Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on Jan. 7 that the U.S. population will likely grow by only 15 million people in the next 30 years, a decline from its last estimate.

The office projects 364 million people living in the United States in 2056, up from the current population of around 349 million.

The population growth will be 0.3 percent on average in the next 10 years, but will go down to an average rate of just 0.1 percent between 2037 and 2056, CBO projects.

The population projection is down 2.1 percent from the 372 million CBO estimated in a January 2025 report, and the 383 million it projected in a 2024 estimate.

The drop stems from declining fertility rates and lower numbers of immigrants coming to the country, according to the budget office.

For a generation to replace itself in the absence of immigration, the fertility rate needs to be 2.1 births per woman.

The fertility rate in the United States peaked in 2007 at 2.12 births per woman. It dropped to 1.6 births per woman in 2024, the most recent year for which data on fertility were available when the CBO compiled the new projections.

CBO projects the rate will decrease to 1.58 births per woman in 2026 and to 1.53 births per woman in 2036, and that the rate will not drop further in the following 20 years.

Women born in other countries are more likely to have more children. CBO projects the fertility rate for those women to fall from 1.79 births per woman in 2026 before flattening at 1.66 births per woman in 2036. Native-born women will have 1.5 births per woman in 2032, down from 1.53 births per woman currently, and stay around that rate through 2056, according to the office.

The office acknowledged its projections are “subject to considerable uncertainty” and that changes from the projections would impact the actual population.

President Donald Trump has attempted to increase the birth rate through various actions, including introducing taxpayer-funded savings accounts for newborns and making a deal to lower the cost of fertility drugs.

Immigration

CBO said that without net immigration, or more immigrants coming to the country than those leaving, the population would start shrinking in 2030.

The immigration projections are down from 2025, when CBO estimated net immigration would be 2 million in 2025, 1.5 million in 2026, and an average of 1.1 million per year from 2027 to 2055.

CBO said in 2025, just 410,000 immigrants were added. It also now projects an average of just 330,000 more immigrants entering the United States than leaving each year from 2026 to 2036, although it does forecast an increase to 1.2 million a year in the following two decades.

The reduction is partly because of a drop in illegal immigration under President Donald Trump, demographers said. CBO said the combined net immigration of three types of immigrants—people who illegally entered the country, people who illegally stayed after their legal status expired, and people who were paroled during the Biden administration—plummeted from 2.4 million in 2023 to 1.3 million in 2024 and negative 360,000 in 2025.

CBO said its immigration projections were uncertain, in part because future actions from Congress or a president could impact immigration.

Trump and administration officials have used a variety of methods to stem illegal immigration and strengthen vetting procedures, including a visa ban on applications for immigrants from some countries and deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in U.S. cities to track down immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Trump’s tax and spending legislative package, passed by Congress and signed in July, included roughly $150 billion to ramp up immigration enforcement and deportation agenda over the next four years.

Even if the limits on immigration and increased deportations end with the Trump administration in three years, “it’s still a demographic shock,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, of the new forecast.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin quietly began unwinding portions of their financial empires in California in the days leading up to Christmas, according to corporate filings reviewed by The New York Times, as progressive lawmakers consider a proposed billionaire wealth tax. This development confirms our earlier note that California is on an accelerated path toward self-destruction.

Here are the new details from NYT’s report that further confirm our previous reporting:

In the 10 days before Christmas, an entity connected to Mr. Brin, 52, terminated or moved 15 California limited liability companies that oversee some of his business interests and investments out of the state, according to documents seen by The New York Times. Seven of the companies — including those that appear to manage one of Mr. Brin’s superyachts and his interest in a private air terminal at San Jose’s international airport — were converted into Nevada entities.

Mr. Brin is joining Mr. Page, 52, in reducing his California presence. More than 45 California limited liability companies associated with Mr. Page filed documents last month to either become inactive or move out of the state, according to state records. A trust with ties to Mr. Page also purchased a $71.9 million mansion in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood this week, according to a deed seen by The Times.

Another entity jointly managed by Mr. Brin and Mr. Page moved out of California and to Nevada on Christmas Eve, according to a filing seen by The Times.

The shrinking financial footprints of both Google founders in the state (plagued with an continued exodus) coincide with a proposed California ballot initiative backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (S.E.I.U.-U.H.W), which would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of residents worth more than $1 billion, applied retroactively to those living in the stateJose’s Jan. 1.

