Will the next 2007 Lehman Brothers trigger be life-insurance companies?
🔹US 🇺🇸 - 5th largest life-insurance company Lincoln Financial Group sees 163% increase in pay-outs in the last year. Reports $41,000,000 loss 📉 in Q1 2022.

🔹Taiwan 🇹🇼 - Mercuries Life Insurance Co reported a net loss of US$224.7 million 📉for H1 2022, due to losses from investments.

🔹India 🇮🇳 - 4 PSU insurers (Public Sector Undertakings) faces losses 📉 from health portfolio arm of insurance business.

🔹UK 🇬🇧 - Health experts have called for an urgent investigation into what is behind the excess mortality. Excess deaths for the week ending July 22 were up 18.1% 📈 above historical data.

🔹US 🇺🇸 - 25-44 year old excess deaths due to cardio-vascular diseases spike 📈 compared to 5 year average.

🔹Dr Guy Hatchard concerned over the high number of excess deaths 📈for Q1 of 2022 in New Zealand 🇳🇿.

🔹Israeli 🇮🇱 air raids on the Gaza Strip has left 24 people dead, including six children 🙏 and a 23-year-old woman. Claims on Israeli channels say that these children were killed by a misfired rocket in Northern Gaza. However, this morning we reported the killing of a 5-year old girl.

🔹The Israel Defense Forces claim to have killed a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group in an airstrike 🛩 on the city of Rafah.

🔹Israel's Iron Dome missile 📡 defense system 🛰 destroyed 95% of the rockets from Palestine 🇵🇸 mid-air. The IDF declares their pre-emptive operation as ‘Operation Breaking Dawn’ and prepared for it to last up to a week.

🔹The Leader of Lebanon's 🇱🇧 Hezbollah "resistance movement" denounces the Israeli action. Saudi Arabia's 🇸🇦 Press Agency releases statements of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League denouncing Israel for it's attacks on the Palestinian peoples.

Video - Jabalia, Northern Gaza Strip.

UK 🇬🇧 - Possible Supply Chain disruption:
🔹Dockers at Felixstowe ⚓️ are planning eight days of strike action over pay. Nearly 1,900 workers plan to stop work for more than a week at the Hong Kong 🇭🇰-owned port, starting on Sunday 21 August and ending on Monday 29 August.

🔹The union said the latest round of talks with the company at the conciliation service Acas had failed to yield a “reasonable offer”, but further talks are planned for tomorrow. A 7% pay offer from Felixstowe Dock ⚓️ and Railway Company was rejected. Unite called the pay offer "significantly below" the rate of inflation 📈.

🔹Felixstowe, on the Suffolk coast, handles the equivalent of 4m 20-ft shipping containers 🚢 every year from about 2,000 ships – including some of the very largest container ships ever made. It is the eighth-largest container 🚢 port in Europe.

🔹Five Turkish 🇹🇷 banks have adopted Russia’s Mir payments system, post Presidents Erdogan/Putin meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 has also provided much needed foreign-exchange liquidity to Turkey by transferring billions of dollars to a Turkey-based subsidiary of Rosatom for completion of a nuclear power 🏭 plant’s construction on the Mediterranean coast.

🔹The Mir Pay mobile payment service provider has started operating in 🇧🇾 Belarus.

🔹Mir Payment adoption to be discussed in 🇲🇲 Myanmar.

Prior Developments:
💠 Iran, 🇮🇷 South Korea 🇰🇷 and Cuba 🇨🇺 adopts Mir Payment system. Sri Lanka and Syria adoption under consideration.

🔹Britain's 🇬🇧 cap on domestic energy prices is expected to rise by 70% in October and remain high until at least 2024.

🔹The typical gas 🔥and electricity bill 💡is expected to reach £3,358 in October. In October 2021, the average annual bill was £1,400.

🔹More than 75,000 irritated people in the UK have pledged not to pay their electricity 🔌 bill this fall when prices jump again. This comes as an inflation 📈 storm of high energy prices has obliterated household incomes. Brits are the most miserable in three decades as inflation is expected to hit 13%.

