TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Toxic Combo: Droughts, Food & Energy Shortages, War

Episode Date: August 18, 2022

Russian surveillance planes crossed Alaska’s air defense zone multiple times this week. Chinese troops will go to Russia in late August for joint military exercises. Vladimir Putin is defending China’s stepped up military activities near Taiwan, saying that House Speaker Pelosi deliberately went to the island to provoke China. The CEO of one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of microchips said a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan will greatly disrupt the global economy. Severe drought is gripping much of the world. And European countries are racing to fill up LNG storage facilities before Russia completely cuts off the flow of gas to the continent. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 8/17/22.

The following program is made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit nothing but the truth, so help us God. I'm Rick Wiles. Russian surveillance planes crossed Alaska's air defense zone multiple times this week. Chinese troops will go to Russia in late August and early September for joint military exercises. Vladimir Putin is defending China's stepped-up military activities near Taiwan, saying that House Speaker Pelosi deliberately went to the island to provoke China. The CEO of one of the world's biggest manufacturers of microchips said a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan would greatly disrupt the global economy. LNG storage facilities before Russia completely cuts off the flow of natural gas to the continent.

Doc Burkhardt and I have lots to share with you today. First, however, I extend an invitation to you to join Doc and me on a memorable tour of biblical holy sites in jordan the jordan bible holy land tour will be november 9 through 17 2022 so i encourage you to go to truenews.com and click the banner you see it right there that says join rick and doc on a Land tour of Jordan. Click that banner and it will take you to the page where you can reserve your seat. Now we will depart JFK Airport in New York City on November 9 and fly to Amman, Jordan. Now here are some of the biblical sites we will visit. We will visit Mount Nebo where Moses first saw the promised land. We will visit Mar Elias where the prophet Elijah was taken up into the sky. You will visit Pella, the ancient place where Christians hid during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

We will also visit Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's cave. We will visit the beautiful Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba and see the archaeological remains of the oldest known church structure in the world. And let's not forget Petra. You've got to see Petra once in your lifetime. The tour is a low, low price of $4,500 to $5,000 a person. This tour is all-inclusive. Accept your transportation to and from JFK Airport. It includes round-trip airfare from JFK, including Air Texas. Your airfare to Jordan includes seven nights lodging your breakfast and dinner every day full-time professional

english-speaking Jordanian tour guide air-conditioned deluxe motor coach bus. And all of the touring and entrance fees as necessary on the itinerary. Even your tips will be provided. All you have to do is bring your suitcase and your camera. Come and see Jordan. It will be a sensational trip. It will be something you will remember for many, many years and talk about it with your family.

There are so many things that you're going to see. We're not even close to telling you everything that is on the trip. But you can go to the website, truenews.com, and click that banner. It will take you to the registration page. And you can also click on that page,

the itinerary, right there it is. And you see itinerary. We'll scroll down. Doc, what are some of the places? We'll start there with November 10. Well, we'll visit the Jabbok Brook, and that's where Jacob wrestled the angel. And we'll visit that. That was an excellent place to visit.

That's where I found this shoe. Yes, I remember that. And so just the first day is enough for the trip, to be honest with you. You'll visit the Jabbok Brook. You'll visit Jerash, ancient Roman city. Mar Elias, that's one of the highlights, really for me on the trip, the Mountain of Elijah. That's what that means, Mar Elias.

Where Elijah was taken up into the air. And then Pella, Pella, an amazing city just by itself, an active archeological site that's going on where the Christians went and hid during the persecution of Jerusalem. You know, Doug, a lot of people, when we went to Jordan, they were, people were trying to correct me. They were saying, Ricky got this wrong. The Christians fled to Petra. No, they didn't go to Petra. That was in Left Behind, the novel, the movie that's really okay in real life they went they went to Pella right when the Romans were ransacking Jerusalem so

we're gonna go to Pella and see the city and then the next day we'll visit in Mount Nebo and Madaba and Macau Macau tower the ridge the Manabar, Doc, remember, it's a Jordanian city that is full of ancient churches. Yes, and beautiful tile floors. Mosaic, yes. I mean, just beautiful. And then that night, we'll stay overnight in Petra

because we'll need that preparation to get up bright and early the next day for our tour of Petra. But you've got to see Petra at night. Yes, it our tour. But you get to see Petra at night. Yes, it's amazing. And so we'll see Petra at night and then we'll tour Petra during the day. And then later on, after our visit at Petra, we'll visit Wadi Rum. And then after that, we'll be visiting the ancient city of Aqaba. Aqaba itself is just an amazing city. And then on the 14th, we'll visit Aqaba, the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's cave, and then we'll head back to the capital city of Amman. And from

there, the rest of our tour takes us up to the northern part of Jordan, where we'll visit Bethany and Gadara overnight in Amman. And then our last day before departure, we'll do a city tour of the capital city of Amman, and there's so much in Amman just by itself. Then right there, we'll visit the Citadel and the Colosseum that's in there. It is absolutely amazing. You can spend all day at the Citadel.'s right so ancient roman city and uh i'll tell you it's you will you will come home and you will be talking for weeks to your friends and relatives about what you saw and experienced and the jordanian people are wonderful. Friendliest people on earth. It is safe. It is very safe. Don't worry about it. It is safe. It is very, very safe there.

You know, you can stroll around at night. There's no concern at all. The Jordanian people are warm and friendly and hospitable, and they love Americans. And, you know, you just enjoy the time there. The food is great. Don't worry about the food. You're going to come home and you're going to think I've got to find the recipes of the meals that I ate there because it's so good. Yes. I, when I came back, I was sharing with my wife, all the different foods that we, we ate and we've been trying to match the recipes and everything. Even Eric would like it.

