The Wire - August 25, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z August 25, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: DOMESTIC CONCERNS REMAIN HIGH IN UNITED KINGDOM FOLLOWING THE ARREST OF CHILD. TRUMP ORDERS CREATION OF NATIONAL GUARD QUICK REACTION FORCE. WHITE HOUSE DOUBLES NUMBER OF CHINESE STUDENTS ADMITTED TO AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES.//

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-International Events-

United Kingdom: Social tensions have continued to deteriorate following the arrest of a 14 year old girl for brandishing a knife on St. Ann Lane in Dundee, Scotland. Details are largely unclear, however the girl was attempting to defend her younger sister from the advances of a migrant while walking down the street.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - This morning President Trump signed several Executive Orders, the most prominent of which involved the banning of burning the American Flag, which is being phrased as a "hate crime" punishable by a mandatory-minimum prison sentence of one year. Other Executive Orders were also issued pertaining to ending federal funding to jurisdictions which allow the practice of cashless bail, as well as to expand the scope of National Guard deployments throughout the nation. This order directs the Pentagon to create the idea of a "standing National Guard Quick Reaction Force" (QRF), which can be deployed around the nation in a similar fashion as the force already deployed throughout Washington. This order also cracks down on HUD providing housing for violent criminals, and uses very politically correct language to more or less convey the idea of cleaning up the Section 8 housing projects throughout the city.

Analyst Comment: The EO pertaining to the deployment of National Guard very much illuminates the perspectives of the White House and defense officials. While it was glossed over in the text of the EO, that word "standing" as it applies to the National Guard reveals the wordsmithing that is at play. Due to the intricacies of how military forces are deployed in the United States for domestic policing roles, the White House is probably trying to treat the National Guard as a standing army so as to avoid getting entangled in the Constitutional problems of creating a standing army for domestic policing roles.

Washington D.C. - This afternoon, the White House announced the expansion of Chinese visas being allowed for educational purposes, with 600,000 Chinese students being allowed into the United States, more than double the 278,000 Chinese students which were enrolled at US universities over the past academic year.

Analyst Comment: This announcement has been cause for concern as, right now, trillions of dollars are being spent by the DoD to prepare for a war with China; the China/Taiwan conflict is the sole focus of INDOPACOM and all military service branches are currently working at breakneck speed to prepare for this conflict as it's no longer an "if" but "when" situation. As such, it's not a great look for the White House to confirm that 600,000 potential foreign adversaries are more important than 600,000 American students, especially since several Chinese researchers have been caught smuggling bioweapons into the United States over the past few years.

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Analyst Comments: As always, the details of the Dundee incident are sketchy and impossible to verify at present. Locals claim that the girl was attempting to defend herself from the advances of a migrant, who had just tried to solicit her younger sister, which resulted in a scuffle. After this solicitation attempt failed, the migrant continued his advances by lewdly recording a video of her on his phone. She pulled out a large kitchen knife and a hatchet as a means of defending herself and her sister from the migrant who would not stop following them as they tried to leave the area. Of note, the migrant recording the video of this incident inadvertently confirmed that he was indeed filming the children, and wouldn't stop following them.

Once again, the events leading up to the now-viral video of this incident can't be confirmed beyond all doubt either way, but considering the overall context of the situation, the description of events lines up with what has become a very common occurrence in many areas now. In many cases, migrants will approach children on the street and shamelessly start recording videos of them without even trying to conceal their behavior.

There is simply no effort at all by the authorities to protect children at this point, so in some cases children are beginning to arm themselves with what British authorities classify as "offensive weapons"...such as pocket knives (or really anything to protect themselves) even though it's exceptionally illegal to do so. There will be very few avenues to confirm how widespread this practice is (since it's illegal to talk about this sort of thing), but the quiet whispers and grumblings among friends often indicate that many people are taking measures to protect themselves as best they can, especially children who are old enough to understand what's going on.

This is a critical benchmark for any society; when even young children decide that the consequence for getting caught with a weapon is *lower* than the consequence of not defending themselves...this provides the context for how serious the situation really is.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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