Freedom City.
The Weekend Edition.
1. The New York Times:
China’s top general, second only to Xi Jinping, the nation’s leader, in the military command, has been put under investigation and accused of “grave violations of discipline and the law,” the Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday, the most stunning escalation yet in Mr. Xi’s purge of the People’s Liberation Army elite.
The general, Zhang Youxia, is a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that controls China’s armed forces. Another member of the commission, Gen. Liu Zhenli, who leads the military’s Joint Staff Department, is also under investigation, the Defense Ministry said. Its announcement did not say what either general was alleged to have done wrong.
General Zhang’s downfall — few if any Chinese officials placed publicly under investigation are later declared innocent — is the most drastic step so far in Mr. Xi’s years-long campaign to root out what he has described as corruption and disloyalty in the military’s senior ranks. It is all the more astonishing because General Zhang seemed to be a confidant of Mr. Xi, who has known him for decades. (Sources: nytimes.com, news.cn)
2. The Economist:
“This is the most stunning development in Chinese politics since the early days of Xi’s rise to power,” says Dennis Wilder of Georgetown University in Washington, who is a former China analyst at the CIA. He believes that many of the recent purges were due to rivalry between a faction led by General Zhang and another group who mainly built their careers serving in eastern China, some of them when Mr Xi was an official there. General Zhang’s faction, which included several sons of prominent revolutionaries, prevailed. That left him with unprecedented authority. But it also made him a potential threat to Mr Xi. “He is a tough, profane old goat and, while he had allied with Xi, he was never his subordinate,” Mr Wilder says of General Zhang. (Source: economist.com)
3. Politico:
The Pentagon on Friday night released a long-awaited strategy that prioritizes the U.S. homeland and Western Hemisphere — a stunning reversal from previous administrations that aligns with President Donald Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela and efforts to acquire Greenland.
The National Defense Strategy — a dramatic shift from even the first Trump administration — no longer focuses primarily on countering China. Instead, it blames past administrations for ignoring American interests and jeopardizing the U.S. military’s access to the Panama Canal and Greenland.
The strategy calls for attention to the “practical interests” of the U.S. public and an abandonment of “grandiose strategies.”
The Pentagon’s plan, in contrast to the National Security Strategy released last month, does not focus heavily on Europe or call the the continent a place in “civilizational decline.” But it does emphasize what the administration perceives as its declining importance.
“Although Europe remains important, it has a smaller and decreasing share of global economic power,” according to the strategy. “Although we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must — and will — prioritize defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China.” (Source: politico.com)
4. The Guardian:
Russia launched a major drone and missile attack targeting Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, early on Saturday, as US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates for a second day of tripartite peace talks.
“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” the country’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said after the latest Russian assault on critical infrastructure.
“Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led peace process. His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table.
The Russian strikes, which took place in the middle of the first tripartite talks of the war, come in tandem with Moscow continuing to insist it must control the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, underlining doubts that it is serious about peace. (Source: theguardian.com)
5. Institute for the Study of War:
US, Ukrainian, and Russian delegations concluded a second day of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky characterized the talks as constructive and reported on January 24 that the delegations discussed parameters for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, the necessity of US involvement in ending the war, and security guarantees necessary to end the war. Zelensky stated that Ukraine is ready to hold another round of trilateral meetings if all sides are willing, potentially during the week of January 25 to 31. A source in the Ukrainian delegation told Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne that the trilateral talks on January 24 were three hours long and that senior White House officials characterized the meeting as “productive.”
Kremlin officials continue to respond to ongoing negotiations by reiterating Russia’s commitment to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s original maximalist war aims in Ukraine while attempting to rhetorically shift the blame for the Kremlin’s own reticence onto Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on January 23 that it is important to implement the “Anchorage formula” as negotiations continue. Kremlin officials often attempt to exploit the lack of clarity about the outcome of the August 2025 US-Russian Alaska Summit to claim that the summit achieved a joint US-Russian understanding and agreement to end the war in Ukraine, and present the agreement in ways that benefit Russia — including by obfuscating Russia’s own efforts to impede the peace process. (Source: understandingwar.org)
6. The New York Times:
On Friday, January 9, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Supreme National Security Council, the body tasked with safeguarding the country, to crush the protests by any means necessary, according to two Iranian officials briefed on the ayatollah’s directive. Security forces were deployed with orders to shoot to kill and to show no mercy, the officials said. The death toll surged.
