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Iconic DC landmark unveils first Christmas tree as part of push to revive holiday spirit

Iconic DC landmark unveils first Christmas tree as part of push to revive holiday spirit

FIRST ON FOX: The Kennedy Center will unveil its first-ever Christmas tree and lighting ceremony in December as the iconic cultural landmark under the Trump administration continues promoting Christmas-centered events and performances, Fox News Digital learned.  The Kennedy Center, which serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. and located along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., will unveil what officials say is its first ever Christmas tree with a lighting ceremony Dec. 17.  “The Kennedy Center’s inaugural Christmas Tree Lighting is a milestone for America’s cultural center, one of Washington’s premier holiday attractions,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, told Fox News Digital. “We are grateful to partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to showcase a beautiful red spruce from the highest peaks of the Southern Appalachians and create new traditions for families and visitors this holiday season.” FOX NATION PATRIOT AWARDS TROPHIES FORGED FROM AMERICAN HISTORY WITH NAILS FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON’S CHURCH The tree is a towering 18-foot red spruce donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and harvested from the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in southern Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains.  The tree lightening ceremony invites families and other visitors to take part in the event, which will include Christmas entertainment and remarks from Kennedy Center leadership and special guests, Fox News Digital learned.  “The ceremony will mark a historic moment for America’s cultural center as it establishes a new holiday tradition in the nation’s capital,” the Kennedy Center said of the tree lighting ceremony in a press release provided to Fox News Digital.   The Kennedy Center has long held Christmas events, but has come under fire from President Donald Trump and the administration for previously hosting left-wing performances, such as drag shows, at the venue at other times in the calendar year. This year’s schedule boasts a handful of Christmas events, including those focused on the birth of Jesus and other religious events, such as a Christmas concert including a live nativity.  WHITE HOUSE OPENS SOUTH LAWN TO TRICK-OR-TREATERS FOR HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION WITH TRUMPS “We are proud to present a meaningful, faith-filled experience for families to immerse themselves in the Christmas story at America’s cultural center,” Daravi told The Christian Post of the upcoming Christmas show. “Tis the season to create cherished memories and celebrate the sacred alongside the festive.”  Kennedy Center President and Ambassador Richard Grenell said early in his term as the cultural center’s chief that the center would promote traditional and Christ-focused holiday events.  NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TO OPEN ALL OF ITS KENNEDY CENTER SHOWS WITH THE NATIONAL ANTHEM Grenell told Fox News Digital in February of this year that he would help usher in the “Golden Age of the Arts” with a stack of performances that attract visitors as the Kennedy Center faces a persistent uphill battle to become profitable amid years of running in the red.  “How crazy is it to think that we’re going to celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big traditional production, to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime, which is the birth of Christ?” Grenell said back in February while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

China’s energy siege of Taiwan could cripple US supply chains, report warns

China’s energy siege of Taiwan could cripple US supply chains, report warns

Instead of waging a bloody battle that could ignite a clash between nuclear-armed states, China may be betting it can conquer Taiwan without firing a shot — by choking off the island’s fuel and electricity until its government capitulates. China’s campaign wouldn’t start with missiles but with paperwork and patrol boats — “routine” inspections, new customs rules and cyber intrusions designed to quietly strangle Taiwan’s imports while giving Beijing plausible deniability, according to a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).  The report warns that a successful Chinese squeeze on Taiwan’s fuel would ripple far beyond Asia. With the island producing most of the world’s advanced semiconductors, any prolonged power outage could halt global electronics and defense manufacturing — hitting U.S. supply chains and markets almost immediately. “Beijing’s goal isn’t to invade today, but to make Taiwan believe resistance is futile tomorrow. Its gray-zone campaign is a strategy of slow-motion strangulation — one that risks a sudden shock as Chinese ships and aircraft surge around the island,” report author Craig Singleton said. TAIWAN’S ENERGY DEPENDENCE IS ‘ACHILLES HEEL’ AMID IMMENSE THREAT BY CHINA The findings stem from a tabletop exercise conducted this summer by FDD and Taiwan’s Centre for Innovative Democracy and Sustainability at National Chengchi University. The simulation, called “Energy Siege,” tested how the Chinese Communist Party might escalate from bureaucratic interference to a full-blown energy quarantine. Teams representing China, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and other allies wargamed a monthslong campaign in which Beijing throttled Taiwan’s fuel imports through “gray-zone” tactics — administrative slowdowns, cyberattacks and disinformation — all while maintaining plausible deniability. The exercise found that a prolonged squeeze on Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) could cripple its electrical grid within weeks and trigger a global chip shock. The report warns that cyber operations and propaganda would be central to Beijing’s playbook. Chinese hackers have already doubled successful intrusions into Taiwan’s energy grid over the past year, and the exercise envisioned them embedding malware in LNG terminals and power-plant control systems to disrupt shipments and distribution. At the same time, Beijing would unleash a barrage of false narratives — rumors of blackouts, fuel hoarding and government incompetence — to erode public trust and fracture morale. “For Beijing, disinformation is not a sideshow but its primary weapon,” the report notes, describing a campaign designed to “control the narrative and sap its adversaries’ will.” HIGH STAKES ON THE HIGH SEAS AS US, CHINA TEST LIMITS OF MILITARY POWER Taiwan imports nearly all of its energy — half from natural gas and about 30% from coal — and holds only “a few weeks’ worth” of reserves. “Taiwan’s three main LNG terminals and the Taichung coal offloading port are clustered along the island’s west coast, within range of the CCP’s missiles as shipments are funneled through narrow Taiwan Strait lanes,” the report adds. That dependency makes Taiwan one of the world’s most energy-insecure economies. A blockade or “energy quarantine” could cut the island’s power generation in half within weeks — forcing leaders to decide whether to keep the lights on for hospitals or for chipmakers like TSMC and UMC, Singleton and co-author Mark Montgomery write. “Coercion, not combat, is Beijing’s preferred weapon,” Singleton said, adding that such a blockade would have “ripple effects that would reshape global markets and stability alike.” The report also calls for the United States to expand its own LNG export capacity — particularly through new projects in Alaska — to ensure it can supply Taiwan directly and make U.S. energy a core element of the island’s resilience. Taiwan produces around 60% of global semiconductor chips and 90% of the world’s most advanced chips, though TSMC is building a facility in Arizona to help offset that imbalance. “The choice to slowly shutter industrial capacity would eventually make Taiwan’s conundrum a global catastrophe when a plurality of the world’s supply of legacy chips and a supermajority of its advanced chips cease flowing,” the report says. The authors argue that Taiwan should build up its LNG reserves through greater U.S. supply and for the U.S. Navy to be ready to escort vessels delivering it. “Beijing believes pressure plus patience equals political collapse,” Montgomery said. “What unnerves China isn’t Taiwan’s defiance, but its people’s ability to withstand coercion.” Beijing’s information strategy, the report adds, would aim to quietly turn Taiwan’s population against its own government and allies — amplifying stories questioning President Lai Ching-te’s competence, spreading rumors of military fuel hoarding and blackouts, and circulating claims that the U.S., Japan and Australia would hesitate to intervene. China’s propaganda campaign could also reach the American public, the authors warn, through efforts to “seed questions across U.S. online ecosystems designed to wear down the American public’s commitment to continued convoy operations.” For now, the contest remains theoretical. But as China builds the tools to choke Taiwan’s energy supply and shape its narrative abroad, the line between peace and pressure is narrowing. The exercise suggests the first shot in the next Taiwan crisis may not be fired at all.