'That's not happening!' Fox Business guest flips out at stronger-than-expected GDP growth

Economic data released on Wednesday showed that the American economy grew at a strong 2.8% in the last quarter, which was stronger than what many economists had expected.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, who helped cost her network hundreds of millions of dollars when she decided to promote false claims about Dominion Voting Systems that were concocted by a woman who believes she can speak to the wind, scrambled to put a negative spin on the report.

During a roundtable discussion, Bartiromo highlighted aspects of the report that were not as positive as the topline GDP number, such as durable goods sales being down by 6.6% month over month.

Thursday's GDP report, however, showed real durable goods purchases rising at a strong 4.7% annualized clip in the second quarter - data that neither Bartiromo nor any of her panelists mentioned.

At: https://www.rawstory.com/maria-bartiromo-2668814779/

Gee-DP: Fox Business guest Rebecca Walser expresses consternation at Thursday's GDP report - which came in at a stronger-than-expected 2.8% annualized clip.

President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19

Source: CNN

President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, according to the president and CEO of UnidosUS Janet Murguía.

Biden was expected to speak at the group’s conference in Las Vegas Wednesday night.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/17/politics/joe-biden-tests-positive-covid-19/index.html

Ruth Westheimer, America's pioneering sex therapist known as "Dr. Ruth," dies at 96

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop culture icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, has died, her publicist and co-author on several books, Pierre Lehu, confirmed on Saturday to CBS News. She was 96. No cause was noted.

Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behavior. Instead, she encouraged an open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was there was nothing to be ashamed of.

"I still hold old-fashioned values and I'm a bit of a square," she told students at Michigan City High School in 2002. "Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about."

At: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dr-ruth-westheimer-americas-pioneering-sex-therapist-dies-at-96/

Dr. Ruth Westheimer looks out on the Swiss landscape during a visit to the girls' school that sheltered her during the Holocaust in the 2019 documentary Ask Dr. Ruth.

The renowned therapist and best-selling author was 96.

Donald Trump rushed off stage at rally after sound of gunshots ring out

Source: The Guardian

Donald Trump was whisked off stage in Pennsylvania after apparent gunshots rang through the crowd.

Video footage showed Trump being escorted to a vehicle by secret service agents.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/13/trump-rally-gun-shots-pennsylvania-latest-updates

Trump seen bleeding from the ear from a possible gunshot graze at the start of a Butler, PA, rally.

A "Bolsonaro" ploy?

Keir Starmer's General Election Victory Speech

The U.K. saw the most dramatic political shift since 1945 on Thursday, with Labour gaining 211 MPs and the ruling Conservatives losing 251 MPs - their worst showing in their 190-year history.

Despite a lackluster share of the popular vote (34%), an over 20% swing against Tories allowed Labour to enjoy strong gains - and Tories, steep losses - in every country except Northern Ireland, where the DUP's Ian Paisley, jr. lost the seat held by his family since 1970.

Among the Conservative seats lost, were those earlier held by the last four former Tory Prime Ministers.

The Liberal Democrats had a good night too: gaining 64 MPs - marking a full recovery from their 2015 calamity, their best showing in the party's 36-year existence, and the best for Liberals in a century.

The right-wing Reform UK garnered 14% of the vote - helping deepen Tory losses; but yielding them only 4 MPs.

At: https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2024/uk/results

Jeremy Corbyn re-elected in Islington North after expulsion from Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has won Islington North, the constituency he has represented since 1983 – but for the first time elected as an independent MP.

The former leader of the opposition beat Praful Nargund, a local Labour councillor selected by the party’s executive committee as their candidate in May. Corbyn won 24,120 votes, with Nargund winning 16,873 votes. Turnout for the election was 67.5%, down from 2019’s 71.6%.

Corbyn, 75, was blocked from standing as a Labour candidate in March 2023 by Keir Starmer, but announced soon after the election was called that he would be standing as an independent, leading to his expulsion from Labour.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/05/jeremy-corbyn-re-elected-in-islington-north-for-first-time-as-independent-mp

Starmer set to be PM as Tories face worst defeat - exit poll

Labour is set to win a general election landslide with a majority of 170, according to an exit poll for the BBC, ITV and Sky.

If the forecast is accurate, Sir Keir Starmer will become prime minister with 410 Labour MPs – just short of Tony Blair's 1997 total.

