This Week in the World Affairs Brief
ELECTION RESULTS FAVOR DEMOCRATS
Democrats won in key races in this off-year election, but it wasn’t without controversy, as Mike Lindell posted on X: “What Happened Last Night Wasn’t an Election - It Was a Setup. Machines failed in red districts. Poll pads crashed. False bomb threats shut down precincts [in conservative areas of NY]. Voters were blocked in PA, NJ, and Ohio - all on cue.” Jason Miyares in VA adds, “Republicans had a lead. Then came the now-familiar fraud curve... the GOP was too busy funding influencers and pushing early voting to notice. This isn’t incompetence. It’s the system working exactly as designed.” Yes, the mail-in ballot fraud system is still alive and well. Inconvenient as it may be, only in-person voting with verifiable citizenship ID, on paper ballots and hand-counting is going to yield honest results. The big news is that New York elected an outright Socialist for Mayor, with voters turning out in the highest numbers since 1969. But some ballots with Mamdani’s name were printed twice. No wonder Mamdani prevailed. Democrats picked up governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, by double digit margins–which was expected. New Jersey has been a blue state for years, and Virginia has become one as the DC area dominates Virginia politics because Democrats are more likely to flock to the government for jobs. To receive a free one-time sample of the Brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a Sample on the left.
Also:
- Charlie Kirk Coverup Suspicions Widen
- Why We Don’t Need More Nuclear Testing
Penstone’s comments struck a chord as he recalled the sacrifices made by countless servicemen. “I can see in my mind’s eye, rows and rows of white stones, of all the hundreds of my friends...for what?” he asked, revealing a deep sense of regret about the direction his country has taken. He harshly criticized the current state of affairs, asserting, “The sacrifice wasn’t worth the result that it is now.” His statement reflects a broader concern among veterans who witness significant changes in societal values and governance.
Penstone’s sentiments resonate amid growing frustrations over issues such as immigration and free speech.
Also announced as part of the deal, the Senate will vote on a so-called “minibus” appropriations package to fund several sectors of the government for a full year.
This minibus package would include three of the 12 government appropriations bills that need to be passed annually. Failure to pass one or all of these bills before the funding deadline results in a partial or complete government shutdown.
The case concerns a challenge to a federal law barring states from accepting mailed ballots after Election Day.
There are two candidates so far running for Pelosi’s seat: California state Sen. Scott Wiener and Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Trump called Pelosi’s retirement “a great thing for America.”
Fox News also reports that up to 30 grand jury subpoenas are anticipated to be served on former government officials involved in “Spygate” and/or “Russiagate.”
According to the company, the same thermal power plants that had been restored after attacks in 2024 were struck again, with multiple Russian drones targeting them "each minute" overnight on Nov. 8.
Ukrainian forces downed 406 out of the 458 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Russia also launched 45 cruise and ballistic missiles, nine of which were downed, the statement said.
"Russian strikes once again targeted people's everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said in the aftermath.
Emergency management crews are working overtime to restore power to the impacted grids, but this has been a growing problem as badly needed parts are hard to constantly replace after years of accumulated damage.
According to the investigation, former U.S. Capitol Police officer, Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, is a high-probability match to the unidentified pipe-bomb suspect seen on surveillance video on Jan. 5, 2021. Kerkhoff, who served four and a half years on the Capitol Police force before leaving in mid-2021 for a security position later described by the CIA as “campus security,” was matched through a forensic gait-analysis software tool that compared her stride to the suspect’s.
The resolution, sponsored by the United States, was adopted via 14 votes in favor and an abstention by China.
It removes Ahmed al-Sharaa—previously known as Mohammed al-Jolani—leader of political and military group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and Interior Minister Anas Khattab from sanctions aimed at ISIS and al-Qaida associates.
Despite a recent U.S.-China agreement pausing some restrictions for a year, insiders say broader export controls remain in place. General licenses are expected to be harder to obtain for buyers linked to defense or sensitive sectors. Since April, EU firms have filed roughly 2,000 applications, with just over half approved.
“The U.S. had conducted over 1,000 nuclear tests,” Erath said Monday in an interview with Defense News. “We had all the data necessary to know how nuclear weapons work, to verify that U.S. nuclear weapons would work, and other people didn’t. So by stopping testing when we did, we sort of locked in an advantage in knowledge that persists to this day.”
