Today’s News 27th March 2024

• Escobar: The Nuland/Budanov/Tajik/Crocus Connection
  Escobar: The Nuland/Budanov/Tajik/Crocus Connection

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  Let’s start with the possible chain of events that may have led to the Crocus terror attack.

  

  This is as explosive as it gets. Intel sources in Moscow discreetly confirm this is one of the FSB’s prime lines of investigation.

  December 4, 2023. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, only 3 months after his retirement, tells CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post: “There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night (…) You gotta get back there and create a campaign behind the lines.”

  January 4, 2024: In an interview with ABC News, “spy chief” Kyrylo Budanov lays down the road map: strikes “deeper and deeper” into Russia.

  January 31: Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev and meets Budanov. Then, in a dodgy press conference at night in the middle of an empty street, she promises “nasty surprises” to Putin: code for asymmetric war.

  February 22: Nuland shows up at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event and doubles down on the “nasty surprises” and asymmetric war. That may be interpreted as the definitive signal for Budanov to start deploying dirty ops.

  February 25: The New York Times publishes a story about CIA cells in Ukraine: nothing that Russian intel does not already know.

  Then, a lull until March 5 – when crucial shadow play may have been in effect. Privileged scenario: Nuland was a key dirty ops plotter alongside the CIA and the Ukrainian GUR (Budanov). Rival Deep State factions got hold of it and maneuvered to “terminate” her one way or another – because Russian intel would have inevitably connected the dots.

  Yet Nuland, in fact, is not “retired” yet; she’s still presented as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and showed up recently in Rome for a G7-related meeting, although her new job, in theory, seems to be at Columbia University (a Hillary Clinton maneuver).

  Meanwhile, the assets for a major “nasty surprise” are already in place, in the dark, and totally off radar. The op cannot be called off.

  March 5: Little Blinken formally announces Nuland’s “retirement”.

  March 7: At least one Tajik among the four-member terror commando visits the Crocus venue and has his photo taken.

  March 7-8 at night: U.S. and British embassies simultaneously announce a possible terror attack on Moscow, telling their nationals to avoid “concerts” and gatherings within the next two days.

  March 9: Massively popular Russian patriotic singer Shaman performs at Crocus. That may have been the carefully chosen occasion targeted for the “nasty surprise” – as it falls only a few days before the presidential elections, from March 15 to 17. But security at Crocus was massive, so the op is postponed.

  March 22: The Crocus City Hall terror attack.

  ISIS-K: the ultimate can of worms

  The Budanov connection is betrayed by the modus operandi – similar to previous Ukraine intel terror attacks against Daria Dugina and Vladimir Tatarsky: close reconnaissance for days, even weeks; the hit; and then a dash for the border.

  And that brings us to the Tajik connection.

  There seem to be holes aplenty in the narrative concocted by the ragged bunch turned mass killers: following an Islamist preacher on Telegram; offered what was later established as a puny 500 thousand rubles (roughly $4,500) for the four of them to shoot random people in a concert hall; sent half of the funds via Telegram; directed to a weapons cache where they find AK-12s and hand grenades.

  The videos show that they used the machine guns like pros; shots were accurate, short bursts or single fire; no panic whatsoever; effective use of hand grenades; fleeing the scene in a flash, just melting away, almost in time to catch the “window” that would take them across the border to Ukraine.

  All that takes training. And that also applies to facing nasty counter-interrogation. Still, the FSB seems to have broken them all – quite literally.

  A potential handler has surfaced, named Abdullo Buriyev. Turkish intel had earlier identified him as a handler for ISIS-K, or Wilayat Khorasan in Afghanistan. One of the members of the Crocus commando told the FSB their “acquaintance” Abdullo helped them to buy the car for the op.

  And that leads us to the massive can of worms to end them all: ISIS-K.

  The alleged emir of ISIS-K, since 2020, is an Afghan Tajik, Sanaullah Ghafari. He was not killed in Afghanistan in June 2023, as the Americans were spinning: he may be currently holed up in Balochistan in Pakistan.

  Yet the real person of interest here is not Tajik Ghafari but Chechen Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, the former leader of the jihadi outfit Ajnad al-Kavkaz (“Soldiers of the Caucasus”), who was fighting against the government in Damascus in Idlib and then escaped to Ukraine because of a crackdown by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – in another one of those classic inter-jihadi squabbles.

  Shishani was spotted on the border near Belgorod during the recent attack concocted by Ukrainian intel inside Russia. Call it another vector of the “nasty surprises”.

  Shishani had been in Ukraine for over two years and has acquired citizenship. He is in fact the sterling connection between the nasty motley crue Idlib gangs in Syria and GUR in Kiev – as his Chechens worked closely with Jabhat al-Nusra, which was virtually indistinguishable from ISIS.

  Shishani, fiercely anti-Assad, anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov, is the classic “moderate rebel” advertised for years as a “freedom fighter” by the CIA and the Pentagon.

  Some of the four hapless Tajiks seem to have followed ideological/religious indoctrination on the internet dispensed by Wilayat Khorasan, or ISIS-K, in a chat room called Rahnamo ba Khuroson.

  The indoctrination game happened to be supervised by a Tajik, Salmon Khurosoni. He’s the guy who made the first move to recruit the commando. Khurosoni is arguably a messenger between ISIS-K and the CIA.

  The problem is the ISIS-K modus operandi for any attack never features a fistful of dollars: the promise is Paradise via martyrdom. Yet in this case it seems it’s Khurosoni himself who has approved the 500 thousand ruble reward.

  After handler Buriyev relayed the instructions, the commando sent the bayat – the ISIS pledge of allegiance – to Khurosoni. Ukraine may not have been their final destination. Another foreign intel connection – not identified by FSB sources – would have sent them to Turkey, and then Afghanistan.

  That’s exactly where Khurosoni is to be found. Khurosoni may have been the ideological mastermind of Crocus. But, crucially, he’s not the client.

  The Ukrainian love affair with terror gangs

  Ukrainian intel, SBU and GUR, have been using the “Islamic” terror galaxy as they please since the first Chechnya war in the mid-1990s. Milley and Nuland of course knew it, as there were serious rifts in the past, for instance, between GUR and the CIA.

  Following the symbiosis of any Ukrainian government post-1991 with assorted terror/jihadi outfits, Kiev post-Maidan turbo-charged these connections especially with Idlib gangs, as well as north Caucasus outfits, from the Chechen Shishani to ISIS in Syria and then ISIS-K. GUR routinely aims to recruit ISIS and ISIS-K denizens via online chat rooms. Exactly the modus operandi that led to Crocus.

  One “Azan” association, founded in 2017 by Anvar Derkach, a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir, actually facilitates terrorist life in Ukraine, Tatars from Crimea included – from lodging to juridical assistance.

  The FSB investigation is establishing a trail: Crocus was planned by pros – and certainly not by a bunch of low-IQ Tajik dregs. Not by ISIS-K, but by GUR. A classic false flag, with the clueless Tajiks under the impression that they were working for ISIS-K.

  The FSB investigation is also unveiling the standard modus operandi of online terror, everywhere. A recruiter focuses on a specific profile; adapts himself to the candidate, especially his – low – IQ; provides him with the minimum necessary for a job; then the candidate/executor become disposable.

  Everyone in Russia remembers that during the first attack on the Crimea bridge, the driver of the kamikaze truck was blissfully unaware of what he was carrying,

  As for ISIS, everyone seriously following West Asia knows that’s a gigantic diversionist scam, complete with the Americans transferring ISIS operatives from the Al-Tanf base to the eastern Euphrates, and then to Afghanistan after the Hegemon’s humiliating “withdrawal”. Project ISIS-K actually started in 2021, after it became pointless to use ISIS goons imported from Syria to block the relentless progress of the Taliban.

  Ace Russian war correspondent Marat Khairullin has added another juicy morsel to this funky salad: he convincingly unveils the MI6 angle in the Crocus City Hall terror attack (in English here, in two parts, posted by “S”).

  The FSB is right in the middle of the painstaking process of cracking most, if not all ISIS-K-CIA/MI6 connections. Once it’s all established, there will be hell to pay.

  But that won’t be the end of the story. Countless terror networks are not controlled by Western intel – although they will work with Western intel via middlemen, usually Salafist “preachers” who deal with Saudi/Gulf intel agencies.

  The case of the CIA flying “black” helicopters to extract jihadists from Syria and drop them in Afghanistan is more like an exception – in terms of direct contact – than the norm. So the FSB and the Kremlin will be very careful when it comes to directly accusing the CIA and MI6 of managing these networks.

  But even with plausible deniability, the Crocus investigation seems to be leading exactly to where Moscow wants it: uncovering the crucial middleman. And everything seems to be pointing to Budanov and his goons.

  Ramzan Kadyrov dropped an extra clue. He said the Crocus “curators” chose on purpose to instrumentalize elements of an ethnic minority – Tajiks – who barely speak Russian to open up new wounds in a multinational nation where dozens of ethnicities live side by side for centuries.

  In the end, it didn’t work. The Russian population has handed to the Kremlin total carte blanche to exercise brutal, maximum punishment – whatever and wherever it takes.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/27/2024 – 02:00

• China's 'Unrestricted Warfare': Is It Here Already?
  China’s ‘Unrestricted Warfare’: Is It Here Already?

  Authored by Pete Hoekstra via The Gatestone Institute,

  • China-linked hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.

  • The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by “unrestricted warfare.” Not a bullet was fired. It did not have to be. According to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, it is perfect.

  • What are some of the steps that should be taken?

  • The West has correctly identified the CCP as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago.

  The West has correctly identified the Chinese Communist Party as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago. (Image source: iStock)

  If there is one thing FBI Director Christopher Wray has been consistent on, it is the threat of Communist China across a wide range of fronts. At an unprecedented event on July 6, 2022, Wray and his British counterpart, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, held a joint public appearance – the first ever — to discuss the growing security challenge posed by China. Evidently, they saw the matter as urgent.

