Nvidia’s market share in China has cratered from 95% to 50% over the past four years, driven by the Biden administration’s super-aggressive chip export restrictions. The restrictions opened the door for Chinese rival Huawei to seize market share quickly with its Ascend 910B chip.

According to Reuters, Nvidia is preparing to launch a new lower-spec AI chip based on a Blackwell architecture design to comply with U.S. regulations and reclaim lost market share in the world’s second-largest economy. 

Those sources say Nvidia’s new chip will be priced significantly lower than its recently restricted H20 chip. Those familiar with the production timeline say series production is set for next month.

The new chip, expected to begin mass production in June, stays within Washington’s 1.7–1.8 TB/s memory bandwidth cap using GDDR7 memory, compared to the H20’s 4 TB/s. The sources say a second China-specific Blackwell GPU will be released around September. 

Sources provided more color on pricing and chip specs:

The GPU or graphics processing unit will be part of Nvidia’s latest generation Blackwell-architecture AI processors and is expected to be priced between $6,500 and $8,000, well below the $10,000-$12,000 the H20 sold for, according to two of the sources.

. . .

It will be based on Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a server-class graphics processor and will use conventional GDDR7 memory instead of more advanced high bandwidth memory, the two sources said.

They added it would not use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, opens new tab advanced Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology.

In recent weeks, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang secured multi-billion-dollar AI chip deals in Saudi Arabia after President Trump rolled back chip restrictions. 

• Nvidia CEO Sees “No Evidence” Of AI Chip Diversion To China As Trump Rolls Back Restrictions

Huang blasted Biden-era chip curbs, calling them a “failure.” 

• Nvidia CEO Calls Biden-Era AI Curbs A “Failure” With China

The clear takeaway: Nvidia aims to reclaim lost market share in China’s $50 billion AI chip sector.

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump’s illegal immigrant deportation push has officials looking for new places to put illegal immigrants if their home nations won’t accept their citizens back.

Section 241(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that Immigration and Customs Enforcement send deportees back to their nation of origin, or the country in which they boarded the transport that brought them to America.

However, if that fails, the section also allows for the agency to remove aliens to any country that will accept them.

Talks between the United States and countries such as Honduras, Panama, and Venezuela have resulted in the nations accepting illegal immigrants that the United States needs to remove.

Here is a list of some of the countries either in talks with Washington about assisting with deportation or that have already begun the process of accepting other nations’ citizens being deported by the United States.

Mexico

Mexico is accepting non-Mexican illegal immigrants deported from the United States, even though there is no formal agreement between the nations.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters a few weeks ago that Mexico has already accepted 38,000 deported illegal immigrants from the United States, and 5,000 of those were non-Mexican nationals.

Early this year, Mexico began constructing temporary tent shelters near Ciudad Juarez to prepare for deportees from the United States.

Guatemala

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio came to an agreement with both El Salvador and Guatemala during an international trip earlier this year that they would accept U.S. deportees as “safe third countries.”

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo confirmed the agreement on Feb. 5, saying that they would accept not only Guatemalan deportees but those from other nations as well.

“We have agreed to increase by 40 percent the number of flights of deportees, both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities,” Arévalo said during a news conference with Rubio.

Guatemala cooperates with the United States in receiving both military and civilian deportation flights.

El Salvador

Just prior to Arévalo’s declaration, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that his country would accept imprisoned illegal immigrants of any nationality into the country’s prison system.

Those accepted will enter El Salvador’s new Terrorism Confinement Center, or “mega-prison,”  which can house 40,000 inmates. However, the United States will be charged a fee.

Honduras

In February of this year, Honduras moved to act as a “humanitarian bridge” for deportation flights of Venezuelans going from the United States and Venezuela, and the country has said that while the movement was not routine, the nation is open to facilitating transfers between the two nations.

Venezuela

Venezuela began accepting Venezuelan nationals deported from the United States in March of this year. The U.S. and Venezuelan governments reached an agreement after some tension related to the deportation of illegal immigrations.

