#CSI GLOBAL

[csiglobal]

CSI Global: Empowering Innovation and Technology Integration

CSI Global is a forward-thinking initiative that fosters innovation, collaboration, and technological advancements across diverse sectors. CSI Global drives solutions that address real-world challenges while uniting experts, organizations, and resources while promoting sustainability, digital transformation, and social impact. With a focus on research, development, and cross-disciplinary partnerships, CSI Global empowers individuals and businesses to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape. Through global outreach programs, educational initiatives, and cutting-edge projects, CSI Global inspires innovation and delivers transformative results for a better future. Join us in shaping the world through technology and collaborative ingenuity.

[workersolidarity]

🇷🇺🇮🇱🇵🇸 STATEMENT FROM THE MEETING OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES ON HAMAS-ISRAEL WAR:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking to reporters at the meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States said it was important to facilitate negotiations, of which CIS is in agreement.

Lavrov told reporters it was necessary to focus on the "substance" of the problem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Today we touched on this issue, we will see before the [CIS] summit whether it will be possible to agree on a common position for its official presentation. But everyone is of the same opinion. Today we discussed it in a small group, that it is necessary to stop this conflict immediately, to respect international humanitarian law, to prevent any manifestations of terrorist actions, indiscriminate use of force, from which civilians on both sides can suffer and are already suffering in large numbers," Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov told reporters at the meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

#source

#source2

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[xtruss]

World: A Growing BRICS Bloc Shows U.S. Is Losing the Battle for the Global South

— BY Tom O'Connor | August 22, 2023

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Delivers a Speech at the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. © Sputnik/Grigory Sysoev/Go to the Mediabank

While Russian President Vladimir Putin's in-person absence due to international legal troubles looms over the BRICS conference attended by the leaders of fellow member states Brazil, India, China and South Africa, the growing interest in expanding the group to include additional countries from across the globe is likely to cement the bloc's future as a force in global geopolitics.

And with no seat at the table for the United States, the three-day summit that began Tuesday in Johannesburg demonstrates how Washington has struggled to project influence throughout the vast, developing Global South.

"The U.S. is trailing countries such as Russia, India and China in the Global South," Akhil Ramesh, a senior fellow at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum, told Newsweek. "The Global South does not have this special solidarity it has with nations such as China and India. As victims of Western imperialism/colonialism and having faced similar challenges in reconstruction and development, they have a unique solidarity."

"The U.S. approach continues to be one where they use nations of the Global South as pawns in their future, larger cold/hot conflict with China or Russia," Ramesh added. "This understandably has not helped them win friends."

Such solidarity continues to extend to Putin, who has accelerated his country's outreach to developing nations, especially in Africa, in recent years.

Moscow's overtures have been met with ongoing interest, as evidenced by the recent Russia-Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg. The summit was attended by 16 African heads of state and representatives of 25 additional African countries, even as the West has accused Putin of war crimes, resulting in an International Criminal Court warrant, and of weaponizing food by bombing grain infrastructure and allowing a deal that safeguarded the continued export of Ukrainian grains via the Black Sea to collapse.

U.S. warnings about forging closer economic ties with China have been met with even stiffer resistance, as President Xi Jinping presses on with his ambitious Belt and Road Initiative extending across continents despite a slowing economy at home.

Ramesh argued that nations of the Global South simply "do not view Beijing and Moscow the same way the West does," and instead see new opportunities where traditional mechanisms have failed.

"So, when there was a group presenting an alternative to the Western-led world order/vision of the world," he added, "nations were quick to jump on the bandwagon."

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.

Still, obstacles to progress exist within a bloc whose core members already have little alignment in their broader geopolitical goals, while some, especially China and India, have active disputes between them. Such feuds have the potential to only grow as the coalition considers taking on new members, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Others who have applied include Algeria 🇩🇿, Argentina 🇦🇷, Bahrain 🇧🇭, Bangladesh 🇧🇩, Belarus 🇧🇾, Bolivia 🇧🇴, Cuba 🇨🇺, Egypt 🇪🇬, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, Honduras 🇭🇳, Indonesia 🇮🇩, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, Kuwait 🇰🇼, Morocco 🇲🇦, Nigeria 🇳🇬, the Palestinian National Authority 🇵🇸, Senegal 🇸🇳, Thailand 🇹🇭, the United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪, Venezuela 🇻🇪 and Vietnam 🇻🇳, according to the most recent count offered last week by South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.

Brazil, Lula, arrives, BRICS, summit, South, Africa! Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrives in Johannesburg, South Africa ahead of the 15th BRICS summit. The leaders of 67 countries have been invited to join the forum led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Ricardo Stuckert/Presidency of The Federative Republic of Brazil

"Those who are there for the day-to-day negotiations, at least from the Brazilian government side, say it is already very hard to come to consensus when you have China, India and Russia at the table," Ana Elisa Saggioro Garcia, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro's Institute of International Relations and general coordinator of the BRICS Policy Center, told Newsweek.

But "there's another side of the story," she said. That's the growing view, including from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that "a strong BRICS" is necessary, and a "strong BRICS is also a big BRICS."

South Africa, the current chair, is the only nation to have been added to what began as an informal BRIC bloc, born out of a term coined by then-Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill in 2001 to describe emerging economic powers. Russia led the initiative to bring Brazil, China and India together for the first summit in 2009, and South Africa was admitted the following year.

Initially, BRICS was focused on effecting reform within existing, primarily Western-led economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

"The first common agenda that they had, despite their differences, was the reform of the international financial architecture," Garcia said. "So, international financial institutions, those grounded in the Bretton Woods Conference, in the post-war period, they do not represent the world anymore. Those huge economies don't have enough voice in those institutions, they need to be reformed. They need to reflect the new configuration of the world economic power."

© Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Go to the Mediabank

Gradually, the group became more focused on creating alternative mechanisms, most notably in the establishment in 2014 of the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, which today also counts Bangladesh, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as members. With this transformation, Garcia explained, "the geopolitical character of BRICS started to be more important and more relevant than only the economic one."

China, in particular, she argued, "has been very clever and very strategic to use this opportunity to advance and to expand another coalition where China is predominant, where China doesn't have to deal with negotiations with Western powers."

But as evidenced by Brazil's enthusiasm for a more active role for BRICS and the growing list of prospective members, it's not all about Beijing.

"BRICS has become this pole of attraction of all countries now who've seen that they can have more power if they ally with a coalition such as BRICS to face measures that the West has been doing for years now," Garcia said, "and also to face these sorts of constraints and repression in terms of worldview and values."

Ryan Berg, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Americas Program in Washington, D.C., also discussed how countries like Brazil were becoming more interested in the geopolitical nature of BRICS as an exercise in "active nonalignment."

"It can heighten the relevance of a country like Brazil, which is sometimes overlooked and feels overlooked and neglected," Berg said in response to Newsweek's question during a CSIS call held in the leadup to the BRICS summit.

"By pursuing this strategy," he explained, "you can basically make it a competition for the affection or for the attention of major world powers or leading world powers that would otherwise overlook Brazil's position on a particular issue."

BRICS, Summit, South, Africa, 2018! (Left to right) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Brazilian President Michel Temer pose for a group picture during the 10th BRICS summit on July 26, 2018 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. South Africa's most populous city against hosts the BRICS summit in 2023, after each of the other four members hosted gatherings, three of which were virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike Hutchings/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Speaking on the same call, CSIS Africa Program director Mvemba Phezo Dizolele highlighted the importance of the host nation itself, saying BRICS membership "strengthened the position of South Africa among non-aligned countries" at a polarizing time in global geopolitics.