Bill Ackman said it best on X, “California is on a path to self-destruction. Hollywood is already toast, and now the most productive entrepreneurs will leave, taking their tax revenues and job creation elsewhere.”

California is on a path to self-destruction. Hollywood is already toast and now the most productive entrepreneurs will leave taking their tax revenues and job creation elsewhere.

And then the Democrats highlight @CAgovernor Newsom as a great leader. Crazy. https://t.co/bFyLhARrNn

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 27, 2025

Even Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic mega-donor who funds questionable left-wing causes, called out S.E.I.U.-U.H.W’s proposed billionaire tax. He wrote on X that this is a “horrendous idea” that might force tech founders and executives to flee the state.

“The proposed CA wealth tax is badly designed in so many ways that a simple social post cannot cover all of the massive flaws. One well-documented example is the horrendous idea to tax illiquid stock in the proposal. Poorly designed taxes incentivize avoidance, capital flight, and distortions that ultimately raise less revenue,” Hoffman wrote on X earlier this week.

Rep. Khanna reached out to me to discuss the proposed California wealth tax; and while I am against the proposed tax, I’m always open to dialogue with our elected leaders.

The proposed CA wealth tax is badly designed in so many ways that a simple social post cannot cover all of…

— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) January 7, 2026

Elon Musk was among the earliest high-profile billionaires to leave California, citing high taxes and radical left-wing state leadership.

Authored by Steven Kritz via the Brownstone Institute,

It is generally acknowledged that the Baby Boom generation (of which I am a member) has been the most successful, socioeconomically speaking, in the history of this planet, and the prospects for the generations following to match or surpass us are not looking good. As a confirmation of the disparity, I recently read that while Baby Boomers make up approximately 20% of the current US population, they possess more than 50% of the wealth.    

In speaking with others of my generation, I have come to realize that very few Baby Boomers have even a modicum of insight as to how that success happened. The typical pabulum that I get from my peers is that they got their education and worked hard, implying that it should be no different for the younger generations. 

To be fair, I can see several historical and sociological factors that would lead Boomers to think this way. First of all, many of our parents pounded into our heads from an early age that going to college was the key to success. Some things just don’t change from generation to generation! In fact, when Boomers entered the work force en masse during the 1970s, we were the largest new worker cohort in the history of the country, and approximately 30% of us had a college degree, up from, at most, 10% for previous generations. 

However, despite our educational advantages, the 1970s was a disastrous time economically for everyone, but especially for those entering the workforce, and those permanently leaving the workforce, due to retirement or disability. We were plagued by two recessions, two huge oil shocks, and stagflation. Engineering as a career was absolutely dead. Add the extremely challenging geopolitical environment both at home and abroad, and we experienced an era when it was virtually impossible to get ahead solely through one’s education and hard work. 

I was able to sidestep much of this, at least socioeconomically speaking, even though my dad had suddenly and unexpectedly died at the age of 42 in mid-December 1969. That’s because I spent the first three years of the 1970s finishing college, the next four years in medical school, and the final three years of the decade as an Internal Medicine resident. In those days, the cost of living, including college and medical school could be handled without too much difficulty, and the pay as a medical resident was sufficient for me to have a very nice apartment in Brooklyn, while also being able to save some money. As such, I didn’t enter the “real” workforce until the middle of 1980. 

The timing for me was near perfect! Beginning in the middle of 1982, the greatest economic boom in history launched, and due to significant gains in the areas of racial equality and women’s rights, all groups participated. In fact, every quintile of household income set a record in all but two or three years of this boom, peaking in 1999. 

Given that the 1980s and 1990s were in the wheelhouse of every Baby Boomer’s working career, I could see where the attitude would be that getting an education and working hard would lead to success. Extrapolating this thinking to the younger generations, it would make sense for Boomers to believe that the younger generations, having an even higher percentage with a college degree, just need to keep working hard and they will also achieve the same level of success. However, there are several major flaws in this thought process. 

Some of it stems from the fact that the Boomers were the first “me” generation. It resulted in an inability to see the world from other than a personal bubble that was easily filled with nonsense. One of the things that has been completely missed by the Boomers is that Gen X, which is currently in its peak earnings years, has not, and never will catch up to the Boomers in terms of wealth accumulation. 

