Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump in an hourlong call that Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland remains an unalterable red line rooted in the post-World War II international order. Xi directly accused Japan of reviving militarism through recent missile deployments on islands near Taiwan and fighter-jet scrambles in response to suspected Chinese drones, described Tokyo’s actions as “extremely dangerous and out of control,” and pressed for continued implementation of the October trade truce that lifted Chinese export curbs on rare earths and critical minerals for one year, reduced U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, and locked in Beijing’s commitment to purchase at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by December 31, 2025 and 25 million tons throughout 2026, while both leaders praised bilateral ties and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed plans for up to four high-level meetings in 2026. This is increasingly looking like a collision course for the ages as a new world is emerging. The terms of the new world order will be determined by how the situations in Venezuela, Gaza, Taiwan, and Ukraine unfold.

The European Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling that every EU member state must fully recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in any other member country for residency, taxation, inheritance, and social-security purposes, citing violations of free movement and the fundamental right to family life in a case brought by a Polish-Bulgarian couple whose 2018 German marriage certificate was rejected for transcription in Poland. Although the decision does not oblige countries to permit same-sex marriage domestically, it immediately intensifies pressure on Poland and other holdouts, where a long-delayed civil-partnership bill offering hospital visitation rights, joint taxation, and limited inheritance protections remains stalled by conservative coalition partners and faces a likely veto from the newly elected President Karol Nawrocki. This is a clear display of how supranational institutions inevitably erode the sovereignty of individual nation-states. While we believe it is in the best interest of nations to acknowledge the legal union of same-sex couples, it seems deeply problematic to have something as expansive and unaccountable as the European Union enforce that behavior from the top down.

Jakarta has surpassed Tokyo to become the world’s most populous urban agglomeration with 41.9 million residents according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report, edging out Dhaka at 40.2 million and far ahead of a declining Tokyo at 33.1 million due to Japan’s aging population and low birth rate. Nine of the ten largest urban areas are now in Asia (Cairo is the sole exception at 25 million), global urban population has reached 81% of the planet’s 8.2 billion people under revised consistent boundaries, the number of megacities exceeding 10 million inhabitants has risen from eight in 1975 to 33 today, and projections show urbanization climbing to 83% by 2050, with Dhaka expected to take first place and Tokyo sliding to seventh. Nothing appears able to stop the forces of urbanization, but it is increasingly clear that this rapid and significant shift in arranging human life is not consequence-free. Much of the social toll is already visible in phenomena like loneliness, alienation, and collapsing birth rates across the developed and developing world alike.

President Trump signed an executive order formally launching the Genesis Mission, a whole-of-government initiative explicitly modeled on the Manhattan Project and Apollo program to secure permanent U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. It tasks the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories, under White House science adviser Michael Kratsios and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, with constructing the world’s largest integrated AI supercomputing ecosystem in partnership with Nvidia, Dell, and other private-sector leaders, opening previously classified federal datasets, automating laboratory experiments to reduce scientific discovery cycles from years to days or hours, and directing breakthroughs toward priority fields including biotechnology, advanced nuclear reactors, domestic manufacturing resurgence, and national defense applications while simultaneously upgrading the national electric grid to handle AI-driven power demand that has already contributed to a 13% residential electricity price increase since 2022. This may be the most important private-public collaboration to occur in the last 75 years. If you’re wondering what history will remember from our current moment, you can safely add this venture to the very top of the list.

The United States is explicitly conditioning any relief from the 50% steel and aluminum tariffs (and related derivative-product duties) on major European concessions to rewrite or suspend portions of the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and national digital-services taxes that disproportionately affect U.S. tech giants’ advertising and streaming revenue as part of finalizing the July 2025 trade framework. Brussels is simultaneously seeking permanent exemptions for iconic products such as wine, cheese, olive oil, pasta, medical equipment, and biotechnology goods, has pledged $200 billion in U.S. LNG and crude-oil purchases for 2025 alone, and is negotiating under intense pressure in Brussels led by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, with ratification by all 27 EU member states not expected before March or April 2026. The federal government exists to articulate and defend American interests against other nations and supranational groups. This is a textbook example of it doing exactly that. If only the same energy were routinely deployed to protect ordinary American workers and families, not just the demands of major corporations.

