts of [Arthur] Andersen may still be with us.” [Enron]

>>16697430 “R150 Million Gift from the Kirsh Foundation” to Witwatersrand University – December 2020

>>16697445 ”University of Witwatersrand Famous Alumni”

>>16698009 Exposed: DA-Agang mystery funder” – Nathan “Natie” Kirsh, Mamphela Ramphele, former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach, Helen Zille

Glencore & Xstrata Bun

>>16698270 Special report: The biggest company you never heard of”[Glencore] - Willy Strothotte - Part 1

>>16698275 Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] - England cricketer Phil Edmonds - Part 2

>>16698285 Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] - Toronto stock exchange rules - Part 3

>>16698352 Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] – Glencore and Xstrata shared a chairman - Part 4

>>16698367 Special report: The biggest company you never heard of” [Glencore] - Part 5

>>16705462 Mining giant Glencore faces human rights complaint over toxic spill in Chad

>>16705467 Perenco acquires Glencore’s upstream oil interests in Chad

>>16705474 IMF chief Georgieva: Creditors of Common Framework countries to meet in July – Chad owes 1/3 of its external debt to Glencore

>>16706154 Glencore: Will the previous board be held to account?” – Gill Marcus to be held responsible, KPMG, PIC

>>16717045

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 2

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

But, says the security sector source, another scenario is far more likely, since setting up your own communications network is an intricate process that may be overly visible. The repeaters could more likely be used to tap into the police’s encrypted radio communications over the Tetra system. That would give insurrectionists a bird’s-eye view of the police actions.

And, finally, number five: The cash. Around the time of the riots, R120-million in cash was stolen from more than 1,200 ATMs in just one week. That money still hasn’t been retrieved, sources say. Of the massive operation, the source in the security sector says: “They [the ATMs] were bombed, ripped out of the wall. What you have is enough cash to pay an army.”

All of this, our sources say, points to one thing: An organised insurrection driven by guerilla tactics. “It’ll only take the slightest spark now,” says the intelligence specialist.

That, says the source in the security sector, is because strike season, the rising petrol price, Eskom outages, power struggles in the ANC, and former president Jacob Zuma’s upcoming trial in August are all converging to form a political pressure cooker:

“We’re on a knife’s edge. We’re a country on the verge of tearing itself apart.”

The gift of cadre deployment

The stolen guns and ammunition, say sources, indicate some level of organisation at play. A former employee of a major shipping company with knowledge of the South African port environment explained that if the containers’ arrival at the harbour was illegal, it must have been carefully orchestrated.

“You need a logistical structure and custom and clearance agents’ cooperation. I remember these guns going missing. It had to have been with the assistance of whoever despatched the weapons and Transnet agents in the harbour. You need quite a few parties working together. It wasn’t an impulsive theft.”

According to the source in the security sector with knowledge of police operations, the movement of the container of ammunition to a non-secure depot indicates that someone from within the SAPS’s ranks was involved.

The intelligence specialist explained that weapons are normally smuggled into the southern African region through Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, but with the Isis terror campaign in the north of that country, the port had garnered unwanted attention. The result is that Durban became an alternative entry point. Those benefiting from this type of smuggling are terror groups and highly placed government officials.

But the people who shipped the weapons and ammunition to South Africa, whether legally or not, aren’t necessarily those who took them; the original senders may have been one-upped by the thieves, as one risk analyst explained.

“The fact is, even if it is a legit import, key people have been placed through cadre deployment in key posts all over the place, and with the breakdown of the ANC into two factions, at least half of those people are with the one side and half with the other. So there are people inside key entities like ports, airports and border posts, who have a clear line of sight and control over things that are happening. That’s an issue.

“We’ve got insider threats in National Key Points and in key infrastructure entities all over the place. That’s the gift of cadre deployment and the meltdown of the ANC that created this toxic issue.”

And, says the source, it’s a “legacy” problem, not easily solved: “You can’t just fire everybody. You’ve got to actually prove they’ve done something wrong. You can’t just fire someone because you know he’s a Zuma man. Cadre deployment worked for them when the ANC was of one mind. But now they’re at war with each other. Literally.”

>>16717045

>>16717054

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 3

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

The source in the security sector agrees, remarking that during Zuma’s tenure, the Cabinet ballooned. “He basically cut several ministries in half. That’s twice as many ministers, twice as many deputies, twice as many DGs — twice as many people who have to kneel down and kiss the ring.”

The security sector source and another person in the security industry with inside knowledge of state intelligence operations believe that it would have been government insiders who deliberately allowed the movement of containers from the Durban harbour to locations with less stringent security where they could be easily stolen.

“It doesn’t say ‘guns’ on the outside” of the container, explains the security sector source, and added to that, says the source close to state intelligence, they are stored amid dozens of other containers. However, an insider would know what to look for. With all the hallmarks of an inside job, the theft points to a division within the ranks of state officials responsible for the cargo’s safety, the sources say. It’s a division along the factional lines of the ANC: those for Zuma, and those against. This division is not only probably within the Transnet staff, but also within the police and the State Security Agency, the sources say.

It’s this division that very likely led to the event that would have made possible the alleged weapons theft: the cyberattack on Transnet’s port systems in the Durban harbour. (During the hack of Transnet’s systems, the management of freight containers was in disarray, and processing slowed down drastically.) All of our sources are convinced that the correlation of events was no accident, but rather specifically orchestrated to facilitate the theft of the weapons. But the hack doesn’t necessarily point to insurgents with sophisticated cyber capabilities; rather, it’s likely to be another inside job.

A cybersecurity expert who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that the hack could be due to the simple installation of malware purchased from one of many “hacking-as-a-service” outlets — people selling computer viruses to those unable to brew their own. Placing it on a USB stick and getting an insider to do the job is “easy as pie” says the expert. “Have you ever been asked (upon entering a building) if you’ve got a USB in your pocket? No. Better still, have a workshop on the ground floor and hand out a free branded USB stick to everyone as part of the swag for the day. You don’t have to hack your way into a system. Just hand out some free stuff.”

In this way, an insider would easily have been able to plant malware. The risk analyst explains that this is a realistic scenario given Zuma’s background and connections in intelligence, and estimates there is a high likelihood that supporters of Zuma and the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction would have been involved in such actions, even if attribution of the attack is near-impossible due to the opaque nature of cyber warfare.

“They [the RET faction] will have their sleepers all over the place. Those guys, because of cadre deployment, are sitting in every single key state infrastructure entity, from Eskom to Transnet, to all over the place. When they were appointed in the early 2010s, Zuma’s camp was in charge and they were put into key positions.”

>>16717045

>>16717054

>>16717068

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 4

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

Blunt force, with a chance of sophistication

Despite the level of organisation displayed with the stolen gear and guns, a coup — which is defined as a government being removed with the help of its own military — is highly unlikely, according to our sources. There are several reasons for this. For one, the risk analyst said, President Cyril Ramaphosa has made some deliberate moves to gain control over the military and security services.

“He put Thandi Modise in there [as defence minister] when he changed his Cabinet. He’s brought the minister of state security into the Presidency.” Says the intelligence specialist: “Ramaphosa has put his greatest confidants in charge of the military.”

To boot, says the analyst, the military still has a culture of loyalty to the commander-in-chief — the democratically elected president. “There was a lot of talk, in 2017, that the generals went to tell Zuma, ‘Look, you need to stand down.’ There was talk that Zuma had an idea that the generals would back him up. And they didn’t. Military discipline is a big thing. I think there are a lot of senior officers in the SANDF who just want to do their job.”

Rather, all our sources agree, an insurrection is highly likely. Whereas a military coup requires precision and a near-instant transition of power, an insurrection is a blunt-force instrument aimed at destabilising a country over a period of time to gain leverage to force the government to negotiate with you. And a repeat of last year’s events is bound to be more violent and involve more firepower.

The intelligence specialist maintains that Zuma would use intelligence and guerilla tactics to make the country ungovernable. Says the risk analyst: “You manipulate the population into doing your dirty work. You stay behind the scenes, and you have plausible deniability, and there’s no clear attribution — a clear trail can’t be proven. And that’s exactly where we are, after last year’s insurrection.” Adds the intelligence specialist: “The 12 that were arrested for organising the riots — they were [part of the] RET, but they’re just pawns.”

According to the source with knowledge of state intelligence operations, the looting of 2021 was an example of manipulating ordinary people (who aren’t in any faction) to serve your political purpose. Many of the looters only stole food: “Our people are hungry. There are millions of people who go to bed hungry, tired and cold every night in this country.”

This destabilisation, says the source with knowledge of state intelligence, has one simple goal: Keeping people out of jail, especially Zuma. “Zuma is extremely powerful. People don’t realise this.”

His incarceration in 2021 all but assured an insurrection, says the source. And now, with the Zondo Commission’s reports into State Capture released, there is even more at stake.

Says the risk analyst: “Already on the table, you’re beginning to see talk about amnesty for State Capture people because we need to move on and we need stability.

“These guys will take us all down with them rather than go to the slammer. To stay out of jail — that is the goal.” And, says the security sector source, things aren’t looking good for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) anyway: “Zuma knows where all the bodies are buried and he’s got the shovel. The NPA has to decide: How far down the rabbit hole do they want to go?”

>>16717045

>>16717054

>>16717068

>>16717073

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 5

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

They were warned

The government, thus far, has been slow to react to warnings from observers in the security field. It’s a near-repeat of their reaction last year, explains the security sector source.

The source says that private intelligence firms constantly observe the security situation in Africa; they are paid by large corporations that want to protect assets. These observers knew that the riots would happen in July 2021. But the government wouldn’t listen.

According to one such observer, they had warned the government several “months before the riot” with multiple reports, but to no avail: “There were more than enough red flags.”

According to the source with knowledge of state intelligence operations, the government was warned as early as March, yet did nothing: “They told them not to lock up Zuma.” The source in the security sector also says that private sector security firms warned the government, but to no avail: “The government waited until KZN was burning.”

The government’s response to a new insurrection is anything but coordinated.

This time around, sources say things are not looking much better; police are still outmanned, outplanned and outgunned. Says the intelligence specialist: “Even if we had 10,000 extra policemen, it wouldn’t be enough.”

The source said their intelligence last year revealed that there was an appetite for violence and looting countrywide following the KZN and Gauteng unrest: “It’s as if people were just waiting for something to set them off.” Next time, says the source, violence may well spread to other parts of the country.

The source in the security sector said that 2021 proved that “security forces were not prepared and aren’t prepared”. In 2021, the key targets were already struck before the looting, and private security firms could only protect small enclaves. The source close to state intelligence said that preparations to handle the scale of insurrection seen in 2021 take several months, and preparations on that scale have not happened.

One thing that the state has done, the sources say, is to beef up VIP protection for top government officials. The security sector source says that the reaction is very similar to the government’s response during the flooding in KZN, when a water tanker was allegedly purposely sent to the home of KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala and not to the local community (although this was later officially written off as a misunderstanding).

“They are making sure to protect the fat cats,” says the source.

In June this year, discussions in Parliament saw the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants question the R1.7-billion allocated to VIP protection.

None of this is reassuring, especially not when taking into account the nature of guerilla insurgency. Warns the risk analyst: “The state needs to position itself to respond accordingly now, because the essence of guerilla warfare tends to be regrouping, learning from mistakes and coming back stronger.”

>>16717045

>>16717054

>>16717068

>>16717073

>>16717075

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 6

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

The responses

We asked the Hawks a series of specific questions about investigations into the missing R120-million in ATM cash, the alleged theft of the automatic weapons and the actual theft of the ammunition, as well as the potential threat posed to the police’s Tetra system following the theft of the radio repeaters.

We also asked them to comment on the potential link between a future insurrection and the missing items. They did not answer our questions specifically, but spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo did confirm the following:

“Our major investigations led by two brigadiers, one of whom was solely dedicated to the task have wrapped their major part and the matters are being assessed by the NPA for decision [sic]. So far eight cases have been successfully investigated and accused identified and arrested. Two of the cases have been struck off the roll due to insufficient evidence, whilst two have been withdrawn for further investigation. Four cases are trial-ready and will be heard in July, August and September. As such we cannot confirm details of any ongoing investigation until the DPP has given a decision on those matters. The investigations are still continuing.”

We asked the SAPS similar questions, but did not receive a response despite repeated requests for comment and an extended deadline.

We asked Transnet whether the alleged moving of the shipping containers carrying automatic weapons and ammunition was being investigated, and if they suspected a link between the thefts and the cyberattack on July 22. Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said there was no reported incident of theft within its “operating environment”.

“Containers are coded according to the United Nations cargo classification of International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) and the declaration of all dangerous goods is compulsory as per the National Ports Act 2005 and the Port rules. This cargo classification prescribes the handling and ensures the transaction adheres to a specified standard operating procedure.

“In the case of ammunition or automatic weapons, the classification would be Class 1 because the material is explosive in nature. Three approvals are required in this instance, and include the SAPS Explosives Unit, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), the harbourmaster and the South African Maritime Safety Authority.

“Class 1 cargo is offloaded only if a container road haulage vehicle is waiting as per the standard operating procedure because evacuation is immediate. The cargo cannot be kept in the vicinity of the port. The contents of all containers loaded or offloaded are not disclosed to the terminals/operators to ensure cargo safety and minimise incidents of theft.

“Once the cargo leaves the port, TNPA does not have any authority to oversee or control the cargo, it becomes the responsibility of the SAPS Explosives Unit and traffic departments to ensure the safety of the public and security of the cargo. The cargo owner is also responsible for ensuring the security of their cargo throughout the logistics chain.

“According to Transnet records, the containers in question were declared and handled as IMDG Class 1 cargo. Transnet has not recorded an incident of either stolen automatic weapons or stolen ammunition within its operating environment. There were no investigations related to this matter within Transnet.

“The KZN unrest commenced on 12 July 2021. The Transnet cyberattack occurred two weeks after this event on 22 July 2021. The cyberattack had no impact on the evacuation of the IMDG container referred to above.”

=Notables are NOT Endorsements==

passing 150

#9

>>16656491 STABILISING FRAGILE STATES; The Tswalu Protocol Revisited - 2011 (includes pdf)

>>16656534, >>16656537 “A Tip for African Governments on Attracting Investment” - Tswalu Investment Protocol (Part 1&2)

>>16656585 Jonathan Oppenheimer V Revenue & Customs (Income Tax – Whether in UK or RSA) - 2021

>>16696485 Meet Ian Cameron, the man who wouldn’t cower to Bheki Cele (video)

>>16696498, >>16696504 Why more women in South Africa need firearms for self-defence” – Gender Based Violence (Part 1&2)

>>16696610 “Partners Capital [Lord Jacob Rothschild and Sir Ronald Cohen] Adds to its Board of Directors with the Appointment of Four Global Investment Executives” – Former Co-founder and CEO of Makena, David Burke is one of them

>>16707723, >>16707737, >>16707907 Revealed: The Frenchman, The Model, And Their $10 Billion Oil Fortune” - Perenco (Parts 1-3)

>>16716492, >>16716499, >>16716505, >>16716511 US operators ensnared in tussle over host-country debt” – Perenco, CMS Nomeco Congo Inc., and Nuevo Congo Co. (Parts 1-4)

>>16717044 Equatorial Guinea Bun

>>16717045, >>16717054, >>16717068, >>16717073, >>16717075 Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn (Parts 1-5)

>>16717048 Sir Bradley Fried & Nathan "Natie" Kirsh Bun

>>16717050 Glencore & Xstrata Bun

>>16717045

>>16717054

>>16717068

>>16717073

>>16717075

>>16717087

“Cash/Guns/Ammo/Comms: SA on the verge of another insurrection, security experts warn” Part 7

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-07-cash-guns-ammo-comms-sa-on-the-verge-of-another-insurrection-security-experts-warn/

7 July 2022

The State Security Agency’s Mava Scott said:

“Most of these questions relate to police and I suggest you make contact with them. There are also operational issues that you are raising which the law prohibits us from discussing with third parties.”

The National Prosecuting Authority referred us to the Hawks for comment.

Asked about Zuma’s potential role in the insurrection, the Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson Jimmy Manyi went straight for the jugular:

“Even before I trouble H.E Zuma, the Foundation responds as follows:

“1. H. E President Zuma does not engage in wild speculation based on insecurities of others. If anyone is known to be breaking the law, the one who is aware has a duty to report. Let’s not repeat Phala phala Farm where criminality is left unreported.

“2. The Independent Panel of Experts said the Convenor of National Security Council, President Ramaphosa FAILED to convene meetings and thus the intelligence information could not be processed and acted upon. Right now you should be directing your questions to Ramaphosa and ask him if he has been convening any of these meetings since July 2021. If Ramaphosa has been doing his job, there should be no anxiety.

“3. Typically, the Deputy President of the ANC is the traditional chair of the Deployment Committee. During the reign of H.E President Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa was the chair of the Deployment Committee. Any questions related to shenanigans of Ramaphosa’s deployees must be directed to him.

“In addition, it’s curious that Daily Maverick has not followed up on the perjury by Ramaphosa in the Zondo Commission where he said the Deployment Committee does not involve itself with the appointment of judges. This was later exposed to be a lie through the minutes of the Deployment Committee that the DA managed to source.”

We raised the issues pointed out by Manyi with Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, along with a number of other questions. The Presidency recommended we attend a press conference scheduled to take place after the publication of this article.

The ANC did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Numerous attempts to contact Massmart for comment were unsuccessful. DM

Heidi Swart is a journalist who reports on surveillance and data privacy. This report was commissioned by the Media Policy and Democracy Project, an initiative of the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Journalism, Film and TV and Unisa’s Department of Communication Science.

>>16717045

>Sources explained that it was one of five events that took place around the time of the 2021 unrest that were probably aimed at laying the groundwork for a future insurrection.

To think, this is what South Africa has become [watch video]. The people are already desperate. Do you want to be caught up in the middle when further desperation sets in?

“Hillbrow between heaven and hell VIDEO”

https://youtu.be/hHk7h71hGxw [Posted Feb 28, 2012]

https://southafricatoday.net/media/south-africa-photo/crime/hillbrow-between-heaven-and-hell-video/

2 July 2016

Murders, rape, theft, drugs and human trafficking, are the average daily occurrences in the dodgy city of Hillbrow. The city was home to mainly white residents before the 1994 democratic elections, and due to the poor infrastructure could not cope with the influx of migrants from African neighboring countries and rural people who were seeking to live under the new democracy. A mass exodus of whites left the city in a slum condition. Overpopulated, unemployment, crime and poverty are the current crisis, and a rapid increase of health concerns are the major problems.

Hillbrow was known as a trendy, cosmopolitan city and a safe place to live, with striking tall buildings and clean streets. Today, the degradation continues to rise out of control. It is a city where people dare not walk around, as hijackings, rape and murders happen all the time. The criminals, and in particular the drug lords, maintain a thriving business within the boundaries of Hillbrow.

>>16717102

Seems the dailymaverick writer likes to write double-spaced encyclopedias

>>16722741

“SABC News crew witness brutal stabbing in Nomzamo informal settlement: Ofentse Setimo”

https://youtu.be/PEDGqioZgdk

“Investigators found more than 100 spent AK-47 cartridges at the tavern in Orlando, Soweto, where 15 people were shot dead early on Sunday morning. Police Minister, Bheki Cele, has visited the Nomzamo informal settlement, where gunmen opened fire on tavern patrons. SABC reporter Ofentse Setimo joins us now from Orlando in Soweto.”

“WATCH: Horrific stabbing witnessed by SABC camera crew in Soweto”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-watch-stabbing-caught-on-camera-soweto-sabc-crew-video/

12-07-2022

There aren’t any words that can aptly describe the sheer horror witnessed by SABC journalists and the camera operators on Monday afternoon. While reporting on the Soweto tavern shooting, two members of the news network inadvertently captured part of a brutal stabbing incident.

SOWETO STABBING WITNESSED BY SABC CREW

Violence in this part of Soweto is nothing new, but the way this stabbing was committed so brazenly has even left hardened locals stunned. [they do not look stunned to me in the video of the previous post]

NOMZAMO SETTLEMENT ‘BLIGHTED BY VIOLENCE’

Setimo was accompanied by cameraman Herbert Memela. The pair were stunned when, just as they prepared to interview a witness at the Soweto tavern shooting, a man drove a knife into his victim’s body – with blood allegedly spurting onto the crew’s tripods.

