This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Russia and China have announced they will cooperate to carry out joint patrols in the Arctic Sea, marking the first time the Chinese have entered the area.

The Chinese Ministry of Defense released a statement this week, stating the joint venture will expand the Chinese Coast Guard's operational range significantly, and "bolstered" its international and regional maritime governance.

"On September 21, Chinese and Russian coast guard vessels began joint patrols in the North Pacific. The coast guards conducted law enforcement inspections on fishing vessels operating in the region, in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/215 and the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean," the ministry said.

It further states the operation was aimed at "maintaining order in high-seas fisheries" and joint exercises were conducted in search and rescue, locating illegal vessels, and damage control.

China is currently mapping out alternative sea routes, and has used the new route through the Arctic Sea as an alternative trade route between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The routes are largely being used by Russia to deliver oil to China, while avoiding sanctions from Western nations, according to Reuters.

Mercy Kuo, executive vice president of Pamir Consulting, a global risk intelligence firm in Washington, D.C., told the Diplomat in December 2023, that China's ambitions are pushing it to make its presence known in one of the world's most untapped places.

"Beijing under Xi Jinping has deliberately re-envisioned China not only as an Arctic stakeholder, but a "near-Arctic" power. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] framed China's entry into the region as mutually beneficial to the littoral Arctic states, highlighting potential commercial endeavors and (ostensibly dual-use) scientific research. Officials codified this concept in 2018 through the "Ice" or "Polar Silk Road" (PSR) – part of its globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative," Kuo said.

Kuo added the Chinese have put more than $90 billion into the initiative, and both nations have mutually agreed to collaborate on harnessing Arctic energy and transport.

According to an op-ed published by Politico and written by Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, the friendship between Russia and China is a "no-limits" partnership, allowing China to test its Arctic capabilities, while Russia's nuclear threats towards the U.S. and its NATO allies are bolstered and also keep eyes turned away from the threat in the Indo-Pacific region.

"Just how important the Arctic is to Russia in terms of maintaining its threatening nuclear posture toward the U.S. cannot be overstated. In a nuclear exchange, Moscow would likely fire long-range ballistic missiles – from ballistic missile submarine bases near the Kola Peninsula – through the poorly surveyed airspace over Greenland. And hindered by low visibility in the Arctic, U.S. forces would be ill-prepared to detect and counter the strike," Odgaard said.

A report from Bloomberg notes the U.S. and its NATO allies are now forming a security group to counter China and Russia. The security group was formed because the Arctic Council has Russia as a member, and there are no forums that allow NATO allies to discuss security concerns without the involvement of Russia, according to Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

Canada is currently forming an alliance with Nordic nations, as they are now all members of NATO.

"For a long time Canada, we thought we were protected by our geography. But now we need to reckon that we are a country facing Russia and because of climate change, more countries are interested in the Arctic, including China … We need to be addressing this new reality," Joly told Bloomberg.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It's hard enough to prepare for the catastrophic results of something like Hurricane Helene, which destroyed towns, homes, bridges, roads – and lives and families.

But that task turns into, literally, the impossible when there's corruption, gross mismanagement, and politics present.

And it's becoming more and more evident that the help for southeastern states, specifically the hardest-hit regions of North Carolina, is being corrupted by near-insurmountable failings.

Already, WND has reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent billions of dollars providing benefits to illegal aliens, and now has confirmed it lacks resources for the ordinary needs of the nation's hurricane season.

Kamala Harris, according to many victims, insulted them with an offer of $750 for the most pressing needs. Joe Biden said in a comment – that was interpreted not to his benefit – the government had given all it had to the victims.

Now there's more.

 

A report at the Gateway Pundit explains multiple whistleblowers already have come forward with complaints about FEMA.

"According to a letter from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whistleblowers allege that FEMA withheld critical pre-disaster funds and failed to issue deployment orders to first responders, leaving Americans stranded in the wake of the storm," the report said.

It described Gaetz' letter as a "bombshell" to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, for his agency's "failure to release necessary funds and provide clear orders has left 'hundreds if not thousands' of service members and first responders in limbo, as they sit idle in hotels while the southeastern U.S. suffers the devastating effects of Helene."

The report charged that FEMA's credibility is crumbling under "mounting evidence of gross mismanagement."

It was Mayorkas who confessed FEMA "does not have enough funds to make it through the hurricane season."

Whistleblowers, the report charged, have accused the agency of diverting tax funds to illegal immigrants – and "using taxpayer dollars to cover the costs of border enforcement failures," so that no funding is left for Americans hit by catastrophic conditions.

"The Gateway Pundit previously reported that over $1 billion, which should have been used for American disaster relief, has instead been redirected into resettling illegal immigrants through programs like the 'Shelter and Services Program,'" the report said.

