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The Economic Meltdown Kenya Is In @johngithongo Julian Rowa @alykhansatchu @theelephantinfo - Speaking truth to power
Kenyan Economy
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An Interview with @peterfrankopan Professor of Global History via @YouTube @RichTvAfrica #COVID19 @UniofOxford cc @EngelsbergIdeas
Misc.
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This crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic @peterfrankopan @EngelsbergIdeas
Misc.
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Charlie Robertson Interview @RencapMan Global chief economist Renaissance Capital via @RichTvAfrica
World Of Finance
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GOLD DAILY CHART @JRowlan19672563 1800.00
Commodities
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27-JAN-2020 :: #WuhanCoronavirus #nCoV2019 #coronavirus “But it is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola''
Misc.
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''They must have guessed, once or twice -guessed and refused to believe -that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.’’
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22-MAR-2020 :: I believe Gold will soon turn viral to the Upside I am looking for $2,000.00+
Commodities
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22-JUN-2020 :: Gold is a No Brainer targets $2,000.00
Commodities
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22-JUN-2020 :: The FED WILL KEEP ON PRINTING THEY HAVE ONLY JUST GOTTEN STARTED
U.S. Economy
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EXPECT MORE BRRR!
World Of Finance
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Have a nice day Zanzibar Tanzania By Myafrowaka @PicPublic
Tourism, Travel & Transport
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“The world is on fire; time is a bomb. Ten thousand years are not enough when so much remains to be done.” Jeet Thayil wrote in his buzzy Bombay based book Narcopolis:
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In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome for six days, destroying 70 per cent of the city and leaving half its population homeless. Rome's Emperor at the time, the decadent Nero, "fiddled while Rome burned."
Misc.
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There is certainly a Fin de siecle even apocalyptic mood afoot. The conundrum for those who wish to bet on the End of the World is this, however. What would be the point? The World would have ended.
Misc.
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Don DeLillo wrote "Everything is barely weeks. Everything is days. We have minutes to live." The Way we live now #COVID19
Misc.
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06-APR-2020 :: The Way We Live Now
Misc.
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Austrian military boss guy talks about the strength of the armed forces, as a pillar of security. ... wait for it. @Lesart_ @COdendahl
Law & Politics
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“Staying in” trade has completely trounced “going out” strategy YTD; while transportation & industrial/material stocks muddling through @DataArbor @Bloomberg @LizAnnSonders
World Of Finance
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'Misty morning in the Mara' taken by Clair Nicol in aid of The Angama Foundation @GreatestMara
Africa
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"I won't ever forget this morning in the Mara - low lying mist and gorgeous sun rising behind this snoozing lioness in the dewy grass. How incredible these animals experience this daily!" - 'Misty morning in the Mara' taken by Clair Nicol in aid of The Angama Foundation
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Here we go round the prickly pear The Hollow Men T.S. ELIOT
Misc.
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Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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wounds of love @SonyaKassam
Misc.
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and distance is deceptive
how is it that in an instant
you still appear by my side
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Native Americans Voyaged to Polynesia Long Before Europeans Reached the Americas, DNA Study Shows @Gizmodo
Misc.
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Indigenous South Americans reached islands in the South Pacific some 300 years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, according to new genetic evidence.
New genetic research published today in Nature links indigenous South Americans to Polynesian Islanders. Incredibly, it seems a group from what is today Colombia voyaged to the South Pacific around 1200 ACE, reaching islands thousands of miles away.
Once there, they mingled with the local Polynesian population, leaving their genetic and possibly cultural legacy behind, according to the new research, co-authored by Stanford University biologist Alexander Ioannidis.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have been wondering about this potential link for decades, but evidence has been limited, inconclusive, and speculative.
While sailing through Polynesia during the 18th century, for example, Captain Cook documented the presence of sweet potatoes on South Pacific islands—a weird finding, given this root vegetable’s origins in South America.
Scientists took this as evidence of indigenous South Americans traveling to the Pacific Islands or Polynesians traveling to South America and returning home with their sweet potato stash.
This theory was challenged two years ago in a Current Biology study, in which the authors argued that the sweet potato arrived in Polynesia some 100,000 years ago, long before humans ventured to this part of the world.
But there’s other evidence to consider as well, such as traces of Polynesian DNA among members of the Brazilian Botocudos tribe.
