Zerohedge

Millions of Americans, including those among the lowest income brackets, truly have no idea how good life is for them.  The grass is always greener somewhere else in the world until people actually take the plunge and move to the neighbor’s house only to discover it’s crack den.  

The self hatred that progressives feel over being American and living in the US is a first-world luxury that few others can afford.  Most of humanity doesn’t have time to dwell obsessively on their nation’s global image; they are too busy barely surviving.  The argument often regurgitated by over-privileged activists on Reddit forums and in college classrooms is that American “exceptionalism” is problematic because there’s nothing exceptional about America.

This claim is debunked by the fact that most of the rest of the world wants to come to the US and very few people want to leave.  Those that do leave are usually among the wealthiest, or, they are gullible and think they can find something better overseas.  It usually doesn’t go well for them.

One black leftist recently figured this out after moving to Africa.  She assumed she would fit right in, but now says she actually prefers dealing with American “racism” over the scammers, grifters and of course, the lack of snacks.  Her complaints have gone viral because they expose the common leftist delusion that the US is somehow one of the worst places on Earth.  They simply don’t understand how lucky they are until they step outside of their echo chamber.

People seriously don’t realize how good they have it in America.

Look what this woman has to say after she moved to Africa. 👇 pic.twitter.com/9SYmQs9sLe

— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) May 4, 2025

A minimal amount of research will drudge up numerous accounts similar to this one – Most black Americans simply cannot assimilate after relocating to Africa and most Americans don’t do well in regions devoid of western culture.  The ultra-rich are fine wherever they go, but middle class expatriats have difficult experiences.  Black comedians and celebrities have been trying to warn their community for decades about this.  The venerable Patrice O’Neil didn’t mince words on the idea of “going back to Africa”.

Comedian Patrice ‘O Neal spitting facts on the kakhole that is Africa pic.twitter.com/53sFaKEcil

— Kgomotso #MaAfrikaBorwaPele (@SA1st_PSAF) May 2, 2023

When confronting the issue of racism in America, it should be noted that most of the world treats Black Americans differently.  Not necessarily because of skin color but because of their cultural habits and behaviors.

Charlestone White explains why no one likes Black Americans 😳

“We are disrespectful, arrogant and loud” pic.twitter.com/r5As8OEkGH

— Charging… (@RedPillSayian) December 12, 2024

Perhaps what black leftists in America interpret as “racism” is actually cultural burnout; a national or even global acknowledgment by other groups that they are tired of dealing with all the baggage that the black American community tends to bring with them?  And if this is the case, then it’s unlikely that there are many other places in the world that will give them the time of day the way American society does. 

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with an avalanche of problems coming to the world starting in 2025.  

Depressions, defaults, debt crises and wars are going to sweep the globe, according to Armstrong and his “Socrates” predictive computer program.  Armstrong has called every big economic turn in the past three decades.  He predicted Trump would win the 2024 Presidential Election in a landslide many months ahead of November.  Armstrong called the huge stock crash of 1987 to the day.  He predicted the dot com boom and bust in 2000.  He was spot on calling for the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, and now, we are headed for more big turns.  Armstrong says,

“The last one turned on May 7th of last year.  That was the same day Putin had his inauguration, and it was the same day a couple of Ukrainian colonels tried to assassinate Zelensky.  From there, we are turning down into a global recession, which won’t bottom until about 2028.  Central banks started cutting rates right after that, and I think Canada was the first.  It’s going to be more of a depression in Europe, a very sharp recession in China, and it won’t be as bad in the United States. . . . When you create a debt crisis, that’s what causes a depression.  The stock market going down is the least damage to an economy.”

Europe has trillions of dollars of unpayable debt, and Armstrong says, “The leadership knows if they don’t have war, the people will come after them.”

