Hey, everyone …
It’s a “Web-Only Wednesday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper. We’ve got about 95 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links (too many for a regular email edition) lined up for you at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/
THANK YOU to long-time supporters BW, P&KAW, and JR! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $250, bring our year-end fundraiser total to $1,683.84!
We’re now $1,066.66 short of our $5,501 goal (once we’ve raised the first $2,750.50, supporter GL will “match funds” for the other half).
Today’s “mini-goal” is to get within $1,000 by raising at least $66.66 — and your contribution, reflecting the value you find in our work, is NOT too small. Thanks in advance for making that contribution today.
Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ukraine is ‘ready for elections,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after US President Donald Trump repeated claims Kyiv was ‘using war’ to avoid holding them. Zelensky’s five-year term as president was due to end in May 2024, but elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was declared after Russia’s invasion. Speaking to reporters following Trump’s comments in a wide-raging Politico interview, Zelensky said he would ask for proposals to be drawn up which could change the law. Elections could be held in the next 60 to 90 days if security for the vote was guaranteed with the help of the US and other allies, he said.” (12/10/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5l1474yv7o
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“States in general, and the EU in particular, have a lot in common with the users of social media platforms: Both want to decide how those platforms get used. States in general, and the EU in particular, also have a lot in common with the owners of social media platforms: Both want to make money on those platforms. Those commonalities make for an alliance of convenience between users and owners versus states. Owners make their money by pleasing users; states make their money by demanding bribes … er, ‘fines’ … from owners, often as punishment for refusing to cooperate in state censorship of user-created content. … So why doesn’t [Elon Musk] start his own country, with a state fashioned after his own liking, base his social media platform there, do business exclusively there, and tell the other states to go pound sand when they demand control and/or a piece of the financial action?” (12/09/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20195
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Message Behind the Caribbean Killings.” (12/09/25)
https://www.fff.org/freedom-in-motion/video/trump-watch-the-message-behind-the-caribbean-killings/
Source: The Hill
“Democrat Eileen Higgins has flipped the Miami mayor’s office, defeating Republican Emilio Gonzalez and marking the latest sign of the party’s momentum heading into next year’s midterms, according to Decision Desk HQ. Higgins is the first Democrat to become mayor of Miami since 1997. She bested Gonzalez, a former Miami city manager who served on President Trump’s Homeland Security Department transition team, to succeed incumbent Mayor Francis Suarez (R). The race is technically nonpartisan.” (12/09/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5641420-democrats-gain-momentum-miami/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“It’s easy to assume that with its drug-war killings in the Caribbean, the Pentagon is sending a message only to Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro: ‘We can kill your citizens with impunity and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it.’ In actuality, however, the Pentagon is sending the same message to the American people: ‘We can kill anyone we want, including American citizens, and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it.'” (12/09/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/12/09/the-national-security-establishments-message-to-americans/
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Hamas said on Tuesday that the Gaza ceasefire plan cannot proceed to its second phase as long as Israeli ‘violations’ persist and called on mediators to pressure Israel to respect the agreement. The US-sponsored ceasefire, in effect since October 10, halted the war that began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of breaches. … Meanwhile, an Israeli official said that authorities would allow the Allenby crossing on the Israeli-controlled border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank to reopen on Wednesday to aid trucks destined for Gaza for the first time since late September.” (12/09/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251209-hamas-says-no-gaza-truce-second-phase-while-israel-continues-violations-1
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“The Trump administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS) last week. There is limited value in trying to make sense of Trump’s foreign policy by looking at strategy documents when the president largely just makes things up as he goes and often makes policy decisions for arbitrary and irrational reasons. The only real value that the NSS has this year is that it tells us how the administration is justifying the president’s ad hoc interventions around the world. For the Western Hemisphere, this means dressing up the president’s militarism and meddling as the ‘Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.'” (12/09/25)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-crude-imperialism-of-the-trump
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Rights watchdog groups in the United States have filed a lawsuit seeking greater clarification on the legal rationale being used to justify the Trump administration’s targeting of alleged drug trafficking vessels off Latin America. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the group’s New York state affiliate NYCLU, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, seeks the release of an opinion from the internal Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which advises the executive branch on legal matters. … At least 86 people have been killed since the Trump administration announced the first strike in early September, in what the president has depicted as a counter-narcotics effort.” (12/09/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/9/aclu-files-lawsuit-seeking-legal-basis-for-trumps-caribbean-boat-strikes
Source: The UnPopulist
by Ilya Somin
“Nationalism doesn’t just historically correlate with bigotry — it consistently drives antisemitism and other racial and ethnic prejudices. Indeed, nationalism intensifies preexisting antisemitic impulses. To the degree that today’s conservatives decide to embrace — or even just make peace with — nationalism and dispense with the universalist liberal principles of the American Founding, they will find it difficult to impossible to stem the spread of antisemitism in their midst.” (12/09/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/nationalism-is-driving-the-neo-rights
Source: CBS News
“Japan issued a megaquake advisory Tuesday after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the northern part of the country, causing 34 mostly mild injuries and some damage to roads and buildings. The government has estimated that an offshore megaquake could cause a tsunami of up to 98 feet and kill nearly 200,000 people. Officials said the advisory is not a prediction and the probability of a magnitude 8 or larger quake is only about 1%. But there’s hope the advisory will serve as a wake-up call for a quake that could have the devastation of the 2011 disaster that killed nearly 20,000 people and destroyed a nuclear plant. There’s said to be an increased risk of a subsequent, magnitude 8 or larger quake within the next week.” (12/09/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-earthquake-megaquake-advisory-tsunami/
