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Since Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition collapsed over budget squabbles and a lost confidence vote on 16 December 2024, Germany has entered an unusually tense campaign ahead of snap elections on 23 February 2025.1 The country’s political arena has moved away from long-standing centrism toward heightened polarization — a shift that is also felt in the streets. Just weeks before the elections, hundreds of thousands protested nationwide after the center-right Christian Democratic Union party’s Friedrich Merz — the likely next chancellor according to polls — relied on support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to push a parliamentary motion for tougher migration laws.2 Although the bill was ultimately rejected and Merz ruled out any coalition with the far right, it nonetheless breached a post-war norm observed by Germany’s mainstream parties referred to as the ‘firewall,’ whereby collaboration with far-right forces was consistently avoided.3

Long seen as Europe’s engine of stability and growth, Germany is grappling with mounting challenges. A sluggish post-pandemic recovery, rising populism, and entrenched urban-rural and East-West divides have fueled discontent and polarization. Meanwhile, infighting among members of the ruling coalition and reignited debates over energy, immigration, and foreign policy have sparked street activism and bolstered the opposition.4 The AfD, in particular, is gaining ground, with polls projecting it as the second-strongest parliamentary force in the upcoming elections.5

Amid such polarization, national vote season appears to be an increasingly perilous time for German politicians. The 2024 European Parliament election campaign offered a worrying preview, as it was marred by a spate of aggressions against local centrist party officials, candidates, and campaign volunteers, while revealing a larger pattern of violence targeting politicians across the spectrum.6 Looking at both last year’s European vote and the high-stakes federal election on 23 February, this piece explores how rising polarization has intensified street activism in the form of demonstrations, both against far-right parties and government policies; it also considers whether polarization is contributing to an uptick in political violence, particularly amid the mounting tensions surrounding national elections.

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Based on current trends, China will become a quantitative and qualitative nuclear weapons peer of the United States by the early to mid-2030s with a diversified, accurate, and survivable force that will rival America’s. Rather than having only high-yield nuclear missiles as a strategic deterrent against nuclear attack, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is developing a range of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, the latter being lower-yield weapons usable in a conflict theater.

Why is China seemingly going beyond its long-standing nuclear weapons approach of maintaining only a minimal deterrent or assured retaliation? Why has it chosen to rapidly develop its nuclear arsenal and related delivery system in a deliberately opaque manner?

This report argues that Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to embark on such a rapid nuclear modernization not primarily because China wants to “win” a nuclear exchange against the US. Rather, Beijing wants to create political and psychological effects that lead to enormously important strategic and military effects.

As the report explains, the CCP and PLA are using the rapid development of nuclear capability and related delivery systems to subdue the adversary and win without fighting. The following are components of achieving this:

  • Degrade the adversary’s decision-making.
  • Weaken the adversary’s will to fight.
  • Undermine the adversary’s public support for war.
  • Undermine the resolve of the adversary’s government from within.
  • Support and enhance deterrence.

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Iran has found a new market for its arms since the 2021 coup in Myanmar.

A Boeing 747 cargo plane from Iran landed in Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon three times between January and April last year.

Operated by Iranian cargo airline Qeshm Fars Air, the flights departed Mashhad, Iran’s second city, and returned to Iran the following day, flight tracker data shows.

What did Qeshm Fars Air bring to Myanmar?

One of the flights delivered a consignment of 21 boxes thought to contain military drones and engines. The sight of Iranian cargo planes landing in Myanmar’s capital has also sparked speculation they are supplying the junta with more powerful weapons, including guided missiles.

Qeshm Fars Air is already under US sanctions for allegedly transporting weapons to Tehran-backed groups in the Syrian civil war on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. But Myanmar Air Force defectors and other informed sources told The Irrawaddy that Tehran is now also delivering weapons to Myanmar.

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Rotherham child sexual exploitation survivors have claimed they were abused by five South Yorkshire Police officers during the height of their ordeals as children.

An investigation into the allegations has been launched by SYP.

The Rotherham grooming gangs scandal unfolded after an explosive report from Professor Alexis Jay – published over a decade ago – concluded that failures by police and politicians contributed to the sexual exploitation of around 1,400 children in Rotherham by groups of men in the town, predominately of Pakistani-heritage.

Moldova’s president warns of ‘unprecedented’ Russian election meddling– politico
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Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Wednesday accused Russia of planning an “unprecedented” campaign to interfere in the country’s September parliamentary election, warning of a large-scale effort involving illegal financing, cyberattacks and disinformation.