The man collapsed to the floor, before others continued to beat and kick him. The hapless victim was then dragged out of the road, and his fate remains unclear. According to the senior journo, other camera crews witnessed this shocking act.

“We were setting up to interview a witness, when two men asked if she wanted to go through with it – almost joking with her. Out of nowhere, someone came and stabbed one of those men with a knife. At first, we thought he was greeting him. Then we saw blood on his palm.”

“That blood even splattered onto one of our tripods. We then moved away from the scene, and the community attempted to separate the two males. It is indicative of the crime in Nomzamo right now. We weren’t the only camera crew who captured this, either.”

Ofentse Setimo

>>16717050

>>16569271 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part One

>>16569275 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part Two

>>16435509 – Glencore; Gary Nagle was on the Board of Lonmin

>>16473729 – Lonrho/Lonmin Bun

“Trident Royalties appoints ex Glencore Senior Exec” – Paul Smith [Xstrata, Lonmin, Katanga Mining Limited, etc.] Part 1

https://www.fmp-tv.co.uk/2021/06/18/trident-royalties-appoints-ex-glencoe-senior-exec/

18th June 2021

Appointment of Ex-Glencore Senior Executive as Chair & Board Changes

Trident Royalties Plc (AIM: TRR, FSX: 5KV), is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Smith as Non-Executive Chair with effect from 21 June. James Kelly will step down as Chair from that date but will remain on the Board as a Non-Executive Director. Additionally, Mark Potter will step down from his position as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect, to pursue other business interests. As set out in more detail below, Mr Smith has indicated a willingness to make an equity investment in the Company and it is intended that Mr Smith will today subscribe for new shares in Trident with a value of £1 million at a price of 40p per share (the “Subscription Price”) and up to a further £1 million at the Subscription Price within the next 12 months.

Paul Smith worked for Glencore Plc from 2011 until 2020. As Head of Strategy, his principal areas of focus were capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and capital allocation. During this period Glencore successfully completed numerous large scale corporate and capital markets transactions, most notably the $90bn merger with Xstrata Plc.

While at Glencore, Paul was also the CFO of Katanga Mining Limited, Glencore`s TSX listed subsidiary from 2019 until its de-listing in 2020. In addition, he represented Glencore as a non-executive director of Lonmin Plc and Glencore Agriculture Limited.

Prior to Glencore, Paul was an analyst and fund manager at Marshall Wace Asset Management, where he focused on cyclical sectors, including mining. Paul qualified as a Chartered Accountant before working in investment banking at Close Brothers and Credit Suisse. He has an MA in Modern History from Oxford University.

Paul Smith, commented:

“I am delighted to have been asked to become the new Chairman of Trident Royalties at what is an exciting time in the Company’s development. Under James’s leadership, Trident has quickly established itself as a credible provider of metals royalties and streams, with 12 royalties already in place and others under consideration. Trident is well positioned to grow through a combination of primary issuance of royalties and streams and by consolidating the extensive pool of existing ones.

“De-carbonising the global economy will require material increases in the production of enabling metals, such as copper. The cost of building the associated incremental mine capacity will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This will lead to an increasing demand for alternative sources of development capital, including royalties and streams.

“Trident’s goal is to build a large-scale royalty and streaming company which is also diversified by the commodity, geography and maturity of the underlying projects. I look forward to helping Adam and his team to maximise the value of this opportunity for our shareholders.”

James Kelly, commented:

“I am exceptionally proud that in a little over 12 months, we have rapidly executed on our strategy and built Trident into a diversified mining royalty company with a portfolio of attractive assets, operating cash flow and a board and management team of the highest calibre. We have enjoyed strong growth in both the share price and market capitalisation; testament to the strategy and the hard work of all involved.

“We now have a solid platform for further growth, and I am delighted that Paul will be joining us as our new chairman. I believe that Paul, with his experience and network, is well qualified to lead Trident for this next phase as we look to rapidly scale the business.

“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Mark for his contribution to Trident; his royalty and investing experience has been invaluable to both the board and the Company as a whole and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”

>>16724762

Here is the link, https://tridentroyalties.com/about/board-and-management

>>16724762

>Burnstone

“Successful Southgold business rescue precedent-setting – lawyer” – Burnstone; Cut over $200 million in debt to save about 2 000 jobs?

https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/successful-southgold-business-rescue-precedent-setting-lawyer-2014-07-03

3 July 2014

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The successfully concluded business rescue of Southgold Exploration this week has set a precedent in the South African debt restructuring landscape, demonstrating that ailing businesses had a vehicle through which they could potentially avoid liquidation.

“This is probably the biggest and most complex business restructure the country has seen. The implications are that the mining industry can now see business rescue as a possible alternative through which businesses can be saved. It's a true success story,” Webber Wentzel litigation practice partner Lara Kahn told Mining Weekly Online on Thursday.

Southgold’s turnaround story began in 2012, when it filed for bankruptcy protection under South African business rescue procedures after suspending all mining operations at its Burnstone mine, in the country’s Witwatersrand basin, citing its inability to afford the mine’s required working capital to reach cash-flow breakeven by May 2013.

Mining Weekly Online reported at the time that the insolvency filings were intended to allow Southgold time to seek buyers and partners for its two gold mining projects, or corporate-level financiers, in an effort to return to solvency.

The bankruptcy protection proceeding constituted a default under the company's TSX-listed unsecured convertible debentures, which had a principal amount of $126-million.

Business Day Live (BDLive) reported in July last year that Southgold’s total debt ran to $400-million, comprising $235-million owed to lenders, $127-million to bondholders and $37-million to creditors.

This prompted Southgold to bring in business rescue practitioner Peter van den Steen, who tabled a revival business plan for the mine, which entailed the restructure of the company’s debt and the sale of Burnstone to Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources – now Sibanye Gold.

The Southgold business rescue plan would see Southgold’s debt cut to $177.35-million, with Sibanye paying only $7.25-million, BDLive reported.

Sibanye had also agreed to invest R950-million into Southgold over three years as working capital to resuscitate and expand the mine.

Khan added that the deal would see some 2 000 people, who were initially retrenched in 2012 when Burnstone went into care and maintenance, re-employed at the mine.

“One thing that differentiates this rescue from others is that it was very well planned, it had funding, and it had the support of its lenders from the outset. People often say that the legislation is inadequate, because there are lots of examples of these kinds of things failing, but often it has to do with timing and planning,”Khan commented.

Had Southgold’s business rescue plan failed, the company would likely have gone into liquidation, rendering the mine’s total staff complement permanently jobless.

“I hope that the Southgold restructure is a shot in the arm for the debt restructuring industry as a whole and not just for the mining industry, because it has resulted in jobs being saved. It's a good example of creditors and employees being patient,” Kahn asserted.

Kahn, in collaboration with Webber Wentzel colleagues Etienne Swanepoel, Mareli Vermeulen and Crystal McIntosh, advised Van den Steen on all aspects of the rescue.

>>16730086

“Business rescue of Southgold gives mine a new lease on life” – “Bowman Gilfillan acted for the secured lenders”

https://www.polity.org.za/article/business-rescue-of-southgold-gives-mine-a-new-lease-on-life-2014-08-07

7th August 2014

One of the biggest and most complex business rescues brought under the new Companies Act of 2008 has come to a successful conclusion, in the process saving jobs and highlighting the important role that banks play in business rescue proceedings.

Southgold Exploration, which filed a resolution in 2012 placing itself in business rescue, had its business rescue plan approved by creditors on 11 July 2013, which ultimately resulted in the company terminating its business rescue on 1 July 2014 so that it could continue to operate.

Claire van Zuylen, Partner at pan-African corporate law firm, Bowman Gilfillan, which acted for Standard Chartered Bank in London and Credit Suisse (AG), commented, “The restructuring will result in some 2 000 employees, who were initially retrenched in 2012 when the Burnstone mine went into care and maintenance, being re-employed at the mine when operations re-commence.

“Without the input of the secured lenders, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered Bank, in terms of advancing post-commencement financing and permitting the unsecured creditors a dividend that they would not otherwise have obtained, Southgold would have been forced to commence liquidation proceedings.”

South African company Southgold Exploration is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toronto-based Great Basin Gold (GBG) Limited, which is an international mining company engaged in the exploration and development of gold properties. Southgold’s principal asset is the Burnstone mine in Mpumalanga.

During August 2012, GBG suspended active production at Burnstone in the hope of selling the mine in order to settle creditors. Seeking protection from creditors in the interim period, Southgold filed a resolution in 2012 placing itself in business rescue, and commenced proceedings under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, which is the equivalent of South Africa’s business rescue proceedings.

Standard Chartered Bank and Credit Suisse worked closely with the business rescue practitioner appointed to supervise Southgold, and advanced significant post-commencement financing to enable the successful business rescue, which included restructuring Southgold’s debt and equity.

According to Ms van Zuylen, “The restructuring had cross-border implications in that it involved the restructuring of debt owed to Canadian, Swiss and English creditors in addition to South African creditors.”

The restructuring involved banking and finance law, insolvency and restructuring law, corporate law, litigation and mining law issues. Documents were governed by English law and South African law (prepared by Bowman Gilfillan), and Cayman and Swiss law (drafted by local counsel).

The Bowman Gilfillan team comprised: Lionel Shawe and Lisa Botha (Banking and Finance), Claire van Zuylen and Sizwe Msimang (Insolvency and Restructuring law), Alistair Collins, Marc Pinchuck, Candace Hennessey, Johan de Wet, Ingrid Sinclair, Claire Tucker (Mining and Regulatory), and John Sahli and Clement Mkiva (Litigation).

>>16569271 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part One

>>16569275 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part Two

>>16650472 Lonrho Bun | Oppenheimer Bun

“Lonmin shares collapse as Glencore completes stake divestment” – "Glencore came to own its stake in Lonmin through its $68bn acquisition of Xstrata in 2013”, Xstrata owned it since 2008, Marikana massacre occurred in 2012

https://www.mining.com/lonmin-shares-collapse-as-glencore-completes-stake-divestment/

June 11, 2015

Shares in Lonmin (LON:LMI), the world’s third-largest platinum producer, dropped as much as 7.3% on Thursday as mining giant and commodity trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) completed the distribution of its 23.9% stake in the South African miner to shareholders.

The troubled platinum producer saw its stock hitting a low of 128.7 p in early trading, the biggest loss in three months, and was trading at $136.0, or 1,16% lower than the previous session at 2:15 pm London time.

Glencore came to own its stake in Lonmin through its $68bn acquisition of Xstrata in 2013, and chief executive Ivan Glasenberg had on several occasions described the venture as a “non-core” one.

In fact, the company is believed to have been opposed to Xstrata’s decision to buy the stake in two market transactions back in 2008.

Plans to spin off the stake came to light a year ago, when Glencore announced it would slash spending on its mines in 2015 to between $6.5bn and $6.8bn — down from a previously expected $7.9bn.

As a result of the move, the Swiss-based firm’s shareholders have received Lonmin stock in proportion to their stakes in Glencore, an option that Glasenberg considered better than a straight market disposal.

Three years of falling platinum prices and a five-months strike last year have left Lonmin near an all-time low and valued at just $1.2 billion. That’s down from a peak of more than $12 billion in 2007 for the miner of the metal used in cars and jewellery.

According to market analysts, such as Investec [>>16567352, >>16567460, >>16567583, >>16567690, >>16567701 Investec, Hendrik du Toit, Naspers, and Koos Bekker (videos)], the distribution of Glencore’s shares completed today may create a group of sellers that want to dispose of their holding. It also could create an opportunity for a buyer, it added.

Take note:

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/marikana-what-did-cyril-ramaphosa-do/

In August 2012, workers at the Marikana mine in Rustenburg staged a protest regarding their rights for a pay rise. After a week of demonstrations, the situation spiralled out of control, as police opened fire on the protesting miners, killing 34 of them.

_At the time, Cyril was a non-executive director of Lonmin. His company Shanduka was a minority shareholder in Lonmin, so this meant their profits were very much part of his business too.

A series of emails shared between Ramaphosa and Lonmin’s board just a day before the massacre shows how eager he was to end the conflict. However, the language he chose seemed to indicate he favoured a heavy-handed approach.

Ramaphosa demanded that “concomitant action” must be taken against the miners (the action ‘naturally associated’ with a situation like this). He also referred to them as “plainly dastardly criminals”.

He sent his emails on 15 August 2012, just a day before the 34 were gunned down. His choice of language – and subsequent suggestion that then-minister of police Nathi Mthethwa would be getting involved – has always been a sticking point for his critics.

>>16730086

>the restructure of the company’s debt and the sale of Burnstone to Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources – now Sibanye Gold.

>>16569269 – Gencor and Gill Marcus Bun; 1998 Gencor merged with Gold Fields to form Gold Fields Ltd.

Sibanye Stillwater History – Formerly Sibanye Gold Limited. (Mentions Gold Fields, Anglo American, etc.) Part 1

https://www.sibanyestillwater.com/about-us/history/

Since its initial establishment in 2013, Sibanye-Stillwater has grown and diversified significantly – both geographically and by metal produced. The Group has advanced from its fledgling years as a single commodity, South African gold mining company to become an internationally competitive, diversified precious metals producer of gold and the suite of platinum group metals (PGMs). Most recently, the Group has entered the battery metals industry by investing in a lithium hydroxide project in Finland.

2013-2014

Established as Sibanye Gold Limited in February 2013, the company was created through the unbundling of Gold Fields Limited’s 100% owned subsidiary GFI Mining South Africa Proprietary Limited which owned the Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix gold mines. Upon completion of that transaction, our common shares and American depository receipts were listed on the JSE and the New York Stock Exchange, respectively.

A strategy of organic and acquisitive growth was subsequently adopted, which resulted in the acquisition of the Cooke operations from Gold One International in 2013 and Wits Gold, which owned the Burnstone project, in 2014. These two acquisitions helped create a more sustainable gold business. It was at this time that our unique cost optimisation and operating model was implemented across the business.

2016

In 2016, we achieved a major milestone with our entry into the PGM space. It was in that year that we completed the acquisition of Aquarius Platinum Limited, which included its interests in the Kroondal mine (50%) and the Platinum Mile retreatment facility, both in the Rustenburg area, South Africa, as well as the Mimosa joint venture with Impala Platinum in Zimbabwe. This move into the PGM space was cemented later that same year with the acquisition of Anglo American Platinum Limited’s Rustenburg operations.

2017

The following year, in May 2017, we completed the transaction to purchase the Stillwater Mining Company, based in Montana in the United States, for US$2.2 billion. This transaction was a significant achievement for the company for not only did it constitute the largest PGM transaction globally in over a decade, it facilitated the geographic diversification of our operational portfolio to the Americas. Subsequently, the company was rebranded and formally began trading as Sibanye-Stillwater in August of that year.

2018

Three more significant transactions were concluded over the next two years beginning with the purchase of a 38.05% stake in DRDGOLD Limited, a world leader in the retreatment of gold tailings, in July 2018. With this deal, Sibanye-Stillwater successfully established an industry-leading surface mining tailings retreatment partnership. Our shareholding in DRDGOLD would subsequently be increased to 50.1% in January 2020. Also in 2018, a US$500 million stream financing deal was concluded with Wheaton International, significantly strengthening our balance sheet and reducing net leverage.

>>16730329

Sibanye Stillwater History – Formerly Sibanye Gold Limited. (Mentions Gold Fields, Anglo American, etc.) Part 2

https://www.sibanyestillwater.com/about-us/history/

2019

In early 2019, we acquired of SFA Oxford, a leading metal market analytical consulting company and globally recognised authority on PGMs, to provide in-depth market intelligence on battery materials and precious metals for industrial, automotive and smart city technologies.

Later that same year, in June 2019, we acquired the entire share capital of Lonmin Plc. Lonmin’s assets included the Marikana PGM mining operations and associated retreatment, smelter, base metal refinery and precious metal refinery assets in South Africa. The completion of the Lonmin transaction constituted the fourth step in the implementation of our strategy to become an integrated, mine-to-market producer of PGMs in South Africa.

2020

In February 2020, an internal restructuring process was concluded which changed the group holding company from Sibanye Gold Limited to Sibanye Stillwater Limited (Sibanye-Stillwater). Following that restructuring, Sibanye-Stillwater began trading under the tickers JSE: SSW and NYSE: SBSW.

2021

In March 2021, we acquired a 30% stake in Keliber Oy, which owns the Keliber lithium project in Finland that is currently in development, with an option to increase our holding to more than 50% once certain conditions and deliverables are met. This transaction marked a new milestone in the Group’s history signalling our much-anticipated initial expansion into the battery metal space and further geographic diversification in an attractive mining destination. This strategy was further advanced with the acquisition in December 2021 of a 19.99% stake in New Century Resources Limited and its zinc tailings reprocessing facility in Australia.

2022

More recently in February 2022, we completed the transaction to acquire a 100% stake in Sandouville, a nickel hydrometallurgical processing facility in France. This followed the acquisition in January 2022 of the remaining 50% in Kroondal, bringing our stake in that operation to 100% and enabling us to implement plans to double its operating life.

>>16730332

>Later that same year, in June 2019, we acquired the entire share capital of Lonmin Plc. Lonmin’s assets included the Marikana PGM mining operations and associated retreatment, smelter, base metal refinery and precious metal refinery assets in South Africa.

“Sibanye-Stillwater defeats mining communities challenging R5.4bn Lonmin merger” Part 1

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-09-sibanye-stillwater-defeats-mining-communities-challenging-r5-4bn-lonmin-merger/

9 September 2019

Sibanye-Stillwater might have won in court, but the six mining communities on the platinum belt of Rustenburg are not backing down. The communities will write to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, asking him to clarify the Constitutional Court’s order that dismissed its application to have the Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin merger declared unlawful.

Sibanye-Stillwater might have won in court, but the six mining communities on the platinum belt of Rustenburg are not backing down. The communities will write to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, asking him to clarify the Constitutional Court’s order that dismissed its application to have the Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin merger declared unlawful.

The Greater Lonmin Community, which represents six mining communities on the platinum belt of Rustenburg, launched a legal challenge on 18 July 2019 against the Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin merger because they were allegedly excluded from merger talks. Accordingly, the six mining communities – Marikana, Mooinooi, Majakeng, Tornado, Nkaneng, and Bapo Ba Mogale – wanted the merger to be reversed and declared unlawful by the court.

In a brief order dated 28 August, the Constitutional Court said it considered the Greater Lonmin Community’s appeal application but decided that it “bears no reasonable prospects of success”. The Greater Lonmin Community was also refused direct access to the court as it has “not made out any case for direct access”. The court gave no further reasons for its decisions.

In the same order, the court granted the Greater Lonmin Community’s request for condonation regarding its more than three-month delay in launching its appeal application.

The Greater Lonmin Community brought its application months after the Competition Appeal Court ruled on 17 May against the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in its appeal against a tribunal decision that conditionally approved the merger. This cleared all hurdles for Sibanye and Lonmin to put the merger through a shareholders’ vote on 10 June.

In other words, the Constitutional Court forgave the Greater Lonmin Community for its tardiness but rejected its bid to have the Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin merger declared unlawful and have both companies restart merger talks that involve Rustenburg mining communities.

Louwi Mogaki, the legal representation of the Greater Lonmin Community, said the court’s order is “problematic” and questioned how it can grant condonation but reject the entire merits of its case. Mogaki told Business Maverick that the community will write to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, asking him to further clarify the court’s decision.

He is hoping Mogoeng will ask the community to “properly articulate” its case for direct access, which might pave the way for the community to bring a fresh application to the court. But the court has already refused it direct access.

>>16730358

“Sibanye-Stillwater defeats mining communities challenging R5.4bn Lonmin merger” Part 2

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-09-sibanye-stillwater-defeats-mining-communities-challenging-r5-4bn-lonmin-merger/

9 September 2019

Sibanye-Stillwater said the court’s decision brings “an end to all proceedings” regarding the merger, which has faced fierce opposition from labour and mining community circles since it was announced on 14 December 2017.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman described the Greater Lonmin Community’s court application as “frivolous”.

“It is unfortunate that certain stakeholders seem unable to recognise the plight that faced the Lonmin operations and, instead of engaging with us, continue to pursue spurious and expensive legal alternatives,” he said.

Lonmin was on the brink of collapse before Sibanye-Stillwater rescued it.

