“I don’t mean to imply, by the title of this article, that I think America is about to totally ‘destroy’ itself. I happen to believe that the United States, in some shape, form, or fashion, will be around for a long time into the future. I don’t know what shape, form, or fashion that will be; indeed, America has already monumentally changed, since 1789, from the virtuous, limited, constitutional government (a ‘confederacy,’ Alexander Hamilton called it), into a society with a dominant federal government that does whatever it can get away with. In effect, we have become, in a way, exactly what our Founding Fathers rebelled against. But time changes many things, and countries are among those things.” (01/03/25)
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has named spy chief Kyrylo Budanov as his new chief of staff, just over a month after his previous top aide resigned in a corruption row. ‘At this time, Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues,’ Zelensky said in a social media post, alongside a photo of his meeting with Gen Budanov in Kyiv. The 39-year-old has until now led the Hur military intelligence, which has claimed a number of highly effective strikes against Russia. Zelensky also said he intended to replace his defence minister Denys Shmyhal, appointing his current minister of digital transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov to take up the post.” (01/03/25)
“Saikat Chakrabarti, a candidate who’s hoping to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, is pitching a four-day workweek, citing Mark Zuckerberg’s new AI push as a warning sign. ‘We should be talking about four-day workweeks as a result of AI,’ Chakrabarti said in a video posted on New Year’s Eve on X. ‘But instead what we’re seeing is companies squeezing more and more work out of their workers with no extra benefits.’ Chakrabarti, a former tech engineer and now a bastion of progressive politics, is running for the coveted San Francisco House seat, which is open after Pelosi announced her retirement in 2025. Chakrabarti, who has a list of progressive policy reforms reminiscent of his former bosses, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is putting Meta in the hot seat after it was leaked that the company is implementing intense productivity standards for its employees.” (01/03/25)
“Critics warn that a rent freeze can actually make the housing crisis worse. Even if new housing construction is exempt, skeptics say the policy could discourage building in general as developers and investors scale back. Meanwhile, the real estate lobby argues that landlords would get squeezed by rising costs, which would lead to deferred building maintenance and more vacant units. Warnings against rent control policies often come wrapped in dire metaphors about ’destroying cities’ and ’halting investment’, but, politically, freezes are popular. More than three-quarters of voters support them, depending on the poll. Long term, we need more housing — but construction takes years and often faces fierce resistance. A thoughtfully designed freeze could protect renters against precarity while paving the way for a more comprehensive approach to the housing crisis.” (01/02/25)
“Israel on Tuesday said it had suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and CARE, from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules. Israel says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating the aid organizations. But the organizations say the rules are arbitrary and warned that the new ban would harm a civilian population desperately in need of humanitarian aid. … The new regulations included ideological requirements — including disqualifying organizations that have called for boycotts against Israel, denied the Oct. 7 attack or expressed support for any of the international court cases against Israeli soldiers or leaders.” (12/30/25)
“It would be easy to end this year discouraged. From campus unrest to ideological extremes at some of the most prestigious universities in America, 2025 gave us more than enough to lament. But as a university president, and as we approach this season of Christmas, a time marked by reflection, renewal and hope, I believe the full story of higher education this year was not just about collapse. It was also about conviction. This was a year when students spoke up. Parents got involved. Christian leaders stayed the course. And across the country, signs of renewal began to take shape. Not everywhere. Not perfectly. But undeniably. As I reflect on this year in higher education, I believe these five moments signal that a meaningful shift is already underway.” (12/29/25)
“Thieves used a large drill to break into a safe at a high street bank branch in western Germany and steal an estimated €30m (£26m; $35m) in cash and valuables, police have said. A police spokesman likened the break-in to the Hollywood heist film Ocean’s Eleven, telling AFP news agency it was ‘very professionally executed’. During the heist at Sparkasse savings bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen, thieves broke open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes containing money, gold and jewelry. Gelsenkirchen Police said they became aware of the crime after a fire alarm was set off in the early hours of Monday morning. Currently, no arrests have been made and the perpetrators remain at large.” (12/30/25)
“In the annals of modern international relations, few moments carry as heavy a legacy as the speech given by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003. With solemn authority, Powell presented what he called ‘facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence’ regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The world watched. The Security Council listened. The invasion of Iraq soon followed. Yet nearly every core assertion Powell made that day collapsed under post-war scrutiny. Iraq, it turned out, had no active WMD program. The biological labs, the chemical weapons, the nuclear revival – none existed. The damage, however, had been done: hundreds of thousands of lives lost, regional instability that persists two decades later, and a critical blow to the credibility of the international system.” (12/29/25)
“Just saying the words ‘Letters of Marque’ is to conjure the myth and romance of the pirate: Namely, that species of corsair also known as Blackbeard or Long John Silver, stalking the fabled Spanish Main, memorialized in glorious Technicolor by Robert Newton, hallooing the unwary with ‘Aye, me hearties!’ Perhaps it is no surprise that the legendary patois has been resurrected today in Congress. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has introduced the Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act on the Senate floor, thundering that it ‘will revive this historic practice to defend our shores and seize cartel assets’. If enacted into law, Congress, in accordance with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, would license private American citizens ‘to employ all reasonably necessary means to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and property of any cartel or conspirator of a cartel or cartel-linked organization.'” (12/29/25)
Source: The American Prospect
by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
“On Friday, November 21, as most Americans were prepping for Thanksgiving, President Trump went on a tirade on his Truth Social platform. Egged on by unsubstantiated claims by noted right-wing pugilist Chris Rufo, he posted: ‘Minnesota, under Governor Waltz [sic], is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity …. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back where they came from. It’s OVER!’ … In recent months, there has been ever greater attention paid to a spate of fraudulent activity in Minnesota, with most of those implicated being Somali. (The ringleader of the largest fraud, Feeding Our Future, is a white American, and nearly all of those indicted are naturalized or natural-born American citizens.)” (12/29/25)
