Month: April 2026

UK Special Coverage

The Mandelson Scandal Could Topple Starmer

The prime minister’s U.S. ambassador was an Epstein crony with business ties to Russia and China, and Parliament demands answers.

UK Special Coverage

(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Britain has an alarming casualty rate as far as prime ministers are concerned. It has lost five in the last decade. It could be about to lose a sixth.

The Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer entered Number 10 after a landslide general election victory only a year and a half ago, yet he has been mired in almost continual scandals, U-turns, and mishaps since the day it emerged in the summer of 2024 that he had failed to declare gifts, including designer clothes, glasses, and accommodation from the Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli, who received a Downing Street security pass.

Now he is in trouble again over security, this time for appointing Lord Mandelson as U.S. ambassador, Britain’s top diplomatic post, despite the former Labour minister’s failure in security vetting. Monday, with his back to the wall in the House of Commons, Starmer insisted that the top official in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, had “deliberately” withheld from him the fact that Mandelson had been deemed a security risk. Starmer sacked Robbins last week.

The prime minister said it “beggared belief” that he was not told that Mandelson had not been cleared by the Foreign Office vetting agency, UKSV.  But MPs wanted to know why the PM was so eager to install “the Prince of Darkness,” as Mandelson is often called, in the first place. And in summarily sacking Robbins, was he not simply seeking a convenient scapegoat for his own lack of judgment?

Lord Mandelson came with more baggage than Heathrow Airport. In 1998, he was forced to resign from his cabinet post as trade and industry secretary after it emerged that he had failed to declare a loan of £373,000 from the Labour donor Geoffrey Robinson. He was restored to the cabinet by Labour’s then–Prime Minister Tony Blair as Northern Ireland Secretary, only to resign again in 2001 after improperly intervening in the attempts by another wealthy individual, Srichand Hinduja, to secure a UK passport. Even then, Blair nominated the twice-disgraced politician to be the UK’s European commissioner for trade.

While in this post, Mandelson cemented his association with one Jeffrey Epstein. He became such a close friend that Mandelson started to share with him intelligence on important matters of state. According to the Epstein files, Mandelson, back in the Labour government in 2008, emailed Epstein on market-sensitive issues such as imminent European Union bank bailouts and UK infrastructure sales. He also kept his close relationship with the financier even after Epstein was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution.

The main reason Starmer is in deep trouble is because he knew all about this, and about Mandelson’s continued relationship with Epstein, before he appointed him U.S. ambassador and before there was any issue about his formal security vetting. Starmer also knew that Mandelson’s lobbying company, Global Counsel, had a long history of advising Russian state-linked companies and networking with Chinese state-linked businessmen. 

He knew because this had been flagged by his own cabinet secretary, Sir Simon Case, in a memo on November 11, 2024, pointing out the reputational issues and “potential conflicts of interest” if Mandelson were appointed.  Starmer went ahead anyway and appointed Mandelson, now ennobled, as U.S. ambassador a month later without security clearance, in December 2024. This is what even his own Labour MPs find so difficult to understand. 

Starmer complained in his statement to MPs yesterday that it was “staggering” he had not been told by the civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office that Mandelson had failed his security vetting in January 2025 after Mandelson was in post. “So why didn’t the Prime Minister ask?” replied the former Labour MP Diane Abbott, who called on him to resign. The Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Emily Thornberry, said Number 10 had been so desperate to appoint Mandelson that it treated national security as “very much second order.” 

Those were just the responses from the PM’s own side of the House.  The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, both demanded that the Prime Minister step down immediately because of his catastrophic misjudgment. Either he misled Parliament when he claimed earlier this year that Mandelson had been appointed after “full due diligence,” in which case he broke the ministerial code. Or he didn’t know about the security vetting and is not in control of his own government. Ed Davey compared the PM unfavorably with the former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned after misleading Parliament over the so-called “Partygate” affair during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The reason this scandal is so dangerous for Starmer is precisely because previous prime ministers have been forced to resign over much less serious issues. Johnson resigned, essentially, because he briefly attended a birthday party held for him by his staff during Covid lockdown. There was never any suggestion that he had endangered national security by eating a slice of cake.

Yet as U.S. ambassador, Lord Mandelson was given access to the very top tier of intelligence briefings, the so-called STRAP material. This is only given to the PM and a handful of senior ministers because it includes intelligence of vital interest to allies like America—and also to enemy powers if any leaked. Given his networking with figures close to the Russian and Chinese governments, Mandelson’s record of resignations and sharing sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein, it is not only opposition MPs who are deeply disturbed by Starmer’s decision.

For his part, Robbins, the Foreign Office civil servant sacked by Starmer, claimed in evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tuesday that he had been placed under “constant pressure” from Number 10 to get Mandelson in post in December 2024.  He received calls saying “make it happen…get on with it.” Number 10 appeared “dismissive” of vetting procedure.  He also let it be known that Starmer appointed Mandelson not just against Case’s advice, but also Robbins’s predecessor as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, Sir Philip Barton.