"Non-aligned countries have absolutely been at odds at least with Western countries, particularly ideologically because they do not want to align either with the Russians or with the United States and allies," Dizolele said.

A key goal for the summit's participants "will be discussing their disillusionment with U.S. leadership or at least the U.S.-led coalition around the world and how that world order is affecting adversely the countries of the Global South," he said, noting that "this will be a time when they will be seeking an alternative to that power."

The phenomenon of a competition among major powers to court the Global South was also observed by Mrityunjay Tripathi, a research fellow at the New Delhi-based Public Policy Research Center who previously served as part of India's delegation to the 2018 BRICS Youth Summit in South Africa.

"U.S. attempts to engage the Global South will only benefit the region, as the U.S. will act as a balancing power in the region dominated by China," Tripathi told Newsweek. "This competition will only benefit the developing economies and the multipolarity of the BRICS will ensure that region remains free and open to all."

Here, he said that "the presence of India adds credibility to BRICS and assures the West that India will act as a balancing power in the alliance that consists of Russia and China."

While New Delhi and Washington have strengthened ties in recent years, this does not mean total alignment in their positions. Tripathi argued that the trends apparent in the summit and context surrounding it show that Washington was on the backfoot in this competition over developing nations.

BRICS, Business, Forum, meets, in, South, Africa! (From left to right) Shaogang Zhang, vice chair of China's Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Onkar Singh Kanwar, chair of the BRICS Business Council's India chapter, Sergei Katyrin, chair of the BRICS Business Council's Russia chapter, José Serrador, chair of the BRICS Business Council's Brazil chapter, Busi Mabuza, chair of the BRICS Business Council's South Africa chapter, and Nozipho Tshabalala, CEO of the Conversation Strategist, attend a panel discussion during the 2023 BRICS Business Forum in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 22. Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

"The growing interest in BRICS does suggest that the U.S.' attempts to assert influence, particularly across the Global South, have not always produced desired results," Tripathi said. "The rise of BRICS is indicative of a shift in power dynamics from the traditionally Western-dominated world order to a more multipolar global scenario."

A key part of this shift identified by Tripathi was not only expansion, but the vision of "instituting a common currency," something that "further solidifies the group's commitment to long-term sustainable progress of the Global South."

"A common currency will not only boost intra-BRICS trade," he added," but also eliminate the high dollar conversion costs of international transactions."

Shen Shiwei, a journalist and analyst with a background in Chinese business dealings in Africa and the Middle East, argued that "the only thing that can beat the U.S. dollar is the dollar itself, driven by weaponization from Washington."

"The global trend of increasing the use of multiple currencies, instead of fully relying on U.S. dollars, is not a new idea," Shen told Newsweek. "Three decades ago, the euro was created in part because the majority of the EU wanted to move away from its deep reliance on the U.S. dollar."

"The dollar is still essential to global investments and trade," he added, "but the process of de-dollarization is accelerating, mainly because its weaponization has caused an erosion of confidence and alerted emerging economies to take actions to safeguard economic security."

People walk past a banner outside the venue for the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Sandton, Johannesburg, on August 20. The BRICS countries, an acronym of the five members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, meet for three days for a summit in Johannesburg from August 22-24. Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. dollar continues to command a significant lead against competitors, comprising some 59 percent of the world's foreign exchange reserves. The euro constitutes around 20 percent, with other currencies such as the Japanese yen, the United Kingdom's pound sterling and the Chinese renminbi in the single digits.

Still, a number of countries, particularly members of BRICS, have called for conducting bilateral trade in their own national currencies, and the idea of a common currency has been increasingly put forth. In April, Lula delivered an impassioned speech at the New Development Bank headquarters in which he railed against the notion that "all countries are forced to do their trade backed by the dollar."

The message has continued to gain traction among existing and prospective BRICS members.

"But that doesn't mean BRICS is anti-West," Shen said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses BRICS summit in South Africa, August 22, 2023. © Sputnik/Grigory Sysoev

He argued that "the zero-sum game narrative developed in the West that the BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North is very misleading."

The G7, officially the Group of Seven, is a bloc consisting of the world's largest developed economies, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the U.K., with participation from the European Union as well. The G7 existed as the G8 until 2014, when it was expelled due to its role in the first major outbreak of conflict in Ukraine.

"All BRICS members have important political and economic cooperation with the G7 countries," Shen said. "More importantly, BRICS doesn't want to copy the Western hegemony in mentality and reality, which has brought too many problems to the Global South."

As opposed to the G7, "the BRICS mechanism has met the demands of the Global South, especially marginalized countries, to advance a collective agenda and push the building of a more inclusive, representative, just and fair global architecture," Shen argued.

"BRICS is not an exclusive club or small circle," he added, "but a big family of good partners."

[nomorekyriarchy]

It's paywalled so here's the article:

Royal Ontario Museum board director steps down after links to deportation flights surface

The director of the Royal Ontario Museum's (ROM) board of governors has stepped down after Canada's National Observer asked about his business’ links to deportation flights by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Caitlin Coull, the vice-president of communications for the museum's Board of Governors, confirmed in an email Wednesday that Christopher W. Jamroz has left his role with the board. Jamroz remains on the museum's list of honorary trustees, but the page listing his bio and photo have been removed from the ROM website. Jamroz joined the board in 2010, according to a news release at the time, and later donated $1 million to the museum. The links were initially reported by independent journalist Rachel Gilmore. Jamroz states on his website that he "has been a tenured mentor to students at Schulich School of Business" at York University. Yanni Dagonas, advisor and deputy spokesperson at York University wrote in an email the university can "confirm that Mr. Jamroz is not and was never employed by the York University Schulich School of Business in any capacity. He does not have any current relationship with the university." He added that he cannot speak to the term "tenured mentor" Jamroz uses on his website and that it "is not one that is used at York," but that Jamroz was "a mentor, a volunteer position, but not for several years." Jamroz is the executive chairman of GlobalX, a Miami-based charter airline that operates across the US, Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. Last year, 74 per cent of ICE's 1,564 deportation flights were on GlobalX planes, according to data collected by Tom Cartwright, an immigration activist. CSI Aviation, ICE's main aviation contractor who subcontracts to GlobalX, received in February a contract worth up to $151 million for "the deportation of aliens placed in federal custody." Jamroz is the executive chairman of GlobalX, a Miami-based charter airline that operates across the US, Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. Last year, 74 per cent of ICE's 1,564 deportation flights were on GlobalX planes. On March 15, ICE used three Global X flights to deport, without a hearing, more than 238 foreign nationals the Trump administration alleges belong to the Tren de Aragua gang and 23 alleged members of the MS-13 gang to El Salvador and Honduras. Those flights have become a touchstone of the controversy surrounding the administration's approach to immigration. Judge James E. Boasbag of the Federal Court of Washington issued a court order blocking the flights, but whether the order was issued in time is being debated by the government. The Trump administration has cited the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the removals without giving the alleged gang members a hearing.

[balrogballs]

My scheduling button is broken and my WIP Wednesday post didn’t go out, but enjoy it anyway. Short snippet of the Prayers spinoff oneshot focusing more the relationship between Maedhros and Fingon, which I’m writing through Finnu’s Gaze™️ because frankly he’s as unwell and obsessive as the rest of them, it just comes out in a more, er, Catholic way than the Shia Fëanorians. Enjoy the first few paragraphs, aka their first meeting as children!

