Zorro
Zorro's Journal'It Is Desolate': China's Glut of Unused Car Factories
On the outskirts of Chongqing, western China’s largest city, sits a huge symbol of the country’s glut of car factories. It’s a complex of gray buildings, nearly a square mile in size. The thousands of employees who used to work there have moved on. Its crimson loading docks are closed.
The facility, a former assembly plant and engine factory, had been a joint venture of a Chinese company and Hyundai, the South Korean giant. The complex opened in 2017 with robots and other equipment to make gasoline-powered cars. Hyundai sold the campus late last year for a fraction of the $1.1 billion it took to build and equip it. Unmown grass at the site has already grown knee high.
“It was all highly automated, but now, it is desolate,” said Zhou Zhehui, 24, who works for a rival Chinese automaker, Chang’an, and whose apartment looks down on the former Hyundai complex.
China has more than 100 factories with the capacity to build close to 40 million internal combustion engine cars a year. That is roughly twice as many as people in China want to buy, and sales of these cars are dropping fast as electric vehicles become more popular.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/business/china-auto-factories-price-cuts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nE0.2Z8U.ANLMDLpY-3kH&smid=url-share
'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president
In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S. officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath.
The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements.
Worried that the image becoming public could hurt national security efforts, intelligence officials urged Trump to hold off until more knowledgeable experts were able to weigh in, the sources said. But less than an hour later, while at least one of those intelligence officials was in another building scrambling to get more information, Trump posted the image to Twitter.
"It was so upsetting, and people were really angry," one of Trump's former advisers told investigators, sources said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/appalled-witnesses-told-special-counsel-205822504.html
How the Enquirer Betrayed a Mafia Don and the Donald
The first person to testify in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president is the former publisher of the National Enquirer. But the supermarket tabloid might not have been around to “catch and kill” stories about Trump’s sexual liaisons if it were not for the early financial support of another notorious New York celebrity, the gangster Frank Costello.
And while Trump is not known for his grasp of history, he’d do well to view Costello’s relationship with the Enquirer’s first publisher as a cautionary tale.
In the 1940s, Frank Costello was known as the Prime Minister of the Underworld owing to his gentlemanly public manner, political connections, and patina of respectability. Costello used the mob’s Prohibition-era millions—and the money from its vast illegal gambling empire—to take control of Tammany Hall. This meant that while Costello was the head of what came to be known as the Genovese crime family, he also pretty much ran the Democratic party in New York.
In 1942, when Costello’s godson, Gene Pope, wanted to buy the Enquirer—then called the Inquirer, Pope needed cash. Being a good godfather, Costello—depending on which source you believe—forked over somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $25,000. Costello also regularly fronted Pope the cash needed to keep the doors open at the struggling publication. And I do mean cash, because each week, a messenger from the tabloid came to Costello’s de facto headquarters, the Waldorf Hotel barbershop, where Costello handed over an envelope of greenbacks.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-enquirer-betrayed-a-mafia-don-and-the-donald
New Evidence Finds Christ Used Followers' Money On Lavish Fleet Of Private Donkeys
JERUSALEM—In a discovery researchers say could transform millennia of belief about Christianity’s founder, archaeologists from the University of Oxford uncovered new evidence Wednesday suggesting that Jesus Christ used followers’ money to purchase a lavish fleet of private donkeys.
“Obviously, Christ preached much about the virtues of poverty, yet he himself appeared to live a highly luxurious lifestyle with a different high-end donkey for every day of the week,” said Dr. Peter Turner, describing the way that Christ would accept thousands of denarii from his most ardent followers in order to outfit his high-end, plush beasts of burden with diamond-studded horseshoes.
“Many of the unfortunate souls who fell under Christ’s spell would give him all of their worldly possessions, walking around without sandals or shelter so their charismatic leader could afford to stock his state-of-the-art stable with some of the most sought-after asses in Galilee. Of course, Christ insisted to any doubting apostles that God had specifically told him that he needed hundreds of donkeys for his sacred work. And if that wasn’t effective, he would just accuse everyone of trying to betray him.”
Turner added that a related finding suggested Christ used the glitz and glamor of the donkeys to convince dozens of his young female followers to sleep with him.
https://www.theonion.com/new-evidence-finds-christ-used-followers-money-on-lavi-1850208658
Photos show alligator hiding in landing gear of plane at MacDill Air Force Base
Alligator courtship season reached a level of absurdity when one was found hiding in the landing gear of a military aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
It happened Monday, and photos show the 10-foot alligator was tucked between the tires of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft, like a wheel chock with teeth.
