x01a Research Archives
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
Sunday morning’s cable news circuit once again demonstrated why senior administration officials so often spend more time correcting media narratives than explaining policy.
Appearing across Meet the Press and Face the Nation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was subjected to a familiar pattern of questioning: assumptions embedded as facts, motives ascribed rather than examined, and repeated demands to justify actions that were already explained. The pushback Rubio delivered was not theatrical, nor was it evasive. It was corrective. And it was necessary only because the framing itself was flawed.
The first line of attack centered on Venezuela’s oil industry, with the implication that American involvement following the capture of Nicolás Maduro must be driven by resource acquisition rather than security.
Marco Rubio is so good.
“This is the Western Hemisphere. We’re not going to allow it to be a base of operations for our adversaries… They won’t come from outside our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it. It’s over.” pic.twitter.com/GzLjNtBV3h
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) January 4, 2026
Scientists working with China’s fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have successfully reached a long-theorized “density-free regime” in fusion plasma experiments. In this state, the plasma remains stable even when its density rises far beyond traditional limits. The results, published in Science Advances on January 1, shed new light on how one of fusion energy’s most stubborn physical barriers might finally be overcome on the road to ignition.
The research was co-led by Prof. Ping Zhu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. Ning Yan of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. By developing a new high-density operating approach for EAST, the team showed that plasma density can be pushed well past long-standing empirical limits without triggering the disruptive instabilities that usually end experiments. This finding challenges decades of assumptions about how tokamak plasmas behave at high density.
Russia on Tuesday released video footage of what it said was the deployment of its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system in close ally Belarus, a move that would expand Moscow’s ability to strike targets across Europe in the event of a war.State news agency TASS said this was the first time the Russian defence ministry had publicly shown the Oreshnik mobile missile systems. President Vladimir Putin has declared that the missiles are “impossible to intercept”, citing missile speeds reportedly more than 10 times the speed of sound.”A solemn ceremony was held in the Republic of Belarus for the unit outfitted with the Oreshnik road-mobile missile system to assume combat duty.
US deploys two aircraft carriers to Western Pacific amid China’s Taiwan drills News On AIR
from news.google.com
In a year when President Donald Trump called Chicago the “most dangerous city in the world” and launched an aggressive deportation campaign, citywide killings ultimately fell to a 60-year low as overall crime continued to drop.
The number of murders in Chicago decreased from 587 in 2024 to 416 last year, a nearly 30% drop, according to Chicago police data. It’s the lowest total since 1965 and the first time in a decade the city has had fewer than 500 slayings in a year.
Violent crime has been declining in Chicago after it peaked during the pandemic in 2021.
China signals it won’t give an inch to the US in Latin America MSN
from news.google.com
President Donald Trump signed a New Year’s Eve proclamation delaying increased tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year, citing ongoing trade talks
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a New Year’s Eve proclamation delaying increased tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year, citing ongoing trade talks.
Trump’s order signed Wednesday keeps in place a 25% tariff he imposed in September on those goods, but delays for another year a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and vanities.
The Zohran is now the mayor of New York City, and one of his first matters of business was appointing a Communist who wants to seize private property as his, quote, director of the city’s Office to Protect Tenants. Meet Cea Weaver. She says private property should be part of the warm glow of collectivism as opposed to the rugged individualism of being allowed to own your own home, especially if you’re one of them white people.
It will mean families – especially WHITE FAMILIES – are going to have a different relationship to property than the one we currently have.
The streets are saying this clip is from a November 2022 podcast called “Cities After…,” and I know what you’re thinking. “Hey Brodigan, an adult in public policy can’t be expected to be held accountable for the words that came out of her mouth prior to five minutes ago. Also, I get all my news from CNN and have trouble tying my own shoes.”
In that case, you probably won’t be interested in these nuggets from her now deleted X account:
- 2018: “Seize private property!”
- 2019: “Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy.”
- 2017: “Elect more communists.”
Trump pulls National Guard troops out of major cities after Supreme Court decision Straight Arrow News
from news.google.com
‘Doomed to fail’: Trump cautioned his ‘cultural coup’ is backfiring rawstory.com
from news.google.com
Protests erupted in cities such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City after it was announced that the U.S. captured Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Video footage posted to X showed protesters marching through New York City carrying signs that said, “Free Pres. Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, Now!” and “No Blood For Oil.”
