Society's ChildS


Stock Down

Bank of England warns of 'deteriorated economic outlook', recession, households will be 'vulnerable to further shocks'

bank of england
The Bank said the outlook for the UK economy is "very uncertain".
The Bank of England has told lenders to prepare for a "deteriorated economic outlook".

Banks were told to ramp up capital buffers to ensure they can weather the storm.

"The economic outlook for the UK and globally has deteriorated materially," the Bank said as it published its latest Financial Stability Report, largely blaming the impact of the war in Ukraine.

The Bank said the outlook for the UK economy is "very uncertain".

Comment: Which means that small and medium business will suffer.

And so, just how 'deteriorated' can the situation become? Well, just a few months ago the Governor of the BoE warned of looming 'apocalyptic' global food shortages'.


Bizarro Earth

Two teachers shot dead in French village, suspected ex-boyfriend goes on the run

Gendarmerie
© Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFPA picture shows a logo of the Gendarmerie.
French police were searching for a man on Tuesday who was suspected to have shot dead two teachers in a small village in the Pyrenees mountains, in a crime possibly motivated by jealousy.

The teachers — a man and a woman who worked at a school in the nearby southwestern town of Tarbes — were found dead on Monday afternoon in the village of Pouyastruc, prosecutors said.

The suspected gunman "fled and has not been arrested yet", Tarbes prosecutor Pierre Aurignac told AFP, adding that a double murder investigation has been opened.

Comment: Other shootings in just the last few days:


Bizarro Earth

SOTT Focus: ANOTHER Terror Attack in The USA: 6 Dead, 31 Injured, in Mass Shooting at 4th of July Parade in Illinois

shooting parade july 2022
© REUTERSPolice deploy after gunfire erupted at a Fourth of July parade route in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. July 4, 2022 in a still image from video.
At least six people were killed and 31 others were hospitalized following a shooting at a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday.

The city of Highland Park initially stated that 16 people were injured and five were killed, but officials amended the total to six dead and 31 injured during an afternoon press conference.

"Law enforcement agencies are searching for the suspect; evidence of a firearm has been recovered. The suspect is described as a White male, 18-20 years old, with longish black hair and a slight build. Numerous law enforcement officers are responding and have secured a perimeter around downtown Highland Park," city wrote in a statement.

Comment: Just yesterday, this happened in Denmark: 3 dead in shooting at shopping centre

See also: 16 injured in New York subway shooting, 4 suspicious devices found (12th April 2022)

UPDATES

The suspect has been caught. 22-year-old Robert Crimo was arrested in his car during a road-stop. He's a resident of Highland Park, and his father owns a local business.

The Left is screaming that he's a 'Trumper' because social media posts appear to show him present at Trump rallies (back when he was a teenager?).

The Right is screaming that he's 'Antifa' because he 'liked' Joe Biden's posts and, well, just look at him:


He's clearly mentally ill. He even alludes to mind control and historical false-flag events in his videos, which have been up online for months but no one 'flagged' his illegal content - presumably because 'fact-checkers' were too busy silencing legal speech:


Here he is filming the arrival of a presidential motorcade - presumably Biden's - last August. His father is the bald man at the end:


Multiple phone-camera recordings of the atrocity indicate two long bursts of gunfire of about 30 rounds each:




Official reports immediately cited police as having found a 'high-powered rifle' on a rooftop overlooking the parade route. This is consistent with eyewitness testimony of a man shooting from a rooftop:


But there's a potential problem with the official story of one gunman firing from a rooftop. This next eyewitness insists Crimo was indeed present and firing at parade bystanders, but from a GROUND-LEVEL position:


Note also Schwartz's description of the arrival of SINGLE cop (not a unit, which is normal police response), and his odd behavior.

Nonetheless, the earliest reports definitely stated that someone suspect was seen on a rooftop. The next video (at the start) may capture them - it's hard to say for sure:


Was the 'cop' Schwartz describes as looking upwards, scanning the rooftop? If so, why?

Anyway, it looks like TWO gunmen were firing, one perhaps with suppressed fire while the other made loud semi-automatic gunfire.

