“South Korea’s rival political parties are set to appoint special prosecutors to investigate allegations that the Unification Church bribed and lobbied politicians across the ideological divide, a rare move that observers have said could test the country’s constitutional separation of religion and politics. On Monday, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said it would accept a proposal from the conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP) for the team of special prosecutors to investigate the church’s alleged political influence. The decision marks a turnaround for the DPK, which has previously opposed the idea, and reflects growing public pressure to launch an inquiry to examine politicians from both ruling and opposition parties over their supposed links to the Unification Church.” (12/22/25)
“The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ priorities. The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.” (12/22/25)
It’s a “Hybrid Tuesday” — a full email and social media edition, plus another 30 or so news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links here on the web. Enjoy!
On Monday, December 23, 2002, Rational Review News Digest published its first daily edition — Steve Trinward, Mary Lou Seymour, R. Lee Wrights, Brad Spangler, and I stepped in to replace Freedom News Daily, which had shut down the previous Thursday after its publisher, the Henry Hazlitt Foundation, shut down without notice. Two years later, the International Society for Individual Liberty (now Liberty International), which had taken over FND, asked us to start publishing it for them, and we have ever since. Happy birthday to us …
… and THANK YOU to HH, T, and GB, whose donations yesterday, totaling $145, bring our year-end fundraiser total to $2,353.84!
HH writes “I’ll match ‘RB’ and add a second $100 to my donation from July.” HH has sent us $100 a year for years, and can never know how much we appreciate him for that support.
T is a long-time “subscribing contributor” who decided to throw in with some extra support, for which we’re extra-grateful.
GB writes “Keep up the good work! (Would love it if the editorials were a little less conservative).” THANK YOU, GB, and we’ll continue to work on perfecting our content balance. We look for things that libertarians will find interesting — libertarian material, but also “left” and “right” content that’s good for a think or an argument. It’s a moving target, but we’ll always chase it.
“China on Monday criticized the U.S.’s seizures of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela and accused Washington of breaking international law amid reports that the U.S. Coast Guard was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea after seizing two others this month. In a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said: ‘The U.S.’s arbitrary seizure of other countries’ vessels is a serious violation of international law,’ adding that China ‘opposes illegal unilateral sanctions … without authorization from the UN Security Council.'” (12/22/25)
“A suspected cyberattack knocked France’s national postal service and its banking arm offline Monday, blocking and delaying package deliveries and online payments at the height of the busy Christmas season. The postal service, called La Poste, said in a statement that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, ‘rendered its online services inaccessible.’ It said the incident had no impact on customer data, but disrupted package and mail delivery. At a Paris post office decked out in holiday garlands and usually bustling this time of year, employees turned away frustrated customers lining up to send or retrieve packages, including Christmas gifts. Customers of the company’s banking arm, La Banque Postale, were blocked from using the application to approve payments or conduct other banking services.” (12/22/25)
“The nation’s oldest National Park Ranger, Betty Reid Soskin, died at the age of 104. In a public post on Soskin’s social media accounts, a spokesman confirmed the news of her death, saying Soskin had died at her home in Richmond, California on Sunday. … Soskin was hired by the National Park Service as a ranger at the age of 85, working at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park until her retirement in 2022 at the age of 100, according to her obituary. The National Park Service said Soskin worked to establish the park as a site for honoring women’s roles during World War II before she began working there as a park ranger.” (12/22/25)
“The U.S. will build “Trump-class” military vessels that the president on Monday suggested are new-age battleships, inching the country closer to construction of what the administration is advertising as ‘the Golden Fleet.’ … Trump unveiled the plans while flanked at Mar-a-Lago by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan. ‘They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,’ Trump said. Concept art depicts something reminiscent of a cruiser. It has at least one laser weapon aboard and is capable of launching missiles. A helicopter hovers overhead. And an image of Trump raising his fist is emblazoned on the back.” (12/22/25)
“Iranian state media reported missile drills in different Iranian cities, citing unnamed sources and witnesses. The Telegram channel of Iran’s public broadcaster and semi-official Nournews publish videos of what appear to be missile launches …. Israel has warned the Trump administration that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may be using an ongoing military exercise focusing on missiles as cover to launch an attack on Israel, according to a report yesterday. However, the US intelligence community has not seen any signs that an Iranian strike could be imminent, an American source told the outlet.” (12/22/25)
“Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has stepped in to personally guarantee $40.4 billion in Paramount Skydance’s latest effort to pry Warner Bros Discovery away from selling its prized Hollywood assets to streaming giant Netflix. The guarantee, disclosed in a filing on Monday, seeks to allay the Warner Bros board’s doubts about Paramount’s financing and the lack of full Ellison family backing, which had pushed it toward the competing cash-and-stock offer from Netflix. Warner Bros shares rose nearly 4%, while Paramount added about 3%. Warner Bros and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.” (12/22/25)
“The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces on Monday ordered their fighters to cease fire following deadly clashes that came as Turkey’s top diplomat urged the Kurds to integrate into the Syrian army. At least three people were killed in the clashes, which came ahead of a deadline for implementing a 10 March agreement between Damascus and the Kurds to integrate the SDF — which controls vast swathes of Syria’s oil-rich northeast — into the state.” (12/22/25)
