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JERUSALEM – The family of Daniela Gilboa – who has been held in Hamas captivity since being kidnapped on Oct. 7, permitted the release of a video Tuesday, which shows the 19-year-old Israeli soldier on her 107th day in the Gaza Strip.

"170 days have passed since the release of the video where I last saw my daughter," said Orly Gilboa, Daniela’s mother. "In the footage, she appears strong and determined, but psychological assessments we’ve received indicate her poor mental state. Who knows what my daughter has endured in the 170 days since then?"

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That Joe Biden has been exhibiting signs of some loss of mental and physical abilities isn't a question any longer. He is, after all, 81 years old going at full throttle to 82 in just a few months.

Already, it was a federal special counsel, Robert Hur, who concluded Biden did, in fact, keep government secrets to which was not entitled in violation of federal law. But Hur recommended against filing charges, which would be felonies, because a jury would see Biden as an old man with diminished memory.

Mike Towle's book, "Biden Time," notes back in 2006 he demanded, "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent … I'm not kidding!"

In 2009 he said, "Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you."

Further, he called out a "friend" as a "butt buddy." And he bragged about knowing three presidents "intimately."

His penchant for sniffing girls' hair came out verbally, too. He said, to a 15-year-old, "How old are you? Fifteen? I hope mom has a big fence" and "You've got some eyes, Isabel, I tell you."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

An expert on Parkinson's disease says he could have diagnosed Joe Biden with the neurodegenerative ailment from "across the mall."

The comment came from Dr. Tom Pitts, a Democrat and board-certified neurologist, who said in an interview with NBC News that Biden is showing obvious symptoms.

Calls for Biden to step away from the 2024 presidential race, even the White House, are surging following his recent catastrophically poor showing during a presidential debate with President Donald Trump.

Pitts explained it's easy to diagnose Biden with a neurological-degeneration just from his recent public appearances.

Pitts explained, "It's ironic because he has the classic features of neurodegeneration, word-finding difficulties, and that’s not, oh, I couldn’t find the word, that’s from degeneration of the word retrieval area."

Those symptoms are the "hallmarks" of Parkinson's, he said.

"I could have diagnosed him from across the mall," he said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions on the topic directly, claiming only Biden is not being treated for Parkinson's.

Pitts described Biden as a "wreck in slow motion."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

For many years, the People's Republic of China has been spreading funding into developing countries around the world in strategic areas. Headed by President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has been using its influence to commandeer land, resources, and other assets to advance its agenda.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center, shows just how deep that influence goes, with most people in 35 nations saying they believe China has had a large impact on their respective countries' economies.

In almost all the 35 countries polled by Pew researchers – 44,166 people between January and May 2024 spanning across six continents and ranging in income levels – said China has, at the very least, a fair amount of influence on economic conditions.

Researchers asked a similar question in 2019, and since then, this sentiment has grown substantially, though researchers note that whether people view the influence as good or bad varies greatly.

Middle-income countries had 47% of its population say the influence was positive, while 57% of people from wealthier countries viewed it as a negative. In a May report, a whopping 81% of adult Americans viewed China unfavorably.

In 2013, China launched its Belt and Road Initiative, which has since invested more than $3 trillion in 10 years, with the report noting this is the highest investment overseas by China's Ministry of Commerce in the last eight years.

These investments have not been without some controversy. Many have questioned the environmental impacts Chinese firms have on foreign environments, and concerns have been voiced about the treatment of workers, and whether the Chinese investments truly benefit local economies or if they are, in fact, harmful competition.

However, despite these concerns, Pew notes 72% of middle-income nations still have a favorable view of Chinese companies operating in their lands. Thailand had 81% of those polled saying they viewed China's influence on their economy as positive, Kenya had 80%, while Bangladesh had 79%.

"Across the Asia-Pacific region, we also asked people whether China contributes to peace and stability around the world. Opinion is divided: In Malaysia and Thailand, around two-thirds or more see it playing this role. About three-in-ten or fewer say the same in Australia, India, Japan and South Korea," the report says.

