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The State Department on Friday conceded that there are significantly more Americans in Afghanistan than previously estimated -- leading to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other Republicans to accuse the administration of a "betrayal" of Americans abroad. State Department officials briefed congressional staff this week and told them that it is in touch with 363 Americans in Afghanistan and nearly 176 legal permanent residents, a congressional source who was on the call told Fox News. That 363 number is significantly higher than previous estimates by the Biden administration, which had put the number at around 100 in September -- and...

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center said American companies needed to better secure critical technologies as Beijing seeks to dominate the so-called bioeconomy. BETHESDA, Md. — Chinese firms are collecting genetic data from around the world, part of an effort by the Chinese government and companies to develop the world’s largest bio-database, American intelligence officials reported on Friday. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center said in a new paper that the United States needed to better secure critical technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors and other technologies related to the so-called bioeconomy. China and other countries are trying to...

A senior Al-Qaeda leader was killed in a US drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Friday, according to AFP. The strike came two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, was assaulted. "A US air strike today in northwest Syria killed senior Al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar," said Central Command spokesman Army Major John Rigsbee in a statement. There were no other known casualties from the strike, he said, adding it was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft. ......

A U.S. partner of the Wuhan Institute of Virology manipulated a coronavirus to generate up to 10,000 times the viral load, violating provisions of its National Institutes of Health contract that forbade unregulated research that could make a disease significantly more dangerous or transmissible. The information was revealed this week in a letter from the NIH to House Republicans. NIH said the nonprofit partner, EcoHealth Alliance, must submit any unpublished data to the agency by Monday to come back into compliance with its NIH grant. Any new documents could shed further light on the controversial nonprofit’s research. The EcoHealth project...

They called it the "command center," a set of rooms and suites in the posh Willard hotel a block from the White House where some of President Donald Trump's most loyal lieutenants were working day and night with one goal in mind: overturning the results of the 2020 election.

On this date in 1415, on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, the young English King Henry V approved the execution of his onetime boon companion Bardolph in William Shakespeare’s Henry V. The fictional Bardolph had been the ruddy-nosed friend of Henry’s in the Henry IV plays (Part 1, Part 2), where the hard-drinking, rabble-rousing young prince is a disappointment to the father who fears his heir will never merit the throne. By Henry V, the boy has become the ruler, and launched an audacious incursion into France during the Hundred Years’ War. Hal’s willingness to own the rough...

This is a follow-up to the original explanation of the epicenter of the supply chain backlog issue, ie “The Clog“. {GO DEEP} You need to review the years-long and building background issue to understand the fubar that Joe Biden has just made worse.From the White House perspective, the problem at the California ports, specifically the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), was visible due to hundreds of container ships sitting in a queue off the coast of Los Angeles awaiting their opportunity to offload their cargo. The media was reporting on the backlog of...

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief” (Proverbs 24:16).

My aim in this article is to encourage Christians to be vaccinated, if they can do so with a good conscience and judicious medical warrant. The people I have especially in view are those who are not vaccinated because of fear of being out of step with people they respect, and in step with people they don’t admire. My message to them is simple: You are free. So, I am not talking directly to everybody. If the shoe fits, put it on, check your conscience, consult your doctor, and go get vaccinated. If it doesn’t, go tearfully and cheerfully on...

Coast Guard crews are monitoring several adrift shipping containers 43 miles west of the Straits of Juan de Fuca entrance. An inbound vessel lost approx. 40 containers when the ship listed to its side due to rough seas.

The gun armorer and assistant director who gave a fatal prop gun to Alec Baldwin have been identified.A search warrant released Friday said that armorer Hannah Gutierrez laid out three prop guns on a cart outside the filming location, and first assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded.‘Cold gun!’ shouted Halls before handing the gun to Baldwin, using the phrase to signal to cast and crew that the gun was safe to fire for the scene, the warrant said.

