BEIJING, Aug 16 (Reuters) – China’s factory output and retail sales growth slowed sharply and missed expectations in July, as new COVID-19 outbreaks and floods disrupted business operations, adding to signs the economic recovery is losing momentum. Industrial production in the world’s second largest economy increased 6.4% year-on-year in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. Analysts had expected output to rise 7.8% after growing 8.3% in June. Retail sales increased 8.5% in July from a year ago, far lower than the forecast 11.5% rise and June’s 12.1% uptick. China’s economy has rebounded to its pre-pandemic growth levels, but the expansion is losing steam as businesses grapple with higher costs and supply bottlenecks. New COVID-19 infections in July also led to fresh restrictions, disrupting the country’s factory output already hit by severe weather this summer.  Asian share markets slipped on Monday after the data showed a surprisingly sharp slowdown in the engine of global growth. Data earlier this month also showed export growth, which has been a key driver of China’s impressive rebound from the COVID-19 slump in early 2020, unexpectedly slowed in July. Consumption, industrial production and investment could all slow further in August, analysts from Nomura said in a note, due to COVID-19 controls and tightening measures in the property sector and high-polluting industries. Production controls sent crude steel output to the lowest monthly level since April 2020 in July.

Meanwhile China tightened social restrictions to fight its latest COVID-19 outbreak in several cities, hitting the services sector, especially travel and hospitality in the country.

“Given China’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to Covid, future outbreaks will continue to pose significant risk to the outlook, even though around 60% of the population is now vaccinated,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, in a note. The country has also faced severe weather in several provinces, with record rainfall in Henan province last month causing floods that killed more than 300 people  Higher commodity prices are also pressuring small and medium-sized firms in particular. Smaller companies are unable to pass on recent rises in raw material costs to buyers, said a sales manager at a medical equipment factory in the eastern province of Jiangsu. “We don’t dare to increase our prices…but our prices cannot fall, otherwise there will be no profit at all,” he said. China’s producer price inflation, which grew 9.0% from a year earlier in July, will likely remain high for some time, the NBS said on Monday. A growing number of analysts have been cutting their third quarter growth estimates for China. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.9% in the April-June quarter from a year earlier. ANZ downgraded its GDP forecast for 2021 to 8.3% from 8.8% after the disappointing July data. “Although they are unlikely to inject massive stimulus to boost headline growth, the central bank will maintain an easing bias,” said ANZ analysts in a note. After the central bank reduced the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves in July, many analysts expect another cut later this year to support growth. China’s central bank injected billions of yuan through medium-term loans into the financial system on Monday, which many market participants interpreted as an effort to prop up the economy, although the cost of such borrowing was left unchanged Policy insiders told Reuters earlier in August that China is poised to quicken spending on infrastructure projects while the central bank supports the economy with modest easing steps. Fixed asset investment grew 10.3% in January-July from the same period a year ago, compared with an 11.3% rise tipped by a Reuters poll and a 12.6% increase in January-June. Property investment, a crucial growth driver of China’s recovery from COVID-19 disruptions, grew 12.7% in January-July, versus a 15% rise in the first half of this year. China’s new home prices rose at the slowest clip in six months in July, as authorities further tightened rules in the red-hot property sector. Nick Note: It is obvious to me the global economy is on the verge of sucking shut again…. And the fact that global markets and hahahaha leaders are in denial….. That makes my dick hard…..

