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The decision taken by the left-liberal majority in the Danish parliament, the Folketing, late last week to ban public Quran burning has garnered sharp criticism from both domestic politicians and political leaders in neighboring Scandinavian countries, with many arguing the law represents a capitulation to Islamic thuggery.

Following a contentious debate on the floor of parliament on Thursday, December 7th, lawmakers voted 94-77 in favor of a law that criminalizes the so-called “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts. The three governing parties—the Social Democrats, the Liberals, and the Moderates—along with the Radical Left voted in favor of the legislation, while the rest of the opposition opposed it.

Anyone found guilty of violating the new law, set to take effect later this week, will face a fine or imprisonment of up to 2 years.

Quilette.

In the aftermath of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter late last year, the journalist Jon Levine asked him: “I wonder how much Wikipedia would cost?” Musk had recently complained that Wikipedia has a “non-trivial left-wing bias,” and a few months earlier, had commented that “Wikipedia is losing its objectivity.” But regardless of whether Musk would have liked to purchase the site, there never was any real possibility of that happening, as stated by Wikipedia’s symbolic leader Jimmy Wales: “Wikipedia is not for sale.”

Following this exchange, there were several discussions on Twitter (as it was called at the time) about whether Musk might create his own alternative to Wikipedia. In the end Musk did not make such an attempt, but approximately eight months later, someone else did.

This new online encyclopedia, known as Justapedia, is the latest in a long series of attempts by various individuals to create a competitor to Wikipedia. So far all previous attempts have either been unsuccessful, or morphed into something so unlike Wikipedia that they could no longer be considered a competitor. However, one thing working in Justapedia’s favor is that the need for such a competitor is stronger now than it has been in past years, due to several recent controversies revolving around the manipulation and/or politicization of Wikipedia, along with a widespread perception that Wikipedia has not done enough to prevent this type of problem.

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Researchers in a landmark new study have discovered a sequence within the Pfizer mRNA vaccine that produces an “unintended immune response” in the body, which experts are calling a massive “developmental and regulatory failure.”

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Japan has approved the world’s first self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, although the manufacturer has not published safety or efficacy data for the shot.

Tokyo-based Meiji Seika Pharma received approval for manufacturing and marketing its Kostaive sa-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, the company announced in a Nov. 28 press release. The mRNA in the vaccine is designed to self-amplify when delivered into cells, which generates a “strong immune response and the potential for extended duration of protection.” The vaccine is intended for primary immunization (2 doses) as well as booster immunization in adults. Kostaive is the “world’s first approved product applying self-amplifying mRNA technology,” according to the press release.

Both mRNA and sa-mRNA are RNA vaccines that use a virus’ genetic code against it. When an mRNA vaccine is injected into an individual, the mRNA instructs cells to make a specific protein and thus stimulates immune response. An sa-mRNA vaccine takes this concept

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It is now ABC’s installment of what now appears to be an ongoing Acela Media series, which explores the prospects of the truest, purest victim of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: President Joe Biden’s reelection.

Watch as ABC Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce parachutes into Dearborn, Michigan and discovers that people are willing to sit out an election over Biden’s response to Gaza, even if it means Donald Trump winning reelection.

Astral Codex Ten.

Lantern Bioworks says they have a cure for tooth decay. Their product is a genetically modified bacterium which infects your mouth, outcompetes all the tooth-decay-causing bacteria, and doesn’t cause tooth decay itself. If it works, it could make cavities a thing of the past (you should still brush for backup and cosmetic reasons).

I talked to Lantern founder Aaron Silverbook to get an idea of how this works, both in a biological and an economic sense. Aaron was very knowledgeable and forthcoming, although he uses the phrase “YOLO” somewhat more often than most biotech founders. This post isn’t a verbatim interview transcript, just a writeup of what I learned based on his answers.

Read it.

Inquiring minds want to know.

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A major case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court (Moore v. United States) is calling into question one of those provisions. Depending on how the court rules, large portions of the U.S. tax base could quickly become legally uncertain, putting significant revenue at stake.

Statist pocket-pickers love the idea of ‘taxing’ (stealing) part (or all) of the increase in value of an asset–your stocks went up in price? Well, that means you’re richer, so we get to wet out beaks. Your stocks went down in price? Sorry, dude, that’s your problem, not ours; you shoulda picked better stocks. Unfortunately (from their point of view) current law doesn’t let them do that, and that’s what this case is all about.

