This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before a Senate hearing on Tuesday, a hearing that multiple media outlets considered "combative."

And leftists online were critical of her presence, her behavior, and her answers, in a situation that appeared to leave Democrats triggered when Bondi refused to allow them to pursue trick questions.

For example, Sen. Dick Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggestively questioned her about her conversations about a certain legal dispute involving a merger.

She responded with heat.

"Sen. Blumenthal, I cannot believe you would accuse me of impropriety, when you lied about your military service…. You admitted you lied … to be elected…. You lied. How dare you. I'm a career prosecutor. Don't you ever challenge my integrity," She tossed back.

Then there was Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who seemed to suggest that there was something inappropriate about the use of National Guard members to crack down on rampant crime in American cities.

Bondi said, "Yeah, Chairman, as you shut down the government, and you're sitting here. Our law enforcement officers aren't being paid. … They're out there working to protect you. I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump. And currently, the National Guard are on the way to Chicago. If you're not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will."

An online commenter explained, "Admittedly she did well, but it really was a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent."

Even leftists trying to portray her as failing, who posted a video of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, came up short.

He kept insisting that she explained the details of an FBI case and claims against Tom Homan, the border security chief, that involved a supposed cash payment.

He wanted to know where the cash ended up.

She explained, over and over, the FBI investigated the case fully and found "no credible evidence" of wrongdoing.

She invited him to talk to the FBI about the status of any cash involved.

After she answered his questions, he complained she was incapable of answering simple questions.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Mike Pompeo served in the first Trump administration as secretary of state, also led the CIA, and now is senior counsel for global affairs at the American Center for Law and Justice.

And he is describing the violent crime wracking American now as a national crisis, blaming, "failed progressive policies."

"Left-wing politicians have convinced themselves that greater compassion for the criminals is the only way to address the root causes of crime. In practice, that has meant declining to prosecute dangerous individuals and repeat offenders, disempowering police, and making it almost impossible to commit individuals with dangerous mental illness to the psychiatric care they need to keep themselves and others safe," he wrote.

He cited the recent violence: "Deadly attacks on an ICE facility in Texas and an LDS Church in Michigan. These attacks came on the heels of the very public assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the horrific killing spree at a Minneapolis Catholic school that claimed the lives of two children, and the now infamous stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina."

He noted "all that is going in the right direction" for Americans, but also called out the "darkness – that seems to be at large."

"Whether it's the lionization of political assassinations or the normalization of random acts of violence, there are definite echoes of the lawlessness that reigned during the 1960s and 1970s. And while the spike in homicide rates and violent crime that began in 2020 has gone down, it has by no means returned to pre-pandemic levels," he noted.

He explained it's made worse because "progressives continue to demonize law enforcement. From the 'defund the police' movement that accompanied the riots of 2020 to the rhetorical attacks on ICE as they attempt to enforce immigration law, the Left is undermining law enforcement and encouraging further acts of violence."

He said the messaging from extremists is that, "we can never 'arrest our way out' of criminality." But, he said, "The evidence suggests the precise opposite: Violent crime only goes down when the perpetrators are incarcerated, and when the severely mentally ill are given the help they need to protect themselves and others."

He said the problem, deeper than policy changes, however, relates to the spiritual.

"As much of our nation has turned away from religion, we've lost the moral compass that goes with it. The unprecedented phenomenon of spending so much of our lives online – exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – has had a flattening effect on the way many people view their fellow Americans. And the collapse of trust in institutions has opened up new spaces for conspiracy theories to take root – causes eagerly adopted by evil actors and the mentally unwell," he said.

"As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. When elected officials coddle criminals and refuse to protect law-abiding citizens, they fail to uphold the most basic obligations of governance and put us all in danger. When lawlessness is given free rein, it corrodes our social fabric and contributes to a wider sense of disorder, distrust, and moral rot. And when our society turns its back on God and reduces human beings to mere representations of a political, ethnic, or a social category, we open up new opportunities for malevolence to run riot."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The FBI has fired several employees over a scheme by Jack Smith, Joe Biden's special counsel assigned to run Democrat lawfare cases against President Donald Trump, to spy on the communications of multiple Republican senators.

It was confirmed just this week that Smith's entourage, set up to prosecute, convict and even jail Trump if a way could be found, went to telephone companies with warrants and demanded access to the communications records of Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

All Republicans.

