Pakistan Finds Hope in Rise of Taliban for Kashmir Ambitions

Parker Davis August 25, 2021

The Pakistanis, who have recieved hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from the US over the last 10 years alone, have made it clear they welcome the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and see in it a strong ally that could potentially help them take Kashmir once and for all from India.

‘Taliban with us to free Kashmir from India’: Pak govt leader on TV news debate | Latest News India

From www.hindustantimes.com
2021-08-24 15:40:23

Excerpt:

A leader of Pakistan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has said that the Taliban would help the country in ‘liberating’ Kashmir from India. Speaking at a television news debate, PTI leader Neelam Irshad Sheikh said, “Taliban have said that they are with us and they will help us in [liberating] Kashmir.”

The clip of the video that was retweeted by Pakistani journalist and former ambassador to US, Hussain Haqqani, has surfaced online and was recirculated by news agency ANI.

In the video, the news anchor repeatedly asks Sheikh about the source of her information, even wondering at one point if she read about such a declaration by the Taliban on WhatsApp.

“Madam, do you realise what you have said. You have no idea what you just said. This show will air around the world; it will be viewed in India as well,” the news anchor asks the PTI leader.

However, Sheikh emphasises on her statement that Pakistan has the strength of its Army as well as the leadership of…

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Taliban Go After Afganis that Worked with UN

Parker Davis August 25, 2021

As could be predicted by many, those in Afghanistan who worked against the Taliban are now at risk of death or enslavement. Even Afghani UN workers are now finding themselves targeted by the Taliban according to the Secretary of Defense.

U.N. Secretary General admits Taliban reprisals against staff have begun

From www.politico.com
2021-08-24 18:22:47

Excerpt:

Official letters seen by POLITICO, which have been sent to some local U.N. staff, verify their employment status, but do not include any request that the staffers be granted asylum or other visa support to leave Afghanistan.

A group of former colleagues of the local staffers has had enough. In a letter to Guterres, obtained by POLITICO, the staff from U.N. Habitat and the U.N. Environment Programme — which together employ around 200 local staff in Afghanistan — implore him to institute a safety plan for Afghan staff, including the option to evacuate, before a Taliban-imposed Aug. 31 deadline.

The United Nations security policy manual states that Guterres, as secretary general, is the only official who can order evacuation of local staff, and only “in the most exceptional cases in which their security is endangered as a direct consequence of their employment by organizations of the United Nations common system.”

The authors of the letter argue that the conditions have…

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Zimbabwe Props Up Cryptocurrency with IMF Develipment Loan

Zimbabwe Props Up Cryptocurrency with IMF Curency Development Loan

Parker Davis August 25, 2021

Zimbabwe to Use More Than Half of IMF Funds to Prop Up Currency – Bloomberg

From www.bloomberg.com
2021-08-24 18:33:36

Excerpt:

Zimbabwe will use more than half of the $961 million allocated by the International Monetary Fund in the form of special drawing rights to support its beleaguered currency.

The government abandoned a 1:1 peg between a precursor of the reintroduced Zimbabwe dollar and the greenback in February 2019. The currency now trades at 85.82 to the U.S. dollar and even lower on the black market, a plunge that’s made it difficult for the government to get it accepted locally, and it’s generally not tradable outside the country.

“For the support of the currency we want to hold back about $500 million,” Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s finance minister, said in an interview on Tuesday.

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Waltons Net $2.1 Billion After Selling Walmart Stocks

Parker Davis August 24, 2021

Ivo Fysic- Ostensibly, the Walton family just sold a massive amount of Walmart stock to keep the balance of family ownership to public ownership intact. The payoff for making such a magnanimous move in this instant is over $2.1 billion. That’s a lot of special projects, non-profits, etc this family is sure to continue to support in their effort to assure they keep what they have and you lose what you have.

But is this massive sell-off more than just an administrative move that could fund some small countries for a year? We certainly wouldn’t want to speculate based on this news alone, but this is one of those ‘put a pin in it and circle back if you see a pattern” moments.

The Walton family, in a bid to assure that the family doesn’t own too high a percentage of Walmart, sold 16.7 million shares of their family stock, Walmart. The move netted the wealthiest family in the world an addition $2.1 billion hard cash in the asset ledger. The sale happened over the course of the past year and appears, potentially, to be halted, though no confirmation was ever issued by the family themselves.

In April of 2015, the family received 194 million shares of Walmart stock, which are now nearly depleted, with over 98% having been sold since the family acquired the stocks.

The Walton family Just Sold Billions Worth Of Walmart Stock – $2.1 billion

From ceoworld.biz
2021-06-14 07:00:00

Excerpt:

To maintain an appropriate of family and non-family ownership in the retailing giant Walmart, the Walton family have sold 16.7 million shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) this year. The Walton family is the wealthiest family in the world.

The family owns about half of the world’s largest retailer’s outstanding shares through the Walton Family Holdings Trust and Walton Enterprises LLC, an investment vehicle controlled by several members of the Walmart family. Walton Enterprises, LLC is located in Bentonville, AR, United States.

The Walton Family Holdings Trust sold $430 million worth over the past week, taking their total sales to almost $2.1 billion since Jan. 1, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Walton Family Holdings Trust has been their main vehicle for share sales in past years. Walton Family Holdings Trust sold at least 98% of the 194 million shares it received in April 2015 — and moved 415 million more last year.

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A Gene That Causes Humans to Become Obese Can Also Grow Big Potatoes

Parker Davis August 24, 2021

University of Chicago Scientists have used a human gene associated with obesity to produce massively huge potatoes, opening up the possibility of using other types of animal and human genese to engineer more efficient grown foods for humans.

Scientists Splice Human Gene Into Potatoes to Make Them Grow Huge

From futurism.com
2021-08-23 17:47:29
Dan Robitzski
Excerpt:

A team of scientists found an unusual trick for growing bigger, heartier crops: inserting a human gene related to obesity and fat mass into plants to supersize their harvest.

Splicing potatoes with the human gene that encodes a fat-regulating protein called FTO, which essentially alters the genetic code to rapidly mass-produce proteins, made otherwise identical potato plants grow crops that were 50 percent larger, Smithsonian Magazine reports. By growing more food without taking up more space for agriculture, the scientists say their work could help fight global hunger — without adding to its climate impact.

“It [was] really a bold and bizarre idea,” University of Chicago chemist Chuan He, coauthor of a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, told Smithsonian. “To be honest, we were probably expecting some catastrophic effects.”

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