Month: January 2024

Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof is predicting that Congress and the Pentagon are in for a “tumultuous” start of 2024, as the ongoing standoff over Biden’s billions more in Ukraine defense aid highlights the reality that there’s “no stomach” any longer to fund Ukraine. 

The ex-senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense issued the words in a fresh interview with Russian media, wherein he also emphasized that the only way out for Kiev is through negotiations based on the current dire realities of the battlefield, which has seen setback after setback for Ukraine forces. 

This dire state of things has also been seen in the increasingly gloomy and negative coverage of Ukraine on the part of major mainstream media. For example the NY Times ran this surprising headline over the weekend: ‘People Snatchers’: Ukraine’s Recruiters Use Harsh Tactics to Fill Ranks. Weeks prior, in early December, the same publication issued this headline: U.S. and Ukraine Search for a New Strategy After Failed Counteroffensive.

Maloof issued his own even more pessimistic assessment, painting a picture of a domino effect spilling over into the halls of a tense and divided Congress which must belatedly acknowledge “the war is over”. 

According to Maloof’s assessment in the interview: 

“The United States has their appropriations hung up. The US government could shut down by January 17 if the administration and Congress can’t negotiate and work out an arrangement for funding Ukraine and Israel, but at the same time to enforce the border. I think the Republicans to date have held firm, and we’ll see if they’ll hold on. But there’s no stomach right now any longer to fund the Ukrainians.

Frankly, the people see that the war is over. Basically, the [Ukrainian] counteroffensive failed, and there’s no way that they can pick it back up and turn things around, because they’ve gone into total defensive mode. The so-called counteroffensive just does not exist,” said Maloof.

This is a moment long past due where the American people and their leadership are being forced to put America first given the NATO’ization of Ukraine project has failed.

“We have got to worry about our whether our government is even going to be open for business,” he continued, and added: “there is a second tranche in February that would shut down as well if they have not reached a resolution on funding the government agencies the way the House has dictated.”

American public support for funding Ukraine amid the Russian invasion was already slipping as early as last summer…

And looming heavily in the background is the unpredictability of other global flashpoints which threaten to stretch US forces and resources thin. Speaking of Israel’s escalatory policies in Gaza, Maloof said, “I guess he [Benjamin Netanyahu] thinks he can go ahead and start raising all kinds of havoc not only with Iran, but also with Hezbollah up north. So are we going to help fund all of that?“

“I mean, that’s the big question. And I don’t think there’s any stomach for that, considering that, you know, we are entering an election year,” emphasized Maloof again.

Authored by Mark Hendrickson via The Epoch Times,

In the past, I’ve referred to the well-funded, well-organized, but scientifically vacuous climate alarmists as a “cabal” with an explicitly socialist agenda.

Indeed, in a political context that’s exactly what they are. But in a religious context, they’re a cult fanatically pushing a rigid dogma.

The climate change dogma is roughly this:

• The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere has increased markedly over the past century (true);

• human activities have contributed to that increase (true);

• Earth has warmed by more than a degree since escaping the harsh Little Ice Age in the 19th century (also true, thank goodness!);

• temperatures will continue to rise to dangerous, catastrophe-inducing levels (unproven, unknowable, and unlikely) unless human society is radically transformed by drastically curbing the human use of fossil fuels (a power-seeking agenda that would inflict widespread impoverishment and suffering on billions of human beings).

In connection with the United Nation’s recently completed annual extravaganza in climate change propaganda and hysteria—COP28—long-time alarmist Al Gore (who still wants today the “wrenching transformation” of society that he called for in his 1992 jeremiad “Earth in the Balance”) lamented the fact that some people actually disagree with the wildly speculative alarmist predictions (guesses) that he and his fellow alarmists are making about the future.

He blamed social media and algorithms for spreading what he considers disinformation (in more neutral terms: differences of perception and understanding) about climate change.

Mr. Gore explicitly called for the ban (the censorship) of social media algorithms—implicitly, those that present apostate points of view, such as de-emphasizing the role of CO2 in climate change or maintaining that Earth isn’t on the brink of climate catastrophe. (Here’s a link to the video. Start at the 22:00 minute marker to hear him say it.) He asserts that the algorithms pull listeners down into “rabbit holes” where they enter into “echo chambers.”

The “echo chamber” assertion is hugely ironic, a classic case of psychological projection.

It’s the climate change cabal/cult that sets up echo chambers at events like COP28, whereas outside of those echo chambers, there’s a wide diversity of scientific research that calls into question key parts of the cultists’ dogma from many different angles—the very opposite of an echo chamber.

