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New at the Belmont Club. Who will understand, then lead the new world as it has actually become?

The Collapse of Biden’s World

The Zoom session of Ozymandias

When Evergrande’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong, signed off on the company’s 2020 financial statements, it didn’t include a so-called going concern warning. These red flags from an auditor show that it has doubts about the company’s ability to stay afloat for at least 12 months.

WSJ

China Evergrande Auditor Gave Clean Bill of Health Despite Debt

Last year the property developer offered deep discounts to keep sales growing and the Chinese government effectively said it had borrowed too much, yet its auditor gave it a clean bill of health.

President Biden earned the ire of Border Patrol agents on Friday after endorsing the false claim that they were recorded “whipping” migrants who were attempting to cross the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas, earlier this week.

At a press briefing Friday, Biden said the agents would “pay” for allegedly lashing the Haitian migrants — a narrative popularized by journalists on social media even though the video evidence shows no such thing.

Yahoo

Border Patrol Outraged by Biden’s Scapegoating: ‘He Just Started a War’

President Biden earned the ire of Border Patrol agents after endorsing the false claim that they were recorded “whipping” migrants who were attempting to cross the Rio Grande.

Ron DeSantis has been doing a lot as governor of Florida. But there’s one job that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: In many ways, DeSantis is serving as America’s shadow president.

In the Westminster parliamentary system of government, used in Britain and elsewhere, the opposition forms a shadow cabinet: A group of senior opposition-party members takes responsibility for issues facing various government departments. So there might be a shadow defense minister, who focuses on military issues, and the group might put together a “shadow budget.”

Glenn Reynolds

Ron DeSantis has emerged as America’s awesome ‘shadow president’

Being governor of Florida isn’t the same as being president of the US, but Ron DeSantis has been able to show the spirit, and sometimes the substance, of actions that a Republican president might t…

For years, Chinese officials have issued calls for leaders in Afghanistan to crack down on and deport Uyghur militants they claimed were sheltering in Afghanistan. The officials said the fighters belonged to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a separatist organization that Beijing has held responsible for a series of terrorist attacks in China since the late 1990s.

NYT

Afghan Uyghurs Fear Deportation as Taliban Cozy Up to China

Members of the ethnic group, seen by China as potential extremists, are afraid they will be sent there as part of a deal for economic aid.

Of Hui’s current estimated $11.5 billion fortune, Forbes calculated that $8 billion is from cash dividends paid to Hui since Evergrande’s 2009 IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The real estate developer’s total liabilities have increased every year since it went public, according to its annual reports, but it has paid out a dividend every year except 2016 … “The onus is more on the lenders. If the lenders are aware of the fact that the use of the proceeds is to fund a dividend, they have to be more careful,” says corporate finance consultant Robert Willens.

Forbes

Evergrande Chairman Hui Ka Yan Has Been Paid $8 Billion In Cash While Property Developer Piled On Debt

Even if China’s debt-laden Evergrande Group goes broke, its founder has accumulated a hefty fortune outside the company’s stock.

“We do not expect the government to provide any direct support to Evergrande,” said the S&P credit analysts in a Monday report. “We believe Beijing would only be compelled to step in if there is a far-reaching contagion causing multiple major developers to fail and posing systemic risks to the economy.”

NBC

China Likely Won’t Bail Out Evergrande Directly Unless There’s ‘Far-Reaching Contagion,’ S&P Says

Fears over a potential contagion from embattled developer China Evergrande Group dragged down the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong by more than 3% on Monday.

Congress should require a new investigation by the State Department’s arms compliance office into the possible role of China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by two former State Department officials says.

The Biden administration earlier this year canceled a probe begun under President Trump into the virus’s origins by State’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, known as AVC, that also investigated Chinese violations of a treaty banning biological arms, said former State Department arms control leaders Thomas DiNanno and Paula A. DeSutter.

Washington Examiner

Congress urged to revive State probe of COVID-19 origin, Chinese bio-weapons push

Congress should require a new investigation by the State Department’s arms compliance office into the possible role of China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by two former State Department officials says.

The Chinese President is not just trying to rein in a few big tech and other companies and show who is boss in China. He is trying to roll back China’s decadeslong evolution toward Western-style capitalism and put the country on a different path entirely, a close examination of Mr. Xi’s writings and his discussions with party officials, and interviews with people involved in policy making, show.

WSJ

Xi Jinping Aims to Rein In Chinese Capitalism, Hew to Mao’s Socialist Vision

Going well beyond curbing tech giants, he wants the Communist party to steer flows of money and set tighter limits on profit making, his speeches show and officials say. More turbulence for foreign businesses is likely.

The planned city of Telosa.

