News of the World
05-17-2024, 08:38 PM
USA
What a lame joke!
TAIWAN
CHINA
INDIA
LATIN AMERICA
Any pastors supporting him should be dismissed by the local churches' elders.
AUSTRALIA
Fact Check on Biden's Assertions on Inflation
Quote:Claim: Biden’s false claim about inflation was really just making the point that the causes of inflation were already in place when President Joe Biden took office.
Verdict: False and misleading.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday said that President Joe Biden’s false claim that inflation was at nine percent when he took office was intended to point out that the causes that led to inflation reaching that high were in place when he took office in January of 2020.
Biden this week repeated the false claim that inflation was at nine percent when he took office. It’s a statement he first made in an interview last week with CNN’s Erin Burnett. This week he repeated the falsehood in an interview with Yahoo! Finance.
“I think inflation has gone slightly up, it was at 9 percent percent when I came in,” Biden said during the interview. “And, it’s now down around 3 percent percent.”
The year-over-year rate of inflation was 3.5 percent in March, the latest data available when Biden gave the interview. On Wednesday, the Labor Department said inflation had ticked down to 3.4 percent. Inflation has not been three percent or lower since March of 2021. When Biden took office, the consumer price index was up 1.4 percent compared with a year earlier.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden’s repeated inflation lie by Fox Business Network reporter Edward Lawrence.
“I want to ask you about how the President talks about inflation. Two times over the past two weeks, the President said inflation was nine percent when he came into office. Is the President misleading Americans on that? Or does it — just not realize that inflation was 1.4 percent when he came into office?” Lawrence asked.
Jean-Pierre replied that the president’s claim should not be taken literally. He was saying inflation was nine percent in order to make the point that the “factors that caused inflation” were in place when he took office.
“The point that he was making is that the factors that caused inflation were in place when he walked into the administration when he took office,” Jean-Pierre said.
CNN's Cooper on Michael Cohen's Testimony
Quote:CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Thursday on the network’s coverage of former President Donald Trump’s business record trial that if he were a juror, he would doubt the credibility of witness Michael Cohen after the defense lawyer Todd Blanche’s cross-examination.
Cooper said, “Throughout the day, Michael Cohen, when cornered, he found himself in a corner he does have a pattern of suddenly not understanding the question being asked are seemingly kind of, I mean, one could say buying time to try to figure out what, how he wants to answer. But he definitely suddenly starts to have Todd Blanche repeat questions saying, ‘I don’t quite understand what you mean, I’m confused by the question.’ But this time, Michael Cohen was cornered in what appeared here to be a lie, I think to many in the room.”
He added, “You could tell the import of the moment and everyone in the courtroom could tell and if you were unaware of it, the clicking of every of every reporters’ in the room typewriters, it was like a crescendo because the drama of the moment was so clear to everybody.”
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said, “Let me ask you if if I can put you in the jury box, having just witnessed that piece of cross-examination, do you have doubts that that conversation happened the way Michael Cohen testified?”
Cooper said, “Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it’s devastating for Michael Cohen’s credibility on this, I mean on this one particular topic. It’s hard too, I don’t know. Yes. I think if I was a juror in this case watching that, I would think, this guy’s making this up as he’s going along or he’s making this particular story up.”
US Tariffs on Chinese Products
Quote:On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) responded to President Joe Biden’s prior criticism of the Trump China tariffs by stating that China doesn’t follow market rules and saying that “I’m sure I probably took a shot,” at Trump’s tariffs at the time, “but we also realize that China is playing with a different set of rules.”
Co-host Joe Kernen raised President Joe Biden’s criticism of the Trump tariffs in 2019, where Biden said that “Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs. The cashiers at Target see what’s going on – they know more about economics than Trump” and asked Warner if he thinks Biden’s tariffs are the right call.
Warner responded, “China doesn’t operate on a [market] basis.”
Kernen then asked, “Did you criticize Trump’s tariffs when he put those on China?”
Warner answered, “I’m sure I probably took a shot, but we also realize that China is playing with a different set of rules. I think wait until you see China dump this number of cheap EVs into Germany and the European market and let’s see what the Germans do as well.”
