Secret military documents found at a Kent bus stop show us how British foreign policy works. The papers were reportedly found by a member of the public and then ended up with the BBC.

The documents contained important details of a naval confrontation between Russian forces and a UK warship. And an investigation is being conducted into their loss. The documents provide a brief snapshot of the UK's international conduct and also ask serious questions about it.

We do live in extraordinary times.

On the day of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), President Xi Jinping, in Tiananmen square, amid all the pomp and circumstance, delivered a stark geopolitical message:

The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to intimidate, oppress or subjugate them. Anyone who tries to do this will find themselves on a collision course with a large steel wall forged by more than 1.4 billion Chinese.

I have offered a concise version of the modern Chinese miracle - which has nothing to do with divine intervention, but "searching truth from facts" (copyright Deng Xiaoping), inspired by a solid cultural and historical tradition.

The "large steel wall" evoked by Xi now permeates a dynamic "moderately prosperous society" - a goal achieved by the CCP on the eve of the centennial. Lifting over 800 million people out of poverty is a historical first - in every aspect.

As in all things China, the past informs the future. This is all about xiaokang - which may be loosely translated as "moderately prosperous society".

The concept first appeared no less than 2,500 years ago, in the classic Shijing ("The Book of Poetry"). The Little Helmsman Deng, with his historical eagle eye, revived it in 1979, right at the start of the "opening up" economic reforms.

Now compare the breakthrough celebrated in Tiananmen - which will be interpreted all across the Global South as evidence of the success of a Chinese model for economic development - with footage being circulated of the Taliban riding captured T-55 tanks across impoverished villages in northern Afghanistan.

History Repeating: this is something I saw with my own eyes over twenty years ago.

The Taliban now control nearly the same amount of Afghan territory they did immediately before 9/11. They control the border with Tajikistan and are closing in on the border with Uzbekistan.

Exactly twenty years ago I was deep into yet another epic journey across Karachi, Peshawar, the Pakistan tribal areas, Tajikistan and finally the Panjshir valley, where I interviewed Commander Masoud - who told me the Taliban at the time were controlling 85% of Afghanistan.

Three weeks later Masoud was assassinated by an al-Qaeda-linked commando disguised as "journalists" - two days before 9/11. The empire - at the height of the unipolar moment - went into Forever Wars on overdrive, while China - and Russia - went deep into consolidating their emergence, geopolitically and geoeconomically.

We are now living the consequences of these opposed strategies.

The new memoir by former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has drawn wide criticism for his failure to accept any blame on the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes, and his claims that when he and others promoted falsehoods about Iraq WMD they were merely minor "misstatements," not lies. But among his other misdeeds was offering misleading statements to the American public about the progress of the war in Iraq, often blaming journalists for being far too critical.

WikiLeaks' massive "war logs" release on Iraq last October exposed Rumsfeld in this regard over and over, but were quickly forgotten by mainstream journalists — even though the material was not "political" or even from the media but rather from U.S. soldiers on the ground. That's one reason I cover them in-depth (along with all the other WIkiLeaks releases and current controversies) in my new book The Age of WikiLeaks.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state of California ran afoul of the First Amendment by ordering charities to disclose the names and addresses of donors.

The 6-3 ruling is a win for advocates of privacy rights and the freedom of association.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion for the court, joined by the other five conservative justices.

"Our cases have said that disclosure requirements can chill association," he wrote. "The disclosure requirement 'creates an unnecessary risk of chilling' in violation of the First Amendment."

The three Democratic appointees disagreed with the ruling.

On Wednesday, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff toured the Isaac Middle School vaccination clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. This was their last stop on the Vaccine Month of Action Tour, an effort to make "every single person in America" get the jab.

They were just 2.2 miles down the street from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the historic Arizona audit. They should really tour that facility.

China's growing confidence was highlighted in a thunderous speech by Xi Jinping at an event to mark the Communist Party's centenary, at which he promised the country would no longer be oppressed by foreign powers.

If anyone needed a marker of where China has come from, where it is now, and where it is heading, it came at Thursday's event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party (CPC), where Xi Jinping made a defiant address. Xi stated:

"no one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will never allow anyone to bully, oppress, or subjugate China," adding that anyone who tries to do so would "have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of Steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people."

He also praised the accomplishment of a "moderately prosperous society," reflecting on China's rapid economic development.

The West might be keen to dismiss all this as propaganda, yet China's trajectory speaks for itself. While the speech did not cover the disruptions along the way - including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both inflicted on the country by Mao Zedong's power struggles and ideological adventurism - the message was clear: what the CPC has delivered is both credible and substantial.

A total of 113 organizations have called on President Joe Biden to "disavow" and end overseas drone strikes carried out by the US government, saying it is imperative to both ending "forever wars" and "promoting racial justice."

Numerous anti-war and human rights organizations, including ones from countries including Yemen and Somalia, have attached their names to the letter, which was released on Wednesday and organized by the Human Rights and Security Coalition.
The groups praise Biden's promise to end the "forever wars" in the Middle East - though his administration abandoned former president Donald Trump's set goal of leaving Afghanistan by May and delayed the withdrawal. They also laud Biden's administration for "promoting racial justice" and "centering human rights in US foreign policy."

"Disavowing and ending" the US' drone strikes, however, is "imperative" in meeting previously set commitments to the goals the administration has set, the letter argues.

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6-3 along partisan lines to uphold Arizona voting rules supported by Republicans that Democrats alleged unlawfully discriminated against the state's Native American, Hispanic and Black voters.

The case concerned two Arizona voting rules that a federal appeals court found to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act, citing their disproportionate impact on minorities. In an opinion for the court's majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that neither rule violated the civil rights law.

One of the measures, known as the "out-of-precinct policy," disqualifies ballots cast in the wrong precinct on Election Day. The other measure, known as the "ballot collection law," forbids most people except for family members to collect and deliver ballots to the polls. Republicans often refer to third-party ballot collection as ballot harvesting.

There is a cultural shift underway affecting all aspects of American life. Though hard to define, it usually takes the form of an emphasis on what is known variously as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), critical race theory, wokeness, anti-racism, and the like. Several scholars and writers have been raising the alarm about its anti-intellectual and illiberal aspects. Heather Mac Donald has shown how it has permeated the university. Is there reason to be suspicious?

One might suspect that the new ideology only affects intrinsically political areas of study, such as Government and History. But in fact it has infected every area, even science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Below is a sampling of new policies at Harvard that reveal how this ideology is affecting STEM education:

Our family spent some time with Swedish friends yesterday, showing them around Sintra. As we would move from car to building, I would have to remind to have masks handy. See, in Sweden, they aren't required to use masks. Our guests are not habituated to mask-wearing like the rest of us in the western world. There were guidelines implemented to reduce risks, some folks were asked to work from home, and general precautions were given, but it was nowhere near the heavy-handed approach most of the western world implemented. Official data shows Sweden had FEWER deaths than Portugal, despite the lockdowns Portugal implemented. Listening to our friends speak about the differences between Portugal and Sweden's COVID response was fascinating and infuriating.

But things took a decidedly darker twist when a friend from Canada sent a report about Portugal. The report links to a Judicial ruling stating that only 152 death certificates in Portugal list COVID as the cause of death. You heard correctly. 152 COVID deaths in Portugal from January 1, 2020, to April 18, 2021, not 15,000, as is popularly understood. If you're like me, you're not going to take this statement at face value. So here's a link to the Judicial ruling. Section III.1, Item 4 is the damning bit of the report.