This single cop arriving first on the scene sounds like he could have been part of a team that scarpered before the main police response arrived.

The rest, as they say, is history. Americans are being played.

UPDATE 5th July

Police now say that Crimo, who they insist was firing from the rooftop, wore women's clothes to disguise himself and that he escaped by blending into the fleeing spectators. We refer you back to Schwartz's testimony, who mentioned no such disguise when describing a 'skinny kid' shooting people FROM GROUND-LEVEL, then quickly running away.

Whoever was on the rooftop may well have been disguised, but it wasn't Crimo.

They're also now saying that 'over 70 rounds were fired', but only 60 rounds are heard on bystanders' videos, which capture the entire duration of the shooting. Other rounds from a suppressed 'high-powered rifle' found on the rooftop? No doubt forensics will later show shots were fired from above, so for the 'lone gunman' narrative, Crimo HAS to be placed on that rooftop.


Pistol

NY governor to require 3 years of social media history for gun carry permit

Hochul
© APNew York Governor Kathy Hochul
New York Governor Kathy Hochul once again signed sweeping gun legislation into law on Friday that created several severe new restrictions on obtaining a gun in the state, including drastically increasing concealed carry regulations and requiring applicants to turn over social media history.

According to the the legislation, part of Hochul's new criteria to obtain a concealed carry permit will be an applicant giving the government a list containing three years of history of their current and inactive social media accounts. Applicants must also have 16 hours of firearm training, provide four character references, and list the contact information for any domestic partners or adults of any kind they live with.


Comment: The United States' Second Amendment has no list of stipulations, no timeframe - nor does it suggest or require regulation.


Dominoes

'Good map for Democrats': Nate Silver assess odds of Republicans winning Senate

Silver
© Slavin Vlasic/Getty ImagesNate Silver
Polling guru Nate Silver says the fight between parties to win control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections is a "toss-up."

Republicans need a net gain of only one seat to take control of the upper chamber, which is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tiebreaker. But even with President Joe Biden's low poll numbers and rising inflation, it remains a tough call for the GOP.

After noting that FiveThirtyEight's model pegs the Democrats as having a very low (10-15%) chance of maintaining control of the House, Silver said it is a "very different story" for the Senate. "For one thing, it's a pretty good map for Democrats," Silver said Sunday on ABC News's This Week.

Comment: Instead of a 'toss up', it should be a 'toss out'.


Recycle

Germans forced to ration hot water - media

Shower
© Getty Images/deepblue4you
A housing cooperative in the town of Dippoldiswalde in Saxony is reducing the supply of hot water due to drastically increased energy prices, the German tabloid Bild reports, citing a landlord's letter to tenants sent on Monday.

According to the notice, hot water will no longer be available for the 600 apartments of the cooperative around the clock, but only intermittently. Tenants will be able to take hot showers between 4am and 8am, 11am and 1pm and 5pm and 9pm. During the night and in between those times, cold water will run from the taps.

Board member Falk Kuhn-Meisegeier told the German Press Agency:
"It's not about annoying the tenants, but about adjusting to what we might not be able to pay for next year. We want tenants to get through this crisis well. Life is expensive enough as it is."
Over the weekend, the environmental chief of the city of Hamburg reportedly warned that hot water may be rationed in the city in case of an acute gas shortage.

Mail

US Postal Service price hike on stamps set to kick in

mailbox
© Pexels/Abstrakt Xxcellence
The price hike on U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postage products is set to kick in next week as the country grapples with soaring inflation.

The Forever Stamp — which will be raised from 58 cents to 60 cents — and four other stamp products will see their prices go up on July 10. The USPS announced they would be raising prices on these products on April 6.

The Forever Stamp, introduced in 2007, "can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future," the USPS says on their website.

If one is to buy a Forever Stamp on July 9 for 58 cents, they can use that stamp indefinitely.

Oil Well

Energy crunch is pushing European gas prices higher

rubles gas russia payments
© Getty Images / Peter Dazeley
Natural gas prices in Europe rose to the highest level in almost four months on Tuesday as the continent's energy crisis intensifies.

