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J&K: 6 dead as boat capsizes in Jhelum river

J&K: 6 dead as boat capsizes in Jhelum river

The incident took place around 8 am in Gandbal Nowgam area here and six people have been pulled out of the river whose water level had risen over the last couple of days due to incessant rains in the Kashmir valley.

Border Patrol busts illegal Mexican immigrant child sex offender they say carried guns in schools

Border Patrol busts illegal Mexican immigrant child sex offender they say carried guns in schools

Border Patrol agents in California this week busted an illegal immigrant child sex offender in California who officials said had previously carried guns in schools – the latest example of dangerous criminals entering the U.S. illegally.  The unnamed Mexican man’s arrest was announced by El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino. Bovino said in a statement that the man was arrested in the U.S. illegally and had a “troubling history.”  CBP REPORT REVEALS LOWEST MARCH FOR MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS; TEXAS CRACKDOWN CONTINUES “He’s a convicted sex offender against children & has been known to carry firearms in public schools,” he said. He added that the community of Fresno in California “no longer has to worry about this threat.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS So far, there have been over 8,700 arrests of criminal noncitizens this fiscal year, compared to more than 15,000 in fiscal 2023 and more than 12,000 in fiscal 2022. Among them this year were 119 sex offenders. There has been continued concern among some law enforcement and lawmakers that the ongoing crisis at the southern border has led to more criminals attempting to enter, including sneaking past Border Patrol agents as “gotaways.” Meanwhile, there were 189,372 encounters at the border in March, slightly lower than the same time last year. While it was the lowest March for encounters under the Biden administration, CBP records show the first six months of fiscal 2024 had 1,340,801 total encounters, exceeding the first six months of fiscal 2023, which set a record of 1,226,254 total encounters.  “CBP – in coordination with our partners across the Federal government as well as foreign partners – continues to take significant actions to disrupt criminal networks amidst unprecedented hemispheric migration activity,” Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. “Encounters at our southern border are lower right now, but we remain prepared for changes, continually managing operations to respond to ever-shifting transnational criminal activities and migration patterns.” Meanwhile, Republicans have blamed the Biden administration for the crisis. This week, Republicans in the House will deliver articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate – U.S. Customs and Border Protection is a DHS law enforcement agency. Fox News’ Stephany Price contributed to this report.

Foreign policy expert reveals 2 key offensive strategies US must ‘seize’ on to win ‘Cold War’ with China

Foreign policy expert reveals 2 key offensive strategies US must ‘seize’ on to win ‘Cold War’ with China

The United States is currently embroiled in a Cold War with China according to expert Michael Sobolik, who recently told Fox News Digital that the only path towards victory involves going on offense in two key areas.  Sobolik, a Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, released his new book “Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance” on Tuesday, where he outlines several ways that the United States must take the fight to China in its evolving cold war.  “Chapter six of my book is one of the most important portions of the book from a competitive perspective because it zeroes in not on how to compete against Beijing around the world, but how to exploit the CCP’s weaknesses inside of China just as the CCP has infiltrated America in so many ways,” Sobolik told Fox News Digital.  “We need to take the competition to them on their home court, and there are at least two different ways we can do this.” EXPERT WARNS OF ‘CHILLING REALITY’ TIKTOK THREAT POSES: ‘CHINA’S GREATEST ASYMMETRIC ADVANTAGE’ The first step that should be taken, Sobolik explains, is cracking down on Chinese trade routes running through the western region of Xinjiang where an alleged genocide is being committed against the Uyghur population. “The Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide in its own country in part because they want complete and total control of that geographic region for the purpose of making sure trade along those Belt and Road corridors flows reliably and securely,” Sobolik explained. “If you have to commit genocide for your foreign policy to function properly, that is a weakness. That is not a sign of strength. That is a sign of weakness and fear and this implicates American policy because a lot of the trade that is running through Xinjiang and is leaving China and going to many other countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Europe.” “A lot of that trade is being conducted in US dollar transactions. After September 11th, 2001, the United States recognized it wasn’t just enough to go after the terrorists themselves,” Sobolik continued. “You also had to go after the financial networks behind the terrorist cells and we have really strong laws on the books that allow the US government to shut off terrorists from the global financial system.  “One of the big policy proponents in my book is if any nation is committing genocide for the act, either principally or partially to benefit economically from committing genocide, and if that economic benefit comes from US dollars, then the United States needs to cut those actors off from the global financial system,” he added. FBI DIRECTOR SAYS CHINA IS THE ‘DEFINING THREAT OF OUR GENERATION’ Sobolik told Fox News Digital that the United States can give China two choices by allowing it to use the U.S. dollar or commit genocide “but you can’t do both.” “If the United States were to implement a policy like that, we would effectively cut off half of the Belt and Road trade routes in Eurasia,” Sobolik said. “It would be an enormous strategic move for the United States and it would be the most punitive response from Washington to China for committing genocide ever and I think it is something that policymakers need to consider carefully and seriously.” The second “competitive step” the United States can take to go on the offense with China, according to Sobolik, is in the “realm of information” especially when it comes to the coronavirus. “The reason COVID became a pandemic in the first place is because the Chinese Communist Party cared more about stopping information about the virus than they cared about stopping the virus itself and then Americans died,” Sobolik said. “The Chinese Communist Party tried to cover up the existence of COVID again, because they are an authoritarian regime and authoritarian regimes are afraid of the truth and transparency. Free speech inside of China, transparency within China is not just a human rights issue, it’s also a national security issue because Americans died, countless Americans died from COVID.” In his book, Sobolik writes extensively about how it is “high time” to push back on China’s “Great Firewall” of censoring free speech and information and told Fox News Digital that the U.S. government is not doing enough on that front.  ‘THIS SCARES ME’: AS CHINA WATCHES, THIS DECORATED VETERAN SOUNDS ALARM ON AN AMERICA STRETCHED TO ITS LIMITS “This hesitancy to go after one of the biggest weaknesses the CCP has is endemic yet again of this misunderstanding of the world we live in,” Sobolik argued. “This is not a positive sum world where we can cooperate and compete with China, at the same time, the Chinese Communist Party is waging a Cold War that they intend to win. If we want to win it, we must identify the biggest weaknesses that our adversary has and their fear of transparency is one of their biggest.” “If they demand total control of discourse inside of a massive country as big as China, let’s make it harder for them to accomplish that. Let’s make it more expensive for them. To accomplish that, we need to put them on their back heels and force them to react to us.” Sobolik told Fox News Digital that one of the reasons he wrote Countering China’s Great Game in the first place was because American policymakers “need to go on the offensive and create problems” for China and “seize the initiative” rather than simply playing defense. “Good defense might win NBA basketball championships, but good defense is the bare minimum,” Sobolik said. “It’s good housekeeping. You don’t get a gold star for taking care of your own homeland. You get a gold star for going out and opposing authoritarian regimes. Cold wars are won by seizing the initiative and going on the offensive.”

