Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

The UK’s National Health Service will pay 25 percent more for new, patented U.S. medicines under the terms of a new trade agreement between the two nations.

The deal is the latest in a series of agreements in which the United States has leveraged tariffs to secure concessions on prescription drug prices. This is the first deal reached with a nation rather than with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

In return for this concession, the United States will forego tariffs on UK-made pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical technology, as well as refrain from further pharmaceutical price negotiations during U.S. President Donald Trump’s term.

The commitments arose from the U.S.–UK Economic Prosperity Deal, signed in June, in which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump agreed to address the imbalance of pharmaceutical trade between the two nations.

The UK also agreed to not undercut the new, higher prices by demanding concessions from manufacturers under a previous discount agreement with the pharmaceutical industry.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said the agreement would strengthen the U.S. supply chain and cement America’s place as a leader in life sciences innovation.

“This deal doesn’t just deepen our economic partnership with the United Kingdom—it ensures that the breakthroughs of tomorrow will be built, tested, and produced on American soil,” Lutnick said in a Dec. 1 statement announcing the terms of the agreement.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agreement will bring “long-overdue balance” to U.S.–UK pharmaceutical trade and strengthen global innovation.

UK Officials Hail Deal

The UK government said in a Dec. 1 statement that the agreement would benefit tens of thousands of patients and expand access to vital drugs.

Liz Kendall, UK secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology, said the agreement “will ensure UK patients get the cutting-edge medicines they need sooner, and … world-leading UK firms keep developing the treatments that can change lives.”

Health Minister Zubir Ahmed said: “This represents new hope and the possibility of treatments that could transform and even save lives.

“This package of changes will bring the best of pharma to the UK for the benefit of our patients, our [National Health Service] and our economy.”

The 25 percent price increase is accompanied by an equivalent rise in the cost-benefit calculation that the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence uses to decide whether to provide a particular drug to a patient. The move appears aimed at ensuring that medicines remain available to patients despite the additional cost to taxpayers.

“Today’s announcement is an important step to ensure that patients can access innovations as quickly as possible,” said Nicola Perrin, chief executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities.

Active Ingredient Imports

The development and manufacture of medications is a global industry, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and other components of a drug are often sourced outside the United States.

Just 15 percent of the APIs for brand-name medications sold in the United States are produced domestically, according to U.S. Pharmacopeia, a global supply chain research group. The European Union is the largest supplier of such ingredients to U.S. manufacturers, accounting for 43 percent of the supply. More than half of the APIs for prescription medicines in the United States are made in India and the EU.

The Trump administration imposed a 15 percent tariff in August on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients imported from Europe.

That tariff is waived for the UK under the terms of the agreement announced on Dec. 1.

Most Favored Nation Plan

Trump had long said that other countries have been taking advantage of the United States by negotiating low prices for pharmaceuticals through their national health plans, driving manufacturers to raise prices for U.S. customers.

“The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population and yet funds around three-quarters of global pharmaceutical profits,” Trump said in an executive order in May.

“This egregious imbalance is orchestrated through a purposeful scheme in which drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.”

The administration initiated a most favored nation prescription drug pricing policy, which refers to the lowest price available in any developed nation.

In combination with tariffs imposed on imported medications and trade negotiations with other nations, the administration has entered drug price agreements with drugmakers Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, EMD Serono, and AstraZeneca over the past three months.

The drug makers agreed to offer their products to the Medicaid program at the most favored nation price and to offer all new medications within the United States at the most favored nation price.

The manufacturers also agreed to sell some medications directly to U.S. consumers at the most favored nation price and to invest in the United States any additional revenue received from increasing prices in other countries.

Each company received a waiver on tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products in exchange for its commitment to honor the four points of Trump’s most favored nation prescription drug pricing plan.

These manufacturers and some others have pledged to participate in TrumpRx.gov, a clearinghouse site that will help private customers find low-priced medications for direct purchase.

Commenting on the UK deal, Chris Klomp, director of Medicare and deputy administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, “When nations fairly share the burden of producing and paying for life-saving medicines, every citizen gains, and the fight against global disease becomes one we can actually win together.”

In yet another sign of deepening Russia-China ties on all levels, which has also included cooperation on the military front in the context of the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on Monday temporarily lifting visa requirements for visitors from China.

Chinese travelers can now enter Russia without a visa for up to 30 days, either for tourism or short-term employment purposes. This move mirror’s the Chinese government’s earlier decision to grant visa-free entry to Russian citizens.

