- Brits Aren't Impressed With Their Politicians Right Now
Brits Aren’t Impressed With Their Politicians Right Now
Conservative UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer received the highest levels of support from the public out of the 20 politicians Statista polled, with just 18 percent of UK adults saying they thought the leaders were doing a good job.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson came just behind, with 15 percent of support. Trailing further behind still came Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP for North East Somerset, who received just 6 percent each.
But, as Statista’s Anna Fleck notes, when looking at the share of support in terms of voting patterns, things look a little more hopeful for the party leaders. Then, 38 percent of Labour voters said Keir Starmer was doing a job and 45 percent of Conservative voters said the same for Rishi Sunak.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 04/18/2023 – 02:45 - EU Slams Poland & Hungary's Ban On Ukrainian Food Imports As Other Countries Threaten To Join Blockade
EU Slams Poland & Hungary’s Ban On Ukrainian Food Imports As Other Countries Threaten To Join Blockade
Authored by Gergorz Adamczyk via Remix News,
The European Commission has slammed Poland and Hungary’s ban on Ukrainian food imports, saying member states cannot make such decisions regarding trade policy.
The leader of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, announced over the weekend that a range of agricultural products such as grain, fruits, dairy, vegetables and poultry meat would be stopped from entering Poland from Ukraine. The decision has come as a result of the glut of grain from Ukraine and the flood of Ukrainian products onto the Polish market. In addition, Hungary and Slovakia have enacted similar measures, and there are reports that Romania and Bulgaria may also close their border to certain Ukrainian food imports.
“Bulgarian interests must be protected. Moreover, now that two countries have already acted in this way, if we do not react, the accumulations on Bulgarian territory could become even bigger,” Bulgaria’s acting Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev said.
If Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Poland all block Ukrainian food product transit, it would effectively result in a geographical blockade in Europe, as the four countries border Ukraine.
Despite the growing crisis affecting Central and Eastern European countries, the European Commission argues that trade policy is the exclusive competence of the European Union and that “unilateral actions are unacceptable.” It also asserted that in difficult times, it was important to maintain coordination and unity in EU actions.
According to commercial television station Polsat News, the matter has already been the subject of calls between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal.
Hungarian Minister of Agriculture István Nagy announced on Saturday that Hungary will also temporarily ban the import of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine, as well as several other agricultural products, after Poland announced its ban.
According to the ministry’s statement, the continuation of the current market trends would cause such serious damage to Hungarian agriculture that extraordinary measures must be taken to prevent them. He added that Ukrainian agriculture uses production practices no longer allowed in the European Union resulting in extremely low production costs. Ukraine was also given duty-free access to the European market, with free trade opportunities for grain and oilseeds, as well as large quantities of poultry, eggs and honey, making it impossible for Hungarian and Central European farmers to compete.
Nagy stressed that the restriction on imports into Hungary is temporary and will last until June 30, 2023, which may be enough time to take meaningful and lasting EU measures for a lasting solution.
According to the statement, the agricultural sector expects the EU to ensure fair market conditions for European agriculture. The Hungarian government will always stand by Hungarian farmers and will protect Hungarian agriculture, the minister said.
Despite several affected member states’ demands for a Union-level solution, the EU has so far done nothing to rectify the situation.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture has expressed disappointment at Poland’s decision and stated that the decision was contrary to the agreement between the two countries. The statement went on to acknowledge that Polish farmers were in a difficult situation, but that “the situation of Ukrainian farmers was the most acute of all.”
A statutory instrument banning the import of chosen products from Ukraine was introduced by the Polish minister of development and technology, Waldemar Buda. He tweeted that “in answer to questions that are arising, the ban is of a comprehensive nature including the transit of such goods through Poland.”
W związku z pojawiającymi się pytaniami, zakaz ma charakter pełny, łącznie z zakazem tranzytu przez PL.
Kwestia tranzytu będzie przedmiotem dyskusji ze stroną UA na temat zbudowania szczelnego systemu i gwarancji wyłącznie przejazdu produktów przez PL. https://t.co/jfPs9CFmvd— Waldemar Buda (@waldemar_buda) April 16, 2023
The transit will be a subject of discussion with Ukraine regarding tightening the system to establish “guarantees that these products will not remain in Poland.” The goods that have been banned include grain, sugar, fruits and vegetables, wines, meat, dairy products and poultry.
Last year, the Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian grain shipments caused global wheat prices to rise by 60 percent in three months. The food crisis was mainly a concern for poorer countries in Africa and Asia, so Western countries have used every means possible to get supplies out of Ukraine. However, many of those supplies have remained in Europe, leading to drastic reductions in wheat prices.
Countries neighboring Ukraine set up solidarity corridors to transport grain to EU ports by boosting rail transport capacity. At the same time, the European Union abolished import tariffs against Kyiv so that the crops were freely flooding into Europe at depressed prices.
Ukraine’s imports of grain to the EU were 287,000 tons in 2021, rising to nearly 2.9 million tons in 2022.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 04/18/2023 – 02:00 - Russia Flexes Naval Might With Pacific Snap Drills Involving Over 25,000 Servicemen
Russia Flexes Naval Might With Pacific Snap Drills Involving Over 25,000 Servicemen
Russia’s defense ministry has revealed details of ongoing snap live-fire military exercises which kicked off April 14. President Putin also hailed the drills as a success at a moment most forces are concentrated in Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Monday that the surprise combat readiness check of Russia’s Pacific Fleet has involved over 25,000 servicemen being placed on high alert.
“They’re engaged in fire drills and tactical exercises, while also working on improving interactions between different branches of the military,” Shoigu said. He also revealed that in total 167 ships, 12 submarines, and 89 planes and helicopters are taking part in the large-scale exercises.
Image source: Russian Defense Ministry Shoigu specified that during the drills Russia’s nuclear-capable long-range strategic bombers will “fly over the central part of the Pacific Ocean to imitate strikes against groups of enemy ships.”
These drills which are far away from the frontlines of the Ukraine war are likely an attempt to demonstrate to the West that Russia still has immense military capability in different theatres. The Associated Press detailed the expanse of the drills as follows:
The Defense Ministry has declared that sectors in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan and the Avacha Bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula would be closed to sea and air traffic for the duration of practice torpedo and missile launches and artillery exercises.
The ministry said that the drills were intended to “test the Pacific Fleet’s readiness to repel aggression.” The ministry described the briefing as a show of Russia’s “voluntary transparency.”
Shoigu said at a moment that the Ukraine ground and air war still rages that “nobody has aborted the task of developing the navy” and declared that the “final stage” of the drills will kick off Tuesday. He previously noted that the combat readiness checks are all about “boosting the ability of the armed forces to execute the tasks of repelling aggression by a potential enemy from maritime directions.”
On Monday President Putin praise the “high level” performance of the Russian navy and armed forces in the exercise, saying that more such drills will be held.
Interestingly, multi-national drills are also kicking off in Sweden this week, per a description in Russian state media:
The Aurora-23 international military exercise – the largest over the past 25 years – began in Sweden on Monday. It will last until May 11, with the United States, Britain, Finland, Poland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Denmark, Austria, Germany and France taking part, the Swedish Defense Ministry said.
The purpose of the exercise is to “improve the combat readiness of the armed forces” in the event of a hypothetical armed attack on Sweden.
“The exercise is one of the main tools of enhancing, testing and demonstrating combat readiness,” the Defense Ministry said. “Together with military units from our partner countries, we strengthen security while enhancing Sweden’s operational capabilities.”
