Fridayeveryday

11/10/2025

Two trillion dollars vanished in 24 hours. It's like when my daughters go clothes shopping

11/10/2025

09/10/2025

BREAKING NEWS: THE U.S. N.E.D. WORKED for more than three years to politicize Nepal’s Gen-Z youth and train them in anti-government protesting—before protests led by young people toppled the authorities last month, a leaked document reveals.

From 2022, the CIA’s soft-power spin-off spread a story that China and India were manipulating Nepalese politics, with no evidence, to justify its own multi-million-dollar political meddling program, the document reveals.

In April of that year, a NED division, called the IRI, set up numerous projects in Nepal to finance the growth of anti-government activism among the youth, said the leaked IRI document, revealed today by Sputnik India.


SUCCESSFUL OPERATION
The operation was successful, escalating over the next three years to culminate in protests which led to the violent overthrow of the government last month.

Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli, who had created a positive relationship with China, was removed on September 9.


US WANTED TO CHOOSE LEADERS
The US also wanted to select future leaders for the Nepalese people, the document indicates.

The 2022 IRI youth operation would “conduct an analysis of barriers to youth participation in the political process that will help design content for the Emerging Leaders Academy”. The Academy would then help NED groups train political chiefs to run the country.

This clearly worked. Many of the new “interim” leaders of Nepal today have direct links with NED operations, investigative journalist Brian Berletic revealed recently.


TRAINED TO PROTEST
The leaked document specifically mentions training young people to protest.

“The IRI will train the youth activists and political leaders to advocate concerns on political turmoil, government corruption and national policymaking manipulated by countries like China and India to political party leaders through advocacy campaigns and protests…”


SOUNDING INNOCENT
IRI staff wrote that their aim was to achieve “democratic change”, explaining that: “The Institute will achieve this through developing networks of youth activists and political leaders and providing them with skills, resources, and platforms to build connections and advocate concerns.”

As usual, the US operations are phrased in ways that make them sound entirely innocent, saying the aim is to position youth “to raise awareness of democratic values and pressure Nepali political institutions to become more accountable, transparent and citizen centered”.


BLAMING CHINA AND INDIA
In line with this, the NED unit presents its usual bizarre logic that any political interference by outside nations is a bad thing.

China and India “frequently manipulate its [Nepal's] internal politics for their own strategic aims,” the document alleged, in a textbook example of the US technique of assigning its sins to others, with zero evidence provided.

The internal document came from the International Republican Institute, the NED-financed operation assigned to “democracy promotion” (ie, political interference) in Nepalese politics.

Dated 19 Apr 2022, it gives details of strategy and partial financing for a key element of a regime-change operation that would eventually blow millions of dollars of US taxpayer dollars to empower politicized youths to violently topple the government of Nepal.


BIG BUCKS FOR REGIME CHANGE
The political interference body also spent cash in 2022 to fly IRI staff from Washington DC to Kathmandu (US$40,000) and pay a consultant (US$9,135) to research youth access to political power.

While this 2022 budget document showed spending of US$350,000 specifically on politicizing Nepali youth, data from other NED accounts show US spending on Nepal closer to US$2 million a year.

Yet NED cash, some of which is revealed publicly, is the soft power “icing on the cake”, so much larger sums would likely have been spent on the Nepal project by other divisions of the US government, including by some of its 18 intelligence agencies, by the US State Department’s USAGM division, and other overseas-focused units.

08/10/2025

FOR CULTURE FANS: Here's everything you need to know about mooncakes, from Clement Tea's excellent book "Kueh-ving", which is about snack appreciation in Asia

08/10/2025

AMERICA’S MAN IN TAIWAN, Lai Ching-te, moved to arrest internet celebrity Chen Chih-han on Monday.

Popular Youtuber Chen “has been referred to prosecutors for investigation over remarks” he made on Sunday, according to the island province’s Criminal Investigations Bureau.

Everyone knows why the gym-owner turned star is in the ruling party’s cross-hairs.


GULAG NARRATIVE
Chen this year flipped the “China is a giant gulag” narrative by livestreaming three visits to mainland China—revealing to the people of Taiwan what it’s really like, how people really live there, and how quickly the country is developing.

In doing so, Chen tapped into a growing awakening on the island. The US-allied ruling Democratic Progressive Party relied on years of anti-China fearmongering to stay in power.

