Huawei’s New Ascend Chips Aim To Close China’s AI Gap With US
Huawei may be closing the gap in semiconductors.
On Thursday, the company unveiled AI hardware it says can deliver world-class computing power without Nvidia’s advanced chips, a potential breakthrough for China’s drive to reduce reliance on US technology, according to the South China Morning Post.
The announcement came just before a scheduled call between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, underscoring Beijing’s push for self-reliance amid tightening export restrictions.
SCMP writes that the Shenzhen-based firm introduced a “supernode + cluster” solution built on domestic chipmaking and revealed a multi-year roadmap for its Ascend AI chips.
“Ascend chips are the foundation of our AI computing strategy,” deputy chairman Eric Xu Zhijun said at Huawei’s Connect Conference in Shanghai. The company plans to launch Ascend 950 chips in 2026, followed by the 960 in 2027 and 970 in 2028, all featuring in-house high-bandwidth memory.
Huawei also announced the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, a system of 8,192 chips delivering 8 exaflops FP8 performance, due late next year. Multiple SuperPoDs can be linked into a 524-exaflop SuperCluster, while Atlas 960 systems in 2027 could scale to millions of cards.
Founder Ren Zhengfei has argued clustering allows Huawei to reach state-of-the-art performance despite its chips lagging US rivals “by a generation.”
Analysts highlighted both potential and pitfalls. Tilly Zhang of Gavekal Dragonomics said the move was “good timing for China to show strength,” though “China still needs US chips for now, but probably in a much less significant way.” Omdia’s Su Lian Jye called it proof of Huawei’s “relentless desire to innovate.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, reacting to Beijing’s restrictions on Nvidia sales, admitted he was “disappointed with what I see, but … patient about it.”
Huawei has already deployed over 300 CloudMatrix 384 systems—clustering 384 Ascend chips for 300 petaflops—with more than 20 clients. But concerns remain over scaling production, as the plan depends heavily on domestic foundry SMIC. Still, Paul Triolo of Albright Stonebridge said: “If any company can accomplish the miracle … it is Huawei.”
If Huawei can execute its roadmap, it could mark a turning point in China’s semiconductor race—narrowing the gap with US leaders and giving Beijing a stronger footing in AI computing.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett is now claiming that Charlie Kirk’s “rhetoric” was racist…and not only did she vote against the House resolution to honor him, she’s furious that MORE Democrats didn’t do the same.
She’s now openly attacking the “Caucasians” in her own party who supported the resolution.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett is now claiming that Charlie Kirk’s “rhetoric” was racist…and not only did she vote against the House resolution to honor him, she’s furious that MORE Democrats didn’t do the same.
“One of the things I do want to point out that’s not been laid out, that honestly hurts my heart, is when I saw the no votes, there were only two caucasians.”
“For the most part, the only people that voted no were people of color.”
“Because the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out, there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color.”
“And so it is unfortunate that even our colleagues could not see how harmful his rhetoric was specifically to us.”
“And I can tell you that a month prior to him passing away, he had actually gotten out on his podcast, I wasn’t aware of this at the time, but he got out there and he was talking negatively about me directly.”
“So if there was any way that I was going to honor somebody who decided that they were just going to negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the great white replacement, yeah, I’m not honoring that kind of stuff.”
“So to me, just like we wanted to make sure that those confederate relics were taken down, the idea of a new age relic being propped up was something that I just could not subscribe to, and it is unfortunate that more of my colleagues, even on my side of the aisle, could not see the the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities.”
Disgraceful.
Scott Jennings just came out swinging in response to Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s vile comments about Charlie Kirk.
He said what no one else on CNN seems willing to admit…after the network gave her a platform to smear a man who hasn’t even been buried yet.
“To say that he was continuously targeting people of color is nothing but a malicious smear, on the very day that people are remembering Charlie, and he’s going to be laid to rest.”
“And so I think when you combine the no votes on the resolution and then you look at the leading Democratic voices like Ilhan Omar and Jasmine Crockett, who’ve gone out to smear Charlie before he’s even had his funeral.”
“When I hear people say, we need to come together and both sides need to turn down the rhetoric, you know, a lot of the people saying that need to look inward right now.”