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The growing threat from China in the South and East China seas forced two U.S. allies in Asia to form a historic defense pact Monday which will let both countries have greater access to troops and deployment.

In the Philippine capital city of Manila, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Japan Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement – a landmark document that set the framework for deployment of military personnel to each country's territories for joint operations and training exercises.

The agreement will allow Japan to fully participate as a member of the Balikatan drills between the U.S. and the Philippines, rather than just as an observer as it has in previous years.

Disputes over territory have grown exponentially in recent months. The Philippine coastguard recently clashed with Chinese forces in the South China Sea, while Japan has accused China of violating territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

Japan’s Kamikawa said in an announcement that the alliance is to promote security and defense cooperation.

"As the security environment in the region becomes increasingly severe, the signing of this important security-related agreement with the Philippines…will further promote security and defense cooperation between the two countries and firmly support peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region," Kamikawa said in the announcement.

Japan and the Philippines started negotiations on the agreement in November 2023. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel praised the new agreement in a post on X.

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Physicians who were threatened and abused by various tyrannical credentialing boards that sought to suppress anything but the official government story line about COVID-19 have been given the go-ahead by the courts to sue.

The case was brought by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Education Foundation against the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Board of Family Medicine and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security over various situations in which those organizations threatened or actually acted against doctors because of what they said about COVID.

Their medical opinions essentially contradicted the government's talking points about taking various experimental shots, which evidence now shows have been extremely damaging to thousands of people.

The challenge focused on the coordinated campaigns to "censor and chill the speech of physicians," with special targeting of those who criticized the unfounded positions taken by White House adviser Anthony Fauci, lockdowns, masks and more.

A district judge had claimed that the AAPS "lacked standing," but a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has reversed that dismissal.

It's headed back to the lower courts for discovery, and potentially a full trial.

A report in the Federalist documented the ruling.

"The AAPS Educational Foundation brought the case because of a series of physicians who were being threatened with loss of their board certification because they had made comments that were either critical of the COVID0 vaccines or that advocated for early treatment with repurposed drugs," explained AAPS chief Jane Orient.

"Particularly bad were the three defendants of the internal board who were also engaged in threatening physicians who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade or had anything to say about abortion and its side effects."

The case also cited the egregious censorship schemes that were being developed by Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board which, Orient explained, "was devoted to seeking out and finding ‘disinformation,’ ‘malinformation,’ and, or pressuring people, including those on specialty boards and social media companies, to take action."

Public outrage that the government would assemble such a force prompted that particular coalition to be disbanded, but that doesn't mean that scheme has been abandoned.

When physicians made public comments, press comments, testified in hearings – and their statements did not align with the Biden administration's political agenda – they were threatened with loss of their credentials, which in many cases could mean the loss of their income.

The power structure simply labeled, without evidence, dissenting opinions as "misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation," the case charged.

One facing punishment was Dr. Peter McCullough, a professor of medicine for decades, who was forced into independent practice over his views after those in "academic practice" refused to allow him free speech.

He questioned, during a state legislative hearing, the experimental shots, and the ABIM later adopted a rule about "misinformation" and retroactively applied it to him, the report said.

McCullough confirmed to The Federalist he provided documentation and evidence regarding his opinions on COVID, but the organization refused to accept it.

The power structure lined up against the dissenting doctors including those credentialing agencies as well as insurance companies that would refuse to provide compensation for treatment if the doctor's opinion differed from theirs.

Lawyer Andrew Schlafly, litigating for AAPS, said, "Viewpoint-based censorship of freedom of speech is one of the most important issues today, and essential to the future of both our country and the ability of patients to obtain quality medical care. It is vital that we restore freedom of speech and end improper interference with it. Physicians must be able to speak candidly about issues of public concern without fear of retaliation."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – The Israel Defense Forces announced the results of a military probe into the defense of Kibbutz Be'eri following the initial Hamas onslaught on Oct. 7 were presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

Details of the review – which Maj. Gen. Mickey Edelstein, a former commander of the Gaza Division carried out – include the recording of a highly contentious event, namely the incident where at least two IDF tank shells were fired at Pessi Cohen's house.