  In this joint appearance, the two men highlighted the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the CCP’s civil-military fusion state — specifically, that the CCP is intent on acquiring and stealing technology and business secrets from the West. Targeted areas include advanced materials, data and artificial intelligence (AI). China’s President Xi Jinping has made it clear that he intends China to not only catch-up to, but surpass, the West.

  More recently, Wray highlighted how the CCP and those affiliated with it apparently plan to use its technological capabilities to target the West.

  China-linked hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.

  

  The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by “unrestricted warfare.” Not a bullet was fired. It did not have to be. According to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, it is perfect.

  Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), testified before the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party that the threats posed by China are not imaginary: they are real. Her agency already has discovered CCP penetrations into the telecommunications industry, aviation, energy and water infrastructure. As the threat from China continues to grow, the global security environment requires the U.S. and our allies to act now to harden our infrastructure and systems to mitigate the threat.

  The problem is one of supreme urgency.

  No one knows who will win the U.S. presidential election on November 5. If I were head of the Chinese Communist Party, I would probably be saying to myself, “I am stuck with a weak economy, more than a billion people who will not be happy with that, and just more seven months with an American president who calls me a ‘competitor,’ as if the US-Chinese relationship were about EV car dealerships — although that, too. What are my choices? a) Use this opportunity, which will soon be closing, to choke off Taiwan and take over the world’s supply of semiconductor chips. If the U.S. tries to stop us, we could threaten them with mayhem or simply go ahead and make some. b) Instead of Taiwan, why not just go straight for the U.S. while it is bogged down in Ukraine, the Middle East and its election? Or c) We can wait and see who wins (with our help) and if it is the wrong person, we still have two-and-a-half months until the new president is inaugurated.”

  What are some of the steps that should be taken?

  First, stop all investments in China and reroute essentials, such as the manufacture of medicines, to other nations. Any investment, even in paper cocktail umbrellas, goes toward strengthening the People’s Liberation Army against us. We can hear the screeching of Wall Street and their Augustinian cry: “But not yet!” The threat, however, should be viewed in terms of national security. No one will ring a bell when the lights go out.

  The U.S. will also need to impose secondary sanctions, so that any country preferring to do business with China is prohibited from doing business with the U.S.

  In addition, China — for poisoning to death roughly 100,000 Americans each year with fentanyl and other opiates, a mass-murder equivalent to one large plane crash every day — should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. China should also be barred from using the international banking system, or SWIFT, “a secure network that allows more than 10,000 financial institutions in 212 different countries to send and receive information about financial transactions to each other.”

  Second, companies and universities also need to get serious about their security systems to make the theft of intellectual property more difficult to perpetrate but easier to detect. We cannot allow our enemies to short-circuit the difficult and expensive process of technological innovation by simply walking out the door with the plans.

  This precaution, sadly, would do well to include a moratorium, at least for the time being, on students from Communist China attending U.S. universities. Again, there will be more screeching from academic institutions that are fond of holding out their tin cups, but are we really interested in educating our “competitors” to take us over or kill us?

  Third, the U.S. needs to cooperate with its allies to protect the intellectual property and technological advances of our countries’ respective corporations as a national security priority. One excellent example where this cooperation has been successful is between the U.S. and the Netherlands. The governments of the two countries have worked together closely to protect against technology transfer to the CCP. While each country has the decision as to its own trade policies, sharing intelligence and threat assessments enables both countries to make better decisions regarding joint security concerns.

  Fourth, companies must be willing to notify the government if their systems have been attacked or compromised by outside entities. Under current law, publicly-traded companies have four days to report a cyber incident to regulators. Businesses sometimes have been understandably reluctant to acknowledge that their systems have been compromised: there is the risk of reputational damage and unpleasant repercussions. Organizations, however, need to be confident that sharing this information with the government will only be used to help address the specific incident. Tragically, our government has not quite been doing all it can to inspire trust. There might be some extremely unpleasant repercussions from that.

  Finally, there must be a coordinated strategy between our national, state and local governments on the CCP threat, including prime examples of where this system has failed, as in the production of EV batteries in the U.S. by CCP firms; the CCP buying up American farmland, especially near military bases, and the government’s failure to hold the CCP to account for its lies about COVID’s human-to-human transmissibility, which caused the unnecessary deaths of more than a million Americans, and the CCP’s mass-poisoning of Americans with fentanyl, which in itself is an act of war.

  While the federal government has warned “that Chinese EVs could collect your data and send it back to China,” states and local governments are welcoming Chinese EV battery manufacturing plants into their communities, frequently with massive government subsidies. This lack of coordination is a serious vulnerability in our national security posture.

  Wray and McCallum were correct in highlighting the threat from the CCP in 2022. Wray has reemphasized the growing threat.

  The evidence is clear, and the time has come for our elected leaders and public servants — at all levels of government — to respond in a coordinated fashion to this threat.

  The West has correctly identified the CCP as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 23:40

• Which Countries Are Really The Richest?
  Which Countries Are Really The Richest?

  Ranking countries by the size of their economies and their overall net wealth, the U.S. is usually at the top of the list, followed by countries like China, Japan or Germany.

  But, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, sorting countries for their per-capita average wealth – or even for their median per-capita wealth – other countries come out on top.

  Using the two metrics, Switzerland was the richest country in the world with the highest average per-capita wealth of around US$685,000 per adult.

  Looking at median per-capita wealth – the wealth of the person that shares their country with an equal number of richer and poorer people – Iceland tops the ranking with around $413,000 in wealth being held by this (imaginary) person.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Per-capita assets arguably show a more balanced picture of a country’s wealth by acknowledging that smaller countries with less citizens will of course accumulate less wealth in total.

  Yet, calculating averages does not take into account how wealth is distributed in a society.

  Median wealth, on the other hand, increases the more equal a country’s assets are allocated. Iceland and other Scandinavian countries are known for their more equal wealth distribution and data by Credit Suisse reflects this to a degree. Denmark comes in rank 7 and Norway in rank 10 for per-capita median wealth.

  The U.S. is the third-wealthiest country on a per-capita average basis, yet Americans are only in rank 15 for median wealth.

  The situation in Belgium is the other way round: It is listed 13th for average wealth, but third for median wealth, showing that it is a more egalitarian country in terms of wealth distribution.

  Looking at the size of the gap between mean and median wealth, the U.S. comes in rank 7 with an average wealth more than five times or 512% as high as the median wealth. This is exceeded by no major country in the world except Brazil, where this number stands at 517%.

  Some of the smallest relative gaps between mean and median wealth were registered in the countries topping the median wealth list: Iceland, Luxembourg and Belgium. Other countries which might not have the highest mean wealth rates but do have some of the smallest gaps are Eastern European nations Slovakia and Slovenia. Poorer countries which nevertheless have big gaps between average and median wealth include the aforementioned Brazil as well as South Africa, Russia and Nigeria.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 23:20

• New Details Emerge In Death Of Sen. McConnell's Sister-In-Law
  New Details Emerge In Death Of Sen. McConnell’s Sister-In-Law

  Authored by Steve Ispas and Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Angela Chao, the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), died on Feb. 11 after backing her vehicle into a pond.

  

  More details have since emerged, including that Ms. Chao was on the phone with a friend for eight minutes after her car hit the pond and was sinking, according to the Blanco County Sheriff’s incident report obtained by The Epoch Times.

  The report also revealed Ms. Chao had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.233 percent, almost three times higher than the legal threshold of 0.08 percent for driving in Texas.

  Ms. Chao, 50, was CEO of the U.S.-based family business, Foremost Group, and a previous top executive for a Chinese shipping giant and board member of China’s World Bank.

  On February 10, Ms. Chao and seven female friends—many with home addresses in New York—had gathered for dinner and drinks at the guest lodge located on Ms. Chao’s private ranch, JW Ranch, in Blanco County, Texas.

  “They had good conversation throughout the night and all were in good spirits,” the incident report states, according to statements from those present.

  As the evening wrapped up, Ms. Chao decided to drive to the main lodge rather than take the short walk from the guest house.

  Security cameras on the exterior of the lodge captured the moment Ms. Chao drove her car into the pond, according to two videos from different angles that were provided to investigators by the property manager.

  The video from the south side camera shows Ms. Chao come into view alone at 11:37:02 p.m. as she “continues to walk unsteadily to her vehicle while continuing to hold her cellular phone in her right hand,” the police report states.

  At 11:38:06 p.m. the vehicle lurches forward toward a wooden barrier, then reverses to the left and over the top of a limestone block wall, entering the water at 11:38:15 p.m.

  The video from the west side camera showed the vehicle floating and spinning after entering water, at 11:41:52 pm the headlight disappears and reappears at 11:42:37 pm.

  The report says at approximately 11:42 pm, Ms. Chao’s friend Amber Landeau-Keinan received a telephone call from Ms. Chao, who told her “in a calm voice” that she was in the “lake,” which was a stock tank, or pond, near the guest house.

  Ms. Chao said she had put the car, a 2020 Tesla model X SUV, in reverse instead of drive while making a three-point turn.

  

  At the time, Ms. Landeau-Keinan was in bed, and as she remained on the phone with Ms. Chao, she got dressed, and knocked on Heela Tsuzuki’s door who was in the next room, to inform her that Ms. Chao was in the pond, the report states.

  The west side camera captures Ms. Landeau-Keinan rushing outside to look for the vehicle at 11:43:21 p.m., while on the phone with Ms. Chao.

  She told Ms. Chao to get out of the vehicle after Ms. Chao said her feet were under water.

  Ms. Chao informs Ms. Landeau-Keinan she’s not able to get out of the vehicle, the report states. Ms. Chao told Landeau-Keinan the water was rising and she was going to die and said “I love you” prior to the vehicle submerging, the report states.