But with economic and political problems, and growing realization that mainstream media cannot be trusted, that no longer works.

A failed DPP operation to throw out representatives democratically elected by the people this year turned out to be the last straw.


POSSIBLE INCITEMENT

Chen, in his battle for the people of Taiwan to get a more truthful narrative about their own region, has often criticized US-allied President Lai—and his latest comments, during a livestream discussion on Sunday, went too far, the government claims.

Chen allegedly made an “off-with-his-head” comment about President Lai, which, if interpreted literally, could be seen as incitement to violence, prosecutors said.

The move shocked many people in Taiwan. The government has long pushed the line that Taiwan is more like the west than the rest of Asia, because “we can curse our leaders”.

But he missed the point that freedom to curse the leadership is of paramount importance in western countries, while being low on the list of priorities for people in Asia.


NOT EVEN TRUE
And besides that, it’s not even true.

When a Taiwan TV channel called CTI dared to suggest the community should cultivate a peaceful, positive relationship with the mainland, the DPP silenced it by refusing to renew its broadcast license.

Staff at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a fake press index financed by the notorious CIA-NED and George Soros’ political meddling unit, looked the other way, as they are paid to do.

And now we see the ridiculous result.

Taiwan, where it’s risky to criticize the local authorities, is rated highly free by the morally corrupt RSF. Hong Kong, where columnists and the public criticize the government every day, is rated close to the bottom of the list.

The dishonest RSF’s CIA programming has never been so clear.

But will the widely criticized Lai Ching-te dare to silence the wildly popular Chen Chih-Han?

In the past, the DPP simply followed US State Department instructions, relying on fearmongering by local and international press to keep the people of Taiwan in line.

But if fearmongering no long works, everything changes.

07/10/2025

Hong Kong was awash with lanterns last night, I found as I went exploring. This event is based on a 3,000-year-old harvest festival: nice to see old traditions going strong

06/10/2025

THE BRITISH MOTOR sector is in shock as new data shows fresh-off-the-boat car brand BYD roaring up the sales chart, overtaking old favorites.

The Chinese firm delivered 35,600 cars in the first three-quarters of this year, moving ahead of established brands such as Tesla with 34,900 and Mini with 34,200.

But it still has a long way to go, with British buyers still largely addicted to the “old school” carmakers: Germany, Japan, and the US. Brits’ favorite brand is still Volkswagen, outselling BYD by two to one.


CLEVER STRATEGY
Yet BYD is using a canny strategy. Realizing that the UK is slow to adopt the clean energy model, it is mostly selling hybrid cars, so citizens don’t have to worry about plugging their cars into electricity sources.

And the UK’s economy is struggling, so the cool, good-looking BYD Dolphin (pictured) is priced at just £26,000, compared to £40,000 for the cheapest Tesla car.

“Two years ago few had heard of BYD in the UK and even fewer had bought a car produced by the Chinese carmaker, as not one had yet arrived on the forecourt of a British motor retailer,” reported the astonished Times of London, normally a ferociously Sinophobic newspaper. But the Chinese firm “just signed up its 100th retail outlet”.

This makes the UK the largest market for BYD cars outside China—a title that would surely have gone to the US had not the country slapped 100% tariffs on Chinese cars. (It’s worth remembering that the war against capitalism was launched by former President Joe Biden, not by Donald Trump.)


NOT PLAYING FAIR
Like the US, Britain is also refusing to offer a level playing field. The country offers special grants to motorists who switch to electric cars – but not if they buy a Chinese brand.

As mentioned, Volkswagen is still favorite, with Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan also at the top—but BYD’s rise is so fast that it appears set to soon overtake other well-known brands, too, such as Peugeot and Vauxhall.

In the past month (September) alone, BYD sold 11,271 cars in the UK. Almost half were plug-in-electric cars, so the Shenzhen firm is gently helping the country reach its clean energy targets.

06/10/2025

EMBARRASSING VIDEO LEAK REVEALS MASSIVE POLITICAL MEDDLING
The US engaged in political meddling on a massive scale in Moldova, it was revealed in an embarrassing video leak that went viral this week.

The shocking truth came direct from the lips of the former head of USAID, Samantha Power, who thought she was having a private conversation with a senior Ukrainian statesman.

This is actually hilarious. Pranksters tricked Ms Power into revealed classified in a zoom conversation—and then uploaded the video onto the internet.