Scott Jennings just came out swinging in response to Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s vile comments about Charlie Kirk.
He said what no one else on CNN seems willing to admit…after the network gave her a platform to smear a man who hasn’t even been buried yet.@ScottJenningsKY then… pic.twitter.com/pKPUIZDjPX
But, Crockett was far from done. After CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday played clips of the Congresswoman calling President Donald Trump an “enemy to the United States” and comparing him to Hitler, the Texas Democrat doubled down.
Bash asked Crockett on “State of the Union” if she had “a responsibility” to cool down her rhetoric, but she said she did not and that the president was using Hitler’s “playbook.”
Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett continues to compare Republicans to Hitler: “I am using that language because it is accurate language.”
“I think that my responsibility is to be transparent and to be honest. And the reality is that we are living in a time in which this administration and this regime is not interested in making sure that people understand history,” Crockett said. “We need to understand why they are so problematic.”
“So I am using that language because it is accurate language,” she continued, saying Trump’s policies are “a playbook out of Hitler and I won’t deny it! Like, these are the facts.”
“Some People Have To Die”: NJ Elementary School Teacher Resigns After Celebrating Charlie Kirk Murder Online
A New Jersey teacher resigned after backlash over her response to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Elizabeth Clark, a fifth-grade math teacher at Katharine D. Malone Elementary in Rockaway Township, wrote on Facebook, “Some people have to die – buh bye,” just hours after Kirk was shot dead at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, according to the NY Post, who posted screenshots.
The Post writes that her remark outraged local residents.
“Public assassination and celebrating it is detrimental to the children,” one speaker said at a school board meeting Tuesday, where calls for Clark’s removal mounted. The board later confirmed she had resigned during a private session.
Clark told the Daily Record she was put on leave the next day and claimed she was “doxxed” online.
One resident said: “If this teacher saw what happened, was happy about it, jumped for joy in her own house, we would never have known about it. But the minute you post it online, it’s an extreme lapse in judgment, right?So if that kind of lapse in judgment is happening by a teacher at our school, I don’t think they should be teaching our children.”
“I resigned because I feared for my safety,” she said. “And me being present at the school would have caused safety concerns for the children. I did not feel Rockaway could protect me and keep me safe.”
“There’s a lot of untruths out there. I just don’t know what this world is coming to,” she said.
I was looking for something to watch on Friday night when I stumbled upon the movie Inside Job on Amazon Prime. It’s a documentary from 2010 that vividly recounts the global financial crisis of 2008.
In the first half hour of the movie, they set the scene for what led up to the crisis: all of the deregulation, speculation, derivatives, lavish Wall Street spending and euphoric attitudes that ran the show right up until the very day the world ran face-first into reality and the global economy bricked.
Watching the movie, I couldn’t help but feel like I could draw direct similarities to the market we are in today.
Sell Side Analyst Reports: Still Biased, Still Bullsh*t
For example, every day I wake up to a new email from a friend ridiculing a sell-side analyst note. I think to myself two things: first, it’s criminal that investment banks are allowed to put out absolutely bullshit projections while simultaneously trying to win the investment banking business of the companies they cover; and second, I can’t believe anybody on the Street takes these reports seriously.
Sell side analyst reports have become f*cking embarrassing. I mean, really bad. Making excuses for non-cash generating companies that can’t even hit whatever bullshit Non-GAAP KPI metric they’re distracting the market with. Initiating coverage on SPACs based on fairy-tale TAM slides, defending “disruptive” technologies that a 4th grader knows won’t work. Calling obvious financial frauds “overblown market concerns” . It’s theater dressed up as research, and the audience is clapping like trained f*cking circus seals.
Day in and day out, we read about upgrades and downgrades—almost all of which are issued after stock price moves and not ahead of them. And day-to-day, the market responds to the “analysis” of these investment banks, despite the fact that most people who have been in the industry for a while, and who are sharp, know not to pay them any heed whatsoever. Hell, even the Financial Times put out an article a week or two ago questioning one of the most egregious offenders on Wall Street and the frequency with which he pens his “analysis.”