  Another friend, Victoria Garcia, got into the water and swam to the vehicle, while Ms. Landeau-Keinan got into a kayak and paddled toward the vehicle.

  Ms. Tsuzuki notified others about the incident. She tried multiple times to find the ranch manager, Michael Galster and his wife Hill, for assistance, and called 911 but she couldn’t provide the exact location due to a poor carrier signal.

  Call records from AT&T per a subpoena recorded the time of the first 911 call at 11:47:59 p.m., the police report notes.

  The next 911 call, that provided the location, was made at 11:52:53 pm, and by this time Mr. Galster had been located.

  Dispatch called a rescue team at 11:53.04 p.m., and two sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene at 12:10 a.m.

  When Blanco County Sheriff’s deputy Ryan Bible arrived, he saw the manager standing on top of the “fully submerged vehicle located in the [stock] tank about 25 yards from the north bank,” and “a female in a red dress on a kayak paddling toward the shore,” according to his statement.

  When the medic team arrived at 12:12 a.m., Mr. Bible and deputy Randall Mathew entered the water trying to locate the entrapped Ms. Chao.

  Mr. Galster told them the back passenger door of the vehicle was open, and the two deputies attempted multiple times to get to Ms. Chao through that door but were unable to.

  “During our time in the water there were several females screaming at us frantically on the bank.” Mr. Bible wrote in his statement.

  Mr. Bible swam back to shore to retrieve a breaker bar and tried to break the windshield but failed. With the help of two medics, he eventually broke the driver’s side window.

  “Once the window was busted I swam down and felt a hand.” Mr. Bible said.

  “Medic Ben Collie then was able to pull the hand out from the vehicle and we were then able to extract the female from the vehicle,” he wrote.

  Ms. Chao was out of the water at 12:56 a.m., 1 hour and 8 minutes after the car plunged into the pond. She was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m.

  Lt. Adam Acosta, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office, telephoned Ms. Chao’s husband, Jim Breyer, about the incident.

  

  “Breyer informed me for religious reasons they didn’t want an autopsy conducted.” Mr. Acosta wrote.

  “This is not an uncommon request from family.”

  Texas Rangers and FBI agents met with the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office on February 15, according to the report.

  “After viewing everything they [Texas Rangers and the FBI] felt this incident was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.” the report concluded.

  However, the case remained open until the toxicology report and telephone records for Keinan and Tsuzuki were obtained, stated the report, which was released on March 20.

  The vehicle was pulled from the pond the night of the accident and released back to the ranch manager later the same day.

  About Angela Chao

  Ms. Chao has five sisters, one of whom, Elaine Chao, is married to Mr. McConnell. Ms. Elaine Chao was Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration.

  Ms. Chao and her husband, who were married in 2012, both have extensive ties to China. Both are Harvard alumni and Mr. Breyer also attended Stanford.

  Mr. Breyer is a venture capitalist and longtime investor in China via his company Breyer Capital and as the former co-chair of Beijing-based IDG Capital.

  Ms. Chao was one of six independent board members of the Bank of China from Jan. 4, 2017, to June 30, 2022.

  

  “The re-election of Chao as an independent non-executive board member of the bank will help the board to improve its ability to analyze and judge the international situation,” states a document from the bank’s 2018 shareholders meeting.

  The Bank of China has 14 board members; Four executive members, four non-executive members, and six independent members, according to an official document.

  The Bank of China is managed and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with most members on the board also members of the CCP. During her tenure, Ms. Chao was the only board member outside of China.

  From May 2009 to June 2011, Ms. Chao was also a board member of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), which builds ships for the People’s Liberation Army and Navy.

  The United Steelworkers Union and several other unions filed a petition on March 12 with the United States Trade Representative to investigate China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sector, including CSSC.

  Mr. Breyer has invested heavily in China for many years.

  As co-chair of IDG Capital from 2005 to January 2019, Mr. Breyer helped expand the company and invest in significant Chinese companies.

  IDG touts itself as “the first global investment firm to enter China” on LinkedIn. “IDG Capital has funded more than half of all Chinese unicorns in early rounds.”

  

  A report from the U.S. China Commission calls IDG’s investment track record in China “legendary.”

  According to the report, IDG’s China investments include Qihoo 360, which has been flagged by the U.S. Department of Commerce for “activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

  Other companies, such as ASR Microelectronics contribute to military-civil fusion programs in China.

  According to the U.S. State Department, military-civil fusion is an aggressive strategy that the CCP uses to develop a first-class military by removing barriers between civilian and commercial sectors and its military. The State Department says the CCP gains ground in this strategy by also “acquiring and diverting the world’s cutting-edge technologies—including through theft—in order to achieve military dominance.”

  Mr. Breyer also sits as a member of an independent task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.

  The task force is assembled to “assess issues of critical importance to U.S. foreign policy,” according to the website.

  “Task Force members aim to reach a meaningful consensus on policy.”

  In a 2022 interview with Techcrunch, Mr. Breyer said he has been very happy to invest in China over the past 16 years, “and I fully am passionate about continuing that for many years.”

  Mr. Breyer was chairman of the advisory committee of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management until 2021.

  “I’m involved with the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management Advisory Board, which is really a wonderful who’s-who list of American executives. I was the chair until a year ago, and Tim Cook is now the chair,” he told Techcrunch.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 23:00

• Gov. Al Smith And The Anti-Trump Republicans: Gingrich
  Gov. Al Smith And The Anti-Trump Republicans: Gingrich

  Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClear Politics,

  As I’ve watched some of President Donald Trump’s former appointees and allies say they can’t support him in 2024, I was reminded of a similar scenario in American history. 

  

  In 1936, Former New York Gov. Al Smith decided that he could not support President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s re-election.

  Smith was a popular reform Democrat who had been elected Governor of New York four times. In 1928, he became the first Catholic ever nominated for President by a major party. To strengthen his campaign, Smith convinced Roosevelt, who was then recovering from polio at Warm Springs, Georgia, to come back and run for governor. Smith lost the presidential race to Herbert Hoover, but Roosevelt became Governor of New York.

  When Roosevelt’s New Deal embraced government activism, powerful measures of intervening in the economy, and creating government programs for the poor and unemployed, Smith was alienated. He had been part of the eastern conservative wing of the Democratic Party, which had fought against William Jennings Bryan and his western populism.

  Gov. Smith was closer to the business establishment than to radical college professors.

  Finally, Smith could no longer support the man he had previously recruited. On Jan. 26, 1936, Smith said at the American Liberty League Dinner:

  “I must make a confession. It is not easy for me to stand up here tonight and talk to the American people against the Democratic administration. This is not easy. It hurts me. But I can call upon innumerable witnesses to testify to the fact that during my whole public life I put patriotism above partisanship. And when I see danger – I say ‘danger,’ that is, the ‘Stop, look, and listen’ to the fundamental principles upon which this government of ours was organized – it is difficult for me to refrain from speaking up.”

  Despite Smith’s defection, the Roosevelt New Deal coalition was massive (Roosevelt defeated Republican Kansas Gov. Alf Landon by 523 electoral votes and received 60.8 percent of the vote). Landon carried only Maine and Vermont.

  I tell that story to say this: The anti-Trump Republicans resemble the anti-Roosevelt Democrats of 1936. They yearn for a party which has disappeared. They advocate policies which are no longer realistic or viable. They are repelled by President Trump’s aggressive style and his dramatic shifts in policy.

  They are rapidly becoming a fossilized reminder of a party which no longer exists – and wants to operate in a world which no longer exists.

  Some have begun to harken back to the President Ronald Reagan years as a golden time. They wish the GOP could return to them. It is impossible to return to the 1980s, because the world has changed. The problems have changed. The politics have changed. And the institutions are sicker and more destructive than they were under Reagan.

  I first spent time with then Gov. Reagan in 1974. I worked to create the first Capitol Steps event – and really the first Contract with America – for candidate Reagan in 1980. For eight years, I served in the House as an active ally of President Reagan on nearly every issue. President Reagan was bold in his visionary approach but careful and cautious in taking risks. While he said the ultimate outcome of the Cold War would be “we win they lose,” he did not risk military confrontation with the Soviet Union.

  Reagan would have been appalled at a 22-year war in Afghanistan, which the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs admitted this week was a strategic defeat.

  Reagan warned in his farewell address that we were losing ground to a cultural effort to undermine our history, destroy the spirit of patriotism and eliminate learning what it meant to be an American. He would be much bolder and more radical today – faced with collapsing inner-city schools and radical anti-Americanism on college campuses. The Gov. Reagan who took on the counterculture at Berkeley was a much tougher and more intense opponent than the Morning in America Reagan from the 1984 campaign.

  People who object to President Trump’s aggressiveness and hide behind a sanitized, phony memory of Reagan forget that it was Governor Reagan who said of the Berkeley protests, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with, no more appeasement.”

  As Matthew Continetti recently wrote for the National Review, “If Donald Trump is elected president in November, he will have assembled a coalition unlike any Republican nominee in my lifetime.”

  Citing research from the American Enterprise Institute, Continetti pointed out that President Trump’s favorability is growing. His popularity is now at the highest points since he left office, and he is making steady gains with white and black Americans – and big gains with Hispanic Americans.

  Continetti captured the current challenge for the anti-Trump Republicans: “We aren’t used to a politics where the party of the ‘Left’ represents the establishment, and the party of the ‘Right’ represents an insurgent movement against the settled way of doing things.”

  In short, traditional Republicans who wanted to be part of the establishment are being alienated by new Republicans who want to change that establishment.

  The traditional Republican leadership (largely the Bush wing of the party) came from Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and had similar pedigrees. They see themselves as governing within the right wing of the old order. They are naturally repelled by the boisterous, noisy emergence of a working-class Republican movement which includes Latinos, African Americans, and blue collar whites. It doesn’t help that the new Republicans want to shatter the old order – not join it.

