Via The Cradle

Iraq has received close to 5,000 ISIS prisoners since the start of a US military campaign to relocate the extremist group’s fighters, of whom tens of thousands were previously held in Kurdish-run facilities in northern Syria.

“The transfer of terrorist prisoners from Syria to Iraq is ongoing in coordination with the global coalition, and they are being held in Iraqi prisons,” Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the commander in chief of the Iraqi army, told Rudaw on 11 February. Numan went on to say that the country’s legal system has begun taking judicial measures “against those individuals who committed crimes against the Iraqi people.“

Nearly 5,000 are now in Iraqi facilities, according to the latest data from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.

The spokesman added that trials will continue “to ensure they receive their just punishment for what they have committed against Iraqis,” adding that “all criminal and terrorist acts that were committed will be investigated.”

Ali Dhia, assistant head of the judiciary-linked National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC), said among the ISIS members were those who took part in the genocide against the Yezidi minority in Iraq, which began in 2014.

Last month, the Syrian army launched a major assault on Kurdish-held parts of northern and eastern Syria, seizing key oil fields and cities from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). During the assault, SDF forces were no longer able to hold Hasakah’s Shaddaddi Prison. 

After the facility fell to Jolani’s Syrian army, some 1,500 ISIS prisoners escaped. The SDF, once considered a major US ally, accused Washington of ignoring distress calls for help. It said a US military base was only two kilometers away from the prison.

The Syrian government also entered the Al-Hawl Camp, previously run by the SDF, which held tens of thousands of ISIS militants and their families, who also pose a serious security threat. 

The camp was emptied by Syrian forces. Footage showed scores of prisoners flooding out of Al-Hawl. Syrian Kurdish officials warned afterwards that the government assault risked a major ISIS resurgence.

A day later, the US military announced a campaign to “transfer” ISIS fighters to Iraqi facilities. Washington said up to 7,000 ISIS members would be relocated, yet thousands more remain on the loose. Since then, Iraqi officials have warned of increased ISIS activity. 

In late January, the SDF and Syrian government reached a deal to halt hostilities and implement a March 2025 agreement, which the two sides have been in dispute about for nearly a year. As part of this deal, the SDF must integrate into the Syrian army and security apparatus. 

Syrian security forces have entered the cities of Qamishli and Hasakah. Ain al-Arab (Kobane), still predominantly held by Kurdish forces, is under siege.

The Kurdish group wanted to merge into the Syrian army as a bloc, while Damascus was demanding a complete dissolution and conscription on an individual basis. 

The deal, which ended recent hostilities, calls for the creation of a division under the Syrian Defense Ministry, consisting of three SDF brigades. 

Yet, so far, the merger has not physically begun – only joint patrols between Syrian security forces and the Kurdish Asayish (SDF-linked internal police force). The SDF has begun moving heavy military equipment out of some major city centers. It remains unclear how the merger will take place, as tensions are high. 

Top officials have admitted that Damascus forces have been massacring Kurds as well as religious minorities:

‘The president and CENTCOM told the Syrian security forces stop. We saw massacres, beheadings, executions of entire Kurdish families. These are the kinds of acts that will destroy the legitimacy Al-Sharaa is trying to build’@nadinemaenza on #MiddleEastNow with @natasharaquel_ pic.twitter.com/p2HZ1Wi8xg

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) February 11, 2026

The Syrian army is made up of many extremist, ISIS-linked factions with a history of war crimes and persecution of Kurds.

During the latest assault in the north of the country, Syrian troops carried out indiscriminate shelling and committed war crimes against Kurdish fighters, particularly the female soldiers who play a prominent role in the SDF and allied groups. 

Given the collapse of the New START nuclear treaty this month, the timing of Washington’s latest and provocative charge leveled at Beijing is curious and interesting…

The United States’ top nuclear arms has “accused China of carrying out an undisclosed nuclear detonation in 2020, arguing that recent secretive underground tests by China and Russia have given Washington reason to conduct ‘parallel steps’ as a decades-long moratorium on nuclear testing among major powers is unraveling,” The Washington Post has reported.

It was last Friday that US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, Thomas DiNanno, declared in Geneva that “The US government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tonnes.”

DiNanno then alleged that “yield-producing tests” were conducted on June 22, 2020 in a highly unusual accusation given the precision and specificity of it, even down to the day.

China belatedly responded several days later, on Wednesday formally rejecting the allegation of secretive nuke testing. Taking note of the end of New START between Moscow and Washington, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian called it “an excuse” to justify Washington’s own potential return to nuclear testing.

“The United States has persistently distorted and smeared China’s nuclear policy,” he said on Wednesday. According to more via state-run Xinhua:

Responding to a relevant query at a regular press briefing, spokesperson Lin Jian said persistent U.S. distortion and smearing of China’s nuclear policy essentially constitutes political manipulation, which is aimed at pursuing nuclear hegemony and evading its own nuclear disarmament responsibilities.

