INTRO:

• Kroger is testing out expanded self-checkout lanes while broadcasters are increasingly turning to AI to present basic headline news. 
• Sam Altman’s Worldcoin and World ID catch the attention of Europe’s state privacy regulators but so far there’s nary a peep from anyone in America.
• The fall flu season is just around the corner and Pfizer, along with public-health authorities throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe are ecstatic about the prospect of sticking you and your family with mRNA flu shots.
• And one lawmaker has called on Congress to ban and “criminalize” central bank digital currencies, condemning them as a “tool for coercion and control.”

All these stories and much more when the Worldview Financial Report begins, right now!

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Good evening and welcome to the Worldview Financial Report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Nashville, Tennessee-based trucking company Yellow is likely to file for bankruptcy protection, heightening the threat that one of the nation’s largest freight carriers will shut down as customers abandon it amid a cash crunch and union negotiations.

A bankruptcy filing by Yellow puts it at high risk of a liquidation since its customers already have started to abandon the trucker in large numbers, sources in the industry told the Journal. The company could seek bankruptcy court protection as soon as this week, though no decision has been made and Yellow continues to explore other options, they said.

Yellow has been losing thousands of shipments to other operators because of the risk that a labor dispute will disrupt its operations. The company averted a planned strike last week by the Teamsters union that represents most of its workforce, but the customer exodus has continued. Yellow has seen freight volumes fall 80% in recent days, according to research by TD Cowen.

A bankruptcy filing would again spotlight the $700 million Covid-19 rescue loan that Yellow received from U.S. taxpayers in 2020. A congressional probe later concluded that the Treasury Department erred in giving the loan on national-security grounds when Yellow didn’t meet the requirements for that designation.

Yellow has $1.3 billion in debt maturing next year, according to securities filings.

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In the latest installment in our continuing series on “NO HUMANS NEEDED,” Breitbart reports that a Kroger grocery store in Tennessee has recently converted to only self-checkouts with no cashiers or baggers present. 

If you can believe them, the company claims the move will not result in any store employees losing their jobs.

Customers have reportedly been using these self-checkout lanes at a higher rate in this particular store than manned checkout lanes. The store is in Cool Springs, Tennessee.

Kroger employees have not been laid off as a result of this change, according to ABC 6, which noted that staff would be retained to assist customers in the checkout lanes, and with bagging groceries, if needed.

Kroger says there are no plans, for now at least, to expand these self-checkout kiosks in Kroger stores across the country. The change also features new wide-belt self-checkout lanes that are made to accommodate a lot of items in comparison to the number of items that traditional self-checkouts can handle.

Kroger, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets.

A lot of stores across the United States have recently begun implementing self-checkout lanes, such as Walmart and Target.

For Kroger to say this won’t at some point result in job cuts is laughable.

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Meanwhile, news reporters’ and broadcasters’ positions are also in danger of being phased out of existence, as more news media companies are adopting artificial intelligence to present the daily headlines.

Odisha TV in Eastern India unveiled a chatbot named Lisa. She reads the news aloud in the local tongue, Odia. At first glance the lazy eye would think Lisa is real, but upon further investigation the voice sounds monotone and lifeless, along with AI’s slow-blinking eyes and robotic gestures.

WATCH VIDEO

https://twitter.com/otvnews/status/1681269471128985600?s=20

In April Hindi-spoken news channel Aaj Tak, owned by the India Today group, one of the biggest media corps in the nation, debuted a chatbot called “Sana.”

Sometimes Sana has been used in tandem with actual living pundits, reading headlines and then passing the conversations to real people who further debate the news, while Sana facilitates the discussions.

In a statement to South China Morning Post, Vivek Malhotra, head of marketing and strategy at India Today, said:

“It’s a question of more efficiency in the newsroom and enhancing the creativity of our staff by removing mundane and repetitive tasks. Sana can speak in multiple languages, switch between topics with ease and is never tired. As a newsroom, we have to stay at the frontier of all new technologies, and so we will be experimenting and adopting all that AI has to offer.”

Jagi Mangat Panda, managing director of Odisha TV, added that Lisa is going to be a great partner. [It] does the jobs that are repetitive and data analytical, so newspeople can focus on new angles and more creative work.”

