VULTURE CAPITALI$M
Thai group buys iconic Berlin department store

Berlin (AFP) – Thailand's Central Group said Friday it has bought the iconic KaDeWe department store in Berlin from insolvent Austrian real-estate giant Signa.

Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Thailand's Central Group reportedly paid around one billion euros for the iconic KaDeWe department store © STEFANIE LOOS / AFP/File

The 650,000-square-foot (60,000-square-metre) store is located on one the German capital's main shopping streets, and has long been a major draw for tourists.

The Thai group, a multinational conglomerate with a sprawling retail and property portfolio, did not confirm the purchase price, but German daily Handelsblatt put the figure at around one billion euros ($1.1 billion).

The news came several months after the company that operates the store, KaDeWe group, filed for bankruptcy, reportedly blaming the turmoil engulfing Signa.

"We are pleased to add KaDeWe Berlin to Central Group's historic flagship luxury store real estate portfolio," said Central Group's chief executive, Tos Chirathivat.

Vittorio Radice, a board member of Central Group Europe, said the purchase was "the first important milestone for us in the attempt to restore and restructure the KaDeWe Group operating company towards a sustainable, financially viable business".

Central Group is already a majority shareholder in the KaDeWe Group, with a 50.1 percent stake.

Handelsblatt reported the Thai conglomerate was in advanced talks to take over the entire group, which also operates the department stores Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich.

KaDeWe, short for "Kaufhaus des Westens" or the "Department Store of the West", first opened its doors in 1907, and is one of Europe's biggest department stores.

When Berlin was divided during the Cold War, its well-stocked shelves symbolised the capitalism and consumerism of the West, a stark contrast to life in the communist East.

As well as problems caused by the crisis in Signa, it has suffered like other department stores as customers increasingly choose to shop online.

Signa -- which owns the Chrysler building in New York -- initiated insolvency proceedings in November, marking the spectacular downfall of its founder, self-made Austrian tycoon Rene Benko.

Central Group has been a long-standing business partner of Signa.

Late last year, it also ended another partnership with the Austrian group, becoming the majority shareholder in the group that runs historic British department store Selfridges.

© 2024 AFP

Thousands of Lebanese mourn slain Christian political official

Byblos (Lebanon) (AFP) – Thousands of Lebanese on Friday mourned a slain Christian political official authorities said was killed by a Syrian gang, with supporters pointing the finger at Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group.

Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Mourners and supporters of the Lebanese Forces wave their party's flag at Sleiman's funeral © Ibrahim CHALHOUB / AFP


Pascal Sleiman was a coordinator in the Byblos (Jbeil) area north of Beirut for the Lebanese Forces (LF) Christian party, which opposes the government in neighbouring Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

On Monday, the army said that Sleiman, who had gone missing the day before, was killed in a carjacking by Syrian gang members who then took his body across the border.

His party said it would consider Sleiman's death a "political assassination until proven otherwise".

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has denied that his party was involved.

Speaking after Sleiman's funeral, LF leader Samir Geagea called for the "failed, corrupt" authorities in Lebanon to be changed.

Geagea blamed their failure, among other things, on "illegal weapons" -- a barely veiled reference to Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed group is the only party in Lebanon that has kept its weapons arsenal after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, and it wields great influence on the country's political life.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in actions opposed by the LF and other parties.

"We don't want to wake up one day, as we did now, and find ourselves involved in a never-ending war," Geagea said Friday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, spiritual leader of Lebanon's largest Christian sect, held back tears as he presided over Sleiman's funeral in Byblos.

Outside the St Georges church, LF supporters waved the party's white flag with its cedar tree -- the symbol of Lebanon -- circled in red.

Mourners told AFP they were unconvinced by the army's version that car thieves killed Sleiman.

"This story never convinced me. It is not coherent at all," said Jean Habshi, 50, who came to pay his respects.

"Enough with Hezbollah, enough with the illegal weapons," Roba Hajal, 24, told AFP outside the church.

"If they (Hezbollah) did not kill him, at the very least they allowed the Syrians in. We are all at risk of meeting Pascal's fate," she said.

Lebanon has a long history of political assassinations that have taken place with impunity.

Years of economic meltdown have further strained a weak judiciary that has been widely accused of succumbing to political interference.

Ziad Hawat, an LF lawmaker from Byblos, on Friday called for a "serious, transparent" probe into Sleiman's murder, adding that the party had concerns "based on past experiences".

