The Biden administration unveiled a new round of tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese imports. The White House said the tariff increases will protect American workers and businesses in response to China's unfair trade practices.

PPI AT A SCORCHING 6.2% Producer inflation is running hot. St. Onge explains in the video below. “Yesterday, the BLS came out with the April Producer Price Index data. This measures the prices received by domestic producers for their output. So it’s basically inflation for business. Core inflation is a different matter. “Inflation numbers beat […] The post Core PPI Doubled, Inflation Hot at a “Scorching 6.2% Annualized” appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

A shooting in Slovakia left the central European country’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, wounded on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. The BBC said that Fico, 59, was in life-threatening condition and taken to a hospital after being attacked outside a community center in the town of Handlova while meeting with supporters. “Utterly shocked by today’s brutal attack on #Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which I condemn in strongest possible terms,” Slovak President Zuzana Caputova said in a post to X. “I wish him lot of strength in this critical moment and early recovery,” she added. “My thoughts are also with his family and close ones.” According to the Associated Press, a TV station in Slovakia said a suspect had been detained. The suspect’s identity was not immediately known. Video posted to social media appeared to show the moment security guards frantically moved Fico into a car after the shooting. BREAKING: Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been shot while greeting a crowd in the town of Handlova. According to the BBC, a witness heard three or four shots and saw Fico fall to the ground with apparent wounds to his chest and head. He was rushed to the hospital… pic.twitter.com/e946DL5FWb — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 15, 2024 After resigning as prime minister in 2018 amid a murder and corruption scandal, Fico returned to power last fall when his Smer party bested the liberal Progressive Slovakia party in a parliamentary election and formed a coalition government. Making good on promises made during his campaign, Fico announced in October that Slovakia would stop sending military aid to its neighbor, Ukraine, but continue humanitarian assistance. Leaders across Europe responded to the shooting on Wednesday, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP “I strongly condemn the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico,” she said in a post to X. Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has also been resistant to providing more aid to Ukraine as its war against Russian invaders entered its third year, similarly reacted to the attack on Fico. “I was deeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend, Prime Minister Robert Fico,” Orban said in a post to X. “We pray for his health and quick recovery! God bless him and his country!”

The WNBA draft happened last month. According to the latest numbers I read, the event usually averages about 14 total viewers.  This year, however, the WNBA draft won record ratings, nearly doubling its normal viewership. That added audience is largely thanks to Caitlin Clark, who went number one overall to something called the Indiana Fever. Which sounds like a disease you might contract from a hooker in Fort Wayne, but is apparently the name of a women’s basketball team. Clark, for her part, is easily the most famous women’s basketball star of all time. She’s so famous that I know her name —though I don’t know anything else about her. If you are in the very small fraternity of people who qualify as WNBA fans, this sudden increased interest in the league — even if it still amounts to basically no interest— should be cause for celebration and gratitude. But we don’t do celebration very well in this culture, and we don’t do gratitude at all, really. So instead people found reasons to whine. And that whining led to what is, surely, the dumbest discourse of the year 2024 so far. I don’t expect it to retain that title until January, but for now it easily lays claim to it. Since the draft, the Left has been complaining bitterly that WNBA salaries are too low.  It started on social media, with posts like this one from someone named Alyssa Leader, who identifies herself as a public defender. She also has, needless to say, pronouns in her bio. She tweeted this: Decided to google WNBA salaries before the draft and I actually want to die what the hell. pic.twitter.com/PNMgiMrm9c — Alyssa Leader (@alittleleader) April 15, 2024 The salaries that have apparently zapped her will to live are $76,000 a year for the top four picks in the draft and $70,000 for the rest of the round one selections.  In subsequent tweets, Alyssa tells us that the average starting salary for first round NBA draft picks is $10 million by comparison. She says this contrast is “honestly devastating.” There were many other tweets like this from similarly outraged, devastated, and apparently suicidal feminists. Soon the media jumped onto the bandwagon. NBC News had this headline: “Gap between Caitlin Clark’s WNBA salary and her male counterparts’ draws outrage.” Today.com added this: “Caitlin Clark went No. 1 in the WNBA draft. Some fans are outraged at her salary.” The outrage made its way up to the White House, where Joe Biden tweeted at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, right before bed, that: Women in sports continue to push new boundaries and inspire us all. But right now we're seeing that even if you're the best, women are not paid their fair share. It’s time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve. — President Biden (@POTUS) April 16, 2024 Now, we’ll get back to that “fair share” idea in a moment. First, let’s go to the ABC News report on this controversy, which inadvertently revealed the fundamental confusion at work here: "These women have been underpaid now, for several decades. … for a generation, people have ignored the WNBA."@cbrennansports says the "nation is going to wake up" as WNBA draft top-pick Caitlin Clark's salary sparks a national conversation. pic.twitter.com/ZhDRoNQxcB — ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) April 16, 2024 The talking head can’t seem to make up her mind. On the one hand she says it’s capitalism. People aren’t watching or supporting the games, so the women don’t get paid much. On the other hand, she says that the women are “underpaid.” Which is it? Well, if this needs to be explained, I will. It’s very much the former. In fact, WNBA players are not underpaid at all. They are, if anything, vastly overpaid. By all rights, as a simple economic matter, they shouldn’t be getting paid anything at all. Here are some basic facts to flesh this out. First of all, the WNBA has existed for nearly 30 years and it has never once turned a profit. According to WSN.com, a sports betting site, the WNBA generates about $60 million in revenue. For the record, an article in Vox claims that WNBA revenue is in the $100 to $200 million range, which I find dubious. Either way, the NBA, by contrast, brings in $10 billion of revenue with something like $3 billion in profits. That means the NBA generates considerably more than 150 times the revenue of the WNBA. If you’re going with the I think quite generous $100 million estimate for the WNBA, then the NBA makes only 100 times that amount. Do the math here, by the way, and you’ll see that pound for pound WNBA rookies actually make about the same as NBA rookies. 70 thousand times 150 is 10.5 million. But even then, they’re still overpaid because although the WNBA generates $60 million in revenue — or even if it’s $100 million, let’s say — it makes no profit at all. These women are getting paid salaries to play for a league that, economically speaking, shouldn’t even exist. You don’t have to be a financial whiz to understand that losing money for 30 years is a recipe for bankruptcy. The only reason the women’s league stays open is that the NBA subsidizes it. Every year, the men’s league hands millions of dollars to the women. The NBA is the WNBA’s sugar daddy. The men keep the women’s league afloat, so that everyone can feel good about the fact that a women’s league exists. You are probably familiar with those charities where you can metaphorically “Adopt” a child from the third world by sending money to the charity that supposedly goes to the child’s family. Well, that’s what the NBA is to the WNBA. They have adopted it like a third world child. What does this mean? It means that, again, nobody watches the WNBA. The leftists on Twitter and in the media complaining about WNBA salaries have never watched a game in their lives. They’ve never sat down to watch a women’s game on TV, much less have they purchased tickets to watch at the arena. They’ll support the league by whining on its behalf on social media, but they won’t support it by actually supporting it. Last year the WNBA had its most watched regular season in 20 years. The average audience for each game was 500,000 viewers. To put that into perspective, 500,000 is about the viewership of CNN’s weekly 10:00 p.m. show with Charles Barkley and Gayle King. And that show was just canceled after 6 months because the audience was so low that it wasn’t sustainable. 500,000 for a professional sports league that airs on network television is an even more catastrophic embarrassment, and would be even less sustainable — if not for the fact that the WNBA doesn’t have to sustain itself. Which is fortunate for the league, because it would be out of business in a month if it did have to sustain itself. Joe Biden wants these women to get paid their “fair share.” Well, what’s a fair share of zero dollars in profit? That’s a math problem so easy that even our vegetable of a president should be able to do it. The fair share — the actual fair share — is nothing. Zero. That’s what you deserve to get paid when you put a product on the airways that nobody cares to watch. That’s the simple reality here.

