This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Ford Motor Company reportedly has a Chinese company in charge of hiring workers at its new battery plant in Michigan, contradicting the auto giant's claims it will be an American-owned and operated project, while raising national security concerns.
Just the News reports: "The plant has generated significant controversy because of Ford's partnership with China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, known as CATL, which closely collaborates with the Chinese military and government. The U.S. Defense Department earlier this year marked CATL as a Chinese Military Company to warn American firms about the risks of doing business."
Republicans in Michigan's legislature have been critical of the Ford plant, saying the state government failed to adequately vet the project and Ford's partners in the project.
"From the outset of the corrupted 'deal' concocted and championed between Governor Whitmer, Ford, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and China-based and Chinese Communist Party-tied (CCP) Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) has been fast moving and in secret," Joseph Cella, former U.S. ambassador to Fiji and Director of the Michigan-China Economic Security Review Group told Just the News.
"In their haste, unconscionably, parties to this 'deal' performed no strict scrutiny or due diligence, defying the directives given by our national security and intelligence agencies to state and local governments and American corporations when dealing with China-based companies, jeopardizing our national security and taxpayer dollars."
In spite of controversies of Chinese-licensed tech and Republican efforts in Congress to strip tax subsidies from Joe Biden's green-projects agenda, Ford is driving ahead with the Michigan project called BlueOval Battery Park Michigan.
Ford defends its strategy to license technology from CATL, claiming it's an important step in re-shoring U.S. manufacturing. The actual battery being licensed by Ford, known as a lithium-iron-phosphate battery, was invented in America in the 1990s, but the company says at present, there's no way to produce them in the U.S. without Chinese know-how.
"How can we compete if we don't have this technology? Somebody has to take the lead to do this," Ford's vice president of technology platform programs and electric vehicles Lisa Drake told Axios. "I'm convinced this is the right thing to do for the United States."
On its website, Ford calls it an "historic first step" to increasing American competitiveness of in the worldwide EV market.
"An American automotive company is manufacturing – without relying on a foreign joint venture – LFP battery cells and battery packs domestically with American workers for American-assembled next-generation electric vehicles," the company states.
It also says the location will be "wholly owned and operated by Ford."
Despite that claim, job listings on job platforms such as LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter raise questions about whether the battery park is really independent from its Chinese partner.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
One of Jill Biden's top aides while Joe Biden and his entourage occupied the White House, Anthony Bernall, had agreed to testify to Congress about its investigation into the mental decline of Joe Biden while he was in office.
One of the key questions still unanswered is did Joe Biden actually know what was going out as law over his signature, which was applied to various documents with an autopen process.
While Bernall had agreed to testify, on Wednesday he abruptly refused, so now members of Congress have issued a subpoena that will require his testimony.
Key is that any claim of White House immunity has been waived by the administration of President Donald Trump, which has the authority to make such decisions for the Biden White House.
Bernall was to be the second witness coming out of the Biden administration on the topic of Joe Biden's failings.
The Washington Examiner confirms that the House Oversight Committee has issued that subpoena, explaining he had "refused" to appear and answer questions.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the committee, said, addressing Bernall, "To advance the Committee's oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical."
The letter accompanied the subpoena.
The process to get Bernall's testimony has been littered with problems. His counsel had demanded a weeks-long delay, and that prompted the committee to suggest a subpoena.
"Within ten minutes of the Committee's email, your counsel responded that 'no subpoena is necessary,'" Comer wrote. "Yesterday, on June 26, your counsel informed the Committee that you were no longer willing to appear voluntarily for the transcribed interview. … To avoid any further delays, your appearance before the Committee is now compelled."
The investigation is looking at, among other things, "who was calling the shots" during Biden's final two years in office, and why his signature was increasingly replaced by an autopen to sign certain executive orders.
Comer said, "Now that the White House has waived executive privilege, it's abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal — Jill Biden's so-called 'work husband' — never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden's cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up. With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth."
Former White House aide Neera Tanden, in fact, was the first witness in the investigation. She admitted handling the autopen signature process on documents but claimed she didn't know who ultimately authorized the actions.
"Tanden testified to the House Oversight Committee that she was authorized to direct autopen use from October 2021 to May 2023 while working as Biden's staff secretary and senior adviser," the Washington Examiner reported, citing her opening remarks.
She also told the committee she had limited contact with Biden and that she did not know exactly who provided final approval for use of the autopen, Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a statement.
Tanden also turned partisan in her comments, claiming the committee was overlooking Trump administration oversight to focus on Biden's behavior and the behavior of the Democrat's administration.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Multiple arrests have been made at an event at Disneyland Paris which, media reports have confirmed, featured an alleged pedophile reportedly trying to "marry" a 9-year-old girl who was dressed in a wedding dress and had high heels taped to her feet.