Yet Starmer is sticking to his claim that “a deliberate decision was taken to withhold that [negative vetting decision]” from him. In other words, that Robbins, for obscure reasons, actively suppressed the fact that, according to the Foreign Office vetting service UKSV, Mandelson was effectively a risk to national security and that clearance had been denied.

To be fair to the PM, this does seem inexplicable, even if (as Robbins insists) it is standard procedure to keep the vetting process secret. The details of security vetting by the Foreign Office agency UKSV are of course confidential, but the result is not—otherwise what would be the point of the vetting in the first place?

Did Robbins fail in his duty to inform the PM that Mandelson had not made the cut? Newly in post in December 2024, the permanent secretary evidently believed that Number 10 had already made its decision and it was his job to ensure it went through. But it is fair to say that the committee was not satisfied with that account. 

However, many MPs believe that the Robbins issue is a diversion. Starmer knew enough already about Mandelson’s character, not least from Case, his own top official in the Cabinet Office. The PM made a mistake and, instead of owning up to it, chose to “throw Robbins under a bus,” as Badenoch put it. Robbins, of course, appears to agree. 

Any way you look at this, it is another fine mess for a prime minister who has few friends even in his own party or in the country. Keir Starmer has been the most unpopular PM of recent times in opinion polls. Off the record, many Labour MPs lament his lack of direction and poor performance not just today but since he was elected.  “There have been too many mistakes,” said the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar, who has been the most senior figure so far to openly call for Keir Starmer to resign. He said that in February. His wish may be about to come true.

The post The Mandelson Scandal Could Topple Starmer appeared first on The American Conservative.

Democratic Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey called for “foot soldiers” to defend democracy, citing “darkness” and the need to “redeem the dream of America.”

Booker was speaking Saturday at the Legacy Luncheon in Detroit to the Michigan Democratic Women’s Caucus, and told a story about his time as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, during Hurricane Sandy.

He then shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen, there is a storm in our nation!”

“There is darkness and wind,” he continued. “People are getting hurt! What we need is not from on high. We need foot soldiers of our Democracy who, in times of trial, are willing to stand up!”

Cory Booker screams like a maniac that there is a “STORM” brewing in our nation and Democrat politicians need their “foot soldiers” to fight for democracy

Democrats must never regain power.https://t.co/wETIQolNhq pic.twitter.com/ipU0ejADCV

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) April 20, 2026

“Will you stand for our democracy?” Booker asked. “Will you stand to get out the vote? Will you stand for our children? Will you stand up for our elders? And will you stand together, unified, strong, be the hope that people need?”

He added, “We are Democrats! It’s time for a new deal! It’s time to redeem the dream of America.”

Booker has always had a flair for the dramatic. In 2018, he was widely ridiculed for how he conducted himself during the questioning of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

In that case, he referred to himself as “Spartacus,” referencing the climactic moment in the 1960 film of the same name, about a legendary leader of a slave revolt against the ancient Romans.

In that scene, all of the rebellious slaves chose to identify themselves as “Spartacus” to share the blowback from Roman leaders.

“I appreciate the comments from my colleagues. This is about the closest I’ll ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment,” he said, referring to his phony claim of having violated Senate Committee rules, when he released a set of previously “confidential” White House emails related to Kavanaugh. Officials later revealed that Booker’s office had received permission for him share the documents hours before his dramatic speech.

He was mocked by lawmakers and media personalities alike.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Cory Booker Calls for ‘Foot Soldiers’ to Take to the Streets to ‘Stand Up’ Against ‘Darkness’ in Bizarre Rant appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The post EXCLUSIVE: How Foreign Interference and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Stole the 2020 Election – PART I appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Less than two weeks before Christmas last year, a 15-year-old girl, Endurance Sabon, had her hand cut off after her family rejected a forced marriage proposal by Islamist Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

The attack occurred while she, her mother, and relatives were farming. According to the family, the attackers lived nearby and were known to them. They ambushed the group at approximately 6:30 p.m. after trailing them through the bush from the farm. The men shone a torchlight to identify Endurance, then dragged her into the forest, where they cut off her hand.

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria formally condemned the attack, calling it a violation of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, the Child Rights Act, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including Plateau and Kaduna states, forms the fault line between the predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. Violence in this region is largely driven by Fulani militant groups and herdsmen pushing into Christian farming communities along this religious and ethnic boundary, creating a sustained frontier conflict over land and resources.

The motivations behind these attacks are a mix of ethnic, economic, and territorial disputes, with an Islamist dimension that varies by incident. In some cases, these groups are armed by or coordinated with jihadist networks. Written evidence submitted by Open Doors UK & Ireland to the UK Parliament documents links between jihadist networks and local militias, including the supply of weapons and the spread of radical ideology.

Plateau State has become one of the deadliest places in the world for Christians. According to the Open Doors World Watch List, 546 Christians were killed in Plateau State in the most recent reporting year, compared with 48 Muslims.