"We do not want the killer to be known to all," he added, while "remaining unknown to the judiciary".

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi vowed to get tough on Syrians after several were arrested on suspicion of involvement in Sleiman's killing.

© 2024 AFP

Fairobserver.comwww.fairobserver.com/world-news/europe-news/the-lebanese-phalanges-in-the-interwar-era/

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COLD WAR 2.0
Belgium opens probe into Russian ‘interference’ in European Parliament

Belgian prosecutors have opened a probe into Russian “interference” in the European Parliament following allegations lawmakers were paid to spread Kremlin propaganda, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Friday.


Issued on: 12/04/2024 -

Members of the European parliament during a plenary mini-session in Brussels on April 11, 2024. © Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP

By: NEWS WIRES


“Our judicial authorities have now confirmed this interference is subject to prosecution,” De Croo said.

“The cash payments did not take place in Belgium, but the interference does. As Belgium is the seat of the EU institutions, we have a responsibility to uphold every citizen’s right to a free and safe vote.”

He said a summit of EU leaders next week would discuss the allegations which have been raised just ahead of bloc-wide elections in June to choose a new parliament.

De Croo said Moscow’s “clear” objectives were to “help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and reinforce the pro-Russian narrative in that institution”.

A spokesperson for Belgium’s prosecutors’ office confirmed to AFP that a probe was started on Thursday.

The Czech Republic last month said its intelligence service had discovered a network that used EU lawmakers to spread Russian propaganda through the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site.

Belgium says its own services have determined that some of the lawmakers had been paid to promote Moscow’s propaganda.

“If there would be a type of bribery—and our services indicate that payments have taken place—while you need two sides for that to happen, you have people who organise it, but you also have people to receive it,” De Croo said.
Far-right politicians

EU lawmakers face strict rules regarding independence and ethics and can face penalties—financial and otherwise—if they violate them.

The Greens grouping in the European Parliament and a Czech daily said the lawmakers under suspicion came from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland.

The political news website Politico said it identified 16 EU lawmakers who had appeared on Voice of Europe, all of them far-right politicians.

The Czech newspaper Denik N and Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine named two top German candidates from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Petr Bryston and Maximilian Krah, as politicians suspected of receiving Russian funds to spread the Kremlin talking points.

Bryston and Krah have denied receiving any payments. Denik N reported that Czech secret services had an audio recording implicating Bryston.

The European Parliament’s main political groups have called for the legislature to also probe the alleged propaganda-peddling.

The revelation comes a year after the “Qatargate” bribery scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco. Both states have denied the accusations.


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Read moreCorruption, cash and confessions: Who are the key suspects in the Qatargate scandal ?

De Croo said Belgium was enacting this week a new law against such interference and was calling for more tools at the EU level to combat Russian propaganda and disinformation.

He said Belgian prosecutors were to ask for an urgent meeting of the Eurojust agency that handles cross-border legal cooperation within the EU.

The Czech Republic has put the Voice of Europe and two pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politicians—Viktor Medvedchuk and Artem Marchevsky—on its sanctions list in relation to the pro-Russia network’s activities.

(AFP)

POST WAGNER GROUP

Russian military instructors, air defence system arrive in Niger amid deepening ties

Russian military instructors have arrived in Niger with an air defence system and other equipment as part of the West African nation’s deepening security ties with Moscow, state television announced late Thursday.


Issued on: 12/04/2024 

An image from video shown on Nigerien state TV reportedly showed Russian military trainers speaking to the media next to an airplane in Niamey, Niger on April 10, 2024. © RTN handout via Reuters

Niger’s military government agreed in January to step up security cooperation with Russia, after expelling French forces that were helping fight jihadist rebellions in several Sahel nations.

On Friday, African Corps—seen as the successor of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group in Africa—confirmed it had arrived in Niger.

The Tele Sahel broadcaster showed a Russian transport plane arriving at Niamey airport on Wednesday night.

It said “the latest military equipment and military instructors from the Russian defence ministry” had arrived.

Russia will help “install an air defence system... to ensure complete control of our airspace”, the report said.

One instructor was quoted as saying that “We are here to train the Niger army and help it use the equipment that has just arrived. The equipment is for different military specialities.”

“The first flight of African Corps troops and volunteers has arrived in Niger,” the group wrote on Telegram.

