President Donald Trump announced late Sunday on Truth Social that he is appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to serve as the U.S. Special Envoy to Greenland. The move prompted Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, to summon the U.S. ambassador, saying the appointment suggests continued American interest in the resource-rich island.

“I am pleased to announce that I am appointing the GREAT Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as the United States Special Envoy to Greenland. Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our national security and will strongly advance our country’s interests for the safety, security, and survival of our allies, and indeed, the world. Congratulations, Jeff!” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.

Following Landry’s appointment, Rasmussen told Reuters in an emailed statement, “The appointment confirms the continued American interest in Greenland. However, we insist that everyone—including the U.S.—must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”

In a separate statement, Rasmussen told CBS News he was “deeply angered” by the appointment and warned Washington to respect Denmark’s sovereignty.

This prompted Denmark to summon the U.S. ambassador. Danish officials also summoned the U.S. ambassador in August after a report that at least three people with connections to Trump carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.

I am happy to see the Trump Administration isn’t giving up on acquiring Greenland. It should be one of the top goals for the Administration to require Greenland. I would tell NATO that we are done if a deal isn’t reached. There are a lot of reasons why we need to have Greenland. pic.twitter.com/se5dRz50hj

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) December 22, 2025

Trump’s proposal to buy Greenland didn’t come out of nowhere. The US has had a military presence in Greenland since World War II and became its military defender in 1951. Harry Truman offered to buy it for $100M in gold. And our bases there are still deterrents against Russia. pic.twitter.com/zLetEHvCzv

— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) January 23, 2025

Trump has repeatedly stated that the U.S. should have jurisdiction over Greenland, mainly for defense and mineral-rich deposits. The strategically located Arctic island fits into the broader theme of Western Hemisphere Defense.  

In March, Vice President JD Vance toured the U.S. Pituffik Space Base, met U.S. Space Force personnel on the island, and accused Denmark of underinvesting there.

According to a January opinion poll, a majority of Greenland’s 57,000 people wanted to become independent from Denmark but did not want to join the U.S.

The continued American interest in Greenland underscores the strategic importance of the resource-rich island in the Arctic for hemispheric defense purposes.

Beijing has condemned the U.S. interception of sanctioned crude tankers off the Venezuelan coast after a China-bound oil tanker was seized on Saturday. Beijing said Venezuela has the right to conduct trade with other countries.

Reuters cited China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a regular press briefing, who said the US seizure of another country’s tanker was a serious violation of international law. Jian added that China opposes all “unilateral and illegal” sanctions.

On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard seized the Centuries, which was loaded with 1.8 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan crude and was flying under the false name “Crag.” The tanker was bound for China.

China is the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude, but Venezuelan oil accounts for only about 4% of China’s total crude imports.

Reuters reports that data this year show Venezuelan crude exports to China range from 400,000 to 580,000 barrels per day, depending on the period and shipping patterns.

A White House spokesperson told Reuters that the Centuries was a “falsely flagged vessel” and carried sanctioned oil that was part of Venezuela’s shadow fleet.

So far, the US has seized two sanctioned tankers. The first, VLCC Skipper, earlier this month. Skipper is set to be unloaded in the coming days at the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area (GOLA). After Saturday’s seizure, news hit late afternoon Sunday of US forces in pursuit of yet another tanker.

All of this fits within the Trump administration’s gunboat diplomacy foreign policy strategy, which is designed to accelerate regime instability in Caracas while materially weakening Cuba; the core objective is to disrupt financial flows, sever funding channels, and allow second- and third-order effects to follow.

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

There’s nothing ‘right-wing’ about defending the Bill of Rights.

Being called “right-wing” or “fascist” is detestable. The label implies a preference for dictatorship, authoritarianism, and government supremacy over personal freedom. The exact opposite is true. I would describe myself as a supporter of autarchism in the sense that we should rule ourselves and not be ruled by others.

As someone who believes strongly in individual liberty, self-reliance, and self-government, I distrust all repositories of power — whether such power resides in government, corporations, or social institutions. As Lord Acton advised: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In my estimation, nothing in this physical world can be trusted with power for very long. Regrettably, all forms of power eventually become abusive.