The truth about Mexican food.

Reuters.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made immigration his main weapon to blunt Canada’s big challenge of an aging and slowing population, and it has also helped fuel economic growth. That drove Canada’s population up at its fastest clip in more than six decades this year, Statistics Canada said.

But now a reversal of that trend is gradually taking hold. In the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 individuals departed Canada, adding to 93,818 people who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official data show.

The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019, according to a recent report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigration advocacy group. While the numbers went down during pandemic lockdowns, Statistics Canada data shows it is once again rising.

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I find it delicately amusing how many “white collar” people are incapable of admitting that they are bureaucrats. Call it being a clerk, a functionary or a bureaucrat; if you have a job which says “management” and involves people reporting to you, and you reporting what they tell you to other people, you are a bureaucratic brick in a pyramid. Most “software engineers” dealing in protocols, technical debt, the JVM, operations …. are also bureaucrats. Such people are not engineers in any normal definition of the word; they’re dealing with plumbing and protocol and social problems which come about from large groups of people. The fact that such people have to do their work with a programming language simply indicates that they are a low level bureaucrat. This is analogous to working as a policeman; a policeman is a sort of low level bureaucrat within the legal system who might get his hands dirty. Low level bureaucrats have to deal with real problems, but just as a policeman is not a peace engineer or social scientist, but more of a low level bureaucrat craftsman of applied psychology, the low level bureaucrat software developer is a low level bureaucrat craftsman dealing with programming uncertainty.

Quilette.

“We built the tunnels to protect ourselves from airplanes … the refugees, the UN is responsible for protecting them.” The now infamous statement by Musa Abu Marzuk of Hamas, in a television interview of October 2023, illustrates a severe problem that has developed in the interplay between humanitarian aid and militant groups in the Middle East. In even the best cases, the aid allows these groups to evade responsibility for civil affairs while pursuing their agenda of mayhem—but in fact, the terrorist groups often go much farther than this, and actually rely on aid streams to fund and equip the gunmen that commit their atrocities. Humanitarian aid has become a lifeline for these groups, enabling their deadly attacks.

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The Philippines and China traded accusations on Sunday over a collision of their vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea as tensions over claims in the vital waterway escalate.

The Philippine coast guard accused China of firing water cannons and ramming resupply vessels and a coast guard ship, causing “serious engine damage” to one, while China’s coast guard said the Philippine vessel intentionally rammed its ship.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s claims had no legal basis.

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In a territorial dispute spanning nearly two centuries, tensions between Guyana and Venezuela have once again reached a boiling point.

As Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Nick Routley detail below, the focal point of this dispute is the vast Essequibo region which encompasses around 70% of Guyana’s territory, and is roughly equivalent to the size of Florida.

Venezuela claims historical rights dating back to the Spanish colonial period when Essequibo fell within its boundaries.

In 1840, the British government drew the Schomburgk Line expanding the territory of British Guiana (now Guyana) far beyond the occupied area and to the strategically-located mouth of the Orinoco River.

Politico.

City elections are officially nonpartisan in Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city with more than 2.3 million people, but Democrats have held the office since 1982.

Note that they include a picture of her but not one of him, perhaps  because he is not a Person of Color.

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US military bases in the Middle East reportedly came under Fresh attack again on Friday, pushing the total number of attacks since mid-October past 80 incidents.

“There were four additional attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since yesterday, according to a DOD official. Now 82 overall since Oct. 17,” Politico’s Pentagon correspondent Lara Seligman wrote. Some media sources have put the figure as high as 85.

Read it.

America is witnessing a seismic shift in its demographic landscape. Recent data from Idaho reveals an unprecedented trend: people are migrating not just for jobs, schools, or lifestyle,but for political alignment. The movement is reshaping the country, according to the Seattle Times.

Read it.

Violent crime is quickly spreading to suburbia. A new report shows gangs from South America have targeted mansions in wealthy neighborhoods across the Detroit metro area. This comes as the Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies have flooded the country with millions of illegal migrants, as well as progressive cities fail to enforce ‘common sense’ law and order.

WXYZ Detroit reported at least 30 to 40 homes in upscale neighborhoods across Detroit have been targeted by “highly functional and well-trained” gangs from South America this fall.

Thieves are using high-tech “jammers” to disable WiFi home security systems. They’re primarily after cash, jewelry, and expensive handbags.