The exercise will take place in the air, on land and at sea. Some 26,000 troops from all military units, mainly in the south of Sweden and also on the island of Gotland will take part.
With this, it looks like the West is using the opportunity to flex its military might in these annual drills as well, at a moment the Ukraine conflict shows no signs of abating.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 23:30 - Rise of the Petroyuan: The End Of The Petrodollar’s Reign And The Impact On Global Markets
Rise of the Petroyuan: The End Of The Petrodollar’s Reign And The Impact On Global Markets
Authored by Nick Giambruno via Doug Casey’s International Man,
Did you know that central banks bought more gold last year than any year in the past 55 years—since 1967?
Though most don’t realize it, 1967 was a significant year in financial history, mainly due to the events at the London Gold Pool.
The London Gold Pool was an agreement among central banks of the United States and Western European countries to stabilize the price of gold. The goal was to maintain the price of gold at $35 per ounce by collectively buying or selling gold as needed.
However, in 1967 the London Gold Pool collapsed due to a shortage of gold and increased demand for the metal. That’s because European central banks bought massive amounts of gold as they began to doubt the US government’s promise to back the dollar to gold at $35/ounce. The buying depleted the London Gold Pool’s reserves and pushed the price of gold higher.
In short, 1967 was the beginning of the end of the Bretton Woods international monetary system that had been in place since the end of World War 2. It ultimately led to severing the US dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. The dollar has been unbacked fiat confetti ever since—though the petrodollar system and coercion have propped it up.
The point is large global gold flows can be a sign that a paradigm shift in the international monetary system is imminent.
Central banks are the biggest players in the gold market. And now that we have just experienced the largest year for central bank gold purchases since 1967, it’s clear to me something big is coming soon.
And those are just the official numbers that governments report. The actual gold purchases could be much higher because governments are often opaque about their gold holdings, which they consider a crucial part of their economic security.
Today, I think we are on the cusp of a radical change in the international monetary system with profound implications. Yet, few are aware of what is happening and its enormous significance.
I suspect most people will be taken by surprise—and it won’t be a pleasant one. They’ll be the ones holding the bag for a failing monetary system.
But it doesn’t have to be a disaster for everyone…
Those who get positioned properly ahead of this paradigm shift could make fortunes.
The Real Reason for China’s Massive Gold Stash
According to the Financial Times, the big buyers of gold in 2022 were China and Middle East oil producers. That’s not a coincidence, as these countries will be at the center of the changes to the international monetary system.
It’s no secret that China has been stashing away as much gold as possible for many years.
China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Most of that gold finds its way into the Chinese government’s treasury.
Nobody knows the exact amount of gold China has, but most observers believe it is many multiples of what the government declares.
Today it’s clear why China has had an insatiable demand for gold.
Beijing has been waiting for the right moment to pull the rug from beneath the US dollar. And now is that moment…
The key to understanding it all is Chinese President Xi’s recent historic visit to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to launch, in his words, “a new paradigm of all-dimensional energy cooperation.”
The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries account for more than 25% of the world’s oil exports, with Saudi Arabia alone contributing around 17%. In addition, more than 25% of China’s oil imports come from Saudi Arabia.
China is the GCC’s largest trading partner.
The meetings reflect a natural—and growing—trade relationship between China, the world’s largest oil importer, and the GCC, the world’s largest oil exporters.
During Xi’s visit, he made the following crucial remarks (emphasis mine):
“China will continue to import large quantities of crude oil from GCC countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen cooperation in upstream oil and gas development, engineering services, storage, transportation and refining, and make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade.”
After years of preparation, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) launched a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan in March 2018. It’s the first oil futures contract to be traded in China. The contract is based on Brent crude oil, the global benchmark for oil prices, and is settled in cash.
Since then, any oil producer can sell its oil for something besides US dollars… in this case, the Chinese yuan.
The INE yuan oil futures contract provides a new pricing benchmark for the global oil market, which the US dollar has traditionally dominated. By trading in yuan, the contract is expected to increase the use of the Chinese currency in global trade and reduce the reliance on the US dollar.
Its significance lies in its potential to shift the balance of power in the oil market away from the US and towards China and to increase the use of the Chinese yuan in global trade.
There’s one big issue, though. Most oil producers don’t want to accumulate a large yuan reserve, and China knows this.
That’s why China has explicitly linked the crude futures contract with the ability to convert yuan into physical gold—without touching China’s official reserves—through gold exchanges in Shanghai (the world’s largest physical gold market) and Hong Kong.
PetroChina and Sinopec, two Chinese oil companies, provide liquidity to the yuan crude futures by being big buyers. So, if any oil producer wants to sell their oil in yuan (and gold indirectly), there will always be a bid.
After years of growth and working out the kinks, the INE yuan oil future contract is now ready for prime time. Xi wouldn’t promise the GCC large and consistent oil purchases if it wasn’t ready.
Why is China purchasing oil and gas from the GCC in yuan important?
Because it undercuts the petrodollar system, which has been the bedrock of the US and international financial system since the Bretton Woods system broke down in 1971.
The Saudis Acquiesce and What Happens Next
For nearly 50 years, the Saudis had always insisted anyone wanting their oil would need to pay with US dollars, upholding their end of the petrodollar system.
But that all changed recently.
After Xi’s historic visit and bombshell announcement, the Saudi government isn’t hiding its intention to sell oil in yuan. According to a recent Bloomberg report:
“Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the kingdom’s finance minister.”
In short, the Saudis don’t think the US is holding up its end of the petrodollar deal. So they don’t feel like they should hold up their part.
The Saudis are angry at the US for not supporting it enough in its war against Yemen. They were further dismayed by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
In this context, China swooped in and, after many years, finally compelled the Saudis to accept yuan as payment.
It was bound to happen.
China is already the world’s largest oil importer. Moreover, the amount of oil it imports continues to grow as it fuels an economy of over 1.4 billion people (more than 4x larger than the US).
The sheer size of the Chinese market made it impossible for Saudi Arabia—and other oil exporters—to ignore China’s demands to pay in yuan indefinitely. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange further sweetens the deal for oil exporters.
Here’s the bottom line.
Saudi Arabia—the linchpin of the petrodollar system—is openly agreeing not to sell its oil exclusively in US dollars.
It signals an imminent and enormous change for anyone holding US dollars. It would be incredibly foolish to ignore this giant red warning sign.
Even the WSJ admits such a move would be disastrous for the US dollar.
“The Saudi move could chip away at the supremacy of the US dollar in the international financial system, which Washington has relied on for decades to print Treasury bills it uses to finance its budget deficit.”
Ron Paul is an American politician and physician who has been a vocal critic of the current international monetary system for decades. Nixon’s move to end the dollar’s link to gold in 1971 initially motivated him to get into politics. He is known for his views on monetary policy, central banking, and the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul has written several books on these topics and advocated for a return to sound money and a gold-backed monetary system.
In short, Ron Paul knows more about the international monetary system than almost anyone alive.
He once gave a speech called “The End of Dollar Hegemony,” where he pointed out the one thing that would precipitate the US dollar’s collapse.
Here’s the relevant part:
“The economic law that honest exchange demands only things of real value as currency cannot be repealed.
The chaos that one day will ensue from our experiment with worldwide fiat money will require a return to money of real value.
We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or euros.
The sooner the better.”