What will be the next big turn?  Spoiler alert, it has to do with war in Ukraine and Russia.  Armstrong says,

“Europe does not want peace.  Look at things the EU has said: that Russia is too big and has to be broken up.  I have very good contacts very high up, and they really do think they can conquer Russia.  It has $75 trillion in natural resource assets.  They will then control that . . . Once they get their hands on that . . . they will rise to the top of countries of the world,  like the Roman Empire will be resurrected or something.”

But instead of the EU winning a war against Russia, Armstrong predicts, 

“They will lose bigtime.  The third time is not going to be the charm. . . . The euro will disappear, not the dollar.”

The timing of the next big turn for war?  Armstrong says,

“After May 15, war is turning up (in Ukraine) and it will be turning up into 2026.  If I am Putin, there is no way I am signing a peace deal.  Putin signed a peace deal (in 2015) and what did they do?  They built an army while Russia didn’t.”

Armstrong predicts China will come in on the side of Russia, and there could be as many as “one billion dead and wounded” as a result.  

What should the US do?  Armstrong says, 

“I have been talking to people in Washington, and I have told them to ‘Get the hell out of NATO.’  There are plenty of people warming up to that idea.”

Armstrong predicts if that happens, capital will leave Europe and flow into the US as a safe haven.

Armstrong also thinks gold will hit $5,000 per ounce at the next target, but it will not hit that price until war takes off in Europe and Ukraine.  

Armstrong also thinks the Democrat party will split in two, and they will not retake the House of Representatives in 2026.

Does the conflict between Pakistan and India blow up or blow over?  Armstrong says, “My computer (Socrates) says it blows up.”

There is much more in the 64-minute in-depth interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong as he gives his analysis on war, default, depression and unpayable debt that will make a huge mess for the world for 5.3.25.

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There is free information, analysis and articles on ArmstrongEconomics.com.

We think it’s time we can officially present the ESG grift – which we have spoken out against and called a scam for the better part of the last decade – dead.

The latest casualty? BP’s top sustainability executive, Giulia Chierchia, will leave the company on June 1, marking another high-profile exit and an obvious signpost in the oil giant’s sharp pivot away from green energy and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, according to The Guardian.

Chierchia, who joined BP in 2020 to help steer it toward a “net zero” future, was hired by then-CEO Bernard Looney and became the architect of the company’s now-defunct sustainability strategy.

Her departure will not trigger a replacement; instead, her team will be folded into other business units to “simplify our structure” and enable “quicker decision-making and clearer accountabilities,” BP said.

Chierchia’s exit follows closely on the heels of BP Chairman Helge Lund’s announcement that he too would step down next year. Both executives had come under growing scrutiny after BP formally abandoned its green energy transition in favor of doubling down on oil and gas, a shift driven by falling profits and pressure from shareholders.

“In February, we announced a fundamental reset of our strategy – to grow the upstream, focus the downstream and invest with discipline in the transition – and we have already made significant progress,” said CEO Murray Auchincloss.

The Guardian writes that at BP’s latest annual general meeting, Lund faced a shareholder revolt over his role in the collapse of the green strategy. Meanwhile, activist hedge fund Elliott Management has taken a 5% stake in the company and reportedly demanded a full reversal of its low-carbon investments and an overhaul of its board.

BP’s financial performance has deteriorated, with first-quarter 2025 profits nearly halved to $1.4 billion from $2.7 billion a year prior. Its full-year 2024 profits fell by a third to $8.9 billion. Shares dropped over 2% on the news, continuing a trend of underperformance relative to competitors since Looney first charted a net-zero course.

In response, the company has pledged to slash spending, particularly in renewable ventures, and accelerate asset sales. It plans to cut 2025 capital spending by $500 million to $14.5 billion and raise divestments to as much as $4 billion this year. The goal is to offload $20 billion in assets by the end of 2027.

BP’s ESG era—once held up as a model for oil industry transformation—is now officially over, buried under investor discontent, falling returns, and an unmistakable return to fossil fuel fundamentals.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Following massive local election gains for Reform UK, the populist Party headed by Nigel Farage, the legacy media revealed just how completely out of touch with British people it is.