But people like Sevanti Ninan, who headed a portal that tracks and monitors media trends and press freedom, has her doubts that AI, in its present state of development, can capture the real thing.

She stated that, “AI chatbots will save costs and they can be used for headlines, but I don’t see how they can replace a reporter out in the field asking questions. What they will do to the concept of star anchors is too soon to say.”

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Worldcoin, which is part of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s bid to sew up the market for digital IDs by convincing enough people to have their eyeballs scanned in exchanged for crypto tokens, started its official global rollout just last week but it’s already landed on the radar of European data protection authorities.

Worldcoin is already being offered in 20 countries on five continents as a way to prove one’s identity on the internet.

Why should anyone feel the need to prove their identity while online, you ask? Well, as Tech Crunch reports, one reason is that by unleashing free tools like ChatGPT Altman’s generative AI company is leading the charge to make it harder to distinguish between bot-generated and human digital activity. 

But don’t worry, the billionaire Altman then rides to the rescue with his dystopian eyeball-scanning device seeking to prove your humanness.

Pop-up locations are in shopping malls and airports, where willing guinea pigs, i.e. humans, can get some Worldcoin “digital tokens” in exchange for handing their biometric data over to a centralized databank run by AI. 

Unsurprisingly, privacy regulators in at least three countries are already expressing concerns and/or actively investigating what Worldcoin is doing with Europeans’ sensitive personal data.

Earlier this week the U.K.’s Information Commission Office (ICO) was asked about Worldcoin launching in the U.K. and said publicly it would be “making inquiries” before issuing some boilerplate warning about privacy violations.

The ICO’s remarks also emphasized the need for “a clear lawful basis to process personal data” adding: “Where they are relying on consent, this needs to be freely given and capable of being withdrawn without detriment.”

One privacy compliance question to consider, then, is can consent be freely given if people are being encouraged to hand over their biometrics in exchange for a token which is being presented as a form of virtual currency?

Fast forward a few days and France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, has followed the ICO’s remarks with even more specific expressions of concern, as first reported by Reuters — out-and-out questioning the legality of what Worldcoin is doing. The French authority also revealed it’s already been actively investigating Worldcoin.

At least the Europeans are making the pretense of being concerned about Sam Altman’s latest project stealing people’s privacy. There has been no such concern expressed yet in the U.S., even though there is an Orb in at least one American city, that being Miami.

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Pfizer, assisted by public health authorities in the United States and throughout the West, is falling all over themselves with excitement about the prospect of rolling out mRNA flu shots this fall.

Ben Bartee, writing for Zero Hedge, reports that according to a statement by Pfizer, in September 2022 it began recruiting volunteers to participate in its Phase 3 clinical trial for that mRNA flu vaccine. 

The hope, says John McLaughlin, who is Pfizer’s vice president for COVID-19/Flu Vaccines, is that scientists can develop a flu vaccine faster, and with more accurate strain matching with in-season circulating strains than those currently available. “One that may also spark a more robust immune response. As these viruses continue to adapt, what really matters is how well your vaccine matches what strains are currently circulating,” says McLaughlin. “And the speed with which you can keep up with that determines the success of a vaccination program.”

Bartee notes how that sounds eerily reminiscent of “Operation Warp Speed.”

Bureaucrats at the National Institutes of Health are also eager to get their biotech into the arms of every American man, woman, child, and baby. Because they care.

To the non-immunocompromised, of course -- an inconvenient truth, so to speak, for all of the biomedical profiteers -- the flu presents no real risk. A strong immune system, as conferred by proper eating habits, exercising, and vitamin D exposure, is enough to combat the flu.

But, then again, non-patentable vitamin D from the sun is not going to generate executive bonuses or hearty kickbacks to NIH bureaucrats, now is it?

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A massive ship ablaze off the Dutch coast is transporting 500 electric vehicles. The ship's total cargo is around 3,800 vehicles, some of which are BMWs and Mercedes.

Shipping blog TradeWinds reported Japan's K Line is the operator of “Fremantle Highway.” According to K Line's figures, there are 3,783 vehicles, of which 489 are electric vehicles. Earlier estimates had the number of EVs at 25. 

