Authored by Nick Giambruno via Doug Casey’s International Man,

Did you know that central banks bought more gold last year than any year in the past 55 years—since 1967?

Though most don’t realize it, 1967 was a significant year in financial history, mainly due to the events at the London Gold Pool.

The London Gold Pool was an agreement among central banks of the United States and Western European countries to stabilize the price of gold. The goal was to maintain the price of gold at $35 per ounce by collectively buying or selling gold as needed.

However, in 1967 the London Gold Pool collapsed due to a shortage of gold and increased demand for the metal. That’s because European central banks bought massive amounts of gold as they began to doubt the US government’s promise to back the dollar to gold at $35/ounce. The buying depleted the London Gold Pool’s reserves and pushed the price of gold higher.

In short, 1967 was the beginning of the end of the Bretton Woods international monetary system that had been in place since the end of World War 2. It ultimately led to severing the US dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. The dollar has been unbacked fiat confetti ever since—though the petrodollar system and coercion have propped it up.

The point is large global gold flows can be a sign that a paradigm shift in the international monetary system is imminent.

Central banks are the biggest players in the gold market. And now that we have just experienced the largest year for central bank gold purchases since 1967, it’s clear to me something big is coming soon.

And those are just the official numbers that governments report. The actual gold purchases could be much higher because governments are often opaque about their gold holdings, which they consider a crucial part of their economic security.

Today, I think we are on the cusp of a radical change in the international monetary system with profound implications. Yet, few are aware of what is happening and its enormous significance.

I suspect most people will be taken by surprise—and it won’t be a pleasant one. They’ll be the ones holding the bag for a failing monetary system.

But it doesn’t have to be a disaster for everyone…

Those who get positioned properly ahead of this paradigm shift could make fortunes.

The Real Reason for China’s Massive Gold Stash

According to the Financial Times, the big buyers of gold in 2022 were China and Middle East oil producers. That’s not a coincidence, as these countries will be at the center of the changes to the international monetary system.

It’s no secret that China has been stashing away as much gold as possible for many years.

China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Most of that gold finds its way into the Chinese government’s treasury.

Nobody knows the exact amount of gold China has, but most observers believe it is many multiples of what the government declares.

Today it’s clear why China has had an insatiable demand for gold.

Beijing has been waiting for the right moment to pull the rug from beneath the US dollar. And now is that moment…

The key to understanding it all is Chinese President Xi’s recent historic visit to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to launch, in his words, “a new paradigm of all-dimensional energy cooperation.”

The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries account for more than 25% of the world’s oil exports, with Saudi Arabia alone contributing around 17%. In addition, more than 25% of China’s oil imports come from Saudi Arabia.

China is the GCC’s largest trading partner.

The meetings reflect a natural—and growing—trade relationship between China, the world’s largest oil importer, and the GCC, the world’s largest oil exporters.

During Xi’s visit, he made the following crucial remarks (emphasis mine):

“China will continue to import large quantities of crude oil from GCC countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen cooperation in upstream oil and gas development, engineering services, storage, transportation and refining, and make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade.”

After years of preparation, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) launched a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan in March 2018. It’s the first oil futures contract to be traded in China. The contract is based on Brent crude oil, the global benchmark for oil prices, and is settled in cash.

Since then, any oil producer can sell its oil for something besides US dollars… in this case, the Chinese yuan.

The INE yuan oil futures contract provides a new pricing benchmark for the global oil market, which the US dollar has traditionally dominated. By trading in yuan, the contract is expected to increase the use of the Chinese currency in global trade and reduce the reliance on the US dollar.

Its significance lies in its potential to shift the balance of power in the oil market away from the US and towards China and to increase the use of the Chinese yuan in global trade.

There’s one big issue, though. Most oil producers don’t want to accumulate a large yuan reserve, and China knows this.

That’s why China has explicitly linked the crude futures contract with the ability to convert yuan into physical gold—without touching China’s official reserves—through gold exchanges in Shanghai (the world’s largest physical gold market) and Hong Kong.

PetroChina and Sinopec, two Chinese oil companies, provide liquidity to the yuan crude futures by being big buyers. So, if any oil producer wants to sell their oil in yuan (and gold indirectly), there will always be a bid.

After years of growth and working out the kinks, the INE yuan oil future contract is now ready for prime time. Xi wouldn’t promise the GCC large and consistent oil purchases if it wasn’t ready.

