On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection held a hearing titled, “Defense through Offense: Examining U.S. Cyber Capabilities to Deter and Disrupt Malign Foreign Activity Targeting the Homeland.”
Chairman Andy Ogles (R-TN) opened the hearing by declaring that the United States can no longer rely solely on a defensive posture. Citing recent breaches like Salt Typhoon (targeting Congressional staff) and Volt Typhoon (targeting critical infrastructure), Ogles argued that adversaries — primarily China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — operate with impunity because they face no meaningful consequences.
The consensus among the subcommittee and the witnesses was that the U.S. must shift toward a proactive, &#8220;industrial-scale&#8221; offensive strategy to alter the risk calculus of state-sponsored actors.
Joe Lin, the CEO of Twenty Technologies, Inc., provided a blunt assessment: the United States is currently losing the cyber war because it treats offensive operations as &#8220;bespoke,&#8221; elite activities while adversaries operate at &#8220;machine speed.&#8221;
Lin called for codifying operator tradecraft into automated software systems. He argued that one operator should be able to manage hundreds of targets simultaneously to match the scale of Chinese campaigns. He emphasized that &#8220;patching&#8221; alone will never secure critical infrastructure. Deterrence requires the demonstrated ability to impose asymmetric costs upstream before attacks reach U.S. soil.
Emily Harding, the vice president of the defense and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), focused on the &#8220;escalation ladder,&#8221; noting that adversaries currently control it because U.S. responses have been muted.
CSIS war games revealed that senior U.S. officials often freeze during cyber crises due to a lack of a shared framework for what constitutes an &#8220;act of war.&#8221; Harding proposed several key shifts: treating cyber-attacks that imperil life as kinetic attacks, flipping risk tolerance so that the default answer for an operation is &#8220;yes,&#8221; and creating a dedicated Cyber Force to consolidate talent.
Frank Cilluffo, the director of the McCrary Institute, argued that the U.S. has allowed adversaries to define its strategy. He pushed for &#8220;operational collaboration,&#8221; where the private sector — which owns the vast majority of infrastructure — is treated as a partner in active defense rather than a passive victim. He noted that campaigns like Salt and Volt Typhoon are &#8220;pre-positioning&#8221; efforts designed to be triggered during a future kinetic conflict (e.g., a Pacific contingency).
Drew Bagley, the chief privacy officer at CrowdStrike, offered a nuanced view, reinforcing the necessity of defense while supporting targeted offense. While he cautioned against a &#8220;federated&#8221; or &#8220;vigilante&#8221; hack-back regime due to risks of collateral damage, he supported more persistent disruption of malicious infrastructure. He recommended that CISA and the private sector maintain a prioritized list of threat actors to be dismantled systematically through coordinated law enforcement and military action.
The subcommittee discussed the severe workforce shortage. Witnesses noted that while thousands of personnel were lost during recent agency &#8220;right-sizing&#8221; (DOGE-related shifts), the solution isn&#8217;t just &#8220;more bodies.&#8221; AI is being used by the PRC to automate espionage; the U.S. must adopt &#8220;Agentic AI&#8221; to defend and counter-attack at the same speed. Suggestions included a &#8220;Cyber Reserve&#8221; (similar to the National Guard) and a &#8220;Teach for America&#8221; style program for cyber professionals to serve in rural areas in exchange for loan forgiveness.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) raised the critical issue of undersea cables, through which 95% of global data flows. There is currently no &#8220;single home&#8221; in the government for undersea cable security. Harding and Bagley called for an increase in repair ships and the use of AI-driven maritime surveillance to identify &#8220;anomalous&#8221; ship patterns (like &#8220;fishing&#8221; vessels lingering over cable lines) before they can sabotage infrastructure.
A major takeaway was the need to move past &#8220;tit-for-tat&#8221; cyber responses. Witnesses argued that if China hits a U.S. water plant, the U.S. shouldn&#8217;t necessarily hit a Chinese water plant; it should use diplomatic, economic, or kinetic tools to hit a &#8220;pain point&#8221; that the adversary actually values.
Ogles concluded by signaling a &#8220;forward-leaning&#8221; posture, emphasizing that the Monroe Doctrine now extends into the digital realm. The subcommittee intends to pursue &#8220;operational collaboration&#8221; between the private sector and government to ensure that any breach of American digital boundaries carries a significant, punishing price.
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Faceless hackers and malware hackers use laptops with dangerous digital code on binary code background.