🔹🇬🇧 Consumers are warned If they don't agree a payment plan with their 🔋 supplier, suppliers might try to force them to have a pre-payment meter installed. In very rare cases, if you haven't paid a bill after 28 days, you might be threatened with disconnection 🕯of your supply.

🔹 US - 🇺🇸 The water levels 💧in Lake Mead & Lake Powell are at their lowest ever ⚠️ & are getting close to reaching "dead pool status." Too low water levels will affect downstream hydroelectric 🏭 stations. California adopted an emergency water 🚰 regulations in May. Farmers 🚜 are coming at the problem of saltwater intrusion with a desalination plant and an artificial rock barrier.

🔹 UK - 🇬🇧 Thames Water may have shut down an emergency ☀️ drought plant (desalination plant in Beckton, east London) to save on power costs. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight residents will be placed under emergency water 🚰 restrictions called "temporary use ban." A similar ban will go into effect for residents in Kent and Sussex from Aug. 12.

🔹Italy - 🇮🇹 "WWII bomb 💣 found by fishermen on the bank of the River Po due to a decrease in water levels caused by ☀️ drought,". The Po River, Italy's largest river at 405 miles long, is also the biggest reservoir of fresh water available in the country.

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🔹On April 21st 📆 this channel posted a warning of possible reduced rice 🌾output coming from major producers due to various factors.

🔹Now, India 🇮🇳, the world's largest rice 🌾 exporter, has seen planting areas of the crop decline by 13% due to heatwaves ☀️ and drought. India accounts for 40% of the global rice trade, and a decline in production will complicate India's domestic inflation 📈 fight. It could result in export restrictions, leading to few supplies for the rest of the world. In the last two weeks, prices in India have soared more than 10% in top growing states.

🔹Severe deficiency of monsoon rainfall 🌧 in the eastern regions of India 🇮🇳 is hitting paddy sowing activities, the country’s rice production for 2022-23 crop year (July-June) may turn out to be at least 10 million tonne (MT) less than last year’s record level of 129 MT.

🔹China 🇨🇳 is virtually self-sufficient 👍 in rice. Imports of rice only account for 3% of the nation's total demand, and are mainly exotic varieties.

🔹Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Dutch ING bank is offering its clients the option of monitoring the environmental impact of their spending via their bank 🧾 statements. The carbon dioxide emissions are calculated on the basis of monthly expenditure 💳 in different categories.

🔹Netherlands CO2 emissions - All Dutch employers with over 100 employees will have to track and report on their employees' daily commuting ✈️ 🚃 🚈 🚝 🚖 emissions as of next year.

Background:
💠 Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Rabobank customers can see how much CO2 they emit based on their spending in the bank’s app 📱. Climate expert is calling on the firm to better map the products that cause the most emissions.

💠The Dutch 🇳🇱 gov't intends to ban new fossil fuel 🔥 boilers as of 2026, while introducing the mandatory use of heat pumps or connections to heat networks.

Video - Carbon-Bank CEO Barbara Baarsma thinks that each citizen should have a limited number of carbon emission rights—credits that they can buy and sell through a "Carbon Wallet."

🔹 Japan 🇯🇵 will not be leaving the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia’s Far East because of its significance to the country’s energy supply.

🔹 🇷🇺 President Putin signed a decree in early August regarding foreign shareholders in strategically important Russian companies. Gazprom will receive a just over 50% of the new Russian entity replacing the Sakhalin Energy company and the new company will hold the remaining 49.99% until existing Sakhalin-2 shareholders 📊 applied for a stake, with early September set as a deadline.

🔹U.S. 🇺🇸 oil producer ExxonMobil enforcing sanctions is in the process of transitioning its 30% stake in Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project - where it was the operator - "to another party," without naming it. Russia accused ExxonMobil of unilaterally stopping oil production 🛢 ⚓️ at the Sakhalin-1 project.