Here’s the bottom line.
The end of the petrodollar system is imminent.
For over 50 years, this arrangement has allowed the US government and many Americans to live way beyond their means.
The US takes this unique position for granted. But it will soon disappear.
There will be a lot of extra dollars floating around suddenly looking for a home now that they are not needed to purchase oil.
As a result, a lot of oil money—hundreds of billions of dollars and perhaps trillions—that would typically flow through banks in New York in US dollars into US Treasuries will instead flow through Shanghai into yuan and gold.
The end of the petrodollar system is bad news for Americans. Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the course of these trends in motion.
The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation.
That’s precisely why I just released an urgent report on where this is all headed and what you can do about it… including three strategies everyone needs today.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 23:00 - David's Bridal Files For Second Bankruptcy In 5 Years, To Lay Off 9,200 Workers
David’s Bridal Files For Second Bankruptcy In 5 Years, To Lay Off 9,200 Workers
Bridal retailer David’s Bridal is going to be laying off more than 9,200 workers nationwide but plans on staying open after filing for bankruptcy for the second time in just five years.
As the chain gets ready to deal with a busy prom and wedding season, a notification of the layoffs was filed with the Department of Labor in Pennsylvania, according to NJ.com.
Layoffs started in Pennsylvania on Friday and its unclear when additional, out of state layoffs would take place, the report notes. The company currently has 300 stores across the United States.
“David’s Bridal has commenced a financial restructuring process to facilitate a potential sale of our company,” the company said in a statement. It is reportedly trying to sell itself, but stores should continue to take orders.
Nationwide, the Conshokocken, Pennsylvania-based chain has over 11,000 employees. Previously, it filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and also operated normally through the process.
Recall, days ago we noted that small businesses were filing for bankruptcy at a record pace, even surpassing the Covid crash:
The note from UBS Evidence Lab shows private bankruptcy filings in 2023 have exceeded the highest point recorded during the early stages of the COVID pandemic by a considerable amount. The four-week moving average for private filings in late February was 73 percent higher than in June 2020.
“[We] believe one of the more underappreciated signs of distress in U.S. corporate credit is already emanating from the small- and mid-size enterprises sector,” Matthew Mish, head of credit strategy at UBS, wrote in a recently published research note. “[The] smallest of firms [are] facing the most severe pressure from rising rates, persistent inflation and slowing growth.”
Industries hit hardest by the wave of bankruptcies include real estate, health care, chemicals, and retail outlets, according to the Swiss Bank’s report.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 22:30 - Washington State House Approves Bill Authorizing Hiding Of Children Seeking Transgender Medical Intervention From Parents
Washington State House Approves Bill Authorizing Hiding Of Children Seeking Transgender Medical Intervention From Parents
Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Washington state House approved a bill that would authorize state agencies to hide children seeking transgender medical intervention from parents.
Washington state Rep. Alicia Rule in 2023 (Courtesy of TVW) On April 12, House lawmakers debated Senate Bill 5599 (pdf), which creates an exemption for the state that grants it the right to not be required to notify parents of minors who have left their homes because their parents wouldn’t let them pursue gender transition medical procedures.
In a video statement after the vote, Republican state Rep. Chris Corry said the bill “erodes parental rights in the state of Washington.”
“Essentially what the bill would do would be if a child left a parents’ home for certain medical care and went to a shelter or host family, that shelter or host family would not be required to notify the parents of their child’s whereabouts,” Corry said. “This is obviously a fundamental violation of parental rights and something that’s deeply concerning for parents across Washington state.”
State Rep. Peter Abbarno, a Republican, said the crux of the debate over the bill was whether the state be permitted to “essentially hide where the child is.”
Most parents, Corry said, would “go to the ends of the earth to find their child” if they disappeared after an argument.
“And the fact that we have a bill that may become law that would say, ‘we’re not going to tell you,’ was really just a bridge too far for us,” Corry said.
Corry told The Epoch Times that, under the bill, a disagreement between a child and parents over the child’s desire for a medical transition constitutes “abuse and neglect,” only because the parent hasn’t “properly affirmed what the child wants.”
Corry said there are already laws that protect children from abuse and neglect in the state that require “solid and compelling reasons” why children would need to be removed from their homes.
“What’s frustrating is even in those cases, the parents still have a right to know where their kids are after they’ve been removed,” Corry said. “In this case, parents would have no idea.”
House Debate
Republican state Rep. Travis Couture spoke on the House floor in a debate over amendments to the bill, stating that the U.S. Constitution, based on the precedent set by previous Supreme Court rulings, permits the state to interfere with the right of parents only to prevent harm to a child “and any legislation that goes further fails that standard.”
“The Constitution doesn’t tell us what we can do; it tells us what we can’t do to people,” Couture said. “And multiple times our U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of parental rights.”
The Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment “gives parents the right to parent” through the educating and rearing “as they see fit.”
“I think it’s important as we embark on this bill tonight to recognize the very important and critical role parents have not only in our society, and not only with their families and their children but in our law as well,” Couture said.
State Rep. Julio Cortes, a Democrat, said though having a supportive family environment is critical, it doesn’t always determine the best outcome for the success of a child’s well-being.
“But family dynamics as I’m sure a lot of us can agree at times be let’s say complicated,” Cortes said. “Positive mental health outcomes are possible even when a family dynamic is negative, and on the other side negative outcomes are possible even when a family is supportive. This bill is about providing housing security for our trans youth.”
While not addressing parental consent, Cortes shared an anecdotal story about a trans child he said he helped while working with homeless youth.
The child, he said, ran away to protect his family who was being attacked by community members over the child’s decision.
“I had the privilege of working with this youth and through case management and our prevention program we were able to get that youth back home, but we got him back home with the skills and the tools that they needed and that their family needed to make sure that they could be safer,” he said. “Supporting our trans youth is a collective effort, Mr. Speaker, and while families play a critical role, they are not the only support system that these youth need. It takes, as they say, a village.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 22:00 - FBI Arrest Two In Manhattan For 'Conspiring' To Act As CCP Spies, Operating Illegal Police Station
FBI Arrest Two In Manhattan For ‘Conspiring’ To Act As CCP Spies, Operating Illegal Police Station
The FBI arrested two New York residents with conspiring to act as agents of China’s government, by operating an illegal police station, and acting as spies.
The America ChangLe Association in New York on Oct. 6, 2022. An overseas Chinese police outpost in New York, called the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, is located inside the association building. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) In a Monday press release, the Department of Justice announced the arrests of Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, in connection with the undeclared police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. They will be prosecuted in the Eastern District of New York, and are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn.
The two admitted to the FBI that they deleted their communications with a CCP official after discovering they were under investigation.
“It is simply outrageous that China’s Ministry of Public Security thinks it can get away with establishing a secret, illegal police station on U.S. soil to aid its efforts to export repression and subvert our rule of law,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. “This case serves as a powerful reminder that the People’s Republic of China will stop at nothing to bend people to their will and silence messages they don’t want anyone to hear. The FBI is dedicated to protecting everyone in the United States against efforts to undermine our democratic freedoms, and we’ll hold any state actors – and those who help them – accountable for breaking our laws.”
According to the DOJ;
Before helping to open the police station in early 2022, Lu had a longstanding relationship of trust with PRC law enforcement, including the MPS. Since 2015, and through the operation of the secret police station, Lu was tasked with carrying out various activities, including to assist the PRC government’s repressive activities on U.S. soil:
- In 2015, during PRC President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Lu participated in counterprotests in Washington, D.C,. against members of a religion that is forbidden under PRC law. A deputy director of the MPS awarded Lu a plaque for the work he performed on behalf of the PRC government.