Benchmark futures tied to TTF, the European wholesale gas price, jumped 8% to over $1,800 per thousand cubic meters or €175 per megawatt hour in household terms. That is the highest level since the beginning of March and five times more than it was this time last year.

Comment: More on the potential crisis from RT:
Electricity prices in Europe have hit their highest level on record, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing the rising cost of natural gas amid the uncertainty over Russian supplies.

German baseload power for delivery next year, which is the benchmark European price, traded at €325 ($334) per megawatt hour (MWh) on Monday, thus surpassing the previous record set in December, the newspaper writes. Last July, the price stood at just over €81 ($83) per megawatt hour. The equivalent contract in France has doubled to €366 ($377) per MWh since the start of the year, the FT adds.

Electricity prices are influenced by the cost of natural gas, which is used to generate power. Gas prices in Europe exceeded $1,800 per thousand cubic meters for the first time since early March on Tuesday, as oil and gas workers in Norway have gone on strike over pay, thus affecting output.

According to the FT, the situation has been exacerbated by maintenance problems at a large number of France's nuclear plants, due to which neighboring countries have been burning additional gas to generate electricity for the country.

Also, the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany is scheduled to close for maintenance next week. Moscow already had to reduce the flow via the pipeline by 60% last month over technical issues caused by Western sanctions, but many in the EU fear that after the planned shutdown the gas flow will not be switched back on.

Germany triggered the second stage of its three-level emergency plan last month. The third stage would require the rationing of gas to households and industrial sites. A housing cooperative in Saxony has already reportedly introduced hot-water rationing, with similar warnings issued in Hamburg as well.



Bad Guys

Civilians urged to evacuate Lysychansk, Ukraine, after Russia begins artillery strikes

Slovyansk
Shelling in Sloviansk, near Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, Ukraine
The head of the Donetsk regional military administration has urged civilians to evacuate the eastern Ukrainian town of Slovyansk after an artillery strike hit the central market.

Pavlo Kyrylenko said at least two people were killed and seven wounded as a result of the shelling on July 5. He posted a video on social media showing smoke rising from a commercial area and photos of firefighters dousing flames.

"The Russians are again purposefully hitting places where civilians are gathered. This is pure terrorism. The terrorist state must be brought to justice," Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram.

Comment: In the real world, things are looking pretty dire for Ukraine.
russia ukraine donetsk kharkiv July
© Institute for the Study of War



Megaphone

Best of the Web: Unbearable inflation sparks GLOBAL wave of protests

protests harare inflation
© AP Photo/Tsvangirayi MukwazhiFILE -Health workers led by nurses take part in a demonstration over salaries at Parerenyatwa Hospital in Harare, on June, 21, 2022
Rising food costs. Soaring fuel bills. Wages that are not keeping pace. Inflation is plundering people's wallets, sparking a wave of protests and workers' strikes around the world.

This week alone saw protests by the political opposition in Pakistan, nurses in Zimbabwe, unionized workers in Belgium, railway workers in Britain, Indigenous people in Ecuador, hundreds of U.S. pilots and some European airline workers. Sri Lanka's prime minister declared an economic collapse Wednesday after weeks of political turmoil.

Economists say Russia's war in Ukraine amplified inflation by further pushing up the cost of energy and prices of fertilizer, grains and cooking oils as farmers struggle to grow and export crops in one of the world's key agricultural regions.


Comment: As noted elsewhere whilst there is a Western fomented energy crisis occurring, energy costs have still been falling, just not for the consumer, however energy companies continue to post record profits.

In addition, Western sanctions have been blocking shipments of critical gas pipeline parts, fertilizer, grain, and this is coupled with Ukraine's refusal to demine its ports to allow for the safe shipment of goods the world desperately needs.

As we saw with the lockdowns, the initial impact caused by these issues pales in comparison to the real harm they will cause in the near future.


Comment: Some footage of the protests occurring right now:

Spain:


Italy:


South Korea:


Netherlands: