INTERNACIONAL
From Austin to New York, pro-China network fuels week of anti-US protests as Xi meets Trump
As President Donald Trump readies for high-stakes negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a network of pro-China organizations funded by pro-communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham is taking to the streets from New York City to Austin, creating the image of rolling street unrest that lawmakers warn China can exploit to project a perception of chaos in the United States.
Yesterday, Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, wore a trademark fuchsia straw hat and protested across the street from the United Nations on E. 47th Street, between First and Second Avenue, under an arch at Katharine Hepburn Garden, smiling widely next to agitators from the far-left CodePink nonprofit she co-founded and her American-born husband helped fund from his base in Shanghai. As part of their elaborate weeklong calendar, the activists railed against the U.S. military and its «all-out climate and environmental devastation.» and then they marched to the offices of Open AI to demonstrate against data centers they allege «drive war» and «economic degradation.»
The week’s protests reflect a pattern of rapid mobilization around breaking news and political flashpoints. The sequencing of events — combined with messaging sharply critical of the United States and silent about China’s human-rights, environmental and civil-liberties record — raises questions lawmakers debated last week about whether some activists function as «Trojan horses» for foreign adversaries such as China. Recently, Evans posted a video lauding China for building an economy that helps citizens «grow and thrive.» Last year, Singham delivered a speech in China supporting the Chinese Communist Party and Xi’s «new world order.»
SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST GROUPS COORDINATE, PROMOTE ‘SPONTANEOUS’ ANTI-ICE PROTESTS IN AUSTIN
Lawmakers have warned that the cumulative visibility of such actions shape public perceptions, project an image of instability and give foreign adversaries a potential messaging – and negotiating – advantage as Trump prepares for high-stakes talks with Xi this week.
«The American people need to know that this is not just an organic movement,» Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Digital. «There has to be more transparency across all areas with these kinds of activities.»
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on China, told Digital the network’s grassroots image belies the serious funding infrastructure behind these groups. «In these situations where you have groups that portray themselves as grassroots, it’s really more Astroturf, very fake,» he said.
He said the protests «raises serious concerns» about malign foreign influence in the U.S., especially «when you see them actively speaking out against American interests.»
The protests are publicly framed as separate events involving immigration, climate change, artificial intelligence, militarism and Israel. But their shared sponsorships show how organizations within the broader Singham network move quickly from one issue to another, using national organizations, local chapters, social-media promotion and shared venues to create a cumulative impression of coordinated street activism.
Moolenaar called for «clarification and transparency» regarding the organizations’ finances and questioned whether they should continue receiving tax-exempt status, adding that their political involvement may violate «campaign rules and political rules here in the United States.»
LAWMAKERS RAISE ALARM OVER NEVILLE ROY SINGHAM’S $278M NETWORK SPREADING CCP PROPAGANDA IN THE U.S.
HASAN PIKER DEFENDS PRO-COMMUNIST, ANTI-ICE SINGHAM NETWORK ACTIVISTS AS ‘WONDERFUL PEOPLE’
The significance of the week’s activity is heightened by the scale of Singham’s financial support for the network. A Digital investigation has documented how Singham has pumped $285 million through a donor-advised fund and shell companies into a broader network of six major nonprofits, media outlets and activist organizations that have promoted anti-American and pro-China messaging.
In that network, Singham has given CodePink $1.33 million, while doling out $22.44 million to the People’s Forum, a hub for the protest activity this week, and $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media, a media arm of the network that is flooding social media with images and videos from the coordinated protests this week.
As Digital reported exclusively, the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York has convened a federal grand jury investigation into Singham’s financial network, sources say. Prosecutors are examining whether Singham, the organizations he funded or their leaders engaged in alleged wire fraud, bank fraud or money laundering, according to sources. Singham hasn’t been charged with a crime, and the investigation doesn’t establish that he personally directed each protest. Singham, the People’s Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough News haven’t responded to repeated requests for comment.
The sequence began Sunday night in Austin, where socialist and communist organizations rapidly promoted an anti-ICE protest after the shooting of Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez. The Democratic Socialists of America, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Party for Socialism and Liberation amplified calls for demonstrators to gather at 8121 Research Blvd. in Austin.
Although media accounts described the protest as organic, the mobilization moved through an existing national activist infrastructure. The Singham network’s Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization circulated video and protest messaging, while Democratic Socialists of America promoted the gathering as «spontaneous» and called supporters to the streets. The protest later spread beyond Austin, with activists in Pearsall, Tex., pledging to put «boots on the ground.»