Yes. If Eric would go, he would like the food because he's pretty picky about food. He would like the food. You would, Eric. I know you're watching right now. So $29.50 per person, and you can register simply by going to truenews.com. Click on the top of the page right now. You're going to see a picture of us at one of the amphitheaters.

Click on that picture, and that will take you right to the registration site. And so now seating is limited. Forty-eight. Forty-eight, and we're almost half sold out right now. And the registration deadline, I think is September 22nd. So you have to, you have to pay in full now and this is non-refundable. Right. Okay. So please understand it is non-refundable and you need to pay the full amount when you register. The reason is because we're so close to the tour date that we have to have this locked down.

So if you're thinking about putting this off for a week or two, you know, or moving closer to the middle of September, we'll probably be full by then. So I would encourage you, if you've been considering this trip, don't hesitate to go ahead and get registered and get your registration in, get your payment in and everything. Because these seats will fill up. And so I encourage you, visit truenews.com today and let's go ahead and get a full trip. And we're looking forward to being on the trip with you. That's right. We will be your tour guides.

Yes. There will be a tour guide there, but we're going to be the real tour guides. Okay, so we'll be there with you. And Doc and I are going to do Bible studies every morning. So we're all going to get together. And when we go to a site, let's say Mar Elias, where Elijah was taken up into the clouds. Well, we're going to do a Bible study there. What a better place to do a Bible study about Elijah than Mount Elias. So every place that we go, we're going to do Bible studies. And you and I will have breakfast together every morning. We'll have dinner together.

We'll have lunch together. Now, lunch, you're on your own. Right. But we'll probably all go to the same place. All right. I mean, but everybody will be free if they want to go someplace else or not eat lunch. What we found on our trip was that we loaded up in the morning on breakfast. Right.

And usually skipped lunch or only ate a very light, very small lunch and then a nice dinner. Yes. And that was our schedule. But if you want to have lunch, you'll be on your own for lunch. But breakfast and dinner is included. And Doc and I will be there every morning, every evening with you. We're going to have a great time. This is a good time to get together with us. So, you know, we can bond.

We'll get a lot of time to talk, to chat, get to know each other, and it will be a close group of people on a single bus, 48 people on the bus, and we'll be there for almost two weeks. That's right. I'm really looking forward to it. And the weather is great in the fall. And how should they, I mean, what kind of clothes should they pack, Rick, do you think, for this time of year? You know, I would say a light jacket for the evening. Right, because it does get cool in the evening. Yes, in the evening. It's desert. It will get cooler in the evening.

But during the daytime, I'm guessing at that time of the year, it should be in the 70s. Okay? It'll still be very comfortable good you know um wear good walking shoes amen so and maybe a hat yeah because it is the desert you will get some you'll get a lot of sunshine and um but other than that you don't really need to bring anything a little bit of cash everything's going to be taken care of i mean just the only cash you need to carry with you is just the little things you want to buy in a store or um you know souvenirs anything that's it you know everything else is taken care of and

transportation when you when we land at the airport in amman, you don't have to worry about anything. We're going to walk you through visas. There will be a bus waiting on us at the airport. We will all travel together to the hotels. When we come back to the airport to leave, same thing. There will be a bus that takes everybody back. You don't have to worry about it. If you think it's my first time in a foreign country, I don't speak Arabic, I'm afraid I'm going to get lost. Don't worry about it. You're not going to worry about, you know, if you think it's my first time in a foreign country, I don't speak Arabic, I'm afraid I'm going to get lost.

Don't worry about it. You're not going to get lost. We're going to move as a group, and everything will be taken care of. We'll guide you all the way through it. Plus, the Jordanians are great. Many of them speak English. Yes. And they will watch out for you, so you don't have to worry about it. Friendly people.

Go to the website soon. If you're thinking about this, the registration deadline is September 22nd, but I seriously doubt there will be any seats left by September 22nd. So now is the time to lock down your seat. Okay, so we're going to get into a lot of stories here today. Our theme, our title, is Toxic Combination, Toxic Combo. Droughts, Energy and Food Shortages and War.

Because that's what is coming together. You'll see this in this picture. We'll give you a broad picture of what's going on in the world today. We'll start with NBC News affiliate in Fairbanks, Alaska. This is today, Doc. Yes. Russian surveillance aircraft enters Alaskan air defense identification zone three times in three days.

And they do this every time. We do it, too, to the Russians and to the Chinese, where they're testing our border security is what they're doing. And so the Alaskan region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has detected, tracked, and identified Russian surveillance aircraft in the ADIZ, the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, on three separate occasions over the past three days. NORAD is saying that a Russian surveillance aircraft came within 20 nautical miles of the Alaska coast

and remained in international airspace. It did not enter American or Canadian airspace. NORAD tracks and identifies military aircraft that enter the ADIZ and, if necessary, escorts aircraft from the ADIZ. While there was no perceived threat, F-22 fighter jets were deployed to conduct surveillance of the Russian aircraft. Now this comes less than two weeks after U.S. bombers were met by Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea. So we do the same thing. We test the border limits like in the Black Sea and other places as well.

They're probing. Right. And so we're probing too. But they got 20 miles from Alaska. Yes. They're starting, the probing is becoming more intense. They're getting right up to the border of where they can fly. And the Russians are sending a message to the U.S., to the Pentagon. We're prepared. We're going to take action.

If you guys continue to mess with us, we're here. We're not that far from you from Alaska. Next one, also NBC News. China to send troops to Russia for joint military exercise. That's starting August 30th through the first week of September. But this is an important story, Doc, that we're seeing Chinese PLA soldiers on the soil of Russia for joint military training. Next story.

