#Xi Jinping and dollar

[poliphoon]

A duo is desperate to dismantle the dollar

This is what makes it a war. Two powerful men on this planet are daring the American dollar to challenge their rising dominance in the global payments system. The two spunky men are none other than Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader. The two menacingly muscle-flexing men seem dead determined to pull the dollar down from its high pedestal.

[itsnothingbutluck]

George Magnus, the former chief economist of UBS Investment Bank and author of the book «Red Flags», explains the disappointing economic recovery in China and says why the talk of de-dollarization remains wishful thinking.

[kneedeepincynade]

The end of the dollar is coming and with it the end of the American era, the century of humiliation for the capitalist will begin soon!

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ DE-DOLLARIZZAZIONE E RAFFORZAMENTO DELLO YUAN, VERSO LA MORTE DEL DOLLARO USA ⚠️

🇺🇸 Nel mentre, negli USA, si verifica una Crisi Bancaria, e PacWest Bancorp rischia il Default, il Processo di De-Dollarizzazione condotto dalla Cina, insieme ai Paesi del Mondo Multipolare, continua spedito, così come il Progetto Cinese di rafforzamento dello Yuan 🇨🇳

🇨🇳 Nell'ultimo anno, il Governo Cinese ha accelerato il Processo di De-Dollarizzazione, stringendo accordi con Paesi come Arabia Saudita, Russia, Brasile e persino Francia per espandere l'utilizzo del 人民币, la Moneta del Popolo, conosciuta principalmente come Yuan 📈

💬 Il Progetto Cinese di formazione di un polo alternativo per l'Economia, la Finanza, il Commercio e i Prestiti Internazionali procede con enorme velocità, tanto che persino gli Analisti Occidentali lo hanno notato, come Adrian Zuercher - Responsabile dell'Asset Allocation per la Regione Asia-Pacifico di UBS Global Wealth Management - che ha dichiarato che la Cina «sta inviando un segnale molto forte agli USA», dicendo - sostanzialmente - che non ha alcun bisogno del Dollaro 🔥

⭐️ Tale messaggio, però, non rimane soltanto all'interno dei confini della Cina, ma risuona nel Mondo, e gli imperialisti statunitensi - giorno dopo giorno - sono più terrorizzati, dato che la Cina sta concretamente seppellendo il Dollaro 🇨🇳

📄 Come scritto nell'articolo "China Takes the Yuan Global in Bid to Repel a Weaponized Dollar": «L'uso del RMB nei contratti per qualsiasi cosa, dal Petrolio al Nichel, sta prendendo velocità, con la quota della valuta nella finanza commerciale globale triplicata dalla fine del 2019» 📈

🇷🇺 Inoltre, prendendo in esame il caso della Russia: «L'utilizzo dello Yuan nei pagamenti all'esportazione è aumentato di 32 volte solo lo scorso anno» 📊

🇷🇺 Bloccata dal Sistema SWIFT, la Russia - come scritto nell'articolo - ha abbracciato lo Yuan per il commercio, il risparmio privato e le transazioni in valuta estera, e il Governo Cinese ha sviluppato la propria piattaforma di pagamenti internazionali, il CIPS, separato dall'Occidente 🇨🇳

Inoltre, con la Grande Riapertura della Cina, Leader politici di ogni Paese del Mondo, dall'Asia all'Africa, passando per l'Europa, si sono recati in Cina, per dialogare con Xi Jinping e Li Qiang, e firmare Accordi di Cooperazione Economica con valute nazionali, indebolendo il Dollaro ✍️

🤦‍♀️ A questo punto, l'articolo si riempie di ideologia spicciola, tra "muuuh free market" di ex-membri della Goldman Sachs e critiche al Partito Comunista Cinese, per «non aver consentito il libero flusso di capitali», ovvero - in pratica - per non aver guidato la liberalizzazione economico-finanziaria 🤡

⭐️ Spiacenti, ma la "Proprietà Pubblica come Pilastro", la Pianificazione Macro-Economica e il Sistema di Regolamentazione del Mercato, rimarranno Principi di Base dell'Economia Cinese 🚩