“The Russian Federation wants to control the Republic of Moldova from autumn onwards,” Sandu said at a press conference in the capital Chișinău. She called the plan a “direct threat to our state security, the country’s sovereignty, and the European future of Moldova,” and urged citizens and institutions to remain vigilant.

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The petition argues procedural errors and challenges the legal basis of her conviction.

Ghislaine Maxwell has formally filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking to overturn her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges.

“We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court, but to the president himself, to recognize how unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted,” a representative for Maxwell said, according to CNN.

Maxwell’s lawyers argue that Maxwell’s conviction violates an agreement Epstein made in 2008 that shielded coconspirators from prosecution.

According to trial evidence and court documents, Maxwell helped Epstein recruit and groom young girls—some as young as 14—for sexual abuse between 1994 and 2004. Prosecutors said she used gifts, outings, and emotional manipulation to gain the girls’ trust, gradually desensitizing them to inappropriate conduct. Maxwell was often present for the abuse and in some cases participated directly, including in group sexualized massages. Victims were abused at Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida, and New Mexico, as well as at Maxwell’s London residence.

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Al Sharpton has responded after President Donald Trump accused the civil rights grifter and several other celebrities of illegally taking large sums of cash in return for their endorsements of Kamala Harris’s failed 2024 presidential campaign.

It comes as Sharpton is once again at the center of controversy.

Trump is accusing Kamala Harris of paying Sharpton, along with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé, for their endorsements in the 2024 election.

In a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sharpton vehemently denied Trump’s claims that he received money for endorsing Harris.

Sharpton insists that the funds in question were given to his nonprofit, National Action Network (NAN).

He claims the money was for get-out-the-vote efforts, not for an endorsement.

“Absolutely not,” Sharpton said, addressing Trump’s accusation.

 

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A man allegedly shouted “I’ve got a bomb!” aboard a plane flying roughly an hour from President Trump’s location in Scotland Sunday.

In a post-9/11 world, stories such as this one are a terrifying reality.

The man also reportedly yelled “Death to Trump!” and “Allahu Akbar!” before fellow passengers took him down on an easyJet flight from London to Glasgow.

The New York Post reported that the incident occurred just one hour after the plane took off and just an hour from Trump’s Turnberry golf course.

In all honesty, this guy was never going to hijack the plane. We trust pilots, flight crews, and the heroes aboard who so often don’t hesitate to act, and our air marshals when flights are stateside.

But what the unnamed perp did accomplish was terrorizing an entire cabin of innocent people.

He claimed he wasn’t trying to kill Trump. He just wanted to “send a message.”

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Documents released over the last month have exposed a post-election plot designed to derail President Donald Trump’s first term. The recently declassified material reveals former President Barack Obama sought to continue the Russia-collusion hoax Hillary Clinton had launched during the presidential campaign by directing select members of his intelligence community to craft the deceptive Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election. However, a close reading of these documents reveals Obama holds even more culpability than previously discussed.

As The Federalist reported earlier, the CIA’s review of the ICA established Obama not only knew of and “condoned the politicalization of the intelligence community, but that the former president directed the politicalization.” According to the CIA’s “lessons learned” analysis of the deceptive ICA released by the Obama Administration, on December 6, 2016, then-President Obama directed “then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper to conduct a comprehensive review of all available intelligence and provide the IC’s best assessment of Russian activities related to the election,” ordering Clapper to complete the review before Trump’s inauguration. And according to former CIA Director John Brennan, the White House worked with him to “established crucial elements of the process,” including directing the CIA to take “the lead drafting the report.”

That White House-directed process included sidelining the National Intelligence Council (“NIC”) which, under standard protocols held “control over drafting assignments, coordination, and review processes” for intelligence assessments. Not only that, but Brennan — the man Obama charged with leading the drafting of the ICA — also marginalized CIA and ODNI analysts, ignoring their conclusion that intel did not support the view that Russia “aspired” to help Trump win the 2016 election. Brennan also trumped the analysts’ objection to referencing the Steele dossier in the text of the ICA and including a summary of the Clinton-funded fake dossier in an annex to the report.

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President Donald Trump has set a new deadline of “ten or twelve” days for Russia to make a deal and end the war with Ukraine.

Trump has been pressuring Russia to cease hostilities or face economic repercussions, including tariffs on their key trading partners.