Carrying this train of thought further, one might ask the following questions: (1) Are Boomers smarter than the generations that followed? I’d say no, except for people born between 2005 and 2020, who were permanently damaged by the Covid response. The extent of the damage won’t be known for another decade or two, since that cohort has not entered the workforce as yet. (2) Did the Boomers work harder than the generations that followed? 

While every generation believes that the younger generations are overrun by lazy bastards, it’s not true. The reason for this misconception is that the tools available to each successive generation to help them work more effectively (and generate more wealth) evolve from generation to generation. 

In order to explain the success of the Boomers, one has to look at the economic environment within which each generation lived during its working lives. The wealth creation of the 1980s and 1990s was not because Boomers were so great; it was because we operated in an economic environment that was conducive to success at a level that had never been seen before. That economic environment can be described in one word: Reaganomics. 

Very recently, the word meritocracy has come back in vogue. What I can state with near certainty is that the era when meritocracy reached its zenith in this country was during the 1980s and 1990s, and it was largely due to an economic environment that promoted it. Since the end of the 20th century, those favorable conditions haven’t existed, other than during the years 2018 and 2019.

From the foregoing, it should be clear that most Boomers put the cart before the horse when it comes to explaining our generation’s success…and our children are paying a heavy price for this lack of insight. What has been particularly difficult for Millennials is that their childhood occurred during the greatest economic boom ever, only to enter the workforce beginning in 2000, when everything changed, and not for the better. 

Having not been taught the real reason why the Boomers succeeded, the younger generations do not understand (and actively resist) the efforts by the Trump administration to reestablish the economic environment of the 1980s and 1990s. The only taste of it occurred in 2018 and 2019, when household incomes in every quintile finally broke through the records previously set in 1999, but it was overshadowed by the Covid disaster, which distorted everything. 

As mentioned earlier, the term meritocracy has been resurrected, but what is really being put forward is credentialocracy. They are not the same. If they were, the younger generations would be doing just fine, socioeconomically speaking. We live in a country where having more initials after one’s name imputes greater intelligence, superior level of achievement, and higher ethical standing. More than anything, the disaster known as the Covid response taught us otherwise, in that the best and the brightest made everything much worse than it would have been had we done absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, this lesson has not penetrated most peoples’ personal bubble; at least not yet.

To make matters worse, our so-called educational system has cheapened the value of a credential, while charging higher and higher tuition to obtain it. In fact, our educational system rewards teachers, not for how well the students they teach perform, but by how many post-graduate credits and degrees the teacher obtains. 

To me, this credentialing madness reached the height of perversity and insanity when it became clear that the CDC’s recommendations for protecting children’s health with regard to school closings, social distancing, masking, and “vaccine” mandates were dictated to the head of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky (who has MD and MPH credentials) by Randi Weingarten, head of the largest teachers’ union (who has a JD credential). This is backwards, and tremendous damage has been done. Want more? Despite the fact that uptake of the Covid shots has dropped to around 5%, it is my observation that among the highly educated, uptake is several times higher. Are the best and the brightest in the process of self-immolation? 

Clearly, we need to decouple meritocracy from credentialocracy, and we must return to a state in which meritocracy can flourish. This will require unlearning the progressive garbage that’s replaced critical thinking over the past 55+ years, and an economic environment that fosters individual initiative. Otherwise, we’re done, and you might as well stick a fork in us now.

Steven Kritz, MD is a retired physician, who has been in the healthcare field for 50 years. He graduated from SUNY Downstate Medical School and completed IM Residency at Kings County Hospital. This was followed by almost 40 years of healthcare experience, including 19 years of direct patient care in a rural setting as a Board Certified Internist; 17 years of clinical research at a private-not-for-profit healthcare agency; and over 35 years of involvement in public health, and health systems infrastructure and administration activities. He retired 5 years ago, and became a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the agency where he had done clinical research, where he has been IRB Chair for the past 3 years.

President Trump’s push to revive Venezuela’s oil sector is colliding with a major technical obstacle: vast methane leaks from crumbling infrastructure that could scare off large international investors, according to Bloomberg.

Satellite monitoring shows huge plumes of methane rising from abandoned rigs, corroded pipelines and aging facilities across the country. Those emissions signal both lost revenue and deep operational problems — conditions that tend to deter major oil companies. As Clayton Nash of Tegre Corp. put it, “That’s one way that you’re going to know that you’ve got facilities that are not operated well.”