TradeWinds said:

"The figure is far higher than first estimated and appears to raise the likelihood that a lithium-ion battery in an EV either caused the blaze in the 6,210-ceu Fremantle Highway (built 2013) or added to its severity.”

Reuters pointed out that the Dutch Coast Guard said the fire's origin is unknown, but Dutch broadcaster RTL said emergency responders were heard saying, “The fire started in the battery of an electric car.”

The fire broke out late Tuesday night, July 25th, on board the vessel. Coast Guard officials said on July 28th that the fire “could still burn for days.” The latest known position of the ship was off the northern Dutch coast. 

Nathan Habers, spokesperson for the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, told Reuters, “When transporting electric cars powered by batteries, which when they catch fire, can't be extinguished with water, or even by oxygen deprivation.” 

One significant risk for lithium-ion batteries is “thermal runaway” during a fire that is hard to extinguish and can spontaneously reignite. Yet another risk emerges as governments set decarbonization targets for the transportation sector. 

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Prices at the pump hit an eight-month high this past week — boosted by the increased cost of crude oil as producers slash output.

According to roadside assistance company AAA, as of last Friday, the average national gas price is $3.73 per gallon for regular gas — up 20 cents from last month’s average.

California’s average is the highest, at $4.95 per gallon of regular gas. 

AAA spokesman Robert Sinclair cited OPEC+’s July 1 decision to slash crude oil production to 3.6 million barrels per day — “3.6% of total daily global production of 100 million barrels,” Sinclair said.

The U.S. is also sorely lacking in refinery capacity. So when one refinery goes down for repairs, not enough gas gets delivered to market.

Sinclair noted that a “local refinery in New Jersey was offline for a while.”

He was referring to the Bayway Refinery, a 150,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery owned by Phillips 66. It’s the largest gasoline-making unit in the Western Hemisphere, and was offline for most of June and July for unplanned repairs, according to Reuters.

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RTT News reports that shares of AstraZeneca surged in London and on NASDAQ trading last week after the British drug company on July 27th reported significantly higher profit for its second quarter. 

Also exciting traders was the fact that AstraZeneca said its Rare Disease unit Alexion agreed to purchase and license the assets of Pfizer's early-stage rare disease gene therapy portfolio for up to $1 billion. 

CEO Pascal Soriot said, “Each of our non-COVID-19 (gene) therapy areas saw double-digit revenue growth, with eight medicines delivering more than $1billion of revenue in the first half, demonstrating the strength of our business. Several medicines grew rapidly... Our pipeline momentum continues with eight positive pivotal trials for our Oncology medicines so far this year.”

For fiscal 2023, the company continues to expect both core earnings and revenues to increase by 10 to 15 percent.

Bottom line: Astra Zeneca expects to continue making lots of money by creating genetically modified human beings. Covid opened that can of worms and now it’s off to the races. 

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A member of the U.S. House of Representatives has called for Congress to ban and “criminalize” central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, condemning them as a “tool for coercion and control.”

“The Federal Reserve is building the financial equivalent of the Death Star,” tweeted Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) on Sunday while posting a screenshot of an advertised “Sr. Crypto Architect” position to design CBDC technology with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

SHOW TWEET

https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson/status/1683079077245120514?s=20

Davidson added:

“Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) corrupts money into a tool for coercion & control. Congress must swiftly ban then criminalize any effort to design, build, develop, test or establish a #CBDC.”

The congressman went on to quote from the Fed’s advertised job description, which suggests the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, which oversees all 12 regional Federal Reserve banks and helps carry out U.S. monetary policy, may require the implementation of a CBDC.

The job description posted to Indeed reads as follows:

“You will engage directly with management… and vendors to ensure the Federal Reserve is well-positioned to design, develop, and implement technology to support a CBDC as may be required by the Board of Governors.”

One Twitter user objected that “supporting a ban of CBDC’s is simply a lack of understanding of what they are and what they are supposed to be,” suggesting that ensuring “privacy” and other “consumer protection[s]” are enough to make CBDCs acceptable.

Davidson argued in response that “money should not be programmable by a central authority,” and should not require “permission” for peer-to-peer transactions.

