President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set today to discuss peace and “dividing up assets” with Ukraine. Trump pushes ahead with deporting violent gang members, despite legal efforts to bring them back to the United States. And new reports show both British and German intelligence believed COVID-19 was created in a lab, but chose to suppress those findings.
It’s Tuesday, March 18, and this is news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2> Putin/Trump Face-off</h2>
<div id="attachment_893213" style="width: 927px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-893213" class="wp-image-893213 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-917x576.jpg" alt="" width="917" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-917x576.jpg 917w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-768x483.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-1536x965.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-2048x1287.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 917px) 100vw, 917px" />(Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: President Donald Trump is set to hold a potentially pivotal phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin today as the two sides move closer to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Last week, the Trump administration proposed a 30-day pause in the fighting to allow for formal peace negotiations to kick off. The Ukrainians accepted that deal, prompting the United States to renew weapons shipments to Kyiv, but the Russians were more hesitant to agree on a ceasefire. At the moment, it seems that Putin will only agree to the deal if he has assurances that the United States would pause new weapons shipments to Ukraine and that Ukraine would not be allowed to mobilize new forces during the 30 days.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that &#8220;the Russians say &#8216;We support a ceasefire, but …&#8217; And then after the &#8216;but,&#8217; they start coming with various details to delay the process.” He says Putin is well aware that Western support for Ukraine is starting to dwindle and wants to drag out the ceasefire process to allow his forces to gain as much territory as possible ahead of negotiations, so he’ll have more leverage.
To that point, Moscow has recently launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region — a territory in Russia that had fallen into Ukrainian hands last summer after a surprise incursion. Putin claims thousands of Ukrainian troops there are currently surrounded — he called on them to “lay down their arms and surrender” in exchange for their lives. The longer a ceasefire is delayed, the more time Putin will have to close in on those troops. For that reason, among others, Zelensky is calling on Trump to exert pressure on Moscow to accept the ceasefire. Over the weekend, he issued a plea for &#8220;maximum additional sanctions&#8221; on Russia if they continue to stall — for his part, Trump said “we can” do that, but “I hope it’s not necessary.”
The Terms: Putin has shown a clear willingness to continually throw Russians into the frontlines and is unlikely to end the war if it means coming back empty-handed. Specifically, he wants to formally retain control of Crimea and the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. Zelensky has insisted that he’ll never cede land to Putin, but at this stage, it’s all but guaranteed he’ll have to agree to some land being lost in order to end the war.
The potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine will likely be another point of contention in negotiations. Putin has made clear from day one that he will never agree to a deal that includes NATO membership for Ukraine — Europe and the United States seem to have conceded that point. As an alternative, Ukraine has pushed for European peacekeepers within its borders after the war. European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have already agreed to provide boots on the ground, although it remains unclear if Putin will accept a European-backed security guarantee.
<h2>Trump Deports Illegal Gang Members</h2>
<div id="attachment_892595" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892595" class="size-large wp-image-892595" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-864x576.jpg" alt="SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - MARCH 16: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 'EL SALVADOR PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) More than 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane, including 238 members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 16, 2025. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country's infamous mega-prison at CECOP facility prison. San Salvador forces took heavy security measures. (Photo by El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images</div>
Topline: A showdown over a planeload of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members has pitted immigrant activists against Trump. The administration is moving forward with the deportation of more than 250 individuals despite legal moves from the ACLU.
On Friday night, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allowed suspected gang members in the country illegally to be deported without a judicial hearing. The signing wasn’t promoted, but the media caught wind of it on Saturday morning. The ACLU quickly filed a lawsuit trying to stop the deportations &#8212; a court order issued by federal Judge James Boasberg temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting illegals under the 18th-century statute. By Saturday afternoon, however, the planes were already in the air, having departed from Texas to El Salvador, where the deported were to be housed in a prison for gang members. The Trump administration claims that by the time Judge James Boasberg’s order was issued, the flight was already outside United States airspace.
Border czar Tom Homan dismissed Judge Boasberg’s order, saying he and Trump will not stop until America is safe. “Every day, the men and women of ICE are going to be out there arresting criminal illegal aliens,” Homan said. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming.”
The Trump DOJ filed a response to Boasberg’s order contesting the authority of a single judge to halt national policy efforts. “Plaintiffs cannot use these proceedings to interfere with the President’s national-security and foreign-affairs authority.” One senior official told Axios that there were discussions in the administration about whether the planes needed to turn back, but after meeting with legal counsel, they decided they could proceed with the deportations.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that “if the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that&#8217;s a fight we are more than happy to take.” Trump and his team are testing the limits of executive power and likely expect this to be settled by the Supreme Court.
Judge Boasberg told the DOJ to provide details on the flights in a sworn declaration by noon ET today.
The Numbers: In the first 50 days of the Trump administration, ICE made more than 32,000 enforcement arrests, just a hair shy of the total number of arrests made in all of fiscal year 2024. Nearly half of those arrested were convicted criminals and about a third had pending criminal charges, meaning 75% of those arrested were accused or convicted criminals. Illegal border crossings also fell by 94% in February compared to the previous year, and illegal encounters at the Del Rio Sector declined by 99% since 2023.
<h2>Covid Lab Leak Proof</h2>
<div id="attachment_893205" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-893205" class="wp-image-893205 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1024x540.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="540" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-300x158.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-768x405.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1536x810.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-2048x1080.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />(Photo by Kobus Louw via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: We learned this week that the former head of the U.K.&#8217;s foreign intelligence agency told the British prime minister in early 2020 that COVID-19 escaped from the infamous Wuhan lab. The revelation follows reports out of Germany showing that its government allegedly had similar information, as did the United States and China.
This week, a memo sent by the former head of MI6 to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that as early as 2020, British intelligence believed that COVID was leaked from a Chinese lab and that the Chinese government was conducting an international disinformation campaign to avoid taking responsibility for an outbreak that would go on to kill millions of people.
The memo says, beyond a reasonable doubt, “the Wuhan Institute of Virology retro-engineered a bat virus in January 2020. We surmise that this was done to align with COVID-19 to sustain the natural causation narrative.”
The German Connection: A few days before the British announcement, two major newspapers in Germany revealed that the German foreign intelligence service, their version of the CIA, had also believed that there was an 80 to 90 percent chance that the coronavirus had leaked from a Chinese lab.
“The implications of this conspiracy &#8212; I think it&#8217;s the correct word in this case &#8212; are pretty significant,” independent journalist Michael Shellenberger told Morning Wire. “It would suggest that the U.S., U.K., Chinese, and German governments all knew that the virus escaped from the lab, arguably as early as January, and we had reported that the U.S. intelligence community had known, in fact, the names of the first three people to be infected by the Covid virus, and that didn&#8217;t come out.”
Congressional investigations <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114270/documents/HHRG-117-GO24-20211201-SD004.pdf">found</a> that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where COVID-19 is thought to have originated, received funding for gain-of-function research on coronaviruses from the American National Institute of Health.
Shellenberger told Morning Wire that the memo “obviously implicates a number of senior American officials, including Anthony Fauci, but it may have meant that our response to the virus may have been different had we known that it had come from a lab.” Fauci was issued a preemptive pardon by former President Joe Biden shortly before President Trump took office. Trump has argued that Fauci’s blanket pardon is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-declares-pardons-biden-gave-during-his-final-days-in-office-void">“void”</a> because it was signed with an autopen.

