Jack Smith's team primed their criminal case against Donald Trump to resume once his presidency ends.

In the final weeks of Joe Biden's presidency, FBI agents tied to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith's investigation memorialized anew their belief that President Donald Trump broke the law in contesting the 2020 election and secretly arranged to preserve their evidence until 2030 in memos that raise alarm they could revive their prosecution after Trump leaves office.

The FBI memos and emails closing out the controversial Arctic Frost investigation - obtained by Just the News - show the bureau chose not to relinquish the evidence it gathered after Smith went to court to dismiss charges against Trump, even though that is the normal practice for agents. Instead, they created a preservation order keeping the evidence in FBI custody for two years after Trump's second term ends, claiming it was necessary to do so because of ongoing litigation, the memos show.

SHANGHAI - The headline on the front page of China Daily this past Thursday was a thunder and lightning "Red-carpet welcome for Trump in Beijing".

Well, complete with electric jumpin' children waving flowers and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420, symbolizing the connection between heaven and humanity.

Youth meet tradition. The generation that will lead fully modernized China meets deep History. A dazed and confused POTUS could barely absorb a running masterclass in civilization.

Xi Dada was proverbially sharp: "We should be partners, not rivals." The Exceptionals were stunned. All that after the non-stop litany of trade wars, tech sanctions, non-stop Taiwan hysteria, military encirclement, geoconomic confrontation, anti-China rhetoric.

Cool down. Be cool.

Oh, the twists and turns of the most important bilateral relation on the planet. Even as both economies are quite intertwined, bilateral trade in goods reached 4.01 trillion yuan ($590 million) in 2025. In global terms, that's not exactly groundbreaking: only 8.8% of China's total foreign trade.

At the state banquet, Xi's sharp rhetorical dagger performed the feat of uniting MAGA and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation:

"The people of China and the United States are both great peoples, achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and making America great again, can go hand in hand."

The barbarians were puzzled. Again.

Then Xi explained where we are, concisely. It took only one sentence:

"The transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent."

Compare it to when he first referred to the "transformation", in public, for a global audience: right after the meeting with Putin in the Kremlin in the Spring of 2023.

And then Xi immediately asked: "Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations?"

As much as the Thucydides Trap is yet another feeble US ThinkTankland concoction - the best analysts of Thucydides are Greeks and Italians, not the Beltway gang - Xi's metaphor was actually stressing that China, now, is the leader of the new emerging order.

And it got here without firing a shot.

Iran is targeting the system that makes Israeli supremacy possible in the first place.
After my recent conversation with William Van Wagenen, I kept thinking about one question because I believe it sits at the center of the regional war now unfolding: why does Iran appear more focused on targeting American bases and infrastructure in the Persian Gulf than on directly attempting to destroy Israel?

For many people watching events emotionally rather than strategically, this immediately produces suspicion. They ask: if Iran truly considers Israel its primary enemy, then why not strike Israel with overwhelming force directly? Why target Gulf monarchies, American bases, radar systems, and regional infrastructure instead? Why pressure the wider architecture surrounding Israel rather than Israel alone?

I believe this question is of great significance as it conceals a misunderstanding regarding the true nature of power in the contemporary Middle East.

The first thing we have to understand is that Israel does not operate in isolation. Israel's military superiority is not merely Israeli. It is part of a much larger American-led regional system stretching across the Gulf monarchies, intelligence-sharing networks, radar systems, surveillance infrastructure, air-defense coordination, military bases, satellite systems, and financial dependencies. The Persian Gulf today is not simply an energy region. It is the rear operational zone of American power in West Asia.

And once you understand that, Iran's strategy begins to make far more sense.

If Iranian planners believe they cannot realistically destroy Israel directly without triggering total regional annihilation, including nuclear escalation, then the more rational strategy becomes degrading the infrastructure that allows Israeli dominance to function in the first place. In other words, Iran appears less interested in dramatic symbolism and more interested in weakening the ecosystem sustaining Israeli supremacy.

This is why Gulf monarchies suddenly become central targets.

Because these monarchies host the American military architecture protecting Israel. The radar systems positioned across the Gulf are not passive defensive tools. They provide detection capabilities, tracking coordination, and intelligence-sharing that help Israeli and American systems intercept incoming Iranian missiles. American bases in the Gulf are not neutral observers either. They are operational assets inside the wider confrontation.

So when Iran targets these systems, it is not "avoiding Israel." It is targeting the regional nervous system behind Israeli military protection.

But there is another layer here that I think is even more important.

An interview with Xiang Lanxin explores why Trump may seek a broader bargain with China and what it could mean for Taiwan, Russia and the EU

US President Donald Trump's arrival in China this week is being treated as far more than another diplomatic photo opportunity. Relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense, competition between the two powers stretches across almost every domain, and yet both sides appear increasingly aware that uncontrolled confrontation would carry enormous costs. Against that backdrop, the prospect of a broader geopolitical bargain is once again entering the discussion.

