Appalling #WSJ #news: “U.S. State Department Pauses Immigrant Visa Applications.” Specifically “Immigrant visa applicants with interviews scheduled at U.S. embassies and consulates have been notified by email that their appointments are being postponed. It wasn’t clear how long the freeze would be in place.” #USA #politics
on 02026-08-26#WSJ #news #video saying #The-Line (and the rest of Neom) has failed in #Saudi Arabia “over the last nine months or so”. Lots of talking-head filler. “Construction on all the major projects has stopped or is winding down.” But Yasir al-Rumayyan says that nothing has been canceled, just reprioritized, because it’s not “necessary” to deliver The Line by 02030. The golf courses in Sindalah have turned brown. The US$500B initial budget (up to 02080) has ballooned to US$8.8T. So they’re focused on "Oxagon", the port part of Neom.
on 02026-08-25#news #video about #Trump’s #Argentina bailout from the #WSJ, mentioning how #China bought millions of tonnes of Argentine #soybeans after #Milei dropped export retenciones after the September US$20B bailout (structured as a currency swap), enraging some #USA farmers. Also apparently in October the US Treasury bought pesos for the Exchange Stabilization Fund! Then there was an additional US$20B “private finance facility”.
on 02025-10-17#WSJ #news about #Trump #tariffs and resulting pricing uncertainty in #USA on, for example, hand-hammered copper sinks, due to #politics
on 02025-08-30#John-Walker on how journalist Greg Pascal #Zachary of the #WSJ lied about him #toread
on 02025-08-27#news #video on #Trump #tariffs coming back into effect yesterday, in many cases over 30%. #USA GDP grew at annualized 3% during the second quarter. But the labor department revised its job growth numbers for May and June downwards by a large factor, like 6× or something. Mostly filler: talking heads and stock footage. From the #WSJ. #economics
on 02025-08-08#WSJ #video on #Shahed (131, 136, and 238) #drones from #Iran in #Ukraine, described as “cheap”. The 238 has jet propulsion, but the 136 uses a four-cylinder piston engine (after an initial rocket boost) and has 1500 “miles” (2400km) of range, 11.5 “feet” of length (3.5m), 441 “pounds” of weight (200kg plus spurious precision) with a 100-“pound” payload, and US$50000 of production cost, 1/600 of the Reaper. Moscow plans to manufacture 6000 of them by 02025. #weaponry
on 02024-08-28