According to ABC7NY, “a group of people demonstrated in Times Square” over Maduro’s capture. The protesters claimed that Maduro’s capture was not “about drug trafficking or democracy,” but that it was “about stealing oil and dominating Latin America.”
Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to take over as interim president for Nicolas Maduro, the now-former leader who was captured by the United States during a military operation and is now detained in New York City.
The nation’s highest court ruled on Saturday night that Rodriguez will, at the very least, temporarily succeed Maduro for the sake of “administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the Nation.”
The ruling is in accordance with Venezuela’s constitution, which states that the vice president handles presidential duties in the event of an absence. The court said in its order that Maduro is currently in a “material and temporary impossibility to exercise his functions.”
New details are emerging about Vice President JD Vance and his behind-the-scenes role in the dramatic U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, an unprecedented action that has sent shockwaves across Latin America and the world.
In the early hours of January 3, U.S. forces launched a large-scale, highly coordinated military operation inside Venezuela. Explosions were reported in and around Caracas as American aircraft and special operations units struck key military and security targets tied to Maduro’s regime. The operation culminated in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were extracted from the country and flown to the United States.
Within hours of news breaking about Maduro’s capture, protests broke out in NYC with professionally printed signs and flags in support of Venezuela and other third-world countries like Cuba and Palestine.
Who paid for all of this?
Real Venezuelans are stormed NYC to counteract the white liberal Democrats protesting against Trump’s Maduro capture and strikes
Actual Venezuelans are ecstatic right now.
The Democrats are apoplectic. Democrats screaming over the arrest of the blood-soaked dictator Nicolás Maduro is the perfect hill for them to die on—after defending Barack Obama, who dropped 26,171 bombs in a single year without congressional approval, and Joe Biden, who launched strikes across Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia the same way—hypocrisy laid bare.
The New York Times is demanding that the Canadian government advances it’s rapid expansion of “assisted suicide” laws in order to swiftly euthanize a woman suffering from mental health issues.
It comes as Canada’s spiraling assisted-suicide program is once again under international fire after the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on the Canadian government to repeal its planned expansion of euthanasia for those suffering solely from mental illness, a policy critics warn will normalize suicide as “healthcare.”
Anything coming from Venezuela at this point should be treated with a grain of salt.
Venezuela’s military officials have reported that 40 people were killed after the U.S. conducted strikes on Venezuela.
President Trump, in his own press conference, revealed that no U.S. service members died during the military operation.
The New York Times reported more details on the Venezuela death toll:
At least 40 people were killed in the U.S. attack on Venezuela early Saturday, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports.
President Trump, speaking on Fox News on Saturday, said that no American troops had been killed. He suggested, however, that some service members had been injured. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said later in the day at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Trump that U.S. helicopters moving to extract President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had come under fire. He said that one helicopter had been hit but “remained flyable,” and that all U.S. aircraft “came home.”
The brilliantly executed US operation to snatch Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro benefits American citizens in many different ways.
- It took out the head of a major international organized crime cartel. The cartel, which the US has labeled the “Cartel de los Soles,” or Cartel of the Suns, is responsible for cocaine trafficking into the United States. Maduro had turned the upper levels of the Venezuelan government, military, and security services into a huge organized crime entity. The Department of Justice is prosecuting Maduro and others for running what a federal grand jury indictment calls “a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy.” While no evidence indicates that Maduro’s cartel directly trafficked fentanyl into the U.S., the Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns last July for providing material support to the Sinaloa cartel of Mexico, which the DOJ described as “flooding the United States with fentanyl.”
- It took out the leader who flooded the United States with hardened criminals, organized terrorist gangs like Tren de Aragua, and millions of refugees. Once a new leadership is established in Venezuela, the country can take back its criminals and terrorists, and its refugees can return home and rebuild.
