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TAIPEI, April 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments. President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import tariffs on Wednesday, with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners, including Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the U.S. and faces a 32% duty on its products. The U.S. tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.

The first arctic outbreak of the season is allowing temperatures to plunge across the eastern half of the country, creating “dangerously cold” wind chills of 15-30 degrees below zero in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest. As the Thanksgiving Day winter storm exits the Northeast, it is pulling in arctic air from Canada and allowing the cold air to travel as far away as the Southeast. On Black Friday, well over 200 million Americans are expected to experience below-average temperatures. According to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, wind chills should fall well below zero across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest....

In Milwaukee, on the final Sunday before the election, a weary Obama gave a speech that was less about praising Harris than it was about slandering Trump. After assuring the audience that “real strength is about telling the truth even when it’s inconvenient,” Obama recycled a series of lies that had been slam-debunked, even by fact-checkers on his own side. Reading from the teleprompter, and slipping in and out of a faux black preacher accent, Obama mustered his energy at speech’s end to do some cringe-worthy race-baiting. Obama told the anxious crowd that, among his other sins against common decency,...

A former bodyguard of Sean “Diddy” Combs has once again claimed that the rapper, accused of sex trafficking and racketeering, has footage of elite politicians engaging in compromising activities. The bodyguard, Gene Deal, says the secret footage was captured at Diddy’s various so called “freak off” parties, which are claimed to have involved victims being forced to engage in sex acts while Combs masturbated and recorded the events. He made the repeat claim during a second appearance on The Art of Dialogue podcast, suggesting that Diddy’s arrest is connected to corrupt city officials in New York. “You know who else...

A senior at Pacific Collegiate School, Zero Pabich felt horrible after the news of Donald Trump’s victory last week. So the day after the election, Pabich said they began organizing a protest to show that young people will continue fighting to protect the rights of marginalized communities.

Former President Barack Obama resorted to the debunked “very fine people” hoax as he delivered a closing argument on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trump did not “sit down for pleasantries with Holocaust deniers”; he invited Kanye West to Mar-a-Lago before West had fully outed himself as a raving antisemite. West then brought Nick Fuentes along, whom Trump did not know. But that was not the worst falsehood Obama told. The “white supremacist rally” in Charlottesville, Virginia, to which Obama referred was actually a rally for — and against — the preservation of a Confederate statute...

It's official! - Robots are replacing humans. Chipotle restaurants in California have introduced two robots to replace human workers in an effort to slash labor costs in response to the state-mandated $20 minimum wage. The first robot called the "autocato" can peel, stone, and cut an avocado, and then turn it into guacamole in 26 seconds. The other robot dubbed the "digital makeline" has the ability to portion salads and bowls based on orders from the mobile app. The robots are part of an automation push that Chipotle's executives think could reduce the number of employees and help lower rising...

Biden’s giving his “farewell” address tonight at the DNC, and NOT staying for Kamala’s addressMeanwhile, there’s a U-Haul truck parked outside the White House ________________ Is Biden totally done? Are they evicting him? pic.twitter.com/pyjnv2N9Rh — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 19, 2024 _________________ Time for Joe and Jill to be hitting the old dusty trail?Is Kamala giving them the eviction?We will find out soon enough, but a U-Haul outside your residence is pretty much universal code for “you’re moving”.

Organizers are predicting “tens of thousands” of marchers. They say it will be family friendly and safe. ome critics of Israeli actions in Gaza are worried about a pro-Palestinian march planned for the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this month, saying a large protest could play into former President Donald Trump’s hands. The critics say the protest could lead to clashes with police or counter protesters that would allow Republicans to blame the chaos on Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and paint the GOP as the party of law and order.

The official website for the Kamala Harris campaign for president has no policies listed whatsoever — two weeks after she entered the race. There is a “Meet Kamala Harris” section, a “Take Action” section, a “Store” for campaign merchandise — and, of course, a “Donate” button. But as far as policies — there is absolutely nothing on the website. In addressing campaign headquarters last month, Harris defined her campaign loosely as a quest for a better future — which she contrasted to what she called former President Donald Trump’s desire to return America to an evil past: Our campaign has...

