While Xi and Putin Argue Over Pipeline,
U.S. Keeps Chokehold on China's Energy
Posted By: Mercedes44, 5/27/2026 2:18:05 PM
Putin walked away [from his meeting with Xi] with more than 40 agreements, but he did not leave with the prize he has long sought. "When you look at all the 'agreements,' they are only memoranda of understanding. In other words, they are merely invitations to talk more." — Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and co-author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century, to Gatestone Institute, May 22, 2026. The pipeline is especially important to Russia because it will replace sales to Europe, lost because of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. "Russia is running out of capital.
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U.S. Southern Command posted video on social media showing a boat resting on the water before being struck by an explosion. The last few seconds of the video show smoke and fire rising from the boat.
A day earlier, U.S. forces had launched a strike on an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing one man and leaving two survivors. Southern Command said it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors.”
Latino support for Democrats remains stagnant despite President Trump losing some of the gains he made with the key voting bloc in the 2024 election, a new poll found.
The UnidosUS survey of 3,000 registered Hispanic voters found 54% of Latinos plan to vote for Democratic House candidates in the midterm election, while 27% plan to vote for Republicans and 19% remain undecided.
The 54% is exactly the same percentage of Hispanics that went for Democratic House candidates in 2024, according to a CBS News exit poll. The 2024 exit poll results marked a notable decline in Latino support for Democratic House candidates compared to previous election cycles.
The Israeli Defense Forces eliminated a senior Hamas moneyman who funneled millions to the terror group’s military wing, officials confirmed Thursday.
Ihab Khrizim was killed in Khan Yunis — which is located on the southern Gaza Strip and Gaza’s second-largest city — on Tuesday as the IDF said that the strike marks a blow to the terror group’s “rehabilitation” attempts.
Khrizim was responsible for “managing the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas’s military wing” and continued to “violate the ceasefire agreement,” according to Israel’s military. His actions enabled the promotion and execution of terror plots in the immediate timeframe —
The US military carried out new strikes in Iran Wednesday, targeting a military site that threatened American troops and commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Today, US Central Command Forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz,” a US official said in a statement.
“US forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone,” the official added. In retaliation, Iranian forces claimed to have “targeted” a US airbase, according to state-run media.
NASA projects may have violated law hundreds
of times with joint research with China,
Congress finds 11 replies
of times with joint research with China,
Congress finds 11 replies
House investigation has identified hundreds of scientific publications in which NASA-funded U.S. researchers appear to have conducted joint work with Chinese institutions, potential violations of a federal law that has barred such collaboration for more than a decade.
The report, released on Wednesday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, also found that, in several instances, some of that research involved collaboration between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists and institutions that are part of “China’s defense research and industrial base.”
Ebola outbreak spreading faster than measures
can contain it, international health aid
group says 17 replies
can contain it, international health aid
group says 17 replies
U.S-based health aid organization is warning that the outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda is spreading faster than responders can contain it.
The warning came Tuesday from the International Rescue Committee, which said the outbreak is no longer limited to remote areas of northeastern Congo, ABC News reported.
Cases are now spreading to larger regional hubs, including the major city of Goma and Uganda's capital, Kampala.
The outbreak has resulted in over 900 suspected cases and at least 223 deaths so far.
Putin walked away [from his meeting with Xi] with more than 40 agreements, but he did not leave with the prize he has long sought.
"When you look at all the 'agreements,' they are only memoranda of understanding. In other words, they are merely invitations to talk more." — Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and co-author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century, to Gatestone Institute, May 22, 2026.
The pipeline is especially important to Russia because it will replace sales to Europe, lost because of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia is running out of capital.
A House Democrat called his party’s presumptive Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner’s personal history “disqualifying” on Monday, highlighting the difficulties Democrats may face in a race that could determine the balance of power in Washington.
“I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country,” said Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass, the day Platner appeared at a rally alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.Platner is likely to become the Democrat nominee after his main opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the primary,
The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed the Trump administration a win by reversing a lower court ruling against a requirement that immigration judges seek official approval before giving speeches in their official capacities.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last year intervened in light of President Donald Trump's firing of several agency heads responsible for hearing complaints, Reuters reported. The policy stems from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees roughly 750 immigration judges.
The justices did not rule on the merits of the case, but merely reversed the lower court decision and sent it back for additional proceedings.
Uh-Oh: Spencer Pratt Files Complaint,
Says Karen Bass Filmed Herself Violating
Election Law 6 replies
Says Karen Bass Filmed Herself Violating
Election Law 6 replies
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has a major problem as she runs for reelection.
She's done a horrible job, including a terrible response to the Palisades Fire, and one of the people who lost his house as a consequence, Spencer Pratt, is now coming for her job. Even in the blue area of Los Angeles, Pratt may just have a chance because people are so tired of the failure, and Pratt has a real talent for presenting a logical and hopeful alternative. He's now largely closed the gap in polling for the jungle primary.
Meanwhile,
judge in Florida blocked an effort Tuesday to temporarily halt the use of a new Republican-favored House map, just hours after a federal judge blocked a similar effort in Tennessee.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the map into law earlier this month, after the Supreme Court ruled in a Louisiana redistricting case last month that the state's existing congressional map that includes an additional majority-black district violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
On Tuesday, Florida Circuit Court Judge Joshua Hawkes denied a request from several groups to pause the use of the new map designed to help Republicans win several more House seats in the November elections,
Democratic Rep. Al Green loses to fellow
Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee in Texas primary 13 replies
Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee in Texas primary 13 replies
Long-time incumbent Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green lost his primary Tuesday to fellow incumbent Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee in a special runoff election that pitted two incumbents against each other for the same seat.
Both men were seeking their party's nomination to represent Texas' 18th congressional district. Menefee, a freshman congressman, will now face Republican candidate Ronald Whitfield in November.