  Think of the anti-Trump Republicans as the Al Smith branch of the GOP. Their complaints will tell you more about them than President Trump – and they will also lose.

  For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 22:20

• Team Of Chinese Engineers Targeted By Suicide Bomber In Pakistan
  Team Of Chinese Engineers Targeted By Suicide Bomber In Pakistan

  Separatist Islamic insurgents in Pakistan appear to be engaging in all-out war with the government and its Chinese partners who are building Belt and Road Initiative projects in the south Asian country. Beijing has been investing billions into Pakistan, but some regions are very high-risk in terms of the security situation.

  After a string of attacks on locations hosting major Chinese infrastructure projects, there’s been a fresh suicide attack which killed five Chinese nationals Tuesday. A Pakistani driver was also killed when a suicide attacker crashed his explosive-laden vehicle into the group’s convoy, in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

  The Chinese nationals were engineers on their way from the capital of Islamabad to Dasu, which is the location of a new hydroelectric dam being constructed by a Chinese company.

  

  The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other similar ethnic separatist groups are an immediate suspect but no group has yet claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

  Making matters worse for rescue and recovery efforts, the Chinese convoy was attacked at the moment it traversed a mountainous area which has hard to access parts. According to Al Jazeera: 

  “Our rescue team has successfully retrieved bodies of four people whereas recovery of two more people is still ongoing,” Bilal Faizi, spokesman for Rescue 1122 group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Al Jazeera.

  Rescue officials said the vehicle carrying the Chinese nationals fell in a gorge after the blast and at least two bodies were badly burnt, making their identification difficult.

  Just a week ago there was a prior major terror attack at Pakistan’s strategic port city of Gwadar, which is crucial to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). A group of heavily armed militants stormed the complex last Wednesday and engaged in a lengthy firefight with security forces.

  Pakistan authorities identified the attackers as Baloch separatists, which had also been armed with bombs. At least seven of the militants were shot dead by security forces. The port has for more than the past decade been run by  the China Overseas Port Holding Company.

  Ethnic separatist and radical Islamic terrorist organizations have for years waged a long-running insurgency against the government and its foreign partners, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the population of the region.

  

  These groups have especially sought to target infrastructure and projects of the CPEC, seeing in it further confirmation that the Pakistan government is stealing from locals and enriching itself off foreign investments.

  China has long deployed security forces in order to protect these key economic corridors of the One Belt One Road Initiative, also commonly called the Silk Road Economic Belt.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 22:00

• Infrasound From Wind Turbines Could Be 'A Huge Threat To The Entire Biodiversity': Doctor
  Infrasound From Wind Turbines Could Be ‘A Huge Threat To The Entire Biodiversity’: Doctor

  Authored by Maurice Forgeng via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  More than 70,000 wind turbines operate across the United States, and the U.S. government continues to approve offshore wind projects as part of its transition toward clean energy.

  

  When wind turbines rotate, however, they generate not only electricity but also infrasound.

  For Dr. Ursula Bellut-Staeck, this development represents “a huge problem for all forms of organisms,” including humans. The medical doctor and scientific author has been studying the health effects of infrasound for several years. She has been looking into infrasound as a stressor on the cellular level since 2015 and published a paper in 2023 on how infrasound affects microcirculation and endothelial cells.

  Inaudible but Impactful

  Infrasound is defined as a sound wave with a frequency of less than 20 hertz (Hz). The lower the frequency of the sound, the greater its wavelength and the harder it is to shield from it. Infrasound can penetrate walls, people, and animals.

  “With ever larger wind turbines, the frequencies are getting lower and lower. This makes infrasound more problematic and dangerous,” Dr. Bellut-Staeck told The Epoch Times.

  Today’s wind turbines reach frequencies as low as 0.25 Hz. The wavelength of this frequency is just under 0.86 miles.

  Infrasound has another special feature. Humans cannot usually hear frequencies below 16 Hz, which marks the so-called lower hearing threshold. In other words, we cannot hear many of the sounds emitted by wind turbines. However, we may feel them in our bodies as humming or rumbling, as with a loudspeaker. The lower the frequency, the higher the sound pressure level (i.e., the volume) must be to feel or hear it.

  Nevertheless, the mechanical forces emanating from the inaudible sound frequencies can have an effect on the cell and membrane structures, Dr. Bellut-Staeck said.

  Transmitted via the Air and Ground

  Wind turbines generate infrasound when the rotor blade brushes past the mast. The rotor blade pushes large air masses in front of it, which is then interrupted at the mast. Infrasound is then transmitted not only through the air but also through the ground via the tower and can penetrate houses. Buildings, therefore, offer no protection. “On the contrary: Airborne and ground-borne infrasound can add up considerably indoors,” Dr. Bellut-Staeck said.

  Impact on Endothelial Cells

  Infrasound could also affect microcirculation, the blood circulation of the fine capillary network where oxygen and nutrients enter the surrounding tissues.

  More precisely, it’s the endothelial cells located on the inner wall of the capillaries that react to infrasound, Dr. Ursula Bellut-Staeck said. She’s been studying microcirculation and endothelial cells since 2004. In addition to transporting proteins, these cells have many vital functions, such as inhibiting inflammation and controlling blood pressure. In a rat study examining the effects of infrasound, researchers noticed endothelial swelling and outer cell membrane damage within three hours of exposure to infrasound with a frequency of 8 Hz.

  

  “Since around 2015, it has been noticed that people exposed to infrasound and vibration from technical emitters have shown symptoms that correspond to microcirculatory disorders,” Dr. Bellut-Staeck said. This effect was particularly noticeable after smaller wind turbines were replaced by larger ones.

  Reported adverse effects of industrial wind turbines include weakness, dizziness, headaches, concentration and memory issues, ear pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, and sleep disorders, according to research cited in Canadian Family Physician.

  Numerous animals have also reacted to wind turbines. It has been observed that they leave the vicinity of wind turbines. One study published in Scientific Reports showed that many bird and mammal species avoided wind farms and the surrounding areas, affecting distribution and migration patterns. Place-bound animals such as horses, cows, and pets are said to have shown changes in behavior, including signs of stress.

  “The symptoms in animals cannot be [attributed to] a nocebo effect,” Dr. Bellut-Staeck noted, as official authorities sometimes suggest. In contrast to the placebo effect, the nocebo effect describes a negative health effect from expectations of negative consequences.

  Dr. Bellut-Staeck pointed out that other technical systems also emit infrasound and could cause major problems. For example, in or near residences, this applies to heat pumps, biogas plants, and gas turbines. However, she expects large wind turbines to have the most far-reaching consequences for the environment and biodiversity—precisely because of their increasing number and size.

  “Such chronic and impulsive low-frequency stressors can never be compared to natural infrasound pollution [like high surf and strong winds],” she said.

  Are Whale Deaths Connected?

  In 2023, official data revealed an increase in the stranding and death of whales along the U.S. East Coast. There was a temporal and geographical connection between this excess mortality and the geological surveying conducted for the expansion of offshore wind power. As a result, 30 New Jersey mayors signed a petition asking congressmen to help pause offshore wind power expansion activities until a full investigation could be conducted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated, “There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities.”

  But Dr. Bellut-Staeck remains concerned by the low-frequency sound and vibrations of ship noise and other sounds. In the ocean, sound travels at 0.91 miles per second—four times faster than in the air. The depth of the oceans, therefore, offers no protection against sound.

  “It doesn’t just affect orientation, but also the regulation of vital bodily functions,” Dr. Bellut-Staeck said. “The consequences for the animals here are also lack of energy, chronic inflammation, disruption of reproduction, excess mortality, and population decline.”

  Vibrational Stress

  As all organisms react to infrasound, Dr. Bellut-Staeck emphasized that “we may have a huge, previously unrecognized threat to the entire biodiversity.”

  Dr. Bellut-Staeck, who does her research in Germany, where wind power is the largest contributor to the power grid, proposes that deep sound and vibration can act as a vibrational stress factor on endothelial cells. As many vital functions require intact endothelial cells, endothelial damage can have serious consequences, including contributing to vascular aging and atherosclerosis.

  The German Federal Environment Agency, however, told The Epoch Times that it has not found any evidence that infrasound from wind turbines causes adverse health effects and that “how infrasound emitted by wind turbines affects endothelial cells has not yet been scientifically proven.”

  International Studies Show Harmful Effects

  Dr. Bellut-Staeck said there are currently no studies to clearly illustrate or prove the risk of infrasound, as most studies focus on acoustic, or audible, sound.

  However, initial studies on the effects of infrasound indicate possible serious health problems. One study published in Environmental Disease concluded there was a high probability that people living near industrial wind turbines would experience harmful health effects due to anxiety, stress, and loss of sleep resulting from exposure to infrasound and other emissions. A German study also identified the toxic effects of infrasound exposure at a cellular level. Another study, published in PLoS ONE, documented brain activity changes following exposure to infrasound stimulation.

  These studies emphasize the need for further research and a better understanding of the impacts of infrasound.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 21:40

• "We Need Somebody Disruptive": Alex Jones, Former Bush Official Clash In Trump ZeroHedge Debate
  “We Need Somebody Disruptive”: Alex Jones, Former Bush Official Clash In Trump ZeroHedge Debate

  Last night kicked off the fifth ZeroHedge debate on the question: “Should Donald Trump be the next U.S. President?“

  The debate featured Infowars host Alex Jones and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos vs. independent journalist Michael Tracy and former George W. Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter.

  

  Tracey came in hot, accusing Trump of being two-faced for bashing special interests during the primary, while courting the donor class during the general election:

  “[Trump] was calling out to Miriam Adelson — who’s the widow of Sheldon Adelson — and having private soirees with her, and she’s excepted to give millions of dollars to Trump’s next campaign. He even said it outright. He said because of Miriam’s late husband, [Trump] was compelled to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Jerusalem.“

  Michael Tracey on Trump’s quoted tweet:https://t.co/vLlq5hS5Cu
  “When Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, what did he do? He courted the donors that he had just gotten the nomination by castigating, including Adelson who went on to become the most prolific donor.” pic.twitter.com/ylcc5czCFS

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 26, 2024

  In an enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend spirit, Alex Jones argued that entrenched bureaucratic powers within the U.S. pose an existential threat. Thus, given that Donald Trump is the primary force standing in their way, he deserves mass support.

