On Friday, authorities released video footage of the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers. CNN’s Van Jones authored an opinion article claiming that racism was the driving force in Nichols’s death despite the victim and accused officers all being black men. Media pundits echoed that sentiment, pointing to “systemic racism” and calling it irrelevant “whether the police officers are black.”

When violent riots erupted across the country in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, however, many of the same media pundits were quick to identify the race of the white officer who murdered Floyd as the most important detail of the case.

The post The Media Agree: Black Cops Beating Black Victim Is White Supremacy appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Event Announcements

Monday, Jan. 30, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. ET: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will host a press briefing ahead of Secretary Antony Blinken’s visit to China, to discuss the engagement and possible outcomes of the visit. The event will feature Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies; Bonny Lin, Director of the CSIS China Power Project; and Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics.

Monday, Jan. 30, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. ET: The Wilson Center will host a discussion on the evolution of nuclear force in Europe with insights from a new book by Susan Colbourn, “Euromissiles,” which illustrates European nuclear strategy from the Cold War to the present day. Following a keynote address delivered by Colbourn, who serves as the Associate Director of the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy, a panel discussion will be held, featuring Aaron Bateman, Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University, and Giordana Pulcini, Global Fellow at Roma Tre University.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. ET: The Atlantic Council will host a webinar to discuss how Western sanctions have affected Russia, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022. The event will feature Daniel Fried, the Weiser family distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council; Charles Lichfield, deputy director and C. Boyden Gray senior fellow at the Atlantic Council; Vladimir Milov, vice president of international advocacy at the Free Russia Foundation; Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute for International Finance; and Leonid Volkov, chief of staff for Alexei Navalny. 

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. ET: The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University will present a seminar covering the central role of Taiwan in the growing confrontation between the U.S. and China. The event will feature Kharis Templeman, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. ET: The Atlantic Council will host a discussion covering the imperative for continued Western support of Ukraine and strategies to counter Russian aggression. The webinar will feature Boris Johnson, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, who was a strong proponent of transatlantic cooperation throughout his tenure.

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023 at 1:15 p.m. ET: The Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin will host a discussion of how big tech firms in the U.S. and China have exploited government policy and jeopardized American security and the recently-released book “Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty.” The event will feature Aynne Kokas, author of “Trafficking Data” and the C.K. Yen professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. ET: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will host a conversation covering how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected Germany’s foreign and defense policy and shifted and impacted the balance of power in Europe. Remarks from Julia Ganter, editor of Körber-Stiftung, and Jacob Poushter, associate director at Pew Research Center, will precede a panel discussion. The panel will include Emily Haber, German ambassador to the United States; Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian ambassador to the United States; Dan Baer, senior vice president for policy research at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Sophia Besch, fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. ET: The Hudson Institute will host a virtual conversation about recent calls by Israeli Prime Minister Yariv Levin to reform the country’s judicial system. The event will feature Michael Doran, a senior fellow and director at the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, and Gadi Taub, an Israeli historian, and novelist.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. ET: The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University will host a discussion of deterrence in the nuclear age with insights from the “The Fragile Balance of Terror,” an edited volume that focuses on the deterioration of global nuclear security. The event will feature Rose McDermott, professor of international relations at Brown University, and Amy Zegart, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and professor of political science at Stanford University.

Friday, Feb. 3, 2023 at 12:45 p.m. ET: The George Washington University Law School will host a discussion of the Biden Administration’s approach toward international criminal justice. The conversation will feature Beth Van Schaack, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, and will be moderated by Laura Dickinson, the Oswald Symister Colclough research professor of law.

Employment Announcements (More details on the Job Board)

Associate Editor for Social Media, Lawfare

Senior Fellow, Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats, R Street Institute

Translational Fellow, Technology & Innovation Policy, R Street Institute

Fall 2024 Student Volunteer Program, U.S. Cyber Command

Program Officer, National Governing Institutions, The Hewlett Foundation

Professor of Practice for National Security, Cybersecurity, and Foreign Relations Law, The George Washington University Law School

Research Assistant, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University

Request for Resumes, Department of Defense Office of the General Counsel

(NewsNation) — An assistant principal at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, Rhode Island, has been placed on paid leave after sending an email to faculty and students requesting thousands of dollars to help settle a human smuggling debt.

On Jan. 26, assistant principal Stefani Harvey sent an email asking for donations to help a student “who came to America with ‘Coyote.'”

Harvey described “Coyote” as a “group that helps people,” although the term typically refers to someone who illegally smuggles migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This group gives you a time frame to make a payment of $5,000 dollars to those who bring them into the states,” Harvey wrote in the email.

The school administrator said the student needed “urgent support” to raise another $2,000 by February 1.

