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Trump, China's Xi hold call on TikTok, trade, Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump takes office again promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Both leaders were upbeat about the call, with Trump calling it "a very good one" and Xi saying he and Trump both hoped for a positive start to U.S.-China relations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

It was the first known phone call between the pair after Trump's election in November.

The U.S. and China are embroiled in an array of diplomatic and economic disagreements, including an accelerating technological and military rivalry and bitter trade disputes. Marco Rubio, Trump's nominee to be his secretary of state, has defined China as the gravest threat facing the U.S. and warned about the risks of possible military conflict between the two countries.

The call came shortly before U.S. Supreme Court on Friday announced a ruling upholding a law that mandates TikTok owner ByteDance divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security concerns.

"The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects," Trump wrote on his social media platform.

"President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!"

Xi raised China's concerns about Taiwan, which Beijing maintains is part of its territory, and said he hoped the U.S. would treat the matter with great care.

"The Taiwan issue concerns China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and he hopes the U.S. side will handle it with caution," he said according to Chinese state television.

Xi said the United States and China can have their differences but must respect each other's core interests, and that trade relations can be mutually beneficial without confrontation and conflict, comments similar to those he made during Trump's first term.

The Chinese readout of the call said the two leaders agreed to set up a "channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest."

Trump offered strong support to Taiwan, including regularizing arms sales, in his first term. But during the campaign last year, he said Taiwan should pay the U.S. to be defended.

The Republican president-elect, who upended trade relations in his first term, is about to embark on an even more aggressive effort in his second term. He has pledged to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl, and he threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

Trump said on Jan. 6 that he and Xi have been communicating through representatives, expressing optimism about their relationship.

Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said whether Trump in coming days would permit TikTok to operate without a qualified divestment and whether he applied tariffs on China quickly or first began negotiations with Beijing would be early indicators of how confrontational his stance toward China would be.

Trump posted online later that his decision on TikTok would be coming soon, and that "everyone must respect" the Supreme Court ruling.

Breaking with tradition, Trump had invited Xi and other foreign leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but China is sending Vice President Han Zheng, a move signaling Beijing's desire to step up communication with the incoming administration.

Still, any "grand bargain" between the two sides over trade, Taiwan and other strategic issues would be difficult to reach, said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

"There's an immense amount of distance between what one can imagine and actually achieving such an outcome. The interests between the U.S. and China on many of these issues are different and the views of key advisors to both are quite hawkish," Kennedy said.

Folks, we’re gonna do so many great things, folks. lmao this guy.

But as I’ve said, there is a good chance of easing US-China tension with Biden gone.

Marco Rubio says the U.S. may put Cuba back on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism Removal of the Caribbean country from the list was announced in the last days of Joe Biden's Democratic administration.

“I have no doubt that (Cuba) meets all the requirements to be considered a state sponsor of terrorism,” Marco Rubio said on Wednesday before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as secretary of state.

The statement was made just one day after President Joe Biden announced the removal of Cuba from the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism”. “Nothing that the Biden administration has agreed to in the last 12 to 18 hours is binding on the next administration, which begins on Monday,” he said.

Argentina’s Health Ministry announces 1,400 layoffs

The latest round of dismissals came as a surprise for most of the already-reduced workforce. ‘It’s a bloodbath.’

Argentina’s Health Ministry announced in a press release on Wednesday that it would not renew the contracts of 1,400 workers. The ministry cited a “reorganization of its competencies and the reorientation of health policies.” The ministry’s communiqué described the layoffs as “a resource optimization” that would affect national hospitals. The decision resulted from “the identification of hiring irregularities during the previous administration, duplicate roles, and non-compliance with tasks,” the communiqué added, saying they had already fired 30% of the ministry’s “political positions.”

President Javier Milei celebrated the layoffs on X with his usual catchphrase: “Afuera.”

“We keep going with the chainsaw. The End,” he wrote.