JAPAN-G20-SUMMIT

Morning Brief: Trump And Putin Talk Terms, Deportations Continue, And The Lab Leak Gets More Proof

Communist China

COVID

Deportations

Illegal Immigration

Politics

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel allegedly covered up a report from her country&#8217;s foreign intelligence service that concluded that the likelihood that the coronavirus pandemic originated from a Chinese lab was overwhelming.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), German&#8217;s version of the CIA, conducted an intelligence gathering operation dubbed “Saaremaa” that concluded that there was an 80%-95% likelihood that the pandemic originated during a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The findings were contained in a report from a joint investigation by two German newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, that alleged Merkel decided to keep the bombshell that she learned about in 2020 “under lock and key.”
Merkel likely made the decision to keep the explosive report secret at least in-part because she did not want to help President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election prospects in 2020 when much of the world resisted his well-founded claims that China was responsible for what happened.
The report and its coverup by Merkel are likely to sink her approval numbers even lower as she grapples with facing intense backlash over her disastrous policies that have wreaked havoc on her country and Europe.
The backlash against Merkel hit new levels after she wrote a new memoir hoping to “secure her crumbling legacy,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/angela-merkel-german-people-to-blame-for-the-problems-millions-of-refugees-are-causing">reported</a>, which noted that “the effort is backfiring.”
The more than 700-page book was “riling up even some of her most ardent supporters” because she does not believe that any of her failed policies were bad for the country — including allowing millions of Muslim refugees from the Middle East to be resettled in Germany.
Powerful German state broadcaster ARD titled the headline of their report on her book: “Much pride, little self-reflection.”
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party blame her directly for the problems that the country is facing and they say that her memoir is making things even worse.
“The publication of this unrepentant, self-righteous book at a time of economic and political turmoil like this is hurting [her political party],” said former senior Merkel official Nico Lange.
The report said that her approval rating has plummeted from her time as a popular elected official to someone that the German public has turned against. Her allies overseas have abandoned support for her, the report said.
The most shocking part of the report focused specifically on her retelling of why she allowed millions of Muslim refugees into Germany.
Merkel said that it was “fully irrelevant whether they had a right to stay in Germany or not” when she let them enter the country.
She then blamed the German people for the problems that the refugees have caused:
<blockquote>The consequences—failed integration, ballooning welfare spending, rising crime, political polarization—can be partly blamed, she writes, on Germans’ lack of “will to change.”
In the decade since she instituted her open-door policy, immigration has changed the face of Germany and its political dynamics. An average of around 400,000 immigrants—the population of a large German city—have entered each year, and Germany now spends as much on refugees as it does on defense.</blockquote>
The report noted that the phrase that Merkel repeatedly used to justify her failed policies — that she had “no alternative” but to do what she did — served as the inspiration for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

GERMANY-POLITICS-VOTE-MERKEL

Angela Merkel Covered Up Explosive German Intel Report Blaming Chinese Lab For Pandemic

