Fincke flew four space missions, having spent 549 days in space.
Experienced NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is leaving the space agency.
Fincke ranks fourth among NASA astronauts in accumulated time in space (549 days), and his nine spacewalks added to a total of 48 hours and 37 minutes outside the Space Station.
His departure from NASA comes seven months after he experienced a medical emergency aboard the International Space Station, an incident that triggered a premature end to the SpaceX Crew-11 mission, and the first medical evacuation from space.
.@NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is departing the agency on Wednesday after 30 years of service. Throughout his career, he flew four missions, spent 549 days in space, and completed nine spacewalks in support of the @Space_Station.
“Although he is leaving NASA, Fincke said he remains ‘deeply committed to the work of exploration’.
‘I am profoundly grateful to my crewmates, the teams on the ground, our international partners, and the families who make this work possible’, Fincke, who first joined the astronaut corps in 1996, said in a statement. ‘I am excited to carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers, and leaders. Together, we will return humanity to the Moon, travel to Mars, journey outward to the planets and moons beyond Earth, and someday reach for the stars – all while caring for Earth, the most beautiful planet in our solar system’.”
“The vast majority of his days in space were spent aboard the football-field-size ISS. His last stay at the orbital outpost garnered global attention when Fincke was overcome with a mysterious ailment, losing the ability to speak for roughly 20 minutes, Fincke later told news outlets, including the AP.”
Fincke undergoes an ultrasound exam aboard the International Space Station – Wiki Commons.
“The ordeal prompted an urgent response from NASA. Fincke and his fellow SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts — NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos — returned home from the space station in mid-January, weeks earlier than expected.”
NASA is not in the habit of sharing details of medical issues to protect astronauts’ privacy, but Fincke identified himself weeks after the incident, saying that it remains a mystery that NASA and medical researchers are working to solve.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Wednesday announced criminal charges against five non-citizens accused of illegally registering to vote or casting ballots in the 2024 general election, along with one U.S. citizen accused of registering her non-citizen husband.
Dana Nessel’s sudden charges raise an obvious question: Is she finally acting because the evidence became impossible to ignore, or is she still running interference for Jocelyn Benson?
The night before O’Keefe filmed Masheli on his front porch, O’Keefe spoke directly with this reporter about the Gateway Pundit findings. The following day, O’Keefe released video of the confrontation, bringing national attention to the case that Michigan officials had ignored.
Neither Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson nor Attorney General Dana Nessel has ever publicly addressed the Gateway Pundit reporting on Masheli or the other non-citizens identified in that investigation.
Now, more than a year after those reports, Nessel’s office has charged the following individuals.
Here are the names of the individuals charged with the charges they are facing. Below each name is an explanation about how this could have been avoided if Michigan Democrat Sec of State Jocelyn Benson would agree to allow the DHS to remove non-citizens from Michigan’s voter rolls:
Michael Akioya, 39, of Oak Park — two misdemeanor counts for making false statements on an absentee ballot application and return envelope. Akioya is a lawful permanent resident who allegedly voted by absentee ballot in 2024 while attesting he was a U.S. citizen.
How did Akioya get away with making false statements on his absentee ballot application? Why is MI Sec of State Jocelyn Benson fighting so hard to put any safeguards in place to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote in the first place?
Kimberley DiDonato, 60, of Rose Township — charged with election forgery (5-year felony) and using a computer to commit a crime (7-year felony). DiDonato, a U.S. citizen, is accused of posing as her non-citizen husband and registering him to vote online in April 2024. She later canceled the registration and claimed she was “testing the system.”
Why is the MIchigan Secretary of State website allowing non-citizens to register? Should Michigan’s voter rolls really be relying on the “honor system”? Should non-citizens be able to cancel out the vote of American citizen with a single push of a button on a computer, using the Michigan Secretary of State’s official website?
Alondra Harker, 26, of Three Rivers — charged with fraudulent registration (misdemeanor). Harker, a limited-term alien resident, is accused of registering and voting in person in 2024.