Froneman added that Sibanye-Stillwater is committed to complying with Lonmin’s social and labour plan, a five-year plan that is governed by the Department of Mineral Resources and outlines the social and developmental obligations that mining companies must deliver to communities. Lonmin is now a subsidiary of Sibanye and the latter has taken over the former’s obligations to mining communities.

The Greater Lonmin Community believes that the Competition Appeal Court allegedly approved the Sibanye-Lonmin merger despite the Competition Commission’s “lack of competence” to “conduct a proper investigation of Lonmin’s failure to comply with its social and labour plan”. Mogaki said Lonmin has failed to comply with its obligations of building 5,500 houses for its workers over five years (between 2008 and 2013) as it has only built three houses to date. Read more here.

However, Sibanye-Stillwater said Lonmin had complied with its social and labour plans since the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act came into effect in 2008. Since then, two of Lonmin’s social and labour plans had been renewed and approved by the government after the company consulted with affected mining communities. Read more here. BM

>>16730086

>the restructure of the company’s debt and the sale of Burnstone to Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources – now Sibanye Gold.

>>16730329

>>16730332

>>16730358

>>16730360

“Wits Gold [Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources] delivered on a plate to Sibanye”

https://www.miningmx.com/news/gold/20129-wits-gold-delivered-on-a-plate-to-sibanye/

January 7, 2014

THE R407m takeover of Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources (Wits Gold) last year sees the departure – at least for now – of Johannesburg’s great gold bull, Adam Fleming, from active participation in South Africa’s gold exploration industry.

Fleming, the former chairman of Harmony Gold, in 2006 correctly anticipated a recovery in the gold price, saying memorably that the world’s gold market was “in the foothills’ of a major bull run.

He also forecast, wrongly, that the world’s gold mining companies would return to the riches of the historic Witwatersrand gold basin. It’s hard to see that happening, especially as Wits Gold itself has demonstrated how difficult building new gold mines in the region can be.

The company is wrapping up its business having witnessed a harrowing loss of value in the last two years.

Whereas Wits Gold once traded at R94.50, giving it a market value of over R3bn, the counter is now worth R369m. This follows Sibanye Gold’s R406m bid for the company last week which effectively brings the curtain down on Wits Gold after seven years of existence.

And whereas Fleming once boasted wealth in Wits Gold of about R750m, equal to a 26% stake in the company, that has now diminished to just over R100m. It’s a sign of the times that investors have lost faith with South Africa’s gold exploration story.

The whisper in the market is that Wits Gold’s attempts to raise capital to repay a R40m loan, provided by a Fleming company, were proving troublesome. Equally difficult to digest for Wits Gold was its growth target Burnstone which had been developed for a breathtaking $800m or R8bn by the now bankrupt Great Basin Gold.

Wits Gold had successfully bid for Burnstone from Great Basin’s liquidators offering R100 and offering to take over $177.3m in bank debt owed by Southgold, Great Basin’s subsidiary. Wits Gold had committed to provide a R950m loan for working capital and capital expenditure at Burnstone._

Wits Gold’s other projects, such as De Bron-Merriespruit (DBM), were also looking difficult to fund. DBM had a peak funding requirement of about R2.37bn. As of December 31, 2012, Wits Gold had cash and cash equivalents of R15m. Fleming then tried to support Wits Gold’s share by buying up 66,000 shares.

The bid from Sibanye Gold, a 47% premium to Wits Gold 30-day weighted average price probably presented Fleming with an easy choice, and other shareholders too who had been effectively locked into the company given its lack of liquidity. At the time of the announcement, some 56% of Wits Gold shareholders had accepted the Sibanye Gold offer.

For Sibanye Gold’s Neal Froneman, who once worked at Harmony Gold, this was a waiting game executed with opportunism. Macquarie Research correctly speculated in December 2012 following the formation of Sibanye Gold that Wits Gold would be a good fit for the company.

By waiting a year, Sibanye was able to buy Wits Gold by about R290m less. Speaking to Miningmx in December last year, Fleming said it was “a good deal’ for Wits Gold shareholders, and that he would take the proceeds from the buyout and reinvest them in Sibanye Gold.

“I think Neal is poised to do the ultimate consolidation in South Africa’s gold industry. Apart from the fact that Wits Gold is a natural extension of Beatrix (its DBM is adjacent to Sibanye Gold’s mature Beatrix mine in the Free State), I think Neal has got the power and the energy to pull this off,’ he says.

Fleming sticks by his view that South Africa will once again become the focus of global gold company interest. “It’s where the gold is. I cannot believe the world will never come back here. What we’re seeing now is temporary noise; it will dissipate,’ he says.

>>16731474

>[Adam] Fleming, the former chairman of Harmony Gold

>For Sibanye Gold’s Neal Froneman, who once worked at Harmony Gold

>>16730101

>“Business rescue of Southgold gives mine a new lease on life” – “Bowman Gilfillan acted for the secured lenders”

Harmony Gold – Dr. Patrice Motsepe (founding chairman of BRICS), also links to Sanlam, Bowman Gilfillan, World Economic Forum, Warren Buffet, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. (Part 1)

https://www.harmony.co.za/about/history

Harmony was incorporated and registered as a public company in South Africa on 25 August 1950 and later became a Randgold-managed company, exploiting the single Harmony mine lease. In 1995, Harmony was recreated as a separate entity following the winding up of Randgold. The number of operations has grown significantly since 1995, with Harmony transforming from a single, lease-bound mining operation into a multi-operation, global, independent, world-class gold producer.

Dr. Patrice Motsepe’s Biography

https://www.harmony.co.za/about/board

NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

LLB and Doctorate of Commerce (Honoris Causa) (University of Witwatersrand), Doctorate of Commerce (Honoris Causa) (Stellenbosch University), Doctor of Management and Commerce (Honoris Causa) (University of Fort Hare) and BA Law and Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) (University of Eswatini, formerly the University of Swaziland)

Member of the nomination committee

Dr Patrice Motsepe was appointed non-independent non-executive chairman on 23 September 2003. In 1994 [the year of South Africa’s “independence”], Dr Motsepe founded Future Mining which grew rapidly to become a successful contract mining company. He then formed ARMgold in 1997 which listed on the JSE in 2002.

In 2003, Dr Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony. Following the merger, Avmin changed its name to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and he became the founder and executive chairman of ARM.

Dr Patrice Motsepe was a partner in one of the largest law firms in South Africa, Bowmans [Bowman Gilfillan] and was also a visiting attorney in the USA with the law firm McGuireWoods.

In 2002, Dr Motsepe was voted South Africa’s Business Leader of the Year by the chief executive officers of the top 100 companies in South Africa. In the same year, he was the winner of the Ernst & Young Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

In 2017, Forbes Magazine commemorated its 100th anniversary and honoured Dr Motsepe as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” in the world alongside many prominent global business leaders. He is the only person living on the African continent to be recognised and honoured as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” in the world.

Dr Motsepe is the founder and Chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP) and UBI General Partner Proprietary Limited. He is also the deputy chairman of Sanlam and chairman of Harmony Gold._

He is the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and a vice president of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). He was previously Chairman of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.

Dr Motsepe is a member Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Network Advisory Board of the WEF Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the WEF International Business Council (IBC) which is made up of 100 of the most highly respected and influential chief executives from all industries. He is also a member of the Harvard Global Advisory Council and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).

>>16731550

Harmony Gold – Dr. Patrice Motsepe (founding chairman of BRICS), also links to Sanlam, Bowman Gilfillan, World Economic Forum, Warren Buffet, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. (Part 2)

https://www.harmony.co.za/about/board

His past business responsibilities include being the president of National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC) from 2002 to 2006, founding president of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) from January 2004 to May 2008, founding president of Chambers of Commerce and Industry South Africa (CHAMSA), president of the Black Business Council (BBC), and the founding chairman of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Business Council in March 2013.

Dr Motsepe is a recipient of numerous business and leadership awards and recognitions including:

• Sunday Times Lifetime Achiever Award, 2017

• Harvard University Veritas Award for Excellence in Global Business and Philanthropy, 2014

• BRICS Business Council, Outstanding Leadership Award, 2014

• The Black Management Forum (BMF) Presidential Award for Business Excellence, 2010

• McGuireWoods Outstanding Alumnus Awards, 2009

• African Business Roundtable, USA, Entrepreneur & Freedom of Trade Award, 2009

• South African Jewish Report, Special Board Members Award for Outstanding Achievement, 2004

• Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, MS Louw Award for Exceptional Business Achievement, 2003

• World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow, 1999.

In January 2013 Dr Motsepe and his wife, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe joined the Giving Pledge which was started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Dr Motsepe committed to give half of the wealth, which is owned by the Motsepe family to the poor and for philanthropic purposes during his lifetime and that of his wife and beyond. In April 2019, Forbes Magazine stated that US$500 million was donated by the Motsepe family to the poor and for philanthropic purposes.

Dr Motsepe announced on 28 March 2020 that his family, in partnership with companies and organisations that they are associated with, including ARM, pledge R1 billion (US$57 million) to assist with South Africa and Africa’s response to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

>>16731550

>>16731557

Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe Background; “appointed the first black partner of [Bowman Gilfillan], in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa [1994] and more” (Part 1)

“How The Son Of A Former African School Teacher Made Over $1 Billion Dollars”

https://startuptipsdaily.com/success-story-patrice-motsepe/

July 16, 2017

After getting his LLB, in 1988, Patrice Motsepe got a great job offer from the Bowman Gilfillan law firm, which was one of South Africa’s most reputable law firms.

Despite being a firm predominantly run by white South Africans, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s drive, commitment to growth, and high success rates in his job activities got his bosses to take a unique interest in him.

In 1991, Patrice Motsepe, under the American Bar Association program, was a visiting attorney to McGuire Woods law firm located in the heart of Richmond, Virginia, USA. During his visit, he met several mining organizations, and studying their operations sprouted a zeal and attraction in him for the business.

This exposure caused Patrice Motsepe to start studying the mining business in every way that he could. He would read all kinds of books & articles and study anything he could on mining, just so he could have a complete understanding and technical know-how on how the business operates.

In the year 1994, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s hard work at the Bowman Gilfillan law firm paid off, as he was appointed the first black partner of the organization, in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.

The Start Of His Business Journey

Now in the law firm, Patrice Motsepe specialized in mining and business law. His exposure to the sector caused him to start up a mining firm called Future Mining; a company which was into contract mining services that involved creating a system of worker remuneration that integrated a low base salary with a profit-sharing bonus, and also the cleaning of gold dust from inside mine shafts for the Vaal Reefs Gold mine, currently a subsidiary of AngloGold.

While his company handled very miniature mining contract services, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe continued to strive until he realized that the successful mines didn’t have to be the large ones, but rather any one, especially small ones that better managed their finances and operations.

The Establishment of The African Rainbow Minerals (ARM)

After saving up for many years, in 1997 when the price of Gold was falling, one of the largest mining companies in South Africa, AngloGold, was looking to sell some of their smaller, older, low-performing mine shafts, so they could focus on their larger and higher performing mines.

With this golden opportunity staring him in the face, Patrice Motsepe promptly founded the African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and proceeded to acquire one of the mine shafts that were up for sale by AngloGold.

In just three years after taking over the mines, Patrice Motsepe was able to fully repay the debt, which came as a complete shocker to almost every observer, as he had turned the mines’ operations around and made them profitable in just about 12 months after the takeover.

After this success, in the year 2000, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe partnered with Anglo Platinum, the world’s largest platinum producer. This partnership was a 50 – 50 ratio, and together, they created the largest platinum-producing mines in South Africa called Modikwa.

He further went on to partner with a South African gold producer called Harmony, in 2002, to acquire a certain number of shafts from Anglo. After the acquisition and commencement of operations on the shafts, they collectively went on to produce a total of 1 million troy ounces of platinum a year.

>>16731635

Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe Background; “appointed the first black partner of [Bowman Gilfillan], in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa [1994] and more” (Part 2)

https://startuptipsdaily.com/success-story-patrice-motsepe/

July 16, 2017

His Business Today

Since his business mergers and explosive growth, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, making him one of the first black entrepreneurs in South Africa to own a major controlling stake in a publicly listed company.

Today, his company has strategic partnerships and mergers with other mining organizations, and have added a wide list of minerals to their coffers like nickel, chrome, coal, iron, manganese and precious metals (platinum and its related products).

In the process, Patrice Motsepe has built one of the largest mining companies in not just Africa, but the world, with revenues totaling over $2 billion, and employing over 10,000 people.

He also owns stakes in several other companies, including about a 5.5% stake in Sanlam, a publicly traded financial services company located outside of Cape Town, South Africa.

It is interesting that Patrice Motsepe is going to Uganda for the first time for soccer, especially after a huge deposit of gold was discovered in the country and his business is gold mining.

“Caf president Patrice Motsepe to visit Uganda”

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/sports/soccer/caf-president-patrice-motsepe-to-visit-uganda-3878252

July 13, 2022

What you need to know:

• This will be the South African billionaire’s first visit to Uganda. He took charge following a five-year ban handed to his predecessor Ahmad.

• Ahmad, who had been Caf president and Fifa vice president since 2017, was found guilty of violating several of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE), including abuse of office, distribution of gifts and misappropriations of funds during his presidency.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Dr. Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe will pay a two-day visit to Uganda starting tomorrow.

Motsepe, who took over the leadership of the continental football governing body in March, 2021, will be hosted by the Fufa president and Caf executive committee member Hon. Moses Hasim Magogo.

“During the visit, the Caf president will hold meetings with HE President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among, Fufa Executive and key football stakeholders,” a statement released by Fufa reads.

This will be the South African billionaire’s first visit to Uganda. He took charge following a five-year ban handed to his predecessor Ahmad.

Ahmad, who had been Caf president and Fifa vice president since 2017, was found guilty of violating several of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE), including abuse of office, distribution of gifts and misappropriations of funds during his presidency.

A five-year ban from taking part in all football-related activities at national and international level was imposed by Fifa on November 23, 2020, as well as a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs (about 220,000 US dollars).

Motsepe arrives here following last week’s decision by Caf to move the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations from June/July, 2023 to January/February, 2024.

The tournament was to be hosted in June-July 2023, which is the height of the rainy season in Ivory Coast. It will now be played in January-February the following year.

“We cannot take the risk,” said the South African, Motsepe, in the Moroccan capital Rabat.

Caf, also recently passed the Caf African Super League. On the agenda since Fifa President Gianni Infantino hinted at its possibility in 2019, the African Super League will get underway in August 2023.

The tournament will feature 24 teams and carry total prize money of $100m, said Motsepe, adding that just over $10m will go to the winner.

Citing ‘financial challenges’ in Caf which he inherited from Ahmad, Motsepe said that businesses are interested in sponsoring the event.

“The key issue for us is the abnormal interest we’ve been exposed to from some of the biggest and most prominent investors and sponsors,” he said.

Caf also said that the African Champions League, which is open to all countries in Africa, will continue alongside the new African Super League, where the top 24 teams will be determined according to their Fifa ranking.

>>16732111

Bowmans – Global reach

https://www.bowmanslaw.com/our-firm/our-african-footprint/

Recognising the size and enormous diversity of Africa, our approach to providing legal services across the continent is intended to offer on-the-ground advice in the countries that matter for our clients. Our presence in Africa is always evolving to meet the changes that are shaping the future of this vast continent.

Currently, we have our own offices in six African countries: Kenya (Nairobi), Mauritius (Moka), South Africa (Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg), Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), Uganda (Kampala) and Zambia (Lusaka).

We work closely with our Bowmans Alliance firms in Ethiopia (Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office) and Nigeria (Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie). These are two of the leading corporate and commercial law firms in their jurisdictions.

We have special relationships with competent practitioners in Malawi and Mozambique. We also have a non-exclusive co-operation agreement with French international law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel that provides our clients access to assistance in francophone west and north Africa. The arrangement provides complementary access for Gide’s clients and lawyers to markets in central, southern and eastern Africa.

We ensure that, whenever our clients need legal advice in other parts of Africa, we can assist them by tapping into our comprehensive database of contacts of the best firms and practitioners across the continent.

On the global front, Bowmans has long-standing and excellent relationships with a range of international law firms with whom we often work on Africa-focussed client mandates. We are also a member firm of Lex Mundi, a global association of more than 160 independent law firms in all the major centres across the globe. Lex Mundi gives us the ability to connect our clients with the best law firms in each of the countries represented.

>>16731550

>In 2003, Dr Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony. Following the merger, Avmin changed its name to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and he became the founder and executive chairman of ARM.

>>16538769

>An important consideration in this process was the homogeneous nature of SA business. In the 1970s and 1980s the major national companies were Anglo (the Oppenheimers); Rembrandt (the Ruperts); Liberty (the Gordons); and Anglovaal (the Menells and Hersovs). The top six companies owned over 80% of the economy in 1985. This economic clout provided considerable leverage.

>>16554865

>1977 Urban Foundation “think tank” is founded by Harry Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and Clive Menell.This Foundation introduced neoliberal housing policy for Blacks under the guise of “development”. Cyril Ramaphosa, Nthato Motlana and Phuthuma Ntleko became the leaders of this “development” Foundation

>>16554880

>1990 Independent Development Trust (IDT) is established as a Schedule 2 State Owned Entity largely taking on the “development” programmes of the Urban Foundation “think tank” which was setup in 1977 by Oppenheimer, Rupert and Menell. Chairman of Urban Foundation, Judge Jan Steyn becomes the head of IDT

>13 April 1992 Nelson Mandela announces intention to separate from Winnie Madikizela Mandela and moves in with Menell family .Clive Menell is one of the founders of the Urban Foundation which was established in 1977

Remember Anglovaal Mining (Avmin) was owned by the Menell and Hersov families

“Patrice Motsepe | Africa’s Billionaire | Personal Life”

https://theexchange.africa/african-billionaires/patrice-motsepe-net-worth/

September 22, 2020

He launched ARMgold in 1997, which in 2003 merged with Harmony and acquired Anglovaal Mining (Avmin). In 2004, Motsepe was named chairman of the newly reorganized ARM and by 2006 the company had expanded beyond gold and other metals into coal mining.

>>16731550

>In 2003, Dr Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony. Following the merger, Avmin changed its name to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and he became the founder and executive chairman of ARM.

“ARM considers restarting options at Nkomati Nickel following 42% price surge” – “ARM owns Nkomati Nickel on a 50/50 basis with Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), the Russian platinum group”

https://www.miningmx.com/news/base-metals/49003-arm-considers-restarting-options-at-nkomati-nickel-following-42-price-surge/

March 7, 2022

AFRICAN Rainbow Minerals (ARM) may restart production at Nkomait Nickel operations in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province following an improvement in the price of the metal.

Mike Schmidt, CEO of ARM, said last week at the group’s interim results presentation the company was also considering options regarding underground mining at Nkomati.

“We’ve always said we put the mine on care and maintenance and wait for better prices,” said Schmidt. “The questions raised is ‘you’ve got the good prices, what now?'”.

“So, we are busy with study options with our partner and we are considering a number of options in terms of the way forward,” said Schmidt.

“The recent rally in nickel may not be entirely market driven; there may be other fundamental changes. We do need to understand the market fundmanetals and [if] prices are sustainable,” he added.,

Schmidt said the otion of going underground – which he described as “a very large resource that can last for 20 years” – was currently “under study”.

ARM owns Nkomati Nickel on a 50/50 basis with Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), the Russian platinum group metals producer which has seen its share price dive nearly 90% in the last month following the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

ARM and Nornickel decided to put Nkomati in mothballs in 2019 after it reported losses. ARM wrote up a R890m impairment against the asset in that year.

Nickel is considered a critical metal in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries. Demand growth totalled 16% last year and was expected to grow again, by about 8%, in the current year to 2.89 million tons, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

“Looking specifically at nickel electric vehicle demand, we forecast this to grow by 70,000 tons (about 55% year-on-year) this year, and see it expanding with a 40% compound average growth rate through the 2020s, reaching a demand-share of 25% by 2030,” the bank said in its report.

At $26,489/t, the price of nickel is 27% higher year to date and 42% higher year-on-year. It is the second only to aluminium in best performing base metals over the last year.

Last week, ARM reported a 27% year-on-year decline in interim headline share earnings to R18,87/share. It declared an interim dividend of R12/share.