I caught this today in the Jerusalem Post. Palestinian general discusses military cooperation at talks in Moscow. Yeah, I think this is a significant story, Rick. A senior Russian official met the commander of Palestinian security forces to discuss military and intelligence cooperation, Moscow's defense ministry said on Wednesday. Now, without providing details, it said that Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin held talks with Major General Nidal Abu Dokhan from the Palestinian National Authority on the margins of a security conference held alongside Russia's Army 2022 Forum. Rick, a couple things I noticed about

this particular story here is that Russia is recognizing the Palestinian Authority as an actual government to deal with. You got it. And what are we about to see Russia and China recognize Palestine as an independent state. Yes. What does that do to Israel and the United States? I mean, how is that any different than if the U.S. recognized Taiwan as an independent state? It's the same deal. Right.

It's the very same thing. So, you know, President Trump, in his last year in office, made a decree and said the Golan Heights is Israel. Right. When it was part of Syria. But he just did it by decree. And guess what? A lot of people say that's Israel now. And Israel is occupying it.

So if the Russians declare Palestine to be a free and independent state and they send troops to Palestine. To defend that border. To defend Palestine. That's what I see coming. A Russian military base in the West Bank. Wow. Now that would be incredible, wouldn't it?

So is Israel going to fight the Russians in the West Bank? Think this through. Oh, the evangelical Christians will go berserk over this. Yes. But the Russians will be there to defend the Palestinian Christians. To keep the churches open. And they'll also be saying, we're here also to maintain peace between Iran and Israel. Yes.

Because if Russia is right between there, there's less likely to be a fight between them. Remember what I said yesterday? That Syria is going to be the meat grinder. The Russians believe that the U.S. is fomenting a war between Israel and Iran fought on the soil of Syria. That Syria is going to be the battleground for this war between Israel and Iran. So the Russians are, Russians have a military base in Syria? for this war between Israel and Iran. So the Russians are, Russians have a military base in Syria,

a TARDIS. Right. And so now we may actually see a military outpost, a Russian military outpost in the West Bank. Boy, there'll be so many evangelical whistles going off on that one. Wow. But this is a significant story here because this is a first step toward a military alliance between Russia

and Palestine. Yes. It's a big story here. Huge. And you heard it first on True News. Next one, South China Morning Post. Putin breaks silence on Pelosi Taiwan trip. He called her an irresponsible politician. And once again, he made this statement at the security forum that's going on right now. Russian President Vladimir Putin called U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an irresponsible politician and her visit to Taiwan a thoroughly planned provocation, offering his first comments on the crisis, which observers say has strengthened Sino-Russian ties. In his opening speech at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday, attended by defense chiefs from 35 countries, Putin denounced the congresswoman's

trip as another deliberate attempt to fuel the flames and stir up trouble in the Asia Pacific following Washington's efforts to draw out the conflict in Ukraine. It goes on to say in that article, the U.S. escapade towards Taiwan is not just a voyage by an irresponsible politician, but part of the purpose-oriented and deliberate U.S. strategy designed to destabilize the situation and sow chaos in the region and the world, he said. It is a brazen demonstration of disrespect

for other countries and their own international commitments. And that is why Chinese troops are going to Russia next week for joint military drills. And that's also why military drills are going to be routine around Taiwan from here on out. News Australia is reporting this, that China is warning this is the way life is going to be from now on. This is the new status quo, that there will be constant military drills around the island portion of China,

the island of Taiwan, and that this is going to be the new life now. That's the way it's going to be, and the people living on the island will never know if it's a drill or the real thing. They're going to have to constantly be on edge that Chinese military operations are taking place around them. They'll be trying to sleep at night while they hear live fire shooting, missiles flying by, helicopters, jets, all that. That's going to become the new norm.

China is going to wage psychological warfare against the Taiwanese people. And the Chinese are saying, Pelosi made us do it. Right. This is the new normal. We would not have done this without her now. This is what we're going to do all the time. So with the Chinese drilling around Taiwan on a constant basis, that's going to impact the way that Taiwan interacts with the rest of the world, especially in the matter of business.

People are going to have to consider, do I want to continue to do business in Taiwan? If the Chinese, I mean, one day they might invade. They might even set up a blockade at some point in time. Do you want to be trapped on a business trip in Taiwan on the day that they invade? Do you want to send your company's employees to a Taiwan office, tell them you're going to live there for a couple years knowing they may be trapped in a war? You're right, Doc. There are going to be business people that will have to make very difficult decisions because, and we'll

see it in this next article, this is Wall Street Journal, what a Chinese blockade would mean for global business. Now, that company right there, TSMC, Doc, this is the biggest microchip company, maybe the biggest in the world. And this Wall Street Journal article is very enlightening about the impact of a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. Even if they didn't succeed in taking over, if they just, if there was a battle, a war for Taiwan.

A disruption in even a few days or a few weeks in the economy. But also a blockade. Right. What would happen if they just did a naval blockade of the island? Let's read a couple of paragraphs of this Wall Street Journal. Well, it says a Chinese blockade of Taiwan would cripple global supply chains and raise freight prices in Asia and potentially beyond because of the outsized role that the island of roughly 23 million people plays in global business. Taiwan

accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world's microchip supply. It also serves as an important part of the production chain for goods including smartphones, computers and cars. And it sits next to Pacific shipping lanes that channel trillions of dollars worth of trade flowing in and out of East Asia. Now, Taiwan matters far more to the world economy than its 1% share of global GDP would indicate, said Gareth Leather, an economist with research firm Capital Economics. Cutting off Taiwan's exports would result in chip shortages for cars and electronics and drive up inflationary prices, he said. Now, Taiwan is home to the world's largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces

semiconductors for companies including Apple and Qualcomm. And globally, they held more than half of the share of the $100 billion of semiconductor fabrication market last year, the research firm Gartner said. Now, a year-long disruption to Taiwan's chip supply could cost global electronics companies some $490 billion in losses. Now, that's according to a 2020 report by the Boston Consulting Group and the Semiconductor Industry Association. Should Taiwanese chip output be disrupted permanently, it would take at least three years and $350 billion to build production capacity elsewhere to make up for it, the report said. Now, it also said, in an undated interview broadcast by CNN in late July, TSMC Chairman Mark Luo said, use of military force or invasion of Taiwan

would render TSMC factories non-operable. Its manufacturing facilities depend on real-time connection with the outside world, with Europe, with Japan, and with the U.S., he said. I'm sure there are people going, what if I care if a microchip factory in Taiwan gets blown up? It's not going to affect me. Oh, yes, it is. Think of everything you own that has microchips in it. And we already see that now with the supply chain disruption. Try to buy a new car right now. I mean, that's a perfect example. There's a long wait for cars.

Right. And that's just a minor bubble, a blip on the radar of what we would talk about if there was a major disruption or a blockade to Taiwan economy. And if it takes three years to get the production up and running again, that would mean auto factories in the United States and Michigan would be shut down for three years. Right. Now you start to get the picture of what this looks like. iPhones, computers, laptops. I mean, I'm looking around in our studio and I'm thinking of everything in here that has microchips in it. Yes.

Right. We would not be able to get any new equipment. We couldn't get anything repaired. It would be across the board in the economy if Taiwan is attacked. Now, we're going to show you some clips from that CNN interview. It is an extremely interesting interview. But it's going to be in the second half. And those of you who are watching us on cable or broadcast or DirecTV,

you're going to have to go to our website, truenews.com, and watch the second part of this program because we continue talking after we go off our broadcast affiliates. So we want you to see it. We've got a lot more that we're going to be talking about concerning droughts and food shortages. And this is all coming together at one time this fall, this winter. So stay tuned for part two. We're going to have more on this edition of True News.

If you don't, go over to truenews.com. Doc and I will to have more on this edition of True News. If you don't go over to truenews.com, Doc and I will be back here on this channel tomorrow. Hey, glad to have you back. Yeah, I looked up at the clock and we had about three minutes remaining in this video clip. We're going to show you six minutes. So that's why I was stretching it there for you if you were wondering why is he just talking. Because we didn't have enough time to show the entire six minutes. We would get bumped out halfway through the video. So this is an interview that CNN broadcast in July.

This is the CEO of the Taiwan chip manufacturer. The TSMC. Yes. And, again, so this is almost a month old. Right. Again, so this is almost a month old, but there's some very interesting pieces of information in here about what would happen if China invaded Taiwan, attacked Taiwan, or implemented a blockade of Taiwan. And this was produced and broadcast before Nancy Pelosi's trip.

Yes, before her trip. Right. All right, so let's watch trip. Yes, before her trip. Right. All right. So let's watch it. It's six minutes long. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It's an old school name for one of the most modern state-of-the-art companies in the world.

If you've never heard of the company known as TSMC, you'll want to listen closely. Its products are semiconductors, the heart of all high-tech, and their chips may very well be in your cell phone, your computer, your car, and your TV. They manufacture chips for the biggest tech brands all over the world. American brands, most notably Apple, Chinese brands, European ones, and more. TSMC is the most valuable company in all of Asia. More impressively, perhaps, it is the 10th most valuable company in the entire world. The company is building a $12 billion advanced chip manufacturing plant in Arizona, thanks in part to expected subsidies from the U.S. government, which passed this week in the CHIPS Act. So why am I telling you about TSMC now? Well, as the Wall Street Journal said last year in a headline, the world relies on one chip maker in Taiwan, leaving everyone vulnerable. So when China threatens

forceful measures over Speaker Pelosi's plans to visit Taiwan, fears of an attack on Taiwan rise, and many in the tech and business worlds think immediately of TSMC. I had the pleasure of a rare interview with its chairman, Mark Liu. What would happen to Taiwan and to the Taiwanese economy if China were to invade? Oh, of course, the war brings no winners. Everybody's losers. And people in Taiwan has earned their democratic system in Taiwan and they want to choose their way of life and we think that indeed the chip supply is a critical business and economy in Taiwan but had it had it been a war in Taiwan

probably the chip is not the most important thing we should worry about because this invasion uh if come after the is the destruction of the world rule-based order, there's no, the geopolitical landscape would totally change. Do you worry that Taiwan is now so integral to the Chinese supply chain at the high end? Does that create a danger for Taiwan or is it a deterrent? People sometimes talk about the TSMC shield, but you could equally see Beijing saying we need to have total control of this.

This is the most valuable asset and it's outside our borders okay nobody can control tsmc by force if you take a military force or invasion you will render TSMC factory non-operable. Because this is such a sophisticated manufacturing facilities. It depends on the real-time connection with outside world, with Europe, with Japan, with the US, from materials to chemicals to spare, to engineering software diagnosis. And it's everybody's effort to make this factory operable.

So if you take it over by force, you can no longer make it operable. In terms of the China business, today it comprises about 10% of our business. We only work with consumer. We don't work with military entities. We only work at consumer market. We think that a consumer pool is important

and it is vibrant. And if they need us it's not a bad thing. Expand on that why is it not a bad thing? Our interruption will create great economic turmoil in either side in China, because suddenly their most advanced components supply disappeared. And it is an interruption I must say so people will

think twice on this I think the Ukraine war I think we should draw lessons from it people think Ukraine war connected with Taiwan Strait they are very different but in case you think about Ukraine war connected with Taiwan Strait, they are very different.

