World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
US-China Critical Minerals Competition Reshaping Global Supply Chains Discovery Alert
from news.google.com
Charlie Kirk’s killing last month has sparked fears that the United States is headed to an all-out second civil war or revolution. According to a YouGov survey earlier this year, “more Americans than not believe it is likely that the United States will see a civil war over the next decade” while several hundred political scientists and historians in an April 2025 survey saw the U.S. slipping into authoritarianism with Trump’s second term. Trump’s deployment of the military at home, combined with his vow to suppress “the enemy within” while his domestic advisor, Stephen Miller labels the Democratic Party a domestic extremist organization, can easily be seen as setting the stage for an authoritarian takeover.
Heavy teaching loads, shrinking university budgets and expanding workload expectations have fueled stress and burnout among professors and other university employees in recent years.
Now, an increasingly polarized political climate, as well as emerging concerns around university funding cuts, self-censorship and academic freedom, has created new pressures for university and college employees.
The result is an academic profession caught in the crosscurrents of culture and politics, with implications that extend far beyond the classroom.
How US incompetence empowers China in Latin America Responsible Statecraft
from news.google.com
Scientists have squeezed water between two diamonds to create an entirely new form of ice that’s solid at room temperature.
The ice, named ice XXI, forms when water is subjected to extreme pressure to become metastable — a precarious state that is made physically unstable by the slightest disturbance.
The researchers created ice XXI by supercompressing water between two diamonds and detected it with the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), the world’s largest X-ray laser. The team found that the supercompressed water structurally changes from a high-density state to a very-high-density state.
Earth Is Getting Darker, Which Could Accelerate Global Warming
The planet’s brightness is dimming—changing rainfall, circulation and temperature
By Ryan Green edited by Andrea Gawrylewski
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Reto Stöckli
The view of Earth from space is famously familiar—bright blue ocean, swirling gyres of white clouds, touches of terrestrial green. The luminosity of this image is the result of the sun’s rays shining on the planet, where they’re either reflected or absorbed by materials on Earth’s surface and in our atmosphere. But a new study that examined Earth’s overall brightness reveals that something eerie is happening to that familiar picture.
Scientists measure the planet’s brightness by factoring in how much light reaches earth and how much is reflected back out to space (as measured by orbiting satellites). This reflectivity is known as albedo, and Earth’s overall albedo has been decreasing for decades. But according to a new study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, that change isn’t uniform: the Northern Hemisphere is getting even darker than its southern counterpart. This loss of brightness could result in increased warming in the Northern Hemisphere, throwing Earth’s weather systems out of balance.
The AI Chip Wars Intensify: Patent Battles Threaten to Reshape Semiconductor Innovation FinancialContent
from news.google.com
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a live stream in support of California’s Proposition 50, October 22, 2025.YouTube/California Office of the Governor
On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a livestream for volunteers in support of Proposition 50, the governor’s redistricting measure, and the sole question on the ballot in the November 4 special election.
Russia has been subjected to a blistering assault from a new type of Ukrainian missile, affectionately named the Flamingo.
This formidable cruise missile can carry a payload of 1,150kg, making it one of the largest missiles of its kind globally, and boasts a range of 3,000km, nearly double that of the fearsome Tomahawk missiles. This development comes as Trump seems hesitant to supply any US missiles.
Ukrainian weapons manufacturer Fire Point, the brains behind this creation, claim it can land within a mere 14 metres of its intended target.
Federal immigration agents carried out multiple arrests in Little Village and suburban Cicero Wednesday, resulting in a crash that drew outraged protesters to the scene. Two staffers for a city alderperson, both U.S. citizens, were among those arrested.
The agents were joined by Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, just days after a federal judge ordered him to sit for a deposition regarding the government’s handling of protesters during “Operation Midway Blitz,” President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area.
Earlier this month, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) disclosed that special counsel Jack Smith tracked the communications of eight Republican senators (and one congressman) as part of his Arctic Frost investigation into President Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 presidential election.
The group included Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Lindsey Graham (SC), Bill Hagerty (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Ron Johnson (WI), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Dan Sullivan (AK), Tommy Tuberville (AL) and Rep. Mike Kelly (PA).