The deadline Trump set on July 14 was 50 days, but he said he has been “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of effort.

“I’m going to make a new deadline, of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump said while speaking to reporters in Scotland alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “There’s no reason for waiting. It was 50 days. I wanted to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”

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The Trump administration is set to boycott a high-level summit on Palestinian statehood, co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, scheduled to take place at United Nations headquarters in New York City on Monday.

The event was originally planned for June with French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance but was postponed due to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Representatives from more than 50 nations are expected to speak at the High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, with dozens of additional countries listed as participants.

Reuters reported last month that a U.S. diplomatic cable had urged governments to skip the “counterproductive” U.N. event, which Washington described as an obstacle to efforts to end the war in Gaza.

“The fact that the French and the Saudis could not be dissuaded from manufacturing this latest stumbling block to peace is a finger in the eye to President Trump,” Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital.

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The sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has rejected diplomatic talks with South Korea’s new liberal leader.

“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither the reason to meet nor the issue to be discussed with the [Republic of Korea],” Kim Yo Jong, who speaks on behalf of her brother, said in a statement Monday.

Since taking office in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, has expressed a desire to improve relations with North Korea. In a gesture of goodwill, the new South Korean president has stopped loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and has also ended the dropping of leaflets by balloon into North Korea. But Kim Yo Jong says the actions don’t change the relationship between the neighboring countries.

Kim Yo Jong called the end of the “propaganda broadcasting” just “a reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place,” adding that because of this, the move “is not the work worthy of appreciation.”

Kim Yo Jong stressed that the relationship between North and South Korea has not changed even though a new president is in power, calling South Korea the “enemy.”

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A Massachusetts district judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from effectively defunding Planned Parenthood for a year.

Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the withholding of Medicaid funds possibly violated the First Amendment’s right of association, according to court documents. The case stems from a provision in Trump’s tax bill that eliminates Medicaid reimbursements to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023 for one year, regardless of the other services the provider offered.

“The court’s order does not require the federal government to spend money not already appropriated for Medicaid or any other funds,” Talwani wrote. “Instead, this order grants preliminary relief that prevents Defendants from targeting a specific group of entities — Planned Parenthood Federation Members — for exclusion from reimbursements under the Medicaid program where Plaintiffs have established a substantial likelihood that they will succeed in establishing that such targeted exclusion violated the United States Constitution, and where Plaintiffs satisfy the remaining requirements to obtain a preliminary injunction.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah filed a joint lawsuit against Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), following the passage of Trump’s tax bill.

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The state of Washington has announced it will no longer release data on its assisted suicides, sparking concerns over the resulting risk of abuses that would worsen what is already a gravely immoral practice.

The Washington State Department of Health website has posted a notice on its website stating that “due to funding cuts,” it has halted its so-called “Death with Dignity Program,” meaning that while eligible patients may still commit assisted suicide, reports documenting the practice will no longer be released.

The health agency said it has made the “difficult decision” to discontinue its assisted suicide report so that staff can focus on “prioritiz[ing] patient safety and other critical work,” according to The Telegraph. 

A 2024 annual statistical report will not be released. The most recent available data year is 2023,” states the Washington Health website.

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Ghislaine Maxwell returned to her federal holding cell on Friday with a mysterious box that she appeared to receive after speaking with prosecutors, leaving observers to wonder what she’d been handed.

Maxwell, 63, was seen shackled and accompanied by guards after meeting with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday. She was transported in a white sedan back to the FCI Tallahassee prison complex, where she’s been serving a 20-year sentence on underage sex-trafficking charges since 2022.

Handcuffed and dressed in a brown prison jumpsuit, Maxwell was escorted through barbed wire fencing as a guard trailed behind her holding the box.

They and a second guard stood outside the building for nearly two minutes before being let inside.

Sources familiar with Thursday’s meeting said she had returned from the U.S. attorney’s office in Tallahassee, where she met with Blanche, a source said.

“Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow. The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” Blanche wrote on X after the meeting.

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GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas want an independent investigation “for the good of the country” to determine whether Obama or his top officials “manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome.”

“As we have supported in the past, appointing an independent special counsel would do the country a tremendous service in this case,” the Republicans said in a statement.

“With every piece of information that gets released, it becomes more evident that the entire Russia collusion hoax was created by the Obama Administration to subvert the will of the American people. Democrats and the liberal media have been out to get President Trump since 2016. There must be an immediate investigation of what we believe to be an unprecedented and clear abuse of power by a U.S. presidential administration.”