But in case you think about in parallel, Ukraine war is not good for any of the sides, from the Western world, from Russia, for Ukraine. It's loose, loose, loose scenarios. All three sides ought to draw lessons. I think they do. And we should use that lessons to look at the lens on Taiwan. How can we avoid war? How can we ensure the world economy's engine of a world economy continue humming? And let's have a fair competition on top of the platform. What do you take away from this interview? That there seems to be some sort of

idea within the chairman's mind there that China won't attack Taiwan because they did, they'd be hurting themselves. But I don't see that at all. I would see that China would look at this as an opportunity to gain control of the entire semiconductor market in the world. That's what I'm thinking. Suddenly I'm realizing it's not the island that they want. It's the plant, the manufacturing plant that they want. Right. It controls, what, 90% of the microchip marketplace. 65% of their business is the United States of America.

Right. And so if China were to control that, they would control basically the world, wouldn't they? They would. And what if they cut off the United States from receiving any microchips from Taiwan? What does that do to the U.S. economy? That grinds it to complete halt.

Now, the TSMC chairman is making the bet that if China were to invade, that they would shut down the factory. But I don't see that as the case at all. They would want to keep the factory running. That would be the desire of the Chinese to keep it going. But also a war is going to destroy. You're assuming that the building survives.

Right. It's got to survive the war. And then when the war is over, what he was saying was you have all these other countries that have to continue to supply materials and there's all kinds of cooperation between different countries. And what if they cut off their cooperation with the plant? Where does that leave China?

And is China going to run the plant with PLA troops? Are they going to walk the halls of the factory with machine guns and point it at the heads of the technicians and say, work or we shoot you? We could take another lesson from another recent event in history, and that's Hong Kong. China wanted Hong Kong to continue to do business. I mean, they wanted the corporations, the banks and everything in Hong Kong operating. Well, business. I mean, they wanted the corporations, the banks, and everything in Hong Kong operating. Well, the PLA showed up.

And PLA, they're not running the banks, they're not running the corporations, but their presence is known on every street corner now. That's right, and nobody wants to go to Hong Kong now. Right. Nobody wants to visit Hong Kong. Nobody dreams about opening up a business account, a checking account. I mean, it used to be prestigious.

You have a checking account at a Hong Kong bank. Nobody's doing that now. Nobody is thinking about maybe someday I'll have a second home, an apartment in Hong Kong. I'll have a window to Asia. Nobody's thinking like that. There used to be seminars. Go to Hong Kong to learn about how to operate business in Asia. Nobody's doing it because two reasons. The PLA is there and the COVID lockdowns are still there. Right. They're still. All right. So you made a point. So if the Chinese export that same mentality to Taiwan, then everybody flees Taiwan.

Nobody goes back. Nobody wants to do business with Taiwan after that. So how do they win? So, OK, you got the nest, but nobody wants the eggs now. Right. Well, and that's the question. And the other strategy is China has to know this. I mean, they're no idiots.

They could be calculating who would be hurt more, us being the Chinese or our enemy, which is the West. And they could take that calculated risk and saying, yes, we would be short on our semiconductor usage and everything, but would it impact the West even worse? This is a good point because again, TSMC, largest manufacturer of microchips in the world. 65% of their trade is to the United States of America, only 10% to China. Right. So, if the Chinese cut off the trade to the United States, the U.S. is out of two-thirds of its microchips.

Yes. China's only out of 10%. And there is no way without five or ten years of ramp-up time for us to even consider competing on that level. And they passed this recent semiconductor bill here at the beginning of August, right before Nancy did her little jaunt over to Taiwan. But most of that money is actually going to development of semiconductors outside the U.S. It was crazy how this thing got all the way through.

And is her husband an investor in it? Well, you can bet. He probably is. And by the way, she and her son met with officials at TSMC while they were in Taiwan. Of course they did. All right. So we set the stage now. You see what could happen with war and a shortage of microchips. This is a real possibility.

Just one little item. Well, a big item, but just one item. An item that is in almost everything that we buy now. So if that war takes place in China, there will be a disruption in microchip production that will last for many, many years. It may be the 2030s until it ever gets straightened out. Think that through. Because here in the U.S., we don't have. We don't have our manufacturing base. We can't go back to doing things the way we used to. We don't have it. You know why? Because

our politicians and bankers shipped all of our jobs, our factories to China decades ago. TSMC has a big facility out in Arizona, but they are not building semiconductors in Arizona. They're putting together the final product in Arizona. Assembling it. Yes. And so if there was something that was to happen between China and Taiwan, that plant now becomes useless in Arizona. That's right. There's nothing to assemble.

Right. All right, let's go. We're going to take a look now at the energy and food shortages that are coming up. We'll jump to number 19. This is from Express in Great Britain. Europe blackout panic as energy prices smash all-time record high. Lights to be forced out. This is for Europe.

The plans are now being drawn up for mandatory blackouts in Europe. Why? Because the elite have created a mess in the world by provoking Russia to attack Ukraine and then putting the sanctions on Russia. So then Russia said, well, then we're cutting off the energy to Europe. So we're going into the fall and winter where there will be mandatory blackouts in European cities and people will go cold.

There's going to be suffering this fall and winter in Europe because of the elites. This elitism, this idea that certain class of people are born to rule. It is bringing chaos and suffering to the world. And they think that maybe it's part of their plan. Hey, we're just going to break apart civilization and cause it to crumble and collapse and we'll rebuild our new world order. I don't know which one it is. But the end result is there's going to be suffering because of their policies.