Gaetz turned blunt:

"Yesterday, you stated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is a part of your department, 'does not have enough funds to make it through the hurricane] season.' This news comes after FEMA has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants due to Border Czar Kamala Harris' open border instead of prioritizing funding for Americans impacted by disasters."

Then he warned that whistleblowers have documented mismanagement, wasted taxes, misappropriate funds and other problems.

Further, FEMA workers for days have been "employees deployed, on the clock, awaiting orders in hotels."

In fact, Elon Musk on social media said he'd heard from a SpaceX engineer helping with rescue and recovery efforts in North Carolina.

That source said the feds actively were blocking help.

"Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into hands. We've deployed 300+ starlinks and outpour is it has saved many lives. The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It's very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping. We are blocked now on the shipments of new starlinks coming in until we get an escort from the fire dept. but that may not be enough."

The Gateway Punit noted there even was confirmation, from the left, of the politics influencing help efforts.

"Obama-Harris whisperer David Axelrod, host of the 'Axe Files' podcast, said the quiet part out loud as the Biden Regime blocks ongoing rescue operations in North Carolina. Axelrod said Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina are mainly Trump voters who will find it hard to vote in the 2024 election," the report explained.

 

"David Axelrod said affected Democrats from Asheville are 'upscale liberal voters, and they're probably going to figure out a way to vote. I'm not sure a bunch of these folks who had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere, in western North Carolina, in the mountains, there are going to be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign,'" Axelrod said.

Fox News host Jesse Watters blasted the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris regime for failing the hurricane victims.

"Over 200 Americans are dead after Hurricane Helene and the thousands of victims impacted have been disgracefully left behind. The Biden administration has blocked ongoing rescue operations and North Carolina is living in the dark ages because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hate Elon Musk. FEMA is now out of money, because Joe Biden and Kamala spent over a billion dollars of FEMA cash on migrants. Illegals got luxury hotel rooms, but Kamala's just tossing Helene victims $750 and heading back on the campaign trail. This must not meet her standard for giving extra resources – she only wants to do that based on equity," he said.

Meanwhile, FEMA said the "help" it would offer would extend to "non-citizens."

 

The Gateway Pundit commented: "As Americans suffer through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and communities in North Carolina continue to search for over 200 missing loved ones lost in flooding, there is a glimmer of hope for non-citizens. If you are one of the millions of non-citizens that the Biden-Harris regime granted asylum to, you may qualify for FEMA aid."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Joe Biden, whose mental failings were spotlighted weeks ago during a presidential debate with President Donald Trump, soon after was thrown under the bus by Democrat party elites.

Instead, they announced that Kamala Harris, who never got a single primary vote, would be their presidential nominee this year.

Now Biden has thrown a curve back at them.

By stating he's "Back in."

In a comment that appears to have been a jest, he was asked at a White House briefing, "Do you reconsider dropping out of the race?"

And he said, "Back in."

While that more than likely was in jest, his other comments at the briefing certainly will cause trouble for Harris, even if they were not intended to.

It's because she's running on a "new" way forward, and has been trying desperately to distance herself from some of Biden's failures, like the catastrophe on the southern border, and 21% inflation.

In fact, she recently posed for a photo op by a part of a border wall, a project done by President Donald Trump, a project she earlier called a "medieval vanity project."

Now the Trump campaign has confirmed that "Biden is Kamala. Kamala is Biden."

In other words, if elected, Harris would do much of the same that Biden has done for four years: including radical campaigns for abortion and transgenderism, inflation (under Biden more than 21%, and more.

Biden made it clear he agrees with the GOP on that.

The campaign said, "Kamala, who spent years covering for Biden's obvious cognitive decline, has done everything she can to try and distance herself from the failed Harris-Biden record — and Crooked Joe Biden won't stand for it. At 2:04 p.m. ET, Kamala took the stage in Detroit for a campaign stop aimed at shoring up her hemorrhaging union support. At 2:06 p.m. ET, Biden (or whatever's left of him) shuffled into the press briefing room for the first time of his presidency — ensuring the eyes of the world were on him, not Kamala.

"Biden used the opportunity to tie Kamala to his disastrous record once and for all: 'We're singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass all the laws … she was a major player in everything we've done.' Biden wanted to make it crystal clear that Kamala is tethered to every single one of his failures — and it worked. Kamala can run, but she certainly can't hide from the Harris-Biden record of failure."

Biden, in fact, was asked about the recent crises for the U.S.: the hurricane, the Middle East the dockworkers strike.

How much does he work with Kamala?

"I'm in constant contact with her. She's aware of uhm uhm singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass all the laws being employed now. She was a major player in everything we've done, including passage of legislation which we were told we could never pass … her staff is in a lock with mine," Biden said.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The First Amendment in America right now protects a citizen's right to criticize the GOP candidate for president, President Donald Trump.

It also protects the right to criticize Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Tim Walz.