Cory Doctorow.

20 years ago, Chris Anderson told me that it was unrealistic to expect tech companies to refuse demands for DRM from the entertainment companies whose media they hoped to play. My argument – then and now – was that any tech company that sells you a gadget that can have its features revoked is defrauding you. You’re paying for x, y and z – and if they are contractually required to remove x and y on demand, they are selling you something that you can’t rely on, without making that clear to you.

But it’s worse than that. When a tech company designs a device for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades, they invite both external and internal parties to demand those downgrades. Like Pavel Chekov says, a phaser on the bridge in Act I is going to go off by Act III. Selling a product that can be remotely, irreversibly, nonconsensually downgraded inevitably results in the worst person at the product-planning meeting proposing to do so. The fact that there are no penalties for doing so makes it impossible for the better people in that meeting to win the ensuing argument, leading to the moral injury of seeing a product you care about reduced to a pile of shit.

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It turns out that the “smart homes of the future” cannot run on Wi-Fi alone thanks to the materials we’ve been using to construct our homes cheaply and quickly for decades. Over the last several years, more engineering and architecture firms have started including ethernet wiring in their building plans, but that’s as far as the digital infrastructure of a home usually goes. What’s forgotten is not only where the pre-built internet hub is placed inside the building but also what materials are used for construction.

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We could write about illegal immigration every day, and we probably should. Our open southern border is one of the greatest long-term threats to our country’s survival in any recognizable form.

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Even for the paranoia and hysteria that have become emblematic of Never Trumpers, the Trump-hating Atlantic magazine has outdone itself.

…

On and on- and on and on – goes this massive display of Trump Derangement Syndrome. There will be “unchecked misogyny” (this from an American Left that launched an all out political freak-out over the nomination to the Supreme Court of Amy Coney Barrett), a “MAGA version of U.S. history,” and, but of course, “a judiciary more loyal to Trump than to the Constitution.” (This would be as opposed to left-wing judges more loyal to leftism and Presidents Obama and Biden then the Constitution.)

Read it.

Europe is in turmoil over the mass migration policies of the EU elites. Migration has become a dominant, divisive issue across the European Union from eastern Germany to southern Italy—and in the UK.

Geert Wilders’ populist PVV party shocked the Brussels ‘bubble’ by finishing first in November’s Dutch elections, after pledging to cut “the asylum and immigration flood to the Netherlands” and ban mosques and Islamic schools. In the same month Dublin was convulsed by riots, sparked by the stabbing of three Irish schoolchildren and a woman by an Algerian-born knifeman. Meanwhile, nervous European cities have witnessed angry pro-Hamas protests by Islamist migrants, aided and abetted by their useful idiots on the Islamoleft.

The response of the panicking European authorities has been to brand anybody who speaks out about the problems connected to mass migration as ‘far right’ extremists who should be cancelled, censored, banned, or even arrested. But they cannot silence the growing disquiet.

Read it.

A new systematic review has been published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, one of the journals of the British Medical Journal, by Sandlund et al. titled ‘Child mask mandates for COVID-19: a systematic review‘.

Read it.

French farmers are dumping vast quantities of manure on government buildings to protest against excessive environmental regulations that threaten their way of life.

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A teachers’ union official affiliated with the National Education Association was arrested in Denver for shutting down a busy intersection outside of a prominent Jewish conference, records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

Alex Borenstein was among the 15 anti-Israel protesters arrested Sunday in Denver for shutting down Speer Boulevard, a major street located outside of the Colorado Convention Center, which was hosting the Global Conference for Israel. Borenstein—a self-avowed communist—serves as a northeast director for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate that represents more than 4,000 public school teachers in the Colorado city. Borenstein himself serves as a union liaison for educators at more than 30 Denver-area schools, including at least 8 elementary schools.

Borenstein’s arrest shows that the proliferation of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric is affecting American K-12 schools, not just college campuses. In one instance, a liberal school board president in upstate New York argued that Jews are to blame for the slave trade, a long-debunked anti-Semitic trope first advanced by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. In another, a public school district in Massachusetts sent its teachers a resource that said “Israeli terrorism” has historically been “significantly worse than that of the Palestinians.”

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After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, many Jews around the world are choosing to arm themselves for self-defense, according to a panel of Jewish professionals.