>>16737403

African Rainbow Mineral did not consult with Russian partner, Nornickel, over Nkomati Mine

“African Rainbow Minerals and Nornickel at odds over Nkomati Mine”

https://www.africaintelligence.com/southern-africa-and-islands/2022/04/20/african-rainbow-minerals-and-nornickel-at-odds-over-nkomati-mine,109779153-art

April 20, 2022

The chief executive of South Africa’s African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), Mike Schmidt, last month hinted the mining group might resume operations at the Nkomati nickel mine. While his statement was met with enthusiasm, it appears that the announcement was mas not made in consultation with ARM’s Russian partner, Nornickel.

Nornickel History

https://www.nornickel.com/company/history/

• 1935

The USSR Council of People’s Commissars resolved to build Norilsk Plant.

• 1942

The first batch of converter matte was produced, with Norilsk Plant opening a Nickel Electrolysis Shop in 1943.

• 1953

Norilsk was granted the status of a town, with Norilsk Plant producing 35% of nickel, 12% of copper, 30% of cobalt and 90% of PGM from the Soviet Union’s total metal output.

• 1960

The Talnakhskoye Field, the world’s largest deposit of copper-nickel ores, was discovered giving a new lease of life to Norilsk Plant. Works started to build mines and the town of Talnakh on the Taimyr Peninsula.

• 1965

The Oktyabrskoye Field, a deposit of copper-nickel ores, was discovered.

• 1981

Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant and the first stage of Talnakh Concentrator were put on stream.

• 1993

A decree of the President of the Russian Federation transformed the Norilsk Nickel State Concern for the Production of Precious and Non-Ferrous Metals into Russian Joint Stock Company (RJSC) Norilsk Nickel for the Production of Precious and Non-Ferrous Metals.

• 1994

RJSC Norilsk Nickel's assets were privatised.

• 2001

The Company was restructured, with shareholders of RJSC Norilsk Nickel exchanging 96.6% of their stock to the shares of MMC Norilsk Nickel. The Company’s shares were listed on the RTS and MICEX stock exchanges, while, in June, the Company started issuing Level-1 ADRs with MMC Norilsk Nickel shares as the underlying asset.

• 2006

Nornickel obtained a follow-up exploration licence for the Maslovskoye Field and in four years from then entered its reserves into the government books as follows: 728 kt of nickel, over 1.1 mt of copper, 12.5 m oz of platinum and 1.3 m oz of gold.

• 2009

The Company created its own icebreaker fleet of reinforced ice class vessels having the distinction of being the first Arctic shipping vehicles to be awarded the highest ARC 7 ice class.

• 2013

Vladimir Potanin’s team changed the management structure of Nornickel. The Board of Directors adopted a new development strategy. The Company decided to focus on the Tier-1 assets of Polar Division and Kola MMC.

• 2014

Disposal of overseas and non-core assets: the Company sold its Western Australian gold mining assets (North Eastern Goldfields Operations (NEGO)), nickel assets (Lake Johnston, Cawse, Avalon, Black Swan and Silver Swan), and stakes in energy companies.

• 2015

The Company piloted Stage 1 of Talnakh Concentrator in Norilsk.

Norilsk Nickel celebrated its 80th anniversary marking the 80 years of exploring the Russian Arctic. Russian President Vladimir Putin commended MMC Norilsk Nickel’s team for their valuable contribution to the development of the Russian metals industry and excellent operating performance.

• 2016

The Nickel Plant shutdown project was completed, which helped cut sulphur dioxide emissions in Norilsk and thereby mitigate the environmental impact.

The Company completed rebranding: the new Nornickel logo symbolises the ongoing changes, while Aspirations and Reliability were chosen as the Company’s key attributes.

• 2017

Giving a start to Russia’s Year of Environment, Nornickel opened a visitor centre at the Pasvik Reserve.

And there is more…

>>16554835 James Rothschild – Investments; Rusal, Glencore, Ukraine, etc

>>16569271 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part One

>>16569275 Glencore & Xstrata Bun Part Two

“Russian Tycoon Potanin to Start Nornickel-Rusal Merger Talks”

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/russian-tycoon-potanin-to-start-nornickel-rusal-merger-talks-1.1787750

July 5, 2022

(Bloomberg) – Billionaire Vladimir Potanin, the biggest investor in MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, said he’s ready to discuss merging the mining giant with United Co Rusal International PJSC as sanctions against Russia weigh on both companies.

Potanin has headed Nornickel since striking a 2012 shareholder accord with aluminum producer Rusal, the company’s second-largest investor. A merger would create a “national champion,” the tycoon said in an interview with Russia’s RBC TV channel.

“We received the proposal from the management of Rusal to discuss the merger with Norilsk Nickel as an alternative to extending the shareholder agreement,” Potanin said. “I sent a letter in which I confirmed our agreement to start the process of discussing a merger with Rusal.”

Potanin, Russia’s richest man, controls about 35% of Nornickel, a key producer of nickel and copper and the world’s biggest miner of palladium. Apart from some Canadian restrictions in April, the tycoon largely avoided western sanctions targeting other members of the Russian elite until the UK imposed penalties on June 29.

Potanin said that Nornickel is not under sanctions despite the penalties imposed against him by the UK. The billionaire also indicated that he is not going to step down as Nornickel chief executive officer.

Rusal’s press service declined to comment.

About 20% of the world’s nickel comes from Russia, with nearly all of that from Potanin’s Nornickel. The company also produces about 40% of the world’s palladium, used in anti-pollution devices in gasoline cars.

That original shareholder agreement defined Nornickel’s dividend payouts and ended feuding between Potanin and Rusal’s founder Oleg Deripaska.

(Updates with comments from Potanin starting in second paragraph)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

“Putin's hockey pal and Russia's richest man Vladimir Potanin has been 'snapping up banks for cheap' amid an exodus of Western owners”

https://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-potanin-snap-up-banks-for-cheap-russia-ukraine-putin-2022-5?op=1&r=US&IR=T

May 14, 2022

Russia's richest man has been snapping up domestic banks at a discount rate, after their Western owners ditched the country, reports say.

The Russian economy has been in freefall since the invasion of Ukraine, after Western powers issued sanctions against a number of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies, seizing and freezing their assets, and a host of leading businesses – from McDonald's to Goldman Sachs – shut down operations in the country altogether.

Metals tycoon Vladimir Potanin, a long-time Putin ally, has largely avoided Western sanctions, despite his close personal ties to the regime. Experts say Potanin, who has played ice hockey with Putin in the past, has largely remained off the West's radar due to his personal importance to global metals markets.

On Thursday, the Financial Times reported Potanin, who is said to be worth $30 billion, had been tapping into his estimated $30 billion fortune to obtain stakes in major Russian banks, which have seen their value dwindle after Western stakeholders abandoned the country.

The billionaire's Interros group is said to have acquired Rosbank after Société Générale (SocGen), a French bank that bought the business from Potanin in 2008, opted for a quick exit from Russia. Insider previously reported banks still operating in Russia were preparing to lose huge amounts of money for exiting.

Potanin reportedly obtained Oleg Tinkov's stake in TCS Group Holding, for which Tinkov, who said was forced to sell his stakes after he criticized the war, complained that Potanin paid only 3% of the actual stakes' worth, per the newspaper. Insider reached out to TCS and SocGen but did not immediately get a response.

Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of political analysis firm R.Politik told the FT: "The Kremlin had a geopolitically problematic asset [in Tinkoff] and Potanin had a solution."

Potanin's recent acquisitions make him a key individual in the banking sector. In February, Rosbank and Tinkoff, TCS's main assets, combined assets of almost $45 billion (RBS3 trillion).

Someone involved in the negotiations for SocGen told the FT: "We wanted to find a way to exit in the most orderly way while preserving our 12,000 staff."

They added: "Potanin… says he wants to preserve the bank and its culture," that's why they decided to accept his offer that was quick and he knows the bank, per the report.

Potanin founded Interros – a conglomerate with stakes in industries including mining, energy, and real estate – in 1990, and is the richest man in Russia, per Forbes. But he is mostly known for mastering the "loans-for-shares" programs, which many other oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich, have made their fortune through the programs.

Under the "loans-for-shares" programs, wealthy entrepreneurs and banks loaned money to the Russian government in the 1990s in exchange for equity in the country's natural resource companies. The government often could not repay these loans, leaving many of the natural resource companies in the hands of wealthy individuals.

Vladimir Potanin Background

https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/moscow/potanin.html

October, 2003

Vladimir Potanin, 42, was born in 1961 into a high-ranking Communist family. He attended the Moscow Institute for International Relations, an elite school that groomed students for the KGB and offices of the Kremlin. He then went to work for the Soviet Department of Trade, where his father had also worked. In 1991, he created Interros, a foreign trade association that traded nonferrous metals, including aluminum, copper and lead. With the capital he accumulated from Interros, he started two banks, the Oneximbank and the MFK, to which many state enterprises transferred their accounts. Later, Potanin became one of the principal authors of the Loans for Shares program, in which the Russian government traded ownership in state industries for loans. The controversial program was administered through auctions, but only select bidders were invited to attend, usually at the discretion of President Boris Yeltsin's daughter. Potanin was among the invited bidders. During Russia's transition to a market economy, he acquired control of more than 20 formerly state-owned enterprises. Potanin's business empire was considerably dented by Russia's 1998 economic crisis, but he managed to set up numerous companies to shelter his personal assets. He also diverted considerable sums to his accounts outside of Russia and threw a party at the height of the crash for more than 100 of his closest friends in a nightclub at the French ski resort Courchevel.

Current Position:

President, Interros Holding Company

Major Holdings:

Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of platinum and palladium

Other Interests:

RUSIA Petroleum; Rosebank; agricultural industrial company Agros; power generation equipment company Power Machines; Soglasie Insurance Company; newsdailies Izvestia and Komsomolskaia Pravda; The Russian Telegraph Newspaper; the magazine Expert; radio stations Autoradio, PM-radio, Novosti on-line, and several regional television and radio companies

Political Connections:

Potanin's father was a senior official in Russia's Ministry of Foreign Trade. One of the Big Seven oligarchs who helped reelect President Boris Yeltsin, Potanin was then appointed by Yeltsin in 1996 to hold Russia's number-twoposition, first deputy prime minister.

Notoriety:

Potanin was the principal author of the Loans for Shares program, which put state assets in private hands and was harshly criticized by many academics. Potanin also has a poor track record with Western investors: George Soros, who in 1997 invested $980 million in Potanin's telecom enterprise Svyazinvest, said it was the worst investment he ever made. Other losers in Potanin's empire include BP/Amoco, which the same year invested $571 million in his oil company Sidanko, only to find the company forced into bankruptcy.

“Metal world agonizes over war in Ukraine but keeps buying from Russia”

https://theprint.in/world/metal-world-agonizes-over-war-in-ukraine-but-keeps-buying-from-russia/902969/

5 April 2022

Russian metal is largely still flowing around the world. Many traders and fabricators who buy from them are tied in to pre-existing purchase deals that can extend over years.

United Kingdom: Last month, 13 copper-industry representatives at the London Metal Exchange were asked whether Russian metal should be blocked from its warehouses. Ten of them said “yes.” But when advisory groups for nickel and aluminum discussed the same question, the general consensus was “no.”

The LME, which is the ultimate decision-maker, says it won’t take action that goes beyond government sanctions — which, so far, have left most of the metals industry untouched.

But the behind-closed-doors discussions reflect a wider angst over whether to keep buying from Russia, as the industry weighs the stigma from the war against its own commercial interests — and the fact that vital metals like aluminum and copper were in short supply even before the invasion of Ukraine.

For now, Russian metal is largely still flowing to the world’s factories and building sites. Many traders and fabricators who buy from Russian companies are tied in to pre-existing purchase deals that can extend over years. And commodities merchants have a well-earned reputation as buyers and financiers of last resort when others have long backed away.

The question of what happens to Russia’s metal exports is of vast consequence to global markets — it’s a key supplier of palladium, nickel, aluminum, steel and copper. Prices for all of those metals set new all-time highs in March, although steel is the only one to be the direct target of sanctions so far.

Aurubis, Europe’s largest copper smelter, is “trying to get out” of its contracts for Russian supplies, and is in favor of sanctions against metals, Harings said in an interview last week. “I believe in the end whatever money we pay will end up in the wrong pockets,” he said.

Norwegian aluminum company Norsk Hydro ASA said it was taking the minimum possible under its contracts with Russian companies and was aiming to reduce that further.

There are still buyers for now — even in Europe. Russian metals producers like MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC and United Co. Rusal International PJSC tend to sell on annual or multi-annual deals to big industrial groups, and for the most part these contracts are still being fulfilled, according to people familiar with the matter.

Traders like Glencore Plc, which has a deal to buy aluminum from Rusal until at least 2024, and Trafigura Group, which has a long-standing relationship with Nornickel, are also fulfilling contracts in Russia.

And few new deals are happening. Glencore, which has been one of the largest traders of Russian commodities since the days when founder Marc Rich struck agreements with the Soviet Union, announced last week it would do no new business in Russia.

Already, Trafigura has been delivering Russian copper to LME warehouses in Asia in recent days after failing to sell it in China, Bloomberg reported.

“EXCLUSIVE | The mystery jet, the former Russian first lady and a blonde VIP” – Part 1

https://samigration.com/blog/exclusive-the-mystery-jet-the-former-russian-first-lady-and-a-blonde-vip/

News 24 - July 11, 2022

Mystery surrounds a two-day trip in Cape Town by a business jet registered in the name of Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of former prime minister and president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

News24 can reveal the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet had to divert its return flight from Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday to Lanseria International Airport outside of Johannesburg because its operators were denied fuel by suppliers in Cape Town.

Medvedeva is a Russian economist, but it is not known who was on board the flight operated by Russian air charter company RusJet. The purpose of the flight that arrived in Cape Town on Monday last week and departed again on Wednesday remains a secret.

The route of the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet. (Screen grab via Flightradar24)

According to Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) operations manager Terence Delomaney, “we do not have any scheduled Russian aircraft flying into our airports at the moment. Lanseria is not an Acsa airport. All aircraft will need to ensure arrangements are made in advance for fuelling. There are various suppliers available – some may apply sanctions and others not”.

As a commercial airport, Lanseria buys its own fuel and then sells it forward to all aircraft operators using the airport.

International oil and fuel companies might apply the same sanctions in their countries of origin instituted against Russia, which have affected flights from Russia internationally. The same applies to the European and US airspace, which is closed for Russian air traffic.

According to the website www.airport-data.com, the private jet is registered in Svetlana Medvedeva’s name.

RusJet is a Russian VIP charter company based in Moscow. According to eyewitnesses at Lanseria, it was obvious there was a very important person or people on board, judged by the contingent of bodyguards and the entourage accompanying a stately older woman with blonde hair.

They said there were 14 passengers who disembarked at Lanseria: the older woman; what seemed to be a private assistant; another two women who looked after her needs; and four security guards, while the rest were men in business suits who entered the aircraft just behind the older woman when they got back into the plane.

The entourage was rushed into the VIP lounge, with the security guards posted outside while the jet was refuelled.

It was obviously just a fuel stop before the jet departed late Wednesday afternoon again. According to Flightradar24, the jet arrived in Cape Town on Monday via Cairo in Egypt. It followed the same route back, re-routing through Botswana.

The route of the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet. (Screen grab via Flightradar24)

According to Africa Intelligence, up to March, the aircraft had been registered in the state of San Marino and is part of Skyline Aviation’s fleet.

>>16473779 Viktor Vekselberg Bun

“ANALYSIS: Proposed U.S. law seeks to punish African countries for ‘aligning’ with Russia” - Viktor Vekselberg, ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe, Norilsk Nickel

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/531252-analysis-proposed-u-s-law-seeks-to-punish-african-countries-for-aligning-with-russia.html

May 20, 2022

A new law to punish states that back certain Russian actions could have major implications for African countries.

But what about the bill’s intention to thwart Russian efforts to ‘invest in, engage, or otherwise control strategic sectors in Africa, such as mining and other forms of natural resource extraction and exploitation, military basing and other security cooperation agreements, and information and communications technology’? Does that mean any African country where a Russian company invests will fall foul of this legislation? Or will it only apply to investments that advance Putin’s supposedly nefarious ambitions?

Two potentially controversial case studies in South Africa spring to mind. One is the lucrative United Manganese of Kalahari mine in South Africa, owned by Putin’s oligarch chum Viktor Vekselberg – but with 22 per cent held by the ruling African National Congress’s (ANC) own corporation, Chancellor House.

This dodgy investment is probably keeping the cash-strapped ANC financially afloat. And it’s been speculated that that is the real reason for the government’s controversial ‘non-aligned’ stance on the Ukraine war.

Another case study could be the joint venture between African Rainbow Minerals – owned by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe – with Russia’s Norilsk Nickel in the potentially lucrative Nkomati nickel mine.

How the U.S. will see such investments is unclear. However, what is emerging is not so much a picture of the U.S. targeting Africa because it voted the wrong way at the UN. Instead, it seems Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a new Cold War psychosis – and that all other considerations will henceforth be subordinated to the imperatives of that conflict.

>>16738632

Three more countries set to join BRICS- official

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt plan to join BRICS, and their potential membership bids could be discussed and answered at next year’s summit in South Africa, Purnima Anand, the president of the organization, told Russian media on Thursday.

“All these countries have shown their interest in joining [BRICS] and are preparing to apply for membership. I believe this is a good step, because expansion is always looked upon favorably; it will definitely bolster BRICS’ global influence,” she told Russian newspaper Izvestia.

The BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) account for over 40% of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP. The bloc’s stated purposes include promoting peace, security, development, and cooperation globally, and contributing to the development of humanity.

Anand said the issue of expansion was raised during this year’s BRICS summit, which took place in late June in Beijing.

The BRICS Forum president said she hopes the accession of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt will not take much time, given that they “are already engaged in the process,” though doubts that all three will join the alliance at the same time.

“I hope that these countries will join the BRICS quite shortly, as all the representatives of core members are interested in expansion. So it will come very soon,” Anand added.

The news of the three nations’ plans to join BRICS comes after Iran and Argentina officially applied for membership in late June, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh touting the bloc as a “very creative mechanism with broad aspects.”

https://www.rt.com/news/558960-saudi-turkey-egypt-brics/

“Latest case against president involves brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe”

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2022-06-19-latest-case-against-president-involves-brother-in-law-patrice-motsepe/

19 June 2022

Complainant wants police to check financial records between the families for fraud, corruption, racketeering, bribery or other economic crimes

The latest criminal case opened against President Cyril Ramaphosa by the leader of civil rights organisation Really Democracy involves his brother-in-law, business mogul Patrice Motsepe.

Ramaphosa is married to Motsepe’s sister, Dr Tshepo Motsepe.

The case is one of two opened against Ramaphosa in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday by Srinivasen Naidoo of Really Democracy.

On Sunday TimesLIVE saw the affidavit Naidoo filed with police.

Naidoo said he became aware of a cattle auction by Ramaphosa on March 5 where Motsepe paid R4.7m for four Ankole female cows. He allegedly bought one of them for R2.1m.

The auction was held at Ntaba Nyoni, another of Ramaphosa’s farms.

Naidoo said the sale was “suspicious” and say this sale was not for cattle but for “favours” as Motsepe is a businessman involved in mining and energy and is in business with the government.

“The Ankole cattle are rare and have a high breeding value but the price paid in this particular transaction is particularly high and makes no economic sense.

“The suspicion is that the sale of the cattle is being used to pay bribes and kickbacks for favourable government contracts and easing of regulations in the mining and energy, banking and other sectors in which Motsepe is involved,” said Naidoo.

Naidoo wants police to cheque the financial records between the Ramaphosa and Motsepe families, saying they should probe whether there is fraud, corruption, racketeering, bribery or any other economic crimes involved.

Another auction was held at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo on Saturday. At the auction, the highest bid was for an Ankole bull which sold for R1.65m.

Meanwhile, Nkosenhle Shezi, a known Zuma backer, opened the other case, which involves alleged gender-based violence in connection with a scandal at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Waterberg, Limpopo.

Former correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser brought to light the crime which had unfolded at the farm in 2020 when he laid criminal charges of money laundering, kidnapping and corruption against the president for a burglary, which occurred on the game farm on February 9 2020.

Fraser said Ramaphosa concealed the theft of about $4m at the farm and instead used his own connections to track the alleged culprits.

Shezi wants the police to probe a gender-based violence incident which he alleges occurred. It relates to a domestic worker who he say was kidnapped and assaulted as the investigations into who stole money from the property unfolded.

