News

CIA Director: China Will Use ‘Overwhelming Force’ To Invade Taiwan

Russia’s ongoing struggle to defeat Ukraine has altered the scale and timeline surrounding China’s Taiwan invasion strategy, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said Wednesday.

Beijing is “unsettled” by Russia’s “strategic failure” in Ukraine and now believes it requires “overwhelming force” to conquer Taiwan, CIA Director William Burns said during an interview at the Aspen Security Forum. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 10,000 have died as of June 24, many of whom have been civilians, BBC News reported.

After the Kremlin launched a multi-pronged attack on Ukraine, poor planning, overconfidence and fierce resistance contributed to heavy Russian casualties and a failure to capture any major cities in the early days of the war, Defense One reported. Meanwhile, international sanctions have been levied against Russia’s economy and the Ukrainian war effort has been bolstered by an influx of money and military hardware from the U.S. and other allied countries, such as the United Kingdom. Source: Daily Caller

House Democrats Block Republican Resolution Condemning Violence at Churches, Pregnancy Centers

House Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican resolution that would have condemned the violence seen by radical pro-abortion activists at churches and pro-life pregnancy centers in recent months.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked in May, churches and pregnancy centers saw an onslaught of attacks from radical pro-abortion activists. For example, an individual reportedly lit and threw a Molotov cocktail into Wisconsin Family Action’s facility. Further, the radical pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge admitted to vandalizing and threatening four churches in Washington.

The violence at churches and pregnancy centers continued after the Supreme Court officially overturned the landmark abortion case. There have reportedly been more than 50 instances of arson or vandalism in such locations after the Court’s decision was finalized and more than 100 since the opinion was leaked. Source: Breitbart

Mystery solved: DOJ secretly thwarted release of Russia documents declassified by Trump

In the final hours of the Trump presidency, the U.S. Justice Department raised privacy concerns to thwart the release of hundreds of pages of documents that Donald Trump had declassified to expose FBI abuses during the Russia collusion probe, and the agency then defied a subsequent order to release the materials after redactions were made, according to interviews and documents.

The previously untold story of how highly anticipated declassified material never became public is contained in a memo obtained by Just the News from the National Archives that was written by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows just hours before Trump left office on noon of Jan. 20, 2021.

Meadows’ memo confirmed prior reporting by Just the News that Trump on Jan. 19, 2021 declassified a binder of hundreds of pages of sensitive FBI documents that show how the bureau used informants and FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign and misled both a federal court and Congress about flaws in the evidence they offered to get approval for the investigation. Source: Just the News

Explosion reported at Hoover Dam

Police in Boulder City, Nevada say they are headed to the Hoover Dam after reports of an explosion Tuesday morning. Videos posted on social media showed what appeared to be a fire or explosion in a building near the base of the dam.

A huge plume of black smoke swirled above the building.

Calls to police at the dam and Bureau of Land Management officials for information were not immediately returned. Source: Washington Times

Cost-of-living increase for Social Security may push seniors into higher tax bracket, say experts

Retirees on fixed incomes and Social Security could get a double whammy from inflation because benefits, which rise with the cost of living, might push them into a higher tax bracket.

The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan group that researches issues important to older Americans, estimated seniors could see a 10.5% increase in their monthly checks next year as part of a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, due to red-hot inflation, according to a Fox Business report.

That sounds pretty nice but the amount of Social Security benefits exempted from tax hasn’t changed since 1984, so retirees owe tax on benefits if their income and payments total more than $25,000 for a single person or $32,000 for a married couple. Source: Washington Times

Uvalde report finds ‘systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making’ by police

The Texas House report into the Uvalde elementary school shooting in May that killed 21 people, including 19 children, said the massacre was unable to be stopped due to “systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making.”

The report obtained by the Texas Tribune attempts to piece together what happened during the 77 minutes after the alleged gunman, 18-year-old Uvalde High School dropout Salvador Ramos, entered Robb Elementary School until the point he was killed by a Border Patrol agent.

While 376 law-enforcement officers responded to the shooting, the report does not place blame solely on Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, as other reports have done. Instead, the Texas House committee focuses mostly on problems with communication during the incident and preparation beforehand. Source: Just the News

Cincinnati federal judge temporarily stops Air Force globally from discharging religious vaccine refusers

A federal judge in Cincinnati has certified a national class action lawsuit against the entire U.S. Air Force worldwide and issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Biden administration from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on any servicemembers who requested religious exemptions.

In this local case that has now gone global, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland’s order Thursday stops the Air Force from discharging or disciplining servicemembers for 14 days.

This impacts 80 to 100 plaintiffs stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, who filed the lawsuit against top military leaders back in February, and now 9,000 to 10,000 service members nationally, according to the attorney for the local plaintiffs, Chris Wiest of northern Kentucky. Source: Fox19 Ohio

Biden demands laws forcing gun owners to lock up guns or be punished

President Joe Biden delivered a 20-minute gun speech at the White House on Monday in which he called on Congress to pass “safe storage” gun laws holding gun owners personally liable for locking up their guns, in addition to bans on “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazines.

While speaking to commemorate the passage of the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” he signed into law last month, Biden said, “We should have safe storage laws requiring personal liability for not locking up your gun.”

“If you own a weapon, you have the responsibility to secure it and keep it under lock and key,” Biden said. “Responsible gun owners agree: No one else should have access to it, so lock it up.”  Source: American Military News

Church of England refuses to define the word ‘woman’

The Church of England refused to offer up a definition of a woman, arguing that recent developments required “additional care” when attempting to define the word.

“There is no official definition, which reflects the fact that until fairly recently definitions of this kind were thought to be self-evident, as reflected in the marriage liturgy,” Senior Bishop Rt Rev Robert Innes said when asked to define the word, according to reporting from GB News.

Innes’ remarks came in response to a question posed by lay member Adam Kendry during the General Synod, who asked: “What is the Church of England’s definition of a woman?” Source: Fox News

Study: Natural immunity to COVID gives 97% protection against severe reinfection for many months

Researchers say in a newly released study that prior infection with COVID-19 offers long-lasting and comprehensive immunity against severe and fatal cases of the virus.

The study, published online at medRxiv and not yet subject to peer review, was conducted by a team of researchers largely based out of Qatar. The scientists in the preprint stated “the future of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hinges on virus evolution and duration of immune protection of natural infection against reinfection.”

They also said that while immunity derived from “natural infection” offers a relatively quickly-waning protection against re-infection, the durability of natural immunity against severe reinfections was robust and long-lasting.   Source: Just the News

Leaked phone call reveals fiery exchange between Putin, Macron days before Ukraine war

Just four days before Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron had a furious argument over the phone, with the Russian strongman claiming that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was lying to the French president, according to a bombshell leak.

Details of the confidential exchange between the two world leaders on Feb. 20 were revealed in a new documentary about Macron’s handling of the ongoing conflict, titled “A President, Europe and War,” which premiered last week on channel France 2.

As Russia was in the process of massing its forces in preparation for the full-scale invasion in late February, Macron called his Russian counterpart to offer his views on the escalating situation and discuss “useful actions” to defuse it. Source: NY Post

Biden Calls on Senate to Use Nuclear Option to Legalize Abortion Across the Country

President Joe Biden called for Senate Democrats to force abortion legalization into law nationwide by temporarily suspending the filibuster.

“The most important thing to be clear about is … we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law and the way to do that is to make sure that Congress votes to do that,” Biden told reporters during a Thursday press conference.

“And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, it should be … we provide an exception … to the filibuster,” Biden said. Source: Western Journal