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For Xi, rare-earths bombshell signaled a new toughness, while TikTok was ‘spiritual opium’ that could be turned into a low-cost bargaining chipDuring his first term, President Trump often frustrated Xi Jinping with his freewheeling mix of threats and bonhomie. This time, the Chinese leader believes he has cracked the code.Xi has thrown out China’s traditional diplomatic playbook and tailored a new one specifically for Trump, said people close to Chinese policymakers, who describe Xi as appearing confident and emboldened. The new strategy, these people said, embraces Trump’s self-image as a master dealmaker, offering concessions on high-visibility issues he personally cares...

The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and buildup of military forces in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an...

While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion. MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago. “It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan....

China’s Sinicization of Religion DeepensThe Sino-Vatican deal continues to empower the CCP to subjugate Catholicism in China under Marxist ideology.On September 29, 2025, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping demanded that the pace of Sinicization of religions—that of bringing them in line with the principles of Maoism, which sought the total eradication of religion through the destruction of thousands of houses of worship and the imprisonment, torture, and murder of religious leaders and laypersons—be stepped up. The “Red Emperor” explicitly demanded an “acceleration” of this process, describing it as essential to promote “religious meekness, ethnic harmony,...

The Pope or Xi Jinping? The Secret Agreements increasingly humiliate the Vatican This week, Ignatius Wu Jianlin was ordained auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai. The appointment took place with the approval of the Chinese Patriotic Association. This is yet another illicit appointment carried out by the post-Maoist regime, confirming that the Secret Agreements between Beijing and the Vatican do not serve to mend a fractured Church like the one in China.On October 15th, Ignatius Wu Jianlin was ordained auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai. The diocese itself made the formal announcement, specifying that the appointment took place...

[Catholic Caucus] China Flexes Power over Rome Once Again with New Bishop ConsecrationIt appears that once again, Beijing has delivered another blow to the Holy See by consecrating a bishop to the pivotal Diocese of Shanghai after he was elected during the papal sede vacante.On October 15, Father Wu Jianlin will be consecrated as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai. News of the ceremony came via official notices issued by the schismatic state-approved church, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).Previously vicar general of the diocese, Wu was elected, effectively unopposed, in a vote on April 28. The next day...

The U.S. is awash with scam text messages. Officials say it has become a billion-dollar, highly sophisticated business benefiting criminals in China. Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations. The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics. Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for the toll...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For many years, American and Chinese scholars worked shoulder to shoulder on cutting-edge technologies through open research, where findings are freely shared and accessible to all. But that openness, a long-standing practice celebrated for advancing knowledge, is raising alarms among some U.S. lawmakers. They are worried that China — now considered the most formidable challenger to American military dominance — is taking advantage of open research to catch up with the U.S. on military technology and even gain an edge. And they are calling for action.“For far too long, our adversaries have exploited American colleges and universities...

For thousands of manufacturers across China, it’s déjà vu—with implications for the country’s fragile economy. Earlier this year, after President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% in April, American customers of Alan Chau’s toy factory in southern China abruptly froze orders, sparking a cash crunch ttohat brought his business to the brink. So it came as a relief when the U.S. and China reached a trade truce weeks later in mid-May, rolling back most of their tariffs on one another—and allowing Chau to resume shipping his products again. Now, less than six months later, prohibitively high tariffs could...

BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling on the department to stop issuing work authorizations to student visa holders in direct violation of the law. Grassley also emphasized how foreign student work authorizations put America at risk of technological and corporate espionage, citing more than 33,000 current Chinese student visa holders with STEM work authorizations. “Competition from foreign graduates is contributing to rising unemployment rates among college-educated Americans. This should not be the case. Congress placed caps on employment visas for foreign graduates to ensure that...

Among issues Charlie Kirk took a strong stand against was immigration, even legal immigration stemming from H1B visas that many Indian students and professionals use. “America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first,” he said in a post on X on September 1 He was responding to a Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s post suggesting that a US-India trade deal might involve more visas for Indian professionals. In a subsequent post on...