These are not the first cuts Milei’s administration has made in the health sector. Medical doctors nationwide held protests throughout 2024, saying their salaries were virtually frozen, and the government stopped giving some medications for free to retirees. In 2024, the Milei administration fired 120 workers from the Posadas National Hospital. In its 2025 budget proposal, the government put forward a minimal increase for the country’s national program combatting HIV, STIs, Hepatitis, and Tuberculosis, which Act Up Argentina condemned as equalling a 76% cut when considering inflation.

Some workers had been notified of the impending layoffs: on Tuesday, 130 employees at the Baldomero Sommer National Hospital, located in the Buenos Aires province, got the news. “The notices are coming in right now. It’s a bloodbath,” Leonardo Fernández Camacho, the union’s representative of the Laura Bonaparte Mental Health Hospital, told the Herald on Wednesday evening. Fernández Camacho said there were “more than 100 layoffs and counting.”

I would almost say there are virtually not enough people to open the hospital tomorrow,” he added.

Last year, the government announced it would partially shut down the Bonaparte Hospital, the only national government-owned public hospital dedicated to addictions, but backtracked on it after widespread protests.

A source from the ATE state workers union told the Herald that other affected areas include the Malbrán Institute—an award-winning microbiological research center—the ANMAT—the government agency that monitors the efficacy, safety, and quality of drugs, food, and medical device — and the ministry’s central headquarters. The ATE source also confirmed to the Herald that they will hold an assembly on Thursday and then speak with Health Minister Mario Lugones.

And they celebrate shit like this, not only they don't give a single fuck about the people they're sending straight into poverty -- they celebrate it, they have the courage to show how proud and happy they are about it. I swear to God, if it's even out there, that this will not be forgotten nor forgiven. One day they will finally find out that their actions have consequences, that they can't escape them.

The social fabric is being torn apart, I see a lot of poverty and misery just about everywhere now. Entire families struggling to secure some food and a shelter, and I'm not even talking about a proper house. Material conditions are worsening, society as we know it is being destroyed slowly but surely... all in the name of Capital.

It can't go on like this, it's impossible, it's against nature itself. Despite the shit times, the setbacks, the defeats and the deaths, we will have the final word.

WaPo endorses most of Trump's right-wing cabinet picks

https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1878822276122214676

So, why would Trump care about a ceasefire? What are his interests here?

confused whether more recent tweet talks same or been some developments in pisrael

whoopsies, i originally posted in the wrong thread so i'm gonna edit and add news

CW: mentions of SA here, more detail in links

Recent developments on the fascist zionist regime doing fascist zionist regime things :

From Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: Israel must be added to UN’s sexual violence blacklist

Israel’s consistent obstructions of all United Nations investigations into allegations of sexual violence since 7 October 2023 is profoundly concerning. These obstructions, coupled with substantial evidence indicating systematic and widespread acts ofremoved and other forms of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including prisoners and detainees, constitute grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. [...] It was disclosed last Wednesday that Israel has once again denied authorisation for an investigation by the UN Special Representative on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Pramila Patten. This refusal reportedly stems from concerns that a comprehensive investigation would expose Israel’s systematic use of massremoved against Palestinians, including women and children, as Patten had insisted that access to Israeli detention centres to investigate allegations against Israeli soldiers was a crucial requirement for the process.

From Haaretz: Israel Blocks UN Probe Into Hamas Sexual Crimes From October 7 to Avoid Inquiry Into Abuse of Palestinians

The UN's special representative on conflict-related sexual violence asked to investigate Hamas' alleged crimes on October 7 and towards the hostages, but Israel refused her request to access Israeli detention facilities to examine claims of IDF abuse. Israeli women's rights groups warn this could lead to Israel, instead of Hamas, being added to the UN's sexual violence blacklist

is it foolish to dream that china will help the reconstruction of gaza? If anyone is capable of rebuilding urban sprawl its china, but would that be too active of a role to play for them?