- In 2018, Lu was enlisted in efforts to cause a purported PRC fugitive to return to the PRC. The victim reported being repeatedly harassed to return to the PRC, including through threats of violence made to the victim and the victim’s family in the United States and in the PRC.
- In 2022, the MPS Official sought Lu’s assistance in locating an individual living in California who is a pro-democracy activist. In turn, Lu enlisted the help of another coconspirator. Later, when confronted by the FBI about these conversations, Lu denied that they occurred.
In October 2022, the FBI conducted a judicially authorized search of the illegal police station. In connection with the search, FBI agents interviewed both Lu and Chen and seized their phones. In reviewing the contents of these phones, FBI agents observed that communications between Lu and Chen, on the one hand, and the MPS Official, on the other, appeared to have been deleted. In subsequent consensual interviews, Lu and Chen admitted to the FBI that they had deleted their communications with the MPS Official after learning about the ongoing FBI investigation, thus preventing the FBI from learning the full extent of the MPS’s directions for the overseas police station.
Each defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted for conspiring to act as agents of the PRC, and up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction of justice charge.
In a second complaint, 24 Chinese police officers were charged over belonging to a “special project working group” task force that “commits crimes, targeting Chinese democracy activists and dissidents located outside of the PRC, including right here in New York City, according to Eastern District of New York Attorney Breon Peace, who added that “This task force operates as an internet troll farm, creating thousands of fake online personas which they use in a coordinated plot to harass, disparage and threaten dissidents and activists throughout the world.”
In February, we noted that the FBI closed the illegal Chinatown police station following a raid of the building last fall. As the Epoch Times noted at the time;
The closure of the facility in New York’s Chinatown comes just weeks after The New York Times reported that FBI agents raided and searched the building at an undisclosed time last fall.
The facility and more than 100 others like it form a network of covert facilities from which experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting a campaign of transnational repression.
According to two reports published in October 2022 and December 2022 by Safeguard Defenders, a nonprofit organization, the overseas police outposts are used to collect intelligence and even forcibly repatriate Chinese dissidents to the mainland to be imprisoned.
“We are aware of reports regarding alleged PRC ‘overseas police stations,’” the State Department spokesperson said.
“We take this issue very seriously. Establishing so-called overseas police stations without the invitation or approval of the country in which they are operating raises serious issues of respect for the sovereignty of that country.”
The spokesperson referred The Epoch Times to the FBI and Justice Department for further information. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time, and the FBI declined to comment on the matter.
China’s Communist Regime ‘Violates Sovereignty’
Chinese authorities maintain that the facilities, which operate in 53 nations, assist Chinese immigrants in foreign nations with tasks that would normally be handled by a consulate, such as renewing driver’s licenses and visas.
However, the stations have been linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department, an agency that works to advance the regime’s interests abroad by spreading propaganda, conducting foreign influence operations, suppressing dissident movements, gathering intelligence, and facilitating the transfer of technology to communist China.
As such, many nations have voiced concern that the facilities are a threat to national security and a violation of sovereignty.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 21:30 - DeSantis Targets 'Cultural Marxism,' Vows 'War On Woke' At Liberty University
DeSantis Targets ‘Cultural Marxism,’ Vows ‘War On Woke’ At Liberty University
Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Apr. 14, 2023. (Courtesy of Liberty University) LYNCHBURG, Va.—Fresh off signing a six-week abortion ban into law the day before, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to continue fighting the “war on woke” to about 9,000 students before receiving an honorary degree of the Doctorate of Humanities at Liberty University on Friday.
Speaking to young evangelicals at the twice-weekly convocation service, which the school calls “the world’s largest gathering of Christian students,” DeSantis touted Florida as the “refuge of sanity” and “a ray of hope” when “freedom and our very own way of life… withered on the vine” in the country.
In his view, Florida’s population growth and his landslide reelection victory last year are a direct result of his fight against woke ideology—what he called “cultural Marxism”—and Americans “voting with their feet.”
“We have made Florida the state where woke goes to die,” he declared as the audience burst into a loud cheer.
His statements against gender ideology—prohibiting using puberty blockers or sex change operations on minors in Florida and criticizing biological males competing in women’s sports—were also well-received by the crowd. “Because woke represents a war on truth, we must wage a war on woke,” he added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (C) receives an honorary degree of the Doctorate of Humanities at Liberty University from university president Jerry Prevo (L) and pastor Jonathan Falwell in Lynchburg, Va., on Apr. 14, 2023. (Courtesy of Liberty University) The governor started his speech by thanking Liberty University students for praying for his wife Casey’s recovery from breast cancer. Casey was diagnosed in 2021 and became cancer-free late last year. “The prayers that we received as a result of that lifted up our spirits,” he said. “The prayers have been answered.”
In closing, he said he “looked forward to the battles ahead” in the “war on truth,” “I will fight the good fight. I will finish the race. I will keep the faith.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Apr. 14, 2023. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times) ‘Uplifting’ and ‘Inspiring’
Giulia Nicole, a homeschooled high school senior, said DeSantis’s speech was “uplifting.” She has been on dual enrollment at Liberty University online and will attend the college full-time in August, majoring in accounting.
“A lot of times when you hear people speak, you kind of leave feeling like the world is just going downhill, and there’s not a lot of hope,” she told The Epoch Times. “Gov. DeSantis was very uplifting. He was a breath of fresh air because I feel encouraged right now. I don’t feel worried about the future. So I really enjoyed his speech.”
She attended the convocation with her mother Carla Nicole, grandmother Maria Shoemaker, and a friend Savannah Dudzik, a Floridian in Lynchburg, for just the weekend for a pro-life event.
“I would just say I was impressed. Every time he speaks, I’m a little bit more impressed. He’s so genuine. And we need people like that in politics,” Dudzik, a resident in the Tampa Bay area, told The Epoch Times. “We need people who are genuine, people who you can tell he’s not there for the crowd. He’s not there for the applause. He’s there for the people. He’s there for us.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 21:00 - USPS Targets Hiking First Class Mail Prices By 5.4%
USPS Targets Hiking First Class Mail Prices By 5.4%
The same U.S. government that is fighting inflation is also succumbing to it: the price of stamps and postage is once again moving higher. Prices on first-class mail stamps will rise to 66 cents from 63 cents in July, pending approval from regulators, according to CNN.
The price hike – which is being put in place to “offset a rise in operating expenses” – amounts to about a 5.4% hike. Someone should tell the government those hikes are “above the Fed’s 2% target”.
Among those expenses are a rise in wages and increasing costs of doing business. “These price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue,” the post office commented in a statement.
The price of postcards will also go up, from 48 cents to 51 cents. International postcards will see their prices rise from $1.45 to $1.50.
As the report notes, regulators turning down USPS requests for prices hikes are rare, though it did happen in 2010 because the Post Office “failed both to quantify the impact of the recession on its finances and to show how its rate request relates to the resulting loss of mail volume.”
The post office expects to lose $4.5 billion in 2023 and we’re sure these price hikes will do little to help rectify the bottom line. But hey, raising prices 5.4% while the Fed clamors for 2% inflation all while burning cash is American as apple pie.