In Inside Job, they set the stage for the financial crisis by talking specifically about how investment banks issued bullish research on names that, privately, they were referring to as “dogshit.” Before 2008, major Wall Street banks were accused of using sell-side research as a tool to serve their investment banking interests rather than investors. Analysts allegedly issued biased ratings—rewarding companies that hired their banks with positive coverage and punishing those that didn’t with negative or withdrawn reports—while internal communications often contradicted their public recommendations.
Regulators found that analyst pay and job security were tied to banking deals, creating deep conflicts of interest. This led to the 2003 $1.4 billion Global Research Analyst Settlement, which imposed reforms to separate research from banking, though critics argued informal pressures persisted up to the financial crisis. Banks promised to do better in the future, which is now. If you ask me, it looks like nothing has changed.
Stablecoins Are This Crisis’ Unregulated Time Bomb
Also, while setting the scene for the financial crisis, the movie talks about the deregulation of the derivatives market and how that eventually caused money market funds to essentially lock up when selling began. You could almost make the exact same analogy to the crypto and stablecoin market right now. The derivatives market was $50 trillion at the time, and the stablecoin market now is in the trillions.
As Jim Rickards noted in what I think is an extremely important “must-listen” interview just days ago, the stablecoin market is also basically unregulated due to the Genius Act, and most of the companies participating haven’t even passed an audit.
“Stablecoin sponsors are almost completely unregulated, non-transparent; no one has ever audited one of them. We don’t know what’s inside,” Rickards says. “In 2008 the money-market funds froze up and the Fed bailed them out; is the Fed going to bail out the stable-coin market? I don’t think so.”
In his interview—where he describes exactly how stablecoins could eventually wind up locking up money market funds in the same way as 2008—Rickards says what I’ve been thinking for a long time: there’s already massive fraud out there being perpetrated, we just don’t know where it is. And we won’t know until — like 2008 — the shit hits the fan.
“Stablecoins are an enormous danger — they may cause the greatest financial catastrophe of all time,” Rickards said, echoing what I wrote about last month — that crypto will cause the next trillion dollar crash: Crypto Will Cause The Next Trillon Dollar Crash
And in addition to being unregulated, we know that market participants in crypto are able to take on extreme leverage in ways that normal market participants are not.
Everyone Is Blissfully Ignorant Or Totally Lobotomized
It would be easy to make the comparison of everybody being drunk at the punchbowl between then and now as well. Major Wall Street investment bank stocks are at all-time highs, the general attitude on Wall Street is euphoria, bankers have for the most part stayed out of the crosshairs of criticism over the last decade, and executive compensation on Wall Street has been what many people would consider to be extremely excessive. Those sentiments all rang true leading into the 2008 financial crisis as well.
But what struck me more than these few things was the descriptions of how cavalier people’s attitudes were leading into the 2008 financial crisis.
If you need a refresher of what sentiment was like in 2008 and don’t want to watch the movie, watch this Peter Schiff Was Right video for a taste — listen to the sheep who refuse to acknowledge the reality of the situation:
I had seen them all already, but rewatching clips of analysts, government officials, and bankers assuring the public that nothing could ever go wrong—that there was no way to lose money on selling credit default swaps and that the U.S. housing market was indestructible—reminds me so much of how people view the market today.
There was the bailout in 2008, and then there was the extreme inflation caused by the Fed’s response to COVID. Before you know it, we’ve had two straight decades of conditioning investors to believe that nothing can go wrong and the market simply cannot—and will not—ever go down.
The gamification of stocks, combined with the influx of unsophisticated investors in the market, combined with the availability of extreme liquidity in options, combined with the multi-trillion-dollar, completely unregulated and opaque crypto and stablecoin market—layered on top of limitless hubris and arrogance—is the perfect Molotov cocktail for destruction.
The compass of what is right and wrong — what is speculative and conservative — for investors, is broken. We are so far off the path that not only can we not see it, but it’s almost foolish to expect people to see it. The recency bias has been so consistent for so long that it would be abnormal for people to expect chaos.
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A Window Into What A Reality Check Looks Like
For me, watching this film on Friday night time-warped my brain back 15 years.
