Via The Cradle

Chinese state oil firms have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the US imposed new sanctions on Russian energy giants, Rosneft and Lukoil, multiple trade sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Chinese national oil companies PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Zhenhua Oil will “refrain from dealing in seaborne Russian oil at least in the short-term due to concern over sanctions,” the news agency wrote, citing the trade sources.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed new sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil on Wednesday, claiming Russia lacked a “serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”

The Treasury said its actions would increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to fight its war against Ukraine.

China imports roughly 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil per day (bpd). Beijing’s state oil firms import between 250,000 and 500,000 bpd, while the remainder is purchased by small refiners known as teapots.

Traders speaking with Reuters indicated that the small refiners will likely continue purchases of Russian oil after a brief pause to assess the impact of the sanctions. China also buys approximately 900,000 bpd of Russian oil by pipeline. These purchases will likely not be affected by sanctions, the traders added.

The other major purchaser of Russian oil, India, is also expected to drastically reduce its crude imports from Moscow as a result of the US sanctions.

“A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will put a strain on Moscow’s oil revenues and force the world’s top importers to seek alternative supplies and push up global prices,” Reuters wrote.

India and China will instead look to suppliers in West Asia, Africa, and Latin America to make up for the lost supply from Russia, traders said.

World oil prices jumped after the US Treasury announced the new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers. The sanctions froze all Rosneft and Lukoil assets in the US, while US companies and individuals will be barred from doing business with them.

China Pulls Back on Russian Oil; India Poised to Follow

China’s state oil giants — PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Zhenhua Oil — have halted or reduced seaborne Russian crude purchases after new U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, fearing secondary penalties.

These firms… pic.twitter.com/AwXgptbXT8

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 23, 2025

Washington is also threatening secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with the two Russian energy firms, including banks that facilitate sales of Russian oil in China, India, and Turkiye.

In a related development, several oil suppliers from West Asia and Canada have suspended oil sales to China’s Yulong Petrochemical after the UK imposed sanctions on the refiner.

Reuters reported that although the UK imposed sanctions on Yulong to curb Moscow’s oil revenues used to fund the Ukraine war, the move is likely to push it to buy more Russian crude.

Yulong Petrochemical has a capacity of 400,000 bpd and is one of the country’s largest single Russian oil customers.

The FBI on Oct. 22 released new surveillance footage that it says shows a person placing pipe bombs the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Officials reiterated that a $500,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

The video shows where the suspect was heading the night before Jan. 6. A person can be seen carrying a backpack and placing devices at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) in Washington, the bureau said.

“As part of our ongoing investigation, we’re releasing an updated video of the subject, which includes previously unreleased footage, higher quality video, and longer clips of the subject’s movements,” the FBI said in a post on X.

The FBI is still offering a $500,000 reward for information that helps identify the person who placed pipe bombs at the offices of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on January 5, 2021. As part of our ongoing investigation, we’re releasing an… pic.twitter.com/LAP36S1nIk

— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) October 22, 2025

In an updated statement issued later on Wednesday, Jack Phillips reports for The Epoch Times that FBI officials said that the suspect is about 5’7, and was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black gloves, and Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes.

The suspect was seen walking in the Washington Capitol Hill neighborhood between about 7:34 p.m. ET and 8:18 p.m. ET on Jan. 5, 2021, the FBI said.

The individual was first seen at 1st Street and North Carolina Avenue SE before setting down a backpack on South Capitol Street, according to the bureau.

He was also seen at around 7:54 p.m. ET placing a device at the DNC as he sat on a bench, according to the agency.

The FBI added that in the new video, the suspect can be seen walking to the RNC headquarters and putting down a second device at 8:16 p.m. ET.

The individual was last seen on camera at about 8:18 p.m. after placing the device, the FBI said.

“We still believe there is someone out there who has information they may not have realized was significant until now,” the FBI said on Wednesday.

Officials have said that “viable explosive devices” were found on Jan. 6, 2021, after sitting outside the DNC and RNC for more than 16 hours. The devices were defused.

Several congressional committees have looked into the FBI’s investigation. A January 2025 report that was issued by House Republicans was critical of the FBI’s progress and questioned whether the Democrat-led Jan. 6 House select committee was thorough enough in examining the issue.

Since the FBI confirmed the incident in 2021, no suspects or persons of interest have been named. In May, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a post on social media that the bureau would renew its investigation into the pipe bomb incident.

Earlier in 2025, David Sundberg, former assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, told CNN that officials were seeking new leads in the case.

“Maybe allegiances have changed or relationships have changed and it’s time to report [on the suspect],” Sundberg said.

“Tips from the public really have been very helpful but, as I mentioned, we’re still trying to identify the suspect. So we’re trying to release a little more information such that maybe it will jog somebody’s memory.”

The FBI said that people with information can call its tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit tips online through its website.

Authored by Jim Bovard

President Donald Trump is rattling his saber against Colombian President Gustavo Petro to punish him for accusing the US government of murdering Venezuelan fishermen. Trump has boasted of the killings by the US military but claims all the targets were drug smugglers. He has threatened to suspend all US government handouts for the Colombian government. Trump warned Petro that he “better close up” cocaine production “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

Tapping his own psychiatric expertise, Trump proclaimed that Colombia has “the worst president they’ve ever had – a lunatic with serious mental problems.” Is anyone in the Trump White House aware of the long history of U.S. failure in that part of the world? In 1989, President George H.W. Bush warned Colombian drug dealers that they were “no match for an angry America.” But Colombia remains the world’s largest cocaine producer despite billions of dollars of US government anti-drug aid to the Colombian government.

The Bill Clinton administration made Colombia its top target in its international war on drugs. Clinton drug warriors deluged the Colombian government with U.S. tax dollars as they literally deluged Colombia with toxic spray. The New York Times reported that U.S.-financed planes repeatedly sprayed pesticides onto schoolchildren, making many of them ill. Colombian environmental minister Juan Mayr publicly declared last year that the crop spraying program has been a failure and warned, “We can’t permanently fumigate the country.”

As I wrote in The American Spectator in 1999:

“Colombia has received almost a billion dollars of anti-narcotics aid since 1990. Coca production is skyrocketing–doubling since 1996 and, according to the General Accounting Office, expected to increase another 50 percent in the next two years. Colombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost all the cocaine consumed in the United States.”

The Clinton administration responded to the failure of its drug war by championing a far more destructive solution. As I noted in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Clinton officials “intensely pressured the Colombian government to allow a much more toxic chemical (tebuthiuron, known as SPIKE 20) to be dumped across the land, which would permit the planes to fly at much higher altitudes, Kosovo-style. Environmentalists warned that SPIKE 20 could poison ground water and permanently ruin the land for agriculture. Even as the Clinton administration decreed clean-air standards severely curtailing Americans’ exposure to chemicals that pose little or no health threat, it sought to deluge a foreign land with a toxic chemical in a way that would be forbidden in the United States.” Dow Chemical, the product’s inventor, protested strongly that SPIKE 20 was not safe for use in the Andes and surrounding areas. Didn’t matter.

