与「ALLIE」相关的搜索结果

Reuters Exclusive: Pernod Ricard gave its Scotch whisky imports unique internal codenames in India -- part of a scheme to conceal the true value of imported Scotch and slash custom tariff payments, India investigators say. From Scotland, they shipped bulk Scotch concentrates -- the raw soul of whiskies like Royal Stag. India-only internal names: RFM. HMW. Rich Fruity Malt. Heavy Malt Whisky. But the product hadn't changed. The recipe hadn't changed. And by also obscuring composition and age, investigators allege, Pernod made it impossible for customs to compare its import prices against rivals -- and so paid far less in tariffs than it should have. Investigators summed it up: "Simple products of Scotland.. were complicated just to avoid comparison with similar goods imported." Pernod says the codenames referred to a "bouquet of reconstituted Scotch malts".  It is also arguing Indian officials wrongly excluded dozens of other companies that imported Scotch concentrates at lower prices and instead selectively compared it to India's Allied Blenders & Distillers New documents reveal unreported details of the high-stakes battle. Pernod's tax liability currently stands at nearly $314 million. With penalties, the total payout could be more than $600 million if Pernod loses - an amount that is a fifth of its last year's Indian revenue of $2.9 billion. The fight is significant: India is Pernod's biggest market in the world by volume. Full story with court document details 👇

The latest news keeps vindicating my points. While the U.S. is losing ground to China in an expanding range of critical domains, it has built a much more lucrative business model. It now turns to leverage allies' psychological inertia and geopolitical path-dependency to squeeze and extract them like "blood bags". Keeping allies scared and dependent means cornering them into buying overpriced US weapons, US energy, and US technology. Unfortunately for countries like India, they have gone from being courted to being invoiced. What turns out can be very absurd--the U.S. acts like a developing country that demands help from "a developed India". Instead of helping Make in India exports, America is extorting India to buy from it and to invest in it.

I will be delaying a lethal strike on Iran that was scheduled for tomorrow because our great oil producing allies in the Gulf Region want the cease fire to continue without resolution so the price of oil / gas stays high. Very smart!

We've published a paper that explains our views on AI competition between the US and China. The US and democratic allies hold the lead in frontier AI today. Read more on what it’ll take to keep that lead:

Gunfire broke out at the Philippine Senate on Wednesday as authorities were trying to arrest a senator who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on a charge of crime against humanity. It wasn't immediately clear what set off the gunfire or if there were injuries in the Senate, where Sen. Ronald dela Rosa has stayed in protective custody by allied senators as Philippine authorities tried to arrest him and possibly turn him over later to the ICC. @RamyInocencio has more.

Last week, the United States refused to participate in the UN’s review of the Global Compact on Migration. The United States objects to the Global Compact on Migration and UN efforts to facilitate replacement migration to the United States and our Western allies.