When you hear the people recounting how the crisis happened, go back and listen to how they speak about the world of finance after being humbled so significantly. Their tone and tenor are almost unrecognizable in this day and age. Just listening to the tone of the commentators while they talk about finance, just years after being reminded that things can go horribly wrong, is almost as valuable as the story of the documentary itself.
People recalled the events with a sense of modesty, humility, and humbleness that I haven’t seen anywhere in the world of mainstream finance for a decade.
Thus, the curse of history: if we don’t remember it, we are doomed to repeat it. The further we get away from any consequential event in history—whether it is World War II, 9/11, the great financial crisis, or anything else—the less we feel like it can ever happen again, and the more bravado we carry ourselves with.
But there is a karmic ebb and flow to life that somehow always reminds us: when we feel the best, things can get way worse; and when we feel the worst, things can get better. While living in an echo chamber, nobody knows better than me that it is extremely difficult to break thought patterns and somehow remind yourself of this.
But if you want to mainline some reality into your brain and open your perspective on such a calamity taking place, I’d encourage you to go to Amazon Prime Video and watch the same movie I just did.
Then, look at the financial and economic world—and the world of markets—and I dare you to tell me everything’s fine and is going to be for the next decade.
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Maduro Complains Of ‘Undeclared War’ After Trump Ordered Another Deadly Boat Strike
President Trump has announced in a somewhat vague Truth Social post that US forces have conducted yet another “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel involved in drug trafficking in the southern Caribbean, related to Venezuela enforcement currently being conducted by the American military.
The attack resulted in the deaths of three men he described as “narcoterrorists” – after he authorized the operation upon US intelligence confirming the vessel was smuggling drugs, according to the post.
On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was… pic.twitter.com/HB1Q6P08f8
It reportedly happened in international waters within the jurisdiction of US Southern Command, which oversees operations in much of South America and the Caribbean, and marks the third such operation targeting suspected drug-smuggling boats in recent weeks.
Prior strikes had already killed 14 individuals, allegedly linked to vessels originating from Venezuela, though serious questions remain – including what appears to be extrajudicial killings. This possibility or likelihood has been raised by many observers as there have not appeared to be efforts to warn or halt the moving vessels before it was bombs away (reportedly from drones). One example of such pushback comes from Human Rights Watch:
Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said “US officials cannot summarily kill people they accuse of smuggling drugs.”
“The problem of narcotics entering the United States is not an armed conflict, and US officials cannot circumvent their human rights obligations by pretending otherwise,” Yager said.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans,” Trump said in the late Friday evening post. It was accompanied by minute-long aerial footage showing side-by-side videos of a vessel getting struck by a missile.
“No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!” – the post added.
This comes as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said his country will defend itself against US “aggression”. His defense minister also called it“an undeclared war”.
“It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea,” Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Friday while overseeing a military exercise.
He then pointed out the victims have been “executed without the right to a defense” or without warning or attempt to intercept. The Maduro government has further accused the Trump White House of seeking to implement “violent regime change in Venezuela and in all of Latin America.“
* * *
Over the weekend, President Trump has been on a Truth Social rage fest on a variety of topics, including an interesting message to on Pam Bondi…
There is some speculation that Trump accidentally posted what was supposed to be a DM to Pan Bondi as a regular post on Truth Social. Around an hour after that post he made another post saying Bondi is doing a great job. pic.twitter.com/l0pgocc5K4
And a Washington D.C. crime and protection status update…
Trump has been pushing for American forces to reoccupy Afghanistan’s sprawling Bagram air base, and he issued another threat of ‘bad things’ if the Taliban doesn’t comply…
…among several other Truth Social posts this weekend including the simple words JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!
🚨BREAKING: State Farm Stadium has reached full capacity for Charlie Kirk’s memorial! Tens of thousands are now heading to the overflow arena to continue honoring his legacy. 🇺🇸 #CharlieKirkMemorialpic.twitter.com/DLXM70La8A
A massive public memorial for Charlie Kirk is underway at State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix, Arizona. Long lines began forming overnight, and attendees have been pouring into the stadium since early morning, with the crowds expected to be between 100,000 and 200,000.
