WE NEED FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE:

ERIK DURNEIKA: The Myth of an American Retreat From the Indo-Pacific Debunked.

A Financial Times article alleges, based on anonymous sources, that the Japanese government feels abandoned by Washington amid an escalating row with Beijing. The same Financial Times published a now-debunked piece claiming that the Trump administration had blocked the Taiwanese president’s planned transit through the U.S.

None of these stories and talking points align with reality, though. The Trump administration isn’t turning away from the Indo-Pacific region and doesn’t plan to do so in the foreseeable future. In fact, quite the opposite is happening.

The NSS’s main priority is the Western Hemisphere, in line with the administration’s focus on protecting the homeland. Much of this focus is due to China’s and other adversaries’ expanding influence on America’s doorstep. China, for example, weaponizes migration and drug trafficking to the detriment of the U.S. and the rest of the free world.

At the same time, the Trump administration remains committed to the Western Pacific. The NSS covers a range of topics relating to the region, from China’s economic warfare and coercion to Taiwan, the South China Sea (SCS), the First Island Chain, and defense burden-sharing.

Contrary to attempts to paint the NSS as a dark, isolationist, “far-right” document, there is an emphasis on strengthening Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships, including with Japan and India — another country Democrat elected officials claim President Trump has left behind.

A quibble or two aside, this is the best set of foreign policies and national defense priorities since Reagan.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Oh look, yet another Starship clone has popped up in China.

The trend began with the Chinese government. In November 2024 the government announced a significant shift in the design of its super-heavy lift rocket, the Long March 9. Instead of the previous design, a fully expendable rocket with three stages and solid rocket boosters strapped to the sides, the country’s state-owned rocket maker revealed a vehicle that mimicked SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship.

Around the same time, a Chinese launch firm named Cosmoleap announced plans to develop a fully reusable “Leap” rocket within the next few years. An animated video that accompanied the funding announcement indicated that the company seeks to emulate the tower catch-with-chopsticks methodology that SpaceX has successfully employed.

But wait, there’s more. In June a company called Astronstone said it too was developing a stainless steel, methane-fueled rocket that would also use a chopstick-style system for first stage recovery. Astronstone didn’t even pretend to not copy SpaceX, saying it was “fully aligning its technical approach with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”

And then, on Friday, the state-aligned China.com reported that a company called “Beijing Leading Rocket Technology” took things a step further. It has named its vehicle “Starship-1,” adding that the new rocket will have enhancements from AI and is billed as a “fully reusable AI rocket.”

Presentations and buzzwords are easy. Space is… you know.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT:  Christmas In Time: A Collection of Short Stories.

Christmas In Time: Six Stories of Time Travel and Second Chances

Time is not an Ocean. But then again it is.

From award-winning author Sarah A. Hoyt come six tales of time travel, parallel worlds, and the furthest reaches of space—all bound together by Christmas miracles and the choices that define us.

Meet Time Corps agents who risk madness to prevent reality from splintering. Follow a mathematician pulled into a parallel universe where his twin captains starships between worlds. Watch as mysterious children arrive from impossible futures, and discover Victorian lighthouses that serve as anchors in the storm of time itself. Journey from blood-soaked space stations to asteroid colonies at the edge of the known universe.

This collection includes “What Child Is This,” a prequel to Hoyt’s acclaimed novel No Man’s Land, revealing how a child’s accidental time-slip can save a man’s life and create the bonds of family love.

 

THE E.V. BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: WSJ:. Ford Learns a Brutal EV Lesson: The car maker takes a $19.5 billion write-down on its electric-vehicle business. “Ford has lost $13 billion on its EV business since 2023, with bigger losses expected in years to come. Last year Ford lost about $50,000 for each EV sold. The truth is that the business case for EVs has always rested largely on government subsidies and mandates. Now that this combination of government favoritism and coercion is mostly going away, most car makers have much less reason to make EVs.”

Do tell.