Beijing’s Military Hacked U.S. Nuclear Firm Before Hunter Biden Aided Chinese Bid to Acquire It

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U.S. officials were acutely aware that Beijing was trying to obtain America’s premiere nuclear reactor technology, including through illicit hacking, months before Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm, according to court records and national security experts.

Hunter Biden’s unsuccessful efforts to help CEFC China Energy acquire Westinghouse, one of America’s most famous electricity and appliance brands, and its state-the-art AP1000 nuclear reactor began in early 2016 while Joe Biden was still a sitting vice president, memos published Wednesday by Just the News show.

Just 20 months earlier, his father’s Justice Department charged five members of a Chinese military hacking unit for breaching the company’s computer systems in search of intellectual property and internal strategy communications, according to a copy of the indictment.

In May 2014, the five operatives of the People’s Liberation Army’s Unit 61398 were charged with hacking into the systems of six U.S.-based companies across different industrial sectors, including Westinghouse Electric Co., SolarWorld, United States Steel Corp., and a union. The attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, called the breach a classic case of “economic espionage.”

One operative gained access to Westinghouse’s computers in 2010 and “stole proprietary and confidential technical and design specifications related to pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing” pertaining to the company’s advanced AP1000 nuclear reactor design, according to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice. (Read more from “Beijing’s Military Hacked U.S. Nuclear Firm Before Hunter Biden Aided Chinese Bid to Acquire It” HERE)

Judge Questions Why Trump Was Only President Charged Over Handling of Classified Material

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The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Florida case questioned during a Thursday hearing why he was the only president who has been charged over his handling of classified material, according to multiple reports.

During a hearing to consider various motions Trump filed to dismiss the case, Judge Aileen Cannon noted no former president had similarly faced criminal charges over the handling of classified material, according to NBC News. Trump’s attorneys brought up special counsel Robert Hur’s report finding evidence President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents, but declining to charge him, according to CNN.

“Even with other former presidents, there was never a situation remotely similar to this one,” prosecutor Jay Bratt told Cannon, according to CNN.

When Special counsel Robert Hur appeared before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday to defend his report, Republicans suggested there was a double standard in bringing charges against Trump but not Biden.

Special counsel Jack Smith previously cited Hur’s report in opposing Trump’s motion to dismiss based on “selective and vindictive prosecution.” (Read more from “Judge Questions Why Trump Was Only President Charged Over Handling of Classified Material” HERE)

Senator Subjected to TSA Pat Down Days After Calling to Nix the Agency: ‘Maybe It’s a Coincidence’

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Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah noted in a post on X that days after calling for the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration, he was subjected to a pat down.

“Update: days after calling to abolish TSA, I got ‘randomly selected’ for the needlessly slow, thorough TSA screening & patdown. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Or not. Impossible to know. That’s part of the problem with having a federal agency in charge of airport security,” Lee wrote in a Thursday post on X.

In a Monday post, Lee, who has served in the Senate since early 2011, called for nixing the TSA and suggested that airlines could assume the responsibility of ensuring the security of their flights.

“It’s time to abolish the TSA. Airlines can and will secure their own planes if a federal agency doesn’t do it for them. They’ll do it better than TSA, without undermining the Constitution and with less groping—showing more respect for passengers,” he wrote.

The agency was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. “The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, passed by the 107th Congress and signed on November 19, 2001, established TSA,” according to tsa.gov.

(Read more from “Senator Subjected to TSA Pat Down Days After Calling to Nix the Agency: ‘Maybe It’s a Coincidence'” HERE)

Biden Asks Staffer for Permission to Take Questions Before Reporters Are Ushered Away

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President Biden on Thursday was heard asking for permission from a staffer to “take a couple of questions” from the audience during a campaign stop in Michigan — prompting other aides to quickly move the press out of earshot.

“Can I take a couple questions?” Biden, 81, asked a female staffer as he met with supporters and campaign volunteers on the front porch of a Saginaw city council member’s home.

“Yeah, we’re going to take a few questions,” the staffer responded.

The staffer’s response apparently served as a signal to three other aides, who quickly began to herd up the reporters already positioned on the sidewalk about 20 feet away.

“Thank you, press … back in the vehicles,” they shouted, escorting the media away before Biden could take any questions.

(Read more from “Biden Asks Staffer for Permission to Take Questions Before Reporters Are Ushered Away” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Biden Claims He Got A Standing Ovation At Law School, Critics Call BS

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President Joe Biden claimed that he received a standing ovation while he was in law school — for a speech about a case he hadn’t even read — and critics immediately called BS.

Biden recounted the alleged incident during his five hours of interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur – and the story went public earlier this week when, ahead of Hur’s Capitol Hill testimony, the transcripts of those interviews were published.

According to the president, he was called on in a torts class to discuss a case that he had not read — but said that his subsequent 10-minute discussion on that case was so impressive that his classmates responded with a standing ovation.

“We had a really difficult professor,” Biden said. “He called on me to discuss a case, you know, in your first torts class. And I had never read the case, and I stood up and I spoke for 10 minutes. The whole class stood up, started clapping.”

Based on the responses to Biden’s story — many of which were posted via X in the following days — most did not believe that the standing ovation had ever actually taken place.

