Why El Salvador’s ‘mega’ prisons are making the world safer

 This week’s White House meeting between President Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele offered a crucial opportunity. It should have marked an era of renewed US engagement with our allies in Latin America, while recognizing pro-US leadership in the region and highlighting a key success story amid rising hemispheric instability.

Yet, leading Democratic politicians and their media allies sought instead to turn the occasion into a political cudgel against President Trump’s deportation policies. In doing so, Democrats have revealed a dangerous hypocrisy and a lack of seriousness toward both the safety of the American people and US engagement with Latin America. 

The fury of Democratic politicians like Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen focused on the administration’s deportation to El Salvador of illegal immigrants with criminal records and ties to designated foreign terrorist organizations like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.

6

President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele during a meeting in the Oval Office this past week.AP

Democrats have become particularly obsessed with the case of the illegal migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose criminal record and gang ties were publicly revealed while Van Hollen traversed El Salvador to attempt to return him to the US. But if Democrats were truly concerned about human rights, they would have spent more time getting their facts straight while focusing on actual victims.   

Indeed, while Van Hollen and the mainstream media ceaselessly attempted to falsely portray Abrego Garcia as an innocent “Maryland man,” they shamefully ignored actual victims of the migration crisis, such as Rachel Morin, killed by illegal Salvadoran migrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez in 2023.

Even worse, Van Hollen’s efforts to prevent the deportation of violent criminals and gang members illegally residing in the United States threaten to create more victims like Morin, while continuing the cycle of mass illegal migration.   

While Democrats and the media try to paint El Salvador as a repressive dictatorship, they ignore the actual Latin American dictators who are actually weaponizing criminal migration against the US. Indeed,

Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega have stoked the illegal migration crisis, most notably by flooding our nation with criminal groups like Tren de Aragua.

6

Aggressive action by President Bukele has taken El Salvador from one of the deadliest nations in the hemisphere to one of the safest.REUTERS

But rather than salute Bukele and sanction our enemies, Democrats and the Biden administration have actively reduced accountability and pressure on despotic regimes like Maduro’s

Meanwhile, leaders in El Salvador and elsewhere are working with Washington to restore order and stability. President Bukele’s leadership has undoubtedly reduced victimization and increased protection of human rights.

Yet during this week’s frenzy, US media obsessively zeroed in on El Salvador’s Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism, or CECOT, a prison constructed by Bukele’s government where some criminal illegal migrants were deported by the Trump administration.

6

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke at El Salvador’s now infamous Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT).Getty Images

While news organizations and social media described the CECOT as a repressive gulag, the facility actually offers a vastly better environment for prisoners than just about any other facility in Latin America.

Indeed, prisons across the region are dens of impunity, corruption, and violence where guards often lack even basic control and effectively cede authority to prison gangs. Latin American prisons also suffer from severe overcrowding, with inmate populations reaching 150% of capacity on average, and many countries exceeding 200%. 

By comparison, CECOT has a population under 50% of the prison’s capacity. Guards also maintain effective control of CECOT, keeping it free of massacres and mass prison violence. Even human rights activists in El Salvador concede that CECOT offers far better conditions than other facilities. 

6

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant legally living in the US, was deported back to El Salvador, according to reports.via REUTERS

Equally important, the CECOT has been a tool in El Salvador’s dramatic restoration of security and stability under Bukele. Yet this dramatic transformation and the vastly improved well-being of the Salvadoran people have been glossed over by a frenzied US media and a disconnected activist class.

Indeed, as recently as 2015, El Salvador had the unfortunate distinction of being the most violent place on Earth, as criminal groups like MS-13 operated with impunity, victimizing the public on a massive scale. 

Bukele launched a proactive campaign to confront the gang threat — bolstering police and military operations, empowering security forces, and incarcerating tens of thousands of gang members.

6

Salvador prison guards escorting gang members deported to El Salvador from the US.via REUTERS

The results have been striking. In the two years following this crackdown, El Salvador has become the second-safest country in the Western Hemisphere, trailing only Canada. Annual homicides have collapsed to fewer than 150 homicides — a figure that a decade ago would have been eclipsed in just a few days.