Nineteenth-century diplomat and political writer John O’Sullivan (the man who coined the phrase “manifest destiny” in 1845) helped to popularize a sentiment shared by other luminaries of his time such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Mark Twain: “The best government is that which governs least.”

Government is Leviathan. It knows only how to grow its size and the number of its tentacles until it is capable of wrapping its predacious powers around everyone and everything.

Emissaries of Big Government globalism speak of government as a benevolent “friend” and “parent” whose job is to “protect” and “take care of” the people. But government is none of those things. Government is coercion. It is force, including the threat of lethal force. It robs people of their labor in the form of taxes. It presumes to know what is best for everyone. It insists on telling people how to use their property and how to live their lives. It intrudes into family households and inserts itself between parents and children. Whereas a friend will fight beside you and a parent will sacrifice everything for your well-being, governments start wars recklessly, sacrifice citizens callously, and ignore the pleas of those suffering.

The German Nazis, Italian fascists, Soviet communists, and Chinese Maoists were all Big Government socialists who justified murdering their citizens for the good of the government. Government is not a “friend” or a “parent.” It is a homicidal maniac that society tries to keep somewhat restrained lest it indulge its basest instinct: to kill everyone in its path.

Government does not “protect” people. It uses people to its advantage. Government does not “take care of” people. It bullies them, steals from them, and keeps them divided against each other. Anybody praising the “virtues” of Big Government is nothing more than a macabre salesman for institutional slavery, indemnified violence, and legalized theft.

Those of us who identify as liberty lovers and defenders of freedom harbor profound distrust of government. It is therefore galling when Big Government leftists, socialists, globalists, Marxists, and even outright communists (especially those exercising power as so-called “journalists” working for multinational corporate news organizations) call us “right-wing.”

What is “right-wing” about wanting government bureaucrats to just leave us the hell alone? I try to put myself in the small wingtips of someone such as CNN’s Brian Stelter. When I say, “I want government out of my life,” how does he hear, “Right-wing fascism is overtaking America”? Is Brian obtuse? Maliciously dishonest? Both?

I find it perplexing to hear Stelter, Jake Tapper, and their fellow ideological clones on cable news describe those of us who most ardently defend the Bill of Rights as somehow being threats to American freedom. Look around the universe of political writers today, and you will find that almost all of the staunchest advocates for free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and protections from warrantless government searches and mass surveillance are Americans whom Stelter, Tapper, and their cohorts would describe as “right-wing.”

On the other hand, the very leftists and globalists whom CNN anchors adore are daily calling for mass censorship in the name of fighting “disinformation” and “hate speech.” Stelter has made an entire career out of playing a “truth-telling hall monitor” who believes he is empowered to tell social media companies what should be stricken from public debate. He has explicitly called for a “harm reduction model” of permissible speech by illogically claiming that “reducing a liar’s reach is not the same as censoring freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is different than freedom of reach.” He defends censorship in the name of “freedom” because he expects to be the corporate news umpire who gets to decide what is true or false.

Could there possibly be anything more authoritarian than CNN personalities claiming the authority to declare official truths?

Nonetheless, CNN ignores its own assaults on free speech and instead decries “right-wingers” who believe parents should have a say over whether elementary school libraries include books on “transgenderism,” abortion, sexual fetishes, and pornography. CNN’s talking heads even call those of us who oppose “drag queen story hour” for kindergartners “Christian nationalists” — as if trying to be a moral person, a faithful Christian, a protective parent, and a patriotic American were the hallmarks of “fascism.”

Effective communication between human beings is difficult even when people speak the same language, share the same culture, and enjoy similar beliefs. When politicians and “journalists” defame as “fascists” those of us who fight for expansive personal freedom and against government tyranny, they rob society of peaceful public discourse and light the fuse of future violence.

Those in the “journalism” business who use words to sell fear and provoke bloodshed know exactly what they’re doing. When you demonize your political enemies long enough, some eventually get murdered. Charlie Kirk wasn’t the first, and he will not be the last. After all, there is an entire army of fascist Antifa terrorists who hunt “right-wingers” for sport. Or is that too much truth for Stelter’s “harm reduction model” to permit me to say out loud?