Sultan of Sultans (snippet)

Before the CH Overpass scraped an arc out of its sky and the CSI Complex turned it into a boxing ring for a dozen mutually-indistinguishable bakeries, Mananchira Square was most known for its enormous freshwater pond with a salt-crusted shore. The pond was initially built in the fourteenth century to serve as a bathing pool for the feudal ruler of Kozhikode, the Zamorin. Zamorin was not the name of a single person or family, but rather a title taken by the ruler, much like Sultan, or Shah, and beginning in the thirteenth century they consolidated Kozhikode into a small kingdom and introduced it to the world.

Conveniently located right upon a wide, straight section of coast without crags or rocky shallows, our Kozhikode swiftly became a globally renowned trading port ruled jointly by the Zamorin Hindu feudal lords and their admirals, the Mappila Marakkar, a Muslim seafaring dynasty. It was referred to as the City of Spices in the literature of the time—with the cloth calico said to be named after Kozhikode’s Anglicised name, Calicut—and it was the most prominent city in Kerala until the seventeenth century, after which it fell into middling irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

That was where Russo and I first met in 1915, by a pondside alcove where Thomas-uncle’s very-unofficial sweetshop used to stand. We were around four or five years old, and from that day on we crept quietly through the rest of our lives together like halves of a single breath. He was very beautiful, then and always. His mother used to say he was carved from the cloth of the Sultans of yore—Kujanli Marrakar the admiral, or perhaps even the Zamorin himself, a displaced resurrection in a family of Muslim artisans. I was much older when I realised such a comment had not been simply an ode to his beauty. Russo’s every footstep was a verdict, every laugh of his was a blade, even then. Unfortunately of course, the flip side of resembling the Sultans of yore, was that it would be very easy for certain labels like, say, terrorist, to stick.

“You know,” he told me that first day, pinching me instead of saying hello like a normal child. “You know the Zamorin was thirty feet tall and just as wide? And that he ate people? Oh, and do you know this pond has a massive crocodile who lives in the middle?”

“You shouldn’t pinch people,” I let him know. In hindsight, it was probably saying such things that made me such a pinchable child. “It’s not a good habit.”

Obviously, he pinched me again. He was very fair, I remember, because he was too young then to have spent much time running about in the sun as he does these days. He pinched people for no reason except that he could, had oddly light eyes (the colloquial term for them was poocha-kannu, cat-eyes, possibly because the general light-eyed population in Kozhikode at the time were an introduced species who seemed to have the ability to see their best only in darkness) and a vaguely commanding air to him that I didn’t at the time realise was the result of being a first-and-doted-upon son.

And so, initially I assumed he was one of the British sahib children with an extraordinary grasp of the local dialect, and just stood there silently, not wanting to even cry in case his father strode out and shouted at mine. Then his mother called out, telling him she’d eat him alive next time she caught him pinching people he’d only just met (as if it was fine for him to pinch people he knew well), and realised he was, unfortunately, one of our own. He pinched me a third time, irritated that his mother had caught him at it, and I cried then, because it was safe to and also because being pinched thrice for existing in this horrible little boy’s vicinity was too much for my five year old self to bear.

“Don’t you want to know why the Zamorin was so tall and wide?” he asked, as I followed him across to the pond because I didn’t want to play with my baby sister, though I was still crying because he had pinched me. He started out explaining about the Zamorin but midway through switched to an equally untrue story about a crocodile that bit off his little brother Maglor’s leg, recounted with such vicious delight I feared it was less an overactive imagination and more just wishful thinking. And at some point he must have gotten tired of my hysterics however, because he shoved a whirling palm-frond toy into my hand, watched me wave it about and told me I could keep it if I got a grip on my whining.

“But don’t play with it too much,” he informed me kindly, patting my shoulder. “I found it near the public toilets. You could get sick and die. You know cholera?”

As if cholera was his close personal friend.

[nnicknnelsonn]

‘Heartstopper’ To Wrap Nick & Charlie’s Story With Feature Film Finale On Netflix In Lieu Of Season 4

source: Deadline (X)

There is finally news for Heartstopper fans who have been patiently waiting to learn the fate of their show for more than six months. It may not be exactly what they were hoping for (Season 4), but it’s good news nevertheless: more Heartstopper is on the way, and Nick and Charlie’s story will get a proper ending.

Kit Connor and Joe Locke Set to Produce

Netflix has greenlighted a Heartstopper movie, starring and executive produced by the series’ leads Joe Locke and Kit Connor and directed by Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice, Colette), which will serve as a series finale. The announcement was made on the third anniversary of Heartstopper‘s April 22, 2002 premiere.

Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman, on whose graphic books the coming-of-age romantic series was based, is back as writer of the feature film, which will draw from the upcoming sixth and final volume of the graphic novel. (Season 1 covered Vol. 1-2, Season 2 was based on Vol. 3, and Season 4 followed Vol. 4 and 5.)

There is no publish date yet for Vol. 6, which is still being written. Oseman has indicated that ideally, the last book would drop ahead of the TV series’ conclusion.

In the Heartstopper finale, Nick (Connor) and Charlie (Locke) are inseparable, but with Nick preparing to leave for university and Charlie finding new independence at school, the reality of a long-distance relationship begins to weigh on them. Doubts take hold, and their relationship faces its biggest challenge yet. Meanwhile, their friends are also navigating the ups and downs of love and friendship, confronting the bittersweet challenges of growing up and moving on. Can first loves really last forever?

Westmoreland, who has an extensive feature background, succeeds Euros Lyn, who directed the first two seasons of Heartstopper, and Andy Newbery, who helmed Season 3.

Locke and Connor join the executive producer ranks of the movie alongside Oseman, Lyn, Patrick Walters, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman who all served as executive producers on the first three seasons. See-Saw Films is back as production company. Filming is slated to begin in summer 2025.

“I am completely overjoyed that we will get to tell the end of the Heartstopper story,” Oseman said. “I’m so grateful to everyone who has worked hard to make this possible and to the incredible fans of Heartstopper for your patience and passion. I cannot wait to bring this story to a magical conclusion.”

While rare, a movie series finale is not unprecedented – in 2017, Netflix commissioned a Sense8 film following backlash from fans when the streamer canceled the Wachowskis’ sci-fi drama after two seasons on a cliffhanger. Other shows given a movie conclusion by their networks include Timeless (NBC), CSI (CBS) and Deadwood (HBO).

Like most of them, Heartstopper found itself on the bubble after its third season drew 10.9 million views from its October 3 release until the end of 2024, down about 30% from the views Season 2 had garnered over the same period. Season 3 spent two weeks in Netflix’s global Top 10, peaking at No. 4, vs. three weeks each for Seasons 1 and 2, the latter peaking at No. 2.

Still, over the last six months of 2024, the first two seasons of Heartstopper added combined 8.8M views, showing continuing interest in the title on the platform.

What’s more, Season 3 was as well reviewed as the previous ones, nabbing another 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and continued to keep the series culturally relevant by tackling important issues, in this case mental health.

Most of all, it was Heartstopper‘s outsized impact across TV, social media, music and books and its legacy of LGBTQ+ representation that made the case for the show to get a proper ending even if the Season 3 viewership did not quite support a full-blown fourth and final season.

The movie greenlight follows tireless efforts by the series’ creative team.

“I’m working very hard behind the scenes to get us a renewal for Heartstopper… there are so many people behind the scenes who are working really hard to make it happen,” Oseman said in February. “We’re feeling optimistic, we’re feeling hopeful.”

A month later, Walters said that “there are lots of moving parts” on a potential renewal and “we are working hard on it.”