Why is China purchasing oil and gas from the GCC in yuan important?

Because it undercuts the petrodollar system, which has been the bedrock of the US and international financial system since the Bretton Woods system broke down in 1971.

The Saudis Acquiesce and What Happens Next

For nearly 50 years, the Saudis had always insisted anyone wanting their oil would need to pay with US dollars, upholding their end of the petrodollar system.

But that all changed recently.

After Xi’s historic visit and bombshell announcement, the Saudi government isn’t hiding its intention to sell oil in yuan. According to a recent Bloomberg report:

“Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the kingdom’s finance minister.”

In short, the Saudis don’t think the US is holding up its end of the petrodollar deal. So they don’t feel like they should hold up their part.

The Saudis are angry at the US for not supporting it enough in its war against Yemen. They were further dismayed by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the nuclear negotiations with Iran.

In this context, China swooped in and, after many years, finally compelled the Saudis to accept yuan as payment.

It was bound to happen.

China is already the world’s largest oil importer. Moreover, the amount of oil it imports continues to grow as it fuels an economy of over 1.4 billion people (more than 4x larger than the US).

The sheer size of the Chinese market made it impossible for Saudi Arabia—and other oil exporters—to ignore China’s demands to pay in yuan indefinitely. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange further sweetens the deal for oil exporters.

Here’s the bottom line.

Saudi Arabia—the linchpin of the petrodollar system—is openly agreeing not to sell its oil exclusively in US dollars.

It signals an imminent and enormous change for anyone holding US dollars. It would be incredibly foolish to ignore this giant red warning sign.

Even the WSJ admits such a move would be disastrous for the US dollar.

“The Saudi move could chip away at the supremacy of the US dollar in the international financial system, which Washington has relied on for decades to print Treasury bills it uses to finance its budget deficit.”

Ron Paul is an American politician and physician who has been a vocal critic of the current international monetary system for decades. Nixon’s move to end the dollar’s link to gold in 1971 initially motivated him to get into politics. He is known for his views on monetary policy, central banking, and the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul has written several books on these topics and advocated for a return to sound money and a gold-backed monetary system.

In short, Ron Paul knows more about the international monetary system than almost anyone alive.

He once gave a speech called “The End of Dollar Hegemony,” where he pointed out the one thing that would precipitate the US dollar’s collapse.

Here’s the relevant part:

“The economic law that honest exchange demands only things of real value as currency cannot be repealed.

The chaos that one day will ensue from our experiment with worldwide fiat money will require a return to money of real value.

We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or euros.

The sooner the better.”

Here’s the bottom line.

The end of the petrodollar system is imminent.

For over 50 years, this arrangement has allowed the US government and many Americans to live way beyond their means.

The US takes this unique position for granted. But it will soon disappear.

There will be a lot of extra dollars floating around suddenly looking for a home now that they are not needed to purchase oil.

As a result, a lot of oil money—hundreds of billions of dollars and perhaps trillions—that would typically flow through banks in New York in US dollars into US Treasuries will instead flow through Shanghai into yuan and gold.

The end of the petrodollar system is bad news for Americans. Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the course of these trends in motion.

The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation.

That’s precisely why I just released an urgent report on where this is all headed and what you can do about it… including three strategies everyone needs today.

Click here to download the PDF now.

Bridal retailer David’s Bridal is going to be laying off more than 9,200 workers nationwide but plans on staying open after filing for bankruptcy for the second time in just five years. 

As the chain gets ready to deal with a busy prom and wedding season, a notification of the layoffs was filed with the Department of Labor in Pennsylvania, according to NJ.com. 

Layoffs started in Pennsylvania on Friday and its unclear when additional, out of state layoffs would take place, the report notes. The company currently has 300 stores across the United States. 

“David’s Bridal has commenced a financial restructuring process to facilitate a potential sale of our company,” the company said in a statement. It is reportedly trying to sell itself, but stores should continue to take orders. 

Nationwide, the Conshokocken, Pennsylvania-based chain has over 11,000 employees. Previously, it filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and also operated normally through the process. 

Recall, days ago we noted that small businesses were filing for bankruptcy at a record pace, even surpassing the Covid crash:

The note from UBS Evidence Lab shows private bankruptcy filings in 2023 have exceeded the highest point recorded during the early stages of the COVID pandemic by a considerable amount. The four-week moving average for private filings in late February was 73 percent higher than in June 2020.