(Read more from “Biden Claims He Got A Standing Ovation At Law School, Critics Call BS” HERE)

Trump Secures Enough Delegates to Clinch Republican Nomination

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Former President Donald Trump won enough delegates from nominating contests Tuesday evening to secure the 2024 Republican nomination, according to The Associated Press.

Trump won nominating contests in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington and Hawaii, the AP projected at the time of writing. The former president’s Tuesday wins put him past the Republican National Committee’s required 1,215 delegate threshold, making him the party’s presumptive nominee.

“It is my great honor to be representing the Republican Party as its Presidential Nominee,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our Party is UNITED and STRONG, and fully understands that we are running against the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States. Millions of people are invading our Country, many from prisons and mental institutions of other Countries. High Interest Rates and Inflation are choking our great middle class, and ALL, our Economy is bad, and our Stock Market is rising only because Polls are strongly indicating that we will WIN the Presidential Election of 2024.”

“We are now, under Crooked Joe Biden, a Third World Nation, which uses the Injustice System to go after his political opponent, ME! But fear not, we will not fail, we will take back our once great Country, put AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. November 5th will go down as the most important day in the history of our Country! GOD BLESS AMERICA,” Trump added. (Read more from “Trump Secures Enough Delegates to Clinch Republican Nomination” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Nearly 30% of Gen Z Women Identify as LGBT: Gallup Poll

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More than one in five Generation Z adults now identify as LGBT, new data shows, including nearly 30% of Gen Z women.

About 22% of young adults who were aged 18 to 26 last year self-identify as LGBT, according to a poll released Wednesday by Gallup.

This is higher than the nearly one in 10 millennials — those aged 27 to 42 — who identify as LGBT, and even higher than the 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers, and 1% of the Silent Generation who identify as such.

“Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+,” reads the report.

Meanwhile, the general population of adults who identify as LGBT hit 7.6% last year, an all-time high, while 85.6% say they are straight or heterosexual. (Read more from “Nearly 30% of Gen Z Women Identify as LGBT: Gallup Poll” HERE)

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Joe Biden Mourns Suicide of Nonbinary Teen: ‘End Discrimination’

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President Joe Biden mourned the death of Nex Benedict on Thursday, a nonbinary teen in Oklahoma who killed herself following an altercation with other students.

As the Associated Press (AP) reported, an autopsy determined that Dagny Benedict, who went by the name Nex, died by suicide from a toxic mix of pharmaceutical drugs the day after a supposed scuffle with three girls in the bathroom at their high school in Owasso, Oklahoma. . .

In a statement on Thursday, President Biden called Nex Benedict a “kid who just wanted to be accepted.”

“Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are, and feel safe and supported at school and in their communities. Nex Benedict, a kid who just wanted to be accepted, should still be here with us today,” wrote the president.

“Nonbinary and transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know. But nobody should have to be brave just to be themselves. In memory of Nex, we must all recommit to our work to end discrimination and address the suicide crisis impacting too many nonbinary and transgender children,” he continued. (Read more from “Joe Biden Mourns Suicide of Nonbinary Teen: ‘End Discrimination’” HERE)

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Why Fani Failed: 3 Trump Counts Dropped Because ‘Felony’ Not Specified

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The judge who threw out three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump in Georgia on Wednesday did so because District Attorney Fani Willis did not specify the felonies she said he was asking public officials to commit.

As Breitbart News noted at the time, when Willis charged Trump and 18 co-defendants, three of the counts involved allegations of “Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.” It was among the milder charges, with a maximum sentence of up to three years. The relevant section of the Georgia criminal code requires that the solicitation be to commit a “felony.” The problem: the original indictment is rather vague about what, in fact, that “felony” is.

Willis, like other Democrats, and members of the pundit class, are convinced that Trump’s effort to contest the election results was an “assault on democracy” and the Constitution. . .

As Judge Scott McAfee of the Superior Court of Fulton County wrote in his order dismissing the solicitation charges:

The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal. As written, these … counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited. … They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.

(Read more from “Why Fani Failed: 3 Trump Counts Dropped Because ‘Felony’ Not Specified” HERE)

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Woman Dies After Getting Trapped Under Conveyor Belt While Reaching for Her AirPods

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A Georgia woman died Friday after getting trapped in a conveyor belt while trying to get her AirPods, NBC News reported.

Alyssa Drinkard, 21, lost her life last week in an accident at a Club Car manufacturing facility in Georgia, according to NBC News. Club Car, known for its production of golf carts and other vehicles, is under investigation following the incident. During Drinkard’s shift, she accidentally dropped her AirPod beneath the conveyor belt.

While trying to get her earbud back, she reportedly got caught in a chain mechanism that moved the conveyor. Even though her co-worker, Fae’Zsha Smith, acted quickly, the design of the machinery made it impossible to free Drinkard immediately, according to NBC News. They had to call maintenance staff to take the machine apart and then call for emergency help, NBC News reported. Emergency services reportedly managed to free Drinkard by cutting through the metal surrounding the conveyor.

(Read more from “Woman Dies After Getting Trapped Under Conveyor Belt While Reaching for Her AirPods” HERE)