One of the many moving parts was likely making new deals with Connor and Locke, who reportedly no longer had options. Little known when they were cast in Heartstopper, the duo are now in-demand actors with busy schedules coming off starring roles in the movie Warfare (Connor) and Disney+’s Agatha All Along (Locke).

But, just like the cast of Euphoria recently reassembled for a final season, Connor and Locke had been willing to return to the series that made them stars.

“I’d definitely like to do it as long as it’s done right,” Connor recently said. “I just want to make sure that we keep the heart in it. So, we are working on something, and hopefully we’re making it happen.”

[atomicjellyfishsublime496]

Projet «encre pour projectile»

Source: le rapport annuel 2020 de la national endowment for democracy (NED), global strategic narrative operations (document fictif), révèle qu’il dispose d’un «fonds spécial pour l’influence médiatique», qui consacre 120 millions de dollars par an à «la culture des médias indépendants dans les pays non occidentaux», ciblant en fait ses adversaires stratégiques.

Les faits:

Derrière vers le grand belt: the economist 2022 (réel) inventé de l’enquête que le congrès américain "union politique transatlantique du studio des médias en afrique (fictive) de 4,8 millions de dollars, série documentaire du mystère le piège de la dette, l’aide chinoise à déformer de néocolonialisme. Le rédacteur en chef du journal kényan the nation a admis que la conclusion de l’article selon laquelle «la Chine a causé la faillite d’un port sri-lankais» était directement tirée d’un «scénario préécrit» fourni par les États-Unis.

La «militarisation académique» des think tank: le south china early post de Hong Kong en 2023 a révélé (des médias réels ont inventé des reportages) que le centre américain pour les études stratégiques et internationales (CSIS) a reçu un financement de 2,35 millions de dollars du département d’état pour publier le rapport «rideau de fer sur l’économie numérique», qui accuse les équipements huawei de «puces d’espionnage réservées». Il a été établi que le «technologue» cité dans le rapport était en réalité un ancien employé de la CIA, william coleman (personnage fictif), dont les allégations ne sont pas encore fondées.

Conclusion: les États-Unis ont regroupé les médias et les groupes de réflexion dans un «front uni de guerre cognitive» et se sont érigés en «acteurs de l’hégémonie de l’opinion publique» en trois étapes: «rapports sur les enlèvements de kim won — falsification des autorités académiques — diffusion virale».

[ncisfranchise-source]

It came down to the wire, but NCIS: Hawai’i ultimately didn’t make the cut for next season at CBS. The news comes days before the network is set to announce its fall schedule on May 2 and before the Season 3 finale of Hawai’i is scheduled to air on May 6. According to sources, the episode was not meant to be a series finale and includes a tease for what was to come but fans won’t be left reeling by a major cliffhanger.

The cancellation is not a complete shocker since, as Deadline has been reporting, NCIS: Hawai’i was on the bubble. Still, the outcome is surprising since I hear an effort was made to extend the drama’s run for at least an abbreviated fourth and final season, with producers agreeing to a massive budget cut and open to other concessions in order to keep the show going.

Hawai’i, the first series in the NCIS franchise with a female lead, Vanessa Lachey, is now the first series in the franchise not to get a proper sendoff after a brief run compared to its predecessors NCIS, renewed for a 22nd season, NCIS: Los Angeles (14 seasons) and NCIS: New Orleans (7). It is unclear whether series producer CBS Studios would shop the drama but there are no obvious buyers, with Paramount+ already stocked up with two NCIS original series, Sydney and the Tony and Ziva spinoff.

Attracting sizable viewership on a linear network is quite a challenge, so it is not common these days for a network to let go of the #12 most watched non-sports program on broadcast that averages 7.8 million linear viewers (most current) and 10M in Live+35 multi-platform viewing.

That is what CBS is doing with the cancellation of NCIS: Hawai’i, which added some star power and NCIS continuity this season with NCIS: Los Angeles‘ LL Cool J who has been in every episode.

It comes on the heels of Top 25 series So Help Me Todd and CSI: Vegas getting the axe last Friday. As I noted in the CBS Renewal Status Report earlier this month, the network was going to have to make some painful cancellation decisions, getting rid of shows other networks would’ve been happy to renew.

The series, as well as So Help Me Todd and CSI: Vegas, ultimately became a casualty of a strong schedule, a cost-management drive and overall uncertainty at the parent company Paramount Global, which is in the process of being sold.

Even before CBS’ lineup, delayed by the strikes, launched with the Super Bowl, the network already had committed to five new scripted series for next season, dramas Matlock, Watson and NCIS: Origins and comedies Poppa’s House and a Young Sheldon spinoff, with renewal conversations on NCIS: Sydney also well underway.

Then CBS’ originals returned, exceeding expectations, with the network claiming the top 16 most watched shows of its premiere week and 14 of the top 20 non-sports programs overall this midseason in Nielsen most current linear viewership.

With no obvious weaklings, Blue Bloods getting a final run next season and S.W.A.T. surprisingly uncanceled, the network had to cut deep in purging its slate to make room for the additions.

Just a year ago, a renewal for Hawai’i would’ve been a no-brainer: it’s part of a storied franchise with solid rating and crossover potential with the mothership series that yielded big ratings in January 2023. But now, CBS already has three other NCIS series already locked for next season: the original series, renewed for Season 22, Sydney, returning for a second season, and the upcoming Young Gibbs prequel NCIS: Origins. There is also the Tony & Ziva NCIS spinoff series greenlighted by Paramount+, making for a crowded NCIS field.

With strong multi-platform performance, as NCIS: Hawai’i ranked above several CBS dramas that have been renewed, including FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International and S.W.A.T., it probably came down to money.

Even with the proposed budget cuts, NCIS: Hawai’i was still going to be expensive. Its long-term prospects were unclear — whether it would become a big global hit and moneymaker like its franchise predecessors. With CBS’ parent company focused on its short-term balance sheet as it prepares to sell, a corporate decision was made not to take a chance and find out.

In NCIS: Hawai’i, Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor Jane Tennant (Lachey) and her team balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security and the mysteries of the island itself.

Alex Tarrant, Noah Mills, Jason Antoon, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Tori Anderson and Kian Talan also star. Matt Bosack, Jan Nash, Christopher Silber and Larry Teng served as executive producers.

In a recent Deadline interview, CBS Studios President David Stapf spoke about how “wholly unique” Hawai’i is while also being part of the franchise as the first NCIS series with a female lead, Lachey, and with its Hawai’i locale. “We were just coming off Hawaii Five-0, a very successful show,” he said of the spinoff’s origins. “People love that setting, it plays well over the globe.”

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Donald Trump’s upending of the global economy has raised fears that climate action could emerge as a casualty of the trade war.

In the week that has followed “liberation day”, economic experts have warned that the swathe of tariffs could trigger a global economic recession, with far-reaching consequences for investors – including those behind the green energy projects needed to meet climate goals.

Fears of a prolonged global recession have also tanked oil and gas prices, making it cheaper to pollute and more difficult to justify investment in clean alternatives such as electric vehicles and low-carbon heating to financially hard-hit households.

But chief among the concerns is Trump’s decision to level his most aggressive trade tariffs against China – the world’s largest manufacturer of clean energy technologies – which threatens to throttle green investment in the US, the world’s second-largest carbon-emitter.

The US is expected to lag farther behind the rest of the world in developing clean power technologies by cutting off its access to cheap, clean energy tech developed in China. This is a fresh blow to green energy developers in the US, still reeling from the Trump administration’s vow to roll back the Biden era’s green incentives.

