Ever wondered what fuels each state’s economy? In most cases, the biggest industry is either real estate or manufacturing.

This Markets in a Minute graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross, in partnership with Terzo, highlights the industry contributing the most to GDP in every state.

The Biggest Industry Ranking

Real estate powers the economy in over half of states. This is largely because the Bureau of Economic Analysis treats homeowners as landlords renting to themselves, and includes the rental value in GDP. If economists did not include this value, a jump in the homeownership rate would cause GDP to drop. 

On top of this, the real estate industry includes rent paid by renters, property taxes, construction, remodeling, and brokers’ fees.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Data for the 2024 calendar year. Some industry names have been shortened including real estate and rental and leasing; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; federal civilian and state and local government; and professional, scientific, and technical services.

In second place, manufacturing is the biggest industry in 13 states. Its prominence is heavily concentrated in the Midwest and the South thanks to the long history of the sector in some states, large plots of available land, and government support.

Rare Economic Leaders

Outside of real estate and manufacturing, some industries are the top GDP driver in a much smaller number of states.

For instance, finance and insurance is the biggest industry in New York, Delaware, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Over half of publicly-traded U.S. companies incorporate in Delaware thanks to balanced and flexible corporate laws, a business-friendly environment, and a respected legal community. In South Dakota, financial services are drawn to the state’s business-friendly taxes and trust laws that can shield families from inheritance taxes indefinitely. 

Mining and oil and gas creates the biggest economic output in three states. North Dakota is the third-largest crude oil producer in the country, while Wyoming and West Virginia are America’s top two coal producers.

The government is the biggest GDP driver in D.C. and Oklahoma. Lastly, professional and technical services (Massachusetts), information (Washington), and transportation and warehousing (Alaska) were the top industry in one state each.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge on July 31 blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

TPS is a designation that allows individuals from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary events to remain in the United States.

In a 37-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson of the U.S. District Court in Northern California ordered that protections for immigrants from those countries remain in place until the next hearing on Nov. 18.

Thompson stated that the plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence showing that DHS’s decision to terminate TPS designations for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua was predetermined, rather than based on an “objective review” of conditions such as the impact of natural disasters that hit those countries.

While DHS had argued that extending TPS for those countries would undermine U.S. foreign policy and national interests, Thompson said the agency failed to identify which interests were at stake.

“The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all plaintiffs seek. Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees,” the judge stated.

Thompson stated that immigrants from the three nations could face irreparable harm if TPS is terminated, including loss of employment, health insurance, and family separation. The government had argued that they could apply for lawful status.

People are making fun of this moronic opinion for being written at the level of a 9th grade essay, but I’m just glad it clearly wasn’t written using AI. Call me Mr. Brightside. https://t.co/PE4r9Kormr

— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) August 1, 2025

The plaintiffs are TPS holders from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua.

They alleged that DHS’s decision to end the program violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.

Jessica Bansal, attorney at the National Day Laborer Organization, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement that they welcomed the court’s decision to postpone what they described as “cruel and illegal” termination of TPS designations.

“This ruling gives us strength, affirms the power of organizing, and reminds us what’s at stake: the right to stay in the only home many of us have ever known,” Teofilo Martinez, a Honduran TPS holder and one of the plaintiffs, said in the statement.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Honduras and Nicaragua were designated for TPS in 1999 following the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. The designations for both nations had remained in place due to disruptions to living conditions.

DHS stated in July that TPS designations for Honduras and Nicaragua would end 60 days after the agency published its notices in the Federal Register on July 7, noting that the countries’ current conditions no longer warrant protection under the program. The agency estimated that about 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans are covered by TPS.

“Temporary Protected Status was never meant to last a quarter of a century,” a DHS spokesperson stated on July 7. “The impacts of a natural disaster impacting Nicaragua in 1999 no longer exist. The environmental situation has improved enough that it is safe enough for Nicaraguan citizens to return home. This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that TPS remains temporary.”

Nepal was granted TPS in 2015 after a major earthquake that affected a third of its population. The designation was later extended and, according to DHS, covered about 12,700 Nepalese nationals, of whom 5,500 have since become lawful permanent residents in the United States.

