Murders in Mexico rise by a third in 2018 to new record

MEXICO CITY: Murders in Mexico rose by 33 percent in 2018, breaking the record for a second year running, official data showed, underlining the task facing the new president who has pledged to reduce violence in the cartel-ravaged country.

Investigators opened to 33,341 murder probes compared with the previous year’s record of 25,036, according to information from the Interior Ministry published on Sunday.

Russia plans to create an ‘independent internet’ by 2018 to protect it from ‘global internet malfunctions’ – but critics say the plan could make it easier to launch its own attacks

The Russian government has revealed plans to develop an ‘independent internet’ that operates separately from the Domain Name System used worldwide. According to Russian news site RT, Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) is targeting August 1, 2018 for its completion

 

• Russian Security Council met in October to discuss an ‘independent internet’
• Would cover Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa with alternative DNS
• Currently, a global Domain Name System (DNS) is used to connect to internet
• While they cited security concerns, others suggest it could be used maliciously

The Russian government has revealed plans to develop an ‘independent internet’ that operates separately from the Domain Name System used worldwide.

During a recent meeting of the Russian Security Council, officials discussed an initiative to create an alternative to the DNS, claiming the move could protect Russia and a handful of other nations in the event of a large-scale cyberattack.

China’s DF-41 ICBM could enter service in 2018, says report

China’s Dong Feng-41 (DF-41) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) could enter service as early as the first half of 2018, the state-owned Global Times newspaper reported on 19 November following media reports stating that the ICBM possibly underwent another test a few weeks ago.

Cracks in Dollar Are Getting Larger

 

Many Daily Reckoning readers are familiar with the original petrodollar deal the U.S made with Saudi Arabia.

It was set up by Henry Kissinger and Saudi princes in 1974 to prop up the U.S. dollar. At the time, confidence in the dollar was on shaky ground because President Nixon had ended gold convertibility of dollars in 1971.

Saudi Arabia was receiving dollars for their oil shipments, but they could no longer convert the dollars to gold at a guaranteed price directly with the U.S. Treasury. The Saudis were secretly dumping dollars and buying gold on the London market. This was putting pressure on the bullion banks receiving the dollar.

“Financial Crisis” Coming By End Of 2018 – Prepare Urgently

Source: Financial Times

 

“Financial Crisis Of Historic Proportions” Is “Bearing Down On Us”

John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics latest research note, Prepare for Turbulence, is excellent and a must read warning about the coming financial crisis. Mind refreshed from what sounds like a wonderful honeymoon and having had the time to read some books outside his “comfort zone” he has come to the conclusion that we are on the verge of  a “major financial crisis, if not later this year, then by the end of 2018 at the latest.”

Russia tests hypersonic missile it says is impervious to U.S. missile defense systems

Russia’s said the Zircon would go into serial production in 2018.

 

Russia has conducted the first test of a hypersonic missile it claims can fly at 6 times the speed of sound and makes U.S. missile defense systems obsolete.

Military analyst Vladimir Tuchkov told government-controlled news agency Sputnik: “It (the Zircon missile system) is expected to be added into Russia’s arsenal between 2018 and 2020.”

US and Japan Successfully Test Ballistic Missile Killer

The new next-generation Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) is scheduled to be deployed at sea and ashore by 2018.

On June 6, the United States and Japan successfully conducted a live-fire test of a jointly developed new ballistic missile interceptor at a U.S. Navy sea range.

Raytheon Co’s next-generation Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA, has been under joint development by the U.S. defense firm Raytheon and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the country’s largest defense contractor.  According to IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly,Raytheon was contracted for hardware, system development, and all-up-round integration, whereas Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries focused on the missile’s second and third stage rocket motors, steering control, and the missile nosecone.

New US fighter jet on course to becoming ‘one of history’s biggest white elephants’

A quick search under the F-35 tag will reveal to you a longer troubled history than what one article alone will.

 

A plane so technologically advanced that it would give Britain and the US air superiority in any future conflict and billed as the world’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, could be one of “the biggest white elephants in history”, according to a former defence minister.

And while costs of the F-35 spiral and delays run into years, another commentator has warned that “our skies and seas are vulnerable”.

The aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, was designed to replace the Harrier jump-jet, which went out of service in 2011. The UK once envisaged ordering 150 F-35s, to be ready by 2012. Three years on, the F-35 is still far from ready to fly in combat and the cost of a single jet has risen from £33m to £87m. The UK has ordered only eight to date.

Deutsche Bank’s Ominous Warning: A “Perfect Storm” Is Coming In 2018

 

“We could now be at a crossroads,” warns Deutsche Bank in its annual default study report. As the ‘artificial bond market’ is exposed and yield curves flatten on Fed rate hikes so carry risk-reward is reduced and default cycles have often been linked to the ebbing and flowing of the YC through time with a fairly long lead/lag. With HY defaults having spent 12 of the last 13 years below their long-term average (with the last 5 years the lowest in modern history), “a perfect default storm could be created for 2018 if the Fed raises rates in 2015.”

Defaults will stay unusually low so long as current artificial conditions continue. However, as Deutshe Bank explains, the benign default environment of the last few years may be about to change…

Can the Euro Survive Beyond 2018?

It is only a matter of time until the Euro collapses sinking into the abyss. The French presidential election could be the straw that stars the disintegration of the Euro. The reason is very clear. The economic abyss with youth unemployment over 60% warns there is the complete failure to create new jobs and overall 20% unemployment in Euroland would mean the end of the single currency with massive civil unrest. The problem is NOT Greece. Greece is illustrating the problem. Europe is holding on for dear life, but the end-game was began in 2008. That was the fateful year the Euro peaked. It was the end of times for Europe. The mindless people still think that a strong currency is like a stock and it is strength rather than weakness. This stems from the entire mixed up idea of inflation and deflation. The higher a currency in price, the more deflation one sees rather than inflation for assets are on the OPPOSITE side of a currency. Those touting a return to a gold standard are wishing for deflation where assets decline along with wages.

U.S. Air Force Calls for Update on Floppy Disk–Era ICBMs

The United States Air Force is requesting new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to replace the currently used weapons from the 1970s. The cost of maintaining its 40-year-old ICBM weapons comes at a high price financially and operationally. An ICBM replacement missile will provide military capability to continue U.S. nuclear deterrence. The Air Force is in dire need of a new missile that can adapt to continuing and emerging threats at a more affordable cost.

In the Year 2024

 

[Editor’s Note from Jim Rickards: The following article describes a fictional dystopia in the spirit of Brave New World or 1984. It is not a firm forecast or prediction in the usual analytic sense. Instead, it’s intended to provide warning, and encourage readers to be alert to dangerous trends in society, some of which are already in place. Thank you.]

As I awoke this morning, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, from restless dreams, I found the insect-sized sensor implanted in my arm was already awake. We call it a “bug.” U.S. citizens have been required to have them since 2022 to access government health care.

The bug knew from its biometric monitoring of my brain wave frequencies and rapid eye movement that I would awake momentarily. It was already at work launching systems, including the coffee maker. I could smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen. The information screens on the inside of my panopticon goggles were already flashing before my eyes.

Massive Radiation Plume from Fukushima Heading Toward American West Coast According to a Scientific Report

According to scientific modeling systems used by the European Union, the radioactive ocean plume released by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster is likely to remain a massive clump of radioactivity until it slams into the West Coast of the United States in late 2017.

…

In 2013, the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway used computer models to project the movement and dispersion of this radioactive plume. Although the results of this study have been cited in official Chinese government documents, they have not been widely publicized.

US Will Cut Deployed Nuke Missile Force by 50

And then there was 400 launch-ready on land — not counting the 336 (soon to be 280) from sea and those that can be deployed by 93 designated planes (soon to be 60). Russia is also nowhere near under the 700 deployed as the article states/whitewashes. A simple search through Google or even here will pull up articles that show they’re both modernizing and increasing their strategic nuclear force. Although not mentioned in the article, the same goes for China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will keep its current force of 450 land-based nuclear missiles but remove 50 from their launch silos as part of a plan to bring the U.S. into compliance with a 2011 U.S.-Russia arms control treaty, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The resulting launch-ready total of 400 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles would be the lowest deployed ICBM total since the early 1960s. The decisions come after a strong push by members of Congress from the states that host missile bases – North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana – to not eliminate any of the silos from which the missiles would be launched. Fifty silos will be kept in “warm” status – empty of missiles but capable of returning to active use.