The push comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released evidence showing how the Obama administration created a false Intelligence Community Assessment to claim Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump’s election chances.

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The House Judiciary Committee released a report July 22 revealing that the Biden-era FBI devoted far more federal law enforcement resources to surveilling Catholics than previously known, while failing to disclose the full extent of its operations to Congress.

Titled “Report: How the Biden-Wray FBI Manufactured a False Narrative of Catholic Americans as Violent Extremists,” the report centers on newly released documents that contradict former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony claiming the anti-Catholic 2023 Richard memo was an isolated incident. That memo, circulated by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, labeled “radical traditionalist Catholics” as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”

According to a July 22 press release from the committee, under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel, the FBI has turned over more than 1,300 pages of internal documents detailing the agency’s wide-ranging surveillance of Catholics under the Biden administration.

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As PJ Media previously reported, Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, has decided to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline and the use of an autopen to sign executive orders and pardons without his knowledge. Klain appeared for a closed-door meeting this week, and in a surprising break from the evasive tactics of other former aides and even Biden’s personal physician, he actually answered questions.

Lawmakers from both parties described Klain’s testimony as credible and refreshingly candid. He didn’t dodge. He didn’t deflect. Instead, he painted a troubling picture of a presidency plagued by fatigue and worsening cognitive issues.

What exactly did Klain say behind closed doors? Thanks to a new report from the New York Post, we now have a much clearer idea.

Klain, who was part of the now-infamous “Politburo” running the show behind the scenes, stopped short of saying that Biden was unfit to govern or too old to seek re-election in 2024, but he did acknowledge that the president’s forgetfulness and confusion have noticeably worsened over time.

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain revealed Thursday that former President Joe Biden wasn’t seen as “politically viable” by either his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, or by ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during his final year in office, a source told The Post.

[…]

But the longtime adviser admitted his boss was “less energetic,” had a poorer memory and frequently mixed up names — a problem that worsened with time, the source added.

Sullivan confided to Klain that Biden was also “less effective” in 2024 than in 2022, the source noted.

Elsewhere in his interview, Klain divulged that he’d donated $5,000 for then-first son Hunter Biden’s legal defense fund at the behest of attorney Abbe Lowell, who repped the younger Biden.

 

The committee pressed Klain on everything from Biden’s use of sleep aids, which some allege contributed to his debate fiasco against Donald Trump, to internal White House preparations as the president’s faculties slipped. He revealed that by the time Biden was prepping for the catastrophic June 2024 debate, the president was exhausted, “out of it,” and much more fixated on NATO than on the basic duties of American leadership. The man running for reelection seemed more like a figurehead than a commander-in-chief.

Recommended: Barack Obama ‘Not Going to Be Indicted’ but There’s Good News

Klain’s testimony echoed the bombshell revelations recently chronicled in the media and insider accounts. He recalled an atmosphere where decisions were being rubber-stamped by a handful of unelected aides while Biden faded further into the background. Klain described a president whose memory for names and events was alarmingly poor and declining rapidly. Still, the inner circle propped him up and kept the American people in the dark. In his words and actions, Klain demonstrated that the “internal concerns” within the Democratic Party were not mere rumors but were rooted in firsthand observation and secret backroom discussions.

 

The former chief of staff also detailed how top Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan, expressed serious doubts about Biden’s fitness well before the 2024 election disaster. Sullivan supposedly told Klain that Biden was clearly less effective in 2024 than he had been just two years earlier, an astonishing admission from the very heart of the Democratic establishment. These misgivings didn’t just come out of nowhere; they bubbled up as it became impossible to ignore Biden’s “tired and ill” demeanor ahead of his head-to-head with Trump.

Perhaps even more striking, Klain didn’t indulge the media’s desperate attempts to shift blame to ageism or distraction. He reportedly told investigators that he saw no reason to question Trump’s own mental acuity, a subtle but unmistakable rebuke of the left’s favorite whataboutism over the past half-decade.

Recommended: Kamala’s Former Flame Willie Brown Burns Her Political Comeback Dreams

In testifying, Klain didn’t completely peel back the curtain, but he confirmed what millions have suspected for years and quietly indicted the Democratic machine that worked overtime to conceal Biden’s decline. No, he didn’t come right out and declare Biden unfit to serve; he would never do that, but he didn’t have to.

