Taiwan’s message to the international community is that it is determined to defend itself and that people should not believe any claim it has surrendered in the event of invasion, President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday, capping a week of defense events. Democratically-governed Taiwan has faced stepped up military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory. Taiwan’s government rejects those claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future. Addressing a forum on Taiwan’s efforts to boost its preparations for natural disaster or war, Lai referenced the government’s new civil defence handbook, which was launched on Tuesday as part of efforts to get people ready for a possible Chinese attack. The handbook gives vital information on how to stay safe, he said to an audience that included Western envoys to Taipei. “More importantly, we tell everyone, ‘In the event of a military invasion of Taiwan, any claim that the government has surrendered or that the nation has been defeated is false,'” Lai said, quoting one of the key messages in the handbook. “As commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic of China, I want to tell my fellow citizens and the international community that this is Taiwan’s position,” he said, using Taiwan’s formal name. “We are determined to defend freedom and democracy and a sustainable Taiwan.” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan this week hosted its largest ever arms show, drawing a host of international companies looking to win a share of the island’s rapidly increasing defense spending. Taiwan is also actively courting global defense companies for closer collaboration, such as joint production of weapons. Speaking separately on Saturday at the opening of a branch office in Taipei, Brandon Tseng, president of U.S. company Shield AI, said his company could have hundreds of employees in Taiwan over the next three to five years. “It’s a region that Shield AI is deeply investing in and deeply committed to,” said Tseng, who chatted with Lai on Friday as he visited the arms show, where the company was showcasing its V-BAT drones that have been combat-tested in Ukraine. Shield AI this month signed a “teaming agreement” with Taiwan government defense contractor Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, although Tseng declined to give details on possible sales to the island. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tom Hogue)

President Trump announced Friday in a post on Truth Social that he ordered a third military strike targeting a drug-trafficking vessel operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility, killing all three male “narcoterrorists” onboard. “On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated […]

'The individual is not a member of authorized law enforcement working the event and is currently in custody'

Just days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Left is working overtime to hide the truth and create fantasies about his death.Specifically, leftists alleged that conservatives were going to “pounce” on the death to wage protests and boost radical agendas in the manner of what followed George Floyd’s death.Here are some of the lies that such a ridiculous narrative entails:One, Charlie Kirk is not conservatives’ George Floyd. There were no mass riots after his death of the sort that followed Floyd’s demise.Floyd’s death was used by the Left to justify five months of rioting, arson, murder, looting, and attacking police officers.The postmortem respect for Kirk’s singular life was not characterized by $2 billion in property damage; the torching of a police precinct, a federal courthouse, and an iconic church; 35 deaths; and 1,500 injured law-enforcement officers.Instead, thousands of people peacefully joined his Turning Point USA organization and promised to redirect their lives toward peaceful political engagement.Two, after Kirk’s death, no prominent Republican or conservative is encouraging ongoing mass (and often violent) protests in the manner of high-profile leftists like former Vice President Kamala Harris.She blurted out on national television in June 2020, “But they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop, and this is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up—and they should not. And we should not.No conservatives—like the spouse of Gov. Tim Walz—declared of the 2020 arsons, “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.”Instead, Kirk’s supporters are calling on everyone to express their anger peacefully at the ballot box by registering to vote and showing up for the 2026 midterms.Three, Kirk was not Floyd. He was a law-abiding, religiously devout, political organizer, happily married with two children. Kirk was a media figure and head of a huge 501(c) (3) nonprofit whose brand was calmly debating students who disagreed with him.Floyd should not have died while in police custody. But Floyd’s comorbidities were many. When arrested, he was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, with a heart condition and recent COVID-19 infection.He was a career felon, with eight previous criminal convictions, who had in the past staged a violent home-invasion robbery and pointed a knife at the abdomen of one of the female occupants.In contrast, when Kirk was killed, he was not on drugs. He was not resisting police officers. And he was not trying to pass counterfeit currency. Instead, he eschewed violence and tried to engage in polite dialogue with students of different views.Four, Kirk was not, as alleged by the Left, murdered by a right-wing shooter. His death was not an example of right-on-right violence. Just the opposite was true. The shooter, Tyler Robinson, was on record with his family expressing hatred for the conservative Kirk.Robinson engraved his bullets with both Antifa-like “anti-fascist” messaging and transgender references. He lived with his transgender partner, who was a leftist. Robinson’s aim was to end Kirk’s peaceful conservative career because he hated his politics and popularity and feared his influence.Five, the Left used the death of Floyd to promote its hard-left and otherwise unpopular agenda—defunding the police, cashless bail, decriminalization of theft, and DEI mandates. It manipulated outrage, chaos, and monthslong violence to ram through radical cultural and top-down legal changes that otherwise had little popular support.Conservatives upset over Kirk’s murder will bolster Turning Point USA. They are determined through peaceful means to persuade more youth about the poverty and dangers of progressive thought.Why is the Left fabricating the circumstances surrounding and following Kirk’s murder?In its signature projective style, the Left is terrified that the right might follow its own example—by manipulating facts, ginning up street violence, and issuing non-negotiable demands to achieve its agenda.But the chief difference between the Kirk assassination and the death of Floyd is that the post-Floyd agenda had no majority support and so had to be rammed through in hysterical times by implied threats of unending violence beyond five months of continued mayhem.The post-Kirk agenda eschewed violence because it was both morally wrong and politically counterproductive—since most Americans naturally favored most of what Kirk championed. (C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Murder of Charlie Kirk Was Not a George Floyd Moment appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Values Gap in Gen Z Voters Is Huge

