Source: NDTV [India]
“India rejected on Monday US accusations that it is ‘dumping’ rice in the United States, saying its rice exports are primarily premium-grade basmati, which typically commands higher prices than non-basmati varieties. US President Donald Trump said last week that more tariffs could be imposed on Indian rice, accusing India of ‘dumping’ its shipments into the US market, referring to a practice whereby a product is exported at a price lower than its normal price. … India, the world’s largest rice exporter, shipped 20.2 million metric tons of rice in the 2024/25 financial year ending in March, including 335,554 tons to the United States, of which 274,213 tons were basmati rice.” (12/15/25)
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-dismisses-trumps-accusation-of-dumping-rice-in-us-9818631/amp/1
Source: The Hill
“ISIS kills 2 US troops in Syria; why were we there at all?” (12/15/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5649325-rising-december-15-2025/
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by George Beebe
“The end of the Cold War ushered in a long period of make-believe in American foreign policy. We saw ourselves, in the words of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, as ‘the indispensable power. We stand tall. We see farther into the future.’ And we could use our unmatched abilities to transform the world in unprecedented ways. … Things obviously did not go as planned. President Trump’s new National Security Strategy says goodbye to such magical thinking.” (12/15/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-nss-europe/
Source: Fox News
by Ted Jenkin
“California used to be the place where people went to chase dreams. Today, it’s the place where fiscal discipline goes to die. The Golden State, which is home to Hollywood glitz, Silicon Valley billionaires and the highest state taxes in America, is broke again. It’s staring down another multibillion-dollar deficit that exposes just how unstable and dysfunctional its financial model has become. In short, the Golden State isn’t so golden anymore. For years, politicians like Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom have insisted that California is the shining example of fiscal sensibility that America should follow. But when you peel back the layers, what you really find is a state government that can’t stop spending, can’t plan for the future and is now caught in a structural budget crisis of its own making.” (12/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/california-broke-its-not-too-late-rest-us
Source: Associated Press
“The government of Trinidad and Tobago said Monday that it would allow the U.S. military access to its airports in coming weeks as tensions build between the United States and Venezuela. The announcement comes after the U.S. military recently installed a radar system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean country’s government has said the radar is being used to fight local crime, and that the small nation would not be used as a launchpad to attack any other country. The U.S. would use the airports for activity that would be ‘logistical in nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations,’ Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It did not provide further details. Trinidad’s prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.” (12/15/25)
https://apnews.com/article/trinidad-airports-us-military-venezuela-strikes-542264e549f41fd00763cee9a30e3683
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital after being beaten when she was arrested last week, her family says. The 53-year-old human rights activist told them in a phone call on Sunday that she was brought to an emergency department twice after being ‘attacked by plain clothed agents with severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck’, according to the Narges Foundation. There was no comment from Iranian authorities, but they have said she was detained for making ‘provocative remarks’ at a memorial ceremony in the city of Mashhad on Friday. The Nobel Committee and award-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi are among those calling for her release. Ms Mohammadi, the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.” (12/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dz15556l1o
Source: The Dispatch
by Jessical Riedl
“DOGE fell victim to the absurdly unrealistic standards set by its leaders. Elon Musk originally pledged that his administrative actions to slash government waste could immediately save $2 trillion out of a $7 trillion federal budget. As Musk familiarized himself with basic federal budgeting, he quickly reduced his target to $1 trillion and then $150 billion. These ambitious goals reflected the long-held conservative fantasy that budget deficits are driven primarily by obvious waste, fraud, and abuse that any competent business leader could simply zero out, saving trillions of dollars. … DOGE’s failure was entirely predictable to anyone with a baseline understanding of the federal budget, public administration, or basic politics.” (12/15/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/why-doge-failed-to-slash-spending/
Source: Common Dreams
by Ivana Nikolić Hughes
“I write this from the front of a Columbia classroom in which about 60 first-year college students are taking the final exam for Frontiers of Science. Yes, it’s a Sunday, but the class is required of all Columbia College students and so having the exam on the weekend ensures that there won’t be conflicts with the exams for other courses they are taking. The 60 students in my classroom are a fraction of the nearly 740 taking the course this semester. The exam began at 2 pm, less than 24 hours after the shooting at Brown University, and just hours after many of us learned about the shooting in Sydney, Australia. Given these devastating events, I offered this morning that anyone who was adversely affected could take the exam later in the week …” (12/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/mass-shootings-sanctioned-violence
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Matt Hoh: Could Israel Go Nuclear on Iran? And Will Trump Really Stop the Ukraine War?” (12/15/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-matt-hoh-could-israel-go-nuclear-on-iran-and-will-trump-really-stop-the-ukraine-war/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
“In 2009, I got a call from Eric Garris, founder and editor of Antiwar.com. Would I consider writing a column for the website? As a reporter who covered politics for Fox News, hardly a bastion of skepticism during the second Bush administration, I gratefully agreed. … In those days, the mainstream press operated in the shadow of a furious establishment Borg. With few exceptions, they deferred and sucked up to, genuflected, and jock-sniffed their way into the good graces of the military and the imperial court. … Not surprisingly, when freelance reporter Michael Hastings transgressed this code of the courtier, the peacocks of the Washington news establishment unleashed a professional righteous anger on him that should have been reserved, but wasn’t, for the crimes of the U.S. government, like say, Abu Ghraib.” (12/15/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/kelley_beaucar_vlahos/2025/12/14/antiwar-com-afghanistan-michael-hastings-and-me/