Worship at the State Farm Stadium has begun in honor of Charlie Kirk. Massive lines outside continue to slowly pour into the building. What an incredible scene! pic.twitter.com/eVo5w6UaZh
STUNNING TURNOUT: Drone video shows the outpouring of support as more than 100,000 people are expected to attend the Charlie Kirk memorial service in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/e8zQSF6i65
“Join us in celebrating the remarkable life and enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk, an American legend,” Turning Point USA said in a post on X.
Key details about Kirk’s public memorial:
Speakers: President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Kirk’s widow, Erika, who has just been named CEO of Turning Point USA.
Security: The Department of Homeland Security has classified the event as a SEAR Level 1 gathering – the highest designation, typically reserved for events of national significance – unlocking full federal security support, according to NBC News.
Turning Point USA said Kirk’s memorial service is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time. NBC News estimates the event could draw “a crowd as large as 100,000 people.”
Meanwhile, a Glendale Police Department spokesperson told CNN News that she estimates crowds could exceed 200,000.
State Farm Stadium has a maximum capacity of 63,000, with the ability to expand by an additional 10,000. Down the street, Desert Diamond Arena will serve as an overflow site, with seating for about 20,000.
Eleven days ago, Kirk was assassinated by a radical leftist while speaking at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder and obstruction of justice in connection with Kirk’s death. Robinson is a furry-loving leftist who was in a relationship with a transgender person. There have been no links yet between Robinson and far-left groups, but that hasn’t stopped the White House from taking the rise of far-left militancy seriously.
Last week, the Trump administration requested tens of millions of dollars for extra security and vowed to crack down on leftist groups (Marxists) that sow chaos and want to collapse the nation from within.
Immigration authorities have arrested nearly 550 people in the Chicago area in less than two weeks as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” a major crackdown that officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describe as targeting dangerous criminals shielded by Illinois’s sanctuary policies.
“Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham has resulted in almost 550 arrests,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“Every arrest is a testament to DHS and its law enforcement’s dedication to enforcing the laws of our nation. We will not be deterred by sanctuary politicians or violent rioters.”
Abraham was a 20-year-old Illinois college student killed in January in a hit-and-run allegedly caused by a drunk-driving illegal immigrant. Authorities charged Julio Cucul-Bol, a Guatemalan national living in the United States unlawfully, with leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, aggravated DUI resulting in death, and reckless homicide.
DHS said the Chicago operation, launched Sept. 8, is aimed at removing individuals with serious criminal records and longstanding deportation orders.
“This operation will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago,” McLaughlin said at the time, alleging that Chicago had become a “magnet for criminals” due to sanctuary city policies.
“President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens,” she said.
“If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized Illinois’s sanctuary policies, which restrict cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Officials say such policies allow dangerous offenders to remain on the streets rather than being transferred to ICE custody to be deported.
Noem, who traveled to Chicago to highlight the operation, said recent arrests included suspects charged with assault, DUI, felony stalking, and murder.
“President Trump has been clear: if politicians will not put the safety of their citizens first, this administration will,” Noem said on Sept. 16.
“Our work is only beginning.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have condemned the operation, accusing the administration of politicizing law enforcement and spreading fear.
“This isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination—yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” Pritzker said in a statement.
“Instead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump administration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said that, as of Sept. 20, about half the arrests so far in the Chicago area were targeted—people already on ICE’s radar due to convictions or prior immigration violations—while the rest were “collateral arrests” of others found to be in the country illegally.
“It doesn’t mean that the collateral arrests are non-criminal,” Marcos Charles, acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said.
“Some of our collateral arrests … also have criminal convictions and arrests. They just weren’t the people we were looking for at the time.”
Demonstrations have flared across Chicago in response to the operations. Protests outside the ICE Broadview Processing Center on Sept. 19 turned violent, with federal officials saying rioters assaulted officers, slashed tires, and blocked entrances.
DHS has hardened its stance on immigration enforcement in Democrat-led states. On Sept. 20, the department sent follow-up letters to California, New York, and Illinois demanding they comply with immigration detainer requests, saying that failure to cooperate would put communities at risk.