This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into “election conspiracy” Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump
BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE pic.twitter.com/V2JyiVlX48
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 6, 2025
A Democrat councilman in Bergen County, New Jersey announced Wednesday that he would be flipping to the Republican Party and endorsing GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign, becoming the latest Garden State Democrat to do so.
Alpine Councilman David Kupferschmid, who will now serve as the council’s lone Republican, said the Democratic Party has become increasingly “unrecognizable” to him in making his announcement. The councilman pointed to the rise of Zohran Mamdani in neighboring New York, the pro-communist candidate who is heavily favored to become the next mayor of New York City.
“The Democrat Party does not represent us anymore,” Kupferschmid said. “With my switch, I will now be the first Republican on the council in more than 20 years. I hope that this is the beginning of a resurgence for the Republican Party in Alpine where alternate voices are much needed on the governing body.”
These people cannot get out of their own way. While not a story emanating from the United States, across the pond, our cousins in Britain ousted the president of the Oxford Union. Members voted in a no-confidence motion overwhelmingly to boot George Abaraonye after his atrocious remarks about Charlie Kirk following his assassination on September 10. Abaraonye brought the motion for a vote himself. When he lost, Abaraonye essentially claimed voter fraud—you cannot make this stuff up (via BBC):
The president-elect of the Oxford Union has lost a no-confidence vote after he was criticised for comments appearing to celebrate the death of Charlie Kirk.
The motion against George Abaraonye had met the required two-thirds threshold to oust the student from his position, the society has announced.
It comes after Mr Abaraonye reportedly posted on social media to seemingly welcome the attack on the US conservative activist in September.
Mr Abaraonye is disputing the no-confidence vote, telling the BBC people campaigning to oust him had “unsupervised access” to the email account collecting proxy ballots.
[…]
A former Republican Senator just upturned the election landscape for one particular seat in the U.S. Senate.
And he did so in more ways than one — possibly with the direction and support of President Trump.
I say possibly, because that endorsement hasn’t been publicly announced yet. Though White House meetings have taken place which reportedly included President Trump. (More on that as we get into this.)
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators on Capitol Hill, the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that he had “complete confidence” in Donald Trump’s ability to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. He evaded a question about whether he was concerned that the president has persuaded Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “go softer” on Russia.
“He is the only one that can get this done,” Rutte said. “You have a president with a lot of experience because of his first term in office, and who has a clear vision on bringing this war to a durable and lasting end.”
Rutte will meet with Trump in a few hours. “We will discuss further how we from Nato can be helpful in delivering his vision of getting a full-scale peace in Ukraine, which, of course, we all pray for after his enormous success in Gaza,” Rutte said earlier.
The Trump administration and House Republicans have accused Democrats of “celebrating” the government shutdown after Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) admitted that it is one of the “few leverage times we have.”
“I mean, shutdowns are terrible, and of course there will be, you know, families that are going to suffer,” Clark, the No. 2 House Democrat, told Fox News. “We take that responsibility very seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
Allies of President Donald Trump are pressuring Indiana state lawmakers to vote on a redistricting proposal after a key state leader predicted the measure would fail.
A spokesperson for Rodric Bray, the Indiana Senate’s president pro tempore, told Politico Wednesday morning that “the votes aren’t there for redistricting,” prompting a number of heavyweight Trumpworld figures to hint at political consequences for Indiana Republicans if they don’t redraw the state’s map for the 2026 elections.
President Donald Trump has announced initiatives to expand access to in vitro fertilization and reduce associated costs — as each round of IVF can cost $12,000 to $25,000 — and one round is often not all it takes.
“In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children,” Trump said at the White House on October 16.
“That’s why today I’m pleased to announce that after extensive negotiations, EMD Serrano, the largest fertility drug manufacturer in the world, has agreed to provide massive discounts to all fertility drugs they sell in the United States, including the most popular drug of all, the IVF drug,” he continued.
The U.S. Military has carried out its first strike against a drug cartel boat in the Pacific Ocean. The attack, which took place on Monday, was announced in a bulletin posted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on X.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice.
Christians in Turkey are reportedly being removed from the country because they pose a “national security threat.”