“China firmly opposes this,” Lin said, stressing that the United States is the biggest source of disruption to both the international nuclear order and global strategic stability.

Lin noted that by allowing the New START Treaty to expire without renewal, the United States has severely undermined mutual trust among major countries and shaken global strategic stability. 

President Trump has long wanted a more comprehensive international nuclear treaty which takes into account China’s growing stockpile – though it remains that Russia and the US are far and away the biggest armed nuclear powers. No other country even comes to these Cold War era rivals and superpowers.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan issue still looms large for Beijing, which has been busy warning Washington over Trump-approved record-breaking arms packages.

US is weighing a major new arms sale to #Taiwan worth up to US$20 billion, a move #China has warned could jeopardize a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in April https://t.co/Fe6m82xyys

— 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 (@WorldWarAgain) February 8, 2026

It has been many months since China launched any of its notorious ‘encircling drills’ to put a check on Taiwan. Should US arms keep pouring into Taipei, such large-scale sea and aerial drills could again become a reality, strongly signaling Washington to halt such ‘separatist’ activities.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is examining statements from several organizations that have promoted drugs and surgeries for minors who believe they are a different gender, according to documents made public on Feb. 10.

FTC officials sent civil demands for documents to the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Professional Association of Transgender Health, documents posted online by the FTC show.

In the demands, dated Jan. 15, the FTC said officials are probing whether groups have “made, or assisted others in making, false or unsubstantiated representations or engaged in unfair practices in connection with the marketing and advertising of Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Treatment” in violation of federal law that bars people from engaging in deceptive practices affecting commerce and disseminating false advertisements.

Officials asked for each type of pediatric gender dysphoria treatment that the organizations advertised or promoted and information on financial relationships between the organizations and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, or doctors involved in treating gender dysphoria.

They also want to know about the process for how the American Academy of Pediatrics developed its 2018 statement outlining its position on care for youth labeled as “transgender,” and how the World Professional Association of Transgender Health came up with its Standards of Care Version 8, which contains guidance for doctors contemplating giving children puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, or performing surgeries on children questioning their gender.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in 2025 the agency would investigate whether the gender transition procedures were being offered under unfair or false claims.

The inquiry is looking into whether people, particularly children, were harmed by false or unsubstantiated claims about “gender-affirming care.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a response to the civil demand, filed with the FTC, that the FTC was going beyond its scope in the probe and that the demand should be quashed.

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The World Professional Association of Transgender Health issued a similar response in a petition to revoke the demand directed to it.

The FTC and the two groups did not respond to requests for comment by publication time. If the petitions are turned down, the groups could turn to the courts.

Several other organizations sued the FTC over a separate probe.

A federal judge said in 2025 that the FTC’s civil demands in that investigation likely violated the constitutional rights of the organizations.

The new developments came after two medical groups, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association, said that there is uncertainty regarding treatments for gender dysphoria and that doctors should largely steer clear of surgeries on children.

They also followed a jury in New York finding two doctors liable for the breast removal surgery they supported and performed on a 16-year-old girl.

The top-rated restaurant in America (at least according to Food & Wine’s 2025 pick) is now buried under a pile of one-star reviews after deciding to lecture diners on receipts about the supposedly “racist” history of tipping, while auto-adding a non-negotiable 20% service charge to every bill, SFGate reports.

The fury began with a now-deleted Reddit post of the woke note tacked onto receipts at Burdell, the Oakland soul-food spot that’s become a progressive darling with Michelin nods and critical acclaim.

“Tipping in the US has an ugly past, allowing the continuation of underpaid labor,” the receipt lectured. “We don’t like that history. Included on your check is a 20% Service Charge which we use to pay hourly staff a consistent and livable wage, not dependent on archaic tipping customs or chance. No need to add anything else. Thank you!”

Predictably, the internet did what it does best by review-bombing the place on Yelp with complaints about everything from terrible food to claims of hidden fees, despite the restaurant insisting the charge is disclosed on menus and its website. Some diners felt ambushed by the mandatory add-on and the moralizing footnote.

Chef-owner Geoff Davis has since scrambled to find an excuse for all the hate, landing on claiming that mainly non-locals are simply jumping on a culture-war bandwagon.

“Most of the people who left reviews are from outside our region and community,” Davis told SFGate. “They’re using this as a crusade against Oakland, DEI, and the moment that we’re in. People are upset about a lot of things in America right now.”

“It blows my mind that there are so many restaurants that employ this model, and we’ve been doing it for so long with no surprise for the most part,” he added.

Davis previously faced backlash over his sky-high prices, saying that it’s an “uphill fight” to operate a soul-food restaurant because of America’s past, according to SFGate.

“It is what it is, and as Americans, we have to understand that racism is part of our core identity as a country. All we can do is do the best work that we can,” Davis told the news outlet.