Here is the headline the Financial Times published.

An unwelcome surge of rightwing populism in Britain https://t.co/Dow38Svpf3

— Financial Times (@FT) May 2, 2025

Yeah, they seemed pretty welcome, given how much they trounced everyone else in democratic elections, winning 677 seats out of around 1,600 being contested.

“Unwelcome at our dinner parties”*

— Man of the Dissident Right… (@anglowanderer) May 2, 2025

The Conservatives lost a whopping 676 seats, one less than Reform gained, while Labour, the Party that won a general election LAST YEAR, won just 99 seats and lost more than 180.

Monumental. People have had enough. pic.twitter.com/jxpta4GdLj

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) May 2, 2025

It’s pretty clear that Reform UK was “welcome” as far as voters were concerned.

Unwelcome? Says who? It’s not evil to think that your countrymen should be the first priority of your country.

— XBradTC (@xbradtc) May 2, 2025

Nevertheless, the FT described the monumental victory as a “populist-nationalist bug” adding that Reform found just the right “blend of far-right anti-immigration and anti-net zero stances,” to give “both main parties a drubbing.

Are you sure it’s unwelcome?

— The Panic (@ThePanic16) May 3, 2025

The media, like Kier Starmer, can bandy around the pejorative term ‘far right’ all they want, the fact is it’s clear a majority of people in a Britain are now acutely aware that mass uncontrolled and incentivised immigration is degrading quality of life throughout the country.

The mainstream media elites can’t hide their disdain for ordinary people

Instead of trying to understand their concerns they write them off with derogatories like “right-wing populism”.

I have nothing but contempt for them https://t.co/GgfQ0sFpDN

— Winston Marshall (@MrWinMarshall) May 3, 2025

From collapsing metropolises to quiet country villages. No where is exempt from its reach.

Funny isn’t it that when the side the establishment media falls on wins big, it’s championed as ‘the will of the people’ but when the other side wins it’s some sort of ‘unwelcome’ anomaly.

Maybe it has something to do with all the unwelcome immigrants.

— Stuck (@StuckInMiddleU) May 2, 2025

“We must destroy democracy in order to save it.”

— Nick Uva (@nickuva) May 2, 2025

Unwelcome to far Left busybodies who demand total control.

Yes. https://t.co/kcWG323ISy

— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) May 3, 2025

There’s a simple fix to this populism ‘bug’.

If you don’t like populism, stop being communists. https://t.co/dMD5MO54W0

— Wontonimo Bae .🤍. (@wontonimobae) May 3, 2025

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again made more ultra-provocative remarks aimed at the West concerning Russia’s nuclear doctrine.

In a fresh interview with a Russian broadcaster that aired Sunday Putin claimed that the West “wanted to provoke us, wanted to force us to make mistakes” on a strategic level.

He described, in an unprecedented allegation, that Ukraine’s Western supporters in NATO were essentially trying to bait Moscow into deploying nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Putin emphasized that Russia exercised restraint in this matter.

“They wanted to provoke us, wanted us to make mistakes,” the Russian leader asserted in the Rossiya-1 interview. “And there was no need to use the weapons that you mentioned. I hope that it won’t be necessary,” he added, referencing the interviewer’s question which mentioned nuclear arms.

“We have enough capabilities and means to finish what we started in 2022 with the result that Russia needs,” Putin concluded. He emphasized that Russia is able to carry through with its military goals without resorting to nuclear arms.

No evidence was given for this charge; however, it’s been a constant theme of the Kremlin to accuse Zelensky’s NATO backers of seeking constant escalation of the conflict, and the avoidance of a peace settlement (which would result in Russian control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea).

RT also commented in featuring the fresh statements, “Russia has repeatedly confirmed its stance that the use of nuclear weapons will be its last choice. In November, Putin has approved Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine.”

