Your First Look at Today's Top Stories

Having trouble viewing this email? View the web version.

Sponsored By

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Hunter Biden Admits Chinese Tycoon Only Liked Him for His Last Name

Fox News: Hunter Biden told business partner Devon Archer that the Chinese tycoon who helped them secure a multi-million-dollar venture in the communist state loved him for his “last name” and for always traveling with “handsome godlike Aryan men.” In the 2011 email thread, Hunter bragged to Archer about his relationship with Che Feng, a Chinese business tycoon who they referred to as “The Super Chairman.” The emails show that Feng helped Hunter’s firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and James Bulger’s firm Thornton Group LLC secure their partnership with Jonathan Li’s firm Bohai Capital in order to later launch Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), which is controlled by Bank of China Limited (Fox News). Jonathan Turley: Hunter Biden: “I dont believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman.” The “super” is Che Feng who is under investigation for corruption. Hunter was right. Lottery tickets are long-shot gambles. Influence peddling is a sure thing (Twitter).

Trump Indicted on Four Counts for Efforts to Overturn the 2020 Election

Washington Post: A grand jury has indicted former president Donald Trump for multiple alleged crimes stemming from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Trump of three distinct conspiracies, and charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S., conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspired against people’s rights. Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House in next year’s election, denied all wrongdoing (Washington Post). DC Draino: President Trump has been indicted on 4 federal counts: It is very important to note he was not charged with Seditious Conspiracy or Insurrection. Those 2 charges, if convicted by a Leftist DC jury, would prohibit him from running in 2024. These charges are desperate acts from a desperate regime trying to do everything they can to stop the man that will hold them accountable in 2025 (Twitter). Jesse Waters: Biden’s DOJ indicted Trump for the third time in five months… This is all politics and very well coordinated. Every time something damaging to the Biden family comes out, his Justice Department is waiting with an indictment in hand. And while Democrats try to throw Trump in prison, they’re now openly admitting that Joe was on the phone with Hunter’s foreign business partners. But he was only talking about the weather. Does anyone actually believe that (Twitter)?

NYPD Plan to Solve Gun Violence Does Not Include Additional Law Enforcement Officers

Free Beacon: The “Blueprint for Community Safety,” released by the city’s gun violence task force, will pour almost $500 million into housing, employment, and mental health programs without a cent toward putting new cops on the street. The mayor said boosts for social programs will help to “stop the violence before it happens on our streets.”mThe plan comes as the city’s police department is bleeding officers at record rates, with more officers leaving in January and February than any year’s first two months since a contract dispute in 2007. The mass exodus in those two months was a 117 percent jump from two years prior (Free Beacon). Fox5: This announcement was focused on investing in communities that have been historically under-invested in, specifically six precincts in the Bronx and Brooklyn, that made up 25% of the city’s gun violence (Fox5).

Dylan Mulvaney Charging $40,000 to Give Speeches at Universities

Daily Mail: Dylan Mulvaney will charge $40,000 per visit to college campuses to give speeches to students – nearly doubling her fee from a year ago – months after she cost Bud Light billions in a now-disastrous marketing partnership. The trans influencer, 26, announced she was open to hire and wrote on Instagram: ‘University and College friends! I am booking speaking opportunities for the upcoming 23/24 school year and would love to come visit.’ Crista Spadafore, Mulvaney’s agent, confirmed the fee for her to speak is $40,000, reports College Fix. The Bud Light partnership has seen Anheuser-Busch lose $27 billion in market cap value since the advert for March Madness. The partnership sparked months of protests against the iconic blue-can brand (Daily Mail). Libs of TikTok: Dylan Mulvaney is now charging $40k for speaking gigs to speak about women’s empowerment. You can’t make this up (Twitter).

Parental Group Releases Report Showing China Sinking $17 Million into US Public Schools

PJ Media: A group called “Parents Defending Education” has released a scathing report called “Little Red Classrooms: China’s Infiltration of American K-12 Schools,” which details how China is funding various schools in the U.S., many of them near military bases. The report claims China has funneled $17,967,565.12 to 134 schools, located in 34 states and D.C., from 2009-2023. The report outlines how the money comes through Confucius Institutes and its elementary-through-high school programming called “Confucius Classrooms” (PJ Media). Daily Mail: Rep. Jim Banks is demanding the Education Department take action with ‘urgency’ in in order to terminate these ‘disturbing’ partnerships, he says in a letter to Sec. Miguel Cardona. ‘The Chinese Communist Party is not a trustworthy partner. Accepting funding and influence from our greatest adversary is a threat to America’s children and national security.’ He wrote in the letter that the U.S. must ‘take every measure’ to strengthen its defenses against China including by ‘blocking their ability to propagandize in America’s K-12 schools’ (Daily Mail).