Ship Hits Bridge in Texas
Quote:A barge has collided with the Pelican Island Causeway in Galveston, Texas, damaging the bridge, closing the roadway to all vehicular traffic and causing an oil spill.
The collision occurred at around 10 a.m. local time. Galveston officials said in a news release that there had been no reported injuries. Video footage obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU appears to show that part of the train trestle that runs along the bridge has collapsed.
The ship broke loose from its tow and drifted into the bridge, according to Richard Freed, the vice president of Martin Midstream Partners L.P.'s marine division. Freed said the ship was owned and operated by Martin Operating Partnership L.P., a subsidiary of Martin Midstream Partners, and said that personnel were at the scene.
The captain piloting the vessel had more than 20 years of maritime experience, Freed said.
Emergency management officials and state officials have responded to the scene, along with members of the Galveston police and fire departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Texas Department of Transportation.
The collision caused a spill of vacuum gas oil, which can be used to make transportation fuels and other byproducts, according to the Galveston Office of Emergency Management. The agency said that the oil had been visually confirmed in the water and said that about 6 1/2 miles of intracoastal waterway had been closed. The U.S. Coast Guard is responding to the spill, and will determine its extent and initiate "containment and cleanup processes," officials said.
The barge has a capacity of about 30,000 gallons, officials said. The amount that has leaked out is unknown, but Freed said a "limited amount of product" spilled into the waterway.
"At this time, there is no product leaking from the barge," Freed said.
The collision also led to a brief power outage on Pelican Island, Galveston officials said on social media. Secondary power has been restored, officials said.
David Copperfield in Trouble
Quote:Magician David Copperfield, whose real name is David Seth Kotkin, has been accused of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by 16 women, more than half of whom say they were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged incidents.
The allegations include assertions that Copperfield engaged in sexual activity with three women who were unable to consent, because the magician had drugged them prior, according to a report by the Guardian.
Allegations against Copperfield reportedly span from the late 1980s to 2014.
Notably, this is not the first time Copperfield has been accused of misconduct. One of the 16 women, Brittney Lewis, first went public with her allegations against the famed illusionist in 2018, claiming he had drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1988, when she was 17.
Another alleged victim told the Guardian that she and her friend had a similar experience with Copperfield, claiming he had drugged both of them before having sex with the two women, and they were therefore both unable to consent to the fornication.
Other allegations involve claims of groping — including touching of breasts — with one woman claiming to have been 15 at the time of the alleged incident.
Family members of the alleged 15-year-old victim said they were seated in the audience during one of Copperfield’s live performances, and claimed they personally witnessed the magician grope her breasts.
Copperfield has “denied any wrongdoing of any kind,” and “never acted inappropriately with anyone, let alone anyone underage,” his lawyers told the magazine, adding that drugs are “not a part of his world.”
“Everyone that knows David Copperfield will tell you that these recent allegations from one newspaper are the exact opposite of who David is,” a representative for Copperfield told Fox News.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/05/...play-fair/
“In fact, David has a record of risking his career to help protect women from powerful predators,” the representative added. “Most of these historic accusations have been made before, and all of them are as false now as they were then.”
The magician’s representative went on to say that Copperfield “requested the ‘evidence’ upon which these false allegations claim to rely and this has not been provided,” adding that while the #MeToo movement “must succeed,” these “false accusations must stop for it to flourish.”
“David will be considering the position with his legal team and will take such steps as may be appropriate over these false and scurrilous allegations,” the representative concluded.
Separately, Copperfield was named in unsealed January 2019 court documents involving the late disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Red Lobster Says Bye Bye, Kind of
Quote:Seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster has closed one hundred locations around the United States, according to its website.
One hundred Red Lobster locations in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, California, and Florida, were listed as closed on the company website as of Tuesday.
CEO and Founder of TAGeX Brands, Neal Sherman, announced in a post on LinkedIn on Monday that his company would be hosting “the largest restaurant liquidation” through an online auction. The TAGex website listed auctions for 48 Red Lobster locations throughout the U.S. that had been closed and would be auctioning off kitchen items and furniture from the locations.