When babies reach certain milestones, it’s common for their parents to take a moment to celebrate. But if you’ve ever had a pet of your own, you know that the same is true for our four-legged friends as well! Part of the reason why is because, as a pet like a dog grows up, there’s so much for them to learn and explore. For Tim Cooke’s golden retriever puppy, Barley, this included learning how to jump on the bed. As much as Tim wanted Barley to join him on the bed, this sweet pup couldn’t quite figure it out. Whenever you’re teaching someone how to do something new, patience is key. This is true of both humans and our animal friends. This is clearly the mindset Tim has as he demonstrates how to jump on the bed, emphasizing that Barley needs to use his hind legs. Or, as Time explains it, Barley needs to use his legs not his arms. It takes quite a few tries but, once he’s able to do it, the celebration begins! @unsolicitedtim Caught him jumping on the bed for the first time he’s growing so fast #fyp #dogsoftiktok #goldenretrieverlife #puppy #newskills #puppyprogress #prouddogdad ♬ original sound – unsolicitedtim As you can imagine, folks on social media are loving this wholesome video — it currently has over 16 million views! There really is so much to love about it. There’s Barley, of course, who couldn’t be cuter as he pays close attention to his dad’s instructions. But people are also loving Tim and his fitting golden retriever energy! Golden Retriever Puppy Gets All the Love for Jumping on the Bed “Excellent! A Golden retriever showing another golden retriever the ropes!” someone in the comments lovingly jokes. TikTok “HE WAS SO HAPPY WHEN HE FINALLY DID IT,” another person exclaims, matching Tim and Barley’s energy. “OMG THIS IS SO WHOLESOME.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Dog Dad Loses It When His Golden Retriever Puppy Finally Jumps On The Bed For The First Time appeared first on InspireMore.

It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down — what’s important is getting back up. This sentiment is one that Maia clearly takes to heart. As a track runner, she’s dealt with plenty of mishaps, including literal falls. But each one only helped prepare her for her biggest wins. In fact, her most unexpected win just happened this week — and it’s gone viral! In the video that Maia shared, we see that many of the runners are neck and neck. Then, Maia finds the strength needed to put herself in front of everyone else. She’s leaping over hurdle after hurdle when the runner falls — still, she pops right back up and keeps going, only to go on and… win the whole race! If you think that sounds like an incredible moment, wait until you see the incredible footage below! @maiaheward i dont think ive ever seen a fall as bad as mine on hurdles #fyp #xyzbca #fall #funny #athletics #track #uk #viral #blowthisup #xybca ♬ Funny video "Carmen Prelude" Arranging weakness(836530) – yo suzuki(akisai) Maia crashes pretty darn hard. But that’s not the only challenge she faces moving forward: She also loses a shoe. Still, even these factors can’t slow her down. The fact that she keeps going is amazing alone, but the fact that she’s able to do so in time to still win is all-the-more impressive. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fall as bad as mine on hurdles,” Maia admits in the caption of her social media post. Runner Pulls Off Miraculous Win After She Falls, Amazing Us All Maia certainly isn’t the only one who feels this way. Fellow athletes and sports fans alike can’t stop raving over this impressive, and inspiring, win. “Finishing with only one spike is the craziest part to me,” someone writes in the comments, “especially hurdles.” “NEVER BACK DOWN NEVER WHAT???” another person exclaims. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Never Give Up: Runner Falls, Loses Her Shoe, And Still Pulls Off The Win! appeared first on InspireMore.