The violence has continued into 2026. On Palm Sunday 2026, gunmen stormed the Ungwan Rukuba community, in Jos, Plateau State around 8 p.m., killing at least 27–30 residents, with the Christian Association of Nigeria noting the attackers wore uniforms resembling those of Nigerian security forces. Between April 3 and 11, 2026, Fulani terrorists killed eight more Christians across Riyom and Barkin Ladi counties.

In a separate incident in far-off Borno State, fighters of Jama’atu Ahlis-Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) attacked the Ngoshe community in Gwoza Local Government Area on March 4, 2026.

Borno State is the historical heartland of Boko Haram, which was founded in Maiduguri in the early 2000s. JAS is the original Boko Haram faction and a rival to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) splinter group.

They overran a military base, the 82 Division Task Force Battalion under the 26 Brigade. The attackers burned armored tanks and vehicles and seized ammunition. They then advanced on an IDP camp in the community.

In early April, JAS released a proof-of-life video produced at the request of the Borno South Youth Alliance, which acted as a mediator. The video showed 416 captives, mostly women and children, surrounded by armed fighters.

On April 19, Boko Haram issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding ₦5 billion (about $3.1 million USD) for the captives’ release, warning they would be “distributed to different locations” if demands were not met.

Unlike the communal anti-Christian violence in Kaduna and Plateau states, the Ngoshe attack reflects a distinct pattern. JAS is a jihadist insurgency targeting the Nigerian state itself, its security forces, and civilian communities that cooperate with government authority. Its violence is ideologically driven by the goal of establishing an Islamic state. Borno State’s population is predominantly Muslim, and JAS victims are not exclusively Christian.

The scale of Fulani militia violence, however, dwarfs that of the transnational jihadist groups. Between October 2019 and September 2024, the Fulani Ethnic Militia was responsible for 47 percent of all civilian killings in Nigeria, more than five times the combined death toll of Boko Haram and ISWAP, which together accounted for just 11 percent. Unlike the jihadist groups, Fulani militia violence follows a distinct methodology. Armed groups invade small Christian farming settlements to kill, rape, abduct, and burn homes, a pattern that has proven effective at achieving long-term territorial control and demographic change.

These two streams of violence are converging. Boko Haram and ISWAP have expanded westward into parts of Adamawa, Gombe, and Yobe states, and there are documented cases of Fulani militant groups in the Middle Belt receiving arms, financing, and coordination from jihadist networks. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Belief found that radicalized Fulani militants “demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” adopting tactics comparable to Boko Haram and ISWAP. Security analysts warn that militant Islamist groups in Nigeria demonstrate remarkable staying power and threaten to co-opt and Islamize other violent conflicts across the region.

Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith from October 2024 to September 2025, 72 percent were Nigerians. Despite this, Nigeria has struggled to prosecute perpetrators due to inadequate law enforcement and a dysfunctional judicial system. In October 2025, the Trump administration redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act for tolerating systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom.

The post Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani Militias: Nigeria’s Christians Attacked by Multiple Jihadist Groups appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A Sunday report from the New York Post tells a story that should make any decent person stop, take a breath, and ask their neighbors to do some serious personal inventory.

The report is a snapshot of a city that has lost its grip on basic order.

According to the report, four young black men targeted two white women in a parking lot.

This was not at midnight in a bad neighborhood. This was in broad daylight outside a Lowe’s location in a decent part of Brooklyn.

The women, ages 72 and 48, were loading a Toyota Corolla when the group of hoodlums approached them.

One suspect jumped into the driver’s seat and took the car. As he sped off, he struck both women, sending one to the ground and hitting the older victim as she sat with a walker.

The New York Post reported that both women suffered minor injuries but declined medical treatment at the scene.

4 goons steal car, mow down 72-year-old using walker in NYC Lowe’s parking lot: cops https://t.co/vLOOYNEqDH pic.twitter.com/BxUmkg2ZRS

— New York Post (@nypost) April 20, 2026

They may be minor injuries, but there is a moral injury to a society that continues to allow this kind of behavior to be normal.

The suspects, believed to be between 18 and 20, fled the scene, three in the stolen car and one in a separate vehicle.

Police are still searching for them, according to the New York Post.

But they may very well be caught and released, only to go on to repeat this kind of behavior.

This cycle of brazen crime, outrage, and then silence until the next victim comes along will repeat in New York and every other blue city like it until something radically changes.

Democrats both directly and indirectly encourage the kind of animalistic behavior that leaves an elderly woman with a walker mowed over by her own car.

Why do people feel so emboldened to victimize the vulnerable in the first place? It’s not exactly a mystery.

When consequences are non-existent, the message is clear: You can act like a thug, and the system will basically stand behind you.

New York City did not become a dump overnight, and it will not fix itself overnight either.

Leadership, or lack thereof, matters, and the tone set by those in charge matters most of all.

Right now, New York is led by communist revolutionary Zohran Mamdani, and New Yorkers voted to put him there.

His election, like that of his two predecessors — Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio — is proof that blue city residents refuse to accept that the rhetoric of the left is detached from reality.