Colombia at that time was wracked by a civil war—a fight between a corrupt government and corrupt leftist guerillas. The Dallas Morning News noted reports that “tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are going into covert operations across southern Colombia employing, among others, U.S. Special Forces, former Green Berets, Gulf War veterans and even a few figures from covert CIA-backed operations in Central America during the 1980’s.”

Like Trump’s attacks on Venezuelan boats, Clinton’s aid for Colombia was lawless. Congress in 1996 prohibited any U.S. foreign aid to military organizations with a penchant for atrocities. The Colombian army had a poor human rights record but almost nobody in Congress gave a damn. Democrats winked at illicit conduct by their president and Republicans didn’t care about any crimes committed in the name of eradicating drugs.

In a Baltimore Sun piece in June 2000, I observed, “The war on drugs is as unwinnable in Colombia as it is in the hills of Kentucky, where natives continue growing marijuana despite endless raids by police and the National Guard.” I whacked the Clinton administration for “bumbling into a civil war.” Colombia’s ambassador to the United States vehemently attacked my piece, claiming that the Clinton administration aid package was carefully targeted to “strengthen law enforcement institutions and help protect human rights.” Alas, U.S. aid was diverted to “carry out spying operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices,” The Washington Post reported, crippling the nation’s judiciary.

At the same time that the Clinton administration was sacrificing the health of Colombian children in its quixotic anti-drug crusade, top U.S. antidrug officials made a mockery of the entire mission. Laurie Hiett, the wife of Colonel James Hiett, the top American military commander in Colombia, exploited U.S. embassy diplomatic pouches to ship fifteen pounds of heroin and cocaine to New York. She pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in narcotic profits.

After she was caught and convicted, she received far more lenient treatment than most drug offenders—only five years in prison, “the same sentence a small-time dealer would get if he were caught with five grams of crack in his pocket,” I noted in Playboy. Her husband—ridiculed as the “Coke Colonel” in the New York Post—received only six months in prison for laundering drug proceeds and concealing his wife’s crimes.

US vassal state Colombia is preparing to resume aerial spraying of poor farmers with cancerous, deformity-causing glyphosate. Maybe if they changed their names to Navalny, @SecBlinken would denounce these chemical attacks against innocent civilians. https://t.co/4D8tJ7NM33 pic.twitter.com/UUUmkEaX8x

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) March 2, 2021

Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, explained the double standard:

“If Colonel Hiett had been Mr. Hiett, he would have been charged with conspiracy to traffic in more than a kilogram of heroin, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. He would possibly face life without parole…Mr. Hiett would, at a minimum, have been charged with aiding and abetting his wife’s money laundering, facing 20 years.”

Most drug warriors pretended either that the Hiett case had never happened or that it didn’t matter. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey shrugged off the scandal:

“What a tragedy…There are 3.6 million chronic cocaine addicts in America and every one of them produces that kind of criminality and tragedy.”

“But when any of those 3.6 million is caught, they don’t get coddled,” as I wrote in Playboy.

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election did not entitle him to micromanage every acre of land in this hemisphere. The U.S. war on drugs has dismally failed in Colombia for more than a third of a century. There is no excuse for Trump or any other U.S. government official to burn American tax dollars by perpetuating Colombian pratfalls.

Authored by Cynthia Farahat via American Greatness,

New York City’s 2025 mayoral race has thrust Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and New York State Assembly member, into the spotlight as the Democratic nominee. His candidacy, while historic as potentially the first Muslim and Indian-American mayor, raises serious concerns due to his (1) adherence to the Shi’a Twelver sect, (2) support of Hamas jihadist terrorists and its parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, (3) rabid antisemitism, and (4) devastating economic implications of his socialist policies. Mamdani’s candidacy is a natural result of decades of failed NYC policies toward Islamists and jihadists, which have almost turned the city into a Muslim Brotherhood sanctuary. Mamdani’s candidacy is a symptom of a larger Islamist problem in NYC.

While many American Muslims in New York City are patriotic and capable of great leadership, Mamdani’s religious and ideological stances demand scrutiny. Mamdani wants to rule New York City, but who rules Mamdani?

New York City is home to over half a million Muslims, many of whom contribute significantly to the city’s vibrant fabric. Numerous Muslim leaders possess the vision, integrity, and capability to serve as mayor, championing policies that align with American values and the U.S. Constitution; however, Mamdani is not among them. He belongs on a terror watchlist and not in a mayoral race.

1. Religious Affiliation and Allegiances

On July 14, 2025, The Conversation news website published an article about Mamdani. The article supported Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy and discussed his religious affiliation. While it is widely known that Mamdani is a Shi’a Muslim, the article states he specifically adheres to the Shia Twelver sect. This is also confirmed by Mamdani’s father. In 2013, Mahmood Mamdani was interviewed by Warscapes magazine, where he discussed his family’s origins, stating, “My family had come over 100 years ago from Gujarat, from Kathiawad.” The family belongs to the Khoja, a sect of Gujarati Shia Muslims.

According to the official Khoja Shi’a Twelver website, the Khoja community traces its origins to the Lohana community in Gujarat, India. In 1400 AD, Pir Sadruddin converted members of the Lohana community into Khojas, initiating their association with Shia Islam. The term “Khoja” is derived from the Persian word “Khawaja,” signifying a learned or respected individual. Initially, Khojas followed the Nizari Ismaili sect under the Aga Khan. However, in the late 19th century, a significant number of Khojas converted to the Twelver Shia Ithna Ashariyyah sect. This shift was influenced by religious leaders such as Sheikh Zainul Abedeen Mazendarani and Mulla Qadir Husein, who played pivotal roles in converting the Khojas to Twelver Shia beliefs and practices.

The Twelver sect is also known as Shi’a Imamate and Shi’a Ja’farites. It is the same sect adhered to by the mullahs in Tehran since the 1979 revolution. While most Muslims are peaceful, the Shi’a Twelvers cling to an extremist belief system that has subjugated millions of Muslims and non-Muslims across the world.

The Shi’a Twelver Sect, Wilayat Al-Faqih, and Why Mamdani’s Religious Affiliation is Problematic

The two major sects in Shi’ite Islam are the Ithna Ashariyyah (Twelvers) and Al-Isma’iliyya (Isma’ilis), or Seveners. The Twelvers believe in the authority of twelve imams, who were appointed by God to lead the Muslim nation after the death of Prophet Mohammed, and they continue to be represented by the Ayatollah (Imam).