  “We need somebody disruptive,” said Jones.

  Alex Jones: “That’s why we must back Trump all the way because if they can take down the popular front-runner in all the major polls, they can get everybody.” pic.twitter.com/QpcxgG5p84

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 26, 2024

  “Trump is the first President who has refused to follow the Constitution.”

  Former chief ethics lawyer of the George W. Bush White House, Richard Painter, accused Trump of being the first President to disregard the Constitution regarding the transfer of power after the 2020 US election.

  The comment did not go over well…

  Richard Painter: “I am not going to participate in a debate when people are making things up.”

  Alex Jones: “I don’t know where you found this dinosaur from 50 years ago that tells us George W. Bush — the war criminal — is a good guy.” pic.twitter.com/QtR1xgRYXv

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 26, 2024

  Papadopoulos, meanwhile, offered an international perspective in favor of Trump – who he says keept US adversaries at bay. The former Trump adviser attributes this to siloing Russian exports and increasing NATO funding — while unleashing “the shale renaissance in the United States.”

  Tracey hit back – arguing that such moves were in fact escalatory:

  “Go read Putin’s speech before he launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he cites multiple grievances with the U.S. administration, and half of them are to do with Trump… He hyper escalated tensions with Russia under the auspices of John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and all the other hard-liners.“

  Papadopoulos: “[Trump] sanctioned Nord Stream to cut off the Russian economy from the Europeans…. He bolstered NATO’s defense spending… NATO members were committing to the 2% expenditure.”

  Tracey: “It’s just not consistent with this idea that… he’s not getting us into wars.” pic.twitter.com/htdM9Rhd6z

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 26, 2024

  Watch the full debate here and decide who won:

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 21:25

• Sparks Fly Between US & Israel As Gaza Truce Talks At 'Dead End'
  Sparks Fly Between US & Israel As Gaza Truce Talks At ‘Dead End’

  The latest round of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Doha has collapsed and ended in anger and finger-pointing, with the the Israeli delegation reportedly packing up and leaving in haste. This point marks several rounds of failed talks.

  A senior Israeli official has declared that efforts toward a truce are “at a dead end” due to unrealistic demands by Hamas. The official further accused Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar of sabotaging diplomatic efforts “as part of a wider effort to inflame this war over Ramadan,” according to Reuters. This brings to an end this latest round of ten days of talks.

  

  Netanyahu’s office repeated its assertion on Tuesday that Hamas had made “delusional” demands, something which has continually stalled talks and prevented any progress. The Israeli statement vowed that it will not address “Hamas’s delusional demands” but will “pursue and achieve its just war objectives.”

  Netanyahu also brought the US into it, lashing out in the following:

  Hamas’s decision to reject a US-brokered compromise is “clear proof it is not interested in continuing talks, and a sad testament to the damage caused by the UN Security Council resolution,” referring to a call for a ceasefire passed Monday night that the US did not veto, thus enabling its passage.

  Hamas has levelled a similar charge at Israel, saying the prime minister is only interested in prolonging the military operation in Gaza. Netanyahu has for weeks made his position clear that any Hamas condition of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza which is made part of a hostage release deal remains a non-starter.

  Tensions and finger-pointing between the Biden administration and Israel have been on the rise. According to Axios in the wake of the truce talks collapse, “The Israeli statement angered the White House, which sees it as an attempt by Netanyahu to continue the fight that started the day before between the U.S. and Israel over the UN Security Council resolution, two senior U.S. official said.”

  The UNSC has just passed a formal resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, and its adoption was enabled by the US abstention, which infuriated Israel. Commenting on the Israeli statement and reaction, one US official state: “This statement is inaccurate in almost every respect and unfair to the hostages and their families.”

  On Tuesday there are reports of Israeli airstrikes on Rafah city…

  Rafah now 😭💔😭 pic.twitter.com/sPcONb29Dg

  — Abdullah Omar🇵🇸 (@Abdullah_Om3r03) March 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “Hamas’ response was prepared before the UN vote even took place. We will not play politics with this most important and difficult issue, and we will remain focused on a deal to free the remaining hostages,” the US official added.

  As a result of the UN vote, Israel canceled a planned delegation to the White House, which was to discuss the Rafah situation. The White House has called this an “overreaction” on Israel’s part. Israeli leaders have continued to signal that a Rafah ground operation is imminent, even as the US and other allies have warned against it at least until civilians can be moved from harm’s way.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 21:20

• Chicago Board Of Elections 'Mistakenly' Left Out Over 9,000 Mail-In Ballots In Primary Election
  Chicago Board Of Elections ‘Mistakenly’ Left Out Over 9,000 Mail-In Ballots In Primary Election

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Chicago Board of Elections official said Sunday that he had “mistakenly” left out over 9,000 mail-in ballots from one of the races in last week’s Illinois state primary election, sparking renewed scrutiny around voting by mail in the run-up to the November presidential election.

  “In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots” that came in by mail on the evening of March 18, a day prior to Election Day, according to a March 23 statement by Max Bever, Director of Public Information at the Chicago Board of Elections.

  The race in which the apparent tabulation error took place is between two Democrat candidates for state’s attorney in Chicago’s Cook County, Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III.

  

  Ms. O’Neill Burke, a former appellate judge who trails by roughly 14,000 votes, is widely seen as the more tough-on-crime candidate of the two.

  “We should be booming, and we’re not because of crime,” Ms. O’Neill Burke told The Associated Press. “This is something we can fix.”

  Mr. Harris, a professor and former prosecutor who’s the more progressive candidate of the two, has said punishments should consider racial disparities.

  The Chicago race is open because the current State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who faced criticism for being soft on crime, declined to run a third time.

  ‘I Traded Speed for Accuracy’

  One of the campaign issues in the Cook County state’s attorney race has been the future of Ms. Foxx’s controversial policy not to prosecute retail theft as a felony if the value of the stolen goods is below $1,000.

  Ms. O’Neill Burke has been critical of the policy.

  “It doesn’t deter crime, it promotes it,” she said.

  By contrast, Mr. Harris has vowed to keep it in place, if elected.

  “If someone came and took my cellphone, is that cellphone worth a felony on your record? I do not think so,” he told AP. “We look at recidivism. We charge everyone appropriately.”

  The Cook County state’s attorney’s office is the second largest in the country, after Los Angeles.

  Mr. Bever said in a March 24 update that the attorneys for both candidates met earlier that day and agreed that ballot counting and ballot signature verification would continue through Sunday, with poll watchers present.

  He said that election judges would be processing and counting roughly 13,086 mail-in ballots that had already been reviewed for timeliness, signature verification, and voter histories, with the vast majority of these received back via drop box on Election Day (March 19).

  Around 9,000 of these hadn’t been counted in the initial tally, with Mr. Bever providing an update on the fate of the initially missing ballots.

  “I made an error in reporting the number of Vote By Mail ballots received back on Monday, March 18 before Election Day that should have been included in the ‘received by Election Day’ numbers,” Mr. Bever said in the March 24 update.

  “Approximately 9,143 Vote By Mail additional ballots received back on Monday should have been included in this ‘received by Election Day’ number that would be processed and counted after Election Day, March 19,” he continued.

  The elections official said that the missing ballots had been secured in a receiving cage until they could be processed by scanning machines for signature verification and to rule out possible double-voting.

  He added that the missing ballots were inspected, processed, and counted by election judges between March 22 and March 23, and are already reflected in the unofficial results.

  Preliminary results, as of 6 p.m. on March 24, show Mr. Harris in the lead with 164,371 votes (52.14 percent) and Ms. O’Neill Burke trailing with 150,900 votes (47.86 percent).

  The final tally could still change as the counting period lasts through April 2, with official results to be announced on April 9.

  ‘Sounds Fishy’

  The incident drew scrutiny and criticism on social media, where a report about it was shared by the End Wokeness account, which pointed out that many of the ballots were from dropboxes, where postmarks aren’t required.

  “Sounds fishy,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the post.

  “Mail in dropbox elections are a joke,” the KanekoaTheGreat account, which has over 750,000 followers, posted.

  “Chicago keeps having more problems. There’s no way to have confidence in election results when ballots are ‘found’ later,” internet personality and former candidate for the U.S. Senate, Paul Szypula, said in a post on X.

  “Drop boxes also are sketchy and just invite cheating and mistakes. Democrat-run elections are rife with fraud and we see it happening more and more,” he added.

  Voting by mail has been the subject of increased scrutiny and criticism following the 2020 presidential election, which former President Donald Trump claims was marred by irregularities and fraud that he says cost him a win.

  A recent study exploring the likely impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots had in the 2020 election found that the outcome would “almost certainly” have been different without the massive expansion of absentee ballots.

  The study was based on data obtained from a Heartland/Rasmussen survey conducted in December 2023, which revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters, or 20 percent, admitted to actions that could be potentially fraudulent in the presidential election.

  After the researchers carried out additional analyses of the raw data, they concluded that there was a higher percentage of fraudulent mail-in ballots. They now believe that 28.2 percent of people who voted by mail in 2020 committed at least one type of behavior that is, “under most circumstances, illegal,” and so potentially amounts to voter fraud.

  A Heartland Institute research editor and research fellow who was involved in the study explained to The Epoch Times that there are narrow exceptions where a surveyed behavior may be legal, like filling out a mail-in ballot on behalf of another voter if that person is blind, illiterate, or disabled, and needs assistance.

  However, research fellow Jack McPherrin said such cases were within the margin of error and not statistically significant.