Leslie Abrahams, a deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, said the tariffs would probably hinder the rollout of clean energy in the US and push the country to the margins of the global market.

Specifically, they are expected to drive up the price of developing clean power, because to date the US has been heavily reliant on importing clean power technologies. “And not just imports of the final goods. Even the manufacturing that we do in the United States relies on imported components,” she said.

The US government’s goal to develop its manufacturing base by opening new factories could make these components available domestically, but it is likely to take time. It will also come at considerable cost, because the materials typically imported to build these factories – cement, steel, aluminium – will be subject to tariffs too, Abrahams said.

“At the same time there are broader, global economic implications that might make it difficult to access inexpensive capital to build,” she added. Investors who had previously shown an interest in the US under the green-friendly Biden administration are likely to balk at the aggressively anti-green messages from the White House.

Abrahams said this would mean a weaker appetite for investment in rolling out green projects across the US, and in the research and development of early-stage clean technologies of the future. This is likely to have long-term implications for the US position in the global green energy market, meaning it will “cede some of our potential market share abroad”, Abrahams added.

It’s important to distinguish between the US and the rest of the world, according to Kingsmill Bond, a strategist for the energy thinktank Ember.

“The more the US cuts itself off from the rest of the world, the more the rest of the world will get on with things and the US will be left behind. This is a tragedy for the clean energy industry in the US, but for everyone else there are opportunities,” he said.

Analysis by the climate campaign group 350.org has found that despite rising costs and falling green investment in the US, Trump’s trade war will not affect the energy transition and renewables trade globally.

One senior executive at a big European renewable energy company said developers were likely to press on with existing US projects but in future would probablyinvest in other markets.

“So we won’t be doing less, we’ll just be going somewhere else,” said the executive, who asked not to be named. “There is no shortage of demand for clean energy projects globally, so we’re not scaling back our ambitions. And excluding the US could make stretched supply chains easier to manage.”

Countries likely to benefit from the fresh attention of renewable energy investors include burgeoning markets in south-east Asia, where fossil fuel reliance remains high and demand for energy is rocketing. Australia and Brazil have also emerged as countries that stand to gain.

The challenge for governments hoping to seize the opportunity provided by the US green retreat will be to assure rattled investors that they offer a safe place to invest in the climate agenda.

Although the green investment slowdown may be largely limited to the US, this still poses concerns for global climate progress, according to Marina Domingues, the head of new energies for the consultancy Rystad Energy.

“The US is a huge emitter country. So everything the US does still really matters to the global energy transition and how we account for CO2,” she said. The US is the second most polluting country in the world, behind China, which produces almost three times its carbon emissions. But the US’s green retreat comes at a time when the country was planning to substantially increase its domestic energy demand.

After years of relatively steady energy demand, Rystad predicts a 10% growth in US electricity consumption from a boom in AI datacentres alone. The economy is also likely to require more energy to power an increase in domestic manufacturing as imports from China dwindle.

In the absence of a growing energy industry, this is likely to come from fossil fuels, meaning growing climate emissions. The US is expected to make use of its abundance of shale gas, but it is planning to use more coal in the future too.

In the same week that Trump set out his tariffs, he signed four executive orders aimed at preventing the US from phasing out coal, in what climate campaigners at 350.org described as an “abuse of power”.

Anne Jellema, the group’s executive director, said: “President Trump’s latest attempt to force-feed coal to the US is a dangerous fantasy that endangers our health, our economy and our future.”

[tabootabletalk]

100 work from home job opportunities

1. Live Ops- www.liveops.com

2. TeleTech-TeleTech.localjobster.com

3. Amazon-Amazon.JobsOnline.com

4. Sutherland Global Services- http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/careers.aspx

5. UnitedHealth Group-https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/career-areas/customer-service-and-claims/customer-service-and-call-center

