Chinese Firm Bought Insurer For CIA Agents As Part Of Trillion Dollar Spending Spree

For years, Washington assumed that China’s outbound investment flowed mainly into developing economies hungry for infrastructure money. But as scrutiny tightens across the West, it’s becoming clear that Beijing’s financial reach extended far deeper into wealthy nations - and far earlier - than most policymakers realized.

One early warning came in 2016, when Jeff Stein, a veteran journalist covering U.S. intelligence agencies, received an unusual tip: Wright USA, a small insurer that specialized in providing liability coverage for FBI and CIA personnel, had quietly been acquired the year before by Fosun Group, a Chinese conglomerate with reported ties to Beijing’s leadership. “Someone with direct knowledge called me up and said, ‘Do you know that the insurance company that insures intelligence personnel is owned by the Chinese?’” Stein recalls. “I was astonished.”

The concern was immediate and obvious. Wright USA held personal information on some of the most sensitive employees in the federal government. The question in Washington became not what the Chinese buyer intended, but who might ultimately gain access to the data. Newly released records reviewed by the BBC indicate that Chinese state banks helped finance the acquisition, routing a $1.2 billion loan through the Cayman Islands to enable Fosun’s purchase.

Though the deal violated no U.S. laws, it triggered alarm. Stein’s story in Newsweek soon prompted a rare inquiry by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Treasury-led interagency panel responsible for policing foreign ownership risks. Within months, Wright USA was sold back to American owners. Neither Fosun nor Starr Wright USA, its new parent, responded to requests for comment.

High-level intelligence officials say the episode was among the cases that pushed the first Trump administration in 2018 to significantly tighten U.S. investment screening - part of a broader shift as the U.S. began rethinking a two-decade-old presumption that Chinese capital posed few national-security risks.

New research now suggests the Wright USA case was not an anomaly, but one instance in a vast global pattern. AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, has completed what it calls the first comprehensive tally of China’s state-backed investments abroad. Its findings, shared in advance with the BBC, show that Beijing has spent $2.1 trillion overseas since 2000 - roughly half in developing countries and half in advanced economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.

“For many years, we assumed China’s money flows were going to developing countries,” said Brad Parks, AidData’s executive director. “It came as a great surprise when we realized hundreds of billions were flowing into wealthy markets, happening right underneath our noses.”

China’s ability to project financial power abroad is tied to the enormous scale of its domestic banking system - now larger than those of the U.S., Europe, and Japan combined. Beijing exercises direct control over interest rates and credit allocation, giving it tools few governments possess. “This is only possible with very strict capital controls, which no other country could sustain,” said Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego.

Many of the investments mapped by AidData appear commercial in nature. But others align with China’s long-running industrial strategy, including the now-muted - but still operative - “Made in China 2025” program, which aims to dominate sectors such as robotics, electric vehicles, and semiconductors. 

Western governments have since moved aggressively to strengthen screening mechanisms over inbound capital. In the U.K., the U.S., and the Netherlands, regulators have derailed or unwound deals over fears that Chinese buyers could access strategically sensitive technologies. The Dutch government recently intervened in the operations of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor firm, citing concerns that chip technologies could be transferred to its parent company. The move effectively split Nexperia’s Dutch operations from its China-based manufacturing arm - an extraordinary step in a country long known for economic openness.

But policymakers also warn against overcorrection. “There’s a danger of making it seem as if China is this monolith,” said Xiaoxue Martin, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. “Most companies, especially private ones, just want to make money. They don’t want the negative reception they’re getting in Europe.”

Beijing rejects claims that its overseas investments are tools of statecraft. “Chinese companies… contribute actively to local economic growth, social development and job creation,” the Chinese embassy in London told the BBC, adding that they strictly follow local laws.

Still, the scale of the financing behind many transactions raises questions about where commercial intent ends and strategic interest begins. What Western officials now see, Parks argues, is a coordinated push. “At first, they thought these were individual initiatives from Chinese companies,” he said. “What they’ve learned is that Beijing’s party-state is behind the scenes writing the checks.”

(h/t Capital.news)

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 23:00

The Road To De-Civilization: Inflation & The Moral Erosion Of Society

Authored by Michael Matulef via The Mises Institute,

Every major economic illusion begins with the corruption of a word. Inflation once meant popularly what it still means in truth—the artificial expansion of money and credit. But, over time, it has been redefined to describe its consequence rather than its cause.

This deliberate inversion of language serves a political purpose: it shifts blame from those who create money to those who merely spend it, transforming an act of monetary fraud into a mere statistical “phenomenon.”

The result is profound.

By redefining inflation, governments have obscured its nature, economists have lost its meaning, and citizens have come to accept their gradual impoverishment as an unavoidable fact of life.

The Austrian tradition—more than any other—seeks to restore that lost clarity: to call things by their proper names, and to remind us that inflation is not a symptom of capitalism’s failure, but of government’s assault on money itself.

The Nature of Inflation

Inflation, as understood by the Austrian School, is not a general rise in prices but an artificial expansion of the money supply. Everything else flows from that root cause. Prices do not rise uniformly, nor do they rise spontaneously. There are supply and demand reasons why prices can rise. However, prices largely rise at present because additional monetary units are injected into the economy, altering the structure of production and distorting economic calculation from the ground up.

As Ludwig von Mises insisted in Economic Freedom and Interventionism,

There is nowadays a very reprehensible, even dangerous, semantic confusion that makes it extremely difficult for the non-expert to grasp the true state of affairs. Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country [the United States], means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term “inflation” to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation. It follows that nobody cares about inflation in the traditional sense of the term. As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil.

Only later, as political expediency demanded it, was the definition corrupted to mean “a general rise in prices.” That semantic sleight of hand allowed governments to claim innocence while committing the very act they had redefined away.

Murray Rothbard brought Mises’s insight to its logical conclusion in The Case Against the Fed:

The culprit solely responsible for inflation, the Federal Reserve, is continually engaged in raising a hue-and-cry about “inflation,” for which virtually everyone else in society seems to be responsible. What we are seeing is the old ploy by the robber who starts shouting “Stop, thief!” and runs down the street pointing ahead at others. We begin to see why it has always been important for the Fed, and for other Central Banks, to invest themselves with an aura of solemnity and mystery. For, if the public knew what was going on, if it was able to rip open the curtain covering the inscrutable Wizard of Oz, it would soon discover that the Fed, far from being the indispensable solution to the problem of inflation, is itself the heart and cause of the problem.

Every expansion, Rothbard argued, constitutes a form of legalized counterfeiting that “robs all holders of money,” redistributing wealth from savers and producers to those nearest the new money’s points of entry. Prices adjust unevenly because new money does not enter all pockets at once. It flows—first to borrowers, banks, and state contractors—before dispersing through the broader economy. This “Cantillon effect” is central to the Austrian understanding: new money changes prices, which beget other chances, from injection points; inflation benefits those who receive new money first and penalizes those who receive it last.

As Jörg Guido Hülsmann demonstrates in How Inflation Destroys Civilization, inflation springs “from a violation of the fundamental rules of society,” transforming what should be honest economic exchange into systematic deception. Inflation is not merely a monetary distortion but a moral hazard that corrupts the language of economic communication itself. When fiat inflation “turns moral hazard and irresponsibility into an institution,” it destroys the pricing system’s ability to convey truth. In such an environment, where “everything is what it is called, then it is difficult to explain the difference between truth and lie,” prices cease to function as reliable signals coordinating economic decisions. Inflation “tempts people to lie about their products, and perennial inflation encourages the habit of routine lies,” spreading this corruption “like a cancer over the rest of the economy.” The result is a society where the very medium of economic coordination has been falsified at its source, leaving entrepreneurs to navigate by systematically-distorted signals that make sustainable economic calculation impossible.