El Salvador has also shifted from being a nexus for criminal gangs destabilizing the US and the hemisphere to being a crucial partner in helping the US restore stability over migration.

With criminal groups from Mexican drug cartels to Colombian guerrillas resurgent across the region, El Salvador’s security model and support are invaluable to the Trump administration’s efforts to bolster hemispheric security.

6

The Trump-Bukele meeting offered a welcome opportunity to salute a regional ally equally committed to reducing illegal migration and violent crime.AP

At the same time, the US must work with El Salvador and across Latin America to extract the malign presence of China.

These should have been the focus of this week’s coverage and political discourse surrounding Trump’s meeting with Bukele.

Instead, Democrats and the media opted to turn the US-El Salvador relationship into a one-dimensional caricature, overshadowing a crucial opportunity for a regional strategic win.

Andres Martinez-Fernandez is a senior policy analyst for Latin America at the Heritage Foundation

https://nypost.com/2025/04/19/opinion/why-el-salvadors-mega-prisons-have-made-the-world-safer/

Why there are hardly any Chinese brands on German roads

 Chinese brands are an absolute rarity on German roads. Only 0.1 to 0.2 percent of passenger cars in Germany are manufactured in China in the strict sense, according to an analysis of figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority by the dpa. Competition from China has recently made itself felt in the global sales figures of German car manufacturers, but this is not yet the case on domestic roads. An overview shortly before the start of the Auto Shanghai trade fair next week.

This is how many – or rather how few – there are

If you add up the Chinese brands reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in its quarterly inventory statistics, you get a total of 70,046 for January 1, 2025 – out of a total of 49.3 million passenger cars. By far the largest share, at 49,557, goes to MG Roewe – a brand that many people are probably unaware is Chinese, according to auto expert Stefan Bratzel. Even in its German brand presence, the Saic Group-owned manufacturer prominently references the British origins of the brand it purchased in the 2000s, whose cars are now produced in China.

Lynk and Great Wall Motor (GWM) follow far behind with just over 6,000 cars each, and BYD with a good 4,500. Nio comes in at 1,700, while Aiways, Xpeng, Leapmotor, and Maxus are in the hundreds.

That's not all

The KBA does not list all car brands individually in its inventory. In the current quarterly inventory statistics, a good 360,000 passenger cars fall under "Other"; this is likely to include a small number of Chinese cars from brands with very low production figures.

If we look at Chinese brands in a broader sense – i.e. including Polestar and Volvo, which now belong to Geely, and even Smart, which is now a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely – the figures are in the high hundreds of thousands or even a good million. However, the vast majority of these cars date from before the Chinese entered the market.

Electric in particular

What is striking about the Chinese vehicle fleet in Germany is its consistent focus on electric vehicles. Looking again at the brands in the narrower sense, there are 50,196 purely electric vehicles – that is 72 percent. But even in the German electric car fleet, they account for only 3 percent.

More are coming – but slowly

Most Chinese brands in the narrower sense have only recently entered the German market. A year ago, Xpeng and Leapmotor were not even listed individually in the KBA statistics. The remaining seven had a combined total of just under 57,000 on January 1, 2024, meaning that their stock grew by 12,500 last year, which is a rather small increase. This is because Chinese brands also accounted for only around one percent of new registrations recently.

But why are Chinese brands, which experts also attest to being of good quality, not catching on in the German market? There are several reasons for this.

Lack of sales and service network

Chinese brands have underestimated "the complexity of the German market," says industry expert Bratzel. If they want to be successful, they need to focus much more intensively on this and be prepared to take a long-term view. One problem is that the sales and service networks are not yet well developed. This causes difficulties, for example, when customers want to trade in their old car or finance their new one. It also deters the important fleet market.

Wrong approach to marketing

"The Chinese don't understand Europe and customers in Germany," says Bratzel's colleague Ferdinand Dudenhoffer. "Take BYD, for example: they arrive with a ship carrying thousands of cars, advertise on the sidelines of the European Soccer Championship, make a big deal with a rental company for 100,000 cars, and think that's all it takes to do business." But jumping from one campaign to the next without a strategy doesn't work.