Each year Venezuela wastes about 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas through flaring, venting and leaks, roughly $1.4 billion in potential revenue. About a quarter of its total gas output escapes into the atmosphere — the highest rate globally and nearly ten times the world average. The scale of those leaks reflects decades of neglect, theft and underinvestment, leaving what remains of the system fragile and costly to repair.

Bloomberg writes that those realities complicate Trump’s effort to draw fresh capital. The White House is bringing U.S. oil executives to Washington on Friday to advance that plan, with the core message expected to be: “Do it for our country.” Yet analysts warn that political instability and Venezuela’s history of seizing foreign assets may keep major companies on the sidelines.

“We anticipate that large, publicly traded US and European majors will remain hesitant given their checkered history in the region,” said Quentin Peyle of Kayrros SA. “Instead, investment will likely come from smaller operators with a higher risk appetite.”

That shift carries its own risks. Smaller firms often lack the capital and incentives needed to modernize operations and control emissions at scale. Even if leaks are reduced, Deborah Gordon of RMI cautioned that “Venezuela’s fields will not only need an overhaul but also require careful operational management and oversight long into the future,” adding that the country’s extra-heavy crude would remain a major source of CO₂.

Restoring production near Venezuela’s former peak of almost 4 million barrels per day could require about $100 billion over the next decade. And the true condition of the infrastructure may remain hidden until output increases. As Nash warned, “You’re not going to find out how bad things are until you ramp up production.”

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The overarching trend is that the US is militarily reasserting its historical “sphere of influence” over the Americas, and enforcing the maritime component of “Fortress America” is so important for Trump 2.0 that it’s willing to rubbish the “rules-based order” over it and even risk an accidental war with Russia.

The Russian-flagged Marinera tanker was just seized by the US in the Atlantic. It was earlier named the Bella 1 and is under US sanctions due to connections to Hezbollah. It sailed under the Guyanese flag from Iran to Venezuela and attempted to break the US’ blockade. It failed, turned around, changed its name to the Marinera, and received a temporary permit to sail under the Russian flag before being seized. Russian then demanded that its citizens on board be treated humanely and returned home.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted that “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world.” This preceded Attorney General Pam Bondi threatening that criminal charges might be pursued against the crew. Her tweet and Hegseth’s other one about how the US will only permit “legitimate and lawful” energy commerce with Venezuela shows that it’s once again assuming so-called “police” functions. Here are three takeaways from this incident:

1. The US Is Surprisingly Nonchalant About An Accidental War With Russia

It was brazen even by the US’ standards to seize a Russian-flagged tanker, especially after Western media reported that Russia had dispatched ships and a submarine to escort it, which Russia didn’t confirm and none were nearby during the seizure. Nevertheless, Trump 2.0 calculated that there’d be no retaliation despite the deputy chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defense committee warning that “any attack on our carriers can be regarded as an attack on our territory, even if the ship is under a foreign flag.”

This incident interestingly occurred in parallel with the US backing European ceasefire guarantees for Ukraine that include British and French commitments to deploy troops there during that time even though Russia has repeatedly warned that they’d be legitimate targets. Quite clearly, the US is now surprisingly nonchalant about an accidental war with Russia, whether over seizing one of its flagged ships at sea or over NATO allies getting killed in Ukraine. This observation won’t be lost on Russia.

2. “Fortress America” Also Includes An Important Maritime Component

The goal of restoring the US’ unipolar hegemony over the Americas, which is described as the highest regional priority in its new National Security Strategy, can be referred to as building “Fortress America”. This isn’t being pursued just for reasons of prestige but also pragmatism in the sense of enabling the US to survive and even thrive if it’s ever expelled from the Eastern Hemisphere or decides to retreat from there since control over the hemisphere’s resources and markets would all but ensure this outcome.

As can be seen by this incident as well as Hegseth’s and Bondi’s posts about it, there’s also an important maritime component related to controlling the export of oil from Venezuela, which has the world’s largest reserves. This can only be achieved by maintaining the unilateral blockade and seizing all ships that violate it, both on law enforcement pretexts that embody the concept of extraterritoriality. Without this maritime component, “Fortress America” could never truly be built, but it’s not without some costs.

3. The US Is Dismantling The “Rules-Based Order” That It Built Over The Decades

The abovementioned point segues into the last one about how the US’ militarily enforced extraterritoriality vis-à-vis Venezuela dismantles the “rules-based order” that it built over the decades for maintaining its unipolar hegemony over the world after the end of the Old Cold War. This violates the international laws that the US used to selectively police across the world according to its arbitrary standards. Instead of international ones, the US is now policing its own, but also in pursuit of hegemony.