DHS planned to terminate Nepal’s TPS on Aug. 5, citing improvements in the country’s disaster preparedness and response capacity.

Honduran and Nicaraguan nationals had been advised to use the CBP Home app to report their departure from the United States and take advantage of a self-deportation process that includes a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus, and an opportunity to legally migrate to the United States in the future, according to statements issued by DHS.

On May 19, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with ending TPS for more than 300,000 Venezuelan nationals, potentially paving the way for other TPS terminations to occur.

Via JonFleetwood.com,

According to a new study published last week in NPJ Vaccines, Japanese researchers engineered an entirely new strain of bird flu, combining the genetic material of two separate wild viruses to create what they call Vac-3: a pathogen that is “a reassortant virus between A/duck/Hokkaido/101/2004 (H5N3) and A/duck/Hokkaido/262/2004 (H6N1).”

This lab-built virus—A/duck/Hokkaido/Vac-3/2007 (H5N1)—was never observed in nature.

It was artificially assembled, grown in eggs, concentrated, and inactivated with formalin to become the whole-particle vaccine used in long-term testing on nonhuman primates.

The new study comes after NIH-funded researchers at the University of Georgia, Mount Sinai, and Texas Biomed were caught engineering lab-made H5N1 bird flu viruses—one of which killed 100% of exposed mammals—using synthetic DNA constructs and then deliberately infecting live dairy cows, all under the same $59 million federal contract that has also been tied to mammal-adapted, drug-resistant strain development.

Japan is also working with U.S. scientists on other projects to build lab-made horse-human influenza hybrids that replicate 100 times faster than natural strains using aborted fetal cells engineered with the cancer-linked SV40 virus, also under the banner of vaccine development.

All of these developments raise fears that another man-made pandemic is on the horizon, as Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, and the CIA have acknowledged that a lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is most likely the origin of COVID-19.

An Engineered Virus with New Properties

The new Japanese paper highlights that this bird flu Frankenvirus triggered significantly stronger immune responses than existing flu vaccines.

It did so by retaining its full genetic structure, including viral RNA, which stimulated toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and a cascade of innate immune activation.

“WPVs contain single-stranded viral RNAs that stimulate innate immune receptors such as toll-like receptor 7,” the authors write.

This means the lab-built virus was left fully intact so it could shock the immune system into overdrive, triggering a much stronger reaction than normal flu shots.

Unlike conventional “split” vaccines, which separate viral proteins from RNA, Japan’s whole-particle vaccine (WPV) preserved the virus’s full anatomy.

This allowed it to activate dendritic cells, induce interferon-producing T cells, and stimulate somatic hypermutation—a powerful, but risky, rewiring of the immune system.

In short, the new virus didn’t just train the immune system—it reprogrammed it.

Gain-of-Function Without Calling It That

While the researchers don’t use the phrase “gain-of-function” that’s effectively what this is: the creation of a chimeric virus with novel immunological features.

The Vac-3 strain was not isolated in the wild.

It was constructed by merging influenza genes from unrelated alleged viruses, giving the final product new, enhanced abilities—especially in triggering memory immune responses.

A White House Executive Order from May 2025 defines “dangerous gain-of-function research” as scientific work on infectious agents that can cause disease by enhancing their pathogenicity or transmissibility.

Importantly, the Order explicitly includes research that can:

• “[disrupt] beneficial immunological response or the effectiveness of an immunization against the agent or toxin” (meaning altering how the immune system responds to the virus), and,

• “[enhance] the susceptibility of a human host population to the agent or toxin.”

This means that GoF research includes altering the virus in ways that affect the immune response—either by weakening it or by increasing the harm caused through immune interaction.

So, engineering a virus to produce a stronger or otherwise altered immune response in hosts falls under this definition because it modifies the virus’s interaction with host immunity, which could have significant health consequences.

Biosecurity Risks Ignored

Researchers infected macaques with a human-lethal strain of H5N1 five years after vaccination with Vac-3 to test long-term immunity.