Beyond Defense: Congress Wants To Industrialize U.S. Cyber Offense

China

Congress

Cybersecurity

United States

Christians in Syria saw the largest increase in persecution among any country in the world last year as regime change and terrorism threw the Islamic nation into chaos, according to the Christian organization Open Doors, which published its annual persecution watch list Wednesday morning.
The Open Doors <a href="https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/">2026 World Watch List</a> revealed that Syria jumped up to No. 6 in overall Christian persecution, after coming in at No. 18 in last year’s list. Syria is now only behind North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, and Eritrea.
Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown told The Daily Wire that the recent political turmoil in Syria is the main contributing factor to the increase in persecution.
“With the fall of the Assad regime and as HTS [Hay&#8217;at Tahrir al-Sham] came into power, it created a lot of vacuums of control and authority,” Brown said. “The rule of law is weak in a number of areas, and in that, there’s just been a number of extremists that have just stepped into those voids.”
Brown pointed to multiple recent Islamic terror attacks targeting Syrian Christians, such as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jihadist-suicide-bomber-kills-20-wounds-dozens-more-at-orthodox-church" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suicide bombing</a> in June, when a terrorist opened fire on worshipers and then detonated a suicide vest, killing more than 20 Christians and wounding over 50 more. Christians in Syria are more likely to come under attack from Islamic terrorists who are fighting for control of certain areas in the unstable country, not from the government, which is now led by former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
“The church is coming under attack especially in these areas where the government is not having a strong rule of law as part of this transition,” Brown added. “Traditionally, in some of these areas in Syria where the rule of law has not been strong, the tribalism becomes the ruling force and provides safety. Christian converts from Islam are typically rejected from these tribal infrastructures.”
It remains to be seen if al-Sharaa, a former terrorist leader, will tolerate Christians in Syria if he establishes a firm grip on the country. So far, the new Syrian leader has been actively seeking to take out Islamic terrorists that remain in Syria.
President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa at the White House as he seeks to broker peace in the Middle East. The meeting marked the first time a Syrian leader and former jihadist met with the President of the United States.
Brown said the 12-spot change in Syria&#8217;s ranking between 2025 and 2026 was the largest year-over-year move for any country on the persecution watch list in more than a decade.
Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, and Iran round out the top 10 of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, meaning that eight out of the top 10 countries on the 2026 World Watch List are majority Muslim nations.
<h3>Nigeria Was The ‘Epicenter’ Of Violence Against Christians In 2025</h3>
More Christians in Nigeria, which came in at No. 7 on the list, were killed for their faith than in any other country. Open Doors reported that 3,490 Nigerian Christians were killed last year, which was an increase from the estimated 3,100 killed in 2024. For comparison, 1,359 Christians are estimated to have been killed for their faith in all other countries combined in 2025.
Brown told The Daily Wire that Nigeria didn’t rank No. 1 on the persecution list because Open Doors considers multiple factors, not just violence, when ranking countries.
“The World Watch List looks at danger, but looks at a number of other factors as well. Nigeria would be the deadliest place to be a Christian, not necessarily the most difficult because there are places in the country where Christians are able to freely worship,” Brown said. “But Nigeria continues to be an epicenter of violence in parts of the country, in parts of the middle belt as well as in the northern parts of the country.”
Recent violence against Christians in Nigeria <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-next-peace-push-focuses-on-nigeria-and-sudan-where-christians-are-killed-by-the-thousands?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump%E2%80%99s+Next+Peace+Push+Focuses+On+Nigeria+And+Sudan%2C+Where+Christians+Are+Killed+By+The+Thousands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gained the attention</a> of President Trump, who has pressured the Nigerian government to do more to protect Christians and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-threatens-to-completely-wipe-out-the-islamic-terrorists-killing-nigerian-christians?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Threatens+To+%E2%80%98Completely+Wipe+Out+The+Islamic+Terrorists%E2%80%99+Killing+Nigerian+Christians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threatened</a> to take out terrorists in the country if they continue to target them.
<h3>Iran Increased Pressure On Christians During Internal Turmoil And Conflict With Israel And U.S.</h3>
Iran, which ranks No. 10 on the World Watch List, has ramped up its crackdown on Christians in the country as they are viewed as “enemies of the state” and “agents of the West,” Brown explained.
The Iranian regime has arrested numerous Christians in recent months as it seeks to keep control amid growing tensions. The regime believes that Christians are influenced by the West and, therefore, plotting the overthrow of the government, and recent events have likely made the regime’s crackdown on Christians even harsher. Iran was humiliated in 2025 in its war with Israel and then by the United States, when President Trump ordered the U.S. military to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran is in the midst of massive demonstrations as protesters have taken to the streets, mainly over the regime’s failure to address an economic collapse. Trump has warned that he could take more action against Iran if it massacres protesters. One report indicates that the Iranian government has killed at least 12,000 demonstrators.
<h3>China Continues To Target Christianity</h3>
China dropped from No. 15 on the list in 2025 to No. 17 this year, but the communist country remains brutal toward Christians. In September, the Chinese government began to monitor the online activity of Christians, especially clergymen, more closely.
“This was in continuation to the churches they closed down the previous year — there’s been an increase in that — but now looking to clamp down on some of the online activity of Christians in the area, making it difficult for them to communicate or to worship,” Brown said.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-escalates-persecution-of-christians-with-more-shocking-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> earlier this month that China arrested more prominent church leaders, detaining at least seven Christians affiliated with the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China.
Brown said that people in China also face persecution from their local communities when they convert to Christianity, adding that many converts lose out on job or school opportunities, while some get their water or electricity cut off.
See the full list, and read a detailed report on each country in this year&#8217;s list <a href="https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Suicide Bombing Targets Church In Damascus, Leaving 20 Dead And Dozens Injured