Red Lobster locations in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Watertown, New York, Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Bloomingdale and Danville, Illinois, were among the restaurants that were closed.
All three locations in Jacksonville, Florida, were also listed as being closed, according to the restaurant chain’s website.
One employee from the Red Lobster in Buffalo, New York, told WKBW that he found out about the restaurant closure from one of the cooks, and not from corporate.
Immigration
Quote:More than half of the foreign-born immigrant population in the United States under President Joe Biden’s administration is unemployed, according to a recent report.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a report on Monday that showed that just 46 percent of migrants who had arrived in the U.S. “in 2022 or later” were employed as of the beginning of 2024.
“Immigration clearly adds workers to the country, but it just as clearly adds non-workers who need to be supported by the labor of others,” Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler, researchers with the CIS, wrote.
This was the case in the past, it is true today, and it will surely be the case for immigrants who arrive in the future. Those who simply see immigration as a source of labor need to understand it is also a source of school children, retirees, and many other non-workers.
The data from the CIS report undermines arguments that supporters of illegal immigration have used to try to point out that migrant workers help the economy by working hard.
The report also found that, since Biden took office in January 2021, the migrant population in the U.S. increased by roughly 6.6 million over the course of 39 months.
As of March 2024, there were 51.6 million foreign-born migrants, 5.1 million more than in 2022. This number made up 15.6 percent of the population in the U.S.
Quote:Democrats in Colorado are using tax dollars to fund free legal assistance for immigrants to double the number of asylum seekers settling there even as officials claim that President Joe Biden’s border crisis is breaking their budget.
In 2022, Colorado Democrats pushed through their state-funded Immigration Legal Defense Fund, which provides free legal advice to immigrants to help them gain legal status. The program is funded by $700,000 in taxes through early 2025, up from the $330,000 the program was handed in previous years.
The revelation comes from a Wednesday article by Rocky Mountain PBS meant to cajole readers into believing that “newcomers” are a boon to the Centennial State. The station nevertheless admitted that tax dollars are going to increase the influx of immigrants into the state.
“Newcomers” is the latest term that liberals are employing now that “migrants” and “immigrants” have all too often become synonymous with the word “illegal aliens.” This moving of the linguistic goalposts, so common on the left when a word or term outlives its usefulness for propaganda purposes, has been deployed throughout the media in 2024 in an effort to rebrand immigrants.
The PBS article focused on asylum seekers who have quasi-legal status and are officially permitted to be in the U.S. while their filings for asylum are being adjudicated.
The article went on to bat down what it called “myth #2,” which is that all asylum seekers are automatically approved for long-term residency in the U.S.
The article pointed out that the state funding has helped to double the share of immigrants who win asylum to stay in Colorado. From 2018 to 2021, only a quarter of the asylum applicants won their cases, but that share has now doubled to 50 percent.
That brought the PBS station to another “myth” it sought to kill: that of immigrants being given free lawyers for their cases. This, the article informed readers, is not the case. Immigrants do not qualify for free representation from public defenders because only legal citizens are guaranteed legal representation.
The article went on to say that there are not enough immigration lawyers in Colorado to service the 73,000 immigration cases on the docket in the state. So, many immigrants go without any representation at all.
Groceries
Quote:Walmart is reporting an increase in sales as shoppers have reportedly been buying more groceries due to rising fast food prices from inflation.
Speaking on CNBC Thursday, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said the megastore chain saw an uptick in sales this past quarter as more and more customers have traded out fast food for groceries.
“It’s roughly 4.3 times more expensive to eat out than it is to eat at home,” he said. “And that’s benefiting our business.”
Some customers feel that grocery store items have grown cheaper while fast food has grown more expensive. Due to the uptick in sales, Walmart’s stock saw an “all-time high Thursday, after it beat Wall Street’s quarterly sales and revenue expectations, and said it expected its full-year results to be on the high end of, or better than, its previous forecast,” according to CNBC.