An unknown number of terrorists had overrun the property, and it was assessed there were at least 14 hostages held there. The presentation to the chief of staff is reported to have lasted several hours as it was highly detailed.

Many units were involved in the largely officially uncoordinated attempts to push back the marauding invaders. In the chaos, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, the commander of the IDF's 99th Division who had been tapped to be the next head of the Gaza Division, ordered a tank to fire on Cohen's house.

Critics of both Hiram and the IDF have claimed this action was part of the controversial "Hannibal Directive," also known as the "Hannibal Protocol or Procedure." Broadly it states in a situation such as Oct. 7, it is better neither IDF soldiers nor civilians should be allowed to be taken alive into captivity in Gaza.

Officially, the IDF mothballed the directive in 2016, although some claim the exigencies of the Hamas onslaught against Israel meant in extremis it was reanimated, including the incident of Brig. Gen. Hiram's decision to fire on a residential home.

It is still not known exactly how many hostages died because of the tank fire – there was at least one fatality caused by shrapnel from a tank shell – but the whole area was subject to a fierce and prolonged gun battle involving Hamas terrorists and IDF troops.

The probe is expected to provide a large number of details of the incident at Pessi Cohen's house.

For now, Hiram's promotion as commander of the Gaza Division has been frozen. And even this move is seen as somewhat contentious. He is alleged to have given orders which required those under his command to make the very difficult decision to fire on a house that contained their countrymen – and whose condition could not have been known.

He is also credited with helping to take control of an entirely chaotic scene in southern Israel in the first hours and days of Hamas' massacre – when other commanders had either already fallen in battle or had fled. It is unclear what his future will be, for sure nothing will be decided until at least the findings of the probe have been presented to the surviving members of the southern kibbutzim and families of the slain at a special presentation at a Dead Sea hotel on Thursday.

The Be'eri probe is far from the only one; there are some 40 others in the pipeline, which are investigating the actions in the south, and which will be published on a rolling basis throughout July and August. A separate investigation into Oct. 6, which will include specific warnings about the likelihood of a Hamas attack, and the action or inaction that followed – and why – will be released in August.

Will there be a state inquiry?

Despite the dozens of up-and-running military probes that are due to be published over the coming weeks, there is still no word on whether there will be an official state inquiry into the events of Oct 7. It seems extraordinary, but Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed the establishment of such an inquiry – presumably fearful of what the results would mean for his political survival.

Israel's record on state inquiries might be imperfect – one thinks specifically of the Agranat Commission – which convened in November 1973 and delivered its findings in April 1974 – in the wake of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. It largely fudged the issue – particularly about then-premier Golda Meir's culpability – although it did effectively mark the end of her political career. Netanyahu is petrified that another wide-ranging inquiry will find his leadership similarly lacking and bring down the curtain on his 30 or so years in the political spotlight.

In contrast to Netanyahu, former prime minister Benny Gantz, who recently left Israel's war cabinet, called for a state commission into the intelligence and army failures of Oct. 7, back in May. Another senior defense establishment figure Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ronen Bar said in 2023, "Despite a series of actions we carried out, unfortunately, we were unable to generate a sufficient warning that would allow the attack to be thwarted. As the one who heads the organization," Bar said, "the responsibility for this is mine. There will be time for investigations. Now we are fighting."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal has shown how insurance companies in the U.S. are taking advantage of loopholes and cashing in on Medicare for treatments that were never actually diagnosed or treated by a doctor.

According to the report, one patient was diagnosed with diabetic cataracts by a registered nurse, despite the fact she didn’t have diabetes, nor cloudy vision after she consulted with her own physician following the RN’s diagnosis.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Every day, prominent voices sound an ever-more-urgent alarm over the Biden administration's border policies and the multiple threats to the nation's security they are causing.

* In late June, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas concerned about the poor vetting procedures of Afghans by the Biden administration.

* Around the same time, U.S. officials claimed there was no imminent threat to the homeland from eight men from Tajikistan residing in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, even though sources said the individuals have ties to ISIS.

