trendsjournal.com – History Before It Happens

December 19, 2023

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U.S. RAMPS UP STRIKES ON YEMEN

The U.S. military over the last six weeks has intensified its bombing campaign in Yemen—striking over 800 targets and forcing the group’s leadership to take cover in underground tunnels—but Washington has been sparse on its goals and runs the risk of engaging in a drawn-out conflict with no endgame.

SPECIAL REPORT: TRUMP’S TARIFFS, THE UPS AND DOWNS, FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE

Faced with the loss of U.S. trade as Donald Trump’s tariff war began to take hold, China’s factory output shrank in April by the most in the past 15 months, the Financial Times reported.

ECB LEADERS PLAY FAVORITES IN PROMOTIONS, STAFF SAYS

Just 19 percent of European Central Bank (ECB) employees think the bank “does a good job of promoting the most competent people,” a new Ipso survey found.

WORLD WAR III: GLOBAL MILITARY SPENDING IN 2024 SEES STEEPEST RISE SINCE END OF THE COLD WAR

Countries increased military spending last year to $2.7 trillion—an increase of 9.4 percent, marking the steepest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War as European and Middle Eastern governments splurge in spending amid what they see as growing regional threats, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

TECHNOCRACY BRIEFS: ‘JUNIOR PARTNER’ SYMBIOSIS IN FULL SWING

A recent article in Psychology Today put forward the idea that addressing problems with AI safety and “alignment” with serving human interests, might be solved by a “bold” new way of envisioning the integration of humans and AI.

U.S. DEFENDS ISRAEL’S STARVATION CAMPAIGN IN GAZA

A lawyer from the U.S. State Department appeared before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week and defended Israel’s right to starve Palestinians trapped inside Gaza and said Tel Aviv is “not legally obligated” to allow humanitarian agencies—like the UN agency for Palestine (UNRWA)—to operate inside the enclave.

THE PROBLEM WITH LOCAL CURRENCIES

In 2022, we were among the first anywhere in the world to forecast that weaponizing the dollar against Russia in the wake of the Russia Ukraine conflict would hurt dollar reserve currency status.

UN: THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN FACE STARVATION AMID ISRAEL’S TOTAL BLOCKADE

The UN warned last week that the humanitarian conditions in Gaza are worsening as Israel continues to enforce its complete blockade and thousands of Palestinian children are now facing an increased risk of “starvation, illness, and death.”

GOLDMAN SACHS INVESTS IN AI MUSIC VENTURE

Goldman Sachs has bought a piece of Splice, a British audio library of riffs, vocal hooks, and other musical sounds that composers can rent to assemble pieces of music for as little as $13 per use.

MORE AMERICANS ARE GLUM ABOUT THEIR ABILITY TO SAVE

A new survey has found that 67 percent of Americans are failing to reach their savings goals and 47 percent now believe they never will. The survey of 2,000 adults across all generations was commissioned by Current, an online financial services app.

IRAN ‘REJECTS’ U.S., ISRAELI EFFORT TO THREATEN TEHRAN OVER HOUTHI ATTACKS IN THE RED SEA

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's permanent UN ambassador, on Monday penned a letter to the UN Security Council blasting the U.S.-Israeli effort to threaten Tehran over the actions of the Houthis in the region, which he called a “flagrant violation of international law” by the Israelis.

SPOTLIGHT: TROUBLES CONTINUE FOR THE LUXURY INDUSTRY

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder reported revenues 10 percent lower in its fiscal third quarter than a year earlier, falling to $3.55 billion.

UKRAINE: ANOTHER DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

According to the statement from the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday afternoon, the newly created U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund recognizes the "significant financial and material support."

BY 2030, AI WILL NEED MORE ELECTRICITY THAN JAPAN, IEA SAYS

When Chinese startup DeepSeek revealed its top-line AI was trained using far less money, and less electricity, than Western companies had used for theirs, some analysts and utility companies were briefly able to hope that AI will need less power in the future than projected.

