By Brandon Smith The purpose of NATO involvement in the Ukraine War has, to me, always appeared obvious. Ukraine has…
The post Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election appeared first on Alt-Market.us.
By Brandon Smith The purpose of NATO involvement in the Ukraine War has, to me, always appeared obvious. Ukraine has…
The post Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election appeared first on Alt-Market.us.
Ukraine Says Its Biggest Problem Is Western Concern For Escalation
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Wednesday that the biggest problem Kyiv has faced in its war against Russia is the Western concern for escalation and the risk of provoking Moscow.
“Ever since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine has been facing is the domination of the concept of escalation in the decision-making processes among our partners,” Kuleba said, according to Reuters.
The foreign minister’s comments come as Ukraine is pushing hard for the US to allow long-range strikes inside Russian territory using US-provided missiles. Russia has strongly warned against the move and suggested that it would risk World War III.
“The war is always about a lot of hardware: money, weapons, resources but the real problems are always here, in the heads,” Kuleba said.
“Most of our partners are afraid of discussing the future of Russia… This is something that is very upsetting because if we do not speak about the future of the source of threat, then we cannot build strategy.”
Throughout the war, the US and NATO have taken steps that they previously ruled out over escalation concerns, such as providing tanks and fighter jets.
The most recent significant escalation was President Biden’s decision to give Ukraine the greenlight to use US weapons in attacks on Russian border regions. A few months later, Ukraine launched its invasion of Kursk.
Meanwhile Western main battle tanks continue to show up on Russian soil…
UK supplied Ukrainian Challenger 2 tanks rolling in Kursk region of russia. pic.twitter.com/t1DCtWICjO
— Neil Hawker 🇺🇦 (@NeilHawker2) August 25, 2024
Kuleba made the comments during a conversation with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who expressed support for allowing Ukraine to launch long-range strikes with NATO weapons. Sikorski said NATO should “let Ukraine fight with whatever it has, with whatever we have delivered them, and let’s deliver them more.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/29/2024 – 23:05
Putin To Visit ICC-Signatory Country, But It Won’t Arrest Him
Russian President Vladimir Putin is soon to visit a country which is a formal signatory of the Rome Statue, which is the treaty governing the International Criminal Court (ICC) which requires member nations to comply with warrants issue by the The Hague-based court.
The country Putin will travel to next week is Mongolia, which is Russia’s neighbor to the south. In recent years, Mongolia, Russia, and China have been having trilateral security summits in order to cooperate on regional matters of common concern.
This will mark the first time that Putin will travel to a country which is legally obligated to arrest him, following the ICC issuing its arrest warrant for the Russian leader last March on allegations of overseeing war crimes and human rights abuses in Ukraine.
The Kremlin says is that the visit is at the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. While Putin is there, the two leaders will attend a ceremony commemorating the 1939 Soviet-Mongolian victory over Japan in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
“The heads of state will discuss prospects for further development of the Russian-Mongolian comprehensive strategic partnership,” the Kremlin described. Regional analyst Samuel Ramani writes that the “aim of the trip is likely to promote the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline with China.”
Mongolia has long vocalized that it remains neutral on the question of the Ukraine war. Mongolia and Russia have also long been close regional allies, even this week having held joint military exercises.
In August of 2023 President Putin decided to skip an in person BRICS summit hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa – precisely because the host country is a Rome statute signatory.
This was done “by mutual agreement” with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, and primarily because the initially planned-for Russian leader’s visit had set off a firestorm of controversy for the Rmaphosa administration. Moscow sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the BRICS summit instead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will go on an official visit to Mongolia on September 3.
Putin’s visit to Mongolia will be the first by a Russian president to the country that is set to arrest him under a warrant issued in 2023 by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.… pic.twitter.com/5E0weSGzE9
— Kvist.P 🇩🇰🇺🇦 (@kvistp) August 29, 2024
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said Putin will not attend the conference “by mutual agreement,” adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would visit instead. But Putin later delivered a speech to the forum via video link, which was attended by the heads of state of major BRICS powers India, China, and Brazil.
Putin has embarked on a handful of trip since ordering his forces into Ukraine more than two-and-a-half years ago, but only to countries closely aligned to Moscow, and never to Europe or the West.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/29/2024 – 18:30
Apple Boosts iPhone Orders By 10%, Betting On AI Upgrade Supercycle
Tech giants recognize a massive opportunity with artificial intelligence, leading them to integrate AI features into their devices. This move towards AI-enhanced hardware could spark a larger-than-normal smartphone upgrade cycle this fall, especially following Apple’s upcoming event in just weeks, where they are expected to unveil the latest version of the iPhone with AI.
