This Week in the World Affairs Brief

XI ROLLS OUT THE RED CARPET FOR TRUMP

Trump and his team doesn’t realize it, but history will look back at summits like this one and realize just how high the stakes really were, and how slight the possibility of real success there is for America, in the long term. I’m reminded of other high stakes summits in history. Like the disastrous meeting between FDR and Stalin in Yalta, during WWII. Roosevelt bent over backward to please “uncle Joe,” and turned over all of Eastern Europe to the future control of Soviet Communism. FDR and now Trump fail to realize that Communism is a deadly existential enemy, and their leaders are feigning moderation and will tell you everything you want to hear, as long as they get their way. Trump traveled to Beijing with an entourage of the rich and famous in order to lavish China with future trade deals and hopes to gain China’s help in bringing Iran to heel. Advanced trade with China will be easy, but Xi has his own much bigger ambitions and hopes to mimic Putin’s success in winning Trump over to his side. He also wants to stop Trump from giving advanced weapons to the country they will invade—in this case, Taiwan. But Xi also wants to restore his Iranian oil supply. China’s current president-for-life was the first global tyrant to discover how susceptible Trump was to flattery in Xi’s visit to Mar-a-Lago during Trump’s first term. He promptly tutored Kim Jong Un on how to fool Trump and Kim played as if Trump won him over as a “friend.” By the time Trump visited North Korea, Kim knew he could keep his nuclear program, and has grown it rapidly since. In this latest iteration of Communists fooling a US president, Xi is pulling out all the stops and giving Trump a red carpet welcome no other head of state has seen before. It’s working; Trump came away believing, like Neville Chamberlain before, that he has secured “Peace in our Time” with Red China. To receive a free, one-time sample of this brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a sample on the left.

Also:
  • What Happened to Trump’s Proposal to Iran Last Week?
  • Trump is Being Talked into Two Big Mistakes

Daily News

Israel Unleashes New Gaza Strikes Soon After Trump Says Iran Peace Deal 'Largely Negotiated,' Hormuz To Reopen As Final Terms Discussed

ZeroHedge

Israel launches significant new attacks on the Gaza Strip just as word of a tentative US-Iran peace deal is driving international headlines. Trump says an Iran peace agreement has been “largely negotiated” and will be announced “shortly,” with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz included among the deal’s key elements. Mediators believe they are edging closer to a deal to extend the US ceasefire with Iran by 60 days Waiting game in Tehran, via Iran Foreign Ministry: "We need to wait and see what happens over the next three to four days." Trump, officials have canceled prior travel plans: Trump says "Circumstances pertaining to Government" are keeping him from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding this weekend.

Another Detransitioner Wins A Huge Settlement

ZeroHedge

"I didn't want what happened to me to happen to other vulnerable girls and women," she said. Her lawsuit alleged professional malpractice, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud, each rooted in the same core allegation: that she was neither properly evaluated nor genuinely informed before she consented to an irreversible procedure. "And I wasn't given true informed consent. And that's something that everyone deserves to have for any medical procedure," she said.

Ukraine Uses High-Altitude Balloons To Extend Suicide Drone Strike Range

ZeroHedge

Ukrainian forces have borrowed a page from China's hypersonic glide-weapon testing and applied it to the Eastern European theater, using one-way attack drones against Russia. Instead of launching the Hornet strike drone from a ground-based catapult, Ukrainian operators tethered it to a high-altitude balloon, extending its range.

CEO Saves His Failing Company By Firing Entire HR Department

ZeroHedge

HR departments were originally created as a means of monitoring compliance with state and federal laws to avoid liability. In many cases this revolved around "sexual harassment" or "discrimination" in the workplace, but it ended up becoming a progressive crusade to make women, LGBT and minority groups a protected class of workers that are difficult to fire because HR is more concerned with lawsuits.

Iran Says 35 Ships Exited Strait Of Hormuz As Rubio Condemns Tolls

ZeroHedge

The US blockade of the Iranian blockade is looking increasingly more porous. Iran said 35 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian state broadcaster reported on Friday. The navy had already reported on Wednesday that 26 ships had passed through the strait within 24 hours. On Friday, the data provider Kpler confirmed only 10 passages on Wednesday. This represented an increase from the four passages recorded the previous day.

FDA Ousts Another Top Official: Who’s Behind the Shakeup — and Why?

