May 14, 2026

CHAOS ERUPTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF TRUMP’S CHINA TRIP — including trampled White House aide.

President Trump’s much-anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been marred by multiple physical altercations just offstage.

Among the incidents that took place Thursday:

  • A White House staffer was trampled by Chinese reporters.
  • A Secret Service agent was kept out of official events.
  • American journalists were prevented from joining the presidential motorcade.

The chaos was all captured by a cameraman accompanying “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner as he prepares to shoot a fourth installment of the beloved feature film franchise.

The dust-ups with the Chinese caused frustrations to boil over on the American side, with one member of the US delegation overheard calling it a “s—tshow.”

Related, from Lee Smith: Strange Trip — The U.S. war against Iran hasn’t ushered in American decline. It’s exposed China’s weakness.

Trump’s tariffs have forced China to find alternate markets for its goods. “But the Iran war,” said the trade analyst, “has stalled the growth of the economies in all of China’s replacement markets, especially Southeast Asia and Europe. All of which means the notion that Trump and the U.S. hold little leverage in their relations with China is complete nonsense.”

Given the damage Trump has inflicted on not just Iran but also China, he could walk away now and declare victory. Together with Israel, the United States has decimated Iranian leadership, destroyed its navy and air force, and collapsed most of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles facilities. Trump could withdraw forces and promise to return if the regime tests his warnings, or he could leave it entirely to the next administration to stop what he’s described as an existential threat that plagues not only Israel and other U.S. regional allies but also Europe and soon the American homeland. But Trump says he isn’t leaving until he gets all the uranium Iran has enriched and dismantles all its nuclear facilities. It seems he really doesn’t care about the polling, gas prices, or even threats to his future freedom, because he’s not budging. The American president Xi is meeting in Beijing is dug in.

Exit question: Game On: Did Xi Give Trump and Rubio a Tacit Green Light on Iran?

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

HMM: Gallrein takes the lead over Massie in latest Kentucky primary polling.

Quantus Insights polled 908 likely GOP voters and found that Gallrein holds 48.3% of the voters’ support, while 43.1% support Massie. Just 7.6% of polled voters remained undecided, with the majority of those undecided voters leaning toward Gallrein. The pollster reported that while “the race remains competitive,” their survey “points to a clear advantage for Gallrein.”

“Massie continues to hold a durable base of support, especially among Republicans drawn to his independent brand and willingness to break with party leadership,” the poll analysis reads. “But in a primary shaped heavily by Trump’s endorsement, national attention, and outside spending, Gallrein’s lead on both the initial ballot and leaner allocation shows the Trump-backed challenger in the stronger position entering the final stretch.”

The survey, taken between May 11 and 12, is the first poll to show Gallrein in the lead, as other surveys had shown Massie up by single digits. The trend does not bode well for Massie, who has won every primary challenge since entering Congress with over 70% of the vote.

We’ll find out soon enough.

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

SOMALI PIRATES ATTACK AMERICAN WEST COAST:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

BOMBING CHINA’S POPULATION:

DOKOUPIL: America remains the innovation hub of the world. Made in China, yes; but designed and invented in the U.S.A. New drugs, new discoveries, new inventions, new space missions. Xi boasts of the country’s industrial might, and it’s impossible to deny that fact. China’s population is in decline, though, well below replacement rates. Unemployment is high with millions in rural provinces living in poverty, and massive housing complexes that now sit empty.

To paraphrase the lads in the Delta House, China f*cked up, they trusted us – more specifically, they trusted their fellow leftist, the recently deceased Paul Ehrlich, in the 1970s. As did that gold standard of CBS Evening News hosts, Uncle Walter:

[N]ow that Neil Armstrong had walked on the Moon, Cronkite sensed that ecology would soon replace space exploration as the national obsession. CBS News producer Ron Bonn recalled precisely when Cronkite put the network on the front line of the fight. “It was New Year’s Day, 1970, and Walter walked into the Broadcast Center and said, ‘God damn it, we’ve got to get on this environmental story,’ ” Bonn recalled. “When Walter said ‘God damn it,’ things happened.”

Cronkite pulled Bonn from nearly all other CBS duties for eight weeks so he could investigate environmental degradation. He wanted a whole new regular series on the CBS Evening News—inspired by Silent Spring, the philosophy of René Dubos, and those amazing photos of Earth taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts. The CBS Evening News segments were to be called “Can the World Be Saved?” “We wanted to grapple first with air pollution, the unbreathable air,” Bonn recalled. “But then we wanted to deal with the primary underlying problem, which was overpopulation.”

From Douglas Brinkley’s 2012 book, Cronkite: The Definitive Biography of the Legendary News Anchor Who Shaped American Journalism.

(And unwittingly, the CCP’s birth dearth.)

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

AND A FAIR AMOUNT OF GRIFT, I’D WAGER: California University Worked With Globalist NGO To Make Mexico’s Judicial System Gay. “More than 220 Mexican judges, secretaries and officers in Mexico’s judicial branch participated in a virtual University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law course from October to November 2022 on upholding gay and transgender rights, according to materials received in a public records request and translated by the DCNF. The law school’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy provided the course in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Mexico’s Federal Judiciary Council, an agency that oversaw the country’s court system before legislative reforms delegated its authority elsewhere.”