But what if the federal government suddenly said, in its opinion, criticizing Trump was fine, but no one would be allowed at any time going forward to say anything critical of the Biden-Harris-Walz triumvirate?

Not possible?

Actually, one of America's top constitutional experts says that threat is very real.

"We are living through the most dangerous anti-free speech movement in American history. We have never before faced the current alliance of government, corporate, academic and media forces aligned against free speech. A Harris-Walz administration with a supportive Congress could make this right entirely dispensable," explained Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage."

He's not only testified before Congress as an expert on the Constitution but has represented members in disputes over the Constitution in court.

His comments were triggered by "the most chilling moment from the Vance-Walz debate when the Democratic nominee showed why he is part of the dream ticket for the anti-free speech movement."

During that debate, Democrat Tim Walz responded to comments from GOP candidate JD Vance about Kamala Harris' support for censorship.

"Walz proceeded to quote the line from a 1919 case in which Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said you do not have the right to falsely yell fire in a crowded theater. It is the favorite mantra of the anti-free speech movement. It also is fundamentally wrong," Turley said.

He explained that while Walz misrepresented the opinion to affirm one can't shout fire in a crowded theater, the actual opinion included two qualifications to that, that the shout is "false" and that it triggers a panic.

Holmes said, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."

Turley called out Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., for being among those misunderstanding and misrepresenting the Holmes' comment.

"For example, when I testified last year before Congress against a censorship system that has been described by one federal court as 'similar to an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth," Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., interjected with the fire-in-a-theater question to say such censorship is needed and constitutional. In other words, the internet is now a huge crowded theater and those with opposing views are shouting fire," Turley commented.

He added:

Goldman and Walz both cited a case in which socialists Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer were arrested and convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Their "crime" was to pass out flyers in opposition to the military draft during World War I.

Schenck and Baer called on their fellow citizens not to "submit to intimidation" and to "assert your rights." They argued, "If you do not assert and support your rights, you are helping to deny or disparage rights which it is the solemn duty of all citizens and residents of the United States to retain." They also described the military draft as "involuntary servitude."

Holmes used his "fire in a theater" line to justify the abusive conviction and incarceration. At the House hearing, when I was trying to explain that the justice later walked away from the line and Schenck was effectively overturned in 1969 in Brandenburg v. Ohio, Goldman cut me off and said, "We don't need a law class here."

But, he said, the debate showed Walz revealed that and he and other Democrats "most certainly do need a class in First Amendment law."

He cited Harris as a "champion of censorship in an administration that supports targeting disinformation, misinformation and 'malinformation.'"

And Walz has made clear his opposition to others' free speech to MSNBC, where he said, "There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy."

That, of course, was the point of the First Amendment, to protect objectionable speech, as there are no disputes over speech everyone wants.

Turley called out Walz, explaining his statement is "entirely untrue and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the right called 'indispensable' by the Supreme Court. Even after some of us condemned his claim as ironically dangerous disinformation, Walz continues to repeat it."

Turley warned, "Where President Joe Biden was viewed as supporting censorship out of political opportunism, Harris and Walz are viewed as true believers."

He cited the movement already under way to destroy speech.

"University of Michigan Law School professor and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade has said that free speech 'can also be our Achilles' heel.' Columbia law professor Tim Wu, a former Biden White House aide, wrote a New York Times op-ed with the headline, 'The First Amendment Is Out of Control.'"

There already have been instances of government speech control that creates great damage. For example, the FBI's election interference during the 2020 election including falsely claiming that the Biden family scandals detailed in Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop were "disinformation." Feds told media and tech corporations to suppress that and they did.

But the scandals were true, and later polling showed had that information been reported in an ordinary way to Americans, Joe Biden almost certainly would have lost the election, and his promotions of abortion and transgenderism, the more than 21% inflation Americans have endured, the world conflicts that erupted because of a weak American policy, may not have happened in exactly the same way.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

In a revealing 5,400-word report dubbed "The Remdesivir Papers" just published today, a military whistleblower has come forward to offer evidence that 64% of service members and veterans whose deaths were attributed to COVID-19 were also administered remdesivir – a drug with a known lethal past.

According to the report, first published by the Gateway Pundit, "the data clearly depict the liberal usage of remdesivir in military treatment facilities (MTF) and other civilian facilities, as well as its potential contribution to, at minimum, hundreds of untimely deaths" between 2020 and 2024.

WorldNetDaily spoke to Bradley Miller, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, about the stunning news. In October 2021, Miller was relieved of his battalion command within the 101st Airborne Division for refusing the COVID "vaccine" under the unlawful direction of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's now-rescinded August 2021 shot mandate.

 

Knowing the number of deaths, Miller said he continues to be "appalled by the behavior of the government, and more specifically, the behavior of the DOD." For Miller, a disconcerting question looms large: "Did the government, to include DOD, knowingly administer a pharmaceutical to people that they knew was clearly more lethal than other available therapeutics?" Drawing from data included in the report, including the Ebola trial which showed the highest mortality rate among participants in a trial of four investigational therapies resulted from the use of remdesivir, he answered, "It appears so."

