GM announced, on April 18, that they will increase the price of their vehicles, because of the rising cost of supplies.
GM said it is not related to the parts supply problem in Japan. Instead they blame it on commodities like oil and steel. GM’s price hike will take effect May 2. Toyota and Ford have already announced similar price hikes.
18 people were killed, and 155 injured after a major hail and wind storm hit southern China.
Most people were killed when 45 houses collapsed. The storm struck on April 17.
Many farms were destroyed, creating tens of millions of U.S. dollars in damage. It now adds to the growing concern over world food supply.
25 years after the deadly nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant, the Ukraine is still struggling to deal with the disaster.
This week is Black Week, the official anniversary of the nuclear accident, which happened on 26 April 1986. 31 people were killed, as a direct result of the disaster, and many more have suffered cancers, and children being born with defects.
The amazing thing is that clean up efforts continue, and the Ukraine is struggling to pay for it. Officials are trying to raise U.S.$ 1 billion for future clean up projects.
So you voted for Barack Obama because you’re hoping to go to college, but can’t afford the skyrocketing costs. You thought Obama was going to help you pay for college? You’re right, if your going to college in China!
Last week Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, announced that the U.S. State Department will spend U.S.$3 million on scholarships for study in China. On top of that First Lady Michelle Obama announced that they have convinced U.S. corporations to help fund U.S.$3.25 million for the “100,000 Strong Initiative”. Those corporations include Caterpillar, Citigroup and Coca-Cola.
The program is in addition to the usual Fulbright scholarship program.
So now even college students are being shipped off to China! I guess it makes sense, you know, follow the jobs.
For the fourth month in a row, China is selling off its U.S. Treasury bonds (U.S. Sovereign debt). China is the biggest holder of U.S. bonds, but since February, they’ve been getting rid of them, a little at a time.
So far the Chinese have sold U.S.$600 million in U.S. bonds, that’s according to the U.S. Treasury.
Japan has the second biggest holdings of U.S. Treasuries, but there is concern that Japan will sell them off, to help pay for rebuilding after the March 11 disasters.
“It seems to me that the attitude of the State Department has to do with my investigations in the U.S. National Archives.”-Gabriela Weber, investigative journalist
Gabriela Weber, known for investigating NAZI war criminals in South America, has followed a trail of illegal child adoptions right to the United States government. And that has gotten her banned from entering the U.S. legally.
Weber discovered that U.S. embassy officials were involved with illegal adoptions of children belonging to people who were “disappeared” during Argentina’s “dirty war“.
U.S. officials refuse to comment on the grounds it would violate the privacy of those who were “adopted”.
Weber claims that she has evidence directly linking former U.S. military attache William Desreis to the illegal “adoptions” of Argentinian children, whose parents were “disappeared” by the military dictators of Argentina, at that time (1976-1983).
Weber tried to go to the United States in 2010, to follow the trail, and confirm her findings in Argentina, but she was thrown out after only seven hours, even though she had proper visa documents.
Tokyo Electric Power Company will now put air conditioners in the worker’s rest stations, after at least one worker succumbed to heat stroke.
Temperatures inside their protective suits are hot after only 30 minutes of wearing them. Unlike some military NBC masks, that can allow you to drink water, the nuke suits used at Fukushima Daiichi do not allow the workers to drink water.
There is only one building on the compound that still has working air conditioning. TEPCo will bring in more air conditioning units.
Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will test the ocean for plutonium. They have already found soil samples to be contaminated with the toxic isotope.
TEPCo official Matsumoto Junichi says because plutonium was found in the ground around Fukushima Daiichi, then it’s possible it is getting into the ocean. They will check the ocean floor, because plutonium is heavier than other isotopes, and probably sank.
“If we didn’t import from China, we’d import from somewhere else.”-Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson is saying that if U.S. corporations didn’t have China to ship jobs to, they’d ship off U.S. jobs somewhere else. He, and others, believe that by shipping off U.S. jobs to other countries, it helps to keep inflation down.
Of course it does, because that means less people working which brings down consumer spending which helps keep inflation down. Inflation traditionally goes up when the economy is good and people spend more money, which is what is happening in China right now.
There is worry that the fast growing inflation in China could spread to the rest of the world. For those countries whose economies are in trouble it’s not a good thing: “If China has problems, our problems would be more difficult.”-Henry Paulson
Rescuers at the Lucky Friday mine near Mullan, Idaho, have started assembling the robot digger. They had to bring the drone front end loader into the mine in pieces, now they’re putting it together.
On Friday a 75 feet section of mine collapsed on two brothers working in the mine. One got out, the other did not. Rescuers hope to get the digger working later today.