“An aircrew member called the issue into flight operations,” MacDill Air Force Base officials told McClatchy News.
The potentially dangerous find was handled with a sense of humor by base personnel, who referred to the alligator as “our newest toothy Airman.”
https://www.tampabay.com/news/bizarre/2024/04/23/alligator-macdill-air-force-base-tampa-video/
How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me)
Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren’t informed, and the tracking led insurance companies to charge some of them more for premiums. I’m the reporter who broke the story. I recently discovered that I’m among the drivers who was spied on.
My husband and I bought a G.M.-manufactured 2023 Chevrolet Bolt in December. This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. had been providing with data. (He requested the files after my article came out in March, heeding the advice I had given to readers.)
My husband’s LexisNexis report had a breakdown of the 203 trips we had taken in the car since January, including the distance, the start and end times, and how often we hard-braked or accelerated rapidly. The Verisk report, which dated back to mid-December and recounted 297 trips, had a high-level summary at the top: 1,890.89 miles driven; 4,251 driving minutes; 170 hard-brake events; 24 rapid accelerations, and, on a positive note, zero speeding events.
I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but it didn’t have driving data on it. Though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M. dealership listed him as the primary owner.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors-spying-driver-data-consent.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mk0.xdII.n4wRfsowMaw-&smid=url-share
Turning Point Action official resigns after accusation of election-related fraud
A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.
State Rep. Austin Smith (R) — who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that “bear a striking resemblance” to Smith’s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,” the complaint said.
The complaint was sent to the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the Arizona attorney general for review. State election officials do not assess the veracity of allegations made against candidates. A spokesperson for the state prosecutor’s office, which runs a team that focuses on claims of voter and election fraud after widespread claims following the 2020 election, declined to comment. Both state offices are overseen by Democrats.
Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Smith also publicly ended his reelection campaign.
https://wapo.st/3W5vBUH
Secret Russian foreign policy document urges action to weaken the U.S.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has been drawing up plans to try to weaken its Western adversaries, including the United States, and leverage the Ukraine war to forge a global order free from what it sees as American dominance, according to a secret Foreign Ministry document.
In a classified addendum to Russia’s official — and public — “Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation,” the ministry calls for an “offensive information campaign” and other measures spanning “the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological spheres” against a “coalition of unfriendly countries” led by the United States.
“We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations with unfriendly states,” states the 2023 document, which was provided to The Washington Post by a European intelligence service. “It’s important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia’s opponents.”
The document for the first time provides official confirmation and codification of what many in the Moscow elite say has become a hybrid war against the West. Russia is seeking to subvert Western support for Ukraine and disrupt the domestic politics of the United States and European countries, through propaganda campaigns supporting isolationist and extremist policies, according to Kremlin documents previously reported on by The Post. It is also seeking to refashion geopolitics, drawing closer to China, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to shift the current balance of power.
https://wapo.st/3vMlQ39
Clearwater Beach tour boat captain was drunk on the job, fell off boat, police say
A tour boat captain stumbled into work on Clearwater Beach, voyaged out to sea and drunkenly fell overboard, police said.
John Beckwith, 53, was arrested Friday on a charge of boating under the influence. The captain for Clearwater Fun Boat Tours had 30 customers on board, some telling police he was so impaired he fell off the boat.
Employees told Clearwater police Beckwith “arrived to work stumbling and had food all over his face,” according to an arrest report.
Officers noticed his eyes were a bloodshot and smelled alcohol on his breath. Beckwith “performed poorly” on a field sobriety test and blew a 0.118 on a breathalyzer, which is over the 0.08 level at which Florida law says someone is impaired.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/clearwater/2024/04/17/clearwater-beach-dolphin-tour-boat-dui/
DeSantis signs bill requiring lessons about 'atrocities' of communism for all grades
Florida public schools will be required to teach students from kindergarten through 12th grade about the history of communism under a bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday.
The lessons will be required to be “age appropriate and developmentally appropriate” for each grade and will be developed by the Florida Department of Education. Among the required instruction, which would begin in the 2026-27 school year: lessons on the history of communism in the United States, the “increasing threat of communism in the United States” and the “atrocities committed in foreign countries under the guidance of communism.”
“My view is we might as well give them the truth when they are in our schools, because a lot of these universities will tell them how great communism is, so we are setting the proper foundation,” DeSantis said at a news conference at the Hialeah Gardens Museum.
DeSantis signed the bill on the 63rd anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the last attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow the communist regime of Fidel Castro.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/04/17/desantis-communism-lessons-schools-k-12-bill-signing/
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