US lawmakers to visit China this month

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers will make an official trip to China later this month, lawmakers told NBC News on Tuesday, the first such official visit by members of the House since 2019.

The trip comes at a moment of fraught political and economic tensions between Washington and Beijing, and weeks after the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea met in Tiananmen Square and observed a massive military parade.

The U.S. congressional delegation or CODEL to China, which has not previously been reported, is being organized by Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and current top Democrat on the panel. Smith confirmed the trip to NBC News on Tuesday afternoon.

A second lawmaker confirmed they were attending the CODEL as well. Smith said that both Democratic and Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee would participate, but that Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., would not be part of the delegation.

“I think it’s fairly significant. It’s part of wanting to try to open up a dialogue between the U.S. and China. And I personally think it’s important that you do that,” Smith said in an interview just off the House floor.

“Merely talking with China is not endorsing everything that they do. It’s like China is a big, powerful country. We are a big, powerful country. I think we need to talk about that,” he continued. “So there’s no significance at the timing. I think it should happen more often, on a frequent basis.”

Asked if the lawmakers would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Smith replied: “We’re asking. We don’t know yet.”

Details of the visit are being tightly held, and even senior members of the committee were unaware it was happening. A Rogers spokesperson did not respond to questions about the trip.

Smith declined to provide the names of lawmakers who will be attending or the exact dates of the travel. However, the House will be on a recess the week of Sept. 22 for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

The CODEL will also include a stop in Cambodia, Smith said, but Taiwan will not be on the itinerary.

The visit comes as the Trump administration and Beijing continue negotiating a trade deal. Trump has imposed significant tariffs on China and other trading partners, but he extended the deadline to Nov. 10 for those tariffs to kick in, to give the two sides more time to strike a deal.

"My important message is, you know, we have to have dialogue and communication," Smith said. "I am deeply worried that, yes, China is a major rising power that we seem to be talking less and less to. We need to figure out a way to resolve our differences and can't do it by not talking to each other."

In 2023, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a bipartisan delegation of senators to China, where they met with Xi and discussed issues such as trade, economic competition and fentanyl, according to Schumer.

But House lawmakers had not visited China since March 2019, when Reps. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill. — then the co-chairs of the U.S.-China Working Group — led a bipartisan group to Beijing. Unlike an official government-funded CODEL, that 2019 trip was sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck a year later, and official House travel to the region has since focused on Taiwan, Japan and other U.S. allies.

In 2022, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made an unannounced visit to Taiwan during a CODEL to Asia, angering Beijing and sparking live-fire military exercises around the self-governing island that China claims as its own.

A year later, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., led a House delegation to Taiwan and met with then-President Tsai Ing-wen, just as Pelosi’s group did.

And in 2024, then-Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, led a House delegation to meet with Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, promising that more weapons were on the way.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/house-lawmakers-official-visit-china-184946600.html

Trump Announces Crackdown on Drug Ads on TV, Social Media

 

The Trump administration announced plans to crack down on pharmaceutical advertising on television and social media platforms that could disrupt billions of dollars in annual ad spending.

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday that calls on federal health agencies to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more side effects in their ads and enforce existing rules about misleading ads. The administration is pitching the moves as a way to increase transparency for patients.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-09/trump-announces-crackdown-on-drug-ads-on-tv-social-media

'Republicans Pounce;' After ignoring murder of Ukraine refugee, media covers conservative reaction, not crime

 

By Monica Showalter

The cold-blooded murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte public transit system has finally gotten the mainstream media aroused, but not because a heinous crime was committed.

It's because "Republicans pounced."

Here's CNN's take:

 Gruesome video shows a man stabbing a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee to death on a Charlotte light rail train — a case that has turned into a flashpoint as the Trump administration vows to crack down on crime in large, predominantly Democratic cities.

It's as though they're trying say that a 'gruesome video' is unrelated to a gruesome act, and that the video is the problem, not our pretty natural reaction to the crime itself. In their world, we're supposed to accept gruesome crime as ordinary and normal. But we're an excitable lot, you see.

Axios was just as bad on the "Republicans pounced" front:

MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases.

• Shocking video of the fatal Aug. 22 knife attack on 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina, dominated weekend conversation on Trump-friendly social media.

The big picture: The rising number of surveillance cameras in public spaces, including on Charlotte's light rail, has become a big accelerant in these cases.

• The video is easily shared or leaked, and can instantly pollinate across social media — a visual counterpoint to statistics showing crime decreases.

Those wacky MAGA influencers, you see. It's all about their 'messaging' rather than the evil act itself. Being sheep and all, we wouldn't be bothered by the video of the crime itself until we had MAGA "influencers" tell us.

Axios went CNN one further, though, figuring out a way to blame President Trump

Driving the news: President Trump, asked about the Charlotte video by a reporter Sunday, said he wanted to find out more about the stabbing before commenting.

How does someone "drive the news" by saying nothing? They used to complain about his mean tweets, but when he keeps his counsel, he's "driving the news."

It just tells us how agenda-driven and biased they are. To ignore a story of this caliber, to protect a whole lot of establishment that set the stage for this happening, as well as to promote a favored narrative that only white cops kill, not convicts who never should have been let out of prison, is outrageous. And the selectiveness regarding the migrant issue is notable, too.

