News of the World

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Pizza is more American than Italian, claims Marxist food historian

An Italian food historian has made the bold claim that pizza is more of an American dish than an Italian one.

Alberto Grandi, a food historian who teaches at the University of Parma, claims that pizza, carbonara and Parmesan (which is commonly produced in Wisconsin) are truly American foods.

"Italian cuisine really is more American than it is Italian," Grandi said in an interview with the Financial Times on March 23.

Grandi, who identifies as a Marxist, said that pizza was only found in a few Southern Italian cities before World War II.

According to Grandi, Italian-American soldiers in Sicily during WWII were shocked that there were no pizzerias around. Carbonara was also reportedly first made for American soldiers with egg and bacon rations.
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Grandi posited that Italians have mythologized their cuisine to the point of inaccuracy.

"When a community finds itself deprived of its sense of identity, because of whatever historical shock or fracture with its past, it invents traditions to act as founding myths," he explained.

Shortly after Grandi's interview, Italy’s ministers of Culture and Agriculture applied to have Italian cuisine entered into candidacy for a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 I'd love to see the day when a Marxist finally starts using his head once again.

Train derails 25 cars in Montana, spilling unconfirmed contents

At least 25 cars derailed from a train in Montana on Sunday, spilling their contents onto the ground and into a nearby body of water.

First responders say there is no threat to the public, but there has yet to be confirmation about what the affected containers were carrying. Montana Rail Link, which owns the railroad, is aware of the situation, but the company that owns the train has yet to be identified, according to NBC Montana.

The Sanders County Sheriff's Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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The Montana crash comes less than a week after 70-car train hauling hazardous materials derailed in North Dakota.

In that incident, a Canadian Pacific train derailed around 11:15 p.m. roughly a mile southeast of Wyndmere in Richland County, the company said in a statement. No injuries were reported. Officials said 31 of the 70 cars derailed, some carrying hazardous materials, and crews identified a leak of liquid asphalt. No fires were caused by the derailment.

China Seeks to ‘Drive a Wedge’ Between Europe and US

While leaders of the European Union are wary of the threat posed by communist China, Europe as a whole doesn’t advocate the wholesale decoupling of Sino–European relations often encouraged by U.S. lawmakers, according to Reinhard Butikofer, a member of the European Parliament.

Butikofer said most Europeans favored “de-risking,” referencing a term popularized by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Such a strategy would encourage more serious screening of Chinese investment in Europe without cutting the regime off completely and would seek to open up Europe to more trade and diplomacy with middle powers who don’t want to get caught in the growing enmity between China and the United States.
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“The concept is not to decouple. The concept is to keep developing the relationship but to make sure we are not on the losing side.”
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Butikofer said the communist regime in Beijing would continue to “try to drive a wedge” between the EU and the United States but that both major powers would need to do more to not draw Europe into their rivalry and to recognize the EU as a power in its own right.

There are more than two powers whose futures are at stake, he said.
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Butikofer’s comments come on the eve of an April 4 visit to Beijing by von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Colleen Cottle, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping would likely use the event to further grow his image as a key international decision-maker and to push the EU and the United States apart.

New Zealand Seeks to Deepen NATO Alliance

New Zealand is moving toward closer ties with NATO after the New Zealand (NZ) Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, announced she would be attending a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels.

NZ has a long-standing partnership of 25 years with NATO and has supported various NATO-led efforts, including in Afghanistan, between 2001-2021.

“NATO is a long-standing and like-minded partner for Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of this meeting in person, to express our ongoing condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine one year on, and as NATO and New Zealand work to renew our formal partnership this year,” Mahuta said.

“It is important that we continue to engage with our close partners to address shared security challenges, many of which are global in nature with wide-ranging implications, including in the Pacific.
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The trip comes just 13 days after NATO military officials visited Australia and New Zealand from March 20-24.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Affirms ‘Strict Stance’
in Protesting China’s Detention of Japanese Employee

Japan’s foreign minister said Sunday that he had lodged a protest with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regarding the detention of a Japanese employee in China last month, calling for his immediate release.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed Japan’s “strict stance” on the employee’s detention during a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, in Beijing.

Hayashi said that Japan’s consulate has been unable to make direct contact with the employee since his arrest last month.

“We would ask [the Chinese authorities] for the earliest release of the person and allow us to meet and have direct contact with him,” Hayashi told reporters.

Hayashi also urged the CCP to provide transparency in the judicial process related to the employee’s detention, and ensure a safe and fair business environment for Japanese firms in China.

Qin Gang said that Beijing would handle the case “in accordance with the law,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The unidentified Japanese national is a senior worker at the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Astellas Pharma Inc., Japan’s Kyodo News reported. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the man is suspected of engaging in espionage activities in China.

 The problem here is that their laws allow them to go far beyong what's acceptable in any other country of the world except for other tyrannies like North Korea or Iran.