Angela Merkel

Germany

Wuhan Institute of Virology

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039">Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, And Traitors Who Killed The California Dream And Now Threaten Us All</a>” By Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. (Center Street/Hachette, March 2025)
* * *
The Failed Progressive Vision
Under Newsom’s watch, violent crime in California has skyrocketed. Homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent in 2022, with gun‑related homicides and aggravated assaults soaring by 37.7 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively. The actual rates are likely much higher. Crime data only captures incidents reported to police, and many crimes go unreported.
The rapidly rising crime rates didn’t just occur in a vacuum. They directly correspond with Newsom’s decade‑plus‑long progressive experiment with criminal justice reform, which has resulted in far lighter sentences and the premature release of violent criminals from jail. After Newsom released tens of thousands of prisoners during COVID, ostensibly to prevent the virus from spreading among California’s incarcerated criminals, the state prison population dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to around 91,556 by mid‑2024. As we discuss in Chapter 4, Newsom has been accused of releasing these prisoners under a false premise. COVID death rates in the state­ corrections system have been markedly lower than in the outside population. Even as crime surges, Newsom’s administration estimates the prison population will drop to roughly 86,000 by 2028.
Newsom is not only emptying prisons; he is also shutting them down. His administration has closed or is closing four state prisons, and has plans to “reimagine and transform” San Quentin, the state’s oldest and most notorious prison (and previous home to the largest “death row” in the United States), into a rehabilitation center. “We are literally tearing down walls to reimagine our prison system, incentivize true rehabilitation, and end cycles of violence and crime,” Newsom said in a 2024 press release. “Brick by brick, we’re building a new future that will make all of us safer.” But Newsom cited no evidence that the state is growing safer because there is none. As we will explain in Chapter 5 the state’s corrections agency won’t disclose rehabilitation results for the years Newsom has served in review copy office. Again, Newsom and the progressives’ failed COVID policies exacerbated the problem. During the pandemic, when millions were out of work and the state had the highest unemployment in the nation, flash mobs of masked robbers stormed through the doors of Nordstrom and other high‑end retailers in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles, stealing thousands of dollars of purses, clothes, and jewelry. This type of organized retail theft has become such a massive problem that many retailers are closing their doors for good. By mid‑ 2024, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Office Depot, 7‑Eleven, and Denny’s all announced plans to close stores in downtown San Francisco or nearby Oakland. Starbucks and Target have also closed locations.
<div id="attachment_890669" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-890669" class="size-large wp-image-890669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.</div>
Newsom attributes business closures in downtown San Francisco to “macroeconomic” shifts, not rampant theft, drug use, and violent crime. In August 2023, downtown San Francisco was such a hotbed of crime, homelessness, and drugs that the US Department of Health and Human Services advised employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in the Tenderloin District to work remotely “for the foreseeable future.” Showing up for work at the building had become just too dangerous.
In January 2024, California’s homegrown, beloved burger joint, In‑N‑­Out Burger, announced that it would close a store for the first time in its ­seventy‑five‑year history, citing crime. The franchise no longer considered the store near Oakland International Airport safe for operation. “We feel the frequency and severity of the crimes being encountered by our customers and associates leave us no alternative,” the company said. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break‑ ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
Southern California isn’t faring much better. More and more businesses in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, even on once tony and vibrant Wilshire Avenue, have boarded up due to vandalism, crime, and homelessness scaring customers away.
“Mayor, we need your help. We need your help in this area,” Sean James, an independent contractor who runs a business in Santa Monica pleaded in an interview with a local Fox News affiliate.
The surge in violent murders, rapes, organized retail thefts, and other crimes that shock the conscience are directly the result of Newsom’s failed progressive vision and can be laid squarely at his feet. Back in 2014, when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he was the highest‑ranking official pushing the specific progressive ballot measure responsible for the chaos: Proposition 47. This was the George Soros–backed policy that decriminalized drug, property crimes, and even certain sex crimes. Prop. 47 turned theft of items valued under $950, and some drug offenses, from felonies to misdemeanors. Newsom vocally supported the progressive activists and organizations pushing Prop. 47, while his boss, then‑Governor Jerry Brown, remained quiet. The measure passed by a wide margin.
Despite the bedlam that has ensued, Newsom now seems in denial over the disastrous effects of Prop. 47. In early 2024, he revealed that he witnessed a shoplifter steal from Target without workers intervening to stop. When he confronted an employee about it, the woman blamed the California governor for passing laws that emboldened criminals — before realizing he was in fact the governor. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Newsom recalls asking the Target employee. “The governor lowered the threshold &#8230; there’s no accountability,” the employee said. Newsom’s description of the encounter was widely ridiculed for his failure to recognize the obvious truth in the Target employee’s accusation. 
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fool’s Gold</a>” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2025 by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter.
Susan Crabtree is senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Jedd McFatter is the director of research at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

California Governor Newsom Announces New Funding For Los Angeles Communities Affected By Wildfires

Newsom Let Thousands Of Prisoners Walk During COVID. Then Crime Skyrocketed.