Apple has prepared for increased iPhone orders. A report from Nikkei specifies the world’s most valuable company ordered components and parts for between 88 million and 90 million iPhones, compared to initial orders of around 80 million.
One supplier was quoted as saying iPhone orders could exceed 90 million. However, the supplier noted Apple usually orders more units and adjusts production as iPhones go on sale.
“We are quite cautious over Apple’s robust orders, as we know the Chinese market is definitely going to provide tough competition due to geopolitics,” an executive at one of Apple’s suppliers said.
Goldman’s Lauren Rowe pointed out to clients, “Overnight an initial knee jerk lower in Tech with Semis and AI stocks initially lagging but subsequently reversed with HK leading in the region with some focus on Apple supply chain on the news of orders for iPhones up 10% versus previous year.”
Apple’s big event is expected to kick off on September 9. Anticipated product unveilings include the new iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple AirPods 4. It’s likely Apple executives will provide more color on the AI platform Apple Intelligence
According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, the AI-enabled iPhone 16 will unleash Apple’s biggest upgrade cycle in history.
“AI is on the doorstep,” Ives said, adding, “Our recent Asia checks are giving us more confidence this upgrade cycle will unleash a long-awaited renaissance of growth for Cupertino over the next year.”
Ives said the next phase of the consumer AI revolution will involve developers and other tech firms integrating their AI models/tech into Apple Intelligence.
“We expect developers over the next 6 to 12 months will build hundreds of generative AI-driven apps that will be key ingredients in the recipe for success for Apple as its technology stack creates the core building blocks of the consumer AI tidal wave we see coming starting with iPhone 16,” he added.
Goldman’s Kash Rangan noted days ago how Apple AI will help “drive an uplift in iPhone demand”:
“At WWDC in June 2024, Apple announced Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system which includes features including 1) improved Siri capabilities (deeper language understanding, text communication with Siri, tailored responses driven by user activity and information, etc), 2) language features including writing tools that rewrite and summarize text across apps including Mail, Notes, and Pages, and 3) image features including Image Playground (image generation), new Genmojis, improved photo editing features, and more advanced search capabilities within a user’s photo library. Apple Intelligence will only be available for the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as future later models. Apple Intelligence should be released in the fall of 2024 and we believe these features should 1) should drive product upgrades as customers refresh older iPhones to access AI capabilities; 2) continue to drive a mix shift towards premium models, which should drive continued uplift in ASP; and 3) could present an opportunity for an iPhone price increase. Accordingly, we forecast F2024/25/26 iPhone sell-in units of 232/241/257mn (+2/+4/+7% you).”
Apple’s stock has risen by nearly 18% this year, reaching $226 per share, which gives the company a market capitalization of approximately $3.4 trillion.
The bigger question is whether consumers are willing to fork over $1,000 or more for new smartphones in a period of elevated inflation and sky-high interest rates, thanks to the Biden-Harris team.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/29/2024 – 12:30
Study Quantifies Germany’s Disastrous Switch Away From Nuclear Power
Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClearScience,
At the dawn of the millennium, Germany launched an ambitious plan to transition to renewable energy. “Die Energiewende” initiated a massive expansion of solar and wind power, resulting in a commendable 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2022 compared to 2002.
But while Energiewende slashed pollution through building out renewable energy sources, it also phased out Germany’s fleet of safe, carbon-free nuclear power plants, a longtime goal of environmental activists afraid of nuclear’s salient – but in actuality small – dangers. The result, according to a new analysis recently published to the International Journal of Sustainable Energy, has been a boondoggle for consumers and for the environment.
In 2002, nuclear power supplied about a fifth of Germany’s electricity. Twenty-one years later, it supplied none. A layperson might think that cheap wind and solar could simply fill the gap, but it isn’t so simple. Once up and running, nuclear reactors provide reliable, affordable “baseload” power – electricity that’s available all the time. Ephemeral renewables simply can’t match nuclear’s consistency. And since an advanced economy like Germany’s requires a 100 percent reliable power grid, fossil fuel power plants burning coal and natural gas were brought online to pick up wind and solar’s slack.
