Trump pledges to launch federal task force to ‘liberate Aurora’ from foreign gangs

 Former President Donald Trump announced Friday that if elected he will “liberate Aurora” by establishing a federal task force aimed at “crushing” foreign gangs. 

Tren de Aragua, a ruthless Venezuelan prison gang, has reportedly overrun several apartment buildings in the Colorado city since expanding its reach in the US amid the historic surge in illegal immigration under the Harris-Biden administration. 

“They’ve become real estate developers, like I used to be,” Trump said of the organized crime syndicate during a Las Vegas rally. 

“They’re dismembering rivals from Chile and from Colombia … How the hell did we allow this to happen to our country?” the former president noted, referring to a recent Wall Street Journal report on the gang. 

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Former President Donald Trump says if elected, he will establish a federal task force aimed at “crushing” foreign gangs.REUTERS

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A crowd of Trump supporters attend his campaign rally at The Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas on September 13, 2024.Getty Images“In Colorado, the gang even got a green light to shoot the cops,” Trump said, referring to a July memo authored by the Homeland Security Investigations office in Chicago.

“That’s not acceptable,” the GOP nominee argued, before laying out his plan to combat Tren de Aragua. 

“When I return to the White House I will launch a special task force of elite federal law enforcement and charge them with crushing and eliminating every foreign gang and organized crime network that is conquering our country,” Trump pledged.  

“We will deploy ICE, DHS and other federal officials to go in and liberate Aurora,” he added. “Can you believe I have to say this? We are going to liberate parts of our country.” 

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Armed members of Tren de Aragua inside a Colorado apartment building taken over by the vicous migrant gang.Edward Romero

Cops in Aurora have arrested 10 confirmed members of Tren de Aragua in recent months.

The gang members have been using blighted apartment complexes in the city of 390,000 as their home base, terrorizing residents there with gun crime, theft and drug dealing.

Earlier this week Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Council Member and Public Safety Chairwoman Danielle Jurinsky confirmed that Tren de Aragua “issues” have “significantly affected” some properties in the city.  

However, the officials disputed that the gang has “taken over” the city, as Trump suggested in his Tuesday debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. 

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Trump admitted to being “angry” about how democrats are handling immigration in America during Tuesday’s debate.REUTERS

In the debate, Trump acknowledged in his Las Vegas speech that he was “angry” during his showdown with Harris. 

“Of course I’m angry,” he said. “We got 21 million people that came into our country – invading our communities, invading our cities and our towns, and destroying our country.”

“I’m angry about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora, Colo., and I’m angry about illegal Haitian migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio … and the American people are damn angry too,” Trump continued.

The Post spoke with a few of the 6,000 Trump supporters who attended the event at the World Market Center, just north of the Las Vegas Strip, and all were effusive in the praise of the former president. 

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Trump is behind Harris by a narrow 0.6 percentage point margin in Nevada, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of state polls.Getty Images

Las Vegas resident Sterling Bawden said Trump’s address was “excellent,” and he predicted Nevada would go for the GOP presidential nominee on Election Day. 

“Because he’s the man,” Bawden said, “Nevada needs a lot of stuff done, and he’s the guy to do it with all the policies he’s got and build back everything, you know, but making America great again.”

The Silver State hasn’t been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 2004. 

Trump trails Harris by a narrow 0.6 percentage point margin in Nevada, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of state polls.

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Trump plans to ‘liberate Aurora’ from foreign gangs if he’s elected.AP

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who endorsed Trump last month and spoke at Friday’s rally, called the state a “must-win” for the former president.

“Pawn Stars” personality Rick Harrison, mixed martial artist Henry Cejudo, and Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown were among the others who addressed attendees.

Lisa Marrone, from the city’s Spring Valley neighborhood, said Trump’s address “touched on everything that’s an issue and we need to work on.”

She also applauded the ex-commander-in-chief’s plan for a task force to “liberate” Aurora from violent gangs.

Was she worried about gangs coming to her area? “One hundred percent,” she replied. “We need to take our country back.”

https://nypost.com/2024/09/14/us-news/trump-pledges-to-launch-federal-task-force-to-liberate-aurora-from-foreign-gangs/

Many Americans don’t plan to get new COVID shot

 

As the temperature starts to drop, less than half of Americans plan on getting the new COVID-19 vaccine while more than half plan on getting a flu shot.