Here are several recent examples of scientific dissent from the alarmist projections of the climate change cult:

• In Hydrological Sciences Journal, Demetris Koutsoyiannis and Christos Vournas found that the post-1900 increase in the CO2 concentration (from 300 parts per million to 420 parts per million) “has not altered, in a discernible manner, the greenhouse effect, which remains dominated by the quantity of water vapour in the atmosphere.”

• Writing in the journal Earth’s Future, W. Jackson Davis “documents an overall negative correlation between global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last 210 million years,” according to NoTricksZone.com. A “negative correlation” —i.e., when the atmospheric concentration of CO2 rises, more often than not temperatures fall.

• Like other scientists in earlier years, Allan T. Emrén, writing in the International Journal of Global Warming, “found that the rate of change in CO2 concentration is controlled by global temperature rather than vice versa.”

• Norwegians John K. Dagsvik and Sigmund H. Moen (a statistician and civil engineer, respectively), writing in a Statistics Norway discussion paper, concluded that “the effect of man-made CO2 emissions does not appear strong enough to cause systematic changes in the temperature fluctuations during the last 200 years.”

• Other scientists believe that the “hottest ever” summer that the climate change cult has hyped in 2023 (which actually, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, was the 15th hottest since 1910 on mean temperatures and 22nd hottest for maximum temperatures) wasn’t triggered by CO2, but by a significant increase in solar radiation and/or by the 2022 eruption of the Tonga-Hunga volcano having caused a 10 percent increase in water vapor in the atmosphere.

• Perhaps the greatest challenge to the climate change cultists’ belief that CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming is a study published in Nature partner journal Climate and Atmospheric Science by H. Nair and colleagues. Those scientists came to the arresting conclusion that “we would expect from a 100% switchover from fossil fuels to zero-emission renewables, the net radiative heating would increase drastically.”

• This, according to NoTricksZone.com, is due to “a dramatic reduction in climate-cooling aerosol (pollution) emissions,“ and, ”because aerosol emissions have a relatively greater climate impact by reflecting shortwave radiation, the net effect of transitioning to renewables will be to ‘drastically’ increase Earth’s temperatures over the coming decades.”

The above examples of scientific studies running counter to climate-change-cult orthodoxy indicate that the science surrounding the issue is anything but settled in the alarmists’ favor.

Let’s switch from the science to the economics of transitioning away from fossil fuel usage. If the climate change cult succeeds in radically suppressing fossil fuel usage, human societies would be much poorer. That would be a tragedy with potentially deadly consequences. While human beings can no more tame the climate than the legendary King Canute could control the tides, the fact is that it’s prosperity that best enables human beings to cope with the adverse weather events that will periodically assail us regardless of whether the world cools or warms.

Fossil fuels not only have the advantage of being much more reliable and steady than wind and solar, but they’re also more efficient and economical. The ever-astute Rupert Darwall computed, “Thanks to [Britain’s increased use of] renewables, 13.6 GW (15.6 percent) more generating capacity [in 2020 compared to 2009] produced 64.5 TWh (17.1 percent) less electricity.” This is a path to energy and therefore societal impoverishment. The economics of wind energy are brutal for taxpayers. Jonathan Lesser computed that “the average subsidy for each green job created will be over $2 million per year.”

It’s clear that there are plenty of reasons to slow down, if not halt, the frenetic drive to eliminate fossil fuels. The pell-mell charge toward renewables isn’t rational; rather, it’s the fanaticism of a quasi-religious cult.

Started in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, Starbucks is the second-most prolific quick-service brand in the United States.

Since then, Starbucks has spread to over 80 different countries in its mission to serve coffee (or another beverage of choice) to everyone who walks through their doors.

After all, that’s their primary revenue stream.

Note: This revenue mix is for company-operated stores only. Furthermore, “other” consists of sales of packaged and single-serve coffees and teas, serve-ware, and ready-to-drink beverages, among other items.

But which regions account for most of the coffee chain’s nearly 40,000 locations?

We visualize the number of Starbucks locations by country, as of October 2023, using data from their annual report from the 2023 fiscal year.

Ranked: Countries With the Most Starbucks Stores

Here’s a look at the number of Starbucks locations around the world, separated by ownership.

Note: Figures current as of October, 2023. Countries and regions labelled as identified by company annual filings. Of the 67 company-operated locations listed as “Other”, some or all may belong to the countries explicitly listed above. Excludes locations managed by Siren Retail Group.