We are watching the results play out in parking lots, sidewalks, and elsewhere as ordinary people pay for failed ideas.

The U.S. might incarcerate more people than most other countries, but it is not enough.

A serious society responds to serious crime with serious consequences.

That means more prisons where necessary, longer sentences when possible, and zero parole for repeat offenders.

It also means a justice system that prioritizes victims over the comfort of those who harm them.

New Yorkers, like all Americans, deserve to feel safe doing something as ordinary as loading their car.

Then again, these people live in a city and a state dominated by one party, and the voters don’t seem to be bothered by events like Sunday’s brazen assault and robbery — that, or these people fail to see the correlation.

This is beyond blaming Mamdani or the other leftists running the city into the ground.

If the people in charge cannot or will not protect you and will not allow you to protect yourself, then at some point the responsibility shifts back to the voter.

These people of New York City need to vote better, if for no other reason than to protect the elderly and to ensure violent people feel the warmth of collectivism while behind bars.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Blue City Paradise: NYC Thugs Steal Elderly Women’s Car, Hit 72-Year-Old With Walker as They Make Their Getaway appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire

By Travis A. Karnes

In the vast expanse of the Indo-Pacific, America stands as the indispensable defender—guardian of freedom, guarantor of open sea lanes, and bulwark against authoritarian aggression. Red China and its erratic ally North Korea pose existential threats to regional stability, sovereignty, and the rules-based order that has underpinned prosperity for decades. These adversaries pursue multi-domain dominance through conventional, nuclear, hypersonic, cyber, and space warfare. Yet America possesses the will, the allies, and the strategic vision to prevail. Drawing on insights from visionary authors and military leaders, this article outlines a strategy of strong national economic deterrent alongside a Reagan-style commitment to Taiwan. Peace through strength, not appeasement, is the path forward.

The Red Dragon’s Multifaceted Menace

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has transformed its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a peer competitor capable of challenging U.S. primacy across every domain. Beijing’s core operational concept—Multi-Domain Precision Warfare (MDPW)—integrates command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems powered by artificial intelligence and big data. This enables instantaneous aggregation of forces to strike weaknesses in U.S. and allied operations, from the First Island Chain to the open ocean. PLA exercises routinely rehearse firepower strikes, blockades, and amphibious assaults on Taiwan, while gray-zone tactics—coercive patrols, island-building, and legal warfare—erode neighbors’ sovereignty in the South and East China Seas.

China’s Rapid Airpower Buildup:

The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and Naval Aviation are undergoing one of the most aggressive modernization campaigns in history. Production of advanced fighters has surged dramatically, with the fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighter now being manufactured at rates of 100-120 aircraft per year. The fleet has grown to over 300 J-20s in service, on track to reach approximately 1,000 by 2030. Complementary production of J-35 carrier-based stealth fighters and J-16 multirole aircraft adds hundreds more advanced platforms annually, giving China the potential to field the world’s largest fleet of modern combat aircraft. These platforms, equipped with long-range air-to-air missiles, advanced sensors, and increasingly capable engines, are designed to contest air superiority over the Taiwan Strait and beyond, threaten U.S. and allied bases, and support massed strikes against naval forces. This air buildup compresses response times and raises the risks for any U.S. intervention in a regional crisis.

Nuclear escalation forms the ultimate backstop. The PRC is rapidly expanding its arsenal, projected to exceed 1,000 operational warheads by 2030, many at heightened readiness. It fields a maturing nuclear triad—land-based ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and air-launched systems—paired with new intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering conventional or nuclear payloads. This buildup supports “strategic counterbalance” against the United States while enabling conventional aggression under a nuclear shadow.

Hypersonic weapons amplify the danger. Systems like the DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle, along with advancing cruise and ballistic variants, evade traditional missile defenses through speed, maneuverability, and unpredictable trajectories. These weapons target U.S. bases, carrier strike groups, and regional allies, compressing decision timelines and complicating deterrence.

In cyberspace and space, Beijing wages relentless, deniable campaigns. Operations such as Volt Typhoon have infiltrated critical U.S. infrastructure, poised to disrupt military logistics and civilian power grids in conflict. In orbit, the PLA deploys expansive satellite constellations for targeting, alongside counterspace weapons—including kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles, jamming, spoofing, and co-orbital “space tugs.” These tools threaten to blind U.S. forces, sever command links, and contest the ultimate high ground. China’s 2027 modernization goals explicitly aim for “strategic decisive victory” over Taiwan and regional dominance, rendering the Indo-Pacific a theater of integrated coercion short of—or escalating to—war.

North Korea’s Rogue Arsenal: Fueling Regional Instability

Pyongyang complements Beijing’s threats as an unpredictable nuclear wildcard. Leader Kim Jong-un has fielded the world’s largest mobile ICBMs, including solid-fuel Hwasong-18 and Hwasong-19 variants capable of striking the U.S. homeland with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) in development. Hypersonic glide warheads on intermediate-range systems further complicate defenses, while short- and medium-range ballistic missiles saturate South Korea, Japan, and U.S. forces.