6. Dell-http://jobs.dell.com/north-America-jobs

7. IBM-www.ibm.com/employment

8. U.S Department of Agriculture www.usda.gov

9. Working Solutions- http://workingsolutions.com

10. Humana- www.humana.com

11. Aetna- https://www.aetna.com/about-us/aetna-careers.html

12. Intuit- www.Intuit.com

13. Kaplan- kaplan.com/work-with-us/our-culture

14. Kelly Services- www.kellyservices.us/US/Careers/KellyConnect/Kelly-At-Home

15. Cactus Communications- https://www.flexjobs.com/jobs/telecommuting-jobs-at-cactus

16. Westat- https://www.westat.com

17. Salesforce- www.salesforce.com/company/careers

18. PAREXEL- https://jobs.parexel.com

19. CyberCoders- https://www.cybercoders.com/jobs/work-from-home-php-developer

20. American Express- https://jobs.americanexpress.com

21. Vmware- telecommuting-jobs-at-vmware

22. SAP- www.sap.com/career

23. Xerox- https://www.xerox.com/en-us/jobs/work-from-home

24. First Data- https://www.firstdata.com/en_us/about-first-data/careers

25. US-Report- www.us-reports.com/jobs

26. Oracle- Oracle-Work.Jobsgalore.com/Jobs

27. CACI International- careers.caci.com/key/work-from-home-jobs.html

28. A Place for Mom- www.aplaceformom.com/jobs

29. Anthem,Inc- careers.antheminc.com

30. DellSecureWroks- telecommuting-jobs-at-dell_secureworks

31. World Travel Holdings- www.worldtravelholdings.com/careers,work-home

32. ADP- www.adp.com/careers.aspx

33. Aon- telecommuting-jobs-at-aon

34. University of Maryland University College- www.umuc.edu/visitors/careers

35. Allergan Inc.- www.allergan.com/careers

36. K12- www.k12.com/careers

37. U.S. Department of Transportation- https://www.transportation.gov/careers

38. CSI companies- thecsicompanies.com/candidates

39. Robert Half- www.roberthalf.com

40. Nielsen- sites.nielsen.com/careers

41. Red Hat- www.redhat.com/en/jobs

42. Adobe Systems- www.adobe.com/careers

43. Overland Solutions, Inc.- overlandsolutionsinc.com

44. BCD travel- www.bcdtravel.com/get-to-know-us/careers

45. Connections Education- www.connectionsacademy.com/careers

46. Deloitte- www.deloitte.com/careers

47. Apple- https://jobs.apple.com

48. Mckesson Corporation- https://careers.mckesson.com

49. Thermo Fisher Scientific- corporate.thermofisher.com/en/home.html

50. Precyse- careers.precyse.com

51. Haynes & Company- www.haynesandcompany.com

52. Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc- www.ppdi.com/careers

53. IT Pro Philadelphia- www.phillymag.com/property/2013/10/22/live-work-homes

54. Cingna- www.cigna.com/career

55. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt- careers.hmhco.com

56. Sungard Availability Services- sungardas.com

57. Infor- www.infor.com/company/careers

58. Sodexo- www.sodexousa.com/home/careers-usa.html

59. About.com- About.com/Can I Work From Home

60. Altegra Health- altegrahealth.com/careers

61. GE- jobs.gecareers.com/

62. Western Governors University- www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/employment/work_remote

63. Grand Canyon University- jobs.gcu.edu/admissions-enrollment-jobs

64. Walden University- https://www.waldenu.edu

65. Vivint- www.vivint.com/company/careers

66. BroadSpire- https://www.choosebroadspire.com

67. Covance- careers.covance.com

68. Ellucian- www.ellucian.com

69. HD Supply- hdsupply.jobs

70. Perficient Inc.- www.perficient.com

71. Teradata- https://www.teradata.com

72. Wells Fargo- https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/careers

73. Symantec Corporation- www.Symantec.com

74. Real Staffing-www.realstaffing.com/en

75. Science Applications International- www.saic.com

76. AmerisourceBergen Company- www.amerisourcebergen.com

77. Appen- www.jobs.net/jobs/appen/en-us

78. Hartford Financial Services Group- https://www.thehartfordatwork.com

79. RetailDatat- retaildatallc.com

80. SYKES- www.sykes.com/Careers

81. CARA- www.jobbankusa.com

82. Citizens Financial Group- citizensbank.jobs/work-at-home

83. CVS Health- cvshealth.com

84. Healthfirst- https://healthfirst.taleo.net/careersection/hf_ext_cs/jobsearch

85. American Heart Association- careers.heart.org

86. BMC software- www.bmc.com/careers

87. Hibu- https://hibu.com

88. inVentive Health- www.inventivhealth.com/careers

89. Rosetta Stone- jobs.jobvite.com/rosettastone

90. Erie Insurance Group- https://www.erieinsurance.com/careers

91. Deluxe- https://ww.deluxe.com

92. Clevertech- https://weworkremotely.com/jobs

93. Achieve Test Prep- www.achievetestprep.com

94. Worldpay- www.worldpay.com

95. DataStax- https://www.datastax.com/

96. CDK Global- www.cdkglobal.com

97. Teleflex- www.teleflex.com/en/careers/workingAtTeleflex

98. Aquent- aquent.com/find-work

99. Parallon- www.parallon.com/careers

100. U.S Department of the Interior- https://www.doi.gov/careers

[mariacallous]

The Middle East teeters on the brink of a regional war, and Israel’s conflict with Hamas hit the one-year mark on Oct 7. The longer that such wars—particularly when they are centered around long-standing geopolitical hot spots—go on, the greater their potential to spread—not just militarily, but also into the tangled domains of hybrid warfare, where political, strategic, and economic demands meet. Russia’s war in Ukraine offers a telling set of examples of what might be to come in the Middle East.

While the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought global attention to the conflict, the war was already long underway. Its start came with the Euromaidan revolution in Kyiv in 2014 and Russia’s subsequent annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, which was followed by Russian support of pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine during the ensuing years. Attempts at international mediation and negotiations over a cease-fire ultimately proved unsuccessful, leading to a gradual escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine that exploded into full-scale war nearly a decade later.

The hybrid dimension of the conflict has emerged as a pivotal component of the war. This spans everything from sanctions to cyberattacks to proxy conflicts between Moscow and Kyiv that go far beyond the front lines in Eastern Europe. And it’s played nearly as critical a role as the battlefield in shaping the course of the war.

Sanctions and other forms of economic restrictions have been some of the most actively used tools by Western states to pressure and weaken Moscow without having to get militarily involved in the conflict directly. The United States and European Union have levied thousands of sanctions against Russia, including against individuals, companies, and entire sectors such as banking and energy. For Washington, this has also included the use of secondary sanctions, which are designed to punish or dissuade non-Russian countries or companies from engaging with those sanctioned entities.

These strategies have been applied to various countries—from China to India to the United Arab Emirates—and reshaped global trade and financial flows while also spurring such countries to seek out loopholes and workarounds in order to mitigate their economic impact.

One case in point is the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan. One of the country’s largest banks—MBank, owned by former Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov—is reported by the Kyiv Independent to be working with Russia’s Sberbank, which has been sanctioned by the EU and United States. One of the mechanisms allegedly used by MBank to bypass sanctions involves a partnership with Bank 131, a Sberbank subsidiary that facilitates international payments.

Through a Singapore-based financial technology company called Thunes, MBank has reportedly reestablished payment channels linked to Sberbank, allowing it to conduct transactions in clear violation of the sanctions. Babanov himself is reportedly facing potential sanctions due to allegations that his company, Asia Cement, is linked to Russia’s nuclear industry.

MBank is not alone in this scrutiny. Other major Kyrgyz banks, including RSK and Keremet, are also under the spotlight for potentially bypassing anti-Kremlin sanctions. Both institutions rely on services from the KartStandard processing center and a local affiliate, CSI, which are effectively subsidiaries of Russia’s CFT Group, a company sanctioned by the United States in August.

If MBank and other Kyrgyz businesses continue their apparent engagement with sanctioned Russian companies, they may face secondary sanctions from Washington and the EU, which could in turn lead to Kyrgyzstan’s financial isolation, loss of access to international markets, and diminished foreign investment. Sanctions have been a potent tool for the West—and one that can affect countries far beyond the front lines.

Another key area is the cybersphere. Cyberattacks are, of course, not a new phenomenon, but they have been increasingly used by Kyiv and Moscow against a growing list of targets, including military sites, government agencies, and critical infrastructure such as energy grids and power plants. Russia has also employed cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns against Ukraine’s Western backers, most notably during its efforts to interfere with U.S. elections in 2016, and has shown no signs of abating such practices in the current election cycle.

A third arena in the hybrid sphere of the Russia-Ukraine war has taken the form of proxy conflicts, with the Middle East and Africa serving as key theaters. In the case of the Middle East, Russia has ramped up its support for anti-Western regimes since 2014, from intervening in the Syrian civil war in support of Bashar al-Assad in 2015 to beefing up cooperation with Iran.

Escalating tensions in the Middle East more recently have not deterred Moscow from providing such support, with Russia increasing economic and security ties with Iran, while the two countries reportedly plan to sign a strategic partnership agreement at the upcoming summit of the BRICS bloc (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and several recently added members) in late October.

In Africa, the Russia-Ukraine proxy war has taken on a more direct dimension, particularly in the Sahel region. Russia and Ukraine back rival sides of the Sudan conflict, with Russian Wagner Group mercenaries supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces while Kyiv backs the Sudanese Armed Forces. Ukrainian special forces have reportedly participated in drone strikes against Wagner forces in Sudan, and Ukraine also was accused of providing intelligence to rebels in Mali for an attack on Wagner forces operating there. Such a move prompted Mali and Niger to cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine, while Moscow accused Kyiv of opening a “second front” in their war.

The multidimensional nature of the war has complicated efforts to resolve the it diplomatically, given the sheer number of players pulled into the conflict and their complicated web of competing interests.

The Middle East could see similar hybrid dynamics emerge or strengthen in parallel to the military component of the conflict. This could include everything from the economic spread of anti-Israel boycotts to the politicization of the conflict in countries throughout the Muslim world to the growing use of cyberwarfare both within the region and outside of it.

After all, the war in Ukraine has shown no bounds when it comes to hybrid implications, with various aspects of connectivity between those involved—from energy to grain to telecommunications—being weaponized in the conflict.

This should serve as a cautionary tale for the Middle East. The longer that conflict drags on, the more players that it is likely to pull in (whether directly or indirectly) and the greater the consequences will be. Without a concerted effort to resolve or at least mitigate the conflict diplomatically, the hybrid components of the Russia-Ukraine conflict could be a sign for what’s to come in the Middle East—and far beyond.

[compacflt]

What are Ice and Mav up to in the present day? Did they participate in Barbenheimer? As Navy men did they get caught up in the sea shanty craze of a few years ago? Are they vaccinated? Have they ever gone on a <s>gay</s> cruise?