Both countries already had in place policies which allowed visa-free entry for group tours. The new rule will remain in place until September of 2026 and is being widely referred to as a pilot program.

President Putin had last week called the step “good and positive breakthrough in the development of our relations” during meetings in Moscow with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

The timing is interesting as it comes amid an escalating diplomatic spat between Japan and China, which has resulted in Chinese government authorities publicly dissuading Chinese citizens from traveling to Japan.

Lately even concerts by Japanese artists which were set for places like Shanghai have been canceled, and the rift is beginning to be felt among the common populace. The prediction is that there could be a quick influx of Chinese tourists in Russia as a result:

According to market analysts who spoke with The Moscow Times, Putin’s announcement — combined with heightened diplomatic tensions between China and Japan — has led to a sharp increase in travel searches and bookings from China to Russia.

In a Monday statement Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian urged Japan to “learn the lessons of history, do soul searching, take seriously what it has heard from the Chinese side, simply retract the erroneous remarks as it should and take practical steps to honor its political commitments to China.”

Amid reports of curbs on seafood imports from Japan, the restaurant scene is also being impacted:

Diners once had to book weeks in advance to secure a table at Toya, a popular Japanese restaurant in Beijing.

But business has taken a sharp turn, with more than 60 reservations cancelled since mid-November, said owner Kazuyuki Tanioka, who has served omakase menus in the Chinese capital for over a decade.

Things are deteriorating fast on every level after Japan suggested it could defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion…

China just declared the San Francisco Peace Treaty “illegal and invalid.”
But here’s the catch: the moment China rejects SFPT, the entire post-WWII map of Asia breaks — and China is the first country to lose territory.

Why?
Because SFPT isn’t just a US–Japan treaty.
It’s the… pic.twitter.com/B5Fq2L03m2

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动 (@TGTM_Official) December 2, 2025

And film releases are being postponed:

The spat has also led to the postponement of Japanese film releases in China, the abrupt cancellation of concerts by Japanese musicians and the suspension of official exchanges.

A frequent traveller to Japan, Yan Jun, faced a dilemma when China advised its citizens to avoid visiting Japan. Chinese airlines proceeded to cut hundreds of Japan-bound flights this month.

Again, if this China-Japan spat persists, it could present and immediate and even potential long-term boon for Russian tourism and industry.

Authored by Janice Hisle and Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

An official U.S. terrorist list dominated by jihadist groups and a clutch of cartels has its first European additions in more than two decades: four Antifa groups.

Designating groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) empowers U.S. federal authorities to investigate the groups’ supporters, prosecute them, and seize their assets.

The European groups, which were added to the list on Nov. 20, include Italian anarchists who carried out a letter-bomb campaign against EU leaders, a German hammer-wielding gang accused of targeting right-wing party members, and two Greek anti-capitalist groups.

The designations reflect President Donald Trump’s commitment “to uproot Antifa’s campaign of political violence,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote when announcing the designations on Nov. 13.

Short for “antifascist,” Antifa seeks to silence people whose viewpoints it defines as “fascist,” and vows to do so “by any means necessary”—a popular Antifa rallying cry.

Here is what to know about the four foreign groups and how, according to one former CIA operative, the designation helps the Trump administration confront Antifa on U.S. soil.

Italy, Home of ‘World’s Largest Anarchist Network’

One of the newly declared FTOs hails from Italy, where fascism originated under dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s.

The group is called the Informal Anarchist Federation, also known as the International Revolutionary Front.

The Informal Anarchist Federation “is likely the world’s largest anarchist network and the one that claims the highest number of attacks,” according to a March 2024 report published by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, the report said.

Since 2003, the organization has committed violence, bombings, letter-bombs, and other attacks against places it deems “capitalist institutions,” the State Department said in a Nov. 13 fact sheet. Although it mostly operates in Italy, the group has “self-proclaimed affiliates across Europe, South America, and Asia,” the fact sheet said.

The Informal Anarchist Federation declares that “armed struggle” is necessary against nation-states and “The Fortress Europe,” according to the State Department.

Police officers and demonstrators clash during an anti-fascist and anti-racist march to protest against a Lega Nord party general election campaign rally on Piazza Duomo in Milan on Feb. 24, 2018. Francesca Volpi/Getty Images

In 2014, as Antifa was growing globally, West Point, America’s first military academy, published a profile of the Informal Anarchist Federation.

The report said the group served as a sign that Italy had become “the birthplace of a new threat that has spread to other countries,” the article said.

