U.S. to Revoke Terror Designation for Syrian Group That Overthrew Assad

syrian flag

The State Department is revoking the foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation for the al-Nusrah Front, aka Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamic rebel group that overthrew the Assad regime earlier this year.

HTS is an Al-Qaeda derivative and operated out of northwestern Syria until earlier this year, when it orchestrated a rapid offensive that overtook the Syrian Arab Army and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee. The group’s Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka al-Jolani, has since become the country’s interim president.

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U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett’s ‘No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act’ Passes House

taliban

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett’s (R-TN-02) “No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act” passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote on Monday.

The bill, filed as H.R. 260, works on multiple fronts to ensure that U.S. financial aid does not inadvertently benefit the Taliban or its affiliates, including establishing a formal U.S. policy to oppose support for such groups, especially from entities that also receive U.S. foreign aid.

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Mike Benz Reveals to Tucker Carlson ‘Worst of the Worst Offender’ That Government Refuses to Cut

Mike Benz

Former State Department official Mike Benz told Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that he believes the “worst of the worst offenders” still receiving funding is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

President Donald Trump, since his campaign, vowed to gut wasteful government spending in Washington, D.C.

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U.S. Warns Americans Against Traveling to Venezuela over ‘Significant Risk of Wrongful Detention’

passport

The State Department on Tuesday warned Americans against traveling to Venezuela, stating there was a “significant risk of wrongful detention” by the country’s government.

The department raised the travel advisory for the South American country to level four, the highest level, which instructs all Americans not to travel to the country. 

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Trump Fired a Democrat for Refusing His Orders, Christian Employers Are Fighting to Keep Her Fired

Jocelyn Samuels

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took a hard line against Christian employers under President Biden, forcing them to pay for employees’ hormone and surgical treatments to resemble the opposite sex, in violation of their religious beliefs, until a court blocked the action as unconstitutional a year ago.

Over the next eight months, the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) won a six-figure settlement with EEOC and a likely four-year reprieve from federal scrutiny with the second election of Donald Trump, whose new EEOC is challenging gender-identity mandates in the workplace as sex discrimination under President Trump’s executive order against “gender ideology.”

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Student Visas Emerge as Washington’s Leverage Against Foreign Adversaries

college students

As the U.S. struggles to attract concessions from adversarial nations, Washington appears ready to use those nations’ people within its borders on a visa as an apparent source of leverage.

Under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the U.S. has already begun revoking visas for pro-Palestinian organizers and international students who joined with them, but the administration now appears to be mulling similar actions against other nations.

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Foreign Student Crackdown Reportedly Skyrockets as Trump Admin Pulls More than 1,100 Visas

students

The Trump administration has revoked more than 1,100 foreign student visas since it launched its mission against alleged terrorist sympathizers and antisemitism, according to a report.

A database from Inside Higher Ed indicates a sudden and dramatic rise in orders stripping foreigners of the ability to legally study in the U.S., weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio put the number at around 300. Many of the students lost their visas over their alleged anti-Israel or pro-terrorist advocacy and previous criminal records, the outlet said, citing mostly public news reports and university statements.

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New Reports Unearth Buried Intel on Origins of COVID

Wuhan Institute of Virology

Intelligence undermining the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic began naturally at a wet market has been buried for years despite a 2023 law requiring declassification, according to two new reports.

The U.S. government has for years concealed evidence that complicates the story of the pandemic’s origin favored by some prominent members of the scientific community — that it began with an animal the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market — according to two reports revealed for the first time in recent days.

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Signal App Episode Part of Pattern of Officials Using Private Communications for Public Business

Signal app

The use of the private messaging app Signal by senior Trump national security officials is only the latest episode in a long, bipartisan history of those in government using private communications platforms to conduct official business, a problem that experts say would be simple to solve. 

Experts told Just the News that government officials use private messaging apps for many reasons, including convenience or in an effort to avoid public records laws. They say that the Trump administration incident does not seem to suggest the officials were interested in evading the law, but that it will be a wake-up call for the government about its messaging practices.

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State Department to Use AI to Expel Foreign Students Supporting Terrorism

Palestine Protest

The U.S. Department of State reportedly plans to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help identify foreign students who have demonstrated support for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, Axios reported on Thursday.

The technology will be used to review the social media accounts of tens of thousands of student visa holders for pro-terrorism content which may then be used to revoke visa statuses, according to Axios. Violent pro-Hamas protests took over dozens of college campuses since the deadly Oct., 2023 attack on Israel, and the Trump administration has vowed to put an end to the antisemitic demonstrations.

