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Oil could dive below $10 if OPEC & allies fail to agree production cut deal, warns Fitch


RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:59 UTC
oil drilling
© AFP / Justin Tallis
The oil market could be put under "extreme physical pressure" if major global oil producers fail to reach a deal to cut output, Fitch Solutions has said.

According to the agency's report, a fall in demand and an increase in supply could result in more than 20 million barrels per day of excess oil.

"While it is unlikely that nominal storage capacity will be breached, it is possible that the sheer scale of the oversupply will overwhelm global logistics chains, plunging Brent into single-digit lows," Fitch analysts said.
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Handcuffs

'Servile' or helping the NHS? Peter Hitchens stirs debate about UK coronavirus lockdown measures


RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:55 UTC
park
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
A police officer confronts people at Greenwich Park in London, Britain, March 31, 2020
Journalist Peter Hitchens has lambasted the unprecedented restrictions put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus, provoking fierce debate about preserving liberties versus safeguarding public health among Britons.

The outspoken British author exchanged barbs with TalkRadio's Mike Graham on Monday, with the pair taking nearly polar opposite views on how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Graham insisted that limiting non-essential commerce and movement was a small price to pay if it stops the spread of the virus. "I don't consider it to be an infringement of my personal liberty to be asked to only go out only if you absolutely have to... I really don't think that's much of a massive problem," he argued.
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Corona

Covid-19 fatalities reportedly slow in Europe and New York, stocks surge back


RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 17:42 UTC
wall street
© Reuters / Mike Segar
US stock markets are surging higher on Monday following news that the death rate from Covid-19 in New York State and the worst-hit European countries is declining.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained over five percent after the opening bell. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are trading over four percent higher.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained more than four percent to start the week, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index grew 2.2 percent. Markets in mainland China were closed for a public holiday.

Stocks have also rallied in Europe, with Germany's DAX leading the region, rising more than four percent.

The White House acknowledged that this week could be among the toughest for coronavirus hotspots like New York. However, President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was hopeful the country could be seeing a "leveling-off" of the coronavirus crisis in some of worst-affected regions.

"We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening," Trump said, warning that still, the US would reach "a horrific point" in terms of deaths.

Comment: Scott Adams sums up the two narratives which will compete in the coming months:

Austria could re-open small businesses in mid-April, with a gradual "resurrection" of the local economy - if things "go well", that is. Spain plans to extend testing to people without symptoms (something South Korea was doing from the beginning). But Russia is reporting new cases, including it's biggest one-day spike. Turkey has forbidden people under 20 years old from leaving their homes. Iran is developing its own AI software to detect the virus.

As for the masks destined for Germany that were bought up by the U.S., apparently the story is not so simple:
A Berlin senator who accused the US of "piracy" by diverting a shipment of protective masks bound for the German capital has backtracked, and now says that no American firm was involved in the mix-up. But the masks remain missing.

...cracks in Geisel's story soon emerged. 3M denied diverting any shipment, and stated that it had never received an order from the German city. The White House too denied any involvement.
...
However, the masks are still unaccounted for. While 3M may not have sent them stateside at Trump's behest, it remains possible that someone else may have acquired them during the stopover in Bangkok. Similar disappearances have been reported around the world, with fingers pointed at the US.
See also:

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Star of David

UN reports illegal settler violence against Palestinians has increased during COVID-19

Tovah Lazaroff
Jerusalem Post
Sat, 04 Apr 2020 18:10 UTC
illegal settlers West Bank
© Reuters
Two Israelis look over a portion of the West Bank.
Israeli security forces carried out 72 search-and-arrest operations in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, arresting 64 Palestinians including 10 minors.Settler and Jewish extremist violence against West Bank Palestinians has spiked by 78% during the last two weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic when compared to the rest of this year, the United Nations has reported.

Between March 17 and 30, "at least 16 attacks by Israeli settlers resulted in five Palestinian injuries and extensive property damage," the UN reported.