“[We] believe one of the more underappreciated signs of distress in U.S. corporate credit is already emanating from the small- and mid-size enterprises sector,” Matthew Mish, head of credit strategy at UBS, wrote in a recently published research note. “[The] smallest of firms [are] facing the most severe pressure from rising rates, persistent inflation and slowing growth.”

Industries hit hardest by the wave of bankruptcies include real estate, health care, chemicals, and retail outlets, according to the Swiss Bank’s report.

Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Washington state House approved a bill that would authorize state agencies to hide children seeking transgender medical intervention from parents.

On April 12, House lawmakers debated Senate Bill 5599 (pdf), which creates an exemption for the state that grants it the right to not be required to notify parents of minors who have left their homes because their parents wouldn’t let them pursue gender transition medical procedures.

In a video statement after the vote, Republican state Rep. Chris Corry said the bill “erodes parental rights in the state of Washington.”

“Essentially what the bill would do would be if a child left a parents’ home for certain medical care and went to a shelter or host family, that shelter or host family would not be required to notify the parents of their child’s whereabouts,” Corry said. “This is obviously a fundamental violation of parental rights and something that’s deeply concerning for parents across Washington state.”

State Rep. Peter Abbarno, a Republican, said the crux of the debate over the bill was whether the state be permitted to “essentially hide where the child is.”

Most parents, Corry said, would “go to the ends of the earth to find their child” if they disappeared after an argument.

“And the fact that we have a bill that may become law that would say, ‘we’re not going to tell you,’ was really just a bridge too far for us,” Corry said.

Corry told The Epoch Times that, under the bill, a disagreement between a child and parents over the child’s desire for a medical transition constitutes “abuse and neglect,” only because the parent hasn’t “properly affirmed what the child wants.”

Corry said there are already laws that protect children from abuse and neglect in the state that require “solid and compelling reasons” why children would need to be removed from their homes.

“What’s frustrating is even in those cases, the parents still have a right to know where their kids are after they’ve been removed,” Corry said. “In this case, parents would have no idea.”

House Debate

Republican state Rep. Travis Couture spoke on the House floor in a debate over amendments to the bill, stating that the U.S. Constitution, based on the precedent set by previous Supreme Court rulings, permits the state to interfere with the right of parents only to prevent harm to a child “and any legislation that goes further fails that standard.”

“The Constitution doesn’t tell us what we can do; it tells us what we can’t do to people,” Couture said. “And multiple times our U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of parental rights.”

The Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment “gives parents the right to parent” through the educating and rearing “as they see fit.”

“I think it’s important as we embark on this bill tonight to recognize the very important and critical role parents have not only in our society, and not only with their families and their children but in our law as well,” Couture said.

State Rep. Julio Cortes, a Democrat, said though having a supportive family environment is critical, it doesn’t always determine the best outcome for the success of a child’s well-being.

“But family dynamics as I’m sure a lot of us can agree at times be let’s say complicated,” Cortes said. “Positive mental health outcomes are possible even when a family dynamic is negative, and on the other side negative outcomes are possible even when a family is supportive. This bill is about providing housing security for our trans youth.”

While not addressing parental consent, Cortes shared an anecdotal story about a trans child he said he helped while working with homeless youth.

The child, he said, ran away to protect his family who was being attacked by community members over the child’s decision.

“I had the privilege of working with this youth and through case management and our prevention program we were able to get that youth back home, but we got him back home with the skills and the tools that they needed and that their family needed to make sure that they could be safer,” he said. “Supporting our trans youth is a collective effort, Mr. Speaker, and while families play a critical role, they are not the only support system that these youth need. It takes, as they say, a village.”

Read more here…

The FBI arrested two New York residents with conspiring to act as agents of China’s government, by operating an illegal police station, and acting as spies.

In a Monday press release, the Department of Justice announced the arrests of Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, in connection with the undeclared police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. They will be prosecuted in the Eastern District of New York, and are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn.

The two admitted to the FBI that they deleted their communications with a CCP official after discovering they were under investigation.

“It is simply outrageous that China’s Ministry of Public Security thinks it can get away with establishing a secret, illegal police station on U.S. soil to aid its efforts to export repression and subvert our rule of law,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. “This case serves as a powerful reminder that the People’s Republic of China will stop at nothing to bend people to their will and silence messages they don’t want anyone to hear. The FBI is dedicated to protecting everyone in the United States against efforts to undermine our democratic freedoms, and we’ll hold any state actors – and those who help them – accountable for breaking our laws.”