An old tweet by Charlie Kirk has resurfaced after Donald Trump signed a proclamation requiring companies to pay $100,000 yearly for H-1B visas for foreign employees. Shared just six days before he was shot and killed at a Utah college event, the conservative influencer posted that “America does not need more visas for people from India.” “Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first,” he tweeted on September 2. He was fatally shot on September 10 while debating gun violence during an...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would sharply reduce the number of H-1B migrants working in U.S. white-collar jobs. The bill, to be announced Tuesday morning, would begin to count visa renewals as new visas, so ending the current practice of allowing unlimited renewals for most of the 85,000 visas granted to companies each year. The unlimited renewals policy allows roughly 750,000 H-1B visa holders to retain white-collar, career-track jobs that would otherwise have gone to young U.S. graduates. Without the exemption, the number of company-employed H-1B visa holders would drop to roughly 250,000. The...

The United States issued nearly one-fifth fewer student visas in August as the Trump administration tightened immigration rules, new data show. India, once the top source of U.S. international students, experienced the largest drop, while China became the leading country of origin. According to the International Trade Administration, the U.S. issued 313,138 student visas in August, the most common month for new university enrollments. This represents a 19.1 percent decrease compared with the same month in 2024. Student visas for Indian nationals fell dramatically by 44.5 percent over the past year. India had previously been the largest source of foreign...

Nearly one-fifth fewer student visas were issued in August, the same month the Trump administration moved to limit the duration of visas for students, among others. One of the hardest hit were Indians, who saw a nearly 45% plunge in student visa allocations in August. According to news agency AFP, 3,13,138 student visas were issued in the month of August and the total figure was also 19.1% lower than what it was in August 2024. While the Chinese also saw a drop in issuance of student visas, it wasn't nearly as much as Indians, who saw 44.5% fewer student visas...

Indian American entrepreneur and political figure Vivek Ramaswamy highlighted the value of the nonimmigrant program amid rising debates over the future of H-1B visas for specialty occupations. Ramaswamy, former co-chair of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, sparked discussion on social media by suggesting that Chinese students often outperform their American peers academically. “75% of 8th graders in America aren’t proficient in math & the average student in China is 4 years ahead of the average US student,” he wrote Monday on X. “It’s time to get serious about fixing K-12 education.” While Ramaswamy spoke specifically about students, Indian American...

“The issue is never the issue. The issue is the revolution,” said the late David Horowitz, quoting a 1960s rebel. The Palestinian conflict, the climate, transgenderism, immigration, and abortion are all proximate causes for protests and now terrorism. But they are all also part of an amalgamated “omnicause” whose real purpose is to bring down the United States and the West. Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and other recent tragedies that are rightly garnering worldwide attention, our leaders have finally woken up and are looking into who the perpetrators are and who organizes and finances them. After Kirk’s death,...

The number of Indians securing US student visas has witnessed a dramatic plunge, diving by over 44 per cent in August 2025, according to data released on Monday. This marks the steepest drop among all countries and signals a major shift in global student mobility trends, with China now surpassing India as the leading source of US student visas. The International Trade Commission reported that the US issued a total of 313,138 student visas in August — a critical month for university admissions — which reflects a 19.1 per cent decline compared to the previous year. India, which was the...

For context, Hegseth explained that the DoD is investigating the involvement of Chinese nationals to assess potential code vulnerabilities in vital US systems. He reiterated that it is indispensable for the end of Chinese participation in DoD systems, prioritizing U.S. national security over corporate profits In any case, Hegseth began his comments by explaining how this program came to be. “Last month, the Department of Defense was made aware of an Obama-Biden era legacy program called Digital escorts. For nearly a decade, Microsoft has used Chinese coders remotely supervised by us contractors to support sensitive DoD cloud systems,” he explained....

MOUNT OLIVET, Ky. — Rand Paul might run for president in 2028. It depends on whether the Republican Party still has space for his fellow Kentuckian who now shares the title of Donald Trump’s biggest conservative troublemaker. “First, we’ve got to see if Thomas Massie will keep his job and get reelected,” Paul said after offering a “maybe” to the 2028 question. For Paul, a libertarian-leaning senator willing to break with the president when most fellow Republicans fall in line, Massie’s ability to withstand a Trump-backed primary foe speaks to his own future. “We represent the same thing. If people...