This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A federal appeals court has trashed the rules imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that required companies to have quotas from various population groups.
The decision found the SEC had no authority to impose its demands.
"We are grateful the court reached the right conclusion in this case," Stefan Padfield, of the Free Enterprise Project, told USA Today. "The SEC was reaching beyond its statutory authority to try and engage in progressive social engineering. The court's decision here is not only correct on the law, but also consistent with the will of the American people, who are sick and tired of seeing their government engage in divisive identity politics."
The New Civil Liberties Alliance had fought the case on behalf of the National Center for Public Policy Research's FEP and the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment.
The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the SEC's adoption of quotas for boards.
That agenda was to impose race, sex and orientation quotas on corporate boards across the U.S.
But the SEC Act of 1934, "required companies listed on a registered stock exchange to comply with SEC disclosure regulations. … SEC may not approve even a disclosure rule unless it can establish the rule has some connection to an actual, enumerated purpose of the Act.'
The decision was written by Judge Andrew S. Oldham in National Center for Public Policy Research v. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The ruling determined the race, sex and orientation of board members had "no connection" to the purposes of the law.
"SEC has intruded into territory far outside its ordinary domain," the judge said. And he said Nasdaq "offered little support for its claim that there is an empirically established – even logical – link between the racial, gender, and sexual composition of a company's board and the quality of its governance."
In fact, the law "explicitly forbids SEC from approving Nasdaq rules that regulate matters unrelated to the Act's purposes. Gender, race, and sexual orientation fall outside the Act's purposes. Even SEC itself determined these demographic characteristics have no rational relationship to corporate performance and investor returns," the legal team said.
Peggy Little, NCLA counsel, said, "The en banc majority hewed closely to the plain text of the Exchange Act and its 1975 Amendments. It adopted NCLA's statutory construction analysis that not only did Congress fail to confer such extraordinary power on this financial regulator, but SEC is statutorily forbidden to approve rules unless they further the 'purposes' of the Act to ensure fair and open markets."
And NCLA chief Mark Chenoweth explained, "The en banc Fifth Circuit has now agreed with NCLA for the third time in the last three years. This time, the Court held that Congress did not authorize SEC to adopt disclosure rules willy-nilly. Today's decision should chasten SEC to stick to its knitting and stop trying to abuse its market-regulating power."
The ruling noted, "Nasdaq proposed rules that compel the companies listed on its exchange to disclose information about the racial, gender, and sexual characteristics of their directors, and to have (or explain why they do not have) at least two directors who meet Nasdaq's definition of 'diverse,' SEC approved those rules. We hold, however, that the diversity rules cannot be squared with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."
It continued, "It is obviously unethical to violate the law or to disregard a contractual promise. It is not unethical for a company to decline to disclose information about the racial, gender, and LGTBQ+ characteristics of its directors. We are not aware of any established rule or custom of the securities trade that saddles companies with an obligation to explain why their boards of directors do not have as much racial, gender, or sexual orientation diversity as Nasdaq would prefer."
As part of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to uproot "woke" ideology in the U.S. government, he's already nominated former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to be the next SEC chairman. Current SEC Chair Gary Gensler said last month he'll quit when Trump takes office in a few weeks.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – The fallout from the dramatic events over the last 48 hours or so in Syria continued Monday, as the future shape of the entire Middle East is still uncertain and lies hugely in the balance.
With so many questions on everyone's minds, one of the most pressing is whether Iran will now go all-out, release the shackles, and try to develop a nuclear bomb.
Alarm bells are already beginning to ring loudly among some in the international community. Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, the autonomous nuclear watchdog, which reports to the United Nations General Assembly and also U.N. Security Council, recently warned Iran is poised to "dramatically" increase its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium. Already noted as long in June, this was a process it was already undertaking.
However, due to the current situation in Syria and the break-up of its lengthy land bridge, which connected the Mediterranean Sea to Tehran, and afforded it access to an unparalleled weapons delivery highway – and has left it somewhat isolated – there are fears it will accelerate its drive for the bomb.
One element of the increased stockpile of the weapons-grade uranium, which many missed, but the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, or FDD, did not, is how it is tied to the Islamic Republic's space program.