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Trump Admin Hit with Lawsuit After Shutting Off Money Tap for Decades-Old Refugee Program

Haitian Refugees

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued the Trump administration Tuesday over the State Department cutting funding for refugee assistance.

The lawsuit alleges USCCB “faces irreparable damage” due to the loss of funds, with millions of dollars already spent on nearly 7,000 refugees that will no longer be reimbursed following the Jan. 24 refugee funding suspension. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are named as defendants, among others.

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Most Americans Say U.S. Foreign Aid Is ‘Wasted on Corruption,’ Survey Reveals

Ukraine and America

A majority of Americans think that U.S. foreign aid is being wasted, according to a new survey from the Financial Times.

Of those surveyed, more than 60% believe that funding set aside for humanitarian aid was being “wasted on corruption or administration fees,” according to the survey published Monday. The survey’s findings comes amid growing scrutiny surrounding wasteful spending across several federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Commentary: President Trump Can Make American Intelligence Great Again

Trump Smiling

Eight years ago, after Donald Trump’s historic 2016 presidential election victory, I published an article with the same title above, listing urgent recommendations for President Trump to reform America’s then-17 intelligence agencies so they could revert to the great agencies they once were that helped our nation win the Cold War. I believed at the time that the growing politicization of U.S. intelligence, especially concerning the Russia collusion hoax during the 2016 campaign, and bloated intelligence bureaucracies had damaged the reputation of our intelligence agencies and undermined their ability to provide crucial intelligence support to the president.

After the extreme weaponization of U.S. intelligence against the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaigns and his administration, as well as woke mismanagement of intelligence agencies by the Biden administration, intelligence reform is far more urgent today than when Mr. Trump assumed the Oval Office in January 2017.

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Commentary: H1B Blues

Workers

Just in time for Christmas, some infighting has broken out among Trump supporters. Muckraking online personality Laura Loomer began the fracas with criticism of Sriram Krishnan, who Trump has chosen to be an AI policy advisor. Loomer pointed out that Krishnan has said previously that he wants the quota of green cards available to his Indian coethnics to be expanded.

Elon Musk entered the fray and argued that in order for the country to remain competitive, it must import talent from overseas.

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Analysis: Global Censorship Hub ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ Reached Agreement with State Department to Conceal Government Grants from the Public

National Endowment for Democracy

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has – since at least 2021 – failed to comply with transparency requirements regarding the more than $300 million of taxpayer funding it receives from the U.S. Department of State, potentially violating federal regulations under 22 CFR 67.4 and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).

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Commentary: Foreign Censorship Threatens American Free Speech

Facebook User

On the eve of a highly-anticipated live X “Spaces” conversation between Elon Musk and former president Donald Trump, the powerful European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton warned in August that authorities would be “monitoring” the conversation for “content that may incite violence, hate, and racism.” 

While reminding Musk that the EU was already investigating X for alleged failures “to combat disinformation,” Breton said he and his colleagues “will not hesitate to make full use of our toolbox … to protect EU citizens from serious harm.”

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Trump-Era Official Warns of ‘Widespread’ Student Visa Fraud

College Students

The student visa program is susceptible to fraud, according to a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

Jon Feere spoke to The College Fix about his findings on student visa fraud, which he has written is “widespread.” Prior to joining the Center for Immigration Studies, Feere (pictured) worked as a senior advisor to ICE and as its chief of staff in the Trump administration.

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Since 2021, U.S. Has Seen Greatest Number of Canadian Illegal Border Crossers in History

People crossing the U.S. Northern border

by Bethany Blankley   The greatest number of Canadians who’ve illegally entered the U.S. or attempted to illegally enter in recorded U.S. history has been reported under the Biden-Harris administration and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration. Since fiscal 2021 through July 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 150,701 Canadians illegally entered or attempted illegal entry into the U.S. The majority were apprehended at the US-Canada border, followed by other locations nationwide, with a small number at the US-Mexico border, according to the data. The greatest number of Canadians encountered or apprehended by CBP or Border Patrol agents was in fiscal 2022 of 47,126. U.S. officials at the northern border reported the most of 40,600; the next greatest number was reported nationwide totaling 6,413, followed by 113 at the southwest border, according to the data. In fiscal 2023, the numbers were slightly less, totaling 44,700, with the majority reported at the northern border of 37,169, followed by 7,431 nationwide and 100 at the southwest border. These numbers are up significantly from fiscal 2021, of 22,371. The majority in 2021, 16,193, were reported at the northern border, followed by 6,178 nationwide and 76 at the southwest border. The overwhelming majority are single…

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Biden Pentagon Spokesman Insisted Afghan Withdrawal Wasn’t Chaotic But His Emails Say Otherwise

Afghanistan Evacuation

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman has long insisted there was no “chaos” during the bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, but his own email correspondence shows senior officials were acutely aware that conditions in the country were chaotic and spiraling into deadly violence, according to newly obtained government documents.