The invasion of their records came at a time when Smith was putting together claims that the Jan. 6, 2021, protest-turned-riot in Washington actually was a real effort to overthrow the U.S. government, install all new officials, take control of its international policy, economy, and much more.

Smith's J6 case against Trump, as well as his other claims, ultimately fell apart.

Now, a report at Fox explains the FBI "has already terminated employees and abolished the CR-15 squad just one day after it was revealed that several Republicans' private communications and phone calls had been tracked."

FBI chief Kash Patel confirmed the moves.

"We are cleaning up a diseased temple three decades in the making — identifying the rot, removing those who weaponized law enforcement for political purposes and those who do not meet the standards of this mission while restoring integrity to the FBI. I promised reform, and I intend to deliver it," he told Fox.

Patel said, "Transparency is important, and accountability is critical. We promised both, and this is what promises kept looks like… We terminated employees, we abolished the weaponized CR-15 squad, and we initiated an ongoing investigation with more accountability measures ahead."

It was the CR-15 squad that helped Smith "investigate" Trump.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Patricia Heaten is an Emmy Award winner. She's also an advocate for Israel who has worked with various campaigns such as one from The Lawfare Project that fights anti-Semitism and such.

And she's warning the nation things could get very bad if Americans don't wake up to the threats that are coming from leftist campaigns against Israel and Jews, and in support of Islamic extremists.

"It's hard to believe, but we're going to see a 9/11 again in this country if people don't wake up, take a stand, and make their voices heart," she said in an interview with Fox News.

Tuesday is the second anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, an act of war that saw some 1,200 people slaughtered and hundreds more kidnapped. President Donald Trump continues to work on a plan to eliminate that threat from the Middle East.

"Heaton said she was dismayed that many Americans and people around the world have embraced anti-Israel propaganda and sided with radicals who seek to destroy the West," the report said.

"After October 7, I assumed that all of America, and particularly Christians, would be standing up for Israel, that there would be a massive outcry on October 8th, and 9th, and 10th in support of Israel and condemning what had happened. And instead, there was sort of silence from most Americans and a lot of churches and huge support for Palestine and for Hamas and for Gazans who went in and participated in this slaughter," she warned.

Heaton has founded the October 7th Coalition after seeing Americans turned against Israel following the Hamas terrorism.

It works to coordinate Christians to battle anti-Semitism across the U.S.

"This is a horrible thing that we witnessed. And now the whole world is supporting the perpetrators. It's outrageous," Heaton said.

She explained Christians must defend Jewish people not just to protect them, but because "attacks on them are attacks on all Judeo-Christian communities," the report said.

"It's very important for Christians to recognize this and support the Jewish people. And for our own self-interest, also for the interest, as Brooke said, for democracy, for Judeo-Christian values that we all cherish, and we benefit from," Heaton said. "But you have to remember 9/11. You have to remember the first attack on the World Trade Center, and you have to take seriously these attacks on Jews that are happening on American soil."

She referenced Brooke Goldstein, who founded The Lawfare Project. Goldstein said Americans who had lost sight of the threat from radical Islamists – who hijacked those jets on 9/11 – might be perceiving a problem again.

"I think Americans are starting to wake up and understand that radicalization — especially theologically motivated radicalization — is a threat to the United States," Goldstein said. "Why has it taken us so long after 9/11, when Islamist radicals flew planes and killed thousands of civilians, to realize this is not just about the Jews?"

She said part of the problem is what she called "Islamophobi-mania," or the attacks on those who offered opposition is Islamists and were branded as "Islamophobic" or "racist."

"Americans are waking up that this is a threat to us," she said. "We have American civilians who were kidnapped and killed, and others who remain hostages in Gaza. This is an attack on Western democracies — an attack on the West by radical Islamist states funding proxy groups engaged in what they call a holy war."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new study from South Korea has documented how COVID shots and their boosters, mandated by corporations, military commanders, federal officials and more during the pandemic created by the China virus, push up the risk of cancers.

A report at Childrens Health Defense cites the study by South Koreans published in Biomarker Research, a Springer Nature journal.

The study included more than eight million people and found COVID-19 shots and boosters "are associated with a higher risk of breast, colorectal, gastric, lung, prostate and thyroid cancer, across all vaccine types and age groups."