Walmart also saw a 3.8% rise in transactions in both its stores and online this past quarter. Meanwhile, restaurants like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Yum Brands have seen a downward trend in sales.
US Admin: Cuba No Longer Supports Terrorism
What a lame joke!Quote:U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday removed Cuba’s communist regime from the State Department’s list of countries “not cooperating fully” against terrorism.
In a statement reportedly sent to members of the U.S. Congress and media, Secretary Blinken said that Cuban and U.S. law enforcement officials were once again working together on counterterrorism and other related efforts — and as such its inclusion on the list was deemed “no longer appropriate.”
“The department determined that the circumstances for Cuba’s certification as a ‘not fully cooperating country’ have changed from 2022 to 2023,” a U.S. Department of State official reportedly said.
Martí Noticias, a U.S.-based news outlet that focuses on Cuba, reported on Wednesday that it had obtained access to a copy of the statement, which asserted that North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela are still on the list of countries not fully cooperating with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
The note reportedly stressed that, while Cuba was removed from the list of countries are “not cooperating fully” against fighting terrorism, the country still remains on the official list of States Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) alongside Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
“The law establishes specific legal criteria for rescinding an SST designation,” the statement reportedly read. “Any review of Cuba’s status on the SST list would be based on the law and the criteria established by Congress.”
Cuba appeared on the SST list from 1982 to 2015 prior to the redesignation and was removed during the Castro-friendly administration of former President Barack Obama.
During the administration of former President Donald Trump, the United States designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism in January 2021 due to the Castro regime’s deep ties with international terrorist organizations such as the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Shiite jihadist organization Hezbollah, and Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist terrorist groups.
The communist Castro regime also maintains a relationship with the Sunni jihadist terrorist group Hamas. Hamas terrorists met with a Cuban envoy in Lebanon in February 2023 and the regime has openly condemned Israel in the wake of Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on the country, which left over 1,200 dead and hundreds taken hostage.
Similar to other far-left Latin American regimes and governments, the Castro regime has accused Israel of commiting “genocide” in its self-defense operations against Hamas, but not condemned the explicitly genocidal Hamas goal of destroying the Israeli nation and its people.
TAIWAN
Brawl Breaks Out in Parliament
Quote:A brawl erupted in the Taiwanese parliament on Friday during a debate over reforms to the legislature. Lawmakers shoved, struck, and tackled each other in a wild melee, climbing over tables to attack each other.
More scuffles flared up throughout the day as tempers remained on edge.
Taiwan’s legislature is no stranger to punch-ups, but Friday’s brawl was an outstanding exhibition of parliamentary pugilism and furniture acrobatics. Some previous battles have involved props, such as water balloons and pig intestines, but this one was pure hand-to-hand combat.
The cause of the fight was a push from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party and its allies to give the legislature more oversight over the government.
Taiwan’s new president, William Lai Ching-te, will be inaugurated Monday. Lai won a commanding victory to succeed outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, but his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost seats, so he will preside over a minority government.
The KMT did not pick up enough seats to form a majority, so it has been pushed into an alliance with a third group, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). One of their mutual initiatives is a proposal to bring criminal charges against government officials accused of making false statements to parliament.
The DPP accused the KMT and TPP of trying to push their proposals through without proper debate and procedures, while the opposition claimed the DPP administration was unreasonably resistant to proper legislative oversight.
“The DPP does not want this to be passed, as they have always been used to monopolizing power,” said KMT lawmaker Jessica Chen, who popped out of the fracas to give an interview while wearing an army helmet.
According to the Taipei Times, the argument escalated from strong language to throwing hands in the hallway outside the legislative chamber. The brawl soon spilled into the chamber, where KMT lawmakers tried to form a human shield around Speaker Han Kyo-yu so he could keep calling for motions to read bills and cast votes.
CHINA
Shein Enslaves Employees
Quote:Public Eye, a human rights advocacy group based in Switzerland, blasted Chinese fashion giant Shein for demanding excessive overtime from its workers in a 2021 report.
On Sunday, Public Eye released a follow-up report that said, “Illegal working hours and piecework wages remain a typical feature of the everyday lives of the workers interviewed.”