After nearly tripling last year and soaring to a record $13,000 a ton, cocoa futures are on track for their worst-ever annual decline, based on data going back more than six decades.

Cocoa futures in New York are set for a 50% decline if losses persist through the end of the year.

Prices are currently trading around $5,845 as of Friday’s close, a stark difference from the $12,000 to $13,000 range in late 2024 and early 2025.

The cocoa surge sparked a price shock and crushed margins for major food companies that relied heavily on chocolate production. Those companies include Nestlé, Hershey, and many others.

In return, supermarket prices for chocolate rose, but now Wall Street analysts don’t expect the latest declines to translate into cheaper candy until the second half of 2026.

“The prices that the chocolate industry is currently working with are very high and painful,” said Jonathan Parkman, head of agricultural sales at commodities brokerage Marex Group in London, as quoted by Bloomberg. “It’s going to take us quite a while to work through that.”

Swiss-Belgian cocoa processor Barry Callebaut has noted that supply risks in West Africa, the world’s top-growing region, persist due to underinvestment, climate stress, and disease. The processor said chocolate was “far too cheap for far too long.”

Lambertz, one of Germany’s oldest confectioners, has enough cocoa supplies to last through the midpoint of 2026, after securing them when prices were high, said owner Hermann Bühlbecker. “As far as I can remember, there has never been such a price explosion,” he said.

To cope with the price shock, many brands have responded with shrinkflation and reformulation, such as lighter bars or reduced cocoa content. Companies like Mondelez have made significant adjustments to formulation.

Last week, Bonnie Herzog, managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman Sachs, highlighted easing pressures in the cocoa market that could produce “tailwinds” for candy and junk food companies:

Pockets of easing commodity pressure to aid earnings growth for some. While input cost inflation has meaningfully moderated for Staples at large over the past couple of years, certain pockets (e.g., cocoa, proteins) were still inflationary and weighed on earnings. As prices continue to come down meaningfully from peak levels, we would expect benefits from an easing cost environment to aid earnings growth. However, spot rates suggest aluminum will likely see the highest inflation in 2026. Moreover, oil/natural gas prices remain volatile owing to ongoing geopolitical tensions, which, along with pressure from tariffs, could further limit the extent of gross margin expansion ahead. Ultimately, we believe the input cost environment will be much more accommodative for our Staples universe next year, which along with an increased focus on productivity (as supply chains and service levels have normalized), should support continued margin expansion and reinvestments ahead. We highlight HSY as best placed to benefit from this dynamic, where we expect gross margin expansion to drive EPS growth in 2026. We also highlight potential tailwinds for MDLZ, HRL, and SFD.

Herzog noted where inflation and deflation trends linger in the commodity market this year:

Hershey versus cocoa futures (inverted)…

Conversations so far are that any price relief for chocolate at the supermarket won’t show up until the 2H26. We’re watching Hershey next year…

Herzog also told clients to buy nicotine, energy drink, candy, and beauty stocks heading into 2026 as a stronger consumer backdrop emerges.

Via The Cradle

The Israeli army carried out several attacks on south Lebanon on Sunay, hours after Beirut said that the disarmament of Hezbollah in the southern Litani River area is “days away” from completion. An Israeli drone struck a car in the southern town of Yater. Minutes later, Israel bombed a motorcycle around 300 meters away from the targeted car. 

The Israeli army said it “recently attacked another terrorist from the Hezbollah organization in the Yater area in southern Lebanon,” in a second statement following up on its announcement of the first strike. There were preliminary reports of casualties after the two drone strikes.

Israeli machine gun fire and artillery shelling also struck Kfar Shuba and the nearby Bastra Farm earlier on Sunday.

A day earlier, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam claimed in a statement that the first phase of disarming Hezbollah is nearly complete.

“Prime Minister Salam affirmed that the first phase of the weapons consolidation plan related to the area south of the Litani River is only days away from completion,” Salam’s office said on Saturday. 