Authored by Nancy Rommelmann via RealClearInvestigations,

It was summer 2021, and my mother’s desk was a mess, including a torn envelope from the IRS shoved in the back of a drawer.

“Mom?” I asked. “Did you pay your taxes?”

My mother, increasingly forgetful at 84, said she wasn’t sure. She told me to call her accountant of 30 years, who said the taxes hadn’t been paid but that he would take care of it.

That’s not all he took care of. 

Within the year, a family member had my mother sign a blank check, which the accountant (or someone in his office) filled out for $25,000 to supposedly take over paying my mother’s bills – a task I was already doing. Instead of using the money for bills, the accountant paid himself the lion’s share of the funds. He then sent me an invoice for work I’d previously paid him for, at which point I told him never to contact my mother or me again.

The accountant does not work in some grubby backroom but for a white-shoe firm in a Manhattan office tower. I don’t know if this firm does legitimate business. I do know that the moment he had the opportunity to take advantage of a decades-long trust, he took it. 

He’s not the only one. In the six years since I’ve taken my mother’s finances in hand, I’ve dealt with dozens of schemes meant to bilk the elderly, including phone scammers who promised my mother she had won a Mercedes, home health aides who inflated their hours, people forging my mother’s signature, and a relative who had her sign over her car.

“I don’t know why we had to go to the DMV,” my befuddled mother told her caregiver, after the relative had dropped her off and then driven away.

As hard as I tried to protect my mother from con artists, there is no way I could have predicted all the schemes, both clever and dumb, that industries and individuals constantly perpetrate on the elderly. Some will be strangers; others will be trusted confidantes and family members. Did I mention the beloved attorney who convinced my mother to sign away farm equipment worth nearly $200,000? 

Rich Target

Predators targeting the elderly are on the rise because there have never been as many to prey upon. An estimated 67 million baby boomers live in the U.S., with a combined wealth of $85 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data, a veritable banquet for thieves, made all the easier by online trickery. 

“It’s absolutely through the roof,” said Heidi W. Isenhart, a Florida attorney specializing in cyber-scamming of the elderly. “They’re called numerous times, they’re harassed; they give a little money and then the people come back. They’ll even say, ‘We’ll send a car for you to take you to the bank.’”

It seems everyone has a story of an elder who has been taken for a ride. My friend’s failing father fell for numerous scams, including agreeing to pay $26,000 for security for his computer. “This is for a desktop that cost $500,” my friend said. “I was able to claw back about half the money, then the guy disappeared.” 

In 2024, the FBI received 836,000 reports of cyber fraud, with people on average losing $20,000. That’s a 33% increase in cyber fraud incidents since the year before, and the actual numbers are certainly much higher, as many who are victimized often don’t have the awareness to realize it or are too embarrassed to admit it. One growing scam uses AI’s ability to clone voices to fool victims into thinking loved ones have been arrested or abducted and need cash immediately. 

Several measures now before Congress aim to combat scams and fraud targeting people 60 and older. The Scam Compound Accountability and Mobilization (SCAM) Act passed the Senate in December 2025 and now moves to the House. The STOP Scams Against Seniors Act was introduced that same month, but has yet to be passed into law. While the first bill targets international fraud and the second aims to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to protect seniors from scams, the cognitive struggles of older adults will undoubtedly make it difficult for law enforcement to gather evidence and catch wrongdoers. 

Which means their loved ones must step in and play the role of cop, which I discovered when an Eastern European kept leaving messages on my mother’s answering machine, asking for her banking information. I told my mother that under no circumstances was she to speak with him. 

“But he sounds so nice,” she said. I told her that sounding nice was the scammers’ stock in trade. 

It did not compute. My mother was living by herself, lonely for a voice on the phone, making her an easy mark. Scammers know how to ingratiate themselves; how to make the person feel lucky (a Mercedes!) or frightened, as with the phone threat my mother received telling her the police were on their way to arrest her. A frightened person is more likely to believe the anonymous voice on the phone telling her he can make the trouble go away, all she needs to do is provide her social security number.

I called the Eastern European scammer back. 

“Why are you calling my mother?” I asked, along with a few choicer words, whereupon he launched a volley of expletives, which I let my mother hear on speaker.

My mother looked chagrinned. Yet despite my taping signs on her walls that read “ALL THE CALLERS ARE LYING TO YOU,” she fell for a similar con the following week.

Family Fraud

A sad fact that makes sense when you think about it: The people your parents love most will likely be the ones using them as an ATM machine. According to the National Council on Aging, abuse and neglect incidents are perpetrated 60% of the time by a family member. 

“I do see some of that manipulation by children, by grandchildren,” said Isenhart. “But what I see more is one child saying to the parent, ‘My brother hates you, and he hasn’t been in contact with you, and I’ve done everything and I need everything.’ That’s just classic exploitation. And then they move in with them, and possession is nine-tenths of the law. And then they are in full control of everything. It is supreme gaslighting.”

