Interest from institutional investors for Bitcoin and Ethereum at record level – Crypto News Flash

The LMAX Group has revealed figures on the growth of its crypto exchange, LMAX Digital. In a press release, LMAX states that the exchange has seen a 106% increase in the first half of 2020 for its trading volume with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). This translates into a record trading volume of $36 billion.

The LMAX Group reported total gains in trading volume of $2.3 trillion, with a 33% growth over the first half of 2019. The exchange is based in the UK and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). For the past two years, the exchange has been offering institutions trade in the above-mentioned cryptocurrencies and in XRP, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

The LMAX Group also reports a significant increase in the trading volume for the United States. Compared to the first half of 2019, the current trading volume registered an increase of 165%. In addition, the crypto exchange has a record number of new clients.

According to the press release, LMAX Digital is working with more than 200 large institutions globally that trade with Bitcoin, Ethereum and the other cryptocurrencies it offers in the United States, Europe and Asia. LMAX CEO, David Mercer, said the following

We have seen growth in new large institutional clients around the world trading on our execution venues and the deepening of existing relationships. This is attributed to the quality of the liquidity and execution we offer across exchanges ()In the two years since LMAX Digital launched, it has become the leading crypto currency exchange for institutional market participants and has secured its position as the primary price discovery venue.

In an earlier statement, the LMAX Group revealed that nearly $85 billion in cryptocurrencies have been traded since the service was launched. In addition, the last 10 months trading volume has increased 10-fold to $75 billion.

In the first quarter of this year, the crypto exchange experienced a 41% increase in quarterly trading volume and reached $20 billion, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy. David Mercer had the following to say about the growth in trade volume for cryptocurrencies:

We have been impressed by the resilience of crypto currencies, particularly Bitcoin, and note that they have been relatively stable compared to other asset classes which have enjoyed central bank intervention and still shown extreme levels of instability. We see this as an encouraging sign that investors are starting to place more value in digital currencies and have continued to trade through spikes in volatility.

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Interest from institutional investors for Bitcoin and Ethereum at record level - Crypto News Flash

Ethereum transactions are now near 2018s ICO boom levelsits the DeFi effect – CryptoSlate

Ethereum transactions are seeing transactional activity last seen in 2018when massive ICO activity dominated the network.

Much of the activity can be attributed to the rise of DeFi and Layer-2 applications. Furthermore, wallet data suggests investors may be accumulating ETH ahead of the networks upgrade to a staking mechanism.

Data shows Ethereum transactions are nearing 2018s levels. GAS prices have increased as a result, and are now at a record high.

As seen in the chart below, transactional activity has broken above last years 1 million/day levelnearing 1.3 million/day seen in January 2018. Current transaction activity is ranging between the 1.1-1.2 million/day level:

The charts coincide with the rise of DeFi applications this year. Projects like Balancer, Aave, Compound, and Synthetix have gained both a fan following and media interest in 2020and their rise in popularity is synchronous with the surge in Ethereum transactions.

DeFi tokens now account for 1.44 percent of the total cryptocurrency space, CryptoSlates proprietary analytics page shows. Sector volume has been $456 million over July 17-18.

The sector has returned 6.53 percent to investors in the past seven days. This is the most among any other sub-sectorssuch as smart contracts, general currencies, and privacy tokens.

Theres promise price-wise too. As CryptoSlate reported yesterday, one economic model has suggested Ethereums price will be boosted by DeFis growth. This was proposed by analyst Morgan Bennett earlier this week:

Meanwhile, mempool data on Ethereum is not helping its cause. Transaction fees have soared in the past week; costing over $10 on some smart contract transfers.

This can be traced back to DeFi token usage; the top-10 (DeFi) coins run on the Ethereum mainnet currently:

A relevant Reddit thread captures some of the community sentiment in this regard. The high gas prices make it really painful (and sometimes confusing) to interact with (a) smart contract, said one forum member.

But Ethereums broader ecosystem is working to solve some of these issues. ConsenSys-backed Starkware reached 9,000 transactions/second in testing in May, while Matic Network reported 7,200 tps in a testnet last week.

As Ethereums current tps is a small 12-15; block data shows. Layer-2 designs and rollup tech, once deployed, promise to power the network to over 1 million tps.

And thats required as well; if at all any decentralized cat meme games arrive on the scene again.

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Ethereum transactions are now near 2018s ICO boom levelsits the DeFi effect - CryptoSlate

Chinese Blockchain Network Integretes Ethereum, Tezos, NEO, and More – Cryptonews

Source: Adobe/bankrx

Chinas Blockchain Service Network (BSN) platform will integrate the Ethereum (ETH), Ios, Tezos (XTZ), Nervos (CKB), NEO and IRISnet blockchain networks as an international portal is unveiled in August.

Per a blog post, a version of the BSN a network that already has full coverage in all major Chinese cities, per official sources will roll out on August 10. Its operators said it will be called the BSN International Portal and will allow users around the world access to low-cost blockchain solutions.

BSN said it will offer three main services, namely permissioned services, permissionless services and inter-chain services.

The existing BSN-China portal has already begun offering permissioned services for Mainland Chinese locations. However, the operators added that due to regulations in China, permissionless services will only be available on the BSN International Portal and on international public city nodes.

Regardless, the operators appear keen to push ahead with interoperability drives, and claimed that they will add an additional three to five public chains to the BSN International Portal per month. They noted that they will focus on public chains that emphasize and encourage [decentralized app] development.

As previously reported, the BSN initiative is the brainchild of a number of Chinese government organs and state-owned firms, including government think tank the State Information Center of China, telecom giant China Mobile and financial services company China UnionPay.

In an official statement, BSN operators stated that the network has already deployed more than 120 public city nodes at locations around the world.

The operators also added that five BSN International nodes would be linked to the BSN-China network, but added that they would need to operate independently and comply with the laws and regulations of the areas in which they are active.

BSN has previously claimed that it has nodes activein Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, and So Paulo.

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Chinese Blockchain Network Integretes Ethereum, Tezos, NEO, and More - Cryptonews

Will Tezos Be the Altcoin to Unseat Ethereum on the Crypto Market? – AMBCrypto English

Ever since it then-record $232 million ICO (initial coin offering) back in 2017, Tezos (XTZ) has earned a justifiable amount of buzz in the crypto world. But does the Swiss-US joint venture have legs?

First off, its important to understand what makes Tezos stand out among the thousands of cryptocurrencies on the market. XTZ utilizes a proof-of-stake based consensus model, which, unlike Bitcoin and Ethereums proof-of-work models, isnt dependent on mining for its blockchain protocol.

Instead, Tezos employs a more democratic model where all stakeholders have a hand in managing the protocol in what is known as a self-amending blockchain. One of the big takeaways from this model is that it avoids the issue of hard forking into two different blockchains. Hard forking is what caused bitcoin cash to break off from bitcoin and Ethereum to break off from Ethereum classic.

In comprehensive terms, Tezos uses a formal, on-chain mechanism for proposing, selecting, testing, and activating protocol upgrades. It results in a uniquely formalized process, in which users have control of what happens to updates, as long as its within the Tezos protocol.

It all adds up to some exciting potential for Tezos, which has generated some major public enthusiasm and investor interest. The Bank of France is testing out a Tezos node, and a tech investment firm called Silicon Valley Coin chose Tezos (noticeably over Ethereum) to tokenize its fund.

XTZ is also making a lot of noise on the STO (security token offering) market, with global investment banks like BTG Pactual, tZERO, and Alliance Investments contributing to a reported $2.6 billion-plus in STOs deployed on the Tezos blockchain.

So, will all this buzz and heightened interest result in Tezos being the next altcoin to go boom? Or is it all just hot air? Check out eToros video to find out more about Tezos and if it has what it takes to rival Ethereum as the no. 2 cryptocurrency on the market.

[VIDEO]

Disclaimer:

eToro is a multi-asset platform that offers both investing in stocks and crypto assets, as well as trading CFDs.

Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments that can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading crypto assets are unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.

This is a paid post and should not be considered as news/advice.

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Will Tezos Be the Altcoin to Unseat Ethereum on the Crypto Market? - AMBCrypto English

Opinion: The Future of Free Speech – OnFocus

For Marshfield (OnFocus) There is a recent development in the US that concerns me about the future of our country. No, its not the handling of COVID-19, nor is it the upcoming Presidential election. This development is the attack against one of the fundamental freedoms provided to us in the first amendment of the US Constitution: the freedom of speech.

The first amendment reads, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

While Congress has not explicitly introduced any bills that would limit this freedom of speech, there is a movement in public opinion as to what is and is not acceptable that could lead us to a watershed moment in the future.