Why are there no procedures available for clerk’s to use to prevent non-citizens from walking into their offices and registering to vote?
Harumi Michael, 60, of Wolverine Lake — multiple felony charges including election law forgery and attempting to vote as an unqualified elector. Michael, a lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered and voted in person in 2024.
Why has Michigan made it so easy for a non-citizen to walk into a polling place, cast an unlawful ballot and cancel the vote of an American citizen?
Robert Piva, 67, of Roseville — charged with election law perjury, attempting to vote as an unqualified elector, and fraudulent registration. Piva, a lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered online in September 2024 and voted early in-person the following month. He has claimed the vote was an “experiment.”
It appears that Robert’s “experiment” worked. Cheating elections is easy in Michigan.
Basanth Sadasivian, 29, currently residing in the United Kingdom — charged with attempting to vote as an unqualified elector. Investigators say he registered and voted through the Federal Post Card Application system using a Bloomfield Hills address.
UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act) voting is one of the most ridiculously insecure forms of voting in America. Democrats know this, which is why they were dumping millions of dollars into “registering American citizens” to vote in 2024 who were “living overseas.” When an “oveseas voter” registers to vote online through the FVAP (Federal Voting Assistance Program) system, they have an option to skip the part of the registration form that asks for identification if they don’t have any. In Michigan, “overseas” voters are supposed to at a mininume have ties to Michigan, but this is not something clerks are required to do, nor are the UOCAVA “voters” registered to vote being checked by any one or any agency to prove they are real people who are citizens of the United States.
Nessel’s office said the cases were referred by the Michigan Department of State. Yet the Attorney General and Secretary of State remained silent for months after The Gateway Pundit published evidence of non-citizens — including criminal aliens — remaining on the rolls and casting ballots. The new charges come as Benson continues her campaign for governor while overseeing the very voter rolls that allowed these cases to occur.
Today’s Clacton by-election is being used by the British establishment to try to get rid of Farage.
Voting is underway in the Clacton by-election as candidates vie to become its next MP.
In Britain, whenever a Member of Parliament dies, resigns, or is removed, a ‘by-election’ is called; a ‘snap-election’, a vote that is not tied to the electoral calendar.
Today’s by-election will take place in the Clacton constituency (Essex, centered on Clacton-on-Sea, including Frinton-on-Sea, Walton-on-the-Naze, and surrounding areas).
This snap vote was triggered by the resignation of Nigel Farage.
Today my record in public office will be judged by the people of Clacton, not by politicians and the media in Westminster.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, the road seemed paved for Nigel Farage to become the next British prime minister.
Many on the right held high hopes (and we still hold these hopes) that the Brexit hero would solidify his comeback and become a leader with broad public support.
Farage could lead a broad right-wing coalition filled with common-sense ideas that translate into sensible policies – the kind of government that will instantly benefit the British public.
But the Westminster establishment and the Globalist press used accusations of failing to declare gifts and financial support from donors as a weapon to try to mortally wound Farage’s political ambitions.
We’ve seen – as in the case of Marine Le Pen in France – how these allegations can be weaponized by the political and justice systems.
But whatever the reality of these allegations, it’s a fact that the reaction of Farage and his team was not optimal.
For a second, there, many thought it was all over for Reform UK in this political cycle – and it also would be all over for Britain as we know it.
But then, Farage tried a radical idea to circumvent the trap laid out for him.
In the olden days, maybe he could have asked for a trial by combat. Nowadays, he chooses trial by snap elections.
‘The voters will judge me’, he reasoned, as he resigned his MP seat just to run again for it.
But going into his Clacton ‘do or die’ vote, the establishment is trying to hit him with the weapon of ridicule.
It’s certainly not a coincidence, and most probably a machination from the powers that be, that the Reform UK leader ended up facing ‘Count Binface’ in the vote.
Count Binface – Wiki Commons
Count who? We’re talking about a man with a trash bin in his face as a mask, a freak that exemplifies just how putrid the British political landscape has become.
