CHINA SYNDROME: Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned President Trump that if the Taiwan situation is handled poorly that could lead to conflict and “an extremely dangerous situation.”

  Speaking at a state banquet in Beijing Xi warmed up Trump saying, “The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.” Then he said of the Taiwan situation, “If handled poorly, the two countries will collide or even clash, putting the entire U.S.-China relationship in an extremely dangerous situation,” according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

  The island country of Taiwan, 100 miles off the coast, has a long history of invasion and colonization by European countries as well as annexation by Chinese dynasties. The Chinese communists failed to take Taiwan when they won the rest of the country in 1949, and they’ve wanted it ever since.

  Trump needs China’s help ending what has become an embarrassing stalemate with Iran and China’s Xi is determined to “re-unify” Taiwan with mainland China. Xi is bound to ask Trump to dial back weapons sales to Taiwan in exchange for help ending the Iran war and Trump’s trade issues.

  The White House said both sides agreed yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open for shipment of oil, natural gas, and fertilizer. “Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” according to the US readout of the meeting.

  Trump arrived in Beijing flanked by 17 of America’s richest and most influential business executives including Tim Cook of Apple, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia. Business is high on the agenda. Also on board Air Force One was Eric Trump, the President’s son who runs the family business. The Trump family business is never far from the national business.

SOUTHERN GOTHIC: South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction of lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who had been found guilty of murdering his wife and one of his sons in a trial that fed the tabloids. The court cited “shocking jury interference” by a court clerk shepherding the jurors during the 2023 trial, who told the panel among other things to watch Murdaugh’s unconvincing body language.

  The 57-year-old Murdaugh will remain in prison because he also pleaded guilty to bilking his former law firm and clients of millions of dollars.

  Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and his younger son, Paul, 22, were found shot dead on the family’s hunting estate in June of 2021. A year passed before Murdaugh was arrested. Prosecutors argued that the murders were a desperate attempt by Murdaugh to gain sympathy as his drug use and embezzlement were about to be exposed.

  After the trial some jurors said court clerk Becky Hill had made those prejudicial comments about Murdaugh. The local prosecutor said he will seek a new trial.

MURDER, SHE WROTE: Kouri Richins, the mother of three who wrote a children’s book about grief after the poisoning murder of her husband, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday in Park City, Utah for killing her husband.

  Siblings of Eric Richins spoke in court about their loss and even the Richins children wrote letters saying they were scared of their mother. “I feel a lot better about myself now than I did with Kouri,” her youngest son said. “I want her to go to prison forever. If she got out, I would be so scared, really mad and I wouldn’t want to go with her anywhere.”

  Kouri Richins was accused of killing her husband for his money so she could run off with a boyfriend. She still denies it, but her youngest son wrote, “I want her to go to prison forever.”

INFINITE SCROLL:

— Kevin Warsh, who was President Trump’s pick, was confirmed yesterday to be the next head of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Jerome Powell, the man Trump loves to hate whose term as chair ends tomorrow. 

  Trump has been hounding Powell to lower interest rates and with inflation rising it may not happen this year under Warsh either.

— Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski became a third vote yesterday siding with Democrats in another unsuccessful attemopt to end the war in Iran. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted with the Republicans.

— The Trump administration says it will withhold $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California, saying the state failed to fight fraud in the public health insurance program.

— A federal judge said Trump administration most likely violated the law by deporting a Colombian woman to the Democratic Republic of Congo over that country’s objection and ordered that she be brought back to the US.

THE SPIN RACK:  While the rest of the press and the network anchors reported Trump’s trip from Beijing, CBS Evening News Anchor Tony Dokoupil based himself in Taiwan. Several outlets reported that Dokoupil failed to get a visa for China in time for the trip. CBS said they were focusing on the importance of Taiwan in the talks. Dokoupil abruptly disrupted the broadcast near the end when a member of the camera crew had a medical emergency. You could hear the anchor say, “We have a medical emergency here.” The cameraman is reported to be alright.

 BELOW THE FOLD:  Hate the dentist? Try a neanderthal.

  Scientists have discovered a neanderthal tooth with a carefully drilled hole in it, indicating that the species had figured out crude dentistry. An archaeologist told the NY Times in an email that the tooth shows a sophisticated level of thinking, recognizing the source of pain and understanding of the necessity to remove the painful decay in the tooth.

  You have to assume there was no Novocain. 

  Andrey Krivoshapkin, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said, “This is not simply self‑medication like we see in other primates chewing on medicinal plants. It was a deliberate, planned therapeutic act.”

  Kind of like my childhood dentist. 

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