And it's not just with the Ukraine war either, Rick. It's because of other things that are happening in Europe. They're shutting down fertilizer. Look what they're doing to the Dutch farmers. Trudeau's doing it in Europe. They're shutting down fertilizer. Yes. Look what they're doing to the Dutch farmers. Right. Trudeau is doing it in Canada. They're bringing about food shortages. Yes. It's deliberate. So move the next one. This is Bloomberg. German natural gas to last less than three months is actually two and a half months if Russia cuts off the supply. Russia's down to 20% of their supply of gas going to Europe. And what the German gas utility regulator said today is,

well, if we continue to buy gas and store as much as we can, we'll have two and a half months by November. Right. But they're betting on a normal winter with that, too. And so Germany will struggle to have enough natural gas to get through the coming winter, even if reserves are replenished in line with government targets. Refilling gas inventories to 95% by November would only cover about two and a half months of heating, industrial and power demand if Russia cuts off supplies completely. And that's according to Klaus Mueller, the president of the Federal Network Agency, the country's energy regulator. Stockpiles right now are currently 77% full, which is two weeks ahead of schedule. With the risk of a cooler-than-normal autumn and the chance of further supply disruptions, the government-mandated target

of storage sites being 85 percent full by October could be challenging, Mueller said. Meeting the November target of 95 percent seems hard to achieve because some storage sites require more time to fill, he said. Now, I cannot promise you that all storage facilities in Germany will be 95% full in November, even under good supply and demand conditions. In the best-case scenario, three-fourths of them will meet the target. Russian gas flows through Nord Stream are currently only about 20% of capacity, prompting repeated warnings from the German government that supplies can be cut off completely at any time as Moscow retaliates for the sanctions over its war in Ukraine.

Now, we'll talk about some other factors that will impact this energy situation here in just a few moments. I can assure you, Doc, Putin already has a date circled on his calendar of when he's going to cut off the remaining 20 percent. He's calculated how long he can continue to sell, get revenue coming in and then cut it off. Here's what I see out of this. If if Germany can reach 95 percent capacity by November, if and he said that's going to be very hard to achieve. But let's say he does. The regulator, let's say they hit their goal and they're 95 percent full by. And Russia cuts off all the gas. There's no more coming in now. Right. Because right now, they still have 20%. So they're still getting gas.

They're still storing it. But there's a day coming very soon. Russia's going to cut it off. He's saying, we think we can get to 95% by November. But it's going to be difficult. Can't guarantee it. Maybe 85%. All right. If they reach 95%, they have enough to last two and a half months. months you're in november december and january maybe mid-february maybe maybe assuming everything else if everything goes and it's not it's not an unusually cold winter you might have enough gas to get to late january mid-february. What happens at mid-February? Because all the gas has now been cut off

and all has been depleted out of the storage tanks. What do you have now? You have your alternative energy sources, which are very limited. You have like coal. They're firing up their coal plants again. But you can't run German factories on coal. That's right.

And another factor with the coal is getting the coal to the plants. And right now they're having a hard time. The rivers are dry. The rivers are dry. So where I'm going with this is even if they fill the tanks to 95% capacity, by February, Germany will be out of natural gas and there's no more coming in. Yes. Now what do you have? You have major shutdowns.

You have suffering. You have children in cold houses because it doesn't warm up in Germany in mid-February. You're going to have children in cold houses, elderly people in very cold homes. Factories will be shut down. Gas-powered city transportation is shut down. Germany comes to a screeching halt in February. Even if they get their best case scenario.

That's what's coming. And if you think, well, it's not going to affect me here in the United States. Oh, just wait. I'm going to make my prediction again joe biden will use emergency war powers yes to seize american natural gas and ship it to europe to fight the russians he'll say i have to do this this is world war three we're sending american gas and we're going to have to ration gas in the United States of America. I'm talking about natural gas, LNG.

He's going to say, we're going to have to ration it. I have to supply gas. I suppose that'll be Putin's fault, too. Of course. Of course. But there's no pipeline from the United States to Europe. You have to put it on a ship. And haul it over there. And the Russians could start sabotaging those ships going over.

Think about the Lusitania. Just get back to World War I. Ships blew up in the Atlantic in World War I. It was dangerous to be on a ship going from the United States to Great Britain. The Germans were blowing up the ships. Don't rule this out. That by winter, spring of 2023,

that we could see warfare taking place on the seas. You know, it could just be, gee, stuff happens. Yes. Dr. Accidents. We don't know who did that. The ship blew up. All I'm saying is you absolutely cannot assume there's not going to be major disruptions in the economy this fall and winter.

There's going to be very serious, because like we've said it before, even if they solve the war today, they're not going to get this fixed for many, many months. Right. Even if they turn the pipelines on, Russia started pumping 100% and everything, the damage has already been done at this point. That's right. So the next one, this is number 24, CNBC, pummeled by gas crisis. Germany's Uniper post $12.5 billion net loss. This is Uniper is Germany's biggest utility company.

So, Doc, the $12.5 billion loss was the first six months of this year. Oh, that's just the first half of the year. Oh, my goodness. Yes, the first six months. January through June, they lost $12.5 billion. This is the biggest utility company in Germany.