2026 Watch List Reveals Biggest Increases In Christian Persecution Across The Globe

Christian Persecution

Christianity

Iran

Islam

Nigeria

Syria

The world today stands at a historical turning point.
Over the past two decades, the West has shown unmistakable signs of decline. Internally, it has lost confidence, been corroded by left-wing Marxist ideology, and been overwhelmed by massive illegal migration. Externally, a new “Axis of Evil” is ascendant, the anti-American alliance of repressive regimes including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.
President Donald Trump understands the threat of this alliance — and China in particular — more than his predecessors ever did. And he realizes China cannot be defeated in isolation. It must be strategically surrounded, economically strained, and stripped of its allies.
Armed with this understanding, Trump has moved with speed and clarity so far in his second term. Upon returning to office, Trump reignited the tariff war against China, deliberately targeting Beijing at a moment of extreme vulnerability, after Xi Jinping’s draconian COVID policies had already crippled China’s economy.
Then came decisive blows against China’s key partners.
In late June, Trump authorized the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. In September, the U.S. military began striking narco-terrorist vessels operating out of Venezuela. This campaign culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, shattering China’s and Russia’s primary foothold in Latin America.
The effects were immediate and dramatic. Thousands of Venezuelan political prisoners were released, achieving in days what decades of U.N. resolutions and human-rights advocacy had failed to accomplish. At the same time, widespread anti-regime protests that erupted in Iran in late December began to intensify.
Reports have emerged that Iranian demonstrators openly appealed to Trump for help. Trump publicly expressed support for the protesters, telling them, “help is on the way,” and warning Iranian leaders, “you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
Beijing is watching with horror, knowing the same could one day happen in China. What we are witnessing is the rapid unraveling of the New Axis of Evil.
For the Chinese Communist Party, unrest in Iran and regime collapse in Venezuela represent strategic disasters. China is losing key partners, critical energy access, and geopolitical leverage — along with up to $100 billion in Venezuelan investments that are now effectively unrecoverable. Worse, these crises expose Beijing’s inability to protect or stabilize its allied dictatorships.
The dominoes do not stop there. Without Venezuelan oil subsidies, Cuba — the longest-lasting communist regime in the Western Hemisphere — cannot survive. North Korea, effectively a CCP client state, faces an even grimmer future as China’s own economy deteriorates. Russia, the last major pillar of this bloc, is bogged down in its costly war in Ukraine and increasingly dependent on Chinese economic lifelines — lifelines that are themselves fraying.
After the Maduro capture, the American Left condemned Trump for violating international law. They fail to grasp a fundamental reality: international law has already collapsed. The greatest rule-breaker is Communist China, which violated nearly every international rule and norm on its path to superpower status. Trump does not seek to restrain rule-breakers with fantasies. He seeks to dismantle the ecosystems that sustain them.
This is the essence of the Trump Doctrine: sever the links that allow repressive regimes to support one another, clear hostile powers out of America’s strategic backyard, and prevent regional conflicts from metastasizing into global catastrophe. From Latin America to the Arctic, Trump has moved to block Chinese and Russian encroachment — including openly asserting American strategic interests in Greenland, which Beijing and Moscow had already penetrated while Denmark stood idle.
And the president is just getting started. Days into the new year, Trump proposed the creation of a “Dream Military,” calling for a 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion — an increase of more than 66%.
By raising the military and technological bar across the board, the United States forces China into an impossible choice: fall further behind, or attempt to keep pace and cripple itself through runaway military spending, technological isolation, and economic slowdown. The Soviet Union faced this very dilemma — and collapsed.
Trump does not need to defeat the CCP in battle. He only needs to force it into a competition it cannot afford.
And that is how empires fall. From within.
Xi Van Fleet and Yu Jie are authors of the forthcoming book “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-lived-in-the-communist-world-zohran-mamdani-dreams-of-its-worse-than-you-could-imagine?author=Xi+Van+Fleet&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=I+Lived+In+The+Communist+World+Zohran+Mamdani+Dreams+Of.+It%E2%80%99s+Worse+Than+You+Could+Imagine.">I Lived In The Communist World Zohran Mamdani Dreams Of. It’s Worse Than You Could Imagine.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/license-to-kill-what-turns-normal-people-to-political-violence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part I: License To Kill: What Turns Normal People To Political Violence?</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-wheel-of-misfortune-victims-victimhood-and-victimization?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=Opinion&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=The+Wheel+Of+Misfortune%3A+Victims%2C+Victimhood%2C+And+Victimization" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part II: The Wheel Of Misfortune: Victims, Victimhood, And Victimization</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-red-guard-to-blue-hair-why-leftists-destroy-womanhood?author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=From+Red+Guard+To+Blue+Hair%3A+Why+Leftists+Destroy+Womanhood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part III: From Red Guard To Blue Hair: Why Leftists Destroy Womanhood</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/proletarian-profanity-like-communists-democrats-want-to-trap-voters-in-a-linguistic-ghetto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part IV: Proletarian Profanity: Why Democrats Want To Trap Voters In A Linguistic Ghetto</a>
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/erasing-history-the-real-cultural-marxism?author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Erasing+History%3A+The+Real+Cultural+Marxism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part V: Erasing History: The Real Cultural Marxism</a></h4>
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Donald Trump/Xi Jinping

How Trump Can Defeat China Without Firing A Single Shot

Donald Trump

Venezuela

Europe’s weakness is no longer just Europe’s problem; it is the West’s crisis. For decades, the continent has drifted into complacency, retreating from free markets, hollowing out its militaries, and outsourcing its security to Washington. What began as integration hardened into dependency. The result is a Europe that is economically stagnant, strategically vulnerable, and increasingly unsure of its own identity.
President Trump’s recently released National Security Strategy and the National Defense Authorization Act are the first major American documents in a generation that speak to Europe not as a ward, but as an adult. They state, in effect, that the West cannot survive if its largest democratic bloc insists on remaining structurally weak. America will not abandon Europe, but it will no longer indulge Europe’s illusions. The ball is now in Europe’s court.
Trump’s statecraft is often misdescribed as improvisation. In reality, a Trump Doctrine of strategic sovereignty has emerged. Its core is simple: no nation is entitled to protection from the United States unless it actively contributes to collective security; coalitions are built on shared interests and values, not on inertia; and the West is worth preserving. Once the United States and Europe shared these beliefs, and their alliance was strong on this basis.
This abandons the fantasy of a self-enforcing “rules-based order.” Russia’s attack on Georgia or Ukraine, and other similar powers’ attacks on other weaker countries, have repeatedly shown that there is no universally accepted rules-based order. The simple, stubborn fact is that order is made and maintained by sovereign states that possess power, will, and clarity of purpose. Trump’s approach replaces the old habit of open-ended guarantees with a “balance of sovereigns”: the United States will remain the preeminent Western power, but its allies must become genuine pillars, not permanent dependents, to keep the balance of power in the West and keep at bay geopolitical adversaries that understand solely strength.
Trump has already done more to weaken the Russia-China-Iran-North Korea axis than his predecessor. Trump’s pressure on Moscow has been more consequential than Joe Biden’s. By pushing NATO allies to raise defense spending, by imposing secondary measures that hit Russian oil revenues, and by brokering peace in the Caucasus, Trump has constrained Russia’s maneuvering space.
Iran, once emboldened by Western appeasement, is now reeling. Israeli and American strikes have gutted its nuclear and military infrastructure. Combined with the Abraham Accords and the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement, the Middle East has been reshaped in ways that keep Russia out and leave Tehran increasingly isolated. Iran’s proxies are weakened, its economy strangled, and its strategic depth reduced.
The updated Monroe Doctrine has likewise kept China out of the Western Hemisphere. Beijing’s attempts to buy strategic assets and political influence in Latin America have been blocked or rolled back, while Venezuela’s dictator is now under arrest, with his regime destabilized. Trump’s declarations about the Panama Canal and Greenland should be seen as part of this larger doctrine.
Taken together, these moves have fractured the “unholy alliance” of America’s adversaries. Europe should take note: Trump has shown that strength and clarity can weaken adversaries far more effectively than platitudes and half-measures. The United States is doing its part to reshape the global balance. The question is whether Europe will do its part to reshape itself.
Security begins with production. Europe’s retreat from free-market dynamism has hollowed out its competitiveness. While Trump has pursued reindustrialization, deregulation, near-shoring, and energy abundance in the United States, Europe has doubled down on regulatory maximalism and green utopianism — policies that have driven factories, capital, and talent elsewhere.
A continent that once powered the Industrial Revolution now tries to regulate its way into relevance. High taxes, rigid labor markets, and hostility to conventional and nuclear energy have produced dependence on Russian gas, Chinese supply chains, and American defense spending. There is no single European entity in the top 10 biggest companies, startups, or AI firms, because the European instinct has become “regulate before even creating”. 
Real recovery will not come from new Brussels programs, but from unleashing the energy and initiative of millions of individuals and families who are now trapped under layers of taxation, bureaucracy, and paternalism. Europe does not lack talent; it lacks permission to use it.
Trump’s doctrine treats Europe’s stagnation not as an internal matter, but as a strategic liability. Economic weakness means underfunded militaries, brittle societies, and a politics increasingly tempted by accommodation with authoritarian suppliers of energy and credit. A Europe that cannot sustain industry will not sustain deterrence.
If Europe wants to be something other than a museum of past greatness, it must rediscover growth: lower and simpler taxes, domestic energy, and a serious commitment to frontier technologies. Otherwise, the center of gravity of the democratic world will keep shifting from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific, not by American design but by European default.
Trump’s strategy does something European elites have avoided for years: it links power to identity. It speaks of restoring the West’s “civilizational self-confidence” and calls on the nations of the free world to defend their histories, cultures, and borders.
This is not nostalgia. It is strategic clarity. A society that doubts its right to exist cannot project power. A civilization that treats its past as a moral burden will not endure the costs of defense, child-rearing, or long-term investment.
For too long, influential European institutions have treated national identity as suspect, the family as optional, borders as administrative details, and free speech as a negotiable privilege. The result is fragmentation: uncontrolled migration, parallel societies, and cultural self-censorship. In such a context, phrases like “strategic autonomy” are empty. Autonomy presupposes cohesion. 
Trump’s message is that the West is not an NGO; it is a civilization. The President does not seek American domination of Europe. He seeks equilibrium. America First does not mean America Alone; it means an America strong enough to lead, partnered with European allies strong enough to matter. For Europe, that means three things: (a) Rearmament as an act of self-respect, not of deference to Washington. A Europe that cannot field serious forces from the Baltic to the Mediterranean is not “pacifist”; it is strategically unserious. (b) Reindustrialization and energy realism. A continent that shuts down reliable power without viable alternatives, and that drives industry offshore, will find its foreign policy constrained by whoever keeps its lights on. (c) Civilizational recovery. Europe must stop apologizing for its existence. Its nations, cultures and Judeo-Christian roots are not obstacles to the future; they are the only basis on which a free future can be built.
Trump has laid out a doctrine that treats Europe not as a client but as a potential equal. The question is whether Europe will seize this moment or shrink from it.  The United States has made its choice: strength, sovereignty, and renewed Western leadership. If Europe fails to rise, the West will fall, not because America abandoned it, but because Europe abandoned itself.
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Nikola Kedhi is the Executive Director of the Albanian Conservative Institute and a contributor to various media such as the Daily Wire, Fox News, Newsweek, the Daily Signal, Newsmax, and others. Kedhi is also a co-author of the Constitution of Conservative Values, the official Doctrine of the Democratic Party of Albania. He can be reached on Twitter: @nikedhi95 and on his Substack.</div>
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European Leaders Join Ukrainian President Zelensky For White House Meeting With Trump