In response to reporting on the protests, the Party for Socialism and Liberation published a video with an activist «rejecting» criticism of its Austin protests as a «nefarious» coordinated event and called the protests the result of «righteous anger.»
The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America and Freedom Road Socialist Organization didn’t respond to requests for comment.
CHINESE PROPAGANDA, SINGHAM NETWORK, FOREIGN DARK MONEY LINKED TO CAMPAIGNS AGAINST DATA CENTERS
On Monday, the network’s actions moved to New York City, where Singham’s wife, Evans, and her cadre of CodePink activists began a week of demonstrations tied to Climate Week and the United Nations. CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin has led previous protests, including demonstrations supporting China.
After the environmental activism led by Evans outside the UN, CodePink agitators joined an «Unplug OpenAI» protest outside OpenAI’s offices on Lafayette Street, linking artificial-intelligence data centers to the «military-industrial complex.» The group’s weeklong schedule promised «disruptions» and «bird-dogging,» a tactic in which seemingly regular people plant themselves in restaurants, conferences and other events to heckle and harass public officials and even ordinary citizens, peppering them with questions and shaming rhetoric without any real interest in a dialogue.
Early Tuesday, CodePink celebrated its «fearless cofounder» Evan’s birthday with an Instagram collage of photos from her decades of activism, including the image of a smiling Evans in her pink straw hat, standing beside fuchsia balloons from a campaign called «China Is Not Our Enemy» that the group launched after receiving the donations from Singham. Another photo included her beaming smile next to controversial Marxist influencer Hasan Piker, as the two joined a caravan to support the Communist Party of Cuba.
Later in the day, CodePink activists moved their campaign inside the People’s Forum, a Manhattan hub for communist organizing for a screening of a film, «Earth’s Greatest Enemy,» by a fiercely anti-U.S. film company, Watermelon Pictures, chronicling the U.S. military as «one of the most significant drivers of environmental destruction,» the «world’s largest institutional polluter.»
Back in Austin, a short while later at about 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time, the Singham network’s BreakThrough News propaganda network posted edited video clips from the Austin protests, headlined: «SECOND DAY OF PROTESTS IN AUSTIN AFTER ICE SHOOTS VENEZUELAN DELIVERY DRIVER.»
For Wednesday, Evans and CodePink promise more protests against the U.S. military’s «role in climate issues.»
On Thursday, as Xi meets with Trump in the White House, the People’s Forum, CodePink, the Palestinian Youth Movement and other groups in the Singham network are hitting the streets to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In social media posts, the groups are advertising a Thursday march from Bryant Park to the United Nations, calling on New Yorkers to «reject war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocidal Zionist project.»
That day, Evans and CodePink also plans to participate in a teach-in on «War & Climate: What U.S. Imperialism Demands of Our Climate Justice Movements» before joining the anti-Israel agitation. Organizers are lashing out against the «genocide» in Gaza and blasting «ecocide.»
By Friday, as Xi readies to leave town, the protests will go full circle back to Austin, with the Singham network’s Party for Socialism and Liberation planning a protest at 6 p.m. at City Hall with the simple message: «Now is the time for us all to be brave, to follow the example of Minneapolis earlier this year, and TAKE TO THE STREETS!»
fox news investigates, politics
INTERNACIONAL
Texas governor-elect’s plan to freeze electricity prices raises questions over legal authority
On her first day in office, Texas Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa plans to freeze residential electricity rates in response to what she described as an affordability crisis.
«On Day One as governor, I’ll freeze residential electricity rates and make corporations finally pay their fair share,» Hinojosa said in an interview with a local energy data group. She reiterated the plan in an interview with the Texas Tribune, stating, «Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to … freeze electricity rates.»
The plan is raising concerns that such a freeze will clash with Texas’ uniquely competitive energy sector, which relies heavily on free-market choice, and that it could inadvertently create energy shortages as suppliers are prevented from adjusting their prices.
DEMOCRAT GINA HINOJOSA STUNS ABBOTT, MAKES HISTORY AS FIRST LATINA TEXAS GOVERNOR
That’s the concern of Nick Loris, the president of C3 Solutions, a conservative coalition for climate solutions that focuses on energy, environment and agriculture policy.
He expects the emergency declaration will face legal challenges almost immediately from energy providers. In particular, he cast doubt on the scope of the emergency declaration.
«The Texas Disaster Act lets the governor declare disasters and suspend the regulatory laws and statutes that are in existence. But I think there is a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers, that this warrants such a claim — and that it is such a disaster,» Loris told Digital.
«I would imagine if there were legal challenges, it would come from those affected parties,» he added.
Loris explained that Texas has fostered one of the most competitive energy environments in the country.