..the government of President Emmanuel Macron announced an "inflation allowance" that will send at least 100 euros (116 US dollars) to 48 million people in France. The move comes with less than six months until voters go to the polls next year in the presidential election. For those in France who's income is below 2000 euros a month the payout will be even greater perhaps as much as 200 to 300 euros. Also this week legislative action to allow school principals in France to have knowledge of the vaccination status of school students. It was a matter that caused a...

China’s rise presents the US with a rival that is harder to understand than any who came before. China, with its challenging language, thousands of years of civilization, and bespoke mixture of Marxism with local innovations, is far more alien than Britain, Germany, or Russia could ever be. Even Japan, with its aggressive adoption of Western mores since the 1860s, is far more comprehensible than “The Middle Kingdom,” as the Chinese call themselves. It’s no surprise then that Western takes on China, its goals, and its priorities often feel more like guesswork than substantive analyses. But Americans hoping to understand...

The smoking gun that claimed the life of Halyna Hutchins might've been more than just an on-set prop -- it was also being fired recreationally, even when cameras weren't rolling. Multiple sources directly connected to the 'Rust' production tell TMZ ... the same gun Alec Baldwin accidentally fired -- hitting the DP and director -- was being used by crews members off set as well, for what we're told amounted to target practice. We're told this off-the-clock shooting -- which was allegedly happening away from the movie lot -- was being done with real bullets

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave the green light for thousands of specially trained National Guard troops to go to the Southern U.S. border and begin making arrests of illegal aliens who are trespassing in the state. In a new deterrence approach to combatting the lasting effects of Biden’s border crisis, Abbott is using Operation Lone Star to grant Guard members new authority to make civilian arrests of illegal migrants beginning this week following at least “40 hours of traditional police training in the use of deadly force.” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw confirmed to Todd Bensman of...

The corporate media outlets that bashed southern, often Republican-led states during the Delta-variant surge of COVID-19 are now silent as hospitalizations are falling in the south and have risen in the north.The total number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 4, which consists of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, is down more than 73% since Sept. 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In HHS Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia), hospitalizations surged almost 1,000% from late-July to...

According to reports, Swedish health authorities have decided to impose an indefinite suspension on administering the Moderna vaccination to anybody under the age of 31. The Moderna shots were originally supposed to be resumed on December 1st.Sweden extends pause of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in young people https://t.co/PdtP6ogmZY •No one born after 1990 can receive the Moderna shot and will instead be offered the Pfizer•Other countries have also restricted its use including Denmark, Iceland and Finland— Sally Beck (@Beck_Sall) October 23, 2021In the case of the Moderna vaccination, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark have taken comparable measures to Sweden. Norway encourages males...

It seems for a lot of Americans, that short drive from home to office may no longer happen very often. Nor might the family drive to grandma's. Or a trip to a football or basketball game. Instead they'll apparently walk to a train station, get on and ride, then walk from the train station to their destination. It's because President Biden is going to take "literally, millions of automobiles" off the road. His comments came this week while he was promoting his big-spending, big-government agenda, and were captured by CNS News. The report explained that "in his mind," if he...

Independents have dropped their approval for President Biden, a new Gallup poll finds. Spencer Platt/Getty Images President Joe Biden has seen his approval rating drop precipitously among independents, down from 61 percent in February to just 34 percent at the nine-month mark of his presidency, according to a new poll published on Friday. Nationally, the president’s rating has remained steady last month at 42 percent, after a sharp six-point drop in September. His public approval is down a total 14 percentage points since June, according to the latest Gallup poll.

Reports that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) partially funded an experiment of insects eating beagle puppies alive has sparked bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill. Responding to a report from the non-profit organization White Coat Waste Project, both Democrats and Republicans signed a letter this week demanding to know why the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – one of the 27 institutes under the NIH – partially funded an experiment that locked beagles’ heads in cages while hordes of hungry sandflies ate them alive. According to The Hill, the beagles were infected with...