Back in 2016, Canadian lawmakers were debating a proposed law, known as Bill C-16, that would provide protections towards transgender and gender-diverse citizens, or individuals who identify with a non-traditional or non-stereotypical concept of gender. However, the main controversy over the bill was the authority given to Government to determine whether using the incorrect pronoun to identify an individual was constituted a hate crime and was deemed illegal by this bill.

The bill was infamously opposed by Dr. Jordan Peterson, a professor at the University of Toronto. In Dr. Petersons view, the issue wasnt whether the use of preferred pronouns was right or wrong; rather, it was centered around the Governments regulation of free speech. Dr. Peterson reasoned the passing of this bill as written could open Pandoras box for the Government to determine acceptable speech in all facets of our lives, which could be a dangerous proposition.

For the regulation of freedom of speech, the power to determine what is and is not acceptable falls on other humans. The ones calling for restriction in speech through cancel culture and public shaming believe this regulation will be done by those who are like-minded and share the same viewpoints. What happens when your opinion is the one disallowed or deleted because moderators disagree with your opinion? This is the slippery slope society runs by implementing restrictions on freedom of speech. The world isnt filled with like-minded individuals who share 100% of your opinions. Its what makes humans human. We have our own thoughts and opinions based on our knowledge and experience. I doubt youll ever find another person who shares 100% of your thoughts. Shaming someone because they disagree with you dehumanizes every one victimized by public shaming.

Please understand Im not advocating for the use of hate speech, racial slurs, or blatant lies. There are comments that nearly everyone would agree is egregious and inappropriate, and those people should get called out for saying it. The argument isnt whether certain words should be spoken at all. It lies with who should be responsible for making the final determination of what is and is not allowed.

Recently, public social media outlets, like Twitter and YouTube, have been accused of removing tweets and videos from certain viewpoints. On political or controversial topics, only allowing one side of the argument to be published creates an echo chamber that keeps conversation stagnant and further divides the different sides to the argument.

Twitter recently announced President Trumps account will be fact-checked. You may think, Well this is a good thing. The President shouldnt be tweeting false information, especially from a position of power. While I agree he shouldnt be blatantly spreading lies and false information, 1) there is a difference between sharing facts and opinions and 2) theres a societal expectation to formulate and share an opinion on a topic before we have the full set of facts.

Have you ever voiced an opinion on a topic, only to learn more facts later to change your position? What if you were publicly shamed for holding your original viewpoint? If people are afraid to share their opinions for fear of public scrutiny, youll create a society where the citizens dare not think for themselves. When you stop thinking for yourself, you stop determining right from wrong. You become nihilistic. Ultimately, you open the door for regimes like communism and Marxism, or the rise in satanic leaders, like Stalin or Hitler.

The New York Times recently came under heavy scrutiny because they published an op-ed piece from Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, voicing his opinion on the use of the military to manage the riots and public protests arising from the death of George Floyd. Instead of listening to the Senators views to better understand his position, some pushed back to whether the piece should have posted at all. The public outcry towards the editor of the NYT for even publishing the piece points towards the cancel culture some in our society are pushing.

What can we do to combat this issue? First, accept that others will hold and share differing opinions. Whether its religion, abortion, climate control, the Presidential election, or if the earth is round or flat, you will find others who disagree with you. Second, remember opinions are not facts. Facts are available to support your opinion, but ultimately, your opinion is your own viewpoint. You may think Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback of all time, but youll be hard-pressed to convince someone thats factually true. Its merely your opinion on his career. Third, and most importantly, listen to each other with open minds. Social media has harvested a culture of disregarding differing opinions and undermining someones character when they disagree with you.

You cant squash someones differing viewpoint by disallowing them to speak. Not only will they harden their stance, but they will lose respect for you. The great divide in this country is a direct result of the inability to hear others viewpoints and to understand why they hold their position. If youre on the left, you can listen to the echo chamber created by MSNBC and CNN, or on the right, Fox News, and youll only hear points that support your current position and further the divide with those on the other side of the political spectrum.

It falls on each of us to hold freedom of speech to a higher standard, even if it means allowing others to voice opinions differing from our own. I encourage you to listen to different opinions and talking to others about controversial topics, not with the goal to teach, but with the goal to listen and learn. Only when we place an emphasis on listening to learn do we truly understand the value of freedom of speech.

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Opinion: The Future of Free Speech - OnFocus

The Synagogue of Satan And Destroying The Right To ‘Free Speech’ – FinalCall.com News

[Editors note: The following article contains excerpts from an hour-long message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Part 22 of his 52-week Lecture Series The Time and What Must Be Done. This message originally aired on Saturday, June 8, 2013. To order this message in its entirety on MP3, DVD and CD, call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200, or visit store.finalcall.com. We urge readers to visit The Final Call Channel on http://www.youtube.com and view the full lecture, Part 22 of the The Time and What Must Be Done series.]

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

During this critical time, when The Old World is going out, and The New World is coming in, we must beacquaintedwith the ruler of the old world thats going out, and we must get acquainted with The New Ruler of The World that is coming in. The world that is going out is a world that God gave Divine privilege to, to rule the people of our planet for 6,000 years. And, the 6,000 years of the rule of thiscontraryworld and people is now up. And The New Ruler is in the world: He is The God of The New World; and He comes to make Himself known, and to manifest Satan so that the people of the Earth may fall away from Satan and get ready to prepare themselves to become a part of that which God makes new.

Synagogue of Satans schemes to destroy the First Amendment right to free speech

We want to focus again on that Synagogue of Satan. I want to speak about the charge of anti-Semitism, and what that charge leads to.

The First Amendment ofThe United States Constitution reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.And so, I would like to put before you the following questions:

How does one go from engaging infree speechthat we assume is protected by The First Amendment of The Constitution, to finding ones self facing possiblycriminal penalties?

How does sucha wicked claim of anti-Semitismmovethe accused onefrom speaking or writing the truth, and then to legal jeopardy?

What isa legal mechanismby which theseattack dogs ofThe Synagogue of Satanactivate the governmental apparatus toseek out, punishanddestroythose that are labeled as an anti-Semite or as a hate groupand destroy their right to free speech in the process?

We want to look at the criminal effect of being labeled anti-Semitic. We want to look at how these private Jewish organizations who do the labeling, like theAnti-Defamation LeagueandThe Southern Poverty Law Center, manipulate the government law enforcement agencies like theFBIand theIRSto target and harass those who are so labeled. Then, we want to see how they work to effect their scheming, with the disproportionate number of members of the Jewish community working as DAs (or district attorneys) or federal and state prosecutors and judges, in the United States court system where these cases will ultimately be tried.

It begins with someone,anyone, who holds a controversial view, and speaks or writes about it in public.Controversialmeans contrary to the popular version of the truth.

However, instead of engaging in honest and open public dialogue and debate about the issue that the spokesperson raises, as is called for and encouraged by the United States Constitution,private interest groups start with the labeling:Hes a hate teacher, with a hateful message.And then the group he belongs to: If they dont repudiate the spokesperson fast enough, they also get called a hate group that promotes intolerance.They dont have to prove it, they just have to say it over and over againand then the drumbeats get amplified by their brethren who controlthe media.And if that person does not apologize quick enough after that, they start to pick away at his supporters. And those who would defend that person: If they are not strong enough to stand up to the slander, they begin to fall away and distance themselves; and some may even start repudiating and apologizing for their former friend and ally.

Still, if he refuses to bow down: They connect certain inflammatory terms that are intended to generate real hatred, and even retribution, against the person who is speaking these controversial points. They start with:He hates! Hes intolerant!and that escalates to,Hes threatening, and he incites hatred in others!And then the wordviolencegets thrown in, and thenhate crimesare mentioned; and ultimately, you hear the wordsdomestic terrorism.This is all calculated to get the public to put so much pressure on that individual; that they, and their supporters, relent, apologize and retreat.

And this is why I say to my great brothers and sisters in The Twitter Army:No matter what vile speech comes at you, no matter what threats are made against my life by those who hate The Truth that we are speaking, never ever get down in the gutter, or threaten anyone with violence, because they are building a record of what we are saying! So, if you threaten anyone with violence, or you act like you wish to do them evil because they desire to domeevil, then one day you might hear this again in a court of law.

The Synagogues efforts to modernize government persecution of individuals and groups

If we continue to stand on our principles and exercise our freedom of speech, these members of The Synagogue of Satan then get their brethren in The Judicial Branch of government, in the IRS, and their brethren in the Congress and the Senate, and even up to the White House or the Justice Department, and they begin to act in a conspiratorial manner to charge, condemn, try and punishand even killthose who are so charged. This government persecution of individuals and groups who speak boldly about the wrongs in American society was started underJ. Edgar HooversF.B.I. Counterintelligence Program [COINTELPRO].