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – The Pentagon authorised another 1,000 troops to help evacuate United States citizens and Afghans who worked for them from Kabul, as the US government said it would assume air traffic control to facilitate the departure of thousands of Americans. A joint statement from the State Department and Pentagon after Taleban insurgents entered the Afghan capital confirmed that the United States over the next 48 hours will “have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control.” The statement said it was working to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul “to enable the safe departure of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights.” State Department spokesman Ned Price said late Sunday in a statement “the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete. All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US military.”  The joint statement added the United States “will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens” and others and added the government would “accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for US Special Immigrant Visas.” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed he has left the country, leaving it unclear how power would be transferred following the sweep across Afghanistan that brought the Taleban back to the capital two decades after it was overthrown by US-led forces. Residents reported sporadic gunfire in the area of the Kabul airport, the main point of evacuations out of Afghanistan. “There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing US citizens to shelter in place,” the US Embassy said in a security alert. Two sources familiar with the situation at the airport could not confirm the reports of firing there. A State Department official told Reuters late on Sunday that almost all embassy personnel had relocated to a facility at the Kabul airport and that the American flag had been lowered from the embassy compound. Sources told Reuters that most US staff were expected to be evacuated from Kabul in the coming day or two. France and Germany, members of Nato, said on Sunday they were moving their diplomats to the airport and sending military transport planes to Kabul to evacuate their citizens and their Afghan helpers. Asked if the evacuation was evocative of the US departure from Vietnam in 1975, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier on Sunday: “Let’s take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon.”  A US intelligence assessment earlier in the week had said Kabul could be encircled in 30 days and could fall to the Taleban within 90 days, but the insurgents captured most of Afghanistan’s major cities in less than a week and entered the capital on Sunday. Some 4,200 people remained in the US embassy until Thursday, when the Taleban’s rapid gains forced the Biden administration to begin flying in thousands of troops to help pull out many of the remaining diplomats. The deployment would include an additional 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, who President Joe Biden said on Saturday would help evacuate citizens and ensure an “orderly and safe” drawdown of US military personnel. On Sunday, US officials said they were weighing whether more troops were needed. Another 3,000 are on standby in Kuwait. Washington invested billions of dollars over four US administrations in Afghan government forces, giving them advantages over the Taleban, but they were unable to defend the country in the face of the militants’ advance, Mr Blinken told CNN. The US’ original mission in Afghanistan, launched to oust Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, had been fulfilled, Mr Blinken said, saying Washington had prevented further attacks by militants harboured by the Taleban. But President Joe Biden has faced rising domestic criticism after sticking to the plan to withdraw, which was agreed under his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. On Saturday, Mr Biden defended his decision, saying an “endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me”.

Republican lawmaker Michael McCaul said a Taleban takeover would revive the threat to the US.  “We are going to go back to a pre-9/11 state. A breeding ground for terrorism,” he told CNN on Sunday.

Mr Biden met his national security team on Sunday by secure videoconference from the presidential retreat at Camp David to hear updates on evacuations and the security situation, a White House official said. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat like Mr Biden, said at a news conference that the safety of US personnel and of Afghans who supported the Americans should be Washington’s top concern. (Nick Bit: hahahaha…. Any fool that added America that believes that shit deserves to be tortured to death because they are ALL doomed and America is not going to bring in the hundred thousand people that bought into American bullshit….. They will be abandoned to a horrible death) “Job number one is for us to bring back, first, all American personnel… But second, all of the brave Afghans who helped our military, they have to be provided an exit to come to America,” Mr Schumer said. Nick Note: America told out 2,000 troops and you saw what happened. Now they will send back 6,000 to get US staff out. Does that make any sense…. Their was no real money being spent no people lost. You get in, its not so easy or so smart to jump back out. We have created a monster that will eat us…… Well armed, well funded, well motivitated that no longer fears America…. and that is a bad thing!

SINGAPORE/BEIJING, Aug 16 (Reuters) – China’s daily crude throuhgput last month fell to the lowest since May 2020 as independent plants slashed production amid a tighter quotas, high inventories and weakening profits. Last month’s processing volumes were 59.06 million tonnes, or 13.9 million barrels per day (bpd), 0.9% below the same month of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. That was the first year-on-year decline since March last year when coronavirus hammered Chinese fuel demand, and the July level was down 6% from off June’s record at 14.8 million bpd. Total throughput during the first seven months of 2021 reached 412.41 million tonnes, up 8.9% from a year earlier, largely reflecting the economy’s recovery from the initial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Volumes fell in July as independent plants scaled back processing in the face of tightening quotas as Beijing stepped up scrutiny of irregular trading of the permits. “Independent plants were facing tighter feedstock supplies and weakening margins. Some took to overhauls, other cut processing,” said Zhou Mi, analyst at Chinese commodities consultancy JLC.

These plants, sometimes known as teapots, operated crude processing capacity at 64.4% in July, down almost 14 percentage points from July 2020, according to JLC.

Throughput could take a further hit this month as a resurgence of coronavirus case in more than a dozen provinces is set to curb mobility. “It’s going to dampen refined fuel sales, we’re trimming August throughput by about 3% from previous months,” said an official with a north China-based refinery. The NBS data also showed China’s crude oil output in July at 16.87 million tonnes, up 2.5% from year-earlier level. Over the first seven this year, output rose 2.4% to 116.21 million tonnes. Natural gas output last month gained 9.8% from a year earlier to 15.8 billion cubic metres (bcm), while January to July production expanded 10.7% to 120.2 bcm. (tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude conversion) Nick Note: It is rare for us to go this long without a trade. It usually happens before major market transitions. The Stock market is in the end stages of a mindless bull market. We have stood out of the way of this steam roller. Soon Very SOON we will begin operations… The oil markets know a shut down shut in and lock down is coming call it the Delta wipe out.

Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) partly explains geographical differences in COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, and mortality. VDD among African-Americans, diabetics, hypertensive, and aged populations possibly explain the higher death rate, aggravated by cocooning. Vitamin D is pleiotropic, mediating bone metabolism, calcium homeostasis, and immune functions, whereas VDD is associated with inflammatory reactions and immune dysfunction, predisposing individuals to severe infections. Vitamin D modulates innate and adaptive immunity via the expression of genes that code antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). And the expression of cluster of differentiation (CD)14, the co-receptor for epidermal toll-like receptor (TLR)4. AMPs stimulate TLR2 in macrophages, increasing the conversion of vitamin D into its active form by cytochrome P450 27B1. Antiviral properties of vitamin D-induced AMPs can shift the polarization of the adaptive immune response from helper T cells (Th)1 to the more regulatory Th2 responses that suppress immune over-reactivity by preventing cytokine storm, which is already demonstrated during the Spanish flu episode. Vitamin D induces antiviral effects by both direct and indirect mechanisms via AMPs, immunomodulation, the interplay between major cellular and viral elements, induction of autophagy and apoptosis, variation of genetic and epigenetic factors. The crosstalk between vitamin D and intracellular signaling pathways may operate as a primary regulatory action on viral gene transcription. VDD may increase the likelihood of infection with enveloped viruses, including retrovirus, hepatitis, and dengue. Global data correlates severe VDD with COVID-19 associated coagulopathy, disrupted immune response and mortality, reduced platelet count, and prolonged prothrombin time, suggesting benefits from supplementation.Key teaching pointsVitamin D induces antiviral effects by direct and indirect mechanisms via AMPs, immunomodulation, induction of autophagy, etc.Epidemiology of VDD partly explains geographical differences in COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, and mortality.Global data correlates severe VDD with COVID-19 associated coagulopathy, disrupted immune response and mortality, reduced platelet count, and prolonged prothrombin time, together suggesting benefits from supplementation.Many clinical trials are underway globally to delineate the role of vitamin D in both prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani has reportedly left the country for Tajikistan after Taliban fighters entered Kabul and sought the surrender of the government. Senior officials confirmed his departure on Sunday as the Taliban made further, swift gains in and around the capital. Asked for comment, the president’s office said it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons”. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan national security adviser, and a second close associate were with Mr Ghani when he left. Confirmation came from two sources – an official in the office of Afghanistan’s former president, Hamid Karzai, and another an aide on the Afghan security council – who spoke to the Associated Press news agency. A representative of the Taliban said the group was checking on Mr Ghani’s whereabouts. His departure – at the end of a week in which the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan, shocking Western military analysts who predicted a much slower advance – signalled the end of a 20-year experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. On Sunday, the insurgents entered the outskirts of Kabul but apparently remained outside of the city centre. Sporadic gunfire was reported though the streets were said to be largely quiet. The group have said they expect to take power within days. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said they were waiting on the outskirts of Kabul and were in talks with the Western-backed government for a peaceful surrender. “Taliban fighters are to be on standby on all entrances of Kabul until a peaceful and satisfactory transfer of power is agreed,” he said. Columbia University-educated Mr Ghani, 72, spent several years living abroad before returning to his home country following the fall of the Taliban in 2001. He was first elected in 2014 and was re-elected for a second term five years later. Nick Note: I am sick and tired of hearing about the fact the US has been in Afghanistan for 20 years. Its a lame excuse. The truth is the US has had a armed presence at many military bases, air bases and a naval presence in Japan and in Germany for over 80 years…..

PS: i am tole their is a whole lot of gun fire going on people…and a whole lot of fucking going on too. So you can surmise someone is getting shot and someone is getting fucked. And it pay back. over 10,000 military prisoners have been released… Most are Taliban, have been severely tortured and held without trial by the Afghanistan government…….

Advancing Taliban go door-to-door and forcibly take girls as young as TWELVE to be sex slave ‘wives’ for their fighters as they sweep across country following US withdrawal

• Taliban has swept across Afghanistan, seizing vast swathes of territory along with nine provincial capitals 
• Terrified locals say jihadist fighters have been beheading people and forcing women to marry their fighters
• Girls as young as 12 have been put on ‘marriage lists’ that village elders have been forced to compile
• Taliban are now entering the Capital of Kabul where their are plenty or brides
  

Taliban fighters are going door-to-door and forcibly marrying girls as young as 12 and forcing them into sex slavery as they seize vast swathes of the Afghanistan from government forces.  Jihadist commanders have ordered imams in areas they have captured to bring them lists of unmarried women aged from 12 to 45  for their soldiers to marry because they view them as ‘qhanimat’ or ‘spoils of war’ – to be divided up among the victors.