"Here, drivers know their brand and don't just switch for no reason," says Dudenhoffer. In China, it's different because many customers are new and sometimes inexperienced buyers without long-term relationships with a brand.

Set too high

For Bratzel, the strategy many Chinese manufacturers are using to gain a foothold in the European and German markets has also "gone a bit wrong." This is also due to their growing self-confidence. "They want to show what they have and are willing to pay for it," he says, referring to the offerings from BYD and Nio, for example, which are partly in the premium segment. However, many customers are still skeptical about Chinese brands. "The price has to be slightly below that of the established suppliers," he says. Kia and Hyundai, for example, were successful with this approach at the time.

The fact that MG Roewe is by far the largest Chinese supplier in Germany so far seems to prove Bratzel right. The brand offers significantly cheaper cars.

Overall, Bratzel does not want to overstate German customers' skepticism toward Chinese brands. "They have a completely different level of quality now," he says, looking back to the days when Chinese cars failed European crash tests catastrophically. Dudenhoffer's diagnosis also points in this direction: "Chinese cars are good, but the marketing is a disaster. They simply don't understand their customers, which is why they are burning through so much money."

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/MERCEDES-BENZ-GROUP-AG-436541/news/Why-there-are-hardly-any-Chinese-brands-on-German-roads-49663088/

Europe, You Can't Sit On The Sidelines Anymore

 by Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily Signal,

I’d like to talk today about the role of China, the United States, and the European Union, or just Europe in general, in the context of these tariffs and the so-called trade wars.

Right now, President Donald Trump has given a 90-day reprieve from high tariffs. I think that 10% tariffs are still in existence. And they are negotiating with a number of European countries and particularly, Asian dynamic economies, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. In addition to that, they are targeting China with tit-for-tat tariffs. And we are maybe on the brink—nobody wants it, but we might be on the brink of a trade war, which we’ve addressed in earlier videos.

But here’s my point.

What is the attitude of Europe? 

Roughly, China has a $1 trillion deficit with the world. We have about a $1 trillion deficit in trade with the world. But here’s the ratios. About a third of our deficit is with China, which makes up a third of their surplus. In addition to that, Europe makes up about a third of their surplus.

So, China has called on Europe to join forces with it to prevent all of the retaliatory tariffs that the United States has threatened Europe, which has a $200 billion surplus with us, and China, which has a nearly high $300 billion, maybe even $400 billion, who knows?

It’s kind of crazy, isn’t it, that these illiberal apparatchiks in China would think that a Western democracy would want to join them against the United States?

I don’t think that’s gonna happen. 

But the European Left is very angry at the Trump administration.

So, Choice One might be, “Well, we don’t like the Chinese and we are an ally of the Americans, who subsidize our defense, but we detest the Trump administration. So maybe, (wink and nod) we’ll either be quiet or hope China wins that trade war and the United States, under the Trump administration, backs off all tariffs.”

That would be a big mistake given their vulnerabilities they have with the United States vis-a-vis security.

The second attitude might be the Europeans will just say, “We’ll lay low. We won’t say much at all. We’ll kind of drag out our tariff negotiations with the Trump administration. And we’ll let the Chinese and the United States battle it out. And if Trump should win and he lowers the amount of trade with China, maybe that will be an opening for us to replace China as the United States chief importer.”

That is something that I don’t think will happen.

The third scenario is what I would suggest for the Europeans. They should say the following: “Despite our disagreements with the Trump administration, the United States is an ally. And we know that we have been as victimized by Chinese mercantilism, high tariffs, cheating on patents, copyrights, dumping, financial money manipulation—all the things the United States complains about, we do too. In fact, we as Europeans in a whole have about the same deficit with China as the United States does. So, we are kindred spirits. So, what we will do is, even though we have disagreements on our surplus with the United States and their efforts to reduce it, we will ally with the United States.”