By then, the Informal Anarchist Federation had been responsible for “dozens of attacks” over a 25-year span in Italy and elsewhere—a trend that Italian authorities had “underestimated” partly because the attacks caused no fatalities, the West Point report said.

However, this type of “insurrectionary anarchism … has become the most dangerous form of domestic non-jihadist terrorism in the country,” the article said.

The Informal Anarchist Federation “has ideological and solidarity ties with Greek anarchist groups,” the report said.

Greek Anti-Capitalist Groups

Revolutionary Class Self-Defense and Armed Proletarian Justice are two newly designated FTOs that are based in Greece.

Both claim to be “anti-capitalist” and are known to use improvised explosive devices in attacks against Greek governmental targets.

Revolutionary Class Self-Defense has been outspoken in its solidarity with Palestine’s conflicts with Israel; the group dedicated two recent attacks to the Palestinians.

In February 2024, an explosive device targeted the Greek Ministry of Labor, but officials evacuated the area, resulting in no injuries.

In April 2025, Revolutionary Class Self-Defense claimed responsibility for that attack and also for an explosion at the Hellenic Train offices, saying railway safety concerns motivated the attack.

Members of the Greek police counterterrorism unit investigate the area outside Hellenic Train offices after a bomb exploded in Athens on April 11, 2025. The U.S. State Department designated both the Greece-based Revolutionary Class Self-Defense and Armed Proletarian Justice groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Aris Oikonomou/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images

The other Greek group, Armed Proletarian Justice, claimed responsibility for a 2023 bombing attempt at a police headquarters in Athens.

In a public post on an anarchist website, the group said: “You were lucky this time, the same will not apply next time. We dedicate our action to those who have been murdered, tortured, beaten and raped by the Greek Police.”

Germany’s Hammer Gang

After antifascism took hold in Italy, some people in Germany also became early adopters of antifascist ideology; Germany is often considered the cradle of the Antifa movement as we know it today. That’s partly because it was the origin of flags and other symbols still in use, along with the “black bloc” protest method, in which participants don black masks and clothing to avoid being identified.

A group known as Antifa Ost, German for “Antifa East,” stands out among the four new FTO designees partly because of its methods.

As its nickname, the Hammerbande—German for “Hammer Gang”—implies, Antifa Ost has been known to bludgeon its victims with hammers. Hammer attacks have been carried out in broad daylight, online videos show.

Seven members of the group began standing trial in Germany Nov. 25 for attempted murder and other charges. From 2018 to 2023, the group attacked people it regarded as fascists, German prosecutors said.

However, at the time of the FTO designation, German authorities downplayed the threat that Antifa Ost might pose.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Sarah Fruehauf told reporters that the group’s leaders and most-violent members were either in custody or imprisoned.

German government spokesperson Steffen Meyer said Washington acted without influence from Berlin in declaring the group a terrorist organization.

The U.S. designation of Antifa Ost as an FTO followed Hungary’s decision to impose that label on the group.

In 2023, outrage spread among Hungarians after Antifa Ost members were accused of injuring nine people at a right-wing gathering in Budapest described as “extremist” in the European press. At least one person was a passerby who was singled out for the attack because he wore camouflage-print clothes, marking him as a potential fascist to the attackers, Hungary Today reported.

Demonstrators hold antifa flags and banners during a Revolutionary May Day march in the Neukoelln district in Berlin on May 1, 2025. The Trump administration designated the German group Antifa Ost as a foreign terrorist organization; it is also known as “Hammerbande,” German for “Hammer Gang.” Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Prosecution of one suspect, Italian citizen Ilaria Salis, was interrupted in 2024 after she won a seat in the European Parliament, granting her immunity.

A social media account under the name “antifaost” states in its profile, “Action against the far right in eastern Germany. Never again fascism!”

What Power Does FTO Label Give US?

Simply put, the FTO designation makes it illegal for anyone in the United States to conduct business with the groups, or to provide material support or resources to them.

FTO designation falls under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224.

The FTO designation was made after Trump signed an executive order in September naming Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Trump’s order commanded agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations—especially those involving terrorist actions—conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told The Epoch Times, “With our partners in Treasury, we are following the money and mapping out this entire network and treating them as a terrorist organization under the authorities the president has given us.

“In the turn of the new year, you’re going to see some very righteous prosecutions and investigations being publicized,” the director added.