“In 2020 certain money was stolen [from Ramaphosa’s farm after an auction on the premises] and as a result of that, a domestic worker of the president was captured illegally because there was never a case of a break-in that was reported to the SA police. Throughout that interrogation the lady was kidnapped, was assaulted and that is the travesty of justice that we cannot tolerate as the citizens of the country and we have logged that case with the SA Police Service,” alleged Shezi.

Ramaphosa, through his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, said he did not have a say on these allegations but that he would co-operate with any investigation against him.

>>16738632

>>16739148 (me)

The proposed law must originate with an idiot democrat. So far the sanctions against Russia have hurt the US and Europe more and Sri Lanka has gone down the drain. In General Research bread #21106 >>16733552 France's President Macron is telling people to shut off their lights, including the public ones so I'm sure criminals will appreciate the lack of security lights on buildings.

There was an earlier post where Germany is trying to find alternative sources of LNG before Winter. Before the massive spam attack the Netherlands bread had a posted article explaining how the the LNG coming from Russia was used to not only provide heating, but help with the production of fertilizer.

The Ruble is backed by gold, the Dollar by "the full Faith and CREDIT of the United States Government" aka words and promises. Pipelines and oil fields are being regulated out of business in the US, so forget about the "petrodollar." The Euro seems backed only by the labor of the workers in Germany as the EU uses the Germans as a automated teller machine to bail out Greece, Portugal, and Italy.

If Africa tells Washington to shove it and leaves the SWIFT system and goes to the Chinese one, Game Over.

“Destroying African agriculture” – “From Exporter to Importer” – Part 1

https://www.tni.org/en/article/destroying-african-agriculture

4 June 2008

Biofuel production did not create, but only exacerbated the global food crisis that had been building up for years, as policies promoted by the World Bank, IMF, and WTO encouraged the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers.

Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains.

Whether in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, the story has been the same: the destabilization of peasant producers by a one-two punch of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programs that gutted government investment in the countryside followed by the massive influx of subsidized U.S. and European Union agricultural imports after the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture pried open markets.

African agriculture is a case study of how doctrinaire economics serving corporate interests can destroy a whole continent’s productive base.

From Exporter to Importer

At the time of decolonization in the 1960s, Africa was not just self-sufficient in food but was actually a net food exporter, its exports averaging 1.3 million tons a year between 1966-70. Today, the continent imports 25% of its food, with almost every country being a net food importer. Hunger and famine have become recurrent phenomena, with the last three years alone seeing food emergencies break out in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Southern Africa, and Central Africa.

Agriculture is in deep crisis, and the causes are many, including civil wars and the spread of HIV-AIDS. However, a very important part of the explanation was the phasing out of government controls and support mechanisms under the structural adjustment programs to which most African countries were subjected as the price for getting IMF and World Bank assistance to service their external debt.

Instead of triggering a virtuous spiral of growth and prosperity, structural adjustment saddled Africa with low investment, increased unemployment, reduced social spending, reduced consumption, and low output, all combining to create a vicious cycle of stagnation and decline.

Lifting price controls on fertilizers while simultaneously cutting back on agricultural credit systems simply led to reduced applications, lower yields, and lower investment. One would have expected the non-economist to predict this outcome, which was screened out by the Bank and Fund’s free-market paradigm. Moreover, reality refused to conform to the doctrinal expectation that the withdrawal of the state would pave the way for the market and private sector to dynamize agriculture. Instead, the private sector believed that reducing state expenditures created more risk and failed to step into the breach. In country after country, the predictions of neoliberal doctrine yielded precisely the opposite: the departure of the state “crowded out” rather than “crowded in” private investment. In those instances where private traders did come in to replace the state, an Oxfam report noted, “they have sometimes done so on highly unfavorable terms for poor farmers,” leaving “farmers more food insecure, and governments reliant on unpredictable aid flows.” The usually pro-private sector Economist agreed, admitting that “many of the private firms brought in to replace state researchers turned out to be rent-seeking monopolists.”

>>16751301

“Destroying African agriculture” – “From Exporter to Importer” – Part 2

https://www.tni.org/en/article/destroying-african-agriculture

4 June 2008

What support the government was allowed to muster was channeled by the Bank to export agriculture – to generate the foreign exchange earnings that the state needed to service its debt to the Bank and the Fund. But, as in Ethiopia during the famine of the early 1980s, this led to the dedication of good land to export crops, with food crops forced into more and more unsuitable soil, thus exacerbating food insecurity. Moreover, the Bank’s encouraging several economies undergoing adjustment to focus on export production of the same crops simultaneously often led to overproduction that then triggered a price collapse in international markets. For instance, the very success of Ghana’s program to expand cocoa production triggered a 48% drop in the international price of cocoa between 1986 and 1989, threatening, as one account put it, “to increase the vulnerability of the entire economy to the vagaries of the cocoa market."(1) In 2002-2003, a collapse in coffee prices contributed to another food emergency in Ethiopia.

As in many other regions, structural adjustment in Africa was not simply underinvestment but state divestment. But there was one major difference. In Latin America and Asia, the Bank and Fund confined themselves for the most part to macromanagement, or supervising the dismantling of the state’s economic role from above. These institutions left the dirty details of implementation to the state bureaucracies. In Africa, where they dealt with much weaker governments, the Bank and Fund micromanaged such decisions as how fast subsidies should be phased out, how many civil servants had to be fired, or even, as in the case of Malawi, how much of the country’s grain reserve should be sold and to whom. In other words, Bank and IMF resident proconsuls reached into the very innards of the state’s involvement in the agricultural economy to rip it up.

The Role of Trade

Compounding the negative impact of adjustment were unfair trade practices on the part of the EU and the United States. Trade liberalization allowed low-priced subsidized EU beef to enter and drive many West African and South African cattle raisers to ruin. [Don’t forget the murders of farmers in South Africa]. With their subsidies legitimized by the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture, U.S. cotton growers offloaded their cotton on world markets at 20-55% of the cost of production, bankrupting West African and Central African cotton farmers in the process.(2)

_These dismal outcomes were not accidental. As then-U.S. Agriculture Secretary John Block put it at the start of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1986, “the idea that developing countries should feed themselves is an anachronism from a bygone era. They could better ensure their food security by relying on U.S. agricultural products, which are available, in most cases at lower cost.”(3)

What Block did not say was that the lower cost of U.S. products stemmed from subsidies that were becoming more massive each year, despite the fact that the WTO was supposed to phase out all forms of subsidy. From $367 billion in 1995, the first year of the WTO, the total amount of agricultural subsidies provided by developed country governments rose to $388 billion in 2004. Subsidies now account for 40% of the value of agricultural production in the European Union (EU) and 25% in the United States.

>>16751301

>>16751304

“Destroying African agriculture” – “From Exporter to Importer” – Part 3

https://www.tni.org/en/article/destroying-african-agriculture

4 June 2008

The social consequences of structural adjustment cum agricultural dumping were predictable. According to Oxfam, the number of Africans living on less than a dollar a day more than doubled to 313 million people between 1981 and 2001 – or 46% of the whole continent. The role of structural adjustment in creating poverty, as well as severely weakening the continent’s agricultural base and consolidating import dependency, was hard to deny. As the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa admitted, “We did not think that the human costs of these programs could be so great, and the economic gains would be so slow in coming.”(4)

That was, however, a rare moment of candor. What was especially disturbing was that, as Oxford University political economist Ngaire Woods pointed out, the “seeming blindness of the Fund and Bank to the failure of their approach to sub-Saharan Africa persisted even as the studies of the IMF and the World Bank themselves failed to elicit positive investment effects.”(5)

The Case of Malawi

This stubbornness led to tragedy in Malawi.

It was a tragedy preceded by success. In 1998 and 1999, the government initiated a program to give each smallholder family a “starter pack” of free fertilizers and seeds. This followed several years of successful experimentation in which the packs were provided only to the poorest families. The result was a national surplus of corn. What came after, however, is a story that will be enshrined as a classic case study in a future book on the 10 greatest blunders of neoliberal economics.

The World Bank and other aid donors forced the drastic scaling down and eventual scrapping of the program, arguing that the subsidy distorted trade. Without the free packs, food output plummeted. In the meantime, the IMF insisted that the government sell off a large portion of its strategic grain reserves to enable the food reserve agency to settle its commercial debts. The government complied. When the crisis in food production turned into a famine in 2001-2002, there were hardly any reserves left to rush to the countryside. About 1,500 people perished. The IMF, however, was unrepentant; in fact, it suspended its disbursements on an adjustment program with the government on the grounds that “the parastatal sector will continue to pose risks to the successful implementation of the 2002/03 budget. Government interventions in the food and other agricultural markets…crowd out more productive spending.”

When an even worse food crisis developed in 2005, the government finally had enough of the Bank and IMF’s institutionalized stupidity. A new president reintroduced the fertilizer subsidy program, enabling two million households to buy fertilizer at a third of the retail price and seeds at a discount. The results: bumper harvests for two years in a row, a surplus of one million tons of maize, and the country transformed into a supplier of corn to other countries in Southern Africa.

But the World Bank, like its sister agency, still stubbornly clung to the discredited doctrine. As the Bank’s country director told the Toronto Globe and Mail, “All those farmers who begged, borrowed, and stole to buy extra fertilizer last year are now looking at that decision and rethinking it. The lower the maize price, the better for food security but worse for market development.”

>>16751301

>>16751304

>>16751313

>>16404192

>The Presidential Advisory Committee on the Economy in Malawi, which was established by Brenthurst Foundation, is one of the many boards and advisory panels that he [Jonathan Oppenheimer] has sat on.

“Destroying African agriculture” – “From Exporter to Importer” – Part 4

https://www.tni.org/en/article/destroying-african-agriculture

4 June 2008

Fleeing Failure

Malawi’s defiance of the World Bank would probably have been an act of heroic but futile resistance a decade ago. The environment is different today. Owing to the absence of any clear case of success, structural adjustment has been widely discredited throughout Africa. Even some donor governments that once subscribed to it have distanced themselves from the Bank, the most prominent case being the official British aid agency that co-funded the latest subsidized fertilizer program in Malawi. Perhaps the motivation of these institutions is to prevent the further erosion of their diminishing influence in the continent through association with a failed approach and unpopular institutions. At the same time, they are certainly aware that Chinese aid is emerging as an alternative to the conditionalities of the World Bank, IMF, and Western government aid programs.

Beyond Africa, even former supporters of adjustment, like the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington and the rabidly neoliberal Economist acknowledged that the state’s abdication from agriculture was a mistake. In a recent commentary on the rise of food prices, for instance, IFPRI asserted that “rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades,” and says that it is time for “developing country governments [to] increase their medium- and long-term investments in agricultural research and extension, rural infrastructure, and market access for small farmers.” At the same time, the Bank and IMF’s espousal of free trade came under attack from the heart of the economics establishment itself, with a panel of luminaries headed by Princeton’s Angus Deaton accusing the Bank’s research department of being biased and “selective” in its research and presentation of data. As the old saying goes, success has a thousand parents and failure is an orphan.

Unable to deny the obvious, the Bank has finally acknowledged that the whole structural adjustment enterprise was a mistake, though it smuggled this concession into the middle of the 2008 World Development Report, perhaps in the hope that it would not attract too much attention. Nevertheless, it was a damning admission:

“ Structural adjustment in the 1980’s dismantled the elaborate system of public agencies that provided farmers with access to land, credit, insurance inputs, and cooperative organization. The expectation was that removing the state would free the market for private actors to take over these functions—reducing their costs, improving their quality, and eliminating their regressive bias. Too often, that didn’t happen. In some places, the state’s withdrawal was tentative at best, limiting private entry. Elsewhere, the private sector emerged only slowly and partially—mainly serving commercial farmers but leaving smallholders exposed to extensive market failures, high transaction costs and risks, and service gaps. Incomplete markets and institutional gaps impose huge costs in forgone growth and welfare losses for smallholders, threatening their competitiveness and, in many cases, their survival.”

In sum, biofuel production did not create but only exacerbated the global food crisis. The crisis had been building up for years, as policies promoted by the World Bank, IMF, and WTO systematically discouraged food self-sufficiency and encouraged food importation by destroying the local productive base of smallholder agriculture. Throughout Africa and the global South, these institutions and the policies they promoted are today thoroughly discredited. But whether the damage they have caused can be undone in time to avert more catastrophic consequences than we are now experiencing remains to be seen.

Notes (1) Charles Abugre, “Behind Crowded Shelves: as Assessment of Ghana’s Structural Adjustment Experiences, 1983-1991,” (San Francisco: food First, 1993), p. 87. (2) “Trade Talks Round Going Nowhere sans Progress in Farm Reform,” Business World (Phil), Sept. 8, 2003, p. 15 (3) Quoted in “Cakes and Caviar: the Dunkel Draft and Third World Agriculture,” Ecologist, Vol. 23, No. 6 (Nov-Dec 1993), p. 220 (4) Morris Miller, Debt and the Environment: Converging Crisis (New York: UN, 1991), p. 70. (5) Ngaire Woods, The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers (Thaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), p. 158. Published by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Copyright © 2008, Institute for Policy Studies.

“Satellite Imagery Shows Global Crop Declines – Except For Russia And China”

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/satellite-imagery-shows-global-crop-declines-except-russia-and-china

July 16, 2022

Infrared satellite imagery designed to measure moisture levels and the health of farmlands suggests that staple crops such as wheat are in poor condition and in sharp decline among major exporters including the Ukraine, the US and India. Two countries do have bumper crops so far though; namely Russia and China.

It is hard to say which governments and institutions monitor this data, but a few months ago a multitude of political leaders and global banks issued simultaneous warnings of a “global food shortage” and an impending crisis. Such institutions included the IMF, World Bank, the BIS and even the White House. So far, a perfect storm of stagflation, supply chain disruptions and poor weather conditions have combined to disrupt food production around the world.

Price inflation due to central bank stimulus measures has been enough to do incredible damage to the many national economies, but a single bad year for crops on top of this could spell disaster.

Russia and China, on the other hand, are enjoying a strategic advantage. As we entered spring of this year, the mainstream media heralded the end of the Russian economy and the swift collapse of their war efforts in Ukraine. Today, Russia is selling more oil and exporting more commodities than ever before, and both Russia and China now have the most healthy staple crops in the world. It's almost as if the public in the west has been deliberately misled about our economic strength.

Sadly, many people in the west have forgotten the importance of commodities, industry and energy in terms of geopolitical leverage. Without dominance of these three arenas there is no chance for a nation or group of nations to dictate terms to a country that has such advantages. Economic warfare is about independent production and adaptability; these are two things the US and Europe do not have right now.

With declines in crop exports, food prices will rise even further this year and there is also the possibility that Russia could cut off the EU and other nations from access to their agricultural market. Though the Kremlin says this will not happen, given the right trigger event it remains a legitimate threat. Already this month Europe is on the edge of an economic cliff as they wait to see if the Russian “maintenance shutdown” of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is actually temporary, or the beginning of a full bore energy crisis that will last for years.

In other words, the temptation for the eastern nations to use food as a weapon against NATO countries will be just as high on their list as oil and gas. With food and energy stability in doubt there is also a considerable danger of civil unrest. Third world nations are likely to see the worst of the shortages, but price inflation in necessities is here to stay for first world countries as well. And along with that comes all the associated economic problems, including rising crime, rising unemployment and rising poverty.

“HERE IS THE UPDATED LIST OF U.S.-BASED FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANTS DESTROYED” – Part 1

https://defconnews.com/2022/06/11/here-is-the-updated-list-of-u-s-based-food-manufacturing-plants-destroyed-under-the-illegitimate-biden-regime/

Below is the list of America’s 95 plants that have been destroyed, damaged or impacted by “accidental fires” or disease or general causes:

1. 4/30/21 A fire ignited inside the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Monmouth, IL

2. 7/25/21 Three-alarm fire at Kellogg plant in Memphis, 170 emergency personnel responded to the call

3. 7/30/21 Firefighters on Friday battled a large fire at Tyson’s River Valley Ingredients plant in Hanceville, Alabama

4. 8/23/21 Fire crews were called to the Patak Meat Production company on Ewing Road in Austell

5. 9/13/21 A fire at the JBS beef plant in Grand Island, Neb., on Sunday night forced a halt to slaughter and fabrication lines

6. 10/13/21 A five-alarm fire ripped through the Darigold butter production plant in Caldwell, ID

7. 11/15/21 A woman is in custody following a fire at the Garrard County Food Pantry

8. 11/29/21 A fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. at the Maid-Rite Steak Company meat processing plant

9. 12/13/21 West Side food processing plant in San Antonio left with smoke damage after a fire

10. 1/7/22 Damage to a poultry processing plant on Hamilton’s Mountain following an overnight fire

11. 1/11/22 A fire that destroyed 75,000-square-foot processing plant in Fayetteville

12. 1/13/22 Firefighters worked for 12 hours to put a fire out at the Cargill-Nutrena plant in Lecompte, LA

13. 1/31/22 a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught on fire on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem

14. 2/3/22 A massive fire swept through Wisconsin River Meats in Mauston

15. 2/3/22 At least 130 cows were killed in a fire at Percy Farm in Stowe

16. 2/15/22 Bonanza Meat Company goes up in flames in El Paso, Texas

17. 2/15/22 Nearly a week after the fire destroyed most of the Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston

18. 2/16/22 A fire had broken at US largest soybean processing and biodiesel plant in Claypool, Indiana

19. 2/18/22 An early morning fire tore through the milk parlor at Bess View Farm

20. 2/19/22 Three people were injured, and one was hospitalized, after an ammonia leak at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont

21. 2/22/22 The Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston caught fire after a propane boiler exploded

22. 2/28/22 A smoldering pile of sulfur quickly became a raging chemical fire at Nutrien Ag Solutions

23. 2/28/22 A man was hurt after a fire broke out at the Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery

24. 3/4/22 294,800 chickens destroyed at farm in Stoddard, Missouri

25. 3/4/22 644,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland

26. 3/8/22 243,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in New Castle, Delaware

27. 3/10/22 663,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, MD

28. 3/10/22 915,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Taylor, IA

29. 3/14/22 The blaze at 244 Meadow Drive was discovered shortly after 5 p.m. by farm owner Wayne Hoover

30. 3/14/22 2,750,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Jefferson, Wisconsin

31. 3/16/22 A fire at a Walmart warehouse distribution center has cast a large plume of smoke visible throughout Indianapolis.

32. 3/16/22 Nestle Food Plant extensively damaged in fire and new production destroyed Jonesboro, Arkansas

33. 3/17/22 5,347,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Buena Vista, Iowa

34. 3/17/22 147,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Kent, Delaware

35. 3/18/22 315,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland

36. 3/22/22 172,000 Turkeys destroyed on farms in South Dakota

37. 3/22/22 570,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska

38. 3/24/22 Fire fighters from numerous towns are battling a major fire at the McCrum potato processing facility in Belfast.

39. 3/24/22 418,500 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska

40. 3/25/22 250,300 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Franklin, Iowa

41. 3/26/22 311,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

42. 3/27/22 126,300 Turkeys destroyed in South Dakota

43. 3/28/22 1,460,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Guthrie, Iowa

44. 3/29/22 A massive fire burned 40,000 pounds of food meant to feed people in a food desert near Maricopa

45. 3/31/22 A structure fire caused significant damage to a large portion of key fresh onion packing facilities in south Texas

46. 3/31/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Osceola, Iowa

47. 3/31/22 5,011,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Osceola, Iowa

>>16751391

“HERE IS THE UPDATED LIST OF U.S.-BASED FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANTS DESTROYED” – Part 2

https://defconnews.com/2022/06/11/here-is-the-updated-list-of-u-s-based-food-manufacturing-plants-destroyed-under-the-illegitimate-biden-regime/

48. 4/6/22 281,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina

49. 4/9/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

50. 4/9/22 208,900 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

51. 4/12/22 89,700 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina

52. 4/12/22 1,746,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Dixon, Nebraska

53. 4/12/22 259,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Minnesota

54. 4/13/22 Fire destroys East Conway Beef & Pork Meat Market in Conway, New Hampshire

55. 4/13/22 Plane crashes into Gem State Processing, Idaho potato and food processing plant

56. 4/13/22 77,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

57. 4/14/22 Taylor Farms Food Processing plant burns down Salinas, California.