“The state is ready to move on to the second phase – namely [confiscating weapons] north of the Litani River – based on the plan prepared by the Lebanese army pursuant to a mandate from the government,” it added.

The statement came after talks between Salam and Simon Karam, a former Lebanese ambassador to the US who Beirut recently appointed to hold direct talks with Israeli representatives – in violation of Lebanon’s laws and under heavy US pressure.

The Lebanese government has been vague about the direct talks, which have continued despite Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker and Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri saying recently that Beirut will not “negotiate under fire.”

So far, two direct meetings have been held as part of the ongoing discussions of the US-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism. Salam’s Saturday announcement about the weapons coincided with Israeli drone strikes on the towns of Blida and Taybeh. 

In the past two months, Israel has significantly escalated deadly strikes and other violations of the Lebanon ceasefire, claiming that Hezbollah has rearmed itself.

Dozens of Lebanese have been killed since the start of last month alone. Since the ceasefire deal went into effect in November 2024, over 300 people have been killed – including scores of civilians and children.

The Lebanese army has been dismantling Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani River in line with the ceasefire deal reached last year, saying it has completed 90 percent of the disarmament process in the southern Litani area.

Under US pressure, the Lebanese government adopted a decision in August for the resistance movement’s full disarmament by the end of this year. The Lebanese army was ordered to draft a disarmament plan, which has been kept confidential.

According to reports in recent months, Lebanon has backtracked on its commitment to full disarmament by year’s end – in favor of a phased approach that would continue into 2026.

But Israel has threatened to launch a new campaign against the country unless the resistance surrenders all its arms by the end of 2025. Hezbollah has rejected disarmament, saying it will eventually respond if Israel continues to violate the truce. 

President Donald Trump announced Dec. 19 that his administration has sold more than $1.3 billion worth of “Trump Gold Cards,” a new immigration program offering expedited residency to high-skilled foreign talent, with proceeds going toward paying down the national debt.

In remarks to the press, Trump said that sales had exceeded $1.3 billion and described the Gold Card as a “green card on steroids.”

He said the option would allow companies to retain graduates from elite institutions, such as Harvard and Wharton, who might otherwise have to go back to their native countries upon graduation.

“They graduate from the top schools,” Trump said. “These people want to hire them. Now you’re able to buy a card and you’re able to keep people in the country.”

Trump highlighted how his immigration policy focuses on securing top talent and curbing illegal immigration.

“Under the Biden administration, 25 million people came in, and they came from prisons and mental institutions, and they were drug dealers and all sorts of people came in that shouldn’t be here. They came from the jails,” he said.

As Kimberly Hayek details below for The Epoch Times, the Gold Card allows businesses to purchase the visas for foreign workers, enabling them to stay indefinitely with work rights. The visa costs $1 million in the form of a donation to the U.S. federal government.

The program, which has been challenged legally, began accepting applications on Dec. 10.

Trump launched the Gold Card in September with an executive order and instituted a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applicants. The H1B fee exempts current holders and renewals, according to the White House.

Trump first proposed the Gold Card visas in February, floating a $5 million price tag for residency and a path to citizenship.

“Wealthy people will be coming into our country,” he said when he proposed the program. The administration launched a dedicated website in June.

When launching the immigration Gold Card program, Trump said it would “reduce our taxes greatly and hopefully bring some great people into our country.”

Payments go straight to the U.S. Treasury. Howard Lutnick, secretary of commerce, was instrumental in launching the program, he said.

Twenty states, however, filed a lawsuit against the $100,000 H-1B fee, arguing it goes beyond executive authority.

Meanwhile, proponents say the program fixes longstanding issues with the H1-B lottery system.

Via Remix News,

The German government is signaling times of austerity are ahead for Germans, with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) even saying there could be years of belt-tightening.

Klingbeil, a member of the far left SPD, is preparing the German public for a period of financial hardship, even as the country spends at least €50 billion a year on migrants, including for their housing, education, security, and integration. In addition, tens of billions have already headed to Ukraine, with another €19 billion directly from Germany planned.

Speaking on the ZDF program “Das Jahr 2025,” the SPD chairman warned of “very challenging years” ahead, stating that citizens would “also have to be asked to do something.”