Forty-three percent of respondents in the survey conducted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center said they have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine and plan on getting an updated inoculation.   Meanwhile, 56 percent of respondents said they have already gotten a flu shot or plan to get one.   The more than 1,000-person survey found a significant number of people plan to not get any more vaccines. Thirty-seven percent of people said they have gotten a vaccine in the past but do not plan on getting one again.   “We’re at the start of respiratory virus season when you have the triple threat of flu, COVID-19 and RSV. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about vaccinations, but the reality is that they are safe and highly effective in preventing serious illness and death,” said Nora Colburn, medical director of clinical epidemiology at Ohio State’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, in a statement.    “Older adults, people with certain chronic medical conditions and those who are pregnant are especially at risk during respiratory virus season,” Colburn added.    After a summer surge of COVID-19, cases of the disease are still climbing in at least three states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).   A high or very high level of COVID-19 was being detected in wastewater in almost every state in the U.S earlier this summer, according to the CDC. As of Sept. 7, most states were still reporting high levels of the virus in their wastewater, but cases are likely falling in some areas.   Cases are declining or likely declining in 31 states while they are growing in three states, the CDC said in a data update earlier this week. In another 13 states it was unclear if cases were increasing or declining.    Doctors still encourage everyone apart from babies younger than 6 months to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. Physicians recommend that adults and children older than age 6 get a flu shot every year.   https://thehill.com/newsletters/health-care/4879682-many-americans-dont-plan-to-get-new-covid-shot/

NC will mail ballots two week late after RFK Jr. suit

 On Friday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced that all 100 counties must send ballots to eligible military and overseas citizens on Sept. 20. Ballots will be sent out by Sept. 24 for all other voters who have requested ballots by mail.

“This schedule is only possible because of the hard work of elections professionals across this state that will continue throughout the next week,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “Because of them, we expect to meet the federal deadline for ballot delivery, and North Carolinians can finally start voting in this important election.” 

The Tar Heel state was poised to send ballots out on Sept. 6 before the former presidential candidate successfully sued to get his name off of the November ballot after dropping out of the contest. This ruling forced state election officials to scramble and reprint the ballots.

As of Thursday, more than 166,000 North Carolina voters, including more than 13,600 military and overseas voters, had requested ballots. Preliminary estimates show the reprint effort cost the state at least $373,000. 

The election body said it will prioritize requested ballots for military and overseas voters due to it only making up about 8 percent of absentee requests. State Board staff also organized on-demand ballot printers to be placed throughout the state to ensure ballots are printed before the Sept. 20 deadline. 

“This plan allows time for the much larger orders of absentee ballots for all other voters to be printed and delivered to the county boards in time for counties to prepare their outgoing absentee ballot packages for mailing on Sept. 24,” the NCSBE release reads.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4879772-north-carolina-absentee-ballots-delay/

China Raises Retirement Age For First Time Since 1978, Sparking Social Fury

 A few weeks ago, we warned that the entire Chinese experiment was on the verge of collapse because while on one hand the welfare state was crumbling due to Beijing's stubborn insistence not to stimulate the economy at any cost (normally, it would be admirable to be so stubbornly insistent  on austerity but when austerity threatens social collapse, it may be time to reassess), this was accentuated by an explosion in social unrest as youth unemployment soared, and worker strikes surged across the nation.

While we detailed the various reasons that had pushed China to the edge of the abyss, one section was especially notable: our preview of what was the logical next step in China's belt-tightening ways - raising the retirement age - and the obvious blowback storm it would generate.

In a key socioeconomic planning meeting concluded last month, the government vowed to improve the social security system by addressing the restrictions faced by migration workers. In response to the country's aging population, it added that the statutory retirement age -- currently 60 years for men and between 50 and 55 for women -- would be raised gradually and voluntarily.

To this we added that there is, of course, zero historical record of a "centrally-planned civilization that has managed to raise the retirement age either "voluntarily" and without clashes, violence, and collapse in social cohesion, precisely the three things that Beijing fears the most."

We concluded by quoting Yun Zhou, a social demographer and family sociologist at the University of Michigan, who warned that "for China's urban workers, the talk of raising retirement ages is felt as a delayed, if not broken, promise of social welfare coverage" to which we counteded:

Which is precisely why Beijing will have no choice but to blink in the end, and that will mean unleashing a much delayed stimulus bazooka that likes of which have not been seen yet.

Fast-forward to today, when Beijing did just as we expected it would and, in a last ditch attempt to delay the "stimulus bazooka",  announced it would raise the retirement age for the first time since 1978, a move that will help stem a rapid decline in the labor force but risk angering workers already wrestling with a slowing economy.

Top lawmakers endorsed a plan to delay retirement for employees by as long as five years, Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Men will retire at 63 instead of 60. Women will retire at 55 instead of 50 for ordinary workers, and 58 instead of 55 for those in management positions. Come to think of it, it is absolutely insane that in China 50 is the retirement age for women. But now that China has finally figured out the brutal reality of its demographic implosion, the money printer comes next.

The retirement change will take place over 15 years starting January, and will allow more people to work longer. This could boost productivity to address the challenges of an aging population, although it is much more likely that all today's decision will do is spark public anger, and add to the ire from an economy growing at the worst pace in five quarters.

“The timeline of raising the retirement age is pretty gradual. Policymakers probably have taken into account the potential negative impact and calibrated that carefully,” said Michelle Lam, China economist at Societe Generale. Actually sorry Michelle, but nobody in Beijing has calibrated anything as the coming violence will demonstrate.