Books

California

Crime

Criminal Justice

Democrats

Gavin Newsom

Leftists

Prisons

Progressivism

San Francisco

Violent Crime

President Trump recently signed an executive order to reinstate service members kicked out of the military for refusing to receive the COVID vaccine. The EO states they will be given their former rank, full back pay, and benefits. While this EO is a crucial first step, it doesn’t go far enough.
In addition to the provisions of the EO, an adjudication board, court martials, and support for those vaccine injured are needed to repair the considerable damage. To understand why the EO is insufficient to repair the military and restore trust, one must first understand the extent of the damage the mandate caused.
The mandate destroyed careers and upended lives. Over 8,000 troops were involuntarily kicked out for refusing to take the vaccine while tens of thousands more chose to leave after facing career hardships and the real possibility of being kicked out.
Service members’ religious rights were trampled as individual accommodation requests were dismissed wholesale in a manner so blatantly unconstitutional, injunctions were issued by federal judges to put a stop to these illegal practices. Meanwhile, troops with pending religious accommodation requests were de facto punished for even submitting an exemption as they couldn’t deploy, travel TDY (temporary duty), or PCS (permanent change of station) to future duty assignments.
The unvaccinated were harassed and suffered disparate treatment. They often had to wear masks while the vaccinated did not, were subjected to weekly COVID tests, were denied use of facilities such as the gym during certain hours designated only for the vaccinated, and were quarantined for extended periods of time. At some training environments, the unvaccinated were ordered to wear red wrist bands and red tape on their gear to indicate their “unclean” status.
Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his flag officers did everything in their power to coerce service members to get the vaccine and punish those who refused.
Even worse, some who received the COVID shot were medically injured, including with life altering ailments. The extent of this damage is unknown as information provided by the Department of Defense from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) has been incomplete.
To add insult to injury, the mandate was likely illegal as many troops claim no FDA approved product was available as required by 10 U.S. Code § 1107a.
All of this has no doubt contributed to the worst recruiting crisis in modern history.
Given this extensive damage, three things must be done to make this right.
First, there must be an adjudication board to repair the careers of affected troops. Those who refused the vaccine lost out on deployments, career enhancing schools, and promotions; received adverse paperwork for refusing to comply with a “lawful order”; and likely received bad evaluations for not being a “team player.” An adjudication board will assess these lost career opportunities and help affected service members get their careers back on track, not simply return them to their same rank. Failure to repair their careers would mean punishment even if they returned to service.
Second, to ensure this never happens again, flag officers who enforced this unlawful order and persecuted their subordinates must be held accountable through court martial. Trump’s service secretaries have the authority to conduct these court martials and can even recall retired flag officers to active duty so that they can be tried. Firing a few Generals so they can receive a fat retirement check and find jobs in the Military Industrial Complex won’t cut it. Their actions caused irreparable harm to service members and to restore trust, there must be real accountability.
Third, there must be an investigation into the health effects of the COVID shots on service members and medical compensation for those who have been vaccine injured. Troops, often against their will, were ordered to take an experimental shot with known negative side effects. Many of them now report adverse reactions and some of them experienced life altering ailments. These service members must receive TRICARE for life and the Department of Veterans Affairs must add reactions from the COVID shot to be covered as a Toxic Exposure Risk Activity (TERA) under the PACT Act.
President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are committed to making the military lethal and taking care of service members. This initial EO reinstating those kicked out with backpay is greatly appreciated. However, more needs to be done to repair the extensive damage, restore trust, and prevent similar overreach in the future.
With a better understanding of the harmful effects of the COVID vaccine mandate, I believe President Trump and Secretary Hegseth will seek broader repair and accountability. This must include an adjudication board, court martials, and care for the vaccine injured.
* * *
<a href="https://johnfrankman.com/">John Frankman</a> was a Captain in the U.S. Army who served as a Green Beret assigned to 7th Special Forces Group. On July 1st, 2023, he was forced out of the Army due to difficulties with the COVID 19 vaccine mandate.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Army Hosts Air Assault Operations Training Exercises At Fort Carson In Colorado

Why Trump’s Order To Restore Unvaccinated Troops Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Why Trump’s Order To Restore Unvaccinated Troops Doesn't Go Far Enough

Opinion

Pete Hegseth

President Trump

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

Vaccine Mandate

A North Carolina citizen group is asking the Trump administration to intervene after local leaders prioritized Hurricane Helene small business relief grants on the basis of race and sex. 
Western North Carolina Citizens for Equality filed a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/OCRUSTreasury.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaint</a> with the Treasury Department last month after Buncombe County announced that it would “focus” on supporting small businesses damaged by Helene that were “BIPOC” and “women” owned. Buncombe County, home to liberal Asheville, funded the program by using repurposed federal COVID relief funds. 
“In this situation, there is no doubt that Buncombe County intended to discriminate against white business owners in its Helene Relief Project. The County directed that the funds be used in manner that prioritizes one group of business owners over another based solely on skin color,” WNC for Equality President Carl Mumpower wrote in a civil rights complaint filed with the Treasury Department. 
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, all Democrats, <a href="https://www.buncombecounty.org/common/Commissioners/20241119/PH%203_PRESO_Helene%20Relief%20Small%20Business%20-%2011_19_24%201.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rolled out</a> its small business relief grant program in November, announcing it would prioritize helping businesses not owned by white men. The program would make business owners eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in repurposed American Rescue Plan funds.
The county said that the “focus” area of the small business support program would be “BIPOC-owned businesses,” “women-owned businesses,” and “sole proprietorships.” 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-876733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM.png" alt="" width="2719" height="1388" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM.png 2719w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-300x153.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-1024x523.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-768x392.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-1536x784.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-2048x1045.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2719px) 100vw, 2719px" />
From November 13-17, the county partnered with non-profit Mountain Bizworks to administer $1.5 million in funds appropriated for the program. The non-profit, which <a href="https://www.mountainbizworks.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that it focuses on working with  “people of color, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs” and <a href="https://www.mountainbizworks.org/about-us/equity-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">works</a> to promote “racial equity,” was also targeted in the complaint from WNC for Equality. 
“Further, Mountain Bizworks used the repurposed federal ARPA funds and furthered the County’s objective: culling applicants and awarding grant money based, in part, on the skin color of applicants. These actions are clearly illegal,” the complaint says. 
To evaluate businesses for relief, Mountain Bizworks <a href="https://archive.ph/uEpdn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> “scoring” criteria that included “underserved entrepreneurs,” which were defined as “women-owned businesses,” “businesses owned by people of color,” “veteran-owned businesses,” and lower-income individuals. 
The non-profit added that it would “prioritize independent small business owners who lack access to traditional funding resources” and that the application would be “equity focused.” A screenshot included in the complaint showed that both race and sex were required fields for the application through Mountain Bizworks. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-876739" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM.png" alt="" width="1712" height="963" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM.png 1712w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1712px) 100vw, 1712px" /></div>
Statistics shared by the county showed that grants were disproportionately awarded to women and minorities. Of the 137 awards given out, 28.5% were given to “minority owned businesses,” and 60.6 were given to “women-owned businesses.” The county is nearly 90% white, <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buncombecountynorthcarolina/RHI125223" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Census Data. 
The county did not respond to questions about how many applications were sent in and the demographics of the applicants 
Mumpower believes that the process not only violates federal law, but also Buncombe County’s own <a href="https://www.buncombecounty.org/i-want-to/contact/file-discrimination-complaint.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-discrimination law</a>. That ordinance describes discrimination as treating people differently for a number of different factors, including race and sex. 
He told The Daily Wire that he was &#8220;optimistic&#8221; that the complaint, filed on January 22, will get a fair hearing under the Trump administration.
“We want our local government to follow the law and not use color as a consideration for application for public dollars. And that’s all we want,” Mumpower told The Daily Wire. 
Because Buncombe County and Asheville are completely controlled by Democrats, Mumpower said they were “ruthless in their willingness to ignore the law” and believed they could get away with anything. He also said that his group has mainly seen a negative response from the broader Asheville community, an area that backed Kamala Harris by over 60%. 
“It’s very disappointing that a society has worked so hard to get color off the table as to how we measure one another that we would have so many misguided local leaders who are willing to ignore the progress we’ve made and even try to set us back,” he said. “It’s very ironic.”
President Donald Trump has been critical of the federal and local response to Hurricane Helene, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rips-into-fema-says-it-is-getting-in-the-way-of-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> that North Carolinians “were treated very badly by Democrats.” Most of his criticism has been aimed at FEMA, which he has floated getting rid of completely in favor of more state responsibility over natural disasters.