But the damage extends far beyond falsified price signals into the moral fabric of civilization itself. Inflation “constantly reduces the purchasing power of money,” and “the consequence is despair and the eradication of moral and social standards.” Through debt-based policies, “Western governments have pushed their citizens into a state of financial dependency unknown to any previous generation.” This dependency corrodes character:

Towering debts are incompatible with financial self-reliance and thus they tend to weaken self-reliance also in all other spheres. The debt-ridden individual eventually adopts the habit of turning to others for help, rather than maturing into an economic and moral anchor of his family, and of his wider community. Wishful thinking and submissiveness replace soberness and independent judgment.

Worse still, “Inflation makes society materialistic. More and more people strive for money income at the expense of personal happiness.” What emerges is a culture where “fiat inflation leaves a characteristic cultural and spiritual stain on human society”—a stain that transforms independent citizens into dependent subjects, erodes the standards that sustain civilization, and ultimately reveals inflation as “a powerhouse of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual destruction.”

Inflation as Lived Experience

Inflation’s true theater is not the spreadsheet but the home. The harm is intimate—felt not in economic aggregates but in the quiet recalibrations of daily life. Inflation acts as the cruelest and most imprudent tax, for it strikes invisibly, eroding the purchasing power of the very people least equipped to hedge against it. It destroys the link between effort and reward, between prudence and security.

Inflation punishes thrift and rewards debt. Those who save in money lose; those who borrow in money gain, at least temporarily. The saver’s virtue becomes folly, and the speculator’s recklessness becomes advantageous. Over time, entire societies shift their time preferences—impatience replaces diligence, consumption replaces production and saving. Once the money signal is corrupted, society loses its sense of future orientation. Inflation de-civilizes by teaching people to live for the present. This is civilizational decay.

In daily life, this manifests gradually. The middle-class family that once dined out weekly now eats at home. The young worker saving for a house discovers the dream receding each year. The retiree, promised security through “stable” investments, realizes that the stability was priced in nominal, not real, terms. Everyone adjusts—economically, psychologically, morally. The harm is slow, individualized, and cumulative.

The Austrian economist sees inflation not as a statistic but as a story of distortion—a story of moral inversion, misallocation, and progressive social demoralization. The calamity is not merely higher prices but confused values and distorted choices. Inflation is, in essence, a lie against time and value, and, like all lies, it eventually collapses under its own contradictions.

Conclusion: Sound Money as Civilization’s Foundation

The path forward is not mysterious; it is a choice. Societies that wish to recover from inflation’s moral and economic wreckage must begin where the corruption began: with money itself. The Austrian remedy demands the restoration of honest money—money that cannot be inflated at will, that holds its value across time, and that reconnects effort with reward.

To call for sound money is to demand the reestablishment of truth as the foundation of economic life. Inflation is first and foremost a lie—a lie embedded in the very medium we use to communicate value. When that medium is corrupted, the moral architecture of society collapses with it. Restoring sound money means restoring the conditions under which civilization can flourish: where savings accumulate rather than decay, where long-term planning replaces short-term desperation, and where currency becomes an ally of virtue rather than an engine of vice.

The inflation that impoverishes and demoralizes continues, not by economic necessity, but by political will and public acquiescence. History offers no comfort to those who ignore economic law indefinitely. To choose sound money is to choose civilization over decay. The Austrian School offers no utopian promises, only stark clarity: sound money is the precondition for a free and civilized society, and its absence is the precondition for barbarism.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 22:35

How A Missed Train In 1876 Led To The Adoption Of Standard Time

Authored by Gerry Bowler via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In July 1876, Sandford Fleming, a Scottish Canadian engineer, was standing on an Irish railway platform fuming—he had misread his timetable, confusing a.m. and p.m., and as a result had missed his train. Spurred by this inconvenience, Fleming began thinking how a 24-hour clock would have made this sort of mistake impossible. But his highly inventive mind did not stop there: he had visions of worldwide time zones, 24 of them around the globe, each comprising 15 degrees of longitude and each an hour different.

The Hon. Donald Smith drives home the last spike for the Canadian Pacific Railway in Eagle Pass, B.C., on Nov. 7, 1885. The tall man standing behind him with the top hat is Sir Sandford Fleming, the father of standard time. The Canadian Press/National Archives of Canada

The notion of standardized time would be an extremely valuable one in an age of unprecedented railway expansion and increased travel. It was customary for each locality to keep to a different time, making timetables an unreliable nightmare and accidents much more likely to happen. In October 1841 near Westfield, Massachusetts, two trains operating on the same track, one east-bound, the other west-bound, collided because of inaccurate timekeeping. Only two people died in that crash, but 20 passengers and crew died near Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1853 because of a similar miscommunication, with a new train conductor using a milkman’s borrowed watch upon which to base his train’s schedule.

Fleming, also an inventor and scientist, was a tireless advocate of scientific cooperation, founding the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Institute. He promoted his concept through publications, presentations to scientific societies, and extensive lobbying with railroad executives with whom he had excellent connections due to his extensive experience with the Intercontinental Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

He enlisted scientific allies across North America and Europe and spearheaded transatlantic cooperation to make his proposal a reality.​ In this work he was assisted by astronomer and meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, the head of the United States Weather Bureau, who had urged standardization of clocks in other to ensure consistency from his far-flung reporting stations.

The climax of their campaign arrived on Nov. 18, 1883—known as “The Day of Two Noons.” At noon on this date, North American railroads officially adopted the system of standard time zones. Railroad clocks across the continent switched from local time to one of the four primary zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. This historic moment, coordinated by the General Time Convention (later renamed the American Railway Association) and railroad managers, represented a dramatic shift for millions. In cities such as New York, residents watched as their clocks marked noon twice: once by the sun, and once by the new standard. The transition was so significant that some regarded it as an affront to tradition and a dangerous break with nature.

This new system specifically followed Fleming’s recommendations and gave structure to North American industry and commerce. The immediate effect was a drastic reduction in railway accidents and scheduling errors, paving the way for faster, safer travel and more efficient movement of goods and people.​

Fleming’s advocacy extended beyond North America. He participated in high-profile international conferences, culminating in the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. Here, his proposals played a pivotal role in persuading delegates from over 20 countries to adopt the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian, the basis for a new global standard of timekeeping. Countries gradually established legal frameworks to adopt standardized time zone usage for civil and commercial purposes.​

Today, Canada has six times zones from Newfoundland (always a tricky 30 minutes different) to the Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific zones. The continental United States has five, plus four more for their island possessions in the Pacific and Caribbean. Russia has an amazing 11 time zones, while autocratic China has only a single one.

A sign on the TransCanada Highway west of Thunder Bay, Ont., indicating a change in time zone. The plaque on the left commemorates Sir Sandford Fleming for his role in the adoption of a standard time. The Canadian Press/Colin Perkel

Fleming’s vision permanently altered how societies measure, understand, and organize time. The widespread adaptation of his time zone model meant that, for the first time, vast regions could be coordinated with precision, whether for train schedules, telegraph messages, or cross-continental business. This system remains essentially unchanged in the 21st century, a testament to the enduring value of Fleming’s intellectual achievement and his ability to foster cooperation.​

Fleming was an astonishingly productive man, one that Canadians—who are presently suffering a dearth of heroes (particularly from the 19th century)—ought to know more about. He had keen ideas about electoral reform, favouring a system of proportional representation, and he advocated for transoceanic undersea cables connecting North America, Europe, and Australia. In 1851, he designed Canada’s first postage stamp.

Fleming’s work on railways in the Maritime provinces and in the construction of the CPR was of paramount importance in securing Canadian unity. For those of you familiar with the photograph of the pounding of the CPR’s “last spike,” he is the tall bearded gentleman in a top hat standing behind CPR director Donald Smith, who is wielding the hammer. For his many services to his country, Fleming was knighted in 1897.

