This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
On Jan. 22, 2021, Ali Khamenei, the religious dictator of Iran, posted a photo on his official website of President Donald Trump on a golf course with the bold caption: "Revenge is inevitable."
Two years later, on Feb. 25, 2023, Brigadier Gen. Hossein Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, listed on the U.S. terror blacklist, stated: "God willing, we will be able to kill Trump and Pompeo. That night (during the missile attack on the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq), we could have killed a thousand Americans if we had wanted to, but they were just soldiers, and it would not have mattered. However, Trump, Pompeo, and McKenzie need to be killed," as reported by the Tasnim News Agency, Iran's semi-official news agency associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Ahmad Hamzeh, a member of parliament, announced during a public session of the parliament that "on behalf of the people of Kerman, we offer a three-million-dollar cash reward to anyone who kills Trump," reported the semi-official ISNA news agency on Jan. 21, 2020.
After a 2022 assassination attempt in New York on novelist Salman Rushdie – the longtime object of Iranian assassination threats and fatwas going back to the 1988 publication of his book "The Satanic Verses" – the Kayhan newspaper, which publishes Ali Khamenei's positions, noted that "taking revenge on the perpetrators and criminals on American soil is not difficult and after this [attempted assassination of Rushdie], Trump and Pompeo will feel more threatened." Many other threats have been made against Trump by the highest officials of the Iranian regime, speaking of severe revenge for Trump's killing of Qasem Soleimani, a key architect of terrorism in the Middle East.
Before the failed assassination attempt on Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice president of the European Parliament and president of the International Committee in Search of Justice on Nov. 9, 2023, the theocratic regime of Iran had placed him on the foreign ministry's sanctions list. Immediately after the attempt on his life, and before being transferred to the hospital while unable to speak due to a bullet hitting his lower jaw, he communicated with the police by writing on his cellphone that his only enemy was the Iranian regime. Subsequent investigations showed that the mastermind of this crime was indeed traceable back to Iran. The fugitive criminal had been hired to assassinate Vidal-Quadras.
Recently, an Iranian woman was arrested in the Netherlands for financing this assassination attempt. The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reported this week that the Iranian regime uses "criminal organizations for its assassinations."
In the midst of successive failures both within Iran and on the international stage, Khamenei is more in need of showcasing power than ever before to maintain his forces domestically and his proxy forces in the wider region. In the recent presidential elections, despite Khamenei's pleas and various coercions, only about 10% participated in the voting, a turnout that reflects essentially a boycott within Iran, the regime's unparalleled failure at suppression of opposition, and the growing quantitative and qualitative strength of the resistance units. Indeed, thousands of resistance units belonging to the People's Mujahedin of Iran – the core force of the democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI – managed to bring the regime's elections to a boycott with 20,000 promotional operations within just one month. Khamenei is well aware that this organized force could spark a major uprising that would make his downfall a real possibility.
On June 29, at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit held in Paris, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an inspiring speech, emphasizing the need for international support for the Iranian resistance movement.
"You all continue to be persecuted and prosecuted, and frankly, Western nations aren't doing enough to support your efforts. But I'm counting on the courageous men and women, some of whom I've had the chance to meet, who have become a nightmare for the regime. They will force change. They will obtain change. They force an offering to a brighter future for the people of Iran … Madam Rajavi, the Ten-Point Plan you have put forward is the solution. That day will come when it shatters the theocracy. It will break them to the very core. And the very leaders who are inflicting so much pain on the Iranian people today will be held accountable for all that they have done."
And Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and one-time presidential candidate, in her July 17 speech at the Republican National Convention, identified the Iranian regime as the primary cause of all the problems in the Middle East, saying: "Look at the Middle East. Every problem in that part of the world can be laid at the feet of Iran. The dictator to chant death to America are the bankrollers and weapons suppliers for Hamas and Hezbollah. They're behind the barbaric massacres and the hostage taking. Once again, compare Trump and Biden. Trump got us out of the insane Iran nuclear deal."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Iran long has boasted of its plans, and its ability, to assassinate President Trump.
