U.S., NATO Weapons Stockpile at “Dangerously Low” Levels: Top Air Force General

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The weapons stockpile of the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies are becoming “dangerous low” with no “short term” solutions, according to a top U.S. Air Force commander.

Gen. James Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, made the remarks at the Chief of the Air Staff’s Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, reported Breaking Defense.

The air force general urged NATO allies to think seriously about their stockpiles.

“I think it’s very important that we kind of take stock of where we are in our weapons state across the 32 nations of NATO, and we’re getting way down compared to where we were,” Gen. Hecker said on a panel with the air chiefs of the United Kingdom and Sweden at the conference, reported the outlet.

“And it’s probably not going to get better—well, it’s not in the short term—but we’ve got to make sure in the long term we have the industrial base that can increase what we have,” he said at the July 12-13 event, urging all NATO nations to start making deeper investments.

(Read more from “U.S., NATO Weapons Stockpile at “Dangerously Low” Levels: Top Air Force General” HERE)

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U.S. Chip Makers Quietly Lobbying Biden Admin Against Imposing More Restrictions on Exports to China

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Three top U.S. semiconductor manufacturers are quietly meeting with Biden administration officials Monday to discuss new export restrictions that are being considered related to the ongoing competition between the U.S. and China, according to Reuters.

Intel, Qualcomm and Nvidia are meeting with several Biden administration officials including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard and National Security Council Director Jake Sullivan, according to Reuters. The Biden administration is considering updating rules put in place in October that aim to restrict China’s chip industry by limiting U.S. companies’ cooperation with Chinese chip manufacturers.

“We urge the administration to refrain from further restrictions until it engages more extensively with industry and experts to assess the impact of current and potential restrictions to determine whether they are narrow and clearly defined, consistently applied, and fully coordinated with allies,” The Semiconductor Industry Association, a lobbying group for the industry, said in a press release Monday. (Read more from “U.S. Chip Makers Quietly Lobbying Biden Admin Against Imposing More Restrictions on Exports to China” HERE)

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Sailor and Dog Amazingly Survive on Rainwater, Raw Fish While Adrift for Two Months

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An Australian man has been rescued in the Pacific after surviving for two months on rainwater and raw fish in what has been likened to the film “Cast Away” — but his companion was a dog, not a hand-printed volleyball.

Sydney resident Tim Shaddock, a 51-year-old cancer survivor, and his pooch Bella set off from La Paz, Mexico, in April on a catamaran journey to French Polynesia, but their vessel was damaged in a storm several weeks later, Australia’s 9News reported.

The pair survived by drinking rainwater and eating raw fish as they waited for a miracle while adrift in the Pacific.

On Wednesday, a helicopter conducting surveillance for a tuna trawler spotted the tiny catamaran bobbing in the middle of the vast ocean. . .

Shaddock and Bella, who were taken aboard the trawler, appeared to be in remarkably good shape, given what they endured. (Read more from “Sailor and Dog Amazingly Survive on Rainwater, Raw Fish While Adrift for Two Months” HERE)

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Veteran Sues Police Officer After Being Arrested for Holding ‘God Bless the Homeless Vets’ Sign

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A third lawsuit was filed Monday against the police officer who arrested a veteran for holding a “God Bless the Homeless Vets” sign outside of a city hall building in Georgia, according to the watchdog group that filed the lawsuit.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group that provides legal defense, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jeff Gray alleging that Port Wentworth police officer Robert Hemminger knew that Gray was within his constitutional rights to protest when he arrested him in 2021, according to the lawsuit. This marks the third lawsuit that FIRE has filed on behalf of Gray after the organization previously challenged another arrest of his and a citation he received.

“In Port Wentworth, Georgia, my rights were violated upon the whim of government employees,” Gray said, according to FIRE. “Now I am honored to be working with FIRE to ensure that never happens again.”

“Port Wentworth Police Sgt. Robert Hemminger knew that Jeffrey Gray wasn’t doing anything wrong or unlawful when Gray stood outside of Port Wentworth’s City Hall displaying a sign reading ‘God Bless the Homeless Vets,’ the lawsuit states. “Sgt. Hemminger told Gray as much, and he told the employees inside City Hall the same thing: Gray was not doing anything wrong.”

Gray’s activity was within his First Amendment rights as well as a declaration of the space outside the city hall as a public forum, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit is also seeking compensatory and punitive damages for Gray along with attorney’s fees in an amount to be decided at trial. (Read more from “Veteran Sues Police Officer After Being Arrested for Holding ‘God Bless the Homeless Vets’ Sign” HERE)

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Jim Jordan Threatens FBI Chief Wray With Contempt Over Parent, Catholic Targeting

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House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan threatened Monday to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt if he doesn’t provide details of the bureau’s focus on parents upset about school policies and its proposed infiltration of Catholics who oppose abortion.

Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote to Wray that he was outraged by the FBI’s “wholly inadequate” response to legally binding subpoenas issued in February and April by the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee focused on the “weaponization” of the government, which Jordan also chairs.

“After several accommodations, months of persistent outreach by the Committee, and attempts to negotiate and work with the FBI in good faith, we write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the Committee will take action—such as the initiation of contempt of Congress proceedings—to obtain compliance with these subpoenas,” Jordan wrote.