Nuclear warheads—potentially dozens to hundreds—serve both deterrence and warfighting. Pyongyang’s special operations forces, submarine-launched missiles, and chemical/biological options add layers of terror. In cyberspace, North Korean hackers (Lazarus Group and affiliates) steal cryptocurrency, fund the regime, and conduct espionage against defense industries. Space ambitions include spy satellites and rudimentary ASAT potential, often aided by Russian and Chinese technology transfers.

This arsenal destabilizes the region, emboldens Beijing through proxy pressure, and diverts U.S. resources. Coordinated with China’s multi-domain playbook, North Korea’s provocations risk miscalculation that spirals into broader conflict.

Forging Victory: America’s Integrated Winning Strategy

America’s response must reject reactive containment for proactive, multi-domain dominance. Visionaries provide the blueprint: a strategy emphasizing strong central defense institutions, sovereign economic resilience, and unapologetic alliances paired with a strong national economic deterrent.

Technological and Air-Space Superiority:

Techno-thrillers and strategic analyses depict high-tech U.S. airpower—advanced fighters, bombers, and space-based systems—neutralizing Chinese aggression in the Spratlys and beyond. They envision a China-led axis war where U.S. breakthroughs in naval and space domains turn the tide. The strategy: Accelerate deployment of next-generation platforms, hypersonic countermeasures, resilient satellite constellations, and AI-driven command networks. Prioritize Multi-Domain Task Forces that integrate land, sea, air, cyber, and space effects to penetrate A2/AD bubbles. Space must remain the high ground—defended aggressively against ASAT threats—while cyber commands preemptively harden critical infrastructure.

Countering Unrestricted Warfare:

Analyses expose China’s “three warfares” (psychological, media, legal) alongside kinetic and economic coercion. The counter: Whole-of-government resilience—decoupling critical supply chains, countering influence operations, and exposing CCP malign activities. America must mirror this with information dominance and sanctions that impose real costs without hesitation.

Maritime Forward Presence and Alliance Power:

Robust naval posture, forward bases, and freedom of navigation remain essential to deter Chinese expansion. An America First Pacific NATO-style collective defense alliance should be established to bind key partners in mutual security commitments, enabling rapid, coordinated responses across the region. Revive and expand this: Grow the Navy, fortify the First Island Chain with distributed lethal forces, and deepen Quad, AUKUS, and bilateral ties with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia. Joint exercises must simulate high-end conflict, signaling unbreakable resolve.

Strong National Economic Deterrent:

A strong federal defense apparatus—funded responsibly, not through bloated bureaucracy—pairs with emphasis on domestic industry and in a Hamiltonian fiscal prudence. Decouple from CCP supply chains in semiconductors, rare earths, and pharmaceuticals. Impose reciprocal tariffs and investment restrictions that starve Beijing’s military modernization. Build resilient, friend-shored manufacturing to deny economic leverage. This deterrent weaponizes interdependence asymmetrically: collective allied resilience against Chinese coercion, ensuring any aggression triggers cascading economic isolation.

Trump’s Reagan-Type Role in Taiwan:

President Trump’s approach echoes Ronald Reagan’s peace-through-strength doctrine—arming Taiwan with advanced defensive systems while maintaining strategic clarity that any invasion would meet overwhelming U.S. response. Sell Taiwan the tools to impose prohibitive costs: anti-ship missiles, air defenses, cyber resilience, and asymmetric capabilities. Publicly affirm the Taiwan Relations Act’s spirit, conduct freedom-of-navigation operations, and integrate Taiwan into regional defense architectures. Crucially, President Trump should visit Taiwan. Such a high-profile visit would send an unmistakable signal of American resolve, shatter Beijing’s narrative of inevitable dominance, and rally regional allies much as Reagan’s bold actions stiffened resistance to Soviet aggression. Like Reagan’s moral clarity against the “Evil Empire,” a Trump visit to Taipei would affirm that Taiwan’s democracy is worth defending and that the United States will not abandon a key partner. This symbolic yet substantive act, paired with enhanced arms sales and joint training, would deter without provoking while buying Taiwan critical time to bolster its defenses.

Securing Decisive Victory: A New American Century in the Indo-Pacific

This is not a strategy of mere deterrence or managed decline—it is a comprehensive campaign plan for victory, forged in the spirit of a relentless American military and technological superiority. We must build and deploy overwhelming multi-domain forces that can dominate the air, sea, space, and cyber realms from day one of any conflict. No more incrementalism or risk-averse bureaucracy: America must surge production of hypersonic interceptors, next-generation submarines, unmanned loyal wingmen, orbital strike capabilities, and hardened command networks that render Chinese A2/AD systems obsolete.

The United States and its allies must commit to total superiority—pre-positioned lethal forces across the First and Second Island Chains, rapid reinforcement from the homeland, and information warfare that exposes the CCP’s lies while demoralizing its troops. Economic warfare must bite hard and immediately: full-spectrum decoupling of critical technologies, secondary sanctions on any nation aiding Beijing, and a national industrial mobilization that recalls the Arsenal of Democracy.

