Alex Wong Masterminded Signal Fracas? And Gettin' Ghibli With It
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 27 Mar, 2025

Alex Wong accused of masterminding Signal conspiracy, Samsung CEO's premature death, and Simu Liu's ShangChi Sequel

This week’s headlines were dominated by a steady stream of details about the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat on Signal, a scandal in which President Trump’s top Defense and National Security officials were caught flippantly discussing real time war plans after accidentally adding an Atlantic reporter to the 17-person group chat.

One member of the chat was Trump’s Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Alex Wong.  Some of you might already guess what happened next: Trump ally and wingnut Laura Loomer wasted no time posting some convoluted nonsense on Twitter claiming that Wong was “part of a foreign opp to embarrass the Trump administration on behalf of China” and that “Alex Wong should be removed from his position, and both he and his wife [who is also Chinese] should be investigated by the FBI.”

Maybe we should all be flattered by the perception that Asians must be carrying out some genius plan at all times.  And yet Wong’s involvement in this scandal is a reminder that sometimes, we're simply just f***-ups.

Han Jong-Hee, the Korean Co-CEO of Samsung died unexpectedly from a heart attack on Tuesday at age 63.  Most of Han’s time at Samsung, which began in the late 80s, was spent in the TV division where he helped make the company the world's leading TV manufacturer. Age 63 is considered a relatively young death as South Korea is known to have one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world with men expected to live around 81, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, South Korea has been found to have the single lowest rate of heart disease of any country. 

Comic book movie nerds finally got some long-awaited details about the next installment of the Avengers franchise, titled “Avengers: Doomsday.” On Thursday, Marvel’s X accounts individually posted the names of the film’s cast members, one by one. Notably, Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu will be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, presumably to reprise the role of superhero Shang-Chi.

2021’s Shang-Chi was both a critical and ratings success, which is why the radio silence surrounding the status of a sequel has been surprising. It’s fitting that Liu’s participation in “Avengers: Doomsday” was announced on X given that when plans for the first ShangChi film were announced in 2018, he tweeted “OK, Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi” which may have directly led to his getting the role. ShangChi may not use a firearm but “shooting your shot” is definitely Liu's superpower. 

Finally, if you’re struggling to remember which Studio Ghibli film depicted the horrors of 9/11 or, say, memes of a very baby-faced Vice President JD Vance, rest assured that you’re not losing your mind. OpenAI’s latest product, a generator that can make any image look like it was created by Japanese Animation company “Studio Ghibli,” is sweeping the internet.  Users are taking turns “Ghibilifying” just about any image they can think of. If you’re wondering what Ghibili founder Hayao Miyazaki thinks of this new filter, look no further than an old video of him referring to AI as “an insult to life itself.” Assuming the video was real, of course. You can’t trust anything on the internet these days.