But when a 20-year-old sniper on July 13 shot at Trump, nicking his ear, the rogue Islamic regime was quick to say they had nothing to do with that scheme.
According to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute, Iran's threats against Trump have been around since the January 2020 killing by the U.S. military of IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
It was just 72 hours after the attempted assassination that happened at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, CNN revealed the Secret Service recently had boosted security for Trump "because of intelligence on Iranian regime plans to assassinate him."
MEMRI explained that "presumably" would be to avenge the killing of Soleimani in an American airstrike near Baghdad in January 2020, while Trump was president.
But then only one day later, 96 hours after the assassination attempt, "senior members of the Iranian diplomatic corps vehemently denied Iranian involvement in the assassination attempt."
The report noted Iran's acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani told CNN, asked whether Iran was retaliating, "I told you explicitly that we would resort to legal and judicial procedures and frameworks at the domestic level and international level in order to bring the perpetrators and military advisers of General Soleimani's assassination to justice."
He said the regime would use "Iranian and international" procedures.
"Until now, we have done it, and this is our right and of course we will continue it. And the Americans openly said that, that they assassinated the senior Iranian military commander. So it is our natural right in order to follow this issue, and those who are accused in this case, they should be brought to justice in a – in a just court," he said.
The report noted, spokesman Nasser Qan'ani for Iran's foreign ministry added, "Iran is determined to bring Trump to justice for his direct role in the murder of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, but denies any involvement in the recent attack or any such intention."
Iran's mission to the United Nations elaborated, "From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice."
The statements all contradict months, even years, of pledges by regime officials about "their desire and intention to assassinate Trump."
Such statements, the report said, have come from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, IRGC commander Hossein Salami, IRGC Air Force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Khamenei senior advisor Kamal Kharrazi, and the editor of the regime mouthpiece Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadar.
They have promised "revenge."
That faction even, in 2022, posted an animation depicting the assassination of Trump as his Florida estate.
It was not even the first such messaging, the report noted.
The report noted such threats against Trump have been common in Iran, including from Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei, who said, "With regard to the murderers of the martyr Soleimani, the intention is an 'eye for an eye' for criminals like Trump and Pompeo. It is not yet clear how, when, and in what form [Iran] will avenge [Soleimani]. Keep [these] criminals under this psychological pressure."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The American Center for Law and Justice has taken on a wide range of religious and civil rights fights over the last year and one of those recent disputes was a decision by a senior housing center to ban Bible studies from common areas that otherwise are used for games, knitting clubs, book clubs and the like.
Then a complaint arose about another senior housing center doing what essentially was the same thing.
Then a senior housing facility banned religious decorations, even while allowing other decorations.
Then another banned any advertising in a common area for any religious event, even though other events were advertised.
Then yet another senior housing center banned religious literature – even though it allowed individuals to share various other pamphlets, flyers and information.
The legal team now has confirmed that 10 times in just the last year it has responded to violations by senior housing centers of the Fair Housing Act, which bans discrimination based on religion. Those attacks have been across eight different states.
Now it is asking the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue guidance that would end the campaign.
A report from the prominent legal team explained, "We've successfully defended numerous Christians in senior living centers but are concerned that more is at issue, so we just sent demand letters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice. These letters tackle the widespread religious discrimination by senior living complexes since the beginning of 2023."
It continued, "We're requesting that the DOJ and HUD issue written legal guidance to senior living centers (much like the Department of Education issues to schools) regarding their legal obligation to uphold religious liberty. We specifically request that they address the bans on Bible studies and that they implement proper enforcement mechanisms to ensure that the law is followed."
It noted the apparent coordination of the attacks on religious faith in housing centers.
"The reasons given for the religious discrimination in the situations we addressed were eerily similar. Most complexes discriminated on the basis of religion in order to be supposedly 'neutral' or 'inclusive.' (Yes, they oxymoronically claim that banning Bible studies would promote being 'inclusive.') However, absolutely nothing in the FHA allows complexes to discriminate or prevent religious activity in the name of neutrality."
The team said it is demanding that the federal agencies "take action to protect religious liberty and stop senior centers from banning Bible studies. Such rampant unconstitutional targeting of Christian seniors must end now."