The Wagner mercenary group had unofficially served the Kremlin’s aims in Africa since the 2010s.

Rebranded African Corps and reorganised following the August 2023 death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a mysterious plane crash, the group is now under the Kremlin’s umbrella, signalling a formal acknowledgement of Russia’s role in the Sahel.

The head of Niger’s military government, General Abdourahamane Tiani, spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 26.

The two leaders discussed security cooperation as well as “global strategic cooperation” against “current threats”, authorities said at the time, without elaborating.


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Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, had been a frontline partner of the West in battling jihadists in the Sahel but has turned to Russia since the elected president was ousted last July.

Niger has also joined neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso—also ruled by military leaders after coups—to create a joint force to battle long-running jihadist insurgencies.

The junta kicked out forces from former colonial power France, whose 1,500 troops had left Niger by the end of last year.

The military also announced it was breaking off a 2012 agreement with the United States, which has built a desert drone base at a cost of $100 million in northern Niger and has some 1,000 troops in the country.

(AFP)

01:12

NAKBA 2.0
Israeli forces kill 2 in West Bank: Palestinian agency

Tubas (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians early Friday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, but the military said it "eliminated" two militants including a Hamas member.

Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Palestinians check a bullet-riddled car following the raid by Israeli forces near Tubas in the occupied West Bank

 © Zain JAAFAR / AFP


One man was killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on his vehicle in the city of Tubas, Wafa reported.

Another Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli gunfire when troops raided Al-Fara refugee camp near Tubas, the agency said.

Israel's military, contacted by AFP, said its forces had killed Mohammad Omar Draghmeh, and described him as "a central figure" in planning Hamas attacks.

"During the counter-terrorism activity, the terrorist shot at security forces who responded with fire and eliminated him," the military said, adding that troops found weapons in his vehicle.

Soldiers in the Tubas area also came under attack and returned fire, the army said. One militant was killed and two wanted suspects were arrested.

The area around Tubas in the northern West Bank is a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the frequent target of Israeli military incursions.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since early last year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza on October 7.

At least 461 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to official Palestinian sources.

The war in the Gaza Strip erupted after Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,634 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

© 2024 AFP

TARGETED

Over 60 members of Gaza family killed in separate Israeli strikes

Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's Tabatibi family is in mourning for the second time in less than a month, after separate Israeli bombardments on buildings they were sheltering in killed more than 60 of their kin.


Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

The rubble of the Tabatibi family home after it was struck last month

 © - / AFP/File

The latest strike occurred in the early hours of Friday in Gaza City's densely populated Daraj neighbourhood, killing at least 25 members of the family, a relative told AFP.

In a narrow street, the six-storey building where the Tabatibi family had been staying was still standing on Friday, balconies barely hanging to its facade, the ground floor charred and its inside strewn with rubble.

"We didn't hear a missile come down or anything, we were all asleep", Khaled al-Tabatibi, a surviving member of the family, told AFP.

"Our house, my sisters, their children, their daughters, all of them are martyred, all of them are in pieces," he said through tears.

"When the occupation aircraft bombed the house, we were asleep. We don't know why they targeted the house, it's a massacre, annihilation."

Ziyad Dardas, a neighbour whose brother was injured in the strike, was at a loss for words.

"This is madness, this is the peak of crime from our leaders and Israeli leaders", he told AFP.

"To the (Palestinian) Authority, to Hamas leaders, I say why is this not enough?"

The dead and injured were reportedly taken to Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, which was mostly destroyed in a recent Israeli military operation.
House bombed 'while we were in it'

The Tabatibi family, which has been displaced by Israeli bombardments on several occasions, had already been in mourning.

On March 15, the family had gathered in central Gaza to eat together during the first Friday night of Ramadan, a reunion that soon turned into a bloodbath.

An air strike hit the building where they were staying as women prepared the pre-fasting meal, killing 36 members of the family, witnesses told AFP at the time.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which provided the same death toll, blamed Israel for the strike in the city's Nuseirat area, as did survivors.

Asked about that strike, the Israeli military said it targeted two "terror operatives" in Nuseirat "throughout the night," without elaborating.