"Mainstream medical commentators" claimed the findings are "flawed."

But others found value in the results.

"In plain terms: both major COVID-19 vaccine platforms appear to be carcinogenic," epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher wrote in a post on Substack.

Those would be mRNA and non-mRNA.

Dr. Angus Dalgleish, a medical oncologist, told The Defender the study builds on other recent findings but 'is the first to show that cDNA [non-mRNA] and mRNA vaccines are associated with cancer risk, suggesting that the spike protein is directly carcinogenic,'" the report said.

The report noted, "The researchers said the 'shared structures' contained within the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 vaccines, including the spike protein, might mean that the COVID-19 shots are associated with cancer risks."

The data comes from some 8.4 million people in South Korea's National Health Insurance Service database. And researchers tracked patients for a year, after dividing them in vaccination status groups, and found the overall cancer risk among those given shots was 27% higher.

For breast cancer, the risk was 20% higher, 28% higher for colorrectal cancer, 34% higher for gastric cancer, 53% higher for lung cancer and 69% higher for prostate cancer.

The report said, "COVID-19 mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna showed a 20% higher overall risk of cancer and were most closely linked to a higher risk of breast, colorectal, lung and thyroid cancers. Non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, known as cDNA vaccines and which include the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) shots, were associated with a 47% higher overall risk of cancer. They were specifically linked to an increased risk of colorectal, gastric, lung, prostate and thyroid cancers."

Hulscher confirmed, "The elevated cancer risks were not confined to one vaccine platform. Each vaccine type was associated with a measurable increase in overall cancer — and each had specific cancer sites driving the signal. In other words, no vaccine technology was free of cancer risk in this dataset."

Hulscher wrote: "Both the overall and site-specific results show a consistent pattern — every demographic group experienced elevated cancer risks, though the type and absolute burden varied. Women and the elderly were hit hardest, but no population segment was spared."

Critics charged the study failed to account for family histories of cancer, and screening histories.

But Children's Health Defense research scientist Karl Jablonowski explained, "The criticism levied against the study is of healthy user bias. The idea that people more likely to engage in one medical intervention (vaccination) are also more likely to engage in another (cancer screening) … is a valid concern for a vaxed-unvaxed study such as this one, as those seeking a vaccine will have drastically different healthcare-seeking behavior than those not seeking a vaccine.

"[However,] this is not just a vaxed-unvaxed study — it also differentiates the vaccines. Healthy user bias is not a point of argument for why one vaccine (cDNA) shows a strong cancer risk above another (mRNA). Further, the study doesn't say vaccines cause cancer, but are associated with them."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is accusing Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed under Joe Biden to work on some of the Democrats' lawfare cases against President Donald Trump, of "spying on political opponents."

WND has reported there's been confirmation about the extent and depth of the weaponization of the federal government under Biden, to include onetime special counsel Smith monitoring the communications of, and spying on, Republican senators.

A document, reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed that Smith and his FBI activists working to undermine, even prosecute and jail, President Donald Trump "were allegedly tracking" telephone activity of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

Dan Bongino, the deputy FBI director, briefed multiple senators, including Graham, Hawley, Johnson, Blackburn and more, Monday.

Hawley said the scheme to be "spying on the presidents political opponents" was "a profound violation of the separation of powers."

Hawley said the actions align with what he described as the broader pattern of executive overreach under Biden's White House.

He cited the surveillance that was ordered of Catholic churches, parents at school board meetings, and social media censorship, too.

"The truth comes out. Biden's Stasi who claimed to be saving 'our sacred democracy' in fact worked overtime to destroy it — all for power. They spied on Catholic churches, prosecuted pro-lifers, deployed the FBI against parents at school board meetings — and tried to tap the phones of their political enemies. Including mine," Hawley wrote.

"This is an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover, one that directly strikes at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment. We need a full investigation of all involved: who knew about it, who ordered it, and who approved it. Anyone and everyone who violated the law must be prosecuted. The way to save the country is to restore the rule of law."

He said he was targeted because he is a conservative Republican and opposed Biden's "lawlessness," the report said.

"This is worse than Watergate," he said, as Biden "activated the entire government to go after anybody who dared to oppose him."

He explained, "We've got to have a total accountability, total transparency and a full accounting of everybody who was involved in this — everybody who knew about it, signed off on it, and had any part in it, and I just can't imagine that this is legal… and anybody who committed legal violations needs to be prosecuted."

