NEWS
Pakistan Defense Chief Warns War With India ‘Imminent’ — Threatens Use of Country’s Nuclear Arsenal
[Ed.: Oh, nice!]
State Emergency Response Commission gives update on Helene recovery in WNC THERESA OPEKA
APRIL 25, 2025 The Carolina Journal – The North Carolina State Emergency Response Commission met Friday morning to discuss the progress made with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts nearly seven months after the hurricane hit western North Carolina.
Officials gave an outline of what has taken place so far, including:
- Over 6,000 people and 268 pets were rescued.
- Over 6.7 million cubic yards of storm debris, or the equivalent of over 660,000 dump truck loads, were removed across 22 counties.
- There were 131 search-and-rescue teams from North Carolina and nationwide, with over 3,300 searchers.
- Four thousand National Guard personnel were deployed.
- Twenty-eight thousand building searches were conducted.
- One hundred seven people died, and five are still missing.
Justin Graney, chief of external affairs and communications with the Division of Emergency Management, told the commission that almost $100 million has been allocated for the state’s private road and bridge program. This program was established to help property owners repair private roads and bridges damaged during the storm.
The money came from the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 — Part I, which allocated an additional $524 million to Hurricane Helene relief efforts in western North Carolina, bringing total funding to over $1.4 billion.
Democrat Gov. Josh Stein signed the bill, his first, into law last month, right after the General Assembly passed it.
So far, 8,000 private roadways and bridge projects have been awarded.
State officials said they are working on the construction process for the more than 3,000 property owners who have reached out by proceeding to hire more contractors and engineers. In addition, almost 4,000 people are being assisted with various needs, from food to housing.
Currently, 16 households are still in FEMA transitional housing, like hotels.
While much more work needs to be completed, the commission is also planning for the future and learning from what took place last September so officials are better prepared to handle any similar type of emergency down the road.
The meeting comes after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rejected North Carolina’s request earlier this month to maintain a full 100% federal match for the state’s continued Hurricane Helene recovery expenses.
In a letter to President Donald Trump today, Stein urged FEMA to extend the cost share for a minimum of three months.
Stein said delays in response particularly from the US Army Corps of Engineers meant that the state only effectively received three months of active debris removal under the original six-month reimbursement period.
“In the last four weeks, under the reduced cost share, the Corps has nearly tripled its monthly rate of overall debris removal and has removed approximately the same amount of waterway debris that it had in the prior six-month period,” wrote Stein.
The governor also highlighted the financial strain on the state, which has already appropriated $1.6 billion toward recovery. Preliminary estimates suggest it may cost an additional $1-2 billion to complete debris removal.
[Ed.: Please keep in mind that Hurricane Helene was engineered by our Deep State government and specifically targeted and hit the bulls-eye: the Carolina lithium mines. Research it but: Don’t ‘Google it!!]
DOJ Twists the China Narrative Against Retired Police Detective Michael McMahon
[Ed.: Wasn’t Bondy supposed to be cleaning up the DOJ?]
The Fourth Amendment, ICE Raids, and How the Media Twisted Trump’s Words
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[Ed.: I guess that they all change their minds in unison! At first, they were all trying with all their might to bring them in! Pea-brained leftists!]
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Democrat Rep Jamie Raskin Calls For Leftists To “Manifest Their Outrage” | Drew Hernandez
Fears of New US Serial Killer After Eighth Death in String of Peaceful Towns
Creeping Sharia? Washington Becomes 1st State To Recognize Islamic Holidays As State Holidays
BOMBSHELL REPORT: BIDEN GAVE HAMAS OVER 2 BILLION DOLLARS TO KILL ISRAELIS by Phil Schneider
April 23, 2025 Israel Unwired
“Emergency Money” was sent by the United States government under the Biden administration was sent directly to the Hamas terrorists AFTER October 7th. This was all done under the pretext of sending “humanitarian” aid to the “innocent Arabs” caught up in the middle of a war.
WATCH [1:14]
This would be akin to the United States having an air drop to Berlin during World War II in order to help the civilian population during World War II while American GI’s battled the German Nazi war machine. It would have been patently absurd. The same goes for Gaza. Of the 2 billion that United States taxpayers transferred through the council of anti-Israel people that were heading up the United States while Joe Biden dawdled along, the vast majority propped up the killing machine called Hamas.
