U.S. Passport or RealID Required for Americans to Board Domestic Flights in May
April 15th, 2025So it goes…
Ron Paul gets it.
Real ID is dangerous to liberty. https://t.co/MzsiVOtFYZ— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 15, 2025
This Is Not Just About the Border…
Via: Mirror:
A warning has been issued that every person over the age of 18 wanting to travel by air after May 7 will need to have a specific document – or be turned away. Officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have said that people need to have a REAL ID-compliant state-issued driver’s license, instruction permit or identification card or another acceptable form of ID to board a U.S. commercial aircraft.
From May 7 if holidaymakers and other travelers do not have one of the acceptable forms of ID they can expect a minimum of delays when they get to the TSA security checkpoint. Officials say the length of the delay will be determined by the number of other travelers who do not have a REAL ID-compliant credential or another form of identification accepted by TSA for identity verification.
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TSA has a full list of acceptable forms of identification beyond a state-issued driver’s license or identification card that can be presented at the security checkpoint for identity verification. Some examples of alternate forms of acceptable identification are a U.S. passport or passport card; any government-issued passport; Department of Homeland Security Trusted Traveler card including a Global Entry or SENTRI card; active duty and retired military ID including IDs issued to dependents; ID card issued by any federally-recognized tribe; and the Transportation Worker Identification Credential.
CHINA SUSPENDS RARE EARTH EXPORTS
April 15th, 2025Via: New York Post:
China has stopped shipping some heavy rare earth metals and magnets critical to US production of everything from cell phones to fighter jets as Beijing’s trade war with Washington simmers, leaving American industry in a bind.
Effective April 3, China is no longer exporting seven heavy rare earth metals processed exclusively in the Asian power, as well as heavy rare earth magnets — of which about 90% of the world’s supply are also synthesized on Beijing’s territory.
The export halt applies to all countries, but access to elements like dysprosium and yttrium are critical to US industry — especially in the tech, electric vehicle, aircraft and defense sectors, according to Drew Horn, who served as the top US official on strategic minerals and energy supply chain development in President Trump’s first administration.
U.S. Tariffs Spark 64% Drop in Imports, 49% Decline in Container Bookings
April 14th, 2025Via: Word on the Street:
The recent imposition of tariffs by the United States has led to a significant disruption in global trade, particularly affecting the country’s import orders. Following the announcement of tariffs on April 2, there has been a noticeable freeze in trade activities, with a sharp decline in import orders. This trend is evident from the latest high-frequency data on container shipping bookings, which show a sudden halt in shipments from overseas to the United States due to the high tariffs.
The data indicates that while there was a surge in import orders during the first quarter, this trend has since reversed, with a collapse in orders observed. This phenomenon is not isolated but part of a broader trend of trade instability. The data from the cargo data company Vizion highlights that the “pre-order freeze” is widespread, with global trade disruptions becoming more pronounced.
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The data from March 24-31, 2025, compared to the subsequent week (April 1-8, 2025), shows a dramatic decrease in pre-order quantities. The total number of standard container bookings dropped by 49%, overall U.S. imports by 64%, and overall U.S. exports by 30%. This sharp decline coincides with two key events: the U.S. announcement of retaliatory tariffs on China and China’s subsequent countermeasures. These tariff actions have led to a widespread freeze in shipping bookings, with shippers pausing their operations mid-cycle to reassess costs, timelines, and broader trade strategies.
“We Need to Talk About Britain”
April 14th, 2025Via: Sargon of Akkad:
Related: How Sweden’s Multicultural Dream Went Fatally Wrong
Britain: Mother Arrested After Confiscating Daughters’ iPads
April 13th, 2025Via: Daily Mail:
A mother of two was left to stew in a police custody cell for more than seven hours after she confiscated two iPads belonging to her children – and was accused of theft.
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Ms Brown was searched and had custody photographs and fingerprints taken after taking away her daughters’ devices in an attempt to ensure they were not distracted from their studies.
Surrey Police, who also visited the children’s school, pulling one of Ms Brown’s daughters out of class, have since acknowledged their error. The force said they swooped after getting a report of an alleged theft from a man in his 40s.
Ms Brown was apprehended at her mother’s home in Cobham, Surrey. Officers said a tracking device showed the iPads were at the address and she was ‘detained after refusing to cooperate.’
