Superpower Summit: Taiwan Touchy Issue. New York Times’ Bow Wow Tale on Israel’s Alleged ‘Rape’ Dogs. Mamdani’s Budget. WaPo: Gavin’s Diaper Program Makes Parents Babies. More

Not surprisingly, the New York Times characterizes Chinese President Xi as a “philosopher king” this morning, the day the superpower summit gets underway. I kid you not.

President Trump is expected to “press” the Philosopher King—also known as a despot—on support for Iran, trade, and Taiwan. Taiwan will be “one of the touchiest subjects of this week’s summit,” says The Free Press, which features a symposium on how Taiwan will play.

“Trump Can Stare Down a Weak Xi Jinping This Week,” writes China expert Gordon Chang at Gatestone Institute. The Washington Post proposes that President Trump arrives in China with lowered ambitions, hoping for deals. Bret Stephens of the New York Times writes that China is much weaker than it seems, but that is the bad news. The New York Post reveals Trump’s “first request” of Xi.

Meanwhile, Drudge and like-minded outlets are having a field day with President Trump’s alleged admission that he “doesn’t think about [the] American financial situation.” This was the takeaway from a presser as the president prepared to fly to China. Powerline calls it “the Dems’ absurd lie of the day,” misleadingly concocted from sentence fragments.

It would have been absurd, Powerline added, for President Trump to go to the negotiating table with the Philosopher King while admitting that he is quaking in his boots about the U.S. economy. But he knows that the Labor Department’s latest consumer price index is not good news: the CPI rose at a 3.8% annual pace in the year ending in April, up from 3.3% in March and much hotter than the 2.4% in February. Gasoline prices, as you already know, are key.

A Twitchy headline to love: “Kristof Screws the Pooch.” Kristof is the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who recently wrote that Israel used sexual predation—including dogs trained to rape human beings—against Gazans. National Review’s Brittany Bernstein writes that “Kristof’s Extraordinary Claims” require “extraordinary evidence,” which the New York Times did not have. She writes:

But media watchdogs have now raised questions about the integrity of the sourcing in the reported opinion column, which relies predominantly on claims from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and several individuals with checkered backgrounds.

“There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes,” Kristof acknowledges. “But in recent years they have built a security apparatus where sexual violence has become, as a United Nations report put it last year, one of Israel’s ‘standard operating procedures’ and ‘a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians.’”

Bernstein quotes a canine behavior expert saying that the claim that dogs could be trained to rape human beings is “absurd,” though it would be possible to train a dog to inflict damage on genitals. A piece in the Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” section explores the sourcing of Kristof’s “unbelievable tale.”

Don’t miss Powerline’s “Annals of Dog Rape” (family-friendly alert: there’s a bestiality mention) and the Free Beacon’s report, including a series of factual errors that have dogged Kristof. Israel accuses the Times of committing a “blood libel,” while columnist Andrea Peyser says the story is the latest in a libelous campaign against Israel. 

The timing of the Kristof story is interesting. It came out just before Israel’s release of the damning findings of a two-year investigation into Hamas’ use of rape and sexual torture during the October 7 massacre of Israelis. Hamas’ barbarism that day was almost unimaginable horror.

New Yorkers are about to find out how expensive free stuff is. The New York Post on Mayor Mamdani’s new budget: “Mamdani boasts of savings in $124.7B NYC budget plan — that’ll nickel-and-dime New Yorkers with hidden fee hikes.” The Post reports:

Zo’s nickel-and-diming New Yorkers to save a buck.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially rolled out his $124.7 billion spending plan Tuesday as he patted himself on the back for closing a so-called multibillion-dollar budget gap with short-term fixes — but included a menu of hidden fee hikes.

Fiscal watchdogs poked holes in Hizzoner’s cheers that his first-ever budget was “evidence of a new era of government in our city” as his administration touted numerous ways the city would hold onto $1.7 billion over the next two years.

“School Choice Is a Winning Issue for Republicans” is the headline on Jason Riley’s column today. Riley notes that two Dem Governors—New York’s Kathy Hochul and Colorado’s Jared Polis—have embraced the federal tax credit created by the Big Beautiful Bill and aimed at promoting school choice. Riley writes:

Republican candidates looking for an issue in November with broad bipartisan support might consider talking up school choice. To paraphrase President Trump, what do they have to lose?

The poor quality of our K-12 system, particularly in large urban districts, is a perennial voter concern. Yes, good public schools exist, but they tend to be in communities where only the better-off can afford to live. Affluent families who don’t like their local options use private schools or relocate, while poorer families are relegated to schools where most children can’t read or do math at grade level.

Democrats and their teacher-union confederates have been calling the shots on education policy for decades, and they’ve chosen to perpetuate a system that everyone knows disproportionately harms underprivileged minorities. Republicans haven’t spent nearly enough time talking about this, but now’s their chance.

Minnesota Fraud Update. “Million-dollar SNAP food stamp fraud scheme in Walz’s backyard sparks outrage,” Fox Digital reports. What stood out was the sophistication and patience of the scheme:

Abdidwahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, allegedly used EBT cards registered to others to purchase items at Sam’s Club and Costco in 2021 before turning around and reselling them in his store, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.

Authorities in Hennepin County say they observed Mohamed making purchases and followed him back to his store with the goods. Surveillance footage and GPS data backed this up, while investigators noted that many of the EBT cardholders were either out of the country or say they never shopped at the stores he used. 

“Is Spencer Pratt the hero LA needs?” Joel Kotkin asks in Unherd of Los Angeles’ iconoclastic candidate for Mayor. Kotkin concludes:

Today LA, like its longtime rival New York, is increasingly dominated by highly organized public unions. They appeal to the same constituency of overeducated, underpaid single professionals who elected Zohran Mamdani in NYC. In both cities, espousing anti-Trump views and opposing ICE outweigh matters such as decent public services or economic growth. On the positive side, Pratt is rallying those who despair over the decline of one of the world’s great cities. Whether there are enough people who believe that may prove to be the critical factor.

Meanwhile, critics are claiming that California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new free diaper program is all wet. An editorial in the Washington Post argues that the diaper program “infantilizes” new parents. GOP candidate to succeed Newsom, Steve Hilton, calls attention to the price of the diapers—apparently, taxpayers will pay triple what the diapers cost at Target.

Carnivores, Unite! Meat may cure what ails you. Alan Dershowitz explains why, despite appearances, 1935 was the worst year in history. Not idle musing, the Dersh ties 1935 to 2026, which still has a shot at being a very good year.