During remarks given at a human rights conference in Warsaw on October 13, Lidia Rieder, a legal expert for Alliance Defending Freedom International, said that Christians are being targeted by Turkey’s government.
“Türkiye’s labeling of peaceful Christian residents as ‘security threats’ is a clear misuse of law and an attack on freedom of religion or belief,” Rieder said. “When governments manipulate administrative or immigration systems to exclude people based solely on their faith, it undermines both the rule of law and the very principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence that the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) was founded to protect.”
A leftist Howard University professor urged white allies to emulate a pre-Civil War violent radical, now used by designated terrorist organization Antifa as a revolutionary icon.
Stacey Patton, a journalism professor at the Washington, DC-based university, posted a blog post, “John Brown Didn’t Ask Enslaved People How to Be A Good White Ally.”
Patton wrote, “So when white allies ask, ‘What can I do?’ here’s the answer: Be like John Brown. Ask yourself, what am I willing to burn so somebody else can breathe?”
Voting security is always a hot topic around election time, but manipulation of our electoral system is a bigger problem that we have to worry about all the time.
On the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast, we are not talking about stolen ballots, “ballot harvesting,” or other shenanigans that can happen during an election, but about how congressional districts are both drawn and apportioned. Two things recently in the news raise questions about how we do those things, and whether it’s still the best way.
As host Peter Schweizer asks, “What if an election can be rigged before the first ballot is even cast?”
A Los Angeles high school history teacher who serves as a spokesperson for a local anti-ICE activist group appeared to welcome armed resistance against immigration authorities after a federal agent and an illegal immigrant were shot hours earlier.
Ron Gochez, a teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School and a spokesperson for Union Del Barrio, spoke during a news conference Tuesday night where he criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“Don’t forget where you’re standing — this is South Central Los Angeles,” he said. “They [ICE] are not the only ones with guns in this city. Don’t forget that. And I don’t say that because I’m calling for violence; I’m saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen.”
Japan’s first female prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, laid out an ambitious conservative agenda after winning her office in a parliamentary vote on Tuesday.
Her nascent administration also signaled a desire to build closer defense ties with the United States.
Much of Takaichi’s agenda lines up with her longstanding political beliefs, as an admirer of global conservative icons like Margaret Thatcher, and a protege of the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. She is also being prodded to make policy concessions by her LDP party’s last-minute alliance with the Japan Innovation Party (commonly known as Ishin, which means “renewal”).
Journalist Nick Sortor just scored the first-known video recorded INSIDE an ANTIFA “safehouse” building in Portland, OR.
Something tells me it won’t be so “safe” for long, once Trump sends in Federal troops!
This cannot stand.
There cannot be mini “safehouses” in America in direct conflict with our Federal Government.
That’s called Treason.
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith is defending his decision to subpoena the private phone records of multiple Republican lawmakers during his 2023 “investigation” into President Donald Trump, insisting the move was “entirely proper” and consistent with Justice Department policy.
In a letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Tuesday, Smith’s attorneys claimed the records were “narrowly tailored” and “carefully targeted” as part of the FBI’s “Arctic Frost” probe into what prosecutors alleged was Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
“As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” Smith’s lawyers wrote.
Attorney General lashed out at Democrats who want to build a master “ICE tracker” website.
Bondi wrote on X:
Shutdown Democrats are already refusing to pay our law enforcement agents. Now, @RepRobertGarcia and @SenBlumenthal are trying to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.
@TheJusticeDepthas ZERO tolerance for violence against law enforcement — we will prosecute any person who physically assaults our agents.
Irish police condemn riot outside hotel housing migrants The National Desk
from news.google.com
Canada’s former princess, Justin Trudeau, spent his final days in office doing what a good communist opening act should: disarming his citizens so that his successor can “seal the deal” and hand Canada over to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-dominated New World Order.
FACT-O-RAMA! In January 2025, Canada added 324 more types of guns to Canada’s already exhaustive list of banned boom-boom sticks. Three months later, as Trudeau was about to step down, the filthy sitzpinkler pinko added another 179 firearms that are now verboten, for a total of more than 2,500 types of guns that Canadians are no longer allowed to own.