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

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 21:45

Layan Odeh and Paula Sambo of Bloomberg report CPP Investment Board revamps growth equity after uneven returns:

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is revamping a private equity strategy that focuses on high-growth companies after getting mixed results in the strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.

The pension manager’s growth equity group holds stakes in about 30 companies, mostly in various subsectors of technology, including artificial intelligence and financial tech. But after a flurry of dealmaking in 2021 and 2022, the team has dramatically slowed the rate of new direct investments following a period of soft returns.

Lately, it’s shifted some assets into a different portfolio, and it plans to lean heavily on third-party managers to source new investment ideas, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters.

Canada’s largest pension fund invested in about four firms over the past few months, including putting US$75 million into OpenAI and participating in Wealthsimple Financial Corp.’s latest equity round. But it’s only done a handful of other direct investments in the growth equity category since the beginning of 2024.

The fund’s San Francisco office is closing at the end of this year, and the new head of growth equity, Max Miller, has relocated to Toronto, a spokesperson said. There are three other managing directors within the group, according to its website. Lisa Conway recently joined the pension fund from Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

 

Michel Leduc, the pension manager’s head of public affairs and communications, said the slowdown in deal activity is related to the correction that took place in technology and growth companies after the COVID pandemic eased and interest rates shot higher, starting in 2022. Deal flow is picking up again, he said, and he predicted that there’s more activity to come. 

“The current fiscal year will represent one of our biggest years ever for direct investing in growth equity companies,” Leduc said. The private equity department, which includes the growth team, has always relied on a partnership model and there’s no change in that or the team’s “appetite” to invest directly, he added.

Miller became leader of the growth equity team in June — the third person to hold that role since 2023 — taking over from Monica Adractas, who’s becoming an adviser to the $732 billion fund. He reports to CPPIB’s head of funds Afsaneh Lebel, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The fund doesn’t disclose the returns of its growth equity portfolio, but performance has been uneven, according to people familiar with the matter.

Typically, growth equity investments fall somewhere in between venture capital and traditional buyouts, seeking to provide capital to businesses that are more established than startups but are still accelerating. CPPIB has been investing in these kinds of companies for many years, but made the decision three years ago to highlight the group as a distinct entity within its larger private equity division.

At the time, Suyi Kim, then global head of private equity, said her investment team had “all the elements required to build a formal growth equity practice that was truly one of a kind, on a global scale.”

CPPIB was not alone in making bets on growth stocks, which surged during the pandemic era of ultra-low interest rates. About half of CPPIB’s growth equity direct holdings were made between 2020 and 2022, according to its website. But tech sector valuations got crunched when the cost of capital changed.

Some of investments have shown huge progress, such as software firm Databricks Inc., which recently raised money at a $100 billion valuation, and KoBold Metals Co., which is searching for lithium and other minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is backed by billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

CPPIB also scored recent gains when two of its holdings, Klarna Group Plc and Netskope Inc., went public and attracted strong investor interest.

Others have had notable public stumbles. Shares of Sana Biotechnology Inc have plunged more than 80% since it went public in 2021. CPPIB invested in the firm in 2019.

Plaid Inc., a fintech that acts as a middleman between financial institutions and startups, raised money in April at a $6.1 billion valuation, less than half of what it was worth in 2021, when CPPIB invested in it. Another of its holdings from that year, Canadian chip startup Untether AI, began winding down operations in June, with its team moving to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. CPPIB no longer holds this investment, said the person.

The portfolio also includes N26, Germany’s largest digital-only bank, which is undergoing a shakeup that led to the departure of its co-chief executive officer after the country’s financial regulator identified deficiencies in the bank’s internal controls.

A few months ago, the pension plan had around 40 companies in its growth equity portfolio, but the fund has exited some investments and moved others to another entity called Integrated Strategies Group, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The group, which sits within the office of the chief investment officer, was created in 2023 to manage holdings that no longer fit within traditional investment departments.

CPPIB manages money of behalf of tens of millions of Canadian workers. 

I read this last week and take some statements in this article with a pinch of salt.

To be brutally honest, it doesn't surprise me, all these growth equity teams exhibit plenty of failures and a few successes and we are far from the pandemic heyday of 2020-2022 where rates were at zero and everyone was (literally) throwing money at public and private tech shares.

In short, rates have normalized as Michael Leduc rightly notes, valuations came down and in some cases, came down a lot.

Now we are living through another tech selloff in public markets. November has been brutal for megacap tech shares and guess what, all that trickles down to private markets as well (less appetite for risk taking in growth equity).

Look, I've seen a lot in 30+ years and I know one thing, when winter comes to VC and Growth Equity land, it's brutal.

CPP Investments wasn't the only large Canadian pension fund manager to rejig its growth equity team this year. OMERS did as well back in July.  

There are really good, smart people working at these groups but when the tide turns, it's rough. 

Personally, I would separate Growth Equity from Private Equity as I see them as two separate businesses.

Growth Equity is a lot riskier, can deliver huge returns or really lousy ones.

And when they're lousy, they're really lousy, can be a real drag on returns.

In other related private equity news, CPP Investments' Head of Secondaries, Dushy Sivanithy, recently announced on LinkedIn he's leaving the organization after seven years:

 

I honestly didn't expect that as he's a star on that Private Equity team but he obviously got poached away and I do wish him all the best in his next gig.

Tom Kapsimalis is now the Head of Secondaries at CPP Investments and he's another very experienced professional who I'm sure will do a great job handling this critical portfolio.

What else? Last week, CPP Investments announced net assets totalled $777.5 billion at the end of the second quarter fiscal 2026. You can read the details here and highlights below: 

• Net assets increase by $45.8 billion
• 10-year net return of 8.8%
• CPP Investments recognized once again for its transparency, as we ranked first among Canadian peers and second among 75 pension funds globally in the 2025 Global Pension Transparency Benchmark

Lastly, I want to congratulate CEO John Graham for winning the Eisenhower Global Citizenship Award at the 2025 Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Awards Gala.

The award was presented by Blackstone President & COO Jon Gray and just for background:

The 2025 Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Awards Gala will take place in New York City on Monday, November 10, honoring leaders who embodies the theme “70 Years of Enduring Parterships.” BCIU recognized the outstanding achievements of the following honorees:

• John Graham, President and Chief Executive Officer of CPP Investments, received the Eisenhower Global Citizenship Award
• Kenneth C. Griffin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Citadel and Founder, Citadel Securities, will receive the Eisenhower Global Innovation Award
• María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will receive the Eisenhower Award

Pretty impressive to be named alongside Ken Griffin and Maria Corina Machado who also won the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Alright, let me wrap it up there.

Below, CNBC’s “Closing Bell” team discusses tech valuations with Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Beijing Jumps Back Into US Soybean Market, Snaps Up 20 Cargo Loads After Abrupt Pause 

After the Trump-Xi trade agreement cooled the tit-for-tat tariff war and opened the door for a more stable phase of negotiations, we've been tracking a series of agricultural twists and turns that can only be viewed as a rollercoaster ride: 

• 'Signatures As Soon As Next Week': U.S.-China Deal Close, Bessent Unveils Major Victory For American Farmers

• China Boosts U.S. Soybean Purchases Following Trump-Xi Trade Talks

Then this. 

• China's Purchases Of U.S. Soybeans Abruptly Stops

Now we've come full circle after Bloomberg reported Tuesday that China has returned to the U.S. soybean market, purchasing nearly a million tons, or about 20 cargo ships worth, for December and January delivery. 

Traders told BBG that state-owned giant Cofco made the purchases from both Pacific Northwest and Gulf Coast ports. As we've previously reported, these purchases end the one-week pause in buying and signal Beijing's continued commitment after last month's trade truce. 