Federal law allows HUD to administer the FHA, and that law "has prohibited religious discrimination since its inception."
Specifically, the law states discrimination is not allowed against any person "in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, because of . . . religion. . . "
It said, "The reach of the statute encompasses claims regarding services or facilities perceived to be wanting after the owner or tenant has acquired possession of the dwelling."
And, the legal team confirmed, the ban on religious discrimination covers "both overt discrimination against members of a particular religion as well as less direct actions" such as inconsistent application of the rules.
Issuing such guidance often is part of the work of a federal agency, the ACLJ reported.
"In May 2023, the Department of Education released its 'Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer and Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools.' Notably, these guidance materials also provide information in a way that is clearer than just reading the underlying federal laws."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A leftist judge in California has issued a stunning ruling that children are too young for First Amendment rights, so teachers were right to punish a 7-year-old for expanding the Black Lives Matter mantra to include others.
Details of the startling conclusion by District Judge David Carter were documented by the Daily Mail.
The report describes how the little girl was punished, banned from recess and ordered not to draw pictures at Viejo Elementary in Orange.
The judge endorsed the punishment as she's "too young to have First Amendment rights."
"The girl's family filed a lawsuit last year against the Capistrano Unified School District, claiming her First Amendment Rights were violated during the 2021 incident," the report explained. But Carter now has claimed, "Students have the right to be free from speech that denigrates their race while at school" and that the girl was not protected by the First Amendment because of her age.
Carter claimed, "An elementary school … is not a marketplace of ideas… Thus, the downsides of regulating speech there is not as significant as it is in high schools, where students are approaching voting age and controversial speech could spark conducive conversation."
The judge tried to explain, "Undoubtedly, B.B.'s [the student] intentions were innocent… B.B. testified that she gifted the Drawing to M.C. to make her feel comfortable after her class learned about Martin Luther King Jr."
But the friend, M.C., took the image home and her parents "found it offensive" and demanded the school take action.
The report documented: "This prompted principal Jesus Becerra to tell B.B. the drawing was inappropriate and racist. He then punished B.B. by making her publicly apologize on the playground to her classmates and teachers. B.B. was also banned from recess and from drawing pictures for two weeks."
B.B.'s mother brought the action because her daughter did no wrong.
The case now goes to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider what observers are describing as a dangerous precedent depriving elementary students of constitutional rights.
Lawyer Caleb Trotter said, "If that view is allowed to survive and spread, the speech rights of countless elementary students around the country could be at risk. That was what really concerned me."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – There is only one story dominating the news at the moment, and the reactions to the "other" shot heard around the world are continuing.
As America grapples with the post-assassination attempt reality – what it means for the upcoming election, as well as the general tenor of what passes for political discourse – WND takes a look at some of the reactions.
North, Central, and South American leaders' reactions:
Meanwhile, the Canadian PM's official X account could only muster fewer than 650 likes for a response from Trudeau.
Argentina's President Javier Milei – whose government recently declared Hamas a terrorist organization and who is also pushing for more urgent investigation into the Iranian-funded bombing of Buenos Aires' Jewish community center in 1994 – tweeted his contempt for international leftist ideology.
Brazil's former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro tweeted a simple message, including "Our solidarity is with the world's greatest leader at the moment."
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele released a strongly worded statement on X, roundly condemning the assassination attempt.
European leaders' response:
Britain's newly minted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer took to X to express his shock at the assassination attempt. "I am appalled by the shocking scenes at President Trump's rally and we send him and his family our best wishes."
French President Emmanuel Macron decried the attempt on Trump's life, referring to it as "a tragedy for our democracies. France shares the shock and indignation of the American people."
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the country's Party of Freedom, took to X to highlight the fact right-wing lawmakers of different stripes and in various countries face similar dangers to Trump. He also posted the iconic image of a bloodied but unbowed 45th president of the United States with a clenched fist and the Stars and Stripes fluttering in the background with the simple line "President Trump."