HBO’s Bill Maher attacked his former ABC bosses on Friday’s Real Time for suspending his replacement, Jimmy Kimmel. According to Maher, Kimmel was wrong in what he said, but he has a right to say it, and ABC’s suspension means the network stands for “Always Be Caving.” While Maher’s position may seem like a consistent and principled stand in favor of free speech, he got a couple key details wrong. Maher began by expressing his solidarity with Kimmel, “It was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network, and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot. Did you know that? Politically Incorrect? Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture. So, do headlines. Yeah, this is on my wall. From the Variety, ‘White House keeps heat on ABC’s Maher.’ This shit isn't new. It’s worse.  We’ll get to that.”     That is a reference to September 17, 2001’s Politically Incorrect, where Maher declared, “We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away, that’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, not cowardly.” The two controversies led Maher to declare, “But ABC? They are steady. ABC stands for ‘Always be caving.’ So, Jimmy, Jimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side you don't have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland. That was always a great part of it for me when I got my ass canned over there.” A few moments later, Maher addressed the actual substance of Kimmel’s remarks, “Jimmy, look, I don’t think what he said was exactly right. I don't, we don't agree on that. He shouldn't lose his job for it. He said the MAGA crowd was trying to characterize the assassin as anything but one of them because the 22-year-old kid, his family was MAGA. As if a 22-year-old with a trans girlfriend never rebelled against their family?” He continued, “I mean, but was he on the left? I don't know that either, and I hate to do this. I'm tipping the end of the show, which I work so hard on to keep a secret from the rest of the show, but it's too relevant. What I'm talking about at the end, I'm going to have to say now, which is that it is a fool's errand to try to say these nuts who do these things are any team. Jimmy is wrong, I think, to put him in one team, but, you know, look at what this guy is doing.”     Maher reiterated that he thinks everybody’s wrong, “I mean, Jimmy has every right to be wrong, but look at this guy, he was doing porn video games with furries. He was on a game called Furry Shades of Gay 3. This kid is in his basement with the VR goggles on getting virtually ass fucked by a cartoon wombat, and you're going to put politics into this?” When people usually talk about “these nuts,” they are talking about people like the guy who firebombed the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion being a bipolar schizophrenic who was off his meds. However, here, Maher is using “nuts” as a synonym for “weirdo,” which does not exclude devotion to a political cause. Additionally, as of the writing of this article, Kimmel has not lost his job. In fact, it appears Disney and ABC want to bring him back, but Kimmel reportedly is opposed to apologizing. Cancel culture usually revolves around stupid posts someone made in high school or having an opinion that someone else doesn’t like. Kimmel is a 57-year old man who was suspended for either winking and nudging at vile conspiracy theories or lying by omission when he refused to explain why MAGA people are trying to disprove the idea that the shooter was “one of them.” If Maher really believes Kimmel was wrong, he should call his friend and urge him to apologize. Here is a transcript for the September 19 show: HBO Real Time with Bill Maher 9/19/2025 10:03 PM ET BILL MAHER: It was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network, and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot. Did you know that? Politically Incorrect? Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture. So, do headlines. Yeah, this is on my wall. From the Variety, “White House keeps heat on ABC’s Maher.” This shit isn't new. It’s worse.  We’ll get to that. But ABC? They are steady. ABC stands for "Always be caving." So, Jimmy, Jimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side you don't have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland. That was always a great part of it for me when I got my ass canned over there.  … Jimmy, look, I don’t think what he said was exactly right. I don't, we don't agree on that. He shouldn’t lose his job for it. He said the MAGA crowd was trying to characterize the assassin as anything but one of them because the 22-year-old kid, his family was MAGA. As if a 22-year-old with a trans girlfriend never rebelled against their family?  I mean, but was he on the left? I don't know that either and I hate to do this. I'm tipping the end of the show, which I work so hard on to keep a secret from the rest of the show, but it's too relevant. What I'm talking about at the end, I'm going to have to say now, which is that it is a fool's errand to try to say these nuts who do these things are any team. Jimmy, is wrong, I think to put him in one team, but, you know, look at what this guy is doing. I mean, Jimmy has every right to be wrong, but look at this guy, he was doing porn video games with furries. He was on a game called Furry Shades of Gay 3. This kid is in his basement with the VR goggles on getting virtually ass fucked by a cartoon wombat, and you're going to put politics into this?

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A new class of supermassive black holes embedded in a thick gas shell could explain small red dots in images from the James Webb Space Telescope.