“The ultra-fast fashion company, which has come under pressure, is also arousing suspicion due to its opaque finances and because its founder has disappeared from the scene,” Public Eye added in its new report.
The Swiss advocacy group was referring to Shein’s “fast fashion” business model, which offers customers a huge online inventory of clothing items at extremely low prices. The system works by taking advantage of extremely low shipping rates to send parcels directly to customers around the world, rather than paying for warehouses and distribution centers in different countries.
Fast fashion also relies on extremely low production costs, meaning ultra-cheap labor and materials. The originator of the fast fashion model is generally held to be a Spanish brand called Zara, but Shein took advantage of China’s cheap factory labor – plus textiles harvested by even cheaper labor from outright slaves – to sell a vastly larger range of items at even lower prices.
Public Eye interviewed a baker’s dozen textile workers who toil for Shein and its suppliers at six factories in China – factories that the activists had to find with a bit of detective work, since Shein does not like to discuss its supply network – and found 75-hour weeks are “still the norm,” even though Shein’s code of conduct for suppliers sets a 60-hour limit for the work week.
China Hates Tariffs & Enlists Mexico to Evade Them
Quote:China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday dismissed tariffs that the Biden administration threatened as a “farce,” reserving particular contempt for the administration’s efforts to protect the American electric vehicle (EV) industry from Chinese competition.
The Global Times lectured:
This approach contradicts President Biden’s commitment of not “holding back China’s development” and not “seeking decoupling from China.” It also goes against the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries. To some extent, it can even be understood as the US initiating a new round of tariff friction.
Before announcing the imposition of additional tariffs on China, the US repeatedly spread negative information in an attempt to smear related Chinese technology and products. This is essentially a sign of guilt, trying to manipulate public opinion to cover up the fact that they are politicizing and instrumentalizing economic and trade issues.
Although it did not work very hard to finalize the comparison, the “farce” part of the Global Times’ critique was apparently the Biden administration complaining about the dangers of Chinese EV dumping when “almost zero” vehicles are currently imported from China to begin with.
The Chinese editorialists dismissed the entire Biden trade policy as little more than a “political show aimed at winning voters in an election year” and threatened that Beijing would respond with “resolute measures to defend its own interests.”
Former Global Times editor Hu Xijin piled on with a video editorial blasting Biden’s tariff hike on Chinese EVs from 27.5 percent to 102.5 percent as a sign of “panic and incompetence.”
Hu saw the tariffs as a sign of weakness, a “white flag raised by the U.S.” to admit that America has “given up” in the face of Chinese competition.
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Quote:As President Joe Biden announces new United States tariffs on several Chinese products, including Electric Vehicles (EVs), China-based corporations may evade those tariffs by rerouting production through other countries.
This week, Biden announced new tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, semiconductors, EVs, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products.
Specifically with EVs, Biden will slap over 100 percent tariffs on China-made EVs as former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China-made EVs are the only trade policy currently blocking an onslaught of Chinese cars from flooding the U.S. market and severely crippling the nation’s auto workers.
Some Chinese companies have already hinted at evading such tariffs.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) premier automaker, BYD, is planning a factory in Mexico to produce its cheap EVs. At current U.S. tariff rates with Mexico, those cars could be sold in the U.S. market facing hardly any tariffs.
Executives with BYD, which launched a new pickup truck in Mexico this week, have repeatedly claimed they are not interested in entering the U.S. market.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, though, has hinted that the administration is considering tariffs on products arriving from Mexico. Such tariffs would come as Mexico has become the largest source of imports to the U.S., toppling China for the spot.
In the first three months of this year, more than $115 billion worth of products have arrived in the U.S. market from Mexico. Meanwhile, fewer than $100 billion worth of products from China have arrived during the same period.
“Decades of unfair trade by the People’s Republic of China have devastated American communities and weakened our economic security,” Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul said in a statement following the announcement of the new China tariffs.
Paul suggested the tariffs ought to be seen as a starting point in terms of protecting American workers and the nation’s manufacturing base from China, saying, “We look forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress to build on these achievements.”