No one in their right mind wants to spend time thinking about the binface man, but his ‘absurdist political satire with a dash of environmentalism’ is being pushed by the Labour government and the Globalist media in the hopes of sinking Farage once and for all.
As I write this, the polls have opened in Clacton for this regrettable episode.
Even outlets hostile to Farage at this point predict that he will win the vote, but we’re left wondering what other dirty tricks are in store against the right-wing hope for Britain.
But one thing is clear: for Nigel Farage to be able to save Britain, he can’t be vulnerable to such accusations of petty mishandling of funds – he will have to survive much worse pressures from corrupt bad actors and avoid infiltration from sworn enemies of his nation.
Because Binface may be his rival in the poll, but his enemies are many, and encroaching on positions of power.
The Clacton by-election results are expected in the early hours of Friday – stay tuned for updates.
A West Hartford, Connecticut Board of Education member wearing cat ears is being brutally mocked on social media after a video surfaced of her arguing that black teachers deserve higher pay because it’s “an extra burden” to be black.
In footage shared by Libs of TikTok, LaToya Yagaloff, a Democrat vice chair of the board, can be heard making the case during a public meeting that black teachers deserve higher pay based on their race.
Yagaloff claims that financial incentives will attract greater diversity.
“Are there financial incentives for black and brown people to work here? It’s an extra burden, quite frankly, to be a black and brown teacher and administrator in the district, so I think we need to start thinking about that financially if we’re not already,” she stated.
“We got money,” she laughs.
WATCH:
West Hardford, CT School board member LaToya Yagaloff says black teachers should get paid more because it’s hard to be black pic.twitter.com/jUibmkoPyd
The meeting appears to have taken place in December, but just went viral this week after being exposed by LibsofTikTok.
Yagaloff, who was appointed to the board in 2023 and later elected to a full term, has a background in restorative justice and DEI work.
According to her biography on the West Hartford Public Schools website:
LaToya Yagaloff is a passionate educator, equity leader, and community advocate dedicated to empowering students and families through inclusive and culturally responsive education. LaToya works as a statewide Restorative Justice facilitator and trainer, helping schools and organizations build equitable, collaborative learning environments.
With a career that has spanned nearly every role in the school system, from crossing guard and tutor to teacher, administrator, and policymaker, LaToya brings a deep understanding of all stakeholders in education. Her diverse experiences, combined with her perspective as a West Hartford parent, inform her commitment to collaboration, transparency, and student success.
Before her work in Connecticut, LaToya served as a Neighborhood Commissioner in San Jose, California, and as a California State Delegate (ADEM). She also founded YouthHype, a nationally recognized organization empowering youth from marginalized communities to lead social justice initiatives in areas such as affirmative action, juvenile justice reform, and LGBTQ youth housing. In recognition of this impact, June 19th was declared “YouthHype Day” in Santa Clara, California.
The suggestion of pay based on race is a very clear case of discrimination that undermines equal treatment under the law and the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Trump administration reforms have ended efforts to turn the State Department into a DEI sales force.
Biden-era guidelines that ordered diplomats to push a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies agenda on foreign governments have been scrapped, according to Fox News.
“Under the Trump Administration, America’s diplomats are tasked with advocating for our national interests on the world stage — not demonstrating adherence to woke political dogmas,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
“The State Department is implementing sweeping reforms to the Foreign Service to prioritize merit, refocus training on tangible diplomatic skills, and prepare our nation’s diplomats to deliver America’s answer to our most pressing challenges,” he said.
Biden administration rules spoke of having State Department leaders “raise social inclusion, racial/gender equity, disability, and LGBTQI+ issues with high-level host country interlocutors, especially in countries where these issues are problematic.”
The previous administration’s extreme DEI agenda imposed ideological litmus tests on government workers and robbed nearly 300 Foreign Service Officers of promotion opportunities.
Now the State Department is rewarding merit and providing restitution to those unjustly impacted.…
Under former President Joe Biden, DEI advocacy was a criterion for promotion. It is not so now.
State Department guidelines called for diplomats to be “actively working to break down not just race/ethnicity/gender/LGBTQI+/disability biases, but also bias among the civil service and foreign service, U.S. direct hires and contracting colleagues, and within foreign service cones.”
Staff were also ordered to spend their own time wallowing in DEI instruction instead of “depending on others — particularly others from historically marginalized groups” to help them.
Biden-era directive for diplomats to peddle DEI on foreign governments scrapped by State Departmenthttps://t.co/emvfT63bTS
The reforms are part of the Trump administration’s effort to correct the course of the State Department.
A Federal Register notice from the State Department published in January noted that in its grants and other forms of assistance, the department would not support woke ideology, writing that assistance must “align with State Department policies opposing gender ideology, discriminatory equity ideology, unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and abortion as a method of family planning overseas.”
“Under previous administrations, U.S. foreign assistance was abused to fund discriminatory diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and similar ideologies that promoted corrosive identity politics rather than alleviating poverty or promoting human flourishing and prosperity,” the document said.
“This ideology, referred to in this rule as discriminatory equity ideology, treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of generalizations,” the document added.
“The promotion abroad of radical DEI activities and the ideology of discriminatory equity ideology that undergirds it, undermines the wellbeing and flourishing of foreign nations and promote radical ideologies.”
The document said any entity receiving U.S. funds cannot use it to support DEI.
“It is the purpose of this rule to end taxpayer support for radical discriminatory equity ideology, directly or indirectly, and to end all forms of unlawful DEI-related discrimination by recipients of foreign assistance, and thereby to unwind efforts of the prior administration, and of nongovernmental and international organizations, that have integrated and encouraged discrimination and discriminatory equity ideology in foreign assistance programs,” the document said.
The CIA doubted the veracity of a purported threat from Iran to the President’s life during the July NATO summit in Ankara, according to an article published in the Washington Post Wednesday. The information on that threat, which led Trump to secretly leave Air Force One via a catering cart to fly home on a second plane, came from Israel’s spy services (as the Wall Street Journalreported earlier this week). According to new reporting from the Post, America’s intelligence community did not agree with the Israeli assessment, with one U.S. intelligence official describing the assassination threat as “Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed [by the CIA] as low confidence.”
The Pentagon has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones—about 25 percent of its total fleet—during the Iran war, the Washington Postreported separately Thursday citing U.S. officials, estimating the losses amounted to over $1.3 billion.
The spokesperson for Iran’s central military headquarters denied U.S. claims of normal maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and said that “no commercial ship or oil tanker has had and will have the possibility of safe transit through this strait without the permission and supervision” from Iran’s armed forces, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported Thursday. The statement came after Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, adding “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel “will under no circumstances” withdraw its troops from territory the IDF currently occupies in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday made similar comments in a post on X.
A report published Wednesday by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on August 12 predicted that oil demand will fall by 1.6 million barrels a day in 2026. Continued disruptions from the Iran War, the report said, are undermining efforts to boost global oil supply, which the IEA said is 6.3 million barrels a day lower than this time last year.
The price of Brent Crude oil was $86.60 per barrel on Thursday morning. AAA recorded the national average price of regular gas at $4.07 per gallon.
An undercover operation by James O’Keefe’s “Citizen Justice League” has reportedly uncovered an avenue for voter fraud being allowed at Minneapolis polling places, where poll workers appeared happy to register individuals introduced as “Hamas militants” from Gaza and allow a man disguised as a Muslim woman to vote under other people’s names.
Independent journalist Cam Higby posted video of himself fully veiled in a niqab approaching poll workers after praying on a city street.
“Yesterday I went to Minneapolis polls disguised as a Muslim woman,” Higby wrote in a post with a teaser video for the investigation. “Poll workers were going to let me vote in other people’s names, and then vouch for 8 other unregistered foreigners.”