An Antifa demonstrator kicks a smoke bomb back toward federal officers outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 5, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

US Antifa ‘Networked With Foreign Antifa’

J. Michael Waller, a former CIA operative who now serves as a senior analyst at the Center for Security Policy, said Trump’s FTO declarations have “energized the fight against domestic violent extremism by bringing ironclad existing federal laws into play.”

“These foreign groups and domestic Antifa communicate back and forth. There are degrees of collaboration,” he told The Epoch Times. “The FTO designation gives authorities here more tools to crack down on domestic extremists in ways that have already been settled in court.”

While federal laws define FTO, there is no such definition for “domestic terrorist organization.” That designation might face a court challenge.

“However, it narrows the dangerous, anti-free-speech ‘countering violent extremism’ designation” that originated under President Barack Obama, Waller said.

Trump’s “domestic terrorist” label relies on laws that define terrorism, while Obama’s “violent extremism” label lacked such legal underpinnings. Therefore, the Obama-era label could easily be applied in a “random and arbitrary” way, he said.

Together, the domestic and foreign designations weaken U.S-based groups. “American Antifa is networked with foreign Antifa, and so this is a way to go in and to use foreign terrorism-support laws against American terrorist groups,” Waller said.

Some people harbor misconceptions about Antifa, Waller said. Observers may accept that fascism is bad. So, because the groups say they’re “antifascist,” people perceive “they must be good guys,” he said, and that violent or unruly protests result from “youthful frustration.”

“They’re not just out there to smash windows … Their goal is to overthrow our government,” Waller said, perhaps one city at a time.

Antifa employs tactics and ideology espoused by Russian dictator Josef Stalin, Waller noted.

Post-World-War-I, the goal of German Antifa, established in 1932 under Stalin’s influence, was to “tear out” political centrists and polarize the nation. Communists joined anarchists on one side, opposing Nazis on the other. That polarization is what brought German dictator Adolf Hitler to power, Waller said.

The Unity Congress of Antifa at the Philharmonic Opera House, organized by Germany’s Communist Party in response to Benito Mussolini’s rise in the 1920s, in Berlin on July 10, 1932. Public Domain

Future Ramifications

Waller called the FTO designations “a really smart move” to prevent the groups’ adherents from spreading propaganda in the United States or entering the country. The designation also blocks access to domestic bank accounts.

It is vital for Trump to take action to halt Antifa, Waller said. “This has to be smashed—now. He can’t have a successful presidency and leave us to inherit this mess any further.”

Five recent guilty pleas in a Texas Antifa terrorism case will strengthen future prosecutions, Waller said.

In that case, the Department of Justice (DOJ) “worked with outside groups to formulate a very fine and legally bulletproof definition of what Antifa is as an organization—not just a nebulous idea like we had been led to believe,” he said.

He called that strategy “brilliant.”

With those plea agreements, “the DOJ has just proven under law that [Antifa] is an organization,” he said, a definition that might have taken years to prove in court otherwise.

Additional defendants still face charges in that case, which arose from a July confrontation at an immigration-detention center; an officer was shot but survived.

President Donald Trump (C) chairs a roundtable about Antifa in the State Dining Room of the White House on Oct. 8, 2025. The foreign terrorist organization designation followed Trump’s September order labeling Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Prior to Trump’s orders, the FBI “had no reason to monitor” or even learn about Antifa cells, Waller said.

Trump’s directives changed that. “This is a priority presidential order for them, and suddenly there’s a whole lot of interest in it,” Waller said, adding, “This is just the beginning of a very long term, very well-thought-out strategic plan.”

President Trump has issued a rare criticism and brush back of Israel’s expansionist policy in Syria, where in the south of the country Israel’s military has launched recent deadly ground and aerial raids which go way beyond just the Golan Heights.

Trump has warned that the future of Syria’s stability is at stake. He wrote in a Monday post on Truth Social, “The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed, through hard work and determination, in the Country of Syria. We are doing everything within our power to make sure the Government of Syria continues to do what was intended, which is substantial, in order to build a true and prosperous Country.”

While touting that he has recently terminated long existing sanctions on Syria, Trump crucially warned “It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State.”

He then once again praised the founder of al-Qaeda in Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who since Assad’s ouster a year ago declared himself ‘interim president’.

Trump’s message to Israel is that ‘interference’ in Syria’s affairs could hinder the potential for “peace in the Middle East” – which Washington wants to see, according to his message. Times of Israel is reporting that Trump’s Truth Social post was issued alongside an important phone call with PM Netanyahu on Monday:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump are speaking by phone, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.