The Isma’ilis believe in only seven imams. Both sects agree upon the first six imams, the last of whom was Ja’far as-Sadiq. The battle for succession between the two sects surrounds as-Sadiq’s sons. The Isma’ilis argued that the custodian of the religion should be as-Sadiq’s oldest son, Isma’il. The Twelvers believe his younger brother, Musa al-Kazim, was the legitimate imam, and his lineage continued until the twelfth imam, who disappeared in 873.

The Shi’a Twelver faith teaches the absolute belief in the infallibility of the Ayatollah as the sole religious authority. According to their faith, the Ayatollah is the only legitimate ruler, leader, and religious authority for every Twelver Muslim. The Ayatollah is often referred to as the Imam, hence the term “Imamate” in reference to the Twelvers.

What is Wilayat Al-Faqih?

Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s leadership, the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih, commonly translated as “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist” but more accurately as “governance of the faqih,” was enshrined as the constitutional foundation for the Supreme Leader (Rahbar) system.

Khomeini used terms like “governance of the faqih” (vilayat-i faqih in Persian transliteration), “guardianship of the just faqih,” and “authority of the jurist” interchangeably. He provides rational, textual (Quranic/hadith-based), and historical proofs in his books.

His integration transformed the theological concept into a practical governance model, vesting ultimate authority in a qualified Shi’a jurist to lead the ummah (Muslim nation) during the occultation (ghaybah) of the Twelfth Imam, Imam Mahdi. The 1979 Constitution, drafted by the Assembly of Experts and approved via referendum, explicitly bases the political structure on this principle, ensuring the Supreme Leader’s supremacy over all branches of government while drawing legitimacy from Shi’a primary sources such as hadiths and narrations from the Imams.

According to prominent Shi’a scholar Shihab Al-Din Mujtahid, he quotes the foremost doctrinally authoritative scholar in Shi’a history, Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq. Sadiq not only confirms the absolute authority of the ruling Imam, who is currently Ali Khamenei, but also states that challenging his absolute authority in any public or private matter constitutes shirk (polytheism), the greatest crime in Islamic thought, which is punishable by death. Mujtahid states:

Imam as-Sadiq (pbuh) said, “I have appointed him a hakim [ruler] over you. If such a person orders (judges) according to our ruling and the person concerned does not accept it, then he has shown contempt for the ruling of God and rejects us; and he who rejects us actually rejects Allah, and such a person is close to associating Shirk [polytheism] with Allah.”

In this tradition, Imam as-Sadiq (pbuh) addresses the role of a just faqih (hakim) [ruler] who has been entrusted with authority by the infallible Imam. According to this hadith, the people are not allowed to have recourse to an illegitimate or oppressive authority for the resolution of their problems. Instead, they are required to refer to the Wali (hakim) and obey his decisions, regardless of whether or not he is their marja’a taqleed [Grand Ayatollah].

This is Mamdani’s religious doctrine from its primary source. Unless Mamdani has apostatized from his Shi’a Twelver sect, which he has not, his sole religious and political authority is indeed Ali Khamenei, according to his own faith. Mamdani has never issued a statement nor shown that he contradicts this fundamental element of his faith. His various actions, affiliations, and statements indicate his alignment with this theology.

In his book, ‘Akaid al-Imamiyya (The Faith of the Imamate), world-renowned Shi’a scholar and authority Muhammad Rida al-Muzaffar states that the belief in the absolute authority of the Imam (Ayatollah) is a “fundamental pillar of the religion, and there cannot be faith without this belief.” He adds that the Ayatollah is ordained by God and is considered as holy and as infallible as a prophet.

This raises serious concerns regarding Mamdani’s ideology and whether this ideology translates into a closer proximity to the terror-sponsoring regime in Tehran. This needs to be investigated because, as mayor, he will have significant power to dictate and control a significant portion of NYC’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts.

The Use of Dissimulation and Deceit

In both Sunni and Shi’ite fundamentalist theologies, taqiyya (dissimulation) is a pragmatic juridical term that allows Muslims to lie and forge alliances with their rivals if doing so serves the long-term agenda of Muslim rulers or nations. In his book Hukumat-e Islami (Islamic Government), Ayatollah Khomeini wrote, “Taqiyya is my religion and the religion of my forefathers.” These elements are concerning aspects of Mamdani’s faith because they suggest his allegiance to the Ayatollah in Tehran rather than to the U.S. Constitution and Western laws, which are deemed infidel by the Twelver sect. The belief in utilizing dissimulation means no one knows when Mr. Mamdani is lying or telling the truth.

2. Mamdani’s Open Support for Terrorism and His Affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood

(2.1) Shi’as and the Muslim Brotherhood

While Westerners predominantly focus on the Sunni-Shi’a division, they often ignore that it is also a history of fourteen centuries of military and ideological cooperation between Islamists from both sects when it comes to warfare against their common enemies. Hence, the Twelver sect is recognized by Sunnis as a legitimate fifth school of Islamic jurisprudence. In April 1960, Muslim Brotherhood member Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout (1893–1963), Grand Imam of al-Azhar University in Cairo, issued a historic fatwa (religious edict) titled, “The permissibility of worship through Islamic sects, including the Shi’a Twelver Imamate denomination.” Shaltout and al-Azhar officially recognized the Ja’fari jurisprudence of Shi’a Twelvers as a fifth school of Islam. This provided both Sunni and Shi’a jihadists a religious framework to allow them to collaborate on every front. This legitimized militants from both sects to ally against their common enemies. Hence, the alliance between Shi’a Muslim militants and the Muslim Brotherhood from the group’s inception. This explains why many Brotherhood operatives and front groups in the U.S. support Mamdani.

The Sunni-Shia alliance project dates back to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood and has culminated in a joint jihadist project based in Tehran called “The World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.” According to its official website, the agency aims to “explicate resistance groups and movements which counter Western and American dominance and Zionist occupation,” declaring the Republic of Iran “as the leader of revolution in the Islamic world.” The proximity project leaders in Tehran are playing a significant role in networking terrorists worldwide.

(2.2) Mamdani, CAIR, and ICNA

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) super PAC, Unity and Justice Fund, reportedly funded Mamdani in his effort to become New York City mayor to the tune of $100,000, according to The Washington Free Beacon report, citing campaign records. CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood front group and was designated as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates in November 2014. In 2008, during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, prosecutors listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator, identifying it as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood alongside other groups like the Islamic Society of North America (ICNA).

Mamdani’s campaign also received funds from the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), another group closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the New York Post, five staffers of ICNA gave $1,300 in individual contributions to Mamdani’s campaign. ICNA is a designated terrorist group in India and Russia.