Indeed, the FDD noted last week how "Iran claimed its space program successfully launched its heaviest payload yet into space on Dec. 6, including a device capable of repositioning other satellites. The launch utilized the domestically produced, two-stage, liquid-fueled Simorgh rocket carrying the payload into orbit with a high point of 255 miles above Earth."
The importance of this, which a U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence also noted with alarm, "would shorten the timeline to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) because of the shared technologies within space launch and ballistic missile capabilities."
If Assad's fall was a shock to Western intelligence officials – including Israel and U.S. – it must also have come as a surprise to his Iranian backers. Indeed, on Dec. 1, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was filmed having a fast-food dinner in Damascus, having just met with the now-deposed Syrian leader. He was also due to speak at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Sunday, but left early because of the pace of events in Syria.
The dismantling of the Assad regime also spells – for now at least – the end of a more than 20-year Iranian foreign policy goal of being able to join up Tehran-backed proxy groups – with the twin goal of annihilating the State of Israel, and furthering its hegemonic aims in the Mideast.
There are two other fairly obvious reasons for a potential dash for the bomb. As the failed Biden administration runs on the final fumes of its own incompetence, the Trump 2.0 team – no friend of the mullahs in Tehran – is waiting in the wings for only another 40 days or so.
Trump clearly has unfinished business with Iran, the highly credible reports of the Islamic Republic's attempts – or wishes at best – to suborn his assassination not being the least of them. Trump could point – with the backing of significant evidence – that his maximum pressure campaign was reaping dividends, in the way the Iranian economy was struggling and therefore left Tehran with less room to maneuver with regard to its destabilizing influence in the region. One can draw a direct causal link from the Biden-Harris administration releasing billions of dollars of cash, and the precipitous uptick in Iran's meddling.
The other pressing issue – which is not directly related to Trump's return to office, but could be – is the knowledge – both in Iran and outside – that Israel's late-October attack did indeed leave it almost completely vulnerable to attack, up to and including its nuclear sites.
Trump alluded to it in his Truth Social post, highlighting how Israel's lengthy and unprecedented strike has left Iran "vulnerable." They know it. Everyone else knows it too. And in about five weeks, the entire tenor of U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic will change dramatically.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A school district in Waterville, New York, has been delivered a five-page letter with instructions on how it should get rid of its "hostility" to the Bible, and comply with federal law.
The fight is over a decision by Waterville Central School District officials to refuse to recognize a student Bible club.
A student had followed all of the required processes and procedures for establishing that group, but according to the letter, the school refused to acknowledge the club "as it would any other club," because of its association with faith.
"By denying the same benefits to the Bible club that it provides to all non-curricular clubs, the school has missed the concept of 'equal' in the Equal Access Act," explained Keisha Russell, a lawyer for First Liberty Institute. "The school's actions are unconstitutional, and its justification is legally flawed. The Supreme Court has made clear that the Free Exercise Clause protects religious practices by both students and employees in public school settings."
At issue is an effort by Elijah Nelson, an eighth-grader, to establish an official Bible club.
The letter from the institute, along with C. Kevin Marshall and Michael Bradley of Jones Day, cited the school's explanation that "we cannot have a school-sponsored club associated with a religion meaning that we can't fund the club or provide an adviser."
Nelson has worked for two years already to start a Bible club.
School officials, relying on what the letter describes as incorrect advice from their layers, said the club could meet informally during lunch while a staff member supervised the students without participating in the group's activities; or the club could apply as an outside organization to use the school's facilities after hours.
The letter explains to the district that "rejecting Elijah's request because the school could not endorse a certain religion is 'anachronistic and misplaced.' The letter clarifies that while 'endorsement did once feature in the Supreme Court's Establishment Clause decisions,' it does not now. 'Today, the Establishment Clause never requires—and never allows—the government to discriminate against religious observers and organizations when granting benefits.'"
After explaining the requirements of equal access, fair treatment, and non-discrimination standards, the letter tells school officials they are violating two parts of the First Amendment, free speech and free exercise.
"The school is out of line. It has denied Elijah's request simply because of its religious nature, and it has thereby violated the Constitution, federal law, and its students' rights," the letter explains.
The letter asks for prompt notification when the Bible club is approved "on the same terms and conditions that govern official clubs."