What’s more, the word for sweet potato in the Polynesian language is “kuumala,” which is extremely close to “kumara,” how the Quechua people of northwestern South America describe it.
There’s also experimental archaeological evidence to consider. In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, along with five daring crewmates, traveled from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia aboard a large wooden raft called the Kon-Tiki.
It took them 101 days to travel the 5,000 miles (8,000 km). Pushed by the prevailing westerly trade winds, Heyerdahl showed that it was possible to reach Polynesia from South America on a rudimentary boat.
He subsequently argued that Native South Americans migrated to Polynesia, an idea for which he was heavily criticized, as conventional thinking had it that Polynesians were descended from Asian migrants.
So, there’s been interesting—yet undeniably flimsy—evidence. For the new study, the authors strove for more robust data. To that end, they studied the genomes of 807 people from 17 Pacific island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups.
“Through this research, we wanted to reconstruct the ancestral roots that have shaped the diversity of these populations and answer deep, long-standing questions about the potential contact between Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, connecting two of the most understudied regions of the world,” said Andrés Moreno-Estrada, a co-author of the study and a geneticist at Mexico’s National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity, in a press release.
With the help of computers, the authors identified key genetic markers known as identical-by-descent segments.
These markers can identify shared common ancestry, pointing to recent mating events among groups.
In this case, evidence admixture, or gene flow, among Polynesians and Native South Americans was pinpointed to a single contact event that happened at the turn of the 13th century, likely at some point between 1150 ACE and 1240 ACE.That these two groups managed to link up 800 years ago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is nothing short of astounding.
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Admixture, or mating events, involving the two populations, as they spread across Polynesia after contact. Image: Nature
Misc.
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Polynesia and the Americas were connected by ocean voyages and intermarriage before 1250 AD. New work by @alexGioannidis @morestrada @nature @johnhawks
Misc.
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Sunrise at the Tongariki site on Easter Island. Image: Andres Moreno-Estrada @Gizmodo
Misc.
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''You felt the land taking you back to something that was familiar, something you had known at some time but had forgotten or ignored” ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
Africa
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“Going home at night! It wasn't often that I was on the river at night. I never liked it. I never felt in control. In the darkness of river and forest you could be sure only of what you could see — and even on a moonlight night you couldn't see much. When you made a noise — dipped a paddle in the water — you heard yourself as though you were another person. The river and the forest were like presences, and much more powerful than you. You felt unprotected, an intruder ... You felt the land taking you back to something that was familiar, something you had known at some time but had forgotten or ignored, but which was always there.You felt the land taking you back to what was there a hundred years ago, to what had been there always.” ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
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One million new cases in 5 days Daily New Cases --- Worldwide --- #COVID19 #Coronavirus @oli3be
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They fancied themselves free wrote Camus ―and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.
Misc.
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―In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.
A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away.
But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions.
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Political Reflections
Law & Politics
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A thread here with some thoughts on the explosions in #Iran in the past week or so, keeping in mind that reporting from within Iran is not terribly reliable. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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“The edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over,” Hunter S Thompson.
Law & Politics
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It could be a complete coincidence that there’s a surge of explosions and fires over a short period. But given so many have occurred at military & nuclear sites there will be a perception that at least some are connected. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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Continued US-Iran tensions and recent #Israel-Iran tit-for-tat in cyber realm are relevant context. These incidents are not happening in a vacuum as the Israel-Iran ‘shadow war’ moves out into the open. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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Over the last year Israel has also expanded its strikes against Iran in #Syria to Iraq and has been getting more transparent about its involvement, moving away from earlier stance of ambiguity. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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“Octopus” doctrine is widely accepted across Israeli security establishment - seeking to attack head not just tentacles throughout region. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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This has led to direct attacks on Iranian personnel in Syria and Iraq, not just strikes against proxy groups.
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Now reports quote a “Middle Eastern intelligence official” claiming Israel is responsible for attack on Natanz nuclear facility in Iran. Israeli opposition leaders are suggesting Mossad head Yossi Cohen is the source. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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Israel would have motive to set back dvpt of advanced centrifuges which would shorten Iran’s breakout time. Stuxnet revealed a decade ago that Israel can do this, though moving beyond cyber is crossing a new line @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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This is not a good place to be. There will be growing pressure within Iran to retaliate. Escalation is not easy to control in such a volatile environment and with a US policy that’s unlikely to discourage Israeli action against Iran. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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Blofeld : Kronsteen, you are sure this plan is foolproof? Kronsteen: Yes it is because I have anticipated every possible variation of counter-move.