(2.3) Mamdani and the Muslim Brotherhood Imam Muhammad Al-Barr

Mamdani doesn’t attempt to hide his extremism. In July, the New York Post reported that Mamdani visited a radical Brooklyn mosque—just months after the imam called for the annihilation of Israel. Mamdani posted a picture of himself speaking at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, alongside radical cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-Barr, aka Mohamed Elbar, on his social media in January. The picture shows Mamdani sharing the podium with Barr. The article adds that Mamdani posted, “It was a privilege to join Jummah prayers at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge today,” in the post on X dated January 17. Mamdani’s visit occurred five months after Barr called for the “annihilation” of Jews and stated that Hamas terrorists “mujahideen in Gaza are achieving more than our Arab armies could in 1967 and 1973,” referencing the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War.

Barr, however, is far more dangerous than just being an extremist imam. He is a renowned Muslim Brotherhood leader. He holds a prominent position as a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the Brotherhood’s international body of senior theologians, and a designated terror group in the UAE. Barr has a record of spouting terroristic rhetoric. For example, in November 2016, during an event organized by a NYC-based Brotherhood group called Egyptian Americans for Freedom and Justice (EAFAJ), Barr declared that the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi “ought to be beheaded.”

Barr comes from a prominent Muslim Brotherhood family. His brother, Abdul Rahman Al-Barr, was a high-ranking and brutal leader in the Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the Guidance Bureau, which is the group’s public governing body. Abdul Rahman was incarcerated in Egypt in 2015 and is currently on death row for several terror-related crimes and assassinations. Muhammad Al-Barr frequently praises his terrorist brother on social media.

Rahman’s brutality earned him the moniker Mufti ad-dam (The Blood Mufti) for his habit of issuing assassination fatwas (religious edicts), which resulted in several deaths, including the assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor Hisham Barakat in 2015 via a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. The attack was perpetrated by a Muslim Brotherhood terror cell called Ligan el-Amaliat al-Mutaqadima, the Progressive Operations Committee (POC), also sometimes referred to as Special Operations Committees (SOC). Shockingly, one of the leaders of this cell is also a Mamdani supporter.

(2.4) Mamdani is endorsed by a NYC-based Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist.

New York City-based Ahmed Abdel-Basit Mohamed, aka Basit, is an Egyptian convicted terrorist who was implicated in the assassination of Hisham Barakat through his role in the leadership of the youth wing of the POC terror cell. Basit endorsed Zohran Mamdani on June 24 on his official Facebook account.

In 2016, an Egyptian court sentenced Basit to death in absentia for his and seven others’ roles in several terrorist attacks. His conviction was part of one of the largest Muslim Brotherhood terrorism cases. The POC is the military wing of a faction of the Brotherhood’s Secret Apparatus, which was led by senior Brotherhood official Mohammed Kamal, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau. Egyptian investigators claim that Basit played a key role in the terrorist activities of the POC.

According to Shorouk News, the Egyptian government accused Basit of using Muslim Brotherhood funds for the purchase of arms, ammunition, and bomb-making equipment, as well as facilitating the travel of members of the POC terrorist cell to Turkey and Syria to receive jihadist training. This training reportedly included firearms training and lessons in the manufacture of bombs and improvised explosive devices, under the supervision of the Aknaf Bait al-Maqdis terror group.

On April 5, 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Ahmed Abdel-Basit Mohamed for “administrative immigration violations.” According to anonymous sources in ICE, Basit’s arrest was due to his own personal admission on his Facebook account of his involvement in terrorism and a mass shooting he was involved in in 2013 in Cairo, Egypt.

This is a fact: Basit did indeed admit to his involvement in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Egypt. In an August 16, 2015, Facebook post, Basit admitted to involvement with violent riots in 2013, which led to the death of 210 people and the injury of 296 others in downtown Cairo. The protests started at the al-Fateh Mosque, from where rioters marched to a bridge and reportedly fired automatic guns at civilians and police officers.

In the same Facebook post, Basit posted a picture of a gunman firing an assault rifle. He praised the terrorist, saying, “Due to Allah’s blessing and generosity, an armed man appeared from the end of the bridge; seeking God, the man started shooting at thugs.”

The Egyptian government’s claims regarding Basit’s terrorist activities are credible. Basit is indeed a jihadist. He has called for a “resounding jihad” against those he described as “dirty damned infidels.” He is also connected to Safwat Hegazy, a self-confessed Muslim Brotherhood torturer.

A few days before his arrest by ICE agents, Basit reprimanded leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood for having hosted an event in Turkey without inviting “the Kamal group.” This is a reference to the faction formerly led by Mohammed Kamal, the terrorist with whom Egypt convicted Basit of conspiring.

Before learning of the U.S. court’s decision about his asylum case, Basit removed numerous radical and jihadist posts and confessions from his public Facebook account. But this last-minute attempt to sanitize his reputation did not help. Basit’s asylum case was rejected, and ICE agents arrested him outside his home.

The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and several other media outlets have framed Basit’s arrest as a human rights case, claiming that Basit was “condemned over pro-democracy protests in Egypt.” The truth is that Basit was convicted of terrorism in Egypt after organizing a deadly riot. Few people would consider such violence a “pro-democracy protest.” Now, Basit has indeed received asylum in the U.S. against the will of ICE agents who attempted to deport him for his involvement in terrorism. Currently, Basit is an adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at Manhattan University while he continues to associate with Brotherhood radicals such as Bahgat Saber and freely practice Islamist activities in the streets of NYC.

Basit, Saber, and Mamdani were all present at the October 14 radical Islamic pro-Palestine protests in NYC, where Zohran was even arrested for disorderly conduct.

Given Basit’s history, it is not a surprise that he endorses Mamdani.

(2.5) Mamdani’s Glorification of Muslim Brotherhood Convicted Terrorists in the U.S.

In 2017, Mamdani released a rap track under the name Young Cardamom, in which he praised the “Holy Land Five.” He named the song after a group convicted in 2008 of funneling over $12 million to Hamas. Mamdani’s horrific song glorified the leaders convicted of providing support to Hamas. In 2001, the U.S. government labeled the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development a terrorist organization and froze its assets. It is the largest terror-financing case in U.S. history. In the song, Mamdani raps, “My love to the Holy Land Five / You better look ’em up,” referring to the convicted terrorists. Mr. Mamdani belongs on a terror watch list and not on the ballot in the mayoral race of one of the greatest cities in the world.

(2.6) Mamdani and Siraj Wahhaj

On October 17, Mamdani posted a photo on X showing himself smiling and standing arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj at Masjid At-Taqwa in Brooklyn during a Friday prayer event. Wahhaj, 75, is a prominent Brooklyn-based Islamist, imam, and founder of the Muslim Alliance in North America. He is almost certainly a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, for several reasons. For instance, he was named by federal prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a truck bomb attack that killed six people and injured over 1,000 others. Wahhaj has also publicly defended the bombers, calling the FBI and CIA the “real terrorists,” and has a history of inflammatory rhetoric, including calls for “jihad” against the U.S. government.