🤩 Ultimamente, poi, si è verificato un evento di enorme importanza: lo Yuan ha superato il Dollaro come valuta transfrontaliera più utilizzata in Cina. Potete approfondire qui 📰

💬 "Le ripercussioni della Guerra in Russia hanno preoccupato le altre Nazioni per il rischio di sanzioni guidate dagli USA", ha affermato Esther Law - Senior Money Manager di Amundi SA, e quindi ci si aspetta un'ulteriore crescita di popolarità per il RMB 🇨🇳

人 - Persone, esseri umani come concetto generale 👥

人民 - unito con 民 diventa "Popolo" ⭐️

币 - Moneta, valuta, denaro 🤑

人民币 - Moneta del Popolo 🇨🇳

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ DE-DOLLARIZATION AND STRENGTHENING OF THE YUAN, TOWARDS THE DEATH OF THE US DOLLAR ⚠️

🇺🇸 In the meantime, a Banking Crisis occurs in the USA, and PacWest Bancorp risks Default, the De-Dollarization Process led by China, together with the Countries of the Multipolar World, continues quickly, as well as the Chinese Yuan Strengthening Project 🇨🇳

🇨🇳 Over the past year, the Chinese Government has accelerated the De-Dollarization Process, making agreements with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil and even France to expand the use of 人民币, the People's Currency, mainly known as Yuan 📈

💬 The Chinese project to create an alternative pole for the Economy, Finance, Trade and International Lending is proceeding with enormous speed, so much so that even Western Analysts have noticed it, such as Adrian Zuercher - Head of Asset Allocation for the Region Asia-Pacific by UBS Global Wealth Management - which declared that China "is sending a very strong signal to the US", saying - basically - that it has no need for the Dollar 🔥

⭐️ This message, however, does not remain only within China's borders, but resonates in the world, and the US imperialists - day after day - are more terrified, given that China is concretely burying the Dollar 🇨🇳

📄 As written in the article "China Takes the Yuan Global in Bid to Repel a Weaponized Dollar": «The use of the RMB in contracts for everything from Oil to Nickel is gaining speed, with the currency's share in trade finance tripled since the end of 2019» 📈

🇷🇺 Also, considering the case of Russia: «The use of the Yuan in export payments increased 32 times last year alone» 📊

🇷🇺 Blocked by the SWIFT System, Russia - as written in the article - has embraced the Yuan for trade, private savings and foreign currency transactions, and the Chinese Government has developed its own international payments platform, the CIPS, separated from the West 🇨🇳

Furthermore, with the Grand Reopening of China, political leaders from every country in the world, from Asia to Africa, passing through Europe, have traveled to China to dialogue with Xi Jinping and Li Qiang, and sign Cooperation Agreements Cheap with national currencies, weakening the Dollar ✍️

🤦‍♀️ At this point, the article is filled with petty ideology, between "muuuh free market" of ex-members of Goldman Sachs and criticism of the Communist Party of China, for "not allowing the free flow of capital", i.e. - basically - for not leading the economic and financial liberalization 🤡

⭐️ Sorry, but the "Public Property as Pillar", Macro-Economic Planning and Market Regulatory System, Will Remain the Basic Principles of Chinese Economy 🚩

🤩 An event of enormous importance has recently occurred: the Yuan has surpassed the Dollar as the most used cross-border currency in China. You can learn more here 📰

💬 "The repercussions of the war in Russia have worried other nations about the risk of US-led sanctions", said Esther Law - Senior Money Manager of Amundi SA, and therefore further growth in popularity for the RMB is expected 🇨 🇳

人 - People, human beings as a general concept 👥

人民 - combined with 民 becomes "People" ⭐️

币 - Coin, currency, money 🤑

人民币 - People's Coin 🇨🇳

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The first days of Boss Politics Antitrust

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

"Boss politics" are a feature of corrupt societies. When a society is dominated by self-dealing, corrupt institutions, strongman leaders can seize control by appealing to the public's fury and desperation. Then, the boss can selectively punish corrupt entities that oppose him, and since everyone is corrupt, these will be valid prosecutions.