Menefee was only sworn into office earlier this year after winning a special election to replace the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died last year. He defeated Green 68% to 31%.
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The June 2024 presidential debate between then-President Joe Biden (D) and then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was inarguably one of the most consequential events in American political history, largely because it proved to the American people beyond a shadow of a doubt that the occupant of the Oval Office was unwell. As we all know, it led to Biden withdrawing from the presidential race three weeks later after essentially being forced out by his fellow Democrats. It was a reckoning of sorts for the Democrat Party, the Biden-Harris administration, and the mainstream media, all of whom played starring roles in the deliberate years-long cover-up of Biden's decline,
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is gaining a reputation for penning nonsensical solo dissents in what should otherwise be unanimous Supreme Court decisions. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that her colleagues are no longer shy about putting such incoherence in its place. The latest incident came on Thursday in the Supreme Court’s Fernandez v. United States decision, in which the 8-1 majority held that “the supposed invalidity” of a prisoner’s conviction “is not among the ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ that justify compassionate release.” (Compassionate release is a process by which convicted individuals may seek a reduced sentence or early release due
Spoiler alert: Naaah. But it's certainly fun to fantasize.
Yes, John Cornyn may have been a slightly safer bet than Ken Paxton in a general election. Given the relative difference between how the two would have voted over the next six years, the gain from nominating Paxton probably doesn't justify the assumed risk of dethroning the incumbent Cornyn. It might take more money to fight for the seat in the general election, but that assumes that Democrats would have left Texas alone had Cornyn eked out a win over Paxton.
In the end, though, Texas is Texas,
Blue States Starting to Curb ‘Free’
Healthcare to Migrants as Budgets Spin
Out of Control 17 replies
Healthcare to Migrants as Budgets Spin
Out of Control 17 replies
A host of deep blue states are quietly pulling back from their generous programs of “free” healthcare to migrants as federal dollars dry up and their budgets continue to spiral into the red. With the Trump administration beginning to close the spigot of billions in federal aid that many states lavishly spent caring for illegal migrants, sates including California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon Washington, and the District of Columbia are finding that they cannot afford to replace the chocked off federal dollars with their own state budget dollars. This reality setting in has caused state officials to begin scaling back their freebies —
Here Come da Judge!
14 replies
There’s a growing scandal in Georgia. Seems a woman federal court judge has been reprimanded for having sex in the courtroom chambers with a male police officer. The sex was duly accompanied by loud, um, sex noises within easy hearing distance of the judge’s staff.
This happened over and over. And over again. For years.
One of the judge’s discomfited clerks reported the matter, and the appellate court conducted an investigation. The judge outright lied to the appellate court investigators, and attacked the clerk who had filed the report.
Mamdani Begins to Implement Communism
13 replies
The Communist Twelver Shi’ite mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, made a major announcement on Tuesday: he is beginning to implement the Marxist seizure of property in New York City.
He did not, of course, state that in so many words. As Marxists always do, he couched his plans in the language of social justice, claiming that he was striking out against bad landlords and providing an opportunity for all New Yorkers to live in decent, fairly-priced housing. And as is always the case with Marxist promises, Mamdani’s big announcement was an obvious and flagrant lie to cover up for his seizure of private property, not so much
After weeks of speculation, CBS News under Bari Weiss has made some big changes to the team at 60 Minutes -- firing the executive producer Tanya Simon, as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of the show, was also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer. They announced a new executive producer -- Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist who has made documentaries for HBO and Netflix. The New York Times typically dissed their former co-workers for being inexperienced: “Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist with no prior experience in television,”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple reports.
CNN was the first to report Wednesday night that the DOJ’s probe focuses on whether Carroll committed perjury while speaking at a deposition as part of her two civil lawsuits against Trump. The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Prosecutors are reportedly focused on Carroll telling then-Trump attorney Alina Habba in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for the lawsuit. Two weeks before the trial, though, Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s legal team that billionaire —
In Camera Inspection
12 replies
Marco Polo’s Garrett Ziegler has identified the “sitting” federal district court judge found to have committed judicial misconduct, perhaps most notably, for having sex in her chambers. Ziegler concisely reports the facts and identifies “the subject judge,” as the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council Order gingerly puts it, or “the Subject Judge,” as the 20-page memorandum attached to the Order gingerly puts it. Ziegler has identified Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia as the Subject Judge.
More cautiously, Josh Blackman comes to the same conclusion via a longer and more detailed route here. Professor Blackman has sought a response from Judge Ross
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is leading in new polling on a hypothetical Democratic presidential primary as the party seeks a new path after 2024 losses. An Emerson College Polling survey released Thursday found Buttigieg at the top of the pack with 18 percent support, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) at 16 percent. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) notched 11 percent support, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and former Vice President Kamala Harris — the party’s 2024 nominee — earned 10 percent each. Another 9 percent of survey respondents backed Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), and 18 percent
If President Donald Trump is considering handing over billions to the terrorists of Tehran and leaving them in control of the Strait of Hormuz, as some news dispatches have indicated, he will have committed a blunder. The only choice they should be offered is to give up everything or lose it all to the almighty forces of the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
If not, the Iranian threat will never be eliminated, only weakened for a time before returning to its demonic affairs, leaving a mess for someone else to clean up. Because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had
NASA projects may have violated law hundreds
of times with joint research with China,
Congress finds 11 replies
of times with joint research with China,
Congress finds 11 replies
House investigation has identified hundreds of scientific publications in which NASA-funded U.S. researchers appear to have conducted joint work with Chinese institutions, potential violations of a federal law that has barred such collaboration for more than a decade.
The report, released on Wednesday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, also found that, in several instances, some of that research involved collaboration between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists and institutions that are part of “China’s defense research and industrial base.”