These memos and emails chronicle political efforts by the Biden/Harris administration to soft-pedal the truth to the American people about its first major foreign crisis. The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the nonprofit watchdog Functional Government Initiative.

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‘Ceasefire Is Dead’: Biden Admin Shifts Focus to Freeing Hostages in Gaza as Chances of Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Crumble

Joe Biden and Israel

The Biden administration has turned its focus to securing the release of hostages from Hamas as chances for a ceasefire deal appear to be fading, Politico reported on Thursday.

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas — who went to war in October after Hamas invaded Israel — has been a months-long goal of the U.S. and international negotiators, though it has been nearly impossible to reach an agreement. U.S. and Western officials have become concerned that the possibility of a ceasefire is quickly dimming, with the priority now being shifted toward freeing the remaining hostages in Gaza, according to several officials who spoke to Politico.

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Four Years Later, CDC Documents on COVID-19’s Origin in China Emerge as Oversight Wanes

Newly released documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal early evidence and analysis four years ago in which U.S. government officials indicated that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China.

These findings in the CDC documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, dating from about six months after the disease’s initial outbreak, are coming to light only now because of the government’s repeated delays in releasing relevant documents through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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Joe Biden Adviser Had Contact with Burisma During Height of Corruption Probe, Emails Show

Former Energy Adviser Amos Hochstein

Hunter Biden’s team arranged for a senior Burisma Holdings executive to meet with one of his father Joe Biden’s advisers at the State Department a decade ago, just months after the Ukrainian energy firm’s owner was targeted in a high-profile and U.S.-backed corruption investigation, according to documents secretly gathered years ago by the FBI. The elder Biden was vice president at the time.

The documents, obtained by Just the News, chronicle a plan in summer and fall 2014 to connect Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi with then-State Department energy adviser Amos Hochstein, now a Middle East envoy for President Joe Biden. It was facilitated by the law firm that employed Hunter Biden at the time, Boies Schiller Flexner.

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Biden Admin Shells Out Taxpayer Cash on Foreign LGBT Events as Pride Month Approaches

Pride event in France

The State Department is funding an array of LGBT pride events across the globe ahead of June, some of which include events focused on children, federal grant records show.

Biden’s State Department is bankrolling a gay film festival, an LGBT community conference and other pride events in Australia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria in the lead-up to June, according to grant records. Some observe June as “Pride Month” to commemorate the Stonewall riots, a series of clashes between LGBT people and the police after law enforcement raided a gay bar.

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Obama State Department Blocked FBI from Arresting Iranian Suspects in WMD Probe, Senators Say

Obama Kerry Iran Negotiations in 2015

The senators claimed the reason for the State Department’s interference was because of ongoing negotiations related to the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, which former President Barack Obama signed in 2015.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson unveiled evidence Wednesday that former Secretary of State John Kerry’s State Department “actively interfered” with the FBI’s attempts to arrest people suspected of being in the United States illegally to support Iran’s efforts to create weapons of mass destruction.

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Biden Admin Wants to Send American Tax Dollars to Train Army of Transgender Activists in India

US Embassy in India

The Biden administration wants to train at least 200 activists to advocate for transgender rights in India as part of a program ostensibly designed to advance America’s “national interests,” according to a federal grant posting.

President Joe Biden’s State Department plans to “train at least 200 LGBTQI+ community leaders … with preference given to trans and intersex community leaders” by “deliver[ing] specialized legal education and support” which will, in turn, empower “them to advocate for their rights and access the services they need,” according to a grant announcement published on April 8. The department is offering the grant under its Public Diplomacy Programs, which exist to “support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security.”

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Commentary: Self-Servant Leadership

Mark Milley

“With all due respect, guys, I’m here for the families of Abbey Gate.”

Said the man in the cool blue suit at a congressional hearing last week in Washington.

Back straight, eyes serious, spool of white hair parted to one side, he looked authoritative. Here was the Ivy League grad finally freed from the oversized camouflage utilities once draped like a battle tunic over his squarish frame.