„Jeder wird spüren, dass wir sparen“ – Klingbeil kündigt harte Einschnitte für die Deutschen an.

Aber erst mal 181,5 Milliarden Euro für die gesichert korrupte Ukraine … https://t.co/bV6cOAQALg pic.twitter.com/VPhOzwnpw9

— spaceloop23 🗽 (@spaceloop23) December 18, 2025

“Everyone will feel that we are saving,” Klingbeil explained, emphasizing the necessity of cuts.

However, he pushed back against the narrative that the nation is facing fiscal ruin.

“We are not broke. The country is not on the brink of collapse,” the finance minister stated, rejecting the impression of impending financial failure.

According to Klingbeil, while the nation’s problems are solvable, they will come with consequences. He highlighted a funding gap of €60 billion for 2028 alone, which cannot be closed without making serious cuts that people will notice.

Klingbeil’s announcement comes at a time when German municipalities across the country are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Many officials are also complaining that the historic debt package the government passed, which totals €1 trillion, will not fill the holes in the budget.

Last month, Essen’s Mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU), who is also a member of the CDU federal executive board, sounded the alarm, saying: “Almost every German city is now on the verge of bankruptcy.”

In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, only 10 out of 396 cities and municipalities can present a balanced budget, and these alarming figures from Germany’s largest federal state can be applied to the “entire country,” he said.

Mayor Kufen stressed that the crisis is universal, affecting municipalities regardless of their location: 

“What’s new is that all cities have their backs against the wall,” he told Bild newspaper.

He warned that “budget freezes would now have to be imposed everywhere,” including in many cities previously considered wealthy.

Although Klingbeil did not provide specific details on the planned measures, he announced that a complete package would be presented at a later date by the party leaders of the CDU, CSU, and SPD. He stressed that these measures must be designed fairly: “The goal is that everyone contributes their part and not just one group.”

Not just the federal government, but also at the ground level in cities, budget cuts are being made, and they are expected to get worse, all while cities like Berlin are spending record amounts on migrant accommodations. A new report shows Berlin spent nearly €1 billion last year, all while making deep budget cuts in areas such as culture, education and transport.

However, Klingbeil is also calling on his own party to embrace change. He argued that the SPD must be prepared to overcome the status quo, noting that the perception of weakness had recently harmed the party.

“Social democracy is successful when it leads change and not just accompanies it,” he stated.

The announced austerity measures and the government’s fiscal management have drawn sharp rebuke from the opposition, particularly the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel strongly condemned the government’s course, characterizing the coalition’s fiscal policy as a “Black-Red debt orgy at the expense of Germany’s future.” 

The AfD parliamentary group has further described Klingbeil’s budgetary drafts as “catastrophic for Germany,” arguing that the government’s approach places undue burdens on citizens while failing to address structural issues. Critics from the party have repeatedly emphasized that “the money is not reaching the people” and have warned against what they view as the mismanagement of public funds.

Read more here…

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via VictoreHanson.com,

Western civilization arose in the 8th century B.C. Greece. Some 1,500 city-states emerged from a murky, illiterate 400-year-old Dark Age. That chaos followed the utter collapse of the palatial culture of Mycenaean Greece.

But what reemerged were constitutional government, rationalism, liberty, freedom of expression, self-critique, and free markets—what we know now as the foundation of a unique Western civilization.

The Roman Republic inherited and enhanced the Greek model.

For a millennium, the Republic and subsequent Empire spread Western culture, eventually to be inseparable from Christianity.

From the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf and from the Rhine and Danube to the Sahara, there were a million square miles of safety, prosperity, progress, and science—until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

What followed was a second European Dark Age, roughly from 500 to 1000 AD.

Populations declined. Cities eroded. Roman roads, aqueducts, and laws crumbled.

In place of the old Roman provinces arose tribal chieftains and fiefdoms.

Whereas once Roman law had protected even rural people in remote areas, during the Dark Ages, walls and stone were the only means of keeping safe.

Finally, at the end of the 11th century, the old values and know-how of the complex world of Graeco-Roman civilization gradually reemerged.