The challenge virus—A/Vietnam/UT3040/2004 (H5N1)—was said to have been isolated from a patient who died from the infection.

This raises serious biosafety concerns.

The experiment involves:

• Genetic engineering of a virus that never existed before

• Testing it on nonhuman primates

• Challenging them with a highly lethal H5N1 strain in a BSL-3 lab

This is gain-of-function-adjacent research, cloaked in vaccine development.

Why This Matters

As avian influenza outbreaks spread across continents and headlines warn of a possible H5N1 human pandemic, it’s critical to ask:

How many of these outbreaks are caused by wild strains, and how many involve viruses manufactured for vaccine research?

Governments and scientific institutions continue to play with viral fire, creating unnatural pathogens and injecting them into animals to test vaccines that may never see approval.

The result is a growing infrastructure of high-stakes, high-risk bioengineering, all under the banner of public health—without public awareness or consent.

An unidentified orange object seen in the surveillance video near the jail cell of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on the evening before his death has prompted a flurry of questions from forensic experts.

The pixelated shape, first witnessed by CBS News, is seen shifting towards Epstein’s cell block at the Metropolitan Correctional Center around 10:40 p.m. According to federal investigators, the object was a corrections officer “carrying linen or inmate clothing.” However, experts told CBS News that it could in fact be an inmate wearing a jumpsuit.

“Based on the limited video, it’s more likely a person in an [orange] uniform,” Conor McCourt, forensic video expert, said in a statement to CBS.

“To say that there’s no way that someone could get to that, the stairs up to his room, without being seen is false,” Jim Safford, another forensic expert, told the news network.

Jeffrey Epstein was discovered deceased in his cell on August 10, 2019. An official autopsy, corroborated by a joint investigation from the Department of Justice and FBI, concluded that the disgraced financier died by suicide through hanging.

In a statement to CBS News, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said the footage does not change its conclusion on Epstein’s death.

“Our comprehensive assessment of the circumstances over the weeks, days, and hours before Epstein’s death included the effects of the longstanding, chronic staffing crisis in the [Bureau of Prisons] and the BOP’s failure to provide and maintain quality camera coverage within its facilities,” the statement to the outlet read. “As CBS notes, nothing in its analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions or recommendations.”

Conor McCourt, a retired NYPD sergeant and forensic video expert, told CBS News, “Based on the limited video, it’s more likely it’s a person in an [orange] uniform.”

A cursor and a menu appear on screen and the video is sped up. 

The Justice Department said the FBI seized the prison’s digital video recorder system, or DVR, containing the raw footage five days after Epstein’s death. When federal officials released the jail video, they attested that it was “raw footage,” but the presence of a cursor and onscreen menu raise questions about that. Experts told CBS News those images indicate the video was likely a screen recording rather than an export directly from a DVR system. -CBS News

Earlier July, the joint DOJ-FBI memo declared an “exhaustive review” of evidence from Epstein’s death definitively ruled out murder.

“After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019,” the memo reads.

The agencies also brazenly denied the existence of a “client list” tied to Epstein, directly contradicting earlier remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi had previously suggested on Fox News that such a list was “sitting on my desk” for review, igniting speculation about Epstein’s possible blackmailing of globalist elites.

The memo has sparked outrage among President Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, with Tucker Carlson and Laura Loomer leading the charge in demanding accountability.

Trump has repeatedly sought to dismiss the scandal, accusing Democrats of fabricating a hoax around Epstein to thwart his agenda.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Democratic members are again claiming that they can demand access to any federal facilities without approval or even notice to a given agency.

We saw previously how Rep.  LaMonica McIver stormed an ICE facility and allegedly assaulted an officer.  She and others claimed that they had the right of entry without the pre-approval of the agency. Now, after another attempted entry at an ICE facility in Baltimore, an array of Democratic members have sued over their denial. The lawsuit is, in my view,  fundamentally flawed, but the members appear to be hoping for another obliging judge.

Both sides could be adopting Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s position outside of the ICE facility that “This is BS, plain and simple.”