WATCH:
Yesterday I went to Minneapolis polls disguised as a Muslim woman.
Poll workers were going to let me vote in other people’s names, and then vouch for 8 other unregistered foreigners.
Team member Anthony Rubin also wrote that he walked into a polling location with two men he identified to workers as Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.
“Yesterday I walked into a polling location in Minneapolis with two Muslim men and told the poll workers that they were Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip,” Rubin wrote on X. “The poll workers were ready to get them registered to vote so long as I ‘vouched for them.’”
WATCH:
Yesterday I walked into a polling location in Minneapolis with two Muslim men and told the poll workers that they were Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.
The poll workers were ready to get them registered to vote so long as I “vouched for them”.
James O’Keefe was also seen in the videos in an Islamic disguise.
“THE JUSTICE LEAGUE has descended into polling locations across Minnesota and this form of journalism is about to hit Minneapolis election workers like electroshock therapy,” O’Keefe wrote, tagging Higby, Rubin, Savannah Hernandez, Jon Choe, and the Citizen Justice League account.
“We’re back…”
THE JUSTICE LEAGUE has descended into polling locations across Minnesota and this form of journalism is about to hit Minneapolis election workers like electroshock therapy. @camhigby@anthonyjrubin@Savsays@choeshow@ctznjusticelg
The operation targeted Minnesota’s same-day registration rules, which permit one registered voter to vouch for up to eight others without photo identification simply by signing an oath.
No ballots were cast, no affidavits were signed, and the sole purpose was to test and expose the system.
Higby asserted, “The intention of this video was NEVER to actually vote. The intention was only to expose flaws in the system. No ballots were cast, or touched. No affidavits were signed or touched. All we did is speak to poll workers.” Full videos from both Higby and Rubin are expected to drop shortly on their respective platforms.
Note: the intention of this video was NEVER to actually vote. The intention was only to expose flaws in the system.
No ballots were cast, or touched. No affidavits were signed or touched. All we did is speak to poll workers.
Two prominent loyal defenders of President Trump have emerged as frontrunners to succeed Karoline Leavitt as the next White House Press Secretary, and TGP readers would likely be happy with either.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump on Wednesday announced that Leavitt will be departing her role as White House Press Secretary to spend more time with her young children.
She will now serve as one of Trump’s top outside advisors.
Leavitt was the youngest person to hold the position of White House Press Secretary. She was just 27 years old last year when she took on the role.
Leavitt also has two young children. She gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in May.
Hours following Trump’s announcement, The New York Post reported that two front-runners have emerged as potential successors to Leavitt and both are staunch loyalists to the President.
Trump administration sources told the Post that Trump is looking at Alina Habba, who served as a defense lawyer for Trump and as a former acting attorney for New Jersey, and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Sources within and close to the administration told The Post that early front-runners for the role are believed to include Alina Habba, the former acting US attorney for New Jersey, and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Habba gained fame as one of Trump’s defense lawyers, giving passionate televised appeals on his behalf to journalists before his return to power. She briefly worked in the West Wing last year as a counselor to the president before Trump appointed her the top prosecutor in New Jersey.
Boyle, meanwhile, is a favorite among well-connected Trump allies who recognize the dogged Breitbart scribe’s fiery but steady presence in the conservative media ecosystem.
Trump knows Boyle by name and has given him many interviews, including a recent Oval Office sitdown. His experience with investigative work targeting public figures and close coverage of the Trump movement convey working knowledge of how to manage — and mitigate — PR challenges.
If one thought the White House press briefings were fiery under Leavitt, Habba and Boyle would take it up another notch. Both have firebrand personalities, particularly when it comes to the left and their corporate media allies.
Other names floated by the Post for the role include former White House deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel Taylor Budowich, Katie Miller, a former aide to Elon Musk at DOGE and the wife of deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, and US chief of protocol Monica Crowley.
These possibilities, however, are considered much less likely than Habba and Boyle.