The net result of German politicians’ shortsightedness in phasing out nuclear power is a vastly pricier grid. The new analysis shows that if Germans simply maintained their 2002 fleet of reactors through 2022, they could have saved themselves roughly $600 billion Euros. Why so much? Well, in addition to their construction costs, renewables required expensive grid upgrades and subsidies. Moreover, in this hypothetical scenario where nuclear remained, Germany enjoyed nearly identical reductions in carbon emissions.
Jan Emblemsvåg, a Professor of Civil Engineering at Norway’s NTNU and the architect of the analysis, imagined another scenario out of curiosity. What if the Germans had taken the money spent on expanding renewables and instead used it to construct new nuclear capacity? According to his calculations, they could have slashed carbon emissions a further 73% on top of their cuts in 2022, while simultaneously enjoying a savings of 330 billion Euros compared to the massive costs of Energiewende.
Policymakers in other countries looking to decarbonize their grids should take note.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/29/2024 – 05:00
The Western Way Of War – Owning The Narrative Trumps Reality
Authored by Alastair Crooke,
War propaganda and feint are as old as the hills. Nothing new. But what is new is that infowar is no longer the adjunct to wider war objectives – but has become an end in and of itself.
The West has come to view ‘owning’ the winning narrative – and presenting the Other’s as clunky, dissonant, and extremist – as being more important than facing facts-on-the ground. Owning the winning narrative is to win, in this view. Virtual ‘victory’ thus trumps ‘real’ reality.
So, war becomes rather the setting for imposing ideological alignment across a wide global alliance and enforcing it via compliant media.
This objective enjoys a higher priority than, say, ensuring a manufacturing capacity sufficient to sustain military objectives. Crafting an imagined ‘reality’ has taken precedence over shaping the ground reality.
The point here is that this approach – being a function of whole of society alignment (both at home and abroad) – creates entrapments into false realities, false expectations, from which an exit (when such becomes necessary), turns near impossible, precisely because imposed alignment has ossified public sentiment. The possibility for a State to change course as events unfold becomes curtailed or lost, and the accurate reading of facts on the ground veers toward the politically correct and away from reality.
The cumulative effect of ‘a winning virtual narrative’ holds the risk nonetheless, of sliding incrementally toward inadvertent ‘real war’.
Take, for example, the NATO-orchestrated and equipped incursion into the symbolically significant Kursk Oblast. In terms of a ‘winning narrative’, its appeal to the West is obvious: Ukraine ‘takes the war to into Russia’.
Had the Ukrainian forces succeeded in capturing the Kursk Nuclear Power Station, they then would have had a significant bargaining chip, and might well have syphoned away Russian forces from the steadily collapsing Ukrainian ‘Line’ in Donbas.
And to top it off, (in infowar terms), the western media was prepped and aligned to show President Putin as “frozen” by the surprise incursion, and “wobbling” with anxiety that the Russian public would turn against him in their anger at the humiliation.
Bill Burns, head of CIA, opined that “Russia would offer no concessions on Ukraine, until Putin’s over-confidence was challenged, and Ukraine could show strength”. Other U.S. officials added that the Kursk incursion – in itself – would not bring Russia to the negotiating table; It would be necessary to build on the Kursk operation with other daring operations (to shake Moscow’s sang froid).
Of course, the overall aim was to show Russia as fragile and vulnerable, in line with the narrative that, at any moment Russia, could crack apart and scatter to the wind, in fragments. Leaving the West as winner, of course.
In fact, the Kursk incursion was a huge NATO gamble: It involved mortgaging Ukraine’s military reserves and armour, as chips on the roulette table, as a bet that an ephemeral success in Kursk would upend the strategic balance. The bet was lost, and the chips forfeit.
Plainly put, this Kursk affair exemplifies the West’s problem with ‘winning narratives’: Their inherent flaw is that they are grounded in emotivism and eschew argumentation. Inevitably, they are simplistic. They are simply intended to fuel a ‘whole of society’ common alignment. Which is to say that across MSM; business, federal agencies, NGOs and the security sector, all should adhere to opposing all ‘extremisms’ threatening ‘our democracy’.
This aim, of itself, dictates that the narrative be undemanding and relatively uncontentious: ‘Our Democracy, Our Values and Our Consensus’. The Democratic National Convention, for example, embraces ‘Joy’ (repeated endlessly), ‘moving Forward’ and ‘opposing weirdness’ as key statements. They are banal, however, these memes are given their energy and momentum, not by content so much, as by the deliberate Hollywood setting lending them razzamatazz and glamour.