Yemen targets US carrier in Red Sea as Washington 'gears up' for escalation | The Cradle

A couple months ago I hosted the mega thread and the intro was about the Giant mine in northern Canada, an abandoned mine with big arsenic contamination issues. Here's a story about a Canadian mining company doing the same thing in Namibia. The Chinese company Sinomine owns it now - I hope they do better.

https://archive.is/vHbur

Earlier today I made the mistake of opening reddit and there a post with a map of the level of education of heads of state. There were the usual comments about Putler and whatever. But what caught my attention were the Brazilian Gusanos and other chuds, badmouthing Lula da Silva's education. How "dumb" he is and how he's "not prepared" to be president because he had to quit school to work.

Lula literally went to vocational school, worked since he was a child and even lost his pinky finger in an accident because his boss refused to help him. Shortly afterwards he joined the trade union movement, with the help of his communist older brother. Lula winning the presidency is something never seen before, someone truly from the lower working class reaching the highest office in South America's largest country. Whatever you say about Lula da Silva's neoliberal policies and other cringe things he's done, Lula has done more for the working class and minorities than any other president before him.

And another thing these people love to say, about the corruption in Lula's government and how he was arrested. Lula was arrested by a criminal judge called Sergio Moro who worked for the CIA and tried to become president of Brazil (when you say this to the Gusanos they don't know what to say). And the Gusanos also love to attack the Supreme Court because it released Lula from prison and dropped all his charges, the Supreme Court only did its job which was to release Lula because the charges were bullshit, also when the Supreme Court didn't grant Lula da Silva political rights, something the UN supported, to run in the 2018 elections, these people didn't say anything.

They're just angry that their man, Bolsonaro, has lost all political rights and can't even meet his master, Donald Trump. The Gusanos are the dumbest people in the world, pretending to be patriots but hating their own country and always saying that the US is better.

China's economy beats forecasts in 2024, braces for trade war

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China's economy ended 2024 on better footing than expected helped by a flurry of stimulus measures, although the threat of a new trade war with the United States and weak domestic demand could hurt confidence in a broader recovery this year.

Exports, one of the few bright spots, could lose steam as United States President-elect Donald Trump, who has proposed hefty tariffs on Chinese goods, is set to return to the White House next week.

For the full-year 2024, the world's second-largest economy grew 5.0%, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Friday, meeting the government's annual growth target of around 5%. Analysts had forecast 4.9% growth.

The economy grew 5.4% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, significantly beating analysts' expectations and marking the quickest since the second quarter of 2023.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) would expand 5.0% from a year earlier, quickening from the third-quarter's 4.6% pace as a flurry of support measures began to kick in.

"China's economy is showing signs of revival, led by industrial output and exports," said Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

However, he added, the strong GDP print last quarter may already have been flattered by front-loading of shipments to the U.S. - something that will inevitably lead to a pay-back with production and exports turning down once tariffs begin to bite.

"As exports come under pressure in 2025, dragged lower by U.S. import restrictions, there will be an even bigger need to apply domestic stimulus."

https://xcancel.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1881071284639223890

car protest in front of butcher blinky home

Keeping The Dark Money Red And White: Danish Regime Scrambles To Prevent Musk's Interference

Afraid of the potential of American far-right conspiracy theorist and oligarch Elon Musk interfering in the electoral process, Denmark's Liberal and Moderate parties are now proposing a ban on foreign campaign contributions to political parties. The two parties make up two thirds of the Social Democrat-led regime ruling the Nordic hermit kingdom.

Musk's recent endorsement of Germany's fascist AfD party has stoked fear of similar developments across Europe. In Denmark the more mainstream right-wing parties like the Liberal and the Moderate parties stands to lose if the far right grows.

However, attempts to stop hostile oligarchs from tipping the scales are being hamstrung by notoriously lax Danish campaign funding laws. Decades of weak regulations, minimal transparency and a near-total absence of enforcement and accountability has resulted in especially the right wing being funded by secretive streams of dark money.

Musk could easily skirt the ban by giving the money through the Danish subsidiary of Tesla, which would turn the money domestic through legal sleight of hand. If the donation exceeds USD 3.000 the recipient would have to declare they received money from Tesla, but not the actual amount. Even that minimun of disclosure can be easily avoided by laundering the money through a so-called "money club", a private association existing exclusively to dodge campaign funding laws, effectively erasing all traces to the donor. The usage of "money clubs" is completely legal and extremely widespread. Especially the Liberal Party is infamous for funding their activities through the shady "money clubs".

