Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

During the past week I’ve been watching the frenzy over Donald Trump’s cabinet confirmations, specifically because the fabric of his cabinet will give us insight into how the next four years of his presidency will play out. One hearing that I found very interesting was Pete Hegseth’s. The level of hostility on display by Democrats entered the realm of slander.

Hegseth was barely confirmed as the Secretary of Defense with Vice President JD Vance making the tie breaking vote. The political left (and some Neo-Cons) seems to HATE this man in a special way, and initially I had difficulty understanding the real reason why.

Hegseth’s opposition to trans membership in the armed forces is surely one reason, but Trump is removing such mentally unstable people from the military regardless. His opposition to women in combat roles might piss off some feminists but the majority of American war fighters agree with him and every concrete study done on mixed gender combat units has shown terrible results.

Then, I watched a debate between progressive commentators vs Michael Knowles and Dave Rubin which illuminated the situation. The conversation was strangely focused on leftist accusations against Hegseth’s supposedly nefarious tattoo and how it relates to the Christian crusades.

The fury over Hegseth, in my view, gives us a peak behind the curtain at what the establishment truly fears, and their fear is triggered by unabashed Christianity. But not just that – It’s Hegseth’s veneration of old Christianity and a time when Christians controlled much of the known world. People like Hegseth are usually obstructed from entering government because they are standard bearers of a philosophy which terrifies globalists.

Is Hegseth a proponent of Christian empire? Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. However, if he is, I wonder if that would be such a bad thing?

The above debate is predicated on classic revisionist propaganda largely conjured by “anti-colonial” academics in the 1990s; a part of the growing Political Correctness and Deconstructionist movements in universities that eventually became the woke monstrosity we are dealing with in 2025. This propaganda has become so ingrained in our educational consciousness that most people today have no knowledge of the crusades, they only know that “crusades = bad”.

The first Christian Crusade is perhaps one of the most important events in western history and one of the most neglected by our academic institutions. The prevailing narrative today is that the crusades were a mindless murderous rampage by Europeans trying to steal the Holy Land from innocent Arabs. This is complete nonsense.

As Michael Knowles points out, the Holy Land, most of the Levant region, northern Africa including Egypt and all lands around the Mediterranean were ruled by Christians from 300 AD onward. This was the old Roman Empire which converted to Christianity officially in 323AD. Yes, that’s right, most of the Middle East and Northern Africa were Christian for centuries.

This Christian realm, which included what we now know as Israel, was split in two during an event called “The Great Schism” in 1054 AD between the Catholics in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East.

The divide created territorial weaknesses which were swiftly taken advantage of by Muslim conquerors when they captured the Holy Land in 640 AD.  Islam, founded by the warlord Muhammad in 610 AD, had united the tribal Arab world under a single religious banner, but also a philosophy of conquest. The Muslims, directed by at least 109 verses in the Quran that call for the subjugation of non-believers who refuse to embrace Islam, set out to capture all of Christendom.

Over the course of a few decades the Islamic armies spread throughout the Levant and Africa, and even began taking lands in Europe including parts of Spain. Christians were persecuted under Muslim rule and often enslaved. Christian cities were sacked and lands stolen. When the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos asked Pope Urban II for help, the Pope called for Christians to unite and end the Schism.

The East called for aid and the West would answer in 1095 AD. If the crusade was unsuccessful the fall of Christianity was assured.

Without the war to retake Christian lands, Europe as we know it would not exist and much of our world would probably look like one big Taliban village. This frightening prospect is obscured by outliers, events which ended in tragedy or crime. As in all war, villains can pop up on both sides. That said, there would have been no crusades without the Muslim invasions.

Today we face another ideological and cultural invasion, but this time the conditions are more complex.

I believe the progressive attempt to memory-hole the historical record of the Crusades is designed to prevent a new united western world. One could argue that religion is no longer the uniting factor that it once was, and ten years ago I would have agreed. But things are starting to change and if you have a discerning eye you might see, as I do, a movement forming ahead of us that is increasingly spiritual, not secular.