Although that Program was exposed, and it was said that certain controls were ultimately put on the activity of the FBI; but yet, those wicked policies still continue even up to this very momentof courseThe Synagogue of Satanstepped in tore-establish the worst of Hoovers illegal operations.In August of 1999, under the administration of President Bill Clinton, federal surveillance of those labeled hate groups was restricted to those who committed, or were linked to, actual crimes. According to published reports, hisAttorney General Janet Reno said: It is important that you not focus on a group unless you have a reasonable indication that they are engaged in criminal conduct.But then 29 Jewish leaders led by the Anti-Defamation Leagues Abraham Foxman went to the Justice Department, and told them this is too timid an approach. It was reported that Foxman stated:We want better surveillance and infiltration if necessary the concern, Mr. Foxman said, wasmodernizing the regulations, so federal authoritiescan deal not only with getting the man, but with preventing the crime.

So now, they have their way: A position was created inside the Justice Dept. which they say is to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. [Based uponThe Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004] Secretary of State John Kerry appointed a man namedIra Formanas the newSpecial Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

What will happen with these positions, except to coordinate the government surveillance and infiltration of those who have been labeled anti-Semitic?There are real anti-Semites in this country that hate the Jewish people, and there is nothing wrong with monitoring arealanti-Semitic hate group.But when you have that intention formeandThe Nation of Islam, then we have tocharge youandchallenge youto prove your claim.

You have a long history of lying on The Nation of Islam. And it is time that we throw down the gauntlet now, and make you come before the American people and the world, and prove your charge. And if you cannot,and you cannot, then youre going to have to pay for all these years that you have poisoned the minds of the American people; destroyed progress of tens of hundreds and thousands of peopleand you thought you got away with it.

Not today

In The Preface ofThe Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 2, The Historical Research Department provides us with historical proof on how Jews at the highest organizational levels havealwayslabeled The Nation of Islam as anti-Semitic. For example, they write that in 1942, a secret Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith file titledTemple of Islam Infiltrationstates:A Negro employed byusus here is The Anti- Defamation Leagueprovedquite instrumental in a F.B.I. raid on the Chicago mosque resulting in 82 arrests.So, this has been going on a long time.

And what did you mean,Mr. Abraham Foxman, when you said,Louis Farrakhan is the only African-American leader?Your words exactly, sir, as they appear in aHaaretznews article published in April 2013:The last time an African-American leader stood up to anti-Semitism was Martin Luther King Jr., who said its a sin. The only leadership that now exists inthat community the African American communityisLouis Farrakhan. Farrakhan can assemble 20,000 people several times a year, and he flaunts his anti-Semitism. Whats worse, they deny it exists, so theres no one to talk to.

I interpret that as meaningThe Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan are the only ones we dont control;I interpret that to mean thatLouis FarrakhanandThe Nation of Islammay very well beThe Last Man Standingin the way ofyour successful capture of Black leaders, your successful capture of Black professionals and Black businessmen, your capture of Black artists, and your capture of heads of state and government that bow to your commands!Then ifweare The Last Man Standing, then you are calling on all of your forces to concentrate their attention on Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam.

Well, concentrate with everything youve got, because The God that we serve will answereffectivelyandefficiently, and will ultimately destroy your power.

A party from amongThe Synagogue of Satanthat designs to ruin Gods Warner among us

Look at whats written in theHoly Quran, Surah4 Al-Nisa(The Women), verses 111-112:And whoever commits a sin, commits it only against himself. And Allah is ever Knowing, Wise. And whoever commits a fault or a sin, then accuses of it one innocent, he indeed takes upon himself the burden of acalumnyand amanifest sin.

Now, what is acalumny? A calumny is the making of a false and defamatory statement in order to damage someones reputation. It is slander, it is character assassination, and it is vilification.

ToThe Anti-Defamation League, The Southern Poverty Law Center, a.k.a. The Synagogue of Satan:You are the sinner! You want to put your evil onan innocent man; you say I am the hateryoure wrong! We can prove that you are the hater, and youve been the hater of us ever since youve been onour planet. You are the liar; you are the one that is creating violence and hatredit is you. You manipulate your media brethren, turning them into tools of your wicked ideas and policies.

Well now your day has come.In the Holy Quran, Surah 104is calledAl-Humazah(The Slanderer):Woe to every slanderer, defamer! Who amasses wealth and counts itHe thinks that his wealth will make him abide. Nay, he will certainly be hurled into the crushing disaster; And what will make thee realize what the crushing disaster is? It is the Fire kindled by Allah, Which rises over the hearts. Surely it is closed in on them, In extended columns.

What will make thee know what the great and utter destruction is? It is The Fire, inthe heart of the slanderer; that leads that slanderer to The Fire of Hell.

Inverse 113ofSurah 4, The Holy Quransays:And were it not for Allahs grace on thee and His mercy,a party of themhad certainly designed to ruinthee. And they ruin only themselves, and they cannot harm thee in any way. And Allah has revealed to thee the Book and the Wisdom, and taught thee what thou knewest not, and Allahs grace on thee is very great.

I rely on The Wisdom of that scripture, because as I said: This Synagogue of Satan is comprised not only of members of the Jewish community, but you have Gentiles, you have Blacks, you have AsiansYour Synagogue is big. And a lot of the people that are members of The Synagogue are unwitting pawns in The Wicked Game of this Satanic group.

Remember these words of The Quran:a partyand thats you, Synagoguefrom among themcertainly designed to ruinthee.Thee here meansMuhammad; thee, here, means what he represents. And if you dont think that I am a part of Muhammad, then watch and see. Your evil is designed to ruin me, and to ruin The Nation of Islam. But you ruin only yourself. So keep on planning and watch what happens to you, and what you represent.

A Who is Anti-Semitic? roll call

Let us take a look at all the Black leaders that have been charged with anti-Semitic behavior because they dared to utter a word of criticism against Jewish misbehavior and mislabeling. Lets take a look at Who is anti-Semitic?I bet you wont even believe this:Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee University;W.E.B. DuBois; Marcus Mosiah Garvey;and, yes:The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.the man that said, anti-Semitism is a sin, yet you all referred to him, at one point, as an anti-Semite!Malcolm X, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, President Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Julian Bond; Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael;Andrew Young; Kweisi Mfume, former member of Congress, and former leader of the N.A.A.C.P.; The ReverendsAl Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Joseph Lowery; The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee called SNCC; The Black Panthers; The Universal Negro Improvement Association, which was Mr. Garveys movement; and,The Nation of Islam.

But it doesnt stop there! They accusedMahatma Gandhi[a leader for Indias independence], of being an anti-Semite. Also: HistoriansJohn Hope FranklinandJ. A. Rogers; WritersJames Baldwin, Richard Wright, Julius LesterandAlice Walker; and entertainersMichael Jackson, Spike Lee, Ice Cube, Arsenio Hall, Muhammad Ali, Public Enemy, Oprah Winfreythis is just a few. Look at the great company that Louis Farrakhan is in.

You meaneverybodyis a hater of the Jewish people? Stop It!

Now lets call the roll of those White people that you have called anti-Semiticbeginning with U.S. presidents: President Harry Truman, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President Richard M. Nixon,President Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford, President George H. W. Bushand PresidentBarack Obama. Also, a listing of White leaders, historians, inventors, writers, clergymen, philosophers, etc.:H. L. Mencken, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Adams, H. G. Wells, Edgar Degas, T. S. Eliot, Immanuel Kant, Tacitus, Philostratus, Cicero, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Hitler, Edward VIII, Aleksander Pushkin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Richard Wagner, Bobby Fischer, and The Reverend Billy Graham.

These members ofThe Synagogue of Satan have always known that a Day of Reckoning was coming; and so over time, they put themselves in positions of power in every nation of the Western Hemisphere. This was done to monitor The Awakening ofThe Gentilesthe masses of so-called heathens, savages andgoyim; as well as the masses of Blacks. So anyone that rises and criticizes: They put fear in them by charging them with being anti-Semitic. Even if theyknewthat what we were saying is the truth, most would be afraid and would not stand up under the heat of Jewish power.

Well, today we are calling you out, and asking you to use your inordinate power, because The God that we represent wants to crush you and your power. Hes here to bring in a Brand New Worldand Hes chosen the despised and the rejected, unloved and unwantedBlack man and woman of Americato be The Cornerstone of a Brand New Reality.