International law has increasingly become illusory due to the UN’s innate dysfunction, which is related to the deadlock among the UNSC’s five permanent members, with one usually vetoing significant proposals from the others. Even so, if the Great Powers abided by it in their ties with one another, then there’d be more predictability and less risk of war by miscalculation. The US is no longer interested in even that as proven by this incident, however, since building “Fortress America” now takes precedence over all else.

The trend connecting the three aforementioned takeaways is that the US is militantly reasserting its historical “sphere of influence” over the Americas, and this is so important for Trump 2.0 that it’s willing to rubbish the “rules-based order” over it and even risk an accidental war with Russia. The maritime component off of Venezuela’s Caribbean coast that’s been built before all else is justified by the administration as a law enforcement operation that prioritizes domestic laws over international ones.

Since this is taking place on the other side of the world where neither half of the Sino-Russo Entente has any military bases, they can’t challenge this even through indirect means, unlike how the US challenged Russia’s reassertion of its own historical “sphere of influence” in Ukraine through the ongoing proxy war. This doesn’t mean that the US’ grand strategic goal of restoring its unipolar hegemony over the Americas will succeed, just that if it doesn’t, then it’ll be due to intra-hemispheric reasons and not external forces.

A shocking scene played out in a Latin American country Thursday, but this time it’s not Venezuela, but nearby Honduras.

A Honduran legislator from the country’s conservative National Party of president-elect Nasry Asfura was speaking to the press within the halls of the Honduran national congress, or just outside, when suddenly an explosive device was thrown, detonating just behind her head. The disturbing incident, which she survived, was filmed given the many cameras around at the time of the attack.

Deputies had been summoned to meet, and the attack victim – Gladis Aurora López – collapsed to the floor during the explosion, her jacket left torn apart.

Witnesses immediately rushed her to begin giving her medical attention, and authorities in a later update announced that her injuries were thankfully not life-threatening.

Lawmakers had gathered to debate a proposal from LIBRE calling for an election recount, despite electoral officials having already declared a winner in December.

Quickly after, accusations and threats are flying, threatening to unleash severe infighting or instability among rival political factions.

Tomás Zambrano, head of the National Party’s congressional delegation, charged the outgoing governing leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party, known as LIBRE, with being behind the incident.

Zambrano denounced the incident as nothing less than attack on the National Party, and it comes at a sensitive moment, where a fiercely contested presidential election at the end of November led to a vote count that dragged on for weeks and ended in a disputed result.

The National Party’s candidate, Nasry Asfura, was eventually proclaimed the victor nearly a month later.

“Today I speak not as a representative, but as a Honduran,” a fellow conservative deputy, Antonio Cesar Rivera, later stated on social media. “I condemn with absolute firmness the cowardly attack against Gladis Aurora Lopez and I stand in solidarity with her.”

Honduran National Party lawmaker Gladis Aurora López Calderón was injured after far-left protesters hurled an explosive device at her outside the National Congress. pic.twitter.com/YDGuvfUUzQ

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) January 9, 2026

He linked the political violence to attacks on the Right, accusing LIBRE groups of attacking him, too. “Those who promote hatred and intimidation are attacking democracy,” he wrote.

It’s as yet unclear what an ongoing police investigation has uncovered, or just who the culprit was. But clearly the country’s congressional building needs to quickly beef up its security protocol. 

Authored by Dave Mason via The Center Square,

U.S. First Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli Thursday called California Gov. Gavin Newsom “the king of fraud,” accusing him of a lack of oversight on spending to address homelessness.

Essayli made the comments on the “Fox and Friends” telecast, during which he discussed the federal fraud charges that were filed in October against real estate executives Steven Taylor and Cody Holmes for allegedly misusing grant money meant for homeless housing.

Holmes, 31, of Beverly Hills was charged with mail fraud charge that was allegedly linked to millions of dollars in grant money that the state paid Shangri-La Industries to purchase, build and operate homeless housing in Thousand Oaks, just north of Los Angeles. Holmes was Shangri-La’s chief financial officer.

Taylor, 44, of Brentwood, was charged with seven counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of money laundering.

Essayli Thursday said the charges are the “tip of the iceberg” in an investigation he launched with a task force in April. He said more charges would be coming, probably later this month.