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Immigration Expert Says the Mainstream Media Refuses to Cover How the Biden Administration Caused Haiti’s Current Chaos

Haitian Refugees

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the mainstream media’s refusal to acknowledge how the Biden administration’s compliance in scuttling Haiti’s elections back in 2021 contributes to the chaos currently unfolding in the Caribbean country stems from the fact that the backstory is a “terrible” look for President Joe Biden.

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Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote: Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Cut the 2021 Deal with Now Deposed Haiti Strongman Ariel Henry to Repatriate Del Rio Camp Migrants in Return for Scuttled Elections

Former Ambassador to Haiti Dan Foote

Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison “teed up” the deal with unelected leader of Haiti Ariel Henry to delay elections in the country.

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Biden Admin Funding Theatrical Productions to Teach Africans About LGBTQ Rights

LGBTQ Africa

The Biden administration is spending taxpayer dollars to stage plays in an effort to teach Africans about “LGBTQ rights.”

A State Department grant allocates money to “improve communication at the level of the local community on the social issue of LGBTQ rights and domestic violence via participatory theater” in the African nation of Chad, according to a federal grant description. The Biden administration has paid out several grants to use theater to educate foreigners about environmentalism, racism, immigration and the war in Ukraine.

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Feds Shell Out Thousands on Computer Lessons for LGBT Refugees, Fostering ‘Economic Inclusion’ in Latin America

LGBTQ Flags

The federal government has used taxpayer dollars to fund services for LGBT refugees in Latin America over the past couple of years, federal grants show.

The State Department and the Inter-American Foundation, an independent federal agency, funded a trio of grants between August 2021 and October 2023 aimed at bolstering Costa Rica’s status as a haven for LGBT asylum seekers, funding a project to help LGBT refugee entrepreneurs as well as teaching gay and trans refugees how to use computers. The three programs collectively received almost $300,000 in federal funds.

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Security State Sees Internet Free Speech as ‘Massive Crisis’

An internet free speech expert said in a recent interview that freedom of speech online combined with massive audiences for independent journalists and news sources created a “massive crisis” for America’s security state. 

“So initially, even these dissident voices within the U.S., even though they may have been loud in moments, they never reached 30 million followers,” Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) Mike Benz told Tucker Carlson in an interview. “They never reached the one billion impressions per year type thing. As an uncensored mature ecosystem allowed citizen journalists and independent voices to be able to outcompete legacy news media, this induced a massive crisis both in our military and in our State Department and intelligence services.” 

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RussiaGate Hoax Paved Way for Security State’s Domestic Censorship During 2020 Election, Internet Free Speech Expert Says

Mike Benz

According to an expert in internet free speech, the RussiaGate hoax perpetrated against former President Donald J. Trump’s 2016 election campaign was the beginning of the security state’s inward focus on domestic censorship online.

Mike Benz, the founder and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), told Tucker Carlson in an interview last week that since the mid-20th century, there was an unwritten rule that security state apparatuses like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were not to be used domestically against the American people, but that the security state knew how powerful its apparatus could be if turned inward.

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Biden State Department Funds Program to Create Army of 2,5000 ‘LGBTQI+ Allies’

Washington State University

President Joe Biden’s State Department paid a public university to train a cohort of “master trainers” in India who will then go on to train more than two thousand people to become “LGBTQI+ allies,” according to a government spending database.

Washington State University received (WSU) $15,000 from the State Department in July 2023 to hold a three-day workshop aimed at training 30 individuals with the goal of them eventually training 2,500 people to become “LGBTQI+ allies” and to develop a “better understanding of diversity and inclusion,” according to a federal spending database. The trainings took place in India between Sept. 25 and Sept. 27, according to the university website.

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Biden Administration Stiffed Nonprofit That Helped with Afghanistan Withdrawal, Virginia Democrats Claim

Tim Kaine

The Biden State Department reportedly failed to pay nearly $700,000 to the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System (NVERS), a nonprofit partnership of Virginia governments, hospitals, and other private sector groups, after it was called to support the Biden administration’s relocation of Afghan citizens in the aftermath of the 2021 withdrawal of the United States military from Afghanistan.

A letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken detailing the unpaid debt was signed by six Democrats representing Virginia in Congress, including Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, as well as Representatives Jennifer Wexton (VA-10), Don Beyer (VA-08), Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), and Gerry Connolly (VA-11).

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Religious Freedom Advocates Demand Answers on State Department’s Exclusion of Nigeria, India from Persecution List

African Christians

A group of international religious freedom experts are calling for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify before a congressional hearing about the State Department’s decision to exclude Nigeria and India from a list of nations with severe violations of religious freedom.