"This represents a 78% increase compared to the bi-weekly average of incidents since the start of 2020," it said. Its data is based on information from its field reporters.
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Network

Sweden: 'Russian trolls' fanning 5G fears turn out to be anti-radiation activists led by local granny


RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:58 UTC
Climate activists Stockholm
© AFP/Jonathan Nackstrand
Climate activists in Stockholm, Sweden
Sweden's digitization minister blamed a flurry of anti-5G comments on the usual suspect - "Russian trolls" - but a closer look revealed that a local granny opposed to wireless radiation was behind the campaign.

The controversy dates back to late-December 2019, when Anders Ygeman, the Swedish energy and digital development minister, lamented that he had fallen victim to some "Russian trolls." Who else could flood his Facebook page with hundreds of comments demanding that he backpedal on the introduction of 5G networks in Sweden?

"There is a Russian political interest in disrupting and hindering other countries' development of 5G," Ygeman told the Swedish press at the time. He also insisted that one of his Facebook posts had garnered almost 2,000 comments, many of which came from "fake accounts."

Some media outlets took him at face value, but some decided to think outside the box. Last Sunday, local daily SVT ran a piece that appears to debunk Ygeman's claims. Most of the comments in question can be traced back to a local grassroots group called 'WiFi Radiation Health Risks Stop 5G,' the paper claims.

Comment: Granny and her group may have a point!
See also: The 5G Trojan Horse and what you're not being told!

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House

Next Crisis: Upwards of 30% of all mortgages will default in 'biggest wave of delinquencies in history'

Alex Cristoforou
The Duran
Fri, 03 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
foreclosure sign
© The Duran
"This is an unprecedented event. The great financial crisis happened over a number of years. This is happening in a matter of months - a matter of weeks."

Unlike in the 2008 financial crisis when a glut of subprime debt, layered with trillions in CDOs and CDO squareds, sent home prices to stratospheric levels before everything crashed scarring an entire generation of homebuyers, this time the housing sector is facing a far more conventional problem: the sudden and unpredictable inability of mortgage borrowers to make their scheduled monthly payments as the entire economy grinds to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And unfortunately this time the crisis will be far worse, because as Bloomberg reports mortgage lenders are preparing for the biggest wave of delinquencies in history. And unless the plan to buy time works - and as we reported earlier there is a distinct possibility the Treasury's plan to provide much needed liquidity to America's small businesses may be on the verge of collapse - an even worse crisis may be coming: mass foreclosures and mortgage market mayhem.
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Rocket

Rockets strike near site of foreign oil firms, state-run companies in Iraq's


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:43 UTC
US attack oil Iraq
© Reuters/ Essam Al-
In late March, the US military deployed its Patriot missile defence system to the Ayn al-Asad base in Iraq in a move to "protect against another potential Iranian attack".

Reuters on Monday reported, citing its sources, that missiles hit near sites of foreign and state-run oil companies in Basra, Iraq. No casualties have been reported so far.

According to police, the missiles were Katyushas launched at around 3 a.m. local time and hit the Burjesia residential and operations headquarters west of Basra.
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Arrow Up

New York hospital discharges outpace new admissions for 4th straight day

Ivan Pentchoukov
The Epoch Times
Sun, 05 Apr 2020 15:23 UTC
doctor
© Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
A doctor wears a protective mask as he walks outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan during the outbreak of the CCP virus in New York City, New York on April 1, 2020.
Hospitals in New York state have discharged more COVID-19 patients than they have added for four days in a row, according to the latest data from the state hit hardest by the CCP virus pandemic.

Hospitals in the state discharged 1,709 COVID-19 patients on April 4, while admitting 574 patients. The number of daily discharges had also surpassed the daily admissions on the three prior days, state data shows.

"Discharge rate is way up and that's great news," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on April 5.
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Megaphone

Maine Sheriff says he will not enforce unconstitutional directives: 'This is not Nazi Germany!'

