There ya go, couldn't help yourself
twirled the vpn just to muh joo?
Canada #58 >>20871016
Biden Official's Rock Performance in Kyiv Sparks Backlash in Ukraine
Story by Andrew Stanton May 15, 2024
Secretary of State Antony Blinken's rock performance in Kyiv drew criticism in Ukraine.
Blinken performed Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" with Ukrainian punk band 19.99 in Kyiv this week during a visit to the Eastern European nation as it continues to battle for control of its easternmost regions amid a Russian invasion launched in February 2022. During his visit, Blinken pledged that the United States would continue to support Ukraine despite recent delays in aid, which has been crucial to its defense efforts.
"The United States is with you. So much of the world is with you. And they're fighting, not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you, too," Blinken said during the performance.
However, the performance was met with a chilly reception by some Ukrainian politicians as footage of the performance has circulated across social media on Wednesday.
Bogdan Yaremenko, who serves as the people's deputy of Ukraine, wrote in a Facebook post the message Blinken was aiming for did not connect given delays in recent aid.
"The message is not hard to understand, but it's not getting through," he wrote, according to a translation from The Kyiv Post.
While the Biden administration and Blinken have pushed for Ukraine aid, those funds spent months held up in Congress amid opposition from some conservative Republicans who believed the money should instead be spent at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Proponents of Ukraine aid argue that helping Ukraine defend itself is in the best interests of U.S. security as well as Ukraine, as it will result in a weakened Russia. Congress last month passed the foreign aid bill, which included $60 billion for Ukraine.
"Half a year of waiting for the decision of the American Congress—to allocate money to swing in a free and still alive Ukraine, or after all on the wall with Mexico, took the lives of many, many defenders of the free world. Losses that could have been avoided if we had something to conduct a counter-battery fight and push the Russian aviation away from the front line," Yaremenko wrote.
Valeriy Chaly, the former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, said, "With all due respect, it's a mistake. The message is wrong," according to the Post.
Svitlana Matvienko, executive director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, wrote in a Facebook post that she found the performance to be inappropriate, noting the performance came as Russia launched a new offensive in the Kharkiv oblast.
"Kharkiv region is wiped off the face of the earth, people are leaving their homes, Kharkiv is under constant blows of CABs, Sumy region is preparing, and a top US official sings songs in a Kiev bar," she wrote.
She continued, "Yet all this is also about a complete misunderstanding of the situation and a very specific feeling of empathy. And I am amazed at how the global bargaining machine of pundits/advisors/bureaucrats digested this unsuccessful idea."
Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment via its online contact form.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/biden-official-s-rock-performance-in-kyiv-sparks-backlash-in-ukraine/ar-BB1mrVx9
Yeah, like I said, same DOAR faggot tricks
General Research #23075 >>18802004
TIKTOK: CHINESE “TROJAN HORSE” IS RUN BY STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
https://www.mintpressnews.com/tiktok-chinese-trojan-horse-run-by-state-department-officials/284353/
Amid a national hysteria claiming the popular video-sharing app is a Chinese Trojan Horse, a MintPress News investigation has found dozens of ex-U.S. State Department officials working in key positions at TikTok. Many more individuals with backgrounds in the FBI, CIA and other departments of the national security state also hold influential posts at the social media giant, affecting the content that over one billion users see.
While American politicians demand the app be banned on national security grounds, try to force through an internet surveillance act that would turn the country into an Orwellian state, make clueless statements about how TikTok is dangerous because it connects to your Wi-Fi, it is possible that TikTok is already much closer to Washington than it is to Beijing.
STATE DEPARTMENT-AFFILIATED MEDIA
Take this for later
Trade war intensifies as Biden slaps more tariffs on Chinese products
Bojan Lepic May 15, 2024
US president Joe Biden has revealed a new set of major tariff increases which will hit many different Chinese imports as well as impact the shipping of those products.
The largest tariffs will be imposed on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminium, and medical equipment. Biden opted to keep in place tariffs imposed during the Trump presidency while others were raised several fold. The first that pops out is the increase of duties on Chinese EV cars from 25% to 100% while semiconductor tariffs doubled from 25% to 50%, and lithium-ion EV battery duties jumped from 7.5% to 25%.
“American workers can out-work and out-compete anyone as long as the competition is fair, but for too long it hasn’t been fair. We’re not going to let China flood our market,” Biden said during a speech in front of the White House.
However, the tariffs will not hit hard in the short term because some will not take effect until 2026, but for EV batteries, solar, and other specific items, the impact will be immediate.
This, however, can hamper Biden’s climate goals and his job creation promises due to it raising the costs of EV production via tariffs on batteries.
The White House claimed that these measures will affect around $18bn in imported Chinese goods. But some are nothing more than a headline grab since the tariffs on EVs will not have an important impact since a very small number of those vehicles are imported from China.
Data from the US Census Bureau states that the US imported $427bn in goods from China in 2023 and exported just $148bn. This gap has existed for a long time and has become a thorn in Washington’s eye.
China, as expected, pushed back against the tariffs, and stated that this move would seriously affect the atmosphere of bilateral cooperation. The Biden administration believes that the tariffs won’t escalate tensions with China but it will certainly explore ways to respond to the new taxes on its products.
These measures are part of the presidential election tussle between Donald Trump and Biden who both, in their own way, support tariffs on Chinese products. Trump’s idea is to have 10% tariffs on all imported products regardless of where they come from and 60% tariffs on all Chinese goods.
Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and an expert in the container shipping industry, said via social media that, purely from a container shipping perspective, the goods to note with increased tariffs are solar panels from China.
“More than 50,000 teu is imported into the US each quarter. However, it should here be noted that in 2023 a full 84% of these were imported from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. But in this context, it should be noted that these are Chinese companies who set up operations in Southeast Asia in an attempt to not be subjected to the US/China trade war,” he noted.
“Another element to notice from a container shipping perspective is the introduction of a 25% tariff on ship-to-shore cranes from China,” Jensen added.
Tariffs on photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels were bumped from 25% to 50% while some critical minerals will have their tariffs raised from nothing to 25%. The tariffs on ship-to-shore cranes will rise to 25% from zero. In 2025 and 2026 tariffs will also be raised on lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite, and permanent magnets.
https://splash247.com/trade-war-intensifies-as-biden-slaps-more-tariffs-on-chinese-products/