The call comes after Trump warned Israel against destabilizing Syria and its new leadership, days after IDF soldiers battled gunmen in the country’s south.

Israel last Friday had launched another unprovoked major attack on Syria, which killed at least 13 people, including children – and additionally some 25 were reported injured.

The widely reported assault on the southern Syrian town of Beit Jinn constituted a rare ground raid by Israeli forces, accompanied by air and artillery support. Israel troops actually took on casualties – with at least six that were reported wounded, including two critically.

Israeli drones have also been active over the area. In post-Assad Syria, the IDF has encroached more and more on Syrian territory, expanding significantly beyond its Golan Heights occupation.

Trump issues a warning against Israel’s Netanyahu over its illogical incursions in the south;

“It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State.” pic.twitter.com/TPVN7onQJT

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 1, 2025

The Israeli military has described that the high-risk operation was launched to detain suspects belonging to Jama’a Islamiya – a Lebanese Sunni Islamist group which is alleged to have fired rockets at Israel from Lebanon during the Gaza war. The statement further charged the group “terrorist plots”.

However, Trump’s Monday statement is a very mild criticism at best. It could be that Israel is actually getting these Syrian operations approved by US military commanders in the region. 

Via Remix News,

After a flamboyant speaker went viral at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Youth Congress, there are questions about Alexander Eichwald. Speculation is growing about whether he is an undercover agent, a left-wing satirist, or actually just a genuine AfD supporter. Regardless of the truth, the AfD is already preparing to expel him from the party.

Social media has been asking questions about Eichwald, who sported a blue dinner jacket, after his speech at the AfD Youth Congress in Giessen over the weekend.

Even within the party, there is no clear answer about who he is.

🇩🇪🔴Many on the right are accusing this man of being an undercover agent.

After Alexander Eichwald went viral for his “Hitler-like” speech at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Youth Congress, speculation is growing about who he actually is.

During his viral speech, he compared… pic.twitter.com/AtJMiz3Bzn

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 1, 2025

The newly elected head of the AfD’s young group “Generation Germany,” Jean-Pascal Hohm, also had no answer to questions about Eichwald.

“No matter whether you’re a left-wing provocateur, an undercover agent or simply crazy – anyone who acts like that has no place in the AfD and its youth organization,” he told the dpa news agency.

“Alexander Eichwald’s appearance once again showed how important it is to look closely at admission interviews to see who you accept into the party and who you don’t,” he added.

Eichwald’s speech, in which he used to term “party comrades” and referred to dog breeds when selecting who is allowed into Germany, drew comparisons to Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

With his speech, Eichwald applied for a position on the board of the newly founded “Generation Germany.” Eichwald clearly lost to Alexander Claus, receiving only 12 percent of votes.

When asked by the dpa whether his appearance was serious, he only responded “yes” and then left the conference hall.

Already, there is speculation about whether the speaker was an undercover agent of the powerful spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The BfV is known to place informants inside the parties it targets, with the AfD one of its main concerns. However, others speculated the man is a satirist, potentially from the left. Still, there is no confirmation as of yet who the man actually is.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla announced an audit of the data and membership rights of Eichwald, who has only been part of the NRW-AfD in Herford since October.

As a result, Eichwald was removed from the AfD council by circular resolution on Sunday.

“Accordingly, the measure was also taken to aim yesterday by circular resolution to exclude Mr. Eichwald from the party through a party expulsion procedure.“

Additionally, measures are being pursued to have him removed from the party entirely.

AfD parliamentary group leader in Herford, Michael Schneidermann spoke to Welt about Eichwad.

“He touted himself here as a political scientist and student and said he would like to take part in local politics. He did, too.“

The Herford AfD parliamentary group leader, commenting on Eichwald’s speech, said the 30-year-old man had “absolutely unmasked“ himself with his appearance.

“At the weekend in Giessen, that was behavior that I was absolutely not aware of,” said Schneidermann.

Schneidermann also speculated that Eichwald may be an undercover agent “sent from a satirical background.” Schneidermann also said that Eichwald “damaged the party and also reputation of the youth wing of the AfD, which had just been founded.”

Read more here…

Authored by Eva Fu & Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

One flash is all it takes.

That’s how James Tour said the United States can tackle China’s rare earth dominance.

All he needs is discarded electronics—of which the United States has mountains. And from these scraps, the Rice University chemist and nanotechnologist has pioneered a way to quickly extract rare earth metals.

“We can pull out one metal and then the next,” he told The Epoch Times. “It’s really that simple.”