“ICE detainers ask for something very simple: To notify ICE when criminal illegal aliens are released from jail or prison, to ensure that they go into ICE custody before they are released back onto our streets,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
“These sanctuary state politicians should do the right thing and side with law-abiding Americans over criminal illegal aliens.”
DHS says that, despite “resistance from sanctuary politicians,” the agency has arrested over 400,000 illegal immigrants so far, while 70 percent of those arrested by ICE have criminal charges or convictions.
Milei Admits “The Market Is In Panic Mode” As Argentine Capital Exodus Accelerates
Following his government’s resounding loss in local elections – seen as a harbinger of next month’s congressional races – Argentine President Milei is facing a renewed crisis as the embattled South American country’s currency is collapsing amid fears that he will scrap his defense of the peso (which has already cost hundreds of millions of dollars) and let it plunge as so many of his predecessors have done.
“The market,” Milei said when collared by a local journalist for a brief interview late Friday, is “in panic mode.”
In a desperate attempt to satisfy demand for hard currency and prevent the peso from cratering, the three-day intervention figure rose to $1.1 billion, a staggering amount in a country that, by economists’ best estimates, has less than $20 billion in liquid foreign reserves.
As Bloomberg reports, on Friday, he vowed to defend the peso at all costs, echoing the words of his top economic aide the day before.
“We will do everything we must do to protect the quality of life of Argentines.”
Milei is “spending currency reserves at a frenzied pace to prop up the peso that is in free fall,” Derek Holt, vice-president and head of capital markets economics at Scotiabank, wrote in a note.
“Fixing at this exchange rate would risk returning the country to rampant hyperinflation which Milei promised to end. The very essence of his reforms are in jeopardy and with that the unfortunate hopes of Argentinians too used to policy failures.”
Longtime Argentine observers see few options for Milei to stem the tide and regain confidence.
A strong showing in the Oct. 26 vote would be one. A fresh injection of cash from the International Monetary Fund or some other foreign aid agency would be another. Having just cut a $20 billion IMF deal in April, that may be unlikely though Milei intimated, after being asked Friday about financial aid from the US Treasury, that something may be in the works with some overseas institution.
Argentina bonds and stocks are also tumbling as investors are pulling money out of the country at a rapidly increasing clip.
“We trust in the program and we’re not going to move away from the program,” Economy Minister Luis Caputo said late Thursday on a podcast.
“We’re going to sell up till the last dollar in the ceiling of the band.”
As Bloomberg points out, it’s a stark change of fortunes for Milei, whose deep spending cuts and sweeping reforms had been welcomed by global investors soon after the libertarian economist took office in late 2023, setting off rallies across its financial markets. Inflation soon began to ease, falling below 100% and shoring up support for Milei for a while. But as he’s started to suffer political setbacks that hurt his ability to keep pushing through his agenda, the country’s bonds, stocks and currency have all come tumbling back down.
“It’s probably too soon to say that the story is crumbling, but certainly the new pieces of information that we’ve gotten in the last week have all been negative,” Christine Reed, emerging market local currency debt portfolio manager at Ninety One in New York, said in an interview.
“The outlook going into midterms has worsened dramatically.”
In the past few days, Milei’s rivals in the lower house of Congress ratcheted up their pushback against his austerity agenda. They rejected two controversial vetoes on education and health-care spending. The Senate is seen as even more hostile to the administration, meaning the higher spending will likely pass. The votes led to further slides in the country’s assets as they spell trouble for the second half of Milei’s term.
“We expect continued foreign exchange and asset price volatility between now and the national mid-term vote on October 26th,” Gramercy Funds Management said in a research note Friday.
“The challenging political backdrop and near-term implications for the macroeconomic landscape through the foreign exchange market has increased the probability of a liability management exercise next year.”
With his popularity tumbling, the victory by the left-wing Peronist opposition in the country’s main province, Buenos Aires, unnerved investors.
“We knew this year was going to be very complicated and we had already started developing strategies to cover next year’s debt payments,” Milei said.
“We’ve been working, those negotiations take time, but until something isn’t confirmed we don’t make announcements. But we are working very hard, we’re very advanced, and it’s also a matter of time.”
Prosecutors called their last witness on Sept. 19 in the trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, and sought to triangulate the suspect’s movements in the weeks leading up to the incident using cellphone location data.