In my mother’s case, something akin to this happened when an unscrupulous lawyer, at the behest of a relative who’d set his sights on my mother’s savings, tried to gain access to her bank accounts by badgering the bank’s call center in the Philippines in the middle of the night. The gambit was unsuccessful due to the lawyer’s incompetence (and the call center’s savvy). While red flags were added to the account, they were insufficient to catch the check on which the same relative forged my mother’s signature, to hand off to this same attorney. My raising the roof about this went nowhere. Same for the bank manager’s suggestion that my mother file a suspicious activity report.

“I don’t want him to go to jail,” my mother said, looking crestfallen and confused. It’s almost certainly the case that the relative and the lawyer did not fear legal action from a frail, forgetful 85-year-old wanting to keep the people she still remembered as close to her as she could. 

“If we were to take all the cases of financial exploitation we know and try to summarize them in a single word, that word is loneliness,” said Liora Bar-Tur, a psychologist and gerontologist, in a recent talk, “What Is the Story Behind Financial Exploitation?” “Perhaps the money or property taken from them through deceit or malice nevertheless provides them, despite their vulnerability, with a sense of power, control, and love.”

My mother did love this relative, and yet there was no way I was going to let her wind up in that position again. Shortly after the forged check, I took her for neurological testing. It went about as expected: Mom could only name two U.S. presidents – Biden and Nixon – and was at sea with almost every memory question. When the relative and lawyer learned my mother had been assessed as no longer legally able to make financial decisions or sign documents, they screamed that this was a lie, that my mother was fine. But she was not, and there would be no more checks, forged or otherwise. The lawyer soon quit. 

Stranger Danger

Next to kin, caregivers for hire present a more predictable set of issues. One is, do you need one at all? (If you think you do, you do.) Another: Your father says he’s fine, he doesn’t want a stranger in his home. Then you find him on the floor of his bedroom, with no idea how long he’s been there, and the only thing he can tell you is that he’s very thirsty. 

There were many signs that my mother needed full-time care: leaving the stove on until the boiling eggs exploded and hit the ceiling; mistaking 11 p.m. for 11 a.m. and wandering around her Brooklyn neighborhood, wondering why it was dark out; finding $5,000 in cash in her wallet that she had no recollection of withdrawing. 

I am sorry to tell you that if I had a nickel for every person who’s told a story of a caregiver leaving her parent alone, or stealing her jewelry, or whipping out a document the recently deceased grandparent has “signed” leaving the caregiver everything, I’d have about a buck-twenty. 

I am not besmirching the profession. My mother, who is now 88, has had nine caregivers over the past five years, and, with the exception of one, they have been hard-working and reliable, doing a job many of us cannot or do not want to do.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve cleaned [excrement] off your dad’s balls,” said a high school girlfriend, who did not have the funds to hire full-time care.

Not many do, the costs of caregiving being exorbitant. While Medicare, under some circumstances, will provide skilled nursing, this will not cover bathing, feeding, and other custodial care. Which means you are either going to do these things yourself or hire aides for an average of $25/hour, which, at 24/7 care, comes to $18,000 a month or $216,000 a year.

That doesn’t include the cost of getting ripped off, as I was by a woman who billed herself as the head of an agency, which turned out to be a lie, through which she would pay two of my mother’s caregivers, which turned out to be a partial lie, in that she would pad their hours and pocket the difference. By the time I discovered this, my mother was in the midst of myriad health crises, making pursuing the few thousand dollars I was out not worth my time, which you can be sure the scammers know.

Start Early

The most important piece of advice I have for those with failing parents is this: Get a handle on their finances five years earlier than you think you need to. This, because they are not going to tell you that things are going downhill, or they won’t have noticed, or they’re embarrassed to ask for help. 

Such was the case with my late father, who had been a numbers savant and successful stockbroker. When he asked me to calculate the tip after a pizza lunch, I thought I had better take a look at his bills, and found credit card charges of $52,000, racked up by someone he had entrusted the card to, to buy groceries. 

“I guess I stuck my head in the sand,” my father said.

My dad agreed to let me pay off the card and cancel it. But getting involved in your parents’ finances, which can mean putting your name on their banking and investment accounts so you can monitor and steer inflows and outflows, only goes so far. At some point, you may need to take full control.

Psychologist Liora Bar-Tur tells a story of the 85-year-old patient who shared with her children that she was having a secret relationship with the actor Richard Gere. The relationship took place by text and led to the patient sending “Gere” more than $20,000. Trying to convince their mother that she was not, in fact, having a relationship with the actor, that it was all a scam, engendered only anger in the patient: Did her children not want her to be happy and in love? Why didn’t they just butt out of it? 

“The only way the children were able to stop the transfer of funds was by activating the power of attorney they held,” said Bar-Tur. “This led to intense anger, crying, profound misery, and threats that she would change her will. After the funds were blocked, she attempted to sell her jewelry” in order to procure more funds to send to her movie star lover. 