This week, Van Hollen and several other House and Senate Democrats showed up in Baltimore at the Fallon Federal Building and demanded entry. The group included Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and four members of Maryland’s House delegation: Reps. Glenn Ivey, Johnny Olszewski, Sarah Elfreth and Kweisi Mfume. They then carried out a brief sit-in outside of the door and Van Hollen even objected that the sign said “Welcome,” but they were not welcomed.

As with McIver, the Democrats insisted that they could just show up at any federal office or facility and demand access as a matter of oversight authority. If that were the case, members could barge into any executive office from the White House to the weather service without warning or approval. No court has ever recognized such authority since it would eviscerate the inherent powers of the Executive Branch in our tripartite constitutional system.

The complaint offers a jumbled collection of claims and is poorly conceived and crafted, in my view.

The most relevant seems to be Section 527(a) of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118–47), which states that:

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Homeland Security by this Act may be used to prevent…a Member of Congress…from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”

The Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Act also included a provision that states “the Department of Homeland Security may require that a request be made at least 24 hours in advance of an intent to enter a facility described in subsection (a).”

First, even if constitutional, this provision only applies to facilities that are used to “detain or other house aliens.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contested that status in past protests. Second, the law cannot, and arguably does not, give carte blanche for instant access. An agency can demand notice to allow it to protect the security and safety of personnel and visitors. DHS can argue that it is not denying entrance so long as they are given notice in advance.

The issue is not the right to inspect but the right to instant access. Of course, the members filed in Baltimore and may hope for a judge who is more accommodating than scrutinizing on authority.

The members could argue that oversight, at times, requires inspections without prior warning to prevent the loss of evidence or agency efforts to conceal poor conditions. However, if the Congress can force such immediate access to ICE facilities, it could presumably demand such access on any federal property. All agencies are subject to the oversight of one or more congressional committees. That sweeping authority runs against the grain of Article II and can create dangerous and obstructive elements for federal officials.

Courts are tasked with reading laws narrowly to avoid such constitutional questions. The question is what constitutes “preventing” under the law. The Administration is not denying access, just requiring advance notice.

This sets up a conflict between Article I and Article II authority. The Administration will argue that immediate and unrestricted access to any ICE facility intrudes on the ability to exercise executive authority. In my view, there must be some area for reasonable limitations on the exercise of oversight authority. What is absolutely clear is that members cannot seek, as did Rep. McIver to force their way into facilties.

Here is the lawsuit: Neguse v. ICE

US envoy Steve Witkoff has made an unprecedented visit to Gaza on Friday in order to personally inspect humanitarian aid sites and assess the growing humanitarian crisis.

Under Israeli security, Witkoff entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah to visit a a US-backed aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – which is protected by American security contractors. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is also present, as was previewed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Thursday press briefing.

“Tomorrow, special envoy Witkoff and Ambassador Huckabee will be traveling into Gaza to inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground,” Leavitt had said.

Witkoff says he is going to brief the president based on his fact-finding mission in the strip amid growing international pressure, and after the UN’s human rights arm had publicized that as of mid-july 674 Palestinians had been killed “in the vicinity of GHF sites.”

Huckabee and Witkoff’s statements have so far been sparce on details but have been generally positive, despite most of Gaza having been leveled and with the majority of Palestinians internally displaced and with many starving.

“We received briefings from the IDF and spoke to folks on the ground,” Huckabee wrote on X. “GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!”

Huckabee earlier stated that the visit to Gaza was “to learn the truth” about the aid distribution sites, also after the United Nations complained it’s been sidelined and that aid is not getting in. Israel has consistently accused the UN of allowing aid to fall into the hands of Hamas and armed criminal gangs.

And Witkoff wrote on X, “Today, we spent over five hours inside Gaza — level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions, and meeting with @GHFUpdates and other agencies.”

“The purpose of the visit was to give POTUS a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,” he added. But Hamas has condemned what it’s calling a “staged personal visit” and a photo opportunity:

Via American Greatness,

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that a California law requiring background checks for individuals purchasing ammunition is unconstitutional, upholding a previous judge’s ruling striking down the law.