"They bombed the house while we were in it. My mother and my aunt were preparing the suhoor food. They were all martyred," Mohammed al-Tabatibi said at the time at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, before the bodies of his relatives were stacked on a truck to be driven to a cemetery.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 33,634 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

© 2024 AFP

Ex-Resistance Olympic torch-bearer still wants to 'change the world'

Saint-Étienne (France) (AFP) – At the age of 102, Melanie Berger-Volle will carry the Olympic torch as high as she can, despite her fragile shoulder, to champion the values of friendship between peoples that she defended during her time with the French Resistance in the Second World War.


Issued on: 12/04/2024

Melanie Berger-Volle will carry the Olympic torch in Saint-Etienne in June at the age of 102 © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

A "woman in the shadows" during the Occupation (1940-1944), Berger-Volle was thrilled to be chosen to carry the torch as it passes through Saint-Etienne on June 22 on its way to Paris for the start of the Olympic Games.

The weight of the torch has been a concern but there was never any question of turning it down.

"I've always loved sport," says the sprightly centenarian who until recently enjoyed an hour's walk a day.

Grandmother of the gymnast Emilie Volle, who took part in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, she also wants to be a symbol for women "who have fought to play sport like men".

"My ideal has always been to unite the world," she says. "And the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to get to know other human beings."

- 'Mistreated' -

Born in Austria in 1921 into a Jewish working-class family, Melanie Berger began her activism as a teenager in an extreme left-wing group.

"We were atheists and when I started fighting it wasn't for religious reasons, it was political," she says. "I'm against all dictatorships."

After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, she left her country, went to Belgium and then arrived in France, in Paris in the spring of 1939, disguised as a boy.

When France went to war later that year, all Austrians, even refugees, were seen as enemies and the authorities put her on a train to a camp near Pau.

At Clermont-Ferrand station, she "jumped out" of the carriage.

She was on her own as the other girls did not dare follow her.

"They weren't political, they didn't know what a camp was," she shrugs.

On the contrary, the young activist was well aware that "when you get a chance, you can't let it go by".

In 1940 after the French surrender to the Nazis, she found herself in Montauban, where a group of Trotskyist militants she had belonged to before the war was beginning to reform.

"With my French-sounding name, I rented a flat in a dilapidated house, and from there we were able to start work."

Discreetly, the group drafted and distributed German-language leaflets aimed at turning Reich soldiers.

In January 1942, however, that all came to an end when the police raided the house and she was arrested and brutally interrogated.

"I was mistreated, men beat me," she says quietly. "The after-effects are still with me. But I'm still here."

She avoided a death penalty and after 13 months in detention in Toulouse, the 22-year-old Berger was transferred to the Baumettes prison in Marseille.

Members of her group, together with the Resistance, prepared her escape.

- 'No' to Nazism -

On October 15, 1943, they came to get her, accompanied by a German soldier who had taken up the cause, while she was in hospital with jaundice.

"I escaped in my nightdress," she laughs.

Once recovered, she campaigned under false identities until the liberation in the summer of 1944.

After the war, she married Lucien Volle, another Resistance fighter who had taken part in the liberation of Le Puy-en-Velay.

Together, the couple began to devote themselves to the work of remembrance.

"We fought constantly to explain. Not what we had done but why we had done it," she says.

Melanie Berger-Volle said 'No' to Nazism © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

She has since been awarded a number of decorations, including the Legion d'Honneur.

"I didn't do much," she says. "But I did say 'no' to Nazism."

Worried again about the return of extremes in Europe, Berger-Volle hopes that young people will in turn be able to defend democracy.

And despite her advanced age, she intends to use the Olympics to get her message across.

"I wanted to change the world," she says with a smile. "And I still want to change it."

© 2024 AFP

Mayor orders 'mass evacuations' in Russia flood city

Moscow (AFP) – Flooding in the Russian city of Orenburg became "critical" Friday forcing "mass evacuations" as the Ural river level rises, the mayor said.

Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Flooding in Russia's West Siberia region has now reached 'dangerous' levels in some cities, authorities says 

© Handout / Kurgan region branch of the Russian Orthodox Church/AFP

Fast-rising temperatures have melted snow and ice, and along with heavy rains have caused a number of major rivers that cross Russia and Kazakhstan to overflow.

"Sirens are sounding in the city. This is not an exercise," Orenburg Mayor Sergei Salmin said on Telegram.

"Mass evacuations are ongoing," he said. "The situation is critical, do not waste time," he said, calling on people in several city districts to evacuate.