Media sucks!! pic.twitter.com/TW8EzN4Pmg

— Emilia Henderson (@Emilia__writes) September 9, 2025

The mainstream press has an agenda and an establishment to guard, and this incident doesn't fit in with what they want to say. When forced to cover the matter, they focus on the Republican 'pounce.' Why can't they just cover the news?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/09/republicans_pounce_after_ignoring_murder_of_ukrainian_refugee_media_covers_conservative_reaction_not_the_crime.html

S. Korean Companies Play Fast And Loose With Visas, Won't Hire Americans For US Factory Build

 Late last week, 475 workers at a Hyundai / LG battery plant being built in Ellabell, Georgia - mostly Korean nationals - were arrested by US Immigration and Customs (ICE) in a massive raid. The factory was previously touted by former President Joe Biden as a 'win for manufacturing jobs in the United States,' which obviously didn't mean American jobs.

A raid at a Hyundai facility in Georgia on Thursday (faces blurred by source).ATF Atlanta via X

Now we learn that South Korean companies have been using sloppy visa practices for workers sent to the US to build advanced manufacturing sites, according to FT, citing Seoul-based executives and industry groups. 

Within the industry, it's an "open secret" that Korean conglomerates used the B-1 visa, which allows entry into the United States for business purposes - but does not allow the holder to work for payment. The companies are also abusing the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) which allows for short-term business visits.

"The business community, the Korean government and diplomats have been well aware of this problem all along," one industry exec told the Times. "We are very worried that ICE can target other Korean facilities too because they have been following the same practices and have similar problems."

According to a South Korean official, the companies are an "impossible position," after successive US governments pushed them to invest billions of dollars to revive American industry while refusing to facilitate short-term working visas for the projects to be completed on time.

"The US government is two-faced," said Chang Sang-sik, head of research at the Korea International Trade Association. "It is asking Korea to invest more in the US, while treating Korean workers like criminals even when it is well aware that they are needed for these projects to happen."

Or, they could hire Americans?

Of note, South Korea has a free trade agreement with the United States dating back to 2012, however it has no country-specific scheme for working visits - unlike FTA countries such as Canada, Australia and Singapore. The official said Seoul has repeatedly brought up the issue over the past two decades, however various US administrations have told them to pound sand - as the scheme would have to be endorsed by Congress. 

The issue grew in salience during the presidency of Joe Biden, when South Korean companies attracted by generous federal subsidies from the administration’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act, as well as additional state and county-level inducements, pledged tens of billions of dollars to build factories producing chips, batteries and electric vehicles. -FT

According to Jonathan Cleave, managing director for Korea at Intralink - which provides support for foreign investment projects in the United States, the Biden admin actually told them to "Hire American," however in practice, the American authorities - "and Georgia in particular," had "turned a blind eye" to Korea's shoddy documentation, often for short-term "bursts" of construction activity - which was "part of an understanding that the practice was necessary for projects to be completed on time."

Workers at the electric vehicle plant in Ellabell, Georgia, are escorted from the site © Corey Bullard/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/AP

An executive from one of the companies building the raided battery plant in Ellabell told the Times: "We need to send our workers to install new equipment and supervise the project. We can hire US workers once the plant is built, but if the US wants us to hire American workers, our plant should be allowed to be built quickly."

On Sunday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that foreign companies investing in the US need to "“LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products," adding "But we do have to work something out where we bring in experts so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves." 

Yet, according to Chang, "training US workers won’t solve the problem" since Korean companies would still be wary of sharing sensitive technologies with their American workforce. "In the case of chip plants, Korean technicians need to review the adoption of new technologies, repair facilities and make sure that their high-tech facilities are run stably."

Cleave, meanwhile, says that it's difficult to find reliable construction workers in the US. 

"They need to build a factory very, very quickly, and it’s very difficult to do that with extreme labour shortages in the US where people are willing to jump ship every time someone opens another factory down the road," he said. "The Koreans don’t need a workforce that’s loyal to the grave, but they want people who will come in and finish a project."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/south-korean-companies-have-been-playing-fast-and-loose-visas-wont-hire-american-workers

FBI Director, Transportation Secretary Investigating Charlotte Stabbing Murder

 by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Ahead of President Trump's comments, the FBI and Transportation Department have both signaled that federal officials will investigate the fatal stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina after video footage of the incident was released last week.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on Monday night that the agency “will be investigating Charlotte over its failure to protect Iryna Zarutska,” referring to the victim in the stabbing murder.

“If mayors can’t keep their trains and buses safe, they don’t deserve the taxpayers’ money,” Duffy added on X.

“Murders on public transit like that of Iryna Zarutska should never be allowed to happen again.”

At the same time, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media that the bureau was continuing to investigate the incident.

“The FBI has been investigating the Charlotte train murder from day one. Stay tuned,” Patel wrote on Monday evening on X.

Patel did not provide other details about the nature of the investigation.

Critics say the death of Zarutska, 23, could have been prevented, and they’re blaming officials for failing to keep a man with a history of mental illness, arrests, and erratic behavior off the streets before he killed her.