 

The picture he painted was damning enough: a president growing visibly weaker, a White House staff walking on eggshells, and top Democrats privately panicking while publicly insisting all was well. Klain’s account may have been measured, but the implications are anything but. The real scandal isn’t just Biden’s condition; it’s how long they all lied to cover it up.

 

Enough is enough. Democrats hid the truth about Biden’s decline while America hung in the balance. PJ Media refuses to let these cover-ups slide. We dig deeper so you always know what’s really going on behind closed doors. Become a PJ Media VIP for exclusive stories and ad-free browsing, and use the promo code FIGHT for 60% off. Don’t wait, join today and put truth above spin.

 

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Joe Biden has been cashing in since leaving the Oval Office.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Joe Biden sold his presidential memoir to a publisher for $10 million.

The number may sound high, but it’s significantly lower than the deals Barack Obama and Bill Clinton received.

The New York Post shared more details on the deal and how it compares to previous presidents:

Former President Biden has sold his presidential memoir for a $10 million advance – far less than the lucrative deals won by the Obamas and Bill Clinton, according to a report.

Biden, 82, made a deal with Hachette Book Group for an advance of around $10 million, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

The book’s publisher, Hachette’s Little, Brown & Co., has not yet set a publication date.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, sold the rights to their memoirs to Penguin Random House for a record-breaking $60 million in 2017.

Alfred A. Knopf, which is owned by Penguin Random House’s parent firm Bertelsmann, paid $15 million for former President Bill Clinton’s 2004 memoir “My Life.”

President Trump did not publish a presidential memoir after his first term.

<b>Netanyahu assassination plot busted, Shin Bet claims terminally ill anti-government activist arrested for plotting to kill Israeli Prime Minister - MSN</b>-

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Israeli authorities have arrested and indicted a woman in her 70s, described as a terminally ill anti-government activist, for conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using a rocket-propelled grenade or explosive device according to KAN public broadcaster.

The suspect, a resident of Tel Aviv, was detained approximately two weeks ago following intelligence gathering and a police investigation led by the Shin Bet security service. Police say she sought help from fellow activists to acquire weapons and gather detailed information about Netanyahu’s security arrangements.

The indictment states the suspect “was involved in political protest activities against the Israeli government” and, after receiving a terminal diagnosis, decided to attempt assassination as a “sacrifice” to save the state.

She revealed her assassination plan to another activist and asked him to assist her in acquiring a rocket-propelled grenade for the attack.

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In an awkward moment for Powell (X).

Donald Trump clashed with Jay Powell during a visit to the Federal Reserve’s headquarters on Thursday in a rare public confrontation between a US president and central bank chief. The two men, who had donned white hard hats as they surveyed the refurbishment of the Fed’s Marriner S Eccles headquarters in Washington, quarrelled in televised remarks over the costs of the project. “We’re taking a look, and it looks like it’s about $3.1bn, it went up a little bit, or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1,” Trump said moments after beckoning Powell to come into the centre of the camera frame. Powell shook his head and interrupted the president, saying he was “not aware” that the cost of the project had risen from the central bank’s estimate of $2.5bn. “It just came out,” Trump said, removing a piece of paper from his pocket as they stood side-by-side in a corridor with exposed wood framing and construction equipment …. Trump said on Thursday that there was “no tension” between him and Powell. “I have one dispute . . . I just want to see one thing it’s very simple, interest rates have to come down,” he said. He added that he “didn’t think it was necessary” to fire Powell, whose term as chair expires in May 2026 (Financial Times).

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Less than a day after the Trump administration announced its ambitious plan to lead the world in the AI industry, news broke that China has accessed high-tech AI chips on the black market despite U.S. industry protections, threatening America’s competitive advantage in the cutthroat industry.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that China has been selling and receiving cutting-edge AI chips on the black market despite Trump’s export controls and tariffs to curb Chinese access to leading technologies.

‘Trying to cobble together data centers from smuggled products is a losing proposition, both technically and economically.’

The report went on to say that more than $1 billion worth of NVIDIA B200 chips has been sold on the black market in China. Lawyers familiar with the trade rules told FT that while it is legal to sell and receive restricted chips within China, on the condition that the proper tariffs are paid, entities selling and sending them to China would be violating U.S. regulations.

The report indicated that NVIDIA was not aware of these illegal sales by third parties.

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U.S. military personnel carried out a raid in Aleppo, Syria, overnight that resulted in the deaths of a “senior ISIS leader” and his two sons who had affiliations with the Islamic State, according to U.S. Central Command.

