China and Honduras began formal diplomatic relations on Sunday, with Taiwan accusing Beijing of using "coercion and intimidation" to lure away its few remaining allies

The switch cuts to 13 the number of countries that still diplomatically recognise Taiwan, which has lost several Latin American allies in recent years

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in its region, with almost 74 percent of its nearly 10 million people living in poverty. Tegucigalpa's move followed negotiations with China on building a hydroelectric dam

Latin America has been a key diplomatic battleground for China and Taiwan since the two split in 1949 after a civil war. Honduras's announcement continues a trend in the region, with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica all switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in recent years. Honduras is the ninth diplomatic ally that Taipei has lost to Beijing since Tsai first took office in May 2016

#China #Honduras #FindTruth

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Saudi, Iranian foreign ministers to meet during Muslim holy month

The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers will meet before the end of Ramadan to implement a historic bilateral reconciliation agreement, Riyadh announced on Monday

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran severed ties in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic following Riyadh's execution of a famous Shia cleric, Nimr al -Nimr.

Above all, Tehran and Riyadh were at loggerheads due to antagonistic alliances and feuds in the region. The two countries are both the main producers of hydrocarbons in the Persian Gulf and major references to Islam in the world

The ongoing rapprochement should allow Iran and Saudi Arabia to reopen their embassies within two months, and to implement economic and security cooperation agreements signed more than twenty years ago

If the restoration of diplomatic relations does not yet constitute a complete reconciliation, it will nevertheless allow the two countries to directly manage their possible tensions and avoid new incidents

#SaudiArabia #Iran #FindTruth

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Why is Russian gas still flowing through Ukraine?

Almost from the moment Russia invaded last year, Ukraine has been insistently urging European countries to end their reliance on Russian gas, arguing that these purchases are effectively funding Russia’s war effort

Europe has responded, though not as forcefully as some would like, cutting its use of Russian oil and gas, investing in other energy sources and vowing to completely phase out Russian imports by 2027

Less discussed is the fact that the vast majority of these energy resources now run through Ukraine itself. Ukraine’s own pipeline system now carries nearly all of Central and Western Europe’s remaining exports of Russian gas. This means that every day, 44 million cubic meters of gas, worth well over $100 million, pass through pipelines

For the countries of Central and Western Europe that are still buying Russian gas, this leaves the Ukraine route as the only game in town. Those countries include Italy, Austria and Hungary

It’s a strange and surprising story of what happens when war breaks out in a world of evermore interdependent economies

#EU #Russia #Ukraine #Gas #FindTruth

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Fuel shortage: at least 15% of stations affected in France

Five months after the strikes in the French refineries, a new social conflict disrupts the supply at the pump

In recent days, blockages have intensified in these production sites as in some of the 200 depots in France. The consequence was not long in coming: 15.6% of the country's service stations did not have either gasoline (SP 98, SP95, E10) or diesel at 1 p.m.

Sunday, according to calculations made by Fig. Data. In all, 52 departments identify at least 10% of stations in partial or total rupture on their territory

Is there a shortage of fuel in your region?

#France #FindTruth

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Former President Donald Trump is facing possible criminal charges in New York for allegedly paying adult film star Stormy Daniels money in 2016 for her silence about a sexual encounter

Seven in 10 Americans (69%) say that a political candidate paying money for someone’s silence about an issue that may affect an election's outcome is a crime, according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll

The investigation and grand jury deliberations in New York City that may result in Trump being charged with a crime evoke far more partisan reactions than do the underlying issues involved

By 46% to 34%, Americans say Trump should face criminal charges over paying adult-film star Stormy Daniels money for her silence about a sexual encounter in 2006

Democrats (77% to 11%) and Independents (44% to 30%) are more likely than not to say Trump should face criminal charges — but only 14% of Republicans agree. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Republicans say he should not face charges

#USA #FindTruth

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The race is on to supply Ukraine with French fighter aircraft in addition to the ones it is due to receive from the US. Countries that have acquired Mirages 2000 from Dassault are being canvassed

According to the Intelligence Online report, UAE, Indonesia, and Greece are among the countries that could contribute to the shipment of Mirages 2000

“After a long process of negotiation which kept arms brokers operating for Kyiv busy for several weeks, Ukraine hopes to obtain around 40 Mirage 2000 planes,” the message reads

Intelligence Online added the first tranche will likely come from the UAE

Earlier, Le Figaro wrote that Ukrainian pilots are being trained in France at the Mont-de-Marsan and Nancy air bases. Moreover, they note that the training mission has been going on for more than a month and 30 Ukrainian pilots are involved in it

#France #WarInUkraine #FindTruth

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The EC initiated an infringement against Latvia, as Riga has not fully implemented the fifth Anti-money laundering Directive