* Earlier in June, the Daily Caller reported that a Chinese government agent ran a private social network to provide thousands of illegal immigrants with resources to enter the U.S. and evade authorities at the border.

* And in May, a pair of Jordanian nationals were arrested for attempting to ram their way into Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia with a box truck. One of the two had recently been screened by the Border Patrol, but was subsequently allowed into the U.S. with no restrictions anyway.

But for global security expert and Army veteran Ben Varlese, the Jordanians' attempted terror attack "was nothing more than a test run."

WND spoke in-depth with Varlese, a former Army Mountain Infantry Platoon Sergeant who served in domestic and overseas roles from 2001-2018, including as a sniper section leader. Since 2018, Varlese has also provided security consulting services for public and private sectors, including tactical training, physical and information security, executive protection, protective intelligence, risk management, insider threat mitigation and anti-terrorism.

"There have been several incidents in previous months," Varlese told WND, "that serve to highlight the continued national security threat presented by this administration's encouraged flood of illegal aliens over the last three and a half years."

The number of people entering the U.S. illegally is concerning beyond explanation, said Varlese. "At least 8 million illegal aliens from over 100 countries have crossed the southern border in the last three-and-a-half years," he noted, adding that "almost all have been released and even transported to 48 states by the DHS or various non-governmental organizations."

What about security vetting?

"Almost none have been properly vetted," Varlese told WND, including many thousands of individuals from "hostile or terror haven countries" like Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria and China. He also pointed out, chillingly, that, "Most of the illegals that have flooded the southern border since … Biden undid all of President Trump's border policies are military-age males."

Although "most are likely here for economic reasons," he said, "there are undoubtedly a significant number of bad actors that have been given a free pass to create sleeper cells in almost every American urban area."

Example: "Because there are tens of thousands of Chinese nationals, hundreds on the terror watch list, and millions of unvetted individuals scattered across the country," warns Varlese, "it is not a question of if something bad will happen, but when."

Moreover, adds Varlese, "The Biden regime welcomed this disaster."

He pointed to a brand-new threat with great terror potential: "This threat will only be exacerbated if [Biden] allows unrestricted access to so-called Palestinian refugees, who, let us not forget, celebrated the wanton murder of innocents on Sept. 11, 2001 and Oct. 7, 2023."

Apart from the Islamist threat, Varlese told WND that the Chinese communist regime poses a nearly equal threat.

"In recent years," he said, "there have been an unusual number of physical infrastructure and agricultural – food processing plants, stockyards and herd/flock deaths 'attacks' or curious circumstances connected to U.S. logistics and supply chains that have already been strained from tyrannical COVID-19 lockdowns in years past."

"As a result of the illegal immigration crisis," he warned, "the threat of sabotage – physical or digital – from Chinese interests is exponentially compounded because of the illegal immigration crisis."

"Similarly," Varlese told WND, "individuals from Iran and Venezuela, as well as other bad actors connected to the Taliban, Al-Qaida and Da’esh (Islamic State/ISIS) have infiltrated the U.S. and could cause no end of havoc domestically."

Whatever the stated altruistic motives of the Biden regime, said Varlese, in reality "they're inviting disaster."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – The Israel Defense Forces visibly stepped up operations in central Gaza overnight Sunday and continuing into the early hours of Monday morning, as Israel's military unusually announced that it was "striking Hamas terror targets in the central Gaza Strip."

Reuters reported columns of tanks, which were backed by aerial bombardment, as well as troops on the ground, converged on Gaza City from multiple directions, with residents claiming they were witnessing some of the heaviest fighting in the city since the start of the war.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service claimed dozens of people were killed in the offensive – although it did not try and distinguish between combatants and civilians – but emergency teams were unable to reach them because of ongoing offensives in Daraj and Tuffah in the east and Tel El-Hawa, Sabra, and Rimal further west.

Residents spoke of having nowhere to go, as some tanks rolled in from the east, in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.

However, the IDF said residents were warned ahead of time, and a route was opened for their safe evacuation. The military and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) also made it clear that they were targeting both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives, who were using United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters. One particular strike was reported to have eliminated a Hamas sniper who took part in activities against IDF troops.