In other words, it's possible to corruptly enforce the law against the guilty. This is just a matter of enforcement priorities: in a legitimate state, enforcers prioritize the wrongdoers who are harming the public the most. Under boss politics, priority is given to the corrupt entities that challenge the boss's power, without regard to whether these lawbreakers are the worst offenders. Meanwhile, worse wrongdoers walk free, provided that they line up behind the boss.

This is how Xi Jinping prosecuted his purges in the run up to his lifetime appointment as Party Secretary (2012-2015). Xi prosecuted the guilty, but not the most guilty. The public officials who were defenstrated and/or imprisoned during Xi's purges were all corrupt, but they were also the power base of Xi's rivals. Meanwhile, corrupt officials in Xi's own orbit were untouched:

https://web.archive.org/web/20181222163946/https://peterlorentzen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lorentzen-Lu-Crackdown-Nov-2018-Posted-Version.pdf

Trump is a classic boss politician – that's what people mean when they call him "transactional": he doesn't act out of principle, he acts out of self interest. The people who give him the most get the most back from him. This means that Biden's brightest legacy – militant antitrust enforcement of a type not seen in generations – is now going to become "boss antitrust," where genuine monopolists are attacked under antitrust law, but only if they oppose Trump:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/12/the-enemy-of-your-enemy/#is-your-enemy

We're now living through the first days of boss antitrust. Remember all those monopolistic tech billionaires who donated millions of dollars to Trump's inauguration and arranged themselves in a decorative semicircle behind him on the dias? Trump just went to Davos to speak up for them, arguing that EU and other offshore prosecutions of these companies were attacks on "American businesses" and saying he would defend them with the full might of the US government (this is the same government that, under Biden, secured multiple convictions against these same companies for monopolistic conduct):

https://gizmodo.com/trump-returns-big-techs-ass-kissing-at-davos-2000554158

The Federal Trade Commission has lost its Biden-era chair, the extraordinary Lina Khan, who did more in four years than all her predecessors did in the preceding forty years, combined. The new chair is Republican Andrew Ferguson, whose first day on the job was a bloodbath, in which he killed off multiple, significant actions aimed at producing real, material benefits from Americans who are being absolutely screwed by corporations:

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-01-24-executive-action-reaction-day-4/

Ferguson killed off a public comment process on "surveillance pricing," where companies spy on you and then reprice their goods based on their estimation of how desperate you are:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/11/socialism-for-the-wealthy/#rugged-individualism-for-the-poor

Uber pioneered this when they started increasing the cost of cab rides for riders whose phone batteries were about to die. But other companies took it way further: McDonald's is co-owner of a company called Plexure that sells companies the ability to charge you more for your normal order at the drive-through if you've just been paid:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

But surveillance pricing is even worse for workers than it is for shoppers. Nurses in the USA increasingly work for Uber-like nurse-on-demand apps like Shiftkey, Carerev and Shiftmed. These apps can buy nurses' financial data from the unregulated data-broker industry, and then offer nurses with overdue credit-card bills lower wages, on the grounds that they're so desperate they'll take a paycut:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/18/loose-flapping-ends/#luigi-has-a-point

Ferguson also killed off a notice-and-comment action on predatory pricing – when companies sell goods below cost in order to destroy competitors, then drive up prices. This is what Uber did, setting $31b of Saudi royal money on fire over 13 years, losing $0.41 on every dollar they brought in. This killed off all the regular taxis, and convinced city governments to abandon public transit investment on the grounds that Uber was cheaper than a bus. Once they'd captured the market, Uber doubled the price of a ride and halved the wages that they paid drivers.

So this is what Ferguson has killed off. In its place, Ferguson has instituted an internal action, aimed at rooting out "DEI" and "wokeness." The agency's top priority right now is running a snitch line where FTC officials can rat each other out for being anti-racist. This isn't just offensive, of course – it's also deeply unserious. Even if you stipulate that "woke" has some meaning (it doesn't, but go with me here), then killing off all the "woke" at the FTC will not make Americans more prosperous, let alone protect them from corporate predators.

