Since so many of you seem to be involved in investing, I thought you might be interested in this attempt to nudge your choices, dear Reader.
[IsraelTimes] After review, reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... -based company finds Human Rights Radar was improperly weighted, rejects BDS claims but admits being ’overly dismissive’ of concerns from Jewish groups
Morningstar, a multibillion-dollar investment research firm, says it will no longer sell a human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. research product to investors after a review found that it "exhibited bias" against Israel and conceded that the company had been "overly dismissive" of concerns raised by Jewish groups.
The announcement Thursday from the Chicago-based company came after Morningstar received the results of an independent review by the law firm White & Case into allegations that Human Rights Radar steered investors away from Israel by improperly inflating the country’s risk and controversy ratings.
Human Rights Radar, a product of Morningstar subsidiary Sustainalytics, is meant to provide investors with information on issues in the world where alleged human rights violations take place.
According to complaints first raised by JLens, which advocates for Israel in the investing world, Human Rights Radar’s biased ratings amounted to an antisemitic boycott of Israel. It had accused Sustainalytics of supporting the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement.
Morningstar said its report had not found evidence that Sustainalytics products recommended or encouraged divestment from Israel and there was no evidence of pervasive or systemic bias against Israel across Sustainalytics products.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it did find that the Human Rights Radar product "exhibited bias in its outcomes by overrepresenting firms linked to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict."
The report also found that Human Rights Radar "sometimes used inflammatory language and failed to provide sourcing attribution clearly and consistently."
As a result, Morningstar said it was dropping Human Rights Radar and would work to make Sustainalytics more transparent.
Morningstar also acknowledged that it had been overly dismissive of concerns raised.
"We stated then — and reaffirm today — that neither Morningstar nor Sustainalytics supports the anti-Israel BDS campaign. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... in retrospect, our initial review was overly dismissive of the serious bias concerns raised by the organization JLens, the Illinois Investment Policy Board (IIPB) and other entities," the statement said.
Morningstar initiated the review two weeks before the IIPB was set to place the company on its blacklist, which would have barred state-run pension systems from investing in Morningstar.
#2
It's unfortunate the Inspector General hadn't been tasked with the job instead of the actual people who were put in charge. In other words, it's the typical BS after-action report. People who couldn't find their rear ends with both hands and a flashlight are given the job of figuring out how a complicated mission went wrong.
Kamil Galeev got it right. People who have no idea how to do something are asked to figure out how something should have been done. The end result? Gibberish tied up neatly with a bow.
It's a lot like Kissinger in action. The guy writes a bunch of plausible-sounding crap about historical events. Then he turns over South Vietnam to the North on the brink of victory, when North Vietnam had run out of SAM's, and their military installations were naked to US airstrikes, and calls craven surrender a peace agreement. This is a guy who simply should not be trusted near anything important*. Unfortunately for the South Vietnamese and the GI's who were sacrificed to his inept machinations, he was entrusted with the fate of an entire nation.
* There's a reason Kissinger spent no time in anything resembling real private sector work. P&L statements don't lie.
[IsraelTimes] Microsoft says group it has dubbed ’Polonium’ may be in cahoots with Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security
Microsoft has suspended over 20 OneDrive accounts for abusing the file hosting service in order to carry out cyberattacks on Israeli companies across numerous industries, including defense and financial services
Company officials wrote Thursday that they had high confidence the organization behind the attacks, which it dubbed "Polonium," is based in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ... , and said they had moderate confidence that it was collaborating with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
"Such collaboration or direction from Tehran would align with a string of revelations since late 2020 that the government of Iran ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence... is using third parties to carry out cyber operations on their behalf, likely to enhance Iran’s plausible deniability" of direct cyberattacks, Microsoft said.
The company said Polonium has targeted organizations previously targeted by Mercury, an identified "subordinate element" within MOIS, and has used similar tactics to those of Iranian cyber groups "Lyceum" and "CopyKittens."
Microsoft suggested that these factors point to possible "hand-off" operations, whereby MOIS provides Polonium with access to previously compromised victim environments in order to execute new activity.
Microsoft has not linked any of Polonium’s attacks to those of other groups based in Lebanon, including Volatile Cedar, a cyber espionage group.
Early last month, the National Cyber Directorate launched a joint venture with the Communications Ministry to strengthen Israeli cybersecurity in the hopes of creating a so-called "iron dome" in the cyber sphere.
These reforms require firms to purchase cutting-edge cybersecurity technology to identify, contain and recover potential cyberattacks, as well as to create internal measures to show the cybersecurity efforts they take. In addition, companies must implement five levels of information security mechanisms.