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn expressed his "thoughts and prayers" for President Trump.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, "It is a warning to everyone, regardless of political affiliation, to restore dignity and honor to politics, against all forms of hatred and violence, and for the good of our democracies."
Middle Eastern leaders' reflections:
The United Arab Emirates' president, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has cracked down hard on political dissent, condemned all forms of "violence and terrorism" in the wake of the attack. UAE was one of the signatories to the Abraham Accords in 2020, which – until the Biden administration rolled it back – had seemed to herald a more peaceful and prosperous era for the Middle East.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sissi conveyed concern and stressed his country's condemnation of the attack in a statement.
"I express my wishes for Trump's speedy recovery and for the US election campaigns to be resumed in a peaceful and healthy atmosphere, free of any aspects of terrorism, violence, or hatred," he said.
Sisi, who Trump once referred to as his "favorite dictator," further called the Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting a "treacherous act."
Leader of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region Marsour Barzani condemned the attack, saying the Kurds "stood in solidarity with the United States."
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack on Trump, extending his "sincerest wishes" to the former president and his family.
For Israeli leaders’ response to the attempt on Trump’s life read more here.
In addition, Abe Katsman, counsel, Republicans Overseas Israel said, "I think the reaction has not been nearly strong enough. It's not good when the BEST we can hope to discover is ineptitude of the Secret Service, and not something more nefarious.
"Invariably, when there is an Islamist shooter or terrorist attack, we are told the suspect was 'self-radicalized' online/through social media. Well, if that's possible, then it's also possible for people to be radicalized by the over-the-top demonization of President Trump and the Republicans. The Left really needs to be called out for such excesses; there is danger in confusing a political opponent with an enemy, and even more so when done loudly and repeatedly."
Of JD Vance's nomination as Trump's vice president pick, Katsman said, "We are generally quite pleased with the choice. And, of course, very pleased with the ticket overall. While Trump's opponents will try to claim Vance is an 'isolationist' (and therefore not to be trusted with the special US-Israel relationship), we don't believe that to be at all accurate; where he hesitates to commit U.S. resources abroad, his positions are cogent, responsible and thought-out."
"He, like Mr. Trump understands the critical value and importance to America of its unique alliance with Israel, and the imperative for America's security of intelligent policy regarding the entire region. A Trump/Vance administration is sure to be a vast improvement over the current administration's inept foreign policy, which has only made the world a far more dangerous place. Of that, there is zero doubt. This ticket has our unreserved endorsement."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, unfolding in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, may have been the closest we have come to World War III. Trump escaped death by a remarkable providence of God. Had Trump been killed, the man who fights against the globalist quest for world dominion like no other in America, the neocon warmonger elite would have had a full-fledged victory. Horrifying wars would have been ahead of us.
With the American flag perfectly set in the back, the AP photograph of the former president clenching his fist in the air, blood on his face as Secret Service agents swarmed around him, is becoming a symbol similar to the French Revolution iconic painting of “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix. In it, the bare-breasted woman clenching her fist represents the people’s voice against the tyranny of the elites, lifting the French flag with a young boy and soldiers by her side.
The demonized and heavily persecuted Trump has for years been the only man able to symbolize the “little man’s fight against the elites,” as he has spoken of the need to focus on domestic issues, return jobs to America, tax the mega-corporations who reside in tax havens and stop the cartel monopolization of wealth. No wonder the mainstream media are instructed to demonize Trump, as over 90 % of the media is owned by the very same ultra-rich, globalist cartel corporations Trump attacks. I elaborate on this topic in my book “Trump: The Battle for America.” He knows that the United States has become the laughingstock internationally for its complete inability to win wars overseas regardless of the trillions of dollars spent, wars in which hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost and millions displaced as refugees. Domestically, the U.S. has been equally unable to deal with the rampant drug problems, inflation, corruption, skyrocketing food prices, open borders problems, overcrowded jails, street poverty and homelessness, horrible roads, gruesome inner-city standards, and so on.
The dramatic assassination attempt becomes the pinnacle of the ongoing political civil war in the degenerated West between local patriots who support traditional constitutional nation-states and internationalist globalists who seek to end borders. Donald Trump has stated that the future does not belong to these globalists; it belongs to the patriots. The globalists arguably seek to impose a new feudalist billionaire-dominated system in which the voice of the people is no more.