Otherwise, the letter suggested, litigation will be coming
"Waterville needs to dispense with its 'hostility toward the religious viewpoint' and show Elijah and his fellow students some respect."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In France, part of the so-called civilized West, human rights and freedom have been protected for generations, but that nation has exited that group.
Because it now has censored speech to the point it is illegal to say that abortion, which causes the death of the unborn every single time the process fulfills its goal, is a "cause of death."
The analysis comes from free speech expert Jonathan Turley, who is a constitutional expert who has testified before Congress and represented members, on related issues.
He's also released a new book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage."
He points out that for generations, France's call to patriotism has been "liberté, égalité, fraternité," or Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
"However, in today's France, 'liberté' is no longer valued. Individual rights of religion and speech are routinely sacrificed in the name of 'equity' and 'fraternity," he warned.
"We have long discussed the collapse of free speech values in France as the left criminalizes an ever-widening scope of opposing viewpoints," he explained. "Conservative groups are denouncing a new such case targeting conservative media. CNEWS was fined and forced to apologize on air after a journalist referred to abortion as the world's leading cause of death."
He explained a presenter on CNEWS., which is owned by Catholic businessman Vincent Bolloré, recently broadcast a graphic on the causes of death that put abortion on top, with 73 million deaths worldwide each year.
Cancer was ranked second at 10 million and smoking followed at 6.2 million.
Turley pointed out that Arcom, the French media regulators, immediately "imposed a fine of 100,000 euros and compelled CNEWS to apologize on the air. It was the full monty of censorship, combining a penalty with compelled speech. Arcom found that the network had failed its 'obligation of honesty and rigor in the presentation and processing of information.' It declared that 'Abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death.'"
That, Turley noted, is despite the obvious, that "many people around the world view abortion as the death of a human being."
But leftists "went ballistic," and now in France "It is now a violation of law to call abortion a cause of death."
Turley said the attitude of banning the truth wasn't surprising.
"France has been a leader in the rollback on free speech in the West with ever-widening laws curtailing free speech. These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to 'inciting' or 'intimidating' others based on race or religion," he said.
He cited the case of the father of French conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen who was fined because he had called people from the Roma minority "smelly" and the charge against a teenager who said Islam was a "religion of hate."
Turley said free speech is in a free fall across Europe.
"The desire to silence others has now become an insatiable appetite," he said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Child sex abuse has run rampant under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
There's the entire industry that involves trafficking minors into America across the Democrat regime's open borders, and subjecting them to sex abuse.
Then there's the abuse that is part and parcel of the transgender ideology, where LGBT activists and some doctors line up to recommend, and do, surgical body mutilations on kids.
Now one component of the fight is impacting Apple, one of the nation's biggest companies, a company supported by the millions of smart phone and laptop customers it has.
It's a fight over the corporate decision there to remove a software function that was designed to "identify child sex abuse material."
It's the Alliance Defending Freedom that is calling on the SEC, through a letter, to deny Apple's attempt to exclude a shareholder resolution aimed at providing transparency into the decision to eliminate that option.
The software function was intended to identify child sex abuse materials – images – without actually having copies of those images downloaded.
The letter explains shareholders want Apple to explain its decision to discontinue its scanning system, "NeuraHash," which Verge.com said lets the company "check for exact matches of known child-abuse imagery without possessing any of the images or gleaning any information about non-matching pictures."
The ADF said the resolution was filed by the American Family Association and that organization has explained that "Apple's ineffective efforts to prevent child sex abuse material on its platforms have resulted in the company landing on the National Center for Sexual Exploitation's 'Dirty Dozen' list for the past two years."
Apple, instead of allowing shareholders to vote, wants the SEC to censor the request from its proxy ballot.
ADF lawyers want it to remain.
The ADF noted Apple got a score of just 5%, out of 100%, ADF's 2024 Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index.
"Major corporations like Apple shouldn't be hiding from shareholders, especially when it comes to serious issues like guarding against child sex abuse material," said ADF spokesman Jeremy Tedesco. "There is simply no excuse for Apple to avoid this important topic. Apple needs to rebuild trust with its shareholders and clients, but that can't happen unless it answers basic questions about removing its own safeguard against child sex abuse material."
Apple claimed it should be exempted from the question because of a rule that deals with companies and their "ordinary business operations."
