The company changed the outlook while affirming Mexico’s rating at BBB, two notches above junk, and on par with Indonesia and Greece.
This week the Democrat mayor of Arcadia, CA pled guilty to charges of acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China. Prosecutors alleged that from 2020–2022 (pre-mayor but continuing into her time in office), she and an associate operated a website promoting pro-China propaganda at the direction of PRC officials, without registering as a foreign agent.
She faces at up to 10 years in prison for the crime, and it raises questions about how many more US mayors are on the payroll of foreign governments. But this scandal, like most scandals surrounding Democrats, will probably be erased from public discussion and forgotten within days. It's a tale that keeps repeating over the last decade and the lack of scrutiny (or pattern recognition) is leading to devastating consequences for the US as a whole.
The common reaction among many conservatives when they come across such news is to dismiss it as predictable. "The idiots living in that city got exactly what they voted for..." is the often heard retort. The implication being that it's "not our problem" and that leftists should be allowed to rot in the hellholes they created for themselves. But the truth is, it is a problem, for the entire country.
It's difficult to determine when it became fashionable for conservatives and centrists to abandon the fight for America's cities, but the consequences are spreading like a cancer into the political sphere. Leftists view these cities as victories. They see them as "territories, or "home bases" where they can launch assaults on various targets without fear of serious prosecution.
Allowing this takeover to continue should be treated as embarrassing by anyone with a modicum of moral clarity.
Failing metros also represent symbols of embarrassment on the global stage. When people around the world see the fentanyl zombie hordes of San Francisco or Philadelphia, that image sticks in their minds as a meme for the US.
In August of 2025 when the White House intervened to stop the out of control crime in Washington DC, Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser and the media fought tooth and nail to prevent outside enforcement. Bowser's administration is facing scrutiny after it was revealed that the MPD was allegedly rigging data in order to hide the increasing violent crime rate.
It should be noted that Trump's federal actions cut total crime by 19%, homicides are down by 36%, violent crime is down 6% and robberies are down 25%. There has been no rebound, and residents continue to express their thanks for Trump stepping in.
But one city being removed from chaos is not enough; the cancer is metastasizing.
Democrat Socialist (communist) mayors are embedded across the country and the results are increasingly ugly. Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago is reportedly stopping local police from investigating and arresting people involved in spontaneous teen riots across the city.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, says that Chicago is in for a "very long, very brutal" summer of street takeovers if the mayor doesn't get a grip on the situation. He said policies in Chicago prevent police from correctly handling the violent teen mobs seen in recent months. These mobs are largely made up of black teens, and under the concept of DEI, they get to do whatever they want.
In New York under Zohran Mamdani, the mayor is giving regular speeches about "peace and harmony" under Islamic immigration. Meanwhile, malicious mobs of leftists and Muslims are now prowling NYC neighborhoods attacking random Jewish people, police and anyone wearing MAGA clothing. Law enforcement is reportedly being held back from any meaningful response.
Under far-left Mayor Katie Wilson, who was living off her parent's money at age 43 before she was elected, Seattle is witnessing a mass exodus of businesses and higher income taxpayers. The city was already facing a detrimental budget deficit, but now it is also facing substantial job losses. Even Starbucks, which got it's start in Seattle, is leaving for Tennessee. Wilson's response? "Good riddance..."
In other words, she's happy about the economic destruction of the city she has been charged with managing.
It is important to realize that leftists view chaos and the deconstruction of the existing society as a good thing. They applaud high crime, mob violence, economic decay and foreign corruption. The faster the plunge happens, the sooner they can build their delusional equity-based Utopia. Once this fact is understood, everything they do makes perfect sense.
But there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Far-left DEI Mayor Karen Bass of LA is facing significant competition in the 2026 election race. Her failures in the Palisades fires, rampant homelessness, violent crime and overall mismanagement of city infrastructure might have awakened residents of the city to the idea of voting outside the Democratic Party.