With President Trump leading the way—visiting Taiwan, arming it to the teeth, and projecting unyielding strength—America will once again prove that free nations, backed by unmatched military power and moral clarity, can slay the dragon. The alternative is surrender: a Chinese-dominated Indo-Pacific where tyranny replaces liberty and American influence fades into history. That future is unacceptable. Through bold leadership, relentless innovation, and ironclad alliances, we will secure decisive victory, preserve freedom, and usher in a new American century of peace through overwhelming strength.

Travis A. Karnes is a strategic analyst who was the FMR lead editor of the Peace Through Strength Institute.

The post Dragon Slayer: America’s Pivotal Role in the Indo-Pacific appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

An independent LGBT group recently held an event on the campus of Brigham Young University in Utah which featured an image of President Trump’s severed head and encouraged children to bash an effigy of Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee.

Do you think this is what Brigham Young had in mind?

The left’s violent political fantasies just keep getting worse and now they’re dragging children into it. Mao Zedong would be proud.

And remember, these are the people who constantly claim to be against hate.

Campus Reform reported:

Independent BYU LGBT center event displays painting of severed Trump head, invites kids to hit Mike Lee piñata

The Cougar Pride Center, which describes itself as an independent resource center serving Brigham Young University (BYU) students, hosted an event titled “Provo Pride” on April 11, which featured an LGBTQ pride march through downtown Provo, Utah, followed by a pride festival at Memorial Park.

The event featured more than a dozen LGBTQ-themed vendors and a concert with several LGBTQ performers, including drag queen Colette Coins, who self-describes as an “argumentative antithetical dreamgirl” on Instagram.

One vendor stand at the festival featured apparent Molotov cocktails for sale alongside a painting of Donald Trump’s severed head being served on a platter, which was priced at $150. A photo from the event shows a baby in a stroller just behind one of the vendor tables.

Another video from the event shows multiple young children, seemingly attending the event with their families at the park, batting a piñata of Utah Sen. Mike Lee until it broke open, leaving the severed head on the ground…

Founded in 2021, the Cougar Pride Center is an independent organization whose mission is to “empower queer individuals,” “celebrate progress,” and “advocate for change through collaborative advocacy” for students at BYU.

Does Brigham Young University endorse this behavior?

Not subtle pic.twitter.com/Lp5PNyGKv9

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) April 15, 2026

How about Molotov cocktails? Is this acceptable?

A painting of Donald Trump’s severed head on a platter was found for sale alongside decorative Molotov cocktails at a Pride event in Provo hosted by the Cougar Pride Center, which describes itself as an “LGBTQ resource for BYU students.” pic.twitter.com/JsXh9lhl4E

— Kai Schwemmer (@KaiSchwemmer) April 15, 2026

Do colleges and universities want all of their federal funding taken away? Do they want to fail and be forced to shut down?

This kind of behavior suggests that they really do.

The post LGBT Event at Brigham Young University Features Painting of Trump’s Severed Head, Children Bashing a Piñata of Republican Senator Mike Lee appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A far left group called ‘Our Revolution’ which is explicitly anti-billionaire has endorsed billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer for governor of California. This group is basically a continuation of the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Steyer has advocated a radical, anti-ICE platform that includes bringing illegals back into the country and jailing ICE agents.

It’s almost like this group doesn’t really care about billionaires and just want to make sure that the left clings to power in California. Almost.

Even the liberal outlet The Intercept is calling them out for this:

Progressive Group Founded by Bernie Sanders Endorses Billionaire for California Governor

Our Revolution, the progressive group founded by Bernie Sanders as an outgrowth of his 2016 presidential campaign, is endorsing its first billionaire as the race for California governor tightens.

Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and philanthropist, won the group’s endorsement on Monday. Our Revolution said its decision to back Steyer was driven in part by the shakeup over Rep. Eric Swalwell’s exit and fear that if progressives fail to consolidate around a candidate, they’ll hand the gubernatorial seat to a Republican.

“While yes, he is a billionaire, and that’s a real and important concern, it’s equally important to recognize how he’s used his wealth and power,” said Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese.

Steyer, he said, is the candidate most ideologically aligned with his group’s pledge to fight corporate power in politics — and the most likely to win.

“The worst thing that could happen is a Republican winning,” Geevarghese said. “Strategically, Steyer and his campaign is best positioned to make sure that does not happen.”

Just last month, this group was claiming that billionaires have bought the government.

March: Billionaires have quite literally bought the government.

April: Vote for Tom Steyer who quite literally bought his entire campaign. pic.twitter.com/RpLra4nDsH

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) April 20, 2026

You couldn’t make this up.

We’re backing Tom Steyer for Governor of California!

Tom is leaning into universal solutions like single-payer healthcare, taxing extreme wealth, climate action, and ending the outsized influence of corporations in our democracy.

Yes, he’s a billionaire. But he’s using his… pic.twitter.com/PkM4OZ8soZ

— Our Revolution (@OurRevolution) April 20, 2026

Do you think anyone in the media will ask Bernie Sanders to comment on this? Don’t hold your breath.