The trick of anti-Semitic labeling confirmed

During an August 14, 2002 interview on her showDemocracy Now! (democracynow.org), host and executive producer AmyGoodmaninterviewed former Israeli MinisterShulamit Aloni. Pay attention to Miss Goodmans words introducing her guest:Yours is a voice of criticism we dont often hear in the United States. Often when there is dissent expressed in the United States against policies of the Israeli government, people here are called anti-Semitic. What is your response to that as an Israeli Jew?AndMinister Shulamit Alonianswered:Well, its a trick, we always use it.When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic. And the organization is strong, and has a lot of money, and the ties between Israel and the American Jewish establishment are very strong and they are strong in this country, as you know. And they have power, which is OK. They are talented people, and they have power and money, and the media and other things; and their attitude isIsrael my country, right or wrong,identificationand they are not ready to hear criticism. And its very easy to blame people who criticize certain acts of the Israeli government as anti-Semitic, and to bring up the Holocaust, and the suffering of the Jewish people, and that is [to] justify everything we do to the Palestinians.

This anti-Semitic labeling is atrickthat they use! But look at how many people have been destroyed on account of such a trick!

Where did you learn such tricks? Did you not learn this from your FatherYakub, who taught you a System of Tricks and Lies? Look at howeasyit is for you to lie, and put your wickedness on innocent persons. What is the meaning of atrick? Atrickisa cunning, or skillful, act or scheme intended to deceive or outwit someone; a mischievous practical joke; a skillful act performed for entertainment or amusement; an illusion; a clever or particular way of doing something.

Its really amusing to Satan when he can tell a lie, and we operate on that lie, and act in a manner that we would never act if we had only knownThe Truth. They are entertained by playing tricks on unsuspecting, ignorant people. And this is why it isanimperativethat The Synagogue of Satan must be called out, and Satan and his Synagogue must be made known.

(A partial listing)

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The Synagogue of Satan And Destroying The Right To 'Free Speech' - FinalCall.com News

‘Disillusionment With Leadership is About Free Speech, Can’t Disqualify for it’: Sachin Pilot’s Amended H… – News18

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. (PTI File)

Sacked deputy chief minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot has submitted in the Rajasthan High Court that expressions of "dissatisfaction and disillusionment" against the party leadership cannot make a MLA amenable for disqualification.

In the amendments carried out in his original petition, Pilot emphasised on freedom of speech and expression, and the right to dissent.

This petition will be heard in the afternoon on Friday. The Speaker has assured the Rajasthan High Court that the proceedings against Pilot and others shall remain in abeyance till 5pm on Friday in the wake of the prosper hearing.

The petition, filed jointly by Pilot along with 18 other MLAs, has challenged the validity of clause 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

This provision and the interpretations given to it by a body of judgments by the Supreme Court have held that indulging in any anti-party activity tantamount to voluntarily giving up the membership of the party.

The petition has maintained that this provision cannot be so widely construed that the very same fundamental freedom of speech and expression of a member of the House is jeopardised.

Pilot and others said: "Mere expression of dissatisfaction or even disillusionment against the party leadership cannot be treated to be conduct falling within the clause 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India."

The plea added that even if expression of views and opinions, howsoever strongly worded, are treated to be a part of clause 2(1)(a), the said clause would not stand the scrutiny and will have to be declared ultra vires the basic structure of the Constitution of India in general and that of right of free speech under Article 19(1)(a) in particular.

It said that since the basis of the disqualification notices by the Speaker was expressions of dissent by some MLAs, it is necessary that the high court examines the validity of the impugned provision under the 10th Schedule.

The amended petition, apart from annulment of the disqualification notices, has also sought for declaring clause 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule ultra vires since it impinges upon the fundamental right of free speech.

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'Disillusionment With Leadership is About Free Speech, Can't Disqualify for it': Sachin Pilot's Amended H... - News18

Trump concedes pandemic to ‘get worse before it gets better’ – BBC News

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President Donald Trump has warned the US pandemic may "get worse before it gets better", as he revived his virus briefings with a more scripted tone.

Mr Trump also asked all Americans to wear face coverings, saying "they'll have an effect" and show "patriotism".

The president, who was not wearing a mask at the briefing, has previously disparaged them as unsanitary.

His aides have reportedly pressed him to adopt a more measured approach as virus caseloads spike across the US.

The daily White House news conferences ended soon after Mr Trump suggested in April during freewheeling remarks from the podium that the virus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into people.

In his first White House coronavirus briefing for months on Tuesday, a less off-the-cuff president echoed what public health officials on his pandemic task force have been saying as he warned: "It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better.

"Something I don't like saying about things, but that's the way it is."

He added: "We're asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask.

"Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact, they'll have an effect and we need everything we can get."

Mr Trump - who more than once referred to Covid-19 as the "China virus" - took a mask from his pocket in the briefing room, but did not put it on.

The president is facing an uphill climb to re-election in November against Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, according to opinion polls.

Mr Biden on Tuesday accused Mr Trump of having failed Americans in his handling of the pandemic. "He's quit on you, he's quit on this country," the former US vice-president said.

Donald Trump's afternoon coronavirus press briefings are back. Regardless of what the president said during his brief appearance on Tuesday, the simple fact of their return speaks volumes about the dismal course the pandemic has taken in the US in the past three months.

Cases are rising, particularly in the south and west, perhaps most directly as a result of the administration's support for states to end mitigation measures before public-health benchmarks were met.

And so the president, sticking closely to his prepared remarks, sombrely noted that things "will probably get worse before they get better". After previously dismissing a mask-wearing reporter as being "politically correct", he now encouraged people to wear face coverings.

A number of recent polls have indicated that sinking public support for the president's handling of the virus has been dragging down his re-election prospects. The White House reportedly hopes getting the president back in front of the American people will help rebuild their confidence in his leadership.

A real solution to the president's dilemma, however, won't come until coronavirus cases once again go down, the hospitals empty, Americans go back to work, schools reopen and life returns to some semblance of normal. That day still seems a long way off, while election day is drawing close.

Mr Trump appeared without the medical experts who used to address the briefings. He kept his remarks brief and focused, avoiding sparring with reporters who asked a few questions.

He continued: "We're asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene - wash your hands every chance you get, while sheltering high risk populations.

"We are imploring young Americans to avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings. Be safe and be smart."

Mr Trump has been reluctant to wear a mask himself in front of the media, claiming that some people only wore such face coverings as a political statement against him. The press pictured him recently wearing a mask for the first time as he visited a military hospital.

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When asked on Tuesday about his shifting support for masks, the president pointed out that even health experts had changed their minds.

Back in March, both Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the leading members of the president's coronavirus task force, and US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said there was no reason people in the US should wear a mask.

Since at least April, the US Centers for Disease Control has recommended Americans wear face coverings in public.

Dr Fauci now argues US authorities should be more "forceful" in compelling mask wearing, though Mr Trump has rejected calls for the White House to issue a national order on the issue.

During the briefing, the president continued to assert the virus would one day "disappear".

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He also wrongly claimed the US has a lower coronavirus death rate than "almost everywhere else in the world".

According to Johns Hopkins University, the US mortality rate is ranked 10th out of the 20 worst-hit countries.

The United States has recorded nearly 3.9 million Covid-19 cases and over 141,000 deaths - the highest by volume in the world.

Mr Trump was also asked by a reporter about the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who was charged this month by US authorities with sex-trafficking children for her ex-boyfriend, the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The president said: "I haven't really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach [Florida], and I guess they lived in Palm Beach."

"I don't know the situation with Prince Andrew," added Mr Trump, mentioning the British royal who denies claims he had sex with a teenage girl who says she was trafficked by Epstein.

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Trump concedes pandemic to 'get worse before it gets better' - BBC News

Trump signs order targeting undocumented immigrants in the US census – CNN

The memorandum marks the Trump administration's latest effort to change the way US populations are counted and advance the President's immigration agenda. And like previous efforts, the issue will end up in court.

"I have accordingly determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President's discretion under the law," the order states.

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to challenge the memo, Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said in a statement.

"(Trump's) latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be found unconstitutional. We'll see him in court, and win, again," Ho said.

Trump has long sought to use the US census as a way to advance his immigration priorities but the Supreme Court rejected an attempt to ask respondents if they are US citizens in 2019. The administration, however, is allowed to collect information on citizenship status by other means.

Convincing immigrant communities to participate in the census has already been an uphill battle, and Trump's announcement threatens to deepen fears in communities where some were already wary of participating.

Community organizations and immigrant advocacy groups across the country have spent months focused on outreach efforts to convince immigrants to participate in the census, regardless of their immigration status. Even though no citizenship question is on this year's census, advocates worried lingering fears over the question would deter immigrants from responding and lead to shortfalls in funding for schools, roads and other community projects.

But on Tuesday, advocacy groups that have devoted resources to boosting census participation said they were ready to fight the administration's latest effort to influence the count.

The courts will likely have the final say. The Constitution says congressional representation is apportioned based on "the whole Number of free Persons," not only those who are American citizens.

"The legal problem is that the 14th Amendment says that representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons," said Joshua Geltzer of the Georgetown University Law Center.