Maybe the Post Office should take itself public on the NASDAQ via SPAC, where the market would value it on a price/sales basis instead of focusing on pesky details like actual net income and cash generation…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 20:40 - "We're Going To See A Lot Of Bankruptcies": Former Home Depot CEO Warns
“We’re Going To See A Lot Of Bankruptcies”: Former Home Depot CEO Warns
Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,
Bob Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, is warning about more bankruptcies hitting the U.S. economy, and blames lawmakers for their delay in coming to terms regarding the country’s debt ceiling.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of bankruptcies. Like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We got Walmart not only laying people off but closing stores. We got Accenture laying people off. We got Amazon closing distribution centers. So, I think there’s a tremendous-mixed message,” Nardelli said in an April 14 interview with Fox.
At present, the “complexity” of the American economy is “different than anything I have seen in my 52 years.”
Nardelli also blamed Congress’ inability to work together to raise the U.S. debt limit as creating a burden on businesses, saying that he is “definitely worried” about the situation.
The former Home Depot CEO says he is seeing “inventory builds” in a lot of public and private businesses. He pointed to the 2007–09 period when the banking meltdown took “everything down.”
“I think we’re in a very complex environment. And, of course, this debt issue only adds to that. It adds to the certainty of uncertainty, what’s going to happen.”
Surge in Bankruptcy Filings
Bankruptcy filings across the United States rose for the third straight month in March in all major industries. A total of 42,368 new bankruptcies were filed last month, according to data from Epiq Bankruptcy, a provider of U.S. bankruptcy court data, technology, and services.
This is 17 percent up from the 36,068 filings in March 2022 and is the highest number of monthly bankruptcy filings since April 2021.
Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed 71 corporate bankruptcy petitions in March, a jump from 58 in the previous month. This is the highest monthly total since July 2020 and the fourth straight month of increases.
First-quarter corporate bankruptcy filings came in at 183, which is “more than any comparable period in the past 12 years,” S&P Global said.
Bank Lending Dips, Layoffs
Meanwhile, lending activity by banks suffered the biggest plunge ever in the two weeks ending March 29. Commercial lending in the country declined by $105 billion during this period—the highest since 1973. The collapse in lending was led by declining real estate loans as well as industrial and commercial loans.
According to financial analyst Andreas Steno Larsen, tough times are ahead for the American economy. “Evidence is gathering that the SVB-fueled banking stress indeed will turn into a recession, but instead of a fast and rapid liquidity-driven recession, we are rather slow-walking into a credit crunch over summer,” he wrote in an April 9 post.
Indication of an incoming credit crunch was seen in the latest Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) by the New York Federal Reserve.
“Perceptions of credit access compared to a year ago deteriorated in March, with the share of households reporting it is harder to obtain credit than one year ago rising and reaching a series high,” according to an April 10 press release.
“Respondents were more pessimistic about future credit availability as well, with the share of households expecting it will be harder to obtain credit a year from now also rising.”
Besides the credit crunch, there has been a quadrupling in worker layoffs.
The first quarter of 2023 saw job cuts rise by 396 percent compared to the same period a year ago, according to an April report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The total number of job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers during this period came in at 270,416, which is the highest first-quarter number since 2020.
The number-one reason cited by companies for the job cuts was market or economic conditions, followed by cost-cutting in second place.
Billions of dollars have flown out from domestically chartered commercial banks in the country following the SVB collapse on March 10. Between the week ending March 8 and April 5, deposits have fallen from $16,249.9 billion to $15,996.7 billion—a decline of $253.2 billion, based on the latest numbers from the Fed.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 20:20 - Volkswagen Debuts ID7 Mid-Sized EV Sedan, Expected To Start At $38,000
Volkswagen Debuts ID7 Mid-Sized EV Sedan, Expected To Start At $38,000
Just as the EV price wars are heating up, Volkswagen has launched its much awaited ID7 sedan. Expected to be priced around $38,000 to $40,000 for the entry level model, the stunning sedan will assuredly be a direct competitor to Tesla’s Model 3.
A release by the company on Monday details the first all-electric Volkswagen for the upper mid-size sedan class, touting its “combination of excellent aerodynamics and a new, more efficient drivetrain”.
The launch is set for Fall 2023 for Europe and China, and then 2024 for North America. The vehicle has a manufacturer’s estimated potential range of up to 435 miles, as well as “a revised powertrain, spacious interior and premium technologies”.
The release says of the new drivetrain:
The new electric drivetrain has been optimized above all for energy efficiency. Depending on the battery size, Volkswagen estimates that, depending on trim, WLTP ranges of up to 435 miles (700 km) and DC fast charging capacities of up to about 200 kW will be possible. EPA-estimated range is not yet available and will be released closer to the North American launch date.
“With the ID.7 we are taking the next step in our electric offensive. The ID.7 offers a high level of comfort and long ranges. By 2026, we will offer the broadest electric vehicle range of all manufacturers in Europe—from the entry-level model for less than 25,000 euros up to the ID.7 as the new top model within the EV family. Our goal is to achieve an electric car share of 80 per cent in Europe by 2030. From 2033, Volkswagen will produce only electric vehicles in Europe,” said Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars.
Kai Grünitz, Member of the Brand Board of Management responsible for Development said: “The ID.7 sets new efficiency standards on the basis of the modular electric drive matrix (MEB). We are aiming for a range of up to 700 kilometres2 on the WLTP standard. This is made possible by very good aerodynamics and by significantly increased efficiency in the areas of the powertrain and thermal management.”
“The ID.7 is an extremely important model for the Volkswagen brand in Europe, North America and China. The ID.7 offers an attractive package that will excite both existing and new Volkswagen customers all over the world. With this Volkswagen, we are offering premium technologies that impress through their exclusivity, comfort and high degree of everyday usability,” concluded Imelda Labbé, Member of the Brand Board of Management for Sales, Marketing and Aftersales.
You can watch the full launch here:
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 20:00 - Private Armies Are Making A Killing
Private Armies Are Making A Killing
Authored by Thomas Fazi via UnHerd.com,
Mercenaries thrive while democracy dies…
Last week, Russia claimed to have seized control of the city of Bakhmut after an eight-month battle with Ukrainian forces — the longest and bloodiest fight of the war so far. The assault, however, wasn’t led by the Russian Armed Forces, but by a private army that has been fighting alongside regular Russian troops since the invasion: the infamous Wagner Group.
The Wagner Group has always been cloaked in mystery. In the first days of the war, reports emphasised the secretive nature of its military operations, including a plot to assassinate Zelenskyy and his cabinet. Until recently, it was unclear whether a company registered under the name “Wagner” even existed.
That all changed in September 2022, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Putin, published a statement claiming that he founded the group in 2014 to “protect the Russians” when “the genocide of the Russian population of Donbas began”. Then, in January this year, he decided to make it official, registering Wagner as a business and opening its “PMC Wagner Center” headquarters in St Petersburg. He didn’t make any secret of its activities: as the company’s name, which also appears on the group’s logo, makes clear, the Wagner Group is a PMC: a private military company, also known as a mercenary group. The Russian government was forced to acknowledge its existence. The Wagner Group’s clandestine status was officially discarded.