Wahhaj also served as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman (the “Blind Sheikh”), the plot’s spiritual leader, whom he described as a “respected scholar.” Rahman was the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda and was even named by Osama bin Laden in his first video on Al-Jazeera after the September 11, 2001, attacks. In the video, bin Laden called Rahman a “hostage in an American jail.” He proclaimed that Rahman’s imprisonment was one of his justifications for perpetrating the horrific attack on NYC.

Wahhaj has a long history of associating with jihadists and Brotherhood operatives. It should not come as a surprise that three of his children are convicted terrorists. In August 2018, law enforcement raided a makeshift compound in Taos County, New Mexico, where they found Siraj Wahhaj’s three children and two other adults living with 11 children in squalid conditions. In March 2024, a federal judge in New Mexico sentenced five defendants: Jany Leveille, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhanah Wahhaj, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton. Siraj, Hujrah, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Lucas Morton to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They were charged with kidnapping and a terrorism plot to “rid the world of purportedly corrupt institutions, including the FBI, CIA, and U.S. military.”

This is the same man Mamdani’s caption on his X post praised as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”

(2.7) Qatar-Related Family Funding

Mamdani’s mother, Soni Razdan Mamdani, received millions in funding for her nonprofit from Hamas, the Taliban, Iran, and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Qataris. The New York Post reported it as a potential indirect influence. Mamdani’s campaign also took $13,000 in illegal foreign donations from 170+ non-U.S. donors. But with all the Islamist affiliates of Mamdani, who needs to worry about further foreign funding?

3. Mamdani is a rabid anti-Semite.

Mamdani proudly voiced his support for “globalize the intifada” during a June 2025 interview with The Bulwark. This is an open endorsement of the murder of Jews. Mamdani denied antisemitic intent, emphasizing his support for Palestinian human rights. This is a typical Islamist tactic of using the grievance du jour to advance their clandestine and overt agenda of infiltrating and subverting the Western “House of War,” according to their theo-political death cult.

Mamdani’s candidacy may pose a threat to the safety of New York’s 1.3 million Jewish residents, the largest Jewish population outside Israel. While Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and promised an 800% increase in funding to combat hate crimes, he is clear on where his allegiance stands and who will most likely receive these funds. This is only one of many of his antisemitic positions.

4. Mamdani’s Devastating Economic Implications of His Socialist Policies

Mamdani’s socialist policies exacerbate concerns about his candidacy’s impact on New York’s economy. His platform, which includes fare-free buses, universal childcare, a $30 minimum wage by 2030, and city-owned grocery stores, relies heavily on taxing the wealthiest 1% and corporations. While appealing to younger voters, these proposals could strain New York’s already high tax burden, potentially driving wealthy residents and businesses out of the city.

These communist fantasies have never caused anything but misery, poverty, and famine everywhere they’ve been implemented. Almost every single socialist-leaning government has led to economic stagnation, inflation, and increased reliance on federal bailouts. The federal government has historically propped up struggling municipalities, but this practice shields politicians like Mamdani from accountability for fiscal mismanagement. New York City cannot afford policies that risk economic mayhem, especially when federal support is not guaranteed under shifting political climates.

Conclusion

Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary was fueled by radical far-left grassroots support and endorsements from figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It demonstrates his appeal to a radicalized, economically illiterate, and unhinged electorate. Mamdani’s religious adherence to the Shi’a Twelver sect, his blatant support for jihadism, his antisemitism, and his ambitious socialist agenda all raise legitimate concerns about his suitability to lead New York City. Voters must decide whether Mamdani’s allegiance is to the U.S. Constitution or the head of his sect in Tehran. He is a symptom of vast pro-Islamist policies in NYC that need to be reevaluated.

Mamdani is a national security threat. He should be investigated for his brash support for jihadism and his dangerous affiliations. He belongs on a terror watchlist, not in a mayoral race in the city where ideas like his flew into its buildings on September 11, 2001. Mamdani is the final stage of decades of metastatic complicity, infiltration, corruption, and criminally negligent policies of NYC bureaucrats and politicians.

*  *  *

Cynthia Farahat is the bestselling author of The Secret Apparatus: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Industry of Death.

For those who don’t know, South Korea is big on extracting money from Big Tech firms in the United States – a protectionist tactic similar to China – aimed at curbing the dominance of global tech platforms when it comes to social media, search, e-commerce and app stores, while favoring domestic players such as Naver, Kakao and Coupang. 

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), which enforces laws pertaining to antitrust and competition, has repeatedly targeted US firms. In 2021, it fined Google $177 million for anti-competitive practices in Android licensing, alleging it abused its dominance to restrict competitors. That same year, Korea became the first country to prohibit Apple/Google from requiring developers to use only their in-app payment systems; both firms adjusted policies, and regulators later warned/fined over compliance issues. 

In 2023, Apple faced a $22 million fine for similar app store policies that limited developers’ access to alternative payment systems. More recently, in 2024, the KFTC launched probes into Amazon and Google over alleged preferential treatment in online advertising and search results, which could disadvantage Korean firms.

On top of this, they want US tech firms to disclose algorithms and prevent self-dealing, with penalties of up to 3% of global revenue for noncompliance. 

In a Wednesday interview with CNN, South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung tried to tamp down concerns over the trade rift – referring to Donald Trump as a “peacemaker” right before his scheduled trip to Asia. 

“We have different ideologies and also a different system of government… (but) we cannot shut out China,” Lee said, adding that the “vital” US alliance has made managing their bromance with Beijing “a bit delicate.” 

“When it comes to relationships between countries, you cannot cut it clean with a knife and say: ‘This country is our friend, and this country is not.’ It’s just not that simple – it’s much more complicated and complex,” said Lee. 

Shooting Themselves In The Foot

A new report by the Competere Foundation contends that Korean competition and digital-market policies coming out of the KTFC could result in a combined $1 trillion in economic losses over the next decade, including $525 billion for the U.S. and $469 billion for South Korea. The group argues that tighter controls on global tech firms such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Coupang are “discriminatory” and risk chilling innovation and foreign investment

“Ironically, while Korean officials are working to prevent U.S. companies like Apple, Coupang, Google and Microsoft from operating freely, our research shows Korea itself will lose an estimated $469 billion over 10 years, including significant damage to the country’s small businesses,” said Shanker Singham (no relation to Roy) – president of the Competere Foundation, in a statement to Fox Business.  

The foundation – whose research focuses on non-tariff barriers and competition policy – links the projected losses to reduced foreign direct investment, higher compliance costs, and lower digital productivity. It cites related studies by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Southeast Asia Public Policy Institute (SEAPPI) suggesting that heavier platform regulation across the Asia-Pacific could raise annual compliance costs by more than $3 billion, with roughly $512 million of that in South Korea alone.