A representative for the school confirmed to NewsNation that the email did go out to staff and that the principal took steps to issue a retraction.

After calling the request “inappropriate,” the principal at the high school said all funds that had been donated would be returned.

Some Rhode Island parents are outraged.

“The danger and violence of the Mexican cartel quite literally came to the desk of public school teachers and it was sanctioned by their assistant principal and guidance counselor,” said Nicole Solas, a parent from Rhode Island who also works as a senior fellow with Independent Women’s Forum.

The students NewsNation spoke to said they want answers.

“It was not really talked about at all today,” one student told NewsNation. “It came out on like Friday. It wasn’t really talked about today. Especially with a group like that, having things to do with this school, it’s scary.”

On its website, the Mount Pleasant High school mission statement declares: “Mount Pleasant High School provides all learners with a meaningful and purposeful education through a wealth of opportunities to be connected to and feel secure within their school community.”

Solas said school administrators should have notified law enforcement, rather than ask for donations.

“This is a student in public school who is in danger,” said Solas. “His family could be killed in the country where he’s from if he doesn’t pay this money and instead of immediately notifying authorities we’re doing a fundraiser for the Mexican cartel.”

According to a United Nations report, human smuggling is a nearly $6 billion a year industry. It’s something Texas Sheriff Roy Boyd regularly sees firsthand.

“What we’re encountering in our area is cartels that have come in — they set up through their operatives, they set up stash sites — and they’re smuggling people through our communities,” said Boyd, who works in Goliad County.

The Rhode Island incident is just the latest evidence of a southern border in crisis as migrant encounters surge to record highs.

Solas called the student’s situation “heartbreaking.”

“We want the best for everybody but we also can’t deny how detrimental this is,” she said.

NewsNation reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment but the agency declined our interview request.

Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

• The Arnault family is betting big on K-Pop stars.
• In January, Delphine Arnault’s Dior signed BTS star Jimin as the brand’s global ambassador.
• Experts tell Insider this is a calculated move to tap into the booming South Korean market.

On January 11, Delphine Arnault was nominated by her father, luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, to helm Dior. Within days, the fashion house appointed Jimin, one of the seven members of the K-Pop supergroup BTS, as the brand’s global ambassador.

The singer’s agency, HYBE, directed Insider to a statement from Dior that said Jimin “embodies the spirit and singularity of Dior style.”

—Dior (@Dior) January 16, 2023

Delphine Arnault’s move comes over a year after her younger brother Alexandre Arnault, an executive vice president at Tiffany & Co., signed BLACKPINK singer Rosé to represent the jewelry house. Rosé now advertises Tiffany’s “Hardwear” line, a collection of necklaces and bracelets.

And in June, Celine — another brand under the massive umbrella of Arnault’s LVMH — invited BTS member V, BLACKPINK member Lisa, and South Korean actor Park Bo-gum to the brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 show in Paris. Lisa also worked with LVMH brand Bulgari, wearing one of their watches in a 2021 campaign.

All of which points at the undeniable: The world’s biggest luxury conglomerate is officially betting big on K-Pop.

BLACKPINK singer Rosé is one of the many famous faces who’ve headlined Tiffany’s advertisements in New York.

Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

South Korean idols are no strangers to luxury brands

South Korean celebrities wearing luxury goods are a common sight. There are even Twitter accounts dedicated to documenting every branded item they wear. BTS has repped outfits from LVMH brands at star-studded events: all seven members turned up for the Grammys in Las Vegas in 2022 wearing head-to-toe Louis Vuitton.

It’s not only LVMH: In January, BTS rapper SUGA became a brand ambassador for Valentino, per WWD. 

And long before BTS, G-Dragon — the leader of BIGBANG, a K-Pop band that dominated South Korea’s pop scene in the 2000s — was one of Chanel’s biggest representatives in Asia. The rapper forged a friendship with the late Karl Lagerfeld, and in 2015 walked in Chanel’s haute couture show in Paris. 

—CHANEL (@CHANEL) July 8, 2015

However, the Arnault family in particular appears to be moving aggressively into the South Korean market.

The reason might lie in the math. Beyond the fact that K-Pop stars come with legions of fans of their own, South Koreans are now the world’s biggest luxury consumers, CNBC reported, citing figures from Morgan Stanley. The estimated total value of South Korea’s spending on personal luxury goods in 2022 went up by 24% year-on-year. And the average South Korean person spent at least $325 on luxury items in 2022 — far exceeding the $55 per capita spending in China, and the $280 per capita expenses in the US, per Morgan Stanley.

Soo Kim, a business professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Business School, told Insider South Korea’s competitive environment and the seemingly insurmountable wealth gap are driving the luxury-spending machine in the country. South Koreans collectively ran up a staggering amount of debt in 2021 that exceeded the country’s GDP by 5%, but they continue to spend big on luxury goods.