The FDA fired Tracy Beth Høeg, the agency’s top drug regulator and a staunch advocate for vaccine safety. It’s the latest in a string of high-profile exits from the agency, many of which followed the appointment of Chris Klomp as HHS’ No. 2 official, Reuters reported. TrialSite News suggested the departures were “associated” with the “COVID-era dissent class” — and that Klomp may have directed the changes on behalf of the White House. The Defender could not verify that claim.

US Supreme Court Turns Down Virginia Gerrymander

The Daily Signal

Virginia currently has an independent redistricting committee that drew a congressional map with a Democrat advantage of 6-5. However, voters in April approved a change to the state constitution to allow the partisan redistricting in a narrow referendum last month. The state’s high court determined the state legislature violated the Virginia Constitution in bypassing normal procedures to pass a constitutional amendment.

Iran's Chief Negotiator Claims US Seeking To 'Start A New War' - As Trump Curiously Teases 'Final Stages' Of Talks

ZeroHedge

Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says that Tehran sees signs that the United States is seeking to restart the war Oil tumbles after Pakistan again touts final deal draft text imminent, followed by Trump claiming US in 'final stages' of peace talks with Iran, though Tehran hasn't budged on nuclear issue. Tehran (IRGC) warns next round of war could spread conflict 'beyond the region' - which was cast as a threat. Iran's IRGC Navy says 26 vessels, including oil tankers, container ships and other commercial vessels, transited in the prior 24 hours "in coordination" with Iranian authorities.

Global Rush For "Non-Red" Suicide Drones Begins As Taiwan Sees Booming Orders

ZeroHedge

Four years of war in Ukraine have rewritten how warfare is fought, accelerating the urgent need for low-cost aerial unmanned systems and ground robots. It has also prompted Taiwan to emerge as a supplier of low-cost suicide drones. Taiwan's national news agency, the Central News Agency, reported that a Taichung-based Taiwanese drone manufacturer is now focused on producing a domestically made variant of Iran's Shahed one-way attack drone.

Massie Out: Gallrein Wins Kentucky Republican Primary

ZeroHedge

With 58% of the vote counted, Gallrein had about 54% to Massie’s 46%, DDHQ reported. Gallrein, 68, is a relative newcomer to politics. He ran a low-key campaign by refusing to debate Massie and generally avoiding the press. His chief selling points were his military service, his endorsement by Trump and his promise to be a reliable vote for the president’s policies.

Shooters And Motives Revealed In San Diego Mosque Shooting That Killed Three

ZeroHedge

The two young alleged gunmen who descended upon a San Diego Islamic facility on Monday -- killing three men and themselves -- have been identified, along with early indications of their motives. Police sources have told multiple outlets that 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Velasquez -- driven by hate -- scrawled racist themes on their weapons and carried a gas can emblazoned with a Nazi SS sticker. One of them left a suicide note emphasizing "racial pride."

Trump Endorses Paxton in Texas GOP Senate Race

The Epoch Times

In a May 19 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Paxton has been loyal to him and is a “MAGA Warrior.” The president said that Cornyn “is a good man,” but was not supportive of him “when times were tough” such as being late in endorsing him for president in 2024.

Pro-Israel Forces Throw Kitchen Sink At Massie Ahead Of Tuesday Primary

ZeroHedge

In just the past few days, various anti-Massie PACs have filed disclosures indicating another huge load of cash showering down on the race. The Republican Jewish Coalition is spending another $470,000. The misleadingly-named United Democracy Project, which is a PAC affiliated with the formidable American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), revealed more than $950,000 in additional spending. The MAGA Kentucky PAC -- which was created solely to oust Massie and funded by non-Kentuckian Jewish billionaires Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer and John Paulsen -- disclosed more than $1.6 million since May 7.

Net Zero Fearmongering In Tatters After Climate Report 'Implausibility' Ruling

Daily Skeptic

The fallout from the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ruling that computer model high emissions pathway RCP8.5 is “implausible” is only just beginning. Most mainstream media fearmongering stories over the last 15 years need to be moved into the junk file, as do the increasingly shrill sandwich-board pronouncements of King Charles and Sir David Attenborough.

By Targeting Dairy Farmers, ESG Wants to Decide Your Milk

Real Clear Wire

The letter calls it voluntary but if you don't comply, the plant can't take your milk. And if the plant can't take your milk, you're out of business. That's Pathways to Dairy Net Zero in practice. Pathways to Dairy Net Zero (P2DNZ) is presented as a voluntary, science-based initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dairy producers. In practice, however, it functions as yet another sector-specific implementation of global ESG and net-zero governance.

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