It is not hard to see how this one-dimensional zeitgeist may have contributed to the U.S. and its allies’ misreading the impact of today’s Kursk ‘daring adventure’ on ordinary Russians.
‘Kursk’ has history. In 1943, Germany invaded Russia in Kursk to divert from its own losses, with Germany ultimately defeated at the Battle of Kursk. The return of German military equipment to the environs of Kursk must have left many gaping; the current battlefield around the town of Sudzha is precisely the spot where, in 1943, the Soviet 38th and 40th armies coiled for a counteroffensive against the German 4th Army.
Over the centuries, Russia has been variously attacked on its vulnerable flank from the West. And more recently by Napoleon and Hitler. Unsurprisingly, Russians are acutely sensitive to this bloody history. Did Bill Burns et al think this through? Did they imagine that NATO invading Russia itself would make Putin feel ‘challenged’, and that with one further shove, he would fold, and agree to a ‘frozen’ outcome in Ukraine – with the latter entering NATO? Maybe they did.
Ultimately the message that western services sent was that the West (NATO) is coming for Russia. This is the meaning of deliberately choosing Kursk. Reading the runes of Bill Burns message says prepare for war with NATO.
Just to be clear, this genre of ‘winning narrative’ surrounding Kursk is neither deceit nor feint. The Minsk Accords were examples of deceit, but they were deceits grounded in rational strategy (i.e. they were historically normal). The Minsk deceits were intended to buy the West time to further Ukraine’s militarisation – before attacking the Donbas. The deceit worked, but only at the price of a rupture of trust between Russia and the West. The Minsk deceits however, also accelerated an end to the 200-year era of the westification of Russia.
Kursk rather, is a different ‘fish’. It is grounded in the notions of western exceptionalism. The West perceives itself as tacking to ‘the right side of History’. ‘Winning narratives’ essentially assert – in secular format – the inevitability of the western eschatological Mission for global redemption and convergence. In this new narrative context, facts-on-the-ground become mere irritants, and not realities that must be taken into account.
This their Achilles’ Heel.
The DNC convention in Chicago however, underscored a further concern:
Just as the hegemonic West arose out of the Cold War era shaped and invigorated through dialectic opposition to communism (in the western mythology), so we see today, a (claimed) totalising ‘extremism’ (whether of MAGA mode; or of the external variety: Iran, Russia, etc.) – posed in Chicago in a similar Hegelian dialectic opposition to the former capitalism versus communism; but in today’s case, it is “extremism” in conflict with “Our Democracy”.
The DNC Chicago narrative-thesis is itself a tautology of identity differentiation posing as ‘togetherness’ under a diversity banner and in conflict with ‘whiteness’ and ‘extremism’. ‘Extremism’ effectively plainly is being set up as the successor to the former Cold War antithesis – communism.
The Chicago ‘back-room’ may be imagining that a confrontation with extremism – writ widely – will again, as it did in the post-Cold War era, yield an American rejuvenation. Which is to say that a conflict with Iran, Russia, and China (in a different way) may come onto the agenda. The telltale signs are there (plus the West’s need for a re-set of its economy, which war regularly provides).
The Kursk ploy no doubt seemed clever and audacious to London and Washington. Yet with what result? It achieved neither objective of taking Kursk NPP, nor of syphoning Russian troops from the Contact Line. The Ukrainian presence in the Kursk Oblast will be eliminated.
What it did do, however, is put an end to all prospects of an eventual negotiated settlement in Ukraine. Distrust of the U.S. in Russia is now absolute. It has made Moscow more determined to prosecute the special operation to conclusion. German equipment visible in Kursk has raised old ghosts, and consolidated awareness of the hostile western intentions toward Russia.
‘Never again’ is the unspoken riposte.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 23:25
NVDA Dumps And Pumps After Smashing Q2 Expectations But Guidance Is A “Mixed Bag”
For the second year in a row, Nvidia has been the world’s most important company, rising more than 150% YTD to a staggering $3.1 trillion market cap, massively outperforming the Nasdaq, and putting it within spitting distance of becoming the world’s largest company (it is currently #2 behind AAPL).
And while the stock price gains have largely been driven by regular raises of the company’s forward earnings expectations…
… the question arises: how much more earnings growth is there? We already laid out Wall Street’s expectations for what to expect earlier, but with with whisper numbers at nosebleed levels relative to already euphoric guidance and estimates, it’s no surprise why the options market is expecting a 10% swing after hours.