The globalist business model is dependent on weak nation-states that easily may be overrun by global corporations that crush the middle class and local businesses. It is also dependent on a low-cost labor force, thus the need for illegal immigrants without rights who can be bullied around with no consequence. It is the new model for slavery: workers with no rights. The globalists have for decades benefited from the outsourcing of jobs and wealth to cheap-labor countries, reinforcing an international economic model that departs from the nation-based capitalist system and benefits the ultra-rich on an unprecedented scale.
Globalism has since the 1980s produced a system in which a few individuals now own over 50% of world assets, only made possible by the transnational business model – with mega-corporations based in tax havens – that refuses to redistribute wealth when outsourcing jobs to low-cost labor countries. This has produced the death of the middle class in the West and the impoverishment of the working class. Naturally, Trump, who wants to reinforce national borders, has become a hated enemy.
The growing divide between globalists and patriots is also strongly present in Europe, a continent reduced to a passively obedient vassal to the same American neocon elites, completely manipulated by the Washington leadership. The European nation-states are weakened, divided, and controlled by political rulers who arguably do not have the best interests of their people at heart. Europe is thereby heavily entrenched in the very same conflict that Trump spearheads in America. The French political leader Marine Le Pen recently said that the divide in the West is no longer between the right wing and the left wing. It is between patriots and globalists.
The assassination attempt has turned Donald Trump into a larger-than-life icon, a prophet hailed as a messiah figure at levels never seen before. The hope is to return American greatness to the deteriorating and sad image of a faltering United States, to end the gruesome wars overseas, and to provide fair trade, growth, and justice to the increasingly multi-polar world.
If there ever was a time to pray for America, it surely is now.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Israel's parliament – the Knesset – voted overwhelmingly Thursday to reject the notion of establishing a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The vote was 68 in support of a statement nixing the idea, and nine against.
National Unity Party Member of Knesset Ze'ev Elkin – a former housing and construction minister – sponsored the vote, with support from Yisrael Beytenu – which former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman leads – and The Land of Israel lobby, which has members from across the spectrum, such as Likud, Shas.
The text of the vote read, "The Knesset of Israel is firmly opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would constitute an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and undermine regional stability.
"It would only be a short matter of time before Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terrorism, coordinated with the Iran-led axis, to annihilate the State of Israel. Promoting the idea of a Palestinian state would reward terrorism and only encourage Hamas and its supporters, who would see it as a victory due to the October 7 massacre and a prelude to a jihadist Islamic takeover of the Middle East."
Lawmakers from Opposition Leader Yair Lapid's center-left Yesh Atid party left the plenum to avoid backing the measure, even though he personally has spoken in favor of a two-state solution. The only ones to back the resolution were parliamentarians from the Labor, Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al parties – the latter two of which are Arab factions.
Gideon Sa'ar MK, a former protege of Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and who was once seen in the Likud Party as a potential successor, leads the National Unity Party. Some commentators have viewed the vote as a challenge to the prime minister – who was not in the parliamentary chamber for the ballot – from his political right; and as a potential challenge before his much-vaunted address at the U.S. Congress.
The message of the text is not only at odds with – but seemingly provokes direct confrontation with both the Biden administration and large swathes of the Democratic Party, which are wedded to the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The administration's Israeli critics argue its policy toward Israel and Palestine is not based on facts on the ground, and is the result of deep confusion in the realm of foreign affairs.
An increasingly fractious Democratic Party, including many members who are fearful for their immediate political futures with a clearly ailing Joe Biden still currently at the top of the ticket, is torn on Netanyahu's imminent appearance in the Congress. While some of its members plan to attend Netanyahu's address out of loyalty to the long-standing U.S.-Israel relationship, a growing number of their more radical colleagues have said they will not attend, in protest of Israel's conduct during the nine-month long war with Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Hostages Families Forum has urged Netanyahu – who is due to fly to the U.S. Thursday – to seal a deal for the release of their kidnapped family members, still languishing in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Former hostages will appeal to the prime minister in a special statement. It follows Netanyahu's controversial – and what the hostage families explained were deeply painful remarks – about the hostages saying they "were suffering but not dying." The survivors will testify Thursday evening that each day in captivity could turn the hostages' suffering into death. Since the last deal, at least 13 hostages have been killed in captivity.