Local Governments Now Buying Houses
Quote:Share prices in China’s tottering real estate market perked up on Thursday after news that various levels of the Communist government will begin buying up excess houses, a long hoped-for stimulus that could stabilize real estate prices by cleaning up excess inventory.
Some analysts doubted the government could afford to buy enough property to defuse the trillion-dollar debt bomb that threatens China’s economic future.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday that the government of Hangzhou, a technology hub city and provincial capital that includes the headquarters of the massive Alibaba Group Holding corporation, announced a plan to buy unoccupied homes in one of its districts and rent them out as affordable housing.
Hangzhou’s program was seen as the first municipal government response to a call from the national Politburo for local governments to “digest existing housing inventory.” Another provincial capital, Chengdu, removed restrictions on home purchases in tandem with Hangzhou and could follow its lead on buying excess home inventory, as well.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that the central government’s State Council is soliciting feedback from provincial and city governments on a plan to purchase millions of unsold homes across the country.
Such a plan implemented on a nationwide scale would represent China’s biggest move to stabilize the real estate market, and it would come with a staggering price tag. The SCMP noted that China has something like 3.5 billion square feet of unsold residential property, plus at least 20 million unbuilt or delayed houses, which would cost $443 billion to complete.
INDIA
India Supporting Iran?
Quote:The governments of India and Iran announced a decade-long agreement on Tuesday that would give India control and allow it to develop the port of Chabahar, a stop on the Gulf of Oman that offers India a favorable route to the Persian Gulf.
“Chabahar Port’s significance transcends its role as a mere conduit between India and Iran; it serves as a vital trade artery connecting India with Afghanistan and Central Asian Countries,” Indian Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowald said on Tuesday, signing the agreement in Iran. “This linkage has unlocked new avenues for trade and fortified supply chain resilience across the region.”
The deal may run afoul of the dozens of American sanctions on the Iranian regime, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, the State Department warned on Tuesday.
India and Iran are allies through the BRICS coalition, which includes many of the world’s most formidable rogue states. Along with Iran and India, BRICS unites Russia, China, Brazil, and South Africa – the original members of the alliance – along with newly minted members Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Saudi Arabia accepted an invitation to join BRICS in late 2023 but as of February had reportedly not completed the paperwork to be a full member.
The introduction of Iran, a longtime Chinese and Russian ally, to BRICS brought the alliance more directly into the sphere of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East prompted by the unprecedented siege of Israel on October 7 by Iran-backed jihadist organization Hamas. India has been the most reluctant of the BRICS nations to support the Hamas cause, however, openly expressing support for Israel following the October 7 atrocities.
India has attempted to retain trade ties to Iran, though it has recently significantly limited commercial interactions in response to American and global sanctions on Iran’s Islamist regime. The Chabahar port agreement appears to be an attempt to reverse the momentum.
According to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV, the agreement will give the company India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) control of freight and container terminals of Chabahar’s largest port. India will control the port for ten years in exchange for spending “$120 million for the supply of strategic equipment of the Port and $250 million on the transport infrastructure of Chabahar.” India already controls many of the operations at Chabahar, as it informally took over the port in 2018 according to the BBC.
Chabahar is across the Gulf of Oman from the nation of Omar, a useful port stop before entering the Persian Gulf and reaching the gulf nations of Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia.
LATIN AMERICA
Argentina Controlling Inflation for the First Time
Quote:The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC) announced on Tuesday that inflation in Argentina continued its downward trend in April, reaching an 8.8 percent rate that month and dropping to a single digit for the first time in six months.
The continued reduction in inflation follows the implementation of President Javier Milei’s “shock therapy” economic measures, which his administration began upon taking office in December 2023 to avoid a hyperinflation spiral in Argentina.
April’s reduction in inflation, in addition to being the first time since October 2023 when it has dropped down to one digit, also marks the fourth month in a row that inflation has significantly fallen in Argentina during Milei’s now five-month presidency.