At a time when the United States is increasingly treating Communist China as its principal strategic competitor and moving to restrict Chinese military-linked companies and protect critical AI and technology supply chains, there are growing reasons to question whether South Korea is moving in the opposite direction.
The latest case is particularly striking.
South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), which manages the retirement assets of millions of Korean citizens, reportedly made a new investment in Zhongji Innolight, a major Chinese AI data-center technology company, after the U.S. Department of Defense had already formally designated the company as a Chinese Military Company under Section 1260H.
June 8, 2026: The Pentagon designates Zhongji Innolight a Chinese Military Company.
July 20, 2026: South Korea’s National Pension Service reportedly enters into a cornerstone investment agreement involving the company, Zhongli.
Only 42 days separated the Pentagon designation and the South Korean investment.
This was not an old investment later caught by a new American designation.
The U.S. national-security warning came first. South Korea’s public investment came afterward.
This should be viewed in the context of the larger U.S.-China confrontation
The United States and China are no longer competing simply over trade.
They are competing over artificial intelligence, semiconductors, communications infrastructure, data, advanced manufacturing, critical supply chains, military technology and ultimately strategic power in the Indo-Pacific.
The Trump administration has been moving aggressively in many of these areas.
Washington has expanded scrutiny of Chinese companies connected to the PLA and China’s military-industrial system.
The Pentagon expanded its Section 1260H list of Chinese Military Companies in June.
The Trump administration is also reportedly preparing additional restrictions on Chinese components used in American data centers, including optical transceivers — precisely the technology produced by Zhongji Innolight.
And the Trump administration has publicly raised the issue of Chinese involvement in U.S. election-related activities, releasing and declassifying materials concerning foreign election interference and China’s acquisition and exploitation of American voter data.
Whatever one thinks about each individual policy or intelligence assessment, the strategic direction in Washington is unmistakable:
China is increasingly being treated not merely as a trading partner, but as a long-term economic, technological, intelligence and military competitor.
Yet developments in South Korea increasingly raise the opposite concern
That is why this NPS investment should not be examined in isolation.
South Korea is not simply another country doing business with China.
It is a treaty ally of the United States.
Approximately 28,500 American troops are stationed on the Korean Peninsula, and the U.S.-ROK alliance remains the foundation of South Korea’s national defense.
South Korea also occupies an extraordinarily important position in the global semiconductor, battery, telecommunications and advanced-technology supply chains that are central to U.S.-China strategic competition.
Against that backdrop, the question becomes much larger than whether one pension-fund investment will make or lose money.
Where is South Korea strategically heading as the confrontation between Washington and Beijing intensifies?
That question deserves serious attention.
When Washington is trying to reduce exposure to companies connected to China’s military-industrial system, why is a South Korean public pension institution committing new capital to a company after the Pentagon placed it on its Chinese Military Companies list?
When Washington is attempting to secure AI infrastructure and technology supply chains from Chinese strategic dependence, why is Korean public capital flowing into a Chinese company operating directly inside that critical infrastructure?
And if the U.S.-China competition continues to intensify, how will South Korea reconcile deeper economic and institutional exposure to China with an alliance system that remains overwhelmingly dependent on the United States?
Zhongji Innolight makes this contradiction impossible to ignore
Zhongji Innolight is not an ordinary consumer company.
It manufactures high-speed optical transceivers used inside AI data centers — components responsible for moving enormous amounts of data among servers, GPUs and networking systems.
AI infrastructure is rapidly becoming one of the central battlegrounds of U.S.-China technological competition.
The company also reportedly derives more than 60 percent of its revenue from the United States.
Yet the Pentagon has now identified it as a Chinese Military Company, while Washington is considering further restrictions involving Chinese data-center technology.
Despite those warning signs, South Korea’s national pension fund reportedly participated in its Hong Kong IPO.
According to the Korean report, the NPS joined BlackRock-related funds and other institutional investors in a cornerstone investment arrangement totaling approximately $250 million, although the NPS’s individual allocation has not been disclosed.
The shares are reportedly locked up until January 29, 2027.