The slow rebirth was later energized by the humanists and scientists of the Renaissance, Reformation, and eventually the 200-year European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Contemporary Americans do not believe that our current civilization could self-destruct a third time in the West, followed by an impoverished and brutal Dark Age.

But what caused these prior returns to tribalism and loss of science, technology, and the rule of law?

Historians cite several causes of societal collapse—and today they are hauntingly familiar.

Like people, societies age. Complacency sets in.

The hard work and sacrifice that built the West also creates wealth and leisure. Such affluence is taken for granted by later generations. What created success is eventually ignored—or even mocked.

Expenditures and consumption outpace income, production, and investment.

Child-rearing, traditional values, strong defense, love of country, religiosity, meritocracy, and empirical education fade away.

The middle class of autonomous citizens disappear. Society bifurcates between a few lords and many peasants.

Tribalism—the pre-civilizational bonds based on race, religion, or shared appearance—remerge.

National government fragments into regional and ethnic enclaves.

Borders disappear. Mass migrations are unchecked. The age-old bane of anti-Semitism reappears.

The currency inflates, losing its value and confidence. General crassness in behavior, speech, dress, and ethics replaces prior norms.

Transportation, communications, and infrastructure all decline.

The end is near when the necessary medicine is seen as worse than the disease.

Such was life around 450 AD in Western Europe.

The contemporary West might raise similar red flags.

Fertility has dived well below 2.0 in almost every Western country.

Public debt is nearing unsustainable levels. The dollar and euro have lost much of their purchasing power.

It is more common in universities to damn than honor the gifts of the Western intellectual past.

Yet, the reading and analytical skills of average Westerners, and Americans in particular, steadily decline.

Can the general population even operate or comprehend the ever-more sophisticated machines and infrastructure that an elite group of engineers and scientists creates?

The citizen loses confidence in an often corrupt elite, who neither will protect their nations’ borders nor spend sufficient money on collective defense.

The cures are scorned.

Do we dare address spiraling deficits, unsustainable debt, and corrupt bureaucracies and entitlements?

Even mention of reform is smeared as “greedy,” “racist,” “cruel,” or even “fascist” and “Nazi.”

In our times, relativism replaces absolute values in the eerie replay of the latter Roman Empire.

Critical legal theory claims crimes are not really crimes.

Critical race theory postulates that all of society is guilty of insidious bias, demanding reparations in cash and preferences in admission and hiring.

Salad-bowl tribalism replaces assimilation, acculturation, and integration of the old melting pot.

Despite a far wealthier, far more leisured, and far more scientific contemporary America, was it safer to walk in New York or take the subway in 1960 than now?

Are high school students better at math now or 70 years ago?

Are movies and television more entertaining and ennobling in 1940 or now?

Are nuclear, two-parent families the norm currently or in 1955?

We are blessed to live longer and healthier lives than ever—even as the larger society around us seems to teeter.

Yet, the West historically is uniquely self-introspective and self-critical.

Reform and Renaissance historically are more common than descents back into the Dark Ages.

But the medicine for decline requires unity, honesty, courage, and action—virtues now in short supply on social media, amid popular culture, and among the political class.

In a year in which they endured chronic understaffing, 60-hour weeks, uneven shifts and even having to work without a paycheck for a stretch, many US air traffic controllers are re-evaluating their careers, with a growing number chasing happiness on the other side of the world — in Australia. 

According to a Wall Street Journal report on the phenomenon, these controllers aren’t chasing more money. Indeed, some of the controllers who’ve taken the leap were happy to take a lower salary in exchange for less on-the-job stress and a better work-life balance. One of them is Austin Brewis, a 29-year-old who gave up a $145,000 salary at an air traffic facility in Illinois for a $137,000 one in Sydney.