Megan Fox
PJ Media
Fri, 03 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
Sheriff Scott Nichols
© Facebook
Sheriff Scott Nichols
Maine's Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols has a strong message for the Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, who issued "stay-at-home" orders with threats of police punishment if not followed. Sheriff Nichols issued a statement on the Franklin County Facebook page saying in no uncertain terms he will not follow the unconstitutional order.

"We will not be setting up a Police State. PERIOD," he wrote. "The Sheriff's Office will not purposefully go out and stop vehicles because they are on the road or stop and ask why people are out and about. To do so puts our officers at risk. This is not Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia where you are asked for your papers!"

The sheriff's announcement comes as a welcome sign to Americans who have been arrested for inane things like praying outside, surfing, or trying to drive to work. Someone has to stand up to the unconstitutional directives that are being handed down daily by government officials and it will fall on the sheriffs to uphold what they know to be their legal and lawful duties, none of which involve trampling the rights of citizens.

Comment: At least some Americans seem to want to fight back against threats to their constitution. It looks like another Sheriff and Congressman in Idaho are saying the same. From Idaho Statesman:
North Idaho legislator, sheriff dispute governor's stay-home order amid pandemic
Rachel Roberts and Ruth Brown
April 02, 2020 03:13 PM, Updated April 03, 2020 03:34 PM

In a letter posted on the Bonner County Sheriff's Office Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler asks Idaho Gov. Brad Little to reconsider the statewide stay-home order that was issued March 25 to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

"I do not believe that suspending the Constitution was wise," Wheeler's letter reads. "Because COVID-19 is nothing like the Plague."

Wheeler references a letter written by Alfie Oakes, the founder and CEO of Florida-based Oakes Farms Seed to Table. Oakes' March 24 letter to U.S. Sen. Rick Scott argues that the long-term economic effects of a stay-home order outweigh the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Oakes also suggests that the coronavirus pandemic has been given traction by the media and "globalists" in an attempt to keep President Donald Trump from being reelected.

"With the incredible power that the Globalists yield over the World Health Organization and mainstream media, they easily created this incredible — yet completely baseless — fear around the world regarding COVID-19," Oakes' letter reads.

According to Wheeler and Oakes, the information provided by the World Health Organization regarding the global pandemic is unreliable.

"We were misled by public health officials," Wheeler's letter continues. "Now it is time to reinstate our Constitution."

...

"In the spirit of liberty and the Constitution, you can request those that are sick to stay home," Wheeler writes. "But, at the same time, you must release the rest of us to go on with our normal business."

Idaho legislator asks constituents to defy order

Idaho Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, who represents Bonner County's district in the House, asked her constituents to openly defy Little's order in her official newsletter. She claimed the governor's order was " unconstitutional, unAmerican, and not the Idaho way."

"I am not sure why the Idaho governor has followed in the footsteps of, at this point, mostly liberal states and issued an order for all Idahoans to stay at home for 21 days and for all non-essential businesses to close," Scott wrote in her newsletter Thursday.

Scott's newsletter focused on local jurisdictions' right to choose if they should enforce the order and the right to assemble for church services.

"This will not end if we do not push back, and I am urging you to stand firm on your constitutional rights and exercise them often," Scott wrote. "And support others who do the same."


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Chart Pie

Covid19 death figures "a substantial over-estimate"

Kit Knightly
OffGuardian
Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
world map coronavirus
© The Spectator
Bizarre guidelines from health authorities around the world are potentially including thousands of deceased patients who were never even tested

A few weeks ago we reported that, according to the Italian Institute of Health (ISS), only 12% of Italy's reported Covid19 deaths actually listed Covid19 as the cause of death.

Given that 99% of them had at least one serious co-morbidity (and that 80% of them had two such diseases) this raised serious questions as to the reliability of Italy's reported statistics.

Comment: See also:

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