The Ural river has flooded much of Orsk, and Orenburg -- the regional capital -- has been preparing for the peak of the rising water.

The city has a population of some 550,000 people.

"In the last 10 hours the level of water on the Ural river rose by 40 centimetres (15.7 inches)," Salmin said, describing the situation as "dangerous".

Authorities have said that around 2,500 Orenburg houses have been affected by the water and almost 5,000 allotments.

Images on Russian state media showed an alley leading up to a monument that marks the border between Europe and Asia flooded, with lamp-posts partly submerged. They also showed water reaching many houses.

In Western Siberia, the Ishim river has also risen to dangerous levels, according to authorities in the Tyumen region. Officials have predicted that the Ishim and Tobol rivers will only reach a peak level around April 23-25.

A regional official, Sergey Balykin, told the RIA Novosti state news agency that the peak in Orenburg would come only on Friday or Saturday.

Russia has evacuated around 10,000 people from rising water, mostly from the Orenburg region.

Several villages have also been evacuated in the Kurgan and Tomsk regions further east.

Authorities said however that conditions had improved in Orsk, which was badly hit after dam breached. Officials said water levels were falling again.

Kazakhstan has evacuated more than 96,000 people, with the city of Petropavlovsk also bracing for the worst of the flooding.

No direct link has been made between the floods and global warming. But experts say the higher temperatures across the planet will cause the heavy rains blamed for the flooding.

© 2024 AFP

WAR IS ECOCIDE

IEA: Drone Attacks on Russian Refineries Could Upset Global Fuel Markets

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Apr 12, 2024

The drone attacks from Ukraine on Russian refineries could disrupt fuel markets globally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday, estimating that up to 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russia’s refinery capacity could be offline in the second quarter.

Global markets “rely on Russian exports of diesel, naphtha and jet fuel, while refining systems in Asia absorb substantial quantities of the country’s straight-run and cracked residue to boost upgrading unit feedstocks,” the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report today, as carried by Bloomberg.

The agency lowered by 160,000 bpd its forecast of global refinery throughputs this year and now sees these rising by 1 million bpd to 83.3 million bpd, due to lower Russian refinery runs, unplanned outages in Europe, and still-tepid Chinese activity.

Russian refinery outages have added to the unease in the global product market, the IEA said in the report.

In recent months, Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil refineries in Russia, which have reduced Russian refining capacity, and which, reportedly, have the White House concerned about rising international prices.

The United States has repeatedly urged Ukraine to halt its drone attacks on Russian oil refineries due to Washington’s assessment that the strikes could lead to Russian retaliation and push up global oil prices, the Financial Times reported last month, citing sources familiar with the exchange.

According to Reuters estimates, the amount of Russian oil refining capacity that has been taken offline due to Ukrainian drone strikes is 14% of Russia’s total refining capacity.

Due to refinery damage as a result of the drone attacks, Russia’s gasoline production fell by 12% in the last week of March compared to the February average, Russian daily Kommersant reported last week, quoting the Federal State Statistics Service, Rosstat. The domestic market hasn’t felt the impact, yet, also thanks to higher fuel imports from Belarus, Kommersant notes

Ukraine says Russian drones damaged energy infrastructure in south

Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Attacks by Russian drones in southern Ukraine overnight caused a fire at an energy facility in Dnipropetrovsk region and damaged critical infrastructure in Kherson region, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday. Ukraine forces shot down 16 out of 17 drones. Russia also used one Kh-59 guided air missile for the attack, the Ukrainian military said via Telegram messaging app. FRANCE 24's Emmanuelle Chaze reports from Kyiv, Ukraine.

01:24
Video by: Emmanuelle CHAZE

 

Putin says Ukraine energy site strikes aim to 'demilitarise' country


Issued on: 12/04/2024 - 

Video by :Douglas HERBERT

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that recent airstrikes on Ukraine's energy grid, which have caused huge blackouts, are part of the Kremlin's "demilitarisation" of its neighbour. "We assume that in this way we have an influence on the Ukrainian military-industrial complex," said Putin, adding that the strikes were also in response to Kyiv targeting Russia's energy infrastructure.

Truth Social shares hit grim milestone as price sinks again

Brad Reed
April 12, 2024 

Truth Social App (AFP)

Share prices for the Trump Media and Technology Group Corporation sank yet again on Friday, marking the fifth straight day this week that the value of former President Donald Trump's social media venture has continued to slide.