US-HURRICANE-HELENE

North Carolina Residents Ask Trump To Intervene After Officials Prioritize Hurricane Relief By Race

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Hurricane Helene

North Carolina

Treasury Department

Trump Administration

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans</a> announced on Tuesday the creation of a task force geared toward the investigation and declassification of covert government materials ranging from the assassinations of prominent figures in American history to the origins of COVID to UFOs.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) declared that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) will lead the &#8220;Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets&#8221; just weeks after President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an order to declassify the assassination files of former President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
&#8220;For too long, the federal government has kept information of public interest classified and the American people are demanding greater transparency. This secrecy has sowed distrust in our institutions,&#8221; Comer said in a statement. &#8220;The Task Force will build on the Trump Administration’s efforts to declassify records of national importance and ensure Americans get the answers they deserve. Representative Luna is committed to shining a light on the truth and ending the era of secrecy. It’s time to let the sunlight in and finally provide answers the American public has long demanded.&#8221;
A press release said the task force has been authorized for six months pursuant to committee rules, and members would be announced at a later date. The Oversight Committee also revealed a battery of <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Task-Force-Letters.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> that Comer and Luna sent to leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, seeking briefings in light of Trump&#8217;s order and noting they would then request to see relevant documents and make recommendations on the declassification process.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Signed</a> on January 23, Trump&#8217;s directive said the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General would have 15 days to &#8220;present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy&#8221; and 45 days to &#8220;review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Daily Wire, Trump said: &#8220;A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.&#8221;
The House Oversight task force announcement <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-discovers-thousands-of-secret-jfk-assassination-records-after-trump-order-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">followed</a> a report by Axios on Monday that said the FBI found thousands of records that were never submitted to a review board overseeing the release of documents related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
Luna, who was first elected to the House in 2022, has been a key player in the bipartisan inquiry into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly described as unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
&#8220;The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success,&#8221; Luna said. &#8220;It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve, which is why I am honored to lead this bipartisan task force that seeks truth and transparency. We will also investigate UAPs/USOs, the Epstein client list, COVID-19 origins, and the 9/11 files. We will work alongside President Trump and his cabinet members to deliver truth to the American people. From this moment forward, we will restore trust through transparency.&#8221;
During a press conference with Comer at the U.S. Capitol, Luna suggested the task force&#8217;s first area of focus will be on the John F. Kennedy assassination and then made a stunning assertion that cast doubt on Lee Harvey Oswald <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lee-harvey-oswald-tied-to-cia-before-jfk-assassination-investigator-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being the lone gunman</a>.
&#8220;I can tell you, based on what I’ve been seeing so far, the initial hearing that was actually held here in Congress was actually faulty, and the single bullet theory — I believe there were two shooters and we should be finding more information as we are able to gain access into the SCIF before the files are actually released to the public,&#8221; Luna said.
Watch the full press conference below:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Anna Paulina Luna Answers Questions About New Committee On Exposing Gov Secrets On 7 Major Events" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gPYl8yGHJj8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Reps. James Comer and Anna Paulina Luna

Luna To Lead New House Disclosure Task Force: JFK Files, Epstein List, UFOs On The Table

Congress

Donald Trump

James Comer

Jeffrey Epstein

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Martin Luther King Jr.

Transparency

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> said on Saturday that it now assesses that a lab leak from communist China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that upended the world several years ago.
The announcement came after CIA Director John Ratcliffe was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
&#8220;CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a neutral origin based on the available body of reporting,&#8221; the agency said in a statement. &#8220;CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.&#8221;
&#8220;We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA&#8217;s assessment,&#8221; the statement added.
The New York Times reported that the decision to reassess the origins of the pandemic came after the Biden administration &#8220;ordered a new classified review of the pandemic’s origin&#8221; during the administration&#8217;s final weeks in office.
Ratcliffe simply declassified and released the results of the assessment, thus dispelling insinuations that he politicized intelligence.
The report said that the new analysis comes after the agency took a closer look at the conditions inside high security labs in Wuhan before the outbreak.
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The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that the Biden administration suppressed information from U.S. intelligence agencies that indicated a lab leak in communist China was the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FBI was the only government agency that assessed that a lab leak was the likely source of the pandemic, and had “moderate confidence” in their evaluation. Four other government departments said they believed the pandemic had a zoonotic origin — meaning that it came from animals — but they said they had “low confidence” in their assessment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed Biden in August 2021, three months after Biden ordered a 90-day review to determine where the pandemic came from, the FBI was not asked to attend the meeting.
Jason Bannan, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joined the FBI after the 9/11 attacks to bolster its expertise in matters related to biological weapons, chemical weapons, and more.
“Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,” Bannan told The Wall Street Journal. “I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.”
The Wall Street Journal investigation found that officials in the Biden administration sought to keep certain information from becoming public about the lab leak theory, and that the FBI was not the only agency that thought the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-suppressed-info-from-intel-agencies-that-blamed-lab-leak-for-covid-19-pandemic?fbclid=IwY2xjawICJ79leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfYqpb8faFYISrCbu8EPdkibKpSIvH9IJKNtMSzQ7kh1Z9dtv9ZIErsn7w_aem_wqZibq2ln1O3VS02dDEVqA">Biden Admin Suppressed Info From Intel Agencies That Blamed ‘Lab Leak’ For COVID-19 Pandemic</a>