Tour’s solution is flash Joule heating: rapidly heating up the materials to thousands of degrees to vaporize the metals. Mixed with chlorine gas, the vapors turn into chlorides that emerge at different temperatures.

Just like in an incandescent light bulb, the technique works by passing an electric current through the raw material, Tour said. But whereas the former channels a steady electric current to create a perpetual glow, in treating metals, the energy arrives in short bursts, dialing up heat in milliseconds.

“Metals are infinitely recyclable,” he said.

And whereas the traditional way of distilling metals is rather “messy,” Tour said, what he proposes is all about simplicity—“you flash and you’re done.”

Speed is now more critical than ever. The United States is racing against time to reshore rare earth production, spurred in part by China’s October threat to dramatically curtail access.

With a one-year truce in hand, Washington now has a short window to close the gap. Getting a mine up and running can take 15 years.

Tour said his technology would put the United States on a faster track.

“It would give us a map to get independent,” he said.

“You can get these things going for a few tens of millions of dollars. That’s not very much when it comes to this type of manufacturing.”

US Dominance Lost to China

Rare earths, a subgroup of 17 critical minerals, are essential components in electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, and missiles.

China currently sits at the center of this vital global production chain. It makes more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth magnets, according to International Energy Agency data. China is also the sole supplier for certain elements, such as samarium, used in fighter jets and nuclear reactors for its high heat resistance.

This dominance comes from decades of strategic investment, lavish state subsidies, and aggressive market manipulation that stifled foreign competition.

Decisions made in the United States also played a part.

Until 1991, the country was a leading producer of rare earth minerals; the Mountain Pass mine in California supplied most of the world. Environmental troubles then shuttered the mine for years at the same time China began to gain a foothold.

Against the Pentagon’s objections, the U.S. government greenlit the 1995 sale of Magnequench, then the industry leader in rare earth magnets, to a Chinese front group, effectively handing over critical defense technology and manufacturing to China.

In 2004, Magnequench closed its Indiana plant and moved operations to China. Beijing started taxing exports of rare earth minerals the following year.

Twenty years later, the United States is beholden to Chinese minerals.

“We didn’t realize that we were selling something that turned out to be very important to our country,” Tour said.

Waste to Treasure

As early as 1976, the United States had a law regulating electronic waste disposal.

In the years that followed, the ballooning electronic waste created a whole recycling industry that still struggles to catch up. It’s now the fastest-growing type of waste, rising five times faster than recycling, according to the United Nations.

The United States produced 7.2 million tons of electronic waste in 2022—about one-eighth of the world’s total, the latest U.N. data show. That’s about 46 pounds for every American.

“We have these mountains of tailings that we can access, and we have these constant mountains of printed circuit boards,” Tour said.

Tour said that their method could clean up this spiraling nightmare of waste sites and turn it into a “treasure.”

Lucas Eddy, technology development manager for Metallium’s Texas subsidiary Flash Metals USA, said he is now seeing the idea being put into practice.

“The real reason a waste product is a waste product isn’t because it’s bad, it’s because it can’t be used,” he told The Epoch Times.

Here’s where flash Joule heating shines, according to Eddy, whose Texas factory has licensed the method for metal recovery.

Old Tech Reimagined

Joule heating—passing an electric current through a conductor to produce heat—has been around since the 1840s. It’s now an integral feature of every household, in toasters, electric heaters, ovens, and hair dryers.

Until now, no one had thought to use it for electronic waste.

The spark for Tour’s team began with reading a scientific paper describing using the flash Joule heating technique to make metallic nanoparticles.

The researchers tested the technique on carbon and found that it was a quick way to make high-quality graphene at low cost. They next began exploring its potential in extracting the much-needed rare earth metals.

Eddy, a 2025 Tour lab graduate, joined the project in early 2021 just as this shift began.

“It’s really live chemistry in action,” he said. “You see a rainbow of colors coming off.”

Each change of color represents one metal element that has separated out. Rare earths, usually with some of the highest boiling points, tend to come out last—often as a white powder, he said.

The project drew interest from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which asked them to make it more industrially applicable, Tour said. Under a federal contract, the team worked on lowering boiling points, experimenting with fluorides and chlorine in various forms, and eventually settled on chlorine gas.

That step was “revolutionary,” Eddy said.

Read the rest here…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog acknowledged this week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in his corruption trial is generating significant debate and division within Israeli society. Herzog said that Netanyahu’s formal petition for the charges and case to be dismissed “will be addressed with full care and precision,” and pledged his decision will be guided solely by “the good of the state and Israeli society.”