In his dissenting statement, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya didn't mince words:

Andrew Ferguson could have made his first public act as Chairman a motion to study the rising cost of groceries. He could have acted on a pending public petition from a group of wall and ceiling contractors to investigate how lawbreaking contractors can effectively rig contract competitions in the commercial construction industry. He could have moved to investigate a pending public petition from shrimpers from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to investigate potentially false and misleading claims about shrimp imports from India that are farmed with forced labor and shot full of antibiotics…

I have met with corn growers and cattlemen in Iowa. I have met with shrimpers in Biloxi. I have met with pharmacists in Knoxville, grocers in Tulsa, and patients and their doctors in Charleston, West Virginia. I met with the men who build Miami’s million-dollar skyscrapers in 110-degree heat.

Let me tell you what they didn’t talk about: “DEI.”

What they do talk about is how powerful companies are skirting or abusing the law to force farmers, workers, and small businessmen to do what they want, when they want, or else. How the government isn’t doing anything about it. And how they’re going broke because of it

But Chairman Ferguson seems uninterested in the challenges that regular human beings face.

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/bedoya-statement-emergency-motion.pdf

Bedoya is still hanging in there at the FTC; these administrative agency appointments outlast the presidents that made them. It's common for agency heads to step down when there's a changeover – Lina Khan didn't stay – but the commissioners often hang in there. I hope Bedoya stays at the FTC: he's one of the good ones and we're all better off for his presence.

There's one Biden agency head who hasn't left, and surprisingly, it's one of Biden's best appointees: Rohit Chopra, head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Chopra is the first CFPB head to explore just how much power this new-ish agency has, and has seen his far-reaching, muscular regulations upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court.

Trump's corporate backers hate the CFPB, and Elon Musk really hates the CFBP, and crypto grifters really, really hate the CFPB. Ironically, the demonization of the CFPB seems to be the key to Chopra's enduring tenure. According to David Dayen at The American Prospect, no one in Trumpland wants his job. The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that presidents can fire CFPB heads, but there's no one who wants to replace Chopra and take their turn in the barrel:

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-01-24-rohit-chopra-still-has-a-job/

Chopra's using his time well: he's brought a flurry of new actions, most lately against the credit bureau giant Transunion. And in the final weeks of the Biden administration, Chopra launched a whole boatload of enforcements, investigations, and other actions against the most predatory companies in America. As Dayen notes, over the past four years, Chopra has forced American rip-off businesses to pay back $6b in stolen loot, and to cough up more than $3.2b in fines.

Replacing Chopra is hard for Trump in part because Trump has imposed a federal hiring freeze. That means that anyone who replaces Chopra has to already be working for the US government, and all the finance grifters are cashing out of the government to go work for giant financial institutions they've been carrying water for while drawing a public salary. Even the people who might take the job can't, because then no one could be hired to do their job – for example, there's a ghoul at the FDIC who'd fit the bill, but if he takes over from Chopra, then the FDIC will have just two members. If the GOP stooge on the FCC quits to take the job, then the Democratic commissioners will have a majority. You love to see it, really.

But – as Dayen points out – they're almost certainly gonna give Chopra the axe eventually. When they do, the CFPB will continue to do some enforcements. It's likely that Ferguson will eventually direct the FTC to do something apart from peering under their beds looking for "woke." When they do take action, they'll probably take action against companies that are wildly, lavishly corrupt. After all, that describes basically all of American big business, a sector that has festered thanks to 40 years of antitrust negligence.

It will be tempting for Trump's opponents to decide that if Trump hates these giant, evil companies, well, then, they must be good. Think of when "progressives" fell in love with the "intelligence community" just because a couple spooks decided they hated Trump. The FBI isn't your friend, folks – this is the agency that tried to blackmail MLK into killing himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_letter

The enemy of your enemy? Still your enemy, provided that they're a big, predatory monopolist. Boss politics is about punishing corruption – selectively. Trump-style antitrust is going to target a ton of bad businesses. That won't make them good.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enforcement-priorities/#enemies-lists

[reality-detective]

MON. 2 DEC. 2024 ILLUMINATI BLOODLINE FAMILIES AND THE GREAT AWAKENING

· Thirteen Illuminati Bloodline Families, headquartered in Venice, Italy, once ruled the world through their control of the global monetary system, all while practicing dark rituals and Satanic worship. This cabal, now often referred to as the Deep State, orchestrated a global network of child sacrifice, sex orgies, and mind control experiments on kidnapped and produced victims.

