x01c Top Archives

Blurb:

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he seeks to reset frayed ties with his country’s biggest trading partner.

Regional security and Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture are also on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, which is their second summit since November, when Xi visited South Korea.

Given what a vital economic partner China is, experts say Lee is looking for assurances that it would not weaponise that relationship in the face of political tensions in the region.

Blurb:

The Senate passed a huge, $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Wednesday on a 77-20 vote, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk. The bipartisan package comes in at more than 3,000 pages and checks off several boxes on the president’s to-do list, including a pay raise of nearly four percent for military service members, improved military housing, a codification of Trump’s order to end DEI efforts at the Pentagon, and a restriction on U.S. investment in China.

Two Republicans, Sens. Mike Lee (UT) and Rand Paul (KY), voted no, while 18 Democrats also opposed it.

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee were stoked:

✔️ensure @POTUS has sufficient military options.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on the Senate floor Tuesday that it would make America stronger:

This NDAA will make the most significant reforms to the way the Pentagon does business in a generation. These reforms will make our military stronger, more agile and more ready for whatever the mission may be, and that needs to be our mission here — to do whatever it takes to support American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians.

Armed Service Committee Chair Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) echoed President Trump’s (and Ronald Reagan’s) mantra, “peace through strength”:

Blurb:

Former special counsel Jack Smith told members of Congress that his team had evidence that President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Smith’s case against the president began when former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him to lead two Justice Department investigations into Trump: the mishandling of classified documents and his post-2020 election conduct.

From The Associated Press:

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview on Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump had criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

He also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” that Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

Blurb:

British authorities sentenced a Dorset man to 18 months in jail for inciting hate and violence on X in the heated aftermath of the 2024 Southport stabbings that left three children dead and another 10 people injured.

Luke Yarwood’s posts were viewed a total of 33 times before being taken down. If I’ve done my math correctly, that’s nearly 17 days of jail time per view. If I know anything about people, half of those views were Yarwood checking his mentions.

There’s no denying the nasty nature of Yarwood’s posts, sent to X before the identity of the killer — 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana — was known, but was widely misreported to have been a Muslim immigrant. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, but his parents were evangelical immigrants from Rwanda.

Yarwood’s posts called for “slaughter in the streets” of Muslims and encouraged people to “Head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground.”

Blurb:

Former President Joe Biden has lost a battle in his effort to limit the investigation into the use of the autopen during his presidency.

Biden had contacted the National Archives in an effort to claim executive privilege over certain documents, but the Trump administration turned down the request Tuesday, Fox News has reported.

“I am concerned that disclosure of these materials would damage important institutional interests of the Presidency, including by impairing the ability of future Presidents to receive robust, candid advice from their close advisers,” Biden said in an Oct. 1 letter to the Archival Operations Division of the National Archives and Records Administration

Blurb:

 

President Donald Trump added countries to a list that restricts nationals from traveling to the U.S.

“The United States must exercise extreme vigilance during the visa-issuance and immigration processes to identify, prior to their admission or entry into the United States, foreign nationals who intend to harm Americans or our national interests,” Trump declared. “The United States Government must ensure that admitted aliens do not intend to threaten its citizens; undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; or advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.”

The move comes days after two terrorists killed 16 people celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia.

Blurb:

The FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, but did it anyway after pressure from then-President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, according to newly uncovered emails.

Emails released by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office show that officials at the FBI and DOJ communicated about FBI concerns about the warrant in the months leading up to the August raid.

In one June 1 email an unidentified FBI assistant special agent in charge wrote to FBI official Anthony Riedlinger, “Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents.”

“[FBI Washington Field Office] has been drafting a Search Warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated. DOJ CES opines, however, that the SWs meet the probable cause standard.” The same agent described the “potential boxes” as “presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] in January.”

Blurb:

A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S. surrogates to have children on American soil, taking advantage of America’s largely unregulated market and birthright citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

In one such case, Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo has sought parental rights for at least four unborn children in Los Angeles, having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children, according to the WSJ. The trend coincides with intensifying debates over the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, a policy the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret.

Blurb:

At least 15 people were murdered at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia on Sunday after two alleged Islamic terrorists opened fire.

One of the suspects, Sajid Akram, moved to Australia in 1998 on a student visa before becoming a permanent resident, while his son, Naveed Akram, was born in Australia, according to Sky News. Authorities previously investigated the son “on the basis of being associated with” alleged terrorists, but authorities ultimately determined “there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” according to the report.

Blurb:

The second student who was killed over the weekend in the tragic Brown University mass shooting has just been identified.

MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman who dreamed of becoming a brain surgeon, lost his life on Saturday.