The leader targeted and killed in the raid was Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al Hardani, and his two sons were Abdallah Dhiya al Hardani and Abd al Rahman Dhiya Zawba al Hardani. A CENTCOM statement said they were with three women and three children who were not harmed in the mission.

“We will continue to relentlessly pursue ISIS terrorists wherever they are. ISIS terrorists are not safe where they sleep, where they operate, and where they hide,” CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said. “Alongside our partners and allies, U.S. Central Command is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS terrorists that threaten the region, our allies, and our homeland.”

The raid is notable because it put U.S. troops in harm’s way to carry out the mission, compared to drone strikes, which forces in the region also rely on because they pose little risk to the service members who launch them.

The U.S. military has had a footprint in Iraq and Syria for about a decade to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS and has worked with its partners in the Iraqi Army, the Peshmerga security forces representing the Kurds, and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

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Money talks, and Columbia University finally admitted that on Wednesday, after a stunning settlement with the Trump administration was announced.

As Redstate reported, the Ivy League school has been a hotbed of pro-Hamas activity, including antisemitic harassment and violence. In the Spring of 2024, just as the presidential campaign was ramping up, terror supporters took over Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves inside and claiming to have liberated it. For months on end, radicals waving “Palestinian” flags occupied the main grounds, refusing to let Jews pass.

All the while, Columbia administrators sought appeasement instead of order. It took Mayor Eric Adams giving the NYPD the green light to finally clear Hamilton Hall, but because of New York’s far-left prosecutors, few people were punished. It was during this time that Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian national whom the Trump administration is currently trying to deport for his pro-terrorism ties, became a known figure.

While Joe Biden took no action, and if anything helped egg on the antisemitic, pro-terror chaos, the next president had other ideas, with the Trump White House immediately starting an investigation. Before long, the consequences arrived in the form of stripping hundreds of millions of dollars in future grant money from Columbia.

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President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was contemplating sending rebate checks to Americans using tariff revenue.

The U.S. government ran a $27 billion budget surplus in June, fueled partly by record tariff revenue, which exceeded $100 billion for the first time in a fiscal year, Reuters reported. When a reporter asked Trump at the White House if there was a chance of a rebate for Americans due to the revenue, the president said his administration was prioritizing paying off debt, but that a small rebate for some Americans was possible. (RELATED: Trump Locks In China Trade Deal, Keeps Pressure On Beijing)

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“We’re thinking about that, actually. We have so much money coming in,” Trump said. “We’re thinking about a little rebate, but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate.”

“That’s a very good question. You just made a lot of news,” he continued. “We’re thinking about a rebate because we have so much money coming in from tariffs that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.”

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Columbia University’s famed pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil said it is “absurd” and “disingenuous” to ask him if he condemns the terrorist group Hamas.

Khalil repeatedly avoided answering the direct question during a recent interview on CNN. The Trump administration tried to deport Khalil and accused him of lying on his visa application after he omitted his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Trump administration is also seeking to deport Khalil, an Algerian national, on the grounds he is sympathetic to Hamas and is promoting antisemitism.

“Just to be clear here, do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their action on Oct. 7?” CNN’s Pamela Brown asked Khalil on Tuesday.

“I condemn the killing of all civilians, full stop,” Khalil said. Brown asked again, but Khalil kept talking.

“To me, it‘s always, as I said, disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel,” he said. “And that‘s why I wouldn‘t really engage much into such questions on condemnation or not. Because selective condemnation wouldn‘t get us anywhere. It’s just like [hypocritical] to be honest.”

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A fleet of junta military vessels moving upstream along the Ayeyarwady River resumed its journey from Htigyaing Township on the morning of 23 July, according to the Htigyaing Revolution (TR) group.

The fleet, composed of cargo ships and river warships enroute to Bhamo, halted overnight in Htigyaing on 22 July before continuing its advance. As of 11:15 am on 23 July, the vessels were reportedly near Dingyi Kya village in Htigyaing Township.

“They’ve already left. The situation hasn’t changed much yet. They’re near Dingyi Kya village in Htigyaing Township. There hasn’t been any airstrike so far,” a TR official told reporters.

In anticipation of possible conflict, the Bhamo District People’s Defence Force Battalion 1 issued a public warning on 22 July, urging residents of riverside villages to evacuate immediately. The group also cautioned against traveling along the river, holding festivals, or attending public gatherings due to the risk of air and naval attacks as the fleet approaches.