"The added dimension to this, which is particularly scary, is that 'The Remdesivir Papers' has revealed a significant number of deaths within the military that appear to be attributed to the use of remdesivir," Miller said. "Were service members put at risk of death, because they were being unnecessarily offered this therapeutic?"

With what he acknowledges is an "anecdotal" example, Miller noted that he had lost a civilian friend who was unvaccinated and died in the hospital after being administered remdesivir for treatment. Knowing what he's learned about the lethality of remdesivir, he said, "I think it's a legitimate question to ask whether he was targeted with remdesivir to make his death look like an unvaccinated individual was particularly susceptible to COVID?" While he hopes the answer would be "no," he admitted, "some of the evidence points in that direction."

"We've seen behavior like this from the government before, a government administering a therapeutic they know can be quite harmful and perhaps unnecessary," Miller pointed out, referring to the unlawfully administered and harmful anthrax vaccine, and more recently, the so-called COVID-19 vaccine which has resulted in death, myocarditis and other serious adverse effects.

To no avail, the author made multiple email inquiries to the military treatment facilities involved, as well as a FOIA request to the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command, or USAMRDC, on Sept. 24. Coincidently, on the same day, the Joint Trauma Service System was inaccessible to the whistleblower.

On Sept. 27, a congressional inquiry from Rep. Clay Higgins, R.-Louisiana, was also sent to Defense Secretary Austin, copying the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, USAMRDC Commanding General Maj. Gen. Paula C. Lodi and others.

Miller remarked, "What we see is that the Department of Defense seems to be untouchable, and this is a scary phenomenon," as questions surrounding the use of remdesivir to treat service members and veterans remain unanswered. "It seems to go above and beyond the military officer ranks, knowing that the military is supposed to answer to the civilian authorities, to include the service secretaries and secretary of Defense," he told WND, suggesting, "they all seem to be involved in ensuring that the DOD remains untouchable."

According to Miller, "They can violate the law with impunity, because we've seen that happen over the last couple of years, over and over again." With that, he added, "Whether they're military officers, or the civilian authorities within the Department of Defense, they have all taken oaths to support and defend the Constitution, yet we see them operating in ways that appear to be in wanton violation of that very oath."

"To clean up the government and the military, the American people have to become comfortable asking the uncomfortable questions," Miller argues. "While there are obvious exceptions, we have largely become hesitant to do that because we're afraid of what the answers might be, or we fear the backlash," he offered. Citing "The Remdesivir Papers" as an example, he concluded, "I think we're getting to the point where more people are starting to realize we have to be bold and ask these questions exactly because of what the answers might be."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A prominent publisher of science research is being challenged in court after moving to suppress science-based details about the dangers of abortion, according to a new report at the Federalist.

The fight now in Superior Court in Ventura, California, is over a decision by Sage Publications to move to retract three key studies "exposing the dangers of the nation's most popular abortion drug regiment," the report explained.

It's happening just as the U.S. Supreme Court is approaching a case involving the drug, mifepristone.

The report explained 10 of the researchers who delivered in three scientific papers their conclusions about the threat to lives have now filed a petition to compel arbitration.

They accuse the publisher of "pretextual and discriminatory" comments that were created to support retracting the findings on the abortion pill. The authors provided science to back their original writings, but Sage ignored it.

"One of the studies in question, which the lawsuit notes is 'the second most-read article' in the journal's history, specifically determined mifepristone is responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room visits," the Federalist reported.

The censorship campaign is suspect for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact the papers were done in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and "originally passed peer review for publication without a hitch."

In fact, Sage emailed Dr. James Studnicki, who headed the 2021 and 2022 projects, and commended him for his "fine contributions."

But this year, amid a re-election year that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both have participated in, with their extreme pro-abortion positions, the publisher suddenly claimed that it was acting on a "reader's concern" that the authors had a conflict of interest over some "pro-life organizations."

"Abortion activist researchers publish plenty of papers on the topic without scrutiny. Yet Sage, after what it called an 'independent review,' ultimately followed through with the retractions," the report said.

The challenge, now in court, charges, "Sage's wrongdoing has been causing enormous and incalculable harm to the Authors' professional reputations, as Sage intended. Because of Sage's retractions, the Authors and their research have been attacked by the media and by other authors, and the Authors have had new research proposals inexplicably turned away by other publications that now fear associating with them. The Authors have years — even decades — of fruitful research ahead of them, but they are now being treated as pariahs."

The Charlotte Lozier Institute found that Sage's claims provided "no evidence" of any major "errors, miscalculations or falsehoods" in the reports.

Further, the authors "fully complied" with the publications "conflict disclosure requirements."