That commitment: the Trump administration says Beijing pledged to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by year-end and 25 million tons annually for the following three years. 

Trump told reporters on Friday aboard Air Force One that China has already begun the buying process and expects "a lot of soybean purchases," potentially even before spring.

On Monday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox Business, "We've already got about 330,000 TONS out... we're going to get that deal signed - then, we're off to the races." 

Chicago soybean futures were up more than 3% on Monday before easing in the overnight session. 

The renewed demand may lift bean prices much higher. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 21:20

Pennsylvania School District Using AI-Enabled Wi-Fi To Search Students For Firearms

Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Pennsylvania school district is using artificial intelligence to keep guns off its campuses. But civil liberties advocates have warned that the technology could lead to mass surveillance and violation of constitutional rights.

The entrance to Oliver Citywide Academy is empty after a shooting in Pittsburgh on May 24, 2023, in this file photo. Justin Vellucci/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP

The Chartiers Valley School District in Allegheny County has implemented AI that harnesses the district’s Wi-Fi signals to determine whether people are carrying weapons as they enter the schools.

The technology, called Wi-AI, was developed by CurvePoint of Pittsburgh. CurvePoint grew out of AI research at Carnegie Mellon University.

According to the company, Wi-AI uses “spatial intelligence” to find weapons such as guns before they enter a school.

The AI system analyzes a space and detects where potential weapons are located by interpreting “how Wi-Fi signals reflect off people and objects.”

Once a possible weapon is found, security personnel, school administrators, or others can go to the location to determine whether there is actually a threat.

It is now in use at Chartiers Valley School District high school, middle school, and primary school campuses. CurvePoint CEO Skip Smith said that in a recent test, the system found a pistol hidden in a backpack. He said the technology has a 95 percent success rate, failing only 4 percent of its searches.

Smith said the Wi-AI does not carry the same privacy concerns of other security systems because it does not rely on facial recognition or biometric data.

“We don’t know it’s you,“ Smith told The Epoch Times. ”We have no biometric information about you. Our system just sees a big bag of salt water.”

Darren Mariano, president of the Chartiers Valley Board of School Directors, said the district is excited to be the first in the country to adopt the technology.

“The safety of our students and staff is always our top priority,” he said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be the first district in the nation to implement this groundbreaking technology.”

Law enforcement officers work at the scene of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025, in this file photo. Tom Baker/AFP via Getty Images

But some say the technology should be approached with caution.

Jeremy Rovinsky is a constitutional law professor at Crestpoint University in Phoenix. He said the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure apply to public school students, although the standard is slightly different in a school setting.

Under the Fourth Amendment, a government official must have probable cause to believe that a crime is being committed before obtaining a search warrant.

However, in New Jersey v. T.L.O., the Supreme Court ruled that a school administrator needed to have only a “reasonable suspicion” that the search would turn up evidence of a crime.

In that case, a teacher reported that two students had been smoking in a girls restroom.

One of the 14-year-olds denied the allegation. An administrator searched the girl’s purse and found cigarettes, what appeared to be marijuana, paraphernalia for smoking marijuana, and evidence that she was selling pot to her classmates.

The student was found to be delinquent in juvenile court. She appealed the decision on the grounds that the search was illegal.

Reasonable Suspicion

The high court ruled that the administrator had a reasonable suspicion for the search based on the teacher’s report and that a search warrant was not required.

In a message to The Epoch Times, Rovinsky said the law also recognizes “administrative searches.” These are non-intrusive, general searches that are targeted to preventing a specific danger such as keeping guns out of school.

Still, Rovinsky wrote, new technology should be introduced carefully to ensure that it does not become a constitutional problem.

“While school authorities have greater latitude to search students and their possessions than authorities outside of school, the scope of what counts as reasonable imposes limits on school searches,” Rovinsky wrote.

Seattle-based lawyer Evan Oshan said the technology could devolve into allowing warrantless searches of every person to enter the campus based on no evidence or reasonable suspicion.

If not checked, according to Oshan, the technology could be implemented in all public spaces, creating an even larger surveillance state.

A police officer monitors a drone flight near the Chula Vista Police Department in Chula Vista, Calif., on Aug. 21, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

“We’re normalizing constant surveillance of our children under the guise of safety,” Oshan wrote in a message to The Epoch Times. “This dragnet approach sweeps up everyone, guilty and innocent alike, which is precisely what the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent.”

Smith agreed that the technology will grow. However, he said, growth will provide more benefits than risks.

He said the technology can be used to monitor the elderly or those with dementia, or to provide security and marketing data by tracking for business.

“Our view of the future is we’re offering inferences on how spaces are being used ... but without capturing, you know, private information on who the individual [user] is,” he said.

He acknowledged that AI is a relatively new technology and that some glitches may arise. But he said that as the Wi-AI learns, the company will prioritize privacy and security.

Oshan’s view is not quite as rosy.

“This technology creates a slippery slope,“ he said. ”Today it’s Wi-Fi signals searching for weapons in schools. Tomorrow it’s on public transportation, in shopping malls, at government buildings. Where does it end? The Constitution provides the guardrails, and we ignore them at our peril.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 20:55

Ecuador Slams Door On Hosting US Military Base In National Referendum

Ecuador just had a major vote which has gone some underreported in US mainstream media, given perhaps the current focus on the Venezuela crisis. The Latin American country held a referendum Sunday on allowing allowing the return of foreign military bases in the country.

This was ultimately seen as a vote on allowing an American military presence, which the US has long sought to reestablish. Ecuadoreans voted down the proposal in a significant blow to President Daniel Noboa, who has sought a change in the constitution. Since 2008, the constitution has banned foreign bases on Ecuadorean soil.

Image source, US Air National Guard: Ecuador's military receives a US C-130H Hercules aircraft in Latacunga.

One of Noboa's key rationales for seeking a reversal of the prior legislation was to have outside assistance in fighting soaring crime and drug-trafficking in the country and region. 

The referendum was held 16 years after the United States was made to shut down a military site on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

The New York Times suggests that Ecuadoreans currently see the Trump administration pushing its military might around in the Caribbean while threatening countries like Venezuela, Colombia, and even more recently Mexico:

They soundly rejected a national referendum on Sunday that he had backed, aimed at authorizing a foreign miliary presence in Ecuador. With more than 98 percent of ballots counted, 61 percent opposed the measure.

The vote comes as the region has been roiled by the intensifying U.S. military campaign against boats the Trump administration claims are smuggling drugs.

The Ron Paul Institute also sees in this a grass roots movement among foreign peoples to reign in US foreign policy and militarism in their lands. Journalist and pundit Adam Dick writes the following:

There is not a lot of reason for hope for the US to start adhering soon to a noninterventionist foreign policy. Indeed, President Donald Trump has been moving the US in the opposite direction. He continued US participation in the wars of his predecessor. This includes the Ukraine and Israel wars, in regard to which Trump had promised, in the lead-up to becoming president, to bring peace very quickly. Further, Trump has begun a new war against Venezuela and is threatening to pursue a new “Global War for Christians,” starting with threats of US military attacks in Nigeria. Meanwhile, Congress does nothing to stop or curtail the intervention.

There seems to be little hope of the US government choosing to move toward nonintervention abroad soon. Maybe some of the best hope for change in that direction comes from people in other countries saying “no more” to aiding the US government’s interventionist pursuits.

On Sunday, a majority of voters in Ecuador voted in a national ballot measures election against allowing the US government to have military bases in the South American country. The “no” vote win occurred despite Ecuador President Daniel Noboa strongly campaigning for the ballot measure’s approval.

So long as Americans fail to put an end to their government’s interventions abroad, there is hope that people in Ecuador and elsewhere around the world can impose some restraint.