58. 4/14/22 99,600 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

59. 4/15/22 1,380,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Lancaster, Minnesota

60. 4/19/22 Azure Standard nation’s premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire in Dufur, Oregon

61. 4/19/22 339,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

62. 4/19/22 58,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Montrose, Color

63. 4/20/22 2,000,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Minnesota

64. 4/21/22 A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Georgia

65. 4/22/22 197,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

66. 4/23/22 200,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

67. 4/25/22 1,501,200 chickens destroyed at egg farm Cache, Utah

68. 4/26/22 307,400 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania

69. 4/27/22 2,118,000 chickens destroyed at farm Knox, Nebraska

70. 4/28/22 Egg-laying facility in Iowa kills 5.3 million chickens, fires 200-plus workers

71. 4/28/22 Allen Harim Foods processing plant killed nearly 2M chickens in Delaware

72. 4/2822 110,700 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

73. 4/29/22 1,366,200 chickens destroyed at farm Weld Colorado

74. 4/30/22 13,800 chickens destroyed at farm Sequoia Oklahoma

75. 5/3/22 58,000 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

76. 5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Beadle S Dakota

77. 5/3/22 114,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

78. 5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Lyon Minnesota

79. 5/7/22 20,100 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

80. 5/10/22 72,300 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania

81. 5/10/22 61,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

82. 5/10/22 35,100 Turkeys destroyed Muskegon, Michigan

83. 5/13/22 10,500 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

84. 5/14/22 83,400 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

85. 5/17/22 79,00 chickens destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

86. 5/18/22 7,200 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

87. 5/19/22 Train carrying limestone derailed Jensen Beach FL

88. 5/21/22 57,000 Turkeys destroyed on farm in Dakota Minnesota

89. 5/23/22 4,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

90. 5/29/22 A Saturday night fire destroyed a poultry building at Forsman Farms

91. 5/31/22 3,000,000 chickens destroyed by fire at Forsman facility in Stockholm Township, Minnesota

92. 6/2/22 30,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

93. 6/7/22 A fire occurred Tuesday evening at the JBS meat packing plant in Green Bay.

94. 6/8/22 Firefighters from Tangipahoa Fire District 1 respond to a fire at the Purina Feed Mill in Arcola

95. 6/9/22 Irrigation water was canceled in California (the #1 producer of food in the US) and storage water flushed directly out to the delta.

“The SECRET Connection Between ANC And Farm Murders - Ernst Roets” – World planning to implement South African policies?

https://youtu.be/jz8PLKa_eC0

Ernst Roets is a civil rights activist, writer, and filmmaker in South Africa. He is Deputy CEO of civil rights group AfriForum and the CEO of the film production company Forum Films.

5:01 – “That was my message at CPAC, that the conservative movement (I’m using the word conservative in the broad sense of the word in the world) should learn from that we [South Africa] have experienced certain things that the rest of the world is still going to experience such as that certain policy ideas that people in America and Europe are flirting with have already been implemented in South Africa.”

>>16731550

>Dr Motsepe is a member Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF)

>>16705474

>International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva

>>16751618

“World Economic Forum Appoints Two New Members to Board of Trustees” [24 January 2020, about the beginning of COVID] - Kristalina Georgieva and Patrice Motsepe

https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/01/world-economic-forum-appoints-two-new-members-to-board-of-trustees

24 January 2020

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 January 2020– Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Patrice Motsepe, Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), will join the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. Both have a track record of thought leadership and long-term success in their field, which will contribute to strengthening the Forum’s platform for public-private cooperation.

“The World Economic Forum, as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, is delighted to welcome Kristalina Georgieva and Patrice Motsepe to its Board of Trustees. We look forward to working together to deliver positive, transformative solutions to our most critical global, regional and industry challenges,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

As of 24 January 2020, the Members of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum are:

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, India

Marc BENIOFF, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce, USA

Peter BRABECK-LETMATHE, Vice-Chairman, Board of Trustees, World Economic Forum

Mark CARNEY, Governor of the Bank of England

Laurence D. FINK, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock, Inc.

Chrystia FREELAND, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada

Orit GADIESH, Chairman, Bain & Company, USA

Kristalina GEORGIEVA, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC

Fabiola GIANOTTI, Director-General, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva

Al GORE, Vice-President of the United States (1993-2001); Chairman and Co-Founder, Generation Investment Management, USA

Herman GREF, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Sberbank, Russian Federation

Angel GURRÍA, Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris

André HOFFMANN, Non-Executive Vice-Chairman, Roche Holding Ltd, Switzerland

Christine LAGARDE, President, European Central Bank, Frankfurt

Jack MA, Alibaba Board of Directors, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China

Yo-Yo MA, Cellist

Peter MAURER, President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Switzerland

Luis MORENO, President, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC

Patrice MOTSEPE, Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals, South Africa

H.M. Queen Rania AL ABDULLAH, of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

L. Rafael REIF, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA

David M. RUBENSTEIN, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman, Carlyle Group, USA

Mark SCHNEIDER, Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé SA, Switzerland

Klaus SCHWAB, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, World Economic Forum

Tharman SHANMUGARATNAM, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies of Singapore

Jim Hagemann SNABE, Chairman, Supervisory Board, Siemens AG, Germany; Chairman, A.P. Møller-Maersk, Denmark

Feike SYBESMA, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Managing Board, Royal DSM, Netherlands

Heizo TAKENAKA, Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy of Japan (2002-2006)

Min ZHU, President, National Institute of Financial Research, People’s Republic of China; Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC (2011-2016)

“Gates Foundation Profits From Controversial South African Mines” [also Wellcome Trust]

https://www.newsmax.com/MatthewKlynsmith/Bill-Gates-Wellcome-trust-South-Africa-Mining/2015/05/29/id/647577/

29 March 2015

In case you missed what drives South Africa’s economy, it’s the mining industry.

But as is usual with any dangerous industry, there are the large-scale health and social issues that come with it. Thankfully there are organizations that work to address the health issues in mining areas. Here’s a paradox that’s not quite so well-known: The philanthropic organizations that sometimes commit to solving associated problems are also some of the biggest investors in the problems that cause them.

The Guardian released a report explaining that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome trust — responsible for saving countless lives through scientific research and healthcare programs — are also heavily invested in fossil fuel industries that have profound impacts on the health of local communities.

Both organizations are invested in the Rio Tinto mines, where employees and nearby residents complain that crowded mine shafts and dust pollution cause a host of respiratory diseases including silicosis, tuberculosis, and lung cancer. Locals who contract these diseases are directed to clinics and hospitals that are supported by the Africa Centre — whose primary donors include the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation.

On the one hand these organizations are providing aid to people who desperately need it. On the other, they are making money off of the mines that bring about disease and destroy communities and the natural landscape.

This is an ethical debate with many arguments but one would find it hard to believe that either of these foundations truly believes in improving the lives of impoverished and ailing people when they are reaping the rewards of inflicting harm on them. If the Gates Foundation, and others like it, truly wants to impact the locals, maybe an investment in crucial safeguards is in order.

Matthew Klynsmith earned a business administration diploma at CTI in Cape Town, South Africa. He now works at Strategic Options as an associate partner. To read more reports from Matthew Klynsmith, Go Here Now.

“The Benefits of World Hunger” – United Nations Article

https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/benefits-world-hunger

http://web.archive.org/web/20220705153241/https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/benefits-world-hunger

We sometimes talk about hunger in the world as if it were a scourge that all of us want to see abolished, viewing it as comparable with the plague or aids. But that naïve view prevents us from coming to grips with what causes and sustains hunger. Hunger has great positive value to many people. Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world's economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour.

We in developed countries sometimes see poor people by the roadside holding up signs saying "Will Work for Food". Actually, most people work for food. It is mainly because people need food to survive that they work so hard either in producing food for themselves in subsistence-level production, or by selling their services to others in exchange for money. How many of us would sell our services if it were not for the threat of hunger?

More importantly, how many of us would sell our services so cheaply if it were not for the threat of hunger? When we sell our services cheaply, we enrich others, those who own the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately own the people who work for them. For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth.

The conventional thinking is that hunger is caused by low-paying jobs. For example, an article reports on "Brazil's ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom".1 While it is true that hunger is caused by low-paying jobs, we need to understand that hunger at the same time causes low-paying jobs to be created. Who would have established massive biofuel production operations in Brazil if they did not know there were thousands of hungry people desperate enough to take the awful jobs they would offer? Who would build any sort of factory if they did not know that many people would be available to take the jobs at low-pay rates?

Much of the hunger literature talks about how it is important to assure that people are well fed so that they can be more productive. That is nonsense. No one works harder than hungry people. Yes, people who are well nourished have greater capacity for productive physical activity, but well-nourished people are far less willing to do that work.

The non-governmental organization Free the Slaves defines slaves as people who are not allowed to walk away from their jobs. It estimates that there are about 27 million slaves in the world,2 including those who are literally locked into workrooms and held as bonded labourers in South Asia. However, they do not include people who might be described as slaves to hunger, that is, those who are free to walk away from their jobs but have nothing better to go to. Maybe most people who work are slaves to hunger?

For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.

Notes 1 Tom Phillipps, "Brazil's ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom". The Guardian. Online, 9 March 2007.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2030144,00.html

2 Free the Slaves. Online, 2007. http://www.freetheslaves.net/

About the author

George Kent

George Kent is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii. He works on human rights, international relations, peace, development and environmental issues, with a special focus on nutrition and children. He has written several books, the latest is Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food.

“Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?” – (1 of 2)

https://www.commonsense.news/p/sri-lanka-just-fell-what-do-we-have?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

July 12, 2022

Sri Lanka has fallen. On Saturday, thousands of protesters stormed the presidential palace. While the angry and the aggrieved swam in the president’s pool, had a cookout on his lawn, lounged on his bed, and set fire to his residence, the president was spirited away to a naval ship off the Sri Lankan coast.

The proximate reason for the chaos is that the nation is bankrupt, suffering its worst financial crisis in decades. Millions are struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel. Between June 2021 to June 2022, food prices rose by 80 percent. Last month, annual inflation hit nearly 55 percent. Since the start of the pandemic, half a million people have fallen into poverty.

If you’ve never paid attention to the island country just off India’s southeastern coast, you might think this is just how it goes in developing nations. But the truth is that Sri Lanka had been gradually rebuilding itself—after decades of civil war and authoritarianism—and then this happened. We in the West had a lot to do with it.

The underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its leaders—starting with former President Maithripala Sirisena and continuing with his successor, the recently deposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa—fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and “ESG,” which refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score of 98—higher than Sweden (96) and the United States (51).

What does having such a high ESG score mean? In short, it meant that Sri Lanka’s two million farmers were forced to stop using fertilizers and pesticides, laying waste to its critical agricultural sector. (Never mind that Tesla has been booted from the ESG S&P Index, while Exxon Mobil is in the top ten. None of it makes much sense.)

To be sure, there were other factors behind Sri Lanka’s fall. Covid lockdowns and a 2019 bombing hurt tourism—an industry that usually generates between $3 billion and $5 billion a year. Sri Lanka racked up huge foreign debt, with China lending the country billions of dollars as part of its Belt and Road initiative. Transportation costs have rocketed 128 percent since May due to rising oil prices. And overall trends have not helped: Since 2012, growth has been declining.

But the biggest problem was Sri Lanka’s chemical fertilizer ban, which passed last year and was central to the country’s effort to comply with ESG.

“Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?” – (2 of 2)

https://www.commonsense.news/p/sri-lanka-just-fell-what-do-we-have?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

July 12, 2022

The numbers are shocking.

One-third of Sri Lanka’s farm lands were dormant in 2021 due to the fertilizer ban. Over 90 percent of Sri Lanka’s farmers had used chemical fertilizers before they were banned. After they were banned, an astonishing 85 percent experienced crop losses. Rice production fell 20 percent and prices skyrocketed 50 percent in just six months. Sri Lanka had to import $450 million worth of rice despite having been self-sufficient just months earlier. The price of carrots and tomatoes rose fivefold. All this had a dramatic impact on the more than 15 million people of the country’s 22 million people who are directly or indirectly dependent on farming.

Things were worse for smaller farmers. In the Rajanganaya region, where the majority of farmers operate two-and-a-half-acre lots, families reported 50 percent to 60 percent reductions in their harvest. “Before the ban, this was one of the biggest markets in the country, with tons and tons of rice and vegetables,” one farmer said earlier this year. “But after the ban, it became almost zero. If you talk to the rice mills, they don’t have any stock because people’s harvest dropped so much. The income of this whole community has dropped to an extremely low level.”

But the damage to tea was the key to Sri Lanka’s ruin. Before 2021, tea production generated $1.3 billion in exports annually. Tea exports paid for 71 percent of the nation’s food imports before 2021.

The fertilizer ban, starting in April 2021, changed everything. Four months after the ban took effect, the president, realizing that things were not going according to plan, lifted the ban on the import of chemical fertilizers—and then, two days later, reinstated it.

The results have been devastating and widely predicted by tea farmers, with exports crashing 18 percent between November 2021 and February 2022—reaching their lowest level in more than two decades.

“We don’t have enough chemical fertilizers,” Rajapaksa admitted in December 2021, “because we didn’t import them. There is a shortage.”

In May 2022, Sri Lanka failed to pay $77 million on its foreign debt repayments. That may seem like a small sum in the bigger scheme of things, but the default made it hard for Sri Lanka to borrow money. So, it devalued its currency, inflation rose 30 percent, and the government ran out of the cash it needed to import fuel, food and medicines.

What, exactly, were Rajapaksa and other Sri Lankan leaders thinking? Why did they engage in such a radical experiment with the most important industry in their country?

After World War II, Sri Lanka, like many poor nations, subsidized farmers to transition from biofertilizers, like manure, to chemical fertilizers in what is known as the Green Revolution. (This was popularized by Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize-winning agronomist.) Rice yields rose quickly, and the nation overcame chronic food shortages and started earning foreign revenue through the export of rubber and tea.

As yields rose, young people were able to get jobs in cities. Salaries increased—so much so that Sri Lanka became a middle-income nation.

But what looked like a dream to most Sri Lankans looked like a nightmare to many environmentalists in the West. In the 1970s, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and other activists raged against the Green Revolution. They claimed that overpopulation would cause mass death and suffering and that humankind needed to play “triage.” In other words, we had to let some people die so the rest of us could live.

>>16752102

>>16752130

“World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ Plan for Big Food Benefits Industry, Not People” - Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, Unilever, etc. (1 of 2)

https://www.oval.media/en/world-economic-forums-great-reset-plan-for-big-food-benefits-industry-not-people/

02/06/2022

The Great Reset is about maintaining and empowering a corporate extraction machine and the private ownership of life.” — Vandana Shiva

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) The Great Reset includes a plan to transform the global food and agricultural industries and the human diet. The architects of the plan claim it will reduce food scarcity, hunger and disease, and even mitigate climate change.

But a closer look at the corporations and think tanks the WEF is partnering with to usher in this global transformation suggests that the real motive is tighter corporate control over the food system by means of technological solutions.

Vandana Shiva, scholar, environmentalist, food sovereignty advocate and author, told The Defender, “The Great Reset is about multinational corporate stakeholders at the World Economic Forum controlling as many elements of planetary life as they possibly can. From the digital data humans produce to each morsel of food we eat.”

The WEF describes itself as “the global platform for public-private cooperation” that creates partnerships between corporations, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and other leaders of society to “define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda.”

According to WEF’s founder and executive chairman, Klaus Schwab, the forum is guided by the goal of positioning “private corporations as the trustees of society” to “address social and environmental challenges.”

In July, Schwab published a 195-page book, “COVID-19: The Great Reset,” in which he challenged industry leaders and decision makers to “make good use of the pandemic by not letting the crisis go to waste.”

TIME magazine (whose owner Marc Benioff is a WEF board member) recently partnered with the WEF to cover The Great Reset and to provide a “look at how the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to transform the way we live.”

The Great Reset is meant to be all-encompassing. Its partner organizations include the biggest players in data collection, telecommunications, weapons manufacturing, finance, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and the food industry.

The WEF’s plans for the “reset” of food and agriculture include projects and strategic partnerships that favor genetically modified organisms, lab-made proteins and pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals as sustainable solutions to food and health issues.

For example, WEF has promoted and partnered with an organization called EAT Forum. EAT Forum describes itself as a “Davos for food” that plans to “add value to business and industry” and “set the political agenda.”

EAT was co-founded by Wellcome Trust, an organization established with funds from GlaxoSmithKline and which still has strategic partnerships with the drugmaker. EAT collaborates with nearly 40 city governments in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Australia. The organization also assists the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the “creation of new dietary guidelines” and sustainable development initiatives.

“World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ Plan for Big Food Benefits Industry, Not People” - Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, Unilever, etc. (2 of 2)

https://www.oval.media/en/world-economic-forums-great-reset-plan-for-big-food-benefits-industry-not-people/

02/06/2022

According to Federic Leroy, a food science and biotechnology professor at University of Brussels, EAT network interacts closely with some of the biggest imitation meat companies, including Impossible Foods and other biotech companies, which aim to replace wholesome nutritious foods with genetically modified lab creations.

“They frame it as healthy and sustainable, which of course it is neither,” Leroy told The Defender.

Impossible Foods was initially co-funded by Google, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Recent lab results showed the company’s imitation meat contained glyphosate levels 11 times higher than its closest competitor.

EAT’s biggest initiative is called FReSH, which the organization describes as an effort to drive the transformation of the food system. The project’s partners include Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, Unilever and even tech giant Google.

“Companies like Unilever and Bayer and other pharmaceutical companies are already chemical processors — so many of these companies are very well positioned to profit off of this new food business which revolves around processing chemicals and extracts needed to produce these lab-made foods on a global scale,” Leroy said.

In Schwab’s book, he discusses how biotechnology and genetically modified food should become a central pillar to repairing global food scarcity issues, issues which COVID has revealed and exacerbated.

He writes “global food security will only be achieved if regulations on genetically modified foods are adapted to reflect the reality that gene editing offers a precise, efficient and safe method of improving crops.”

Shiva disagrees. She told The Defender that the “WEF is parading fake science,” and “for Mr. Schwab to promote these technologies as solutions proves that The Great Reset is about maintaining and empowering a corporate extraction machine and the private ownership of life.”

EAT developed what it refers to as “the planetary health diet,” which the WEF champions as the “sustainable dietary solution of the future.” But according to Leroy, it’s a diet that’s supposed to replace everything else. “The diet aims to cut the meat and dairy intake of the global population by as much as 90% in some cases and replaces it with lab-made foods, cereals and oil,” he said.

Shiva further explained, “EAT’s proposed diet is not about nutrition at all, it’s about big business and it’s about a corporate takeover of the food system.”

According to EAT’s own reports, the big adjustments the organization and its corporate partners want to make to the food system are “unlikely to be successful if left up to the individual,” and the changes they wish to impose on societal eating habits and food “require reframing at the systemic level with hard policy interventions that include laws, fiscal measures, subsidies and penalties, trade reconfiguration and other economic and structural measures.”

But Shiva said this is the wrong approach, because “all of the science” shows that diets should be centered around regional and geographical biodiversity. She explained that “EAT’s uniform global diet will be produced with western technology and agricultural chemicals. Forcing this onto sovereign nations by multinational lobbying is what I refer to as food imperialism.”

>>16752102

>>16752130

>>16756542

>>16756549

“History of Wellcome” - Wellcome Trust

https://wellcome.org/who-we-are/history-wellcome

Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) was a pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He left us three things in his will: his wealth, his collection of historical medical items, and a mission to improve health through research.

Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust was founded in 1936, in accordance with Henry Wellcome’s will, to improve health by supporting scientific research and the study of medicine. Funding for this mission came from the profits of the pharmaceutical business he had built up over 50 years.

In 1880, Silas Burroughs and Henry Wellcome, two pharmaceutical salesmen from America, started a new company in London called Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. They used mass production and proactive marketing to sell remedies and medicines throughout the UK and territories colonised by the British, building the company’s reputation on scientific rigour.

Henry Wellcome became a wealthy and prominent figure in the growth of the modern pharmaceutical industry. After his death in 1936 (Silas Burroughs had died in 1895), the company became the property of the newly formed Wellcome Trust, which used the profits to fund charitable activities supporting research related to health.