According to the DOJ;

Before helping to open the police station in early 2022, Lu had a longstanding relationship of trust with PRC law enforcement, including the MPS. Since 2015, and through the operation of the secret police station, Lu was tasked with carrying out various activities, including to assist the PRC government’s repressive activities on U.S. soil:

• In 2015, during PRC President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Lu participated in counterprotests in Washington, D.C,. against members of a religion that is forbidden under PRC law. A deputy director of the MPS awarded Lu a plaque for the work he performed on behalf of the PRC government.
• In 2018, Lu was enlisted in efforts to cause a purported PRC fugitive to return to the PRC. The victim reported being repeatedly harassed to return to the PRC, including through threats of violence made to the victim and the victim’s family in the United States and in the PRC.
• In 2022, the MPS Official sought Lu’s assistance in locating an individual living in California who is a pro-democracy activist. In turn, Lu enlisted the help of another coconspirator. Later, when confronted by the FBI about these conversations, Lu denied that they occurred.

In October 2022, the FBI conducted a judicially authorized search of the illegal police station. In connection with the search, FBI agents interviewed both Lu and Chen and seized their phones. In reviewing the contents of these phones, FBI agents observed that communications between Lu and Chen, on the one hand, and the MPS Official, on the other, appeared to have been deleted. In subsequent consensual interviews, Lu and Chen admitted to the FBI that they had deleted their communications with the MPS Official after learning about the ongoing FBI investigation, thus preventing the FBI from learning the full extent of the MPS’s directions for the overseas police station.

Each defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted for conspiring to act as agents of the PRC, and up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction of justice charge.

In a second complaint, 24 Chinese police officers were charged over belonging to a “special project working group” task force that “commits crimes, targeting Chinese democracy activists and dissidents located outside of the PRC, including right here in New York City, according to Eastern District of New York Attorney Breon Peace, who added that “This task force operates as an internet troll farm, creating thousands of fake online personas which they use in a coordinated plot to harass, disparage and threaten dissidents and activists throughout the world.”

In February, we noted that the FBI closed the illegal Chinatown police station following a raid of the building last fall. As the Epoch Times noted at the time;

The closure of the facility in New York’s Chinatown comes just weeks after The New York Times reported that FBI agents raided and searched the building at an undisclosed time last fall.

The facility and more than 100 others like it form a network of covert facilities from which experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting a campaign of transnational repression.

According to two reports published in October 2022 and December 2022 by Safeguard Defenders, a nonprofit organization, the overseas police outposts are used to collect intelligence and even forcibly repatriate Chinese dissidents to the mainland to be imprisoned.

“We are aware of reports regarding alleged PRC ‘overseas police stations,’” the State Department spokesperson said.

“We take this issue very seriously. Establishing so-called overseas police stations without the invitation or approval of the country in which they are operating raises serious issues of respect for the sovereignty of that country.”

The spokesperson referred The Epoch Times to the FBI and Justice Department for further information. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time, and the FBI declined to comment on the matter.

China’s Communist Regime ‘Violates Sovereignty’

Chinese authorities maintain that the facilities, which operate in 53 nations, assist Chinese immigrants in foreign nations with tasks that would normally be handled by a consulate, such as renewing driver’s licenses and visas.

However, the stations have been linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department, an agency that works to advance the regime’s interests abroad by spreading propaganda, conducting foreign influence operations, suppressing dissident movements, gathering intelligence, and facilitating the transfer of technology to communist China.

As such, many nations have voiced concern that the facilities are a threat to national security and a violation of sovereignty.

Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

LYNCHBURG, Va.—Fresh off signing a six-week abortion ban into law the day before, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to continue fighting the “war on woke” to about 9,000 students before receiving an honorary degree of the Doctorate of Humanities at Liberty University on Friday.

Speaking to young evangelicals at the twice-weekly convocation service, which the school calls “the world’s largest gathering of Christian students,” DeSantis touted Florida as the “refuge of sanity” and “a ray of hope” when “freedom and our very own way of life… withered on the vine” in the country.

In his view, Florida’s population growth and his landslide reelection victory last year are a direct result of his fight against woke ideology—what he called “cultural Marxism”—and Americans “voting with their feet.”