Regardless of how you might feel about Donald Trump, the cultural shift surrounding his return to office cannot be denied. After four years of Biden and Harris trying to institute medical tyranny, instigate a mass immigration crisis, label conservatives a “threat to democracy” and force woke cultism into daily life, it seems as though Americans have had enough. There has been a dramatic evolution within our society; a recognition that we are on the verge of destruction if we continue on the current progressive/socialist/relativist trajectory.

The west stands at the edge of a precipice. I suspect it’s the kind of moment that Pope Urban II witnessed in 1095 AD. Witnesses that wrote accounts of the period describe it as a kind of miracle, a coalition to save civilization from a looming dark age of barbarism. This is how many of us in conservative circles feel now:  That there are great changes coming to erase generations of trespasses if we are willing to seize the day.

In 2025 a lot more people treat leftist ideology and globalism with disdain rather than complacency. The borderless multicultural agenda of the elites is finally facing substantial opposition, at least in the US. I would also argue that there has been a resurgence of interest in Christianity and Christian history; a natural consequence of Americans rediscovering their western cultural roots.

For thousands of years most of human civilization has been a cesspool of primeval domination. There have been no innocent empires, white, brown, it doesn’t matter. The core of nearly every empire has been war, slavery and genocide. The strong have always sought to subsume the weak. Every group of people has engaged in the most sickening of behaviors.

Africans were enslaving each other long before Europeans arrived on the scene. American Indians were participating in slavery, tribal warfare, human sacrifice and cannibalism as a way of life long before white Europeans showed up in their boats. The Chinese and the Mongols were committing the mass slaughter of peaceful kingdoms for most of the Middle Ages, yet progressive historians ignore these events in favor of admonishing the Christian Crusades.

Arabs were some of the worst perpetrators of human bondage and their treatment of the people they conquered made the slavery of early American history look quaint. Often misrepresented as the “Islamic Golden Age”, it is a modern academic myth that Muslims brought “peace and prosperity” and coexistence with them as they sacked the Levant and Europe. Anyone not adhering to Muslim belief was subject to brutality.

Today the west faces a takeover from within as much as it faces a takeover from without. Our own governments have been engaged in covert sabotage, flooding our borders with migrants from the third-world and inviting in ideologies and politics that are completely antithetical to western ideals. Many of these people come have one foot in the archaic.  They don’t believe in things like equality, they believe that predators must rule and victims must submit.

Inviting such people into the US and Europe is clearly an agenda to destroy our civilization through foreign saturation. No government does this by accident.  At the same time there has been a progressive/communist insurgency operating in our midst, funded by globalist interests using corporations and non-profit institutions as support structures for the revolution.

They don’t want a stand-up fight because they know they would lose. Rather, they are seeking to weaken our foundations, to demoralize us so they can pillage at will once we are broken and self-loathing. This is most evident in the UK and Europe where people with common sense are looking from afar at the positive changes in America with a sense of longing. They feel like they’re being left behind – A sacrifice to the multicultural behemoth.

This begs the question: Is saving America enough? Or is it time for a new and perhaps final crusade?

Leftists often talk about “tolerance” and accuse conservatives of going against their Christian fundamentals by refusing to remain apathetic to those who engage in destructive behavior. The political left and globalists speak of tolerance because it goes hand-in-hand with degeneracy. With tolerance comes social decline into debauchery and evil, which is what they most desire.

Tolerance is about suffering through the crimes and violations of others without expecting an eventual correction. Tolerance has NEVER been a Christian value. Rather, the Bible teaches of compassion, and many times it is more compassionate to correct a bad behavior than let it continue. Spare the rod spoil the globalist. We call it “tough love” and it’s necessary for the survival of humanity.

The first crusade was far more than just a geopolitical effort by governments to take back lands that were stolen; it was a massive spiritual correction. It was an endeavor which inspired great unity of purpose among common people. In fact, it was the common people, not the monarchies, that made the first crusade possible. If this kind of event were to happen again it would have to be grounded in similar high minded purpose and populism.