"That means House seats are divvied up based on everyone present in the 50 states, not just based on those lawfully present," he said.

In addition, Geltzer said, the census doesn't currently ask whether someone immigrated illegally to the United States. "Presumably the Trump administration will have to rely on a hodgepodge of other records to guess the population they intend to use for apportionment."

Michael Li, who serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, questioned how the federal government would make the determination on whether someone is undocumented.

"The Constitution requires counting everyone -- children, immigrants, everyone -- it doesn't have exclusions based on legal status," Li said.

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

CNN's Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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Trump signs order targeting undocumented immigrants in the US census - CNN

Trump’s endorsement of face masks caused a rally in recovery stocks, Jim Cramer says – CNBC

President Donald Trump's belated endorsement of face masks sparked a rally in the recovery stocks, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday.

The president's newfound appreciation for mask-wearing takes away the leading voice for the anti-face covering crowd and should tamp down on the culture and political clash that brewed from the controversial topic, the "Mad Money" host said.

"If the president of the United States keeps encouraging people to wear masks, rather than discouraging them that makes it much easier to flatten the curve, because the no-mask contingent listens to him, fears him, cheers him," Cramer said. "With enough mask-wearing, we can beat this thing long before we get a vaccine, although it's still gonna take weeks before we see any progress."

With his mind focused on reopening the U.S. economy in the spring, Trump previously mocked Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential hopeful, for wearing of a face mask and suggested that it's not presidential to do so. That was despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advice in early April that people wear face coverings in public settings where social distancing is a challenge.

Fast forward to Monday, the president posted a black-and-white photo of himself wearing a mask calling it "Patriotic" to do so and saying that no one is "more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!"

The mask promotion, in addition to another potential round of stimulus spending to prop up the economy, sparked a rally in the recovery plays, including the lagging retail stocks, banking sector and even Disney and Starbucks, as masks can help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, Cramer noted. That would help the country resume its reopening and not reverse back into an undesirable lockdown.

The Dow Jones added almost 160 points, or 0.60%, to reach 26,840.40 at the close. The S&P 500 inched up 0.17% to 3,257.30 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which has been soaring in recent weeks, retreated 0.81% to 10,680.36.

The Cramer Covid-19 Index, by comparison, slipped 0.7% during the session.

"The Cramer Covid-19 Index is out, the recovery stocks are in," Cramer said.

Costco was met by boycott calls when it was among the first establishments to mandate that patrons wear face coverings back in May. Despite this, the grocery club posted that same-store sales increased in the month of June by 11% from $14.57 billion a year earlier. Walmart, Walgreens, Target, Kohl's, CVS Health and other shops later followed Costco's lead.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last week said widespread, consistent mask use could stop the coronavirus spread in three weeks.

"If we can get mask compliance up to 80%, we can contain this thing like they did in Asia and Europe already," Cramer said. "Taiwan, Japan, China, Vietnam and South Korea have all returned to normalcy mostly because they wear their darned masks."

Of the nearly 14.8 million Covid-19 cases worldwide, the United States continues to lead the way substantially with more than 3.8 million people testing positive of the deadly disease. More than 141,400 people who contracted the virus have been reported dead, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.

"Basically, the critics assumed that taking the pandemic seriously would be bad for business, but in reality, taking it seriously is what lets you get back to normal," the host said. "Just look at the rest of the world."

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Trump's endorsement of face masks caused a rally in recovery stocks, Jim Cramer says - CNBC

President Trump threatens to send federal officers to Detroit, other cities over protests – Detroit Free Press

Tristan Taylor speaks to media members Saturday about the aftermath of the protest and arrest at the intersection of San Juan Drive and W. McNichols Road in Detroit the night before. Wochit

WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump said Monday he is considering sending federal officers into several American cities, including Detroit, despite mostly peaceful protests there in recent weeks.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel denounced the president's statements, with the Democratic governor saying, "Quite frankly, the president doesn't know the first thing about Detroit."

"If he did," she continued, "he would know that for nearly two months now, Detroiters have gathered to peacefully protest the systemic racism and discrimination that Black Americans face every day. There is no reason for the president to send federal troops into a city where people are demanding change peacefully and respectfully."

Trump made the comments earlier in the day to reporters at the White House, praising federal response to protesters in Portland even though there has been widespread criticism after reports of federal officers detaining people in unmarked cars without explanation.Portland's mayor has denounced the federal presence and Oregon's attorney general has filed a lawsuit claiming agents have acted illegally by taking people into custody without warrants.

More: Federal agents in unmarked cars, 'wall of moms': Here's what's happening in Portland

More: President Trump weighs expansion of federal officer deployments; Chicago may be next

Federal officials have defended their response and, on Monday, it was confirmed that the Trump administration was considering sending federal officers into other cities, possibly beginning with Chicago. "In Portand, they've done a fantastic job," Trump said Monday.

In his remarks, Trump said local law enforcement in New York and elsewhere have their hands tied, despite offering no evidence of why that would be the case.

"I'm going to do something, that I can tell you, because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore ... Oakland is a mess ... We're not going to let thishappen in our country," he said. The president then added that the cities are "all run by liberal Democrats."

"These are anarchists,these are not protesters," he said of the people involved in the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May after a police officer kept a knee on his neck for several minutes. "These are people who hateour country and were not going to let it go forward."

While recent protests in Portland have seen police and demonstrators clash, that hasn't been the case recently in Detroit or many other cities.

Trump made no clarifying remarks about the situation in Detroit or elsewhere or offered any proof of why protesters should be considered anarchists. Earlier this year, however, he threatened to use military forces to put down protesters, saying the streets had to be dominated.

John Roach, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, said he wasn't sure why Trump would have included Detroit in his list.

"Detroit is one of the few large cities in the country that has experienced no fires, no stores looted and never requested the National Guard during the protests," he said. "Not sure where the president is getting his information."

Whitmer, meanwhile, said itwas "deeply disturbing that President Trump is once again choosing to spread hateful rhetoric and attempting to suppress the voices of those he doesn't agree with."

Nessel, also a Democrat, said Trump's remarks were politically motivated, coming even as Trump's reelection campaign released a TV ad falsely claiming the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wants to defund police departments when Biden has specifically that he does not support doing so.

"(This) has nothing to do with protecting public health or safety," Nessel said. "Such threats undermine peace and stability in our communities by unnecessarily escalating tensions and encroaching on states rights."

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, who has marched with protesters, said she won't back down from Trump's threat, even if he does send in federal agents.

"They'll have to arrest me first if they think they're going to illegally lay their hands on my residents," she said.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

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President Trump threatens to send federal officers to Detroit, other cities over protests - Detroit Free Press

Trump fails to call Ireland’s premier who said Europe must ‘stand up’ to him – Business Insider – Business Insider

President Trump has failed to call Ireland's new premier in a break with convention which comes after the incoming Taoiseach said European leaders need to learn to "stand up" to Donald Trump.

The US President typically communicates with a new Irish Taoiseach shortly after their appointment, but Michel Martin who was appointed Taoiseach three weeks ago told the Irish parliament on Thursday that he had "not spoken with the President of the United States of America since my appointment as Taoiseach," according to The Journal.

The White House has not offered any explanation for the president's lack of communication with Dublin, which represents a break from recent tradition between two historically close allies.

President Trump called Leo Varadkar, the last Taoiseach, within two weeks of his appointment. Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach before Varadkar, met President Obama on St Patrick's Day less two weeks after he took office.

Last July Martin publicly criticised President Trump for telling four US congresswomen to "go back" to their countries of origin, despite the fact all but one of them were born in the US.

The Fianna Fil leader called Trump's comments "outrageous" and "ridiculous" and "totally at variance with the spirit at the core of the American nation."

He added: "There comes a stage when European politicians need to stand up, as well, for core values and not be afraid to say we fundamentally disagree with President Trump's approach to progressive politicians who are making a difference in the United States, who have legitimate points to articulate," said Martin.

It is not clear whether Trump has been made aware of Martin's comments but the president has previously been particularly sensitive to criticism from other leaders.

A furious Trump cut short his attendance of a NATO summit in London last year after a group of leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron, appeared to mock the president.

Martin has spoken to several other leaders since his appointment. He held a phone call with Boris Johnson on June 30, according to Downing Street, and has also spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Charles Michel, president of the European Council.

In 2018, Martin then the leader of the opposition said he would welcome the visit of Donald Trump despite the fact the pair had "different views."

"I have no difficulty in meeting Donald Trump," he said, according to The Journal.

"First of all, he's the democratically-elected President of the United States, and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar invited him last March, reciprocating the invitation that we receive every year to the White House."

"Of course we welcome the visit of any US President."