The spending won’t stop because branded items help compensate for “constant threats” to the average South Korean consumer’s “ego,” Kim added. Luxury items also provide a “psychological release” — giving South Korean consumers control over their physical appearance, she told Insider.

“Furthermore, Koreans take great pride in their own citizens excelling in the global arena. Seeing their stars represent these luxury houses would positively impact Koreans’ perception of these brands,” Kim said. 

A targeted move to win over the South Korean market 

BTS member Jimin (left) and BLACKPINK singer Rosé.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy; Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Experts say there’s another big reason LVMH is looking at South Korea: It’s the gateway to Asia. 

“If you have South Korea, you have the northeastern Asian market,” Jacob Cooke, the chief executive officer of WPIC, a Beijing-based e-commerce consulting firm, told WWD in January.

There’s also South Korea’s cultural clout, David Dubois, a professor of marketing at INSEAD, told Insider. 

“Fashion trends tend to be created and adopted in South Korea, before being diffused to other markets in Asia,” Dubois said. He added that LVMH’s K-Pop promotions are a “continuation” of a long-term strategy to “establish long-lasting footprints” in the South Korean market.

And China, for various reasons, might also not be the prime market for LVMH’s products right now. 

“With the COVID lockdowns and the recent sentiment against wealth inequality and the overt display of wealth in China, the relationship between luxury houses and the Chinese market is murkier,” Kim, the Nanyang Business School professor, told Insider.

BTS showed up for the 2022 Grammys in head-to-toe Louis Vuitton.

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Kim said it “makes sense” for LVMH to re-distribute resources to places like Japan and Korea. She also said South Korea is “increasingly known” for its K-Pop stars, movies, and shows in the US — which helps with promotions stateside too.

“I’m sure also it doesn’t hurt that Korea receives a great number of Chinese tourists. Once the COVID situation settles, it is possible that Chinese tourists, with their spending power, return to Korea,” Kim said. “The investment in Korea could also serve as an indirect way to target Chinese consumers.” 

Representatives at LVMH did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

It’s a bird; it’s a plane; it’s a dome? Apparently, in the fantasy world of Donald John Trump, it is. The CEO of insurrections has expressed his fear of world war three. And he is promising that if he regains power which will not happen, he will build an “impenetrable dome” over the whole United States.

This mysterious dome would be state of the art and huge — the biggest, hugest dome ever!! (My words.) Aloft and floating above the American peoples’ heads, this dome will be created to keep ALL of us safe. Trump compared our future dome with Israel’s iron dome. Trump is apparently playing “keeping up with the Joneses,” — Dome style.

Why not go further and build a dome over every house in America? I’m sure that’s his next promise. Trump also said something else interesting in this tirade. Just look at the first few words. “When I am commander in chief..I will work with congress and our great military leaders.”

Trump said, “when I am commander in chief.” So — is he FINALLY admitting he lost? Does he even realize what he said? On Twitter, the mood was merry. Of course, it was because Twitter loves when Donald trump says something stupid, which is pretty much every day now:

“I have no words.”

“And Mexico is going to pay for it!”

“The Simpson movie taught him nothing.”

“I don’t trust the worst businessman in history.”

I think Trump should be MORE worried about impenetrable DOOM — his own. Georgia indictments will be announced any day now. Jack Smith is busy — very busy with his Trump investigations.

In other words — Trump is doomed, and he may soon have his own “dome” which has bars, doesn’t allow truth social, and only allows visitors on certain days. This imaginary dome sounds interesting, and it’s as fictional as anything Trump says.

The post Donald Trump’s impenetrable doom appeared first on Palmer Report.

The Memphis Fire Department has fired two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and an emergency vehicle driver who responded to the scene of the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols by five city police officers following a traffic stop on Jan. 7.

Here is a timeline of the medical response based on videos of the beating released by Memphis police and an account by the Memphis Fire Department:

8:24 p.m.

Memphis police officers begin using force on Nichols, yanking him out of his car and onto the ground and, soon after, spraying a chemical irritant into his face. A few minutes later, Nichols breaks free and runs away.

8:31 p.m.

Memphis fire dispatchers receive a call from police saying someone had been pepper-sprayed at the location where Nichols was pulled over in his vehicle by police, and two EMTs are sent out in a fire department vehicle, the fire department statement said.

Meanwhile, officers have caught Nichols again at a second location. Over the next few minutes, officers brutally beat Nichols; several officers punch him and kick him in the head and he is hit with a baton.

8:36 p.m.

The EMTs arrive at the first location where the traffic stop took place in a fire department vehicle, and are directed by police at the scene to the second location, the department said.