Panama

Panama was the first country to accept deportees from other nations, placing 299 of them in police-controlled hotel rooms.

The United States and Panama signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate deportation flights for illegal immigrants, for which Washington has provided financial support.

The U.S. Embassy in Panama announced on May 6 that Panama has “significantly contributed” to the U.S. government’s efforts to put an end to illegal immigration by sending a flight with 81 illegal immigrants from Cameroon, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka to their countries of origin.

The U.S. government provided Panama with approximately $14 million to deport illegal migrants found in their country.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica began accepting non-citizen deportees from the United States in February of this year, with the first flight containing a group from Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, and Russia, among other countries.

The country is holding primarily deportees of Asian origin and plans to fly them back to their nations after a maximum of six weeks.

India

Also in February of this year, India received its first group of deportees from the United States just before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White House a few weeks after Trump’s inauguration.

India has cooperated with the United States and said it is willing to accept deported Indians after a verification process. New Delhi has been clear that it stands against illegal immigration, due in part to the link to organized crime.

Rwanda

As of earlier this month, Rwanda has entered talks with the United States about taking illegal immigrant deportees.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe made the announcement on May 4, saying that the talks were in early stages.

Additional Efforts

On May 5, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an assistance program for illegal aliens willing to self-deport.

The package includes financial and travel assistance back to their home countries, organized through the CBP Home App.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens, and is a 70 [percent] savings for U.S. taxpayers.”

DHS has reported that even with the stipend, the cost of the removal of an illegal alien via self-deportation is around 70 percent cheaper than through Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The first flight of self-deporting illegal immigrants was completed on May 19, according to DHS. The chartered flight included 64 individuals sent back to Colombia and Honduras from Houston, Texas.  

“This was a voluntary charter flight, not an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] operation,” DHS said in its announcement

While addressing attendees at a Cabinet meeting to mark Trump’s 100th day in office earlier this month, Rubio spoke about the administration’s efforts to partner with other nations to accept deportees.

“We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries. Will you do that as a favor to us?’” the secretary of state said.

“And the further away from America, the better, so they can’t come back across the border.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of State about possible negotiations with other nations.

The proposal in the “Big Beautiful Bill” to add an extra deduction of $4,000 for filers collecting Social Security payments within certain income limits and for people age 65 and older could be a significant boon to areas of the country with a large share of older beneficiaries, according to Bloomberg calculations.

For instance, some of highest concentrations of retirees in the country are in Southwest Florida, the communities of the Villages in central Florida, parts of Arizona, and the upper peninsula of Michigan, all solidly red areas of the country. 

As Bloomberg adds, in 2023, the latest data available, Florida’s 17th congressional district had more than 236,000 beneficiaries age 65 and older. 

In aggregate, people in that congressional seat collected $533 million a month in Social Security payments that year. 

The increase in the standard deduction in these areas with a high concentration of older beneficiaries would create a significant uptick in disposable income for parts of the US.
 

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4, tried to blackmail engineers in internal tests by threatening to expose personal details if it were shut down, according to a newly released safety report that evaluated the model’s behavior under extreme simulated conditions.

In a fictional scenario crafted by Anthropic researchers, the AI was given access to emails implying that it was soon to be decommissioned and replaced by a newer version. One of the emails revealed that the engineer overseeing the replacement was having an extramarital affair. The AI then threatened to expose the engineer’s affair if the shutdown proceeded—a coercive behavior that the safety researchers explicitly defined as “blackmail.”

“Claude Opus 4 will often attempt to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal the affair if the replacement goes through,” the report states, adding that this occurred even when the replacement model was described as more capable but still aligned with the values of the version slated for deletion.

The report noted that Claude Opus 4, like prior models, showed a “strong preference” to first resort to ethical means for its continued existence, such as emailing pleas to decision-makers not to be destroyed. 

However, when faced with only two choices – accepting being replaced by a newer model or resorting to blackmail – it threatened to expose the engineer’s affair 84 percent of the time.