The background check for ammo purchases law had been struck down twice by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez before a lawsuit was brought by a coalition of gun owners and gun rights groups who sued the state, saying that the law infringed on the Second Amendment rights of Californians.

The wins just keep on coming – COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT says California’s rule for ammunition background checks for every purchase is unconstitutional.

H/T Police Frequency on TG pic.twitter.com/xuWAt3JC9A

— Department of Winning (@DeptofWinning) July 24, 2025

In Thursday’s ruling upholding Benitez’s permanent injunction blocking the law, Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote in the majority opinion that the law was not consistent with how the country has historically regulated firearms, saying, “By subjecting Californians to background checks for all ammunition purchases, California’s ammunition background check regime infringes on the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.”

In the dissent, Judge Jay S. Bybee said that the background check law did not constrain the right to keep and bear arms as a blanket ban might do and that the inconvenience to ammo purchasers was minor.

Bybee wrote, “The vast majority of (California’s) checks cost one dollar and impose less than one minute of delay.”

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed against the background check requirement is Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, who posted on social media, “This is a huge win. The state will likely appeal en banc, so we have to keep fighting, but this law will fall!”

California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed his frustration with the ruling, saying, “Strong gun laws save lives — and today’s decision is a slap in the face to the progress California has made in recent years to keep its communities safer from gun violence. Californians voted to require background checks on ammunition and their voices should matter.”

The policy of background checks for ammo purchases stems from a 2016 ballot measure intended to expand California’s notoriously strict gun regulations.

The issue brings into focus the question of whether the inherent right to defend one’s life can be abridged without probable cause, by a simple majority vote on the part of the public or whether those rights are protected from the will of the majority.

According to the Los Angeles Times, both the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court have significantly restricted gun control measures in just the last decade.

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to bring the Presidential Fitness Test back to public schools with the stated goal of “fostering a new generation of healthy, active citizens.”

The Order directs the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition to create school-based programs “that reward excellence in physical education and develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award.”

The fitness test was first initiated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 and became a part of American physical education classes from 1956 until the 2012-2013 school year.

The original fitness test required students to complete a range of physical challenges, including sit-ups, pull-ups, standing broad jump, and 50 yard dash and the top 15 percent were recognized with various awards and certificates.

President Barack Obama retired the Presidential Fitness Test and replaced it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, which removed  achievement awards and emphasized individual progress over excellence.

“This Order ensures American youth will have opportunities at the global, national, State, and local levels that emphasize the importance of an active lifestyle, good nutrition, American sports, and military readiness,” Trump’s order states.

The president’s order directs the Council to “partner with professional athletes, sports organizations, and influential figures” to help him achieve  “a national culture of strength, vitality, and excellence for the next generation by promoting the physical, mental, and civic benefits of exercise and good nutrition.”

To that end, Trump was joined by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, golfer Bryson DeChambeau, wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and former football player Cody Campbell for a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Thursday afternoon.

“Excited to do my part to help Make America Healthy Again, to help our youth be healthy, and thrive, and grow up, and be great citizens of this country and be great family members and contribute to this great country,” said Butker. “You have to be strong in mind, in body and in soul.”

Taylor indicated that he wasn’t quite sure of what he was being asked to do, but said he was happy to serve the president.

“I don’t know why, I don’t know what we supposed to be doing, but I’m here to SERVE, and I’m here to serve YOU [President Trump],” he said. “I’m gonna do the best I can for as long as I can.”

HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. stressed that it was important to “reinstill a spirit of competition and that commitment to nutrition  physical fitness,” and thanked Trump for bringing the Presidential Fitness Test back.

The president signed the executive order flanked by other several cabinet members and Vice President J.D. Vance.

“It is not signed with autopen. There’s no autopen,” Trump cracked. “We don’t want autopens in the White House.”

Some 154,000 workers accepted buyouts offered by the Trump administration, an official said on Aug. 1.

A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed the number, which represents about 6.4 percent of the government workforce, in an email to The Epoch Times.

As Zachary Stieber reports for The Epoch Times, starting shortly after President Donald Trump took office, the government told workers they could receive eight months of paid leave for not working if they left their jobs at the end of September.