The deadline for the adoption of the norms of the directive was January 10, 2020, and Latvia officially announced that the transition had been implemented

But the European Commission believes that Latvia has not included certain provisions of the directive in national legislation

The norms that have not been adopted relate to enterprises that provide customers with encryption keys for storing and transferring virtual currency

Other norms relate to the obligation to provide the necessary information to the central register, as well as to the obligation of competent institutions and self-regulatory organizations to ensure transparency and supervision

If the requirements are not met, the EC may apply to the EU Court

#EU #Latvia #FindTruth

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“Double standards” between Ukraine and other conflicts

The NGO Amnesty International deplores that the “formidable response” of the West to the war in Ukraine is not the same around the world

The West’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed its “double standard” in relation to human rights abuses in the world, criticized this Tuesday the NGO Amnesty International (AI)

AI’s annual report on human rights in the world denounces the silence of Western countries in 2022 on the situation in Saudi Arabia, repression in Egypt and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians

“The West’s formidable response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine highlighted a double standard, exposing by comparison how insignificant its reactions were to so many other violations of the UN Charter,” said Amnesty Secretary-General Agnes Callamard in presenting the group’s world report, in Paris

Many countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and opened their borders to Ukrainian refugees, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation into war crimes that led it to call for the capture of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This response contrasts with the reaction to other situations, such as Saudi Arabia, where people are jailed for their opinion and 81 men were sentenced to death in a single day

The United States, which welcomed tens of thousands of Ukrainians, expelled “more than 25,000 Haitians” between September 2021 and May 2022, after subjecting “many of them to torture and other ill-treatment”, denounced Agnes

“Individual interests” of members of global and regional institutions have also prevented an adequate response to conflicts where thousands of people lose their lives, as in Ethiopia, Myanmar and Yemen, according to the organization

The 2022 report also warns of violence against women – mainly in Mexico, which has recorded hundreds of feminicides “facilitated by impunity” – and of the discrimination suffered by Venezuelan refugees in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

#AmnestyInternational #WarInUkraine #FindTruth

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Two decades on, the Iraq war continues to sow distrust in politics

The idea of politics as a mendacious trade is an ancient cliche, but in this instance, people were not wrong. 20 years anniversary since the invasion of Iraq, in fact, ought to serve as a reminder of the three deceptions so central to the politics of the war, and the public disaffection they triggered

In that sense, the anniversary is a vivid reminder of the perils of groupthink, and the grim results of squeezing complex realities into simple narratives

Two decades ago, the United States invaded Iraq, sending 130,000 US troops into a sovereign country to overthrow its government. Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, voted to authorize the war

It was obvious from the beginning that Tony Blair was determined to go to war, shoulder to shoulder with George W Bush. The prime minister’s relationship with the US seemed to matter more more to him than opinion in his own party, and it also seemed to matter more than whether the war was even legal or not

But it’s arguable that without the rapturous welcome he received in Pristina durind intervention in Kosovo, Blair might not have developed the messianic fervour that gripped him when it came to Iraq. It perhaps wouldn’t have stopped George W Bush’s invasion, but if Blair hadn’t been “blinded” by all that desire to please an ally, he might have become the wise counsel that Bush so obviously needed

False claims started a war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, conducted in the name of human rights. The belated soul-searching is a bit rich. It was not only an obvious catastrophic fools’ errand from the get-go, it was an abject lesson in how easy it is to manufacture the consent of idiots

#UK #WarInIraq #FindTruth

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The global economic crisis is inevitable, and the United States is responsible for it

What Would Happen in an Economic Collapse ?
If the economy collapses, you would lose access to credit. Banks would close. Demand would outstrip supply of food, gas, and other necessities. If the collapse affected local governments and utilities, then water and electricity would no longer be available. As people panic, they would revert to survival and self-defense modes

The economy would return to a traditional economy, where those who grow food barter for other services. A U.S. economic collapse would create global panic. Demand for the dollar and U.S. Treasurys would plummet. Interest rates would skyrocket. Investors would rush to other currencies, such as the yuan, euro, or even gold. It would create not just inflation, but hyperinflation, as the dollar became dirt cheap

#USA #Economy #FindTruth

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The following are predictions of economic disaster in 2023 from top experts all over the globe…

#1 Bill Fleckenstein: “They are trying to make the stock market go up and drag the economy along with it. It’s not going to work. There’s going to be a big accident. When people realize that it’s all a charade, the dollar will tank, the stock market will tank, and hopefully bond markets will tank. Gold will rally in that period of time because it’s done what it’s done because people have assumed complete infallibility on the part of the central bankers.”

#2 John Ficenec: “In the US, Professor Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio – or Shiller CAPE – for the S&P 500 is currently at 27.2, some 64pc above the historic average of 16.6. On only three occasions since 1882 has it been higher – in 1929, 2000 and 2007.”