The U.S. and China are easily Starbucks’ largest markets, accounting for more than 61% of all Starbucks locations, and also have the most stores under direct company control.

However, as Starbucks has pursued newer markets in Asia, it has increasingly relied on its licensing model to gain a foothold in the quick service segment.

The company’s primary focus is to open stores in high-traffic high visibility areas, like downtown cores in cities, but that hasn’t stopped it from venturing out into rural countrysides, relying on highway-adjacent lots to entice a potential customer looking for a quick brew.

Starbucks Revenue Model: Company-Owned Versus Licensed

What does a licensing model do for Starbucks anyway?

Unlike McDonald’s, Starbucks has a more focused approach in its expansion. The company licenses its brand, proprietary products, and operational methods to third-party operators, with nearly a perfect 50/50 split between company-operated and licensed stores.

This means licensees don’t have the same degree of independence as other chains, and Starbucks has more control over the appearance of its stores, the menu, and other operational aspects.

In return, Starbucks receives royalties or a percentage of sales from its licensees.

Authored by Catherine Salgado via PJMedia.com,

A Swedish member of the European Parliament (MEP) ripped apart a “batsh*t crazy” colleague who falsely accused Israel of terrorism and apartheid. The Israel-hating left “does not belong in any elected chamber,” the MEP argued.

Researcher Dr. Eli David shared a clip on Dec. 31 from the European Union’s Parliament, featuring Sweden’s Sara Skyttedal calling out an Irish MEP’s anti-semitism. Even as the Irish people angrily protest the woke globalism ruining their country and filling it with violent Muslims, Ireland MEP Mick Wallace is spewing lies about Israel. As Israel continues to fight Hamas after the horrific and heinous Oct. 7 attack that left over 1,400 Israelis brutally massacred, many Western leftists still pretend Gaza is the victim and Israel is the eeeevil aggressor.

Skyttedal had had enough of Wallace’s propaganda, however.

“I am deeply concerned about my Irish colleague from the left group,” Skyttedal began. “Anti-Semitism is on the rise throughout Europe, and an elected official continues to spread anti-Semitic messages.”

It’s a dangerous prejudice, liable to lead to violence.

Swedish 🇸🇪 MEP @skyttedal rips apart the antisemitic Irish 🇮🇪 MEP @wallacemick:

“His upside down world where he calls Israel 🇮🇱 a terrorist state is a clear example of the batshit crazy left” 🤣👏
pic.twitter.com/g0alpkA2LF

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) December 31, 2023

Skyttedal went on, “Also, this is a war that started because of terrorism, a war between a democratic state and a terrorist group.” Israel is the free and legitimate state, Hamas is the jihadi group.

“But in your upside-down world,” Skyttedal told Wallace, “you are calling the democratic state the terrorists, and not even mentioning the atrocities committed by Hamas. This, my dear colleagues, is a clear example of the batsh*t crazy left that does not belong in any elected chamber, let alone this one.”

Dr. David’s clip also included part of Wallace’s nonsensical response to Skyttedal.

Wallace, who was dressed almost as well as John Fetterman and whose hair-styling appears to consist of sticking his finger in a light socket, babbled, “You’re calling Israel a democratic state. Let me tell you something, right. But democratic states don’t behave like an apartheid state.”

Israel IS NOT an apartheid state. The so-called “Palestinians,” an invented people, have no right to Israeli land and they have been refusing peace in favor of trying to obliterate Israel for decades (not to mention they have their own Arab state already: Jordan). The majority of Gazans support jihad against Israel (even the children), and the war was triggered by shocking Hamas atrocities, unprovoked and entirely unjustifiable. Hamas then engaged in their usual practice of hiding behind human shields, even aggressively preventing civilian evacuations to try and ensure Israeli strikes would kill more Gazan civilians. Not to mention Islamic scriptures demonize Jews, as PJ Media’s Robert Spencer explained, and Palestinian leadership has long insisted that killing Jews is a holy work, a service to Allah and Islam.

Mick Wallace is a shameless anti-Semite, spouting terrorist propaganda because he has been brainwashed by leftist ideology. As Skyttedal said, such men should not be in any elected chamber.

*  *  *

As the left goes all-out in propagandizing citizens, it’s important to have news sources you can trust. Use the code MERRYCHRISTMAS to get a 60% off discount on a PJ Media VIP or VIP Gold membership!

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

The Great Clarification

“Time for The Great Uprising to defeat The Great Reset. This isn’t just an R vs. D question in 2023. It’s a 1776 moment.”