My last horror story is also the first. It was January 2013, and my mother’s third husband had just passed away. She’d inherited some property and some cash, as well as half the equipment at a tractor dealership he owned. There was an issue with the dealership, my mother said, and asked if I would accompany her to see her late husband’s lawyer.

“He loves me,” she said of the lawyer.

The lawyer’s office was in a small home in upstate New York. Neither he nor the accountant standing alongside him appeared pleased I’d accompanied my mother. As she eased into pleasantries, I could see the impatience of the men. They had a document they wanted her to sign; there would be time for chitchat after.

I asked to see the document, which had my mother signing away her ownership of the farm equipment to a third party. When I asked why she would sign this, the accountant flashed a look at the lawyer, who took back the paper. It wasn’t important, he said. A week later, when I was not around, he called my mother back into the office, where she signed the paper, forfeiting the equipment to her late husband’s former partner, who I later found out was a friend of the lawyer’s.

When I asked my mother why she had signed, she said it was because she had thought of the lawyer as caring; that when her husband was dying of leukemia, he had married them in the hospital room.

I did not, at the time, know the lawyer was playing a rigged game. I wish I had. And I wish I had realized that the characteristics that had heretofore given my mother a splendid and comfortable life – a trusting nature, independent to a fault, a belief that the people she loved would always look out for her – were the very things that would be used against her and open her up to so much danger. 

I’m sorry, Mom; I wish I could have given myself the advice then that I’ve only just learned now.

The United States and China are seeking to preserve their fragile trade truce before President Donald Trump visits Chinese President Xi Jinping for a high-stakes summit in Beijing this spring, according to the South China Morning Post.

On the sidelines of the 2025 APEC summit in Busan, South Korea, Trump and Xi held a pivotal meeting that produced a significant—though temporary—trade agreement. Following months of escalating tariffs, curbs on rare-earth exports, and agricultural boycotts, the two leaders agreed to a one-year truce that provided a measure of relief to the world’s two largest economies.

“There seems to be a really strong appetite to maintain that fragile trade truce that we saw struck in late 2025,” Nick Marro, global trade lead at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told SCMP. “I think, at best, we could see this continuation of a detente in tariff policy.” 

South China Morning Post reports:

Extending the informal months-long understanding, a step seen by officials as realistic and achievable, would anchor the summit around short-term economic wins, including fresh Chinese purchase commitments, the sources said.

Trump is expected to travel to China in early April, according to four people familiar with the plans. An initial arrival date under consideration was March 31, leading to a bilateral meeting with Xi in the first week of April as part of a visit lasting about three days, two of the people said.

Trump described the 2025 deal as a “massive victory,” announcing reductions in certain U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods (from around 57% to 47% in key areas like fentanyl-related levies), while China committed to resuming large-scale purchases of American soybeans, sorghum, and other farm products, suspending new rare-earth restrictions, and cooperating on fentanyl flows.

The Busan agreement gave American farmers and manufacturers some breathing room, halted further escalation, and opened the door to potential longer-term negotiations, even as deeper structural issues around technology and supply chains remain unresolved.

“Both sides will look for deliverables that can be packaged as wins they can present at home,” Wang Dan, China director at Eurasia Group, told SCMP, adding “This could include numerical commitments for soybeans, energy and manufactured goods from the US.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, in the coming weeks to discuss deliverables ahead of the meeting, sources told the South China Morning Post.

Last week, senior @USTreasury staff visited China to strengthen channels of communication and advance the dialogue between our nations.

During their visit, our teams discussed preparation for the next high-level meeting on U.S.-China trade between myself and Vice Premier He…

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) February 9, 2026

Last week, Trump and Xi held their first phone call in months, which the president characterically called “excellent.”

“I have just completed an excellent telephone conversation with President Xi, of China. It was a long and thorough call, where many important subjects were discussed, including Trade, Military, the April trip that I will be making to China (which I very much look forward to!), Taiwan, the War between Russia/Ukraine, the current situation with Iran, the purchase of Oil and Gas by China from the United States, the consideration by China of the purchase of additional Agricultural products including lifting the Soybean count to 20 Million Tons for the current season (They have committed to 25 Million Tons for next season!), Airplane engine deliveries, and numerous other subjects, all very positive!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” the president continued. “I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency having to do with President Xi, and the People’s Republic of China.”

China’s official readout presented a more pointed tone, emphasizing Xi’s focus on Taiwan and urging Washington to reduce tensions over the self-ruled island.

On Monday, US ambassador to China, David Perdue, said at an event organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Beijing said that the US was “not closing the door to doing business with China.”

“As President Trump has said, we want to trade with China, we need to trade, but that trade should be balanced and with full reciprocity,” Perdue said. “I’m very optimistic about the year ahead and also clear-eyed. The challenges are real.”

