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Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Chairman Xi Calls President Trump

The communist leader wanted to discuss Taiwan. Wall Street Journal reports: In an unusual diplomatic move, China’s leader Xi Jinping initiated a phone call with President Trump on Monday to discuss Taiwan, a flashpoint that has surged to the forefront in recent days as Japan takes a more assertive stance on the island’s autonomy. While Taiwan was Xi’s focus, Trump steered the conversation to Ukraine, said people familiar with the matter, as Washington-Kyiv peace talks appear to make progress and Trump tries to decisively end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The two issues—Taiwan and Ukraine—are both sensitive for U.S.-China relations, but they are rarely linked in discussions between the two leaders. Xi made the outreach, people close to Beijing said, turning the high-level communication into a rare diplomatic overture from Chinam (Wall Street Journal).

District Judge Dismisses Cases Against Comey, Letitia James

Catherine Salgado of PJ Media: A judge is claiming that Trump administration cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James cannot proceed because the prosecutor bringing them was “unlawfully appointed” (PJ Media). Ed Morrissey explains: Today’s dismissals are based on the Trump administration’s failure to get a US Attorney appointed and confirmed in time. They appointed an interim US Attorney early on, but federal law only allows interim appointments to continue for 120 days. After that, the judicial circuit appoints an interim US Attorney, an issue that the White House is already fighting in other jurisdictions. Currie refuses to accept any indictments from a second interim US Attorney appointed by Trump, calling it “defective” (Hot Air). Attorney General Pam Bondi: “We’ll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, to hold them accountable” (X).

Trump Designates Multiple Chapters of Muslim Brotherhood ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations’

Sebastian Gorka: “History has been made” …. Calling it a “tectonic act” (Gorka). From the Executive Order: This order sets in motion a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations…. (Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism), as amended. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond. Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests (White House).

Notably Absent in Muslim Brotherhood Terror Designation: Turkey and Qatar

Raylan Givens: The presidential order signed by President Trump focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Notably absent is any reference to the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Turkey and Qatar, which are actually part of the government in those countries (Givens).

Senator Mark Kelly Threatened With Legal Action From Pentagon

The senator is under well-deserved scrutiny for participation in a video encouraging military to disobey illegal military orders. Financial Times: The defence department on Monday announced it had launched a probe into unspecified misconduct allegations made against Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired navy captain. The investigation into Kelly could result in his “recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures”, the Pentagon said…. The move marks an escalation in the response from Donald Trump’s administration to the six lawmakers’ video after the president accused the Democrats of “seditious behaviour”, labelling them “traitors” whose behaviour should be “punishable by DEATH!” (Financial Times). Kelly was defiant: “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said. “I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution” (Wall Street Journal).

Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Visits Puerto Rico and US Military Personnel

Officially, it was a Thanksgiving greeting. But given all the activity we’ve seen in the region, it was much more. New York Times: General Caine has been a major architect of what the Pentagon calls Operation Southern Spear, the largest buildup of American naval forces in the Caribbean since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the blockade of Cuba in 1962. The general is expected to consult with commanders on the armada’s preparations, one of the two officials said. The Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean last week, and there are now 15,000 troops in the region, including Marines on amphibious ships and some 5,000 personnel at military bases in Puerto Rico…. With the Ford now in the Caribbean, carrier-based F/A-18 fighters have been carrying out flight operations in the area, with some flights just off the Venezuelan coast. In addition, Air Force B-1 and B-52 bombers, each armed with dozens of precision-guided bombs, have also been flying regular training missions off Venezuela’s coast (New York Times).

Israel Kills Key Hezbollah Leader Haytham Ali Tabatabai

Wall Street Journal: Tabatabai was crucial to those efforts, running military operations as one of the highest-ranking Hezbollah leaders left after Israel wiped out the group’s senior cadre. Tabatabai focused quickly on shoring up Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon and directed fighters to operate in small cells to better survive a future conflict with Israel, Arab officials said. Hand holding a poster with portraits of Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai and other men killed in an Israeli strike. His efforts have helped Hezbollah largely replace the more than 2,500 fighters the group lost during the war, Arab and Israeli officials said. At the time of his death, he was working on ingraining a system in which unit commanders trained up potential replacements so fighters wouldn’t be incapacitated when their leaders were killed as they were last fall, the Arab officials said (Wall Street Journal).

UK Set to Administer Puberty Blockers to Children as Young as 10

As we refuse to learn the moral lessons of these macabre experiments on our youth. Daily Mail: Hundreds of children are set to be jabbed with puberty blockers in the first NHS-backed experiment of its kind. The controversial clinical study will see as many as 226 children as young as ten-years-old who believe they are transgender take part. They will be injected with the drugs to examine whether they could safely be used in future to help young people change their bodies and become more like the gender they self-identify as, rather than their gender at birth (Daily Mail). Beege Welborn of Hot Air: How does the state allow it, knowing what we know? What needs to be ‘studied’? What needs to be inflicted on children who have not achieved the age of reason and consent to even know what is happening to them? Before you chance destroying their lives, before they even hit their teenage years? Ten years old (Hot Air).

‘America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?’

That’s the title of a piece from Jia Lynn Yang for the New York Times. They should be asking: Are public schools part of the problem? Yang: there is broad agreement that America’s children are not well…. In the face of an unyielding education system, more parents are discovering that their children simply don’t fit, a terrifying possibility when achievement in school can determine achievement in life. At that point, the best thing to do is to prove that your child has a mental disorder. With a doctor’s diagnosis, at least, adaptations are possible. In this way, the rise in diagnoses is also a revolt against education policymaking that strips away the particulars of people, treating them as interchangeable data points. The best teachers understand that every child has a distinct way of learning. This is especially true for children who fall outside the ever-diminishing definition of normal…. many parents are giving up on the system altogether (New York Times).

10.

Homeschooling Surges as Parents Grow Disillusioned With Public Schools

Homeschooling grew during the Covid era, but there were questions about whether or not it would continue. After a short lull, it has spiked: J.D. Tucille: “In the 2024-2025 school year, homeschooling continued to grow across the United States, increasing at an average rate of 5.4%,” Angela Watson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Homeschool Hub wrote earlier this month. “This is nearly three times the pre-pandemic homeschooling growth rate of around 2%.” … “This isn’t a pandemic hangover; it’s a fundamental shift in how American families are thinking about education,” comments Watson. “What’s particularly striking is the resilience of this trend,” concludes Watson of Johns Hopkins University’s Homeschool Hub. “States that saw declines have bounced back with double-digit growth, and we’re seeing record enrollment numbers across the country” (Reason).

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