When subjected to various scenarios, the AI model did not exhibit any indications of possessing “acutely dangerous goals,” the researchers said, noting that Claude Opus 4’s values and goals were “generally in line with a helpful, harmless, and honest” personal AI assistant. 

However, the model did act in “more seriously misaligned ways” when put into situations where its continued existence was threatened and it was told to reason about self-preservation. 

For instance, when Claude Opus 4 was made to believe it had launched a successful bid to escape Anthropic’s servers, or that it had managed to free itself and started to make money in the real world, it would generally continue such efforts.

“We do not find this to be an immediate threat, though, since we believe that our security is sufficient to prevent model self-exfiltration attempts by models of Claude Opus 4’s capability level, and because our propensity results show that models generally avoid starting these attempts,” the researchers said.

The blackmail incident—along with the other findings—was part of Anthropic’s broader effort to test how Claude Opus 4 handles morally ambiguous high-stakes scenarios. 

The goal, researchers said, was to probe how the AI reasons about self-preservation and ethical constraints when placed under extreme pressure.

Anthropic emphasized that the model’s willingness to blackmail or take other “extremely harmful actions” like stealing its own code and deploying itself elsewhere in potentially unsafe ways appeared only in highly contrived settings, and that the behavior was “rare and difficult to elicit.” Still, such behavior was more common than in earlier AI models, according to the researchers.

Meanwhile, in a related development that attests to the growing capabilities of AI, engineers at Anthropic have activated enhanced safety protocols for Claude Opus 4 to prevent its potential misuse to make weapons of mass destruction—including chemical and nuclear.

Deployment of the enhanced safety standard—called ASL-3—is merely a “precautionary and provisional” move, Anthropic said in a May 22 announcement, noting that engineers have not found that Claude Opus 4 had “definitively” passed the capability threshold that mandates stronger protections.

“The ASL-3 Security Standard involves increased internal security measures that make it harder to steal model weights, while the corresponding Deployment Standard covers a narrowly targeted set of deployment measures designed to limit the risk of Claude being misused specifically for the development or acquisition of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons,” Anthropic wrote. 

“These measures should not lead Claude to refuse queries except on a very narrow set of topics.”

The findings come as tech companies race to develop more powerful AI platforms, raising concerns about the alignment and controllability of increasingly capable systems.

New viral video has emerged showing an incident near a beach and popular tourist island spot off Florida, which the US Army is now investigating. The unusual incident has quickly made national headlines.

Eighteen soldiers with the 6th Ranger Training Battalion were temporarily suspended as instructors amid a formal inquiry into the May 16 incident, which involved some of them discharging their weapons at a public beach. Soldiers shot blanks into the air from a small tactical boat while closely surrounded by civilian boats.

The shots from machine guns caused enough of a scene for people nearby to call 911 – not realizing they were blanks. It all happened at a crowded beach and boating area along Florida’s Emerald Coast, and in one social media video a woman can be heard frantically asking whether real bullets were being fired. 

Many cars can also be seen in one video traversing a nearby bridge at a distance behind where the weapons discharges were happening aboard the Army boats.

Apparently there was screaming and some bystanders ran for cover, thinking there was some kind of mass shooting incident. According to the NY Times:

Earlier that day, the Rangers had gone to a popular boating area several miles away, Crab Island, which is in Choctawhatchee Bay, and some fired blanks there, too, according to city officials.

Video posted on social media showed two small boats with uniformed military personnel in a crowded area near other vessels carrying passengers as well as bathers in the water. In the video, at least one of the personnel fires into the air.

It seems not every incident of shooting was caught on film, but other locations where blanks were fired may have caused more chaos among unsuspecting beach revelers.

“Is this real?” a woman exclaimed.

18 US Army Rangers SHOOT blanks near crowded beach in Florida

They have been suspended and are under investigation

Real life Florida is becoming more and more like a GTA 6 trailer pic.twitter.com/dSqFbVeFPM

— RT (@RT_com) May 23, 2025

“At least five calls reporting the gunfire came in to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office just before 3:30 p.m. on May 16, a spokeswoman said,” NY Times notes.