Shares of companies providing health and elderly care jumped, with Shanghai Everjoy Health rising by the daily limit of 10%. Chalkis Health Industry and Youngy Health both gained more than 6%.

“People may face more health problems if the retirement age is raised. And the pressure of supporting parents may require more elderly care institutions to share the burden,” said Shen Meng

China’s retirement age had been among the world’s lowest - even below that of socialist paradise France - despite significantly increased life expectancy over the decades. A bigger tax base and delayed access to benefits will relieve the pressure on the government to fund pensions as the elderly population rapidly expands.

The retirement age hike is aimed at “adapting to the new situation of demographic development in China, and fully developing and utilizing human resources,” according to the decision by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The approval followed the previously reported July announcement by the ruling Communist Party that the retirement age will rise in a “voluntary, flexible manner.” Flexible? Maybe. Voluntary? No chance in hell: previous efforts to raise the threshold had failed in the face of public opposition.

The Friday decision left countless people fuming over working into an older age, as well as those who fear greater competition in the job market.

“Are you asking me, when I’m 60, to compete with young people for jobs?” a Weibo user said on the X-like social media platform, where the news was the top trending item and garnered more than 530 million views as of Friday afternoon.

Some also complained about employers’ discrimination against older job candidates, a problem that the government has long vowed to address. Authorities acknowledged the potential short-term pressure on the job market at a press briefing on Friday. Li Zhong, vice minister at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the gradual pace of the change should lead to a “muted” effect on youth employment, which as everyone knows China stopped reporting last year, only to replace it with a new, "revised" data series... which also just hit a record high.

Just to make sure the outraged workers are even angrier, China's top legislative body also ruled that starting 2030, workers will need to contribute to their pension accounts for a longer period before they’re eligible to receive payout. This requirement will increase gradually from 15 to 20 years, Bloomberg reported.

“The sustainability of the pension system may be the main consideration behind the move,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered. “Even though the move will increase pressure for the job market, in the long term it helps mitigate the impact from declines in the working-age population.”

Adding insult to injury, lawmakers also called on officials to actively respond to the aging population, protect workers’ rights and improve elderly care. Additionally, it empowered the State Council, China’s cabinet, to adjust these measures as needed.

In other words, absolutely nothing will happen, except for even more government workers being thrown at an unsolvable problem, and even more corruption.

As China’s life expectancy has risen, delaying retirement has become more important to offset the demographic challenges from its decades-long enforcement of a one-child policy, which left a generation of single children supporting a large elderly population. Today, the average Chinese lives to 78 from 66 four decades ago.

People aged 65 and older are expected to make up 30% of the population by around 2035 from 14.2% in 2021, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday. Authorities’ efforts to encourage births have so far done little to reverse the demographic shift, with birth rate falling to a record last year.

“When I was born they said there were too many. When I gave birth they said there were too few. When I wanted to work they said I was too old. And when I retire they say I’m too young,” another Weibo user said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-raises-retirement-age-first-time-1978-sparking-social-fury

UK to restrict junk food ads in childhood obesity fight

 The UK will ban junk food advertising on the internet and daytime TV in a bid to tackle childhood obesity, sparking criticism on the political right over "nanny state" meddling.

The measure was included in the Labour manifesto that won Keir Starmer's Labour a resounding victory in July, and is due to be introduced on October 1, 2025, the government said Thursday.

The announcement came after Starmer promised wide-ranging reforms to the crisis-hit National Health Service (NHS), in particular by placing a greater emphasis on prevention.

Junior health minister Andrew Gwynne said in a written statement to parliament that more than one in five children in England are "overweight or living with obesity by the time they start primary school" at age four or five.

By the time they leave at aged 11, the figure is more than one third, he added.

"These restrictions will help protect children from being exposed to advertising of less healthy food and drinks, which evidence shows influences their dietary preferences from a young age," he said.

Advertising for foods that are too fatty, too sweet or too salty will be banned before 9:00 pm on television and completely online.

The ban was supported by the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson, who has talked about his own struggles with weight gain, but was postponed to give manufacturers in the sector more time to adapt.

Others on the political right, however, criticized the move as an attack on individual freedom.

They included the Conservative-supporting Daily Mail, whose front-page headline Friday read "Nanny Starmer's ban on junk food ads 'to save NHS'".

"Keir Starmer ushered in a new era of the nanny state yesterday by unveiling plans for a pre-watershed ban on junk food advertising," it added.

The Labour government plans other interventions to ease the strain on the health system, such as banning high-sugar and caffeine energy drinks for under-16s.

Children's think-tank The Centre for Young Lives on Friday urged the government to "ignore 'Nanny State' critics and expand sugar taxes, ban (the) sale of energy drinks to under 16s, and roll out national supervised toothbrushing program in schools."

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-uk-restrict-junk-food-ads.html