“We have made Florida the state where woke goes to die,” he declared as the audience burst into a loud cheer.

His statements against gender ideology—prohibiting using puberty blockers or sex change operations on minors in Florida and criticizing biological males competing in women’s sports—were also well-received by the crowd. “Because woke represents a war on truth, we must wage a war on woke,” he added.

The governor started his speech by thanking Liberty University students for praying for his wife Casey’s recovery from breast cancer. Casey was diagnosed in 2021 and became cancer-free late last year. “The prayers that we received as a result of that lifted up our spirits,” he said. “The prayers have been answered.”

In closing, he said he “looked forward to the battles ahead” in the “war on truth,” “I will fight the good fight. I will finish the race. I will keep the faith.”

‘Uplifting’ and ‘Inspiring’

Giulia Nicole, a homeschooled high school senior, said DeSantis’s speech was “uplifting.” She has been on dual enrollment at Liberty University online and will attend the college full-time in August, majoring in accounting.

“A lot of times when you hear people speak, you kind of leave feeling like the world is just going downhill, and there’s not a lot of hope,” she told The Epoch Times. “Gov. DeSantis was very uplifting. He was a breath of fresh air because I feel encouraged right now. I don’t feel worried about the future. So I really enjoyed his speech.”

She attended the convocation with her mother Carla Nicole, grandmother Maria Shoemaker, and a friend Savannah Dudzik, a Floridian in Lynchburg, for just the weekend for a pro-life event.

“I would just say I was impressed. Every time he speaks, I’m a little bit more impressed. He’s so genuine. And we need people like that in politics,” Dudzik, a resident in the Tampa Bay area, told The Epoch Times. “We need people who are genuine, people who you can tell he’s not there for the crowd. He’s not there for the applause. He’s there for the people. He’s there for us.”

Read more here…

The same U.S. government that is fighting inflation is also succumbing to it: the price of stamps and postage is once again moving higher. Prices on first-class mail stamps will rise to 66 cents from 63 cents in July, pending approval from regulators, according to CNN. 

The price hike – which is being put in place to “offset a rise in operating expenses” – amounts to about a 5.4% hike. Someone should tell the government those hikes are “above the Fed’s 2% target”. 

Among those expenses are a rise in wages and increasing costs of doing business. “These price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue,” the post office commented in a statement. 

The price of postcards will also go up, from 48 cents to 51 cents. International postcards will see their prices rise from $1.45 to $1.50.

As the report notes, regulators turning down USPS requests for prices hikes are rare, though it did happen in 2010 because the Post Office “failed both to quantify the impact of the recession on its finances and to show how its rate request relates to the resulting loss of mail volume.”

The post office expects to lose $4.5 billion in 2023 and we’re sure these price hikes will do little to help rectify the bottom line. But hey, raising prices 5.4% while the Fed clamors for 2% inflation all while burning cash is American as apple pie.

Maybe the Post Office should take itself public on the NASDAQ via SPAC, where the market would value it on a price/sales basis instead of focusing on pesky details like actual net income and cash generation…

By Kelly Gooch of Becker’s Hospital Review

Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over his demand for records and testimony on gender-affirming care, The Kansas City Star reported. 

The lawsuit, filed April 14 in Jackson County, asks a judge to deny Mr. Bailey’s investigative demands, saying the requests are a “burdensome overreach” despite “no allegations of wrongdoing,” according to the newspaper.  

Mr. Bailey’s office made the demand for records and testimony in a letter sent in late March. In February, his office had already confirmed an investigation by Missouri agencies into whistleblower allegations against the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The whistleblower raised allegations that individuals at the transgender center had harmed hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them. 

Now, Mr. Bailey’s office is also looking at Children’s Mercy and made more than 50 requests for documents and information in his office’s March 24 investigative demand letter to the hospital. Requests include all instances when child abuse was reported to law enforcement and questions of whether Children’s Mercy prescribes hormone blockers for, or performs surgery on, transgender individuals, according to The Kansas City Star.

Madeline Sieren, a spokesperson for Mr. Bailey’s office, said in a statement shared with the newspaper that Children’s Mercy “is refusing to provide even a single document to explain its practices.”

“That is very concerning,” she said, adding that Mr. Bailey’s office looks forward to “prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on.”