Posted at 12:45 pm by Stephen Green

WALTER DURANTY SMILES:

To be fair though, if it wasn’t the dogs, Israel apparently has a whole menagerie of expertly-trained beasts waging war in the Middle East…:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

UPDATE (From Ed): Israel Sues NYT over Kristof Column That Alleged Widespread Rape of Palestinian Prisoners.

Related: Israeli rape dog spotted?

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX unveils sweeping Starship V3 upgrades ahead of May 19 launch.

Here is an explicit, broken-down list of the key changes, first starting with the changes to Super Heavy V3:

  • Grid Fin Redesign: Reduced from four fins to three. Each fin is now 50% larger and stronger, repositioned for better catching and lifting performance. Fins are lowered on the booster to reduce heat exposure during hot staging, with hardware moved inside the fuel tank for protection.
  • Integrated Hot Staging: Eliminates the old disposable interstage shield. The booster dome is now directly exposed to upper-stage engine ignition, protected by tank pressure and steel shielding. Interstage actuators retract after separation.
  • New Fuel Transfer System: Massive redesign of the fuel transfer tube—roughly the size of a Falcon 9 first stage—enables simultaneous startup of all 33 Raptors for faster, more reliable flip maneuvers.
  • Engine Bay / Thermal Protection: Engine shrouds removed entirely; new shielding added between engines. Propulsion and avionics are more tightly integrated. CO₂ fire suppression system deleted for a simpler, lighter aft section.
  • Propellant Loading Improvements: Switched from one quick disconnect to two separate systems for added redundancy and reduced pad complexity.

Next, we have the changes to Starship V3:

  • Completely Redesigned Propulsion System: Clean-sheet redesign supports new Raptor startup, larger propellant volume, and an improved reaction control system while reducing trapped or leaked propellant risk.
  • Aft Section Simplification: Fluid and electrical systems rerouted; engine shrouds and large aft cavity deleted.
  • Flap Actuation Upgrade: Changed from two actuators per flap to one actuator with three motors for better redundancy, mass efficiency, and lower cost.
  • Faster Starlink Deployment: Upgraded PEZ dispenser enables quicker satellite release.
  • Long-Duration Spaceflight Capability: New systems for long orbital coasts, orbital refueling, cryogenic fluid management, vacuum-insulated header tanks, and high-voltage cryogenic recirculation.
  • Ship-to-Ship Docking + Refueling: Four docking drogues and dedicated propellant transfer connections added to support in-space refueling architecture.
  • Avionics Upgrades: 60 custom avionics units with integrated batteries, inverters, and high-voltage systems (9 MW peak power). New multi-sensor navigation for precision autonomous flight. RF sensors measure propellant in microgravity. ~50 onboard camera views and 480 Mbps Starlink connectivity for low-latency communications.

Believe it or not, there’s more.

Two years ago, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever flown was Starship V1. Last year, it was Starship V2. V3 is about to become the biggest and most powerful rocket ever flown — but don’t worry, the company already has plans for V4.

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

EUROPE WILL NEVER FORGIVE THE JEWS FOR THE HOLOCAUST:

Exit quote: “By finding a way to stain the Jews and Israel with those same moral evils they themselves feel the weight of, but for imaginary instead of genuine reasons, Europeans can not only remove but reverse the mark of the evil they inflicted on Jews over their entire history, not remotely least during the Holocaust.”

Earlier: Brendan O’Neill on Holocaust Envy.

UPDATE:

Posted at 11:30 am by Ed Driscoll

HOW MUCH LONGER WILL SACRAMENTO ALLOW THE HARSH LANGUAGE? The Only Bear Defense Still Legal in California Nat’l Parks: Horns, Bells and Harsh Language.

California is, well, California. Besides being America’s utopian ideal for the civilian disarmament industry, the left coast’s great minds work damned hard to ensure that even defensive measures are difficult to acquire or downright illegal. This is a place, for instance that tried (though thankfully failed) to ban civilians from owning body armor. Self-defense ammo is banned in San Francisco. We could go on, but the list is virtually endless.

But we can’t blame the ban on carrying bear spray in California’s national parks on Golden Staters. The parks are under the aegis of the National Park Service. The feds.

That’s right, if you’re going to be hiking, camping, or carrying a pick-a-nick basket into Yosemite or one of the other four national parks in Cali, don’t bring bear spray with you. It’s against the law. As ActiveNorCal notes, that usually comes as a surprise to visitors from normal states where carrying a (somewhat) effective defense against being mauled by a bear is just common sense.

What’s the rationale for outlawing bear spray?

“The reason it is banned comes down to the bears themselves. California’s national parks are home exclusively to black bears, which are far less aggressive than grizzlies. The National Park Service says bear spray is unnecessary for black bear encounters and that no one has been killed or seriously injured by a black bear in Yosemite’s recorded history.”

Oh. They claim you really don’t have to worry about California’s black bears. They’re just more docile there.

Heh.

Posted at 10:41 am by Stephen Green

TRUMP-XI SUMMIT:

Posted at 10:25 am by Stephen Green