Alabama senator seeks to expose abortions at the Department of Veterans Affairs

Alabama senator seeks to expose abortions at the Department of Veterans Affairs

FIRST ON FOX: A prominent Republican senator from Alabama is aiming to increase transparency about abortions that take place within the Department of Veterans Affairs.  On Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville plans to introduce the VA Abortion Transparency Act of 2024, a measure that would require the VA to provide quarterly reports as well as a variety of details surrounding its involvement in abortions performed.  HILLARY CLINTON SLAMS ‘CRUELTY’ OF ARIZONA ABORTION LAW IN INTERVIEW WITH EMOTIONAL KELLY CLARKSON Some of the data required under the legislation would be the number of abortions that the VA facilitated during the quarter, whether it was conducted with medication such as Mifepristone or if it was a surgical abortion, at what week during pregnancy the abortion took place, and the expenditures associated with abortions during the time frame, among other details. “Congress has spoken. The Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 clearly prohibits the VA from providing abortion services of any kind,” Tuberville said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.  “For the Biden administration to twist the law into something other than what Congress intended and force the cost on the taxpayer is a disgrace. Our veterans deserve a VA that is 100% focused on ensuring they receive timely and quality care, not on implementing Joe Biden’s abortion-on-demand agenda. I am proud to introduce this bill that provides much needed transparency for taxpayers and holds the VA accountable.” HEARTLAND VOTERS FEELING STRAIN OF MASS MIGRATION: ‘EVERY STATE IS A BORDER STATE’ Tuberville was at the center of controversy last year when he held up hundreds of military promotions in protest of the Department of Defense’s policies on abortion. His blockade began in February 2023 in response to a Pentagon policy providing travel expense reimbursement for abortion. He ended the hold up in December, noting he couldn’t continue due to a rule change in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) spending bill. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are joining Tuberville in his quest for transparency on abortions in the VA — they’ve signed onto his bill as co-sponsors.  BIDEN RESISTS PULLING CONTROVERSIAL JUDICIAL NOMINEE ADEEL MANGI DESPITE DEMOCRAT DEFECTORS The legislation further has the approval of several pro-life organizations, including CatholicVote, National Right to Life, March for Life Action, Concerned Women for America and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. BIDEN HAD SIMILAR LEGAL AID ARRANGEMENT HE SLAMMED TRUMP OVER Tuberville, who sits on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, is introducing the measure in part because he believes taxpayers should be able to see how funds are being spent by the department, according to his office.  The Republican senator’s office noted that between September 2022 and September 2023, 88 abortions were facilitated through the VA, 28 of which were surgical, according to Military.com.  However, the VA has since been unwilling to provide more recent data despite various letters requesting such, Tuberville’s office said. In a statement to Fox News Digital, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said, “While VA does not comment on pending legislation, VA is committed to providing high-quality, comprehensive care to women veterans — including basic preventive care, acute care, chronic disease management, mental health care, and reproductive health care.”