Meanwhile, all the other energy companies around the world are recording record profits here. So for a 12.5 billion dollar loss in Germany, that's a telltale sign they're in for hard times in the second half. They're in very difficult times right now. Next with 25 Financial Times. Gas markets leap on both sides of the Atlantic as traders search for supplies. So the global energy crisis deepened on Tuesday as a further surge in natural gas prices in Europe and the U.S. threatened to push some of the world's largest economies into recession. Gas markets in Europe jumped by as much as 10%

to a high of 2511 a megawatt hour, equivalent in energy terms to more than $400 a barrel of oil as traders raced to secure supplies ahead of the winter. Prices have more than doubled from already extremely elevated levels in June, though they eased marginally later on Tuesday. It went on to say with gas prices at more than 10 times their normal level, the possibility of a deep recession has grown with investors now more downbeat on the German economy than at any other time since the Eurozone debt crisis a decade ago. Went on to say European gas prices are still scaling new peaks, said Bill Farren Price, the director of the

energy consultancy in Varus. With customers facing a potential complete Russian shutoff before winter even starts, there is little to stop this rally until we see significant demand destruction, probably meaning a deep recession. We're not there yet. And these prices are going to impact us here in the United States as well. Absolutely. I have friends that live in the Midwest and family members that live in the Midwest. If you ever see the large propane tanks, you know, the 500 gallon tanks, filling one of those up now could easily cost a thousand dollars. Now they last a while, but if you have especially a hard winter, let's say, or especially wet winter, snowy winter, those propane tanks can get depleted over the course of a long winter. And by the time we look at November, December,

you could see families paying two, $3,000 to fill up a 500 gallon propane tank easily easily so that's going to impact the pocketbooks here in the u.s and so much industry also here in the u.s depends on natural gas and like you said joe biden will ship our natural gas to europe absolutely he will as part of the NATO agreements. Another Financial Times, Norway's oil fund chief warns of tough times ahead for investors. Right, so the head of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund has warned investors against complacency and said they face difficult years ahead as Norway's oil fund swung to its biggest ever dollar loss in the first half of 2022. Markets don't go down in a straight line, and I'm worried that we can have tough times for an extended period. And that came from Nikolai Tangen, the fund's chief executive. He said that

in an interview with Financial Times. There's a risk that we haven't seen the worst yet. The effects of reversing monetary stimulus and low interest rates from the 2008 financial crisis through to the pandemic are so huge that I'm more in the several years of difficult markets camp. I don't think this is done overnight. And so what he was saying there is the trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars that were pumped into the market by central banks since 2008. This is going to impact the world economy for years. The negative blowback, which is what we're experiencing right now. The interest, inflation, everything is taking place. So the chickens are coming home to roost on this. Yes. And he said, I'm in the several years of difficult markets camp. This is not going to be fixed overnight. And this guy's running Norway's oil fund. He says, sitting on top of a massive amount of money, Doc. And he's looking at

years of market disruption. So we're in the 2020s now. We may see this into the late 2020s. So whatever age you are, you've got to think this through. This problem that we're explaining to you right now is not going to go away in a couple months. You and I are going to be dealing with this throughout the 2020s, up to 2030, or maybe longer. This is long-range impact on the world. they did in ukraine starting this war all of this the um the funny money that they printed in 2008 all the way through the covet uh relief funds all that stuff it has now disrupted the world yes and we're all going to pay a price for it. So the next one. Interesting story you found here, Rick. Yes. You're talking about Mexico? Yes. Okay. I read this last Friday. I think it was Friday when I was flying up to Massachusetts for a wedding. Mexico plans to

become an export hub with U.S. drilled natural gas. Now, what's amazing about this is that Mexico actually imports nearly all of its natural gas. Yes. They don't have any natural gas. Right. So Mexico, which imports nearly all the natural gas it burns, has laid out a somewhat surprising mission to become one of the world's top exporters of the fuel and fast. Although natural gas exports from Mexico are today non-existent, seeing as it produces too little of the power plant fuel to supply even its own needs, the country's physical proximity to booming US reserves positions it well to supply American gas to hungry buyers in Europe and Asia. With US shale in mind, a total of eight liquefied natural gas

export projects have been proposed south of the border, boasting annual combined capacity of over 50 million tons. Some of the operations aim to come online as soon as next year. Now, if they're all completed, the Latin American newcomer would join a very small club of nations that ship abroad the super chilled fuel, commonly called LNG, clocking in, listen to this, at number four behind only the U.S., Austria, and Qatar. And unlike those other three export heavyweights, Mexico would mostly be shipping out gas that it has imported in the first place. They become a reseller. Yes. You want me to explain what's going on here?

Sure. Okay. So Mexico does not produce natural gas. Right. As we just heard, they buy it, primarily from the United States. So because of what's going on in Europe with Russia and the natural gas, the elite in America are racing to get American natural gas shipped by ships to Europe. Sure. It's the only way they can get it there.

They can't put it on airplanes. They've got to put it on ships. And you have to have special places to ship those from. Yes. So there's a massive opportunity for America to replace Russia long term. Right. Long term. Russia spent all that money building those pipelines to Europe, which the United States

was trying to shut down. Now we know why. Because the U.S. wanted to be the supplier to Europe of natural gas. So what the U.S. elite are doing is that they're destroying the Russian market for Russian gas. And they're willing to sacrifice Europe for it? Yes. Yes. But long range, over the 2020s, it'll come back and it'll take several years to build these

gas facilities, these massive, expensive gas facilities to process natural gas to build them in Mexico. Why aren't they building these in the United States? Because of the environmental idiots in the country. The Biden administration, which has got to save the environment. Yeah, you couldn't build a natural gas facility here in the U.S. today, could you? No. And you certainly couldn't do it overnight.

So what are the environmental activists who control the Biden administration who have to save the environment? What are they doing? We're going to build them over in Mexico because Mexico won't require

the permits. Yes. They don't have them over in Mexico because Mexico won't require the permits. Yes. They don't have an EPA in Mexico. And they don't have the political fallout. Yes. They'll be delighted to have a massive multibillion-dollar construction project in Mexico right over the border from California. And there's no EPA. There's none of the stuff that the Democrats set up in

this country. None of the anti-growth, anti-business infrastructure that they created. It doesn't exist in Mexico. So they're going to build the refineries in Mexico. Then the U.S. natural gas is going to be shipped from the U.S. into Mexico. There it will be shipped to Europe. It won't be in American's work. The American people won't get any jobs. The Mexican people will get jobs. There won't be taxes being paid in American cities for all the work that's being done.