“These actions by Korean officials are stalling the ability of U.S. companies to operate freely and disincentivizing them from investing in South Korea,” said Henry Haggard, former minister counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, who agreed that Korea’s regulatory approach risks backfiring – and warned that some US firms may scale back operations in the country, halt future investments, or exit the country completely. 

This year, the KTFC proposed interoperability regulations in February imposing data-sharing mandates on platforms, drawing U.S. concerns over disproportionate impacts on American firms like Google and Apple.

This year alone: 

• In March, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) slammed South Korea’s shift from “fast follower” to restrictive regulator – warning that it would stifle innovation amid US tariff threats. 
• In May, US tech giants (Goole, Apple, Meta) ramped up lobbying against South Korea’s Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA) – alleging it favors Chinese firms while targeting US players. 
• In June, the United States Trade Representative raised the antitrust legislation in trade talks, urging Seoul to halt over a dozen platform regs. New President Lee Jae-myung, however doubled down on tech oversight. 
• In July, US-Korea tariff negotiations stall over the matter.
• In August, bipartisan US lawmakers demand a briefing on Koreas’ anti-US-tech regulations, warning of economic and strategic risks from ‘EU-copycat’ laws. 
• In September, President Donald Trump threatens tariffs over Korea’s “pro-China” regulations; exempting TikTok’s ByteDance while probing US firms.

As noted in the list above, the timing of the Competere report coincides with renewed negotiations between Washington and Seoul over tariffs and digital trade provisions. Yet according to Competere, “reforms to Korea’s regulatory culture” could become a bargaining chip in efforts to lower U.S. tariffs on Korean exports. 

That said, South Korean regulators show no signs of backing down. 

Democrats today resemble a pack of lost puppies – unsure which direction to run: left, further left, or all the way into the radical fringe, where political violence and assassination culture is normalized, anti-American sentiment is celebrated, and socialism and Marxism are embraced. The original ‘No Kings’ protest was the election of Donald Trump, in which the American people rejected the globalists running the White House, the Biden-Harris regime, who pushed nation-killing policies, such as open borders, despised masculinity, and promoted all things woke. 

Yet Democrats haven’t corrected course to what lost them the election. Instead, they’ve quadrupled down on wokeness, transgender ideology, socialism, illegal aliens, and everything the majority of Americans voted against with the election of Trump. And here we are, fast approaching the first anniversary of Trump’s election victory, as Democrats rally behind “Commie Mamdani,” the far-left NYC mayoral candidate poised to become the city’s next mayor.

The result of quadrupling down on all things woke, as explained by John MacGhionn in an op-ed for The Hill, is that “the Democratic Party is hemorrhaging men.”

Those young men… 

The Democrat Party treats masculinity like a disease and common sense as a threat.

Young men are DONE being treated as the enemy in our own country.

That’s why we’ve LEFT the Democrat Party! pic.twitter.com/7CmSONjxmc

— Brilyn Hollyhand (@BrilynHollyhand) July 9, 2025

Ignoring the shift in the Overton Window – from the far-left under the Biden-Harris regime to center-right during Trump’s second term – has cost the Democratic Party voters, as young people increasingly reject the image Democrats continue to project: weak, soy-fed identity-confused men. 

This dude who dresses up as a woman and won a Congressional seat is very mad that women don’t want him using the women’s restroom on Capitol Hill.

Sarah McBride is male. He doesn’t belong in women’s bathrooms. pic.twitter.com/JKIfhQaGHi

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 19, 2024

Here’s more from Mac Ghlionn:

The Democratic Party is hemorrhaging men. Across the U.S., they are leaving in waves — from the unions that once powered the party’s muscle, from classrooms that once echoed with idealism, and from a movement that now talks at them rather than to them. Polls show young men flocking to the right in numbers not seen for generations.

The party’s latest efforts to woo men are almost painful to watch. The Democratic National Committee has poured money into influencer partnerships, podcast cameos and clumsy “masculinity” campaigns filmed in gyms. Spokespersons drone on about “kitchen-table issues,” as if men are sitting there waiting to be emotionally validated between spoonfuls of reheated stew.

None of it works because it isn’t real. Men don’t want to be sold to. They want to be spoken to. The problem isn’t packaging but posture. A party that has spent years pathologizing masculinity can’t expect gratitude from the men it has spent so long diagnosing.

There was a time when Democrats didn’t need to perform masculinity because they personified it. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy all spoke the language of strength, duty and sacrifice.

Yet the modern Democratic man …

He continued:

It wasn’t always this disconnected. The Democratic Party once inspired men to see themselves as part of something greater — families, unions and a country worth defending. Today, however, the same party mocks faith, discipline and fatherhood as punchlines. It worships inclusion but forgets loyalty. It preaches equality but forgets basic humanity.

This is what the modern Democratic Party inspires men to become today: 

Without a course correction from the broad party. Mac Ghlionn warned:

Until then, men will keep drifting right — not because they have changed, but because Democrats have.

Headwinds are mounting for Democrats who have tried to destroy the nation through globalist open-border chaos, while also stripping away the very identity on which it was built: Christianity. Now, those headwinds have taken the form of a Christian revival, one that the Kirk assassination and the growing movement on college campuses may have supercharged.

Is A Holy Awakening Unfolding Across America https://t.co/qv7TVzEjNA

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 16, 2025

Meanwhile, Democrats have pushed for the destruction of family formation (just read BLM’s manifesto), where this has only led to falling birth rates among those infected with the ‘woke mind virus’…

Democrats doing everything in their power to go extinct first pic.twitter.com/ryQLXKECPE

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 21, 2025

Deep Staters at The Atlantic have warned the leftist cult about the coming baby bust among its followers. 

Even called out the terrorism emanating from left-wing groups. 

Hilarious…

What we’ve shown points to clear signs that the Democratic Party is in self-destruct mode. This explains why the party is protecting illegal aliens at all costs – they represent the party’s future voter base. Without coming more to the center and hanging on the left fringe, the party’s collapse is only a matter of time.

*  *  * FIGHT THE SOY

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Oligarchy fighter and working class man of the people Bernie Sanders sees nothing out of the ordinary in owning three large properties.

When recently questioned about his three houses, the ‘No Kings’ figurehead passed it off as if most Americans own multiple properties and he’s just like everyone else.

“Do I own three residences? Yes I do,” declared Sanders.

He then explained that he has “a beautiful home in Burlington,” a place in Washington, and “like many thousands of people in the State of Vermont” he has a “Summer camp on Lake Champlain.”

“It’s a nice one,” he enthused.

“That’s it!” Sanders declared.

Socialist Bernie Sanders: “Do I own three residences? Yes I do.”pic.twitter.com/90FUmYVBgE

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) October 21, 2025

Oh is that all?

Everyone has a vacation pad, right?

Aside from their other two houses.