Xi called the U.S. approach to Taiwan “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” declaring that China “will never allow Taiwan to be separated from China.”

Authored by Kevin Downey Jr. via PJ Media,

A diversity judge just cut a sexual deviant’s sentence from 65 years down to 30. Why? Because Marxism.

A Jefferson County, Ky., judge, Tracy Davis, decided to cut the sentence of convicted rapist Christopher Davis by 35 years because, despite his heinous crime, he is just a poor lad who “fell through the cracks” and “experienced this society.” In other words, systemic racism made him don a mask, point a gun at a woman, kidnap her, sexually assault her, rob her, and sexually assault her again — all because his brain hasn’t fully developed yet.

I don’t want to get into the details of Thompson’s savagery, so I will let KTSA tell you:

In July 2023, Christopher Thompson, then 18, wore a ski mask and forced his way into a woman’s car at gunpoint in south Louisville, driving her to Sanders Elementary School where he sexually assaulted her twice and forced her to withdraw $220 from an ATM. DNA evidence from a water bottle left in the victim’s vehicle led to his arrest in January 2024. After a four-day trial in December 2025, a jury convicted Thompson of robbery, kidnapping, sodomy, and sexual abuse, recommending a 65-year prison sentence for what prosecutors called “every woman’s worst nightmare.”

Davis and Thompson had a little back-and-forth in the courtroom, during which Thompson incredulously repeated that God was with him.

This conversation took place (I’m going to bold the parts where it seems as though the judge is coaching Thompson on what he should be saying to get a reduced sentence):

Judge Davis: The thing is, when the court is considering that and considering sentencing you and applying the actual law – Because you’d be surprised, me in this seat, I apply the law. Regardless of what the media thinks, regardless of what anybody thinks, I apply the law. I do not judge people before they walk before me. I don’t. I reviewed your PSI (pre-sentencing investigative report). I looked at who you were. You refused to come over. I ‘by any means’ you because you deserve to be here and to say whatever it is that you want to say to the court prior to the court imposed a sentencing.

No person, as long as they are breathing, is beyond rehabilitation and being on the correct path. So if you know anything about God in your Bible, you know about Barabbas. At the very last minute, what happened to him?

It’s not about your past. It’s about your future. And it’s about you not being angry. This is your whole life. Your whole life. And if for one second, you came in here and said, “Judge Davis, you know what? I want to be a different person. Regardless of what my past is, regardless of how angry I’ve been, regardless of the things that I have said, regardless of how you look at that, I don’t want to be that person from today into the future.”

Thompson: “It’s hard to be that when I’m in jail.”

Judge Davis: “And if you give me that opportunity, and sentence me to the minimum, I can show you that I will go to school. I will get training. I will do everything that I can so that when my sentence is done, I can be an active member of society.” But that’s not what you’ve done. You came in here off the cuff saying negative things, trying to get a response out of everybody, and that’s not it. I hope that you get what you need while you are incarcerated.

If that didn’t make you puke, read how the judge refuses to even tell Thompson that he caused harm to the community:

Thompson: I got Jesus. I don’t need nothing else.

Judge Davis: I hope that somewhere along the line, your brain fully develops, and you begin to make better decisions so that you are not someone that can cause harm to the community, and so that you yourself do not get harmed.

Thompson: So you’re saying I did cause harm to the community?

Judge Davis: I didn’t say that. I said so that you would not. I didn’t say that you did.

Thompson: All right.

Ugh.

Poor Thompson, according to the judge, isn’t a vile, remorseless rapist who hates everyone. He is a tragic victim of “society” and just requires a little brain development.  

BILLY MAYS-O-RAMA! But wait, there’s more!

Thompson didn’t care about the coaching, the proceedings, the victim, or the victim’s family, and he had some saucy words for the judge and prosecutor as well. I’d write them out, but the “naughty word” alarm would melt, so I’ll let you watch Thompson lay into everyone around him:

Despite Thompson showing no remorse and a ton of attitude — not to mention suggesting he’d spit on the judge if he could, and suggesting the judge ingurgitate his membrum virile — Davis decided 65 years in the hoosegow for the career animal was too much time and knocked his sentence down to 30 years. With good behavior, which seems wildly unlikely, Thompson could be out in 20 years when he is 40 years old.

FACT-O-RAMA! The Marxist judge was also aware at the time of sentencing that Thompson is facing an assault charge against a corrections officer.

SHOCK WARNING: Judge Davis is a pronoun Punchinello, and check out her Twitter handle:

This filthy, DEI Marxist just cut a savage rapist’s sentence in half. He even insulted her in her own court.

She didn’t care. For the communists, it’s all about the “revolution.” pic.twitter.com/vcxkDYs32E

— The Kevin Downey, Jr. Show Mon- Fri. 9-11 am EST! (@KDJRadioShow) February 10, 2026

In that potty-mouthed exchange video, you may have heard Anthony Piagentini, councilman for Metro Council District 19,  mention “shock probation.”  What’s that? 