🔹Mitsui and Mitsubishi, 🇯🇵 which together hold a 22.5% stake in the project, said separately that they were examining details of the new entity.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 is also reportedly planning to ban the exports of U.S. chipmaking equipment that produces advanced NAND chips to major Chinese 🇨🇳 chipmakers. In late July, the United States expanded its bans on exports 🚢 to China of equipment that can make semiconductors up to 14 nanometers in size.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 Chips and Science Bill aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor production was signed into law.

Background:
💠South Korea 🇰🇷 attempts to assure China 🇨🇳 on supply chain amid US pressuring over exclusive ‘chip alliance’. Concerns remain over neon gas supply chains for semiconductors.

💠Taiwan 🇹🇼 Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC manufactures 92% of the advanced semiconductors necessary for...

🔹Norway 🇳🇴 on announces that due to an 'uncertain and demanding situation' over sky-high electricity prices 📈 - caused by low water levels at hydroelectric stations, as well as the "dramatic situation in Europe", the government will be limiting electricity 💡exports "when the water level in the reservoirs drops to very low levels."

🔹Norway has notably been referred to as the "battery 🔋 of Europe" thanks to its ability to generate and export massive quantities of hydroelectric power. So far this year, far less electricity (11.6 TWh) has been produced in southern Norway than at the same time last year - 18% less.

🔹In April, The Norwegian 🇳🇴 government were facing increasing calls to curb electricity 🔌 exports to Europe as power prices jumped at home.

Photo: NO2 region (Top Left) in the south of Norway, which is connected to mainland Europe by several interconnectors. Here reserves are record low. NO4 region (Top Right) in the north of Norway are good.

🔹The pro-Russian 🇷🇺 hacker group Killnet took down the website of the American 🇺🇸 arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Earlier today, the official web resource of the corporation does not open, giving a 504 error.

🔹Systems that stopped working as a result of the attack, include an authorization system for Lockheed Martin employees. Lockheed manufactures and delivers HIMARS MLRS and Javelin anti-tank systems to Ukraine.

🔹Earlier this week in the US 🇺🇸 - Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 800 F-35 fighter jets 🛩, but production is still marred by excessive defects and rework that risk substantial delivery delays and reduced readiness.

🔹The Reserve Bank of Australia 🇦🇺 will trial a digital currency in a “ring-fenced” pilot program as part of a year-long collaborative research project into how it could be used by consumers and businesses. A pilot digital currency would be used that had a real claim on the Reserve Bank 🏦.

🔹CBDCs, much like all blockchain based currency 💵 mechanisms, are inherently devoid of privacy. By it's very design, blockchain tech requires a ledger of transactions than can be tracked by governments if they so choose. With the advent of widespread CBDCs the very notion of privacy in trade would utterly disappear from society within a generation.

Background:

💠 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) 🇨🇭report on CBDC interoperability.
💠 Catherine Austin Fitts- CBDC's are a foundational building block of tyranny.

Video- UK Maajid Nawaz warns of gov't control through CBDC's.

🔹 Germany - 🇩🇪 Water levels 💧on the Rhine River are nearing dangerously low levels, and new forecasts expect Europe's most critical waterway for inland commodity shipments 🚢 via barges could be impassable by the end of the week. (Photo - Top commodities 🛢 🌾 ⛏ shipped via barge on the river.)

Background:

💠 Freight shipping on the river continues but with vessels 🚢 sometimes forced to sail 75% empty.
💠 German 🇩🇪 companies faced supply bottlenecks and production problems in 2018 for this situation.
💠 This is preventing at least two power plants in Germany from getting all the coal they need.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 is expected to resume oil exports to Europe 🇪🇺 via Ukraine today, after transit was halted by Ukraine’s 🇺🇦 Ukrtransnafta, earlier this month. The payment Transneft had made to Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta on July 22 for the transit fees for August didn’t process due to unclear banking regulations from sanctions.

🔹Slovakia’s 🇸🇰 Slovnaft and Hungary’s 🇭🇺 MOL paid Ukraine the transit fees 💵 for August for the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline as a temporary solution.

🔹Druzhba, which is one of the longest pipeline networks in the world, carries crude 🛢 some 4,000km from the eastern part of European Russia to refineries in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.Russia normally supplies about 250,000 barrels of oil per day via the southern leg of the route.

