News From Around the Web
#1 Trump Shaves China Tariffs in Deal With XI on Fentanyl, Rare Earths - Trevor Hunnicutt for Reuters, Samir K. Mehta & associates, Sophi, John Miles, Chatham House, and Fox 17 on X
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming U.S. soybean purchases, and keeping rare earths exports flowing. Trump's face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations...#2 Trump Directs Pentagon to Test Nuclear Weapons for First Time Since 1992 - The Washington Post, IAmLegend, Greg Sopko, CBS2 News, Júlio César Duarte, Azad News HD, and News IADN on X
The president said he wanted testing to occur “on an equal basis” with Russia and China. The Kremlin condemned the move, and there was no indication of when tests might take place. President Donald Trump on Thursday morning said he directed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, an apparent attempt to flex the United States’ military might ahead of a high-stakes trade meeting here with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping...#3 Casey Means’ Confirmation Hearing for Surgeon General - Will Stone and Selena Simmons-Duffin for npr, Graybeard Truth, NBC News Health, Jerome Adams, Mark Meyer, Vasilisa Hamilton, and The Wall Street Journal on X
Casey Means is a wellness influencer, entrepreneur, and author. Last year, she published a bestselling book about diet and metabolic health, Good Energy. She coauthored the book with her older brother, Calley Means, who works for the Trump administration as a special government employee and is a close advisor to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She did not complete her surgical residency and does not have an active medical license, which would be a major departure from past Surgeon Generals. She runs a company that promotes the use of continuous glucose monitors. She has described America as in "spiritual crisis," questioned the childhood vaccine schedule and the use of birth control, and has called out what she calls "corruption" at the FDA...
UPDATE from CNN: Confirmation Hearing Delayed for Trump’s Surgeon General Nominee as She Goes Into Labor With Her First Child
#4 Turning Point Table Flipper Threatened Trump, Arrested by Feds After Firing From Teaching Assistant Job: FBI - Peter D'Abrosca for Fox News, Ton Tarver, MAGATEACHER4TRUMP, Bella, and The Conservative Read on X
A former teaching assistant who was fired by Illinois State University was arrested in a joint operation by FBI and Secret Service agents on Tuesday. Derek Lopez, 27, has been charged with threatening President Donald Trump. "The arrest follows a month-long investigation coordinated with the above agencies, which also included the Illinois State University Police Department, regarding Lopez's online and in-person activities," according to an FBI memo obtained by Fox News Digital. "Lopez is alleged to have recently made threats against a sitting President, which prompted the current federal charges," according to the bureau...
#5 Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba Pick Up the Pieces After Melissa’s Destruction - AP News, Informedclearly, WILX News 10, Eyewitness News, CW 39, and Epoch Trace on X
People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed. The rumble of large machinery, the whine of chainsaws, and the chopping of machetes echoed throughout southeast Jamaica as government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach isolated communities that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record...
#6 Justice Department Puts 2 Prosecutors on Leave After They Signed Court Docs That Described “Mob of Rioters” on Jan. 6 - Scott Macfarlane and Joe Walsh for CBS News, Tracy Solomon, Jan Smits, RELENTLESSLY Gay, and Phil Gurski on X
The Justice Department placed two D.C.-based federal prosecutors on leave after they filed court papers calling the Jan. 6 Capitol siege a "riot" perpetrated by a "mob," three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Wednesday. The papers were submitted on Tuesday in the case of Taylor Taranto, who was pardoned by President Trump on Capitol riot charges earlier this year but was later convicted of livestreaming a bomb threat. He was arrested in 2023 while livestreaming himself driving around former President Barack Obama's D.C. neighborhood while armed, according to prosecutors...
#7 Zohran Mamdani’s Unlikely Coalition: Winning Over NYC’s Jewish Voters - Joanna Insco for AlJAZEERA, Le'Hodia; All Happy Joyful News Links & Opinions!, Gad Saad/Jacob N. Kornbluh/Roger Ball, RG7/The Persian Jewess, Sara Forman, and Amos Weiskopf/Jill Filipovic on X
Sitting in a room of hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers, Zohran Mamdani received cheers and applause at the Erev Rosh Hashanah service of progressive Brooklyn synagogue Kolot Chayeinu on a Monday evening last month. This was one of the Democratic mayoral nominee’s recent appearances at synagogues and events over the Jewish High Holy Days, and a visible step towards navigating a politically charged line: increasingly engaging the largest concentration of Jewish people in any metropolitan area in the United States, and holding firmly anti-Zionist views before the general election on November 4...
#8 Mamdani’s Wishful Thinking on Tax Revenues - Ryan Bourne and Nathan Miller, CATO/Zerohedge, Dee Knight, N.K., Hoover Institution, Robert Reich/Opossum, Free Business School, and Ron Desantis on X
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has pledged a battery of new social spending if he wins the city’s November election: $10 billion for housing, $1 billion for a new community safety department, at least half a billion to subsidize buses, billions more for free childcare, and untold sums for government grocery stores—a historically loss-making venture. Previous analysis here has critiqued the economics of his “affordability” agenda. When asked how he’ll pay for all this, however, Mamdani says he’d raise $9 billion annually through a pair of tax hikes, which he insists most New Yorkers wouldn’t have to pay...
#9 Sen. Cruz to Newsmax: Fraud ‘Significant’ in Snap Program - Newsmax, Poppins, Michelle Maxwell/Row, ted kirby, Tony Seruga, Overton (community note), 𝕄𝔸𝔾𝔸 𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚, and Wall Street Apes on X
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned that fraud within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is "very significant" and accused Democrats of deliberately blocking efforts to clean it up. He told Newsmax that the left’s push to expand dependency on government programs is driven by raw political ambition. Appearing Wednesday on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Cruz said Democrats repeatedly oppose Republican efforts to tighten eligibility requirements and add safeguards to detect abuse within the food-stamp system.
#10 Republicans Call for Impeaching Judge James Boasberg Over ‘Arctic Frost’ Probe Targeting 430 GOP Figures - The Center Square for Brushwood Media, Senator Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, C3, Eric Schmitt, and Jesse Kelly/Sean Davis on X
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday called on the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach a federal judge involved in an investigation into President Trump’s 2020 election loss. Cruz said Judge James Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., signed an order preventing AT&T, Cruz’s phone provider, from telling the senator about a subpoena of his phone records. Cruz and eight other senators had their phone records subpoenaed as part of an investigation into lawmakers' involvement with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Cruz said Boasberg justified the order under what the judge wrote were “reasonable grounds” that the Texas senator would destroy or tamper with evidence in the Biden Administration’s investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack...