On Monday, President Donald Trump wrote on social media that “Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP.”

The suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, had served time in prison, been briefly committed for schizophrenia, and was arrested earlier this year after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital, according to court records.

Zarutska had come to the United States to escape the war in Ukraine, relatives wrote in a GoFundMe post and in an obituary, describing her as determined to build a safer life.

Video footage of the incident shows the moments leading up to the stabbing death on a Charlotte Area Transit System light-rail train.

Zarutska is seen wearing a baseball cap, sitting on the train in front of Brown as she scrolls on the phone before Brown pulls out a knife and stabs her from behind.

The two did not appear to have any interaction beforehand.

The footage doesn’t show the stabbing, cutting away to when Brown is seen walking on the light-rail line covered in blood.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, a Democrat, issued a statement on X on Saturday about the video showing the moments before the woman’s death.

“The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public. I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family,” Lyles wrote.

“This was a senseless and tragic loss. My prayers remain with her loved ones as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time.”

Brown was arrested at the scene and charged with first-degree murder, officials said in a statement last month. Court records show he had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, with 14 prior cases in Mecklenburg County, including serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

On Monday, Duffy said his office would conduct an investigation into the issue, warning that his department could withhold funding to municipalities if public safety isn’t made a priority.

“Your federal tax dollars go to fund a lot of these transit systems across the country,” Duffy told Fox News in an interview on Monday.

“And we have to look at them and say, ‘Well, maybe it’s appropriate that we start pulling some of that money back because I don’t think the American taxpayer wants to pay for the homelessness and criminal element that harm little 23-year-old girls like this who are going home from work.’”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-director-transportation-secretary-investigating-charlotte-stabbing-murder

Funny Data: Midlife Vascular Risk Factors, Parkinson Disease, and Parkinson Disease-Dementia

 Mohini Johri, Valerie Morrill, Derrick N. Okine, Xuemei Huang, Liana Rosenthal, Joseph Seemiller https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7742-8759, Srishti Shrestha https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2017-4521, Kevin J. Sullivan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9147-0988, Honglei Chen https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3446-7779, and Rebecca F. Gottesman 

Abstract

Background and Objectives

Vascular risk factors (VRFs) such as smoking, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes are associated with dementia, but their importance in Parkinson disease (PD) and PD-dementia (PDD) is less well understood. Previous studies demonstrated that smoking may be protective of PD, but its role in PDD is unclear. The primary objective was to examine the association between midlife VRFs and the risk of developing PD and PDD in older adults.

Methods

The prospective, longitudinal community-based cohort Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study recruited Black and White adults (45–64 years old) from Jackson, MS; Forsyth County, NC; Minneapolis suburbs, MN; and Washington County, MD, in 1987–1989. VRFs (smoking status, hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes) were measured at the baseline visit. PD cases were retrospectively adjudicated through 2016 by reviewing participant medications, self-reported physician-made diagnoses, and hospitalization and death surveillance data. Dementia cases were adjudicated using in-person and telephone-based cognitive testing, informant interviews, and hospitalization codes. PDD cases were defined as an adjudicated PD diagnosis followed by an adjudicated dementia diagnosis. Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for age, race, sex, education level, and APOE ε4 status, evaluated midlife VRFs together in association with PD, with separate models evaluating PD without dementia, PDD, and dementia without PD.

Results

Among 13,875 individuals with nonmissing VRF and outcome data with up to 30 years of follow-up (25% Black, 54% female), 179 developed PD at a mean age of 73.4 years, 94 developed PDD at a mean age of 79.2 years, and 1,791 developed dementia without PD at a mean age of 79.7 years. Midlife current smoking (hazard ratio [HR] 0.36, 95% CI 0.21–0.61) was significantly associated with a lower PD rate, independent of other risk factors and demographics. Midlife current smoking was also significantly associated with a lower rate of PDD (HR 0.41, 95% CI 0.18–0.95). Other VRFs were not associated with either PD or PDD.

Discussion

Smoking status in midlife was associated with lower rates of PD and PDD, but other VRFs had no association with PD or PDD. Further studies should evaluate changes of these VRFs over the life course and explore mechanisms for the observed associations.

https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000213931

$30M Bitcoin Treasury Deal: KindlyMD Invests in Japan's First Bitcoin Treasury Company

KindlyMD (NASDAQ:NAKA) has announced that its subsidiary, Nakamoto Holdings, will invest up to $30 million in Metaplanet Inc.'s international equity financing. Metaplanet, Japan's first and leading Bitcoin treasury company, will use the proceeds primarily for Bitcoin acquisition and expanding Bitcoin net asset value.

The investment, scheduled to be funded on September 16, 2025, represents Nakamoto's largest single investment and first in an Asian public company with a Bitcoin treasury strategy. This follows KindlyMD's August 2025 merger with Nakamoto Holdings, creating a diversified entity focused on both healthcare innovation and Bitcoin treasury management.

https://www.stocktitan.net/news/NAKA/kindly-md-subsidiary-nakamoto-announces-30-million-investment-in-6ueptkyiz6fs.html