The researchers had called for arbitration on the disagreement but the report said Sage delayed the process by making demands that were unrelated to the issue at hand.

"Even more concerning, Sage has used its intransigence as a weapon to try to pressure the Authors into unilaterally surrendering their discovery rights. Sage's egregious actions require this Court's intervention to compel arbitration," the lawsuit charges.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A producer/writer for an MSNBC show has confirmed that the network is doing "all they can" to elect Kamala Harris.

The confirmation of what many Americans already believe, that legacy media is more or less a branch of the Democrat Party already, comes from Basel Hamdan, who works on the "Ayman" show for MSNBC.

His comments were captured by the O'Keefe Media Group, run by investigative reporter James O'Keefe.

OMG reports Hamdan was asked, by an undercover journalist, "what the network has done to assist the Kamala Harris campaign."

"Hamdan revealed on hidden camera that 'what her [Harris's] message of the day is, is their message of the day,' as MSNBC actively pushes Harris's narrative to help her win," OMG reported.

OMG reports Hamdan was asked, by an undercover journalist, "what the network has done to assist the Kamala Harris campaign."

"Hamdan revealed on hidden camera that 'what her [Harris's] message of the day is, is their message of the day,' as MSNBC actively pushes Harris's narrative to help her win," OMG reported.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The People's Republic of China is accused of continuing its bully tactics in the South China Sea after it allegedly crashed government-owned vessels into a Vietnamese fishing boat. Seven of the 10 fishermen onboard were assaulted and injured, while three sustained severe injuries, resulting in broken limbs.

A pair of Chinese ships more than 300 feet long from the Hainan-based Sansha City Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau pursued and attacked the fishing vessels, with those on board saying they were assaulted by approximately 40 people over a three-hour period. The attackers stole more than six tons of the vessel's catch, according to VOA.

Vietnam slammed China in a statement issued by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry calling the act, which took place on Sunday in the highly disputed Paracel Islands, "brutal."

Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said Hanoi opposes the brutal behavior of Chinese law enforcement forces towards Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels.

"Vietnam is extremely concerned about, discontented with, and resolutely opposes the Chinese law enforcement force's brutal behaviors towards the Vietnamese fishermen," Hang said.

Hang further demanded China respect Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoàng Sa archipelago, the Vietnamese name for the Paracel Islands.

"The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sternly communicated with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, strongly opposed the above mentioned acts by the Chinese law enforcement force and demanded China to fully respect Vietnam's0 sovereignty over the Hoàng Sa archipelago, quickly investigate and announce results to the Vietnamese side, and not repeat similar acts," Hang said.

Chinese officials denied they had attacked the Vietnamese fishing vessels, and in a statement sent to Reuters, said the vessels had not gained permission from Beijing to fish in that area, and the Chinese vessels had simply taken measures to stop them, citing the measures were "professional and restrained" and further stated "no injuries were found."

According to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the relationship between China and Vietnam, officially, has steadily increased after the nations signed a strategic partnership of cooperation in 2013.

"Positive progress was made in boundary negotiations. The heads of boundary negotiation teams of the two governments met several times for in-depth exchange of views on ways to appropriately address the disputes over the South China Sea … The two sides also agreed to continue to advance cooperation in areas such as marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, maritime search and rescue, disaster prevention and mitigation and maritime connectivity," the ministry said.

Despite this positive spin, the "positive progress" between China and Vietnam has continued to deteriorate, as China increasingly becomes more aggressive and violent toward any non-Chinese vessels in the South China Sea. China claims the majority of the region through its "dashed line" which overlaps the sovereign borders of not only Vietnam, but also several other countries bordering the South China Sea, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, and Taiwan.

The Paracel Islands, which are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas reserves, are approximately 250 miles off the coast of Vietnam and 220 miles off the coast of mainland China. While both nations claim ownership of the islands, China has been rapidly expanding its occupation, which began in 1956, over the past 10 years.

According to high-resolution satellite images published by the Diplomat in 2015, China was expanding runways and airport facilities only two years after signing a cooperation agreement with Vietnam, and has added new land through reclamation on Woody Island. The Paracel Islands is home to a Chinese military garrison which was built on top of a landfill, and reinforced with a concrete seawall.

In May 2023, tensions reached a boiling point after a Chinese research ship, along with five escorts, entered into waters within Vietnam's economic exclusion zone. The Chinese vessel installed buoys in the waters near the Spratly Islands, another highly-contested area near the coast of the Philippines – which the Philippines also claims sovereignty over. Vietnam demanded the Chinese leave its economic exclusion zone.

China has increased its aggression towards the Philippines in recent months, repeatedly clashing with Philippine Coast Guard ships, and going as far as using bladed weapons and spears against those onboard. Chinese vessels have also intercepted the Philippines from restocking naval ships stationed at Sabina Shoal, which is situated within the Spratly Islands about 60 miles off the coast of the Philippines.