He in the Monday comments admitted that Netanyahu’s move “unsettles many people across different sectors of the public and has sparked considerable debate.”

But Herzog tried to calm rising public anger, dismissing aggressive or heated public discourse as having “no impact” on his judgment.

PM Netanyahu formally submitted the pardon request to Herzog on Sunday, sparking opposition backlash demanding that the president quickly shoot it down. Local media says that Netanyahu’s request immediately unleashed a firestorm of controversy, as it was accompanied with another denial that’s he’s guilty:

As if the country were not already laboring under enough legal and constitutional crises, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took Israel into a new minefield on Sunday when he filed a request to President Isaac Herzog asking for a pardon for the criminal charges against him in the three cases for which he is currently standing trial.

In a brief, personal letter to Herzog, Netanyahu made the case that bringing the trial to a close would benefit the public by ending national divisions over his prosecution.

He then published a message pledging to heal the nation’s divides should his trial be halted, but in the same breath enflamed the rift by arguing that not only is he innocent but that the he’d been framed and the indictment against him was concocted by hostile elements in law enforcement agencies.

Indeed he took the denial further by saying he’d been ‘framed’ by his political enemies. Thus if Herzog were to suddenly go along with dismissing the case, outrage among the opposition as well as long-running anti-Netanyahu protests in the streets related to handling the hostage crisis in Gaza would explode.

Times of Israel concludes of the dilemma, “Rather, experts say, it is Netanyahu’s glaring omission of an admission of guilt or wrongdoing that puts his request on legally shaky ground, making it highly unlikely that president will grant him an outright pass, and inviting the possibility of court intervention if he does.”

Back in January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions connected to a series of cases – all of which he’s asserted his innocence in. For a review:

• Case 1000 concerns allegations that Netanyahu and his wife accepted luxury gifts, such as cigars and champagne, from wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favors.
• Case 2000 involves claims that Netanyahu negotiated with Arnon Mozes, publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, to secure more favorable press coverage.
• Case 4000 — viewed as the most serious — centers on accusations that Netanyahu provided regulatory and financial benefits to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the Walla news site and Bezeq telecommunications, in return for positive media treatment.

Netanyahu has also long faced accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity – but pressure over this has mainly been on the international and European front, related to international criminal court probes. President Trump has still firmly had his back, and has weighed in vocally in the case, asking Israel to dismiss all charges.

Republicans will hold onto Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District despite a push by Democrats to flip the deep-red seat, the Associated Press projected Tuesday, as Republican candidate Matt Van Epps was set to defeat Democrat Aftyn Behn.

The former state commissioner and Army helicopter pilot defeated the Democratic nominee, Aftyn Behn, with 53.9 percent of the vote in the highly publicized race, according to The Associated Press as of 9:45 p.m. ET. Behn had 45.1 percent, with nearly all votes counted. 

The high-stakes election was neck and neck ahead of election day, as an Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on Nov. 26 showed Epps slightly ahead with 48 percent of voter support in the district and Behn with 46 percent. As always, the highly biased, vote suppressing poll came out largely in favor of the Democrat who is set to lose by almost 10 points. 

Tuesday’s special election, held after the resignation of Republican Rep. Mark Green, drew nationwide attention and was widely viewed as a referendum on President Trump. The president endorsed Van Epps during the primaries, participated in a phone rally for the GOP candidate on the eve of the election and congratulated him on Tuesday evening.

More than 43,000 ballots were submitted during the early voting period, according to the Tennessee Division of Elections.

The congressman-elect, originally from Ohio, will represent 14 counties in Middle Tennessee—including downtown Nashville—after the seat was left vacant by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who retired over the summer to take a job in the private sector.

Tuesday night’s win in the Deep South, which President Donald Trump won by more than 20 points in 2024, helps the Republicans maintain hold of their slim majority in the U.S. House, which is expected to shrink once again on Jan. 5, 2026, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) resigns. Before the Trump-endorsed candidate was elected, the 119th Congress had 219 Republicans, 213 Democrats, and three vacancies.

The result is a boon for Trump and his party, which had worried that its narrow House majority would grow even slimmer. But the relatively tight margin in such a deep-red district nonetheless represents a warning shot about the party’s vulnerabilities heading into the 2026 midterm elections. 

Trump carried the seat by 22 percentage points a little over a year ago. The Seventh Congressional District, which stretches from Kentucky to Alabama and includes part of downtown Nashville, had been drawn by G.O.P. state lawmakers specifically to elect a Republican.