Law & Politics
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Some in Israel might see this as a unique opportunity to strike Iran while it’s vulnerable from Covid, sanctions and protests and with the full support of the US. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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Some even believe that escalation can draw the US in and prevent renewed diplomacy.
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In my view this is an extremely dangerous moment for the region. @dassakaye
Law & Politics
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06-JAN-2020 :: The Assassination (The Escalation of 'Shadow War')
Law & Politics
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“This is an aggressive show of force and an outright provocation that could trigger another Middle East war.”
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“When I see the children of the martyrs, I want to smell their scent, and I lose myself.”
Law & Politics
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25 NOV 19 :: Iran’s ‘only crime is we decided not to fold'
Africa
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Here's the full statement of Kim Yo Jong (sister of KJU) on the prospect of more talks w/ the US. @gallovoa
Law & Politics
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She starts by describing how she "kill(ed) breakfast time" by watching TV news on the US, and ends by saying that she wants a DVD of the US July 4th celebrations, "if possible."
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The Sister is obviously the Successor 12-FEB-2018 :: Kim Jong-un unleashed his secret weapon on the world, that secret weapon being his sister Kim Yo Jong
Law & Politics
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An inquiry that presupposes--without evidence--that the virus entered humans through a natural zoonotic spillover will have no credibility and no value. @R_H_Ebright
Law & Politics
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An inquiry that presupposes--without evidence--that the virus entered humans through a natural zoonotic spillover, and that fails to address the alternative possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident, will have no credibility and no value.
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24-FEB-2020 :: @WHO is captured. And millions of lives will have been trifled with #COVID19 the Game is Up. #COVID19 Game is Up. #COVID19
Law & Politics
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Covid-19 has exposed the limits of 'fact-denying populism', Merkel tells European Parliament @France24_en
Law & Politics
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“We are seeing at the moment that the pandemic can't be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it be with hatred and agitation,” she said.
“Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits,” she added to applause. “In a democracy, facts and transparency are needed. That distinguishes Europe, and Germany will stand up for it during its presidency."
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Political decision-making is now driven by often weaponized babble. @FukuyamaFrancis
Law & Politics
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And I suppose we all wish we had an Angela Merkel because at least then we might have a fighting chance. #COVID19
Law & Politics
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Angela Merkel: “You cannot fight the pandemic with lies and disinformation...the limits of Populism are being laid bare.” @Joyce_Karam
Law & Politics
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There are nearly 200k new COVID-19 cases every day worldwide The daily number will double to 400k new cases per day in 44 days at the current rate of increase @euromaestro
Misc.
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At 2% the numbers double every 35 days
At 3% every 24 day
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‟Tipping Point‟‟ moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It‟s the boiling point
Misc.
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It‟s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.
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Global cases have had some big numbers recently @video4me
Misc.
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Global cases have had some big numbers recently as log-log plot marches on.
Weekly adjusted R is still around 1.1 - though the underlying trend is up.
>10%: Costa RIca⁸⁴
>5%: South Africa¹³ DRC⁷⁷ Madagascar⁹⁶
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FAUCI: "What we're seeing is exponential growth. It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That's doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50,000 is 100,000." @ryanstruyk
Misc.
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24-FEB-2020 :: "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." - Professor Allen Bartlett
Law & Politics
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China says ties with US at lowest point since 1979 @FinancialTimes
Law & Politics
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A phase one trade deal between the world’s two biggest economies, which promised to pause a tit-for-tat tariff spat, has been largely forgotten in recent months.
Washington has sparred with Beijing over its imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong, militarisation of the South China Sea and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This week Beijing pledged to ban US officials who engaged in “vile acts” regarding Tibet, after Washington restricted visas for Chinese officials over policy in the region.
Mr Wang’s remarks were an unusually frank admission from a senior official on how far the situation has deteriorated and suggest that Beijing is eager to halt any further escalation of disagreement, analysts said.
The speech comes against a backdrop of growing alarm among China’s foreign affairs establishment about relations with Washington.