Biden’s Incandescent Lightbulb Ban Takes Effect

Fox News: The Biden administration will begin enforcing a nationwide ban on various types of popular light bulbs Tuesday as part of its aggressive energy efficiency agenda. In April 2022, months after first proposing the rulemaking, the DOE finalized regulations prohibiting certain light bulbs over their low energy efficiency levels. According to the DOE announcement, the regulations are projected to save consumers an estimated $3 billion per year on utility bills and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next three decades (Fox News). Washington Examiner: When DOE announced the rule in 2022, incandescent bulbs still made up around 30% of the retail market. Its announcement of the rule had been met with criticism from some groups, including the American Lighting Association. They had pushed for a slower rollout of the new efficiency standard, arguing that if it was done too quickly, it could result in “major financial losses” for lighting manufacturers and retailers. Regulators have said the more than one year of notice gives retailers and manufacturers a sufficient runway to comply with the rule and sell out their existing supply of low-watt bulbs (Washington Examiner).

US Credit Rating Lowered by Fitch Ratings

Wall Street Journal: Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating weeks after President Biden and congressional Republicans came to the brink of a historic default, warning about the growing debt burden and political dysfunction in Washington. The downgrade, the first by a major ratings firm in more than a decade, is evidence that increasingly frequent political skirmishes over the U.S. government’s finances are clouding the outlook for the $25 trillion global market for Treasurys. Fitch’s rating on the U.S. now stands at “AA+”, or one notch below the top “AAA” grade (Wall Street Journal). Daily Wire: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the White House issued separate statements that each said they “strongly disagree” with the change. While Yellen called the decision “arbitrary and based on outdated data,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre waded into politics (Daily Wire).

Nigel Farage Being De-Banked is The Left Telling Us to Get In Line or Get Our Accounts Frozen

Wall Street Journal: Two British bank executives have lost their jobs and others may follow in an uproar over politicized decisions to close customer accounts. The mess engulfing Coutts & Co. started in late June when Nigel Farage said the exclusive private bank was closing his accounts. Mr. Farage is a prominent politician on the British right, having been the prime mover behind the 2016 Brexit referendum. Mr. Farage asserted he was being de-banked for political reasons, a claim the bank initially denied. Financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic play up their liberal cultural convictions for similar reasons, and part of Coutts’ rationale for closing Mr. Farage’s accounts was that serving him would be “at odds with our position as an inclusive organization,” according to the dossier. This danger will grow as politicians lean more heavily on banks to implement their policies. Would a bank maintain accounts for a critic of net-zero climate policies if the bank is under pressure from Washington to advance the climate agenda (Wall Street Journal)?

California Attempts to Silence Stanford Professors Who Want to Discuss Impact of Covid Policies on Education

Ed Source: The California Department of Education has threatened to sue two prominent Stanford University education professors to prevent them from testifying in a lawsuit against the department — actions the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California calls an attempt to muzzle them. The ACLU, in turn, is threatening a lawsuit of its own — against CDE for infringing their and other researchers’ First Amendment rights. Observers say the dispute has the potential to limit who conducts education research in California and what they are able to study because CDE controls the sharing of data that is not available to the public (Ed Source). Kevin Kiley: It appears California is engaged in a cover-up over the disastrous effect of its COVID education policies. Two professors want to testify against the State in a lawsuit about the devastating learning loss students suffered. But the State won’t let them. The absurd claim is they are forbidden from testifying against the State because they’ve previously accessed unrelated state education data. The ACLU is threatening to sue California for violating the professors’ First Amendment rights (Twitter).

10.

Over 100 Universities Still Require Vaccine Mandates for Students

Daily Wire: More than 100 colleges and universities are still enforcing COVID vaccine mandates for students — some three years out from the start of the pandemic. A report from No College Mandates lists 104 colleges and universities still requiring COVID vaccinations, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers University, DePauw University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Pittsburgh, and San Diego State University. According to COVID policies outlined on some of these schools’ websites, staff and faculty are sometimes required to be vaccinated, too (Daily Wire). No College Mandates: There are 104 colleges in the US still mandating COVID vaccines for students (faculty exempted) and some have indicated they will never let this go. All the while, they refuse to make sense of their pseudoscience (Twitter).