Commentary: The Case Against Foreign Aid

Maldova

The main argument in favor of foreign aid is that rich countries can and should help poor countries become more prosperous. And plenty of politicians are following that approach. According to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, donor governments gave away more than $220 billion last year. But advocates of foreign aid say that’s not enough. The folks at the United Nations assert that rich countries should double their foreign aid budgets.

Skeptics of aid have a different perspective. They explain that foreign aid is not successful and that increasing aid budgets would be throwing good money after bad. They argue that foreign aid is wrong in theory since it focuses on giving money to governments rather than the pro-market policy reforms that would boost growth. And they argue that foreign aid has failed the real-world test since countries receiving large transfers have not climbed out of poverty.

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Survivor of October 7 Terrorist Attack on Israel Oshrit Sabag Details Bone-Chilling First Moments of Attack

MPL and October 7

Oshrit Sabag, a survivor of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, detailed the first bone-chilling minutes of the attack, which saw her and her children race to their safe room in their home after hearing warning sirens and explosions outside during an exclusive sit-down interview with The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Thursday.

Sabag, who was born in Israel in a city outside Tel Aviv, moved to Kibbutz Nahal Oz – a small Israeli community located approximately 700 meters from Israel’s border with the Gaza strip – 23 years ago.

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Texas DPS Sounds Alarm on ‘Special Interest Aliens’ Illegally Entering from Mexico

Special Interest [Illegal] Aliens

Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez is sounding the alarm about an increase of “Special Interest Aliens” (SIAs) being apprehended attempting to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico.

In a social media post, he published a video of an interview between a Texas DPS trooper and a Turkish national, who was with a group of other Turkish men who illegally entered the country and were identified as SIAs.

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State Department Paying for Play Where God Is Bisexual and Communists Are Good in Bid to Push LGBT Rights Abroad

Angels in America

The Biden-Harris administration is paying to put on a play that portrays God as bisexual, sharply criticizes former President Ronald Reagan and paints communists in a positive light, all in an effort to push gay rights on Southeastern Europeans, federal grant records show.

Earlier in September, the State Department greenlit funding for a showing of Tony Kushner’s 1991 play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” in North Macedonia, with the agency claiming the production will raise awareness about “LGBTQ+ issues” in the country, federal grant records reveal. The play follows multiple storylines, among them the ghost of convicted communist spy Ethel Rosenberg antagonizing dying conservative lawyer Roy Cohn and a gay man having sexually explicit visions of heaven as he struggles with AIDS.

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Commentary: More Than Just Millions of People

Illegal Border Crossers

by Michael A. Letts   It’s not just millions of unvetted illegal aliens — the left likes to call them “migrants” and “refugees,” to give this dangerous deluge a better mouthfeel — who have poured across the uncontrolled southern border in the three-and-a-half years since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris assumed control of the federal government. It is also likely that some millions of dollars worth of military weaponry — in particular, small arms — has also poured across the border, along with the millions of unvetted illegal aliens. Some of whom are among the most violent criminals ever to threaten the peace and safety of Americans — as well as American law enforcement. Is any of this military hardware from the botched Afghanistan withdrawal? Just a few days ago, news broke about gangs of “migrants” and “refugees” who appear to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua storming an apartment complex in Aurora, CO, armed with what appear to be military rifles. And not just in Colorado, either. A hotel in El Paso, TX, was shut down by law enforcement after it was taken over by . . . Tren de Aragua gangsters. “Surveillance footage accompanied the complaint, appearing to show ‘at least one…

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FBI Report Estimates $5.6 Billion in Cryptocurrency Fraud Losses

Currency, cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency scams and fraud in 2023 contributed to an estimated $5.6 billion in losses, a report from one of the federal government’s top law enforcement agencies says. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023 found that the vast majority of losses – about $3.9 million – were related to cryptocurrency investment scams. 

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Twice the Number of ICE Detainers Issued Under Trump than Biden, Analysis Reveals

Suspected Illegal Border Crossers

Twice the number of detainers were issued for criminal illegal foreign nationals under the Trump administration than the Biden administration, according to a new analysis of federal data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The nonprofit data research center is affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Detainers are issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), otherwise known as “immigration holds,” to apprehend and detain often violent individuals wanted for a crime in another country, arrested or convicted of one in the U.S., or placed in removal proceedings by a federal immigration judge.

