by VBL
Good Morning: As detailed and tracked in this space with important signpost stories embedded below, Brics supply-chains are now completed, payment chains are ready, and metals pricing power has moved sufficiently to the East. Now the Brics make it official.
GFN – HONG KONG: Hong Kong is accelerating efforts to build itself into an international hub for gold trading, storage, clearing, and risk management, as the government moves to formalize a full-service gold market ecosystem anchored in physical infrastructure and financial market connectivity.
*Exclusive: China’s Next Move is HQLA /REPO Status
And just like that, Jensen has reverse-engineered Google's TPU lead.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/largest-acquisition-nvidia-history-jensen-pays-20bn-ai-chip-startup-bid-googles-tpu-tech
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U.S. Murder Rate Experiences Largest Drop on Record — Nearly 20 Percent Decline in Last YearAccording to the Real-Time Crime Index, which compiles data from 570 law enforcement agencies, the national murder rate has fallen by nearly 20 percent compared with the same period in 2024.
Axios reports:
The FBI will not release official 2025 violent crime data until sometime next year, though RTCI estimates have historically tracked closely with federal figures.
Other major crime categories measured by the index were also down nationwide and across locations of all population sizes, including motor vehicle thefts (23.2%), aggravated assaults (7.5%) and robbery (18.3%).
New York City and Memphis recorded nearly a 20% drop in murders compared with 2024, and Chicago saw them fall almost 28%.
New Orleans saw a decline of 7.5%, while Los Angeles County recorded murders dropping by nearly 19%.
However, the figures exclude crimes such as manslaughter, killings in self-defence, negligent homicide, and accidental deaths.
Other offences, including motor vehicle theft, robbery, and burglary, have also declined, many by double-digit percentages.
The declining rates are not universal. For example, Johnston County, North Carolina, and Gilbert, Arizona, have both reported increases of 600 percent.
Since taking office in January, President Trump has made tackling violent crime a central political priority.
Among his more controversial proposals is the threat to deploy the National Guard to cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland in an effort to restore public order.
The figures were celebrated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said the the president is “restoring law and order in America.”
Meanwhile, the Departmenr of Homeland Security credited its deportation policy for helping to bring the numbers down.
“Here at DHS we’ve been operating by this radical idea that removing murderers from our country would bring down the murder rate,” they wrote on the X platform.
“Who could have guessed it would work?”
#1: Horse To: Horse (#0)
Horse posted on 2025-12-25 08:32:46 Reply Private Reply