It'll all be in Mexico because the elite control it. And they make it, they do things for themselves the way, whatever it takes to enrich themselves. They don't care about their country or anything else. They don't care, Doc. It's their wallet. It's their bank account. That's all they care about.

And so they're going to race to get these facilities built now they also know Europe's going to suffer for a couple years and their attitude is they'll get over it you're right that's exactly they'll get over it we'll send them blankets you know we'll send them emergency LNG. Yes. That'll just tide them over for a little while. Yes. So the Europeans are going to suffer for several years until these facilities get built in Mexico. But long term, the Russians have lost Europe as their customer for gas. That's the U.S. plan.

That when the war is over, Europe never buys gas from Russia again. But that's assuming the U.S. is right. It might get really cold this winter. Yes. It might be so cold that they ask Vladimir Putin, could you please open up those pipelines? And what are they willing to pay for it? They've got to drop the sanctions. Yes. They have to end the sanctions. And if they drop the sanctions, it's the end of NATO. It's the end, really, of the EU,

because you've shown how weak both of them are at that point, right? That's right. Because they can't enforce the sanctions. That's right. Because they're cold. That's right. Hey, I've got two more, and I think we'll shut it down for the night. We've got a lot about drought and food shortages.

Take us another hour to get through all this. Do you remember a couple of months ago I told you this fall, target stores in the United States are going to have really big sale prices, discount prices, not on food, not groceries, but home goods and clothing and other kind of things. Okay. Some of you remember me saying that many months ago. Well, let me show you the next story. This is CNBC Today.

Targets earnings take a huge hit as retailer sells off unwanted inventory. Right. Doc, when we said this months ago, we said September, October. But now when the earnings report came out, it showed that it was even worse than we imagined. What it means is that Target had to start marking down inventory in June. Yes. Okay. It's already hit them.

How much? Well, Target on Wednesday said that its quarterly profit fell nearly, get this, 90% from a year ago, as the retailer followed through on its warning that steep markdowns on unwanted merchandise would weigh on its bottom line. The big box retailer missed Wall Street's expectations by a wide margin, even after the company itself lowered guidance twice. Now compare this over at Walmart. Walmart's earnings came out the other day. They were lower than expected, but they did not have to go through the deep discounts. So Chief Financial Officer Michael Fidelke defended Target's aggressive inventory efforts. He said the retailer had to move swiftly so it could clear the clutter, gear up for the holidays,

and navigate an economic backdrop clouded by inflation. They may have missed the boat this year. So their profits fell 90%. Year to year. How would you like to report to the stockholders? You're down 90% this year. That had to be an interesting meeting when they told the board of directors, things aren't going too well right now.

And think about, it was just a year and two years ago, Target was swimming in cash because of COVID. Target was allowed to stay open. It was one of the few places allowed to stay open. And that and Walmart and a few others. Maybe Mr. Fidelke can go into one of his stores, transgendered bathrooms, and cry his eyes out. And that's the other factor, too. Just cry his eyes out. Yeah, and that's the other factor, too. Because I'm not crying over Target losing 90% of their profit.

Right, and people can be critical of Walmart, but I've never had to worry about a transgender bathroom at Walmart. I never have because they've never made it part of their policy. They've never made, I know it changes over time. Walmart has generally tried not to be in the crosshairs of the cultural changes going on.

To be disruptive. One more. This is expressed from London. NASA warns of machine gun solar storm set to batter the earth for days. You found this one. What is this about? Well, we're up for another solar storm right now, and it's expected to impact things here on earth as a solar flare pops out. Actually, several in a row there will be popping out over the next, basically, 24 hours.

So starting after midnight tonight through sometime during the day tomorrow, it's going to be one of the greatest times to see the aurora borealis. They're predicting as far south as Florida to be able to see it. Yes. And so they're expecting probably you might have one of the greatest opportunities to see it. But the unfortunate side of that is it's great to see those lights,

but there's also the possibility it may shut off your lights too. That's right. Because every time we have one of these events you know we have to remember that uh you we could also have a carrington event yes what's the carrington event was the thing was 18 was it 58 i'm not sure the year i'm forgetting it now but there was a major solar flare you got to remember this is pre-industrial civilization here, but it was enough to shut down the telegraph lines in the U.S. They basically had to redo the entire telegraph line infrastructure around the country after that event. Now, if it could do that to telegraph lines,

imagine what a similar Carrington event could do to industrialize society today, even in a small area of the world. It could render it back basically into the 1800s. That's right. That's right. So, hey, why not? Everything else is going on. Everything else is happening. Be prepared for a blackout caused by a solar storm. And we didn't even talk about drought today. No, we got a lot of stories about droughts. And the drought, it's worldwide. Yes. That's what hit me today, Doc. Yes, all these stories.

I didn't realize it until today when I started searching drought. And I was like, wait a minute. It's North America. It's Europe. It's Asia. It's Africa. The world is in a global drought. But not in Russia. Not in Russia. Now it's not in Russia. Try to find any drought stories in Russia. There isn't. Okay, so we're going to wrap it up today. A reminder about the Jordan trip. If you

are serious about going, go to truenews.com, click the banner, and sign up for the Jordan trip. The seats are filling up, and we want to go with you. We want you to join Doc and me on this trip in November, and it will be a memorable trip. You will talk about it for a long, long time. You will see things that you have never seen. That's all I can tell you. You will absolutely enjoy the trip. You will talk about it for a long, long time. You will see things that you have never seen. That's all I can tell you. You will absolutely enjoy the trip. Doc and I will be back here tomorrow. Thank you so much for watching. We love you so much. Goodbye. God bless you.