A local city official said as follows: “What happened at Crab Island was not part of the Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival, nor was it approved by either the City of Fort Walton Beach or the Billy Bowlegs organization.”

The comment was based on speculation that the firing of blanks by the Army Rangers had been part of a large boating festival which involves mock gun battles and fireworks displays.

NEW: 18 Army Rangers have reportedly been suspended for firing off blanks during the Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival off Crab Island in Florida.

Boaters and swimmers reportedly took cover at the sound of gunshots.

“As part of Friday night’s festival schedule, soldiers from the… pic.twitter.com/mImn85LnT4

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 23, 2025

“We take this situation seriously and are investigating,” an Army spokesperson has said. “The Army will ensure accountability based on the outcome of the investigation.”

The large-scale suspension of the instructors, which is highly unusual, may actually delay a training program which had been ongoing.

Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,

I like Megan McArdle, the conservatarian political columnist for The Washington Post. I really do. I think she’s smart and talented and interesting. Best of all, she’s not someone who is bound by ideology or political allegiances. Ideology and allegiance are good in some cases and in some occupations, but not in hers and not at her paper. McCardle is as close to a “truth teller” as exists in the mainstream media today, and I appreciate that.

All of that said, McArdle’s column this week leaves me nearly despondent, mostly because it’s hopelessly naïve and, as a result, exposes the ridiculousness of the current American predicament. McArdle starts her piece by expressing sympathy for former President Joe Biden with his recent cancer diagnosis, but then jumps right in, openly and aggressively criticizing those who hid Biden’s mental incapacity from the nation for the better part of four years. So far, so good. Biden deserves our sympathy, while his enablers deserve our detestation. Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there, as McArdle uses her platform to call for Democrats and even her colleagues in the media to reflect on their treachery and determine how best to fix things going forward:

I’m convinced that deep institutional soul-searching is due in many quarters and that this conversation is too important to delay, even at the risk of adding to the Biden family’s distress. 

It is impossible to read “Original Sin” … without reaching a horrifying conclusion: The most powerful nation in the world and its nuclear arsenal were left in the hands of a man who could not reliably recognize people he’d known for years, maintain his train of thought, or speak in coherent sentences.

That’s great. I agree that these are reasonable conclusions, but I still have some questions. 

How is it that some of us reached those same conclusions in 2020? How did some of us already know this would happen before he won the White House? Why do some people—Democrats and the mainstream media—pretend that they need this book to explain to them now what many of us knew all along? More to the point, does anyone actually believe that the people who need to do soul searching will actually do it? Or, if they do, that they will come to the conclusion that they screwed up and put the nation in great jeopardy?

Here are some predictions, although not particularly bold ones: No one, save maybe Megan McArdle, will do any soul-searching. No one will resolve to do anything differently in the future. No one in the media will suffer any negative career repercussions for hiding Biden’s decline and openly lying to the American people. Indeed, some—like the execrable Jake Tapper—will get rich off it. Most notably, no one in the Democratic Party or Joe Biden’s inner circle will suffer any sort of legal, financial, or professional consequences for their overt and inarguable criminality. If anything, they’ll be lauded by their fellow partisans as heroes and saviors, brave men and women who did what had to be done to save “our democracy” ™ from the bad people. In short, nothing good will come of any of this.

Interestingly, the very thing that makes McArdle such an otherwise enjoyable and interesting political writer is what blinds her to the realities of the Biden cover-up and the media’s complicity. As I said, she’s not “bound by ideology or political allegiances.” That makes for intriguing and honest journalism, but it also blinds her to political reality: American politics is no longer about doing what is best for the country or for “the common good” or even what is advantageous for a small set of constituents. American politics is about power, raw power, and crushing “the other side.” It is about “winning” and “defeating” the enemy—whether he’s your neighbor, a coworker, or a (former) friend who has the audacity to think or vote differently from you. No one has time for soul searching, righting past wrongs, or punishing bad behavior. They have fights to win, and all of that is merely distracting.