The West became alarmed when earlier in the Ukraine war Putin ordered tactical nuclear warheads to be stationed in Belarus. These are reportedly overseen by Russian officers in Belarus, and with President Lukashenko’s permission.

Starting in late September, Russia had unveiled its expanded nuclear doctrine which proposed a lowered threshold for Russian strategic forces’ use of nukes.

This was due to the “emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies” – amid fiercer drone and missile attacks coming across the border from Ukraine.

Also, Moscow has said US-produced F-16s which are now being flowing by Ukraine’s air force are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov previously described that Russia’s nuclear doctrine changes mean that “the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression using conventional weapons against it and/or the Republic of Belarus.” 

Via Remix News,

Germany and Poland have been at peace for decades, yet the border between the two is still fraught, with this new dispute arising largely due to migration. Germany’s Friedrich Merz, expected to become the country’s new chancellor in just a few days, has announced that his country would tighten the external border on the first day of his chancellorship.

In response, Poland is warning Germany against this move, with Warsaw fearing that these tightened controls could make Polish commuters’ lives very difficult, reduce commerce, and potentially even increase migration pressure on Poland, according to German newspaper Welt.

Polish diplomat Jan Tombinski told Politico magazine that the current controls are already a “problem for daily border traffic and the functioning of the EU internal market. We therefore do not want to see any tightening of the border controls.”

The Polish government “naturally stands by our commitment to protecting Europe’s external borders—especially with Russia and Belarus,” the diplomat said. He also emphasized that “free movement within the European Schengen area (should) be maintained.”

Germany could send up to 70,000 migrants to Poland per year, according to a Polish MP.@DariuszMatecki filmed the new massive migrant center near the Polish border.

Germany “can’t cope with the migration problem.”

The solution? Send them to Poland and other EU nations. pic.twitter.com/b0Ak8fctgn

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 21, 2025

Many migrants entering Poland make their way to Germany, which has become a problem for the German government. Polish conservatives accuse the ruling left-liberal government of quietly taking back thousands of these migrants from Germany, and in some cases, German police have been accused of “dumping” migrants back on Polish territory.

Tombinski, hinting that Poland may be willing to accept more of these migrants, said that his country will accept its “obligations under EU legislation,” including the new CEAS asylum policy.

The likely future head of the German chancellery, Thorsten Frei, told Spiegel: “We will intensify border controls and turn back those who have no right to enter Germany.” He said the federal police being supported at the border is “an essential point. It will have a short-term effect.”

In regard to the medium-term solution, Frei said he wants to regulate migration across the European continent so “that, on the one hand, we live up to our humanitarian responsibility and, on the other hand, prevent our societies from being overwhelmed,”

Designated German interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), said that new measures will be used to combat illegal immigration. “There is no doubt about my determination.” said Dobrindt, however, “borders will not be closed, but they will be more tightly controlled.”

The CDU, which fears the growing popularity of the AfD, played a huge role in the current immigration crisis when Angela Merkel first allowed over 1 million migrants to enter the country in 2015 and 2016, but now the party is attempting to talk tough on the issue.

“We have strong polarization in the country,” Dobrindt stated. “We have to reduce it. We can only achieve this if we get illegal migration under control.”

The Green Party is already trashing the move, stating that it is illegal and contrary to European law.

“I’m curious to see how long it will take this time for the courts to overturn this,” warned a Green Party member speaking to Welt.

Merz is headed to meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw next week, where the issue will likely be discussed further.

Read more here…

Via Middle East Eye

Former senior Barack Obama administration officials criticised former US president Joe Biden’s Gaza policies on a foreign policy podcast on Thursday, sparking reactions on social media. Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor, both former senior Obama administration officials, co-host the foreign policy podcast, Pod Save the World. 