This latest strike on a UNRWA facility comes two and four days respectively, after smaller-scale IDF attacks against structures from which terrorists operated in the Al-Jaouni School in Central Gaza, and also the "Alqahirah" School in Al-Furqan and the "Musa" School in Daraj Tuffah. With the expansion of operations, it means that there are four main areas of kinetic action in the Gaza Strip; Rafah, Netzarim, Shejaiya, and Gaza City.

Of the former, the IDF said in a post on X, "This location served as both a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks against IDF troops operating in Gaza were directed and carried out."

"Hamas continues to systematically violate international law by exploiting civilian structures and the civilian population as human shields for its terrorist attacks against the State of Israel," it added.

Later in the day Monday, the IDF again called on Palestinian residents in several central Gaza City neighborhoods to relocate to the humanitarian zone. The military's Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee published a list of zones that needed to be evacuated in conjunction with the announcement. There are three humanitarian zones; an area on the southern Strip's coast, in the western neighborhoods of Khan Yunis, and central Gaza's Deir al-Balah.

The reinvasions of central parts of Gaza have highlighted some of the limitations of the IDF's capabilities, even after months of fighting, and much of it successfully significantly denuded Hamas and other terrorist groups' offensive effectiveness.

These most recent incursions follow previous occasions in the IDF has had to become involved in fierce battles for areas they previously took, and which Hamas controlled in the vacuum once the Israeli military had withdrawn.

In a post on X in Hebrew, the IDF claimed that it had eliminated more than 30 terrorists in the Rafah area who were threatening Israeli troops over the previous 24 hours. It also said that it had destroyed additional tunnels in the Strip.

The uptick in fighting comes as Israel prepares to send a delegation to neighboring Egypt on Monday for further talks on a ceasefire/ hostages-for-prisoners swap deal. It follows Hamas' apparent climbdown – with senior figures in the Gaza leadership, although Yahya Sinwar is not thought to be among them – pushing those exiled leaders in Doha, Qatar to accept the hostage deal proposal, which the Biden Administration champions.

Internal Hamas communications highlighted Gaza's parlous state, including the terrorist organization's heavy losses on the battlefield, as well as the ravaged landscape. One of the conclusions drawn from these communications is a hint that Sinwar might not be fully aware of what is going on above ground. He has been in hiding since the outbreak of the war – or certainly since the IDF's incursion into the Gaza Strip – and is thought to be deep underground – potentially with some of the hostages – and may not be fully apprised of the exact situation.

Over the weekend, Hamas appeared to drop its demand that Israel commit to ceasing hostilities in the coastal enclave as part of any deal. This minor retreat would seem to support the notion that Israel's maintaining significant pressure on the Hamas leadership and causing heavy casualties of its fighters is paying dividends.

Although an Israeli team will shortly be on its way to Cairo, there is certainly no sense that these talks will lead to an immediate breakthrough. There are still several outstanding issues, many of them particularly thorny. Indeed, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu muddied the waters somewhat on Sunday when he outlined a list of "non-negotiables" that he expected the Israeli delegation to stick to.

One of the prime minister's red lines concerned the smuggling of weapons to Hamas across the Egypt border. The IDF currently controls the area around the so-called Philadelphi Corridor and the prime minister is loath to cede such an important – and highly lucrative – smuggling route back to Egypt.

To that end, Israel has requested the construction of an underground barrier to prevent any reanimation of the transfer of men and materiel to Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel's control of the area around Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border, put a huge strain on relations between the two countries, causing Cairo to consider recalling its ambassador.

Furthermore, Netanyahu's public discussion of these red lines before the team headed by Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar had even left Israel was seen by some commentators – and even unnamed officials – that the prime minister was deliberately attempting to make their job harder, and potentially even scupper the deal before it has a chance to get off the ground.

Seasoned political analysts, including Nadav Eyal, have argued that Netanyahu's acceptance of a deal will lead to his government's fall because the right-wing elements within it – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in particular – will see it as caving to Hamas.