Conservative candidate Spencer Pratt is surging in the polls. After the latest public debate, 89% of voters picked Pratt as the winner. Though Bass continues to lead with 40% of voters polled, Pratt's run is exposing weaknesses in the armor of Democrat controlled urban areas. At the very least, far more people than expected are fed up with leftist leadership.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/americas-fanatical-left-wing-mayors-are-malignant-threat
by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,
Cuba wants help, and the United States will hold talks with the communist island nation, President Donald Trump announced in a Tuesday post on Truth Social.
He did not specify when those talks would take place.
“No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction—down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote in his post.
The president has made Cuba a focus of his second term, increasing pressure on Havana in the form of sanctions, an oil blockade, and repeated comments from himself and others in his administration about how Cuba is next after the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Cuba, in January.
As he left for his trip to China, Trump declined providing any further information to reporters at the White House.
“Cuba is not doing well. It’s a failed nation, and we'll be talking about Cuba at the right time,” Trump said.
Asked about any planned talks with the country, a White House official said, “Within a short period of time, they will fall, and we will be there to help them out.”
Trump has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the Cuban regime to choke the leadership out and push it toward making a deal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, announced some of those sanctions on May 7.
On May 1, Trump signed a presidential action broadening sanctions on the communist government, imposing them on individuals, entities, and affiliates of the regime. It also targeted anyone complicit in human rights violations or corruption.
“[Cuba’s policies] constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat,” Trump’s order said. “Not only are these policies, practices, and actions designed to harm the United States, but they are also repugnant to the moral and political values of free and democratic societies.”
On Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil. Days later, the president said Mexico would cease oil shipments to the country.
The oil blockade, sanctions, and U.S. capture of Cuba’s main oil provider in Maduro have crippled the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Blackouts, shortages, and fuel rationing have become part of daily life in Cuba.
Although the United States offered some relief in allowing a Russian-flagged tanker to bring 730,000 barrels of oil to Cuba on March 31, the supply lasted less than 10 days.
Cuban Americans, including Fidel Castro’s daughter, have sharply denounced the communist government, calling on Trump to turn his attention to Cuba.
Trump has pitched the idea of a “friendly takeover” of the country, or a military takeover, adding that he believes he will have the “honor of taking Cuba.”
“That’s a big honor, taking Cuba in some form,” Trump told reporters in March. “Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from March 13–15, the first presidential visit to the country since Trump’s 2017 stop in his first term. China has called for the United States to end its oil blockade and sanctions against Cuba.
“We’re going to have a very good meeting,” Trump said before departing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-says-cuba-seeking-help-we-are-going-talk
Hezbollah announced 17 operations against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
The group said it issued the attacks targeting Israeli troops and military vehicles in several areas of southern Lebanon. In a statement, it listed operations that included drones, missiles and explosives.
Despite the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, cross-border clashes continue, most recently with Israel carrying out multiple strikes on southern Lebanon, killing at least 10 people.
Kyiv came under a "massive" Russian attack on Thursday, according to the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko.
"Explosions in the city," Klitschko wrote on Telegram, urging residents to stay in shelters amid the ballistic missile and drone assault.
Both the mayor and the head of Kyiv's military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said that residential and non-residential buildings across the city have been damaged. The two officials have so far made no mention of casualties.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Kyiv-reports-explosions-amid-'massive-attack'/66291226
The United States House of Representatives passed a bill to approve year-round sales of higher-ethanol E15 gasoline, sending it to the Senate.
The 218-203 vote came after US President Donald Trump called on lawmakers in January to "find a deal that works for farmers, consumers and refiners" on the fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline.
Trump said at the time he would sign such a deal "without delay."
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/US-House-approves-year-round-E15-gasoline-sale/66291278
by Monty L. Donohew
In a refreshing display of backbone, Tennessee House speaker Cameron Sexton delivered a clear message to the Democrat caucus: Political terrorism will not be tolerated in the Volunteer State. As Sean Davis of The Federalist reported Tuesday, every single member of the House Democratic Caucus has been stripped of all standing committee and subcommittee assignments following their disgraceful conduct during last week’s special session on congressional redistricting. The offenses? Coordinated disruptions inside the Capitol, including setting fires, attacking law enforcement officers, and turning the legislative chamber into a circus.