And that would represent about two-thirds of China’s total trade action or monetary value. And especially, if Japan and our allies in South Korea, Taiwan would join, then China would find out that about 85% of its trade is in a block. That is, they are united. And they have common complaints against China. And China would not be able to say to the United States, “We’re going to cut deals with Vietnam and Japan and Taiwan and South Korea and the EU and leave you out in the cold.”

Instead, the Europeans and, to a lesser extent, the Asian powerhouses would join the United States and say, “You know what? We’ve been quiet. We’re afraid of China. They’re bullies. But now that you’ve stood up, we’re embolden ourselves to air the same complaints as you are and hope that you win. And maybe a byproduct of reduced trade with China from the United States will open a door. So, even though we might have to lower our tariffs, there will be more opportunity in the American market with a less prominent Chinese trade profile that we can then be welcomed in as a kindred ally.”

So, Europe has two or three choices in this proposed Chinese-American trade standoff. Nobody wants a trade war with anybody. No one wants it with China. But this is long overdue. And Europe has to decide what course they’re going to take. And for everybody’s sake, let’s hope they choose wisely.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/europe-you-cant-sit-sidelines-anymore

‘Ozempic feet’ gnarly side effect of weight loss drug exhibited by some celebs: report

 If the shoe fits.

Ozempic and other weight loss drugs could have a skin-crawling side effect dubbed ‘Ozempic-feet,’ according to a report.

The popular pound-shedding prescription drug is known to cause several unaesthetic side effects, including excessive sagging skin — which could even take place on the tops of users’ feet, according to a Daily Mail report.

3

Fans speculated whether Ozempic impacted Sharon Osbourne’s feet.Instagram/sharonosbourne

Ozempic, along with other semaglutides used for weight loss like Mounjaro, causes a massive loss of fat content and water retention which can affect areas like the tops of feet, which has a sensitive subcutaneous fat layer, Dr. Barry Weintraub told the Daily Mail.

Eagle-eyed celebrity watchers believe that some famous people are already exhibiting the signs of dreaded ‘Ozempic feet,’ the report stated.

eteran TV personality Sharon Osbourne, who lost 42 pounds on the fat flaying drug, recently shared a photo of herself and grandson on Instagram which set off speculation about her feet, according to the report.

Fans noticed that Osbourne, 72, had wrinkly feet that fans speculated could be a result of her Ozempic usage, not her age, the Daily Mail claimed.

Another celebrity in the crosshairs of feet-fat-watchers is Oprah Winfrey, 71, who dramatically announced her use of a weight-loss drug in a television special last year.

3

Ozempic was initially developed to help people manage type 2 diabetes.K KStock – stock.adobe.com

3

Stars like Oprah Winfrey and Amy Schumer have admitted to taking the drug.Getty Images
Internet critics said The former Weight Watchers board member supposedly exhibits the same sagging foot syndrome that is thought to be an Ozempic side-effect, the Daily Mail claimed.

The new suite of GL-P1 drugs have been taken by a number of public figures, including Pennsylvania Senator Jon Fetterman, comedian Amy Schumer, and billionaire X owner Elon Musk.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/20/health/ozempic-feet-gnarly-side-effect-of-weight-loss-drug-exhibited-by-some-celebs-report/

Americans Are Searching "USA Products" Like Never Before

 Tariffs are designed to shift consumer demand toward domestically produced goods. As foreign products become increasingly expensive, driven by levies such as the Trump administration's 145% effective tariff rate on Chinese imports, consumers are starting to take notice.

Faced with rising prices for foreign goods, some consumers have turned to the internet to determine which products are still made in the United States. 

Google Trends data shows "What products are made in the USA?" reached record highs by mid-April, with data going all the way back to 2004.  

These related search queries are in "breakout" territory:

With an effective tariff rate of 145% on all Chinese goods, Beijing signaled on Wednesday that it is open to trade talks in the near term. In the tit-for-tat tariff war, China has imposed 125% duties on U.S. goods.

In recent weeks, President Trump has paused reciprocal tariffs for countries that chose not to retaliate following "Liberation Day" in early April. The White House announced this week that the administration is in talks with 75 countries to secure new trade deals. Trump held discussions with Japan overnight, calling the talks "big progress."