The state spent $24 billion in the last five years to address homelessness and can’t account for where the money went, Essayli said on “Fox and Friends.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday on X said,  “California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud investigation of California has begun.”

Newsom’s press office fired back on X. It called Trump a liar and noted Newsom has “BLOCKED $125 billion in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artists Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons.”

The Center Square reached out Thursday afternoon to the governor’s office, but did not get a response.

When The Center Square asked the White House Thursday about Newsom, the press office pointed to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments during a press briefing on Wednesday. Leavitt told reporters that Trump has directed all agencies to look at federal spending programs “in not just Minnesota, but also in the state of California, to identify fraud and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, all those who have committed it.”

The Center Square also reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice, but spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy said the DOJ had no additional comment.

But two Republican legislators in Sacramento Thursday shared their views about Newsom with The Center Square.

“When you talk about the amounts of billions of dollars the governor’s spent in homelessness, he could almost buy a home for every homeless person,” state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, told The Center Square at the Capitol after Newsom’s final State of the State address.

“There’s no question there is waste in there, and certainly, we need to look to see if there’s fraud and abuse,” Strickland said. “So I welcome the investigation, because we need to maximize every dollar that comes into the state coffers.”

Strickland stressed he wants to learn the truth.

“Those who abused the power and those who wasted dollars and abused tax dollars should be prosecuted,” he said. “Then we should root out waste, because every dollar that is wasted is a dollar that we take from a hard-working citizen who is just trying to make it.

“In California right now, we have an affordability crisis and these are precious dollars, and by Gov. Newsom’s own admission, revenues are up, so California doesn’t have a revenue problem,” Strickland said. “It has a wasteful spending problem.”

Izzy Swindler, a spokesperson for Assemblymember Tom Lackey, said the Palmdale Republican has always supported oversight on spending.

“It is his belief that we should be accountable to our dollars and be able to track the results that come from the taxpayer funded programs,” Swindler said, answering The Center Square’s questions by email. “Accountability should always be at the forefront of discussions. Especially when we are referring to homelessness programs that have been allocated billions of dollars over the past few years.”

John Solomon’s Just the News reports that a dark-money NGO network tied to CCP-linked communist billionaire Neville Roy Singham was allgedly activated as a command-and-control support node to organize nationwide anti-ICE protests just hours after the deadly shooting in Minneapolis.

“China may be helping astroturf far-left protests against ICE via a financial network in league with radical-left financier and multi-millionaire Neville Roy Singham. Singham funds a network of groups expressing anti-American sentiment,” Solomon’s team wrote in a note. 

On Wednesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on X, “I have formally made a motion to subpoena Neville Singham, an American billionaire with ties to the CCP.”

During a House Oversight Committee meeting earlier that day, Luna said the China-based Singham “has been funding extremist organizations that fuel division and civil unrest in this country, especially regarding the anti-ICE riots last summer.”

For example, the Los Angeles riots last year.

What we have outlined mere hours after the ICE-related shooting of a left-wing “ICE Watch” activist trained to obstruct federal agents during deportation operations was the well-oiled protest industrial complex machine run by left-wing socialists and Marxists, which quickly mobilized nationwide, from Minneapolis to Portland to Seattle to New York City, or left-wing-controlled cities. 

BREAKING: Tonight, cities across the country erupted in protest against ICEpic.twitter.com/CngPJd6AfE

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) January 8, 2026

Such coordination showed observers just how inorganic the protests were, as the Democratic Party appeared to be hoping for a “George Floyd 2.0” moment to burn city blocks to the ground in an attempt to sway public opinion polls against ICE operations. After all, ICE is deporting the Democratic Party’s illegal aliens, either their current voting bloc in some metro areas and states or a future one.

We also pointed out that Singham’s Party for Socialism and Liberation network was quickly activated in NYC on Wednesday night.

EXPOSED 🚨 The protest tonight in New York City against ICE is being paid for and organized by ‘PSL New York City – Party for Socialism and Liberation’

They are funded by Neville Roy Singham who lives in China and works with the CCP

He donated over $20 million to entities like… pic.twitter.com/Fy508FFbqn

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) January 8, 2026

By Thursday night, unhinged Marxists in NYC were chanting, “Kristi Noem will hang!”