In many ways, Wagner’s emergence from the shadows symbolises the changing nature of modern warfare, in which the traditional Clausewitzian paradigm — based on a clear distinction between public and private, friend and enemy, civil and military, combatant and non-combatant — has given way to a much messier reality, in which state armies now regularly fight alongside private and/or corporate paramilitary and mercenary groups. Today’s conflicts, even when violent in nature, often occur in a “grey zone” below the threshold of conventional military action; adversarial states increasingly confront each other through proxies or surrogates — including private armies — rather than through their own armed forces. And this is not just a Russian issue: the increasingly central role of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in modern warfare is a global phenomenon.
Private armies have existed for centuries. In recent decades, the use of mercenaries was particularly widespread during the Cold War, especially in Africa, in the context of decolonisation and the ensuing civil wars. In particular, they were widely used between the Sixties and early Eighties by the West to prevent colonies attaining independence or to destabilise or overthrow newly independent governments, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Benin and the Republic of Seychelles.
At the time, there was virtually no international legal framework regarding mercenarism. It was only in 1977 that the Geneva Conventions incorporated an international legal definition of it. A mercenary, it held, is any person who is recruited to fight in an armed conflict, who actively takes a direct part in the hostilities, and who is neither a national of a party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by one. It was a very narrow definition — but one which, at the behest of the newly independent nations, was specifically tailored to address the use of mercenaries by the West against the post-colonial governments.
This led to the appointment, in 1987, of a Special Rapporteur on the use of mercenaries; and then, in 1989, to the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, which entered into force in 2001 and added language specifying that mercenaries were people undermining legitimate governments — another clause that implicitly reflected the concerns of post-colonial countries. To this day, the Convention — which essentially copies the wording of the 1977 definition — represents the international legal definition of mercenarism.
As a result, during the Nineties, there was a significant rise in the number of private military and security companies, who sought to distance their activities from the legal definition of mercenarism by presenting themselves as official business entities offering “legitimate” security and defence services allegedly distinguished from that of rogue mercenary groups. And, by and large, they did so successfully. In that decade alone, PMSCs reportedly trained the militaries of 42 nations and took part in more than 700 conflicts.
There was a broader backdrop to this growth, too. The growing influence of the neoliberal logic of economic rationalisation and deregulation during the Nineties also pushed states to privatise and outsource many government functions and services — including warfare. Security came to be perceived as a commodity, a service like any other that could be sold and bought in the marketplace. This was also part of a broader push towards the transfer of national prerogatives to suprastate or, as in this case, non-state actors as a way to shift the decision-making process away from democratic institutions. This trend was compounded by the global downsizing of national military forces, which also expanded the recruiting pool for PMSCs.
Even though PMSCs started out by mainly selling their services to developing countries and so-called failed states facing political crises, by the mid-Nineties Western governments, particularly the US, started to use them as well. By contracting them to support, train and equip the military and security forces of friendly governments — most notably in former Yugoslavia — Western powers were able to promote their interests and foreign policy agendas, while avoiding becoming embroiled in unpopular conflicts, and even circumventing national or international constraints on troop deployment. By the end of the decade, NGOs (such as Oxfam) and even the United Nations had also come to rely heavily on PMSCs for their own security and even for peacekeeping missions.
In this sense, PMSCs did not replace the role of states as much as integrate into them. In some cases, they even bolstered state military power, by allowing governments to engage in forms of warfare that they might otherwise have been prevented from undertaking for fear of provoking a conventional military response by more powerful states, while also escaping public scrutiny. The Wagner Group’s activities in several African and the Middle Eastern countries — such as Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali — are a good illustration, insofar as they granted Moscow a degree of plausible deniability concerning its foreign interventions and the alleged human rights abuses committed by Wagner.
Over the years, various efforts have been made to regulate this new phenomenon at the international level, eventually leading to the establishment of a UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries in 2005. But these bodies have, by and large, failed. Today, the sector remains largely unregulated and operates in a de facto legal vacuum. PMSCs can’t be considered soldiers or supporting militias under international humanitarian law, since they are not part of the army or in the chain of command — but nor can they usually be considered to be mercenaries under the narrow legal definition adopted by the UN. In the current conflict in Ukraine, for instance, the Wagner Group can’t be considered a mercenary group by legal standards for the simple fact that its members are nationals of one of the parties to the conflict.
These private military companies remain largely unaccountable, characterised by a “fundamental lack of transparency around, and oversight over [their operations]”, as the UN Working Group noted in 2021. Indeed, it suggested that this is sometimes “done precisely with the ominous objective of providing ‘plausible deniability’ of direct involvement in a conflict”. Greater regulation would be welcome, of course, but it wouldn’t change the fact that corporate armies intrinsically undermine democratic accountability — arguably one of the reasons that makes them attractive to states in the first place.
More fundamentally, what we are dealing with here is the legalisation and normalisation of mercenarism. The only real difference between traditional guns-for-hire and PMSCs is that the latter are often legally constituted businesses with corporate organisational structures. This lends them legitimacy and, theoretically, makes the monitoring of their actions and prosecution easier. But ultimately they remain, to all intents and purposes, “new modalities of mercenaries”, as even the UN General Assembly argued some years back.
Crucially, the UN report acknowledges that the private security and military industry is a global and growing phenomenon. While today’s focus is on Wagner, the real mercenary boom occurred during the US-led military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, the US relied heavily on PMSCs such as DynCorp and Blackwater (now known as Constellis). Indeed, at points, the number of contractors on the ground actually outnumbered American troops. By 2006, there were estimated to be at least 100,000 PMSC employees in Iraq working directly for the US Department of Defense.
And like Wagner today, these were involved in several human rights abuses in the country. Blackwater, for example, the most high-profile PMSC in Iraq, was involved in the massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007 (which led to the conviction of four Blackwater employees), while other PMSCs were involved in the Iraq Abu Ghraib prison scandal (though none faced prosecution) and were alleged to have participated in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme — the kidnapping and forced removal of individuals to places known to torture. Despite these obvious failures, by the summer of 2020, the US had more than 20,000 contractor personnel in Afghanistan — roughly twice the number of American troops. Before that, in 2017, Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, had proposed to fully privatise the war effort there.
What could possibly inspire such chutzpah? Well, although the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts are generally considered to have been a strategic blunder for the US, not to mention a humanitarian tragedy, they were a boon for the PMSC sector: up until 2016, the US State Department spent $196 billion on PMSC contracts for the Iraq war, and $108 billion for the Afghan war. And business hasn’t slowed: in 2022, the PMSC sector — whose largest businesses are now American or British — was valued at $260 billion and is projected to reach a value of around $450 billion by 2030. The largest PMSC in the world, UK-based G4S, alone employs more than 500,000 people and is present in more than 90 countries.
Should we be surprised? Ultimately, the growth of the PMSC sector is just another example of how economic transformations in recent decades have blurred the boundary between the public and private-corporate sphere to the point of making it indistinguishable. The result has been the rise of a state-corporate Leviathan which has gobbled up every sector of the economy — healthcare, banks, energy, tech — and has now taken over the field of warfare as well, at the expense of democratic control and oversight. This applies to Russia just as much as it applies to Western countries. If the conflict in Ukraine has taught us anything, it’s that war today is a bigger business than it’s ever been. No wonder peace — in Ukraine or elsewhere — seems constantly out of reach.
* * *
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 19:40 - US Navy Sails Destroyer Through Taiwan Strait After China's War Games
US Navy Sails Destroyer Through Taiwan Strait After China’s War Games
The US Navy sailed its guided-missile destroyer, the USS Milius, through the Taiwan Strait on Monday as part of a “freedom of navigation” exercise just days after China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan, reported Reuters.