8:38 p.m.

His beating at the second scene over, Nichols is dragged across the asphalt to sit propped up against a patrol car, hands apparently cuffed behind him. Officers mill about for the next three minutes.

“He on something,” one of the officers says. “He cut in, he cutting through traffic, though oncoming traffic, everything.”

8:41 p.m.

Nichols slumps to his right and falls to the asphalt. An officer grabs Nichols by the arm and pulls him back into a sitting position.

The two fire department EMTs arrive with bags, which they place on the ground; their driver remains in the vehicle, the department said.

8:41 p.m. to 8:55 p.m.

Personnel on scene periodically tend to Nichols, although several minutes pass where no one is touching him and he is left unattended.

The EMTs appear to render some aid, although the view is obscured by officers gathering around or not visible as one officer covers his camera or turns it away. They also call for an ambulance to come.

Some remark that Nichols must have been high.

8:47 p.m.

One of the medical technicians asks Nichols: “What’d you have? We’re trying to get you straight. What’d you have?” Nichols’ response is unintelligible.

8:55 p.m.

The requested ambulance arrives, according to the fire department account, about 17 minutes after officers stopped their beating of Nichols. Medical workers can be seen tending to Nichols as he is propped up against the police car.

9:00 p.m.

A stretcher can be seen being wheeled into the area.

9:08 p.m.

Nichols arrives at St. Francis Hospital in critical condition.

The United States will not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its battle against Russia, President Joe Biden said, as Russian forces claimed a series of incremental gains in the country’s east.

Asked if the United States would provide the jets, Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday, “No.”

Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister said on Friday.

“The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets,” Yuriy Sak, who advises Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told Reuters then.

Biden’s comment came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had begun exacting its revenge for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion with relentless attacks in the east.

Zelenskiy has warned for weeks that Moscow aims to step up its assault after about two months of virtual stalemate along the front line that stretches across the south and east.

Ukraine won a huge boost last week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue.

While there was no sign of a broader new Russian offensive, the administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, said Russian troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the outset of the war.

Pushilin said Ukrainian forces were continuing to throw reinforcements at Bakhmut, Maryinka and Vuhledar, three towns running from north to south just west of Donetsk city. The Russian state news agency TASS quoted him as saying Russian forces were making advances there, but “not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter.”

Ukraine still controls Maryinka and Vuhledar, where Russian attacks were less intense on Monday, according to Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

Pushilin’s adviser, Yan Gagin, said fighters from Russian mercenary force Wagner had taken partial control of a supply road leading to Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk region that has been Moscow’s main focus for months.

A day earlier, the head of Wagner said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village just north of Bakhmut.

Kyiv said it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne and Vuhledar, and Reuters could not independently verify the situations there. But the locations of the reported fighting indicated clear, though gradual, Russian gains.

Zelenskiy said Russian attacks in the east were relentless despite heavy casualties on the Russian side, casting the assaults as payback for Ukraine’s success in pushing Russian forces back from the capital, northeast and south earlier in the conflict.

“I think that Russia really wants its big revenge. I think they have (already) started it,” Zelenskiy told reporters in the southern port city of Odesa.

Russian forces shelled a dozen settlements in the Bakhmut sector over the past 24 hours and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on towns near Avdiivka to the south, the Ukrainian Army general staff said late Monday.

In central Zaporizhzhia region and in southern Kherson region, Russian forces shelled more than 40 settlements. In Kherson, the Russians shelled towns on the left bank of the Dnipro River that they abandoned in November, Kyiv said. Targets included the city of Kherson, where there were casualties.

Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attempts to advance on a number of towns and villages in Donetsk region — including Bakhmut and several nearby settlements, according to Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

The front line in the sector has not changed, Zhdanov said.

The Russians also launched four rocket attacks on Ochakiv in southern Mykolaiv, the army said, on the day Zelenskiy met the Danish prime minister in Mykolaiv city, to the northeast.

The hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles pledged to Ukraine by Western countries in recent weeks for a counteroffensive to recapture territory are months away from delivery.

This leaves Kyiv to fight through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.

Moscow’s Wagner mercenary force has sent thousands of convicts recruited from Russian prisons into battle around Bakhmut, buying time for Russia’s regular military to reconstitute units with hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Zelenskiy is urging the West to hasten delivery of its promised weapons so Ukraine can go on the offensive.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western countries supplying arms leads “to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so.”

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank said “the West’s failure to provide the necessary materiel” last year was the main reason Kyiv’s advances had halted since November.

The researchers said in a report that Ukraine could still recapture territory once the promised weapons arrive.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow justifies as necessary to protect itself from its neighbour’s ties with the West, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

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