The post Far Left Anti-Billionaire Group Linked to Bernie Sanders Endorses Billionaire Tom Steyer for Governor of California appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Takimag

Taki’s Worst President

Meet the man who destroyed Europe.

TakiMag

During a very gay—in the old-fashioned meaning of the word—and drunken evening in Gstaad very long ago, William F. Buckley asked me whom I considered the worst American president. Bill had a habit of turning dinner conversations into debates, and we all were grateful for this habit of his, since apres-ski dinners more often than not involved pretty young things that were known to confuse Rambo with Rimbaud. 

I did not have to think long. By far Woodrow Wilson, I exclaimed, and Bill raised that eyebrow of his and almost burst out laughing. “Do explain, Taaakhi,” ordered Bill with his best devilish smile. That was an easy one: “By taking America to war in 1917, and winning that conflict for the allies, Wilson eventually caused the death of millions by opening the door to communism and Nazism, the abolition of three very old and traditional monarchies, and ensured a second round after the Congress of Versailles.”  My proclamation was greeted by loud guffaws from the 15-strong dinner party. A tiny voice from a tiny person who was staying at my chalet agreed with me, to more abuse from our dinner partners. The voice was Willy von Raab’s, commissioner of customs under Ronald Reagan for eight years, an amateur historian whom Bill Buckley had labeled “the mean one.” (Willy put drug dealers and other baddies in jail without trial and kept them there until judges freed them for reasons unknown.) P.J. O’Rourke and I were the two speakers at Willy’s funeral, and we turned the tears to laughter in no time.

When the horrible Princeton prof became the 28th  president, he used his office to drag the nation into a European war, jailing opponents and arm-twisting the boys to Europe in 1917.  The bloodiest conflict in European history, however, was literally at its end. Both sides were exhausted and there were non-stop talks behind the scenes for a permanent ceasefire. The French army had fought bravely defending their native fields, but having been led by chateau-living, champagne-swilling generals who cared little about casualties, they had revolted and had only recently agreed to fight again. The Brits had sent everyone over the wire time and again, losing their few poets and most of their upper-class men, but even their bloodthirsty leadership was ready to throw in the towel. The Germans were also at the end of their tether. My grandfather told me that there was not a single noble family in Germany that had not lost a son or more. (And as everyone knows, most Germans are noble, barons at least, despite what Hollywood wants us to believe.) 

Wilson was a good administrator at Princeton, but once in DC he was known as an ingrate and a liar. He saw the Great War as a struggle between the forces of democracy and those of reaction and militarism. Like a modern day Jared Kushner (more about that bum next week), Wilson was in way over his head. A Virginian, Wilson hero-worshipped Abraham Lincoln, not Robert E. Lee. Two million American soldiers eventually went to France, although many of them did not see action right away. Still, just as the warring parties were about to sit down and talk, Pershing’s boys swept in like a tornado turning the Brits and the Frogs into lions. The Ludendorff- Hindenburg German offensive failed as Yankee farm boys fought and won for the ungrateful Anglo-French. After more deaths and destruction the horror ended when Germany surrendered 50 miles away from Paris. Some surrender. 

So, why is Wilson such a monster, according to the greatest Greek writer since Homer? That’s an easy one. Just think what happened afterwards the so-called German defeat brought on by the arrival of 2 million fresh American troops. Communism would not have taken hold in Russia, leading to 50 million dead, had Germany not needed to bring tens of divisions westward to counter the Yanks. The kaiser would have interfered and saved the tsar, whom the British disgracefully allowed to be murdered along with his innocent family by the bloodthirsty Reds. Hitler would have died an unknown rabble-rouser and another 50-some millions would have been spared had the kaiser kept his throne. The saintly and very capable emperor of Austria-Hungary, Karl, would have remained in power, and his son Otto would have been a successful inheritor. Austria at present is known as a democracy, but the person who came in first in the last election is not even in government. Such are the joys of EU politics, run and ruled by unelected bureaucrats. 

At present, powerless figureheads like the reigning postage-stamp monarchs of Britain, Holland, the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, and Spain do no harm—except for the man who will be visiting sometime next week, Charles of Britain. I’ve met this rude man who bends over backwards to charm Muslims, leftists, and anti-whites. He is Europe’s richest monarch, spoilt and greedy, and leans to the left, thinking it will help him stay on the throne. From the Brits, born to bow their heads, he has nothing to worry about. The rest of the European royals, many of them I know quite well, are certainly better for their countries than the corrupt politicians and Brussels bureaucrats who rule the old continent. 

Still, had Wilson stayed where he belonged, the old continent would be in a far, far better place than it is at present. Starting with Russia, where Nicolai Romanov—a good friend who died not long ago—would have made all the necessary changes and none of the disastrous mistakes of Vlad. Incidentally, my argument did not convince anyone but my friend Willy back in Gstaad, but the sweet young things never noticed. 

The post Taki’s Worst President appeared first on The American Conservative.