Jia Qingguo, dean of international relations at Peking University, said China was attempting to taijie — a Chinese term that translates literally as “to provide steps” and which means to give an out of an awkward situation — in order to allow the Trump administration to retreat from what Beijing sees as an “unreasonable” position.
“There is an acceleration of efforts to demonise China and China does not want to take that,” Prof Jia said.
A survey of 100 top scholars published this week by Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute found that 62 per cent of respondents believed the “US has indeed started a ‘new Cold War’ against China”, while 90 per cent said that China could handle the US in this new confrontation.
Liu Weidong, a scholar at the state-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in the report that only a firm approach by China would work with the US under Trump, which “will take a mile if you give them an inch”.
“In the past, the US was willing to respond to compromises from China. But Trump has broken with convention,” Mr Liu said.
China has signalled its willingness to hold to the phase one trade deal. But other issues, such as rising tensions over Taiwan, could “torpedo” the process, said Prof Jia.
“To challenge China on the Taiwan issue is playing with fire,” he added.
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22-JUN-2020 :: What @AmbJohnBolton is telling me is Xi played @POTUS all the way especially in the matter of #COVID19
Law & Politics
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Mr. Trump, he writes, was “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.” Mr. Bolton said that Mr. Trump “stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.” @nytimes
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02-JUN-2020 :: a Put Up or Shut Up moment and the ‘’Wolf Warrior’’ Strategy all point at more intensity rather than less.
Law & Politics
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26 AUG 19 :: China Strikes at Trump
Law & Politics
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7 OCT 19 :: China turns 70
Law & Politics
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“Longing on a large scale makes History''
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15 OCT 18 :: War is coming
Law & Politics
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Our narratives of COVID-19 are all lies. @EpsilonTheory
Misc.
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22-JUN-2020 :: Whoever Controls The Narrative Controls The World
Law & Politics
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''Creativity disappears. Diversity disappears. True risk-taking disappears. More of our decisions are optimized toward cartoons, abstracted versions of reality. More of our information is based on narratives and memes." @AndrewHMPalmer
Misc.
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International Markets
World Of Finance
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As if any further evidence was needed, the best way to avoid the economic consequences of the pandemic was to take it seriously early, (UBS chart) @birdyword
World Of Finance
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As if any further evidence was needed, the best way to avoid the economic consequences of the pandemic was to take it seriously early, and the countries that accepting rising cases to shield the economy have perversely ended up in a far worse position. (UBS chart)
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The virus is not correlated to endogenous market dynamics but is an an exogenous uncertainty that remains unresolved #COVID19
World Of Finance
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Currency Markets at a Glance WSJ
World Currencies
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Euro 1.1278
Dollar Index 96.818
Japan Yen 106.84
Swiss Franc 0.9422
Pound 1.2590
Aussie 0.6938
India Rupee 75.2825
South Korea Won 1202.93
Brazil Real 5.3392
Egypt Pound 15.988
South Africa Rand 16.9084
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Dollar Index 3 Month Chart INO 96.818
World Currencies
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Euro versus the Dollar 3 Month Chart 1.1277
World Currencies
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China surging. Scene from a spa, aka massage parlor. @HAOHONG_CFA
China
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Commodity Markets at a Glance WSJ
Commodities
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Crude Oil 6 Month Chart INO 38.90
Minerals, Oil & Energy
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El Salvador's $1bn eurobond priced (rated: B3/B-/B-) is signal markets technically open for sovereigns with weak credit rating. But coupon =9.5% (+812bpts over US Ts) @emsovdebt
Frontier Markets
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Ethiopia’s Nile mega-dam is changing dynamics in Horn of Africa @FT @davidpilling
Africa
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In a few weeks, Ethiopian engineers will start the multiyear task of filling with water the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant and the most ambitious attempt to harness the power of the Nile in history.
Eventually, the $4.8bn project will double Ethiopia’s generating capacity and provide a jolt of electricity that could energise what is already the most dynamic large economy in sub-Saharan Africa.
The dam has not only raised tensions with Egypt, which fears losing control over a waterway that has shaped its destiny for millennia.
It has also put the spotlight on a region, the Horn of Africa, that has become a magnet for outside attention, not to say interference, from a plethora of powers including the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey and the US.