In 1999, the state passed Senate Bill 7 — a piece of legislation that opened most of the state to retail choice, allowing customer to pick their preferred retail electric providers (REPs), beginning in 2002.
«The legislature finds that the production and sale of electricity is not a monopoly warranting regulation of rates, operations, and services and that the public interest in competitive electric markets requires that, except for transmission and distribution services and for the recovery of stranded costs, electric services and their prices should be determined by customer choices and the normal forces of competition,» the Texas Legislature wrote in the law.
TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT EFFECTIVELY PAUSES NEW DATA CENTER PROJECTS PENDING STATEWIDE GRID AUDIT
As a result of the law, Texas largely operates its own independent energy grid and runs an energy-only wholesale market in which generators are paid primarily for the electricity they produce rather than for standing capacity.
Texas has over 100 REPs that energy consumers can pick from, each competing for consumers’ business.
To Loris, the range of choices provides a remarkable amount of flexibility for consumers.
«It’s like shopping at a grocery store for cereal for your retail electricity. There’s so much choice that you can enter into. Short-term contracts, long-term contracts, use different fuel sources,» Loris said.
However, he warned that a utilitiesrfreeze undermines that competitive environment, causing providers to shoulder the burden of fluctuating supply.
«If the electricity suppliers are not covering the costs that they incur, that’s going to leave them worse off and make it more vulnerable for them to adequately provide that power,» Loris said.
AI’S MASSIVE APPETITE FOR POWER, WATER IGNITES FIGHT IN HIGH-STAKES TEXAS SENATE RACE
«Price signals really kind of act like a traffic light. They tell people when to speed up, when to slow down, or when to come to a full stop,» he added.
Having won her Nov. 3 gubernatorial race, Hinojosa will be sworn in on Jan. 19, 2027.
Her office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what her response would be if the rate freezes resulted in an energy shortage.
politics, texas, gubernatorial, governors, energy
INTERNACIONAL
La pelea que vio en un bar, tres días y medio de escritura frenética y el estudio que casi deja pasar otra obra maestra: así nació ‘Rocky’
Yo soy Rocky, el relato cómico y diseñado para complacer al público de Peter Farrelly sobre la realización de “Rocky”, podría parecer un doble golpe de nostalgia pura. Se cumplen casi exactamente 50 años desde que el clásico de boxeo que lanzó a Sylvester Stallone llegó por primera vez a los cines. Bastan unos escalones de Filadelfia o un grito de “¡Adrian!” para evocar una presencia cultural que sigue siendo omnipresente.
Sin embargo, aunque Yo soy Rocky no escatima sentimentalismo, apunta más al presente de lo que aparenta. La industria cinematográfica actual es tan corporativa y reacia al riesgo que la recuperación de “Rocky” a cargo de Farrelly resulta más disfrutable como recordatorio de que el cine es una empresa quijotesca, incluso disparatada. Algunas de sus mejores películas parten de ideas inherentemente malas.
El milagro de “Rocky” reside, en realidad, en que alguien aceptó hacerla. Stallone, con poco más de 20 años, apenas tenía en su haber algunas películas pornográficas de bajo presupuesto. Había pocos indicios de que el público reclamara un drama de boxeo. Y, sin embargo, Stallone, pese a su modesta posición en Hollywood y a su particular forma de hablar, no quería limitarse a vender el guion: insistía en protagonizarlo.
Por eso, aunque la convincente interpretación de Anthony Ippolito como Stallone está en el centro de Yo soy Rocky, la película pertenece a sus escépticos productores y a sus ejecutivos indignados. Tracy Letts interpreta a Sandy Maddox, el jefe de United Artists, un personaje compuesto. Los productores de “Rocky”, Irwin Winkler y Robert Chartoff, son encarnados por P. J. Byrne y Toby Kebbell, respectivamente. Todos quedan atónitos cuando Stallone, que había estado recientemente sin hogar, rechaza una suma que hoy equivaldría a millones, firme en su exigencia: “Yo interpreto a Rocky”.
Esta es la propia historia de superación de Stallone, una que refleja con precisión el improbable ascenso de Rocky Balboa. Pero la convicción de la película de que el cine desafía los algoritmos es lo que convierte a Yo soy Rocky en un entretenimiento divertido, aunque ligero.
Farrelly, que pasó su carrera haciendo comedias como “Dumb and Dumber” y “There’s Something About Mary” antes de pasar a filmes más dramáticos como la ganadora del Óscar a mejor película “Green Book”, realiza Yo soy Rocky con parte de ese mismo espíritu. Encadena escenas ágiles, casi improvisadas, y renuncia al preciosismo en favor de un ritmo de comedia disparatada. Según sugiere Yo soy Rocky, el cine debería ser una aventura.