In a letter sent Wednesday, first obtained by The Daily Signal, more than 40 religious freedom experts and organizations pointed out that since 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, and 18,000 churches and 2,500 Christian schools attacked. They also cited India, where they say that between 200 and 400 churches and 3,500 Christian homes have been attacked just since last May.

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Alleged Foreign Agent Law Violations Loom over Hunter Biden as House Prepares to Depose Him

The U.S. law firm that did work for Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings was encouraged by the Justice Department to register as a foreign agent for the same type of work that Hunter Biden did for the company while he was a board member. Burisma was not registered as a foreign agent at the time.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (Cravath) as part of its representation of Burisma and its founder, litigation partner John Buretta met with State Department officials and sent a letter directly to the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings submitted earlier this month.

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Nearly 200,000 Foreign Workers Classified as ‘Students,’ State Department Reports

American universities hosted more than 1 million international students in the 2022-23 academic year – but that figure includes students who had already graduated and are essentially foreign workers, according to a State Department report.

In reality, nearly 200,000 foreigners classified as students are actually working, without paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, making them cheaper to hire than Americans.

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Biden Admin Granted 34,000 Special Visas to Refugees After Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal

Afghanistan Refugees

The State Department has granted tens of thousands of visas to Afghans who aided the U.S. government following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, according to a Thursday report from the lead inspector general to the United States Congress.

The Biden administration withdrew all American forces from Afghanistan in 2021, leading to a widespread takeover of the region by the Taliban and the displacement of millions of Afghans, according to the Wilson Center. As part of the U.S. effort to bring in refugees escaping Afghanistan, the State Department has issued approximately 34,000 special immigrant visas (SIV) to Afghans and their immediate family members, according to the Inspector General report released Thursday. 

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World Relief Wisconsin Leader Says Biden Administration Has Decided Refugees Are Coming to Eau Claire

An official with a refugee resettlement organization told The Wisconsin Daily Star that 75 refugees are coming to Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley beginning in early January, and there’s nothing opponents of the resettlement plan can do about it.

Tami McLaughlin, office director of World Relief Wisconsin-Fox Valley, said the Biden administration has signed off on the plan, and the federal government is the final authority.

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Report: An Iranian Spy Currently Serves as Chief of Staff for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations

Former Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley oversaw “an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments” while he served as the Biden regime’s chief negotiator for the Iran nuclear deal, according to several explosive new reports.

A trove of “purloined Iranian government emails” were published last week in Semafor and in the London-based opposition paper Iran International after an extensive, months-long vetting process by the two outlets, investigative journalist and author Lee Smith reported in Tablet on Sunday.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Pushes to Support U.S. Education Cooperation with Taiwan over China

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is leading a bipartisan effort to push U.S. colleges and universities to support the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative as an alternative to China’s Confucius Institutes.

Blackburn along with U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a Senate Resolution on Tuesday, to signal that the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative is supported on a bipartisan basis as a censorship-free alternative to Confucius Institutes.

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Iraq Summons U.S. Ambassador over State Department Comments on Treatment of Catholic Priest

The Iraqi government called U.S. Ambassador Alina Romanowski to Baghdad after the State Department made critical remarks about the government’s dismissal of a Vatican-appointed bishop, according to Reuters.

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid recently rescinded a decree recognizing Cardinal Louis Sako the head of the Chaldean Catholic church in Iraq and all of its assets, claiming that no other state entity should appoint religious leaders in Iraq, according to Reuters. Rashid called Romanowski to Baghdad Wednesday after  State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. was disturbed by the Iraqi government’s decision.

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New State Department Report Says Biden Didn’t Know Who Was in Charge of Afghanistan Debacle

The Biden State Department did not have clarity on who was in charge of coordinating the department’s role in the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, a report released on Friday found.

A State Department after-action review team found fault with both the Biden and Trump administrations for contributing to the chaos of the August 2021 military withdrawal, which left the Afghan government vulnerable to collapse and contributed to a massive effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and allies afterward, the report shows. While the U.S. military had contingency planning for an evacuation of Kabul in place “for some time” ahead of when the withdrawal was ordered in August in 2021, the State Department’s participation in the operation “was hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the Department had the lead.”

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Ramaswamy Says Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Alleged Involvement In Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal Would be ‘Prosecution-Worthy’

Campaigning in Des Moines’ Beaverdale neighborhood Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Iowa Star that Secretary of State Antony Blinken should face serious consequences if it turns out he was the point man for a disinformation campaign on Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop. 

“It’s prosecution worthy,” the Ohio businessman told The Iowa Star after speaking to veterans at the Beaverdale VFW Post 9127. 

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