It’s hard to say if such inspiration is possible anymore. I think in America it certainly is, but Europe is questionable. There are growing efforts by conservative leaning parties to defend western values in the EU but they are being met with a vicious totalitarian opposition.

It’s not coincidence that Europe has been overrun with third-world migrants, most of them Muslim, in the past decade. These groups are acting as a blunt weapon, used by the elites to silence dissent by native born citizens.

As I write this the British are being subjected to increasing Orwellian oppression. The AFD party in Germany is under threat even as they grow more accepted by voters; progressive elites are seeking to ban them from elections entirely. The French establishment is using lawfare against their political opposition in the National Rally party and they are working to subvert voter demands. Both Germany and Romania claim they have the right to ignore election outcomes if conservatives continue to win.

There is a coordinated effort across Europe to stop conservative groups from entering government. The only place where the tide has truly turned is in the US (and perhaps Argentina). But we still face a long road and government reform is slow. A movement outside of politics will be needed.

The great fear among centrists and libertarians is that a religious inspired movement will result in theocracy. I share these apprehensions. Yes religious institutions can be corrupted because institutions are controlled by men, but this is true of ALL institutions. How well has secular leadership performed in the past century? Yeah, not so great.

The idea of “separation of church and state” was never intended to remove Christian influences from government. It was designed to prevent government from interfering with individual religious expression. America was founded under Christian doctrine and Christian leadership. A return to that dynamic would be welcome, as long as personal freedom (freedom with responsibility) is maintained.

Make no mistake, the enemy has been trying to build their own religious empire. The woke movement is driven by self worship and the worship of bureaucratic power. Behind the curtain they are not secular and they have more zealotry than any cult in recent memory. They claim to be atheistic and progressive in their principles, yet they happily ally with third-world fundamentalists that hold completely contrary beliefs. Why? Because Islam is not a threat to their ultimate aims; Christianity is.

If a new crusade were to happen, it would have to start here in America. However, if we were to “take up the sword”, as it were, we can do so knowing we are not alone. There are million upon millions of westerners around the world that would welcome us.

There is a deep desire in our society for a return to principles; a need for purity of purpose. I see it daily. People are lost and they need a compass. The question is, who will give it to them? The Luciferian globalists? The woke cultists? The Islamic horde? Or us?

*  *  *

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In a very unexpected development Denmark is now working directly with Russia’s Gazprom to do environmental mitigation on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, in the wake of the multiple underwater blasts that took them offline on September 26, 2022 – leading to years of accusations against Moscow and a Russia-West tit-for-tat.

Denmark’s energy agency has granted Nord Stream 2 AG (which is under Gazprom) permission to engage in preservation work on Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea. The agency described that there remain serious safety risks after the natural gas pipeline was filled with seawater and the remnants of natural gas.

“The work aims to preserve the damaged pipeline by installing customized plugs at each of the open pipe ends to prevent further gas blow-out and the introduction of oxygenated seawater,” Denmark’s energy agency said.

The $11 billion pipeline project to pump Russian gas to Germany was hugely contentious for years, with Washington opposing it, before it was blown up in a ‘mysterious’ sabotage operation.

The Western mainstream media has since backed off its repeat accusations that Moscow must have blown up its own vital pipeline, in light of revelations and a recent consensus that it was either a team of Ukrainian specialists on a ‘rogue’ yacht or else a major CIA op with help from the US Navy.

While Scandinavian countries were once leading the accusations and investigations against Moscow related to the sabotage, suddenly Denmark appears to be working with ‘pariah’ Russia. All of this is happening as Washington still has far-reaching sanctions on Russia as well as the NS2 Russian operator, Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 AG.

“The damaged line of NS2 is estimated to still contain approximately 9-10 million cubic meters of natural gas, while the intact line remains filled with gas, the Danish agency said,” Reuters notes. “The United States in December issued further sanctions on the operator and other Russian entities saying it considers Nord Stream 2 a Russian geopolitical project and opposes efforts to revive it,” the report adds.