China’s New Premier Reiterates ‘Opening-Up’ Policy
at International Forum; Outside World Skeptical

Chinese Premier Li Qiang reiterated the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) new “reform and opening-up” policy at last week’s Boao Forum, although observers say that, even with the change in tone, the CCP’s fundamental policy and economic situation won’t change significantly as long as the Party is around.

“No matter what happens in the world, we will always adhere to reform and opening up,” Li stated in his keynote speech on March 30 at the annual meeting of Asia’s top leaders.

He also stated that new measures will be introduced to expand access, optimize the business environment, and guarantee project implementation so that all countries in the world can share the “dividend” of China’s development.

The top leaders of the CCP had recently repeated the same rhetoric, promising foreign investors that China would adhere to an opening-up policy and will further reduce tariffs. However, in practice, Beijing has continued to clamp down heavily on foreign companies’ operation in China.

The regime suspended Deloitte’s Beijing branch for three months in mid March and imposed huge fines. Then, in late March, it raided a U.S. investigation firm in Shanghai and detained five employees, also detaining an employee in a Japanese firm’s Beijing office.

 Do they really think they can fool anybody after what they've done just in the last couple of months?
Do they truly believe we've forgotten what happened with the  Chinese spy balloons?

China’s Brazil Deal Could Topple US Dollar in Region,
Create Supply Chain Bottlenecks

On March 29, Brazil’s government announced it would start using local currency and China’s yuan for financial transactions between the two nations.

While pragmatic on the surface, some say the move indicates China’s push to end the U.S. dollar’s dominance, particularly in the Americas.

The decision occurred in lockstep with Beijing’s increased demand for commodities from the South American nation. China’s corn and soybean requirements are driving Brazil to record export volumes in 2023.

It’s a combination effect that supply chain and financial insiders say could have serious economic consequences for the United States.

“Countries such as Brazil and China are keen to reduce their reliance on U.S. dollars for trade and, if this trend is sustained, it could lead to a depreciation in the value of the U.S. dollar as a result of lower demand for it,” analyst Alex King told The Epoch Times.

King is the founder of Generation Money and the former vice president of finance in trade and working capital at Barclays Bank. He says “de-dollarization” is a theme of increasing relevance globally.

This is reflected in a sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves held in U.S. dollars, especially in Latin America. In recent months, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia have struggled with depleted U.S. dollar reserves.
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Price hikes on Brazilian imports to the United States could add up quickly. Agricultural imports alone total more than $3 billion annually, making Brazil the eighth-largest supplier of these commodities.

Talk of ending dependency on the dollar for trade isn’t new, but the movement gained traction over the past year because of inflation and depleted U.S. foreign currency reserves. The push to end “dollarization” is especially prevalent among Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which compose the trade bloc known as BRICS.
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In January, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—popularly known as Lula—announced a joint initiative with Argentina to establish a common trade currency for the two nations.

Both nations are suffering drastically depleted U.S. dollar reserves and local currency devaluation.
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China has quietly led and supported the regional shift away from U.S. dollar transactions for eight years. In 2015, Beijing established a bank in Chile to boost yuan reserves and create a path for distribution and use throughout the region.

This year, China’s central bank signed a memorandum to establish a similar arrangement and a yuan clearing facility in Brazil to boost the currency’s viability.

Beijing has also positioned itself as the dominant trade partner and money lender in the region, giving the nation influence over the terms of its agreements. Venezuelan media outlet teleSUR claims that China has been negotiating agreements in yuan throughout Latin America since 2021.
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Alpeter is the founder of Izba and Capabl and has spent years in the realm of supply chain management and logistics. He said the U.S. dollar being used as the world’s reserve currency is like a “super weapon.” Though it may not be for much longer.

He says a multinational desertion of the U.S. dollar would result in a sudden surplus of available currency. This could make the U.S. dollar “next to worthless and our debt undesirable.”

The economic effects of too much currency in circulation are well-documented in other countries. It fueled hyperinflation in Venezuela and Argentina for years.

DeSantis Launches Investigation Into Disney’s Last-Minute District Deal

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has initiated an investigation into Disney’s eleventh-hour deal with its old governing district board, an arrangement that he says was an attempt to circumvent the new state-appointed board’s upcoming control.

DeSantis, on April 3, “formally” requested that his office’s chief inspector general, Melinda Miguel, open an investigation into the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s Board of Supervisors.

In a letter to Miguel, DeSantis asked that “a thorough review and investigation” look at a number of matters.

They include the district’s adherence to state laws and ethics requirements, the prior board’s qualifications and the legal validity of its actions, the involvement of Disney World’s “employees and agents” in the execution of those actions, any financial gain or benefit by Disney World from the board’s actions, and the district’s justification of that advantage.

He also asked that the investigation include all district communications related to the actions—including those with Disney—and all district communications related to the bill instituting the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District replacing the Reedy Creek government.
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Last week, the Walt Disney World Resort told The Epoch Times in an email, “All agreements signed between Disney and the district were appropriate and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s government in the sunshine law.”

That Disney’s actions—a transfer of most of the old board’s authority to Disney just before the new board took over, including 30-year control over all development rights—can be remedied by the legislature any time soon is doubtful.