China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to boost Beijing's geopolitical influence by building military bases, airports, and roads in developing countries. Roughly five years ago, however, Xi Jinping expanded the initiative's scope to include green energy—and Michael Bloomberg's eponymous philanthropy is going along for the ride.
Xi established the Belt and Road International Green Development Coalition in April 2019. Its founding charter stipulates that it's controlled by Beijing's ecology and civil affairs ministries and must comply with CCP laws. Those ministries use the organization to cultivate international support for Belt and Road under the guise of environmentalism. Bloomberg Philanthropies is an eager participant, our Thomas Catenacci reports.
The nonprofit's head of environmental programs, Antha Williams, serves as an adviser to the co-chairs of the organization, who include a top CCP official. And while Bloomberg Philanthropies makes little mention of its role in the coalition, Michael Bloomberg himself is a fan, having pledged during his short-lived presidential campaign to "provide technical assistance to countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative to ensure that they have clean alternatives to coal-fired power."
"National security experts who spoke to the Free Beacon warned that such a collaboration creates a host of national security concerns and makes American institutions more vulnerable to Chinese influence campaigns," writes Catenacci. "They added that the Belt and Road Initiative and BRIGC have been carefully constructed to boost China's strategic power rather than to reduce emissions or address global warming."
"The initiatives, for example, include the development of a 'green Silk Road' to make infrastructure projects more climate-friendly, the Green Innovation Conference promoting green technology development, and the Green Investment and Finance Partnership that boosts green investments in China. Those priorities were outlined at the most recent BRIGC convening in Beijing in March 2024 where officials stressed the importance of continued collaboration between all partners. Several American nonprofits participated in the meeting."
The House Education Committee may have a new chairman, but its efforts to fight anti-Semitism at Columbia aren't going anywhere. The committee's new leader, Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), sent the Ivy League school a letter on Thursday requesting "a fresh round of disciplinary documents related to recent anti-Semitic demonstrations," the Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports. He also hammered Columbia for its "continued failure to address the pervasive antisemitism that persists on campus" during the ongoing fall semester.
On the first day of that semester, student radicals blocked the entrance to Columbia, vandalized a statue, and clashed with police. Months later, in January, they stormed an Israeli history class and targeted Jews with anti-Semitic flyers that glorified Hamas and promised violence. Most recently, Columbia's leading anti-Semitic student group clogged campus toilets with cement and soaked a business school building with red paint, tactics the student radicals learned months earlier at an anarchist training session held at the home of a Columbia literary society.
Those incidents, Walberg wrote, demonstrate that Columbia "has failed to uphold its commitments, both because the disciplinary process has failed and because the campus administration has refused to enforce its pre-existing rules." Walberg went on to note that Columbia "receives billions in federal funding." He gave Columbia two weeks to produce "all disciplinary records" related to the aforementioned incidents and a few others, including a September protest that saw students target a class taught by former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Walberg's letter shows that, while the education committee's leadership has changed, its focus on anti-Semitism in higher education remains. During the last Congress, the committee, then led by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), subpoenaed Columbia after the school failed to turn over documents related to anti-Semitism. Columbia could face a similar fate should it stonewall Walberg's request, though a representative for the school said it would cooperate.
Read more here.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Democrats across the country lost sleep over the "uncommitted" movement that opposed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over their on-and-off support for Israel. Judging by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's latest official state trip, that movement still has a grip on the party.
Whitmer "took 17 local officials, businessmen, community leaders, and the head of the Michigan National Guard on a trip to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to strengthen economic ties to the region," our Chuck Ross reports. Included among those guests was Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Michigan-based Arab American News who is best known for hailing the leader of Hezbollah, expressing support for Hamas, and calling for the Jews to be sent "back to Poland."
"It’s a controversial choice for Whitmer, considered a top contender for the Democratic presidential primary in 2028," writes Ross. "Siblani is a vocal critic of Israel and was a leader in the 'uncommitted' movement that opposed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over U.S. support for Israel in its war with the terrorist group Hamas. And Siblani has gone far beyond simple criticism of the Jewish state." In 2022, for example, he urged Arabs to "fight within [their] means" against Israel, whether with "stones," "guns," or "their hands." He later bragged that he refused to condemn Hamas during a call with the Biden White House in 2021.
"Siblani's rhetoric should be no secret to Whitmer, who will leave office next year. The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have condemned Siblani's remarks over the years and blasted the White House and Biden campaign last year for sending officials to meet with Siblani in Dearborn in hopes of gaining his political support."
Away from the Beacon:
- Hamas, which is purportedly bound to a ceasefire agreement with Israel, attempted to launch a rocket at the Jewish state on Thursday. It landed inside Gaza and killed a 14-year-old boy.
- Kamala Harris holds a dominant lead over her fellow Democrats in the race to become California's next governor. Residents of the Golden State: Get out while you can.
- During Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing, Bernie Sanders emphasized the need to make the Department of Education "more effective." Remind us: Who was in charge for the last four years?