UK Special Coverage

The UK Government Is to Blame for the Southport Murders

“Wokeism” has stymied British policing.

UK Special Coverage

(Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images)

On July 24, 2024, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana took a taxi to a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, in the north of England. What happened next would shock the UK to its core, sparking days of nationwide rioting and some of the most violent and widespread social unrest in decades.

Within 15 minutes of arriving at the dance studio, Rudakubana had murdered three young girls, attempted to murder eight more, and attacked two adults who tried to stop him. Had they not managed to escape, thanks largely to the bravery of the adults at the scene, all 26 girls in the dance class would almost certainly have been murdered—such was Rudakubana’s ferocious determination to kill and maim as many children as possible. The precise details of the attack are so disturbing—so unconscionably violent and evil—that the families of the deceased have asked for them to never be repeated. 

This was one of the “most egregious crimes in British history,” said Sir Adrian Fulford last year at the opening of the public inquiry into the Southport atrocities. “Ordinary language fails to reflect their enormity.” Now that phase one has concluded, we know that Rudakubana’s killing spree was not only premeditated and planned—it was also, in Fulford’s words, entirely “predictable” and “preventable.” 

The inquiry report, running to 760 pages and published last week, is scathing of Rudakubana’s parents’ failure to report their son to the authorities. They knew that Axel had developed an obsession with violence, had been amassing a collection of knives, and even had the ingredients to make ricin, a deadly toxin. They knew their shut-in son, who had stopped attending school, only ever left the house with violence in mind. Yet they failed to inform anyone when he left the house on that fateful day in July 2024. 

Nevertheless, and this is not to excuse the parents, one has to wonder what might have happened differently had they given more details to the authorities about their son’s behaviour. After all, it’s not as if Axel “slipped through the net,” as the cliché goes. He was caught in the net, multiple times, but nothing was ever done.

The inquiry has found that at least six state bodies—from the police and mental-health agencies to social services and the Prevent counterterrorism scheme—could have taken action that might have prevented the Southport murders. Rudakubana experienced a “merry-go-round” of referrals, assessments and “hand-offs,” with no one agency willing to take responsibility for the risk he posed to others. 

Instead, red flag after red flag was ignored or downplayed. His history of violence (he almost beat a fellow school pupil to death with a hockey stick) was known to the authorities. His desire to kill was known to the authorities. His obsession with violent atrocities, from terror attacks to colonial-era massacres, was known to the authorities. None of these led to the kinds of intervention that you might expect from a functioning state.

Incompetence and bureaucratic back-covering certainly played a role here. But it was wokeness that prevented anything from being done, even when serious concerns were raised by professionals who wanted action to be taken. 

Rudakubana’s autism diagnosis often led the authorities—including the police—to conclude that his strange behaviour and frightening demeanour could be safely ignored, when instead, as the inquiry found, it ought to have been treated as a risk factor in itself. It made a violent atrocity more, not less, likely.

Most shocking of all, Rudakubana’s race—the fact that he is of black African origin—was explicitly cited as a reason not to take any action against him. When the headteacher of the Acorn School in Lancashire, a specialist school for children who’ve been excluded from mainstream education, warned that Rudakubana posed a “high risk” and should be searched regularly for knives, she was shot down by a children’s mental-health worker. Apparently, the headteacher had “racially profiled” Rudakubana and was perpetuating stereotypes about “black boys with knives.” By this point, Rudakubana had already been expelled from his previous school—for taking a knife into class. This “effectively shut me up,” the headteacher told the inquiry.

As shocking as this may sound, the catastrophic failures that allowed for Axel Rudakubana’s killing spree are far from unusual in 21st-century Britain. Indeed, in February, the inquiry into another predictable and preventable atrocity got underway. The 2023 Nottingham murders, in which the paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane fatally stabbed two university students and a school caretaker, were similarly enabled by a state that is as woke as it is incompetent. Calocane also had a history of disturbing and violent behaviour, but mental-health services were reluctant to hospitalize him due to concerns that young black men are “overrepresented” in detention. He was even allowed to refuse medication for his schizophrenia, simply because he doesn’t like needles. As with Rudakubana, Calocane’s case shows that the comfort of the mentally disturbed comes first, while the harm they may cause to innocent members of the public simply doesn’t factor into the state’s thinking. 

Whether you call it wokeness, political correctness, or antiracism, this attitude is lurking in the background of almost every major British atrocity of recent years. The Manchester Arena bomber, who murdered 22 people and injured over 1,000 people at an Ariana Grande concert, might have been stopped had a security guard not feared that intervening would have appeared “Islamophobic.” The now internationally notorious Pakistani Muslim rape gangs were free to abuse tens of thousands of mostly white girls, largely because the authorities feared being accused of racism if they made arrests, or that if the white working classes ever learned the truth, then riots would erupt. 

Axel Rudakubana alone is responsible for his murderous killing spree. But the lethally woke and dangerously incompetent British state has blood on its hands, too. 

The post The UK Government Is to Blame for the Southport Murders appeared first on The American Conservative.