FLASHBACK: Biden made revealing comment about niece’s Obama admin role while praising ‘rising China’

FLASHBACK: Biden made revealing comment about niece’s Obama admin role while praising ‘rising China’

FIRST ON FOX: Then-Vice President Biden boasted about his Harvard-educated niece previously studying Chinese and living in China while delivering a speech in 2011 touting “a rising China” being “a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America…” Biden gave a shout-out to Casey Owens, who was concluding her stint as a special assistant for the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue at the Treasury Department, while delivering remarks to the opening session of the group, according to an email chain that was reviewed by Fox News Digital. Owens, the daughter of Biden’s sister, emailed then-Vice President Biden’s “Auks” alias email address in May 2011, thanking him for the “memorable day” and said it was “very, very humbling” watching him speak. “And your remarks. That was really something else, Uncle Joe. What a way to exit the Treasury,” Owens said, according to an email from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. “I’m simply happy to be close to you, and I just wanted to say thank you for including me.” SCATHING DETAILS REVEAL WHY BIDEN APPEARS ‘SILENT’ ON CHINA’S ROLE IN FENTANYL CRISIS: BOOK In addition to the email from Owens to the elder Biden, a transcript from Biden’s speech was included in the email chain, highlighting what Biden thought about a “rising China.” “We cannot claim the same number of Americans in China, but our 100,000 Strong Initiative will dramatically increase the number of young Americans living and studying in China,” Biden said.  “As a matter of fact, my niece who — excuse me, as we say in the Senate, a point a personal privilege — who graduated from Harvard not too long ago, works for Secretary Geithner, she did exactly what we hope another 100,000 will do: She studied Chinese and went and lived in China and is now devoted to making sure the relationship gets better and better and better.” “As a young member of a Foreign Relations Committee, I wrote and I said and I believed then what I believe now: That a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large,” he added. The “100,000 Strong Initiative” that Biden mentioned refers to the goal then-President Obama set near the beginning of his administration in hopes of “sending 100,000 American students to China in the next 4 years to learn Mandarin, to experience Chinese culture, and to learn about the hospitality of the Chinese people, while they serve as ambassadors for the United States in China.”  HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K THROUGH JOINT-VENTURE WITH CHINESE ENERGY FIRM, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May 2010 she was “pleased to sign” an agreement with State Councilor Liu Yandong, who has held some of the highest positions in the CCP.  Fox News Digital previously reported on how Yandong would meet with representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) a few years later and announced student scholarships. “Our U.S.-China relationship must extend beyond the halls of government to our homes, our businesses, and our schools,” Clinton continued. “And these exchanges really offer the opportunity for people to connect and collaborate, and they remind us of how much we have in common.” During Owens’ tenure at Treasury, she repeatedly emailed Hunter Biden and his now-former business partner Eric Schwerin about China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Fox News Digital previously reported. A former business associate confirmed to Fox News Digital on Monday that Owens was “definitely a resource” Hunter used and that a CIC meeting did occur. On April 12, 2010, Owens emailed Hunter and Schwerin a schedule from her Treasury email address, highlighting a CIC investment conference that took place a couple of weeks earlier. “FYI on recent CIC investment conference at a resort in Sanya, on Hainan Island, over the weekend of March 27-28,” Owens wrote. HUNTER BIDEN PAID JOE BIDEN FROM ACCOUNT FOR BIZ THAT RECEIVED PAYMENTS FROM CHINA: COMER A Thornton Group press release dated that same day – April 12, 2010 – said the company’s chairman, James Bulger, and Hunter visited Beijing just three days earlier and met with CIC Chief Investment Officer Gao Xiqing, among others, according to the Republican Senate report released in September 2020. A feature article about Owens published months later by the Tower Hill Bulletin said she and her team had traveled to Beijing in May 2010 with a U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. A photo of Owens in the article showed her receiving a “small jade vase as a birthday gift” from China’s then-vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyao. According to the Ministry of Finance website, its primary function is to implement the decisions and policies of the Chinese Communist Party in the area of public finance. The Bulletin article said Owens’ team and Zhu “worked very closely during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.”  Weeks after returning from Beijing, Owens emailed Schwerin a Bloomberg News article about CIC, titled, “China’s CIC May Post Record Year for 2009 as Markets Recover,” which Schwerin then forwarded to Hunter on July 23, 2010. Owens, who now goes by Castello, left the Treasury in July 2011 and is currently an executive at Starbucks, according to her LinkedIn profile. Owens isn’t the only member of her immediate family with ties to China. Fox News Digital previously reported on how her dad, John “Jack” Owens, pleaded for Hunter to help him secure a business license to expand his telemedicine company in China, saying it needed to be “secured very quickly.” The elder Owens emailed Hunter on May 9, 2014, informing him that his companies, MediGuide America and MediGuide Insurance Services International (MISI), reached a “serious stage” in negotiations with a China-based insurance company, but said he won’t be able to “seal this deal” without a “Chinese Business License.”  “Time pressures are very tight, plus the fact that we do not yet have one has caused a slight credibility bump in