– Vivek Ramaswamy

I’m already liking 2024. Consequence is itching to return to the American scene. Somewhere around 2016, cause and effect got a divorce. After that, things just happened or unhappened with no further orders of effect, like some brute existence without purpose, meaning, or even awareness, except for the feeling of the lash on your back.

After a long journey through a dark place, treading ever-deeper into the unknown, knowing you are in the presence of demons from one footstep to the next, worrying incessantly that God has abandoned you. . . the alarm bell is ringing, the light is shining through, your eyes roll up like window-shades, and it’s time to get your mind right! Yes, even nations have bad dreams. Welcome to the Great Clarification.

We are waking to the stupefying criminality of public life, to the immersive obvious bullshit of people in charge who don’t deserve your respect or compliance.

How they got into these positions is only another feature of that totalistic criminality.

What was hidden in plain sight will be revealed to those suffering mere hysterical blindness.

It was fitting that the last extravagant political act of ’23 was Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows chucking Mr. Trump off the ballot there because…she felt like it. To save our democracy, you understand. That might be the terminal absurdity of the derangement we are leaving behind, the signature for much that has gone down in this country the past three years: women on the verge of a nervous breakdown throwing the crockery of law around the room at Daddy.

All this accomplishes, of course, is to disgrace authority in general and to turn America into one big broken home, making us a population of frightened runaways clinging desperately to a few square feet of ground, alone under the freeway ramp in the rain. That is no way to live. The way to live is to make yourself useful to your fellow humans and to get paid for it, and to find some joy and meaning in that human fellowship based on fair, consensual transactions — a pretty simple formula that has been supplanted by the evil idea that life is nothing but a shakedown.

The election of 2024, whether it is actually allowed to happen or not, will probably commence the extinction of the DC blob. This entity has made itself malignantly inimical to the proper functioning of self-governing people, and everybody knows it. The blob will die of irrelevance and impotence as the “trust horizon” devolves downward and we are thrust back into the awesome task of reconstructing our local communities.

There is so much to do.

I keep hearing figures in the public arena say they have a creepy feeling that something big is going to happen.

Well, sure, something’s got to give. So much hyper-complexity has been heaped onto the apparatus of shakedown that just about nothing works in America anymore. The Internet is obviously a major part of that. We’ve allowed digital magic to invade every scrap of territory in our daily doings, to the degree that there is no longer enough for humans to do — but, alas, digital magic is only a pale simulacrum of real human magic.

The virtual is not an adequate substitute for the authentic. Why do you think there are so many people barely alive in a haze of opiate drugs splayed on the sidewalks of San Francisco, the epicenter of Internet wealth and power?

👀 Whitney Webb on Why Intel Agencies Are Running ‘Election Simulations’

“They basically conducted these simulations of what types of hacks and events could trigger the cancellation of a U.S. Presidential Election…It’s very likely there’s going to be some sort of cyber 9/11… pic.twitter.com/M4tUmngnGL

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 1, 2024

The “something big” could well be the Web-down crisis that is nervously tweeted about. If it went on for more than couple of weeks, most everything we depend on would cease to work, from food supplies to clean water to communications to what has been lately operating as “money.”  That would be a clarifying interlude for sure. Among the few things that would still work in the event of a massive attack on the Internet are human brains, human bodies, and firearms. That combo could be as much a recipe for order as for chaos. I believe in the fairly short term, most of us would opt for order. As far as I’m concerned, there’s already been enough chaos, just about every bit of it unnecessary.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 2024 is on. It’s the time many of us have been waiting for. We’re in it. Stay alert. Make the right choices. Exercise situational awareness. Get ready to walk with consequence. It’s here, and it’s not “queer.”

*  *  *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

With sadness Consortium News reports that John Pilger, whose books, films and articles informed generations of people eager to cut through official narratives and propaganda on the Palestinian question; U.S. wars executed in Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere; the one it plans for China; the state of public medicine in Britain; the treatment of aborigines in his native Australia and a host of other critical public issues, has died in London at 84. 

Pilger, a recipient of numerous awards, including winning British journalist of the year twice, was a member of Consortium News‘ board of directors and in October was awarded with CN‘s Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award. Tributes have been pouring in….

RIP to one of the world’s most intrepid, independent and stalwart journalists and documentarians, John Pilger.

His long-time anti-imperialism placed him on the international left, but he was refused to be enslaved to them: arguing Hillary was more dangerous than Trump. https://t.co/iXj7XnvfT0

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 31, 2023

John Pilger. I miss you my friend, what a great man you were. We will carry you in our hearts forever, you will always be there to give us strength. Love R.