  The new study found that, absent the huge expansion of mail-in ballots during the pandemic, President Trump would most likely have won.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 21:00

• US Lawmakers Demand SEC Clarify Position On Prometheum's Plans For Ether
  US Lawmakers Demand SEC Clarify Position On Prometheum’s Plans For Ether

  Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com,

  According to a letter for SEC Chair Gary Gensler, leaving Ether in regulatory limbo between the SEC and CFTC could have “irreparable consequences for the digital asset markets.”

  

  Lawmakers with the United States House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee have expressed concerns about how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to handle Ether.

  In a March 26 letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, U.S. lawmakers, including House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and Vice Chair French Hill, urged the commission to address crypto firm Prometheum’s intention to offer institutional custody services for Ether.

  According to lawmakers, the announcement is at odds with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) stance on recognizing ETH as a “non-security digital asset” under its purview.

  “[T]he agencies have an extensive public record identifying ETH as a non-security digital asset,” said the lawmakers.

  “There are multiple regulatory actions grounded in that position […] [Prometheum’s] action, if allowed to proceed, could have irreparable consequences for the digital asset markets.”

  #NEW: Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee and @HouseAgGOP sent a letter to @SECGov Chair Gensler urging his agency to clarify its position with respect to SPBD Prometheum’s custody of #ETH.

  Read more 🔗https://t.co/MGGB9NAvWi pic.twitter.com/1U8lqMw8Ao

  — Financial Services GOP (@FinancialCmte) March 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The SEC has recently made claims suggesting that it intends to classify ETH as a security.

  Some experts have suggested that this position may lead to the commission denying approval for spot Ether exchange-traded funds. The SEC has already approved investment vehicles tied to ETH futures for listing and trading on U.S. exchanges.

  In contrast, the CFTC has recognized many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether as commodities. The commission filed a civil enforcement action against KuCoin and two of its founders on March 26, claiming that ETH, BTC and Litecoin were commodities and placing the exchange’s actions “squarely within the CFTC’s authority.”

  The lawmakers added in the letter to Gensler:

  “[T]he SEC’s failure to propose a rule or provide comprehensive guidance that provides clear rules for the digital asset marketplace regarding asset classification has only exacerbated the uncertainty in the digital asset ecosystem.”

  Following Prometheum’s ETH custody announcement in February, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam reiterated the commission’s position on Ether at a House Financial Service Committee hearing, warning of a potential conflict with the SEC over digital asset rules. In November 2023, CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson suggested several possible paths forward for regulatory clarity on crypto: through the courts, company policies and legislation from Congress.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 20:40

• Home-Flipping Plummets As Profits Slump
  Home-Flipping Plummets As Profits Slump

  By Michael Tucker of the Mortgage Bankers Association

  Home flipping fell nearly 30% in 2023 compared to the year before, according to ATTOM.

  The ATTOM year-end 2023 U.S. Home Flipping Report said 308,922 single-family homes and condos in the United States were flipped last year, down 29.3% from 436,807 in 2022 and the largest annual drop since 2008.

  

  “In 2023, the landscape for home flipping across the U.S. became increasingly challenging,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said. “Whether the overall market has soared or seen just modest gains in recent years, investors have missed out on the action.”

  Barber added that the sharp decline in the number of home flips likely reflected a combination of a tight supply of homes for sale as well as dwindling returns. “Either way, it will take some significant reworking of the financials for home flipping fortunes to turn back around,” he said.

  The report also revealed that as the number of homes flipped by investors declined, so did flips as a portion of all home sales, from 8.6% in 2022 to 8.1 percent last year.

  In another sign of down times for the home-flipping industry, profits and profit margins also sank on quick “buy-renovate-and-resell” projects. Gross profits on typical home flips in 2023 dropped to $66,000 nationwide (the difference between the median sales price and the median amount originally paid by investors). That was down from $70,100 in 2022 and translated into just a 27.5 percent return on investment compared to the original acquisition price.

  The latest nationwide ROI (before accounting for mortgage interest, property taxes, renovation expenses and other holding costs) was down from 28.1 percent in 2022 and 35.7 percent in 2021, ATTOM said; the worst level since 2007.

  Investors saw their profit margins decrease for the sixth time in the past seven years as the median price of the homes they flipped dipped slightly faster than the median price they had paid to purchase properties – 4.4 percent versus 4 percent.

  Nationally, the percentage of flipped homes originally purchased by investors with financing increased in 2023 to 36.5%, up from 35.7% in 2022 and from 36.2% in 2021, ATTOM said. Meanwhile, 63.5 percent of homes flipped in 2023 were originally bought with cash only, down from 64.3 percent in 2022 and from 63.8 percent two years earlier.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 20:20

• Florida Bans Social Media For Minors Under 14
  Florida Bans Social Media For Minors Under 14

  Florida has just passed a new law prohibiting children under 14-years-old from having social media accounts regardless of parental consent.

  

  Under the law which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025, social media companies must close accounts they believe to be used by minors under 14 – and must cancel accounts at the request of parents or minors. All information from the accounts must then be deleted, the Wall Street Journal reports.

  Minors who are 14 or 15 will be able to obtain a social media account with parental consent. If a parent does not consent, accounts already belonging to teens within that age range must be deleted.

  “Being buried in those devices all day is not the best way to grow up—it’s not the best way to get a good education,” Governor Ron DeSantis (R) said on Monday during an event to celebrate the signing of the bill.

  The new law doesn’t name which platforms it applies to, however social media sites which rely on features such as notification alerts and autoplay videos are subject to it.

  Supporters of the law have pointed to recent studies linking social-media use among young adults to a higher risk of depression and mental-health challenges. It can also make them vulnerable to online bullying and predators. -WSJ

  “A child, in their brain development, doesn’t have the ability to know that they’re being sucked into these addictive technologies, and to see the harm and step away from it,” said Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R) at the same event. “And because of that, we have to step in for them.”

  In response to the law, TikTok says it has policies to protect teens, and will continue to work to keep the platform safe. Snapchat and X didn’t respond to a WSJ request for comment.

  Other states have seen similar legislation proposed, however the bills all stop short of Florida’s total ban. In Arkansas, a federal judge blocked an age verification law for social media users and parental consent for minors’ accounts.

  In response to the Arkansas law, social media trade association NetChoice, of which Facebook parent Meta, TikTok and Snap, sued the state to halt the law. It has brought similar legal challenges in California and Ohio.

  According to NetChoice VP and general counsel Carl Szabo, the Florida law “forces Floridians to hand over sensitive personal information to websites or lose their access to critical information channels,” adding “his infringes on Floridians’ First Amendment rights to share and access speech online.”

  “There are better ways to keep Floridians, their families and their data safe and secure online without violating their freedoms,” he added.

  Florida expects to be sued over the new law, however Speaker Renner says he’s confident it will withstand legal scrutiny.

  “We’re gonna beat them, and we’re never, ever gonna stop,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 20:00

• Gen Z Males Are Rejecting Feminist-Friendly Ideologies
  Gen Z Males Are Rejecting Feminist-Friendly Ideologies

  Authored by John Mac Ghlionn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In “All the Rebel Women: The Rise of the Fourth Wave of Feminism,“ the author, Kira Cochrane, suggested that this particular wave of feminism ”isn’t about making everyone around the table feel comfortable.”

  

  “It’s about being disruptive, challenging, and changing the terms of the debate,” Ms. Cochrane said.

  What debate is she referencing? One that largely revolves around men. More specifically, how toxic they have become. Not surprisingly, many men (and women) haven’t taken too kindly to this particular narrative. Young men are especially repulsed, and so they should be.

  Last year, a report titled “The State of American Men 2023: From Confusion and Crisis to Hope” found that more than half of young males believe that men have it harder today than women. The report further unveiled significant levels of contempt for modern-day feminism, especially among male members of Generation Z. Yes, some in the “wokest” generation in the history of mankind are actively rejecting a core ingredient of wokeness. And who can blame them? Feminism, in its most current form, specializes in the demonization of masculinity. It regularly equates men with trash.

  Some feminists would have us believe that men, especially straight, white men, are a danger to society, one that must be addressed and, in some cases, attacked.

  Common sense (remember when it was a little more common?) tells us that if you keep bashing, berating, and belittling an entire group of individuals—or, in this case, half the country’s population—a response is inevitable.

  A recent survey out of King’s College London clearly demonstrates this fact. On both sides of the Atlantic, it seems, millions of Gen Z men have had enough of feminist-friendly narratives.

  Interestingly, however, the survey revealed that older males, when compared to younger generations, have a greater inclination toward progressive and feminist perspectives. In short, Gen Z males are more inclined than older baby boomers to believe that feminism has had a negative impact on broader society. In the UK, for example, one out of every four males aged 16 to 29 believes that being a man is more challenging than being a woman.

  This data sharply contrast with the prevailing perception of men today in comparison to their “pale, stale, and male” predecessors. The research indicates that the general public tends to assume that it would be the oldest group of men who believe that women have already achieved sufficient equality. However, this assumption is clearly incorrect. Approximately 20 percent of Gen Z males believe that being a man will be significantly more difficult than being a woman in the next two decades, echoing the sentiments of young men in the United States. In contrast, this sentiment drops to only 9 percent for males older than the age of 60.

  As the survey points out, when considering the age group of 16 to 29, 46 percent of women in this category believe that feminism has had a more beneficial impact on society than harm. This percentage is 10 points higher than the proportion of young men who share the same perspective (36 percent). Moreover, the survey notes that “among this age group, one in six (16%) men say feminism has done more harm than good, compared with one in 11 (9%) women.”

  What is going on here? Why are so many Gen Z males—again, on both sides of the pond—rejecting feminist-friendly ideologies?

  According to the academics responsible for the surprising survey, it may have something to do with the rise of Andrew Tate, a controversial, American British influencer who, in recent times, has become popular. A fifth of the Gen Z men surveyed hold a favorable view of Mr. Tate, who has a huge following in both the UK and the United States.