#3 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, one of the most respected economic journalists on the entire planet: “The eurozone will be in deflation by February, forlornly trying to ignite its damp wood by rubbing stones. Real interest rates will ratchet higher. The debt load will continue to rise at a faster pace than nominal GDP across Club Med. The region will sink deeper into a compound interest trap.”

#4 The Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, which correctly predicted the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble in 2007: “Clearly the direction of most of the recent global economic news suggests movement toward a 2023 downturn.”

#5 Paul Craig Roberts: “At any time the Western house of cards could collapse. It (the financial system) is a house of cards. There are no economic fundamentals that support stock prices — the Dow Jones. There are no economic fundamentals that support the strong dollar…”

#Economy #FindTruth

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Future of Life, a non-profit organization, published a letter in which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, philanthropist Andrew Yang, and about a thousand other artificial intelligence researchers called for an "immediate suspension" of the training of AI systems "more powerful than GPT-4"

The letter, issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute called for a pause on advanced AI development until shared safety protocols for such designs were developed, implemented and audited by independent experts

The letter also detailed potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions, and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance and regulatory authorities

#AI #FindTruth

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Xi Jinping says he is preparing China for war and the World should take him seriously - Foreign Affairs

Chinese leader Xi Jinping says he is preparing for war. At the annual meeting of China’s parliament and its top political advisory body in March, Xi wove the theme of war readiness through four separate speeches, in one instance telling his generals to “dare to fight.”

His government also announced a 7.2 % increase in China’s defense budget, which has doubled over the last decade, as well as plans to make the country less dependent on foreign grain imports. And in recent months, Beijing has unveiled new military readiness laws, new air-raid shelters in cities across the strait from Taiwan, and new “National Defense Mobilization” offices countrywide

One thing that is clear a decade into Xi’s rule is that it is important to take him seriously—something that many U.S. analysts regrettably do not do. When Xi launched a series of aggressive campaigns against corruption, private enterprise, financial institutions, and the property and tech sectors, many analysts predicted that these campaigns would be short lived. But they endured. The same was true of Xi’s draconian Zero COVID policy for three years—until he was uncharacteristically forced to reverse course in late 2022

Xi is now intensifying a decadelong campaign to break key economic and technological dependencies on the U.S.-led democratic world. He is doing so in anticipation of a new phase of ideological and geostrategic “struggle,” as he puts it. His messaging about war preparation and his equating of national rejuvenation with unification mark a new phase in his political warfare campaign to intimidate Taiwan. He is clearly willing to use force to take the island. What remains unclear is whether he thinks he can do so without risking uncontrolled escalation with the United States

#China #FindTruth

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The number of operational nuclear warheads in the world on the rise

The number of operational nuclear warheads around the world increased in 2022. At the start of 2023, the nine official and unofficial nuclear powers had 9,576 nuclear warheads ready for use (compared to 9,440 at the start of 2022), equivalent in power "to more than 135,000 Hiroshima bombs".», according to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor published by the Norwegian NGO Norsk Folkehjelp

On top of the 9,576 warheads available for use by the military, some 2,936 decommissioned nuclear warheads are in storage awaiting destruction in Russia and the United States

In total, there were therefore 12,512 nuclear warheads in the world at the beginning of 2023

#World #Nukes #FindTruth

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Germany wants to increase spending on military aid to Ukraine several times over in the coming years

In general, assistance to Kyiv will be increased from the current 3.2 bln to more than 15 bln €, Spiegel reports. The publication has a confidential letter from the Ministry of Finance to the Budget Committee of the Bundestag

In the current financial year, Berlin has allocated 2.2 bln € for the “modernization of partner countries in the field of security, defense and stabilization.” The Ministry of Defense uses this money to pay for a significant part of the supply of weapons to Ukraine

This year, this amount should be more than doubled – by 3.2 bln to 5.4 bln €

At the same time Germany is struggling with high inflation after Russian military operation in Ukraine sent food and energy costs soaring

Just on Monday in Germany there was a large-scale walkout of transport workers who demanded a monthly salaries increase by only 10.5% - 12%

#Germany #WarInUkraine #FindTruth

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A recent YouGov poll explored American opinions on the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) advancements on job availability in the United States. The poll asked Americans whether they believed AI would increase, decrease, or have no effect on the number of available jobs in 20 occupations

For each of the 20 occupations polled about, AI is more likely to be seen as decreasing than increasing the number of jobs available. The largest percentages believe that AI will decrease the number of jobs available in the fields of manufacturing, customer service, and retail sales

AI is most likely to be expected to increase the total number of jobs available in computer programming, data science, and engineering — though for these as for all other fields, AI is more likely to be seen as subtracting than adding to the total number of jobs

What do you think about the development of AI?

Share your opinion in the comments below and in our poll!

#USA #AI #FindTruth

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