In February, Netanyahu sponsored a Knesset resolution that rejected the unilateral imposition of a Palestinian state as there were other nations pushing for international recognition. These included Norway – whose foreign minister Espen Barth Eide was this week barred from entering Israel on the back of his government's support for attempting to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state and for his government's failure to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.
This latest vote is not the same as the February resolution, as it rejects entirely the proposition of the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The stunning move canceled the requirement for offenders to appear before a judge
There's no comment from a Minnesota judge about why he abruptly reversed a local court policy that was allowing domestic violence suspects to be freed from jail on as little as $150 cash bond, but the change followed almost immediately a posting of the get-out-of-jail practice online.
The situation has been profiled in a report at the Minnesota Sun, which noted the details were confirmed by CrimeWatchMpls on social media.
The report said officials in the Hennepin County Court system recently modified a standing order regarding domestic abuse suspects. The old policy required them to be held until they had appeared before a judge, so that orders, like no-contact instructions and such, could be implemented.
But Hennepin County District Court Chief Judge Kerry Meyer changed that.
His new order allowed "suspects arrested on probable cause misdemeanor domestic abuse to be released from custody on cash bail as low as $150 just hours after their arrest and before seeing a judge. Suspects arrested on a probable cause gross misdemeanor domestic abuse charge could post cash bail as low as $1,000 and be released from custody before being brought before a judge, or having no-contact orders issued in either case," according to postings by the crime watch group.
That change was posted for people to see Friday evening.
"Less than 24 hours after the information was posted on Crime Watch's X feed, Chief Judge Meyer issued a new order on Saturday evening rescinding the portion of the June 18 Standing Order that applied to misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor suspects jailed on probable cause domestic abuse," the report explained.
It said Meyer explained, "This Order is intended to revert misdemeanor domestic offenses to the 2019 Standing Order provisions, put gross misdemeanor domestics in that same position, and clarify no contact orders will be issued upon release until future amendment."
The report said that means those who are arrested on suspicion of domestic violence must remain in jail until they appear before a judge who would make decisions regarding limits.
Meyer, in a statement to reporters, said he would have no further comment beyond the order.
CrimeWatchMpls said, "This is a small but significant victory that shows the power of this platform and those of you who took action in contacting the court following our post."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Beijing is preparing to ‘batten down the hatches’ after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump appears to have increased his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.
A Chinese media outlet, the South China Morning Post, reported Wednesday that China is preparing to "batten down the hatches" after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump appears to have increased his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.
Global markets instantly were stimulated after Trump survived the assassination attempt by Thomas Crooks at a Butler County rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Cryptocurrency, gun stocks, and Trump’s own Truth Social stock all saw a significant jump in value.
During his first term, Trump famously imposed import tariffs of up to 25% on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, a number Trump has promised to bump up to 60% if he is elected in November.
A researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, Chen Fengying, told the South China Morning Post that while there is a burgeoning trade war on the horizon, China is already working on plans to adapt if Trump once again takes the Oval Office.
“Another trade war seems inevitable…It seems we are already adapting gradually…We have been digesting the tariffs through supply chain relocation – there is no other way,” Chen told the publication.
Since the tariffs were imposed by the Trump administration in 2018, China has been forced elsewhere to do business, branching into markets like the Middle East. The formation of BRICS – the multinational alliance where China sits as one of the top players, has also helped China keep afloat as it dealt with U.S. tariffs.
However, the Chinese economy does not appear to be as strong as the Chinese Communist Party would have the world believe, as new reports are emerging about its stagnation – despite the country's exploitation of slave labor.
Strict lockdowns and restrictions on its 1.4 billion population during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as strict tariffs from the U.S., already had put a dent in the Chinese economy. Regulatory crackdowns, a property crisis, and youth unemployment are further compounding this, according to a report from CNN.
