China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate

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China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told Reuters this week that ongoing Chinese coronavirus lockdowns nationwide have had a “clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people” within the country and have contributed to the nation’s plummeting fertility rate and shrinking population, the news agency reported Tuesday.

“COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] has contributed to the decline in the country’s marriage and birth rates that has accelerated in recent years due to the high costs of education and child-rearing,” the NHC told Reuters in faxed statements on August 22.

“The coronavirus has also had a clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people,” the commission added.

Reuters on August 8 cited a U.N. China report which found that Beijing’s relentless zero-tolerance policy toward the Chinese coronavirus throughout the pandemic, including stringent lockdowns and forced quarantines, had effected “a long-term impact on first births [in China].”

“Couples that may have been thinking about having a child in the next year, definitely postponed those. Couples that really weren’t sure, have postponed indefinitely,” U.N. Population Fund Representative to China Justine Coulson said as quoted by Reuters on August 8. (Read more from “China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate” HERE)

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Kamala Harris Loses Another Top Aide as Exodus Continues

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Vice President Kamala Harris has lost another top spokesperson as part of a broader White House communications shop reshuffle after the departure of former press secretary Jen Psaki.

Herbie Ziskend, a senior communications adviser to Harris, is leaving the vice president’s office for the West Wing, where he will be the new White House deputy communications director. Kate Berner, who is currently in the role, will be promoted to principal deputy communications director. Ziskend is among the few remaining Harris communications staffers who joined her team at the start of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Ziskend’s appointment coincides with the tapping of Olivia Dalton, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’s former communications director, as principal White House deputy press secretary. The post, once held by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, has been vacant since Jean-Pierre replaced Psaki behind the podium. (Read more from “Kamala Harris Loses Another Top Aide as Exodus Continues” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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HITTING THE BRAKES: Country’s Largest State Bans Buying New Gas-Powered Vehicles

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California regulators moved Thursday to require all new vehicles in the state to run on electricity by 2035, an ambitious goal by the country’s most populous state to phase out gasoline-powered automobiles and curb carbon missions.

The decision by the California Air Resources Board came two years after Gov. Gavin Newsom first directed regulators to consider such a policy. If the goal is reached, California would cut emissions from cars in half by 2040.

Californians can keep driving and buying gas-powered vehicles after 2035, but no new models will be sold in the state thereafter.

The move could prompt other states to act in a similar fashion. The policy still needs federal approval, something considered very likely under the Biden administration.

One-fifth of automakers’ sales in California after 2035 could be plug-in hybrids, which run on batteries and gas, but the rest must be powered solely by electricity or hydrogen. (Read more from “Hitting the Brakes: Country’s Largest State Bans Buying New Gas-Powered Vehicles” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Army Officer and Congressman Calls Biden’s Student Debt Bailout ‘Slap in the Face to Veterans’

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Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a colonel in the Army National Guard, slammed the Biden administration for citing a post-September 11 law supporting members of the military as authorization to waive tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, calling it “a slap in the face to veterans.”

The Justice Department argued this week that the 2003 HEROES Act, which allows the government to waive student loan obligations for active-duty service members and those suffering as a result of war or a national emergency, gives President Joe Biden authority to enact his massive student debt bailout in order to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that legislation, which Congress passed in the early months of the Iraq war, was explicitly intended to support members of the military fighting for the United States.

“The HEROES Act was intended to relieve student debt for soldiers risking their lives to fight for our country after 9/11,” Waltz said Thursday. “This is a slap in the face to veterans and Biden is using this law as an excuse for his disgraceful abuse of power.”

While the HEROES Act contains broad language on the executive branch’s authority to forgive student debt, the legislation was written with the goal of assisting active-duty service members. The text of the bill describes its intended purpose, which is to “support the members of the United States military and provide assistance with their transition into and out of active duty and active service.” (Read more from “Army Officer and Congressman Calls Biden’s Student Debt Bailout ‘Slap in the Face to Veterans’” HERE)

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D.C. Mayor Says Unvaccinated Students Are Banned From In-Person Learning Ahead of School Year

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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday that students 12 and older must show proof of vaccination against COVID within the first 20 days of the new school year to continue learning in-person at public and private schools.

The Daily Signal reports that Bowser admitted during a press conference that an alternative plan for students who cannot attend class had not been provided yet.

When the publication asked Bowser what the plan was for unvaccinated students before school begins on Monday, Bowser responded, “They can go to school on Monday, but they need to get their vaccinations … and their families will be alerted as to the dates.”

“We’re not offering remote learning for children, and families will need to comply with what is necessary to come to school,” Bowser said.

Students and faculty must also show proof of a negative COVID test before the first day of class. (Read more from “D.C. Mayor Says Unvaccinated Students Are Banned From In-Person Learning Ahead of School Year” HERE)

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Plurality of Independents Don’t Trust DOJ or FBI

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Anew poll out Wednesday shows a plurality of independents have lost faith in federal law enforcement two weeks after FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

According to a survey from the Trafalgar Group and Convention of States Action shared exclusively with The Federalist, nearly 48 percent of independent respondents said the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI “are too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted.” Less than 44 percent said otherwise.

