Toma nota.../Take note...

• The Strait of Hormuz blockade has ensnared the Chinese regime in a political and economic dilemma created by its aggressive strategy, one analyst said.
• The blockade is triggering a devastating rupture in China’s export supply chains.

Beijing, March.28.– Iran has rejected Beijing’s attempt to play the mediator role in the war and request for safe passage of Chinese cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to insiders in China’s diplomatic circles who spoke to The Epoch Times.

Sun Min, an insider in diplomatic circles who used a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that Beijing originally planned to leverage its special relationship with the Iranian regime to act as a key mediator in the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, thereby seeking to secure leadership over the “Global South”—developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. However, Iran rejected the idea, according to Sun.

The author, Mollie Engelhart, is an expert in agricultural issues and highlights here the disastrous situation of instability and inefficiency caused by an bloated, atrophied bureaucracy that is highly hindering free enterprise. She is a regenerative farmer and rancher at Sovereignty Ranch, committed to food sovereignty, soil regeneration, and educating on homesteading and self-sufficiency, after her journey from vegan chef and LA restaurateur to hands-in-the-dirt farmer.

The most centrally planned, government-dependent, subsidy-driven system in the United States isn’t medicine, housing, or energy. It’s food. Will the current administration be able to solve this problem?

America loves to debate socialism. We argue about universal health care, guaranteed income, student loan forgiveness, and government dependency. We pride ourselves on our rugged independence and belief in free markets. We warn that socialism destroys innovation, freedom, and personal responsibility. But here’s the uncomfortable truth most Americans never stop to consider: The most centrally planned, government-dependent, subsidy-driven system in the United States isn’t medicine, housing, or energy; it’s food.

Our food system is not a free market. It is not capitalism in any recognizable form. It is a government-engineered economy propped up by taxpayer dollars at every stage, directed by regulation, shaped by corporate interests, and leaving both consumers and farmers dependent, unhealthy, and without real alternatives.

Each year, more than $40 billion of taxpayer money is used to subsidize commodity crops such as corn, soy, wheat, and cotton. Crop insurance, also paid for largely by the public, is essentially another subsidy, and without it, most large commodity farms wouldn’t survive. But the subsidies don’t stop at growing. Once harvested, those subsidized crops become corn syrup, seed oils, stabilizers, livestock feed, artificial ingredients, ultraprocessed food additives, and ethanol: fuel grown on prime farmland and heavily subsidized again under the banner of environmental benefit.

In October 2024, the Council of Europe’s Democratic Institutions and Civil Society Division launched a grant to support civil society organisations with a clear purpose - fostering a democratic culture, increasing public engagement in decision making, and strengthening the links between civil society and the Council of Europe - the grant also sought to raise awareness of the Council’s standards on strengthening democracy, especially the Reykjavik Principles for Democracy, and highlight the value of collaboration and identify new opportunities in this area. 

Three projects, one goal: strengthening democracy

Running from March to October 2025, the three winning projects placed a strong emphasis on communication and outreach, ensuring that their impact extended well beyond direct participants.

• Destaca la preparación de la 24ª Conferencia Mundial en Córdoba, Argentina (mayo 2025) y la celebración de la primera Cumbre Regional de Participación Ciudadana en Río Cuarto en marzo de 2025.
• Enfoca el fortalecimiento de la democracia local, así como la meta de mejorar la "Distinción OIDP" y potenciar la colaboración internacional. 

Feb. 25 (DPnet).– La 24ª Conferencia Mundial, celebrada en Córdoba, Argentina, y la Cumbre celebrada en Río Cuarto, del 21 al 23 de mayo de 2025, figuran en el Informe como hitos preparatorios clave para la participación ciudadana.

Subraya el Informe que la democracia local es prioridad, con enfoque en la juventud y la resiliencia de los gobiernos locales, fomentando la participación ciudadana para enfrentar retos económicos, de juventud y seguridad.

■ [ Another perspective here → in English ]

La gran prensa, que supuestamente son los adalides de la información, parece haber olvidado el abrumador escándalo provocado por los múltiples fraudes que se han estado cometiendo en el Estado de Minnesota. Es notable cómo desviaron la atención enfocando exclusivamente las violentas manifestaciones contra las operaciones de ICE en ese Estado, destacando a lo largo de varias semanas dos trágicos sucesos en que dos activistas perdieron la vida en enfrentamientos con las fuerzas del orden.

Cabe preguntarse por qué han olvidado las acusaciones de un encubrimiento sistémico relacionado con fraudes masivos en programas de servicios sociales de Minnesota, que según fiscales federales podrían ascender a ¡más de $9,000 millones de dólares! Estos fraudes son, además, un delito grave: los hechos revelados por una auditoría de la Oficina del Auditor Legislativo (OLA), publicada en enero de 2026, concluyó que empleados del Departamento de Servicios Humanos (DHS) fabricaron o antedataron documentos ¡durante años! para evadir el escrutinio y ocultar la ilegal gestión de fondos.

Uno de los mayores esquemas de fraude fue un programa donde se robaron aproximadamente $250 millones destinados a alimentar a niños. Además, investigaciones recientes habían señalado fraudes que suman cientos de millones en centros de cuidado diurno, servicios de autismo y programas de estabilización de vivienda.