Also in the background has been Trump admin officials really pushing and reviving concept of influence in the world based on the 18th century Monroe Doctrine.

AFP/Getty Images

The historic Monroe Doctrine declared the Western Hemisphere off-limits to other countries, while vowing at the same time the US would stay out of European affairs. Of course, Washington is currently only interested in the former part of this and not so much the latter.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 20:30

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios.

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 8:30 AM, Trade Balance report for August from the Census Bureau.  The consensus is for the deficit to be $61.4 billion in August, from $78.3 billion in July.

• During the day, The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for October (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).

• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Minutes, Meeting of October 28-29

Federal Court Blocks Texas's New House-Map Favoring Republicans

Authored by Arjun Singh via The Epoch Times,

A panel of federal judges in Texas has ruled that the state cannot use newly redrawn House maps aimed at securing additional seats for Republicans.

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown in the 2-1 ruling.

“The Plaintiff Groups are likely to prove at trial that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map. So, we preliminarily enjoin Texas’s 2025 Map.”

The decision marks a loss for Republicans who have been looking to gain a seat advantage in the House of Representatives, where they currently hold a slim majority.

Texas may appeal the decision directly to the Supreme Court of the United States, pursuant to the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which was cited in the ruling.

The preliminary injunction was ordered by a three-judge panel mandated by the VRA for such cases, which voted 2–1 in favor of granting it.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 20:05

Maryland Gives $6M To Nonprofit Leader Who Owes Over $200K In Back-Taxes

Maryland has awarded $6 million to We Our Us, a nonprofit led by Antoine Burton, who owes more than $200,000 in federal and state tax liens dating back to 2017, according to investigative reporting by Fox 45 Baltimore. The situation has renewed concerns about how officials vet organizations receiving major public funding.

Gov. Wes Moore approved the $6.1 million Department of Juvenile Services contract to “engage justice-involved youth in Baltimore City.” The award came shortly after Moore praised Baltimore’s community partnerships, saying, “We know that partnership produces progress, and there’s no better case study than Baltimore.”

Burton, who owes $176,000 to the IRS and $32,000 to Maryland, told Spotlight on Maryland he has a plan to resolve his liens: “Right now, that's something that's being disputed… there's a team that's in place to make sure that funds are facilitated properly.” He did not provide any documents.

DJS said the nonprofit is in good standing with the state and has received $815,398 since 2023 through the Thrive Academy. It has not yet billed the state for the new $6 million contract. Gov. Moore’s office and DJS did not say whether they were aware of Burton’s liens before granting the award.

The report, citing experts, says the liens should have been considered. Georgia State professor Amanda Beck said, “I personally think it's reasonable to make that a part of this decision.”

We Our Us has also not filed its IRS nonprofit forms for the past two fiscal years. The group says it requested an extension due to a voluntary audit, but Florida International University professor Erica Harris said, “That is not appropriate… You file your estimated information and then you amend with whatever audited information that you have if there needs to be adjustments. But you need to file by the filing date.”

Burton said the new funding will help expand mentoring, food distribution, addiction support, and job-assistance programs: “We are embedded in the lives of these kids. Some of them even look at some of our life coaches as father figures because we are engaged week in and week out, making sure there's an accountability system in place.”

Burton’s divorce records show his ex-wife alleged he had “multiple affairs,” hid a “tax lien against him that he failed to inform” her about, and “accrued large amounts of financial debt and intentionally hid this information.” Burton denied the claims, telling Spotlight on Maryland, “I did not hide any finances from my wife.” He ended the interview after questions about his personal life, saying, “I can’t believe you guys did this.”

The $6 million award was issued through a “Non-Competitive Negotiated Procurement.” Beck said such processes can be “controversial” and added, “The concern is that you are giving the business to whomever you want to give the business to, and structuring proposals to give it to that business.”

We Our Us is also slated to receive $1 million from Baltimore City’s opioid settlement with Walgreens, though the grant agreement is not finalized and the funds have not yet been disbursed.

You can watch Burton humiliate himself during the interview here:

The Maryland state government awarded $6 million in taxpayer funds to a nonprofit whose president owes more than $200,000 in taxes.

Watch my tense exchange here in an exclusive interview with the head of We Our Us: https://t.co/zBx2Zb1nkB pic.twitter.com/lkXu2fnj4J

— Patrick Hauf (@PatrickHauf) November 14, 2025

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 19:40

TikTok Zombie Brain Rot Confirmed By Major Study

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A bombshell Griffith University study has validated a long suspected reality: short-form videos (SFVs) like TikToks and Instagram Reels are frying brains, slashing attention spans, and crippling cognitive endurance.

Such content is turning a generation into scatterbrained zombies unable to tackle real-world complexities amid algorithmic dopamine traps.

The meta-analysis, reviewing 71 studies and data from 98,299 participants, uncovered a “consistent pattern” of harm from heavy SFV consumption. 

Bingeing TikTok reels may be hazardous to your well-being.

71 studies, >98k people: The more short-form videos teens and adults watched, the more they struggled with attention, self-control, and stress and anxiety.

Read a book. Watch a movie. Long live longform. pic.twitter.com/Yzyv68kBDh

— Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) November 14, 2025

Researchers concluded: “Overall, this meta-analysis revealed a consistent pattern linking higher SFV use with poorer cognitive performance, particularly in attentional control and inhibitory processes.” 

They warn: “These associations may reflect cognitive strain or emerging disruptions in cognitive endurance and attentional regulation among heavier SFV users.”

“Given the central role of attention and executive functioning in academic, occupational, and daily goal-directed tasks, these patterns may indicate broader difficulties in sustaining mental effort over time,” the study further notes.

The study pinpoints risks for deep thinking: “Tasks requiring prolonged concentration (e.g., reading comprehension, complex problem solving) may be more difficult to sustain, especially as SFV platforms reinforce brief, high-reward interactions through rapid feedback and algorithmic content delivery.”

National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty has amplified the alarm, linking SFV addiction to civilizational decay.

“The last inherited habits of civilization are giving way to the onset of paranoia, distrust, and desperation for answers. Most things you thought were solid in our civilization have been vaporized and evacuated. The second you lean on these structures, they fall apart,” Dougherty urges.

He envisions a grim future: “If we’re going to conserve anything through this period, it’s going to require heroic work and institution-building. Which will require trust, and trust implies some agreement on the deep values. But how can that be achieved when most thoughts are flattened into 15-second video shorts on TikTok and Instagram Stories? God help us.”

The study confirms that social media obsession is self-sabotage, breeding a dumber electorate hooked on snippets over substance—paving the way for real discourse to reclaim focus and rebuild what algorithms have wrecked.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 19:15

Constellation Gets $1 Billion Loan From US Govt To Restart Three Mile Island

One week ago we said that "hundreds of billions" of dollars are about to be loaned out to nuclear projects by the US government. Well, the first billion is about to be wired. 

The Wall Street Journal reports Constellation Energy has secured a $1 billion federal loan from the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office (LPO) to restart the Unit 1 reactor at the Three Mile Island reactor plant in Pennsylvania, recently renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center. Constellation has said it would pay about $1.6 billion to restart the plant in 2027. 

CEG stock shot up 5% after hours on the news.

The plant's Unit 2 reactor infamously suffered a partial meltdown in the 1970s, but Unit 1 continued to operate without issue for decades until it was shut down in 2019. The reactor was shuttered due to its inability to compete economically with cheap natural gas, as the company notes “before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid”.

Constellation announced the intention to restart Unit 1 after Microsoft signed a $16 billion, 20-year offtake agreement in an effort to secure a carbon-free source of reliable energy for their data centers.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Three Mile Island will add around 800 megawatts of power generation to the grid. Wright added that “constellation’s restart of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will provide affordable, reliable, and secure energy to Americans across the Mid-Atlantic region. It will also help ensure America has the energy it needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race.”