Republicans were most distrusting of the federal law enforcement agencies with more than 68 percent identifying the FBI and DOJ as corrupt compared to nearly 25 percent who said “they are to be respected for their pursuit of justice and law and order.”

More than 73 percent of Democrats, on the other hand, reported trust in the FBI and DOJ while nearly 20 percent said the agencies were “corrupt.” (Read more from “Plurality of Independents Don’t Trust DOJ or FBI” HERE)

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Here’s the Woman Who Launched the FBI Ransacking of Mar-a-Lago

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By Townhall. . .The latest development in this legal fiasco is Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall’s role in the document retrieval, where she seems to be one of the leading figures who triggered the FBI raid. As Tom Elliott of Grabien clipped, Trump honored this woman during his presidency, which he cited as a failure on the former president’s part for not draining the swamp (via WaPo):

Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall also notified Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran that the agency would provide the FBI access to 15 boxes of materials in order to investigate “whether those records were handled in an unlawful manner” and conduct an assessment to determine if any damage might have resulted from the improper handling of materials, according to the May 10 letter.

[…]

“As the Department of Justice’s National Security Division explained to you on April 29, 2022: ‘There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials. According to NARA, among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages. Some include the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials,’” Steidel Wall wrote.

The FBI removed an additional 20 boxes of items from the Mar-a-Lago Club earlier this month, including four sets of top-secret documents and seven other sets of classified information, according to a written inventory of the items seized in the high-profile search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.

(Read more from “Here’s the Woman Who Launched the FBI Ransacking of Mar-a-Lago” HERE)

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Judge Gives Trump Until Friday to Clarify Request for Special Master on Records Seized by FBI

By The Hill. A federal judge on Tuesday responded to former President Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master to review the documents collected by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence, giving Trump a Friday deadline to clarify his request.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order for Trump to elaborate on how the court has jurisdiction and precisely what he wants the court to order in the case.

She also asked Trump’s team to provide more details on whether it served the Department of Justice (DOJ) with the suit and on the lawsuit’s effect on another proceeding determining if parts of the affidavit that supported the search warrant should be released.

The request was one of two brief orders filed on Tuesday by Cannon, who was nominated to the position by Trump in 2020. She also issued a separate one asking two of his attorneys to correctly format and resubmit their motions to appear pro hac vice, which allow lawyers to appear in courts in which they are not admitted for a particular case. (Read more from “Judge Gives Trump Until Friday to Clarify Request for Special Master on Records Seized by FBI” HERE)

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COVID Insanity: Top College Forcing Students to Wear Masks in Classrooms Again

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Georgetown University is requiring its students to continue wearing masks during in-class instruction this fall amid lingering cases of COVID-19 and nationwide outbreaks of monkeypox.

The mask mandate, which applies to students in classrooms and teaching laboratories, does not apply to “informal gatherings” at places such as libraries and study spaces, according to public health guidance the Washington, D.C., school released Wednesday.

Students heading into the third fall term since the pandemic are also required to mask up on university-sponsored public transportation and in university health care facilities. In accordance with ongoing D.C. rules, every student who was in quarantine must continue wearing masks for 10 days.

Unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption, students, faculty, staff and visitors to Georgetown are required to have received a primary series of COVID-19 vaccination, as well as a booster if they are eligible. (Read more from “COVID Insanity: Top College Forcing Students to Wear Masks in Classrooms Again” HERE)

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New FBI Whistleblower Claims Bureau Leadership Slow-Walked Hunter Biden Investigation

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The FBI slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop, including telling some bureau employees not to look at the hard drive belonging to President Joe Biden’s son, according to reported whistleblower disclosures made public by a top Senate Republican.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Tuesday about the new whistleblower claims, following disclosures made public last month about the bureau allegedly wrongly labeling Hunter Biden evidence as “disinformation” in 2020.

“Whistleblowers have recently contacted my office to share serious concerns about the FBI’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Johnson told Horowitz, telling the watchdog that after the FBI obtained the laptop from a Delaware computer shop in late 2019, local FBI leadership told bureau employees that “you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop” and that the FBI is “not going to change the outcome of the election again,” the whistleblowers said.

Johnson said the new whistleblower claims “allege that the FBI did not begin to examine the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop until after the 2020 presidential election — potentially a year after the FBI obtained the laptop in Dec. 2019.”

Johnson said that the new whistleblower allegations should spur the DOJ inspector general to action. (Read more from “New FBI Whistleblower Claims Bureau Leadership Slow-Walked Hunter Biden Investigation” HERE)

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More Lies? Biden Insists He Had ‘Zero’ Prior Notice of FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid

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President Joe Biden broke his silence Wednesday on the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s home. . .

“I didn’t have any advance notice. None. Zero,” Biden said, raising his hand to make a circle with his finger and thumb. “Not one single bit.” . . .

At the time, Biden officials speaking to media outlets repeated that no one in the White House had advance notice of the raid. . .

Recently uncovered correspondence with Trump’s attorneys and members of Biden’s legal team show that Biden’s then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su waived Trump’s claim of executive privilege surrounding documents in the president’s possession.

That suggests that while some of Biden’s legal staffers might not have known about the specifics of the raid, they could have known about the effect their actions would have on the ongoing FBI investigation. (Read more from “More Lies? Biden Insists He Had ‘Zero’ Prior Notice of FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid” HERE)

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