In the past decade, Iran has conducted countless cyberattacks across the globe, affecting the US, Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and Israel.
It’s expensive to swan around as the regional hegemon. And really, even the confiscated upper middle class riches of the Gulenists will only go so far once they’re firmly imprisoned and no longer earning more in their drive to be the best at whatever they do. After that all that’s left is to go deeper in debt. Again.
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... 's inflation climbed to its highest level since 1998, hitting an annual 73.5 percent in May, official data showed Friday, an issue dogging President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important... ahead of elections next year.
Critics have blamed the country's economic woes on Erdogan's unorthodox economic policy of pushing for lower interest rates to combat price rises.
The central bank refused again last week to raise its main rate, keeping it at 14 percent.
Soaring food and energy prices pushed inflation even higher last month.
Transport prices jumped by 107.6 percent in May while the food was up 91.6 percent.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic have exacerbated the energy price spikes and production bottlenecks.
With elections looming in June 2023, the opposition and many economists have accused the national statistics agency of deliberately underestimating the magnitude of inflation.
The Inflation Research Group, made up of independent Ottoman Turkish economists, said Friday that inflation actually accelerated by a whopping 160.8 percent, more than twice the official figure.
The statistics agency did not publish the detailed list of prices per product that serves as a basis for its calculations, a move that raised fresh doubts about the accuracy of official figures.
"According to my own observations, the gap between reality and what is measured has widened this month, with the goal of hiding impoverishment," economist Murat Kubilay wrote on Twitter.
RISK OF 'SYSTEMIC CRISIS'
The country's currency, meanwhile, has lost nearly 48 percent in value over the past year.
The collapse of the lira has pushed up the cost of energy imports and foreign investors are now turning away from the once-promising emerging market.
Rumours of military intervention in northern Syria further hit the value of the Ottoman Turkish lira, which was at 16.49 to the dollar on Friday. The currency has lost nearly 48 percent in value over the past year.
Erdogan's government has responded by using state banks to buy up liras in a bid to cut the currency's losses.
Turkey has cut taxes on some goods and offered subsidies for electricity bills for vulnerable households but even this has failed to stem inflation.
There has also been speculation that the central bank sells dollars to stem the lira's slide.
"If we don't see change in policy the country faces a systemic economic crisis," Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said on Twitter.
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06/04/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
Turkish inflation hits highest rate since 1998 at 73.5%
A group of babus government employees, mostly teachers, staged a sit-in here for the second day on Friday to press for their transfer from Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... to their home districts in the Jammu region following a string of assassinations by Death Eaters in Kashmir.
These employees have returned to Jammu after their colleague, Rajni Bala, was rubbed out by Death Eaters at a school in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Tuesday.
Under the banner of 'All Jammu-based reserved categories employees association', the protesters took out a march from the Press Club to Ambedkar Chowk on Thursday and followed it by another sit-in at Panama Chowk in the heart of the city on Friday.
"We are not going to return to Kashmir to resume our duties in the prevailing alarming situation following the assassinations. We prefer to die here rather than go back," said Surinder Kumar.
He urged the government to take note of their protest and ensure their transfer from Kashmir to the Jammu region.
Kumar said they have already served in Kashmir for 15 years and "are not willing to return to get killed at the hands of terrorists".
Women teachers, who took part in the protest, expressed their unwillingness to return to the Valley because of the security issues.
"Where are the safer zones in Kashmir? We have to move out, drop our children at local schools and attend to our duties," a woman said.
She said they were living happily with the local population in Kashmir over the past decade and claimed that assassinations have triggered fear among them.
[OneIndia] The killing of Sidhu Moosewala has once again put the spot-light back on Canada.
India has often raised concerns about pro-Khalistan elements operating in Canada.
The Indian High Commission in Ottawa has flagged concerns to the foreign ministry of Canada about the gangster involved in violent mostly peaceful crimes in Punjab. It may be recalled that following the death of Moosewala the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Police had said that Goldy Brar, a Canadian based member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who has 16 cases against him in India was involved in the incident. Further Bishnoi's nephew has grabbed credit for the killing of Moosewala.
Post the blast in Ludhiana, the police had found that the same was linked to Lakhbir Singh Landa, who lives in Canada. Landa has 20 cases against him in India.
Last year the National Investigation Agency had filed a chargesheet against four operatives of the Khalistan Tiger Force in connection with cases of assassinations. The probe revealed that accused Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force, a designated terrorist had along with Arshdeep Singh formed a gang and recruited the other accused. Their intention was to threaten and extort money from businessmen based in Punjab. They also effected the assassination to disturb communal harmony in Punjab. Both Nijjar and Singh are currently in Canada.