  On a recent episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” social psychologist Jean Twenge discussed Mr. Tate, suggesting that his influence has had—and continues to have—an impact on young men. In particular, Ms. Twenge suggested that Mr. Tate’s influence has contributed to Gen Z males’ rejection of left-wing politics.

  However, CNN’s Van Jones was quick to push back, arguing that this particular form of rejection has less to do with the pull of Mr. Tate and considerably more to do with the push of the left; to be more specific, the left’s effort, be it conscious or otherwise, to push young men away. Mr. Maher agreed with Mr. Jones, saying that just being a man today is considered “a little suspect.”

  It’s important to note that being a man, in both the UK and the United States, was considered “a little suspect” long before Mr. Tate shot to fame. Sure, he was the most Googled man in the world in 2022, but prior to this, most people were not familiar with his philosophies and overall mindset. Even The Guardian, no fan of Mr. Tate, conceded that he should be viewed as a “symptom” of a much broader problem.

  Commenting on the abovementioned survey, professor Rosie Campbell, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said:

  “This data shows it’s not just young men’s attitudes that stand out. For example, young women are much more likely than any other group to think ‘toxic masculinity’ is a helpful term, and are most pessimistic about the prospect of future progress on gender equality.”

  Let that percolate for a minute: Young women are “most pessimistic” about the future of gender equality and consider “toxic masculinity”—a truly heinous term—to be helpful.

  From Birmingham, Alabama, to Birmingham, England, name one thing men are allowed to do that women are not. If you find yourself scratching your head, struggling to think of an answer, that’s because there’s nothing to name. Gender equality already exists, but young women, many of whom are blinded by illogical ideologies, can’t separate the facts from fictitious narratives.

  Moreover, the term “toxic masculinity,” which was around a long time before Mr. Tate took the world by storm, is in no way constructive. On the contrary, it only serves to demonize an inescapable part of being a man. There was a time, not that long ago, when being a man and exhibiting masculine traits was something worth celebrating. However, in both the UK and the United States, those days appear to be long gone. To compound matters, the ideological divide between Gen Z men and women is fast becoming a gaping chasm.

  Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 19:40

• Israel Unleashes Major Airstrikes On Syria & Deep Inside Lebanon
  Israel Unleashes Major Airstrikes On Syria & Deep Inside Lebanon

  The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Tuesday another rare strike conducted deep into Lebanese territory. The strikes targeted “a military compound used by Hezbollah’s aerial unit” in the Baalbek District which is in the northeast of the country.

  This marks the deepest Israeli strike inside Lebanon since the war began in the wake of the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack, at more than 110km from Israel’s border.

  

  The extent of casualties or damage remains unclear, but it follows a similar February strike on the Bekaa Valley some 100km from the Israeli border, which killed at least two people. There are growing fears that if such strikes become more regular, it will signify a bigger regional war could be opening up.

  Hezbollah has lobbed several missiles against northern Israeli communities as well as the IDF base atop Mount Meron over the past days. The Mount Meron surveillance base is about 8km from the Lebanese border and has come under repeat attack over several months.

  In the overnight and early morning hours there were also large-scale strikes against areas of eastern Syria. While Israel frequently attacks Syria, some Syrian government-affiliated sources laid blame on the United States. According to regional outlet The Cradle: 

  Airstrikes targeted a number of areas in Syria’s eastern city of Deir Ezzor and its countryside on 26 March, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. “At 1:49 AM, American aircraft carried out several simultaneous air strikes targeting a number of areas in the governorate and its countryside,” Syria’s government-affiliated National Defense Forces (NDF) said, according to Sputnik.

  The strikes targeted the Salhiya area in Al-Bukamal near the Iraqi border and residential areas in the Al-Mayadin and Al-Qusour areas in Deir Ezzor. 

  But Israeli media has identified the IDF air force as behind the eastern Syria attack, reportedly targeting ‘pro-Iran’ assets. According to details in The Times of Israel:

  The Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning in eastern Syria, targeting Iranian assets and operatives involved in a recent plot to smuggle advanced arms to West Bank terrorists, The Times of Israel has learned.

  More than 15 people were reportedly killed in the strikes in the Deir Ezzor and al-Bukamal areas, close to Syria’s border with Iraq.

  The strikes targeted assets belonging to Iran’s Unit 4000, the Special Operations Division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Intelligence Organization, and the special operations unit of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria, known as Unit 18840, according to Israeli defense sources.

  Various international reports have cited different casualty figures, but what is clear is that there were a series of large airstrikes. Iranian media said a Revolutionary Guard member was killed in Syria overnight.

  Below: Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon…

  غارة عنيفة على بوداي في #بعلبك pic.twitter.com/FM7WQptCze

  — kataeb.org (@kataeb_Ar) March 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  According to The Associated Press, civilians were among the dead, including women, children, and a World Health Organization (WHO) official: 

  Dama Post, a pro-government media outlet in Syria, said the strikes targeted the provincial capital of Deir el-Zour that carries the same name, and the towns of Mayadeen and Boukamal. It said 20 people, including women and children, were among the dead.

  The World Health Organization said one of its team members, engineer Emad Shehab, was killed in one of the strikes that hit his building. It said Shehab, 42, served as a WHO focal point for water, sanitation, and hygiene in the province since 2022.

  Iran-linked insurgent attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria have mostly quieted down of late, compared to their frequency and weekly occurrence last year in the wake of Oct.7.

  In the meantime, any potential scenario where Israel were to move ground troops into southern Lebanon would likely spark a bigger war with Hezbollah, which could engulf all of Lebanon.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 19:20

• 'Serious Concerns' Raised About NY Judge's Trump Judgment
  ‘Serious Concerns’ Raised About NY Judge’s Trump Judgment

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  After a New York court reduced former President Donald Trump’s bond to appeal his civil fraud case, several legal analysts weighed in on the decision.

  

  On Monday, a state appeals court agreed to hold off collection of the former president’s more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If he does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s assets while he appeals.

  Greg Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University in New York, said that President Trump may have a strong case to challenge Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in February that he must pay $455 million in his civil fraud case.

  “I think the $175 million reduction … shows that the appellate division has serious concerns about the validity of Judge Engoron’s decision,” Mr. Germain told Newsweek.

  While he believes the judgment was “seriously flawed,” the professor said that President Trump will have a difficult time overturning the judge’s “findings that his financial statement was grossly overstated.”

  “The standard for the appeals court to review factual findings is ‘clearly erroneous,’ which means that there was no evidence in the record to support the judge’s findings. Engoron was very careful to cite to the record for his factual findings, which were very solid,” Mr. Germain said.

  But the judge, he added, “made no attempt to determine what portion of the profit was solely due to the financial statement as opposed to other factors” before handing down his ruling.

  The former president “has some strong legal arguments to make on appeal,” Mr. Germain added. “Unfortunately for him, I think he’s so focused on denying that he did anything wrong that the strong legal arguments may be lost in his unwinnable arguments on the facts.”

  The former president has said he did nothing wrong, adding that he actually undervalued his net worth when communicating with banks and insurers at the center of the civil fraud lawsuit. He said that the case is politically motivated, and that both the New York attorney general and Judge Engoron are biased against him.

  Meanwhile, a constitutional scholar said that the bond for an appeal should be been reduced to basically nothing.

  “The Court of Appeals may have felt that they can’t prejudge the evidence, and so to reduce the bond further would have been heavy-handed,” George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News on Monday. “I actually think they could have reduced this bond to virtually nothing, because the amount set by [Judge Arthur] Engoron was absurd.”

  In a post on social media, Mr. Turley wrote that the New York appellate court may “restore a degree of objectivity and restraint missing on the trial level,” referring to the Engoron decision. “Both Engoron and [New York Attorney General Letitia] James would have gained greater credibility if they recognized the obvious unreasonableness of the original demand,” he continued.

  A former federal prosecutor now in private practice said that “judgments of this size are rare,” referring to the penalties imposed against President Trump. “What makes this one unusual is someone who is subject to an enormous amount of money and has to come up with it himself,” Joshua Naftalis said.

  President Trump hailed the ruling and said he would post a bond, securities, or cash to cover the $175 million sum in the civil case. Ms. James’s office, meanwhile, noted that the judgment still stands, even if collection is paused.

  Previously, the former president’s lawyers pleaded for a state appeals court to halt collection, claiming it was “a practical impossibility” to get an underwriter to sign off on a bond for such a large sum, which grows daily because of interest. The Trump attorneys had earlier proposed a $100 million bond, but an appellate judge had said no late last month.

  Monday’s ruling came from a five-judge panel in the state’s intermediate appeals court, called the Appellate Division, where President Trump is fighting to overturn Judge Engoron’s Feb. 16 decision. Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Christopher Kise characterized Monday’s ruling as a key first step.

  “We won,” Ms. Habba told Fox News on Monday. “You know, no … we didn’t win. You know when we’ll win? When we get this all reversed, which is what’s gonna happen.”

  The Trump attorney added that she was “so proud” of the appeals court’s decision because it gave her “a little bit of faith” in the U.S. justice system.

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 19:00

• Taiwan Conducts Drills Deploying US Patriot Systems In Face Of Chinese Intrusions
  Taiwan Conducts Drills Deploying US Patriot Systems In Face Of Chinese Intrusions

  The Taiwanese armed forces on Tuesday conducted highly provocative anti-aircraft defense exercises in the face of Chinese military “intrusions” which have been occurring on a weekly basis. 

  Importantly, the drills centered on deploying and operating US-made Patriot missiles and anti-aircraft artillery systems provided by Washington. 

  

  A military statement said the drills are a response to “incursions by Chinese Communist Party aircraft and ships into the sea and airspace around Taiwan” and added that “the air force will continue to increase the intensity of drills.”

