China’s premier vows to back balanced trade as exports surge

 Premier Li Qiang pledged to address worries trade partners have over China’s large surplus, underscoring Beijing’s concern the issue could disrupt relations with more nations during a fragile truce with the US over the issue.

“We take our trading partners’ concerns seriously and we are ready to work with all parties to promote the sound and balanced development of trade,” Li said in a keynote speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing on Sunday.

“We will also further widen market access for the services sector and increase imports of medical and health care products, digital technologies and low carbon services to provide more business opportunities for foreign companies,” he added.

China racked up a record trade surplus of $1.2 trillion last year and exports continued to surge in the first two months of the year, exacerbating worry in many countries around the world about the future of their own industries. 

The US and China engaged in a major trade war in 2025 that has been put on pause with a one-year truce reached by President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in October. In December, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the European Union may be forced to take “strong measures” against China, including potential tariffs, if Beijing fails to address its widening trade imbalance with the bloc.

Authorities in Beijing have taken some steps to address the rising trade tensions, including by reducing export tax rebates for hundreds of products such as solar cells and batteries.

China’s manufacturing strength comes with the economy troubled by weak domestic consumption. The nation’s industries including solar are also struggling with overcapacity and intense price competition.

Beijing has made progress in curbing so‑called involution‑style competition, Li said.

The Iran War is also increasing risks for China’s economy. Higher fuel and raw material costs could further squeeze profit margins for manufacturers.

China has already set its most modest annual growth target since 1991. Beijing appears to be taking steps to fortify the economy, with government spending off to its fastest start to any year since 2022.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/china-s-premier-vows-to-back-balanced-trade-as-exports-surge/ar-AA1Z8bm5

Japan Says Not Considering Unilateral Talks With Iran on Hormuz

 

Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the nation isn’t considering unilateral negotiations with Iran to secure passage for its vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, following a report that Tehran is prepared to grant the access.

“It’s not something we’re considering at this point,” Motegi said Sunday on a Fuji Television program. Instead, Japan is focused on ensuring “conditions where everyone can pass,” he said, stressing the importance of maintaining broad freedom of navigation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-22/japan-says-not-considering-unilateral-talks-with-iran-on-hormuz

'Iran denies it attacked Diego Garcia'

 A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Iran did not launch an attack against the joint US-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The Wall Street Journal had previously cited multiple unnamed US officials saying that Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward the island. Although the rockets were said to have failed to reach Diego Garcia, the incident potentially indicated Iran's ballistic missiles had a greater range than believed.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran-denies-it-attacked-Diego-Garcia/65921426

UK said to move nuclear submarine to Arabian Sea

 The United Kingdom deployed a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine to the Arabian Sea to potentially launch strikes on Iran if the conflict escalates further, according to the Daily Mail.

The paper cited anonymous military sources, stating that the submarine took up position in the northern Arabian Sea from where it could launch Tomahawk missiles on Iran.

Previously, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer allowed the US to use the kingdom's military bases for strikes on Iranian missiles attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/UK-said-to-move-nuclear-submarine-to-Arabian-Sea/65921430

Missile, drone attacks target Saudi Arabia, UAE

 Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry announced the interception of nine hostile drones over the Eastern Region, amid the ongoing war with Iran. In addition, the ministry said air defense shot down one ballistic missile flying toward the Riyadh area, while two projectiles fell in open areas.

At the same time, the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Defense detected missile and drone launches from Iran, stating it was responding to the threat.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Missile-drone-attacks-target-Saudi-Arabia-UAE/65921504

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Israel-starts-new-bombing-wave-in-Tehran/65921440

Drugs for ballot signatures: James O'Keefe rats them out on Los Angeles's skid row

 by Monica Showalter

So what's new among the dirtbags in Los Angeles and San Francisco?

Citizen investigative journalists James O'Keefe and J.J. Smith have found that the latest offering on Los Angeles's skid row is 'drugs for signatures' on California ballot initiatives, the petitions supposedly signed by the voters to place legislative propositions in front of the voters in what's billed as 'direct democracy.'

And cash. And cigarettes.

CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS FRAUD CASH FOR BALLOTS PART I: Homeless Bribed with Cash & Drugs In Exchange For Registering To Vote & Signing Election Petitions Caught On Tape Undercover On Skid Row In California.

“You can just put Pinocchio Lane.”

California NGOs Encourage Fake… pic.twitter.com/2pkylhgPY9

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 17, 2026

I rewatched James O’Keefe’s Los Angeles investigation of NGOs paying the homeless for signatures

I found something insane

- The NGO this is happening at is Weingart Center
- Weingart Center has gotten hundreds of millions from Gavin Newsom
- These people are REGISTERING THE… pic.twitter.com/ga5xTMOzE4

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 21, 2026

My team, myself & @camhigby were just violently assaulted on Skid Row, my camera crew were punched in the neck and face, we were pepper sprayed, but thankfully just escaped. Some members of our team had to run 10 blocks to get out.

We were in the heart of Skid Row confronting… https://t.co/lCmAAPl1op pic.twitter.com/MAOu1oic2L

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 20, 2026

Earlier this month, J.J. Smith found the same thing going in in the Mission District in San Francisco.

🎥Mar09 2026 1:54pm Location
6th & Mission
These people are paying people $5 dollars to sign a ballot, but as you watch the video their telling them what name to sign (which is someone else name) and what address to write. Seems kind of suspicious to me. Why not sign your own… pic.twitter.com/GIHdLHaHCl

— jj smith (@war24182236) March 9, 2026

Obviously, this puts paid to the 'direct democracy' claims of the defenders of the petitiion system. It also suggests that there may be already-passed petitions -- for tax hikes (the latest is a suicidal tax-the-billionaires measure), government spending, drug legalization, and decriminalization measures, maybe even redistricting, that ought never have been put on the ballot. If bums paid with drugs are the ones signing these peititions, and bums put their numbers over the top, then democracy is just a sham game to fatten the NGOs. which may have some part in this activity, based on O'Keefe's exposure to the Weingart Center, and the fact that obviously, someone was paying these signature gatherers to pay bums, either in money, cigarettes, or drugs, for these signatures, and they got violent when O'Keefe asked too many questions. O'Keefe was zeroing in on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as seemingly behind it, given that they came by and filmed O'Keefe, not the petition racket, falsely claiming they were the police. He also named political consulting firms aligned with big corporate interests.

It's enough to make one wonder whether bums should be allowed to vote at all, given their susceptibility to payoffs owing to their addictions, and whether NGOs should be allowed in the petition process owing to their big dollar incentives. O'Keefe says he has filmed 28 instances of cash-for-voter registrations in Los Angeles alone.

The O'Keefe videos, done first dressed as a bum and then as man-on-the-street interviews, with O'Keefe himself clad in a suit on the graffiti-filled streets, are somewhat in-your-face and provocative. The sight of O'Keefe running down the streets as gaggles of angry NGO bum advocates chase him is unintentionally comical.

But the message  delivered was important -- California's election process is shot through with fraud, from dirty voter rolls to drugs-for-signatures. Only the citizen journalists are exposing it, the media is obviously in hock to those who like this kind of system.

California's governor, Gavin Newsom, not surprisingly, is threatening to prosecute O'Keefe, not the cash-for-petitions racket. California's U.S. Attorney, Bill Essayli, is reportedly investigating. If he succeeds in shutting these rackets down, it's one more pillar off the blue state establishment that has rigged and ruled California into a shambles and made a complete joke of its democracy.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/03/drugs_for_ballot_signatures_james_o_keefe_rats_them_out_on_los_angeles_s_skid_row.html