That is why it is so important to delegitimize any attempt to humanize the “innocent” Arabs in Gaza. The entire facade was based on one big lie. All of the Arabs in Gaza who were noncombatants did not need airdrops and money in Gaza for their continued life there. They needed to be displaced, moved, and freed from the shackles of Hamas. The only ones doing that were the IDF soldiers of the State of Israel.
It is true that the United States did indeed transfer enormous amounts of weapons to the State of Israel following October 7th, but that does not justify the concomitant arming of the enemy under the guise of humaintarian support. This is one of many “humanitarian” causes that are well-served by being cut by the Trump administration.
[Ed.: Where are the arrests?]
[Ed.: So, it was deliberate!!]
[Ed.: It wasn’t only Cuomo and Zucker who perpetrated the mass murder. We must consider the thousands of administrators and employees (the actual foot soldiers on the ground) who went to work every day killing people. It isn’t just Cuomo and Zucker who must be prosecuted to the max for genocide, but every single last one of the actual murderers!)
China Just ‘Folded’ in the Trade War by Gordon G. Chang
April 27, 2025 at 5:00 am
- Xi Jinping’s regime simply cannot admit it is not able to stand up to Washington.
- [O]n April 24 about a dozen Chinese officials, including a “high-ranking official from the Chinese Ministry of Finance,” were seen entering the U.S. Treasury’s main building in Washington at 7:00 in the morning as Chinese security officials attempted to prevent photographers from recording the entry.
- “In fact, the tariff waivers underscore that not only does Beijing need access to the American market far more than Americans need the China market but also that the United States makes vital products that simply aren’t Made in China, and won’t be for years at best.” — Alan Tonelson, trade expert at RealityChek, to Gatestone, April 25, 2025.
- When Trump has to raise the temperature, Beijing has just shown him which U.S. products China believes it cannot do without.
- Beijing has ordered its airlines not to take delivery of Boeing aircraft, and the plane maker has now flown back, from China to the U.S., three 737 Max aircraft that were about to be delivered. Due to the long order backlogs at both Boeing and Airbus, this punishment imposes, as a practical matter, almost no cost on Boeing. Yet if Trump were to order Boeing not to deliver parts or provide services to Chinese airlines, China would soon have to ground a large number of its airliners.
China is making significant trade concessions without saying it is making concessions. Xi Jinping’s regime simply cannot admit it is not able to stand up to Washington. When Trump has to raise the temperature, Beijing has just shown him which U.S. products China believes it cannot do without. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
China, according to Reuters and Financial Times reporting on April 25, is not uniformly imposing its new 125% across-the-board tariff on American goods. In short, certain imports from the U.S. are in fact coming in tariff-free. Beijing’s new policy has not been announced and is not official.
“Companies in sectors including aviation and industrial chemicals said that some of their products had already been granted a reprieve, while local media reported that some semiconductors had been spared tariffs,” the Financial Times noted.
American Chamber of Commerce in China President Michael Hart told Reuters that some pharmaceutical company members of his organization had said they were now able to import products tariff-free.
China is also exempting aircraft engines, nacelles, landing gear, and parts.
“A Ministry of Commerce taskforce is collecting lists of items that could be exempted from tariffs and is asking companies to submit their own requests, according to a person with knowledge of that outreach,” Reuters stated. The wire service also noted this: “A list of 131 categories of products said to be under consideration for tariff exemptions was circulating on Chinese social media platforms and among some businesses and trade groups on Friday.”
Hart does not think the tariff exemptions were the result of a “specific policy.” As he told the FT, “I think right now it’s more of a one-off.”
Hart is undoubtedly correct about the unofficial nature of the tariff collections: China’s Customs officials and the Ministry of Commerce personnel have not been responding to requests for comments. “China has not yet communicated publicly on any exemptions,” Reuters stated.
Huatai Securities estimated that Beijing is not collecting tariffs on items that accounted for $45 billion of imports to China last year.
The exemptions suggest a trend. “Recent reports on China secretly waiving tariffs on U.S. imports including certain semiconductors, industrial chemicals, and medical devices add up to a clear Chinese cave-in in its trade conflict with Trump,” trade expert Alan Tonelson told Gatestone.