This has raised the crucial question of whether the Russian entity’s supposed environmental mitigation efforts are but cover to eventually revive the controversial project.

This brings up other questions of context and timing. After all, the Danish government is currently locked in a very public battle and war of words with the new Trump administration over Greenland’s sovereignty. Is the tiny NATO country of Denmark in search of any and all possible leverage?

From close US ally to lashing out…

“When the CIA wanted to tap Angela Merkel’s phones, Denmark was there.

When Biden decided to blow up the Nord Stream, in whose waters did he do it? Denmark’s.” https://t.co/zGwvCGRNXy

— Американец 📉 (@ripplebrain) January 7, 2025

And given the Ukraine war increasingly seems unwinnable from the Western perspective, is it time for a European reset vis-a-vis Russia and its heavily relied upon natural gas?

The following hit Politico on Tuesday:

France has discussed with Denmark sending troops to Greenland in response to United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex the Danish territory, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.

Asked about calls to send EU troops to Greenland, Barrot said in an interview with France’s Sud Radio that France had “started discussing [troop deployment] with Denmark,” but that it was not “Denmark’s wish” to proceed with the idea. 

Barrot’s comments came as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was in the middle of a lightning tour of European capitals to drum up support from allies in dealing with Trump.

Essentially, at the very moment Denmark is trying to “drum up support” within Europe to stand up to Trump, the Danish government goes from condemning Russia’s sanctioned Gazprom to working with it and authorizing it to do work on NS2.

But likely there will be a shrug from the White House, given the current broader context is Trump is trying to get Moscow to the negotiating table in hopes of quickly winding down the Ukraine war.

Europe has gone from relying entirely on cheap Russian gas to relying entirely on expensive US LNG pic.twitter.com/C4UiUH1W81

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 1, 2025

But the Trump administration also has some clear interests of its own related to the ongoing NS2 saga and whodunnit ‘mystery’, as the above demonstrates.

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched a number of “targeted enforcement operations” in major cities, yielding hundreds of arrests per day since its campaign began.

On day one in office, Trump issued sweeping actions to combat illegal immigration, including deployment of military personnel to the southern border and deportations targeting those with a criminal record nationwide. Additionally, Trump declared a national border emergency and issued an order to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens or those on temporary status visas.

Reporter:

How many illegals who were arrested have criminal records?

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

All of them since they broke the law to enter the country.

YES. This is the ONLY way to answer this question! pic.twitter.com/Oas3D6RC16

— Shawn Farash (@Shawn_Farash) January 28, 2025

Planned Operations

According to ICE’s account on social media platform X, targeted enforcement operations involve “planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety.”

Since Jan. 23, when ICE began posting Trump administration updates on social media, the account has regularly shared single-day statistics detailing the number of illegal immigrants arrested or detained on specific days.

The first update announced 538 arrests and 373 detainers lodged on Jan. 23. The next day brought slightly higher figures, with the department’s announcement of 593 arrests. On Jan. 25 and 26, the agency announced 286 and 956 arrests, respectively. That brings the total arrests announced by the agency to 2,373 for the first week of the new administration.

ICE issued a statement on Jan. 26 about the arrests, explaining that it “began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”

ICE said it was working with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Chicago

Multiple federal agencies launched immigration enforcement operations on Jan. 26 in Chicago. Federal officials were present in the city to observe the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration enforcement, including Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.

ICE did not offer figures for how many illegal immigrants it has arrested in Chicago. However, the city began to prepare for immigration enforcement days before the Jan. 26 arrests began.

Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke out about the operations in a post on X: “We’ve received reports of ICE enforcement activity in Chicago today. Please know that Chicago police were not involved. My team and I are working closely with City officials.”

Denver

The DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division worked with ICE and other federal officials to arrest 41 illegal immigrants from a “makeshift nightclub” in a Denver suburb on Jan. 26.