President Trump Is Right, The West Cannot Survive On European Weakness

Energy

Europe

European Union

Foreign Policy

NATO

President Trump

Russia

White House

The Trump administration has officially pulled back the curtain on the staggering amount of foreign influence-buying occurring on American college campuses. This week, the Department of Education launched a new transparency portal — <a href="https://www.foreignfundinghighered.gov/">foreignfundinghighered.gov</a> — revealing that adversarial and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; regimes have funneled billions into the very institutions currently serving as ground zero for anti-American and anti-Israel radicalism.
The data is damning. China, including Hong Kong, has pumped nearly $6 billion into U.S. higher education, targeting elite institutions like Harvard, New York University, and Stanford. <a href="https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/media/press-releases/transfer-portal-news-china-s-money">According</a> to House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, this isn&#8217;t philanthropy — it’s a calculated effort to &#8220;transfer critical research, influence, and academic talent&#8221; to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
While the Trump administration is now prioritizing enforcement, the report highlights a catastrophic lapse under the previous administration. Data has revealed that foreign donations surged during the Biden years, with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) noting that the &#8220;floodgates opened,&#8221; creating what experts call a &#8220;national security crisis.&#8221;
Furthermore, the scale of the deception is massive. While the portal lists billions in disclosed funds, previous reports suggest that hundreds of universities have illegally withheld information on an estimated $13 billion in additional contributions.
It is no coincidence that the universities receiving the most cash from hostile actors are the same ones currently exploding with antisemitic protests and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; faculty agendas.
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<li>Qatar, a nation that harbored Hamas leadership, remains the top contributor with over $6.5 billion in total funding.</li>
<li>Cornell University alone took $2.3 billion from the Qatari regime.</li>
<li>Northwestern and Texas A&amp;M have also raked in hundreds of millions from the Middle Eastern state.</li>
</ul>
President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/">executive order</a> in April 2025 that required institutions of higher education to “report significant sources of foreign funding,” while noting, “But, because section 117 has not been robustly enforced, the true amounts, sources, and purposes of foreign money flowing to American campuses are unknown. From 2010 to 2016, according to one study, universities failed to disclose more than half of reportable foreign gifts. Even when foreign funding is reported, its true sources are often hidden.”
Trump pointed out that during his first term, “the Department of Education opened investigations on 19 campuses from 2019-2021, which led universities to report $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds. Yet the prior administration undid this work, moving the Department of Education’s specialized investigatory work on foreign funds to a unit ill-equipped to perform it, undermining investigations, and hindering public access to information on foreign gifts and contracts.”