Children’s Mercy argues that Mr. Bailey is not authorized to investigate and enforce medical standards under the state’s merchandising practices act, and that complying with his requests would require the hospital to violate state and federal laws, including HIPAA, according to NBC affiliate KSHB. The system also said in its suit that it has no connection to the Washington University center under investigation. Children’s Mercy is not mentioned in the allegations against Washington University Transgender Center, according to KSHB. 

The lawsuit filed April 14 comes after Mr. Bailey announced emergency rules targeting gender transition procedures for minors, which take effect April 27. The emergency regulations include prohibiting gender-affirming care unless patients have at least 15 sessions with a mental health provider and have experienced at least three consecutive years of a “medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria.” 

There has been a surge in lawlessness in recent weeks across several large progressive cities. The most recent incident occurred in Compton, a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, over the weekend when a large mob stormed a gas station. 

Los Angeles-based KABC reported the “large mob” that “bum-rushed” the Arco gas station near Alondra Boulevard and Central Avenue on Saturday night stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. A dramatic video of the incident has gone viral on Twitter. 

Los Angeles, the city of fallen angels: A large mob of thug looters was caught on video looting a gas station in Compton and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise. https://t.co/P2LU3EHmTg pic.twitter.com/sfHv26RV5Z

— Dane (@UltraDane) April 16, 2023

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the local news station that much of the store’s merchandise was stolen in minutes. 

Compton resident and customer of Arco, Greg Johnson, said: 

“It’s unbelievable. Unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that happen here.” 

Commenting on the incident is the police advocacy nonprofit organization National Police Association which tweeted: 

“When your DA hates cops, loves criminals, and dismisses victims, and your state government is focused on de-incarceration this is what you get – Wild video shows large mob ransacking Arco gas station in Compton.” 

We’ve pointed out to readers that lawlessness is unfolding in multiple liberal cities this spring: 

• All Hell Breaks Out In Chicago As Hundreds Of Teenagers Wreak Havoc
• Baltimore Mayor Calls For Citywide Curfew After All Hell Breaks Out

If possible, steer clear of liberal-run cities. The growing trend of lawlessness is worrisome.

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

AI competition may prove to be the last technology race in the world…

The AI-powered ChatGPT is intensifying the competition between the United States and China for artificial intelligence dominance.

The stakes couldn’t be higher.

For the sake of clarity, ChatGPT is the AI-driven tool that can create documents, reports, and other content with just a question or a few key words. It was created by OpenAI, a Bay Area technology firm started by tech standouts such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and other tech luminaries.

The good news is how ChatGPT has brought the race for AI dominance back into the national conversation. The potential for AI technology to alter our world is difficult to overstate, even though ChatGPT technology itself barely scratches the surface of what AI technology can really do.

AI Will Transform Everything

Both the United States and China are fully engaged in efforts to master AI technology in its most powerful applications, which includes creating so-called “deep fakes” that put words into people’s mouths and put people in places they never were. Even those capabilities are mere shadows of what is to come.

In a few short years at most, the way we do even the most common tasks, from manufacturing goods, transporting them, and marketing them will be radically changed. Medicines, machines, and methodologies of inquiry will all be fundamentally different under AI. AI will change every activity or industry to which it is applied, and that includes rapid advancements in biotechnology and its transformational impact on warfare.

The AI Race Will Be the Last Race

The race for AI mastery isn’t the first time that nations have raced to achieve technological dominance in the world. The race to reach the moon comes to mind, but it was ideological almost as much as it was technological in its impact. The race to develop the first atomic bomb during the Second World War is a better comparison. Many observers believe that AI represents nothing less than a paradigm shift for the entire world and across the spectrum of industries and scientific applications.

That’s what makes AI a qualitatively different technology than all others. It will forever alter the relationship between humanity and machines. Humanity’s great innovation was the replication and transformation of the natural world into the mechanization and manipulation of it. It was only just over a century ago that mankind transitioned from horse to automobile, then on to flight, and then to space flight.

A visitor watches an AI sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona. (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)

A concurrent shift occurred with the communication revolution, effectively compressing time and distance by the speed of light. This not only made the world smaller and events more impactful as they’re witnessed in real time, but it also shortened reaction times.

The AI revolution, however, is a quantum leap in technological advancement. AI is the actual dematerialization of machines and the separation of thought from humanity, neither of which has ever happened before. For the first time ever, mankind is threatened not just with destruction from a man-made device, but by our own creations replacing us altogether.

