https://x.com/drawandstrike/status/1905319325692543299?t=BRUBgT-8UqPnjh0KOC_J6w
>>22830703
Reminds me of those 5th generation fighters on Top Gun Maverick movie.
Somebody say 'biblical'?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/mel-gibsons-long-awaited-resurrection-sequel-passion-christ/
US Halts Financial Contributions to WTO, Trade Sources Say
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/halt-wto/2025/03/27/id/1204620/
Thursday, 27 March 2025 02:54 PM EDT
The United States has paused contributions to the globalist World Trade Organization, three trade sources told Reuters, as President Donald Trump's administration ramps up efforts to cut government spending.
The Trump administration is retreating from global institutions it sees as at odds with his "America First" economic policies. It plans to quit some, such as the World Health Organization, and has cut contributions to others as part of a broad review of federal spending.
The WTO has already been hobbled by a U.S. move in 2019 during Trump's first term to block new judge appointments to its top appeals court, which left its key dispute settlement system only partially functional. Washington had accused the WTO Appellate Body of judicial overreach in trade disputes.
The Geneva-based trade watchdog had an annual budget of 205 million Swiss francs ($232.06 million) in 2024. The United States was due to contribute about 11% of that based on a fees system that is proportionate to its share of global trade, according to public WTO documents.
A U.S. delegate told a March 4 WTO budget meeting that its payments to the 2024 and 2025 budgets were on hold pending a review of contributions to international organizations and that it would inform the WTO of the outcome at an unspecified date, two trade sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.
A third trade source confirmed their account and said the WTO was coming up with a "Plan B" in case of a prolonged funding pause, without elaborating.
All three sources asked for confidentiality because the budget meeting was private and the U.S. funding pause has not been formally announced.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the WTO in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said that U.S. contributions had been on the way but "got caught up in the pause of all payments to international agencies."
"Generally, arrears can impact the operational capacity of the WTO Secretariat. But the Secretariat continues to manage its resources prudently and has plans in place to enable it to operate within the financial limitations imposed by any arrears," he said, referring further questions to U.S. authorities.
As of end-December 2024, the United States had arrears of 22.7 million Swiss francs ($25.70 million), according to a WTO document obtained by Reuters marked "RESTRICTED" and dated February 21.
Under WTO rules, any member that fails to pay its dues after more than a year is subject to "administrative measures" - a series of punitive steps that get progressively stricter the longer the fees go unpaid.
The country is now classified as being in the first of three such categories, two of the trade sources confirmed to Reuters, which means its representatives can no longer preside over WTO bodies nor receive formal documentation.
Reuters could not immediately establish if the WTO was already applying these measures to the United States.
William Reinsch, a former U.S. Commerce official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he thought the U.S. would eventually pay its WTO bill. He said the Trump administration had nominated a U.S. ambassador to the institution, which indicated some desire to remain engaged.
WTO spokesperson Dieng confirmed the chair of the budget committee had informed WTO members that the United States was currently in "Category 1 arrears," along with other countries.
"It remains the responsibility of WTO Members to implement the consequences associated with arrears," he said.
As of end-2024, five other member countries - Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Gabon and Gambia - were in that category, the WTO restricted document showed.
A total 38.4 million Swiss francs of contributions were outstanding, including unpaid fees from 2024 and prior, it showed. ($1 = 0.8834 Swiss francs)
No, it won't.
Well, there's my proof! kek
EXACTLY!
Feds Gave Publicis Hundreds of Millions as They Targeted Conservatives
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/publicis-newsguard-blacklist/2025/03/27/id/1204637/
Thursday, 27 March 2025 04:30 PM EDT
Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest ad agencies and a major corporate backer of NewsGuard, has received over $500 million in government contracts, Foundation for Freedom Online reported.
NewsGuard is an organization that rates news agencies’ reliability, but has been beset with allegations of left-wing bias.
The partnership has benefited both parties.
Launched in 2018, NewsGuard “exerts influence over the media through blacklists and whitelists,” according to Foundation for Freedom.
“In turn, Publicis then sells these exclusion lists back to the advertising industry that created it, financially suffocating the blacklisted websites,” including Newsmax, Breitbart News, The Federalist, and One America News.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability last year opened an investigation into NewsGuard’s alleged participation in a government-funded “censorship campaign” to purportedly discredit and even demonetize news outlets by sharing its ratings of their sites with advertisers.
The committee found that the Pentagon, State Department, and other federal agencies and the European Union funded the company. Foundation for Freedom’s findings were similar.
Publicis’ subsidiary, Plowshare Group LLC, holds a $394.2 million contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national tobacco education campaign.
“The advertising industry has long been the censorship industry’s pressure point of choice,” the report said.
“Many of the most draconian censorship policies on online platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, came in the aftermath of massive ad boycotts. Without advertiser pressure, online censorship has no teeth.”
10 Stocks for a US Manufacturing Renaissance
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/stocks-manufacturing-automation/2025/03/27/id/1204563/
Thursday, 27 March 2025 09:37 AM EDT
While President Trump’s tariffs are creating uncertainty in the near term, they are laying the groundwork for a stronger U.S. economy and a revitalization of American manufacturing, Barron’s reports.
The Trump administration believes fortifying manufacturing is critical. Since 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization, America’s share of the world’s manufacturing dropped from 25% to 15%, and five million U.S. jobs disappeared. It’s no wonder, since a U.S. factory worker is well-paid at $30 an hour versus the $3 an hour a Mexican worker makes.
The shift in global trade could result in more jobs, modern factories, and more expensive but higher-quality American goods.
As U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance put it in a March 14 speech in Michigan, “Being able to make things is good because it creates self-sufficiency as a nation, and it creates self-sufficiency in our people. More importantly, manufacturing jobs are good for our workers.”
Here are 10 industrial stocks poised to benefit from a modernized factory boom. They cover construction, power, automation, and artificial intelligence.
-
Eaton (ETN)
-
CRH (CRH)
-
Rockwell Automation (ROK)
-
Ametek (AME)
-
GE Verona (GEV)
-
Caterpillar (CAT)
-
Aecom (ACM)
-
Quanta Services (PWR)
-
Prysmian (PRY.MI)
-
Schneider Electric (SU.PA)
Another, broad-based way to invest in a potential U.S. manufacturing boom is to put money into an exchange-traded fund focused on the sector.
First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF
Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF
iShares U.S. Industrials ETF
iShares U.S. Manufacturing ETF
Vanguard Industrials ETF