Kentucky’s definition: Shock probation is when a judge ignores a convict’s sentence and chooses to send him to jail for a substantially shorter sentence, in order to “shock” the guilty into the reality of prison life and, hopefully, compel the prisoner into a life of lawfulness.

KDJ’s definition: It’s a reason to let animals out of jail as soon as possible. The communists need crime and chaos to destabilize our nation, and nothing does that better than violence in our streets.

It seems Judge Davis has applied “shock probation” 40 of the 44 times she’s been requested to do so, more than any other judge in Jefferson County.

What could go wrong by letting violent criminals out of jail?

This:

Meet Judge David Kelly of Chicago. Prosecutors begged him not to release Davaughn Credit who was arrested for a series of violent robberies.

He released him anyway on an ankle monitor.

Well Davaughn escaped the monitor and just allegedly moIested a young girl.

These… pic.twitter.com/e1yknuSnn1

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 11, 2025

FACT-O-RAMA! The party that lets criminals walk out of jail early also has a pesky habit of trying to take away your guns. We call those people Democrats.

You may be wondering what you can do to stop Democrat, pinko judges from letting animals out of prison early.

For starters, you should convince your family and friends to never vote for a Democrat again:

A man attempted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh.

Maryland Biden Judge Deborah Boardman sentenced him to only 8 years.

A man attempted to assassinate President Trump.

Florida Trump Judge Aileen Cannon sentenced him to life.

Too many of today’s Democrat judges are truly evil. pic.twitter.com/nH5ZhTsaT9

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) February 4, 2026

Something changed in Minneapolis, and fast.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told lawmakers during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday that local police arrested 54 anti-ICE protesters overnight, a development that would have been almost unthinkable just a few weeks ago. During his testimony, Lyons described a noticeable shift on the ground as immigration enforcement operations continue in the city.

For weeks, Minneapolis had been a flashpoint. Demonstrators swarmed federal agents. Officers were filmed, heckled, and in some cases assaulted while trying to carry out what Lyons described as “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation[s].” Instead of focusing on apprehending criminal illegal aliens, agents were stuck navigating angry crowds, something they weren’t trained to do.

That appears to be changing.

Under questioning from Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Lyons confirmed that protests have cooled and ICE agents are once again able to concentrate on their core mission. “We’ve seen a de-escalation in the fact that the protests, while they still go on, have subsided, and ICE has been allowed to do their targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation,” Lyons said.

The key detail was who made the arrests. According to Lyons, the 54 protesters were taken into custody by local authorities. “ICE officers did not have to be engaged in that,” he told the committee.

That line spoke volumes.

For much of the recent unrest, ICE agents were left in a precarious position. McCaul pointed to what he described as a surge in hostility fueled by overheated rhetoric from Democrats about ICE. He noted “rhetoric on the left led to over a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE officers” and “an increase of over eight thousand death threats to them.”

Those numbers help explain why federal agents found themselves pulled into crowd-control situations they were never meant to handle.

“Your officers are not trained to effectuate crowd control,” McCaul pointed out. “They are trained to move in surgically, go in and remove these dangerous, violent criminals from the United States of America.”

McCaul argued that former Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino’s leadership was the problem. He noted that under his watch, the situation deteriorated to the point where two shooting deaths occurred amid the chaos, and coordination between federal and local authorities broke down, which McCaul described as “a perfect storm.”

McCaul described Homan as “a consummate professional, law enforcement professional,” and made it very clear he supports President Trump’s move to replace Bovino with Homan. And based on Lyons’ testimony, the impact of the change has been immediate.

McCaul outlined what he sees as a return to basics: targeted enforcement actions, better coordination with state and local law enforcement on crowd control, renewed emphasis on ICE detainers, body cameras for agents, and an end to roving interior patrols in major cities. McCaul argued that patrol-style tactics belong at the border, and that Homan is “returning to the original mission of ICE.”

.@RepMcCaul says he believes Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino’s presence in Minneapolis “escalated the situation” in Minneapolis.

With Homan’s arrival, McCaul says order has been restored.

Acting ICE Director responds, saying that since Homan’s arrival, protests have… pic.twitter.com/dajDyOQBBn

— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) February 10, 2026

The 54 arrests in Minneapolis mark a turning point. Local authorities are finally stepping in to handle protesters who try to obstruct federal operations. That shift lets ICE agents focus on apprehending violent offenders instead of fending off crowds. 

Last week, Homan revealed that, thanks to cooperation with local law enforcement, he was pulling 700 federal agents out of Minnesota.

“We currently have an unprecedented number of [Minnesota] counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets,” Homan said.

The change in leadership and tactics is clearly paying off. There are fewer clashes, fewer distractions, and a clearer chain of responsibility between federal officers and local police.