Man hold stack of US dollars.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Trump Administration Exposes Billions In Foreign Funds Going To Woke Universities

American Universities

Qatar

The Chinese Communist Party has escalated its persecution of Christians by arresting more prominent church leaders and putting them in detention centers, The Daily Wire has learned.
At least seven Christians affiliated with the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, were arrested on Tuesday, according to the church. The arrests began in the early morning and continued until evening.
Early Rain Covenant Church is a prominent evangelical Presbyterian church that has earned the ire of the Communist Party for being part of China&#8217;s underground church movement. The arrests of the Early Rain members come just a few months after the Chinese government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daughter-of-detained-pastor-warns-of-a-coming-wave-of-christian-persecution-in-communist-china">rounded up</a> prominent leaders at Zion Church, another well-known underground church.
Those arrested included Li Yingqiang, an elder at the church whose home in Deyang was searched, and preacher Dai Zhichao. Dai was arrested at the church office after being told by authorities he was not allowed to leave his home, according to the church.
“At around 11:00 a.m. on January 6, he was taken under control at the church office, then brought to his home where it was searched, after which he went out of contact. It has now been confirmed that he is at the Jinniu District Case-Handling Center,” a message from Early Rain said.
Others who were taken by authorities included elder Yan Hong, preacher Wu Wuqing, the family of Ye Fenghua, and deacon Zeng Qingtao.
A woman named Shu Qiong was also taken by police and charged with “suspected provocation and police disturbance,” according to a source familiar with the arrests. A photo obtained by The Daily Wire shows the police showing up at her home.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1024205" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="1280" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561.jpg 960w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></div>
One of those arrested was able to return home on Tuesday, according to the church. The church is currently locating lawyers for those arrested.
At the same time, police targeted the Early Rain Academy, a school operated by the church.
“The academy immediately organized teachers and students to evacuate and leave the site. Subsequently, the owner of the teaching site was summoned to the police station and pressured, and was informed that all items must be removed from the site by Friday,” the church said in a release.
The CCP’s targeting of Early Rain stretches back to 2018 when it began arresting prominent leaders, including Pastor Wang Yi. Wang was convicted in 2019 of subverting the government and sentenced to nine years in prison. While still imprisoned, he was just awarded a Democracy Service Medal by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Corey Jackson, who heads up the advocacy organization Luke Alliance, said the arrests were part of a broader pattern of targeting of unregistered churches. He said in recent months that more pastors were being brought into local police offices for “tea times” and told that they must register with the state or face harsh treatment.
“One person reported that they had been told by the domestic security police that churches, ‘house churches,’ are going to face complete prohibition. Participants will face imprisonment, and there&#8217;s going to be less pattern of warning, fines, and leeway,” Jackson told The Daily Wire.
Jackson said that the government really wants to exert more control over the churches, and make them register any online services they have before meeting. He also said the government doesn’t want parents educating kids in their faith if they are below the age of 18.
Jackson added that he would like to see the Trump administration put some pressure on China over their repression of Christianity.
“We need to apply pressure on China with human rights,” he said. “We must continue not to just be transactional in our approach with China, but to also recognize that China is the one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.&#8221;

MixCollage-06-Jan-2026-07-47-PM-6588

China Escalates Persecution Of Christians With More Shocking Arrests

Communist China

Global Politics

Religion

Religious Liberty

Trump Administration

World

2026 is the year of clarity. All the veils are going to fall. People are going to show you who they are.
That can be frightening. Sometimes it&#8217;s difficult to deal with the realities of life, the realities of people you once trusted, showing themselves to be something else. It can also be surprising and heartening because sometimes people show themselves to be a lot better than you thought they were.
But this year, events in the United States and the world more broadly are going to unmask nearly everyone.
Why?
Because we are on the precipice of something pretty big. And when big things happen, when the world becomes more chaotic, people reveal themselves. Adversity reveals character.
And we&#8217;re about to experience some adversity as Americans.
Where will that adversity come from? It could come from the international sphere. Adversity may spring from China&#8217;s authoritarian ambitions against Taiwan, or its global desire to expand power bases from Africa to Latin America. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some politicians and commentators shying away from revealing the realities about China, fearful that doing so could undercut their delusional vision of a world in which America in retreat is somehow good rather than harmful.
Adversity could arise from the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine, or from Russia&#8217;s growing ambitions in the region as well as globally. Many figures are already revealing themselves in their views of Russia, often evidencing shocking blindness toward what Russia is, what Russia wants, up to and including full-scale propagandizing on behalf of a tyrannical regime steeped in hatred toward the values of the United States.
Adversity could come from Iran&#8217;s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and international terrorism, or its desperate desire to stave off internal regime change, or from its propaganda arms in Qatar and elsewhere, pushing anti-Western, anti-American bull****.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2339-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Many politicians and commentators are already showing themselves willing to do anything and everything on behalf of such regimes, up to and including flying cover for radical Islam.
Adversity might emanate from chaos in our southern hemisphere — where rogue states like Venezuela were pursuing deeper relations with our enemies until President Trump acted — or from Europe, where unchecked immigration combined with regulatory overreach threatens to doom an entire continent to stagnation and disarray.
It could come from any other variety of sources on the foreign front.
The world is a chaotic place. It&#8217;s a more chaotic place when America is weak, as many on the Left and the Right wish to make it.
Adversity could arise domestically, too. Adversity may come in the form of economic turmoil. While the economy right now appears to be in pretty good shape, no one knows how the current AI investment cycle will play out in the short term.
And economic turmoil brings with it political vultures. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some conservatives turning away from the defense of free markets in favor of statism. That seems more familiar from the Left, and we see leftists embracing the most extreme versions of wealth seizure and collectivist centralization.
Adversity will certainly originate in the size and scope of our massive and bureaucratic government, which provides extraordinary obstacles to American achievement and overwhelming support to people who are willing to steal from their fellow Americans.
Adversity will certainly come, too, in the form of reactionary posturing. Lies told by the Left will be mirrored in lies told by the Right and vice versa, resulting in a continued spiral of conspiratorial polarization, totally disconnected from the actual lives of most Americans. Already, we&#8217;ve seen cynical politicians and morally corrupt commentators spew untruths in pursuit of algorithmic momentum, and that is definitely going to accelerate this year.
Politicians and commentators reveal themselves in how they react to adversity. Do they react by telling you the truth, no matter how much their audience might dislike it? Or do they lie to you by telling you the things they think you want to hear? Do they react out of principle or out of convenience? Do they recommend coalition solidarity at the expense of basic decency, integrity, and truth?
In other words, do they treat you like a sucker or do they treat you like a citizen?
Of course, it&#8217;s an election year, and that means that we&#8217;re going to be swamped by lies and prevarication, by a lot of politicians who promise the moon and deliver nothing. We&#8217;ll be swamped, too, by commentators who suggest that political failure results from a general lack of Nietzschean will, rather than the complicated give and take of normal day-to-day politics. And they will argue that if you get more outraged, conspiratorial, and angry, somehow our politics will improve.
How will we Americans react to that adversity, that onslaught of cultivated resentment and Machiavellian manipulation?
The American republic is founded, on the one hand, in a fundamental supposition that human beings are capable of discernment, of acting morally when faced with adversity, of preferring truth to comforting falsehood, and of recognizing our own fallibility.
On the other hand, the American republic is also founded on the reality of the darker side of human nature — our tribalism, our venality, our selfishness.
All of which, when put together, is why our Founders preferred a republic of checks and balances rather than a Francoist dictatorship or a purer democracy.
It&#8217;s why James Madison wrote in Federalist 51:
<blockquote>Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? 
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.</blockquote>
In the end, it&#8217;s up to us. We have to become better at discernment. We have to act with humility.
We, the American people, must discern who is telling us the truth, even when we don&#8217;t want to hear it, and who is lying to us out of audience capture or political expediency or sycophancy. We have to work to preserve the checks and balances of our system, even checks and balances that might seem to deprive us of temporary power.
If we don&#8217;t, we risk an authoritarian centralization that turns against basic freedom. What&#8217;s more, we risk an arrogance about our own nature that surely turns to disaster, even if our side seems to have that temporary upper hand.
Most of all, we have to remember this: People who promise utopia, an end to adversity, an end to the chaos and turmoil of life, so long as you give them your trust and your power, are providing you a Faustian bargain in which you receive neither utopia nor freedom.
Those who tell you that your future is not in your hands, and who encourage you to surrender whatever is left of that future to a demoralizing conspiracism, are lying to you, and they are lying to you for their own gain.
You deserve better than that. We all deserve better than that.
So let 2026 be a year of clarity.
Let people reveal themselves for who they are and believe them when they show you.
And may we all approach the adversities of whatever comes our way with the courage, conviction, and decency that make America truly great.