Despite financial difficulties after World War II, the business began to thrive again, pioneering a new approach to drug design. Successful products included the first leukaemia drug, immune suppressants for organ transplants, and antivirals such as AZT, the first drug approved to treat HIV.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the Wellcome Trust decided to sell the company, which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline and no longer has any ownership or governance relationship with Wellcome. We do work with GlaxoSmithKline, as we work with many other healthcare companies, when it helps us to achieve our mission.

The considerable proceeds from the sale gave the Wellcome Trust financial independence. Today, we invest in a wide range of financial assets around the world, and the returns from our portfolio – currently worth around £38 billion – fund everything we do.

>>16717044

>>16698270

>Glencore’s client list is a roster of the world’s largest firms including BP, Total, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhilips, Chevron, Vale, Rio Tinto, ArcelorMittal and Sony

>>16752102

>Both [Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust] organizations are invested in the Rio Tinto mines

>>16756767

>The considerable proceeds from the sale gave the Wellcome Trust financial independence. Today, we invest in a wide range of financial assets around the world, and the returns from our portfolio – currently worth around £38 billion – fund everything we do.

>>16756816

>Viscount Alfred Milner, co-founder of the Pilgrims Society, was Rio Tinto chairman from 1923-1925, and earlier a director for many years.

“Rio Tinto's recent scandals” – “sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination”; “Indigenous site destroyed”; “Bougainville civil war”; “Equatorial Guinea probe” (Part 1)

https://www.rfi.fr/en/rio-tinto-s-recent-scandals

03/02/2022

Sydney (AFP) – Revelations of rape and sexual assault at Rio Tinto are the latest in a series of scandals to hit the global mining giant, which is listed in London and Sydney.

Here is a selection of Rio Tinto's recent problems:

'Deeply disturbing'

On Tuesday, Rio Tinto released a searing internal report showing that sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination were rife "throughout the company".

The 85-page report, based on one-on-one interviews and a survey of 10,000 staff, found that 21 women had reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault in the past five years.

CEO Jakob Stausholm said the findings were "deeply disturbing".

"I offer my heartfelt apology to every team member, past or present, who has suffered as a result of these behaviours. This is not the kind of company we want to be," he said.

Indigenous site destroyed

In 2020, Rio admitted blowing up 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, destroying a priceless piece of the country's Aboriginal history.

Following public backlash and an investor revolt, then-CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two other top executives were forced to resign.

The caves were one of the earliest known locations inhabited by Australia's Indigenous people and had contained some of the oldest Aboriginal artefacts ever found in the country.

Rio Tinto's then-chairman Simon Thompson apologised and said the company's 2020 successes which saw it pay out a record dividend to investors on the back of booming iron ore prices had been "overshadowed" by the destruction.

The site is considered sacred by the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people of Western Australia.

>>16757161

“Rio Tinto's recent scandals” – “sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination”; “Indigenous site destroyed”; “Bougainville civil war”; “Equatorial Guinea probe” (Part 2)

https://www.rfi.fr/en/rio-tinto-s-recent-scandals

03/02/2022

Bougainville civil war

After decades of pressure, Rio Tinto agreed in 2021 to investigate the legacy of environmental damage and human rights abuses linked to its mine on the once war-torn Pacific island of Bougainville.

The now-shuttered Panguna copper and gold mine was at the centre of the brutal decade-long civil war in Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea.

While in operation between 1972 and 1989, it was one of the South Pacific's largest mines.

Anger among locals over the environmental damage and distribution of profits fuelled an uprising and civil war that killed an estimated 20,000 people – 10 percent of the island's population at the time.

Clean-up costs are believed to be in the region of US$1 billion and have become prominent in the debate over Bougainville's independence from Papua New Guinea, which the island's residents overwhelmingly voted for in December 2019.

Equatorial Guinea probe

In 2017, Britain's Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into "suspected corruption" surrounding Rio Tinto's development of the world's biggest untapped iron ore deposit in Equatorial Guinea.

A year earlier, Rio Tinto reported itself to regulators after an internal probe found US$10.5 million in "advisory services" payments had been made in relation to the project.

The company first secured exploration rights in the Simandou mountains in 1997.

In 2014, it sealed a US$20 billion deal with a consortium led by a Chinese state-run aluminium group to develop Simandou, which would have been Africa's biggest-ever mining and infrastructure venture.

The stake was later sold. The investigation is ongoing.

>>16756816

The Pirbright Institute – “Our major stakeholders”; Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and so on

https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/partnerships/our-major-stakeholders

The Pirbright Institute is a publicly funded private company. We have a diverse range of major stakeholders, and receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Our major stakeholders are:

• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

• UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

• Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council (MRC) and other research funding agencies

• International funding and disease control agencies, such as OIE, WHO, the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

• Industrial producers of veterinary vaccines and antivirals

• Farmers and livestock keepers

>>16751370

I guess they only "follow the science" when it is convenient. Back in "The Day" I learned that plants take in those gasses such as Carbon Dioxide and release oxygen

>>16758646

Exactly, and…

“Study: Global plant growth surging alongside carbon dioxide”

https://www.noaa.gov/news/study-global-plant-growth-surging-alongside-carbon-dioxide

April 20, 2017

A trace gas present in the atmosphere in miniscule amounts is helping scientists answer one of the biggest questions out there: Has plant growth increased alongside rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

It turns out the answer is Yes – in a big way. A new study published in the April 6 edition of the journal Nature concludes that as emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels have increased since the start of the 20th century, plants around the world are utilizing 30 percent more carbon dioxide (CO2), spurring plant growth.

Plants take up CO2 when they photosynthesize, but they release it when they respire, decay or are burned. [What will the “scientists” do about that?]

“Sasol declares force majeure on petroleum products due to delays in oil shipments” – Other plants have already been shut down

https://www.africaninsider.com/business/sasol-declares-force-majeure-on-petroleum-products-due-to-delays-in-oil-shipments/

Cape Town – South Africa’s largest fuel producer, Sasol has reportedly declared a force majeure on petroleum products.

According to Fin24, this comes after the temporary shutdown of key refinery Natref on Friday due to delays in crude oil shipments.

“Sasol Oil has declared a Force Majeure on petroleum products as a result of delays in the arrival of crude oil shipments which are beyond Sasol Oil’s control. These delays have impacted availability of crude oil feedstock for processing at Natref, which necessitates the shutdown of its Natref refinery.

“In the circumstances, Sasol Oil will not be in a position to fully meet its commitments on the supply of all petroleum products from July 2022,” Sasol said in a statement as quoted by the report.

The oil company did not provide any details on what caused the shipment delay but instead said that it was engaging industry players and affected customers on the matter.

In the same breath, Sasol confirmed that a shipment finally arrived on Saturday, saying that it expected that Natref would be running at full capacity by end-July.

According to Bloomberg, Natref’s closure followed the suspension of production at a number of other facilities over the last two years.

Sapref, the country’s largest plant owned by Shell Plc and BP Plc, ceased operations ahead of a sale and was subsequently damaged by floods while State-owned PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids plant ran out of feedstock, said the report.

Engen oil refinery shut down after it caught fire while Glencore Plc’s Cape Town refinery closed down after an explosion at the facility.

>>16762122 - And then there is sabotage at Eskom. Coincidence?

“Eskom power station sabotaged — fifth time in a year”

https://www.biznews.com/energy/2022/05/20/eskom-power-station-sabotage

20 May 2022

I don’t know what the worker complement is at the five-times sabotaged Tutuka Power Station near Standerton, but with 20 staff suspended and three arrested, I can only wonder how the CEO of a privately owned, similar-sized enterprise would respond. What do you do when you’ve got that many suspected rotten apples threatening your very existence? In this case, it’s all of our business because it contributes to rolling blackouts and diminished quality of life. Dysfunction and a lack of skills is one thing, but outright sabotage to enrich criminal networks or strengthen the hand of labour – or whatever other possible nefarious reason might exist – goes well beyond the pale of anything civilised. Wholesale theft of spare parts, diesel, cables, and stones deliberately tossed into coal crushers … we can only hope our courts send out an unequivocal message if anyone is convicted. This is not power to the people. An injury to one power station is an injury to all. Article republished courtesy of MyBroadband. – Chris Bateman

Eskom has confirmed suspected sabotage was behind delays in returning a unit to service at its Tutuka Power Station near Standerton this past week.

The utility said criminals cut a cable while personnel were in final preparations for returning Tutuka unit 5 to service following an outage.

Earlier on Thursday, News24 reported the cable in question was a warming valve cable that a saboteur had severed using a grinder. “The damage to the cable delayed the unit’s return to service by three days as it took some time to locate the fault,” Eskom said.

“Once discovered, the cable was repaired in a short space of time. The return to service of unit 5 was then resumed.” However, only a few hours later on the same day, the station detected an air pressure drop, and the same unit’s turbine systems, which consume control air for operation were de-energised.

“It was later discovered that the control air pipe supplying the turbine systems had been cut with a power tool and the entire bend removed.”

The air pipe was welded back on and the system charged with control air before being normalised. Eskom said the unit was expected to return to service on Thursday.

The utility believes these incidents were deliberate acts of sabotage by someone who had access to the site where only employees could be and who knew the security features in the area quite well. “Eskom has laid criminal charges with the South African Police Service, and its forensic team is assisting with the investigation,” the utility said.

Fifth incident

This is the fifth incident of sabotage at Tutuka since March 2021. Eskom said it had reported all of the incidents to the police.

Earlier this week, the utility told MyBroadband it had suspended 20 workers from Tutuka for suspected theft and corruption. Three employees were also arrested.

In April 2022, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter revealed that the utility had to write off R1.3bn worth of spares at Tutuka because it could not track them down. Tutuka has a nameplate capacity of 3,654 MW, with each of its six units designed to produce up to 609 MW. However, the power station is Eskom’s worst-performing in its coal fleet, with an EAF of roughly 38%, well below the average of approximately 55%.

The power utility has implemented measures to improve security at all its power stations in general and Tutuka specifically, where additional security personnel and other security systems have been introduced.

These include 400 additional security personnel and the use of drones.

Eskom said while these measures had significantly improved security at Tutuka, including reducing cable theft incidents, incidents such as the latest showed there was an opportunity for further improvements to secure the facility and the supply of electricity.

An excellent lecture! Does this not remind you of COVID? Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Forest Laboratories, are mentioned.

“Psychiatry & Big Pharma: Exposed - Dr James Davies, PhD”

https://youtu.be/-Nd40Uy6tbQ

Posted November 24, 2019

Why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in the 1960s, to around 370 today?

Why has the definition of mental disorder expanded to include ever more domains of human experience?

In the first part of this lecture, Dr James Davies will take us behind the scenes of how the psychiatrist’s bible, the DSM, was actually written – did science drive the construction of new mental disorder categories like ADHD and major depression or were less scientific and more unexpected processes at play? His exclusive interviews with the creators of the DSM reveal the answer.

The second part will address why psychiatry is such big business, and why, on the whole, it may be doing more harm than good. You’ll get insider knowledge on how psychiatry has put riches and medical status above patients’ well-being. The charge sheet is damning; negative drug trials routinely buried; antidepressants that work no better than placebos; research regularly manipulated to produce positive results; doctors, seduced by huge pharmaceutical rewards, creating more disorders and prescribing more pills; and ethical, scientific and treatment flaws unscrupulously concealed by mass-marketing.

You’ll learn the true human cost of an industry that, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself.

Dr James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a DPhil in Social and Medical Anthropology.

He is a Reader in Social Anthropology and Mental Health at the University of Roehampton and a practicing psychotherapist. James has delivered lectures at universities such as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Oslo, Brown, UCL and Columbia.

He has written for The Times, The New Scientist, The Guardian and Salon, and is author of the bestselling book: Cracked: why psychiatry is doing more harm than good.

James is the co-founder of the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, now secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. His latest book: ‘Mental Health in Crisis’ will be published later this year.

>>16763881

“Gravitas Plus: How Big Pharma pushes dangerous drugs and reaps profits”

https://youtu.be/XCciAJJMt9Q

Posted January 9, 2022

The pandemic has revealed the power of big pharma. Major drug manufacturers and suppliers have the power to set prices, influence regulators and lobby lawmakers. This power has allowed big pharma to push potentially dangerous drugs. How? Palki Sharma tells you.

>>16763881

“Big Psychiatry Weaponized for Deep State's Crazy NOW”

https://youtu.be/1uT1jiamAoM

Weaponized psychiatry is one of the key tools being used by the Deep State to usher in its diabolical New World Order, explains The New American magazine's Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. For generations, psychiatry has been at the forefront of the movement for tyranny, even being used against dissidents to keep them locked up in horrific conditions in communist nations. Now, the UN World Health Organization is in the process of developing and imposing a global "mental health" regime that is extremely dangerous. Meanwhile, Alex explains that psychiatry is not like other medical fields: there are no objective tests, and psychiatrists themselves vote on what to classify as a "disorder."

>>16767958

>>16763881

>1:10:24 – “I go to Amazon and I open the page and I stop and I look and I can’t believe what I am seeing. At that point, six months after DSM 5 was published, the highest selling book in the whole of the United States was DSM 5… So who was buying this book?… she said from my experience in the New York state area where I work in primary care, what’s happening is the pharmaceutical industry is buying DSM in bulk and then distributing it for free to clinicians up and down the country and that is why the sales are so high.”

>1:40:54 – “I quickly learned was that there’s a huge disjunct between the people who sat on these committees thought about the process and how this process was represented by the private corporation, the American Phsychiatric Association (APA), which incidentally… funds a lot of its operational costs from publication of DSM. DSM makes the APA about $6 million a year in publication revenue. The APA had vested interest in representing this as a piece of science whereas the people on the committees were quite clear that it was a hugely problematic endeavor and important endeavor as they believed. An endeavor that would improve the state of psychiatric diagnosis, improve its reliability, etc. and so forth. But not to the extent that it was being represented by the APA. So I think what I encountered was what the APA had sort of covered over and led people to believe didn’t exist. Could I give you another example of how the APA does this? I wanted to speak to the people who wrote DSM 5. So I contacted the APA and said could I do so. I want to understand the processes that went on behind the scenes as I did with DSM 3 and DSM 4 and it turns out that I wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone involved in DSM 5 because all of them were asked to sign confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from speaking to anybody, any academic, any journalists, about what went on behind the scenes in the construction of DSM 5. So I said, well can I just consult the archives then. Yeah? I mean I’m a researcher and they said we can’t do that either and I said, why not? Because they’ve all been embargoed for 20 years post-publication. So we cannot work out what went on behind the scenes. And so the APA has a vested interest in keeping this hidden.”

“Plot Against Guns is Not About Safety, but Tyranny”

https://youtu.be/W5BD9dfIuzI

The Deep State war on the gun rights of Americans, supposedly a response to a number of recent mass shootings, has nothing to do with public safety, and everything to do with disarming victims so they can be more effectively oppressed, warns The New American magazine’s Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. In fact, data and common sense both show that disarming law-abiding citizens worsens public safety, allowing criminals free rein. In this episode, Alex also talks about how and why state and local authorities MUST resist this Deep State attack on the Second Amendment-protected right to Keep and Bear Arms.

1:57 – “The last thing in the universe that the big pharmaceutical companies need is more taxpayer money but this is the trap. Right? This is what the deep state always does. They create a problem or they manufacture a problem or they exploit a problem and then they give you 2 options and it’s always the same thing. Heads they win, tails you lose. So that’s where we are now either heads we give more money to the big pharmaceutical companies, put more people on crazy drugs, lock more people up in insane asylums and take away more freedom under the guise of mental health or we take away your guns and remove your right to defend yourself or some combination of the two if we’re going to do a compromise.”

“Food Crisis Being Engineered by the Deep State”

https://youtu.be/4UHWRctEBrE

May 23, 2022

Catastrophic food shortages and even famine are being engineered by the Deep State in a bid to centralize control over the food supply and ultimately the population of the planet, warns The New American magazine's Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. Key globalist Deep State operatives such as Henry "New World Order" Kissinger have flirted with the idea of food shortages as a population-control weapon for generations. The goals are clear. And now, thanks to deliberate policy decisions taken by Deep State-controlled governments and organizations, a true food crisis of global proportions is emerging. Newman also provides ideas on how to deal with the coming threat–before it's too late. You will want to share this one with your friends and family!

>>16768430

>https://youtu.be/4UHWRctEBrE

Embedded

“Global War on Farmers by Deep State Threatens EVERYTHING”

https://youtu.be/i8Aw7S10uLU

The war on farmers and ranchers is not just happening in Holland or the United Statesit is global, ranging from Brazil and South Africa to Chinawarns The New American magazine's Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. The goal is to totally restructure the food supply so that all production is in the hands of Deep State-controlled mega-corporations and governments. In the Netherlands, under the guise of stopping "nitrogen," the Dutch government is seeking to destroy huge swaths of that nation's agricultural sector. In Brazil, the pretext was giving land to Indians. In South Africa, the war on farmers has been especially brutal, and is being carried out under the guise of wealth redistribution. In China, it's happening under the guise of "efficiency." In the United States, it's happening to supposedly protect the environment, lands, "endangered" animals, the "climate," and much more. Ultimately, the devastation will help the Deep State exert far more control over humanity by having total control over all food and lands. The war on energy is happening in tandem.

“Dark Times Before The Dawn: Daniel Natal Interview” – Great Interview

https://youtu.be/xdDYaPlPEb0

Explains why a republic decays into a democracy (mob rule) which is socialism (promising free stuff). He also discusses the difference between a dictatorship and a totalitarian state as well as Big Tech’s technology came from the military, synthetic famines.

10:32 – “Aristotle, when he described democracy, it’s very clear he was saying what we described as socialism today. The term socialism was only coined in the 1830s by French philosopher. Aristotle, when he described a democracy, he said that in a time of democracy demagogues would rise up and these demagogues would manipulate the people. They would bribe their way into power by offering free food, free housing, free health care. He actually says this in politics.”

>>16697445

“The Psychology of Totalitarianism”

https://youtu.be/v2NftKNm1hU

What is the difference between a dictatorship and a totalitarian state? Answer: A dictator only controls one institution (namely, government). In a totalitarian state, by contrast, the ruler lays claim to ALL the society's institutions: government, economics, religion, media, art, marriage, etc. They are all amassed into a single integrated system. In other words, there is no separation of church and state, or a separation of business from government, or a separation of any of the institutions from the centralized power structure. As this system emerges, a new populace has to be cultivated: One used to powerlessness, passivity, dogmatism. Watch as we explore the psychology of such subjects in a totalitarian state.

9:48 – “Towards the end he reminded me of Mark Penn’s book “Microtrends Squared”. In it there is a chapter called “The Impressionable Elites” whereby he documents studies that demonstrate that an inverse relationship exist between critical thinking facilities and the amount of time someone spends in a university. That is to say that people who went to trade schools have better developed critical thinking facilities than someone who earned a degree in a university. It gets even worse as the degrees get higher. The more times spent inside an institution of higher learning, the less one can think rationally and rather relies on appeals to authority for authority. As Noam Chomsky said, universities are not selection mechanisms for intelligence but for conformity.”

General Research #21155 >>16771198

South African Leaders Accused of Using Banks to Shut Out and Silence Opposing Voices in Independent Media Group

President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa has served as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa and president of the African National Congress (ANC) political party since 2017.

Pravin Gordham is the current Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in South Africa.

According to a new report, these two officials are silencing the Independent Media Group in South Africa by pushing the Standard Bank to close their accounts. The Independent Media Group South Africa is one of South Africa’s leading multi-platform content companies.

Iqbal Surve from the Independent Media Group released a video condemning leaders for the organized financial attacks on independent media outlets.

It’s sort of like the US Tech Giants and their attacks on independent media here at home.

Via The Business Report:

“SILENCING Independent Media is the ruthless aim of Pravin Gordhan and Cyril Ramaphosa” stated Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media, who also asked if South Africa could still claim to have a democracy when the media is muzzled from showcasing a diversity of views or from holding those in public office to account?

This as Standard Bank – which has reneged on its submission to the Competition Commission where it said it was not closing the Group company bank accounts – has now expressed its intention to shut the banking facilities of the country’s largest independent media organisation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/south-african-leaders-accused-using-banks-shut-silence-opposing-voices-independent-media-group/

General Research #21155 >>16771477

Vaccine-Induced Immune Response to Omicron Wanes Substantially Over Time

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/vaccine-induced-immune-response-omicron-wanes-substantially-over-time#.YtgR9qiZ50A.twitter

What

Although COVID-19 booster vaccinations in adults elicit high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, antibody levels decrease substantially within 3 months, according to new clinical trial data. The findings, published today in Cell Reports Medicine, are from a study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial was led by NIAID’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium.