· These families, who claim descent from Cain, included infamous names like Poseur, Kennedy, Rockefeller, Onassis, Carnage, Bush, and Rothschild.

· By 1832, they had seized control of the Vatican Bank and established dominance over major central banks worldwide, such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, HSBC, and Chase.

· In 1871, they enacted the Act that created the Corporation of the US of America, effectively erasing the original Constitution.

· The turning point came in 1903 when Nikola Tesla and Van de Graaf began unraveling the Deep State's secrets.

· By 1914, they had signed a 99-year lease on the Chinese Elder’s gold, using the Federal Reserve, IRS, and other financial institutions to launder US taxpayer money, while their operations extended through the Vatican Bank, notorious for its role in child trafficking, drug, and gun running.

· By 1993, their lease on the Chinese gold expired, and by the early 2000s, the Alliance was formed to dismantle the Cabal.

· By 2008, the Cabal’s reliance on a fiat US dollar led to a manufactured mortgage crisis, which further drained US taxpayers. This prompted the formation of the BRICS Alliance, aiming to restore a gold/asset-backed financial system. On March 21, 2013, the Gold Treaty was signed by 209 nations.

· In 2018, President Trump enacted the National Quantum Initiative Act, establishing a new Quantum Financial System and a transparent voting system.

· On October 16, 2019, US Marines and Special Forces rescued over 2,100 children from beneath the China Lake Navy facility in California, uncovering a network of deep underground bases funded by the Cabal.

· The Vatican was raided in October 2019, revealing the global elite’s money laundering operations. Over 650 plane loads of gold and cash were seized and repatriated to the US Treasury.

· By March 2020, the Alliance had eliminated the heads of the thirteen Illuminati families in Venice, initiating arrests and military tribunals for US political elites.

· This Alliance, as of 2020, included President Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Narendra Modi, influential figures of Q, QAnon (headed by JFK Jr?), Pentagon Generals, NSA, and Interpol.

· Expect further developments, with significant disclosures and arrests anticipated in the coming months. By late 2024, global changes will unfold as the remnants of the Cabal are dismantled and justice is served. 🤔

[revindicatedbyhistory]

if china kills the dollar i will name all of my children after xi jinping

[1americanconservative]

@bennyjohnson

Donald Trump Accomplishments *Before* Taking Office: - Mexico agrees to end migrant caravans - Canada closes border, ends illegal immigration - American stock market, Bitcoin hit record highs - China stock market crash - Xi Jinping begs for 'peace' with America - Companies move production back to the U.S. - Putin agrees to Trump peace deal in Ukraine - Putin backs selling oil in U.S. dollars - Putin no longer targets the dollar - Zelenskyy agrees to peace talks - EU shifts to buying U.S. gas - Hamas agrees to end war now - Ceasefire in Israel and Lebanon - Illegal aliens are self-deporting across country - Corrupt Government Bureaucrats retiring en masse - Government Censorship Regime collapsing - Democrat lawfare atomized - Trump at +65% approval rating We’re heading into the American Golden Era.

[dertaglichedan]

Putin Hosts BRICS Leaders, Showing He Is Far From Isolated

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin is playing host to Russia’s biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and using the BRICS summit to show the US and its allies that he’s no pariah.

With Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine and evidence of growing war fatigue among some of Kyiv’s allies, the Kremlin is seizing its opportunity to cast Putin as standing up to the West in attempting to reshape the global order. The US and its Group of Seven partners dismiss the argument, though it’s a message that resonates with some countries of the emerging world.  

Leaders of 32 countries, as well as top officials of regional organizations and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will attend the three-day summit starting Tuesday in Kazan, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are joining Putin alongside leaders of the new BRICS members, Iran, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia. Putin plans bilateral meetings with many of them, as well as with guests such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday canceled his plans to attend the summit after suffering a head injury in an accident at his home. Officials said he’ll participate by video link.