Brewis told the Journal that 60-hour workweeks had worn him down. More than 41% of US controllers work 10 hours a day for six days straight, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. It’s not just the high number of hours — Brewis worked them in staggered schedules that have start and finish times changing from day to day. Chasing three-day breaks to enjoy meaningful relief from the heavy hour-load, many controllers take a “2-2-1” schedule. As the Journal explained in an earlier article: 

Controllers work two swing shifts, two day shifts, and one midnight shift. The second day shifts ends at 2 p.m. and the subsequent midnight shift begins at 10 p.m., just eight hours later. Such a schedule disrupts circadian rhythms, creating fatigue on the midnight shift…. 2-2-1 has long been called “the rattler,” since it can come back and bite the controller, degrading his performance. 

“That grinds you down after years of doing it,” Brewis said. The contrast Down Under is stark — with the average Australian controller’s work-week spanning just 36 hours. Heightening the attraction for younger controllers is a guarantee of having some weekends off each year. Brewis said he’d have had to put at least 10 years under his belt before he’d routinely have weekends off in America, where that pleasure is driven by seniority. 

“It’s absolutely disgusting how much better their lifestyles are than ours,” air traffic controller Chris Dickinson told the Journal. After 13 years controlling US airspace, he’s now working in Sydney. He said concerns he had about anxiety or depression have evaporated, and he’s shed 20 extra pounds too. 

In an ominous indication that Australia could become a chronic driver of controller attrition in America, when Brewis stepped into an Australian classroom for his entry training earlier this year, he found that 8 of his 10 classmates were Americans. Government-owned Airservices Australia says it isn’t setting out to poach Americans from the FAA. However, of 100 controllers it expects to bring on board this year, 36 are Americans. “Qualified controllers are welcome to apply from any country,” a spokesman said. 

While those kind of numbers aren’t striking in the context of a US controller force that exceeds 13,750, the chronically-undermanned FAA doesn’t need any more head-count headwinds. By the National Air Traffic Controllers Association’s math, the FAA is operating with a 3,800-controller shortage. 

That’s not just a burden for air traffic controllers and FAA bureaucrats, it’s a worrisome state of affairs for the flying public, which has seen too many scary headlines about disasters, near-disasters and mishaps in recent months: 

• Reagan Tower Reportedly Understaffed When Army Helicopter Collided With Passenger Jet
• Another Near-Disaster At DC Airport: Delta Jet Narrowly Misses USAF T-38
• Mapping Every Understaffed Air Traffic Control Tower In The US

Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

WASHINGTON—Two more members of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Shane McCullar and Abby Spencer Moffat, resigned Dec. 16, citing concerns over the organization’s direction and approach to combating anti-Semitism.

In a statement, Moffat said that leaving the board was a difficult but necessary decision.

“Heritage’s handling of recent challenges reveals a drift from the principles that once defined its leadership,” she said.

“When an institution hesitates to confront harmful ideas and allows lapses in judgment to stand, it forfeits the moral authority on which its influence depends.”

Moffat is recognized as one of the most powerful women in philanthropy and has been a major donor to the think tank through the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.

In 2023, the foundation announced a $25 million commitment, one of the largest gifts in the think tank’s 50-year history.

McCullar raised similar concerns in his statement.

“No institution that hesitates to condemn anti-Semitism and hatred—or that gives a platform to those who spread them—can credibly claim to uphold the vision that once made the Heritage Foundation the world’s most respected conservative think-tank,” McCullar said.

“I leave with respect for the Heritage Foundation’s past, but I cannot support the course it has chosen for its future.”

Another board member, Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor, resigned last month, citing the same reason.

The controversy erupted after Heritage President Kevin Roberts defended Tucker Carlson’s interview with controversial live streamer Nick Fuentes, known for his anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views.

In his Oct. 30 video commenting on Carlson’s interview, Roberts said that “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic.”

Roberts also said that the think-tank would not bow to the “venomous coalition” that is attacking and trying to “cancel” Carlson over the Fuentes interview.

Roberts later offered an apology, expressing his regret for the video he posted.

“I made a mistake, and I let you down, and I let down this institution. And I am sorry for that. Period. Full Stop,” Roberts said in a video from the foundation’s staff meeting, which The Washington Beacon first published.

“I didn’t know much about this Fuentes guy—still don’t, which underscores the mistake,” Roberts said.

Roberts told staff that he was willing to resign but felt a “moral obligation” to address the situation.