Musk and his Danish collaborators could also simply lie about the source of the money as there is virtually no enforcement of the rules and no punishment for violations.

Even if Danish leaders were successful in stopping Musk from funding far right movements, nothing would stop the Trump associated oligarch from leveraging his unchecked control over media networks and social media like X - The Everything App (formerly Twitter) to spread propaganda and shape public opinion.

Denmark's political elite stands in a dilemma. For decades they have benefited from domestic oligarchs interfering in elections but now outside actors like Musk are threatening to shake up the status quo they depend on. However, in order to effectively stop Musk they have to destroy the nebulous networks of shady money that sustains the status quo.

• Source: DR (state media), January 13th 2025

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/milei-budget-cuts-nets-argentina-194926602.html

Milei’s Budget Cuts Nets Argentina First Surplus in Over a Decade

it'll move back into deficit as tax revenue falls unless there are further spending cuts as the economy shrinks. how much can you cut while keeping your head?

croatia figurehead president re-elected with 73 %, i think usa should investigate croatia election interference

sorry if this has been covered previously but what did the removal of Cuba from the 'state sponsor or terrorism' list actually do? afaik that designation post-dates the blockade so why would that semantic change do anything?

Bolsonaro says: “If I remain ineligible, I no longer believe in democracy”.

Former president Jair Bolsonaro insisted on Friday that he would be the candidate of the right in the 2026 election. The former chief executive also said that he will no longer believe in democracy if he remains ineligible by decision of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

“What would democracy be? Respecting due process, the Constitution, the laws. Why make me ineligible? Two eight-year sentences (...) If I remain ineligible, I no longer believe in democracy. Democracy is over,” Bolsonaro said in an interview.

Why? WHY? Bolsonaro literally tried to kill people and created documents detailing how he would kill them. His own vice-president had an entire plan to send him into exile in the US, literally nobody likes Bolsonaro.

Indicted by the Federal Police (PF) in November for the crimes of attempted coup d'état, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal organization, the former president could be ineligible until 2061 if he is prosecuted and sentenced with the maximum penalty, in 2025, for the alleged crimes. Bolsonaro would be 106 years old when he could stand for political office again.

lol

Juan Guaidó is expelled from a Celebration event prior to Donald Trump's Presidential Inauguration.

In this event there are two areas: one where anyone who pays a cheap ticket can attend as a form of public relations; and the dinner area where you can only enter with an invitation or with an expensive ticket that exceeds 5k, but equally exclusive, ie not sold to everyone.

It turns out that Guaidó wanted to enter and they took him out of the event, the only one of these characters that is there with an invitation, is David Smolansky... they don't feel sorry for him.

Edmundo was not invited by Trump to his inauguration but is a guest of Senator Scott. That explains why he is not on the list of foreign special guests. He is not a special guest of the White House.

End of fact checks only applies to the US, says Meta to the Brazilian government.

The company claims to be “committed to human rights” and that it is seeking a “balance” between freedom of expression and security. Meta said that the end of the company's fact-checking program on social networks will initially only take place in the United States. According to the company, the initiative will be tested and improved before expanding to other countries.

“Meta hereby clarifies that it is currently shutting down its independent Fact Check Program in the United States only, where we will test and improve Community Notes before beginning any expansion to other countries,” says the document sent to the Brazilian government.

Lmao.

russia and iran signed their economic thingy (and it's apparently mainly economic, without mutual defense)

TikTok ban is going through on Sunday.

The lack of desire to win in the dems is just staggering. Why would they let the ban take place after the election?

They are such loyal stooges of the empire it really beggars belief.

CW: Suicide

Two Iran Supreme Court judges killed in Tehran shooting attack

It's interesting Temu isn't being targeted, since it's well known that it tracks every little thing you do on your phone as soon as you download the app.

https://x.com/Hezbolsonaro/status/1880084827141206235

Full speech, with English subtitles, from Abu Obeida, spokesperson of the Al-Qassam brigades, with the start of the ceasefire agreement.