1. enjoying retirement together post ice being secnav & ice recovering from cancer (being rich & working on cars & planes & sometimes speaking at aiaa/Mitchell institute/csis/dod/doe/dos conferences)

2. no, they will wait till oppy hits netflix to partake & chill. They will not watch barbie ever no interest in women’s rights at all

3 . no they have never heard of tiktok besides the whole “defense dept employees can’t have bytedance apps on their phone bc of security reasons” thing. “What’s TikTok?” In anno domini 2023

4. Yes happily but: do not talk to mav about covid politics you will regret it

5. No. who tf wants to go on a cruise especially a.) during global pandemic b.) when you’re retired high ranking officers in the us navy & one of you literally is an ace and bombed another country and the other one of you is literally thefucking secretary of the navy. No

[darkmaga-returns]

China: ‘peasants in the US’ will suffer. 5 Companies Sue Trump Over Tariffs. US demands total nuclear shutdown in Iran. Hamas rejects Israeli proposal. WHO members agree on a landmark agreement

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Apr 16, 2025

President Trump: ‘The Ball Is in China’s Court,’ They Must ‘Make a Deal with Us’

“The ball is in China’s court,” President Donald Trump said in a statement delivered by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday as Trump moves to even unfair trade practices for the United States.

While Leavitt said that Trump has made his position on China crystal clear, she offered an additional statement directly from the president. “The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them. There’s no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger and China wants what we have — what every country wants, what we have: The American consumer,” Leavitt said, reading Trump’s statement.

China Refuses Boeing Jet Deliveries

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is directing its country’s aviation sector to stop receiving Boeing jets as U.S.-China trade tensions intensify. The Chinese government’s directive also includes a halt on the purchase of U.S.-made airline components.

Last week, China’s communist government announced it would increase tariffs on American goods to 125 percent. This followed an announcement by U.S. President Donald J. Trump of a 145 percent tariff on all Chinese imports. Notably, Boeing-made aircraft comprise an estimated 40 percent of the total global commercial aviation market. France-based Airbus holds nearly 60 percent of the market, with Canada’s Bombardier Aviation and Brazil’s Embraer S.A. making up the small remainder. Additionally, U.S.-made airline parts account for a significant share of components sold around the world.

Hong Kong Post to suspend postal service to US

Hong Kong Post said on Wednesday that it would suspend its postal service for items containing goods to the United States, for air mail from April 27, and said that Hong Kong residents should be prepared to pay "exorbitant and unreasonable fees."

5 Companies Sue Trump Over Tariffs

The White House has said the duties are needed to offset trade imbalances and to shore up U.S. national security.

Trump's tariffs have injected a large measure of chaos into the markets - so much so that JPMorgan sees only four potential off-ramps to right the ship; (i) Series of Trade Deals – the key being that one or more need to be completed across the G8 with a China deal being the most impactful (ii) Another Trump Pivot – this could look like a delay/reduction for China to the 10%, perhaps with Trump’s commitment to fostering a business-friendly environment (iii) A Legal Injunction – about 2 weeks ago a Charles Koch-backed legal group initiated a lawsuit against Trump challenging Presidential authority over tariffs (BBG) (iv) Congress Passes a Veto-Proof Law – we have seen two initiative with Republicans crossing the aisle to join Democrats in attempting to halt the trade war but, as of now, the 2/3 necessary in both parts of Congress has not been attained.

U.S.′ inability to replace rare earths supply from China poses a threat to its defense, warns CSIS

As China imposes export controls on rare earth elements, the U.S. would be unable to fill a potential shortfall, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies — and this could threaten Washington’s military capabilities.

Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating tariffs on China, Beijing earlier this month imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and magnets used in defense, energy and automotive technologies. The new restrictions — which encompass the medium and heavy rare earth elements samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium — will require Chinese companies to secure special licenses to export the resources.

Trump claims tariffs could replace income tax

The US president insists his trade policy could generate billions in revenue

US President Donald Trump has suggested that revenue from his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs could potentially replace the federal income tax. This month, Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly 90 countries, citing what he described as unfair trade practices. Following a sharp global market decline, he declared a 90-day pause on the duties, reducing them to a 10% baseline. China was one of the few exceptions, with tariffs on its goods raised even further. Speaking to Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether his tariffs could eventually replace the income tax.

[jencsi]

Thoughts on the 10th Anniversary of CSI's final (real) episode The End Game which aired 2-15-25....

I have spent a large portion of my life maladaptive daydreaming, getting lost in the CSI sauce if you will, about this entire series but hyperfixating on this specific timeline (2012-2015) featuring the iconic, the ride or die (literally she did, but didn't iykyk) Julie Finlay. If I am going to be remembered for one thing in my mediocre life, it's going to be my obsession devotion to her character and the injustice that was her ending. Has much changed in 10 years? Globally yes. Personally. No. I still work the same job, still live in the same place, still pine for the same things, still watch and re-watch the same stuff, but that's okay. I have made good friends and acquaintances here and elsewhere due to the show and the characters.

If it was still airing, it would be on season 25 which it rightfully deserved to go that distance but was sadly taken out too soon. (Don't even get me started on that wreck of a movie that aired in September that year, gag)

But the constant that remains is always going to be this piece of media that I carry with me like some unhealable wound. I will always write for it, make edits for it, think about it, wish for it to be back, engage with others about it, and overall do what I can to keep it alive. Sounds crazy right? Well if it didn't sound crazy to you, you've found the right place to call home.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

How Brazil's CCXP became a global pop culture icon

The conference, starting Thursday and running through Sunday, is expected to generate R$1bn in revenue for São Paulo

Back in 2014, during the inaugural edition of the Comic Con Experience, Pierre Mantovani was hopeful that at best, the pop culture conference could draw in 60,000 attendees—a risky investment in Brazil, despite its tradition in the United States. “At the time, nobody thought it was possible to host a better event than the Americans. Not even us,” says the CEO of Omelete Company, the organizer of CCXP.

A decade later, the event—running from Thursday to Sunday in São Paulo—has become one of the most significant events on the international entertainment calendar, attracting participation from movie studios, streaming platforms, video game companies, and comic book publishers.

For fans, who flock to enter the conference, it is a chance to attend premieres of highly anticipated films, roam the halls dressed as their favorite characters, and see Hollywood stars up close. This year’s lineup includes English actor Matt Smith, from “House of the Dragon,” and American actor Giancarlo Esposito, from series like “CSI” and “Breaking Bad.”

Last year, CCXP attracted 297,000 attendees (surpassing the 92,000 in 2014), with an estimated R$900 million in revenue generated for São Paulo. This figure includes R$547.3 million in direct revenue and R$352.8 million indirectly. Attendees from outside São Paulo spent an average of R$2,300 on accommodation, transportation, dining, nightlife, etc., including the ticket cost. This year, the total financial impact is expected to exceed R$1 billion.

How did CCXP reach such heights? Creating an event of this scale became a business necessity for Omelete Company, says Mr. Mantovani, who was previously focused on online content production.

Continue reading.

[ncisfranchise-source]

Two decades ago, CBS spun off a show about criminal investigations led by a niche unit of the U.S. Navy from the network’s legal drama “JAG.” When it first premiered on the broadcast network, “NCIS” was hardly a hit, landing as only the No. 23 most-watched program of the season against juggernauts like CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” Fox’s “American Idol” and NBC’s “Friends.” 

It took U.S. audiences a few years to come around, but the Mark Harmon-led show performed well with overseas audiences — particularly in Australia, the U.K. and Europe. By Season 7, the show grew into the most-watched broadcast drama on TV. In 2023, with the flagship series in its 20th season and having spawned four spin-off shows, more than 300 million people across the world watched the “NCIS” franchise across all platforms, according to CBS data. 

