U.s. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu

“Four years ago, President Donald Trump denounced TikTok, the Chinese-owned video sharing app, as a threat to America’s national security,” the New York Times reports. “This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to retake the White House, he called it a ‘unique medium for freedom of expression.’”

New York Times: “The last time Mr. Trump was president, he unleashed a trade war against China that proved beneficial to Mexican industry. Companies that relied on Chinese factories to make goods for the American market shifted production to plants in Mexico to avoid Mr. Trump’s tariffs.” “That trend, known as “nearshoring,” gained momentum as President Biden extended tariffs on Chinese imports.

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday praised a federal judge’s decision to block the Biden administration from disposing of materials used for Trump’s promised southern border wall before his inauguration, Axios reports.

“Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications,” The Guardian reports.

“Elon Musk reiterated his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in an opinion piece published by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper less than two months before Germans go to the polls,” Bloomberg reports. Wrote Musk: “The AfD, even though it is described as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment.

White House National Security communications adviser John Kirby said Russia was treating North Korean troops as “expendable” by sending them on impractical ground operations in its war against Ukraine, The Hill reports. Said Kirby: “It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses.”