Despite Iran shutting down the internet and disrupting phone service, some Iranians managed to evade restrictions to share witness accounts and hundreds of videos, many of which The New York Times was able to collect and authenticate.
The Times has verified videos of security forces opening fire on protesters in at least 19 different cities and in at least six different neighborhoods in Tehran in early January.
These videos show the breadth and ferocity of the regime’s crackdown. So do the testimonies of doctors and a nurse working in hospitals in Iran, and photographs shared by a witness and authenticated by The Times of hundreds of victims brought to a Tehran morgue. (Source: nytimes.com)
7. President Trump on Saturday threatened Canada with steep tariffs if it “makes a deal with China” and insulted Prime Minister Mark Carney, his latest swing at the country since Mr. Carney pushed back against his policies in a highly publicized speech in Davos, Switzerland, this week. “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.” (Source: nytimes.com)
8. Politico:
The Trump administration is weighing new tactics to drive regime change in Cuba, including imposing a total blockade on oil imports to the Caribbean country, three people familiar with the plan said Thursday.
That escalation has been sought by some critics of the Cuban government in the administration and backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two of the three people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions. No decision has been made on whether to approve that move, but it could be among the suite of possible actions presented to President Donald Trump to force the end of Cuba’s communist government, these people added.
Preventing shipments of crude oil to the island would be a step-up from Trump’s statement last week that the U.S. would halt Cuba’s imports of oil from Venezuela, which had been its main crude supplier. (Sources: politico.com, truthsocial.com)
9. The New Republic:
Last year, during Trump’s early rounds of demands that the U.S. be given control of Greenland, Reuters reported that a range of “Silicon Valley tech investors” had begun “promoting the frozen island as a site for a so-called freedom city, a libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation.” Aligning with Praxis’s vision for a network state in Greenland, Reuters reported that these oligarchic investors envisioned transforming Greenland into a supposed start-up paradise for Silicon Valley obsessions, building the island into a “hub for artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, space launches, micro nuclear reactors, and high-speed rail.” Some of the names mentioned were those already connected with Praxis. Both Thiel and Andreessen were reportedly propelling the idea, as was Lonsdale, who called outright for “expanding our country to Greenland.” (Thiel has denied interest or involvement, while Andreessen declined to comment.) But there was one additional name mentioned: Ken Howery, himself a former venture capitalist who had previously co-founded PayPal, alongside Thiel and Musk.
Yet Howery wasn’t simply another hyper-capitalist floating out of Silicon Valley; he was appointed by Trump himself as America’s newest ambassador to Denmark—and was specifically “expected to … lead Greenland-acquisition negotiations,” those familiar with his appointment said. (Sources: newrepublic.com, reuters.com)
10. The New York Times:
Federal officials sought to portray a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday as a domestic terrorist, saying he wanted to “massacre” law enforcement, even as videos emerged that appeared to directly contradict their account.
The man, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was an intensive-care nurse described by the Minneapolis police chief as a U.S. citizen with no criminal record. Federal officials said he was armed, but there is no sign in videos analyzed by The New York Times that he pulled his weapon, or that agents even knew he had one until he was already pinned on the sidewalk.
An agent had already removed Mr. Pretti’s gun when two other agents opened fire, shooting him in the back and as he lay on the ground. At least 10 shots were fired, killing him. Mr. Pretti had a legal permit to carry a firearm, said the police chief, Brian O’Hara. (Source: nytimes.com)
Quick Links: Russia still using chemical weapons in battle, experts say. Syria’s Kurds on the defensive as US turns its back on former allies. An unlikely source of crypto innovation: Afghanistan. Peru’s president may be ousted over secret meetings with Chinese businessmen. The US is losing top tech talent to India in the wake of Trump’s H-1B chaos. DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis warns AI investment looks ‘bubble-like’. Memory stocks soar as investors hunt for new AI winners. Singapore pours $786 million into race to become AI powerhouse. Good news?: Robots only half as efficient as humans, says leading Chinese producer. BlackRock’s Rick Rieder surges ahead in race to chair Federal Reserve. Vanguard passes $1 trillion in assets outside US. Republicans are worried about Trump’s deportation campaign, and a new Politico poll shows why. ICE surge creates new headache for Maine’s Susan Collins. The midterms are cracking Mike Johnson's grip on House votes. Ozempic users actually spend more dining out. The Weather Channel website has all the latest news on “Fern”, the mother of all winter storms. Hard times at The Washington Post. Can The Great Swami’s perfect record of NFL playoff predictions continue? Find out in tomorrow’s edition of News Items.