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Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote: Failed Playbook in Haiti Will Keep Driving Migrants to Seek Refuge in the U.S.

Dan Foote

Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote said the United States’ latest efforts to “re-establish security” and “build security conditions conducive to holding free and fair elections” in Haiti is part of the “same tired playbook that has failed” to bring order and reform to the Caribbean country for decades.

On September 5, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with interim Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where the pair discussed a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country authorized by the UN Security Council in an effort to reform the country and reclaim it from violent gangs.

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: The Biden-Harris World Is Afire

American Flag wildfire

Somehow the United States ended up this summer with no engaged president and an absent vice president who avoids the missing president and is frantically repudiating everything she co-owned the last three years.

The world was already confused over how President Joe Biden was apparently declared by unnamed Democratic insiders and donors unfit and unable to continue as their presidential candidate — as if he were a dethroned Third-World usurper.

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A.G. Yoast Suggests Courtroom Battle to Stop Feds Dumping Migrants in Ohio

Ohio A.G. Dave Yost

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday that his office is investigating how to stop the Biden-Harris administration from continuing to resettle massive numbers of foreign nationals into his state.

An enormous increase in the migrant population in Ohio has taken place during the past four years of the Biden-Harris administration, leading to a strain in the state’s economic, medical and educational systems, Yost declared in a press release. Ohio’s top prosecutor says he is now directing his office to research courtroom strategies on how to stop the White House from sending an “unlimited” number of migrants into Ohio communities.

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Dem Rep Grace Meng Serves as ‘Honorary Chairwoman’ of Org Reportedly Linked to Chinese Intel Agency

Rep Grace Meng

New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng has longstanding ties to an organization reportedly linked to a Chinese intelligence agency and alleged Communist Party operatives, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday indicted Linda Sun, who served in two New York governors’ offices as well as Meng’s chief of staff while she served in the state assembly, for allegedly acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China and money laundering.

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ICE Incapable of Monitoring Unaccompanied Minors Released into U.S., Inspector General Says

Illegal migrants at border

The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a management alert to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make it aware of an urgent issue: ICE is incapable of monitoring hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children (UACs) released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration.

“We found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” HHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a memo to the deputy director of ICE.

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Local ‘Sanctuary’ Policies in Virginia Pose Dangers to National Security

Town of Quantico

Localities with “sanctuary” policies in Virginia have grown, many butting up against vital military or national security instillations, posing potential threats, according to a former Homeland Security and immigration senior official.

Last month, immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released an updated map of localities that have adopted sanctuary policies, which showed a surge in the commonwealth totaling 84.

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Report: Thousands of Christians Targeted and Killed in Nigeria

Africans Praying

A new report says that Nigeria has been systematically persecuting Christians, including executing thousands, in an “unrelenting…time bomb.”

As Fox News reports, the claims come from Open Doors International, a faith-based non-profit which focuses on raising awareness of persecutions across the world. Open Doors says that Christians, as well as “Christian communities, their livelihoods, faith leaders, and places of worship” are being “deliberately targeted” in the African nation. It has gotten to the point where Christians are “an endangered species” in Nigeria, Open Doors stated.

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Florida Sues over Violent Foreign Nationals Being Released from Prison into U.S.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody

The state of Florida is suing the Biden-Harris administration to obtain information on how many illegal foreign nationals convicted of violent crimes who served time in prison were released into the U.S. instead of being deported.

“Historically, when illegal aliens were brought to the U.S. to be prosecuted for their crimes, it was well understood that the aliens would be deported once they have served their sentence,” Florida’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Ashley Moody, states. “That was until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented their shockingly irresponsible immigration policy, pushing unknown numbers of dangerous criminals straight from federal prison into our communities and causing chaos, anarchy, and crime.”

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Maduro Regime Requests Arrest Warrant Against Edmundo González Urrutia

Edmundo González Urrutia

Venezuela ‘s Attorney General’s Office asked a court specializing in “terrorism” crimes at midday on Monday to issue an “arrest warrant” against the standard-bearer of the largest opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia , and the greatest rival of dictator Nicolás Maduro .

In a document circulating on social media, prosecutor  Luis Ernesto Dueñez Reyes  requested the arrest of González Urrutia for his “alleged commission of crimes of usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents,” conspiracy, sabotage and illicit association.