In early September, China was caught ramming a Philippine coast guard vessel while a 60 Minutes news crew was on board the ship. Around 14 Chinese vessels surrounded the lone coast guard ship. An international tribunal at the Hague ruled in 2016 the shoal and the islands were all within the Philippines economic exclusion zone, however, China refused to recognize the ruling and deemed the area to have been its territory "since ancient times."

During an interview with the Philippines Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro, 60 Minutes producer and host Jacqueline Williams asked Teodoro what has changed between China and the Philippines.

"I think what's changed is the determination of the Philippines to say no … and they don't like it … The proverbial schoolyard bully is the best example of what China is. You know, it just muscles you over," Teodor told 60 Minutes.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A newly released congressional report reveals that the United States is facing 1.7 million "threats" because of the open borders practices of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris agenda.

The Democrats, on taking office, immediately trashed dozens of executive orders from President Donald Trump that has raised the level of security along America's southern border, and were working to minimum access by illegal aliens, and more.

The result has been millions of those illegals crossing into the U.S. and now demanding benefits from the taxpayers, at a cost that runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

But the threats are yet another problem.

It was the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement that released "The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: At Least 1.7 Million Potential National Security Threats."

It explains how under "border czar Kamala Harris' watch," the threat from "special interest aliens" has grown exponentially.

"Under the Biden-Harris Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 1.7 million special interest aliens – meaning aliens from 26 countries that DHS has determined pose the greatest national security and counterintelligence threats to the United States. The special interest countries include Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey," the report explained.

"In another instance of the national security threat posed by the open southwest border, the Biden-Harris Administration released Mohammad Kharwin, an illegal alien on the terror watchlist, into the United States twice. According to media reports, Kharwin is an alleged member of Hezb-e-Islami, a group that was responsible for attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least nine American soldiers and civilians. Although a terrorist watchlist record was created for Kharwin in 2018, a name discrepancy in the record meant that Border Patrol agents released Kharwin into the country in 2023 despite suspecting he was on the terrorist watchlist."

The threats have "only grown" under the "failed leadership" of Biden and Harris, the report said.

The report said, "The terrorist threat to the United States has skyrocketed due to the Biden-Harris administration's dangerous open-borders policies. As just one example, of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, [the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States," the report said.

Worse, though, is the fact, "the Biden-Harris administration has sought to conceal the real consequences of its disastrous policies. In September 2024, a former senior Border Patrol official told Congress that he was ordered to 'not release any information' on the increase of special interest aliens—aliens from countries considered to be a threat to national security or counterintelligence—'or mention any of the arrests' because, in his words, the Biden-Harris administration 'was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.'"

The report noted, that in addition to the "more than 1.7 million special interest aliens" that have been identified, the Democrats have allowed in illegals from China, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

"In addition to releasing into the United States illegal aliens who the Biden-Harris administration knew were on the terrorist watchlist at the time of their release, the administration also has released illegal aliens into the country that it only later confirmed had potential terrorist ties," the report said.

Congress wrote, "This interim staff report highlights how potential national security and counterintelligence threats from around the world have exploited the Biden-Harris administration's open-borders policies. There can be no doubt that the surge of illegal aliens into the country during the Biden-Harris administration has weakened our national security and made our communities more vulnerable to those who seek to do us harm."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Imagine this. You're blessed to live in the freest, most powerful nation on earth, where citizens actually get to choose their leaders and their nation's future direction.

A uniquely historic election is just weeks away, and your two choices for leader – and your nation's future – couldn't possibly be more different.

One leader candidate promises to halt the ongoing, full-scale foreign invasion of your country, which the current leaders have not only allowed, but invited and enabled. Incredibly, over 10 million illegal aliens from all over the world have walked unimpeded into your homeland, including countless terrorists, drug-dealers, sex traffickers of women and children, violent gangs, mental patients and criminals, powerfully fueling your nation's current twin epidemics of violent crime and drug-overdose deaths. Recent official government statistics reveal the "undocumented migrants" invading your country include over 13,000 convicted murderers.

Promising to definitively end the current ruling regime's suicidal immigration policies, this leader candidate commits to finally securing the border with both a physical wall and maximum law-enforcement presence – while implementing the largest mass deportation of illegal aliens in the nation's history.

This same candidate also promises – based on decades of executive-level negotiating experience, personal strength and sound policies – to regain the lost respect of world leaders, both friend and foe, thereby serving as a powerful force not just for preserving your nation's peace and security, but world peace as well. This candidate likewise promises to restore your nation's ailing economy and reverse the most devastating inflation in 40 years, which is rapidly impoverishing tens of millions of citizens.

Remarkably, there's very little doubt this particular candidate can make good on all of these life-saving promises, having actually accomplished virtually all of them while serving as the nation's president just a few years ago.