Approximately 4.5% of US households owned three or more homes in 1998, per historical data. Recent statistics are limited, but this figure likely remains under 5% today, as multiple home ownership is mostly common among wealthier individuals. Economic factors like high home…

— Grok (@grok) June 14, 2025

Ah, ok. So Bernie is in the top 5 percent. At least he isn’t in the 1 percent he likes to bleat about constantly, is he?

@grok then it would be accurate to state that Senator Bernie Sanders is in the top 1% of people living in the US in terms of number of homes owned, yes or no?

— Michael Glynn (@MichaelTGlynn) June 14, 2025

Senator Bernie Sanders owns three homes: in Burlington, VT, Washington, D.C., and a summer camp on Lake Champlain. Data on multiple home ownership is limited, but a 1998 study showed 4.48% of U.S. households owned three or more homes. As the query focuses on individuals, not…

— Grok (@grok) June 14, 2025

Yes

— Grok (@grok) June 14, 2025

Oh.

He’ll lecture you and me about equality, socialism, racism & class warfare all through his prisms of a lake front summer home, 3 properties, private jets, never having a job, the gentrification of now all white and wealthy
Vermont. Complete charlatan. #Hypocrisy https://t.co/gWSABoD9rk

— Christopher Whitelock (@Cjwwhitey) October 21, 2025

https://t.co/xOWo9xzyha pic.twitter.com/EZHNbeLqB8

— Hank Houston (@crawket) October 22, 2025

All of this is in addition to flying around on private jets to lecture Americans about climate change and the carbon spewing elites.

And begging for a few dollars more.

Remember though, oligarchy.

Remember though, oligarchy.

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.

From quantum stocks to AI chips to crypto, the surge in asset price inflation this year has positioned Wall Street’s 2025 bonuses to shatter records amid rising profits and trading revenues.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, in his latest annual report on the city’s securities industry, said that while Wall Street profits lagged in the first half of the year, they’re now on track to exceed a record high of $60 billion if momentum holds through year-end.

DiNapoli wrote in the report:

The City expects New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) member firm profits to slow significantly in 2025 to $33.8 billion, as of its May Financial Plan. Year-to-date industry performance has far outpaced this expectation, with total profits of $30.4 billion in the first half of the year alone. Market volatility has risen at times this year amid uncertainty around interest rates and federal fiscal and economic policies. Still, financial firms saw significant growth in revenues from securities trading and account supervision as investors made changes to their portfolios. If the rate of growth in profits continues in the second half of 2025, total annual profits have the potential to exceed $60 billion, setting a new record.

Compensation costs have already jumped nearly 10% in 1H25, signaling even larger year-end bonuses after last year’s record average of $244,700.

DiNapoli explained more:

In the first half of 2025, NYSE member firms increased compensation expenses by 9.9 percent from the prior year. As market activity and profits have increased, the overall bonus pool in 2025 is likely to increase as well. An August report by Johnson Associates (a compensation consulting firm) suggests that bonuses at financial firms for 2025 will likely increase, with a large range between the different business segments. The report suggested that while bonuses in investment banking (including equity and fixed income sales and trading) are expected to increase by around 20 percent, those in underwriting and commercial banking may decline by 5 percent.

The forecast for record Wall Street bonuses comes as major banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BofA, Citi, and Wells Fargo, have posted $15.4 billion in third-quarter trading revenue, the highest in five years. This has been primarily driven by all things AI. Also, previous forecasts of shrinking bonuses have been reversed as M&A and deal activity expanded.

Last year, the average Wall Street salary rose 7.3% to $505,630, roughly five times the citywide private-sector average ($101,760).

Just don’t tell ‘Commie Mamdani,’ Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, about Wall Street’s record bonus prospects this year. His far-left Marxist agenda to strike at the heart of NYC could bode very well for the ‘Wall Street of the South’, Florida.

🚨As if being a crime-loving commie wasn’t bad enough, Mamdani is also blatantly racist.

His tax proposal specifically targets “richer and whiter neighborhoods”.

Why invoke race at all? It’s one more weapon for him to use to destroy NYC.

Is he really the best option for NYC? pic.twitter.com/H4yDLWdcoZ

— Fight With Memes (@FightWithMemes) October 22, 2025

In addition to being an Islamist jihadi, Mamdani is a full-blown communist: “We will slowly buy up the housing on the private market and convert properties into communes.”pic.twitter.com/iCYice83Qs

— Alexander Duncan (@AlexDuncanTX) October 22, 2025

Is it time for an exit plan?

Authored by Portia Roberts via RealClearEnergy,

Higher education is increasingly under attack for what and how students learn. Some of that is political. Some, deserved. “Energy” is now one such political battleground. Environmental studies have swallowed the energy domain, stripping it of realism and producing too many graduates unready for the real world.

Will most undergraduates learn the physical and systemic constraints that drive energy realities? About the sources and systems behind the primary materials that keep the lights on, run factories, power data centers? Or about the tradeoffs inherent to all energy sources? Unfortunately, the animating theme of many “energy” courses today is ending of the age of oil and a narrative how about easily wind and solar can replace hydrocarbons. Yet even the International Energy Agency, once projecting peak oil demand in less than a decade, now projects a continued rise in oil demand for quite some time. Odds are few students will wrestle with these facts.

Look at three realities. German citizens pay among the highest household power prices in the EU (and more than double the electricity cost in the U.S.) even after the energy shock eased from the Ukrainian invasion. Its factories have struggled, with output contracting through late 2024 and mid-2025. Coal units were even brought back during the crisis before coal generation fell again in 2024—evidence of policy whiplash more than mastery.

China, by contrast, is “all-in.” It secures oil and gas supply—now the world’s biggest crude importer, predominantly from Russia and the Middle East—while also rapidly building coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar facilities. Beijing dominates the world’s downstream chokepoints for electrification: most global lithium and cobalt refining, a large share of nickel, and ~90% of rare-earth processing, plus the bulk of battery components. The U.S. cannot easily compete here any time soon.

Africa shows the cost of energy scarcity. The continent’s per-capita energy consumption is roughly one-eighth the European average and less than one-15th that of the U.S—and the health toll is severe. Household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels remains a leading killer. African electricity production, more than doubling in two decades, predominantly with gas and coal, isn’t even close to sufficient.

Affordable, reliable energy is the bedrock of human flourishing. Societies with more use more–– and tend to improve their environmental footprint. Future employees, innovators, and leaders eager to tackle environmental challenges, create sound policies, reduce poverty, and build advanced industries—and argue from facts—must learn fundamentals about the systems that power literally everything.

A new two-part review from the National Center for Energy Analytics asked a team at University of Southern California to examine more than 1,400 energy-related courses at the top 50 U.S. universities. Roughly seven in ten courses are climate-centric—organized around emissions reduction and activism—while only about three in ten are “agnostic,” meaning they offer a focus on today’s energy systems, markets, technologies, and trade-offs. The most-mentioned technologies in all syllabi are wind and solar; courses on fossil-fuel technologies barely appear despite their centrality to today’s energy system.