As part of a “mix and match” clinical trial, investigators administered COVID-19 booster vaccines to adults in the United States who had previously received a primary COVID-19 vaccination series under Emergency Use Authorization. Some participants received the same vaccine as their primary series, and others received a different vaccine. Investigators then evaluated immune responses over time. Results previously reported in the New England Journal of Medicine showed all combinations of primary and booster vaccines resulted in increased neutralizing antibody levels in the recipients.

In the new analysis, investigators report that nearly all vaccine combinations evaluated (see table) elicited high levels of neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron BA.1 sub-lineage. However, antibody levels against Omicron were low in the group that received Ad26.COV2.S as both a primary vaccine and boost. Moreover, immune responses to Omicron in all groups waned substantially, with neutralizing antibody levels decreasing 2.4- to 5.3-fold by three months post-boost. Omicron sub-lineages BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 were 1.5 and 2.5 times less susceptible to neutralization, respectively, compared to the BA.1 sub-lineage, and 7.5 and 12.4 times less susceptible relative to the ancestral D614G strain. BA.5 currently is the dominant variant in the U.S.

The authors note that the findings are consistent with real-world reports showing waning protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave in people who received a primary vaccine series plus a booster shot. Additionally, the immune response to Omicron sub-lineages show reduced susceptibility to these rapidly emerging subvariants. The data could be used to inform decisions regarding future vaccine schedule recommendations, including the need for variant vaccine boosting.

NIAID grants supporting this research were UM1AI48372, UM1AI148373, UM1AI148450, UM1AI148452, UM1AI148573, UM1AI148574, UM1AI148575, UM1AI148576, UM1AI148684 and UM1AI148689. Contract 75N93019C00050 from the NIAID Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) also provided support.

Articles

KE Lyke et al. Rapid Decline in Vaccine-Boosted Neutralizing Antibodies Against SARS CoV-2 Omicron Variant. Cell Reports Medicine DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100679 (2022).

RL Atmar et al. Homologous and heterologous COVID-19 booster vaccinations. The New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2116414 (2022).

Who

Dr. John H. Beigel, associate director for clinical research in NIAID’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, is available to discuss the study.

Contact

To schedule interviews, please contact the NIAID News & Science Writing Branch, (301) 402-1663, niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov(link sends e-mail).

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 3

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

Raičević oversaw the group’s transformation into Group America, a disciplined and secretive international criminal organization focusing on trafficking cocaine from South America to Europe. Authorities also attribute multiple contract killings to members, though they have never won a murder conviction.

The gang maintained its deep ties with the Serbian security service. In a 1997 conversation attributed to a Croatian secret service wiretap, Slobodan Milošević’s son, Marko, and another man were heard discussing Group America leader Raičević, who is described as “working for Boško Bojović,” a senior Montenegrin spy loyal to Milošević.

That was the year Raičević vanished.

In his lengthy confession to the police years later, Srećko said that after the missing Group America leader’s presumed murder, his brother, Veselin Vesko “Little Bear” Raičević, called a meeting to plan a campaign that would root out traitors and exact revenge.

Among the attendees, Srećko said, was Boško Bojović, who was then living in Belgrade as a top associate of Serbia’s intelligence chief.

Srećko said he was told that Raičević’s suspected assassin, Miša Cvjetičanin, was taken to a Belgrade villa and tortured until he named his conspirators. He was then dismembered with a chainsaw.

The subsequent bloody revenge spree against Raičević’s killers saw the murder of two rival gang heads, a police general, two Group America turncoats, and one of their fathers.

After the killing was done, Group America had a new leader: Mileta Miljanić, the man who today lives comfortably in New York.

Then in his late 30s, Miljanić had a reputation as a man capable of both incredible loyalty and calculated cruelty. When police asked Srećko to name gang members they could exploit as weak links, the informant said Miljanić was out of the question.

“Psychologically, he’s really prepared. He knows how to assess people through their feelings, their stories,” Srećko said. “He’s untouchable.”

Miljanić would lead the gang to more complex, and more lucrative, criminality.

Local Terror and Global Reach

Slobodan Milošević was driven from office in October 2000 after mass protests. The reformist government of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić that followed his ouster cautiously reached out to the West, instituted democratic reforms, and — in contrast to Milošević — was seen as hostile to organized crime.

Group America responded with domestic terrorism.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 4

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

In 2002, the group was accused of orchestrating the nighttime assassination of police general Boško Buha on the banks of the Danube. In subsequent raids, police recovered a number of weapons, including two pistols and an assault rifle registered to Serbia’s Security Service (now Security Information Agency, or BIA) from the home of a Group America member. Two state security officers were charged, but the case has languished in the courts ever since.

In an indictment, prosecutors accused five group members of planning to kill senior government officials to “create fear among citizens and an atmosphere of inviolable power,” which would allow the gang to operate with impunity in a new political order.

Among Group America’s planned high-profile targets, prosecutors said, was the prime minister himself.

Months later, in March 2003, Đinđić was assassinated by a sniper.

Radonjić, by then no longer actively involved in gang leadership, was held by police for several weeks but was charged only with illegal possession of ammunition. The Đinđić hit was eventually credited to a rival gang, the Zemun clan. Radonjić died of natural causes in 2011.

In 1998, one year into Miljanić’s tenure as head of Group America, police in Peru arrested Jakšić and seized 1.22 kilograms of Group America cocaine hidden in spray cans destined for Miami. It was a taste of things to come.

In 2000, police in Bosnia seized a 164-kilogram consignment also linked to the gang.

By some estimates, the gang may have no more than 15 core members and perhaps 100 regular associates scattered across several continents but who travel internationally as needed. The group’s membership is fluid, often expanding by associating with other gangs in different regions and hiring freelancers for short-term work.

For example, Group America typically hires Serbian and Montenegrin sailors to smuggle shipments of less than 100 kilograms on commercial vessels and cruise ships sailing from South America to Europe, paying them on delivery. This approach reduces the cost of lost shipments and offers less incentive for authorities to spend time and money going after the group’s leaders.

In an assessment written by Italian investigators who tailed the gang in 2008 and 2009, detectives said they were impressed by its efficient management and ability to react quickly when threatened.

“The group is very strong economically and is able to create a base of operations in any city, but can also disappear or dissipate quickly in emergency situations,” they wrote.

‘Spies Deserve to Die’

That appraisal came after police in Milan stumbled across something big while monitoring routine cocaine sales around Northern Italy.

Curious detectives followed a drug dealer to a meeting with Mileta Miljanić’s nephew, Mladen Miljanić, who was in Italy to prepare for a cocaine delivery.

The police followed Mladen Miljanić to a room in the Gran Duca di York, a stately boutique hotel, and traced his associates to short-stay apartments and hotel rooms across the city. They deployed hidden cameras, concealed microphones, and telephone taps to learn more.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 5

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

What they saw and heard was staggering.

“These are hardcore criminals, very dangerous ones,” Marcello Musso, the prosecutor who handled the probe, told OCCRP in 2016. “They have their own paramilitary structure with a clear chain of command and a lot of weapons. They easily changed apartments, places where they lived, phone numbers. They acted like police would, which made the investigation much harder.”

The group’s activities were clearly profitable. One surveillance video shows Jakšić in a Milan hotel room, nonchalantly stacking more than 1 million euros on the table in front of him.

Over several months, the Italians filled out a picture of Group America as a “services agency” in the international drug trade, buying cocaine from Latin American producers and selling it to European wholesalers, but staying away from street-level sales.

The police surveillance also revealed a global network with distribution channels in the Americas, Africa, and Europe – and indications of friends in important places.

“I can say some serious information came to me,” said Musso, who died in a traffic accident last year. “Horrible information about corruption, about ties between narco-traffickers and the Serbian police.”

In early 2009, the Italians listened as Mileta Miljanić told Jakšić that a member of Serbian intelligence had tipped him off to a rat in Group America’s ranks. He named Milenko Lasković, also known as Laki, as the informant who told police about the group in 2001. The accusation fit: Lasković’s nickname, “Laki,” is a variation of “Lucky,” the English translation of Srećko.

It was heartbreaking news for Miljanić. Lasković was an old friend, though it didn’t mean he would overlook the transgression.

“He needs to be eliminated,” Miljanić told Jakšić in a telephone conversation.

After police in Buenos Aires seized more than $6 million worth of Group America cocaine, Miljanić told his second-in-command that he had grilled Lasković about past seizures and was unsatisfied with his answers.

The conclusion, overheard by police, was inescapable.

“Spies deserve to die,” Jakšić told Miljanić.

A year later, on the evening of January 18, 2010, Lasković was shot three times in the head while parking his Mercedes in a Belgrade suburb.

His murder remains unsolved.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 6

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

Hiding in Plain Sight

On a surveillance tape transcribed by Italian police, Miljanić is heard offering life advice and tips on how to manage the gang and avoid arrest. His audience was his Jakšić, whose looks, vices, and love of nightlife tended to attract attention.

“Everything should be relaxed, simple and normal,” Miljanić told him. “Zoran, please, take care. Don’t step into shit, and don’t take risks — and we will never be hungry. But if we fall, everything is over…”

Like the Dons of America’s traditional five New York mafia families, Miljanić himself leads a quiet life in New York. His primary residence appears to be the plain six-flat brick row house in Ridgewood, a working-class Queens neighborhood. His only known extravagance is a villa and acreage in Serbia.

Miljanić could blend easily into a crowd of accountants, but Jakšić — 6 1/2 feet tall, athletic, and with striking brown eyes — tends to get noticed.

While Miljanić stays close to home, Jakšić was a frequent flyer, often switching among 40 known false identities as he fronted for Group America around the world. At various times, authorities in Italy, Greece, Germany, and Argentina have issued warrants for his arrest.

For a decade, Jakšić’s primary base of operation was South America. Police in Peru say he did everything from negotiating deals with cocaine suppliers to handling payments and arranging shipments, often in bold and novel ways.

In Argentina he once planned to start a business that would smuggle cocaine to Spain in wine bottles. Police grew wise to the scheme and were about to arrest him but he fled the country.

Even when caught, Jakšić has managed to continue work and even gain advantage while in prison. Authorities say that after his 1998 arrest in Peru he made ample use of his prison term, forging strategic relationships and developing contacts with other inmates that later proved essential in the cocaine trade.

But Jakšić eventually fell hard, again in Peru. Police there arrested dozens of his associates and seized more than 854 kilograms of cocaine in a series of raids in 2016. Jakšić slipped away, likely thanks to a tip, but was arrested in the seaside city of Tumbes as he crossed the border from Ecuador.

While awaiting trial in Lima, Jakšić continued running Group America’s cocaine business from his cell at Miguel Castro Castro prison. In 2019 he was implicated in an escape plot and moved to the maximum-security Ancon 1 prison, where he is now serving a 25-year sentence for drug trafficking.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 7

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

Closing In — and Slipping Away

Italian police in 2009 interrupted Group America’s drug delivery, but Miljanić andJakšić left the country before they could be arrested. Fearing the gang’s ties to intelligence services and links to the U.S. would prevent international cooperation, authorities decided to wait for them to return.

As they waited, the Italians kept monitoring the gang’s cell calls. A senior law enforcement official told OCCRP the wiretaps picked up Miljanić negotiating with Russian mobsters about a daring new joint venture to smuggle cocaine from Venezuela by submarine.

That plan likely soured on May 31, 2010. Alitalia had informed police Miljanić would be flying from Belgrade to Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. He was arrested as he changed planes in Rome.

Musso, the prosecutor in Milan, told OCCRP that he pushed to have Miljanić charged as the head of an organized crime family, which could have added as much as 15 years to any sentence. But Musso couldn’t get Italy’s anti-Mafia prosecutor in Rome to go along.

Both the prosecutor and the senior Italian police official attributed Rome’s reluctance to pressure from the U.S., saying that Miljanić, a U.S. citizen, received an unusual number of visitors from the U.S. Embassy while in custody. Italian officials rejected OCCRP’s requests for prison visitation records that might confirm those visits.

But Alfredo Foti, an Italian criminal defense attorney and university researcher, told OCCRP that prosecuting Miljanić as an organized crime figure would have been difficult. The charge of “Mmafia association” is usually reserved for traditional Italian groups and requires specific criminal acts that were not associated with the smuggling operation that resulted in charges against the Group America leaders.

The case was eventually sent to Venice, where Miljanić was sentenced to seven years in prison and a 40,000 euro fine for drug distribution — punishment more fitting of a low-level drug operative than the head of a global trafficking network. On appeal, the sentence was cut by a year.

Limited prison records show Miljanić was sent to a prison in the northeastern Italian town of Tolmezzo, where he spent time picking fruit and gardening in a program called “A Garden to Escape.”

On May 6, 2014, Miljanić was granted “regime di semiliberta,” a kind of parole that allowed him to spend much of his time outside of prison, unsupervised.

He disappeared on August 25, 2014, 13 months before completing his sentence.

The Surveillance Court of Trieste, which had jurisdiction over the prisoner, told OCCRP it “acted according to the law’’ and notified both national and Venetian prosecutors about his disappearance, but said that nothing happened.

The Venice prosecutor’s office said only that it has no pending extradition request for Miljanić. It’s unclear why.

“You should not be surprised that someone who is sentenced in Italy walks free in the USA,’’ Musso told OCCRP in 2016. “Americans take care of their citizens, defend them. Not like Spain. They extradite criminals to us.”

While Italian police and prosecutors privately expressed dismay that they were unable to charge Miljanić as a major drug trafficker, only Musso would speak on the record.

“The court was responsible for this, not the police,’’ Musso said. “The courts were not capable of doing this right.”

“But it is important that we discovered this [Group America] phenomenon,’’ Musso added. “Still, we did something important — arrested him. But yes, we were not perfect.”

Miljanić remains a wanted fugitive in Italy, but is apparently safe from arrest unless he returns there.

“Powerful Serbian-American Drug Traffickers May Have Ties to Intelligence Agencies” Part 8

https://www.courthousenews.com/powerful-serbian-american-drug-traffickers-may-have-ties-to-intelligence-agencies/

September 1, 2020

Friends in Low Places?

The U.S. Department of State did not respond to written requests for information about Miljanić and Group America. But there are tantalizing clues that the gang does have an “in” with U.S. intelligence or law enforcement agencies.

One is the group’s close alignment with the Serbian secret police in the 1990s.

According to media reports, Sir Ivor Roberts, the UK’s ambassador in Belgrade from 1994 to 1997, testified in the international court in The Hague in October 2019 that the former head of the Serbian National Security Service, Jovica Stanišić, was a “secret agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Roberts told the court he could say no more because the British government has “not allowed him to talk about these matters.” He did not respond to an OCCRP request for an interview.

His description echoes allegations made by the Los Angeles Times in 2009 and in his own 2016 book, “Conversations with Milosevic.”

Another clue is buried in federal court records in New York.

The docket for the federal court for the Southern District of New York shows that in October 2003, Miljanić, Jakšić, and Efrain Eduardo Rodriguez were indicted on a single charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil M. Barofsky, a storied federal drug and financial crimes prosecutor, filed the case, which was immediately sealed.

U.S. grand jury indictments are commonly sealed until the accused is in custody, but unlike other sealed cases, USA v. Miljanić et al, was listed in the public docket. That listing, the only public record of the case, shows no indication that anyone was ever arrested, made a court appearance, or hired a defense attorney.

In December 2006, Barofsky went before a judge to unseal and immediately re-seal the indictment. There’s nothing in the docket to explain that unusual action.

Nearly 17 years after it was filed, the case remains on the books. Federal court, Drug Enforcement Administration and Justice Department officials said they can’t comment on an open case.

The handling of the Group America case contrasts starkly with Barofsky’s other work during his time with the U.S. Attorney’s elite International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. An OCCRP analysis of docket entries for dozens of cases filed in his last five years with the unit show court appearances, arrests, appointments of defense attorneys, convictions, sentences, or dismissal of charges in all other cases. Only the Group America case remains open and sealed.

Colombian Connections?

Barofsky is now a partner in Jenner & Block LLP, a top-shelf New York law firm. In July 2019 he told OCCRP he had only a vague recollection of the case.

He said he couldn’t recall why he went to court to open and then reseal it, a move he described as “odd.” Nor could he explain why the case remains active so many years later.

The former prosecutor volunteered that Rodriguez was a Colombian and said the case may have involved wiretap evidence linked to Cartagena or Medellin.

Three months after Miljanić, Jakšić, and Rodriguez were indicted, Barofsky became lead prosecutor in a long-running investigation that resulted in the indictment of 50 leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which was then financing guerilla operations by controlling much of Colombia’s cocaine production. Those indictments, still considered the largest narcotics case in U.S. history, were handed up in March 2006.

Though Rodriguez was likely Colombian and Barofsky said FARC was reportedly negotiating distribution deals with traffickers in Italy and Greece at that time, the former prosecutor discounted a link between the unusual handling of the Group America indictments and the FARC prosecutions. Evidence used in the FARC case came largely from Colombian defectors, he said.

“I’m sure we talked to other cooperators — I’m sure we did — but I don’t remember who they were,’’ Barofsky said. “They ([Miljanić, Jakšić and Rodriguez]) might have been part of FARC, but the question is, did one lead to the other? They might have been related… but I don’t recall them being connected.”

Yet Borofsky didn’t dismiss the idea that Group America is protected by an intelligence agency, rhetorically asking, “Could somebody else be running them as informants?”

Asked about the DEA or the CIA, Borofsky shrugged and said, “Or somebody else.”

>>16717045

>two containers of AK-47-type rifles not destined for South Africa went missing during the chaos that ensued at the Durban harbour when Transnet suffered a cyberattack

>the million-plus rounds of ammunition stolen during the July 2021 riots after it was moved, under suspicious circumstances, to a depot near the Durban harbour

>>16770235

>All of the drug loads traveled from the Brazilian port of Santos and all but one entered in shipping containers at Durban

Remember

“SA riots: Probe launched after ‘1.5 million rounds of ammunition’ looted” – “the ammo, imported from Brazil, would have ordinarily been shipped to Cape Town. It is unclear why the weaponry had been shipped to Durban”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/ammunition-looted-durban-where-is-it-update-riots-friday-16-july/

16-07-2021

That’s A LOT of ammunition. The shadow police minister is demanding answers, after more than a million rounds of ammo were stolen during the KZN riots.

Kevin Mileham, the Shadow Minister for Police, has released a statement condemning the incident, and questioned why certain security details were changed for the looted container. The DA representative is far from satisfied…

“It’s understood that a container with more than 1.5 million rounds of ammunition was looted at the Mobeni industrial area near Durban. This took place on Wednesday evening and that sources have stated that the ammo, imported from Brazil, would have ordinarily been shipped to Cape Town. It is unclear why the weaponry had been shipped to Durban.”

“These allegations coincide with a report in the Mail & Guardian this morning claiming that the violent riots, looting, and burning of businesses and malls were simply the first stage of a larger concerted strategy to destabilise the country.”

For Mileham, however, he suspects that the looters in question had some help from ‘inside sources’. According to the opposition figure, there is likely to have been some ‘willful cooperation’ from SAPS officials.

“The DA is also of the view that it would have been impossible for this incident to occur without the willful cooperation from some within the South African Police Service (SAPS), who would have been involved in safeguarding this ammunition. A case has been opened and a team has been assembled to trace the missing ammo.” | Kevin Mileham

Is this related?

>>16773984

>Slobodan Milošević was driven from office in October 2000 after mass protests. The reformist government of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić that followed his ouster cautiously reached out to the West, instituted democratic reforms, and — in contrast to Milošević — was seen as hostile to organized crime.

>Group America responded with domestic terrorism.

>>16771230

Independent Media also investigated the baby trade in South Africa. Their YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChW8d3UEx6jt6zhyh5h_efQ/videos

“Episode Seven: Fertile Ground | Baby Trade”

https://youtu.be/AmZ8KJpeRWo

Posted March 23, 2022

Fertile Ground, Episode 7 of Independent Media’s compelling docuseries, Baby Trade lands with a bang, as Gosiame Sithole, mother of the Tembisa 10, spills the beans on who the doctors were who delivered her.