This means Korean retirement capital could remain exposed while Washington continues tightening its China policy.
The lack of transparency makes this even more concerning
Korean media asked the NPS whether it knew about Zhongji Innolight’s Pentagon designation and whether the designation had been considered before the investment.
The NPS reportedly declined to disclose details regarding the individual investment.
That is not a satisfactory answer.
This is not private capital.
It is the retirement money of the Korean people.
The public deserves to know whether the Pentagon designation was identified during the investment review, whether geopolitical and regulatory risks were evaluated, who approved the investment, and whether the NPS has additional exposure to companies identified by Washington as part of China’s military-industrial system.
But there is an even more important question for Americans:
Are major South Korean institutions still moving strategically in the same direction as the United States?
Americans should pay attention to the direction of South Korea
For decades, Washington largely viewed South Korea through the framework of North Korea.
That framework may no longer be sufficient.
The U.S.-China struggle is reshaping the entire Indo-Pacific.
China’s economic influence, technology networks, supply chains, capital, political influence operations and military-civil fusion strategy cannot be separated from the broader regional security environment.
South Korea sits directly in the middle of that competition.
That is why developments that might once have been dismissed as ordinary commercial or investment decisions deserve a different level of scrutiny today.
A single investment does not prove that South Korea has chosen China over the United States.
But neither should individual developments be dismissed without examining whether they form part of a broader pattern.
And the pattern is precisely what I believe American journalists and policymakers should begin examining more closely.
As the Trump administration moves to confront China’s military, technological and economic expansion, is South Korea gradually becoming more economically and institutionally aligned with Beijing?
If so, what does that ultimately mean for the U.S.-ROK alliance?
That is the larger story.
The National Pension Service investment in Zhongji Innolight may be one important piece of it.
The Pentagon designated the company on June 8.
South Korea’s national pension fund invested on July 20.
Only 42 days later.
At a moment when Washington is attempting to reduce strategic dependence on China, Americans deserve to know why institutions in one of America’s most important Asian allies appear, in cases like this, to be moving in the opposite direction.
Margarita Cielo Balbuena cannot speak a lick of English after living in US for 37 years. Demands citizenship!
Margarita Cielo Balbuena is a woman who has been in the U.S. since 1989 and cannot speak a WORD of English.
That’s 37 years!
This week Margarita stood with leftist leaders and demanded amnesty at a Democrat presser about Delaney Hall:
Margarita says (in Spanish): “We need a path to citizenship for those of us that have been present at least 7 years in this country.”
Margarita does not love this country. She hasn’t even learned our language.
No thanks. Go home!
Via Breitbart.
Margarita Cielo Balbuena, a woman who has been in the U.S. since 1989 and cannot speak a WORD of English, demands amnesty at a Democrat presser about Delaney Hall:
“We need a path to citizenship for those of us that have been present at least 7 years in this country.” pic.twitter.com/npOdSFVuxb
Retired Border Patrol Commander at Large, Dan Bovino weighed in on Margarita’s plight.
Thank you Margarita Cielo Balbuena.
You have lived in the United States since 1989. That is 37 years. You still need a translator.
At a Democratic event you stood up and demanded a path to citizenship for anyone who has been here just 7 years.
Notice the arrogance. Notice the entitlement.
After nearly four decades she still cannot function in English. Yet she feels perfectly justified demanding the full rights of citizenship for herself and millions of others who have not assimilated either.
This is the system working exactly as designed.
We have imported so many people so quickly that assimilation is no longer required.
Critical mass creates ethnic silos where English and the host culture become optional.
You can live your entire life here without learning our language or our way of life and still demand the right to vote and rewrite the country.
That is how America becomes balkanized and unrecognizable.
Mass deportations are the only policy that restores the pressure to assimilate.
Everything else is just managed decline.
It should be obvious today that Democrats are doing whatever they can to destroy this great nation.
Vote in the upcoming November 2026 election as if your life depends on it.
This is more true today than ever.
(@camhigby) 