CNBC reports that shares in Trump Media dipped below $30 on Friday, a grim milestone for the company that signals it has lost more than half of its market cap since the company went public.

Although prices have moderately recovered since going below $30 on Friday, as of noon E.T. they were still trading at roughly 4 percent lower than on Thursday's closing price.

And in just the last week, shares in the Truth Social parent company have fallen by nearly 25 percent, erasing billions of dollars off what was once a market cap north of $7 billion.

CNBC notes that this ongoing crash has had a major impact on Trump's net worth given that he "is the biggest shareholder in the company, owning nearly 60 percent of its stock."

Despite all of that, Trump on Friday posted a message on his personal Truth Social account hyping the value of the network, which lost $58 million last year and generated a paltry $4 million in revenues.

"I am so proud of Truth Social, because I believe it represents the Make America Great Again Movement, and it shows the Spirit and Love of our Country," wrote the former president, who goes on trial Monday for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film star.

"If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH, we will be your Voice like never before, and a Real Voice is what our Country needs, because we are in decline, and must bring America to Greatness. Think of this as a Movement, the Greatest Movement in the History of our Country. We are going to Save our Country, and Make America Great Again, GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!"

'Poor Marge': MTG mocked after report suggests she lost $32K by investing in Trump Media

Sky Palma
April 12, 2024

RAW STORY

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks during a hearing with the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill on January 30, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee met to mark up Articles of Impeachment against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The media company with ties to Donald Trump's Truth Social platform is seeing its value tank more each day. Now, years after she purchased shares in the company, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not willing to talk about the state of her stocks.

Greene wouldn't respond to questions from CNBC or NBC News about her holdings in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which merged with Trump Media and saw its share price drop at least 45 percent to date, NBC News reported.

Greene, along with Indiana GOP Rep. Larry Bucshon, revealed they bought stock in the company in October 2021 — the same month it announced the merger with Trump Media.

Just days after the announcement, Greene bought shares of DWAC ranging from $15,000 to $50,000. As NBC News points out, if Greene is still an investor in the company, she would have lost up to $32,000. Bucshon could have lost up to $8,900.

A spokesman for Bucshon responded to inquiries and revealed that the lawmaker is still an investor in the company, but Greene has chosen to stay mum and public disclosures have not shown that she's sold any stock related to DWAC or Trump Media. Greene spokesman Nick Dyer told NBC News that Greene “holds no stocks at this time as reflected in her financial disclosure.”

When asked by NBC News on Wednesday what happened to her Trump Media stock, Greene replied, “This is a waste of time. I think you can read my reports and see what I own."

But according to Campaign Legal Center general counsel Kedric Payne, if the value of Greene's stock drops below $1,000, she's not required to disclose any information.

Experts say another possibility is that Greene recently sold her stock, giving her a period of up to 45 days where she doesn't have to disclose anything. As NBC News points out, lawmakers "aren’t prohibited from trading or holding individual stocks and other investments. But under the STOCK Act, members of Congress must report any trades within 45 days."

But the news elicited little sympathy online.

"Awwwwe—poor Marge," wrote an X user called Pink Freud. And ctwin wrote: "Hoping like @mtgreenee the stock has no low to which it can sink."

Trump shares post slamming stock market for not getting his 'Michelangelo'-level genius

Kathleen Culliton
April 12, 2024 


Former President Donald Trump Friday made a new addition to his list of institutions that are conspiring against him: the stock market.

Trump shared this viewpoint on Truth Social, the social media site whose parent company has seen its value plummet after news hit it lost $58 million in 2023, in the form of an editorial from a writer whose credentials include “Author of President Trump's favorite Substack.”

“The Trump brand should be worth tens of billions of dollars more than what it is currently being traded at on the Nasdaq, given its uniqueness as combining the best of politics and business,” writes Paul Ingrassia.

“In the same vein in which DaVinci’s paintings and Michelangelo’s sculptures would be valued in the billions if ever sold on the open market today, Donald Trump’s creative visions equate to exceptional valuations — because of the rarity of his skillset and gifts.”

Ingrassia's online profile shows he is a communications director for a nonprofit that positions itself as “the answer to the useless and radically leftist American Civil Liberties Union,” a New York Young Republican Club member, and a recent graduate of Cornell Law School.