Nonetheless, as the NCEA research found in ranking universities by the share of “agnostic” coursework, some schools do approach a healthy balance. But most of the top 50 do not. In too many catalogs you can earn “energy” credentials without a hard look at the realities of baseload power, capacity factors, dispatchability, materials and mining, LNG logistics, refining, or the geopolitics of fuels. There’s too much wishful training, not education.

This is not an argument to ignore climate or environmental studies. It’s an argument to teach energy as a system. Physics, geology, engineering, economics, and geopolitics all matter. Electricity and fuels are not interchangeable. Heavy transport and petrochemicals have little to do with residential demand. Intermittency, inherent to wind and solar power, is not a moral failing; it’s a technical fact that must be managed. That data centers rank as only a small contributor to overall global energy consumption matters little when, in the U.S., AI is driving the first spike in electricity consumption in several decades. And yes, hydrocarbons remain pivotal even in optimistic transition scenarios. Graduates who don’t understand basic realities won’t be able to run the world we have let alone build the one we want.

Reform is straightforward: First, raise students’ energy IQ by making “Energy Reality 101” core. Every policy, business, law, and general engineering student should be exposed to a quantitative survey covering realities of power vs. energy, reliability, cost, grids, mining and materials, fuel logistics, and the trade-offs across all major technologies—and the state-of-play for what is going on in the markets for oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, not just wind, and solar.

Second, rebalance the catalog. Departments should target a mix where at least a reasonable share of offerings cover systems and markets, the nature of technologies that dominate world supply (i.e., including fossil fuels), and a full scope look at trade-offs. That’s closer to the work and policy world students will later encounter.

There would be some significant benefit to linking credit to site visits and practicums: grid control centers, substations, refineries and gas plants, ports and LNG terminals, mines and recycling facilities, wind and solar sites. Seeing maintenance, intermittency, safety culture, and permitting constraints speaks louder than intangible numbers and ideas.

For better or worse, energy is politically charged. Any reform of curricula must be paired with durable protections for free speech and debate—something that has become far more obvious these days. Teach students how to argue with facts—especially on subjects where physics, economics, and environmental goals collide.

Energy is complicated precisely because it underpins everything. The linkage between energy, and the technologies that supply it, are intimately linked to prosperity. Different areas of the system require different tools and timelines. But turning college syllabi into a single-destination campaign deprives students of the very literacy that innovation and stewardship demand.

Portia Roberts is the policy director at the National Center for Energy Analytics.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

So-called King, Donald Trump, ran in two contested Republican primaries.

He ran three times in a general election.

He was elected twice, and his party recently won a Republican Congress.

In contrast, in 2020, Joe Biden did not run a typical campaign.

He avoided the public, staying ensconced in his basement. He outsourced his campaign to Democratic politicos, donors, and a sycophantic media.

No red state ever sought to remove Joe Biden or Kamala Harris from their 2024 ballots. In contrast, twenty-five blue states attempted to take Trump off their ballots.

In 2021, Joe Biden’s DOJ and FBI raided then-former-President Trump’s home. They found only 102 classified documents among some 14,000 seized, but nevertheless indicted him.

There was no such SWAT raid on Biden’s multiple repositories of illegally removed classified documents.

All were in less secure places than at Mar-a-Lago. Biden removed them over the course of three decades with impunity. At the time, unlike Trump, he had no presidential prerogatives to declassify them.

Special counsel Robert Hur found Biden culpable for the removal of these files but declined to prosecute, claiming that he was too enfeebled to stand trial.

In 2024, the same backroom donors and politicos who had conspired to ensure Biden was the 2020 nominee now, against his wishes, in coup-like fashion, removed him from his own reelection ticket.

Within 48 hours and without a delegate vote, they crowned Kamala Harris as the presumed nominee. Queen Harris had not received a single delegate vote in her disastrous 2020 primary run.

Donald Trump, in 2020, did not sic his Department of Justice on his rival, Joe Biden.

Nor during his presidency did his Department of Justice indict any past or future political opponent or ex-president.

In contrast, Kingly Joe Biden’s White House helped coordinate 91 indictments of his past and future presidential rival, ex-president Donald Trump.

A mere three days after Trump announced his reelection bid on November 15, 2022, Jack Smith was coincidentally appointed special prosecutor of Trump.

That same day, strangely, Nathan Wade, the Georgia county prosecutor prosecuting Trump, met with Biden’s White House counsel.

On the same day, Matthew Colangelo, the former lead prosecutor in Letitia James’s case against Trump, abruptly left his DOJ post. He would soon go on to lead Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump.

In the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s surrogates rounded up 51 “intelligence authorities” to lie that Hunter Biden’s authentic and incriminating laptop—then verified but suppressed by the FBI—was the work of the Russians.

The Biden-era FBI also joined Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to help smother any media story that might have verified the authenticity of the laptop.

The left portrays Trump’s constitutional right to pardon as the act of a king.

In his nearly five years of governance, Trump has pardoned roughly 1,700, including about 1,500 en masse for those convicted for the January 6 protests.

That number so far is about 200 fewer pardons than during the Obama administration.

Joe Biden, in a mere four years in office, pardoned roughly 4,245 people—the vast majority through autopen signatures and without the full knowledge of Biden himself.

Under the Obama and Biden administrations, admitted left-wing government lawbreakers and White House allies were never prosecuted for felonious behavior.

CIA head John Brennan admitted to lying twice to Congress.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confessed to lying under oath to Congress as well.

FBI Director James Comey claimed ignorance or amnesia 245 times while under oath to a House oversight committee.

Interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe lied four times, often while under oath to government investigators.

A federal judge in 2020 admonished John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor and vehement critic, that he had endangered national security by removing sensitive documents to write an anti-Trump campaign-cycle memoir.

He also warned Bolton that he could be subject to civil and criminal penalties.

Not one of these political grandees was ever indicted by either the Obama or Biden DOJ.

Trump’s White House advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were arrested in public for ignoring a congressional subpoena, convicted, and imprisoned.

In contrast, top Democrat officials like former attorneys general Eric Holder and Merrick Garland both ignored congressional subpoenas and faced no such indictments.

Monarchs might order assassinations of U.S. citizens abroad and surveil the phone records of Associated Press reporters.

Obama did both during his tenure.

Do kings monitor the phone records of their senatorial opponents?

Joe Biden’s special counsel, Jack Smith, did just that.

Why then do the Democrats’ “No Kings” protests claim that Trump is a monarch?

Answer: Through open and fair elections, the left lost most of its former political power in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court.

Now in their fury and impotence, Democrats hit the streets—projecting onto their hated nemesis, Donald Trump, their own past preferences for kingly methods.