Time reported in August 2023 that China’s economy was already beginning to slow, with global investors pulling over $10 billion from the Chinese stock markets. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley also slashed their targets for Chinese equities.
Time further reported the slowdown of China's economy would be a positive for the U.S. because it would "drag down" oil prices, and deflation in China would mean lower prices on the country's exports.
Fast forward to this week, when CNBC reported that China's second-quarter growth was less than expected, sitting at a growth rate of 4.7%. This had steeply declined from the year's first quarter of 5.3%.
The National Bureau of Statistics of China said in a statement the demand for domestic goods in China is insufficient and recovery needs to be strengthened.
"In the first half year, the national economic performance maintained stable with steady progress made in the transformation and upgrading. However, we should be aware that the external environment is intertwined and complex, the domestic effective demand remains insufficient and the foundation for sound economic recovery and growth still needs to be strengthened," the statement says.
A look at China’s debt clock shows the Chinese economy is almost $10 trillion in debt. This number, however, excludes local government financing and China’s shadow banking institutions. It is suggested this number should be multiplied by at least 3.25, meaning China’s real debt would exceed $30 trillion.
China has some other deepening problems, as violent crime seems to be on the rise after a spate of stabbings across the country have made headlines – including a group of American Cornell College professors who were attacked by a 55–year–old man in a park in Jilin City in June.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has hailed China as one of the "safest nations."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
‘Every Democrat disengaged from, disenfranchised by, or disgusted with Joe Biden’s America and the radical left turn that the elites of the Democratic Party have taken – come on down’
Peter Navarro, the first high-ranking Trump aide to be imprisoned by the Biden administration, will speak at the Republican National Convention Wednesday, just hours after his release from prison.
"The best is yet to come!" wrote Team Navarro on Peter's X page.
The trade adviser to President Donald Trump was put behind bars for refusing to kowtow to ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan commission she set up essentially to blame Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Wednesday's theme at the RNC focuses on foreign policy issues.
Upon his release, Navarro told reporters: "We have to unite this country and every Democrat disengaged from, disenfranchised by, or disgusted with Joe Biden's America and the radical left turn that the elites of the Democratic Party have taken – come on down."
“Praise the Lord and welcome back to freedom,” said Jeff Clark, the former assistant attorney general who was one of 18 individuals indicted alongside Trump for what prosecutors call as a wide-ranging effort to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
“Welcome back to the fight,” added conservative talk-show host Jack Posobiec.
“Every person who has taken me on this road to that prison is a friggin’ Democrat and a Trump-hater,” explained Navarro, when he began his prison sentence.
The New York Post said Navarro surrendered himself to a Miami federal prison for a four-month sentence after courts and the Biden Department of Justice insisted he be locked up.
The 74-year-old defied a congressional subpoena from Pelosi's partisan committee, which now has been confirmed to have concealed evidence exculpatory to Trump for that riot, and was found in contempt of Congress by Democrats.
"When I walk in that prison today, the justice system, such as it is, will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege," he warned at the time.
He was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress after he cited the longstanding principle of executive privilege as a justification for his refusal to tell Congress what they wanted to hear about Trump.
His conviction remains on appeal, but he was ordered to start serving the time anyway.
"Navarro was adamant that he was merely 'doing my duty to this country' by adhering to executive privilege, which grants a president authority to withhold certain material from Congress," the report said.
However, court rulings claimed Navarro wasn't protected under executive privilege.
"I will walk proudly and in there and do my time," he said.
A report from the Gateway Pundit noted that Fox News anchor Sandra Smith “cut away” from Navarro short address to reporters “to do a fact check.”
The report continued, "Navarro did not comply with the subpoena because he said Trump told him to assert executive privilege. … Biden's corrupt DOJ sought a six-month prison term for Navarro. Late last month, judge Amit Mehta sentenced Peter Navarro to 4 months in prison and ordered him to pay a $9,500 fine."
Mehta had, in fact, banned Navarro from making a claim of executive privilege in his own defense, leaving the jury with less than all the evidence in the case.