2026flag

2026: The Year Of Clarity

Nicolas Maduro

Opinion

The global conversation around artificial intelligence is framed as a technology race.
Yes, America is in an AI race, but that race will be over before it even starts if we do not secure reliable fuel to power it.
From a technical advancement standpoint, the AI race is a challenge of intellect: algorithms, chips, and computing architecture.
From an energy standpoint, however, it is a question of wisdom: Do we have the wisdom to make the right decisions now, to prioritize and properly utilize the abundant, affordable, and reliable energy resources we already possess?
AI runs on massive, continuous amounts of electricity. The nations that can deliver power at scale, at the lowest cost, and with the highest reliability will lead not only in AI, but in manufacturing, economic growth, and national security.
China understands this reality. In fact, China now generates more than twice as much electricity as the United States and continues to expand power infrastructure at a pace the U.S. has not matched in years.
If America intends to lead in AI, we must prioritize natural gas. It is the only fuel source today that is readily deployable, scalable, reliable, and affordable.
For the first time in more than half a century, U.S. electricity demand is growing at a sustained rate. The Department of Energy estimates the U.S. will need 50 to 150 gigawatts of new electric capacity within the next decade, describing the challenge as the Manhattan Project of our time. 
A single large data center can consume as much power as a heavy industrial facility. Data centers are modern-day industrial factories, operating 24/7 and requiring uninterrupted baseload power.
We must use wisdom when locating these facilities. Power generation can be built almost anywhere, but fuel cannot. Our grandfathers understood this. Steel mills and petrochemical plants were built near power plants, and power plants were built near fuel sources.
When new power demand is located far from the fuel source, costs rise, timelines stretch, and risks multiply. Long-haul transmission adds expense, energy loss, permitting complexity, disruption, and public opposition. Electricity is expensive not only to generate, but to move.
The most efficient solution is also the simplest: build new power demand on top of the fuel supply.
<div id="attachment_1022749" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1022749" class="size-large wp-image-1022749" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2242629476-864x576.jpg" alt="The former General Motors and Foxconn factory in Lordstown, Ohio, US, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. In August, Foxconn announced it had stuck a deal to sell the giant facility to SoftBank, with the two companies planning to start manufacturing data center equipment on the same site where GM cars including the Chevy Impala once came off the assembly line. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2242629476-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2242629476-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2242629476-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2242629476.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
There are two regions in the U.S. that are uniquely equipped. More than 80% of U.S. natural gas production is concentrated in two strategic regions: the Gulf Coast and the Shale Crescent USA (Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania). If these three states were a country, they would be the third-largest natural gas producer in the world, producing roughly one-third of all U.S. natural gas.
Natural gas in the Shale Crescent is among the lowest-cost in the industrialized world, roughly three to four times cheaper than Europe and Asia, and among the lowest-priced in the United States.
For high-load users like data centers, AI infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing, proximity to reliable baseload power is a strategic advantage.
Across the country, data centers are already struggling to secure power. Utilities are issuing moratoria, interconnection queues stretch into the next decade, and grid operators warn that demand is outpacing supply. 

America cannot out-AI China if China out-powers the United States.
The path forward is not mysterious, but it does require political will and wisdom. Natural gas must be treated as a strategic national asset, and the lowest-cost, lowest-risk path forward is to locate new data centers and power-intensive infrastructure directly on top of the fuel supply.
If we make that choice now, we can secure the energy foundation our AI future requires.
* * *
Nathan Lord is the President of Shale Crescent USA, a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage business growth and create high wage jobs in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Nathan is a graduate of Marietta College and earned his MBA from Liberty University.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Construction At The First Stargate AI Data Center