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Trump fails to call Ireland's premier who said Europe must 'stand up' to him - Business Insider - Business Insider

Golden Statues Memorializing Donald Trumps Most Divisive Moments Have Popped Up Around Washington, DC, Courtesy of an Ad Guru – artnet News

Big, shiny, gold statues of Donald Trump sound like they would be right up the presidents alleybut a new art project, titled the Trump Statue Initiative, uses the figures to instead memorialize his worst moments of 2020.

Street performers painted head-to-toe in metallic gold paint posed as still as stone atop massive plinths that hailed Trump as the destroyer of civil rights and liberties. The trio of statues appeared over the weekend in sites across Washington, DC.

Filmmaker Bryan Buckley decided to stage the project in part because of the way public statues havemade headlines all summer, with activists outraging Trump with their efforts to remove memorials to Confederate leaders and other problematic historical figures. In response, the president has not only beefed up the law against vandalizing statues, but also issued an executive order to create a National Garden of American Heroes.

I noticed that Trump was obsessed with statues, Buckley told AdAge.I felt like the best thing we could do was to create these very honest statues of the legacy hes living right now, that let the world see exactly who he is.

Bryan Buckley, The Bunker. Photo courtesy of the Trump Statue Initiative.

One work, titledNow Go Back to School, shows the president brandishing a golf club before a masked student, a critique of Trumps insistence on in-person education this fall, despite the worsening outbreak in many parts of the country.

InThe Bunker, Trump sits crosslegged on the floor, an homage to when the Secret Service whisked him away to a secure location inside the White House as Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place outside. (Trump later denied reports that he had been moved for his own protection.)

The third statue,The Poser, reenacts a scene from three days later, when riot police used force to clear protesters from outside the White House ahead of curfew, clearing a path from the presidential residence to St. Johns Episcopal Church. There, minutes later, Trump posed for a photo op holding a Bible.

One of the works was placed in front of the Trump Hotel, with the other two in Freedom Park, outside of the mayors office.During the installation, which lasted three or four hours in each location, violinist Celeste Vee was on hand to play songs by artists who have banned Trump from using them at his campaign rallies.

Bryan Buckley, Now Go Back to School. Photo courtesy of the Trump Statue Initiative.

Buckley is best known for creating television commercialstheNew York Timesonce called them tiny compressed filmsand he has been called the King of the Super Bowl for consistently making some of the most popular 30-second spots aired during footballs championship game.

For the Trump Statue Initiative, Buckleys goal is to encourage citizens to vote for Joe Biden this November. He is working with Bradley Tusk of the campaign strategy firm Tusk Strategies on a series of events that will take place across the country between now and election day.

Were hoping with this initiative we will inspire other street performers, other artists to follow suit, whether across the country in swing states or conventions, that we really start to show these moments in statue form that show what well be living with [if Trump wins reelection], Buckley told theHill.The history hes painting of himself right now, where his narcissistic or racist or self-serving moments abound, this is what hes leaving us with.

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Golden Statues Memorializing Donald Trumps Most Divisive Moments Have Popped Up Around Washington, DC, Courtesy of an Ad Guru - artnet News

Trump and US congress in stand-off over aid as COVID-19 crisis worsens – Euronews

Fresh conflict between Donald Trump, Republican leadership in Congress and Democrats threatened to derail a new federal aid package to ease the worsening coronavirus crisis in the US as the president acknowledged on Monday a "big flareup" of COVID-19 cases.

Trump convened GOP leaders at the White House as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell prepared to roll out his $1 trillion (874 billion) package in days. But the administration criticised the legislation's money for more virus testing and insisted on a full payroll tax repeal that could complicate quick passage.

Weve made a lot of progress, Trump said as the meeting got underway.

But the president added, "Unfortunately, this is something thats very tough."

Lawmakers returned to a Capitol still off-limits to tourists, another sign of the US' difficulty containing the coronavirus. Rather than easing, the pandemics devastating cycle is churning again, leaving Congress little choice but to engineer another costly rescue. Businesses are shutting down again, many schools will not fully reopen and jobs are disappearing, all while federal aid will expire in days.

Without a successful federal strategy, lawmakers are trying to draft one.

We have to end this virus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday on broadcaster MSNBC.

She said any attempt by the White House to block money for testing goes beyond ignorance.

The political stakes are high for both parties before the November election, and even more so for the counrty, which now has registered more coronavirus infections and a higher death count 140,800 than any other in the world.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin vowed passage by month's end, as a $600 (524) boost in jobless aid is set to expire, and said he expected a fresh $1 trillion (874 billion) jolt of business tax breaks and other aid would have a big impact on the struggling economy.

On Capitol Hill, McConnell faces not just pressure from the White House but also splits within his ranks, which have chiseled away at his majority power and left him relying on Democrats for votes.

Mnuchin and Meadows are due to meet privately on Tuesday with Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

The package from McConnell, being crafted behind closed doors, is expected to include $75 billion (66 billion) to help schools reopen. It will likely replace an expiring $600 (524) weekly unemployment benefits boost with a smaller amount. The cut in unemployment assistance is designed to ensure that jobless people do not receive a greater benefit than if they were working. Regular state benefits vary widely and the measure would peg the federal bonus payment to a percentage of the state benefit.

McConnell's package may also send a fresh round of direct $1,200 (1,048) cash payments to Americans below a certain income level, likely $75,000 (66,000), and create a sweeping five-year liability shield against coronavirus lawsuits.

But the administration was panning the proposal's $25 billion (22 billion) in new funds for virus testing and tracing and insisting on the payroll tax cut, Republicans said.

At Mondays White House meeting, Trump said he wants a full payroll tax repeal, said one Republican who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Trump then put economist Art Laffer on speakerphone. Laffer is part of a conservative group favouring the tax break. The GOP leaders indicated only a partial repeal would be included in the coming bill.

Easing the payroll tax is dividing Trumps party because it is used to finance Social Security and Medicare. The tax is already being deferred for employers under the previous virus relief package. Supporters say cutting it now for employees would put money in people's pockets and stimulate the economy, but detractors warn it would do little for out-of-work Americans and add to the nations rising debt load. McConnell is straining to keep the bills total price tag at $1 trillion (874 billion).

GOP senators swiftly pushed back as the Republicans and the White House battled over priorities.

GOP Senator John Cornyn of Texas was among several Republicans saying he's not a fan of a payroll tax holiday.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the chairman of the Health committee, said, All roads to opening school, going back to work, opening child care lead through testing.

Economist Stephen Moore, who is part of the conservative group promoting the payroll tax cut, is also backing a health care provision to prevent surprise medical billing. Moore was not part of the meeting but said both were discussed at the White House.

Trump insisted again on Sunday that the virus would disappear, but the president's view did not at all match projections from the leading health professionals straining to halt the alarming US caseload and death toll.

On a conference call with the nation's governors on Monday, Pence called the rising numbers in Sunbelt states serious.

Schumer warned on Monday that Democrats will block any effort from McConnell that falls short, reviving a strategy from the last virus aid bill that forced Republicans to the negotiating table. This time, the House has approved Pelosi's sweeping $3 trillion (2.6 trillion) effort, giving Democrats momentum heading into negotiations.

Joe Biden, the Democrats' presumed presidential nominee, stated his own priorities. The new package should "deliver a lifeline to those who need it most: working families and small businesses, he said.

Trump raised alarms on Capitol Hill when he suggested last month at a rally in Oklahoma that he wanted to slow virus testing. Testing is seen as the best way to track the virus to contain its spread. Another Republican familiar with the process said about half of the $25 billion (22 billion) previously approved remains unspent. Senate Democrats are investigating why the administration has left so much on the table.

The proposed virus aid package would be the fifth, following the $2.2 trillion (1.9 trillion) bill passed in March, the largest US intervention of its kind. While many Republicans hoped the virus would ease and economy rebound, it's become clear more aid is needed.

Despite flickers of an economic upswing as states eased stay-at-home orders in May and June, the jobless rate remained at double digits, higher than it ever was in the last decades Great Recession, and a federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units approved in the last bill is about to expire.

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Trump and US congress in stand-off over aid as COVID-19 crisis worsens - Euronews

I Scored Worse Than Donald Trump Did on That Brain Test – The New Republic

At the time, I was constantly worried that my internet habits had impaired my ability to think and remember things: Spending hours on Twitter, training my brain to absorb and quickly purge thousands of tiny pieces of information, is probably not that healthy. I held out hope, however, that the answer would involve my medication, and that a doctor might recognize my symptoms and suggest some obvious alternative cocktail of SSRIs that would fix the problem.