"The park officials were told the whole thing was for a social media video, not an actual wedding, but apparently that didn't check out because four people ended up arrested by the French police: the would-be groom, the girl's Ukrainian mother, and two Latvian nationals," according to a report at Not the Bee.
The man was identified as "Jaskarn Jhaj" and the Daily Star reported he was identified by prosecutors as being "registered on the British Sex Offenders' Register."
The report said he was "on the run" from U.K. police.
"French prosecutors claim the 39-year-old man was known in the UK for 'sexual offences against minors' and has been charged with various offences after staging a 'pretend wedding ceremony' with the Ukrainian child at the resort's Sleeping Beauty castle," the report said.
The Star said workers "grew suspicious" after seeing the young girl wearing a bridal dress "with four-inch heels taped to her feet," and they called authorities.
The Independent confirmed there was a "British man arrested at Disneyland after fake wedding to nine-year-old girl."
Le Monde called it "a bizarre ceremony."
Not the Bee added, "Jhaj was wearing a disguise that had been 'professionally made up in order to display a totally different face from his,' according to the prosecutor's office."
The report explained the girl apparently was not injured, so the charges stemming from the incident apparently are just fraud.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Sneers at critics of leftist, racist, sexist ideologies being taught in many classrooms, but one responds with, 'I love it when they are transparent about how sinister they are'
Stacy Davis Gates is president of the Chicago Teachers Union and spoke recently at a meeting of the City Club of Chicago.
She insisted that residents should "blame President Donald Trump, not the city's broken politics, for the fact that Chicago Public Schools are running a deficit of over a half a billion dollars," according to a Western Journal commentary published at the Gateway Pundit.
But the posting suggested her real title should be "the newest reason for you to homeschool your children."
That's because she went out of her way, snarkily ridiculing critics of the public education industry and its ideologies, to insist that she believes schools do own all the children.
She explained, "The budget and its choices manifest into real impact that our young people get to experience. So choices about the budget left students at Julian High School in 2025 without a math teacher for nearly a year, Clemente high school without a chemistry teacher … Those are not occurrences. Those are choices."
But her real ideology soon was revealed, when she explained, "one of the first social studies lessons taught in kindergarten classrooms is of community" as that lets children "come to understand the connectedness of people and institutions."
"The attack on the idea of community is exactly the point," she charged.
She pointed to "right-wing outrage" triggered by "a teacher who quoted African-American author James Baldwin during a rally last year."
"The children are always ours. Every single one of them, all over the globe."
Turning on her sneer voice, she said, "And what comes next is, 'CTU, you think your children are its children.'"
She confirmed, "Yes. Yes we do. We do. [Sneering again] 'CTU thinks all children belong to it, and their socialist conspiracy ideology.'"
She then claimed the corporate education industry educates, nurtures, protects and supports children, and even negotiates for them, although it was unclear what those negotiations involve.
Social media responses included:
"This is so vile."
"They wouldn't treat a dog they (sic) way those children are treated."
"I love it when they are transparent about how sinister they are."
The commentary noted, "And of course they are. We're just coming off the Biden administration, where the president said — in the same speech, mind you — that we've got to stop making teachers 'the target of the culture wars,' then told a group of teachers that their charges are 'not somebody else's children; they're like yours when they're in the classroom.'"
The report noted the full speech is here:
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A constitutional expert publicly is calling for full support for a review ordered by President Donald Trump of the coverup of Joe Biden's "obvious deterioration."
It is Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University professor who not only has counseled Congress on constitutional issues but represented members in those fights, who said there are "ample reasons" for Americans to get answers "as we continue to struggle with the problem of presidential incapacity."
He pinpointed the moment that should have been a "wake-up call" regarding the "obvious deterioration" seen in Joe Biden as his presidency progressed from a campaign built on videos filmed in his basement to his long history of verbal gaffes, blunders and mental failures on exhibit from his White House term.
"'Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie?' When then-President Joe Biden asked in September 2022 if House Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican who had died weeks earlier in a car accident, was in a meeting, observers were shocked. Biden had not only issued a statement of condolence; he had attended the congresswoman's memorial service to lower the flags at the White House in her honor," Turley explained.
"As Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple noted last week, that moment should have been a wake-up call. In Washington parlance, it left no room for 'plausible deniability' about whether Biden was still fit to hold the office of president. And it wasn't just Democratic politicians who were willfully blind to Biden's obvious deterioration; it was the media, too."
He pointed out that's why all the nation should "fully support President Donald Trump's June 4 order for his administration to investigate Biden's competence and answer some of these questions, including the possible abuse of an autopen to sign legislation, pardons and other documents while he was president, instead of looking for political motivations."