America Can’t Win The AI Race If China Wins The Power Race

Artificial Intelligence

Nuclear Power

Oil and Gas

power grid

Technology

The security of America’s power grid is under threat from the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign regimes who are pre-positioning energy devices they can sabotage from afar. Rapid state government action is needed to remove these technological threats that are already embedded in our electrical grid.
A <a href="https://www.striderintel.com/newsroom/strider-u-s-power-grid-exposed-to-unprecedented-risk-from-prc-made-equipment/">new report</a> from Strider Intelligence revealed that solar inverters feeding electricity into the U.S. power grid are overwhelmingly manufactured by Chinese companies tied to Beijing’s government and military. These devices are connected to the same networks that power America’s hospitals and defense installations, keep communications and water systems running, drive manufacturing and transportation, underpin the financial sector, and enable emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.
The Chinese inverters are present at a scale far larger than previously understood. Nearly every utility surveyed by Strider, representing roughly 12% of national electricity generation, relies on Chinese inverters.
As Strider warns, without decisive intervention, “the Chinese government, through its control over [government-linked] firms and data networks, could exploit this access to manipulate or disrupt the U.S. grid in a crisis.” Because these inverters occupy critical control points and can be controlled remotely, they give Beijing a degree of proximity no foreign adversary should ever possess inside American infrastructure.
These vulnerabilities did not appear overnight. They grew out of decades of accelerated “green” energy expansion, during which time solar became the dominant source of new electricity across America. Much of the solar hardware came from companies with direct links to Chinese intelligence and military. Security concerns were ignored in the rush to scale renewables, resulting in American tax incentives and utility fees funding Chinese sabotage devices.
This outcome is in part the product of a successful CCP influence operation. China has long waged an insidious campaign to promote the “green” energy agenda to make the United States more dependent on their products. Research from State Armor revealed that <a href="https://statearmor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/State-Armor-Who-is-Energy-Foundation-China-Report.pdf">Energy Foundation China</a>, a nonprofit supervised by the Chinese Communist Party, has quietly pushed tens of millions per year into U.S. universities and advocacy groups to push policies that deepen America’s reliance on Chinese technologies. Industrial ambition paired with political influence secured Beijing’s access to our infrastructure.
While federal action is needed, Washington’s response has been slow, disjointed, and largely blind to the scale of the threat. Many of the vulnerabilities sit in infrastructure overseen by the states. That is where the solutions must begin.
State leaders must completely block adversary-linked companies, nonprofits, and middlemen from critical infrastructure. Texas did so with the <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/SB02116I.pdf">2021 Lone Star Critical Infrastructure Protection Act</a>, enacted to prevent a Chinese General from controlling the electrical grid near Laughlin Air Force Base. Entities tied to the CCP have no business inside the systems that power our grid, move our water, carry our data, or keep our transportation networks running.
States should also prohibit the installation of Chinese network-connected technologies that create <a href="https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118444/witnesses/HHRG-119-HM08-Wstate-GleasonN-20250722.pdf">remote access points and kill switches</a> inside critical systems. Strider’s findings confirm that many inverters and battery systems include built-in communication features that expose the grid to third parties without operator knowledge or consent.
State attorneys general should invoke existing consumer-protection, data-privacy, and deceptive trade practices laws to hold companies liable when they sell equipment that contains malware and kill switches. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-launches-investigation-use-ccp-aligned-tech-products-critical-state">opened an investigation</a> into Chinese Military Company CATL for battery systems that create grid vulnerabilities. <a href="https://ago.nebraska.gov/news/attorney-general-hilgers-sues-lorex-selling-cameras-put-nebraskans-security-risk">Nebraska Attorney General Hilgers</a> and <a href="https://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrelease/attorney-general-james-uthmeier-issues-subpoena-lorex-consumer-protection-data-privacy">Florida Attorney General Uthmeier</a> have launched fraud lawsuits against Chinese camera systems that facilitate espionage and sabotage. Companies should be enjoined from selling dangerous devices, and the dollars recovered through successful fraud claims should go toward replacing insecure Chinese-connected hardware.
States have the authority to act now, long before Congress finishes arguing over what comes next. They can close the backdoors, cut off adversary-linked contractors, and replace the equipment that should never have been allowed into the grid in the first place.
America cannot secure its future while foreign adversaries secure control over our essential systems. China has spent years pre-positioning itself inside U.S. infrastructure through industrial dominance and political influence. The danger is already inside our systems. We can either treat this as the national security threat it is, or concede that our utilities will be regulated by China’s government instead of our own.
* * *
Michael Lucci is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of State Armor, which he created to develop and enact state solutions to global security threats. Follow him at: @Michael7ucci
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.
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Workers Manufacture Solar Panels For Export In Suqian

America’s ‘Green’ Power Grid Has A Red China Problem

Attorney General

Espionage

Green New Deal

Solar Power

Spying

The daughter of an imprisoned Chinese Christian pastor released a tearful video on Christmas Eve, publicly reading a letter to her father as Chinese authorities have cut off direct family communication. 
Grace Jin Drexel read the letter detailing the harrowing experience of her father, Mingri “Ezra” Jin, a prominent underground church leader who has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daughter-of-detained-pastor-warns-of-a-coming-wave-of-christian-persecution-in-communist-china">locked up</a> since October. Jin has been imprisoned in a crowded room that is exposed to the elements and has not been given clean clothes or medication, Grace said. 
“We hear that the room that you are held is crowded with over 30 people, all people you don&#8217;t know. The windows have no glass panels, so the wind and rain flow in, making the room even harsher in this season. Grandma has tried to bring you extra clothes, blanket, and your own medication, but the guards turned her away,” Grace said in the <a href="https://x.com/LantosFndn/status/2003873389552062857?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">video</a> which was shared by multiple human rights organizations. 
Jin, a pastor at Zion Church, was rounded up alongside 22 other church leaders and locked in a detention center in Guangxi, a region in southern China. Grace said that he was eating dinner when his apartment was stormed by nearly two dozen policemen before being handcuffed, head shaved, and taken away. 
“We are all trying to put on a brave face for each other,” Grace said. “ We probably all look sadder, more worried, and older now.”
Jin has been able to get a Bible while locked up, something that is unusual for imprisoned Christians. 
“Miraculously, we recently heard that they actually gave you a Bible. We praise God for this mercy. We are so thankful that while you are not able to celebrate Christmas with us, and probably won&#8217;t be able to celebrate at all, the Bible will be able to be a comfort to you,” Grace said. 
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Jin first became a Christian after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. After his conversion, Jin initially pastored one of the government-sanctioned churches approved by China, but he soon left after feeling his ministry was being stifled by the Chinese government, which demanded he promote communism. 
Grace said she hoped that those imprisoning her father would turn to Christianity.  
“I also pray that His love will be felt even by those who are persecuting you. May they feel love and forgiveness And may they turn to the Lord as well.  We miss you. We love you. And we hope that we will see you free in the U.S. so soon.”
The video captured the attention of Sam Brownback, the former Kansas governor and religious liberty ambassador for President Donald Trump during his first term. 
“Heartbreaking video of Pastor Jin&#8217;s daughter reading a letter to her father who is wrongly imprisoned in China this Christmas. His crime? Being a man of faith. He has been in jail since October. Pray for him and his family,” Brownback, who has been banned from China, posted on X. 
The arrest of Jin was condemned by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has called for him to be immediately released.