According to a video from the podcast shared by the Drop Site News, Rhodes, who served as deputy national security advisor, says: “Israel doesn’t want to end the war … if they were willing to end the war, they would get the hostages out. The idea that they need to continue to fight the war against Hamas in Gaza – I’m sorry, there’s no security need to do it. You’re just talking about an already traumatized people, including a lot of injured people, who are being bombed in tents with no food and medicine.”

Vietor, former national security council spokesperson, then says: “What a total fucking disgrace the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza was… Loyalty to Netanyahu blinded him to the carnage, the total immorality of the policy, and US complicity in that policy.” 

The excerpts from the podcast have created interest on social media this week, with many people saying that these former US administration officials speak only when it is “too late”.

Many on social media reacted to the excerpts from the podcast with anger, saying that thousands of people have been talking about the atrocities done by Israel and “the real reasons why Israel does not want to end the war”.

Social media users also pointed out the hypocrisy of these former US administration officials who have always “sided with the Zionists” but are now speaking up. 

In early January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue Israel’s war on Gaza, in part as a bid to stop far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from exiting his coalition. Netanyahu also faces the wrath of the electorate and pending corruption cases against him once the war in Gaza is over.

Former Obama Advisors On Biden’s Policy on Gaza

Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor, both former senior Obama administration officials co-host the foreign policy podcast Pod Save the World.

Rhodes, who served as Deputy National Security Advisor, states:

“Israel doesn’t want to end… pic.twitter.com/ucjaVpuvfp

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 1, 2025

Israel also allegedly unilaterally violated the Gaza ceasefire in February after refusing to proceed to the second phase, which would have secured the release of all remaining captives. Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected offers from Hamas for their release. 

Many have argued that if the Netanyahu government had genuinely prioritized bringing the hostages home, a deal could have been reached long ago. But that would mean ending the war, without which Netanyahu’s coalition would collapse. 

The ceasefire in Gaza has effectively collapsed as it transitions from one phase focused on the release of Israeli captives, which is politically palatable in Israel, to the messier question of who will govern the Gaza Strip.

An investigative report aired by Israel’s Channel 13 has alleged that the Biden administration knowingly permitted Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to persist well beyond any defined strategic objective. According to the report, senior US officials privately acknowledged the offensive had devolved into “killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying”.

The investigation also claims the US was complicit in political interference, diplomatic obfuscation, and the derailment of peace efforts. Drop Site News shared the translations of the findings on social media. 

Think Trump’s tariffs are only for products, think again. On Sunday evening, President Donald Trump announced that he plans to impose a 100% tariff on films produced overseas, extending his restrictive trade policies on US imports to the entertainment sector for the first time.

In a post on Truth Social, the American leader said he was directing the Commerce Department and his trade representative to “immediately begin the process of instituting” the levy on foreign movies. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Trump continued.

Films made by American studios are often shot in the United Kingdom and Canada, including this year’s highest-grossing film, “A Minecraft Movie.” Some of summer’s biggest productions including “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and “Jurassic World Rebirth” were also made primarily or entirely outside the U.S.

As Bloomberg notes, it was not clear how such a tariff would work, nor how foreign movies would be valued for tariff collection purposes. Many films from Hollywood studios involve global production, including shooting locations in foreign countries and post-production work that can be done anywhere in the world.

Today Trump announced a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the United States. But movies aren’t physical goods that come across the border in a way that a tariff can be applied. This would be some new kind of federal excise tax on Americans who watch movies filmed abroad.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) May 5, 2025

As WSJ notes, Hollywood studio executives – were given no prior warning about the tariff plan and no information about how it might work – scrambled Sunday night to determine what the announcement would mean for their business.

If other countries imposed reciprocal tariffs, it could devastate Hollywood studios, since most big-budget event films earn the majority of their revenue overseas, and especially China.

“We’re on it,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on X on Sunday.

We’re on it. https://t.co/r5zCLxZrem

— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) May 4, 2025

It is unclear how such a tariff would work because movies aren’t physical goods that move through ports like most items subject to tariffs. The Trump administration would need to determine how to value a movie in order to apply the tariffs, as well as what the threshold would be to classify it as an import.