Eswar Prasad, senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University, recently admitted during a World Economic Forum summer meeting in China that CBDCs, which are not only digital but programmable, could be used by governments to control people’s purchases.

https://rumble.com/embed/v2wer84/?pub=rze3r

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In fact, banks are already using the power over money to control and restrict free speech.

The owner of a Florida-based retail health company says JP Morgan Chase suddenly closed his business accounts, the bank accounts of two employees and the personal accounts of their family members without explanation.

SHOW TWEET

https://twitter.com/mercola/status/1683953954344804352?s=20

Dr. Joseph Mercola, the owner of Mercola Market, tweeted on Tuesday: 

“Chase bank has shut down our business bank accounts along with the accounts of my CEO and CFO, as well as their family members (including spouse and child). They’ve refused to provide any reason for doing so, the oldest account has been active for 18 years.”

Dr. Mercola has been a frequent critic of Covid vaccines, forced masking and medical tyranny.

Mercola Market, located in Cape Coral, sells a plethora of natural health products, including food, drinks, vitamins, soaps, lotions, and clothing.

Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Mercola was a vocal critic of former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s response to the COVID-19, and the Covid shots. He is the coauthor of the book, The Truth About COVID-19. 

The New York Times, a favorite mouthpiece of the globalist elite, dubbed Mercola a “misinformation superspreader” in a documentary about the doctor in August 2022.

In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed comprehensive legislation to protect Floridians from the corporatist environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement.

Chase’s actions potentially violated the new Florida law, which prohibits financial institutions from denying or canceling services to people based on their political or religious beliefs.

One of Mercola’s employees told Florida’s Voice that he believed the accounts were shut down because of their employer’s stance on COVID-19.

“I believe they cancelled all of the accounts because of Dr. Mercola’s (our employer) opinions,” CEO Steven Rye told Florida’s Voice. “He has carried a contradictory view throughout the COVID narrative and co-authored the best-selling book The Truth About COVID-19 which exposed the likelihood that this virus was engineered in a laboratory funded by the NIH.”

A Chase representative told Rye via voicemail that he couldn’t disclose why the bank closed his personal and wife’s accounts “for legal reasons.”

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In a disturbing turn of events, billionaire private equity investor Leon Black finds himself at the center of explosive rape allegations filed by an anonymous plaintiff known as Jane Doe.

SHOW TWEET

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1683976194155323392?s=20

According to a report from Forbes, the woman claims she was subjected to horrific abuse by not only Leon Black, but by Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well.

The lawsuit, filed by Wigdor Law, accuses Black of raping the 16-year-old girl in 2002 at Epstein’s Manhattan townhome.

Jane Doe, an autistic woman with Mosaic Down Syndrome, claims she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell starting in 2001. The lawsuit alleges that she was routinely sexually abused by them and others.

A spokesman for Black vehemently denied the charges and said Black had never even met the girl.

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The Next Web reports the first-ever biometric corridor for train travel opened Wednesday at London’s Eurostar terminal. 

The system, developed by British tech firm iProov, replaces border checks with a facial verification checkpoint that you just walk straight past. 

Before travel, the passenger downloads the app, authenticates their ID, scans their face, and links their ticket. On arrival, they stroll through a dedicated lane for the tech — dubbed SmartCheck — which verifies their entry.

The system lets users skip ticket gates and manual border control in the UK. After baggage inspection and a passport check at the French border, they’re free to board the train.

Initially, the system will only be available for Eurostar’s Business Premier and Carte Blanche passengers. But the company aims to extend the service to all customers and — perhaps — more borders. 

The CEO of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, told TNW that she plans to provide a launchpad for the tech.

“We wanted to show that seamless, automated cross-borders are not just science fiction — they’re now a reality,” she said.

SmartCheck is years in the making. In 2020, the UK’s Department for Transport awarded iProov part of a $10 million-plus fund for innovative rail projects, which was used to develop the biometric system. The next year, live trials of the contactless service began at Eurostar. 

Similar technology has been tested at several U.S. and foreign airports, but this is the first deployment at a train station. 

That does it for this edition of the Worldview Financial Report. Thanks for tuning in and for supporting this viewer-supported broadcast.

Until next time, I’m Brannon Howse. Take care.

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