Everyone knows about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Almost nothing they know is the full story. Start with the number. There weren't 300 Greeks at that pass. There were around 7,000. Spartans, Thespians, Thebans, Phocians, Locrians, Arcadians, Corinthians. Citizen-soldiers from across Greece who marched north knowing they'd be facing the largest army the ancient world had ever assembled. The 300 is just the headline. The ones who stayed to the end. Now the men themselves. King Leonidas wasn't some chiseled 30-year-old. He was roughly 60 years old when he led that march. And the 300 he picked weren't his strongest warriors. They were specifically men who already had living sons. Spartan law demanded it. Leonidas wasn't choosing an army. He was choosing men whose bloodlines could survive their deaths. Every one of them knew what that meant before they ever saw a Persian. They marched anyway. And they didn't march alone in the way movies suggest. Each Spartan citizen-soldier was accompanied by helots, the enslaved underclass that propped up the entire Spartan economy, outnumbering their masters roughly seven to one. Hundreds of helots fought and died at Thermopylae too. They get no statues. No films. No name on the monument. The pass itself was barely 15 meters wide in 480 BC (it's silted up now and looks nothing like it did then). That bottleneck is the only reason a few thousand men could hold off a Persian force modern historians estimate at 70,000 to 300,000. Herodotus said 1.7 million. He was lying, or possibly counting cooks, slaves, and camp followers, but even the conservative number is staggering. For two days, they held. Wave after wave broken against bronze and discipline. Xerxes reportedly leapt from his throne three times in fury watching his men die. He sent in the Immortals, his elite personal guard, supposedly invincible. They weren't. Not in that pass. Then the Greeks were betrayed. A local man named Ephialtes, whose name still means "nightmare" in modern Greek, sold the Persians a goat path through the mountains that flanked the pass. The Phocians assigned to guard it scattered when the Immortals appeared in the dawn fog. Leonidas knew by morning he was surrounded. He dismissed most of the allied Greek forces. Saved their lives. But here's what almost nobody talks about: roughly 700 Thespians, led by a man named Demophilus, refused to leave. They were citizen-farmers from a small town that knew Persia was coming for them next no matter what. They chose to die beside the Spartans rather than run. About 400 Thebans stayed too, though their motives were murkier and many surrendered when the end came. So the "last stand of the 300" was actually closer to 1,500 men. The Thespians died to the last. Their town was burned to the ground by the Persians weeks later anyway. They're a footnote in a story that should bear their name. The final fight happened on a small hill called Kolonos. Spears shattered. Swords broken. Herodotus says they fought with hands and teeth at the end. Leonidas fell early, and the Spartans fought four times over his body to keep the Persians from taking it. They lost. Xerxes had Leonidas decapitated and his body crucified, a violation of Persian custom so extreme it tells you exactly how badly that old man had humiliated the king of kings. Forty years later, Sparta sent a delegation to recover his bones and bring him home. Two Spartans survived the battle. One, Aristodemus, had been sent away with an eye infection. He returned to Sparta and was treated as a coward, shunned, refused fire, refused conversation, until he threw himself into the front line at Plataea a year later and died seeking redemption. The other survivor, Pantites, was sent on a diplomatic errand and missed the fight. He hanged himself from the shame. That's the world they lived in. The epitaph carved at the site doesn't brag. It doesn't even mention victory, because there wasn't one. Roughly translated, it just asks the traveler to tell Sparta that her sons died here, obedient to her laws. A small group of farmers, an old king, an enslaved underclass written out of history, and a town that vanished from the map. Together, for three days in August of 480 BC, they did the math on freedom and decided the price was worth it. We remember 300 of them. There were always more.

President Xi Jinping spoke with U.S. President Donald J. Trump on the phone. The two presidents had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on the current state of China-U.S. relations and other issues of mutual interest, and provided strategic guidance for the steady development of China-U.S. relations going forward. The conversation was pragmatic, positive and constructive. President Xi pointed out that China and the United States were allies who fought shoulder to shoulder during WWII. Recently, China solemnly commemorated the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, and invited the families of American Flying Tigers to watch the parade on the Tian’anmen Rostrum. The Chinese people will not forget the valuable support from the U.S. and other anti-fascist Allied nations for China’s War of Resistance. Honoring fallen heroes and remembering history is essential for cherishing peace and creating a better future. President Xi stressed the vital importance of China-U.S. relations. China and the United States are fully capable of helping each other succeed and prospering together for the good of the two countries and the whole world. For that vision to materialize, both sides need to work hard and in the same direction, so as to realize mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. The recent consultation between Chinese and U.S. officials reflected the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit. They can continue to properly handle the outstanding issues in bilateral relations and strive for win-win outcomes. The U.S. side should refrain from imposing unilateral trade restrictions so as not to disrupt the outcomes of multiple rounds of consultation between the two sides. China’s position on the TikTok issue is clear: The Chinese government respects the wishes of the company in question, and would be happy to see productive commercial negotiations in keeping with market rules lead to a solution that complies with China’s laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides. The U.S. side needs to provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese investors.