  “The aim was to verify the command and control of joint air defense operations among the three branches of the military,” the armed forces described.

  Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has meanwhile ramped up defense spending, and attended a ceremony Tuesday for the handover of two domestically made warships at Suao port.

  “Over the past few years, we have steadily implemented defense autonomy with Taiwan-made warships being named, launched, and commissioned one after another at an increasingly rapid pace,” Tsai announced at the event.

  “These achievements repeatedly demonstrate Taiwan’s capacity for domestic shipbuilding and proves our determination to safeguard our democracy and freedom,” she added.

  In the United States, lawmakers are taking steps to prepare for a potential future invasion by China’s military of the self-ruled island backed by the US.

  “Fears of possible conflict across the Taiwan Strait are spurring state-level legislation aimed to identify and mitigate the potential local impact of hostilities,” Politico reported last weekend.

  “Since the beginning of the year, lawmakers in Arizona, Nebraska and Illinois have introduced versions of the Pacific Conflict Stress Test Act — bills that impose checklists of potential local vulnerabilities in supply chains and infrastructure security if Beijing eventually uses force to ‘reunify’ with Taiwan,” the report said.

  #Taiwan, M109A7 155 mm tracked self-propelled howitzers on the move and Patriot battery stations being set up. pic.twitter.com/KaovVd6m3X

  — Globe Sentinel (@GlobeSentinels) March 18, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The Chinese government, for its part, has long maintained that it desires the island to be reunited through peaceful, political means; however, at the same time frequent PLA military drills have projected the threat of force in regional waters.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 18:40

• The State Of The Media's Double Standard
  The State Of The Media’s Double Standard

  Authored by Frank Miele via RealClear Politics,

  I’m sure everyone has heard enough about President Biden’s recent State of the Union address, certainly enough to know that the mainstream media thought it was admirable of Biden to scream at the top of his lungs that Republicans are detestable worms.

  

  You also probably heard enough from the media to be certain that Sen. Katie Britt, who delivered the response to Biden, is a lying, detestable Republican worm. But as humorist Will Rogers noted, if all you know is what you read in the newspapers (or in updated form, what you see on cable news), then you are woefully misinformed.

  Take the media’s coverage of Biden’s extemporaneous remarks about the murder of Laken Riley that were prompted by a challenge from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

  First of all, Biden got Riley’s name wrong, twice calling her “Lincoln” Riley. That was embarrassing and drew attention to the cognitive issues Biden has exhibited throughout his first term. But somehow, the mainstream media glossed over that and quickly focused on an entirely manufactured “news” story that seemed intended to reassure Democrats that Biden wasn’t channeling Trump’s border rhetoric.

  As everyone knows by now, Biden referred to the man arrested for Riley’s murder as an “illegal,” which angered members of the radical left “Squad,” who insisted that Jose Antonio Ibarra should properly be referred to as “undocumented.” This was just a silly moment of political correctness, as both words mean the same thing: Ibarra had no immigration documents because he was in the country illegally.

  Yet the mainstream media went to great trouble to explain that Biden “regretted” using the word illegal. Chances are most of the Democrat-leaning reporters who cover the White House sympathized with the Squad and were happy to see Biden essentially apologizing for the word he used to describe the alleged murderer.

  Much more importantly, the media’s attention on the linguistic sideshow meant that virtually no news outlet covered Biden’s truly offensive reference to Laken Riley’s murder in the State of the Union. Here’s exactly what he said.

  BIDEN: Lincoln – Lincoln  Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed.

  GREENE: By an illegal!

  BIDEN: By an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?

  Do you see what he did there in that last line? He minimizes and devalues the murder of Riley by suggesting that her life is not important when compared to the “many… thousands” of murders committed by legal immigrants or other Americans. This is the latest, albeit incredibly awkward, manifestation of a Democratic Party talking point: The immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. The social science on this is sketchy, and in any event, it begs the question of how many more violent crime victims exist because of the Democrats’ lenient criminal justice “reforms.”

  Leaving that aside, Biden’s rejoinder was offensive for another reason. We simply don’t dismiss the brutal murder of one person by proclaiming that it is statistically irrelevant. Each precious human life has untold value to God, as it should to presidents, and Laken Riley, a vibrant nursing student beloved by her family and friends, would still be alive if Biden and his political party had not made it easy for Ibarra to be in the country illegally.

  It was another story about the human toll of illegal immigration that caused outrage in the media about Britt’s response to the State of the Union.

  If you were to listen to the talking heads, Britt’s speech was the worst act of political suicide since Alexander Hamilton agreed to a duel with Aaron Burr. It was certainly one in a long line of responses that brought humiliation on a well-intended speaker. Britt’s performance was cringeworthy as she tried to emote rather than orate her response, and she was effectively reduced to a caricature in a brilliant performance by Scarlett Johansson on “Saturday Night Live.”

  If the media hacks had simply gone after Britt because of her awkward delivery of a speech that reads fine on paper, they would have met no opposition from me. But with their usual overreach and partisan slant, the finest minds in journalism instead attacked Britt for what they called her “misleading” anecdote of sexual abuse suffered by women who depend on the Mexican cartels to get them across the border.

  The story itself is quite short:

  “When I first took office… I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on end. We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it.”

  When the media discovered the identity of the victim who spoke to Britt, they claimed that Britt had tried to make it seem like President Biden’s policies were responsible for the woman’s abuse. But if any reporter could pass a simple reading comprehension test, he or she would see that Britt talked to a full-grown woman who revealed what had happened to her when she was 12. Since Britt talked to her sometime after her own election in 2023, and assuming that the woman was of the bare minimum adult age of 18, that would mean her abuse would have occurred no later than 2017, four years before Joe Biden took office.

  In other words, there was no attempt by Britt to blame Biden for this woman’s plight. Instead, she was hoping to elicit heart-felt sympathy from her audience for the plight of young women who fall victim to sex trafficking as they make their way to the U.S. border.

  Who could disagree with her? Only Democrats and media personalities who hate Republicans and Donald Trump. The fact that Trump was supposedly eyeing Britt as a potential vice presidential pick probably made her an irresistible target.

  Now, to be clear, there was one implicit error in the story Britt told. The abuse that Britt recounted actually took place in Mexico, and Britt’s reference to a “third-world country” suggests she didn’t know that. If so, that’s on her. It should have been obvious that most, but not all, of the sex trafficking of women making their way north from Colombia takes place before they arrive in the United States. But that is no reason to try to deflect attention away from the truth of what Britt was saying about the dangers facing women who are enticed north by Biden’s open-border policy.

  Instead of condemning the cartels, however, the legacy media went after Britt. When she responded by explaining that her anecdote was accurate, and that the timeline proved she never intended to claim Biden was responsible for the woman’s rapes, the media was ready with its all-purpose continuation of the smear. As NBC reported it, “Sen. Katie Britt attempts to clean up her misleading State of the Union response.” But it wasn’t misleading at all, and she wasn’t attempting to “clean up” anything; she was attempting to educate the Fake News Media. An impossible task.

  So, if you want to know what the State of the Union is, you don’t have to look any further than the double standard the media used in reporting the speeches by Biden and Britt. As we enter the 2024 election season, we citizens must pledge to look beyond the biased headlines and treat the national media with the distrust they have richly earned. Remember, if all you know is what you read in the newspapers or saw on cable news, you are being played for a fool. Get the facts for yourself, and then make up your own mind.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 18:20

• Pump-Prices To Hit $4 A Gallon As "Real Sleeper Risk" For Oil Market Looms
  Pump-Prices To Hit $4 A Gallon As “Real Sleeper Risk” For Oil Market Looms

  US oil prices have recently jumped above the $80 a barrel mark – the highest level since late 2023, sending worrying signals to the Federal Reserve and overly anxious White House. 

  The surge in WTI has pushed wholesales gasoline prices up…

  

  And worse, pump prices are set to accelerate even higher in the coming months to an average of $4 a gallon, which would be the highest level since the summer of 2022, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from AAA Automobile Club. 

  

  A combination of issues is pressuring futures and pump prices higher, including the transition to summer-grade gasoline and strained domestic refineries, as well as concerns about shrinking global crude product supplies while Ukraine attacks Russian refineries. 

  As we explained in the note titled “Dominoes Falling As Biden Admin Deals With Twin Energy Crisis In Russia, Middle East,” traders have been spooked by refinery outages across Russia due to Ukranian drone attacks. In the Middle East, traders are increasingly worried that Iran-backed Houthis could be several steps away from targeting Saudi refineries.

  And now it should make a whole lot of sense why the Biden administration pleaded with Ukrainians to stop drone attacks, along with the White House pushing Vice President Kamala Harris out on ABC News on Sunday to warn Israel publicly not to launch a counteroffensive against Hamas in Rafah – because increased chaos on that side of the world would stoke higher crude prices – and bad timing for the administration, just ahead of the US presidential election in November. 

  Devin Gladden, a spokesperson for AAA, which tracks gasoline prices, warned higher pump prices will force the working poor to make “lifestyle changes and be a focus in November’s presidential election.” Higher pump prices will also make Americans realize how much Bidenomics has failed. 

  Higher pump prices will also complicate the Fed’s fight against the inflation monster and likely delay rate cuts this summer, which would undoubtedly upset markets. 

  This comes as the administration is trying to refill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves after releasing a record amount to control last year’s summertime gasoline price surge. 

  

  Since the administration is busy refilling reserves, it has exhausted some of its war chest to control price spikes this spring and summer. 

  “If pump prices keep rising, SPR refills will stop automatically. While one cannot rule out another SPR release, the real sleeper risk is the Biden administration would revive threats to restrain US gasoline and diesel exports, especially if a storm disrupted refining capacity. The market, policy, and geopolitical implications of restricting product exports would dwarf those of the LNG pause. Supersize it and add fries,” Scott Modell, CEO at Rapidan Energy Advisors, wrote in a statement. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 03/26/2024 – 18:00

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