WSJ notes “the deal calls for Constellation to revive the plant’s undamaged reactor, which was too costly to run and closed in 2019. The power generated will be sold to Microsoft under a 20-year deal. The tech industry has a nearly insatiable demand for 24-hour-a-day power for AI data centers.”

The 835 MW reactor produces enough power for approximately 800,000 homes and will provide reliable and affordable baseload power to the PJM Interconnection region. Along with clean energy, the project will strengthen grid reliability and create over 600 jobs.

Thomas Hochman, Director of Energy & Infrastructure Policy with the Foundation for American Innovation, notes multiple important points with the latest closed LPO deal, in particular that it’s “it’s really the first LPO loan to tackle the issue of AI-driven load growth”.

He also said that it's a novel construct between a technology firm and an energy developer and represents the tech sector's continued move into the infrastructure space.Importantly, he added that this is “not a behind-the-meter deal. The electrons from Three Mile Island will flow directly into PJM, benefitting ratepayers and adding extra reserve margin to the grid.”

As for today's loan, it's just the first of many in a space we expect to see a flood of capital...

So much capital coming to this space next 3 years https://t.co/ZwTB0C2CUU

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 18, 2025

... as the US scrambles to catch up to China's massive nuclear head start.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 18:50

Appeals Court Sides With CNN Over Trump

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A panel of appeals court judges on Nov. 18 upheld a ruling against President Donald Trump in a case he brought against CNN.

Trump did not adequately show that CNN defamed him when it reported that he promoted what it described as the “Big Lie” when challenging results from the 2020 presidential election, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit concluded.

Trump said that the phrase was intended to link him to Adolf Hitler and propaganda used by the Nazis in Germany, but the term is ambiguous enough to cast doubt on that allegation, according to the new ruling.

“Second, Trump’s argument hinges on the fact that his own interpretation of his conduct—i.e., that he was exercising a constitutional right to identify his concerns with the integrity of elections—is true and that CNN’s interpretation—i.e., that Trump was peddling his ‘Big Lie’—is false. However, his conduct is susceptible to multiple subjective interpretations, including CNN’s,” the per curiam opinion from Circuit Judges Elizabeth L. Branch, Adalberto Jordan, and Kevin Newsom said.

The same court held in a different case that one person’s subjective assessment is not rendered false by another person’s different conclusion.

“Trump has not adequately alleged the falsity of CNN’s statements. Therefore, he has failed to state a defamation claim,” the court stated.

The White House declined to comment.

Lawyers for CNN and Trump did not immediately return inquiries.

U.S. District Judge Anuraag Singhal in 2023 had dismissed the lawsuit, finding CNN’s usage of the “Big Lie” term was repugnant but not defamatory.

Trump had also argued that the district judge should have analyzed more than the five statements he outlined in his complaint, but those statements included CNN’s usage of the Nazi-linked term, the panel said.

The panel also rejected Trump’s attempts to allow him to file an amended complaint or move for reconsideration from Singhal of the decision.

The district court acted within its discretion when dealing with motions to amend and reconsider, according to the appeals court.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 18:25

Brazil's Banco Master Collapses: CEO Detained, Regulator Shuts Lender Down

Here's one that might surprise some New York City voters: it turns out banks don't seem to prosper under communism. For proof look no further than Brazil where authorities moved Tuesday to shut down Banco Master SA as federal police arrested six people — including CEO Daniel Vorcaro, according to Bloomberg.

The arrests were part of a widening fraud probe. One person said Vorcaro had planned to leave the country that day.

The central bank announced it would liquidate the lender’s assets and appointed an outside administrator, adding that assets belonging to Master’s controllers and former executives were now unavailable. Police said roughly 12 billion reais were frozen and that luxury cars, art, and 1.6 million reais in cash were seized.

Bloomberg writes that the investigation, Operation Compliance Zero, began in 2024 over allegations that a financial institution issued fabricated credit instruments and sold them to another bank, later swapping them for different assets without proper evaluation. Police chief Andrei Rodrigues said: “We are conducting an important operation, in collaboration with the Central Bank and the Council for Financial Activities Control, working together to address a crime against the financial system.”

O Globo reported the receiving bank was Banco de Brasilia (BRB). BRB said its CEO Paulo Henrique Costa and its CFO were temporarily removed for 60 days but that no arrest was made, and it maintains compliance standards.

Master’s downfall followed years of rapid expansion — including an 86% average annual rise in lending, splashy Miami offices, and acquisitions — financed partly through a 4-billion-reais credit line from Brazil’s deposit-insurance fund (FGC). A December 2023 rule change undercut that support and set off investor flight.

The bank had been seeking rescue capital for months. On Monday it announced a plan to sell its commercial operations to a group led by Fictor Holding SA, but regulators would have needed to approve the deal. Master had also been trying to sell its fintech Will Bank, with talks reported between Master and Mubadala.

Regulators had already rejected a controversial merger with Banco de Brasilia, which critics likened to a government-backed bailout.

Bloomberg previously reported that officials were alarmed by links between Master’s proposed deal and firms involved in a major money-laundering probe. Asset managers Reag Investimentos SA and Trustee DTVM, which serviced Master, were under investigation in a multistate operation targeting criminal schemes tied to fuel distribution. Both firms denied wrongdoing and said they were cooperating, while Master said it was one of their many clients.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 18:00

Japan Bond Yields Soar To Record, Slamming Door On Stimulus Just As Economy Implodes Amid Escalating China Clash

Back in 2024, it was the story of the summer, but now with a relentless waterfall of news stressing traders - and that excludes the hourly blasts from Trump's truth social account - it has become impossible to filter the firehose of newsflow, let alone trade it. 

Which is why some may have missed the big store of the night which is that Japanese yields are once again breaking out in the back of the curve, with new cycle highs in the 20yr and 40yr weighing on sentiment and risk, and sending the Nikkei not only back below 50K, but below 49K, down 7% from the local record high hit on Halloween.

And with the recent surge in yields, driven by new PM Takaichi's plans for a fresh stimulus boost (see "Japan ruling-party panel proposes $161 billion extra budget to fund stimulus"), now that the country is basically back in recession after the catastrophic Q3 GDP print which tied for the second worst since covid...

... any plans for fiscal stimulus now are hard to square with the limits of the bond market according to Goldman's Delta-One head Rich Privorotsky. 

But while bond vigilantes may not allow Japan to spend on a fiscal stimulus, it may have no choice but to splurge on defense, as the country's diplomatic scandal with China is rapidly deteriorating, and is set to be a rerun of the Senkaku Island East China Sea crisis from 2013, which saw almost two years of unprecedented belligernce between the two countries. 

In the latest escalation of the deepening dispute between Asia's two largest economies over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments on Taiwan, Japan warned its citizens in China to step up safety precautions and avoid crowded places. As we reported last week, Takaichi sparked the most serious diplomatic clash in years when she told Japanese lawmakers this month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan's survival could trigger a military response.

A senior Japanese official met his counterpart in Beijing on Tuesday to try and tamp down the tension, but no breakthrough appeared imminent.

China's foreign ministry said Liu Jinsong, head of the ministry's Asia affairs department, had pressed at the meeting for Takaichi to retract her remarks. But Japan's top government spokesperson, Minoru Kihara, suggested Tokyo was in no mood to do so.

The comments did "not alter the government's existing position," Kihara told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the government hoped issues concerning Taiwan would be resolved peacefully through dialogue.

A video posted on social media by China's Communist party-run newspaper Guangming Daily showed Liu telling reporters that he was "of course dissatisfied" with the meeting, and described the atmosphere as "solemn."