“Jews tend not to own guns, and that’s very unfortunate, because if you look at our history, we could’ve used one or two throughout that time,” Karol Markowicz, a columnist for the New York Post and Fox News, said at the Jewish Gun Ownership and Self-Defense event at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)

The Oct. 7 attack is what convinced Markowicz, who is Jewish, to become a gun owner and get both a handgun and an AR-15. She said she believes the terrorist attack has created a shift in the Jewish community and now more people are inclined to arm themselves.

“When I went shooting on Oct. 10, [there were] tons of Jews at the shooting range. [A] girl walks out with a Chanel bag and a big Jewish star, and we give each other kind of a nod,” Markowicz said.

Gee, I wonder why?

Read it.

A New York University student suspended from campus and stripped of her scholarships for tearing down posters of Israeli hostages is now begging for financial support “to cover costs for therapy.”

Hafiza Khalique on Wednesday posted the GoFundMe, in which she portrays herself as a victim of “racist doxxing, Islamophobia, intimidation, [and] targeted smear campaigns.” The fundraising effort comes weeks after NYU quietly suspended Khalique for vandalizing “university property or the property of others,” a reference to Khalique’s decision in October to tear down posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Khalique, who has already raised roughly half of her $10,000 goal, said in her GoFundMe description that the “inflammatory” posters were “used to normalize Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.” She also announced her intention to leave NYU, citing a “hostile environment” that has driven her to seek therapy.

“Fatphobic” … that must have hurt.

Read it. 

To some people, at least.

On the south side of Taipei, nestled in the hills behind the Gongguan Metro Station, is a community with a rather unusual history. Once a military outpost, it’s now a cluster of gray concrete, red brick, and sheet metal stacked haphazardly, rising some 260 feet (80 meters) above the surrounding city. Steep staircases lead to twisting alleyways filled with graffiti and confusing sculptures. In one courtyard, tourists can often be seen sitting on a pair of giant fortune cookies.
This is Treasure Hill–a prototype for what one architect believes is the future of sustainable urban living.

Note the key buzzword. Sustainable. This is the world the “Urban Planners” have in mind for us–living like Eastern European immigrants in the early 1900s.

Washington Poop.

Here is the best-kept secret about U.S. military aid to Ukraine: Most of the money is being spent here in the United States. That’s right: Funds that lawmakers approve to arm Ukraine are not going directly to Ukraine but are being used stateside to build new weapons or to replace weapons sent to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles. Of the $68 billion in military and related assistance Congress has approved since Russia invaded Ukraine, almost 90 percent is going to Americans, one analysis found.

The military-industrial complex at it’s finest.

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Police said they have arrested 26-year-old Laneisha Shantrice Henderson and charged her with criminal attempt arson and criminal attempt interference with government property.

She is, of course, a Woman of Color, which is why it isn’t plastered all over the news.

Read it.

Imagine that you grew up and lived your whole life protected by an invisible, magical shield that kept out the armies of foreign conquerors. The shield had been there before you were born, and there was no reason to think it ever wouldn’t be there — it was simply a background fixture of your Universe. And then one day imagine that this invisible shield vanished. You wouldn’t notice right away. And the conquerors, lurking patiently behind that shield, might also take a while to realize that your land now lay open and vulnerable to their armies. You would go about your life for a while unaware that anything important had changed.

If you live in a democratic country, I worry that this pretty much describes the situation you’re in right now.

The Atlantic.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of “If Trump Wins,” a project considering what Donald Trump might do if reelected in 2024.

Reality is what hangs around even if you don’t believe in it.

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It’s no secret that the schools run by the UNRWA—The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the UN agency created in 1949 exclusively to aid Palestinian refugees—use textbooks that glorify terrorism and incite children against Israeli Jews, both in Gaza and the West Bank.

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The schoolyard bullies are back at it again. Russia is funneling waves of migrants into the Finnish border, and China has wreaked havoc on the Gulf of Finland by dragging an anchor across the sea floor.

IRS gonna be on his ass.

Read it.

When liberals began their war on public monuments a few years ago, we were told that only statues of Confederate generals would be dismantled. Of course that turned out not to be true. While slavery is the purported justification for these erasures of history, even monuments to Abraham Lincoln have not been immune.

Now, New York City–having, apparently, no larger issues to address–is considering tearing down statutes of George Washington, Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson. Washington is on the list because he owned slaves; never mind that he was one of the few planters who freed his slaves.

Read it.