According to the Navy’s 7th Fleet, the USS Milius conducted a “routine Taiwan Strait transit” through waters “where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”
Last week, Beijing initiated a three-day military exercise around Taiwan on April 8, simulating targeted strikes and an island blockade. The drills were in reaction to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.
The 7th Fleet tweeted images of the destroyer sailing through the strait.
USS Milius (DDG 69) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit April 16 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.
Click here to read more:https://t.co/kVeETF1HUi pic.twitter.com/IzEOPA1T0Y
— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet) April 17, 2023
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“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” the Navy said. It added the mission demonstrated the US commitment to a free and open Asia-Pacific region.
In response, the Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese military reported that they were monitoring the movements of the US warship.
According to a statement from the Eastern Theater Command’s spokesperson Shi Yilu, China stands ready at any time to “resolutely safeguard the country’s sovereignty, safety, and regional peace and stability.”
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 18 Chinese military warplanes and four naval vessels operating around the island.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 19:20 - Florida Mayor Resigns Over $250M Budget Shortfall
Florida Mayor Resigns Over $250M Budget Shortfall
Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via RealClearWire,
Mayor Frank Hibbard of Clearwater, Florida, resigned his position during a budget meeting after a series of reckless spending proposals that were set to leave Clearwater with over a $250 million budget shortfall, according to Fox News.
This includes spending $90 million to construct a new city hall and municipal building — more than double the initial price tag of $40 million.
Hibbard, a full-time financial advisor and wealth manager, cautioned his colleagues at a recent budget meeting that, “I’m concerned where the city is going because this is simple math and we’re not doing very well on the test.” After his emphatic warning, he resigned.
Despite the city being in an already precarious financial position with a projected budget shortfall of about $250 million, city council members continued to vote for more spending.
The now-former-mayor was the only one on the council to vote against the construction project, with every other council member voting to increase the deficit by another $90 million.
Members of the Clearwater City Council have dismissed his concerns, with a council member telling Fox, the budget meeting Hibbard stormed out of was allegedly “to give direction to staff about budget priorities,” and not a formal vote to allocate funds.
Either way, every council member agreed to spend $90 million, which means the proposal will almost certainly pass when it comes to a vote.
Hibbard leaves localities and towns with wise words of warning: “Local government and government in general needs to be very careful with their resources and also be more creative in the way we solve problems.”
Governments everywhere should heed his advice.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 19:00 - China Trying Its Hand At Israel-Palestine Peace
China Trying Its Hand At Israel-Palestine Peace
Coming off its success in getting archrivals Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore ties, China is now trying its hand at Israel-Palestine peace, after weeks of sporadic clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the West Bank and Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang on Monday said Beijing is ready and willing to “play a constructive role” in promoting peace in the region. He also said he is “very concerned” over ratcheting tensions and violence, also after recent brief flare-ups of rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli return airstrikes.
Via Reuters During prior clashes at al-Aqsa this month, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement saying, “We call on all parties, Israel in particular, to show calm and restraint and immediately stop all words and deeds that might heighten tensions.” This followed viral video showing police beating Muslim worshipers inside the mosque for defying a strict curfew at the Temple Mount.
Qin Gang’s Monday statements were conveyed in a phone call to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, the first such call since the Chinese FM took office. The Israelis and Palestinian Authority were urged to resume peace talks as soon as possible in the call.
As for the Israeli side, it’s still nervous over Iran-Saudi rapprochement:
“I spoke with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, about the danger we see in the Iranian nuclear program, a danger that is shared by many countries in the region, including countries that have diplomatic relations with Iran. The international community must act immediately to To prevent the Ayatollah regime in Tehran from obtaining nuclear capabilities,” Cohen said, according to the foreign ministry’s statement.
The Israelis have been chiefly concerned that the pressure and spotlight will be taken off of Iranian malfeasance in the region, which could in turn be a threat to Israel’s security.
As Reuters points out, after Washington spent decades trying to find a solution to the conflict, there’s been no progress. “U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza -territories Israel captured in a 1967 war – have stalled for almost a decade and show no sign of revival,” Reuters writes.
Some have seen China’s recent efforts at stronger diplomacy in the Middle East as a sign of waning US influence; however, the Biden administration has said it welcomes opportunities to forge greater peace and stability.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 18:40 - Hospital Sues AG Over Probe Into Transgender Care Services
Hospital Sues AG Over Probe Into Transgender Care Services
By Kelly Gooch of Becker’s Hospital Review
Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over his demand for records and testimony on gender-affirming care, The Kansas City Star reported.
The lawsuit, filed April 14 in Jackson County, asks a judge to deny Mr. Bailey’s investigative demands, saying the requests are a “burdensome overreach” despite “no allegations of wrongdoing,” according to the newspaper.
Mr. Bailey’s office made the demand for records and testimony in a letter sent in late March. In February, his office had already confirmed an investigation by Missouri agencies into whistleblower allegations against the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The whistleblower raised allegations that individuals at the transgender center had harmed hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them.
Now, Mr. Bailey’s office is also looking at Children’s Mercy and made more than 50 requests for documents and information in his office’s March 24 investigative demand letter to the hospital. Requests include all instances when child abuse was reported to law enforcement and questions of whether Children’s Mercy prescribes hormone blockers for, or performs surgery on, transgender individuals, according to The Kansas City Star.
Madeline Sieren, a spokesperson for Mr. Bailey’s office, said in a statement shared with the newspaper that Children’s Mercy “is refusing to provide even a single document to explain its practices.”
“That is very concerning,” she said, adding that Mr. Bailey’s office looks forward to “prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on.”
Children’s Mercy argues that Mr. Bailey is not authorized to investigate and enforce medical standards under the state’s merchandising practices act, and that complying with his requests would require the hospital to violate state and federal laws, including HIPAA, according to NBC affiliate KSHB. The system also said in its suit that it has no connection to the Washington University center under investigation. Children’s Mercy is not mentioned in the allegations against Washington University Transgender Center, according to KSHB.
The lawsuit filed April 14 comes after Mr. Bailey announced emergency rules targeting gender transition procedures for minors, which take effect April 27. The emergency regulations include prohibiting gender-affirming care unless patients have at least 15 sessions with a mental health provider and have experienced at least three consecutive years of a “medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 18:20 - Dramatic Video Shows Large Mob Looting Compton Gas Station
Dramatic Video Shows Large Mob Looting Compton Gas Station
There has been a surge in lawlessness in recent weeks across several large progressive cities. The most recent incident occurred in Compton, a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, over the weekend when a large mob stormed a gas station.
Los Angeles-based KABC reported the “large mob” that “bum-rushed” the Arco gas station near Alondra Boulevard and Central Avenue on Saturday night stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. A dramatic video of the incident has gone viral on Twitter.
Los Angeles, the city of fallen angels: A large mob of thug looters was caught on video looting a gas station in Compton and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise. https://t.co/P2LU3EHmTg pic.twitter.com/sfHv26RV5Z
— Dane (@UltraDane) April 16, 2023
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the local news station that much of the store’s merchandise was stolen in minutes.
Compton resident and customer of Arco, Greg Johnson, said:
“It’s unbelievable. Unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that happen here.”
Commenting on the incident is the police advocacy nonprofit organization National Police Association which tweeted:
“When your DA hates cops, loves criminals, and dismisses victims, and your state government is focused on de-incarceration this is what you get – Wild video shows large mob ransacking Arco gas station in Compton.”