She was eventually returned home, only after a 12-hour ordeal that, due to her bail conditions, threatened to prevent her from seeing her children on Mother’s Day.
The incident, which follows the arrest of a couple in Hertfordshire over complaints they made about their daughter’s primary school, is likely to raise further questions about police priorities.
Trump Exempts Phones, Computers, Chips from New Tariffs
April 12th, 2025What’s next? Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)?
It’s the most well-known secret on Capitol Hill: China owns the American generic drug supply chain. Basic thyroid or blood pressure medications might finally be put into pill form in an Indian lab and sold under an Indian brand like Cipla. But the organic compounds, or key starting materials, mostly come from China. China is also a key supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). As a result, the U.S. generic drug market is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese and Indian drug makers.
“We are losing badly on pharmaceuticals,” said Michael Kuiken, a commissioner for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Via: CNBC:
Smartphones and computers are among many tech devices and components that will be exempted from reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, according to new guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The guidance, issued late Friday evening, comes after Trump earlier this month imposed 145% tariffs on products from China, a move that threatened to take a toll on tech giants like Apple
, which makes iPhones and most of its other products in China.
The guidance also includes exclusions for other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells, flat panel TV displays, flash drives, and memory cards.
These products could eventually be subject to additional duties, but they are likely to be far lower than the 145% rate that Trump had imposed on goods from China.
The exemptions are a win for tech companies like Apple, which makes the majority of its products in China. The country manufactures 80% of iPads and more than half of Mac computers produced, according to Evercore ISI.
Sodium Ion Batteries
April 11th, 2025These look interesting for stationary storage.
Via: Undecided:
Gabbard: “Electronic Voting Systems Have Been Vulnerable to Hackers for a Very Long Time”
April 11th, 2025It does get exhausting, decade after decade.
Via: Modernity News:
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard made a startling revelation during an open cabinet meeting Wednesday, announcing that she has evidence that electronic voting machines have been tampered with to manipulate the results of past US elections.
“I’ve got a long list of things that we’re investigating. We have the best going after this, election integrity being one of them,” Gabbard stated.
“We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time,” she continued.
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Gabbard emphasised that the evidence shows that machines are “vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast.”
She told President Trump that the finding “further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of our elections.”
Siemens Executive, Wife and Children Killed in Hudson River Helicopter Crash
April 11th, 2025The rotor and tail boom detached mid-flight.
Talked to a number of my pilot friends -“This isn’t normal.” What was Siemens CEO Agustin Escobar, working on? pic.twitter.com/blRshCKqAd
— Grant Cardone (@GrantCardone) April 11, 2025
Via: Firstpost:
A family’s sightseeing tour over New York City ended in tragedy after their helicopter crashed into the Hudson River.
The Bell 206 helicopter, run by New York Helicopter Tours, went down on Thursday.
The crash claimed the lives of Agustin Escobar, a senior Spanish executive at tech firm Siemens, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal, and their three children, aged four years, five years and 11 years.
The pilot was also killed in the crash, although his identity has yet to be released.
DoD / DIA Reports Suggest Biden Pentagon Suppressed COVID-19 Origins Investigation
April 11th, 2025Yes, China, China, China, but Fauci and Daszak made it happen.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Released years after the fact, the documents suggest that top military and intelligence officials either ignored or downplayed signs that the coronavirus may have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China – raising new questions about transparency and accountability, according to Just the News’ Jerry Dunleavy.
One report, authored by the Defense Department’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in December 2022 but quietly published online only in recent weeks, confirms that the Pentagon never conducted an investigation into whether U.S. service members may have been infected during the 2019 World Military Games held in Wuhan – a city that would soon become ground zero for the COVID-19 outbreak.
A second report, produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) and dated June 2020, asserts that “the molecular biology capabilities of [the Wuhan lab] and genome assessment are consistent with the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 was a lab-engineered virus.” The analysis, obtained this week through the Freedom of Information Act by the nonprofit U.S. Right to Know, remained classified for nearly five years.
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Yet despite public pledges, senior officials have yet to fully declassify many of the intelligence documents related to the origins of the pandemic.
And then of course there’s Peter Daszak, head of EcoHealth Alliance – which received large sums of NIH funding which were steered to the Wuhan Lab in order to study bat coronavirus. EcoHealth famously proposed a blueprint for creating COVID-19, which DARPA declined to fund – yet here we are.