China’s Big Data and Surveillance

That’s no exaggeration. Philosopher Yuval Harari has warned of AI rendering humans as obsolete and “useless.” Harari isn’t the only one to see the red flags. Elon Musk has said that AI is “summoning the demon,” implying that once released, it will be beyond our control.

That remains to be seen. But both statements are a nod to the power that AI may well yield to those who first acquire the requisite level of skill and technology. Accordingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin observed that whoever masters AI will be master of the world.

He’s probably right, and the Chinese Communist Party has every intention of doing both.

A Chinese man plays online games at an internet cafe in Wuhan, China, in this file photo. The Chinese regime’s cyber strategy is not fun and games, however, it is real cyber war against the United States.  (Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

Despite ChatGPT’s impressive debut, China is ahead of the United States where it really counts: in research. According to their most recent five year plan, Chinese planners have set rigorous goals for 2030 that include investing up to $1.4 trillion in new AI infrastructure such as data centers, 5G, the industrial internet, and other enabling technologies.

Their objective is to attain an unassailable position in AI-driven technologies, and in some key respects, such as access to big data, they’re well-positioned to reach their goal. With 1.4 billion people and one of the world’s most surveilled populations, Chinese researchers have access to the largest databases in the world with few if any privacy restrictions.

China Rushing to Create Superior AI-Driven Military

The time period of 2025 to 2030 has tremendous defense implications for the United States, since that’s when China’s global AI leadership is scheduled to be realized. Indeed, China’s military advancement plan calls for AI implementation by 2030, with an ambitious and comprehensive application across the entire military asset spectrum.

China’s plan includes integrating neural networks with nuclear armed hypersonic glide vehicles, AI-enhanced automatic target recognition, auto-piloting, missile fusion, precision guidance for hypersonic platforms, maneuverability, and more. Beijing is also looking to AI for heretofore unimaginable ways to wage cyber warfare on its adversaries. The upshot is within a few years, Beijing aims to change the entire calculus of offensive strategic weapons dynamics through deep AI integration.

Ultimately, the race for AI dominance between the United States and China may not just come down to committing investment and intellectual resources, but rather, how fast the technology can be put into action.

It may also be a question of keeping technological intellectual property from being sold or stolen, which the U.S. government has shown repeatedly it is unable to prevent.

At the same time big cities are going light on criminals, many of them are choosing to instead make an example out of the manufacturers of stolen property. 

At least eight cities have filed suit against Kia and Hyundai, seeking unspecified damages over the manufacturers’ production of cars lacking common anti-theft technology. The cities include Seattle, Milwaukee, Cleveland, San Diego and St. Louis. Individuals who bought or leased the cars are also suing the companies. 

“Big corporations like Kia and Hyundai must be held accountable for endangering our residents and putting profit over people,” said St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones. 

In a suit filed in February, the city of Columbus, Ohio said, “The security system for these cars is so substandard that it can be exploited by a middle-schooler.” At risk are Kias made from 2011 to 2021, and Hyundais built between 2016 and 2021.   

Because millions of Hyundai and Kia vehicles lack a common anti-theft device called an “immobilizer,” they can be easily started with a USB cable and a screwdriver. “Immobilizers were standard on 96% of U.S vehicles by 2015 but were standard on only 26% of 2015 model year Hyundai and Kia vehicles,” reports the Wall Street Journal. 

Thanks to how-to videos circulated on TikTok and other social media platforms, thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles positively skyrocketed in 2021. 

For example, Milwaukee saw Hyundai and Kia thefts soar from 895 in 2020 to 6,970 in 2021, with other cities also reporting 8- and 10-fold increases.

To look at the risk in another way, about one in every 10 Kias registered in Chicago was stolen in 2022. Insurers have taken note — and taken action: State Farm and Progressive have each restricted and/or repriced their coverage of affected Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Sales of policies have been limited in certain parts of the country. 

Scrambling to address the fiasco, both manufacturers distributed steering wheel locks to police departments last year and encouraged them to give them to Kia and Hyundai owners. Now, they’re implementing a software fix that has to be installed by a dealer. The software upgrade isn’t available for all models yet — and for some, it will never come.  

Of course, even after the upgrade is installed, your vehicle is still seen as a prime target. To notify criminals that it’s been upgraded, Hyundai is giving customers window stickers. Ahead of your upgrade, you can also try bluffing: Enterprising people are selling stickers online.