Blurb:

The largest gain in jobs was in the healthcare sector, with 46,000 jobs added.

The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November, beating economists’ expectations. The unemployment rate has remained little changed from September, at 4.6 percent for the year’s penultimate month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Tuesday. The release of November’s jobs report was delayed due to the government shutdown that went from October 1 through November 12, and the October jobs report was not released due to the shutdown.

The largest gain in jobs was in the healthcare sector, with 46,000 jobs added. Of that total, 24,000 were in ambulatory health care services, 11,000 were in hospitals, and 11,000 were in nursing and residential care facilities. Construction saw 28,000 jobs added, and 18,000 jobs were added in social assistance. Transportation and warehousing saw a decrease in 18,000 jobs. The BLS noted that the federal government went down by 6,000 jobs, with a total of federal government employment going down by 271,000 since January.

Blurb:

A few days ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped a bombshell press release about U.S. anti-discrimination law. 

“Disparate impact” is effectively dead. 

“The prior ‘disparate impact’ regulations encouraged people to file lawsuits challenging racially neutral policies, without evidence of intentional discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release. “Our rejection of this theory will restore true equality under the law by requiring proof of actual discrimination, rather than enforcing race- or sex-based quotas or assumptions.”

The Justice Department will essentially deprioritize discrimination cases that rely on “disparate impact” under this new standard.  

Most of the media ignored the announcement. But Politico regurgitated left-wing talking points, asserting in a supposedly straight news story that the move “end[s] long-standing civil rights policies that prohibit local governments and organizations that receive federal funding from maintaining policies that disproportionately harm people of color.” They added it “will make it harder to challenge potential bias in housing, criminal law, employment, environmental regulations and other policy areas.”

Blurb:

Voters are warming up to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and some of his left-wing policy priorities, according to a Siena University poll released Tuesday.

Mamdani, a self avowed socialist, achieved a 46% favorability rating across New York state, marking an increase from his 40% favorable rating last month, according to the new poll. Meanwhile, by a 49-32% margin, up from 45-39% in November, voters statewide think that Mamdani‘s Nov. 4 mayoral victory will be good for New York City, per the poll. 

Among New York City voters alone, 66% said Mamdani’s election will be good for the city, while 25% said it is bad for the city, according to the poll. This marks an increase from in November, when 57% said his being elected was a good thing for the city and 26% said it was a bad thing, the poll shows.

“Enjoy the honeymoon, Mayor-elect Mamdani,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement. “Two-thirds of Democrats across the state view him favorably. Independent voters are now leaning favorably by six points, while they were six points on the unfavorable side in November. And while he’s viewed favorably in New York City, 61-23%, voters outside the City, who were decidedly negative toward him last month, are now close to breakeven.”

Blurb:

 

The last time I reported on the hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand, President Donald Trump was planning to call officials from both nations to try to salvage the summer cease-fire.

Unfortunately, there was no deal, and the conflict appears no closer to ending; Cambodia officially closed its border to Thailand this weekend.

The move comes as border clashes between the Southeast Asian nations have continued, despite US President Donald Trump saying Friday that they had agreed to a ceasefire.

“The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to fully suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings, effective immediately and until further notice,” the Cambodian Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The announcement comes after Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that his country would keep up military strikes on Cambodia until it no longer felt under threat from its neighbor, telling local media there was no ceasefire in place.

Blurb:

Five months ago, in these pages I expressed concern that Congress was missing the opportunity to restore merit to the military personnel system. To accomplish that task I urged Congress to include a meritocracy provision in the 2026 NDAA that does four things: (1) require all military personnel actions to be based exclusively on merit; (2) forbid race and sex-based preferences; (3) provide for reasonable exceptions when mission success requires sex or race be considered; and (4) define key terms so idealogues in the Pentagon cannot manipulate the language to further their diversity agenda.

When the House and Senate passed their versions of the NDAA, it appeared that between the two chambers some progress toward establishing a merit-based personnel system was being made. When the compromise bill resolving the differences between the House and Senate version, S. 1017, was released last week, it was readily apparent that Congress had no intention of requiring merit principles to govern military personnel actions. To make matters worse, the drafters employed smoke and mirrors to put a merit-sounding title on a provision that just reinforces the Biden-era identity preference status quo.

Blurb:

On Sunday, two Islamic terrorists — who were inspired by ISIS — opened fire at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Eyewitness reports said police on the scene responded by cowering in fear behind vehicles instead of engaging the terrorists. Those same police were very quick to crack down on anyone who didn’t comply with Australia’s draconian COVID policies, and would come down on someone like a house of bricks if they used the wrong pronouns. But actually protecting people from gun-wielding terrorists? No.