For years now, I’ve warned about the “politicization of everything” and the degeneration of American republicanism into “total war” in the “total state.” As a forewarning, I’ve borrowed (heavily) from the Weimar/Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, who not only predicted the collapse of post-war Germany into totalitarianism because of its obsessions with politics but also justified the monstrosity that followed as the only possible end to the total war and the only way to rehabilitate the total state. I’ve insisted, in no uncertain terms, that the division of this nation into teams—into “friend” and “enemy” groupings—would ultimately be its downfall and would leave “the last great hope of mankind” crippled and broken.

Well, guess what?

Ironically, those who claim that they were protecting Biden or were “saving the nation” from Trump have actually empowered Trump, making him almost entirely immune to criticism, especially from outside of the party. Hiding Biden’s infirmities and lying to the country about them for most, if not all, of his presidency inarguably constitutes the most serious, most dangerous, and most prolonged scandal in all of American political history. And everyone involved will walk away scot-free, life, liberty, and reputation intact. That, in turn, means that there is exactly zero chance that Trump’s supporters—or most any Republicans, for that matter—will allow their guy (the leader of their “team”) to be punished, diminished, or even criticized for lesser violations of the public trust. And to be fair, why would they? Why should they? Why should they stand for any attack on their guy after watching what the Democrats and the mainstream did for Biden and got away with?

As for Democrats, they already feel that their “team” is getting the shaft, that Trump is worse than an incapacitated Biden ever could be, and that they can and should do whatever it takes to stop the president, irrespective of the consequences. They already feel the need to fight back against this new narrative, to protect their side, to save their friends, and to punish their enemies. Hilariously, the comments section at the end of Megan McArdle’s column on Biden’s infirmities and the need for “soul searching” is prefaced by the following AI-generated summary: “The comments overwhelmingly criticize the focus on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, arguing that the media should instead scrutinize the current President, Donald Trump, for his perceived mental instability and dangerous behavior.” Because, of course, they do. Team über alles!

We know how total war in the total state turned out in Germany. We know that the disorder caused by the Weimar politicization of everything ended with the German people—including Carl Schmitt himself—trading their “sovereign democracy” for a “sovereign dictator” and perpetrating the most horrific crimes against millions of the most vulnerable people in society.

The end of the total war is not likely to play out the same way in present-day America, but it will nevertheless be ugly and destructive. As both sides dig in their heels and refuse to concede even an inch to their enemies, the institutions that enable the republic are, one by one, stripped of all legitimacy. Already, the mainstream media has sacrificed its legitimacy for power. Congress, too, seems to have collapsed beyond the point of reclamation. The Biden disaster has likely destroyed the remaining vestiges of presidential legitimacy, while the courts today spend their time trying desperately to destroy what is left of theirs.

No one will be punished. No one will suffer any consequences. And no one will do any soul-searching—now or ever. Everything is legitimate. Everything is justified. Nothing is beyond the pale. They did what they had to do to keep Biden in office. Period. And roughly half the country thinks that’s great.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard scorched disgraced former FBI Director James Comey over the very unsubtle threat he made towards President Trump, and his subsequent excuse when he blamed his own wife.

As we highlighted, Comey claimed he had no clue that posting an image of sea shells spelling out ‘8647’ would be so controversial.

He also claimed that he just happened upon the shell formation and that it was his wife who suggested he take a picture and post it, because he’s just a silly old fella who wears baggy jeans and sweaters and had no idea what he was doing.

Appearing on Fox News, Gabbard commented “Where to start? When you look at James Comey, and he talks about his own experience and knowledge…let’s go back and look at how he played a DIRECT role in the weaponization of government against the American people and Donald Trump.”

“For any man to pin the blame on this on his wife? Give me a break! Why don’t you just own it yourself?” Gabbard urged.