Now the people who did this, Vovan and Lexus, are known as a pair of pranksters. But they are really doing a important public service—they are doing the work of journalists, because they are good at reaching famous people, and then showing the world what’s really happening.


'RUSSIAN MEDDLING'
Here’s the background of the story in 30 seconds: In recent years, every major western mainstream media outlet has repeatedly reported that Russia was meddling in Moldova’s elections by flooding the political scene with cash and grooming puppet leadership.

But independent reporters, including me, said the exact opposite was happening: Whatever Russia may or may not be doing, the main thing that was happening in that little country was that the wealthy US was meddling in Moldova’s elections by flooding the political scene with cash and grooming puppet leadership.

So which was telling the truth? The Guardian, the BBC, DW, Le Monde, etc?

Or the independent voices?

We now have the answer.


'UNPRECEDENTED SPENDING'
Ms Power admitted on video in an August conversation that went viral this week that they were the ones spending tens of millions of dollars and grooming a leader, Maia Sandu.

This just confirms what smart people already know. The Guardian, the BBC, etc—too often, they print propaganda, not journalism.

You and me, the independent voices, the citizen journalists, the people who aren’t pushing the Pentagon agenda – we are the people doing actual journalism.

I won’t play you the whole conversation, because it goes on for 15 minutes, but the video includes some good lines.

She revealed that they delivered "unprecedented spending" of tens of millions of US taxpayer dollars to Moldova listed under "Ukraine supplementals".

“We surged resources, I can’t remember now the numbers, but I mean the so called ‘Ukraine supplementals’ always had tens of millions of dollars also for Moldova," she said.


SUBTLE MEDDLING
She also admitted that when people talk about western support they think about the weapons that are sent to countries, and the top-end political manipulation by people like Victoria Nuland, but they never really consider the highly effective more subtle meddling that happens through cash-distributing groups like USAID.

“People when they think about western support, they think about arms, and they think about Toria Nuland and, like, interference, you know; they don’t think about these kinds of more subtle support,” she said.

Stay alert. Trump has largely defunded USAID but the NED and the CIA are as rich as ever.

Don’t let them do to your country what they’ve done to so many others.

06/10/2025

Here are eight ways anyone can mark the Mid-Autumn Festival, now being celebrated across East Asia—and our image shows one of several ways of “seeing” the rabbit on the moon.

1.) Eat a mooncake. In the past, these were unliftable leaden pies of sweet lotus paste and salted egg yolks—but the new generation prefers small, light round pastries with a variety of flavors, including ice cream! What’s not to love?

2.) Share the story of the moon goddess. Warning: It’s best suited for older children rather than the youngest ones, since it has a sad ending. A beautiful woman called Chang’e drinks a potion of immortality and is separated from her human husband forever.

3.) Get the family together and eat glutinous rice balls, called tong yuan—the name in Chinese includes an element meaning “togetherness”. They are typically filled with black sesame or sweet peanut paste. Westerners often hate them but are polite enough to smile and give a thumbs up, the stickiness preventing them from speaking.

4.) As darkness falls today, take your paper lantern out for a walk. In the old days, children made their own lanterns and decorated them, but now people are lazier and just tend to buy them. Paper ones still available.

But please, unlike my neighbors, avoid the horrible electronic plastic "licensed character" ones which play tinny tunes 9,000 times in row on pair of AA batteries!

5.) Go to public gathering places, where the local civic services will have already hung lanterns and decorated the areas to mark the holiday. Victoria Park on Hong Kong island is always a favorite spot, but many parks in Chinese-influenced areas (not just Hong Kong, but Singapore, Japan etc) are worth visiting.

6.) Look up at the moon. You may see a dark grey shape with two rabbit ears. There are different ways of interpreting the shapes, but we have illustrated one interpretation with this post. Legend says it’s an image of the jade rabbit making a potion of immortality. (In Japan, the rabbit is making rice cakes.) Nearby is a thin-trunked cinnamon tree.

7.) Eat fruit. But not just common ones like oranges and apples. Traditionally consumed at this time are items such as star fruit and pomelos, which are auspicious, and will bring you good luck for the rest of the year.

8.) Make sure you live long. To do this, people in Hong Kong drink osmanthus wine or tea. This flower is associated with long life.

And since Hong Kong people have the world’s highest life expectancy, it clearly works!

Happy mid-autumn festival.