Previously posted on my Facebook Page.
New York Times: “Can the World Make an Electric Car Battery Without China?” And adds: “From mines to refineries and factories, China began investing decades ago. Today, most of your electric car batteries are made in China and that’s unlikely to change soon.” Years before Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin signed a trade pact in 2000, or when Deng Xiaoping quietly unleashed his “open door economic policy” in the 1970s, China was already diversifying and expanding, globally.
As China eases up its manufacturing overdrive to spread FDIs out in relation to the CCP’s grand Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s factories have spread in four corners of the earth. Why Taiwan is hot? Think Foxconn, the world's largest technology manufacturer, with factories in 24 countries, the most in China with 12, including the largest in Shenzhen. 🛻🇨🇳🛵
New York Times: “House Passes Debt Limit Bill in Bipartisan Vote to Avert Default.” / “Senate Passes Debt Limit Bill, Staving Off a Calamitous Default.” As expected, both Houses of Congress passed the bill sans a few revolts in the Senate, fearing an “under-funded” Pentagon. (What?!?) Budget cuts would be around $160 billion. Now the issue: What federal program budgets will be on the chopping board. Congress signed the $113 billion aid to Ukraine late last year, by the way. 🏦🗽🏦
New York Times: “Uber’s Diversity Chief Put on Leave After Complaints of Insensitivity.” And adds: “The executive hosted sessions about race and being a white woman that were titled `Don’t Call Me Karen,’ prompting an employee uproar.” A Chief Diversity Officer is responsible for designing diversity and inclusion strategy. Ensure equal opportunity for employees across age, gender, race, ethnicity and disability. That position seems like a kind of god to me. Just saying. 🚘😒🚖
New York Times: “New Details in Debt Limit Deal: Where $136 Billion in Cuts Will Come From.” And adds: “Two years of spending caps, additional work requirements for food stamps and cuts to I.R.S. funding are among the components in the deal.” The budget cuts would be around $160 billion. Among others, the armed forces expect/s austerity. However, the $113 billion aid for Ukraine, which was approved in 2022, stays. But medical care for veterans would be hit. Sad.
Other affected programs support a wide range of functions and services: Administration of Social Security and Medicare; support for K-12 and college education, Head Start and child care; mental health and substance use treatment; small business assistance; public health programs; clean air and water; medical research; housing assistance for families with low incomes; law enforcement and the courts; and many others. 🏦💵🏦
New York Times: “Biden Administration Announces Indo-Pacific Deal…” but prominent business groups said the deal fell short on “reducing tariffs and other trade barriers.” Biden’s negotiators face a tough grind on the table since most of those allies are already members of the China-led RCEP bloc, since Nov 2020. First, lose the Taiwan intrigue. The East isn’t high on disruptive hawkish girth, regardless of territorial jostling in South China Sea. Then let trade talks commence!
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for 30 percent of global GDP, making it the largest trade bloc in history. RCEP is the first free trade agreement among the largest economies in Asia, including China, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. 🏢☮️🏢
New York Times: “A.I.-Generated Content Discovered on News Sites, Content Farms and Product Reviews.” New reports raise fresh concerns over how artificial intelligence may transform the misinformation landscape online. While some countries embrace ChatGPT and AI tools, others lean hard on regulation. Countries that have banned ChatGPT: Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Italy. I am not Communist, Muslim, or Italian but if I am a country, I’ll ban AI, too. 🤖📜🤖
Smithsonian: “The Shipwrecked Teenager Who Helped End Japan's Isolationist Era.” And adds: “Manjiro spent time abroad before returning home, where he was valued for his expertise but never fully trusted.” Was Manjiro a spy? History: The Perry Expedition of 1853-54. The goal was to force an end to Japan's 220-year isolationism and open Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of “gunboat diplomacy.” Pretty much “trade with us or else…”
Japan’s Edo period, the time when borders remained closed for almost three centuries until 1868. This allowed the country's unique culture, customs and ways of life to flourish in isolation, much of which was recorded in art forms that remain alive today such as haiku poetry or kabuki theater. 🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵
New York Times: “Why It’s So Hard to Crack Down on Stoned Drivers in New York.” And adds: “Smoking marijuana while operating a vehicle appears to have become ubiquitous in New York City after the drug’s legalization. But it’s a trend, though illegal, that’s not easy to curb.” I’d be clobbered here if I diss the weed. I don’t, LOL! Anyhow, many believe alcohol is different from marijuana. Yes. Trudat. But when abused, all I see is intoxication, drunk or stoned. Either, I don’t dig at all. 🥹🚗🥴
New York Times: “Despite Inflation, Earthquakes and Tough Race, Erdogan Is Re-elected.” Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a fave punching bag of the West. But the truth is, Turkey is significant to global/regional peace. Turkey borders Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and is a key partner for U.S. policy in the surrounding region. A security buffer in Europe, and the seas bordering Somalia, and in the Mediterranean. Yet Erdogan is no yes man.
While the West boasts of housing huge numbers of refugees, Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, the most for any country. Ankara has delivered aid reaching $30 billion (total between 2011 and 2018) on refugee assistance. As a member of NATO since 1952, Turkey has the second largest army. But the country is the sole dissenting vote in the military alliance that is why Erdogan (president since 2014) riles the U.S./Europe a lot. He is a hardball. News adds: “Recep Tayyip Erdogan has given few indications that he intends to change course at home, where he faces a looming economic crisis, or in foreign policy, where he has vexed Western allies.” 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷
New York Times: “Despite Hochul’s Pledge, Her Policies Have Helped Husband’s Firm.” Kathy Hochul says she has taken no role per decisions that benefited her hubby’s Delaware North company. Hmmm. Remember, she also used state aircraft 140 times between last August and March 31 of this year at a cost to taxpayers of upwards of $170,000. What about her proposal to build sports arenas with taxpayer money? Ms Hochul could be worse for New York than Andrew Cuomo. 👎🗽👎