El obstinado ascenso de Stallone, convertido ya en un mito, se condensa con ligereza en el guion de Peter Gamble. La historia comienza en Nueva York, donde Sylvester aún es Mike Stallone y avanza poco en las escasas audiciones que consigue. Pero sus sueños de triunfar en el espectáculo son sinceros. Esa sinceridad probablemente explica que Sasha, una empleada de taquilla interpretada por AnnaSophia Robb, acepte salir con él. Ella se convierte en la primera esposa de Stallone y, cuando ambos se mudan a Los Ángeles, en la mecanógrafa de sus guiones.
Y hay muchos guiones. Stallone escribió más de una docena antes de “Rocky”. El éxito no llegó de la noche a la mañana, y esa perseverancia vuelve entrañable su historia. ¿Cuántos aspirantes a protagonista musculoso en Hollywood, entonces o ahora, han trabajado tanto?
La base real de los hechos beneficia a “I Play Rocky”, que a veces se inclina hacia el cuento de hadas. Ippolito, conocido antes sobre todo por interpretar a Al Pacino en “The Offer”, reproduce los gestos y la voz de Stallone sin caer en la caricatura, una proeza si se considera la cantidad de imitaciones de Stallone que han surgido y desaparecido durante 50 años. Pero la interpretación resulta demasiado dulce y angelical. Stallone debió de ser algo más que un ingenuo dotado para lograr lo que consiguió. Ippolito interpreta a Rocky, no a Stallone.
Después de ver en un bar la pelea a 15 asaltos entre Muhammad Ali y Chuck Wepner, Stallone vuelve tambaleándose a casa y, en solo tres días y medio, “Rocky” brota de él. “Ese soy yo en la página”, dice agotado.
“I Play Rocky” finalmente llega al rodaje de la película, pero para entonces empieza a perder impulso. El eje del filme es la negociación por el guion, con Winkler y Chartoff como intermediarios que trasladan ofertas de un lado a otro. Stallone trabaja estacionando autos cuando rechaza USD 360.000, una cifra cuatro veces mayor que la oferta inicial, para ceder una opción sobre el guion sin que él fuera elegido para el papel.
Byrne y Kebbell son notables como dos productores veteranos y astutos que apenas pueden creer en el proyecto al que han apostado, aunque mantienen la fe. El jefe del estudio interpretado por Letts, todavía resentido por haber dejado pasar “The Godfather”, otro éxito de los años 70 que al principio parecía un fracaso anunciado, atraviesa sus escenas con una furia memorable.
Finalmente acuerdan una cifra mucho menor y un presupuesto muy reducido, de USD 1 millón, para “Rocky”. Eso implica una producción austera que se traslada a Filadelfia para evitar a los sindicatos de Nueva York. El célebremente eficiente John G. Avildsen, interpretado por Jay Duplass, es convocado para dirigir.
Una vez que las cámaras empiezan a rodar, incluido, como reconoce la película, uno de los primeros usos de la Steadicam, “I Play Rocky” se orienta más hacia la recreación nostálgica. Pero aún se percibe el afecto de Farrelly por un cine guiado por el instinto. En ese sentido, “I Play Rocky” no es tan distinta de otro drama sobre la realización de una película: Nouvelle Vague, de Richard Linklater, sobre el iconoclasta francés Jean-Luc Godard y Breathless, de 1960.
Un chiste recurrente consiste en que los actores exageran sus capacidades para conseguir un papel. Cuando Carl Weathers, interpretado por Stephan James, llega para hacer de Apollo Creed, termina por admitir que no sabe boxear, una confesión que también debe hacer Stallone. Que aquello se convierta en la película más taquillera del año hace de “I Play Rocky” una afectuosa referencia a la frase, citada con frecuencia y olvidada a menudo, de William Goldman: “En el cine, nadie sabe nada”.
Fuente: AP
Arts,Culture,Entertainment,Arts / Culture / Entertainment,North America
FIRST ON FOX: A new analysis from a conservative AI safety group found that deep-red counties with large data centers or proposed projects shifted further toward Democrats in last week’s midterm elections than comparable counties without such projects.
Humans First’s analysis, obtained by Digital, examined public election returns and data-center project records in 1,540 counties across 16 states. The memo used several comparisons to measure what the group describes as a «data center penalty.» Across all counties examined, those hosting large data centers shifted an additional 2.2 percentage points toward Democrats compared with non-host counties in the same states. The pattern appeared in 14 of the 16 states and 25 of the 27 governor and Senate races examined.