As the Epoch Times reports, Epps’s win comes after the GOP flooded Tennessee with a multi-county, boots-on-the-ground effort to gain as much support as possible in the 24 hours ahead of the election.

On Monday, Epps headlined a morning rally in Franklin and an evening rally in Clarksville, which featured appearances by party powerhouses such as Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson (R-La.), Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Epps’s win comes after the GOP flooded Tennessee with a multi-county, boots-on-the-ground effort to gain as much support as possible in the 24 hours ahead of the election.

On Monday, Epps headlined a morning rally in Franklin and an evening rally in Clarksville, which featured appearances by party powerhouses such as Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson (R-La.), Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Epps promised to advance Trump’s MAGA agenda, fix the economy, bring manufacturing back to America, secure borders, keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports, and protect farmers.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has floated an unusual but very creative plan to quickly expand U.S. grid capacity: tapping the industrial diesel generators already sitting at data centers, big-box retailers, and other commercial sites. The proposal comes as multiple regional grids strain under the explosive power demand driven by the data-center boom. Leveraging these idled generators could serve as a short-term bridge until new generation comes online.

Bloomberg quoted Wright on Tuesday morning at the North American Gas Forum in Washington, where he said that tapping the nation’s idled fleet of industrial diesel generators could add the equivalent of about 35 nuclear power plants’ worth of electricity and help bridge the country until new natural-gas and nuclear generation comes online in the coming years.

Wright emphasized the scale of the opportunity, saying, “We’re going to unleash that 35 gigawatts of capacity that sits there today,” though he noted that pollution rules have historically limited generator use.

He argued that the massive data-center buildout over the next few years could be primarily supported by these existing generators, avoiding the need for dozens of new power plants.

These generators, he said, are already deployed at data centers and commercial sites nationwide. “They’re all around the country. It’s going to start with communicating to everyone that these assets exist.”

Wright and the Trump administration understand that power grids are stretched thin in the era of data centers. The push for dispatchable backup generation is a short-term solution for all the missing power needed for the AI boom…

Wow:

“In 2025-28, we project ~57 gigawatts (GW) of US data center power demand, and we quantify available power capacity to serve this demand as: near-term grid access of ~12-15 GW, plus ~6 GW of data centers under construction, resulting in a ~36 GW shortfall of US power… pic.twitter.com/4PArdYY9qO

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 16, 2024

Perhaps by the time the 2030s arrive, new natural-gas generators and other reliable sources will finally add enough capacity to meet booming demand. Nuclear remains more of a next-decade story. And now, Wright may truly be onto something.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US Department of War insisted on Tuesday that it’s not waging a “forever war” in Somalia despite the fact that the Trump administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country.

Liam Cosgrove, a reporter for ZeroHedge, noted during a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday that the US has launched 101 airstrikes (now 102) in Somalia and that US troops reportedly conducted a recent ground raid, and asked why the US military is still in the country.

“I can assure you this is an America First Department of War and president, so we aren’t conducting forever wars in Somalia, we aren’t seeking regime change, and we’re not nation building,” Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in reply.

The Trump administration has dramatically escalated the US war in Somalia, launching more than 10 times the number of airstrikes that the US conducted in 2024, and more than the combined total of airstrikes launched during the 12 years that Presidents Obama and Biden were in office. Despite the unprecedented scale of US strikes, Kingsley described the campaign as “narrowly scoped.”

She told Cosgrove, “I will say that this Department’s narrowly scoped, intelligence-driven, counterintelligence operations in places like Somalia, alongside our partners, allow us to protect the American homeland from terrorist threats and to protect our interests.”

US airstrikes this year have targeted a small ISIS affiliate based in caves in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia.

The US has been fighting al-Shabaab since it backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, which ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the capital from CIA-backed warlords.

Pentagon asked why the US military is still in Somalia

‘I can assure you this is an America First Department of War and president, so we aren’t conducting forever wars in Somalia, we’re not seeking regime change or nation building’ pic.twitter.com/yrnXb7riSe

— Avinash K S🇮🇳 (@AvinashKS14) December 2, 2025

Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union and claimed its first attack in 2007, which targeted Ethiopian troops occupying Mogadishu.

In 2012, al-Shabaab declared loyalty to al-Qaeda, after years of fighting the US and its proxies. The ISIS affiliate in Somalia first emerged in 2015 as an offshoot of al-Shabaab, and is believed to have only a few hundred members.