Twitter source

Xcancel mirror

Duma Boko became president of Botswana 2 months ago and he has very promptly demanded that the Americans halt operations in the Thebephatshwa Airbase. In 2019, the EFF also stated that the base presents a direct security threat to South Africa, being less than 400 kilometers away from Gauteng and that an attack would be casus belli for South Africa to engage in conflict with Botswana again. 20 million people live within this 400-kilometer radius with the bulk of them in Gauteng.

Of course, post-Apartheid South Africa and Botswana have maintained generally good relations apart from that one time they undermined the beginnings of academic boycotts against piSSrael. It would take a coup for the relations between the two to go sideways which would create an immediate parallel to the Euromaidan coup over a decade ago.

The Palestinian football team Burj al Luq-Luq has also landed in Cape Town last week and recently, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance scaled the Diamond Building in Johannesburg, hoisting a large Palestinian flag to the building's eastern side antenna.

Death to NATO, Death to AmeriKKKa, Death to piSSrael

South Korean president arrested by anti-corruption investigators after weekslong showdown - CNN

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested for questioning, according to the country’s anti corruption agency, in the latest chapter of a weekslong political saga that began with the embattled president’s shock martial law decree last month. Yoon left his residential compound with investigators in a motorcade Wednesday morning and was taken into custody – the first time such an action has been taken against a sitting president in South Korea.

Yoon is wanted for questioning in multiple investigations related to his short-lived declaration, including over accusations of leading an insurrection – a crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty. The embattled president has been holed up in his fortified residence for weeks surrounded by his Presidential Security Service team, evading arrest as he faces several probes and an impeachment trial.

The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is working with police and the defense ministry to investigate Yoon, first attempted to detain him earlier this month, but it failed after an hours-long showdown in which soldiers and members of the presidential security detail blocked some 80 police and investigators from approaching the presidential compound.

Following his arrest, Yoon released a pre-recorded video message Wednesday in which he again dismissed the investigations into him as “illegal” and said “the law is all broken in this country.” “As a president who must protect the constitution and legal system of the Republic of Korea, responding to these illegal and invalid procedures is not an acknowledgment of them, but in the hopes of preventing unsavory bloodshed,” he said.

The warrant allows investigators to hold Yoon for up to 48 hours. The CIO would need to apply for an arrest warrant within that period to detain him further. Groups of supporters and opponents of Yoon were both at the scene Wednesday, with videos from Reuters and CNN affiliate YTN showing demonstrators pulling up in buses and gathering in the streets around Yoon’s compound, despite sub-zero conditions.

Some demonstrators could be heard chanting “resign,” “your time is up” and “take responsibility,” while supporters of the embattled president chanted “invalid impeachment,” “free ROK, hurrah!” and “we won!” The crowds were accompanied by lines of uniformed police, and a combination of police buses and protester buses remained outside the residence, blockading the street.

A YTN video showed a large sign on the back of one bus that read “Insurrection Department – Yoon Suk Yeol” in Korean – a slogan typical of anti-Yoon protests since the president launched his martial law decree last month. A court approved a warrant to detain the president earlier this month after Yoon, a former prosecutor, refused to answer three summonses by investigators in recent weeks asking for his cooperation, according to the CIO.

https://www.mining.com/barrick-halts-operations-in-mali-after-245m-gold-seized/

The Mali government yoinked a bunch of gold from Barrick, Barrick in turn suspended the mining operation. That project has been a pretty big chunk of state revenue in the past, so with operations stopped that will dry up. The question now is whether Barrick will agree to new terms and restart it, if the state will seize it and do Malians Going Their Own Way, or if it will just languish in project limbo.

Biden says US is 'stronger' on world stage in farewell speech - France24

Outgoing US President Joe Biden said Monday that the US was "winning the worldwide competition" in his final policy speech before the inauguration of Donald Trump. Biden sought to portray his efforts to strengthen the US's global alliances as a core part of his international legacy.