— Roger Waters ✊ (@rogerwaters) December 31, 2023

An Interview with the late, great John Pilger [2022]
Link: https://t.co/m5D46fAHw8 pic.twitter.com/3doq0iqvqI

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 31, 2023

John Pilger’s documentaries are historically significant exposés of the cruelty and connivances of US empire, in which he gave voice to resistance movements still struggling for their sovereignty.

Films like his 1983 “Nicaragua, a nation’s right to survive” inspired my own work,… pic.twitter.com/xWUiF5RVH2

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 31, 2023

Below is John Pilger’s Biography via johnpilger.com…

* * *

John Pilger was born and grew up in Bondi, Sydney, Australia. He launched his first newspaper at Sydney High School and later completed a four year cadetship with Australian Consolidated Press. “It was one of the strictest language courses I know,” he says. “Devised by a celebrated, literate editor, Brian Penton, the aim was economy of language and accuracy. It certainly taught me to admire writing that was spare, precise and free of cliches, that didn’t retreat into the passive voice and used adjectives only when absolutely necessary. I have long since slipped that leash, but those early disciplines helped shape my journalism and writing and my understanding of moving and still pictures”.

Like many of his Australian generation, Pilger and two colleagues left for Europe in the early 1960s. They set up an ill-fated freelance ‘agency’ in Italy (with the grand title of ‘Interep’) and quickly went broke. Arriving in London, Pilger freelanced, then joined Reuters, moving to the London Daily Mirror, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, which was then changing to a serious tabloid.

He became chief foreign correspondent and reported from all over the world, covering numerous wars, notably Vietnam. Still in his twenties, he became the youngest journalist to receive Britain’s highest award for journalism, Journalist of the Year and was the first to win it twice. Moving to the United States, he reported the upheavals there in the late 1960s and 1970s. He marched with America’s poor from Alabama to Washington, following the assassination of Martin Luther King. He was in the same room when Robert Kennedy, the presidential candidate, was assassinated in June 1968.

His work in South East Asia produced an iconic issue of the London Mirror, devoted almost entirely to his world exclusive dispatches from Cambodia in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s reign. The combined impact of his Mirror reports and his subsequent documentary, Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, raised almost $50 million for the people of that stricken country. Similarly, his 1994 documentary and dispatches report from East Timor, where he travelled under cover, helped galvanise support for the East Timorese, then occupied by Indonesia.

In Britain, his four-year investigation on behalf of a group of children damaged at birth by the drug Thalidomide, and left out of the settlement with the drugs company, resulted in a special settlement.

His numerous documentaries on Australia, notably The Secret Country (1983), the bicentary trilogy The Last Dream (1988), Welcome to Australia (1999) and Utopia (2013) all celebrated and revealed much of his own country’s ‘forgotten past’, especially its indigenous past and present.

He has won an American TV Academy Award, an Emmy, and a British Academy Award, a BAFTA for his documentaries, which have also won numerous US and European awards, such as as the Royal Television Society’s Best Documentary. The British Film Institute includes his 1979 film, Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia among the ten most important documentaries of the twentieth century.

His articles appear worldwide. In 2001, he curated a major exhibition at the London Barbican, Reporting the World: John Pilger’s Eyewitness Photographers, a tribute to the great black-and-white photographers he has worked alongside. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Sophie Prize for ’30 years of exposing injustice and promoting human rights.’ In 2009, he was awarded Australia’s human rights prize, the Sydney Peace Prize. He has received honorary doctorates from universities in the UK and abroad. In 2017, the British Library announced a John Pilger Archive of all his written and filmed work.

By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

1. Chinese equities have enjoyed a stellar Santa Claus rally even though the country doesn’t officially celebrate Christmas. CSI 300 Index, the onshore benchmark, gained 2.8% in the final week of 2023 while the MSCI China Index soared 4.8% over the same period. The performance was the best in five months for both gauges. Investors have largely attributed the jump to bottom-fishing and year-end position adjustments, with some of the most battered sectors leading the year-end rally.

Despite last week’s bounce, Chinese shares remain the world’s biggest losers in 2023 and whether the rebound can last into the new year depends a lot on the all-important real estate sector. Wall Street, however, isn’t too optimistic. The slump in China’s housing construction will continue in 2024, dragging down economic growth while government efforts to stabilize the sector will be inadequate to reverse the downturn, according to the consensus from ten investment banks and brokerages including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS.

