Fridayeveryday

28/01/2025

As US stocks suffer a trillion dollar meltdown, DeepSeek and Bytedance launch NEW programs to challenge the west's leading tech firms. Meanwhile, stats show China now has more AI researchers than the rest of the world's countries PUT TOGETHER.

27/01/2025

You know how Trump is famous for his wild social media rants? Now the official White House statements issued for global consumption by its information office ARE those self-same rants! Amazing

27/01/2025

BOOM! The AI ecosystem built by the world's biggest richest companies has been hit by an earthquake – thanks to a Chinese nerd whose system works better than theirs with a fraction of the computing power and cost. Now DeepSeek R1 is being shrunk to fit on your phone. 8 things you need to know about this breaking story

24/01/2025

TRUMP CALLS FOR CHINA, RUSSIA FRIENDSHIP: At Davos last night, the new US President expressed hope for a positive relationship with China; Xi's help with ending the Ukraine war; and a winding down of any nuclear arms race between the US, Russia and China.

22/01/2025

American agents, covert and non-covert, are all over the world, interfering in politics and churning out disinformation to keep the US as the world’s dominant power. Its leaders assume that rising China is exactly the same. But its culture is totally different. John Menadue reports.

American agents, covert and non-covert, are all over the world, interfering in politics and churning out disinformation to keep the US as the world's dominant power. Its leaders assume that rising China is exactly the same. But its culture is totally different. John Menadue reports. As China grows a...

19/01/2025

FURIOUS: Many Americans are learning about China and are angry about the lies they've been told. A nation is not a piece of land, but a cohesive society, says popular tiktoker @ lacklustervideo in a post that has gone viral.

17/01/2025

The story that will NEVER be reported in the mainstream press: the secret war between real journalists and the mainstream hacks collecting big bucks to push the US State Department narrative

17/01/2025

EVERYBODY's reading China's Little Red Book. Not sure who made this AI clip, but it captures the spirit of the moment, now that the Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) app is top of the app store charts in the US

16/01/2025

OOPS! China's aircons are in every home, every office, every bedroom - but the US cannot ban them as "national security risks"! They are more vital every year. In this 5.59s video, I tell the story of how an American invention turned into a Chinese product for the world

16/01/2025

The discussions on RedNote are illuminating

15/01/2025

The people who say they MUST be the pre-eminent power in Asia know nothing about the region. Sigh

13/01/2025

Quiz: Which of the following stores you find on high streets all over the UK are AMERICAN and which are BRITISH?

1. Boots (chemist)

2. Waterstones (bookshop)

3. McDonalds (fast food)

4. Morrisons (supermarket)

5. Gail’s (bakery)

6. Majestic Wine (alcoholic drinks)

7. KFC (fast food)

8. Costa (coffee)

Made your choices?

Did you find that difficult or easy?

I guess the real answer to that question depends on a different question: how many did you get right?


ANSWERS:
And here’s the solution. All the high street brands named above are US-owned. Yes, all of them. And that’s despite the fact that they dominate high streets through the UK.

Costa, for example, is considered to be the British version of Starbucks. But it is actually owned by the Coca-Cola Company. Boots is owned by Waldgreen's.


BRITISH CHICKEN
But does the US really own the UK’s high streets? Can that be right? After all, the British tend to be very patriotic and many residents will go out of their way to buy products labelled “British chicken” and bearing little Union Jack logos, for example.

But even there, people get it wrong. Most British meat, however it is labelled, is actually controlled by food conglomerates from the United States -- even if it does bear a little Union flag.

The information above comes from a new book called “Vassal State” by the acclaimed economist Angus Hanton. The book meticulously examines the relationship between the UK and the US. Hanton’s conclusion is summed up by the subtitle of his book: “How America runs Britain”.


TYPICAL DAY
The story he tells is shocking but also somehow unsurprising. Consider how the average UK office worker spends his or her day.

They grab a Costa coffee (American) on the way to work and then sip it while working on MS Word or Excel or Google Docs (American).

They take a break to search using Google (American). When they find something they want, they shop online on Amazon (American) or eBay (American).

Then they go home and binge-watch movies or TV series (American) on Netflix (American).

While doing this, they glance at their phones, powered by Apple (American) or Android (American), where they keep an eye on Facebook (American), X (American), or Instagram (American).

When they’re not doing this, they are playing computer games (American) or flicking through Mr Beast videos (American) on YouTube (American).

They end their day with a meal of British chicken (American).


THE, ER, SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
Now you may say that that describes pretty much all western countries, not just the UK.

That may be so, but the UK is still special. The US has put more investment money in the UK than in the rest of Europe combined, Hanton points out. America has pretty much purchased the UK and owns it as a captive market for its products and services.

SOLVING PUZZLES
Read this book and suddenly a lot of puzzling things make sense.

Why is the UK supporting the utterly unsupportable slaughter of innocents in Gaza?

Why do British journalists pretend to believe the obvious lies about China?

Why has coverage of the Ukraine war been so ridiculously one-sided?

Why does Britain obediently demonize the countries the US demonizes?

The answer is simple. The leaders of the UK (and most of Europe) have sold out so totally to the US for so many years, that they really have no sovereignty left. British politicians and journalists are feeding a narrative written on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.


THE LONG-TERM EFFECT
Does this matter? After all, the UK no longer has a global empire and has to subsist as a small country, with all the dependencies that implies.

The quick answer is: yes, it does matter. Because the citizens are shopping on Amazon, 6,000 British shops have closed permanently just in the past five years, the British Retail Consortium calculates.