Specifically, I was worried that Wellbutrin was doing something to my brain: Since I had started taking it in 2018, I noticed myself mixing up words. If I was talking about two conceptssay pizza and footballtheyd be swapped by the time the sentence came out of my mouth; suddenly we were ordering a football for the pizza game. In December 2019, I did something deeply inadvisable that a lot of people inevitably do when they cant get mental health care: I tried managing my own medication, and tapered myself off Wellbutrin slowly. This failed to fix my problem with speaking words aloud and dropped me into a deep depression to boot. I spent much of January in throes of a migraine. It was a relief to finally get in to see a doctor.

Most of my first appointment was pretty standard. I answered questions about my life, my childhood, and my migraines. It was more than two hours long. And because I mentioned this fear about my cognitive abilities, the doctor gave me the MOCA test. When she suggested it, I said, excitedly: The one they gave Trump! They should have committed me on the spot.

The test is, as Wallace said, not hard. You draw a clock face. Youre shown a picture of a lion and you say, Thats a lion. While Trump insisted that his doctors told him that rarely does anybody do what you just did, that makes little sense: The point of the test is not that those who get a perfect score have a perfect brain. A perfect score merely indicates that your brain is functioning within normal parameters. Rather than detecting some superior intellectual agility that might enable a person to paint like Picasso or discover the secret of cold fusion, the MOCA test attests to the possibility that you might be able to open a can of beans without hurting yourself. It confirms mild cognitive impairment, not very stable genius. A passing score is 26 out of 30.

I had a couple of stumbles. On one part of the test, the doctor reads a list of five words, whereupon the patient is asked to repeat them immediately and then repeat them a second time after a few minutes have passed. During my second recital, I forgot one of the words. I also got tripped up on another section where the test-taker is asked to list as many words as they can that begin with the letter F in a minutes time. After saying a few, I found myself taking an increasingly painful amount of time to think of new words to list. I was also thrown by the fact that France didnt count. I didnt realize the MOCA test follows Scrabble rules.

Looking back, I feel like I was struggling with a form of stage fright. I can still recall feeling anxious about the test, and I remember how I questioned everything I did while I was doing it, right down to whether the minute-hand on the clock is the big one or the little one. (Its the big one.) Perhaps I was correct that my brain wasnt working too well at the time; it could also be the case that this extra caution was my brain properly routing its way around the anxiety I was feeling.

As I said and would hasten to emphasize before The New Republic reconsiders my employment, I did pass the test. My psychiatrists conclusion was that my body was under a lot of stress from persistent migraines and that I was severely under-medicated after ditching the Wellbutrin. As Id hoped, she came up with the right pharmacological cocktail and while I cant say I feel that my Internet Brain symptoms have totally subsided, I feel much more chill about them, and I do feel as if I might be able to get a perfect score if I had another go. All thanks to the magic of SSRIs, and possibly also deleting Twitter from my phone.

And yet here I am, left with the fact that I did not get a perfect score on a test that Donald Trump claims to have aced. This is a man who recently seemed to suggest that President Barack Obama deserved a share of blame for the coronavirus outbreak, despite the fact that it didnt exist until hed long left the White House. Prior to that, Trump suggested that we should inject coronavirus patients with bleach and that the key to lowering the rate of infection was to stop testing to see if people were infected.

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I Scored Worse Than Donald Trump Did on That Brain Test - The New Republic

Editorial: The Portland problem: Donald Trump’s terrifying reelection gambit – Yahoo! Voices

Donald Trump, a congenital liar who hides his tax returns, is in one small sense the most transparent president ever: Ignoring a pandemic that has killed nearly 150,000 and trailing Joe Biden in all polls, he is brazenly attempting to terrify the electorate over a largely non-existent threat, conjuring an image of urban America brought to its knees by a tsunami of chaos and violent crime only he can stem.

Thus, his Department of Homeland Security has dispatched federal troops (a mishmash of U.S. Marshals, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies) to Portland, Ore., without clear identification. They have shot protesters, arrested alleged rioters and spirited them away in unmarked vans.

Portland, last we checked, was still America.

Yes, the city has been protest central for months. In recent weeks, a federal courthouse was vandalized and a federal employee assaulted ugly, unacceptable acts. Yet there is no indication that local police were unable to handle the situation.

Indeed, Portland crime has been on the decline.

Never mind that, Trump Monday threatened to send troops to other Democratic-run cities, pointing to murders in Chicago, a favorite rhetorical punching bag.

Two lessons here: First, rising crime in some big cities, not a figment of Republicans imagination, is a potent political weapon for the demagogue as he tries to frighten the nation into re-electing him, a la Richard Nixon in 1968.

Second, there are no lengths to which Trump will not stoop. Voters must see through his gambit and Congress must call him to account.

2020 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at http://www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Editorial: The Portland problem: Donald Trump's terrifying reelection gambit - Yahoo! Voices

The Old Guard Turns Immortality Into Something Worth Living For – Gizmodo UK

Director Gina Prince-Bythewoods adaptation of Image Comics The Old Guard, by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernndez, is a movie that asks you to really reflect on what it is about superheroes and their stories that keeps us coming back. Rather than fully trying to reinvent the comic book movie, The Old Guard instead takes hallmarks of the genre and uses them to explore the ruminative, emotional elements of the hard-boiled heroic archetype.

The movies narrative beatsmay ring familiar to you. After spending multiple lifetimes ridding the world of evil, a group of immortal warriors finds themselves confronted with the greatest threat to their existence: being exposed. As the oldest member of the titular Old Guard, Andromache Andy of Scythia (Charlize Theron) acts as the groups leader. Their mission, as it were, is to fight evil currently by taking out human traffickers and drug runners who have no qualms about hurting innocent people. But after more than 1,000 years of fighting the good fight, Andys grown weary of the world and its bottomless well of human suffering. Just as she hits something of an emotional low when it becomes clear that someone has designs on capturing her and her fellow immortals, the group as a whole is shocked when they realise that a new person of their kind has just been awoken, something that portends a major shift in their destinies.

In stark contrast to Andy and the other immortals whove long since lost most of their emotional connections to anyone outside their group, Nile Freeman (Kiki Layne), a young Marine deployed in Afghanistan, loves everything about her relatively mundane life... right up until she dies in the line of duty, before inexplicably coming back to life in the infirmary shortly after. For different reasons, Andy and Nile are both alarmed to learn that theyre about to become important parts of one anothers lives, and that bond is something that The Old Guard consistently centres as it pulls you into its action-thriller plot that feels surprisingly fresh compared to other comic book movies.

Once shes collected her, Andy introduces Nile to her new family Yusuf Joe Al-Kaysanioe (Aladdins Marwan Kenzari), Nicolo Nicky di Genova (Luca Marinelli), and Sebastian Booker le Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts). The film thenquickly telegraphs the broad strokes of its story, which follows the squad as they try to take down Steven Merrick (Harry Potters Harry Melling), the villainous pharma bro whos hunting them with plans of turning them into lab rats, and former CIA agent James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whos also keen on studying their genetic makeup but perhaps for slightly different reasons.

Though Nile cant deny that the healing factor she shares with the Old Guard makes her more than a baseline human, she struggles with the idea of leaving her life behind simply because the other immortals have. The psychic connection they share with one another makes it impossible for them to believe that they arent meant to be together, but beyond that, The Old Guard is careful to steer clear of spelling out what, if any, higher power gave them their abilities and wove their fates together.

Charlize Theron (Andy), Luca Marinelli (Nicky), Matthias Schoenaerts (Booker), Marwan Kenzari (Joe). (Photo: Aimee Spinks/Netflix)

In subtle ways, The Old Guard depicts how, absent of any sort of divine directive, all of the immortals have come to believe chiefly in their collective sense of justice and the different things that make each of them feel truly alive. Theron brings a world-weariness to her performance that makes you understand why Andys turned to drink and how her crusade wore her down over the millennia (they never do get around to saying how old she really is). As was the case in the comics, Nicky and Joe who were once enemiesfind sanctuary in one another as the groups resident pair of lovers whose relationship is put front and centre as a testament to how the immortals feelings have shifted over time. The film spends a noticeable amount of time highlighting these aspects of its characters because the nuances to their humanity are ultimately whatit wants you to recognise as what makes them heroic.

Prince-Bythewoods approach to action emphasises that while the Old Guards immortality gives them a decided combat advantage against their opponents, what really makes them lethal are their collective experiences and understanding of how to work as a cohesive unit. The Old Guards fight scenes are often brutal as people get shot in the head at point-blank range and axes are lodged into guts, but every battle is defined by a distinct sort of elegance that speaks to the teams prowess on the battlefield.

Just as it allbegins to build towards a somewhat predictable dramatic climax, the movie takes a moment to make you think about what it is that a superhero does when they get involved in a situation. While a heros intention might be to protect the lives of innocent people from those who could hurt them, its almost inevitable that others are going to be hurt or murdered in the process, something that superhero films tend to gloss over in service of larger-than-life action sequences. The Old Guarddoesnt shy away from the grim realities of Andy and the teams important, difficult work, and figuring out how she feels about the situation is part of Niles journey that the film invites the viewer to follow along with.