We’ve pointed out to readers that lawlessness is unfolding in multiple liberal cities this spring:
- All Hell Breaks Out In Chicago As Hundreds Of Teenagers Wreak Havoc
- Baltimore Mayor Calls For Citywide Curfew After All Hell Breaks Out
If possible, steer clear of liberal-run cities. The growing trend of lawlessness is worrisome.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 18:00 - Winner Takes All: The US-China Race To AI Mastery
Winner Takes All: The US-China Race To AI Mastery
Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,
AI competition may prove to be the last technology race in the world…
The AI-powered ChatGPT is intensifying the competition between the United States and China for artificial intelligence dominance.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
For the sake of clarity, ChatGPT is the AI-driven tool that can create documents, reports, and other content with just a question or a few key words. It was created by OpenAI, a Bay Area technology firm started by tech standouts such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and other tech luminaries.
The good news is how ChatGPT has brought the race for AI dominance back into the national conversation. The potential for AI technology to alter our world is difficult to overstate, even though ChatGPT technology itself barely scratches the surface of what AI technology can really do.
AI Will Transform Everything
Both the United States and China are fully engaged in efforts to master AI technology in its most powerful applications, which includes creating so-called “deep fakes” that put words into people’s mouths and put people in places they never were. Even those capabilities are mere shadows of what is to come.
In a few short years at most, the way we do even the most common tasks, from manufacturing goods, transporting them, and marketing them will be radically changed. Medicines, machines, and methodologies of inquiry will all be fundamentally different under AI. AI will change every activity or industry to which it is applied, and that includes rapid advancements in biotechnology and its transformational impact on warfare.
The AI Race Will Be the Last Race
The race for AI mastery isn’t the first time that nations have raced to achieve technological dominance in the world. The race to reach the moon comes to mind, but it was ideological almost as much as it was technological in its impact. The race to develop the first atomic bomb during the Second World War is a better comparison. Many observers believe that AI represents nothing less than a paradigm shift for the entire world and across the spectrum of industries and scientific applications.
That’s what makes AI a qualitatively different technology than all others. It will forever alter the relationship between humanity and machines. Humanity’s great innovation was the replication and transformation of the natural world into the mechanization and manipulation of it. It was only just over a century ago that mankind transitioned from horse to automobile, then on to flight, and then to space flight.
A visitor watches an AI sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona. (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)
A concurrent shift occurred with the communication revolution, effectively compressing time and distance by the speed of light. This not only made the world smaller and events more impactful as they’re witnessed in real time, but it also shortened reaction times.
The AI revolution, however, is a quantum leap in technological advancement. AI is the actual dematerialization of machines and the separation of thought from humanity, neither of which has ever happened before. For the first time ever, mankind is threatened not just with destruction from a man-made device, but by our own creations replacing us altogether.
China’s Big Data and Surveillance
That’s no exaggeration. Philosopher Yuval Harari has warned of AI rendering humans as obsolete and “useless.” Harari isn’t the only one to see the red flags. Elon Musk has said that AI is “summoning the demon,” implying that once released, it will be beyond our control.
That remains to be seen. But both statements are a nod to the power that AI may well yield to those who first acquire the requisite level of skill and technology. Accordingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin observed that whoever masters AI will be master of the world.
He’s probably right, and the Chinese Communist Party has every intention of doing both.
A Chinese man plays online games at an internet cafe in Wuhan, China, in this file photo. The Chinese regime’s cyber strategy is not fun and games, however, it is real cyber war against the United States. (Cancan Chu/Getty Images)
Despite ChatGPT’s impressive debut, China is ahead of the United States where it really counts: in research. According to their most recent five year plan, Chinese planners have set rigorous goals for 2030 that include investing up to $1.4 trillion in new AI infrastructure such as data centers, 5G, the industrial internet, and other enabling technologies.
Their objective is to attain an unassailable position in AI-driven technologies, and in some key respects, such as access to big data, they’re well-positioned to reach their goal. With 1.4 billion people and one of the world’s most surveilled populations, Chinese researchers have access to the largest databases in the world with few if any privacy restrictions.
China Rushing to Create Superior AI-Driven Military
The time period of 2025 to 2030 has tremendous defense implications for the United States, since that’s when China’s global AI leadership is scheduled to be realized. Indeed, China’s military advancement plan calls for AI implementation by 2030, with an ambitious and comprehensive application across the entire military asset spectrum.
China’s plan includes integrating neural networks with nuclear armed hypersonic glide vehicles, AI-enhanced automatic target recognition, auto-piloting, missile fusion, precision guidance for hypersonic platforms, maneuverability, and more. Beijing is also looking to AI for heretofore unimaginable ways to wage cyber warfare on its adversaries. The upshot is within a few years, Beijing aims to change the entire calculus of offensive strategic weapons dynamics through deep AI integration.
Ultimately, the race for AI dominance between the United States and China may not just come down to committing investment and intellectual resources, but rather, how fast the technology can be put into action.
It may also be a question of keeping technological intellectual property from being sold or stolen, which the U.S. government has shown repeatedly it is unable to prevent.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 17:40 - Slew Of Cities Suing Kia, Hyundai For Making Easily-Stolen Vehicles
Slew Of Cities Suing Kia, Hyundai For Making Easily-Stolen Vehicles
At the same time big cities are going light on criminals, many of them are choosing to instead make an example out of the manufacturers of stolen property.
At least eight cities have filed suit against Kia and Hyundai, seeking unspecified damages over the manufacturers’ production of cars lacking common anti-theft technology. The cities include Seattle, Milwaukee, Cleveland, San Diego and St. Louis. Individuals who bought or leased the cars are also suing the companies.
“Big corporations like Kia and Hyundai must be held accountable for endangering our residents and putting profit over people,” said St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.
In a suit filed in February, the city of Columbus, Ohio said, “The security system for these cars is so substandard that it can be exploited by a middle-schooler.” At risk are Kias made from 2011 to 2021, and Hyundais built between 2016 and 2021.
Because millions of Hyundai and Kia vehicles lack a common anti-theft device called an “immobilizer,” they can be easily started with a USB cable and a screwdriver. “Immobilizers were standard on 96% of U.S vehicles by 2015 but were standard on only 26% of 2015 model year Hyundai and Kia vehicles,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Thanks to how-to videos circulated on TikTok and other social media platforms, thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles positively skyrocketed in 2021.
Screenshot from a video showing how easy it is to steal many Kias and Hyundais with a USB cable For example, Milwaukee saw Hyundai and Kia thefts soar from 895 in 2020 to 6,970 in 2021, with other cities also reporting 8- and 10-fold increases.
To look at the risk in another way, about one in every 10 Kias registered in Chicago was stolen in 2022. Insurers have taken note — and taken action: State Farm and Progressive have each restricted and/or repriced their coverage of affected Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Sales of policies have been limited in certain parts of the country.
Scrambling to address the fiasco, both manufacturers distributed steering wheel locks to police departments last year and encouraged them to give them to Kia and Hyundai owners. Now, they’re implementing a software fix that has to be installed by a dealer. The software upgrade isn’t available for all models yet — and for some, it will never come.
Of course, even after the upgrade is installed, your vehicle is still seen as a prime target. To notify criminals that it’s been upgraded, Hyundai is giving customers window stickers. Ahead of your upgrade, you can also try bluffing: Enterprising people are selling stickers online.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/17/2023 – 17:20
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