“What Prop 50 does is it temporarily takes away the power from the independent redistricting commission to draw up congressional districts so the Legislature can do it, and they’re going to use that power to redraw the congressional districts,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal.
On TPUSA, Owens says Kirk raised internal concerns about finances a week before he was killed. She cites an internal memo dated September 2 in which Kirk named fundraiser Justin Strife chief operating officer and empowered him to lead a small “Doge” (efficiency) initiative. According to the memo Owens read aloud, the team’s mandate was to make TPUSA “more efficient,” “more cost-effective,” align goals with metrics, and “reshape company culture.” Owens frames this as Kirk preparing a mini-audit to examine where money was going and, she adds, where it was coming from. She says multiple insiders have since contacted her with tips about vendors, contracting practices, and potential conflicts, and she claims outside journalists have engaged forensic accountants to review TPUSA finances.
Thousands of cases of illegal benefit use were found, and dozens were arrested for SNAP fraud.
The justices asked questions about how much power Trump had under an emergency powers law to impose tariffs.
Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2E systems were recently delivered to Caracas by Il-76 transport aircraft, a Russian lawmaker claims.
“In 3 RED districts in Cumberland County, NJ, the machines are down. On the phone w/ legal right now,” he wrote:
Other conservatives on the social media platform highlighted the news and urged people not to skip out on voting.
Proposition 50, which could position Democrats to gain five congressional seats, was the only item on Californian’s ballots during the Nov. 4 special election.
Some said the wins in largely Democratic states are not surprising, while others said it was a referendum on the Trump administration’s performance.
Democrats have used the government shutdown to push for the restoration of taxpayer-funded health insurance subsidies for illegal aliens. That funding stream was terminated when Republicans delivered working families tax cuts that include no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security as well as major health care reforms earlier this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has already acknowledged that Ukraine’s situation in Pokrovsk is extremely difficult, and that Russians have infiltrated the town, but he has also denied that the city had fallen into Russian hands.
Sky News reports a man in his mid-30s carried out multiple deliberate vehicle ramming attacks on pedestrians and cyclists on Wednesday morning on Île d'Oléron, a French island off the Atlantic coast.
Allowing mercury in vaccines while calling it dangerous in batteries and makeup is a ‘double standard,’ he said.
The broadcast trimmed Trump’s remarks to make it seem he said he would walk to the Capitol with his supporters to “fight, fight like hell.”
In reality, Trump said he would walk to the Capitol to “cheer on” lawmakers opposing the certification. The “fight like hell” line came nearly an hour later, long after he vowed to head to the Capitol.
Worse still, Trump had explicitly called on his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Nigeria-based NGO that produces detailed investigative reports on religious violence, estimates 125,000+ Christian deaths since 2009 (part of 185,000+ total civilian killings), with 7,087 killed in the first 220 days of 2025 alone, alongside 19,100 churches destroyed and thousands abducted.Others specify motives and take a nuanced approach. All of these groups, however, agree that Christians are vastly more likely to be killed due to militant violence than anyone else in Nigeria.
The Schumer shutdown will continue, after Senate Democrats blocked Republicans' 14th attempt to pass the House's continuing resolution.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently signed Addendum No. 9 to their 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), paving the way for faster follow-on licensing of advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel technologies.
Trump made it clear to radical leftist lawmakers that keeping the government closed - now on its 35th day, a record - by refusing to vote on a clean resolution would mean the SNAP program would only resume once the government reopens.
"It will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" the president emphasized.
Of course, the one thing that is certain to prompt Trump to cross any and all red lines is knowing he should not do it... which is precisely why China is doing what it is doing.
Ambassador to the US Xie Feng named i) Taiwan, ii) democracy and human rights, iii) China’s political system, and iv) development rights as Beijing’s four red lines, adding that “the most important thing is to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.”
It was his service as vice president to the younger Bush that earned him the title of America's most powerful second in command, famously huddling in the basement of the White House to architect America's response to Al-Qaeda's devastating terror attack on America on September 11, 2001.
Cheney proved an unabashed champion of America acting as the world's policing superpower, becoming the face of the neo-conservative movement inside the Republican Party.
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