A Chinese diplomat in Japan responded to Takaichi's remarks by posting a threatening comment aimed at her on social media. That drew a strong rebuke from Tokyo, though it failed to stem vitriolic commentary against her in Chinese state media. Takaichi was summoning Japan's "militarist demons", the official news agency Xinhua said in the latest such attack on Tuesday.  

In view of the media coverage in China, Japan's embassy there reminded citizens on Monday to respect local customs and take care in interactions with Chinese people.

It asked citizens to be aware of their surroundings when outdoors, telling them to not travel alone and urging extra caution when accompanying children. "If you see a person or group that looks even slightly suspicious, do not approach them and leave the area immediately," the embassy said in its notice.

The dispute will deal a harsh blow to Japan's already reeling economy, as Beijing has urged its citizens not to travel there. Chinese form the largest number of all tourists to Japan, accounting for nearly a quarter, official figures show. Tourism-related stocks in Japan plunged on the news.

More than 10 Chinese airlines, such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, have offered refunds on Japan-bound routes until December 31, while Sichuan Airlines has cancelled plans for a Chengdu-Sapporo route until at least March, state media said.

Film distributors have also suspended the screening of at least two Japanese films in China, a step state broadcaster CCTV hailed on Monday as a "prudent decision" reflecting souring domestic sentiment. Screening of some Japanese films originally set for release in coming weeks, such as the animated "Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! Scorching Kasukabe Dancers" and manga-turned-movie "Cells at Work!" will not begin in mainland China as scheduled, it added, citing industry checks.

Apart from tourism, Japan is heavily dependent on China for supply of critical minerals used in items from electronics to cars. 

"If we rely too heavily on a country that resorts to economic coercion the moment something displeases it, that creates risks not only for supply chains but also for tourism," Japan's economic security minister, Kimi Onoda, told a press conference on Tuesday.

"We need to recognise that it's dangerous to be economically dependent on somewhere that poses such risks," she added, responding to a question about China's calls for its citizens to avoid travel to Japan.

Japan's Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa said there had been no particular changes yet in China's export control measures on rare earths and other materials. The heads of Japan's three business federations met Takaichi late on Monday and urged dialogue to resolve the diplomatic tension.

"Political stability is a prerequisite for economic exchange," Yoshinobu Tsutsui, chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby Keidanren, told reporters after the meeting, media said.

Meanwhile, sensing blood in the water, China is prepared to instigate a rerun of the Senkaku crisis from a decade ago. On Sunday, Chinese coast guard ships sailed through waters around a group of East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China. Japan's coast guard said it drove the Chinese ships away.

The United States does not formally recognise the islands, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and the Diaoyu in Beijing, as Japanese sovereign territory. Since 2014 it has said it would be obliged by the Japan-U.S. security treaty to defend them if they were attacked, however.

"In case anyone was in doubt, the United States is fully committed to the defence of Japan, which includes the Senkaku Islands, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, George Glass, said on X. "And formations of Chinese coast guard ships won’t change that."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference on Tuesday that Glass's remarks were a "political show with ulterior motives".

This week's G20 summit in South Africa offered a possible forum to help ease tension, but China said its premier had no plans to meet Takaichi.

Kihara said nothing has been decided about two-way meetings during G20, but Japan remains open to holding "various dialogues" with China. Japan's refusal to retract its statements meant its de-escalatory efforts had failed to mollify Beijing, said Allen Carlson, an expert on China's foreign policy at Cornell University.

"As a result, the two countries now stand on a knife’s edge."

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 17:20

Michelle Obama Says She Won't Run Because America "Ain't Ready" For A Woman

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Former First Lady Michelle Obama bluntly rejected calls that she run for office because America “ain’t ready” for a woman president. 

Obama made the remarks Friday in a YouTube interview with actress Tracee Ellis Ross while promoting her new book, The Look.

The interview touched on the first lady’s role as an archetype of “wifedom and femininity,” before Obama veered into a tangent on broader cultural issues and the 2024 election. 

“Do you think that impacts the room that we’ve made for a woman to be president?” Ross asked.

Obama then replied, “As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” before addressing individuals trying to recruit her for a run. 

“That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running because you all are lying,” she added.

“You’re not ready for a woman. You are not! So don’t waste my time. We’ve got a lot of growing up to do and there’s still, and sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman and we saw it.” 

Obama then turned to Ross and sarcastically asked, “What was the question?” prompting laughter from the audience.

NEW: Michelle Obama says she isn't going to run for president because she doesn't want to waste her time because America "ain't ready."

Tracee Ellis Ross: How do you feel about the fact that the First Lady is an archetype for wifedom and femininity?

Obama: I don't agree with… pic.twitter.com/e03xKMIOvE

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 15, 2025

Obama has long been viewed as a potential presidential candidate since leaving the White House in 2017. 

Her remarks also come as the Democratic Party has lost two of the last three presidential elections after nominating flawed women candidates.  

Hillary Clinton ran in 2015 amid sinking popularity and mounting criminal scandals. In 2024, the party nominated then-Vice President Kamala Harris without holding a primary, despite abysmal approval ratings. 

In both cases, Democrats were quick to blame misogyny and racism for their losses. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 17:00

NGO-Backed Groups Train To Obstruct Immigration Arrests In North Carolina

It has been said over and over again the past few months:  Progressive activist groups sabotaging ICE operations are far too organized to be grassroots and always seem to know exactly where immigration authorities are going to show up and make arrests.  Someone is creating these mobs from thin air, training them, funding them and letting them off their leash to attack when the opportunity is presented. 

The establishment media consistently runs interference for these networks, insisting the protests are grassroots and completely spontaneous. 

One such case of propaganda is the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) and their coverage of training camps organized in Charlotte, North Carolina as federal immigration officers arrive on the ground to arrest illegal migrants. 

As we have seen across the country, anti-ICE mobs have followed a near identical playbook of disruption, provocation, sabotage, stalking of agents, blocking roads and creating general chaos in order to impede the arrests.  In some cases, direct violence is used when activists think they can get away with it.  These tactics have been employed extensively in Chicago in the past month.

Disruption groups threaten the safety of ICE agents, creating the necessity for the deployment of the National Guard, which Democrats then call "authoritarianism".

The training is rarely covered by the media, and when it is, they paint it as "communities coming together" and "protecting their neighbors".  In reality, these groups garner millions in funds from far-left and globalist NGOs.  Arrested activists who commit trespassing, obstruction or violence often enjoy funds set aside by NGOs for legal defense and bail, putting them back on the streets within hours.  They are the furthest thing from "grassroots."    

The "Defend and Recruit" organization involved in these training sessions is a front group for an NGO called Siembre NC which has been in operation since 2017 (when Trump first entered office).  Just as globalist NGO's pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into BLM organizations and practically bankrolled the the national BLM riots, they are also funding anti-ICE groups.

According to IRS tax filings, Siembre NC has received millions of dollars from other NGO's including George Soros' Open Society Foundation, ActBlue, dark money group Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hewlett foundation and they are also under investigation for possibly receiving indirect funding from the Chinese CCP. 

This year, congressional investigations (led by figures like Kash Patel) probed $34 million in federal/state grants to anti-ICE NGOs, including Siembra NC affiliates. Allegations include misuse for doxxing ICE agents and foreign interference.  DHS has reported a 500% spike in violent attacks on ICE agents, causing these NGO's to come under scrutiny. 

Furthermore, organizations like Siembre NC were also indirectly collecting taxpayer funds sourced from institutions like USAID until it was shut down this year.  The conspiracy is out in the open - progressive NGOs are a fundamental threat to US border integrity and immigration enforcement.  They are so blatant in their operations that they proudly display their training on media platforms like MSNOW.   