John Ratcliffe

CIA Assesses Chinese Lab Leak Responsible For Coronavirus Pandemic

World

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Wednesday that it was rescinding the policy requiring legal immigrants to receive the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a> vaccine in order to further the process.
On the agency&#8217;s official <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/i-485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government website</a>, an alert was issued detailing the policy change, dated January 22, 2025, and effective immediately.
&#8220;Effective January 22, 2025, USCIS waives any and all requirements that applicants for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident present documentation on their Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that they received the COVID-19 vaccination,&#8221; the announcement read.
&#8220;USCIS will not issue any Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) related to proving a COVID-19 vaccination. USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination,&#8221; it continued.
The policy change applies to immigrants who are in the United States legally and are attempting to change their immigration status.
Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines responded to the news, saying, &#8220;HUGE NEWS. Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants. I can&#8217;t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years. Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, @realDonaldTrump.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
HUGE NEWS. Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants.
I can&#39;t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years.
Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. <a href="https://t.co/WBn47PgTQS">https://t.co/WBn47PgTQS</a> <a href="https://t.co/k5cBNnKrOt">pic.twitter.com/k5cBNnKrOt</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1882153729178402852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gaines included her previous post, dated just one day prior, in which she&#8217;d shared a letter her husband — a legal immigrant from the United Kingdom — had received from USCIS denying him just such a status change because he&#8217;d not had the COVID vaccine.
&#8220;Just got another letter from USCIS saying they won&#8217;t give my husband his green card until he gets the Covid jab. This is ridiculous. We&#8217;ve been married coming up on 3 years. We&#8217;ve spent thousands for the submitted forms to expire on their time. We&#8217;re hoping for change soon,&#8221; she said at the time.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just got another letter from USCIS saying they won&#39;t give my husband his green card until he gets the Covid jab.
This is ridiculous. We&#39;ve been married coming up on 3 years. We&#39;ve spent thousands for the submitted forms to expire on their time.
We&#39;re hoping for change soon🤞🏼 <a href="https://t.co/OMUDJzATGQ">pic.twitter.com/OMUDJzATGQ</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1881776147094286785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Organizations Logo Illustrations

Trump Slashes COVID Vax Requirement For Legal Immigrants

COVID-19 Vaccine

Immigration

Riley Gaines

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/greg-gutfeld">Greg Gutfeld</a> labeled the media&#8217;s “lockstep anti-Trumpism” one of the “most destructive” movements of the last decade, making it clear that in his mind, “wokism” was not the only one.
In a rather lengthy piece he dropped Tuesday on <a href="https://x.com/greggutfeld/status/1874117618249957480">X</a>, the Fox News host wrote that when a person looks back at the “horrible decisions” made in the last ten years related to things like crime/illegal immigration chaos, COVID, and even the mental competence of President Joe Biden, they need not look further than how it was all “excused or denied” by the legacy media to justify their “irrational opposition” to President-elect Donald Trump.
“Crime. If you admitted that progressive policies energized criminality and cost many innocent lives &#8211; that would put you on the side of Trump,” Gutfeld wrote for one of his examples. “‘So, you can&#8217;t do that,’ decides the media, so theft and violence became routine. Recidivism exploded.”
“Immigration. If you admitted that unfettered illegal immigration stressed all our country&#8217;s systems, as well as introducing more violent crime — that would put you on the side of Trump,” he added. “‘You can&#8217;t do that,’ decides the media. So, it kept going, and people died.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
the most destructive movement of the last ten years wasn&#8217;t just wokism. it was the media&#8217;s lockstep anti-trumpism. think about all the horrible decisions related to the biggest calamities we faced. they were excused or denied by the media, because of their irrational opposition…
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) <a href="https://twitter.com/greggutfeld/status/1874117618249957480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
“COVID. If you admitted that COVID came from China, likely a lab leak — then you were on the side of Trump,” Gutfeld continued. “‘So you [can&#8217;t] do that either — that would be racist,’ said the media. Instead, we embraced absurd notions about bat soup.”
Gutfeld pointed out that if a person reported on the idea that Biden “was unfit for office” that was just another example that “you were siding with Trump.”
He said those in the media decided that reports “must say that Joe is better than ever, and those who disagree are cruel,” which resulted in “a rudderless country sinking in chaos.”
“Looking back — it&#8217;s obvious. A mass delusion driven by bitterness, ego and an emotional infantilism brought this country to the brink,” the Fox News host said. “So when the media starts hitting the panic button, laugh at them. They caused this mess. We&#8217;ll clean it up. They no longer matter.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/f-you-to-alvin-bragg-greg-gutfeld-megyn-kelly-justine-bateman-react-to-penny-verdict" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘F*** You To Alvin Bragg’: Greg Gutfeld, Megyn Kelly, Justine Bateman React To Penny Verdict</a>

Rob Schneider Visits “Gutfeld!”