While BRICS favors greater use of national currencies in bilateral trade, members including India reject attempts to promote China’s yuan as an alternative reserve currency.

***WAKE UP!! This is NOT good for the US Dollar..

[mariacallous]

Elections in Moldova and Georgia this week are turning into a sobering reality check for the European Union as it finds itself increasingly on the back foot in its battle for influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For years, the EU has been confident that its liberal, democratic agenda will ultimately steer Georgia and Moldova away from the Kremlin’s orbit and toward the West — a confidence boosted by polls suggesting both countries have big popular majorities for EU membership.

This week’s elections now suggest that this optimistic EU vision is increasingly uncertain. Moldova voted for EU membership by only the narrowest of margins on Sunday — with 50.4 percent of voters in favor — and the populist Georgian Dream party that is expected to win on Saturday is set to pursue an illiberal agenda that would make EU membership impossible.

For the EU, the determination of its adversary in Moscow is daunting.

It is evident that the Kremlin — despite its heavy commitments in Ukraine — is still willing to pour big money into vote-buying and disinformation campaigns to reassert its stamp on former Soviet territories. In both Moldova and Georgia, Moscow is making headway with a propaganda narrative that countries which pursue a pro-EU or pro-NATO agenda are playing with fire, recommending neutrality as the antidote to conflict.

Aghast at the result, Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu complained of Russia’s “unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy.” While recent polls suggested a majority of some 60 percent were in favor of joining the bloc, it looked for much of the night as if the anti-EU camp would win.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was quick to stress the tight result was the result of Russian dirty tricks, and insisted Brussels would press ahead with getting Moldova into the bloc.

“In the face of Russia’s hybrid tactics, Moldova shows that it is independent, it is strong and it wants a European future,” she said.

Still, the result in Moldova lays bare the limits to EU influence just as Putin is styling himself as part of a broader anti-Western alliance.

On Tuesday, Putin will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and more than 15 other heads of state for talks in the Russian city of Kazan. Moscow has pushed for the admission of a handful of new countries into a BRICS format, designed to band developing economies together to challenge Euro-American interests. It also wants to use it to challenge the United States dollar.

Bribes and disinformation

There is little doubt about the scale of Russian intervention in Moldova.

In a statement following the count, the leader of the National Democratic Institute’s observation mission, former Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, reported widespread efforts to undermine the process.

“The greatest threat to the integrity of these elections has been a broad and concerted campaign of malign foreign influence from Russia, collaborating with Moldovan actors through information manipulation, vote-buying, and other illicit financing of political activity,” he said.

To achieve even the slimmest of majorities in that context, other monitors said, was a significant achievement. “Moldovans demonstrated resilience in the face of unprecedented foreign interference,” said U.S. Congressman Peter Roskam, who led an International Republican Institute observer mission.

Moldovan officials repeatedly sounded the alarm over huge sums of Russian money being funnelled into the accounts of ordinary voters in the weeks leading up to the vote. The authorities accuse Moscow and its local proxies of seeking to use cash to push people into opposing EU membership and uniting behind a pro-Russian challenger standing against Sandu.

“We are talking about up to 20 percent of corrupted votes, and an estimated €150 million interference operation by Russia,” said Valeriu Pasha, program manager at the Moldova-based think-tank WatchDog.MD Community. “Without this massive vote bribing, the result would look totally different. So in these very harsh conditions, the fact that we still have a majority yes vote is already a very good result.”

A transferable model

Speaking to POLITICO ahead of the vote on Sunday, former Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said the referendum had been called to “settle the domestic conversation in the country” before voters head to the polls in next year’s parliamentary elections, where Sandu and her allies face a host of pro-Russian opposition parties.

That gambit appears to have failed. Instead of demonstrating unity, it has created a dangerous new dividing line, and convinced the Kremlin it pays to try to swing the result.