According to Xiang Lanxin, visiting professor at East China Normal University and research fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, Trump isn't approaching China in the same ideological spirit that defined the Biden administration. The atmosphere in Washington, he argues, has shifted noticeably.

He spoke to Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs and research director of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

We don't understand Iran's position vis-à-vis the United States and its allies at all: the Iranian people are not surprised by the war. They expected it, given their anti-imperialist stance. They are not so much interested in negotiating an end to hostilities as in establishing a new international order. They are willing to suffer to advance their own agenda. Washington may win militarily, but it is Tehran that is making political progress.

President Donald Trump, and with him all Western political leaders and commentators, believes that the Iranians should focus solely on escaping the Pentagon's bombs and restoring an acceptable standard of living. They should therefore abandon their nuclear program and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Clearly, this is not their concern. Westerners do not understand at all what the Iranians want, whom they know absolutely nothing about. They still have not grasped the messages of Mohammad Mossadegh and Ruhollah Khomeini: Iranians can liberate their country from Anglo-Saxon colonial exploitation and liberate the world from Western colonial domination by drawing on their religion the strength necessary to accomplish this revolution.

Mohammad Mossadegh demonstrated that it was possible to reclaim the nation's assets. He nationalized the oil industry and negotiated the share his country granted to foreign companies. While he was ultimately overthrown by the CIA and MI6 with the Shah's complicity, what he had accomplished could never be undone. Mossadegh awakened an exploited nation.

The risk of a hot NATO-Russian war breaking out at sea as opposed to NATO's Eastern Flank in Central & Eastern Europe is growing.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, head of the British Royal Navy, announced that his counterparts from the 10-nation Joint Expeditionary Taskforce comprised of the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands agreed to create "a family of allied fleets". Officially known as the "Northern Navies Initiative" (NNI), it's explicitly aimed at containing Russia in the Arctic and Baltic. This represents the evolution of the UK's Arctic-Baltic policy that was elaborated on last summer here.

Estonia, at the far end of the Baltic Sea in proximity to St. Petersburg, was identified as the eastern lynchpin of this strategy with Greenland now becoming its western one. The inclusion of (for now still Denmark's) Greenland, Iceland, and of course the UK hypothetically enables this "family of allied fleets" to monitor the so-called GIUK gap, which is Russia's Arctic gateway to the Atlantic. Denmark also controls the Baltic Straits so the NNI can indeed potentially blockade Russia to an extent.

Journalist Nicholas Kristof angered Prime Minister Netanyahu by providing testimony of Israel's use of dogs to rape detained Palestinians

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office announced on 14 May that it is launching a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times (NYT) following its publication of a column by journalist Nicholas Kristof detailing the systematic rape and sexual assault of Palestinian detainees by Israeli guards.

In a statement posted on X, the Prime Minister's Office described Kristoff's column, which cited testimony from Palestinian rape victims and Israeli human rights groups, as "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press."

Israel demanded the "immediate" removal of the column, claiming it was published "in service of a Hamas-driven narrative."

Well, that escalated quickly...

With the Rupee accelerating its declines to ever lower record lows against the dollar, Indian authorities have stepped up capital controls, focusing on curbing demand in the gold 'exit' route.

4 days ago, there were no signs of import duty hikes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a rare weekend appeal urging citizens to forgo gold purchases as well as unnecessary foreign travel in order to help hold up the currency..

2 days ago, tariffs were more than doubled on gold and silver imports to 15% and 6% respectively.

And today, they are doing even more with India now tightening the advance authorisation route, effectively capping how much gold individual exporters can bring in through that channel.

Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the pre-trial detention of Andriy Yermak, the powerful former head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Office and once the country's second-most influential figure, on money-laundering charges tied to a high-profile corruption scheme.

The ruling marks a dramatic fall for Yermak, who served as Zelenskyy's closest aide from 2020 until his resignation in late 2025 amid earlier raids. He was taken into custody directly from the courtroom following the decision.

Charges and Allegations

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) named Yermak a suspect on May 11 in a scheme involving the laundering of approximately 460 million hryvnias (about $10.5 million or €9-10 million).

Prosecutors allege he participated in an organized criminal group that funneled illicit funds - originating from kickbacks at the state nuclear energy company Energoatom - through shell companies and fake contracts into the construction of a luxury residential complex (known as "Dynasty") in the affluent village of Kozyn, south of Kyiv.

The Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to advance a resolution sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) to suspend senators' pay during a government shutdown, something that could give lawmakers a powerful incentive not to shutter federal departments because of funding disputes in future years.

The resolution only applies to members of the Senate and does not need to be approved by the House or signed by President Trump.

It would take effect after the midterm election, so it would not apply to a possible government shutdown this fall, which Republicans think is likely to happen because of the deep animosity between Trump and Democratic senators.