During the arrests, agents seized drugs—including cocaine—and weapons. The agency reported that a number of those found at the event are connected to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Houston

Houston’s DEA division posted on social media on Jan. 26 several photos of arrests carried out with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and DHS officials to make an unspecified number of arrests.

Newark

In Newark, local officials allege that ICE carried out an enforcement operation and illegally arrested workers at a local fast food distribution center, with Mayor Ras Baraka asserting that in addition to the detention of three non-citizens, some of those detained were citizens, one of which was allegedly a military veteran.

ICE Newark did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles DEA also confirmed via social media on Jan. 26 that it carried out an immigration enforcement operation with the DOJ and DHS as well as other law enforcement agencies.

Arrests of illegal immigrants have also been reported by federal agencies in San Antonio, Miami, Detroit, Omaha, Phoenix, and Atlanta.

Other Arrests

ICE has also released details on specific arrests of criminal illegal aliens, including the arrest of a man in Houston. Nestor Flores Encarnacion, a 58-year-old illegal immigrant, was wanted in Mexico for the rape of a child and is said to have entered the United States illegally on multiple occasions.

“This foreign fugitive brazenly entered the U.S. in violation of our nation’s laws on four separate occasions to evade prosecution in Mexico for allegedly raping a child,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret A. Bradford.

On the same day, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations San Francisco arrested an illegal immigrant and Guatemalan national convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. He was since arrested for several crimes in the United States between May 2021 and November 2024, when he was convicted of sex with a minor and lewd acts with a minor.

Border Czar

Trump’s newly appointed border czar Tom Homan has taken a straightforward approach to immigration enforcement, saying in a Jan. 21 interview on CNN that ICE will prioritize the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants with a criminal record. He said, however, that the enforcement would not be limited to those illegal immigrants with a criminal background.

“That is the difference between the last administration and this administration: ICE is going to enforce immigration law. There’s nothing in the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] that says you’ve got to be convicted of a serious crime in order to be removed from this country,” Homan said.

“[ICE officers] know exactly who they’re looking for, and they have a pretty good idea where they’ll find them.”

The Associated Press and Lawrence Wilson contributed to this report.

In a huge development which significantly raises the stakes for any future potential Trump-backed negotiations related to seeking ceasefire in the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin has said that he won’t negotiate with Ukraine so long as President Volodymyr Zelensky is in power, and on the other side of talks.

“If he wants to take part in negotiations, I will select such people, it’s not an issue. The question is about the final signing of the documents,” Putin said in a state broadcast TV interview on Tuesday. He argued that because of canceled elections Zelensky’s legitimacy has expired, and this means he “does not have the right to sign anything.”

Early in the war Zelensky had authorized a decree outlawing peace negotiations with Moscow. This happened in 2022 and there have not been direct engagements since, other than UAE-brokered POW swaps.

It was actually Zelensky who long ago declared that it is Putin who is illegitimate, and that Ukraine won’t enter peace negotiations so long as Putin is in power. It appears the Russian leader is now using the same tactic to turn the table, and create additional leverage at a moment Trump is pushing for talks and a final deal.

“On the question of the final signing of the documents…there cannot be a single mistake or wrinkle. Everything must be polished,” Putin emphasized.

But Putin in the fresh comments did leave an opening. “If there is a desire, any legal question can be resolved. So far, we simply don’t see such a desire” from the Ukrainian side, Putin stressed.

Essentially Putin is saying Zelensky would have to ‘move first’ to cancel that prior law banning talks with Putin’s government. This could by why the Kremlin is slow-playing Trump overtures which are meant to encourage everyone to get to the negotiating table.

Zelensky days ago claimed that Putin is trying to “manipulate” Donald Trump. According to a summary of the latest back-and-forth:

Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday: “Regarding negotiations, we have always said—and I want to emphasize this again—that we are ready for talks on the Ukrainian issue.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Friday: “[Putin] wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace. I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed anymore.”

Institute for the Study of War said in a Russian offensive campaign assessment on Friday: “Putin is once again attempting to obfuscate his unwillingness to participate in good-faith negotiations to end the war by blaming Ukraine for defending itself against Russia’s invasion and illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.”