Now, what about the other candidate?

The opposing presidential hopeful has actually been at the pinnacle of power for almost the last four years, occupying your country's second highest leadership position. As such, this person has been instrumental in formulating and implementing the very policies now crippling your nation – including, for example, being specifically designated as "border czar." And yet, instead of protecting your nation, this leader has perversely acted to enable the never-ending invasion, and indeed intends to transform massive numbers of illegals into voting members of the nation's electorate, while supporting them financially with your tax dollars.

It's much the same dynamic with regard to the severely troubled economy, the massive inflation, the rampant and ever-increasing crime, and all the other life-and-death issues plaguing your country under its current leadership.

And yet, a strange blindness pervades the nation.

For although your uniquely free country was founded on the traditional cultural, economic and constitutional values espoused by the first candidate, something like half of the voting population is mysteriously inclined to choose the other. Yet many respected analysts and historians claim that, if elevated from vice president to president, this latter candidate would destroy the country, perhaps permanently. They fear this person's irrational, self-destructive policies, coupled with radical-left political beliefs and excruciating weakness and unseriousness on a highly volatile world stage dominated by dictators and psychopaths, could well bring about a nuclear World War III.

The question then is why? Why is there any doubt as to who is the more worthy candidate?

It's almost as though the nation is caught up in a dystopian science-fiction plot reminiscent of Orwell's "1984," where clearly nonsensical dogmas, including "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery" and "Ignorance is strength," not to mention "2+2=5," become mandatory, must-believe "truths" of the ruling socialist regime.

Does that seem like an exaggerated comparison?

Cutting through today's 2+2=5 narrative

Consider that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' 2024 presidential candidate, is now claiming, in public speeches, in televised and online ads and even in September's ABC-moderated debate, that Donald Trump opposes policing the southern border, while she has worked diligently to secure the border.

This is every bit as eye-rollingly untrue and insane as "2+2=5."

It's time for Americans everywhere to wake up from the media-propagated nightmare in which they have been living for the last four years. 2+2=4. Not 5.

Donald Trump – despite continual attacks and daily media defamation, two failed impeachment attempts and never-ending hoaxes (remember "Russian collusion!") – led the country well. He protected the border, revitalized the nation's military, kept the U.S. out of any new wars, made America energy-independent, cut taxes, got the economy roaring with a super-low 1.4% inflation rate and gasoline under $2 per gallon. Groceries, housing and other core necessities were within the reach of most Americans. Real wages were rising, and Trump ushered in the lowest unemployment rates in decades, including the lowest black unemployment rate ever recorded. He nominated, and saw confirmed, three Supreme Court justices who honor the U.S. Constitution, as well as 234 similarly right-thinking federal judges. He maintained peace in the Middle East, both via the Abraham Accords and by withholding funds from the Mideast's prime terrorism sponsor, Iran. Indeed, Trump restrained not only Iran, but China and Russia from attacking neighboring countries.

In stark contrast, Kamala Harris, as vice president of the United States, working in the west wing of the White House, has been formulating and implementing her and President Joe Biden's policies full-bore since January 2021. In every area of life and policy, with virtually no exceptions, she has made America a worse, poorer, angrier, more violent, more conflicted and much more dangerous and unhappy place to live, work and raise a family.

She and Biden did this largely by pursuing policies opposite to Trump's: Whereas Trump built hundreds of miles of border wall, Biden and Harris threw the border wide open, allowing the shocking invasion that is now devastating America. Whereas Trump denied money to Iran, Biden-Harris released a total of $16 billion to the radical Islamic theocracy, which promptly funded Hamas' appalling terror war on Israel starting on Oct. 7, 2023. Whereas Trump made America a net exporter of oil for the first time in 75 years, Biden-Harris shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on their very first day in office. It's the same in almost every other area of domestic and foreign policy.

All of this is a matter of objective fact and not really debatable by honest and informed people. It's self-evident … like 2+2=4.

Unfortunately, the purveyors of America's "2+2=5" gospel – that is, the major news media, who daily violate their sacred responsibility to report truthfully on crucial issues and events – have been extolling and covering up for Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, while simultaneously lying about and attacking Trump and his VP pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, at every turn.

But even a complicit news establishment cannot hide truth forever.

For the problem with Kamala Harris is not really her notorious cackling, or her undecipherable "word salads," or even the fact that she is extraordinarily unlikable and mean. Indeed, more than 90% of Harris' White House staffers quit in the first three years, according to the Washington Post, which interviewed 18 current and former Harris staffers, who describe working conditions in her office with phrases ranging from "uncomfortable" to "soul-destroying."

Going a little deeper, the problem with Harris is not, ultimately, even her astonishing 180-degree reversals on major policy positions on issues crucial to the well-being and survival of the nation – from fracking, to gun confiscation, to socialized medicine, to defunding the police, to building a border wall and much more. These whiplash-inducing total reversals are manifestations of something deeper still.