At the time Milei took office and succeeded his predecessor, socialist former President Alberto Fernández, inflation in Argentina had dramatically spiked to 25.5 percent in December. Since then, Milei’s economic policies and “zero deficit” goals have resulted in consecutive monthly drops in inflation. Inflation fell to 20.6 percent in January, 13.2 percent in February, and 11 percent in March.
Milei celebrated the April 2024 inflation rate announcement on social media by chanting a soccer “Goal!” exclamation, accompanying his post with a picture of him hugging Economy Minister Luis Caputo.
Argentina Raids Leftists Protest Groups
Quote:Federal justice authorities in Argentina ordered 27 raids on Monday against leaders of leftist piqueteros (“picketers”) organizations following hundreds of complaints by local citizens of alleged extortion and blackmail.
The complaints reportedly accused the organizations of threatening individuals if they refused to participate in leftist protests against President Javier Milei.
In Argentina, “picketers” are the name given to leftist “social” organizations that mainly dedicate themselves to protest against the government, often in a violent manner. Some of the existing picketer groups are offshoots of local far-left parties, while others have founded their own parties in recent years. Picketer groups have occupied public ministry positions in previous leftist governments.
The now-ongoing investigation, led by Argentine Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello and Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, stems from a formal request made by the Argentine government. In December, when Milei took office, the government established a phone hotline that Argentine citizens can use to denounce personal threats made by picketer leaders.
The hotline began receiving complaints one day before the first picketer-organized protest against Milei, which took place on December 20. Since then, there have reportedly been over 13,000 calls, of which 924 have been used to launch formal probes.
Local media published copies of the text message logs from the phone number, featuring texts Argentine prosecutors have presented as evidence of citizens being pressured and extorted by the picketer leaders.
Argentine citizens who are beneficiaries of state assistance programs denounced in the complaints that picketer leaders forced them to hand over a percentage of the stipend money received and threatened to strip them of the government benefits if they did not participate in protests against Milei.
Petro Against Israel
Quote:Far-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “genocide” through Israel’s self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
“Mr. Netanyahu, you will go down in history as genocidal. Dropping bombs on thousands of innocent children, women, and elderly people does not make you a hero,” Petro wrote in a social media post late Saturday, local time. “You stand next to those who killed millions of Jews in Europe.”
“A genocide is a genocide no matter if you have a religion or not,” he continued. “Try at least to stop the massacre.”
Petro — a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla, a group that Petro himself has claimed had some of its members train with pro-Palestinian paramilitary forces in Libya in the past — had Colombia break its diplomatic ties with Israel in early May, a decision Hamas reportedly celebrated.
The Colombian far-left president made the accusation against Netanyahu in response to a post the Israeli prime minister made on Saturday in which he stated thathttps://www.breitbart.com/asia/2024/05/17/parliament-brawl-breaks-out-in-taiwan-as-left-tries-to-limit-presidential-power/ Israel would not be “lectured by an antisemitic supporter of Hamas.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wrote:Israel will not be lectured by an antisemitic supporter of Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that massacred, raped, mutilated and burned alive 1,200 innocent people on October 7. Shame on you President Petro!
Maduro Tries to Fool Evangelicals
Quote:Pro-regime self-proclaimed Evangelical Christian pastors in Venezuela declared socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday the “protector” of the family according to the “original design” of the Bible.
The regime brought the pastors out at a religious event in the national capital, Caracas.
The Maduro regime has long maintained a contradictory attitude towards Christianity, repressing the nation’s Christian opposition to socialism and instigating violent gang attacks on churches but using Jesus in its socialist propaganda. In more recent years, it has attempted to improve ties with smaller Evangelical Christian groups at the expense of the Catholic Church, proclaiming them “the true church of God” in January 2023.
The political embrace of Evangelical Christians, local experts have explained in the past, is part of Maduro’s plan to garner sympathizers and rehabilitate his tarnished image. Venezuela is an overwhelmingly Catholic country. As of 2020, 71 percent of its population is Catholic, while some 13 percent identify as Evangelical Christians.