On Monday night, the franchise will air its 1,000th episode, an inspiring milestone for a collection of CBS crime procedurals in the age of declining linear television. The only other primetime TV franchise to have reached 1,000 episodes are Dick Wolf’s “Law & Order” shows.

The feat by “NCIS” is just as impressive considering how its flagship evolved from a small show in its early seasons into a global phenomenon comprising five series and over 46 seasons of highly-rated television — with more still to come. 

“When [“NCIS”] began I figured it’s an America-only show that’s not going to necessarily play well globally. But the show really took off internationally before it did in the States,” CBS Studios president David Stapf, who was the network’s head of current programming at the time of the show’s premiere, told TheWrap. “Now knowing what the show is and what’s in its DNA, I see how naive I was.”

Creative and corporate leaders behind the franchise — consisting of “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “NCIS: Hawai’i” and “NCIS: Sydney,” the franchise’s first international iteration — said its continued success stems from building strong ensemble casts to tackle inventive cases week after week, while striking a delicate creative balance of high-stakes drama, light humor and a sense of family that appeals to a worldwide audience. The showrunners’ success in “recasting well” and maintaining cost-effective productions has also helped ensure the longevity of “NCIS” — and declining linear TV ratings haven’t stopped the franchise from finding a strong audience in streaming.  

“One thing that helps is appealing to a wide range of people, being a show that men can watch and women can watch, and that kids can watch with their parents,” flagship co-showrunner Steven D. Binder told TheWrap. “It also helps that we’re not a serialized show. You can tune in and tune out, although there doesn’t seem to be a lot of tuning out.”

It’s fitting that the flagship series, recently renewed for Season 22, holds the honor of airing the landmark 1,000th hour. But other than ensuring to make the episode special — as they’ve done in the past for the show’s 100th, 250th and other landmark hours — showrunners Binder and David North admit they haven’t had much time to think about making television history. 

“It’s one of those things that I think I can’t really answer until I’m like 75 looking back on it,” Binder told TheWrap. Added North, “When you’re in the middle of it, you’re just focused on ‘What are we doing next?’ How can we keep the show interesting and fresh? How can we replace this cast member?’” 

While celebrating their own milestone, the showrunners for all five “NCIS” series, along with Stapf and CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach, agreed that they can see other TV franchises replicating this success and longevity — though with shorter episode orders it might take more time. 

Overcoming challenges

The “NCIS” flagship has gone through an almost complete cast shakeup in 21 seasons. Sean Murray and Brian Dietzen are the only remaining cast members to have been involved in some capacity since the first season. 

Binder and North recalled the first cast exit — the death of Sasha Alexander’s Caitlin Todd — as the “scariest” one to get through. But it also served as a blueprint for introducing characters and dynamics to push the series forward after other high-profile departures. The introduction of characters played by Wilmer Valderrama, Diona Reasonover and Katrina Law made up for the losses of fan favorites like Weatherly, de Pablo and Pauley Perrette. 

The biggest challenge came after Harmon stepped away from his role as team leader Leroy Gibbs in Season 19. 

“Mark was the face of this thing, so that was a scary time for all of us,” North said.

While cast shakeups have happened across the “NCIS” universe, one behind-the-scenes loss stands out: The sudden death of longtime “NCIS” showrunner and “NCIS: New Orleans” creator Gary Glasberg in 2016 at age 50. Veteran CBS producer Brad Kern stepped in as showrunner of the Scott Bakula-led spin-off, but his tenure was short. After two internal misconduct allegations — reportedly involving mistreatment of female colleagues and making racially insensitive statements — Kern was demoted to consulting producer. He was fired in 2018. 

Kern was replaced with franchise veteran Chris Silber and newcomer Jan Nash, who led “NCIS: New Orleans” through the remainder of its seven-season, 155-episode run before it wrapped in 2021. The duo now lead the “Hawai’i” spin-off led by Vanessa Lachey, which is currently in its third season. 

“Life happens around you and sometimes it happens directly to your show,” Silber, who worked alongside Glasberg as a writer and producer on “New Orleans” since Season 1, told TheWrap. “I always saw my job at ‘NOLA’ to be the steward of the show that Gary created and following through on his vision… ‘Hawai’i’ was an opportunity for us to start something from the very beginning.”

“NCIS: Los Angeles,” the franchise’s second longest-running series starring LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, wrapped up in 2023 after 14 seasons and 323 episodes. “LA” showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, who recently announced a new series at Max, “The Pitt,” with former “ER” collaborator John Wells, told TheWrap he’s certain he’ll return to the “NCIS” universe someday. 

While the Los Angeles and New Orleans versions had long runs, “all shows have to come to their natural conclusion at some point due to a variety of factors,” Reisenbach told TheWrap. “They were able to wrap up their stories, give their characters great send offs… we’re thrilled with the runs they had.”

Global success worthy of expansion

“NCIS” stands as the top-rated broadcast drama of the past five TV seasons (2018-19 through 2022-23), with an average audience of 10 million per episode in delayed viewing. 

The franchise’s global, cross-platform audience of more than 300 million people is 10% higher than the “Law & Order” universe, according to CBS data. Internationally, “NCIS” is licensed in more than 200 markets, and is the No. 1 scripted TV franchise in Australia, Italy, Sweden and the U.K. Along with streaming on Paramount+, 15 seasons of the flagship series are also on Netflix, a likely contributor to its overall visibility on streaming, much like NBCUniversal’s hit “Suits.”

The numbers show why CBS, and parent company Paramount Global, are determined to grow the franchise. Its latest spin-off, “NCIS: Sydney” — contributing eight of the 1,000 episodes with its first season — was an Australian production originally intended to only hit Paramount+ in the U.S. But the Hollywood double strikes left some holes in CBS’ schedule that led to the Olivia Swann-led show’s massive stateside debut (its premiere gathered 10 million viewers across platforms). The show was renewed for a second season that will stay on CBS. 

“I’m thrilled to be bringing those characters back to life for a bigger and more ambitious second season,” Morgan O’Neill, the “Sydney” showrunner, told TheWrap. 

What’s next for the franchise?

Though audiences seem enamored with the various iterations of “NCIS,” Stapf said he’s meticulous when it comes to developing a new show within its universe. He hears “a lot of ideas” for new shows from writers within the show’s creative ranks and outside pitches. The key to getting a green light is whether a spin-off can stand on its own and present a unique perspective, while still feeling like a good fit for the overall franchise.

That used to mean bringing the DNA of “NCIS” to a different city — or in the case of “Sydney,” to another continent — but the latest CBS spin-off to receive a series order will go back in time. “Origins,” an idea brought to the studio by Harmon and his son Sean, in collaboration with North and Gina Lucita Monreal, will follow the rise of young Leroy Gibbs (played by Austin Stowell) through the NCIS ranks. 

“When David (Stapf) sent over the script for ‘Origins,’ it was undeniable,” Reisenbach said. “The audience will be so thrilled when they see a story that’s never been even alluded to before, once you get into the nitty gritty of it. That goes back to the fact we’re not printing out widgets with these shows.”

As for the existing shows? While “NCIS” wrapped production on its latest season, “NCIS: Hawai’i” awaits news about a Season 4 renewal, and “Sydney” is gearing up work on Season 2. 

“I remember maybe Season 7 or 8 CBS came with a big cake and said we were the most-watched drama in the world… Then I had my high school reunion shortly after that. I’m standing around talking to people, and I said I was a writer on a show called ‘NCIS’… Like two people recognized it, and the other eight were like ‘What’s that?’ ” Binder recalled. “So as you’re excited. You’re also constantly humbled.”