“U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone Monday to discuss, among a number of topics, the Russia-Ukraine war, farming, the status of Taiwan and committing to future state visits. China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the two leaders, who also met last month in South Korea, ‘reached many important common understandings.’ The two reportedly agreed to reciprocal in-person meetings, lower U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and export measures for rare-Earth minerals. … Trump confirmed an invite from Xi to visit Beijing next year in April. In addition, Xi is expected to come to the United States later next year for an official occasion.” (11/24/25)
“Spanish Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz resigned Monday, stepping down before a judicial ruling banning him from holding public office for two years went into effect. Spain’s Supreme Court last week convicted García Ortiz of leaking details of a tax probe involving the partner of Madrid’s regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a rising star among the country’s conservative voters. The outgoing attorney general denies leaking the information, and several journalists who published articles about the probe testified he was not their source. Although the court announced García Ortiz’s guilty verdict within days of his trial’s conclusion, the panel of judges who tried him has yet to publish the legal reasoning behind the ruling.” (11/24/25)
A “zero-dollar day” in our year-end fundraiser yesterday. Our total remains at $1,285.84.
Our goal is $5,501; once we’ve raised $2,750.50, reader GL has pledged to “match funds” for the other half.
But to get that second half, we must raise the first half, and that’s going more slowly than usual this year.
It’s a little depressing, but I’m not going to belabor THAT feeling at length. Instead, I’m just going to ask YOU to support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at …
“An Australian senator has provoked anger for wearing a burka in parliament, after pushing for a ban on the Muslim garment. Pauline Hanson was condemned by fellow senators, with one accusing her of “blatant racism”. Proceedings in the senate were halted as she refused to remove the item. The Queensland senator, of the anti-immigration One Nation party, was seeking to introduce a bill that would ban full face coverings in public – a policy she has long campaigned for. It is the second time she has worn the garment – which covers the face and body – in parliament, and said her actions were in protest at the senate rejecting her bill.” (11/24/25)
“Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who as H. Rap Brown defined [b]lack militancy in the 1960s with a call to arms against white oppression, and who later lived quietly as a Muslim cleric and shopkeeper until his arrest in 2000 in the murder of a sheriff’s deputy, died on Sunday in a federal prison hospital in North Carolina. He was 82. … Before converting to Islam and changing his name in the 1970s, Mr. Al-Amin was one of the most incendiary orators among the Black Power activists who emerged in the late 1960s to challenge the leadership and nonviolent strategy of the civil rights movement.” (11/23/25)
‘Another GOP contender has launched a bid to succeed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, teeing up a broader challenge to President Donald Trump’s chosen candidate to lead his adopted home state. James Fishback, a 30-year-old investor who lives in Florida’s rural Panhandle region, formally announced his candidacy Monday, immediately taking shots at Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who has Trump’s endorsement and the inside track on the race to replace DeSantis, who can’t run again in 2026. … Following the governor’s footsteps, Fishback has pledged to eliminate property taxes and is taking aim at H-1B visas, which are meant to allow American companies to bring in people with technical skills that are hard to find in the United States.” (11/24/25)
“Eli Lilly reached a major milestone Friday, becoming the first healthcare company in the world to hit a $1 trillion market value. The drug company briefly crossed the trillion-dollar mark during morning trading before its stock pulled back slightly. Shares were last trading at around $1,048 each. Eli Lilly is now just the second non-technology company in the U.S. to reach a $1 trillion value, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Much of that growth comes from two blockbuster drugs: Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker’s stock is up more than 36% this year, as demand for its weight loss and diabetes treatments continues to rise, CNBC reported.” (11/24/25)
“Boeing and NASA have agreed to keep astronauts off the company’s next Starliner flight and instead perform a trial run with cargo to prove its safety. Monday’s announcement comes eight months after the first and only Starliner crew returned to Earth aboard SpaceX after a prolonged mission. Although NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams managed to dock Starliner to the International Space Station in 2024, the capsule had so many problems that NASA ordered it to come back empty, leaving the astronauts stuck there for more than nine months. Engineers have since been poring over the thruster and other issues that plagued the Starliner capsule. Its next cargo run to the space station will occur no earlier than April, pending additional tests and certification. Boeing said in a statement that it remains committed to the Starliner program with safety the highest priority.” (11/24/25)
Japan’s defense minister, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing over the East Asian island. ‘The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,’ Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. ‘The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.’ … China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular briefing on Monday that the deployment of missiles would be ‘extremely dangerous’ and described it as a ‘deliberate move that breeds regional tensions and stokes military rivalry.'” (11/24/25)
“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas voiced disagreement Monday with his colleagues’ decision to reject a widow’s request that the high court consider whether the federal government owes her for her husband’s death. Thomas said that if the justices had taken up the case, it would have been an opportunity to rein in a decades-old precedent that says servicemembers’ families cannot file wrongful death lawsuits against the government if the victim was killed while performing his or her job duties. … The case centered on Air Force Staff Sergeant Cameron Beck, who was killed in 2021. Beck had been leaving a military base in Missouri on his motorcycle to meet his wife and then seven-year-old for lunch when a civilian government employee, distracted by her cell phone, struck Beck. He died on the scene, and the woman later admitted in a plea deal to causing the accident.” (11/24/25)