In the event on Wednesday — titled the “March for Life, Family, and Faith” — the Evangelical leaders claimed that Maduro had set an “example as a family man” by showing himself together with his wife, Cilia Flores, in official events. The Maduro regime has granted Flores the title of “First Combatant,” a made-up term to elevate her above “first lady” status.
“When I see his [Maduro’s] walks, always next to his wife, I say that is the constitution that God made of the original design of the family,” Pastor Luis Rodriguez, president of the Assembly of God Council of Venezuela Evangelical organization, said.
Any pastors supporting him should be dismissed by the local churches' elders.
China Interested in Brazil & Latin America
Quote:The Chinese Communist government is seeking to take advantage of its friendly ties with the socialist Brazilian government to establish a “Maritime Silk Road” in the Amazon Rainforest, The Argentine news outlet Infobae reported this weekend.
Infobae claimed in its report that China’s plans for an “Amazon Silk Road” calls for Chinese state-owned companies to establish trade routes and business dealings in the Amazon Rainforest region and exploit the area’s rich natural resources, raising concerns about environmental repercussions and potential deforestation.
The plans, according to Infobae, would allow for an “unprecedented geopolitical and economic expansion” in the region as part of China’s “vision of the new multipolar world order” promoted by both Beijing and Moscow.
Brazil is a founding member of the China-led BRICS trade and security bloc. Shortly after taking office for a third presidential term in January 2023, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his socialist administration began taking steps to “relaunch” Brazil’s relationship with China, which has been the South American nation’s main trading partner since 2009.
Lula traveled to China for an official visit in April 2023, where both countries signed over a dozen agreements covering a wide range of topics such as communication, technology, and commerce. Both countries have also signed a deal to discard the use of the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade, replacing it with the Chinese yuan.
Although the subject of Brazil joining China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was reportedly discussed during Lula’s visit to China, Brazil is not officially part of the program.
Infobae noted that, while the Brazilian Foreign Ministry denied any participation of Brazil in the BRI, information published in February by the local government of the State of Pará would suggest otherwise, as it announced the arrival of a Chinese delegation of a “Precursor Committee of the Maritime Silk Road in the Amazon.”
Among the members of the Chinese delegation who visited Pará in February were representatives of the Chinese state-owned Zhuhai Sino-Lac Supply Chain Co., a company “specializing in transnational customs operations and warehousing between China and Latin America.” Infobae reported that the company is allegedly building a logistics center dedicated to Latin America in the Gaolan port of the city of Zhuhai in China.
Over the past years, Infobae explained, China has increased its financing of the construction of highways, railroads, and other infrastructure projects in the region. China has also begun importing many of the Amazon’s basic products, such as iron, soy, and beef, which environmentalists often mention as causing widespread deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
AUSTRALIA
Brazilian Drug Dealers in Australia?
Quote:The First Capital Command (PCC), Brazil’s largest transnational organized crime syndicate and Latin America’s largest drug trafficking gang, has managed to establish a foothold in Sydney, Australia, according to a report published by the Argentine news outlet Infobae on Thursday.
Infobae reported that, according to information reviewed by the news outlet and reports from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), PCC has set up two cells in Sydney operating in collaboration with a local motorcycle gang controlled by Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia — one of the oldest Italian mafia organizations and a longstanding business partner of PCC in Brazil.
The PCC, described by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2021 as “the most powerful organized crime group in Brazil and among the most powerful in the world,” was originally founded by a group of inmates of Sao Paulo’s Taubaté Penitentiary in 1993 following a violent soccer match between inmates that ended with at least two dead.
Over the past 30 years, PCC has dramatically grown into a full-fledged transnational crime and drug trafficking syndicate boasting over 40,000 members and some 60,000 “contractors.” The PCC has expanded its activities beyond Brazil to the United States, as well as other South American, African, and European nations.
PCC is believed to have formed alliances with other South American drug trafficking organizations, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which also has an active presence in the United States.
The criminal activities conducted by PCC — which range from murder, prison riots, drug and human trafficking, bank and highway robberies, kidnappings and ransom, money laundering, bribery, loan sharking, and obstruction of justice — reportedly have generated revenues of at least $1 billion since 2020.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