Ethiopia had what Murithi Mutiga of the Crisis Group calls “a bad 20th century”. Its decline culminated in the Red Terror perpetrated by the Marxist Derg regime, which overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, and the famines of the mid-1980s, which made proud Ethiopia a symbol of the failed African state.
The mega-dam on the Blue Nile, financed by patriotic bonds, is a potent symbol of Ethiopia’s renaissance.
Still, for all its potential, neither Ethiopia, nor the Horn in general, has been a story of steady progress. Far from it.
Ethiopia’s liberation from the Derg was swiftly followed by the loss of its coastline after the secession of Eritrea two years later.
In 1991, Somalia, a country of mainly nomadic pastoralists resistant to the concept of a centrally controlled nation state, plunged into decades of bloody anarchy after the collapse of the Siad Barre dictatorship, which had been supported first by the Soviets and later by the Americans.
Foreign powers have always been drawn to the Horn because of its proximity to the Red Sea, which controls access to the Suez Canal.
In recent years, Gulf states have revived their centuries-old connections. China has invested heavily, pouring billions into Ethiopia in spite of its lack of physical resources, and establishing a military base in neighbouring Djibouti.
Beijing also financed and built a semi-functional railway between Djibouti and Addis Ababa, helping strengthen Ethiopia’s link to the sea following its loss of Eritrea.
Yet political actors in the Horn have never been passive victims of external interference.
Instead, they have sought to profit from foreign interest by pitting one external actor against another.
The commercial hub of Djibouti, formerly French Somaliland, is a case in point.
Situated on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint separating the Gulf of Aden from the Red Sea, it now hosts the military bases (for a price) of the US, China, Japan, France and Italy.
In 2006, Dubai-based DP World constructed a container port in Djibouti only to have it seized in 2018.
Meanwhile, along the African Red Sea coast there has been a scramble for coastline with Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Ethiopia itself taking stakes in competing ports.
As if all these shifting allegiances were not enough, Ethiopia has undergone a political earthquake.
In 2018, after years of unrest, Abiy Ahmed became prime minister, promising democracy, a more open economy and peace with Eritrea.
Since then, the US has seen a chance to prise Addis Ababa away from what it regards as China’s malignant influence.
It has held out the prospect of big investments if the government goes through with market reforms.
Under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Washington is also urging Ethiopia to sign a water-sharing agreement to allay Cairo’s fears over the Nile.
Mr Abiy has a restive, fractured state to contend with. Soon he will need to fight a difficult election that was postponed because of Covid-19.
The last thing Ethiopia’s leader wants is to appear weak in the face of external pressure.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be filled, water-sharing agreement or not. In the Horn of Africa, outside interference only gets you so far.
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20-JAN-2020 :: The Intrusion of Middle Powers
Law & Politics
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Since 2010 and over the last ten years, Middle powers like Turkey, the UAE [whom Mattis characterised as ‘’Little Sparta’’], Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey [Israel and Russia too but they cannot be characterised as Middle Powers] have all extended their reach into the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa.
The Horn of Africa exhibits enti- rely similar characteristics. In fact, from the Maghreb to the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, we are witnessing a surge in asymmetric warfare and the intrusion of Middle Po
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Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer
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14-OCT-2019 :: @PMEthiopia a fiendishly complicated task fending off the centripetal forces which are tearing Ethiopia apart
Law & Politics
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#Ebola Outbreak Update. ➡️46 cases (43 confirmed, 3 probable). 19 deceased and 5 recovered. @whoafro
Misc.
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The latest Situation Report from the 11th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in #Mbandaka, Équateur Province #DRC (reported 8 July 2020).
➡️46 cases (43 confirmed, 3 probable). 19 deceased and 5 recovered.
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02-JUN-2020 :: Fast Forward On top of all that we know have an Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo
Misc.
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On top of all that we know have an Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo
Congo declares new Ebola epidemic, 1,000 km from eastern outbreak Reuters
Democratic Republic of Congo declared a new Ebola epidemic on Monday in the western city of Mbandaka, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) away from an ongoing outbreak of the same deadly virus in the east.
Health Minister Eteni Longondo said four people who died in Mbandaka were confirmed as positive cases following testing at the national biomedical laboratory in the capital Kinshasa.
“We have a new Ebola epidemic in Mbandaka,” Longondo told reporters. “We are going to very quickly send them the vaccine and medicine.”