NOW: “Kristi Noem will Hang!” Huge crowd chants in Foley Square NYC, also “Save a life, kill an ICE” as they gather to protest the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Some in the crowd condemn the talk of killing. pic.twitter.com/ifrXNZB0dz

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 8, 2026

Luna made her case to the House committee earlier this week for why Singham should testify, and the motion to issue a subpoena passed by voice vote. That vote also included approval of unrelated subpoenas.

“Neville Singham was referred to the Department of Justice, I believe, for FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] violations by then-Senator Rubio when he served on the Senate Intelligence Committee,” Luna said. “Neville Singham, regardless of what you might feel about your colleagues, has been a mechanism and funding arm of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Luna added, “He’s not a registered agent under FARA and has been connected to a number of riots, including the anti-ICE riots funded in Los Angeles. He has been avoiding our request to appear before Congress and provide information. He is definitely anti-American ideologically and is funding groups known to sow discord in this country. He is a known foreign agent for China. He should face a subpoena. If he does not comply, I will make a motion for inherent contempt.”

The Trump administration is running out of time in the midterm election cycle to enforce actions against Singham and other left-wing billionaires who operate dark-money-funded NGOs that function as what can only be described as an invisible insurrection against President Trump and the America First agenda. The administration has slow-walked enforcement across the nonprofit universe and, by doing so, should brace for a summer of chaos, with socialists and Marxists once again pushing the nation toward disorder. 

Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute, commented… 

Great work, @RepLuna! A subpoena is a necessary first step, but it’s not sufficient. If @USTreasury concludes that foreign-aligned money is financing domestic unrest, penalties should be severe — up to and including freezing and seizing assets. If warranted, bring on some… https://t.co/GhldXtWbYI

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) January 9, 2026

Time is ticking. 

Authored by Joseph Lord and Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump announced in an interview aired Jan. 8 that the United States would begin launching strikes on cartels in Mexico.

“We knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard with the cartels,” Trump told Sean Hannity from Fox News.

“The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country.

“They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 in our country every single year.”

The announcement comes just five days after Trump ordered an operation to capture and remove Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to the United States to face criminal charges, including narco-terrorism.

Trump gave a warning to several Latin American countries following the U.S. strike on Venezuela and Maduro’s capture.

The president also warned Mexico on Sunday that it needs to “get its act together,” referring to drug cartels operating in the country.

“You have to do something with Mexico,” Trump told reporters during his trip back to Washington from Florida. “We’re going to have to do something. We’d love Mexico to do it; they’re capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.”

Trump said that he had spoken to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on a number of occasions, saying that the United States has offered to send troops into her country. However, he described her as “afraid” and that the “cartels are running Mexico,” not her

Mexico has repeatedly opposed U.S. proposals to fight drug cartels in the country.

“We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning press conference on Monday. “The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: Intervention has never brought democracy, never generated well-being, nor lasting stability.”

Trump’s administration has intensified anti-cartel measures, including designating Mexican syndicates as terrorist organizations, a step he announced years ago. Officials say sea-based trafficking has been nearly halted, prompting a pivot to land operations.

Trump has previously said no formal war declaration is necessary.

“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country,” Trump said on Oct. 23, 2025.

U.S. officials have linked cartels to tens of thousands of American overdose deaths annually. Trump has criticized Sheinbaum for declining U.S. offers to dismantle the cartels.

Trump did not give a timeline for land strikes against cartels.

There are competing narratives about Wednesday’s ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis. Some left-leaning corporate outlets focused on the fact that a woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a federal enforcement deportation operation, while other media, like the New York Post, highlighted that the woman, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was part of a left-wing group “Ice Watch” that mounted pressure campaigns on ICE agents on the ground.

Put aside all those viral videos on X; now Alpha News has obtained cellphone footage from what appears to be one of the ICE agents, and it provides a completely new perspective on what happened and why the ICE agent felt threatened enough to fire several shots at Good, killing the activist.

BREAKING: Alpha News has obtained cellphone footage showing perspective of federal agent at center of ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/p2wks0zew0

— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) January 9, 2026

The NYPost reported late Thursday night that Good was an anti-ICE “warrior” and part of a network of left-wing activists who worked to “document and resist” ICE operations in Minnesota.

The video from an ICE agent appears to confirm that Good and another individual were obstructing federal agents in the middle of the street.

Vice President JD Vance commented on Alpha News’ report, saying, “What the press has done in lying about this innocent law enforcement officer is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.” 

*This is a developing story…. Check back for more updates.