MAGA’S CAFÉ SOCIETY: NEW BUSINESS CLUB LAUNCHES IN D.C. WITH DEEP TIES TO TRUMP

Former congressional aides and campaign advisers with deep ties to U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that they were launching an executive networking club that will offer members “off-the-record roundtable” talks with top business leaders and government officials, once again, proving to the American people that Washington is one big Insider Gang.

OCEANS ARE FILLED WITH MICROPLASTICS, NEW STUDY SAYS

Researchers across the globe conducted a study to find out the amount of microplastics dispersed across different water levels in oceans and found that these particles are widespread at all depths and distributed across all latitudes on earth—raising new concerns about the impact on human health and the ecosystem.

ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW

Once again, another day of Donald Trump in the White House, and another day of him playing The Trump Card. And with each play of the Trump Card, it is another day of the world wondering what will be the next Wild Card that will be dealt.

AT BEST, WE HAVE 32 YEARS LEFT—HERE IS THE PROOF

Even under current conditions, the dollar is mathematically on track to hit zero within 32 years (by ~2057)… And that’s assuming the devaluation rate stays at 9.5 percent per year. But it won’t.

SPECIAL REPORT: TRUMP’S TARIFFS, THE UPS AND DOWNS, FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE

The U.S. has temporarily reduced its tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent and China has slashed its import fees on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

AS FORECAST: GENERATION AI BEING RAVAGED BY AI DEPENDENCE

Reliance on AI is destroying the abilities of college students to conduct research, write papers and otherwise perform high level intellectual work.

Concept Collage Of Israeli Soldier, Flag Of Israel, Weapon, Sunset

FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS ISRAEL COMMITTING WAR CRIMES

Moshe Ya’alon, the former Israeli defense minister who accused the IDF of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, said last week that the plans in motion to expel the 2.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza is a “war crime.”

Pamphlets And Flags For Germany's once-fringe Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party.

AS FORECAST: POPULIST PARTIES SURGE

Countries across Europe have seen a seismic shift in support from establishment conservative parties to an upstart populist movement that is focused on fixing economic and societal issues at home while tapping into a festering anger toward the establishment.

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Global Economy

SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER

3G Capital, a low-key private equity firm best known for helping Warren Buffet merge food giants Kraft and Heinz, is taking shoe company Skechers private for $9.4 billion in cash.

SPOTLIGHT: DEATH OF THE DOLLAR

Asset managers are converting more of their dollar-based assets into investments in Europe, the Financial Times reported.

CHINA TECH GIANT IS BUILDING END-TO-END SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADVANCED CHIPS

Huawei, China’s leading maker of computer chips, and two of its affiliated companies are nearing completion of three factories in Huawei’s home city of Shenzhen that will further break the country’s dependence on foreign technologies, the Financial Times was first to report.

The Israel War

Starving Palestinians Wait to Receive Meals From Volunteers In The Mawasi Area Of The Gaza Strip

GAZA DEATH TOLL

The death toll in Gaza reached 52,862 and 119,648 people have been wounded. There are at least 11,000 people missing.

A Student From The City Of Taiz, Yemen Looks At The Rubble Of His School

YEMEN DEATH TOLL

The U.S. and Houthis announced a truce last week that did not involve Israel after a weekslong air campaign by Washington to “annihilate” the Houthis who have enforced a blockade in the Red Sea over Israel’s brutal genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS ISRAEL COMMITTING WAR CRIMES

Trends in AI

AI CAN MAKE IRRATIONAL DECISIONS JUST LIKE PEOPLE DO, STUDY FINDS

OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 large language models, recent AIs that run on the company’s Chat-GPT platform, are “impressively consistent” in their ability to reason, according to a study by researchers in Australia and Canada.

U.S. AIR FORCE RECRUITS AI TO POWER MINI-DRONES

The U.S. space program in the last half of the 20th century gave us advances ranging from artificial limbs to Tang orange drink mix.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SCRAPS BAN ON EXPORTING AI CHIPS

The Trump administration has abolished a rule, slated to take effect 15 May, that banned exporting AI chips.

Global Economy

The Israel War

Trends in AI

Hi-Tech Science

The above are just a few of the many articles in the latest Trends Journal. CLICK HERE for the full edition.