One of Smith's lawfare cases against Trump involved Democrat claims that the January 6, 2021, protest turned riot in Washington actually was an insurrection, a deliberate attempt to overthrow to U.S. government. It apparently was in connection with those claims that he demanded access to the senators' telephone records.

The case eventually collapsed even has Smith continued to submit to the court various extravagant claims about Trump.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump's Sept. 19 proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on all new H-1B petitions while acknowledging that the program has unjustly displaced many American workers has put the whole H-1B visa program under sharp scrutiny. It is the first time a presidential administration has admitted publicly that the program has inflicted measurable harm on Americans.

The H-1B promise vs. reality

The H-1B visa was created in 1990 under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It was meant to let companies bring in foreign workers for "specialty occupations" when no American worker could be found. Congress set the cap at 65,000 visas per year, later raising it to 85,000.

On paper, it looked like a narrow tool for filling rare shortages. In practice, the safeguards never existed and abuse has exploded.

Employers don't have to prove there's truly a shortage. They only need to claim they'll pay a "prevailing wage." Yet in reality, those wages are often well below market pay. On top of that, spouses and dependents arrive on H-4 visas, many of them also thus eligible to work. What was sold as a limited program has ballooned into a pipeline far larger than the statutory cap suggests.

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector

A 'cap' that isn't a cap

What most people don't know is that there are entire categories of employers, universities, research institutions and qualifying nonprofits that are legally exempt from the annual cap. Which means they can sponsor unlimited numbers of foreign workers year-round.

An even lesser-known loophole makes the system even more porous: Once a worker is hired by a cap-exempt employer, that same worker can hold a second job at a private company that normally would be subject to the cap. This effectively allows corporations to skip the H-1B lottery and gain unlimited access to foreign workers under the protection of nonprofit sponsorship.

The Build Fellowship: A nonprofit mask for corporate labor

The Open Avenues Foundation/Build Fellowship shows how these exemptions are being commercialized. Marketed as an educational fellowship, it advertises itself as a way to connect foreign professionals with U.S. universities. But the program's own documents reveal its business model is actually a visa pipeline.

Fellows are placed in nominal nonprofit roles for just five hours per week. That's enough to qualify them for a cap-exempt H-1B visa. Once they've cleared that hurdle, they move into full-time jobs at private companies through concurrent H-1B filings.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

In 2020, the Census Bureau undercounted the population in five mostly Republican states: Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

And it overcounted in six mostly Democrat states: Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island.

It also undercounted Democrat Illinois and overcounted Republican Utah and Ohio.

But the bottom line, according to a letter from Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is that "the political infrastructure determined by the census — the Electoral College, congressional districts, and congressional seat apportionment — are built on inaccurate information. We are stuck using these faulty census results until the 2030 Census because, even if we had another census now, U.S. Code mandates that mid-decade census results 'Shall not be used for apportionment of representatives in Congress … nor shall such information be used in prescribing congressional districts,'" explains a report at the Federalist.

Among the results is that that count "wrongly" gave "six congressional seats and Electoral College votes to the Democrat party."

Banks' letter to the Census Bureau charged, "The reports may have also miscounted the population in a number of voting districts. And the reports definitively included illegal aliens without tracking those aliens' citizenship status. If left uncorrected, these errors will continue diluting the political power of American citizens."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A Muslim who claimed it his was First Amendment right to vandalize a Christian church in Texas has found out that the jury, whose members returned a guilty verdict in his case, disagreed.

The initial ruling in the case that continues involved one defendant, Raunaq Alam, who was convicted of vandalism, according to a report at the Center Square.

He was one of three accused of a vandalism case at the nondenominational Uncommon Church in Euless, in Tarrant County.

The three allegedly spray-painted "[expletive] Israel" and attached other pro-Hamas terrorist stickers on the church building.

They were caught on security cameras.

They originally faced felony criminal mischief counts in the case filed by District Attorney Phil Sorrells, but those later were increased the felony hate crime, which carries a sentence of two to 10 years in prison, the report said.

"It was increased to a hate crime because the perpetrators allegedly targeted a church because of religion, the prosecution argued. The case was also transferred to County Criminal Court No. 9 under Judge Brian Bolton," the report said.