New customers are desperately needed. China now has the world’s biggest middle class, and the UK needs to revive its relationship with it—but British mainstream journalists work hard to torpedo this possibility by constantly recycling tired old atrocity fictions from the US State Department and the CIA.

Then there’s the problem that the US ends up with all the money (US companies don’t like to pay tax in the UK). The London Stock Exchange’s biggest 350 companies ADDED TOGETHER are now worth less than Microsoft.


SELF-DELUSION
The book is shocking, but not been universally accepted. It has had its critics. The Times of London acknowledges that “this is America’s world and we are all living in it” but says that this is okay because the US has by far the world’s biggest army.

“This military provides a shield that protects Britain”, the Times says, as if the UK’s neighbors were planning to invade it any day now. (The Times write-up usefully encapsulates the British elites’ self-delusion.)

The problem that Hanton describes is going to get worse.

Britain wants to tax US online retailers with a digital sales tax. But when France made the same proposal, in 2019, Donald Trump gave his ruling on the plan. “WE tax our companies; THEY don’t tax our companies.” Mr Trump is back in power.


EUROPE’S BIG MISTAKE
The irony of all this can best be seen from China.

For decades, China has been reviled by every western mainstream journalist for having a firewall that keeps the big US tech giants out – and enables homegrown tech companies to flourish.

Look at today’s numbers and it becomes clear that Europe and the UK really should have done something similar.

By trusting America to own the technological future of the entire west, they have sacrificed their own prospects.

The UK can be seen as a US state that thinks it is a respected partner with a “special relationship”. In fact it is a remote cash cow that the US is milking.


[Vassal State by Angus Hanton is published by Swift Press. British readers can buy it via Amazon (American) or go out to the streets and buy it at Waterstones (American).]

11/01/2025

THE WEST'S RULES-BASED ORDER was yesterday declared "a hoax" after US representatives voted to sanction staff at the International Criminal Court.
Many economists and other commentators said the move confirms the US position as a rogue nation outside international law.
The ICC earlier infuriated US and Israeli leaders with actions and statements condemning the mass slaughter of innocents in Gaza by Benjamin Netanyahu—and now the House of Representatives wants to punish individuals at the justice organization with sanctions.
"International Law is officially dead, by the west's own hand," said geopolitical economist Yanis Varoufakis.
"This global system - the so-called 'liberal international order' - was set up by the US and allies to constrain the power of opponents of their empire," said Matt Kennard, leading UK investigative journalist.
"As soon as it is used equitably - proving a constraint on their own power - they throw it in the bin.
"Whole thing was a hoax."
OPPOSITE OF JUSTICE
The sanctions move is an attack on the brave, said US Representative Ilhan Omar, who voted against it. "Human rights lawyers and others documenting the worst atrocities committed on this planet are heroes who should be celebrated - not punished when the war criminals they pursue are allies of the United States."
Economists and commentators around the world used X and other internet platforms to call out the shocking bill, which aims to enable the US to punish ICC staff and any country – including US allies – who choose to obey international law and abide by the court's rulings.
Many mainstream media outlets are choosing not to carry the story.
While the vote is just the first stage of the US bid to sanction the global court, the bipartisan support for it exposed the world's biggest economy's much-vaunted "international order" as a scam, many commentators said.
"The west has proven beyond a shred of doubt that international law was never meant to hold them accountable," said Assal Rad, historian of the Middle East.
WORLD 'MUST STAND WITH ICC'
The world needs to stand with ICC staff, others said. "It's critical that member states protect the ICC from the US," said Mark Kersten, Canadian professor of international justice. "We knew the risks of this happening. It's a pattern. We saw it coming."
"This is a direct attack on international law and justice, isolating the U.S. on the world stage," said Medea Benjamin, leader of women-led anti-war group Codepink.
Ghida Fakhry, anchor at Al-Jazeera English, said: "The West treats international law like a Wi-Fi connection: it works perfectly for enemies but mysteriously cuts out for allies."
Dr Myriam François, a documentary maker who has become a voice for Gaza, expressed shock at the US move. "They would rather dismantle our entire edifice of international law than hold Israel accountable. This world has to change. We are done."

AMERICANS, JEWS FOR PEACE
Many Americans and Israelis also condemned the move. US military veteran Scott Cooper said: "I hope the history books will highlight how they attempted to impede a court that is investigating war crimes."
Jewish mother of four Ruth L. Hiller, said: "I am honestly beginning to believe that nothing can be done to end this terrible war and all the killing and destruction."
Technology executive Nick Maier said: "The USA is further undermining international institutions. The US is like a spoiled child who if it doesn’t get its way, smashes its toys. The US has no intention of following or supporting international law. We are complicit in genocide which is in your face."
Jewish Voice for Peace Action also expressed dismay. "While the Israeli government continues its brutal genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Republicans have made it a first priority to try to protect Netanyahu from accountability for his atrocities."

10/01/2025

CHINA TECH CONFERENCE -- FREE ACCESS: China's tech advances are astonishing for a country that was considered "third world" just a few years ago. A fascinating conference on this topic, called "From Silk to Silicon", will take place in Hong Kong on Tuesday Jan 14, 2025. It's organized by Global Institute for Tomorrow, so the discussions will be high quality. Attendance is free of charge, and you can access it remotely from your desk. Registration link in comments.

09/01/2025

Writer Ron Hogan fell in love with the Tao Te Ching, a book 25 centuries old. But he had been trained in writing modern movie dialogue. The result was a fresh and funky version, popular with young readers.

09/01/2025

There are now SIX fires burning in southern California -- stay safe, friends, and please obey police advice to evacuate

09/01/2025

It's a mystery