Without these NGOs, the anti-deportation protests would most likely disappear. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 16:40

Adam Smith Vs The Engineers Of Utopia

Authored by Mani Basharzad via CapX.co,

Ha-Joon Chang recently wrote an article in the Financial Times criticising the state of economic education, which drew considerable attention. What went almost unnoticed, however, was a letter published in response. Surprisingly, one of the most prominent Austrian economists, Mario Rizzo, agreed with Chang. He wrote:

“Recently, I had a chance to look at some exams in undergraduate economics courses, including the first course, generally called ‘Principles.’ What I saw was disturbing. The students were given, mainly or only, problem sets of a completely mathematical nature. The emphasis was on mechanical problem-solving. There were no questions involving critical reflection on the ideas or frameworks taught.”

What explains this unlikely agreement between two economists from opposite schools of thought? The simple answer is that there is something wrong with economic education. But the deeper problem lies not in what is taught, but how it is taught.

Let’s go back to one of the most influential economics books ever written—a book on the scale of J.M. Keynes’s “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” or Alfred Marshall’s “Principles of Economics”—“Economics” by Paul Samuelson. It became one of the bestselling textbooks of all time, making a fortune for its author. But more important than its commercial success was its intellectual influence, prompting Samuelson to declare: “I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws, if I can write its economics textbooks.” He was right. He is, in Keynes’s phrase, the “defunct economist” still shaping how we think. What truly mattered about his book was how it redefined the economist’s role.

Samuelson wrote: “No immutable ‘wave of the future’ washes us down ‘the road to serfdom,’ or to utopia. Where the complex economic conditions of life necessitate social coordination and planning, sensible men of good will can be expected to invoke the authority and creative activity of government.” In Samuelson’s world, the economist’s task is to assist the “men of good will” in government to solve social problems. Deirdre McCloskey captures this mindset best in her memoirs, recalling that when she studied for her Ph.D. at Harvard, her classmates all imagined they would go to Washington to “fine-tune” the economy.

Economic education since then has trained students to see themselves as assistants to these “men of good will,” solving technical equations for equilibrium and absorbing the idea that economics is an engineering problem rather than a coordination problem. Engineering problems deal with optimal solutions and data, but coordination problems deal with trade-offs and dispersed knowledge.

As Peter Boettke argues, in a world where all means and ends are known, the only task left is an engineering one. That is, essentially, what students learn in Econ 101—a world of perfect knowledge, known preferences, known prices, and calculable costs, where solving equations yields all the answers. But the real wisdom of economics lies in understanding deviations from this perfection.

This is where it gets tricky. Economists like Ha-Joon Chang criticise the field because perfection doesn’t exist, and therefore they deem the models useless. But economists such as Frank Knight and Friedrich Hayek also start from the assumption of perfection—yet they do not stop there. They recognise the significance of market institutions precisely because we live in an imperfect world.

The market is one of humanity’s greatest achievements for dealing with imperfection. In a world of perfect knowledge, markets would be meaningless. But in the real world, prices perform a miracle—they coordinate millions of decisions and “get Paris fed” without a central planner. Knight begins “Risk, Uncertainty and Profit” by imagining a world without risk, uncertainty, or profit, and then shows how markets function when those elements exist.

The problem is not perfection itself, but treating it as a policy goal for governments to achieve. In the Samuelsonian worldview, markets are full of imperfections—information asymmetries, externalities, monopolies and so on—but government is seen as perfect. The economist’s role then becomes helping the state reach that imagined perfection. Perfection, in this mindset, ceases to be a theoretical tool and becomes a political mission. That is what is wrong with economics education. Perfection is a means of understanding the market’s value, not a utopia to be imposed.

This misunderstanding leads students to forget their limited knowledge about how to design human institutions. A sound economic education begins by viewing the market as a process, not a static state. It should show how our “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange” gives rise to miracles—from airplanes to iPhones—things unimaginable to those living just decades earlier. The beauty of economics lies not in trusting “men of good will” in government, but in trusting free individuals to make daily life better.

As the father of modern economics Adam Smith wrote, we should “allow every man to pursue his own interest his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty and justice.”

That hardly sounds like a “dismal” science to me.

Taught this way, economics is revealed as the story of human cooperation, with division of labour, profit, and loss guiding us toward more productive activity. But over the last half-century, Adam Smith’s optimistic science of wealth creation has become the pessimistic science of choice under scarcity. In the latter, the problem is allocation, not coordination. And when economists see their task as calculating optimal allocations, they forget “the lesson of humility which should guard ... against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society,” as Hayek warned.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 16:20

Container traffic gives us an idea about the volume of goods being exported and imported - and usually some hints about the trade report since LA area ports handle about 40% of the nation's container port traffic.
The following graphs are for inbound and outbound traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in TEUs (TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container).

The first graph is the monthly data (with a strong seasonal pattern for imports).

Click on graph for larger image.

Usually imports peak in the July to October period as retailers import goods for the Christmas holiday and then decline sharply and bottom in the Winter depending on the timing of the Chinese New Year.  
Imports were down 12.5% YoY in October, and exports were down 5.1% YoY.    
To remove the strong seasonal component for inbound traffic, the second graph shows the rolling 12-month average.

On a rolling 12-month basis, inbound traffic decreased 1.2% in September compared to the rolling 12 months ending the previous month.   
Outbound traffic decreased 0.5% compared to the rolling 12 months ending the previous month.
This is the 11th consecutive month with exports down YoY.

Texas Wants To Be Reimbursed For Biden Open-Border's Cost

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Members of the Texas Congressional delegation are demanding the federal government reimburse the state for the $11.1 billion it spent tackling the Biden administration’s “open-border abdication.” 

The lawmakers, including both senators and House members, made the request Friday in a three-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, directly blaming the previous administration for saddling Texas with the bill. 

The Republican lawmakers pointed to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provides $13.5 billion in reimbursement funds to states that dealt with the massive influx of illegal aliens during former President Joe Biden’s tenure. 

“President Biden’s open-border policies imposed a substantial cost on communities in Texas, through increased fentanyl trafficking, crime, and even stress on local emergency response services,” they wrote. 

We must ensure Texas is reimbursed for the $11.1B we spent defending our state during the Biden Administration’s open-border abdication.

I signed a letter urging DOJ and DHS to repay Texas and finally confront the consequences of the border invasion unleashed on Biden’s watch. pic.twitter.com/651oL2vopY

— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) November 17, 2025

The lawmakers highlighted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a statewide effort launched to secure the border “when the federal government would not.” 

Through the operation, Abbott ordered the deployment of state police to arrest individuals accused of state crimes and led the construction of new miles of border barriers and buoy defenses. 

Texas reported that at least 535,724 illegal aliens have been detained since the operation’s launch. Border crossings in Texas dropped 87 percent. 

“Texas’s actions through Operation Lone Star were absolutely vital to ensuring the safety and security of Americans across our great country,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, our State should not have had to bear alone the costs of securing the border when former President Biden intentionally failed to do so.” 

They continued, “We therefore respectfully ask that, as the Departments prepare to disburse the funds set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the State of Texas be fully reimbursed for the costs incurred to protect Americans from illegal immigration and drug trafficking under former President Biden’s disastrous leadership.” 

The letter was signed by the following lawmakers: Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with August Pfluger, Pete Sessions, John Carter, Michael McCaul, Randy K. Weber, Roger Williams, Brian Babin, Jodey C. Arrington, Michael Cloud, Dan Crenshaw, Lance Gooden, Chip Roy, Pat Fallon, Tony Gonzales, Ronny Jackson, Troy E. Nehls, Beth Van Duyne, Jake Ellzey, Monica De La Cruz, Wesley Hunt, Morgan Luttrell, Keith Self, Brandon Gill, Nathaniel Moran and Craig Goldman. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/18/2025 - 15:30