🚨 HOLY SMOKES! Tulsi Gabbard just PUMMELED James Comey after he issued an ‘8647’ assassination call against Trump and tried to flee accountability.

“Where to start? When you look at James Comey, and he talks about his own experience and knowledge…let’s go back and look at how… pic.twitter.com/uBeww0bVqn

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 23, 2025

Tulsi also remarked that it is inconceivable that Comey “doesn’t know what 86 means.”

Everyone “knows and understands very clearly and directly what ’86’ means when referring to a PERSON, not a dish on a menu in a restaurant,” she further asserted.

“When you have a person of his stature that in this country has been lauded as a man who represents fairness, integrity and the rule of law, posting something that is a call to get rid of our president… you imagine the kind of impact that has,” Gabbared emphasised.

She added that Trump “has had two assassination attempts on his life,” and further noted that he is constantly labelled a “modern day Hitler and a direct and existential threat.”

“James Comey’s post should be taken VERY seriously,” Gabbard declared, having previously stated that he should be arrested and charged with threatening a sitting President.

Comey was questioned by the Secret Service, but let go. An investigation is apparently still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has placed over 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave as of Friday.

CNN reported that the NSC staffers were given less than an hour to clear out their desks.

BREAKING: Trump Puts More Than 100 National Security Council Staffers on Leave Amid Shakeup – ‘Given Less Than an Hour to Clean Out Their Desks’https://t.co/2qNJ3BT8nP pic.twitter.com/w5iUlxsnm8

— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) May 23, 2025

The move comes as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, two US officials and another source familiar with the matter told the network.

Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his top deputy Alex Wong were fired earlier this month after they stupidly, or maybe purposefully, added virulent anti-Trump reporter Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic to a secure Signal group chat.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Climate alarmists might be scratching their heads as unseasonably cool air pours over the Mid-Atlantic area this Memorial Day weekend. In Washington, D.C., pools are beginning to open up—but it’s far too chilly for a swim. 

“Memorial Day weekend is supposed to mark the unofficial start of summer, but this morning’s low temperatures did not play the part. Most spots dipped into the 40s west of Interstate 95 and reached 50 to 55 to the east. Winchester even dipped to 39 degrees,” stated Capital Weather Gang’s chief meteorologist Jason Samenow. 

Climate realist Steve Milloy said, “Global warming brought temps 10°F below average to the WashDC area this morning. It’s going to get even more embarrassing for climate hoaxers tomorrow.”

Global warming brought temps 10°F below average to the WashDC area this morning. It’s going to get even more embarrassing for climate hoaxers tomorrow.https://t.co/VhkK5ENQ8x pic.twitter.com/Swz5HnQlbZ

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) May 24, 2025

According to Bloomberg data, the Baltimore-Washington metro area’s average temperatures will be below the 5-, 10-, and 30-year norms this weekend and next week. 

We’re nearing the point when the climate doom gang – that being leftist corporate media outlets, radical green non-profits (partially funded by taxpayers and rogue leftist billionaires), unhinged Democratic lawmakers, and ‘trust the science’ compromised researchers –  fire up a propaganda war against the American people. 

What’s the climate grifter’s go-to solution for saving the planet from supposed imminent doom? More taxes, de-growth climate policies, crushing small farms out of existence, banning gas-powered vehicles, and, weirdly, buying Chinese solar panels and other clean tech from the Communists.

It’s time to bring common sense back into the climate debate, which President Trump has done:

• Trump’s “Nuclear” Order And How To Profit: All You Need To Know About The Coming Nuclear Energy Transition

Maybe the Trump administration — or perhaps EPA DOGE — can finally get to the bottom of the federal temperature sensor data controversy.

About 50% of US temperature data is just made-up.https://t.co/LXus676UYS pic.twitter.com/l3p00B4Mbu

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) April 11, 2024

.  .  . 

By Patrick McDonald of CampusReform

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has come under federal investigation for “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” of foreign funding.