Immigrants who illegally cross the border into Arizona are being handed $5,000 in good-as-cash gift cards, along with cell phones and costly plane tickets, all of which are being paid for by the American taxpayer, according to Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb.

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Founded in 2020 in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, the Black Legacy Project describes itself as “a musical celebration of black history to advance racial solidarity, equity and belonging.” It brings together artists of all backgrounds “to record present day interpretations of songs central to the Black American experience and compose originals relevant to the pressing calls for change of our time.”

A similar arts group, Nu Art Education Inc., an offshoot of the NorCal School for the Arts, says it is “following the theory of change that utilizing theater arts” can be “a tool to teach and practice conflict resolution in the classroom.”

While both outfits share a mission of using the arts to inspire social change, they have something else in common: counterterrorism. Or rather, both have received taxpayer grants through the Department of Homeland Security’s “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention” (TVTP) program. Together, the two groups have received more than $1.4 million since the Biden administration doubled the program’s annual budget, to some $20 million per year.

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The new president of one of Pennsylvania’s largest school districts was sworn into office with her hand on sexually-explicit LGBT propaganda and “banned” books.

Democrat Karen Smith took up her new position Monday night as the head of the Central Bucks School District and immediately moved to undo Republican-led, pro-parent, and pro-family policies. For the swearing-in ceremony, Smith chose to place her hand not on a Bible but on a stack of frequently banned books, including “Flamer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Beyond Magenta,” “Lily and Dunkin,” and “The Bluest Eye.”

Time to leave.

New York Post.

California coffee shop workers were filmed denying a Jewish customer access to the restroom after she complained it was filled with antisemitic graffiti — telling her “Free Palestine” and accusing her of wanting to use the facilities because “Israel loves taking private property and saying it’s their own.”

Three employees at Farley’s East in Oakland stood in front of the bathroom and told a distressed-sounding woman filming them that she had to leave.

“I want to go in the restroom,” the woman repeatedly implores the staffers, who tell her it’s private property even while confirming she was a customer who’d eaten there.

ZMan lays it out.

The fourth and allegedly final Republican debate was held last night, featuring the final four contestants for the right to be the party nominee. The plot of these shows is to showcase the alternatives to Trump. The subtext is the not-so-secret plot by Washington to have the party remove Trump from the ballot, so one of these losers will get selected to fill the slot. What we have been getting instead is a fairly good example of systemic incompetence by the political class.

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Harvard President Gay is Weasel of the Year and the competition has never been steeper. She edged out past winners FBI Director Wray and USAG Garland at the last minute with a truly appalling performance before Congress. When asked to comment when contacted this afternoon in his retirement home in the UAE Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (AKA “Baghdad Bob”) simply replied “LOL. Amazing!”

Read it.

As corporate progressive media diverts the public’s attention with Time Magazine’s naming of Taylor Swift as Person of the Year this week, the Biden administration’s southern border crisis continues to spiral out of control.

Sources within the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Fox News that Tuesday was the largest single-day illegal migrant encounter ever on the US-Mexico border. They said over 12,000 migrant encounters were reported, with 10,200 of them between ports of entry.

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The takeaway from Tuberville’s lonely fight is clear: if something like this can be done on similar appointments, using similar tactics, with the support of a larger portion of the conference, it could have an institution-altering effect. Senators are invested with enormous power within their body, but very few choose to use it as it can be used. They still swear by, at least on the Republican side, the old norms-based protocols that no one on the Democratic side respects. (As recently as 2020, Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth announced a hold on more than 1,100 Pentagon promotions to insist that Alexander Vindman get promoted.)

 

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…now they are coming for your meat. Global warming, the universal excuse for left-wing policies designed to make your life worse, demands that modern agriculture be shut down. If you think that is an exaggeration, talk to anyone in Sri Lanka or the Netherlands.

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Gun manufacturer RemArms, previously known as Remington Arms, will close its manufacturing facility in Ilion, New York, next year, a decision that Republicans are blaming on Democrats’ anti-gun policies.

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China is working to enhance its submarine force amid ongoing U.S. struggles with its fragile industrial base – a potentially perilous mix that could see the Chinese military outproduce and overstretch the U.S.’s underfunded and undermanned Navy at a time of increased tensions between the superpowers.

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American students scored an all-time low in math on a major international exam, which provided the first comparison of global achievement since the pandemic radically changed education around the world.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.