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Biden Claims Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Secure Release of Hostages in Israel Ahead of Pennsylvania Rally with Harris

Joe Biden in the Indian Treaty Room

President Joe Biden on Monday said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure the release of hostages in brief remarks made after the recovery of the bodies of six who were captured by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, including U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Biden made the remarks ahead of his Monday rally in Pennsylvania with Vice President Kamala Harris, who Republicans have suggested was influenced by concerns of antisemitism within the Democratic Party when she passed over Governor Josh Shapiro and instead picked Governor Tim Walz to complete her presidential ticket.

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Teen Girl at Baseball Game Stabbed by Previously Deported Illegal Migrant, Police Allege

A teen girl at an Indiana baseball game was randomly stabbed over the weekend by a man local authorities say is a previously deported illegal immigrant. The 14-year-old girl was watching her brother’s baseball game in Lowell, Indiana, on Saturday when a man randomly stabbed her in the hand and fled the scene, according to NBC Chicago. Law enforcement arrested Dimas Gabriel Yanez, a 26-year-old Honduran national, following an extensive manhunt that ended on Sunday amid a foot pursuit in a Lake County cornfield.

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Northern Border Sector Continues to Break Records in Apprehensions

Illegal Borger Crossers

The busiest U.S. Customs and Border Protection sector at the northern border continues to break records in apprehensions with foreign nationals coming from 85 countries to Canada to illegally enter the U.S.

In less than 10 months, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 15,000 foreign nationals from 85 countries who all illegally entered the U.S. through Canada, the greatest volume reported in this time period in recorded history.

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Bill That Would Give Illegal Immigrants up to $150,000 to Buy Homes Heads to Gavin Newsom’s Desk

Illegal Migrants

A bill passed by the California state legislature on Wednesday that would make some illegal immigrants in California eligible for generous cash assistance to buy homes has been sent to the desk for consideration of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to Politico.

Under AB 1840, illegal immigrants with social security or taxpayer-identification numbers would qualify for a program called California Dream for All that gives first-time home buyers up to $150,000, with recipients only having to pay interest if they sell the property, Politico reported. Newsom has declined to comment on whether or not he will sign the bill after some moderate Democrats joined Republicans in the California Senate in an attempt to block the legislation.

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Canada Officials Express Alarm About Terrorism Threats and Its Impact on U.S-Canada Border.

Illegal immigrants arrested at U.S.-Canada Border

In addition to members of Congress expressing alarm about national security threats at the U.S.-Canada border, members of the Conservative Party of Canada are blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for being responsible for creating them.

A Canadian House of Commons hearing was held Wednesday to investigate how the Trudeau government granted citizenship to a member of ISIS who allegedly plotted a terrorist attack against Canadians.

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Immigration Expert Todd Bensman: Biden-Harris Made Deal with Mexico to Stop Illegal Immigrants Leading Up to Presidential Election

Illegal Immigrants

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the Biden-Harris administration quietly secured a deal with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador at the beginning of the year to help throttle illegal border crossing numbers leading up to the November 5 general election.

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Tim Walz Has a History of Rubbing Elbows with Nonprofit Linked to Chinese Intel and Influence Agency

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has a long history of attending events organized by members of a nonprofit with connections to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence agency, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Since 2018, Walz has attended multiple events hosted by members of the Chinese American Association of Minnesota (CAAM) and related organizations, including one 2022 fundraiser for his gubernatorial campaign, according to a DCNF review of dozens of Chinese government announcements, Chinese-language news reports and social media posts.

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Israeli Forces Rescue Hostage In Gaza

Qaid Farhan Alkadi

Israeli special forces rescued a hostage from a tunnel in Gaza Tuesday.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks and spent more than ten months in captivity, The Times of Israel reported. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari described the tunnel rescue operation as “brave and complex,” though officials were unable to release further details of the raid.

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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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Taxpayer-Funded Group Offers $30,000 to Illegal Aliens to Buy Homes

Home Buyers

A far-left organization that has received funding from taxpayer dollars is offering up to $30,000 to illegal aliens so that they can purchase homes in the United States.

As the Daily Caller reports, the Hacienda Community Development Corp. (Hacienda CDC) is participating in a down payment assistance program in Oregon called “Camino a Casa.” The initiative is explicitly only available for non-citizens, while American citizens are ineligible. The $30,000 handouts are branded as down payment assistance for illegals who are attempting to purchase new homes.