However, ADF said there are extraordinary concerns about "fiduciary and reputational risks" from Apple's decision.
The organization said it also is concerned about Apple's apparent contradiction between its statement that child sex abuse material is "a significant societal issue that needs to be addressed" with its attempt to evade shareholder transparency on the issue.
ADF's Michael Ross said, the company 'can't have it both ways."
"I'm confident that Apple agrees with its own shareholders about the importance of addressing and guarding against child sex abuse material. Unfortunately, Apple's actions don't seem to be lining up with their statements."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
And U.S. speaks out on United Nation's scheme for a Gaza ceasefire
Middle East/Israel:
5 International court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant over alleged 'war crimes'
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes committed during the ongoing Gaza war, the court said in a statement Thursday.
U.S. Treasury sanctions six Hamas leaders, some based in Turkey
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on six of the few remaining leaders of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas on November 19 — Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, Basem Naim, Mohammad Nazzal, Ghazi Hamad, Salama Mari, and Musa Daud Muhammad al-Akari.
The United States vetoed a U.N. Nations Security Council resolution calling for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire on Wednesday morning, citing its failure to condition a halt in hostilities directly to the release of the hostages, whom Hamas continues to hold in the Gaza Strip.
"We could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages," Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council.
Sen. Sanders backs resolution to suspend U.S. arms transfers to Israel; Senate overwhelmingly blocks move
The U.S. Senate decisively rejected overnight Thursday three proposals introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive leader within the Democratic Party and outspoken critic of Israel, to halt arms transfers to Israel amid its war in Gaza.
U.S. ambassador-designate slams Biden's Israel policy as 'schizophrenic'
"We've put far more pressure, with Joe Biden, on Israel than we have on Hamas, Hezbollah, and most importantly, the people who write those checks—the Iranians," Huckabee told Fox News in an interview, describing the White House's policy toward Israel as "schizophrenic."
IAF pounds Palmyra, sites close to Damascus; Syrian general thought to be among dozens of casualties
Syrian state media says Israeli warplanes targeted the central city of Palmyra on Wednesday, reporting an unspecified number of wounded in the attack.
An "Israeli attack… targeted residential buildings and the industrial area" of the city, says state news agency SANA, while state television reported unspecified "\wounded due to the Israeli attack that targeted the city of Palmyra."
Israeli archeology giant killed in Hezbollah ambush in southern Lebanon
The family of Ze'ev 'Jabo' Erlich, a renowned historian killed in a Hezbollah ambush, disputes IDF's claim he entered as a civilian, asserting he was formally enlisted and had military approval for his entry; "Instead of mourning, I'm busy correcting the damage caused by the IDF spokesperson tarnishing his name," brother says.
UNRWA chiefs met Hamas, and PIJ leaders at the 2017 Beirut meeting, exclaiming 'We are one'
According to a UN Watch expose, UNRWA chiefs secretly met top terrorists, telling them: "We are united, no one can separate us." In Feb. 2017, UNRWA's Pierre Kraehenbuehl met Hamas' Ali Baraka & Islamic Jihad's Abu Imad al-Rifai, who sent suicide bombers to kill troops in Iraq.
"For any organization to be deemed a terrorist organization under New Zealand legislation, we have to have evidence, and we go through several tests under our legislation, that organization has knowingly undertaken terrorist activity," Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand prime minister, said. "This is the case before the four that I've designated today."
Israel's former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, who was part of the government which included Members of the Knesset from Arab parties, has been denied an entry visa to Australia to take part in a pro-Israel event.
"The issue here is not that I didn't get a visa," said Shaked. "The issue here is that the current Australian government has become anti-Semitic."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President-elect Donald Trump's lawyers have told New York judge Juan Merchan, who supervised Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's lawfare case against Trump, that it will be dismissed.
After all, the voters' selection of Trump as the 47th president trumps Bragg's "political motivations," they said.
The case was brought by Bragg as part of the Democrats' extended, multiple-case, lawfare against Trump between his terms in the White House.
Bragg took business reporting situations, which could have been misdemeanors had they been filed in a timely fashion, and claimed they were felonies because they were in pursuit of some other unidentified crime.
It all revolved around so-called "hush money" payments Trump's ex-lawyer made to a porn star for her silence about an alleged affair, which both of them have denied happened.