The threat to hold Wray in contempt follows a similar threat successfully used in May by House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to force the bureau to share an informant file accusing President Biden of accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian energy executive while he was vice president.

In that prior case, the FBI at first refused to provide the informant file — before Wray scrambled to avoid a looming contempt vote by agreeing in early June to allow Oversight Committee members to see a redacted version of the tipoff. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had backed up Comer’s threat. (Read more from “Jim Jordan Threatens FBI Chief Wray With Contempt Over Parent, Catholic Targeting” HERE)

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Officials Sued Over Alleged Discrimination Against Christian Preschool

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A private Christian preschool in Colorado is suing the state’s Department of Early Childhood for discrimination, alleging it will be denied state funding unless it adopts practices that violate employees’ religious beliefs.

The Darren Patterson Christian Academy runs the “Busy Bees” preschool in Buena Vista. It was accepted into a new universal preschool program that offers 15 hours a week of free preschool to every 4-year-old in the state. The school later learned of nondiscrimination provisions regarding gender identity, which must be adhered to in order to receive funding. It filed for a religious exemption to the provisions but was denied.

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of the school by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a nonprofit that describes itself as “the world’s largest legal organization advancing the God-given right to live and speak the truth.”

“The Constitution is clear: The government may not deny participation in a public program simply due to a school’s internal religious exercise,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus. “Colorado officials are violating the school’s First Amendment rights by forcing it to abandon its religious beliefs—the reason why parents choose to send their kids to the school—to receive critical state funding.” (Read more from “Officials Sued Over Alleged Discrimination Against Christian Preschool” HERE)

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“Pervs of a Feather”: Elton John Testifies for Kevin Spacey in Gay Sex Assault Trial

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Kevin Spacey‘s lawyers enlisted the help of an A-list star Monday in his sexual assault trial, calling on Elton John and his husband to cast doubt on one of the Oscar winner’s accusers at the end of the defense case.

John appeared briefly in the London court by video link from Monaco after his husband, David Furnish, testified that Spacey did not attend an annual gala ball at their Windsor home at the time that the accuser said he was attacked in a car.

John was the final witness for the defense and was followed by character testimonials from colleagues, friends and family that had Spacey in tears in the dock when they were read aloud by his lawyer in Southwark Crown Court. (Read more from ““Pervs of a Feather”: Elton John Testifies for Kevin Spacey in Gay Sex Assault Trial” HERE)

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Former Israeli Prime Minister Says U.S. Is ‘No Longer Our Closest Ally’

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Yair Lapid, former Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the Yesh Atid opposition party, said Sunday that the U.S. is no longer Israel’s “closest ally,” according to the Times of Israel.

Tensions between the two nations have been at an all-time high after the White House’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government over its treatment of Palestinians and attempts at judicial reform. On Sunday, Lapid, who was the government’s prime minister from July 2022 to December 2022, spoke during a meeting at the Israeli Knesset and announced that he believed that the United States is ‘no longer our closest ally,” according to the Times.

Lapid did not go into detail about what has caused the rift, but also accused current government leadership in Israel of creating a “crisis.”

“The Israeli government is leading us into this crisis, making the biggest and most dramatic changes to the regime in our history, without holding a single discussion — not even one — about the economic, security, social and political consequences of the move,” Lapid said, according to the Times. (Read more from “Former Israeli Prime Minister Says U.S. Is ‘No Longer Our Closest Ally’” HERE)

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Ex-Biden ‘Non-Binary’ Nuclear Official Stole Luggage During Taxpayer-Funded Trip: Report

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Former “non-binary” Biden Energy Department official Sam Brinton rolled off with a woman’s suitcase from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas last year while on a taxpayer-funded trip, according to a federal watchdog group.

Brinton, who President Joe Biden tapped to serve as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy, was fired six months later amid allegations of stealing luggage and women’s clothing from at least three different airports.

But during one of Brinton’s luggage heists, the federal watchdog Functional Government Initiative (FGI) report provided to The New York Post found that he was in Vegas on business representing the Energy Department when airport surveillance captured images of him swiping a woman’s suitcase.

“Not only did Sam Brinton commit a crime, the illegal shopping spree was funded by taxpayers,” Pete McGinnis, FGI’s director of communications, told The Post. “The pattern of petty theft shows that Brinton never should’ve been hired and given a security clearance in the first place. (Read more from “Ex-Biden ‘Non-Binary’ Nuclear Official Stole Luggage During Taxpayer-Funded Trip: Report” HERE)

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Biden Student Loan Bailout Plan to Cost $475B Over Next Decade: Study

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President Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan for student loans will cost $475 billion over 10 years, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, tens of billions of dollars more than an earlier plan that the Supreme Court struck down last month.

The Penn model estimates taxpayers will face $200 billion in costs due to payment reductions in the president’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, as a little more than half of the $1.64 trillion in outstanding loans will be covered.

Another $275 billion in taxpayer costs will be attributable to payment reductions under the plan for $1.03 trillion in new student loans into the next decade.

According to the model’s estimate range, the cost of the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan could be as low as $390.9 billion or soar as high as $558.8 billion.

“​​Due to the increased generosity of the newly proposed IDR plan, future student borrowers have the incentive to increase their federal student loan borrowing,” Penn Wharton junior economist Penlei Chen wrote. (Read more from “Biden Student Loan Bailout Plan to Cost $475B Over Next Decade: Study” HERE)

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