The action may be a retaliation for China’s decision last month to “moderately reduce” the number of Hollywood films allowed in the country, which in turn was retaliation for Trump’s aggressive tariffs. The China Film Administration said in April that the restrictions would “inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability toward American films”, an outcome which Trump – who has a very unfavorable view of Hollywood himself – seems to appreciate at the time.

While the US film industry is the most influential in the world, foreign films have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, drawing award-winning acclaim. The South-Korean thriller Parasite, for instance, won four Academy Awards, including the coveted Best Picture category in 2020. The film and TV industry supported some 2.3 million jobs in the US in 2023, according to the Motion Picture Association trade group. The association didn’t respond to a request for comment on Trump’s tariffs made outside of regular working hours.

London in particular has become a thriving hub for Hollywood productions, because of its tax incentives, extensive infrastructure including large soundstages, and English-speaking crews. Disney’s Marvel Studios is shooting a pair of upcoming Avengers sequels there.

Film and TV work in the US has contracted in recent years for a number of reasons. Media companies have cut back on spending in an attempt to boost their profits as they shifted from traditional TV to streaming services. Those streaming services are expanding globally and looking to produce more films for foreign markets.

Spending on film and TV production in the US fell 28% between 2021 and 2024, according to data from the research firm ProdPro, although a large part of that has to do with the backlash among normal Americans against Hollywood’s fake wokeness. Meanwhile, pther countries, such as Canada, Australia, and the UK, are seeing an increase in film and TV production, due in part to attractive tax incentives and lower production costs.

Movie and TV filming in the greater Los Angeles area declined 22% in the first quarter, reflecting California’s continued loss of business to other areas.

In January, Trump appointed actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to be special ambassadors to Hollywood with the goal of boosting US jobs. Voight is expected to introduce some ideas shortly, including incentives for businesses.

“These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear which companies would be hurt the most from Trump’s decision, however names such as Netflix will likely be closely scrutinized as a growing number of movies made by the world’s largest streaming service are now produced offshore to lower costs.

Many said $NFLX is “tariff proof”. 100% Not, friendly fire. Btw is not recession proof either.

— Marko Kolanovic (@markoinny) May 4, 2025

Netflix has been the best performing megatech names (a founding member of the now defunct FAANG acronym), although a sharp spike in production costs could results in a sizable drop in the stock.

President Donald Trump’s hard-hitting tariffs on China appear to be taking a toll, disrupting Chinese factories and sparking worker protests over unpaid wages.

As we noted late last month based on reporting by the Financial Times, factories across all of China have begun shutting down and furloughing workers “as the trade war unleashed by US President Donald Trump dries up orders for products ranging from jeans to home appliances.”

With most Chinese goods now facing US duties of at least 145%, or simply lacking the raw materials needed to process goods and sent them onward to the US, Chinese factory owners told the FT that American customers have cancelled or suspended orders, forcing them to cut production.

With about 15% of all Chinese exports last year going to the US…

… and with China increasingly transshipping billions of goods to the US using such (formerly) untariffed venues such as Vietnam… 

…. it is not all surprising that as China’s largest trading partner halts most imports, pain would be pervasive. And it is: in interviews with the Financial Times and via dozens of social media posts, workers shared pictures of quiet production lines or factory suspension notices, highlighting how the tariffs are starting to bite.

Now, according to Radio Free Asia, protests are erupting across China – from Hunan’s Dao County to Sichuan’s Suining City and Inner Mongolia’s Tongliao. Hundreds of enraged workers are storming the streets, blasting unpaid wages and wrongful firings as factories collapse under the crushing force of President Trump’s relentless U.S. tariffs, the news outlet said.

One video shared to X showed angry workers shouting “Strike! Strike!” while protesting outside the Shangda Electronics’ factory in Suining city on Sunday.