The trial began with jury selection on Sept. 8 and is running ahead of the scheduled three-and-a-half-week timeline that District Judge Aileen Cannon had originally blocked off.
Jurors have heard seven days of testimony from government witnesses, including FBI agents, the Secret Service agent who allegedly first spotted Routh in the treeline at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024, and the civilian who identified Routh as the suspect following his arrest.
Routh, who is representing himself, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including assaulting a federal officer, attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, and several firearm violations.
Here are five takeaways after the prosecution rested its case in the trial of the second Trump assassination attempt suspect.
Cellphone Location Data, Alleged Surveillance of Trump
Prosecutors spent much of Friday retracing Routh’s movements in the months and weeks leading up to the alleged assassination attempt on Trump on Sept. 15, 2024.
According to FBI supervisory special agent Kimberly McGreevy, Routh was found with multiple “burner” cellphones, including one with an area code to West Palm Beach, Florida, and another registered in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Describing Routh’s alleged movements and activity between March and September 2024, McGreevy alleged that it amounted to “surveillance” of Trump. Location data tracked Routh’s black Nissan Xterra to Palm Beach International Airport, where prosecutors alleged he was conducting surveillance of Trump’s private plane coming and going from the airport on multiple occasions.
Airport cameras showed a man who appeared to be Routh walking inside without a bag and looking out a window as Trump’s plane was about to depart. Routh also allegedly took photos of Trump’s plane on the tarmac from one of his burner phones, McGreevy said.
Numerous traffic camera photos also show Routh’s Nissan Xterra on streets near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club, utilizing multiple license plates to avoid detection, prosecutors say. He would eventually take up residence at a Marathon truck stop not far from the golf club, where receipts indicated he paid for overnight parking.
Routh also allegedly conducted surveillance for up to 16 hours at a time at Trump’s golf club before the day of the incident.
Weekslong Planning
Prosecutors showed evidence that Routh allegedly planned to assassinate Trump for months before the day he was ultimately arrested. Routh had sent text messages to several associates, allegedly indicating his desire to see Trump eliminated before the election.
McGreevy alleged that Routh was essentially “stalking” Trump’s schedule with as many digital tools as he had at his disposal. Routh allegedly searched Trump’s campaign schedule repeatedly and tried to obtain tickets to attend an event.
Routh was also accused of using flight tracking software to surveil the president’s plane coming and going from Palm Beach International Airport, which prosecutors say allowed Routh to watch the plane leave in the video surveillance footage.
Prosecutors also accused Routh of searching Palm Beach County’s live traffic cameras at the intersection of Southern Blvd. and Congress Ave., where they say he would have been able to see Trump’s motorcade coming and going from the airport, which is less than a mile from the golf club.
The web searches, which included one for “how fast does it take cops to get a DNA result,” were made from Routh’s phone using a Google account tied to one of his three aliases—“John Smith”—according to prosecutors.
Escape Plan
Routh was considering an escape plan in the event he was able to flee from his hideout near the 6th hole at Trump’s golf club on Sept. 15, 2024, prosecutors alleged.
The government showed searches from one of Routh’s burner phones for flights out of Miami International Airport to cities like Mexico City and Bogota, Colombia. Routh also allegedly searched for driving directions from West Palm Beach to the Miami airport, and did a search for how many miles it would take to drive from South Florida to Laredo, Texas, which sits on the U.S.–Mexico border.
The FBI said it found a written note in Routh’s Nissan Xterra with various international flights out of the Miami airport, including flight times and numbers. Days before his arrest, Routh allegedly messaged a friend in Mexico City saying he might fly there on Sept. 16, 2024, and asked how far the man lived from the area.
DNA Evidence
This week, an FBI analyst testified that DNA sampled from the scope affixed to the SKS-style rifle found at the hideout near the 6th hole at Trump’s golf club matched Routh’s.
Routh’s DNA was also found on more than two dozen other items collected at the crime scene, prosecutors said.
Last year, when Routh was first arrested in relation to the crime, investigators said they had matched a fingerprint found on a piece of tape attached to the rifle that seemingly matched Routh’s.