Restricting the analysis to deep-red counties — those President Donald Trump won by at least 20 points in 2024 — produced a 2.1-point raw gap between counties hosting large data centers and comparable counties without projects.
Among deep-red counties with projects still in the proposal stage, the gap was 1.1 percentage points after accounting for past voting patterns, rural or urban status, population size, racial and ethnic makeup and recent voting trends.
TEA PARTY FOUNDER LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE ‘DATA CENTER REVOLT’ AGAINST AI DATA CENTER EXPANSION
The group identified 114 proposed large data center projects across 92 deep-red counties, potentially setting up more local fights.
The memo found that Republican vote totals fell an additional 1.1% in deep-red host counties compared with comparable counties without large data centers, while Democratic vote totals showed no significant change.
The memo cautioned that its findings show an association rather than proof that data centers caused voters to change their behavior. County-level results also cannot determine whether Republicans switched their votes or simply stayed home.
«Our analysis looked at how counties with data centers voted and how those counties moved to the left,» Humans First Chairwoman Amy Kremer told Digital.
«I think this happened for the reason I’ve been warning conservatives and Republicans about for some time: People engage politically when issues affect them personally. There’s nothing more personal than your pocketbook, your health care, your kids and family, your home and your community. A data center involves all of those things, which is why I believe these counties moved away from Republicans,» she continued.
Humans First’s September «Data Center Revolt» bus tour made 35 stops in 27 states, including 14 stops in the states covered by the analysis. Nine of those stops were in deep-red counties, all of which hosted a large data center project. Those nine counties shifted 2.2 points further toward Democrats after the analysis accounted for its controls, compared with a 0.75-point shift among deep-red host counties overall. The group said those same nine counties showed no comparable gap from 2020 to 2024.
The findings do not establish whether the group’s visits influenced voting behavior or whether those counties already had stronger opposition to data center development.
Separately, voters favored restrictions on data center development or rejected measures supporting such projects in 46 of 47 local data center ballot measures in 2026, according to Ballotpedia. The measures included different types of proposals, including restrictions on development and advisory questions.
Kremer said this is a local control issue, stressing that Republicans should focus on protecting property rights and ensuring people have control over how things affect their lives.
«Whether you’re talking about AI technology or the infrastructure needed to build AI data centers, the American people have not had a seat at the table,» Kremer said. «They haven’t had a say in how the technology affects them or how the data center buildout affects their communities. In many places across the country, developers and companies have gone in and cut deals behind closed doors, under a cloak of darkness, using nondisclosure agreements and shell companies. By the time people in the community find out about the project, it’s too late to stop it.»
«These projects affect the quality of life and how much money people have. They can increase the cost of electricity and water, while tax abatements are given to trillion-dollar companies — some of the wealthiest companies in the world. That is money coming out of the pockets of the American people,» she continued.
Kremer added, «When you talk about Iran and gas prices, tariffs and now the AI data center buildout, all of these costs are coming out of people’s pockets. That’s when people engage politically, and I think that’s what we saw last Tuesday.»
The concerns come amid a broader debate over how data centers should pay for the electricity and grid infrastructure they require. The Energy Department estimates data centers used 4.7% of U.S. electricity in 2024 and, in its reference case, could account for 11.8% by 2030. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has directed regional grid operators to address safeguards against shifting the costs of serving large electricity users onto other customers. Those developments do not establish that data centers caused higher household rates in the counties examined by Humans First.
Tax incentives also vary by state. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that at least 38 states offer incentives specifically for data centers, including equipment-tax exemptions and, in some states, exemptions involving electricity or property taxes. The Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, says such incentives are similar to those offered to other capital-intensive industries and argues that data centers generate jobs, investment and tax revenue.
Humans First does not support a nationwide or statewide moratorium on data centers, but Kremer said individual communities should be free to approve or reject projects.
DATA CENTERS FORGOT THE CONSUMER — AND THAT COULD COST AMERICA THE AI RACE
«If a community comes together and votes for a moratorium, that is its prerogative. If a community wants a data center, that is its prerogative as well. It is all about local control,» she said.
Kremer said she learned that people engage more when it comes to issues that affect them personally, noting that data centers «encompass all of those issues.»
«Whether you’re talking about pocketbook issues, health care, kids and family, or your home and community, the data center battle is a physical manifestation of all those concerns,» she said. «When it comes to the economic impact on their communities, I think data centers absolutely played a role in the election.»
«I hope we can get on the right page and give local control back to communities. People should have a say in how they live and what goes into their communities. That is very personal, and I hope we can move in that direction,» Kremer added.
artificial intelligence, elections, politics, technology, midterm elections, republicans elections, voting
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