If this trajectory holds, Minneapolis may offer a preview of how the administration intends to carry out immigration enforcement nationwide: tightly focused operations, visible coordination, and a firm line against interference.

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

India’s coal demand could more than double by 2050 from current levels under current policies, a new report by NITI Aayog, the policy think tank of the Indian government, showed on Tuesday.

Under the Current Policy Scenario (CPS), coal demand in India is forecast to rise even through 2070, according to the projections.

In this scenario, long-term demand could more than double to 2.615 billion tons by 2050, up from 1.256 billion tons in 2025, the think tank’s analysis found.

If India keeps the current policies, coal demand will be higher even in 2070 compared to 2025 levels.  

The share of coal is set to drop from 73% in 2025 to 47% in 2070, thanks to the rise of renewable energy.

This suggests that coal will still be king in India if current policies are kept.  

Even in the net-zero scenario (for India, the net-zero goal is 2070), coal demand will rise to 1.827 billion tons by 2050, up from 1.256 billion tons in 2025. But then demand will collapse to only 161 million tons by 2070.

Despite the fact that renewables now dominate new power additions, India needs coal to continue to provide “dependable, cost-effective baseload power, anchoring system reliability as cleaner sources expand,” the government think tank said in the report. 

To manage the transition, India needs to scale up rapidly energy storage, flexible generation, and stronger transmission and distribution networks, the report noted.

Despite booming renewable capacity additions, India continues to rely on coal to meet most of its power demand as authorities also look to avoid blackouts in cases of severe heat waves.

Coal will still be a key part of India’s power system for the next two decades, Rajnath Ram, adviser for energy at NITI Aayog, said in September 2025. 

“We cannot be subjective about coal. The question is how sustainably we can use it,” the official noted.

In just the past week, the Senate confirmed half a dozen of Trump’s judicial nominees, continuing a streak that’s left Democrats visibly frustrated.

Since the start of Trump’s second term, 33 judges have sailed through confirmation — already eclipsing his entire first-term total. By comparison, during Trump’s first year in office, the Senate confirmed 19 Article III judges, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. 

While Senate Republicans are moving fast and confirming judges at a blistering pace, there are mounting calls to scrap one of the Senate’s oldest customs — the “blue slip.” 

The century-old practice has long allowed home-state senators to weigh in on judicial nominations before they advance, but Democrats have been abusing it, turning it into a de facto veto on nominees they don’t like.

Trump has wanted the tradition gone because of the way Democrats have abused it.

Last year, he reportedly told Senate Republicans to “get rid of blue slips, because, as a Republican President, I am unable to put anybody in office having to do with U.S. attorneys or having to do with judges.”

Some Republicans sympathize with Trump’s view, seeing the blue slip as an outdated relic that slows confirmations.

But others see danger in dismantling another institutional guardrail.

“Nuking the blue slip would be a huge mistake,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told Fox News Digital, joining several colleagues warning that a short-term rules victory could backfire the next time Democrats control the Senate.

For them, the issue isn’t about speed — it’s about reciprocity.

They argue the GOP will one day need the same courtesy they’re now being pressured to destroy.

While that is certainly true, like the filibuster, it is likely to be nuked by Democrats the next time they’re in power if they feel this guardrail hampers their ability to get what they want. In fact, that’s exactly why the blue slip started to get abused in the first place. In 2017, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley was forced to reshape the practice after Democrats used it as a veto on Trump’s judicial nominees during his first term. 

Grassley noted at the time that the blue slip began as a “courtesy to get insights on federal court nominees from home-state senators in an era when such information was hard to come by.” It was never, he argued, meant to give senators “veto power over the president’s judicial nominations.” Grassley also reminded Democrats that their predicament was self-inflicted. “Democratic senators’ recent calls for an ahistorical interpretation of the blue slip courtesy stem from a decision they made in 2013 to end the 60-vote filibuster for lower court nominees. This move, often referred to as the ‘nuclear option,’ effectively silenced half of the Senate during confirmation votes.

At the time, many Democratic senators argued it was unfair for a minority of senators to block nominees with majority support.” he wrote.

“Now that they are in the minority, Democrats are scrambling to cope with the fallout from their decision.”

That history lesson seems lost on much of Washington. For now, the tension within the GOP shows no signs of easing, and despite his earlier move, Grassley remains a proponent of blue slips in theory.

“Because it’s a question of 110 years, and everybody in the Senate wants to maintain the blue slip,” Grassley said.

That is likely wishful thinking. During the Biden years, Senate Democrats ignored the spirit of the tradition whenever it suited them, confirming 42 judges in the first year of Biden’s presidency — a pace even faster than Trump’s current term.

 Trump’s allies argue that the President’s judicial agenda is too critical to be slowed by Senate traditions that Democrats themselves long abandoned.

Others, however, believe that retaliating by erasing every trace of procedural courtesy risks making future confirmations impossible when Democrats are back in power.