Greg Gutfeld Labels Media’s Anti-Trumpism ‘Most Destructive Movement’ Of Last Decade

Celebrities

Entertainment

Greg Gutfeld

Joe Biden

Media

President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration suppressed information from U.S. intelligence agencies that indicated a lab leak in communist China was the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report.
Jason Bannan, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joined the FBI after the 9/11 attacks to bolster its expertise in matters related to biological weapons, chemical weapons, and more.
The FBI was the only government agency that assessed that a lab leak was the likely source of the pandemic, and had &#8220;moderate confidence&#8221; in their evaluation. Four other government departments said they believed the pandemic had a zoonotic origin — meaning that it came from animals — but they said they had &#8220;low confidence&#8221; in their assessment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed Biden in August 2021, three months after Biden ordered a 90-day review to determine where the pandemic came from, the FBI was not asked to attend the meeting.
“Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,” Bannan <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/fbi-covid-19-pandemic-lab-leak-theory-dfbd8a51">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. “I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.”
The Wall Street Journal investigation found that officials in the Biden administration sought to keep certain information from becoming public about the lab leak theory, and that the FBI was not the only agency that thought the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.
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Adrienne Keen, a State Department official who had worked privately for the U.N.&#8217;s World Health Organization (WHO), advocated for taking the WHO&#8217;s report on the origins of the pandemic seriously. China blocked the WHO from looking at key evidence to determine the origin of the outbreak and concluded that the pandemic had a zoonotic source.
The Trump administration withdrew from the WHO because it promoted disinformation from China about the pandemic, and it failed to hold China accountable for its numerous lies about COVID-19.
Keen left the State Department to become the director for Global Health Security for the National Intelligence Council, which was &#8220;given a central role in organizing the report&#8221; for Biden on the origins of the pandemic.
Former Acting Assistant Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno, who served during the Trump administration, told Sky News last year that Keen &#8220;was very involved in discrediting the information that we were trying to present to the Secretary of State.&#8221;
&#8220;I had found out that apparently she was an outside advisor also to the World Health Organization, they are a political agency,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/us-intelligence-official-linked-to-who-was-critical-in-downplaying-covid-lab-leak-theory-during-joe-bidens-90day-probe-into-virus-origins/news-story/70cec8fe1513491a421d45b12b45a8e7">said</a>. &#8220;They&#8217;re a UN agency. So it&#8217;s just not appropriate to do work for a foreign power. And that would include the United Nations.&#8221;
FBI experts argued in favor of a thesis by Yu Ping, a scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), that the exact coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was not native to Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, the report said. That specific coronavirus is found in bats located nearly a thousand miles away in Yunnan. The theory states that if the zoonotic origin theory is correct, cases of COVID-19 should have been first detected in the area between Yunnan and Wuhan where hundreds of millions of people live. No cases were detected there and the first cases were reported in Wuhan, not far from the WIV.
Keen strongly pushed back on this theory and claimed that the absence of cases was not relevant, the report said. She claimed that the Chinese did not have the surveillance tools to detect outbreaks in those areas — a claim that the FBI pushed back on.
Sky News noted that Keen did not respond to questions about whether she &#8220;disclosed the conflict of interest in working for the WHO to&#8221; the U.S. government.
Leading scientists at the National Center for Medical Intelligence, which falls under the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that the coronavirus was genetically altered in a Chinese lab and that the pandemic originated in a lab leak. The center is responsible for analyzing health threats to the U.S. military, including infectious diseases, biological weapons, and more, The Wall Street Journal investigation reported.
WSJ continued:
<blockquote>Three scientists there—John Hardham, Robert Cutlip and Jean-Paul Chretien—conducted a genomic analysis that concluded that the virus had been manipulated in a laboratory. Specifically they concluded that a segment of the “spike protein” that enables the virus to gain entry into human cells was constructed using techniques developed in the Wuhan lab that were described in a 2008 Chinese scientific paper. That was an indication, they argued, that the Chinese scientists were conducting “gain of function” research to see if the virus could infect humans.
Hardham was a Ph.D. and Navy reserve captain, while Cutlip, a longtime DIA scientist, had a doctorate in biomedical engineering and had served on a White House task force on the virus during the Trump administration. Chretien, a U.S. Navy doctor, had worked on biodefense for the White House and had been in charge of the pandemic warning team for the center.
They briefed their counterparts, including one of Bannan’s partners, an FBI agent with a Ph.D., on their initial findings. But in July 2021 they were instructed by a superior at the medical intelligence center not to continue sharing their work with the FBI, which they were told was “off the reservation,” according to people familiar with the matter. That order was earlier reported by The Australian.</blockquote>
The Australian&#8217;s Sharri Markson, who was also behind the Sky News segment, <a href="https://x.com/SharriMarkson/status/1694646897162785010">reported</a> last year that 90% of the information submitted by the National Center for Medical Intelligence for the report was cut out.
Then-DIA director Retired Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier did not answer questions from the Journal about whether he knew of the scientists&#8217; conclusions or efforts to censor them.
The DIA Inspector General’s office opened an investigation into the suppression of the scientists&#8217; work.
The Department of Energy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-intel-prompts-energy-dept-to-assess-covid-likely-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-report">joined</a> the FBI last year in assessing that the pandemic came from a Chinese lab.
John Ratcliffe, the former director of the ODNI, says that the pandemic originated from the Wuhan lab.
&#8220;Listen the people that had the most access to the most intelligence, including myself and secretary Pompeo, are telling you that the most likely origin of COVID-19, of the Wuhan virus was what happened&#8230; Was a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/us-intelligence-official-linked-to-who-was-critical-in-downplaying-covid-lab-leak-theory-during-joe-bidens-90day-probe-into-virus-origins/news-story/70cec8fe1513491a421d45b12b45a8e7">said</a>. &#8220;So all of the people that had access to the most data, the most intelligence, will all tell you the same thing.&#8221;