No, it’s not a mirage in the desert haze. Nor is it Elon Musk’s latest plan to colonise Mars. These are the designs for the city of Telosa, the latest project from billionaire investor Marc Lore and celebrated architect Bjarke Ingels’s firm BIG.

Lore and Ingels’s ambitious plan would see an entire city built from scratch in the desert of the western USA. Within 40 years, the duo intend to establish a fully-contained city, which will be extended over 150,000 acres and have a population of five million.

Timeout

A huge new city is being built in the US desert – but is it just greenwashing?

‘The most sustainable city in the world’ is proving divisive.

“We believe Beijing would only be compelled to step in if there is a far-reaching contagion causing multiple major developers to fail and posing systemic risks to the economy.” On Thursday, Evergrande has an $83.5 million interest payment it is likely to miss, which would cause more market turmoil.

NYT

Evergrande Crisis Shows Cracks in China’s Property Market

Experts are making increasingly grim predictions about the developer’s ability to hold on without a government bailout, and the consequences of a possible collapse.

Let them work at Taco Bell.

Maspeth High School created fake classes, awarded bogus credits, and fixed grades to push students to graduate — “even if the diploma was not worth the paper on which it was printed,” an explosive investigative report charges.

Principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir demanded that teachers pass students no matter how little they learned, says the 32-page report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, Anastasia Coleman.

NY Post

Maspeth HS diplomas ‘not worth the paper’ they’re printed on

Maspeth High School created fake classes, awarded bogus credits,and fixed grades to push students to graduate.

In responding to the secretive U.S.-British move to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, a decision that the Australians used to nix the prior French deal, Mr. Macron could choose to escalate. One idea doing the rounds in France is for the country to withdraw from NATO’s integrated military command structure, which it rejoined in 2009 after a 43-year absence.

NYT

Macron Takes on U.S., a Big Gamble Even for a Bold Risk-Taker

For President Emmanuel Macron of France, a debacle over a lost submarine deal with Australia suggests that the NATO alliance is debilitated through lack of trust.

Data collected from 18 states between March and August suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 by 91% in the first four months after receiving the second dose. Beyond 120 days, however, that vaccine efficacy drops to 77%.

Meanwhile, Moderna’s vaccine was 93% effective at reducing the short-term risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and remained 92% effective after 120 days.

LA Times

New at the Belmont Club. How well did my thinking on Australian naval strategy hold up to the test of time?

The Australian Nuclear Sub Decision as I Saw it Eight Years Ago

Back to the Australian nuclear submarine future

Preparations for the assassination began after a series of meetings toward the end of 2019 and in early 2020 between Israeli officials, led by the Mossad director, Yossi Cohen, and high-ranking American officials, including President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel.

NYT

The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine

Israeli agents had wanted to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist for years. Then they came up with a way to do it with no operatives present.

DHS said that in response to the more than 10,000 migrants sheltering under the Del Rio International Bridge that connects the city with Ciudad Acuna in Mexico, it was accelerating flights to Haiti and other destinations within the next 72 hours.

It said it was working with nations where the migrants began their journeys – for many of the Haitians, countries such as Brazil and Chile – to accept returned migrants.

TRT

US ramps up plan to expel Haitian migrants stranded at Texas bridge

Homeland Security said that in response to the more than 10,000 migrants sheltering under the Del Rio International Bridge, it was accelerating flights to Haiti and other destinations within the next 72 hours.

Whereas name-brand drugs can be so expensive that people can’t afford them, generics are often so cheap that companies stop making them or cut corners to turn a profit. Competition for market share at rock-bottom price points has led to chronic shortages, unpredictable price-spikes, allegations of illegal price-fixing, and substandard and even dangerous practices. Production of generics has shifted overseas, where it’s harder for the Food and Drug Administration to inspect factories.

NYT

Opinion | How Much Can You Trust That Generic Drug You’re Taking?

Competition for market share at rock-bottom prices has led to shortages, price-spikes, allegations of price-fixing, and substandard and even dangerous practices.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A survivor of an errant U.S. drone strike that killed 10 members of his family demanded Saturday that those responsible be punished and said Washington’s apology was not enough.

The family also seeks financial compensation and relocation to the United States or another country deemed safe, said Emal Ahmadi, whose 3-year-old daughter Malika was among those killed in the Aug. 29 strike.

AP

Afghan survivors of errant US drone strike seek probe

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A survivor of an errant U.S. drone strike that killed 10 members of his family demanded Saturday that those responsible be punished and said Washington’s apology was not enough.

There are 2 alliances against China. The Quad, consisting of Japan, India, Australia and the US. This is an immensely regional powerful coalition with multiples of China’s population, land area and GNP. Two coalition members, India and Japan, are in current territorial conflict with China.

AUKUS consists of a coalition not directly in conflict with China, but in strategic rivalry. The US, UK, Australia. They are competing for global leadership of planet earth.