🔹USA 🇺🇸 - Fire 🔥 destroys historic flour mill in eastern Oregon. The Pendleton Fire Dep't 🚒 responded to a report of visible black smoke and quickly extinguished a small fire. Officials say the fire reignited around 4 a.m. Wednesday and the building was soon fully engulfed. Grain Craft officials said 🚑 no injuries have been reported.

🔹The Pendleton Flour Mills is owned by Grain Craft, which is the largest independent flour 🌾 milling company in the country 🇺🇸. "Although the building is a total loss, this will be an ongoing emergent situation due to the amount of grain that is [slowly] burning,".

Recent Related News:

💠 Disruptions to US 🇺🇸 food security from fires 🔥 in June at multiple food processing plants and in May. Also in May, a fire 🔥 at Purdue Farms facility in Virginia.

💠 Grain Storage facility in Prosser, Washington, burnt 🔥 down.

Video: Pendleton Fire Dep't social media account

🔹German 🇩🇪 Vice Chancellor announced that public buildings across the country won't be allowed to set heating 🌡 above 19 deg. C (66.2F) this fall. Germany's grid regulator, Klaus Mueller, said that German families would need to cut 20% of their normal energy consumption in order to avoid gas shortages by December.

🔹Germany's 🇩🇪 incoming gas price levy, which is meant to distribute the high costs of replacing Russian gas among all end-consumers from October, has been set at 2.419 💶 euro cents per kilowatt hour💡(kWh). The levy, planned by the German cabinet in a bid to help Uniper and other importers cope with soaring prices 📈.

🔹Salzgitter AG, Germany's second-largest steelmaker, 🔥 is in talks with regulators in a bid to secure exemption from potential gas rationing. Salzgitter makes the pipes needed to connect two planned LNG terminals with the national grid.

🔹Idaho, USA 🇺🇸 - A previous year's potato 🥔 crop cycle is supposed to last through the following August. And before the 2022 harvest comes into the pipeline (it’s just now beginning), consumers are facing the shortage from last year's crop. ”There is not a gap. There are just less potatoes being shipped right now than there normally are this time of year because of the shorter supply that we started the season with,”.

🔹Shippers 🚛 are running low on fresh Idaho potatoes 🥔 statewide and it will take careful planning over the next few weeks to make sure fresh spuds remain on grocery store shelves nationwide. Until this year’s crop is harvested and new shipments begin, shippers are under the gun to keep supply chain issues to a minimum.

🔹“Consumers 🍟 might not notice anything,”. As far as the 2022 potato crop, potato acreage is down 8%, to about 290,000 acres, but better growing conditions should increase yields 🌱.

🔹France 🇫🇷 is contending with its worst nuclear 🏭 outages in decades, putting it at greater risk of blackouts 🔌 this winter. Water levels have plunged in reservoirs and rivers, making it hard to generate hydropower, transport coal and cool nuclear plants, while reducing the efficiency of gas power plants.

🔹In France, 🇫🇷 the state plans to fully nationalize 🔋 Electricite de France SA, the embattled nuclear power utility. Benchmark Dutch gas futures 🔥 for next month extended last week’s gain, 📈 climbing as much as 4.2% in Amsterdam. The price has more than doubled since June.

Recent news -
💠 French 🇫🇷 utility Electricite de France 💡reported that nuclear power stations on the Rhone and Garonne rivers will reduce power generation 🏭 because of increasing water temperatures used for cooling.

🔹Germany 🇩🇪- Many farmers besiege with tractors 🚜🚜🚜 the Bonn Ministry of Agriculture. German farmers revolt against EU climate change policies and the agenda behind them, which, if carried out, will surely bring the agricultural 🌾 industry to its knees.

Background:
💠 German 🇩🇪 farmers have been protesting 🔥 draconian climate change policies against them in the name of curbing nitrates in groundwater.

💠 There is a blackout of farmers 🚜 protests in European corporate media.

💠 German 🇩🇪 farmers have been standing in solidarity with Dutch 🇳🇱 farmers after the Netherlands plan to cut farmers nitrogen emissions.