Turley noted the House Oversight Committee also is conducting an investigating.
He cited the New York Times' claim the investigation was Trump's "campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies" but pointed out that was "a weird dissonance when journalists blame Biden's White House for a coverup, but then criticize efforts to investigate that coverup."
He conceded criminal charges are not likely to result, but investigation could end up with "forgery, obstruction of justice, fraud or other serious crimes" if the autopen was used without Biden's express authorization.
He cited the stroke sustained by President Woodrow Wilson a century back, and said Americans must have "accountability and greater transparency on matters of presidential health and competence."
While the 25th Amendment allows for a specific response to the incapacity of a president, it does not work when "staff have an interest in maintain the illusion to keep the president and themselves in power."
The worst thing, he said, for America "would be a collective shrug and a resumption of business as usual."
He said, "Biden was kept on a reduced schedule, allowing him to rally for single events. That is the difference between a major stroke and creeping cognitive decline. The 25th Amendment was designed for catastrophic medical events, not the slow slide to senility."
However, "The result for the office can be largely the same."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump says he'll make his decision on whether the U.S. will join Israel in the destruction of Tehran's nuclear plants soon.
"Within two weeks."
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement just a short time ago:
"Regarding the ongoing situation in Iran," she said. "I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst all of you in the media regarding the president's decision-making and whether or not the United States will be directly involved. In light of that news, I have a message directly from the president. And I quote. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.'"
The president has met with his advisers in the Situation Room at least twice already this week.
This developed as Israel was launching repeated waves of attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and military leadership, leaving one in shambles and the other dead. Iran has been responding by bombing Israel's population and hospitals.
There are reports he has approved attack plans, but held off on implementing them to see if Iran will be willing to negotiate.
He's repeated his commitment to his agenda that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons multiple times.
There are members of his party, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has said the U.S. needs to "finish the job" with Iran.
Others are adhering to the "America First" agenda adopted by Trump, calling for restraint.
"A poll out on Wednesday from Fox News found voters split on the issues Trump is facing. A majority of registered voters surveyed believe Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear program would result in more danger. But a majority also believes Iran poses a national security threat to the U.S.," Fox reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, "We're not just fighting our enemy. We're fighting your enemy. For God's sake, they chant, 'death to Israel, death to America.' We're simply on their way. And this could reach America soon."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened, "The Americans should know, the Iranian nation will not surrender, and any intervention by the U.S. will be met with a forceful response and irreparable damage. War will be met with war, bombing with bombing, and strike with strike. Iran will not submit to any demands or dictates."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States knows where Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hiding, calling him an "easy target," but adds he's not looking to kill him for the time being.
"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding," Trump said on Truth Social.
"He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.
"But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
"Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
"UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" the president added.
Trump also Tuesday expressed confidence in American-made weaponry being used in the Israel-Iran war, saying "Nobody does it better than the good ol' USA."
"We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran," Trump said.
"Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn't compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured 'stuff.'
"Nobody does it better than the good ol' USA."
In an another post early Tuesday, Trump stated: "I have not reached out to Iran for 'Peace Talks' in any way, shape, or form. This is just more HIGHLY FABRICATED, FAKE NEWS! If they want to talk, they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table – Would have saved a lot of lives!!!"
Trump is getting mixed reaction online, including:
"FAFO. It's the American way. We don't play games with terrorists. We blow them up before they blow us up."
"Control of the skies reflects technological superiority, but true success lies in its ability to promote peace."
"If Iran fires rockets at Israel from now on, America will be disgraced in front of the world."
"WE? What's with this WE sh**? Not our war!"
"You said no new wars and now you're getting us into a endless ones. American lives are now going to be on the line and you are going to have blood on their hands. You said America first not Israel first. This is going to end terribly. Stop now and focus on AMERICA."
"Well technically, according to Israel, this war has been going on for 30 years. So technically it isn't a new war. But I agree. I did not vote for this."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Supreme Court has ruled several times in recent years that state governments cannot impose their religious ideology on business operators and require them to abide by, and promote, those beliefs.
Those decisions came from the insistence of Colorado officials that business owners there promote the LGBT lifestyle choices or not do business in the state.
Both times, Colorado lost at the high court, including once when the state's officials were criticized for their open "hostility" to Christianity.
But the message is getting through, as a judge hearing a case involving a New York photographer ordered to violate her Christian faith in order to do business there has issued an injunction stopping the state's attack in its tracks.
A report at Townhall explains the development:
"U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. of the District Court for the Western District of New York granted Emilee Carpenter, the photographer, a preliminary injunction shielding her from being compelled to violate her religious beliefs."
She runs a wedding photography business and New York. Attorney General Letitia James, who recently was accused of mortgage fraud, insisted that the state could force Carpenter to violate her faith.