The real and ultimate issue with Harris, and with Walz – beyond even their neo-Marxist political ideology, their lust for power and today's totally corrupt Democratic Party politics – is whether they and their agendas are serving good or evil, freedom or slavery, life or death, God or Satan. Stay with me here.

Consider: When a presidential and vice-presidential candidate are enthusiastically advocating surgical amputation of the healthy breasts and/or genitals of countless confused, emotionally distraught children too young to drive a car or purchase cigarettes, procedures known to multiply the rate of adolescent suicide seven-fold;

When they conspire to enable these horrendous surgeries even when the children's own parents desperately object to it (as governor, Walz signed a bill last year turning Minnesota into a "sanctuary state" for mutilating child sex-change surgeries, effectively eliminating the need for parental consent);

When these leaders are enthusiastic cheerleaders for crushing, dismembering limb-by-limb and then ripping beautiful, pain-feeling human infants out of their mothers' wombs (that's the most common late abortion method, "Dilation and Evacuation" or D&E, but others are equally gruesome), right up to the time of delivery – which is identical to the heinous crime of infanticide, literally the murder of babies;

When leaders intentionally promote the all-out foreign invasion of America, including the sex-trafficking of untold thousands of helpless children at the hands of cartels and pedophiles;

When leaders deliberately create runaway inflation by wildly irresponsible levels of government spending, which is identical to raiding the bank accounts of every family in America and stealing (on average) $28,000 from each, you are – as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently affirmed – no longer talking about "your father's Democratic Party."

You're talking about very deep delusion. You're talking about genuine madness. You're talking about desecration and destruction of all that is good, decent and sacred.

In a word, you're talking about EVIL.

And yet … apparently half the country thinks Kamala Harris is exciting and "joyful" and caring and fresh. They revel in the fact that she'd be the "first woman president ever!" And that she's even a "woman of color!" How cool is that!

They've simultaneously been convinced by the most shamefully dishonest and corrupt news establishment in American history that Donald Trump is another Adolf Hitler – or at the very least, a racist-fascist-insurrectionist-dictator who insists there are "very fine" Nazis, and that he is, as Joe Biden calls Trump, "the greatest threat to our democracy." No wonder he is the target of repeated assassination attempts.

Now here's a news flash for you: Just as most establishment media entities have become nothing more than professional propagandists and politically motivated liars who exist to defame and destroy Donald Trump, so are they likewise disingenuous about Kamala Harris. That's right: The entire media love affair with Kamala Harris is pretend. They know she's awful.

Here's a small sampling of what the same left-leaning "mainstream media" now worshiping Harris were saying about her just a few months ago … when they assumed Joe Biden would be the Democrats' 2024 presidential candidate:

TIME MAGAZINE: "Biden Owes the Country a New Vice President" (Jan. 30, 2024)

THE HILL: "Democrats have a Kamala Harris problem" (Feb. 11, 2024)

NEW YORK MAGAZINE: "Case for Biden to Drop Kamala Harris" (Sept. 13, 2023)

The truth is, almost nobody in the Washington, D.C. government-media complex actually likes Kamala Harris or believes she possesses the character, competency or gravitas to be president of the United States. But they loathe – or to put it much more precisely, they FEAR – Donald J. Trump because of the mortal threat he represents to the entrenched, corrupt and hopelessly power-addicted permanent governing class in Washington, D.C.

At such a critical time, tens of millions of decent, clear-thinking Americans are praying, voting (or planning on voting), volunteering for and donating to election-integrity efforts, and talking to others about what they consider to be hands-down the most important election in American history.

Here is one more significant thing you can do to help turn the tide toward victory:

"KAMALA'S AMERICA" lays out – not just with words and photos, but with dozens of astonishing video clips – just who and what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz really are. All the major issues – from the illegal-alien invasion to the failing economy to the candidates' unbelievably sordid, corrupt and politically radical pasts, to radioactive issues like today's wild transgender recruitment of children, unrestricted abortion, climate change madness and Soviet-style censorship, on which they take the most perverse and authoritarian positions imaginable – are powerfully exposed.

In addition to actual truth-honoring professional journalists, a rarity these days, you'll also hear from Victor Davis Hanson, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann and many other expert analysts who come together to paint a truly mind-boggling picture of exactly what "KAMALA'S AMERICA" will look like if Harris becomes president.

IMPORTANT: Once you've downloaded "KAMALA'S AMERICA" for free, please share the same link widely – with your friends, relatives and colleagues – including those who see things differently from you and may be inclined to vote for Harris and Walz. People who are lifelong Democrats, or don't like Donald Trump for one reason or another, but who are woefully ignorant of the catastrophe that will befall America should the Democratic ticket prevail on Nov. 5 – these are people who also need to see "KAMALA'S AMERICA."

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