【中国多地传出讨薪、罢工维权运动】
中国经济下行，加上美国对中国产品祭出高额关税，内外夹击下，社交平台X及Youtube帐号“昨天” @YesterdayBigcat 近日上传多起中国各地拖欠薪资，员工讨薪和罢工争取权益的案件。#中国经济 #下行 #欠薪 #罢工 #农民工 pic.twitter.com/FQqclPMNsX

— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) April 29, 2025

Radio Free Asia also reported:

Last week, on April 24, hundreds of workers of Guangxin Sports Goods in Dao county went on strike after the company’s factory was shut down without paying employees their compensation or their social security benefits.Workers at the company’s factory, which produces sports protective gear and related accessories, said Guangxin Sports unfairly dismissed more than 100 female employees, aged over 50 years, in September 2024 on the grounds of “reaching retirement age,” without paying them their wages or guiding them on retirement procedures.

When Radio Free Asia contacted Guangxin for a comment, a male employee at the company immediately hung up the phone on hearing the word “reporter.” The Dao County Labor and Social Security Bureau told RFA that “Guangxin still has dozens of employees operating.”Elsewhere in Inner Mongolia, many construction workers gathered on the rooftops of Jincan Royal Garden Community in Tongliao city on April 25 where they threatened to jump off the building if they were not paid the back wages they were due, another video posted on the same X account showed.

Of note, Goldman Sachs warned last month that Trump’s tariffs put roughly 16 million jobs in China at risk, saying that the increases will “significantly weigh on the Chinese economy.” In April, China’s manufacturing activity plunged more than expected to a 16-month low, entering into contractionary territory, with the official purchasing managers’ index sinking to 49.0. “The sharp drop in the PMIs likely overstates the impact of tariffs due to negative sentiment effects, but it still suggests that China’s economy is coming under pressure as external demand cools,” said Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, wrote.

After Trump shocked the world by imposing a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, Beijing countered with 125% duties on U.S. goods. Trump claims negotiations with Chinese officials are underway, but China’s Foreign Ministry has rejected these assertions, dismissing them as “unfounded.” The White House has defended the tariffs as a necessary measure to protect U.S. workers and address China’s trade practices, though economists warn of rising consumer prices and potential economic disruptions. Bloomberg News reported this week that China has quietly lifted $40 billion in retaliatory tariffs on 131 U.S. import items, including pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.

In a Sunday interview with Fox News, Trump said that he will not lower tariffs on China to entice Beijing to negotiate.

“They said today they want to talk. Look, China, and I don’t like this. I’m not happy about this. China’s getting killed right now,” Trump told host NBC’s “Meet The Press” host Kristen Welker. “They’re getting absolutely destroyed. Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I’m not looking to do that to China now. At the same time, I’m not looking to have China make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more Army tanks and more airplanes.”

“You’re not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to the negotiating table?” Welker asked.

“No,” the president replied. 

President Trump on Sunday said that he’s ordering the reopening of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary – the historic prison located in the middle of the San Francisco Bay that closed over six decades ago.

“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be. No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets. That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he continued.

Located 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, Alcatraz Island was purchased in 1846 for $5,000 – after which President Fillmore ordered it turned into a military reservation in 1850. In 1859 it was used to house soldiers convicted of crimes, transitioning into the official military prison for the US Army’s Department of the Pacific.

In 1933 the US Department of Justice assumed control of the complex and designated Alcatraz a federal prison the next year – where it housed notorious criminals for the next 29 years, including Al Capone, Doc Barker, and Machine Gun Kelly. It was shuttered in 1963 over high operational costs and building corrosion caused by half a century of being located on an island exposed to saltwater and salt-laden air.

“Both the institution and the men confined within its walls reflect our society during this era,” reads the National Park Service’s webpage about the prison, also known as The Rock.

According to Trump, the reopening of Alcatraz is going to “serve as a symbol of Law, Order and JUSTICE.”