The President And First Lady Host First White House Conference on Women’s Health Research

Biden Admin Suppressed Info From Intel Agencies That Blamed ‘Lab Leak’ For COVID-19 Pandemic

China

Pandemic

Wuhan

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/musician">Music industry</a> celebs Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Marshmello, and others are being accused of misusing funds distributed during the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19">COVID</a> pandemic meant to help struggling artists survive ongoing shutdowns.
An extensive <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12">report</a> from Business Insider noted that these musicians applied for and received funds after President Donald Trump signed the grant into law in 2020. Other musicians and groups mentioned in the report include Alice in Chains, Shinedown, hip hop duo Rae Sremmerd, and Steve Aoki.
The Shuttered Venue Operations Grant (SVOG) allowed artists to collect up to $10 million to cover “ordinary and necessary” expenses. As part of the agreement, they were required to make a good-faith statement to the Small Business Administration and show that their companies had lost a minimum of 25% of revenue between one quarter in 2019 and the same quarter in 2020, the outlet noted.
The report accused Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter Jr., of accepting $8.9 million through the SVOG and spending $1.3 million on private jets, more than $460,000 on designer clothes, and $2.14 million to pay a debt he owed to his former manager. He also stands accused of spending more than $175,000 on a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA.
BI alleged that Brown collected $10 million for his company, CBE Touring. From that, the rapper reportedly paid himself $5.1 million. He also reportedly used $80,000 to host his birthday party. 
Marshmello, whose real name is Christopher Comstock, was approved for a $9.9 million grant, the outlet noted. That money was allegedly all given to him as salary, which was permitted under grant conditions because it did not exceed the amount of money he made the previous year.
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DJ and record producer Aoki’s company, DJ Kid Millionaire Touring, allegedly spent $2.4 million of their approved grant money on payroll, including a $1.9 million chunk for Aoki himself. 
Shinedown band members reportedly took $8.3 million total and split $2.5 million three ways to pay themselves. Rae Sremmurd allegedly took $7.7 million in all.
The outlet noted that 13,000 groups received money from SVOG. The SVOG <a href="https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/shuttered-venue-operators-grant/about-svog">website</a> says the program included more than $16 billion in grants. Originally, musicians weren’t eligible for the grants, but that decision was later changed.
As of Thursday, none of the artists mentioned in the article had responded to requests for comment or publicly discussed the accusations.

Lil Wayne

Rappers, Musicians Accused Of Using COVID Grants For Private Jets And Parties: Report

Chris Brown

Music Industry

New York Jets QB <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-didnt-bow-down-aaron-rodgers-slams-journalists-who-he-says-are-still-upset-he-didnt-take-covid-jab">Aaron Rodgers</a> took a jab at critics of his game and said they should first reveal their vaccine status so that everything said after that can be “put in the right light.”
During ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, Rodgers <a href="https://x.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1869101645180895533" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> before journalists, sportscasters, broadcasters, etc, discuss the status of his game or his quarterbacking skills, they need to state the status of their COVID vaccine.
“Say whatever the f*** you want about me. But just before you do it, whether you state your name, or your accolades … just state your vax status,&#8221; Rodgers explained. &#8220;So that anything you say afterwards gets put in the right light.”
“Because then when you say things about me, people can at least be like, ‘Oh, you are captured by the multi-billion dollar propaganda pysop and you are still upset about it,’” he added. “Just so everybody knows where you are coming from. Everybody knows, okay cool, you are twice-vaxxed Moderna with three boosters shots, and then &#8230; say what you want to say, I don’t care, whatever.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;I just got a PSA..
Just a quick reminder&#8221; 😂😂 ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/AaronRodgers12?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AaronRodgers12</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PMSLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PMSLive</a> <a href="https://t.co/6dI6X86Hwp">pic.twitter.com/6dI6X86Hwp</a>
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1869101645180895533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
“I’m just saying a PSA &#8212; just please help everybody out who’s wondering ‘where’s this coming from’ including myself. &#8230; Then say whatever the hell you want to say about me, because I couldn’t give two s***s about it,” Rodgers continued. &#8220;All I care is that you put that little disclaimer out there … instead of your accolades that you need to have out there so desperately, just put your vax status as well, you know, since you care so much about it during the COVID years.”
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It was clear from the host’s mannerisms that he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the new PSA from Rodgers and said sarcastically, at one point, “This is good. This will settle it all down.”
It is the latest ribbing from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-didnt-bow-down-aaron-rodgers-slams-journalists-who-he-says-are-still-upset-he-didnt-take-covid-jab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NFL star</a> against journalists whom he previously said are “still mad I’m COVID MVP. Not just the two MVPs that I won because I didn’t bow down to the medical industrial complex and the mass formation psychosis and I decided to make a decision that was in the best interest of my health. They’re still trying to get their jabs in.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aaron-rodgers-says-hes-been-cast-as-the-villain-over-covid-stance">Rodgers</a> made headlines in 2021 when he was accused of misleading comments about his vaccination status, saying he was “immunized.” However, it was later revealed that he had not been vaccinated.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-didnt-bow-down-aaron-rodgers-slams-journalists-who-he-says-are-still-upset-he-didnt-take-covid-jab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘I Didn’t Bow Down’: Aaron Rodgers Slams Journalists Who He Says Are Still Upset He Didn’t Take COVID Jab</a>

Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers Takes Jab At Critics Of His Game, Telling Them To Reveal Their Vax Status First

Football

New York Jets

Sports