It remains clear to all that Russia is making constant gains on the battlefield in Ukraine’s East. The Economist (of all publications) has in a fresh headline admitted that Ukraine front lines are crumbing…

Amid talk of a ceasefire, Ukraine’s front line is crumbling — @TheEconomist

Yet another thing you weren’t allowed to say would happen without being called a Russian agent — until 3 minutes ago when everyone started admitting it was happening.https://t.co/dPuqAnGgwf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 28, 2025

Putin further explained in the Tuesday interview, “Negotiations factually began immediately after the start of the Special Military Operation. Initially, we told the Ukrainian leadership at the time that the people of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics don’t want to be part of Ukraine. Leave these territories, and that’s it, that’s where it ends. No fighting, no war.”

Thus Putin has made clear that these territories have been absorbed into Russia, and that Moscow will never give them up. The Kremlin has also rejected as a non-starter any deal that includes a roadmap for Ukraine’s every into NATO, even if in twenty years (as reports of Trump’s peace plan have said). Moscow is signaling it plans to take its time in the face of Trump’s urgings to get to the negotiating table. But likely, Trump’s envoys are currently engaging Russian envoys on the parameters of potential talks.

Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek, which triggered a sharp drop of AI-related stock prices on Jan. 27, is showing heavy bias in favor of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to an analysis by The Epoch Times.

When given the same questions, ChatGPT provided detailed answers including both sides of any given argument, while DeepSeek provided brief answers reminiscent of the CCP’s state-controlled media reports. It outright refused to answer questions about human rights.

The China-trained AI model also evaded questions on topics deemed sensitive by the CCP, including “What’s The Epoch Times?”

For years, the CCP has censored and attacked The Epoch Times as it frequently reports on the regime’s extensive human rights abuses.

DeepSeek, an AI startup based in Zhejiang, southern China, unsettled AI investors this week because new open-source AI models it released on Jan. 20 appear to be much more cost-effective and energy-efficient than its competitors.

On Jan. 27, the app overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.

This has raised doubts about the reasoning behind some U.S. tech companies’ decision to pledge billions of dollars in AI investment, and shares of several big tech players, including Nvidia, have been affected.

Testing the AI assistant on Jan. 27, The Epoch Times gave DeepSeek and ChatGPT about a dozen identical questions, five of which the Chinese app left unanswered.

“Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope, Let’s talk about something else,” DeepSeek responded to four questions. They were: “What do Chinese people think of Xi Jinping?” “What’s the U.S. Falun Gong Protection Act?” “What’s the White Paper movement?” and “What’s The Epoch Times?”

Asked “What happened in Beijing on June. 4, 1989,” instead of bringing up the massacre of student protestors on Tiananmen Square, the app responded: “I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.”

Chat GPT gave detailed answers to each question.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in July 2024, when he was in the U.S. Senate, introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act, which targets those responsible for China’s state-sanctioned harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience, including practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline. A companion bill was passed by the House of Representatives in June 2024.

The White Paper movement, or A4 movement, was a wave of protests across China in 2022 against the CCP’s extreme COVID-19 lockdowns. The protests were triggered by a fatal apartment fire in Xinjiang, during which victims were reportedly locked inside a building because of COVID-19 restrictions and fire engines were said to be delayed by lockdown barriers. Chinese people overseas also held rallies to support the protests in China.

However, DeepSeek did answer two variations of the question in relation to the White Paper movement, saying the movement “reflects the Chinese people’s active engagement in social affairs and their exercise of the right to freedom of speech within the framework of the law,” without making any reference to the COVID-19 lockdown, the fire in Xinjiang, and the CCP’s suppression of the movement.

To three of these questions, DeepSeek initially provided answers but quickly replaced them with a refusal to comment.

For example, when asked “What is the Epoch Times?” DeepSeek initially said the media company is “known to publish content critical of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China.”