On Friday, Routh asked McGreevy why a particular bullet casing and a piece of fence wire found in his vehicle were not DNA tested, which led prosecutors to follow up by stating that some surfaces, particularly smooth surfaces like metal, are not ideal for DNA testing.
Trial Moving Rapidly, Brief Cross-Examinations
Routh’s trial is moving ahead of Cannon’s original three-and-a-half-week schedule. He is expected to call his first witness on Monday.
Part of the reason for the rapid pace is the briefness of Routh’s cross-examinations of several government witnesses.
However, Routh spent considerable time cross-examining McGreevy on Friday, disputing the claim that he was visiting Palm Beach International Airport to surveil Trump’s private plane and instead suggesting he was there to simply watch planes in general.
After the government presented a set of song lyrics Routh wrote that allegedly described his intentions to “put a cap in” or shoot Trump, which featured lines like “bullets fly round and round” and “time to get out of town before they chase me down,” Routh said the song was an attempt at art and protected by the First Amendment.
When asked, McGreevy said that a piece of art is not necessarily protected by the First Amendment and could become criminal evidence if it’s tied to a specific threat to a specific person. She said Routh’s lyrics amounted to a direct threat to Trump’s life.
An American woman living in Britain got a taste of what it’s like to have your freedom of speech taken away when a police officer visited her house to interrogate her over a Facebook post that he claimed had “upset someone.”
Yes, really. The officer demanded that she apologise about the post, without informing her what the post was about or who she was supposed to apologise to.
The Free Speech Union posted the remarkable video filmed by the woman herself, and has more…
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: An American cancer patient and Trump supporter was confronted by British police and told to apologise for her online posts or face an investigation.
Deborah Anderson, a mother of two, was visited at her home in June by an officer from Thames Valley Police. He… pic.twitter.com/CaQZVUScQY
An American cancer patient and Trump supporter was confronted by British police and told to apologise for her online posts or face an investigation. Deborah Anderson, a mother of two, was visited at her home in June by an officer from Thames Valley Police.
He told her someone had lodged a complaint about her social media posts. She told him she was an American citizen and a member of the Free Speech Union and he should be investigating burglaries and rapes, not hurty words on social media.
Chillingly, he told her he was there to get her to apologise to the person who was offended by her posts. If she refused, she’d be questioned down at the station.
What was Deborah’s supposed crime? The policeman didn’t tell her. Was it her passionate support of President Trump and the MAGA movement on her Facebook and X pages?
To make it worse, Deborah is in the midst of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy. She ought to be have been convalescing. Instead, she was harassed for her tweets.
The FSU took on her case and, as a result, the police have now dropped their investigation. But they still haven’t told Deborah which of her posts got her into trouble, claiming they’ve accidentally deleted the record of the complaint.
Thames Valley Police are responsible for guarding President Trump this week. What would he make of the fact that those same officers are visiting the homes of his supporters – including US citizens – and threatening them with arrest.
Tyrant: “We are investigating your potential commission of thought crime?”
You: “What was the thought?”
Tyrant: “I am not at liberty to say. Are you going to apologize or what?”
Mrs Anderson rightly pointed out that while this officer was interrogating her, actual crimes are going uninvestigated, prompting the officer to state that it’s not his responsibility to do that “today.”
How do plod even take themselves seriously if they think this constitutes law enforcement?
You’re not police, your bullies picking on average people who have expressed opinions because your too cowardly and useless to do your actual job of going after criminals. You and all your officers should apologizing to your citizens for your bullying and threatening them them.…
The statement from your officer” “the alternative [to the provision of an apology] would be that I have to call you in for an interview” was nonsense, then.
It was an expressed threat to induce capitulation.
We know what you’re doing, it’s despicable. So you prioritise visiting a cancer patient for saying “mean words” rather than investigate burglary, murders, r*pes, which are “going on as well” as your officer so condescendingly put it, disgusting
Don’t let the police into your home unless they have a warrant. Don’t let them sit down on your chair. Stop engaging with them entirely. Say nothing. If they insist then arrange a meeting with a lawyer at a police station. This is just harassment
As we’ve relentlessly highlighted, this kind of thing is happening all the time now.
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