Even as trade deals are expected in the coming weeks and months, the broader objective of the tariff strategy is to reshore critical supply chains essential to national security and to position the United States for dominance in the 2030s. Early internet search trend signs suggest that the tariffs are already influencing consumer behavior - this is a great start. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/americans-are-searching-usa-products-never

Trump's Counter-Revolution Strategy: Flood The Zone, Drain The Swamp

 by Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily Signal,

We’re getting close to 90 days and even coming up close, in a week, 10 days, to the first 100 days of the Trump administration and this counterrevolution that he’s waging.

I thought it might be wise just to see where we are as far as the political landscape and the dynamics of the progress of this counterrevolution. 

What is President Donald Trump trying to do? 

I think I would sum it up as flooding the zone. And that is, he’s going to try to propose and enact so many radical corrections or revolutions or reforms or recalibrations that his opposition doesn’t know where to start.

So, abroad, he is looking at the Iran deal and he got rid of it. He put sanctions. 

He’s got maximum pressure. And now, the Iranian economy is about defunct. And they want to negotiate about this nuclear weapon. I don’t think they’re going to negotiate it away, but we’ll see.

And then, he’s dealing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin and trying to get a ceasefire. 

He’s basically dealt with the Houthis.

On the domestic front, there is no more illegal immigration. 

He’s basically stopped it. Now, the task is what to do with the 12 million illegal aliens that came under former President Joe Biden. And what do you do with the 20 million-plus, maybe 30 million that were here already illegally but for a longer period of time?

At the same time, he’s had a blanket mandate that in every Cabinet they will eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion and, by association, things like transsexual, biological males competing in women’s sports.

Women—lowering the physical standards so women could compete and pass these very rigorous endurance physical tests so that they would be in combat units on an equal level. No problem that they can’t. But they have to have the same physical requirements as men.

I could go on, but you see what he is doing. 

He’s doing so many radical corrections in a way that a Romney or a McCain or the Bushes, even Ronald Reagan would not have dreamed of that he feels the opposition will say, “Well, what do we do? Should we reply here? Do we put our interest here? Should we do this?”

And so, what is the strategy that the Left is using? 

They’re flooding the zone, too. But they’re doing it not with counterproposals. They don’t say, “This is what’s wrong with closing the border and we wanna reopen it. This is what’s wrong with the Houthis policy. This is what’s wrong with the trade deficit. This is what’s wrong”—no specific proposal.

They’re just flooding it with hysteria, the Spartacus talk, late-night comedy trashing him, another person arrested saying that he wants to kill Donald Trump, keying Teslas, firebombing Tesla agencies, outrageous things from Hollywood stars, videos from Congress. All of a sudden—we didn’t even know who Rep. Jasmine Crockett was. She’s filled that void.

But what I’m saying is they want to be so rambunctious, so crazy, so 360 degrees unhinged that they’ll create an image or a malu—where everybody wants to get almost in a fetal position: “Please, please make it all go away. I don’t know what Trump is doing but it’s so disturbing. Everybody’s so angry.” That is their strategy.

Now, what is Trump’s counterstrategy? 

His counterstrategy is to actually get people on the other side of the aisle in Congress or in the country at large or in the popular culture and try to at least be friendly to them so then they can say, “I don’t agree with Trump but what he’s doing might be needed.”

So, we have Bill Maher going to Mar-a-Lago and actually saying very nice things about Donald Trump.

On the one hand, we have Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fighting with a bulwark of the Left at one time, fighting with left-wing people who were calling him all sorts of names and saying that he is illiberal.

We had Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. She was in the White House. Can you believe it? She was so embarrassed about a photo-op. She had to almost cover her face.

But you can see what Trump is doing. He’s trying to get people from all sides of the Democratic and liberal progressive movement and not compromise them, but get in the picture, so then the Left will say, “Well, how can we appeal to the public and get them all angry and frenzy and hysterical when some of our major celebrities, our political figures are in Mar-a-Lago?”

Who’s gonna win? We’ll see.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trumps-counter-revolution-strategy-flood-zone-drain-swamp