Monday of a “Short Week” — Year-End Fundraiser Update

It’s Thanksgiving week in the US, and we are thankful for our readers … especially the readers who financially support what we do.

One of those readers, TH, sent us what he calls his “widow’s mite” (those of you who read the Bible will get that reference) over the weekend. He does that several times a year, and he’s one of our favorite people indeed! His $15 contribution this time around brings our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5am) to $1,285.84!

Our “mini-goal” is to reach $2,000 this week. We’re $714.16 short of that mark. Will YOU kick in?

https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd

Our final goal is $5,501. After we’ve raised $2,750.50 from all y’all, another one of our favorite people, GL, will “match funds” for the other half. So we’re looking for another $1,464.66 altogether. PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!

https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd

Our “guarantee” for this week is three editions (today, tomorrow, and Wednesday), but we usually do at least one “weekend special edition” over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Have a great day, and a great week!

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily

Canada: Carney Says Regime Will Resume US Trade Talks “When Appropriate”

Source: US News & World Report

“Canada will resume trade discussions with the United States ‘when it’s appropriate,’ Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday, noting he did not have a pressing issue to address with President Donald Trump. Trump last month suspended the talks over an anti-tariff advertisement issued by Ontario’s provincial government. ‘We are very busy with the future of Canada, and with new partnerships. There will be conversations with the president, probably in the next two weeks,’ Carney told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg. ‘We will re-engage when it’s appropriate.'” (11/23/25)

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-11-23/canada-says-it-will-resume-us-trade-talks-when-appropriate

UK navy intercepts Russian corvette and tanker as Moscow steps up naval activity

Source: ABC News

“A U.K. patrol ship has intercepted a Russian corvette and a tanker after shadowing them through the English Channel, the Defense Ministry said Sunday, adding that Russian naval activity around U.K. waters had increased by 30% over the past two years. With the past two weeks, the patrol ship HMS Severn intercepted the Russian corvette RFN Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya as they sailed through the English Channel, the ministry said. The Severn eventually handed over monitoring duties to an unidentified NATO ally off the coast of Brittany. … The news comes just days after Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters that the Russian spy ship Yantar had aimed lasers at the pilots of surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities off the coast of Scotland.” (11/23/25)

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-navy-intercepts-russian-corvette-tanker-moscow-steps-127802565

Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key

Source: Ars Technica

“One of the world’s premier security organizations has canceled the results of its annual leadership election after an official lost an encryption key needed to unlock results stored in a verifiable and privacy-preserving voting system. The International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR) said Friday that the votes were submitted and tallied using Helios, an open source voting system that uses peer-reviewed cryptography to cast and count votes in a verifiable, confidential, and privacy-preserving way. … Per the association’s bylaws, three members of the election committee act as independent trustees. To prevent two of them from colluding to cook the results, each trustee holds a third of the cryptographic key material needed to decrypt results. ‘Unfortunately, one of the three trustees has irretrievably lost their private key, an honest but unfortunate human mistake, and therefore cannot compute their decryption share,’ the IACR said.” (11/21/25)

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/11/cryptography-group-cancels-election-results-after-official-loses-secret-key/

India: Trade unions oppose new labour codes, call for demonstrations

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“Ten large Indian trade unions have condemned the government’s rollout on Friday of new labour codes, the biggest such overhaul in decades, as a ‘deceptive fraud’ against workers. The unions, aligned with parties opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded in a statement late on Friday that the laws be withdrawn before nationwide protests they plan to hold on Wednesday. … Modi’s government implemented the four labour codes, approved by parliament five years ago, as it seeks to simplify work rules, some dating to British colonial rule, and liberalise conditions for investment. It says the changes improve worker protections. While the new rules offer social security and minimum-wage benefits, they also allow companies to hire and fire workers more easily.” (11/22/25)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/22/indian-trade-unions-oppose-new-labour-codes-call-for-demonstrations

FL: Homeowner shoots, kills intruder

Source: WPLG 10 News

“A man was shot and killed Saturday evening after deputies say he and three others tried to force their way into a southwest Miami-Dade home. … A preliminary investigation found that four unidentified individuals arrived at the home and attempted to enter by force. The homeowner, who was inside at the time, fired at the group, striking one of the subjects in the upper body, deputies said. … The remaining three individuals fled the scene in an unknown direction.” (11/22/25)

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2025/11/22/homeowner-shoots-kills-intruder-during-attempted-break-in-in-southwest-miami-dade-deputies-say/

France: AP mapping shows poorest regions backing Le Pen’s party as support for Macron wanes

Source: SFGate

“The date was May 7, 2017. Addressing cheering supporters, the newly elected leader of France, Emmanuel Macron, made a promise that now, in his waning 18 months as president, lies in tatters. The rival that Macron defeated that day, Marine Le Pen, had secured 10,638,475 votes. They were nowhere near enough for the far-right leader to win. But they were too numerous for Macron to ignore, a best-ever watershed at the ballot box for Le Pen’s once-ostracized National Front party that she inherited from her Holocaust-denying father. Gazing out over a sea of French flags, Macron acknowledged ‘anger’ and ‘distress’ that he said motivated Le Pen voters. He pledged to do everything to win them over, ‘so they no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes.’ But since then, Le Pen’s us-against-them nativist politics targeting immigrants, Muslims and the European Union have made millions more converts.” (11/23/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/ap-mapping-shows-france-s-poorest-regions-backing-21203388.php

Former TV anchor heads to same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell after $63 million COVID fraud conviction

Source: Fox News

“A former TV anchor-turned entrepreneur convicted of stealing millions of dollars in a COVID-era fraud scheme will spend the next decade behind bars at the same Texas prison camp as infamous sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury found Stephanie Hockridge, 42, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Friday, Hockridge was sentenced to 10 years in lockup at a Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the New York Post reported. She was also ordered to pay over $63 million in restitution. Hockridge was convicted ‘in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $63 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act’, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Hockridge co-founded lender service provider Blueacorn in April 2020, ostensibly to help small businesses and individuals secure PPP loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, the DOJ said.” (11/23/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/us/former-tv-anchor-heads-same-prison-ghislaine-maxwell-after-63m-covid-fraud-conviction

ND: Abortion illegal again after court reverses a judge’s earlier decision

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

“Abortion is again illegal in North Dakota after the state’s Supreme Court on Friday couldn’t muster the required majority to uphold a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s ban last year. The law makes it a felony crime for anyone to perform an abortion, though it specifically protects patients from prosecution. Doctors could be prosecuted and penalized by as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Three justices agreed that the ban is unconstitutionally vague under the state constitution. The other two justices said the law is not unconstitutional. The state constitution requires at least four of the five justices to agree for a law to be found unconstitutional, a high bar.” (11/21/25)

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/21/abortion-north-dakota/

Yemen: Houthi court hands down death sentences to 17 people accused of spying

Source: SFGate

“A Houthi-controlled court in Yemen’s capital convicted 17 people of spying for foreign governments and sentenced them to death in the latest development in a yearslong Houthi crackdown on local staff from foreign agencies. The Specialized Criminal Court in Sanaa handed down the verdict on Saturday, according to the Houthi-run SABA news agency. The people convicted were part of ‘espionage cells within a spy network affiliated with the American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence,’ said the court, which handed down a death sentence by firing squad in public. The court also sentenced a man and a woman to 10 years in prison, while another defendant was acquitted. Saturday’s verdict can be appealed, said Abdulbasit Ghazi, a lawyer representing some of the defendants who were convicted.” (11/23/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/houthi-court-in-yemen-hands-down-death-sentences-21203425.php