The outbreak was confirmed by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who tweeted: “This outbreak is a reminder that #COVID19 is not the only health threat people face.”
Congo has been struggling to put an end to a nearly two-year-old Ebola outbreak near its eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda, which has killed more than 2,200 people, the world’s second-deadliest outbreak of the disease on record.
It was days away in April from declaring the end of that outbreak, its tenth since the virus was discovered in 1976, when a new chain of infection was confirmed in the east. However, no new cases have been detected there in over 30 days.
The first known emergence of Ebola Zaire—the hottest subtype of Ebola virus— happened in September, 1976, when the virus erupted simultaneously in fifty-five villages near the Ebola River. Ebola Zaire is a slate-wiper in humans.
It killed eighty- eight per cent of the people it infected. Apart from rabies and the human immunodeficiency virus, H.I.V., which causes aids, this was the highest rate of mortality that has been recorded for a human virus.
Ebola was spread mainly among family members, through contact with bodily fluids and blood. Many of the people in Africa who came down with Ebola had handled Ebola-infected cadavers. It seems that one of Ebola’s paths wends to the living from the dead.
These remain precarious times.
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COVID-19 pandemic in Africa is now reaching ‘full speed’ @AP #COVID19
Misc.
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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic in Africa is reaching “full speed” and it’s good to prepare for the worst-case scenario, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief said Thursday, after a South African official said a single province is preparing 1.5 million graves.
Just a day after confirmed virus cases across Africa surpassed the half-million milestone the total was over 522,000 and climbing, with more than 12,000 deaths.
With testing levels low, the real numbers are unknown.
South Africa has the most confirmed cases with over 224,000, and for the first time Gauteng province — home to Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria — has the country’s most cases with over 75,000, or 33%.
Provincial official Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor, startled South Africans when he told reporters Wednesday that Gauteng is preparing over 1.5 million graves.
“It’s a reality that we need to deal with,” he said, and it’s the public’s responsibility “to make sure that we don’t get there.”
The province in a statement Thursday sought to calm fears, saying it “does not have over a million already open dug graves” and the number refers to the potential capacity.
It also said six members of Gauteng’s COVID-19 War Room have tested positive for the virus.
Asked about the comments, Africa CDC chief John Nkengasong said “there’s absolutely no harm to think ahead” and prepare for the worst-case scenario.
’We’ve crossed a critical number here,” he said of the half-million milestone. “Our pandemic is getting full speed.”
He called for more mask-wearing, saying “this battle will be won or lost at the community level.”
He also called for more testing, as just 5.7 million tests for the new virus have been conducted across the continent of 1.3 billion people.
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There has been a 30% increase in the number of confirmed cases of #COVID19 in the African Region in the past week. @WHOAFRO
Africa
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The current figures in the region represents 3.4% of confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1.4% of deaths reported worldwide. @WHOAFRO
Africa
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Over 520,000+ confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 250,000 recoveries & 12,000 deaths. @WHOAFRO
Africa
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Cumulative total of *reported* #COVID19 cases in Africa @Covid_Africa
Africa
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From 1st case to 100,000 cases: 98 days
100,000 to 200,000 cases: 18 days
200,000 to 300,000 cases: 12 days
300,000 to 400,000 cases: 9 days
400,000 to 500,000 cases: 7 days
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Africa is now accelerating off a Low base
Africa
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Over 293,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - @WHOAFRO
Africa
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On the 10-MAY-2020 : Africa was at 56,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases continent
Africa
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The number of confirmed cases in Africa has been rising by about 30% a week over the past month, but is set to incline steeply now.
There was a lot of FOX News level, mathematically illiterate magical thinking about Africa and how it was going to dodge a ‘’Silver Bullet’’
That thinking is now debunked. Africa is playing ''Whack a Mole'' with a blindfold on
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02-MAR-2020 :: The #COVID19 and SSA and the R Word
Africa
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We Know that the #Coronavirus is exponential, non linear and multiplicative.
what exponential disease propagation looks like in the real world. Real world exponential growth looks like nothing, nothing, nothing ... then cluster, cluster, cluster ... then BOOM!