A quick look at the past: the company’s second quarter wasn’t perfect – the company stopped short of completely denying reports that there are problems with its forthcoming Blackwell product lineup. Analyst reports have dismissed any issues as immaterial given the overall level of demand for existing products – the chip line called Hopper – but management will face questions on the topic.
As a reminder, this is what Nvidia said earlier this month: “As we’ve stated before, Hopper demand is very strong, broad Blackwell sampling has started, and production is on track to ramp in the second half. Beyond that, we don’t comment on rumors.”
And so, amid skyhigh expectations for the current quarter, even loftier expectations for the company’s guidance with questions about its main product line, here is what NVDA reported moments ago for the second quarter:
The revenue trend, as expected, is impressive especially at the Data Center level where all the growth is.
While the Q2 earnings were impressive, beating both estimates and the even loftier whisper numbers across the board, there was just a touch of weakness in the company’s guidance: NVDA projected Q3 revenue will be $32.5 million, +/- 2%. While this was above the average estimate was $31.9 billion, it was below JPM’s whisper of $32.95BN and certainly below the most optimistic sellside prediction of $37.9 billion.
Perhaps anticipating the potential market revulsion to the modest guidance disappointment, NVDA tried to appease investors by announcing a massive new $50 billion buyback .
The company also tried to preempt questions about its reportedly troubled Blackwell chips, saying “samples are shipping to our partners and customers” and says that it expects to ship several billion dollars of Blackwell revenue in Q4 even as it admits in its earnings release that it needs to improve Blackwell production, to wit:
We shipped customer samples of our Blackwell architecture in the second quarter. We executed a change to the Blackwell GPU mask to improve production yield. Blackwell production ramp is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter and continue into fiscal 2026. In the fourth quarter, we expect to ship several billion dollars in Blackwell revenue. Hopper demand is strong, and shipments are expected to increase in the second half of fiscal 2025.
While initially NVDA shares bounced on the big beat, the since dipped on the disappointing guidance, sliding as much as 6% after hours, and have since whiplashed by the results as the stock is still fighting for direction, swinging between gains and losses as traders digest the earnings. As a reminder, options markets had priced in a swing of 10% after hours, so for now the reaction is positive tame relative to expectations.
Developing
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 16:37
Super Micro Shares Plunge 15% After Company Delays 10-K, One Day After Hindenburg Alleges Accounting Manipulation
Shares of Super Micro Computer are down over 15% heading into the cash open after the server company said it would be delaying its 10-K filing for FY 2024. The delay comes one day after short seller Hindenburg Research alleged “fresh evidence” of accounting manipulation at the company.
“Additional time is needed for SMCI’s management to complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024,” a filing from the company read.
Yesterday shares plunged as much as 8% but finished the session only down 2%. Will they repeat the BTFD trend today…
In a report released on its website Tuesday morning, the short seller alleged that the semiconductor/server company, which has seen its stock skyrocket over the last few years during the AI bubble, could be engaged in accounting manipulation and self dealing among family members.
Among other points, Hindenburg wrote:
Our 3-month investigation, which included interviews with former senior employees and industry experts as well as a review of litigation records, international corporate and customs records, found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.
Less than 3 months after paying a $17.5 million SEC settlement, Super Micro began re-hiring top executives that were directly involved in the accounting scandal, per litigation records and interviews with former employees.
A former salesperson told us: “Almost all of them are back. Almost all of the people that were let go that were the cause of this malfeasance.”
According to a lawsuit filed in April 2024, Super Micro waited only 3 months after the SEC settlement before restarting “improper revenue recognition,” “recognizing incomplete sales,” and “circumvention of internal accounting controls”.
Even after the SEC settlement, pressure to meet quotas pushed salespeople to stuff the channel with distributors using “partial shipments” or by shipping defective products around quarter-end, per our interviews with former employees and customers.
One former salesperson described pushing products to distributors based on made-up demand forecasts, completing a partial shipment, then later coming up with an excuse for why the rest didn’t happen. “And now you have a problem. Accounting problem maybe.”
“Beyond fresh questions around its revenue accounting, we found that Super Micro’s relationships with both disclosed and undisclosed related parties serve as fertile ground for dubious accounting,” the report says.
“For example, disclosed related party suppliers Ablecom and Compuware, controlled by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s brothers, have been paid $983 million in the last 3 years. Ablecom is also partly owned by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang and his wife.”