Fox News reports Trump's lawyers want an "immediate" dismissal of the case, which right now is awaiting sentencing after a leftist jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts – after the judge, whose daughter was raising money for Democrats on the rulings against Trump her father was making in court – inexplicably told jurors their verdict didn't have to be unanimous.
The lawyers told Merchan that the case needed to be dismissed because the voters' choice of Trump supersedes Bragg's "political motivations."
Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche said "Continuing with this case would be 'uniquely destabilizing' and threatens to 'hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs.'"
Bragg has insisted that the case be suspended for now – and that he be allowed to reopen it years from now when Trump has completed his second term as president.
Blanche said, "The court must address these new issues and dismiss the case, prior to issuing a decision on the previously filed Presidential immunity motion. Any other action would violate the presidential immunity doctrine and the Supremacy Clause."
Bragg's strategy would deprive Trump of the right to appeal, which would leave the dispute unresolved throughout his presidency.
Blanche noted, "Even if the Court were to wrongly deny the new interests-of-justice motion, which it should not do, the appropriate forum for any additional proceedings must first be resolved in President Trump's removal appeal."
Courthouse News, which lobbied for Kamala Harris to be elected, explained the Trump team's letter to the court noted that setting the verdict aside is "mandated by the law and will happen as justice takes its course."
The letter to Merchan explained, "As DA Bragg engages in his election campaign, DANY appears to not yet be ready to dismiss this politically motivated and fatally flawed case."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
This is going to be a pretty vital issue for President Trump to deal with, and I wonder whether Putin did this to get some leverage in peace talks on Ukraine'
Russia abruptly has moved to block uranium exports, a move that now poses the threat of creating energy brownouts across America over the coming months, according to a new report.
"[It] puts us in a real bind, because … I just talked to a nuclear expert just before our call to get the specifics on this, and he told me that this decision will lead to brownouts in the summer because there simply won't be enough nuclear fuel for certain states to run their reactors to generate electricity," explained Fred Fleitz, former Trump National Security Council chief of staff.
His comments came during the John Solomon Reports podcast, according to Just the News.
He continued, "So this is going to be a pretty vital issue for President Trump to deal with, and I wonder whether Putin did this to get some leverage in peace talks on Ukraine."
The problem dates back to the schemes of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden, a period when the U.S. agreed to purchase uranium from Russia.
"It was a terrible decision to make us dependent on imports of uranium from Russia," he said.
Just the News explained, "The U.S. nuclear energy sector's dependence on Russian uranium created during a failed Obama-era reset with Moscow is coming back to bite Americans as the Kremlin moves to block future exports of the vital fuel."
Vladimir Putin announced the new limits on uranium exports to the U.S. just last week, just as Russia's war in Ukraine has been escalated by Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S. missiles to launch into Russia.
The report noted, "It's the latest fallout from a series of foreign policy decisions crafted by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton that inexplicably strengthened Putin's ability to wage economic warfare with energy supplies such as natural gas and uranium."
"Everything the Democrats have done has emboldened Russia and their ability to leverage their dirty gas production," Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said during a "Just the News, No Noise" television program.
Nuclear power plants account for about a fifth of America's electricity, and they depend on enriched uranium. They get about one-quarter of the nation's uranium supply from Russia.
The report noted that the book "Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties" outlines the deals signed by Clinton and Obama that positioned the U.S. to be dependent on Russian uranium.
"[The] United States used to produce its nuclear materials for bombs and then for nuclear energy, and it was the Clinton administration they made this deal with the Russians way back in the 90s to purchase all of this down blended material from, you know, the decommission nuclear warheads from Russia," book co-author Seamus Bruner said.
The result was a dependence on Russian supplies and the loss of a domestic industry.
Bruner said the crisis is because Obama's "Russian Reset" agenda cemented that dependence.
"And so now we're in this tough spot. Now we do have domestic producers, who are, you know, producing uranium for our energy needs, but there is no way, there's no way they're going to catch up," Bruner explained.
The report noted while U.S. Democrats were dealing the nation into a dependence, Putin was moving to take control of the global uranium supply through his company Rosatom.