Alam, taken to trial last month, was convicted of criminal mischief, for which he was sentenced to five years of probation, $10,000 in fines and $1,700 in restitution.

His probation includes 180 days in jail.

Alam still faces perjury and drug charges, the report said.

During the fight, which came in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and amid multiple instances of "unprovoked violence by Muslims" on Christians and Jews in Texas, multiple "pro-Palestinian/Hamas rioters" have argued "their actions are protected by the First Amendment," the report said.

Gov. Greg Abbott has directed Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to arrest suspected offenders.

In the church vandalism case, Afsheen Khan, a co-defendant, was charged with felony criminal mischief. A third defendant, Julia Venzor, testified against Alam and Khan and pleaded guilty, getting five years of probation.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

As WorldNetDaily recently reported, some members of the U.S. military – even under President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth – are being ejected from the service for filing religious exemptions from taking vaccines. The main focal point of that report was Technical Sgt. William "Tony" Oslin, who feared that his Christian religious beliefs might jeopardize his military career.

Unfortunately, that reality has come to pass.

WND spoke with Oslin, whose last day in uniform after a two-year battle over the flu vaccine was last Friday, Oct. 3. Even though he feels a great deal of disappointment, Oslin expressed gratitude for the individuals he believes were put in his path by the Lord to assist him and others who have been treated unfairly. For example, he said, at the beginning of September, "when my separation date was approaching, some awesome people got my story to [Under Secretary of the Air Force] Matt Lohmeier's office and he arranged a 30-day extension while my case was being reviewed."

As Oslin explained, he submitted a Religious Accommodation Request (RAR) in September 2022 for the COVID-19, influenza, typhoid, anthrax and tetanus vaccines, maintaining his objections to each based on his sincerely held religious beliefs that his body is "a temple of the Lord" and need not be subjected to vaccines, many of which are tested and/or developed with the use of aborted fetal cells.

Then, once the military's COVID-19 mandate was rescinded in January 2023 and Oslin was clear of being forced to take that particular shot, the influenza vaccine was the next to be adjudicated.

"The Chaplain expressed that I do have a sincerely held religious belief, which according to Air Force policy and federal and state law, is all you need for an accommodation to be granted," Oslin told WND.

Yet, two years later, he has been denied accommodation and forced out of the military.

In the past 30 days, Oslin says he was "never notified of any updates or any news as to whether my separation would stand or be overturned." It was only after contacting his commander last Thursday, Oct. 2, for an update that he learned his final day in uniform would unexpectedly be the very next day, Oct. 3.

The former Air National Guard member explained, "[My commander] never responded until after the Human Resources officer brought me in to inform me that my separation for not receiving the influenza shot was being upheld – this was three hours after I asked for an update."

Contending that the Air Force is blatantly ignoring the supreme law of the land as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Oslin told WorldNetDaily, "I am being separated for the stated reason of not following direct orders and Air Force policy, even though those orders and policy violate the Constitution of the United States and the Alabama state Constitution."

Oslin also noted, "The government claims they have a compelling government interest in vaccinating all service members or it will hinder the mission – even though they grant medical exemptions all the time and somehow these personnel are not a hinderance to the mission." In fact, medically exempt personnel are allowed to deploy and serve the same as those who have been vaccinated.

"It is a person like myself who is seeking a religious exemption that is considered a threat to those others – who are 'vaccinated and protected' because vaccination is purported to be the safest and most effective way to avoid influenza – and considered a threat to mission accomplishment," he said. "Can someone please make this make sense to me? It's obvious common sense does not apply."

"If one person that is unvaccinated is considered a non-threat, how is another considered a threat?" he questioned, adding, "This is religious discrimination and it is unconstitutional, [and] there is no other way to explain it."

"The current administration tells the American public they are for religious freedom and no one should have to choose between their religious beliefs and their livelihood," Oslin told WND, yet added, "While saying this, the administration is allowing the opposite to happen; they are allowing religious discrimination to happen."

Oslin, who loves the military, made a sad statement regarding future generations of his own family: "I have three grandsons, and I will make sure that none serves in a government that violates the very Constitution it is supposed to protect and uphold. We have reached a time and place in this country to where the government has stolen power from its Creator and has claimed a power it was never granted."

"And this is happening under President Donald Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth's Department of War," he lamented.