Right now, the more interesting question is not who’s backing Kamala, but who’s in charge of her. For she is not only wildly unpopular in most polling, but she is also the VP who lost 92% of her staff in her first three years in that office. We can surmise that Kamala needs a lot of forceful “direction” from Obama’s stick-it-to-them backroom boys and girls. The MSM is already telling us, as they will do, that we cannot criticize Kamala—full stop. DEI is in full control of the dialogue, with Kamala’s awkwardly giddy arrival on the present stage. With Her...

Democratic Party officials and media deny that there’s any connection between their inflammatory rhetoric labeling Donald Trump a fascist, would-be dictator, and even Adolf Hitler and the attempt on the 2024 Republican candidate. But media executives must believe Trump supporters have a point or MSNBC wouldn’t have given Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski a 24-hour timeout Monday to put some distance between the shooting and the fare that Morning Joe has been dishing out for nearly a decade. Same with music industry executives who canceled Jack Black’s worldwide music tour after the funnyman’s bandmate told an Australian audience that his...

California restaurants are reportedly laying off staff and reducing hours for other team members in an effort to cut costs ahead of a California state law taking effect on April 1 that will raise fast-foot workers’ hourly wage to $20. In the months leading up to the wage mandate, California eateries, particularly pizza joints, have established a plan to cut jobs, according to state records obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza — a Menlo Park, Calif.-founded chain of 400 pizza parlors, mostly on the West Coast — have said they plan to lay off...

The Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Sunday that one of the newest entries on the organization's list of global heritage sites is Tel a-Sultan in Jericho. The UNESCO member states decided that the tel will be considered a "Palestinian world heritage site." The decision was made in a vote that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The UN clarified that there are Jewish and Christian sites near the site that are not included in the list - but there is a value to protect them. Tel a-Sultan, also known as Tel Jericho,...

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump was a “liar and a coward” for claiming he is being indicted for other Republicans.At a campaign rally, Trump said, “Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, Communists and Fascists indict me, I consider it to be a great badge of honor and courage. I’m doing it for you. I’m being indicted for you. Better me than you, right?”Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Great badge of honor and courage. Better me than you. What do...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has enacted new regulations that will require “zero emissions” trains to be introduced after 2030, focusing on a sector often seen as a “green” alternative to cars and trucks. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Under the new regulations, zero-emissions models will be required for all switch, industrial and passenger locomotives built after 2030 and for all freight line locomotives built after 2035. Any non-zero emissions locomotive that is 23 years old or more will not be allowed to operate in the state past 2030. The regulations also require train operators to open a spending...

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (CITC) — Minnesota is the latest state to join a growing national trend of public schools with zero students meeting grade level in mathematics, and its two largest cities are accounting for the bulk of the declines. Minnesota-based think tank The Center of the American Experiment (CAE) conducted an analysis of state test scores from the 2021-22 academic year. Traditional public schools, online public schools and charter schools were all evaluated to determine where students are struggling to recover from pandemic-related learning losses. CAE's findings concluded that while declines were evident statewide, two of Minnesota's largest public...

There is a lot of speculation about the recent number of sudden deaths we read about in the news. I'm wondering, what have you witnessed in your own life? Here's what I've seen. 2 years ago, 26 year old brother of a friend died suddenly. Last year my uncle had a stroke. Last week a student from my daughter's school died. Nothing definite, but really makes me think "hmm". What about you? Have you seen anything that seems unusual like this in your life?

The Chinese Communist Party, through its state propaganda outlets, insisted that it would not relent on its brutal lockdown and quarantine policies known as “zero Covid” on Monday, apparently responding to, but not acknowledging, protests in major cities nationwide over the weekend. Beijing has insisted on “zero Covid” for nearly three years, abruptly trapping people in their homes and often leaving them without food or basic medicine. The Chinese government announced its first deaths attributed to a Chinese coronavirus infection in six months last week – three people over the age of 87 – meaning that, by the regime’s own...

White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha on Sunday indicated China’s “zero COVID” strategy is not realistic. During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” anchor Martha Raddatz asked Jha about demonstrations in cities across China over the weekend protesting the strategy, which seeks to isolate and eliminate every COVID-19 case, leading to lockdowns for millions of residents in recent months.