"The Russian company's efforts to acquire a Canadian company, Uranium One, became a scandal for the Obama administration because it saw the virtual elimination of U.S. domestic production of uranium and raised corruption concerns about some of its chief officials," Just the News confirmed.
Production by Uranium One including that from Wyoming, Utah, and other states accounted for about 20% of U.S. uranium capacity at the time, when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat on a committee and approved the sale.
"The acquisition became a scandal that plagued her 2016 presidential campaign after investigative author Peter Schweizer and his Government Accountability Institute found nine Uranium One shareholders funneled $145 million into the Clinton Foundation before the deal was set to be considered," the report said.
Further, under Joe Biden, a move to counter the dependency on Russian uranium was adopted but created a wide-ranging "waiver" system for companies to continue their purchases.
"We don't have enough enriched uranium here," Chris Gadomski, an analyst, told Bloomberg News. "They should have been stockpiling enriched uranium in anticipation of this happening."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
One of the most-talked-about plans in the coming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is the idea of "government efficiency."
In fact, he's picked billionaire business founder and leader Elon Musk to work on government waste, and now a report from the Washington Examiner lists the Internal Revenue Service as a possible target.
It's because hundreds of IRS workers still owe millions of dollars in unpaid taxes, and only a handful have been punished.
The report explained the IRS has confirmed in a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in an update of its report that 2,044 IRS workers had past-due balances of more than $12 million, and the problem remains.
Now, the IRS told Ernst, 860 workers still have not paid their overdue taxes, and only 20 of the 70 who "willfully evaded" paying taxes were removed.
The Washington Examiner said it obtained access to the letter from the IRS letter to Ernst, who said, "We haven't seen a tax revolt like this since the Boston Tea Party. If hardworking Americans dodge taxes, they are faced with steep fines and imprisonment, but it appears that tax collectors in Washington believe those rules are for thee but not for me."
It was a report back in July, requested by the senator, that found some 5,800 IRS and contractor workers owed about $50 million.
The Examiner said, "The July report prompted Ernst to introduce the Audit the IRS Act, which would require regular tax audits of agency employees and prohibit the IRS from hiring or continuing to employ tax evaders."
The controversy already has attracted Musk's attention, the report said, with his social media statement, "Looks like a lot of opportunity for @DOGE!" That refers to the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has picked Musk, along with onetime presidential candidate entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to head the "efficiency" campaign to slash Washington's bureaucracy, excess rules and spending.
"While Elon Musk and the Trump administration are looking to eliminate waste, I can think of no better place to start than by firing every single IRS agent refusing to pay taxes," Ernst insisted in the Examiner report, while suggesting those scofflaws be referred to the Department of Justice.
"Our Criminal Investigation division has a well-established process for referring cases to DOJ, which includes, but is not limited to, cases involving current or former employees and contractors," IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Ernst.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Peru Thursday, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Summit in Lima, where he will meet with U.S President Joe Biden amid a brewing trade war between the world's two largest economies,
The two presidents are scheduled to meet on Saturday, according to AFP, with one U.S. administration official stating this will likely be the last meeting between Biden and Xi before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told AFP the 21-member nations of APEC will be announcing the creation of a secretariat to ensure the alliance "will be an enduring feature of American policy in the Indo-Pacific going forward."
China has been building up its presence in developing countries under its Belt and Road Initiative, which provides infrastructure projects. One such project is the Chinese-funded building of a massive megaport north of Lima, in Chancay.
Xi virtually inaugurated the megaport from the presidential palace alongside Peru's President Dina Boluarte shortly after Xi's arrival which came with an enthusiastic amount of pageantry and fanfare.
Brian Nichols, a top U.S. diplomat to Latin America, warned Latin American nations should be vigilant on investment with China going forward. China owning one of the largest ports in South America gives it unfettered access to the East Pacific Ocean and its fishing grounds.
According to the Associated Press, the mega port project cost Chinese shipping company Cosco a reported $1.3 billion and will become an important part of the global economy.
However, some locals in Chancay have voiced concerns about the Chinese-owned port, and are saying there is little opportunity for them to prosper. One-third of the town's population does not have running water or appropriate sanitation, and Peruvian fishermen told the AP the dredging of the port has killed off fish breeding grounds.
"Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them… I don't blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it's worth. I blame our government for not protecting us," an elderly fisherman reportedly told the AP.