Grace Drexel

Daughter Of Imprisoned Chinese Pastor Releases Tearful Christmas Message To Father

The Federal Communications Commission <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-updates-covered-list-add-certain-uas-and-uas-components-0">announced</a> on Monday that it is adding new foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems, including drones and their critical components, to its &#8220;Covered List&#8221; of communications equipment deemed to pose “unacceptable risks to U.S. national security.”
The move follows a Trump administration review, which found that foreign-produced drones could enable unauthorized surveillance, data theft, and disruptions, threatening U.S. homeland security and the domestic drone industry.
The action, in line with President Donald Trump’s Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty and Unleashing American Drone Dominance executive orders, reflects the administration’s goal of strengthening American drone manufacturing and reducing dependence on foreign — particularly Chinese — technologies. The decision arrives ahead of major upcoming international events hosted in the United States, such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup, America&#8217;s 250th anniversary celebrations, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, when airspace security risks will be elevated.
The updated Covered List includes Chinese drone manufacturers DJI and Autel, as well as all other foreign drone producers. Under U.S. law, the FCC cannot update this list independently and must act based on national security agencies’ determinations under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. Equipment placed on the Covered List is barred from receiving new FCC equipment authorizations, effectively preventing new models from entering the U.S. market. However, this decision does not affect existing drones, meaning consumers and retailers may continue to use, sell, or trade models previously authorized by the FCC.
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U.S. officials framed the action as critical to national and economic security. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr praised the move, saying the agency would “work closely with U.S. drone makers to unleash American drone dominance.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also encouraged organizations to use the list in risk management and regulatory compliance efforts.
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the decision as an excessive use of national security grounds and “discriminatory” toward Chinese companies. DJI <a href="https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-881097">expressed disappointment</a> with the move<a href="https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-881097">,</a> arguing that no supporting evidence for the determination was publicly released. Despite such objections, U.S. lawmakers and officials, including Representative Rick Crawford (R-AR) and National Security Council’s Sebastian Gorka, welcomed the measure as a necessary step to ensure drones vital to America’s defense are “made in the USA.”

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Feds Deem New Foreign-Made Drones ‘Unacceptable’ National Security Risks

Drones

Federal authorities have accused another Chinese researcher of smuggling biological materials into the United States, as the FBI cautions American universities about growing threats from the communist nation.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Friday that Chinese national Youhuang Xiang was arrested for allegedly smuggling genetic material from E. coli bacteria into the United States while working as a researcher at Indiana University. According to court documents, Xiang entered the country in 2023 on an educational exchange visa to secure a postdoctoral position at the school.
“This is yet another example of a researcher from China — given the privilege to work at a U.S. university — who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China,” Patel posted on X. “The [FBI] and our CBP partners are committed to enforcing U.S. laws put in place to protect against this global threat to our economy and food supply. If not properly controlled, E. coli and other biological materials could inflict devastating disease to U.S. crops and cause significant financial loss to the U.S. economy.”
Xiang has been charged with conspiracy to commit smuggling, smuggling, and making false statements. He could face up to 20 years in prison and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars if convicted. James Tunick, Xiang&#8217;s lawyer, disputed the allegations.
&#8220;Youhuang Xiang was legally working in the United States on a J-1 visa with a professor from the Biology Department at Indiana University to better wheat crop production in the United States,&#8221; Tunick told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The allegation that Youhuang smuggled E. coli into the United States is completely false and is not even charged by the United States Department of Justice.&#8221;
Xiang, whose <a href="https://biology.indiana.edu/about/research-associates/index.html">bio</a> says he specializes in “recognition specificity in host-pathogen interactions and engineering crop resistance to pathogen,” was first arrested on November 25. Information about the case was unsealed this week. 
In March 2024, Xiang requested that a person in China referred to as “Individual A” ship plasmid DNA from E. coli bacteria to his home in Bloomington, Indiana, according to the indictment. The material was shipped to him shortly after, concealed in a package of clothing items that &#8220;Individual A&#8221; declared included a men&#8217;s vest and women&#8217;s underwear, investigators said. The package allegedly came from Guangzhou Sci Tech Innovation Trading.
More than a year later, on November 23, 2025, Xiang landed in Chicago after returning from a trip to London, where agents with Customs and Border Protection questioned him. During that interview, he allegedly lied to them about the package he had sent to his home and about his ties to the Chinese government. 
Xiang was scheduled to remain at Indiana University through 2027 and was leading a research program focused on genome editing in wheat plants to increase resistance to fungal diseases.
The FBI was made aware of the shipment by CBP as part of an investigation into biological materials being smuggled into the United States from China, which is why he was questioned on November 23. 
“Information provided to the FBI by CBP included information about the history of shipments from China to certain individuals at IU conducting research into wheat pathogen Resistance,” the criminal complaint said. “That information indicated that XIANG was associated with that research and that XIANG received a shipment from China at his residence on March 28, 2024.”
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The FBI also thought it was “odd” that Xiang purchased and shipped “women’s underwear from China, and further assessed it as peculiar that a company by the name ‘Guangzhou Sci Tech Innovation Trading’ would sell underwear or clothing,” according to the complaint. 
A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205219301625">paper</a> written by Xiang also listed his affiliation with the National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics in Shanghai, which raised flags for investigators. 
“I know from my training and experience that the PRC ‘Key Laboratories’ are overseen by the Chinese Government and have a history of concerning actions including technology transfer and theft of intellectual property,” the FBI agent who investigated the case wrote in the criminal complaint. 
Over the last few months, other Chinese researchers at American universities have been arrested for smuggling biological materials into the country. Multiple arrests have been made at the University of Michigan, where <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-makes-more-arrests-as-alarming-pattern-of-chinese-smuggling-continues">investigators said</a> that shipments of concealed biological materials related to roundworms were smuggled into the United States. 
President Donald Trump has faced criticism over the presence of Chinese students at American universities. While some critics have called for reducing the number of Chinese nationals admitted to U.S. schools, Trump has argued that their enrollment helps provide funding for American institutions.

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