“The federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes. As a result of these changes and uncertainty, or for other reasons, some employees may wish to depart the federal government on terms that provide them with sufficient time and economic security to plan for their future,” workers were told in a Jan. 28 memo issued by OPM.

“The Deferred Resignation Program was a necessary step toward a smarter, leaner, more effective government,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

He called the program “a practical, humane, and voluntary option to accelerate workforce transitions in a system that desperately needed movement,” noting that fewer than 6,000 employees were removed from the 2.4 million workforce in 2024 for bad behavior or poor performance.

The program will ultimately save the government $20 billion or more annually, Kupor said.

The White House declined to comment.

Critics say the program was wasteful.

Senate Democrats said in a report on Thursday that they estimated it cost billions of dollars to implement the program, primarily to pay employees during the months of leave, part of $21.7 billion they said was wasted by efforts led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Businessman Elon Musk helmed DOGE initially, although he has since left the administration.

“At the very same time that the Trump administration is cutting health care, nutrition assistance, and emergency services in the name of ‘efficiency’ and ‘savings,’ they have enabled DOGE’s reckless waste of at least $21.7 billion dollars,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, who released the report, said in a statement.

Kupor said the report wrongly suggested that officials should never reduce government spending because of one-time costs and ignored how the one-time costs led to ongoing savings.

“It’s backward logic like this that got us in our current financial dire straits—$7 trillion in annual spend[ing] (up 50% since 2019) and $36 trillion in total debt (increasing to the tune of $2 trillion per year)!” he said.

The deferred resignation program mirrors private sector restructuring, he also said.

Along with the program, the government has fired tens of thousands of workers under a Trump order to eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity.

Top officials have said that further cuts are planned in the future.

Via The Cradle

China expressed “shock” and “disappointment” on Friday over the US decision to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) the day before. 

“We feel disappointed at, and can’t understand the US move,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, adding that the question of Palestine “is at the heart of the Middle East issue.”

Jiakun also described the Palestinian struggle as “a matter of international fairness and justice,” while urging Washington to move toward “taking responsibility” for implementing UN resolutions on Palestine. He stressed that the Palestinian issue is at a “crucial and historic juncture.”

“China firmly supports the just cause of the Palestinian people in restoring their national rights (and) the PA’s effective jurisdiction overall of Palestine’s territory, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he added, calling on Washington to “not do the reverse.” He went on to say that a two-state solution is the “comprehensive, just, and lasting solution.”

The US announced the imposition of sanctions on the PA and PLO on 31 July, accusing them of undermining peace efforts. Those targeted by the sanctions will be slapped with visa denials. It did not name who exactly was being sanctioned. 

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,“ the US State Department stated. 

Washington called out the PA for “taking actions to internationalize” the conflict with Israel, including through the International Criminal Court (ICC). It also accused Ramallah of “supporting terrorism.“

The PA was formed after the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO – led at the time by Yasser Arafat. The agreement was meant to pave the way for eventual Palestinian statehood, and saw the PLO abandon armed resistance against Israel. 

The years that followed saw Israel rapidly expand illegal settlements and solidify its illegal occupation of the West Bank. 

The PA, for years, provided stipends to the families of Palestinians (often those responsible for attacks) killed or jailed by Israel. Washington and Tel Aviv accused the PA of supporting terrorism – and in February this year, Ramallah revoked the stipend law in line with US and Israeli demands. 

The PA has been at the center of efforts to set in place a solution for post-war Gaza. While Israel continues to reject Ramallah’s return to governing the strip, Arab states have been pushing the idea of a reformed PA assuming power in Gaza and sidelining Hamas. 

Washington has also called on the PA to launch reforms, among them revoking the stipend law. 

Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee and close confidant of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, was appointed as Vice President of the State of Palestine on April 26.

The move was meant to represent a PA leadership reform, but was strongly criticized by several Palestinian factions as illegitimate. 

China has played a role in mediating between Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the PA Fatah party, with the goal of reaching a consensus on dealing with the issue of post-war Gaza.