The federal court confirmed that Carpenter "believes that opposite-sex marriage is a gift from God" and that she uses her company to " to celebrate such marriages."
Promoting the LGBT ideology, including same-sex duos, would violate her faith.
The district court said, "The Supreme Court held that a state public accommodation law may violate a business owner's free-speech rights under the First Amendment to the extent it 'compel[s] an individual to create speech she does not believe.'"
The judge found that her work product is an expressive product, and she creates works of art that are protected by the Constitution.
Geraci rejected state claims that the work did not include a specific message.
The injunction will be in place, protecting Carpenter from fines and other punishment, while the case moves through the courts.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A ruling from the Michigan Court of Appeals means that a prosecutor in Wayne County now must face a court case that charges him with retaliation against a resident for challenging the county's money-making car forfeiture scheme.
It is the Institute for Justice that explained Robert Reeves sued the county and prosecutor Dennis Doherty.
The decision clears the way for Reeves's First Amendment and malicious prosecution claims to proceed through the court system.
"Today's decision sends a powerful message: When government officials abuse their authority to silence critics, they don't get a free pass," explained Kirby Thomas West, a lawyer with IJ. "Robert stood up to Wayne County's unconstitutional forfeiture program, and today the court has confirmed that he has a right to hold the prosecutor accountable for retaliating against him for taking that stand."
Reeves charged that Doherty twice dragged him into baseless criminal proceedings "to punish him for challenging the county's civil forfeiture machine," the IJ explained.
And the court rejected the prosecutor's claim of absolute immunity, concluding "the assistant prosecutor can be sued for using the criminal process as a tool of retaliation."
The appeals court explained what had happened.
"After Robert Reeves challenged Wayne County's controversial civil forfeiture program in federal court, he says the County retaliated—reviving a dormant criminal case and selectively prosecuting him for bringing that suit. The charges against Reeves were ultimately dismissed (twice) for lack of evidence. This appeal asks whether Reeves's claims of retaliatory prosecution can survive governmental immunity and pleading challenges."
It said, "Doherty's immunity turns on the legal character of the conduct alleged—an issue that can be resolved on the face of the original pleadings. Plaintiff alleged that Doherty contacted the new officer in charge of the task force to seek clarification, recommended submission of the warrant request, and directed the officer in charge to file that request. Those allegations suggest that Doherty's conduct was aimed at reviving a dormant prosecution and falls within the category of investigative or administrative acts, not quasi-judicial ones. Because the alleged conduct is not protected by absolute immunity, the trial court erred in dismissing the claims against Doherty on that basis."
The fight developed when Javone Williams—an associate with whom plaintiff had previously worked—asked him to meet at a job site, where plaintiff demonstrated that he knew how to operate a skid-steer loader.
"Plaintiff then drove to a nearby gas station, where he was stopped by officers assigned to a Michigan State Police task force investigating thefts of rental equipment from Home Depot. Officers questioned plaintiff about the skid-steer loader, detained him briefly in a local jail, and then released him without filing charges."
They also grabbed his 1991 Chevrolet Camaro and $2,280 in cash, which were retained as part of "omnibus forfeiture proceedings" submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor.
Later in 2019 police sought arrest warrants for several individuals, including plaintiff and Williams, but did not follow through with them.
The next year, plaintiff helped lead a federal class action challenging the constitutionality of Wayne County's forfeiture program, the ruling said.
The day after the case was filed, the county directed state police to release the assets seized from him.
And that same day, Doherty "instigated" a filing for which Doherty again was arrested, leading to a district court to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.
A second filing also was dismissed sometime later.
The IJ explained the forfeiture scheme was a "controversial legal tool called civil forfeiture" because it let the county confiscate private property without charging any crime.
The IJ said, "While today's ruling does not end the litigation, it breathes new life into Reeves's quest to expose the county's vendetta and to secure damages for the years-long cloud that wrongful felony charges cast over his life and his landmark effort to reform forfeiture in Detroit."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has offered some stunning advice to residents of his state, should California's pro-illegal alien riots encompass the streets there.
'You don't have to sit there and be a sitting duck."
His comments came in an interview on the Rubin Report.
"And we also have a policy that if you're driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle, and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety.
"And so if you drive off and hit one of these people, that's their fault for impinging on you. You don't have to sit there and be a sitting duck, and let the mob grab you out of your car and drag you through the streets. You have a right to defend yourself in Florida."
Multiple nights have been violated by mobs in California who have been protesting federal enforcement of immigration laws. They actually erupted last weekend when federal agents were delivering warrants and making arrests in a cartel crime investigation that involved money laundering.
Since then, officers have been hurt, vehicles torched and buildings vandalized by the pro-illegal alien radicals.