The Conservatives are predicted to slump to 131 MPs, their lowest number ever.

The Liberal Democrats are projected to come third with 61 MPs. The Scottish National Party will see its number of MPs fall to 10, while Reform UK is forecast to get 13 MPs, according to the exit poll.

The Green Party of England and Wales is predicted to double its number of MPs to two and Plaid Cymru are set to get four MPs. Others are forecast to get 19 seats.

At: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1xnzlzz99o

Exit polls projections for today's general elections in the U.K.

If confirmed, the results would give Labour its strongest majority in history - though falling slightly short of its 418-seat victory in 1997.

Conservatives, in turn, would see their weakest showing in their 190-year history.

Argentina's Mileise: Auto industry collapses as sales register their worst June in 20 years

The Association of Argentine Automobile Dealers (ACARA) reported that last month, 29,878 new motor vehicles were registered in the country.

This figure was 14.1% less than in May and 25.5% less than in June 2023. It was also the weakest June for new car registrations since 2004 - when the country was still recovering from its well-publicized 2001 foreign debt/convertibility crisis.

The Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (ADEFA), in turn, reported a 40.2% interannual collapse in car and light truck output, to 32,029.

An ACARA press release blamed everything from the "Registration Worker's Day" (June 27th) to flooding in southern Brazil, problems with the supply of license plates, and several days of inactivity in the automobile registries due to strikes called by public employees' unions.

The latter two causes were however triggered by deep budget cuts by the far-right Javier Milei administration - which in May ordered 40% of federal vehicle registration offices closed.

Auto sales in Argentina - and the economy more broadly - have also suffered from Milei's restrictive, pro-cyclical monetary policy, which resulted in an 18% decline in real credit outstanding to the private sector in just six months in office - steeper even than the 12% fall in the real monetary base.

Registrations for the first half of this year totaled 182,399 - 22.6% less than in the same period in 2023. And output fell even further: down 26.7%, to 216,736 (excluding freight trucks and buses).

At: https://www-todoriesgo-com-ar.translate.goog/acara-patentamiento-autos-motos-primer-semestre-2024/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp#

A newly-arrived 2024 Toyota Hilux truck - currently the country's top-selling vehicle - is unveiled in Paraná, Argentina, last November.

Following the election that month of far-fright President Javier Milei, however, auto sales - and the economy more broadly - have fallen into a deep recession.

Auto sales for the first half of 2024 appear to confirm early projections from the ACARA dealership federation of 340,000 new units - some 25% below last year's levels, 57% below the 2010-18 average, and the lowest since 2004.

First battery-grade lithium plant inaugurated in Argentina

French mining group Eramet and China's Tsingshan on Wednesday inaugurated a lithium production plant in Argentina to supply the booming electric car industry.

The site in the northwestern province of Salta represents an investment of US$870 million, Eramet said.

The plant is not a traditional mine nor one of the environmentally damaging salt flats from which the metal used in electric batteries is normally extracted in South America's so-called lithium triangle of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile (home to 60% of global lithium reserves).

Instead it uses an innovative "direct extraction" method, according to Eramet.

The plant is expected to produce up to 24,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year at full capacity, Eramet CEO Christel Bories told AFP -- enough for 600,000 electric vehicle batteries.

At: https://www.barrons.com/news/new-lithium-plant-inaugurated-in-argentina-d266b40c

Eramet CEO Christel Bories during the inauguration of its battery-grade lithium carbonate plant in Salta, Argentina, yesterday - a joint project began in 2021 with China's Tsingshan.

Mining industry analysts believe that far-right President Javier Milei's Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI) will spur new foreign investment in Argentina's mining sector, since it facilitates hard-currency availability; Argentine companies have long struggled with currency controls in the country.

Critics charge, however, that besides failing to guarantee hard-currency supply to foreign investors, the new RIGI legislation - Milei's first legislative accomplishment in nearly 7 months - may instead encourage money laundering, tax evasion and capital flight without materially improving on existing, business-friendly mining regulation dating from 1993 (at the height of the freewheeling Carlos Menem era).

Lithium carbonate output in Argentina rose eight-fold, to nearly 50,000 tons, from 2019 to 2023.

Voters kick all the Republican women out of the South Carolina Senate

The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate took on their party and stopped a total abortion ban from passing in their state last year.

Republican primary voters have now booted all the “Sister Senators” from their party out of office.