The common thread of his substack does not appear to be financial analysis, but commentary on the multiple legal woes facing Trump

Titles published by Ingrassia include, “MAGA Beauty Isabella DeLuca’s Arrest Is Proof Positive That Biden’s Weaponized Justice System Has Become Outright Despotic Against Political Dissidents.”

Ingrassia opens his think-piece by deriding New York civil court Justice Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James — the judge and prosecutor in Trumps’ $464 million civil fraud case — both of whom he accuses of fraud.

“The fraud is found in the courtrooms – and it is a fraud on the American public, as well as the rule of law – not just in New York, where the dangerous precedent is being set by radical and illegitimate operatives like Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron,” he writes.

“The people who increasingly hold the levers of power, like James and Engoron – and by extension, Joe Biden and Merrick Garland.”

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

It’s worth noting that both Engoron and James were elected by the people of New York and their state-level positions are not connected to the federal Justice department.

This may be why Ingrassia next takes aim at all “institutions” he blames for the ruling in the Trump Organization civil fraud case.

“No matter how otherwise communistic our institutions may become, fortune, nature, (and God) invariably favors bold, original thinkers – especially in our age that suffers a pandemic of unoriginality and laziness,” he writes.

“Obviously, with the public listing of President Trump’s media company, his net worth is higher than ever before, placing him on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s top 500 billionaires, for the first time.”

Since the publishing of the Hill report Ingrassia shared, Trump has been bumped from the list.

As final proof to his billion-dollar value theory, Ingrassia points to the quality of Trump products.

“President Trump’s eye for discernment is why he has been able to build some of the most stunning golf courses seen anywhere in the United States,” writes Ingrassia.

“The Trump Brand is one of if not the world’s most recognizable brands. Whether pertaining to real estate, or politics, or media and entertainment, the Trump namesake is ubiquitous the world over, and is demarcated for its luxury and quality of content.”

Other Trump-branded items have included Trump Vodka, Trump Steak, Trump Magazine and Trump Mortgage, all of which appear in a round-up of the former president’s failed business ventures.

Trump shared Ingrassia’s analysis the same day financial experts reported Trump Media’s stock had lost half their value since hitting the market in late March, and followed it up with a post about Truth Social.


“If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH, we will be your Voice like never before, and a Real Voice is what our Country needs,” Trump wrote. “Because we are in decline.”On Friday, Trump Media stock values dipped below $30, Yahoo Finance data show.

Beijing slams US-Japan-Philippines summit, says South China Sea actions ‘lawful’

Reuters Published April 12, 2024

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida take part in an official White House State Arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10. — Reuters

Beijing on Friday criticised the United States, Japan and the Philippines and defended its actions in the South China Sea as “lawful” after US President Joe Biden hosted a trilateral meeting in Washington.

Biden on Thursday pledged to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea at the White House summit, which came amid repeated confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed waterway that have raised fears of wider conflict.

A joint statement issued by the leaders of the trio of nations voiced “serious concern” over Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea, slamming its behaviour as “dangerous and aggressive”.

Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines.

On Friday, China hit out at the joint summit in Washington, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning saying Beijing “firmly opposes the relevant countries manipulating bloc politics, and firmly opposes any behaviour that provokes or lays plans for opposition, and hurts other countries’ strategic security and interests”.

“We firmly oppose engaging in closed cliques that exclude others in the region,” Mao told a regular press conference.

“Japan and the Philippines can of course develop normal relations with other countries, but they should not invite factional opposition into the region, much less engage in trilateral cooperation at the cost of hurting another country’s interests.

“If these are not wanton smears and attacks on China, what are they?” she said.

“China’s actions in the East China Sea and South China Sea are appropriate and lawful, and beyond reproach,” Mao added.
‘Ironclad’

On Thursday, Biden told Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that the United States’ defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are “ironclad”.

As they met around a horseshoe-shaped wooden table in the grand East Room of the US presidential residence, the US, Japanese and Philippine leaders hailed the meeting as “historic”.

Without mentioning China by name, they painted their alliance as a bedrock of peace and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region in contrast to authoritarian Beijing.

Marcos, seen as closer to Washington than his more China-leaning predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, said they shared an “unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order”.

Kishida said that “multi-layered cooperation is essential” and that “today’s meeting will make history”.

Biden, 81, also held separate talks with Marcos, 66, the son and namesake of the country’s former dictator.