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The number of China's billionaires has dropped by a third since 2021, according to an annual rich list, as difficulties for the country's economy and government crackdowns took their toll. Hurun, a private research group that has tracked Chinese billionaires since 1999, said the total peaked in 2021 with 1,185 billionaires, a figure which fell to 753, a decline of 432, or 36% of the total. It comes as some of China's superrich choose to lie low or leave the country, finding covert ways to take their money with them.... China's economy has been grappling with a prolonged housing crisis,...

Key TakeawaysTSMC’s Arizona plant has exceeded its Taiwanese facilities in yield.The first of three plants in Arizona is on track to reach full volume production in 2025.TSMC aims to start other facilities by 2028 and manufacture 2nm chips in the US by 2030.TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, has achieved better yield in its new Arizona factory than its Taiwan facilities. Taiwanese giant TSMC’s new chipset manufacturing unit in the US has overtaken its domestic plants in terms of yield—a key metric in semiconductor production. The update from TSMC’s newly commenced plant in Phoenix, Arizona is good news for the...

Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022. At one point, Putin asked him to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Big @WSJ scoop

The CSG took part in the one-day Joint Sword 2024B exercise on Monday. After sightings on Sunday and Monday, aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning (16), cruiser CNS Anshan (103) and destroyer CNS Urumqi (118) were sighted sailing in an area 304 miles south of Yonaguni Island on Tuesday afternoon. The ships subsequently sailed toward the South China Sea.The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force confirmed that Liaoning carried out 90 launches and recoveries of its embarked fighter aircraft and 50 take-offs and landings of its embarked helicopters. JMSDF destroyer JS Kirisame (DD-104) conducted surveillance and information gathering, according to the release, which noted...

During the exercise, PLA Eastern Theater Command ordered 125 sorties by aircraft, helicopters and drones near the island, the Taiwan Ministry of Defense said on Monday. Ninety of the aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Seventeen PLA Navy ships and 17 China Coast Guard ships operated around Taiwan, with some vessels approaching the island in close proximity.Earlier on Sunday, the MND reported that PLAN ships, including carrier CNS Liaoning (16) sailed through the Bashi Channel, which lies between the Philippines’ Mavulis Island and Taiwan’s Orchid Island, to enter the Western Pacific. In Monday’s press conference, the MND issued a...

China launches "military drills," sending planes and ships to encircle Taiwan — AFP

Iran’s top advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that ties between Russia and Iran are expanding. Advisor Ali Akbar Velayati's comments come in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran. “Velayati made the remarks while meeting in Tehran with Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s special envoy for Syria on Wednesday,” a report from Iran’s state media IRNA said. The report noted that the two men discussed issues such as regional development, the war in Gaza, the conflict in Lebanon, and issues in Syria. This illustrates how Iran is trying to leverage ties with Moscow to encourage...

Xi Jinping celebrated the eve of China Communist Party’s 75th anniversary with words reaffirming is resolution to reunify Taiwan with mainland China. Jinping’s message comes mere days after the United States provided Taiwan with over $567 million in aid and a promise to remain the nation’s leading ally. “It’s an irreversible trend, a cause of righteousness and the common aspiration of the people. No one can stop the march of history,” he told the thousands in attendance at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Taiwan has operated as a separate government since...

The White House frustrated over what is being called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's backdown... What does 'reform' at the UN Security Council mean?... Israeli air defenses intercepting a medium range missile fired from Yemen... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump... British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also meeting... Donald Trump... The US Army met its recruiting goal for the 2024 fiscal year... The Russian military in Syria announcing eight strikes against hideouts of jihadist... Intense Hurricane Helen approaching the northeast Gulf coast... Early today the White House announcing eight billion dollars more in military aid...