Prior to this the NIA had filed a chargesheet against operatives of the Khalistan Liberation Force ...Khalistan is the idea of an independent Sikh homeland in the Indian (and Pak, but they don't dwell on that) Punjab. The local troublemakers are financed by the Sikh diaspora, who love the idea of the folks they left behind murdering their neighbours before dying romantically for a hopeless idea, with training and additional funding from Pakistain’s ISI as yet another arrow in their quiver aimed at the Indian throat. The Khalistan Liberation Force, like Antifa, is the umbrella for a bunch of Sikh groups that have engaged in armed struggle® against India since the 1980s... . It said that the foreign based KLF leadership had recruited, financed and armed a local gangster Sukhmeet Pak and tasked him to execute the killings through his associates.
In May following the Rocket Propelled Grenade attack on the Punjab Police's Intelligence headquarters in Mohali, the police had found that it was the handiwork of the pro-Khalistan outfit Babbar Khalsa and the ISI. The key conspirator had been identified as Lakhvir Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran. He has been in Canada from 2017. Singh a gangster is a close aide of one Harwinder Singh, who was close to Babbar Khalsa International chief, Wadhwa Singh and the ISI.
The anti-India sentiment from Canada is a well known fact. Pro-Khalistan groups such as the Sikhs for Justice have been trying to rake up sentiments and revive the Khalistan movement in Punjab. The biggest concern for the Indian security agencies of late has been the Sikhs for Justice. This proscribed outfit has a strong presence online and has been able to radicalise several persons to fight against the government of India. Last year the NIA widened the ambit of its probe in connection with the Sikhs for Justice (SJF). Sources tell OneIndia that there have been a lot of funds that have been channelised in the past couple of months. Over USD 1 lakh has been collected in the name of the farmer protests, the official cited above said.
In November a team of the National Investigation Agency reached Canada on to probe the funding routes for pro-Khalistan groups which have been instrumental in creating unrest in India. The NIA team also discussed with Canadian authorities the findings of the probe against terror groups such as the Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Zindabad Force, Sikhs for Justice and Khalistan Tiger Force.
Residents say the 100 Russian-Turkish joint patrols in Syria's Kobani countryside, so far, have not refrained Turkey from targeting the region or violating the 2019 ceasefire agreement. Read more: https://t.co/2D9W58Qx59pic.twitter.com/9w0tjfjd6r
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) June 3, 2022
As #Turkey renews threats of a military operation against #Syria's Autonomous Administration areas, Russia says deploying Syrian troops along the border with Turkey can solve the issue. #AANEShttps://t.co/kCTV7NoFxj
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) June 3, 2022
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06/04/2022 00:09 ||
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Residents of #Syria's #Shaddadi narrate atrocities committed by #ISIS in a square that used to be a public execution scene where bodies and heads of people used to be hanged.https://t.co/kGJqqvtUZU
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) June 3, 2022
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06/04/2022 00:08 ||
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[AnNahar] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... said on Friday it has launched an investigation into the death of a member of its Revolutionary Guards and denied reports that he had been assassinated.
"A member of the Revolutionary Guards died in recent days in an accident in his home," the official news agency IRNA said, citing what it called an informed source.
It rejected "allegations" by foreign-based opposition media that Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, a commander of the Guards' external operations unit, the Quds Force, had been killed in recent days in Karaj, west of Tehran.
The denial comes days after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Israel of shooting dead Colonel Sayyad Khodai on May 22.
Iran on Monday vowed to avenge the death of Khodai, 50, who was shot full of holes by assailants on cycle of violences outside his home in the east of the Iranian capital.
It was the most high-profile killing inside Iran since the November 2020 murder of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh -- an act the Islamic republic also blamed on its arch enemy Israel.
IRNA said an investigation had been opened into the latest death, without giving further details.
The Guards are designated as a terrorist group by the United States.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
...The nation is noted for 
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...Khalistan is the idea of an independent Sikh homeland in the Indian (and Pak, but they don't dwell on that) Punjab. The local troublemakers are financed by the Sikh diaspora, who love the idea of the folks they left behind murdering their neighbours before dying romantically for a hopeless idea, with training and additional funding from Pakistain’s ISI as yet another arrow in their quiver aimed at the Indian throat. The Khalistan Liberation Force, like Antifa, is the umbrella for a bunch of Sikh groups that have engaged in 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