The move is significant, but why is Beijing making such important trade concessions without admitting it is making concessions?
Xi Jinping’s regime simply cannot admit that it is not able to stand up to Washington.
Xi has configured the Chinese political system so that only the most hostile policies are considered acceptable. Worse, he has staked the Communist Party’s legitimacy on his claim that China has already surpassed America. Therefore, it is hard for him to do anything suggesting that he is dependent on trade with America or is reacting to American pressure.
Xi, consequently, has severely restricted Chinese flexibility, a constraint evident in Beijing’s counterproductive posturing. President Donald Trump last week stated that his administration and China had been engaged in tariff talks. In response to the conciliatory comments, the Chinese regime issued a series of statements denying the existence of any such discussions.
Beijing’s denials, however, are not credible, given the constant dialogue and continuous interactions between American and Chinese officials over various other matters.
In fact, on April 24, about a dozen Chinese officials, including a “high-ranking official from the Chinese Ministry of Finance,” were seen entering the U.S. Treasury’s main building in Washington at 7:00 in the morning as Chinese security officials attempted to prevent photographers from recording the entry.
Unfortunately for Xi, he must make concessions. His economy is far smaller than America’s, and he is the one running large trade surpluses — China’s merchandise surplus last year against the U.S. was $295.4 billion, up 5.8% over 2023.
Worse, China’s economy is probably contracting, something evident from price indicators. The country is in a deflationary spiral: In March, the Consumer Price Index was down for the second-straight month and the Producer Price Index was down for the 30th consecutive month.
Meanwhile, China is in the middle of a slow-moving debt crisis, and Xi, having rejected consumption as the fundamental basis of the Chinese economy, must as a result export more to rescue the increasingly grim situation at home.
China’s Commerce Ministry on the April 24 indicated Beijing would not talk about trade until Trump removes “unilateral tariff measures.” Because of Xi’s need to maintain the façade of intransigence, Trump will undoubtedly have to turn up the heat again.
When Trump has to raise the temperature, Beijing has just shown him which U.S. products China believes it cannot do without.
“In fact, the tariff waivers underscore that not only does Beijing need access to the American market far more than Americans need the China market but also that the United States makes vital products that simply aren’t Made in China, and won’t be for years at best,” Tonelson, who comments on the intersection of trade and geopolitics at RealityChek, pointed out.
Take aircraft parts. Beijing has ordered its airlines not to take delivery of Boeing aircraft, and the plane maker has now flown back, from China to the U.S., three 737-Max aircraft that were about to be delivered. Due to the long order backlogs at both Boeing and Airbus, this punishment imposes, as a practical matter, almost no cost on Boeing. Yet if Trump were to order Boeing not to deliver parts or provide services to Chinese airlines, China would soon have to ground a large number of its airliners.
China, in reality, is in no position to fight a prolonged trade war with a determined Trump. That is one of the Chinese vulnerabilities that became evident when Beijing began making concessions in the dark.
China is making significant trade concessions without saying it is making concessions. Xi is, to borrow the term of the day, “folding.”
Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board. Follow him on X @GordonGChang.
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[Ed.: He’s got that situation reversed 180 degrees!
Four Dead, More Than 500 Injured, After Huge Explosion at Port of Bandar Abbas in Iran (VIDEOS)
Radicalized Son of Biden’s CIA Deputy Director Reportedly Killed Fighting for Russia in Ukraine
Luigi Mangione Pleads Not Guilty in Death Penalty Case Over Insurance Executive’s Murder
[Ed.: Luigi speaks the truth! He may have shot the man in the back, but he doesn’t feel the least bit guilty about it! “Not guilty!“]
HILARIOUS: White House Issues EPIC Threat to Illegal Aliens who do Not Self Deport (VIDEO)
Julian Assange and His Family Attend Funeral for Pope Francis
Not an Attack on Judicial Independence: Judge Charged with Obstructing ICE Arrest
Joe and Jill Biden Are Forced to the Back at Pope Francis’ Funeral
JUST IN: President Trump Calls for the Person(s) Who Operated Joe Biden’s Autopen to be Jailed
