Daily Discussion - April 19, 2024

China’s President tightens grip on military with new information warfare unit

China has established a new information warfare department under the direct command of its top military body as it begins its largest restructuring of the armed forces in more than eight years.

The shift of information warfare to the direct command of the Central Military Commission — the top Communist party and state organ that controls the People’s Liberation Army — would hand Chinese leader Xi Jinping even more direct control over the military, analysts said.

The Information Support Force will aim to “speed up military modernisation and effectively implement the missi…  Read moreon of the people’s armed forces in the new era”, Xi said at a ceremony in Beijing on Friday.

Banning TikTok is a Power Grab for the Deep State

If the bill's supporters get what they want, millions of Americans would find their ability to access TikTok terminated by the government, just in time for the November 2024 election. This radical state intervention was endorsed last week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a unanimous 50-0 vote, establishing a coveted bipartisan consensus in favor of expelling American users from their preferred social media platform. This extreme action is to be carried out, as usual, in the alleged name of "national security," and to more aggressively combat perceived "foreign…  Read more adversaries."

Let’s Just Admit It: The U.S. Does Not Support A Palestinian State.

The US regime supports a Palestinian state. Just not now. And not until it allows the US - the primary sponsor of the Israeli occupation - to midwife a “state” with no military, in which Israel controls its borders, airspace, maritime territory, and political leadership. In other words, not until Palestine signs away its sovereignty and national struggle in the name of achieving statehood.

The Fantasy of Reviving Nuclear Energy

Representatives from more than 30 countries gathered in Brussels in March at a nuclear summit hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian government. Thirty-four nations, including the United States and China, agreed “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including extending the lifetime of existing reactors, building new nuclear power plants and deploying advanced reactors.

“Nuclear technology can play an important role in the clean energy transition,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told summit…  Read more attendees. But she added that “the reality today, in most markets, is a reality of a slow but steady decline in market share” for nuclear power

The Gaza War Is An Albatross Around Biden's Neck

Gaza has become the albatross around Biden’s neck. It is his war, not just Benjamin Netanyahu’s. It will be part of his legacy, an element of his obituary, a blot on his campaign — and it could get worse if Gaza cascades into a full-blown famine or violent anarchy, or if a wider war breaks out involving Iran or Lebanon. An apparent Israeli strike on a military base in central Iran early Friday underscored the danger of a bigger and more damaging conflict that could draw in the United States.

Consider just one example of America’s fingerprints on this war under Biden&rsq…  Read moreuo;s leadership. In January, the Israeli military dropped a bomb on a compound in Gaza used by the International Rescue Committee, a much-respected American aid organization that is supported in part by American tax dollars. The International Rescue Committee says that the near-fatal strike was caused by a 1,000-pound American-made bomb, dropped from an American-made F-16 fighter jet. And when an American-made aircraft drops an American-made bomb on an American aid group in an American-supported war, how can that not come back to Biden?

Why Are Government "Experts" Always Wrong About Inflation?

Jerome Powell owes us an explanation. The Federal Reserve chairman this week confirmed what investors already had guessed: Surprisingly persistent inflation is dissuading the Fed from cutting its short-term policy rate as soon and perhaps as quickly as Wall Street had hoped.

It’s the right call. The Fed committed its worst error in 40 years when it acted far too slowly to tame inflation following the pandemic. Its institutional credibility—on which hangs a lot in a fiat-money system—now depends on Mr. Powell’s success in suppressing that inflation.

As recently as Decembe…  Read morer, with consumer-price inflation about 4% and the Fed’s preferred personal-consumption-expenditure inflation rate at around 3% (both excluding food and energy), central-bank officials signaled they were on track for at least three rate cuts this year.

China Orders Apple to Remove Popular Messaging Apps

WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram among apps cut from iPhone app store to comply with censorship demandChina ordered

China ordered Apple to remove some of the world’s most popular chat messaging apps from its app store in the country, the latest example of censorship demands on the iPhone seller in the company’s second-biggest market.

WhatsApp and Threads as well as messaging platforms Signal and Telegram were taken off the Chinese App Store Friday. Apple said it was told to remove certain apps because of national security concerns, without specifying which.

These messaging apps, which…  Read more allow users to exchange messages and share files individually and in large groups, combined have around three billion users globally. They can only be accessed in China through virtual private networks that take users outside China’s Great Firewall, but are still commonly used.

Israeli missiles hit site in Iran

Israeli missiles have hit a site in Iran, according to the US broadcaster ABC News, which cited an unnamed senior US official.

The Iranian state television reported explosions in Isfahan, as air defences were activated and flights across several areas including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended.

There were no reports of casualties. Nor was there an official response from Iran.

Israel promised to respond after Iran last Saturday launched a barrage of drones and missiles on the country, after a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate compound in Damascus killed a high-ranking commander.…  Read more

There have also been reports of explosions in Syria and Iraq.