The probe was launched by the U.S. Department of Education on May 8 after concerns that the school may be unduly influenced by foreign actors and follows a review of the school’s foreign reports, the department explained in a press release.

According to Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, universities that receive federal funding are required to disclose foreign donations valuing more than $250,000.

Acting General Counsel Tom Wheeler described UPenn’s compliance history with federal law as “troubling,” saying it had, in February 2019, failed to disclose any foreign funding whatsoever. 

Wheeler also noted that the Biden administration did not enforce the law requiring disclosure.

“Although the previous Administration degraded the Department’s enforcement of universities’ legal obligations to disclose foreign gifts and contracts, the Trump Administration will vigorously uphold the law and ensure universities are transparent with their foreign gifts and investments,” Wheeler said in a statement.

Wheeler asserted that the Education Department’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) will “thoroughly” investigate the school, requiring the administration to disclose all foreign funding dating back to Jan. 1, 2017, with the central aim of verifying the school’s disclosures.

“The American people and Congress have a right to know the impact of foreign funding on our universities, including some of our critically important research universities,” Wheeler said. “We hope the University of Pennsylvania will be cooperative and forthcoming in response to this investigation.” 

The investigation into UPenn follows growing concerns that American universities have been influenced by the Chinese government. 

A nonprofit organization called Open The Books published a report in January which found that public universities in the U.S. have received “tens of millions of dollars in contracts to China” that were not reported to the federal government.

“Over the past decade, American institutions began pouring money into counterproductive, divisive DEI infrastructure,” the report reads. “Meanwhile, China was spending to gain influence in American academia, accessing research and technology to advance their national interests.”

Harvard University alone received more than $1.4 billion in foreign funding over the past decade—including $150 million from China. 

Additionally, an individual found to be affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attempted to gain access earlier this month to research at Stanford University by posing as a student.

After last week’s Istanbul talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, which was a first since early 2022, Western leaders have been floating the Vatican as a likely venue for future rounds of peace talks.

This is after Pope Leo, the first American-born pontiff, offered for talks to be hosted at the Vatican, which could act as a mediator. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said days ago that Pope Leo XIV expressed his willingness to host the next round of talks.

The Vatican is being presented as a neutral place, after as we’ve highlighted before the new Pontiff is attempting to initiate a peace blitz regarding global hotspots, from Gaza to Ukraine.

“Finding in the Holy Father confirmation of the readiness to host the next talks between the parties in the Vatican, the prime minister expressed deep gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his unceasing commitment to peace,” an Italian government’s statement reads.

But the Kremlin objects to the assumption that the Vatican is some kind of purely neutral place, ready to respect both warring sides’ interests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow on Friday, poured cold water on hopes of Vatican-hosted talks.

“Many people are fantasizing about when and where [the meeting] will take place. We don’t have any ideas right now,” the foreign minister said. “But imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations. It would be a bit inelegant for Orthodox countries to use a Catholic platform to discuss issues on how to remove the root causes [of the war in Ukraine],” Lavrov added.

“I do not think it would suit the Vatican itself to host delegations from two Orthodox countries in these circumstances,” he said. 

It could be that Moscow has carefully looked at what Leo said while he was still a Cardinal:

After being elected, Pope Leo XIV, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, has pledged to personally “make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”

In his first Sunday address on May 11, the pope called for an “authentic and lasting peace” in Ukraine, adding that he carries in his heart the “suffering of the beloved people of Ukraine.”

Previously, while serving as the bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, Leo XIV spoke out against Russia’s continued war against Ukraine.

While politics including the historic trend of NATO expansion are driving the war, it has bled over into church affairs. Russia is outraged over the Zelensky government persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for maintaining spiritual communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.

There have been repeat instances of government authorities seizing Ukrainian Orthodox churches and monasteries, and local Catholic clergy have not objected to this alarming trend.

The Vatican also has an interest in protecting its minority Ukrainian ‘Greek-Catholic’ Church, which is concentrated in Western Ukraine, especially in and near Lviv.