San Francisco has been a nutty place for some time now. The city’s been a stronghold of liberals for years, arguably since shortly after World War 2. But over the last couple of decades, the city’s leftist population has crossed over into pure wackadoodle. It’s also a hotbed of Trump Derangement Syndrome; if President Trump found a way to generate clean, free electricity from nothing, the San Francisco left would suddenly be campaigning in favor of coal plants.
Now, in the latest chapter in “San Francisco goes completely bat-guano nuts,” San Franciscans are taking to the streets (I’m sure it’s genuinely spontaneous) to protest Trump’s ouster of Venezuela’s tinpot dictator Nicolás Maduro.
NOW: Massive crowd in San Francisco, CA says “Hands Off Venezuela”! pic.twitter.com/GB5uHe3IGN
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 3, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) pledged to govern the Big Apple as a Democratic Socialist during his inauguration speech and declared he would revive “the era of big government.”
After taking the official oath of office with his left hand on a Quran at City Hall early Thursday morning, the newly minted 34-year-old mayor took a ceremonial oath of office from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the afternoon.
Mamdani vowed to hold to the radical views he pushed during his campaign against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
“We will transform the culture of City Hall from one of no to one of how. We will answer to all New Yorkers, not to any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they can buy our democracy,” he said. “We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe.”
“I was elected as a Democratic Socialist, and I will govern as a Democratic Socialist,” he added.
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor today.
The 34-year-old promised universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders swore Mamdani into office and even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made an appearance.
A Somali-born Democrat politician and daycare owner in Minnesota is returning to electoral politics even as the state’s childcare sector faces a sprawling fraud scandal that has drawn national scrutiny and could total billions of dollars.
Abdi Daisane, a Democrat, announced on Christmas Eve that he plans to run for the state Legislature again in 2026.
The announcement comes two years after he lost a race to a Republican incumbent.
Daisane previously ran unsuccessfully for the St. Cloud City Council in 2016.
After President Donald Trump ordered the capture and arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro for charges of narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, and other crimes, Democratic lawmakers want to impeach the president and remove him from office. All the while, Venezuelans around the world have been seen celebrating the fall of Maduro.
Early on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social, “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Until the past 24 hours, Nicolás Maduro Moros and other Venezuelan high-ranking individuals in the Maduro regime ran the Cartel of the Suns (Cartel de los Soles). Now that the U.S. has penetrated Venezuela’s defenses to capture and arrest Maduro, things have changed.
Maduro and his regime had corrupted the institutions of that country, including its military, its intelligence apparatus, its legislature, and its judiciary, all to aid his cartel’s massive criminal operations.
The Cartel de los Soles originated in Venezuela, and has been involved in the illicit drug trade, human smuggling and trafficking, extortion, sexual exploitation of women and children, and money laundering, along with other criminal activities. Reports are that the cartel’s name is derived from the sun insignias often portrayed on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officials; the relationship is that symbiotic.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) office downplayed the significance of alleged Somali fraud occurring in the state, equating massive amounts of fraud to stores dealing with shoplifting.
While DeWine has indicated that the state “has strong safeguards in place to prevent fraud in the state’s publicly funded childcare system,” Dan Tierney, a spokesman for DeWine, used grocery stores as an example to point out that getting fraud as “close to zero as possible” would likely never happen, according to Cleveland.com.
Department of Justice attorney Harmeet Dhillon on Friday fired off a letter to Minnesota’s secretary of State demanding records pertaining to the state’s controversial same day voter “vouching” registrations.
Minnesota allows same-day voter registration, even for individuals who do not have identification if a registered voter from the same precinct vouches for their residency. A registered voter can vouch for up to eight people, but cannot vouch for others if someone vouched for them.
Employees of residential facilities such as nursing homes or homeless shelters are allowed to vouch for an unlimited number of residents at their facility, provided they can verify their employment.
Democrats and the corporate media rushed to defend Somalis throughout the end of 2025 as reports emerged that they committed widespread fraud in Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors charged dozens of Somalis with stealing over $9 billion of taxpayer money intended for social services, including the nonprofit Feeding Our Future.
As more details have emerged about their fraudulent actions, Democrats accused President Donald Trump and conservatives of using Somalis as scapegoats and expressed their support for the population.