Fighters have then been going door-to-door to claim their ‘prizes’, even looking through the wardrobes of families to establish the ages of girls before forcing them into a life of sexual servitude

The women and girls’ brutal treatment is just the latest sign of Afghanistan’s military collapse. One female journalist described fleeing a city in northern Afghanistan – which she did not name – and going into hiding with her uncle for fear the Islamists would hunt her down and execute her.  The 22-year-old said she fled under the noses of Taliban gunmen while disguised beneath a burqa and went with her unclear to a nearby village – but was forced to flee again after informants told the militants of her presence. Now holed up in a remote location somewhere in the country’s north, she said she fears for her life and the safety of her family –  ‘Will I ever go home? Will I see my parents again? Where will I go? How will I survive,’ she said. Meanwhile terrified locals who fled the city of Kunduz – captured by the Taliban last week – have told of reprisal attacks carried out by jihadist fighters who hunted down anyone linked to the government and beheaded or executed them.  The Taliban has now captured nine of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and placed most of the country’s largest cities under siege in a lighting-fast assault that has seen government forces largely capitulate.  In areas that the Islamists have captured, women have been barred from going to school, working, or leaving their homes without a permit, activists have warned. Last month, reports emerged that fighters had ordered imams and tribal elders to prepare lists of all women aged 15 to 45 who were unmarried or widowed so they could be married to their fighters. But, writing for Bloomberg, columnist Ruth Pollard said that has now extended down to girls as young as 12.   ‘Now the Taliban are going door-to-door in some areas, compiling lists of women and girls aged between 12 and 45 years for their fighters to forcibly marry,’ she wrote. Taliban fighters are permitted to do this under their strict interpretation of Islam which views women as ‘kaniz’ or ‘commodities’, according Omar Sadr, professor of politics at the American University of Afghanistan. That means, following a battle, women are treated as ‘qhanimat’ or ‘spoils of war’ to be divided up among the victors. ‘They don’t even have to marry them, it is a form of sex slavery,’ he said, adding that it also constitutes a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as other cultures are forcibly assimilated into the Taliban’s Pashtun group. American officials had previously said Kabul could hold out for between six months to a year after US forces withdrew. While the Taliban has been keen to present itself on the international stage as a legitimate government-in-waiting, claiming to have abandoned the radical practices of its past, those on the ground tell a very different story. Even as the Taliban routed government forces, US President Joe Biden gave no hint of delaying his deadline to withdraw all American troops by August 31, instead urging Afghan leaders to ‘fight for themselves’ on Tuesday.

‘I do not regret my decision’ to withdraw US troops after two decades of war, he told reporters in Washington. 

Nick Note: What a fucking idiot. Biden said July 7  ” The Taliban will not overrun Afghanistan”  You think you are out of the fight. The Taliban just defeated the worlds mightiest military.  Mark my words 9-11 will be repeated over and over again against Americas worldwide. You are perceived as weak and vulnerable and that is not good. Tell me are you proud to be an American. Where are the women’s rights lefty liberals. Their silence is deafening, America conquered Germany and Japan in 1945 and the troops are still their! Regime change takes a LONG time!

Chaos broke out in the streets of Kabul this morning as the Taliban entered the capital from all sides, sending negotiators to the presidential palace to demand the democratically elected Afghan government step aside. Helicopters clattered over the city evacuating international staff from foreign embassies to Kabul’s civilian airport, the only route out of Afghanistan still in government hands after the Taliban captured the last border crossing with Pakistan. The streets of the city, population 4.6 million, were choked with traffic as residents tried to rush home or towards the airport, some abandoning their cars to the gridlock and setting out on foot to reach it. Smoke rises next to the American embassy in Kabul. America and Britain have both flown in troops to aid the evacuation of foreign nationals Long queues formed at ATMs as residents rushed to stock up on cash. Lines also formed at phone shops. Nick Note: How do you you are stupid.

1. You trusted America
2. When Biden announced US troop pull out you stayed
3. Your giving you wife and daughters full length black suits and jars of vasaline
4. Your not getting out of dodge with whatever you can carry on your back.

The radical Islamic Taliban troops are at the capital of Kabul.

• Taliban leaders are at the Pesidentil palace
• deciding who will live and who will die.. Mostly die horrible deaths.
• The city will be looted  as they
• rape pillage and plunder mieveil style
• The United States is already bringing its embassy staff to safety – and burning sensitive documents.