“The preliminary election results highlight the challenges Brussels faces in extending EU membership to post-Soviet countries,” said Marta Mucznik, an analyst with Crisis Group. “With Moldova preparing for parliamentary elections in 2025, these divisions are likely to shape political discourse in the months ahead.”

That bodes ill for Georgia, where the Georgian Dream party is seeking a majority in parliamentary elections on Saturday, vowing to ban the entire opposition if it secures enough votes. The dramatic campaign comes amid warnings of state capture by Russia, as the country passed Moscow-inspired restrictions on Western-funded nongovernmental organizations, the media and the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s time Western policymakers woke up to the fact that Russia’s war isn’t just limited to Ukraine — it’s about taking on the democratic world anywhere that Moscow thinks it can exert influence,” said Ivana Stradner of Washington’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “And while risk-averse European and American officials think in terms of individual tactics, Putin has a whole strategy he’s using to try and win.”

For Sandu, it’s not just EU candidate nations that should be worried — or just smaller ones.

Everyone is at risk.

“It is true that you can damage the democratic process in a small country more easily,” the Moldovan president said. “But once these practices are tested in smaller countries, they can be tried in other countries.”

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Lula and Xi Jinping sign 37 deals in Brasília, but Brazil skips Belt and Road

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit on Wednesday at the Palácio da Alvorada in Brasília, Brazil signed 37 agreements with the Asian nation across various sectors, yet did not join the Belt and Road Initiative, China's trillion-dollar investment program.

The agreements between Brazil and China encompass market access for agricultural products, educational exchange, and technological cooperation in areas such as trade, investments, infrastructure, industry, energy, mining, finance, communications, sustainable development, tourism, sports, health, and culture.

Regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, a protocol on "synergies" was established, but Brazil did not fully commit to the Chinese initiative, as previously indicated to O GLOBO by Lula's special advisor for international affairs, Celso Amorim. The countries aim to find common ground between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's infrastructure and industrial incentive programs.

These programs include the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), the New Brazil Industry Plan, the Ecological Transformation Plan, and the South American Integration Routes Program.

Continue reading.

[beardedmrbean]

CHANCAY, Peru (AP) — On the edge of Peru’s coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America.

The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy.

From the presidential palace in Lima, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the port inauguration ceremony, China’s President Xi Jinping watched a livestream of the ribbon-cutting alongside his Peruvian counterpart, Dina Boluarte, late Thursday.

The leaders' faces appeared on a giant screen in Chancay, where engineers in bright orange safety vests declared the port operational to the swell of string instruments. Chinese dancers with red dragon-costume heads seemingly burst out of nowhere to prance around the docking station as a crane lowered the first aluminum containers onto a berthed cargo ship.

“Considerable income and enormous job opportunities will be generated for Peru,” Xi said from Lima, where world leaders were preparing to gather for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. “This will generate tangible results for the people of the region.”

But the development — expected to encompass 15 quays and a large industrial park drawing more than $3.5 billion in investment over a decade — has met a skeptical response from impoverished villagers, who say it is depriving them of fishing waters and bringing no economic benefit to locals.

“Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them,” said 78-year-old fisherman Julius Caesar — “like the emperor of Rome” — gesturing toward the dockside cranes. “I don't blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it's worth. I blame our government for not protecting us.”

The Peruvian government hopes the port will become a strategic transshipment hub for the region, opening a new line connecting South America to Asia and speeding trade across the Pacific for Peru's blueberries, Brazil's soybeans and Chile's copper, among other exports.

Officials cite the port's potential to generate millions of dollars in revenues and turn coastal cities into so-called special economic zones with tax breaks to lure investment.

“We Peruvians are focused primarily on the well-being of Peruvians,” Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer told The Associated Press.

But many of Chancay's 60,000 residents are unconvinced. Fishermen returning to port with smaller catches complain that they have already lost out.

The dredging of the port — which sucked sediment from the seabed to create a shipping channel 17 meters (56 feet) deep — has ruined fish breeding grounds, locals said.

“I’ve been out in the water all day and I’m always needing to venture farther,” said Rafael Ávila, a 28-year-old fisherman with sand in his hair, returning to shore empty-handed and exhausted.