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10-MAY-2020 :: The worrying development is Transmission Hotspots #COVID19 and the Spillover Moment
Africa
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Kano in Nigeria for example
Western Cape growing at an alarming rate @sugan250388
Someone with close knowledge of the medical profession said it was almost impossible to secure a hospital bed in several cities.
The Aga Khan hospital in Dar es Salaam had a well-equipped ward for 80 coronavirus patients, but several were dying each night, he said.
The Question for SSA is whether these Transmission Hot Spots expand and conflate?
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Of 91 038 reported new cases majority 71% (64 646) recorded in South Africa, which remains the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak in the region. South Africa is now among the top 15 most affected countries globally
Africa
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SA #COVID19 UPDATE 9 July 13,674 new cases - new daily record Daily cases doubling rate = 11.7 days Positivity rate = 24% @rid1tweets
Africa
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• 13,674 new cases - new daily record
• Daily cases doubling rate = 11.7 days
• 56,170 tests conducted. Positivity rate = 24%
• 129 more deaths today. Daily death doubling rate = 19.7 days
• Active cases = 121,549
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NEW GRAPH: Daily doubling rate of #COVID19 DEATHS in SA @rid1tweets
Africa
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South Africa All Share Bloomberg
Africa
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Dollar versus Rand 6 Month Chart INO 16.92115
World Currencies
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Cairo Badly Needed a Detox. Lockdown Supplied One, at a Steep Price. @nytimes
Africa
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The coronavirus obliged. Three months of lockdown, including an 11-hour nightly curfew, imposed a rejuvenating deep cleanse on Cairo.
Roads once choked with honking cars ran free. The air, free of fumes, seemed to sparkle. Silence flooded the streets.
She saw the coronavirus as a message from God. “He wants us to look at life differently,” she said.
For much of Egypt’s history, its fate has been shaped by the Nile. The bridge of kites led to Roda Island, described in “One Thousand and One Nights” as a place of heavenly gardens, now a tight sprawl of dust-smeared apartment blocks.
At its southern tip, though, there survives a Nilometer built in the ninth century — a structure that measured the river’s seasonal flooding and thus predicted the annual harvest.
Now, disease was dictating the pace of life. As night fell and the curfew officially began,
I crossed into downtown Cairo, a jumble of old palaces, crumbling elegance and gaudy shop fronts where, in normal times, the traffic is so crazy that guidebooks offer tourists solemn advice on how to survive.
Egypt has over 77,000 known cases, and confirmed infections have grown by about 1,400 cases a day for the past month.
Egypt has registered more than 3,400 deaths, the highest toll in the Arab world.
In an ominous portent, Mr. el-Sisi last week opened a 4,000-bed field hospital to treat coronavirus patients.
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Flying kites on a bridge over the Nile last month.Credit...Mohamed Hossam/EPA, via Shutterstock @nytimes
Africa
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An aerial view of the Nile.Credit...Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images @nytimes
Africa
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The Great Sphinx and the pyramids were eerily bereft of tourists in May. Credit...Sima Diab for The New York Times
Africa
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22-MAR-2020 :: Tourism is stopped out in 2020 #COVID19 [I feel behavior and consumption of Tourism is set to change more permanently]
Tourism, Travel & Transport
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Egypt Pound versus The Dollar 3 Month Chart INO 15.9844
World Currencies
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Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index Bloomberg
Africa
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Kenya will sell five-year, 10-year and 15-year Treasury bonds to raise a total 60 billion shillings ($561.53 million) this month: Central Bank — Reuters @moneyacademyKE
Kenyan Bonds - Long Term
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A Golden Flood of Liquidity for GOK
Kenyan Economy
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The results of today’s Treasury bill auction. @CBKKenya
Kenyan Bills & Bonds - Short Term
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Kenya reports a RECORD 447 new Covid-19 cases! Positivity rate of samples tested in the last 3 days was 10.18%! #COVID19 @MihrThakar
Misc.
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When international travel resumes, travellers travelling to Kenya will be required to have a #covid19 certificate approved by @WHO @tunajibu
Tourism, Travel & Transport
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Kenya Shilling versus The Dollar Live ForexPros
World Currencies
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Nairobi All Share Bloomberg
N.S.E General
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Nairobi ^NSE20 Bloomberg
N.S.E General
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Watch soccer in the clouds. @mercymurugi
Misc.
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Every Listed Share can be interrogated here
N.S.E General
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