Aside from a few pacing issues in its third act, The Old Guard flows with a briskness that suits the storys overall straightforwardness which at times makes the movies twists feel somewhat predictable. But between a solid first outing and more than enough foreshadowing for future instalments set in this world, The Old Guard easilyholds its own in the increasingly crowded market of cape films that are trying to find something novel to say within the confines of the genre.

The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.

Featured image: Netflix

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The Old Guard Turns Immortality Into Something Worth Living For - Gizmodo UK

Gynostemma Extract Market Global Insights, Production and Demand 2020 to 2026 – Cole of Duty

The global Gynostemma Extract market report is a comprehensive research that focuses on the overall consumption structure, Demand, Revenue and Forecast till 2026. The report focuses on key companies in the global Gynostemma Extract industry, market segments, competition, and the growth drivers, constraints and SWOT analysis. This report focuses on Gynostemma Extract volume and value at the global level, regional level and company level.

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Gynostemma extract is famous for its herbal medicine properties which has influential adaptogenic and antioxidant effects which increases longevity. Gynostemma extract has various therapeutic qualities such as lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol along with strengthening the immunity of the individual. The species gynostemma such as G. pentaphyllum is widely distributed outside of China, which ranges from Southeast Asia to India to Korea and Japan. Gynostemma extract is mostly used as an herbal medicine. Gynostemma extract is also mostly consumed as herbal tea and is also available as an alcohol extract. Gynostemma plant is also known as immortality herb by local inhabitants in China and nearby countries. Gynostemma extract contains endogenous cellular which is a powerful antioxidant enzyme known as superoxide dismutase. Gynostemma extract also increases the activities of T lymphocytes, macrophages, and natural killer cells which acts as a tumor inhibitor.

The Report includestop leading companies Nutra Green Biotechnology, Shannxi Undersun Biomedtech, Novoherb Technologies, Mountain Rose Herbs, Xian Tianxingjan Bio-products, Huaian Chenhui Chemical, Xian Natural Field Bio

Global Gynostemma Extract Market, By Type

Powder

Liquid

Capsule

Pill

Global Gynostemma Extract Market, By Application

Pharmaceuticals

Cosmetics

Food And Beverages

Others

Global Gynostemma Extract Market Segmentation by Region:

North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe, Central & South America

Table of Contents:

Report Overview:It includes Gynostemma Extract market study scope, players covered, key market segments, market analysis by application, market analysis by type, and other chapters that give an overview of the research study.

Executive Summary:This section of the report gives information about Gynostemma Extract market trends and shares market size analysis by region and analysis of global market size. Under market size analysis by region, analysis of market share and growth rate by region is provided.

Profiles of International Players:Here, key players of the Gynostemma Extract market are studied on the basis of gross margin, price, revenue, corporate sales, and production. This section gives a business overview of the players and shares their important company details.

Regional Study:All of the regions and countries analyzed in the Gynostemma Extract market report is studied on the basis of the market size by application, the market size by product, key players, and market forecast.

Key Players:This part of the Gynostemma Extract market report discusses expansion plans of companies, key mergers and acquisitions, funding and investment analysis, company establishment dates, revenues of manufacturers, and their areas served and manufacturing bases.

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Gynostemma Extract Market Global Insights, Production and Demand 2020 to 2026 - Cole of Duty

ATEMS graduation allows Class of 2020 to rise from the ashes of a broken year – Abilene Reporter-News

Jeff Howle was able to deliver one of the most appropriate lines in high school graduation history Saturday morning.

As principal of the Academy of Technology, Engineering, Math and Science, which has the mascot of the Phoenix, Howle stood in front of his students, the Class of 2020and told them to rise.

ATEMS graduates move their tassels during commencement Saturday morning. The ceremony for the Academy of Technology, Engineering, Math and Science, whose graduation was delayed for over a month due to the pandemic, held their ceremony at Shotwell Stadium.(Photo: Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News)

Not from their seats, but from the ashes of their destroyed senior year, cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not from their seats, but from their youth and naivete.

This group truly embodied the spirit of their namesake, the mythological bird that achieves immortality through its death and resurrection.

"My message to you all as we have gone through this worldwide pandemic together would be this:often the living of life is our greatest accomplishment," Howle said. "Never again should we take for granted sitting down at a restaurant, going to a friends house, seeing your grandparents, going to watch a game, going to the movies (or) going shopping at a store."

Robert Tinney walks back to the seats after graduating from ATEMS at Shotwell Stadium on Saturday.(Photo: Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News)

Howle completed just his second year leading the faculty at ATEMS. But it was enough time for him to understand the group of students who stood in front of him as individuals but also as one.

He recognized the personalities they are, from athleticism to seriousness, competitiveness to politeness and from the Rubick's cube to the Lewis hair.

And their quirks. Such asDaniel Smith, who attended Saturday morning's graduation ceremony in uniform. Just not the uniform that one might expect.

As a re-enactor in several groups in town, including Abilene Axis & Allies, Smith wore a Soviet Union major's military uniform under his cap and gown.

It's nothing new. He's been participating in events since before high school and his classmates have just come to expect it from him.

"It's been my passion and my hobby for a long time," Smith said. "I like it, I feel comfortable in it and everyone knows me for the uniform. I've been wearing it since about eighth grade."

With a graduation toy stuffed in his jacket, Daniel Smith salutes in his Soviet major's uniform which he wore beneath his cap and gown at the ATEMS commencement.(Photo: Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News)

It's not the only uniform he'll wear in his life, though.

While he reenacts as a Soviet, he's about to be a real-life U.S. Marine.Smith ships out for basic training later this year, he said.

There was a sense of accomplishment, Smith said. But, like the Phoenix, it's not where you've been but where you're going that is important.

"It's the start of new beginnings," Smith said.

Photojournalist Ronald W. Erdrich contributed to this report

In the age of COVID-19, the Abilene Reporter-News will continue providing public health content free to all. But while that information is vital, that's only one portion of the overall picture. Please consider, if you're able, purchasing adigital subscription to ReporterNews.comto help support the hard work provided by Timothy Chipp and the rest of the staff needed to tell Abilene's entire story, like this one. Without you and your support, this operation is impossible.

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ATEMS graduation allows Class of 2020 to rise from the ashes of a broken year - Abilene Reporter-News

Mastercard Expands Cryptocurrency Program for Crypto Card Issuers – Cointelegraph

Mastercard is reaching out to cryptocurrency firms and encouraging them to apply to become partners as part of its newly-expanded cryptocurrency card program.

On July 20, Mastercard said it was simplifying access to its Accelerate program for crypto card issuers, allowing applicants to be onboarded as partners in a matter of weeks.

Now enhanced for crypto card applicants, the Accelerate program gives partners support with their market entry, continued growth and international expansion.

New crypto partners will be assisted in integrating Mastercards technology and will be in a position to benefit from the firms cybersecurity expertise and market research.

While it is streamlining access to its program for crypto firms, Mastercard has emphasized that all partners must comply with its core principles.

These include providing robust consumer protection (ensuring privacy and security for users), operating in compliance with relevant laws and regulations, such as Anti-Money Laundering rules, and establishing a level playing field for all stakeholders, such as financial institutions, merchants and mobile network operators.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships at Mastercard, said:

The cryptocurrency market continues to mature, and Mastercard is driving it forward, creating safe and secure experiences for consumers and businesses in todays digital economy.

Parallel to reaching out to crypto card partners, Mastercard has also announced that London-based crypto payment processor Wirex has become the first native cryptocurrency platform to be granted a Mastercard principal membership, which will allow it to directly issue crypto payment cards.

Thanks to the membership, Wirex card users will be able to immediately convert their crypto holdings into fiat currency, which can be spent at points of sale that accept Mastercard. Currency will thus enter Mastercards network in the form of fiat, not cryptocurrency.

Wirex CEO and co-founder Pavel Matveev has said that the membership represents a growing interest and recognition in the acceptance of cryptocurrency by leading bodies and regulators. He added that partnering with Mastercard will help the firm to realize its vision of empowering everyone to experience a world where all currencies, traditional and crypto, are equal.

Wirex is regulated by the U.K.s Financial Conduct Authority and has a license to issue crypto cards in Europe. Earlier this year, it hit over 3 million active users, noting that increasing numbers of them are not typically hardcore cryptocurrency users.

Prior to partnering with Wirex, Mastercard collaborated with blockchain payments provider BitPay this June to launch a prepaid card for crypto users in the United States.

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Mastercard Expands Cryptocurrency Program for Crypto Card Issuers - Cointelegraph