“This used to be enough,” he said, pointing at his painted dinghy. “Now I need a larger, more expensive boat to reach the fish."

To make extra cash, Ávila started offering occasional joyrides to selfie-taking visitors wanting to get a glimpse at the hulking Chinese ships.

With some of the world's largest container ships to berth at Chancay Port in January 2025, residents also fear the arrival of pollution and oil spills. In 2022, a botched tanker delivery at La Pampilla refinery nearby sent thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into Peru's famously biodiverse waters, killing countless fish and putting legions of fishermen out of work.

Today a glance at the moribund town center, featuring mostly empty seafood restaurants, tells the story of diminished fishing stocks and decimated tourism even without the port being operational.

The port's breakwater changed the currents and destroyed good surfing conditions, locals said, affecting everyone from ice vendors to truckers to restaurant owners. “No to the megaport” is spray-painted on a wall overlooking the waterfront.

“This port is a monster that's come here to screw us,” said 40-year-old Rosa Collantes, cleaning and gutting slimy drum fish on the shore. “People come to the port and they say ‘Wow, tremendous!' but they don't see the reality.”

Port authorities say they're aware of the stark contrast between the sleek modern port and the surrounding village of Chancay, where many live on unpaved roads lined with ragged shacks and littered with trash.

“You cannot build a state-of-the-art port and have a city next to it that has no drinking water, no sewage, a collapsing hospital and no educational centers,” said Mario de las Casas, a manager for Cosco in Chancay, adding that the company had already launched studies to determine how the port could help reduce inequality and spur local growth.

“The port should not be a blemish,” De las Casas said.

[darkmaga-returns]

The Global South-led organization BRICS is growing. More and more countries support the group’s mission: to build a multipolar world, with alternative economic institutions that are more representative and democratic, not dominated by the Western powers.

BRICS held a summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, where 13 new “partner nations” were accepted.

At this historic meeting, China’s President Xi Jinping referred to BRICS as “a vanguard for advancing global governance reform” and “reform of the international financial architecture”.

Bolivia��s left-wing President Luis Arce argued that “the shield of BRICS and multipolarity” can protect formerly colonized nations, helping them resist “Western unipolarity and the tyranny of the dollar”.

[aurevoirmonty]

«Taïwan est partie intégrante de la Chine», la Russie et la Chine construisent le nouvel ordre mondial: Poutine fait bloc avec Xi Jinping

«Le monde entier soutient les BRICS, le rejet du dollar et la transition vers le commerce des monnaies nationales», a rappelé le dirigeant russe avec son homologue chinois.

Ainsi que «la lutte contre les idéologies misanthropes et contre la légalisation des perversions».

«Un monde est devenu possible dans lequel les dirigeants d'une nouvelle génération accèdent de plus en plus au pouvoir, des dirigeants qui défendent les intérêts de leur peuple et non ceux de l'élite mondialiste», a salué Xi.

[klbmsw]

"You give me 5 million dollars and I will let TikTok stay in our country"

[head-post]

Xi Jinping: China open to dialogue as “no winners” in Trump trade dispute

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Tuesday that there would be “no winners” in the trade war with the United States and vowed the country would meet its economic growth targets for this year.

Xi Jinping said “tariff, trade and science and technology wars go against the trends of history and the patterns of the economy,” against which Beijing is ready to maintain dialogue and “keep differences under control.”

In late November, US President-elect Donald Trump said that if BRICS tries to create an alternative to the dollar or starts deliberately abandoning it, the White House will effectively close the US market for countries engaged in such practices with possible 100 per cent import tariffs.

In response, China has expressed reluctance to move to a “bloc confrontation,” indicating that the unification aims at universal development and prosperity. Shortly after Trump’s election victory, analysts polled by Reuters estimated a 0.5-1.0 percentage point decline in China’s economic growth amid the duties that the new US chief may impose on goods from the country.

Earlier, the Chinese government banned supplies to the US of materials that can be used to produce semiconductors and various types of weapons. The banned list included superhard metals, antimony, germanium and gallium. China has also tightened control over the shipment of graphite products to America.

Read more HERE