Tennessee Republicans, wielding their well earned supermajority, moved swiftly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling against racial gerrymandering to pass a new congressional map. The map eliminates the state’s lone majority-black district in Memphis, carved out under decades of race-based mapmaking, and redraws lines to better reflect Tennessee’s overwhelmingly conservative electorate. The result could deliver a clean 9-0 Republican delegation in November’s midterms. Democrats, predictably, lost their minds.
The actual outrageous acts are worth cataloging in detail because the corporate media won’t.
Elected Democrat representatives, including the usual suspects Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, locked arms in the well of the House chamber, physically blocking proceedings and refusing to yield. They coordinated with raucous protesters packed into the gallery, who blasted air horns and noisemakers in an orchestrated attempt to drown out the vote. When troopers moved to enforce order and clear the chamber, confrontations escalated — pushing, shoving, and outright resistance that led to arrests, including of Pearson’s brother. And in a moment of pure symbolism that perfectly captured the left’s priorities, Rep. Jones burned a Confederate flag replica inside the Capitol building itself, later railing against Republicans as a “white sheet caucus.”
These were sitting legislators and their allies hijacking the people’s House, disrupting a lawful legislative session, and committing acts of vandalism and defiance inside a government building. Setting fires in the Capitol is irresponsible and dangerous arson. No matter how common the Dems attempt to make such acts, attacking or resisting law enforcement is an open assault on the rule of law, and it threatens the lives and health of innocent citizens.
Contrast this with the endless Democrat and media hysteria over January 6, 2021. For years, the left has insisted that the “riot” at the U.S. Capitol was an “armed insurrection” that threatened the very foundation of American democracy. They’ve used that narrative to justify show trials, solitary confinement for nonviolent defendants, and a perpetual purge of political opponents. Yet what happened in Tennessee last week was arguably more extreme in key respects: elected officials leading the disruption from inside the chamber itself, during an active legislative session, complete with fires and direct confrontations with officers.
No one burned documents or flags on the floor of Congress during the 2021 Electoral College certification in quite this coordinated, inside-job fashion. Nor did the January 6 crowd include sitting members of Congress orchestrating the chaos in real time.
Yet the media labeled J6 an existential threat while shrugging off or actively excusing Tennessee Democrats’ behavior as “passionate advocacy.” Where are the breathless headlines calling this an “insurrection” against the Tennessee General Assembly? Crickets. The double-standard is glaring and indefensible.
Tennessee Republicans deserve national applause for refusing to play the spineless game so common in Washington. Instead of issuing toothless censures or endless “investigations,” they exercised the power voters gave them. Removing the entire Democrat caucus from committees is accountability. It sends an unmistakable signal: If you treat the people’s Legislature like your personal protest zone, you forfeit the privileges of participation. No more using committee perches to grandstand while undermining the very process that elected you.
Tennessee’s decisive action reveals a broader and long-overdue reformation necessary in Republican governance: The era of rolling over is over. Republicans must finally commit to wield the power voters entrusted to them. After years of watching Democrats weaponize every lever of power, from lawfare to street theater to procedural sabotage, red-state majorities are finally learning that appeasement and surrender in battle after battle emboldens the opponent and makes the war harder to win.
Tennessee’s action echoes the spirit of the Supreme Court’s recent rebuke of racial gerrymandering and the aggressive redistricting pushes underway in states like Indiana and Ohio. When leftists lose under colorblind rules, they don’t accept defeat gracefully; they burn flags and attack cops. Republicans must respond with strength, not lectures, seminars on “democracy,” and “strongly worded letters” in the form of impotent pleas to mainstream media outlets.
National Republicans, take note, as Sean Davis urged. Imagine if House speaker Mike Johnson or Senate leader John Thune showed this level of resolve against the Squad’s antics, performative outbursts, and obstructive temper tantrums. Imagine statehouses from Texas to Florida adopting the Tennessee model: no tolerance for walkouts, no platform for chaos, and swift consequences for those who turn legislative debate into political arson.
Tennessee Republicans have drawn a line. Political terrorism in the statehouse ends here. The rest of the GOP would do well to follow their lead. The voters who delivered supermajorities didn’t send Republicans to Nashville, or to Washington, to cower. The people sent representatives to govern. Governing means enforcing order when the other side chooses disorder.