Hezbollah pager operation casualty update: - 4,000 Hezbollah Terrorists injured. - 400 in critical condition. - 18 High-Ranking commanders injured. - 500 plus lost their eyesight - 11 Hezbollah Terrorists dead. Numbers from Syria are not known yet. This is the biggest blow to hezbollah since it was founded And imagine the paranoia of all communication devices, and subsequent breakdown of communication

Here are some details from the Behold Israel Channel: The pagers that Hezbollah ordered came from Taiwan, and it was en route to Lebanon when Israel intercepted them. The explosives were implanted in the device's batteries along with a switch so that the explosion could be activated remotely. Today in Lebanon/Syria, around 1530 (330 PM) local time, a message that appeared to come from the Hezbollah leadership arrived on the pagers. At that point, the pagers chirped/rang a few times and then exploded.​​​​ ---------------------------------------------- EXPLOSIVE DETAILS: According to Sky News Arabic, Mossad placed 20 grams of PETN explosives into each...

They rushed to Ukraine by the thousands, many of them Americans who promised to bring military experience, money or supplies to the battleground of a righteous war. Hometown newspapers hailed their commitment, and donors backed them with millions of dollars. With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest We can probably purchase...

Ryan Wesley Routh, the man named as the suspect in a possible assassination attempt near Donald Trump's Florida golf club, was calm and emotionless when he was arrested Sunday. Routh, 58 is in custody after the terrifying incident at Trump International Club almost exactly two months after a separate assassination attempt against Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The suspect was found unarmed, as a backpack, GoPro camera and AK-47 style rifle that a gunman left behind when fleeing the scene have already been located. Martin County Sherriff William D. Snyder said Routh 'was not displaying a lot of...

Your host back with you again it's good to be moving forward a mature adult in the room with you more grown up. "Puff the Magic Dragon" the little boy leaves childhood fantasy... I got the newsgathering instinct back then would write down what I heard and take it to school to tell others at the lunch table about what I heard from the other places. And here I am your host... Obsession with politics leads to other kinds of obsession frankly... I was one within 24 inches of Taylor Swift early in her career she was working the autograph...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House this week approved a sweeping package of bills to counter China’s influence, shoring up a largely bipartisan push to ensure America comes out ahead in the competition between the world’s superpowers. The efforts would ban Chinese-made drones, limit China-linked biotech companies from access to the U.S. market, strengthen sanctions and deepen ties with Asian countries. The campaign to target Beijing this week shows how curbing China’s power has emerged as a rare issue of political consensus.... One contentious measure seeks to revive a Trump-era program to root out Beijing’s spying in American universities and...

A former aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and current Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy. The former aide, Linda Sun, is accused of acting on behalf of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, to further their interests in the United States. Her husband, Chris Hu, was also arrested and charged with money laundering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification. Sun was...

After eight decades of dormancy, the US Marines have restored a historic World War II airstrip on Peleliu, a small island that is part of the Pacific nation Palau. This strategic move, completed after months of repairs by US naval engineers, saw the landing of a KC-130J long-range tanker aircraft on June 22. The move comes amid escalating tensions between China on one side, and Taiwan and the US on the other. The Peleliu airstrip is one of several bases the Americans are eyeing or have already prepared in the context of growing tensions in the South China Sea and...

U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan is embarking on several days of talks with top Chinese officials in Beijing this week aimed at quieting tensions between the two superpowers ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election. Sullivan, China's top diplomat Wang Yi and others meet for the Aug. 27-29 talks as the two countries are at odds over the Middle East and Ukraine, Chinese territorial claims from Taiwan to the South China Sea, and trade. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Biden, who is in the final months of his presidency, has pushed direct diplomacy to influence Chinese...

Korbein Schultz, a U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty today to all charges against him in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury in March 2024 charging him with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official. “The defendant abused his access to restricted government systems to sell sensitive military information to a person he knew to be a foreign national,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National...

Two boxers – Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, have reportedly been cleared by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to fight in the 2024 Paris Olympics despite their previous disqualification from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March of 2023 after DNA tests were ordered amid concerns over their sex. The IOC said on Monday that both boxers satisfied the eligibility criteria to compete. According to the Daily Mail: At the time, [2023] Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), claimed the tests had proven the athletes – including Khelif and Yu-Ting, who will both...