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-Passed Defense Bill Mentions ‘Gender’ 29 Times, Establishes a ‘Gender Advisor Workforce’

The word “gender” is mentioned 29 times in the House-passed version of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which also formally establishes a full-time, funded, stationed, and resourced “Gender Advisor Workforce.”

H.R. 7900, which easily passed the House by a margin of more than three-to-one (329-101), ensures all-gender coverage of artificial reproductive services, examines differences in recruitment and home ownership by gender – and even conducts gender-based services to foreign military and counts the number of people evacuated from Afghanistan by gender:

  • Gender Advisor Workforce: Develop and manage a Gender Advisor Workforce throughout the Department of Defense.
  • Artificial Reproductive Services: Grant coverage regardless of gender marital status.
  • Fitness Requirements: Establish gender-neutral fitness standards.
  • Recruitment Efforts: quantify gender of those enlisted by region and Army Recruitment Battalion area.
  • Barriers to Homeownership: study differences in enlistment correlated with gender.
  • Foreign Militaries: Conduct/Advise/Support foreign militaries in providing appropriate gender-sensitive equipment and facilities.
  • Foreign Militaries: Conduct/Advise/Support foreign military establishment, training, and development of gender advisory workforces.
  • Afghanistan Evacuation: Account for the total number of individuals evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 with support of the United States Government, disaggregated by gender.  Source: CNS News

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

After Biden Snubs Israel, Saudi Arabia Snubs Biden

After snubbing Israel for two days in favor of paying homage to the Palestinian Authority, President Biden left the Holy Land for Saudi Arabia on Friday, where the tables were turned, and the Saudis snubbed the President of the United States.

Before traveling to Israel, Biden’s office informed Israel that the standard ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport honoring visiting dignitaries would be curtailed. Handshakes were also going to be proscribed due to COVID concerns, and pundits conjectured that the ‘shake-less’ Israel visit was in preparation for a Presidential snub of the Saudis who had fallen in disfavor due to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi in 2018. Biden refused to call Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for several weeks after he took office as per his campaign promise to turn the Saudi allies into a “pariah.” But a trip to Saudi Arabia was scheduled after a visit to Israel. This change of heart was due to the record high gasoline cost at the US pumps. Biden had already called the Saudis to increase oil production, but they had not returned his call. Just a few weeks before his first trip to the region, Biden announced that he would not meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to Saudi Arabia. The president was going to meet with the Saudi prince, but there would be no handshake. Source: Israel365

Op-Ed: Arab summit fails to give Biden what he wants

U.S. President Joe Biden left Jeddah, Saudi Arabia aboard Air Force 1 on Saturday, ending his first Middle East visit since taking office after four days in the region without major announcements.

The lukewarm reception and lack of enthusiasm were evident when the governor of the Mecca Region, Khalid Al-Faisal, was sent to the airport to receive Biden upon his arrival in the city of Jeddah, in striking contrast to the extravagant reception that was given to then-President Donald Trump when he visited Riyadh in 2017.

The way Biden greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with a fist bump rather than a handshake, and the serious expressions they maintained as they barely moved their lips, left no doubt about how they felt toward each other. Source: Ynet News

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

Dr. Fauci States Vaccines Don’t Protect “Overly Well” Against COVID Infection

“One of the things that’s clear from the data is that, even though vaccines, because of the high degree of transmissibility of this virus, don’t protect overly well, as it were, against infection, they protect quite well against severe disease leading to hospitalization and death,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview on Fox News.