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Freedom House Report Warns of Growing Repression Against Opponents in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega

The US NGO Freedom House warned on Wednesday about the growing use of repressive measures against dissidents. On the island, where more than 50 countries are listed, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela stand out. The document refers, among other issues, to the restriction of freedom of movement of opponents of these regimes.

According to the organization’s annual report, the coercive measures they use include the withdrawal of nationality, travel bans, withholding of identity documents and denial of consular services. The document, which focuses on “transnational repression,” also highlights that these restrictions are less visible forms of repression compared to the killings and kidnappings that also occur.

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Florida Attorney General Will Track Down Transnational Criminals and Put Them in Prison

Ashley Moody

From a Romanian theft ring to a notorious Big Boi drug trafficking ring, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution is continuing to prosecute transnational criminal organizations.

She’s also issued a warning to criminals: “Florida law enforcement will track you down, and my Statewide Prosecutors will ensure you end up in prison.”

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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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Hunter Biden’s Former Partner Placed Under Investigation by Chinese Government, Resigned from Fund

Hunter Biden

The one-time business partner of Hunter Biden resigned from his role at the head of a major investment fund earlier this month after he was placed under investigation by the Chinese authorities for “personal problems.”

Zhao Xuejun—who Biden and his other business associates referred to as Henry—was the Chairman of Harvest Fund Management, one of the largest asset managers in China. The investigation of Zhao is suspected to stem from Beijing’s wider crackdown on the securities sector.

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Border Patrol Seizes More Than $400K in Alleged Cocaine in Two Enforcement Actions

Brownsville Cocaine

Officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Brownsville Port of Entry in Texas have seized two shipments, possibly cocaine valued at more than $400,000, the agency announced Wednesday.

On Monday, CBP intercepted a 31-year-old Mexican attempting to enter the U.S. at the Veterans International Bridge in Texas. CBP referred the vehicle to secondary inspection, where a canine unit and a non-intrusive inspection system (NII) revealed nine suspicious packages concealed in the vehicle.

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U.S. to Resume Humanitarian Parole ‘As Soon as Possible’, Officials Say

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents with a line of asylum seekers

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday that irregularities in the Humanitarian Parole Program processes were detected in the sponsors and not in the beneficiaries.

It was for this reason, according to media reports , that the DHS decided to temporarily freeze travel permits, which generated uncertainty among the beneficiaries of this program. However, the US Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) assured that it is working to resume the processing of applications “as soon as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”

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Lawmakers Demand Investigation into U.S. Drug Companies Who Reportedly Worked with Chinese Military

Reps. John Moolenar, Neal Dunn, Anna Eshoo, Raja Krishnamoorthi in front of the Chinese Military (composite image)

A group of bipartisan lawmakers are demanding an investigation into U.S. drug companies with reportedly troubling ties to China, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lawmakers raised alarm to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a Monday letter that they had identified some U.S. pharmaceutical companies as having worked with the Chinese military, raising concerns that U.S. intellectual property is being siphoned off by Beijing. The lawmakers also pointed out that several U.S. pharmaceutical companies also conducted clinical trials in the Xinjiang province of China, a region known for “genocide” against religious minorities, according to a letter sent by the lawmakers to the agency.

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Study Finds TikTok Manipulates Content to Favorably Promote Chinese Government

TikTok

TikTok uses an algorithm to promote content that puts the Chinese government in a favorable light in order to sway users’ views, according to a new study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI).

The study builds off a previous report from December that found the social media site likely promotes pro-China content, as the app faces bipartisan criticism over national security concerns. The app is already facing a potential ban in the United States if the Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its shares of the platform on time.

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Biden Admin Reportedly Throws Support Behind UN Push to Decrease Global Plastic Production

Plastic Bottles

The Biden administration is reportedly now in favor of a United Nations-led effort to reduce global plastic production, according to multiple reports.

U.S. officials now reportedly support a developing U.N. treaty that would aim to impose a cap on plastic production worldwide, a shift from its earlier position of allowing countries to determine production levels for themselves, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters and Politico. Biden administration officials have also reportedly signaled that they will support measures to target particular types of plastics and establish a list of specific chemicals to address with new, uniform obligations.

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Polls Say Majority of Americans Want Troops Sent to Border and Oppose Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigrants

Polls are consistently showing two key indictments on the Biden-Harris administration border policy: Americans not only overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration but also want troops sent to the southern border and the border secure.

Two new recent polls support this trend, although polls have consistently shown that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Vice President Kamala Harris’ job as “border czar.”

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