There was viral video of one man, Ahmed Al Ahmed, who snuck up on one of the terrorists and tackled him to the ground before taking his gun. Ahmed was wounded by the terrorists.

But there was another man who confronted the terrorists on the bridge from where they were firing on the crowd of Jews.

For his bravery, he ended up being shot by the police who refused to engage the actual terrorists.

Blurb:

A Pentagon spokesperson announced Monday that the department is “escalating” a preliminary review into “serious allegations of misconduct” against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), following his role in a controversial video reminding troops they can disobey orders from their superiors that they feel are “unlawful”—a move the Trump administration slams as undermining military discipline.

The review, reported on by RedState’s Becca Lower late last week, had been initiated by the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel to determine possible punishments for the retired naval captain.

Now, Captain Kelly is facing “an official Command Investigation,” according to the spokesperson.

“The Office of the Secretary of War, in conjunction with the Department of War’s Office of the General Counsel, is escalating the preliminary review of Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.), to an official Command Investigation,” the Department of War official said in a statement sent to Breitbart News.

Blurb:

The U.S. has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russia’s nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, U.S. officials said Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.

The officials said talks with President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land in the Donbas region in the country’s east.

Trump dialed into a dinner Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks are expected this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly by the White House.

Blurb:

Friends, neighbors, and former classmates of Nick Reiner say warning signs had long surrounded the troubled son of famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner, with several saying they were not shocked when authorities charged him in the brutal killings of his parents.

Nick Reiner, 32, has been accused of fatally slitting the throats of his father, 78, and mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, 68, inside their multimillion-dollar Brentwood, Los Angeles home. While police have not publicly detailed a motive, those who knew the family say the suspect had a long history of violence, addiction, and instability.

“This is not the first time their son has been violent,” a longtime neighbor told the New York Post, declining to give his name. “I know of another incident a few years back with Nick, but I won’t say more than that. I just never thought it would ever get to this point.”

Blurb:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has unveiled its newest blueprint for “digital health transformation,” and critics warn it’s the clearest signal yet that the unelected global body intends to normalize trackable wearables, AI-driven monitoring, and centralized “health” data control for the world’s population.

Released this month, the updated “Global strategy on digital health 2020–2027” lays out a sweeping plan to expand the use of digital IDs, biometric devices, AI analytics, and remote-surveillance tools, all under the banner of “universal health coverage.”

WHO says digital health means everything from phone apps to “artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics and smart wearables,” and the organization wants governments worldwide to accelerate adoption.

Its own language makes clear this will not remain optional.

Blurb:

Why this matters for Egyptian history

The Second Intermediate Period, dated roughly 1782–1550 BCE, has long been understood as a time of political fragmentation, military innovation and shifting power. It saw the introduction of new technologies such as the horse-drawn chariot, multiple competing capitals, and weakened central authority. If this period lasted longer than previously thought, historians must rethink how quickly Egypt recovered from collapse, how long the Hyksos ruled, and how the early New Kingdom developed its military and administrative strength. Just as importantly, the revised dating helps resolve a decades-old problem in Mediterranean archaeology: how Egyptian history lines up with Minoan, Levantine and Aegean chronologies. By placing the Thera eruption firmly before Ahmose’s reign, the study removes one of the most persistent points of chronological tension between Egypt and its neighbours.

Blurb:

The daughter of pro-democracy activist, businessman, former newspaper owner, and Catholic convert Jimmy Lai has spoken out for the first time since her father’s incarceration five years ago as his trial under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law (NSL) continues to plod along. 

In an EWTN video interview and in a Washington Post op-ed, Clarie Lai says that her father, who just turned 78 years old, is languishing in prison, “shrinking to nothing. If China fails to act, he’ll be a martyr.”

“My father is suffering from rapidly deteriorating health,” Claire wrote in the Post. “He has diabetes and hypertension, his hearing and vision are failing, he has suffered from months-long infections and is in constant pain that sometimes leaves him struggling even to stand up. But the most visible and alarming sign of his plight is severe weight loss.”

Blurb:

Canada’s euthanasia crisis has now reached inside federal prisons, with new statistics revealing that the government has now begun euthanizing prisoners under the nation’s state-sanctioned “assisted suicide” program.

The new data revealed that at least 15 federal prison inmates were euthanized under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) scheme since 2018.

The information comes from an Order Paper response showing that Correctional Service Canada approved MAiD deaths for inmates before their sentences were completed.

The finding is raising serious questions about coercion, oversight, and the rapid normalization of euthanasia inside government institutions.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump claimed to have brokered peace between Thailand and Cambodia following an outbreak of renewed violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The president announced on Friday afternoon that he spoke with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet “concerning the very unfortunate reawakening of their long-running War.”

“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said.