It continues: “The relationships seem oddly circular. Super Micro provides components to the entities which assemble them and sell them back to Super Micro. They also rent warehousing and factory space to Super Micro even though it has its own sprawling factory.”
“Multiple former employees and channel partners confirmed that after-sales service is undermining Super Micro’s ability to retain customers. One former salesperson said: ‘It’s their Achilles heel. It’s just horrible.’,” Hindenburg wrote.
“All told, we believe Super Micro is a serial recidivist. It benefitted as an early mover but still faces significant accounting, governance and compliance issues and offers an inferior product and service now being eroded away by more credible competition,” the report says.
You can read the full report here.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 09:35
WHO Launches Global Monkeypox Strategy, Including Strategic Vaccinations
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a global strategy to halt the transmission of mpox, formerly called monkeypox. The plan, announced on Aug. 26, will entail a “strategic vaccination” campaign.
The U.N. health agency, which declared a public health emergency of international concern two weeks ago, said that the plan will last six months—September 2024 to February 2025—and will receive $135 million in funding.
“Strategic vaccination” efforts will target people at the highest risk such as “close contacts of recent cases and healthcare workers, to interrupt transmission chains,” the agency said.
The WHO plan will focus on “implementing comprehensive surveillance, prevention, readiness, and response strategies; advancing research and equitable access to medical countermeasures like diagnostic tests and vaccines; minimizing animal-to-human transmission; and empowering communities to actively participate in outbreak prevention and control,” according to a statement.
Officials say that a subvariant of the virus has caused global concern because it seems to spread more easily through routine close contact.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the Aug. 26 statement that the mpox outbreak, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “can be controlled and can be stopped.”
“Doing so requires a comprehensive and coordinated plan of action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers and manufacturers, and our Member States,” he said.
The Philippines has confirmed two more mpox virus infections of the milder Clade II variety, its health ministry said on Aug. 26, bringing the number of active cases to three.
“We continue to see local transmission of mpox Clade II here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular,” Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.
He added that newly confirmed cases were a 37-year-old male in Metro Manila who had a rash on his body and was brought to a government hospital and a 32-year-old male from the capital who had lesions on his skin.
The Philippines announced last week that it had detected a case of the mpox virus’s milder variant in a 33-year-old male who had no travel history outside the Philippines.
The Philippines has had 12 laboratory-confirmed cases since July 2022. The World Health Organization earlier this month declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighboring countries.
Since January 2023, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported more than 27,000 suspected mpox cases and more than 1,300 deaths.
The disease leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can be fatal. Children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are all at higher risk of complications.
Other countries outside the African continent that have confirmed mpox cases in recent days include Sweden and Thailand.
“We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I,” Swedish Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed said at a news conference at the time.
Earlier in August, a WHO official stressed that mpox would not cause lockdowns or closures or restrict other activity.
“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, it’s another COVID-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no,’” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said days after the WHO declaration was issued.
“Two years ago, we controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men.”
In an update around the same time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that mpox currently poses a low risk to the United States and that no cases of Clade I mpox have been found in the country.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 03:30
New York State Anesthesiologist Pleads Guilty To Chloroforming, Assaulting Kid’s Nanny While She Slept
A New York State anesthesiologist has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually abusing his family’s nanny while she was sleeping in his home.
60 year old Paul Giacopelli was indicted in March, and pleaded guilty last Wednesday, according to the NY Post. His lawyer commented that he has “assumed responsibility for his crimes, and now is focused on tending to his family.”
The Post report says that the victim would sometimes stay overnight at his house when watching his children so he could work at the hospital. She said there were four times in 2023 where she fell asleep, “woke up to a rag being held over her face, smelled chemicals and blacked out”, the Post writes.
After setting up a hidden camera, she caught Giacopelli assaulting her. She then brought the video to local police and he was questioned.
Giacopelli confessed to filling a rag with Sevoflurane, an anesthetic agent, according to the Post report. He also said he had a “chloroform fetish” and confessed to sexually assaulting the victim.
He said she was an easy target because she was a “heavy sleeper”.
Giacopelli also admitted to taking drugs, including fentanyl, from the hospital to his home, testimony revealed.
The state Board for Professional Medical Conduct has since barred him from practicing medicine. Giacopelli is set to be sentenced on November 20 and is expected to receive four years in state prison.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 08/27/2024 – 20:30