Until the housing market turns around, any dip-buying in Chinese equities will more likely be a short-term trade than a durable investment theme.

2. Bureaucrats are still fumbling their policymaking even as top leaders urge them to “build the new before abolishing the old.” More than two years after a crackdown on the Internet and video-game sectors, vestiges of official disapproval remain, as evidenced by a raft of proposals to curb in-game spending and playing time just before Christmas. Some of China’s biggest online names shed $80 billion before recouping some of their losses.

The silver lining, however, is that officials seemed to quickly realize the damages done and reacted almost immediately to calm markets, short of an explicitly admission of mea culpa. On Dec. 25, regulators said they approved a record 105 games for domestic publication and promised to review their controversial proposals.

The media & entertainment sector remains a “timely buy” based on business cycle analysis, according to a research report from JPMorgan, which shrugged off the rout of game stocks. The sector’s forward 12-month P/E ratio now stands at a multi-year low of 11.8 times and the valuation gaps are at odds with a regulatory direction favoring large caps, analysts Wendy Liu and Alex Yao wrote last week. The US bank favors Tencent, NetEase and Baidu, all of which fell before Christmas and only one has recouped all its losses.

3. A plethora of domestic problems still weigh on the Chinese currency, preventing it from catching up with the dollar. In December, the onshore yuan rose merely 0.5% versus the dollar, which by itself tumbled more than 2%. The currency ranked as No. 23 out of 31 peers of developed and developing nations tracked by Bloomberg.

It is faring even worse against non-dollar peers, hovering near a four-month low on a trade-weighted basis according to a Bloomberg tracker of China’s trade-weighted yuan index. Most currencies of the nation’s major trade partners strengthened versus the greenback in December, led by a 5%-plus rally in the Japanese yen.

In the final days of 2023, Chinese banks slashed their deposit rates for the third time this year and PBOC-backed Financial News suggested on Wednesday more reductions to both deposit and lending rates are likely in the pipeline. With no end in sight to rate cuts from Beijing, expectations of Fed easing alone won’t be enough to boost the Chinese currency.

South Korea’s main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was attacked by an unidentified assailant during a visit to the southern coastal city of Busan and rushed to a hospital after he was bleeding from his neck.

GRAPHIC ⚠️

South Korean opposition leader, Lee Jae-Myung, was stabbed in the neck during a press conference in Busan, South Korea.pic.twitter.com/DukBBKouKg

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 2, 2024

Lee was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidential election in 2022. He has also been faced various charges for alleged graft, which he has denied.

Witnesses said said the suspect had approached Lee for an autograph and pretending to be a supporter. He then attacked him with a weapon that was between 8 and 12 inches long.

Second angle: https://t.co/13BEA8ocZM

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 2, 2024

The alleged attacker has been arrested.

GRAPHIC ⚠️

South Korean opposition leader, Lee Jae-Myung, was stabbed in the neck during a press conference in Busan, South Korea.pic.twitter.com/DukBBKouKg

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 2, 2024

The extent of his injuries are unknown…

🚨🇰🇷 #BREAKING: South Korea’s opposition leader, Lee Jae-Myung, has just been stabbed in the neck. pic.twitter.com/EaXmzfapiY

— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) January 2, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed deep concern and over the incident “that should have never taken place,” Yonhap cited a presidential spokesperson as saying.

Developing…

By Garfield Reynolds, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

China stocks may be poised for higher ground after a dismal year.

Chinese investors may be glad to say goodbye to 2023, given the serial disappointments they faced during a year that opened with a wave of optimism that the nation’s abrupt reopening from Covid curbs will lead to the sort of robust recovery other major economies had experienced when they ended such restrictions. There were indeed strong initial surges for activity and for asset prices, but those soon dissolved into a relentless downhill slide.

This year is opening with a gloomier tone — house sales continue to decline, while China’s official manufacturing and services PMIs each came in below expectations for December. But perhaps that provides a clearer path for the bleeding to stop, and for some sort of sustained turnaround to develop. Indeed, almost a third of 417 respondents to Bloomberg’s latest survey say they will increase their China investments over the next 12 months.

For equities, in particular, the Shanghai Composite has now bounced off of the 2,800 era on three occasions over the past two years. And the China Composite PMI is holding above the 50 line to remain in expansion territory, even if only slightly above.

For China and the wider Asia-Pacific, the question of whether the region’s biggest economy can put the worst behind it looms as a key one for 2024, and perhaps even beyond.