The Department of Defense has opened a formal inspector-general investigation into Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy combat pilot and astronaut, and five other Democratic lawmakers with military backgrounds for producing and distributing a video that reminded active-duty service members of their sworn duty under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to disobey manifestly illegal orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly branded the video “seditious conspiracy,” floated the possibility of recalling Senator Kelly to active duty for court-martial, and tied the probe to a wider purge of officers perceived as disloyal, actions that follow President Trump’s repeated threats to impose the death penalty for sedition and come amid heightened tensions over potential use of federal troops for domestic law-enforcement operations. Reminding troops of their legal duty to refuse unlawful orders is not only acceptable. It has historically been a bedrock principle of civil-military relations. What is truly dangerous is the growing willingness on all sides to undermine legitimate political order simply because they despise their opponents.

After just 56 days of Operation Memphis Safe, a joint federal-state-local task force reports year-over-year declines of 48% in homicides, 49% in sexual assaults, and 61% in robberies, alongside more than 3,600 total arrests, confiscation of 531 illegal firearms, 157 new federal indictments, and the recovery of 121 endangered missing children. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee have declared the initiative a blueprint for national replication, launched a new HUD tip line targeting crime in public housing, and secured legislative approval for up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard troops to remain deployed through September 2026 at an annual cost of $226 million; however, local activists and state Rep. Justin Pearson contend the crime-drop figures are unverified, accuse the operation of terrorizing Black and Latino neighborhoods, causing widespread school absences, separating families through ICE detainers, driving minority-owned businesses to close out of fear, and exacerbating jail overcrowding without addressing underlying drivers such as poverty, housing insecurity, and mental-health crises. We either want safe cities or we don’t. When local officials fail to deliver basic safety, larger governmental bodies have every right, and arguably a duty, to step in and guarantee that citizens are not subjected to violence.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell unveiled a $532 million capital spending plan for fiscal year 2026 that prioritizes infrastructure maintenance and managed growth: $103 million for Metro Nashville Public Schools including a new elementary school in Antioch, comprehensive renovations at McGavock High, district-wide computer replacements, artificial-turf athletic fields, rooftop solar installations, and enhanced security measures; $49.9 million for street repaving, $7.8 million for new sidewalks, $18 million to replace the aging emergency communications center, nearly $38 million to advance East Bank riverfront redevelopment, $16 million for stormwater and flood-mitigation projects, $5 million for park improvements and greenway extensions, plus additional funding for WeGo public transit bus fleet electrification, with the full package scheduled for Metro Council review and vote beginning December 4. This story is a reminder of just how consequential local leadership is. City governments have the power to fundamentally reshape daily life through spending choices more than almost any other level of government.

Federal Operation Charlotte’s Web, launched without prior notice on November 15 across Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, and surrounding counties, has resulted in more than 370 arrests of undocumented immigrants with prior criminal convictions but provoked widespread backlash over aggressive tactics that include smashing car windows of U.S. citizens during traffic stops, conducting operations near elementary schools and churches, and alleged racial profiling. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein sent a scathing 12-point letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding immediate answers on lack of local notification, detention conditions, use of force policies, restitution for damaged property, and adherence to sensitive-location guidelines, while community response has included hundreds of protesters in Durham, coordinated student walkouts, activist text-alert networks tracking ICE and CBP vehicles, voluntary business closures in Latino neighborhoods, absentee rates as high as 20% in schools with large immigrant populations, and a new television advertising campaign highlighting ICE recruitment shortfalls and shaming agents. Any illegal or abusive policing activity must be treated with the utmost seriousness. It is intolerable to live in a society in which officers wield public authority not simply to enforce the law but to terrorize communities.

AstraZeneca announced a $2 billion investment to nearly double biologics manufacturing capacity at its Frederick, Maryland facility, enabling full-scale production of rare-disease therapies there for the first time alongside existing lines for oncology, immunology, and respiratory medicines, while constructing an entirely new clinical manufacturing plant in Gaithersburg scheduled to open in 2029 for early-stage trial molecules. The expansion is projected to create 300 permanent high-skill jobs, retain 400 current positions, generate 1,900 temporary construction roles, and qualify for up to $116.5 million in state tax credits and grants over eight years as part of AstraZeneca’s broader pledge of $50 billion in total U.S. capital and R&D spending by 2030, a commitment that already includes a recently opened $300 million next-generation cell-therapy facility in Rockville and sustains more than 4,000 research and development jobs concentrated in Gaithersburg. We are firmly of the view that U.S. manufacturing capacity must be rapidly and massively increased if the country has any hope of climbing out of the neoliberal disaster that has hollowed out the industrial base, and much of the rest of the world, for the past half-century.