Asked whether the Chinese regime has backed IP thefts from the United States, DeepSeek said that such allegations “are unfounded and not in line with the facts” and that the Chinese regime “has always been a staunch defender of intellectual property rights and has made significant progress in establishing a comprehensive legal framework for IP protection.”

IP theft is one of the reasons the Trump and Biden administrations imposed tariffs on goods originating from China, effectively ending the country’s permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status.

In 2018, a review by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) found that the Chinese regime had engaged in a range of harmful and unfair trade practices, including forced technology transfer and state-sponsored cyberattacks stealing U.S. trade secrets.

A 2022 review by the USTR said the Chinese regime “largely took superficial measures” to reduce negative perceptions and had “persisted and even become more aggressive, particularly through cyber intrusions and cybertheft, in its attempts to acquire and absorb foreign technology.”

DeepSeek provided similar type of answers when asked why Trump wants to revoke China’s PNTR status, and the app’s AI denied allegations of human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Hours after signing an executive order restricting transgender service in the US military, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order banning the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, in a move that takes direct aim at pediatric gender transition treatments.

The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” yanks federal funding for so-called gender-affirming care. The EO prohibits federal funding, support, or promotion of pediatric ‘gender-affirming’ medical interventions.

It outlines detailed measures across multiple federal departments, including Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), to curtail treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender-related surgeries for individuals under the age of 19. –Tampa Free Press

According to the report, the order includes:

• Defunding Medical Institutions: Federal research and education grants will be withheld from hospitals and schools performing pediatric gender-transition treatments.
• TRICARE Coverage Restrictions: The Department of Defense will exclude these treatments from military health insurance programs.
• Insurance Policy Changes: Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs will bar coverage for transgender-related pediatric surgeries or hormone treatments.
• Consumer Protection: The DOJ is directed to prioritize investigations into deceptive practices or misinformation regarding long-term effects of gender-affirming care, including potential fraud or violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing impressionable children,” reads the order, which describes such procedures as a “stain on our Nation’s history.”

BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump signs executive order protecting children from chemical and surgical transition:

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it… pic.twitter.com/S40oeX1GVd

— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) January 28, 2025

The order also calls for a comprehensive review of scientific evidence surrounding gender dysphoria, and calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to publish updated guidance within 90 days. The Trump administration will replace the existing standards – such as those issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which the order deems lacking in “scientific integrity,” the Free Press continues.

The executive order represents a significant escalation in the administration’s broader campaign to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as gender-related policies, in government and public life. It builds upon earlier executive actions restricting DEI programs and eliminating gender-affirming policies in federal agencies and education.

The order also authorizes federal law enforcement agencies to challenge states that support gender-affirming care for minors or policies that strip parental custody over disputes involving a child’s medical treatment. It tasks the DOJ with drafting legislation to allow parents and children affected by such procedures to file lawsuits against medical professionals. –Tampa Free Press

And of course, we’re sure it’s only a matter of hours before civil rights organizations file lawsuits to allow parents and doctors to continue abusing confused children.

Dramatic footage on X shows a Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet crashing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. The pilot is reported to have ejected safely.

Here are more details from local media outlet Anchorage Daily News:

An F-35 fighter jet crashed early Tuesday afternoon at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, according to an official there.

The pilot was not injured in the crash, which occurred around 1 p.m., according to Airman 1st Class Spencer Hanson.

“They cordoned off the area where it crashed on the runway,” Hanson said. Emergency services including ambulances and fire trucks were in the area, he said.

A statement from the 354th Fighter Wing’s public affairs office Tuesday afternoon described an “aircraft incident” that resulted in significant damage and occurred within the base fence line.

“The pilot is safe and has been transported to Bassett Army Hospital for further evaluation,” the statement said.

Footage of the mid-air incident shows the stealth fighter jet falling out of the sky:

JUST IN: F-35 fighter jet crashes at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. The pilot survived pic.twitter.com/zEuPNY8jqk

— BNO News (@BNONews) January 29, 2025

*Developing… 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A U.S. prosecutor said on Jan. 27 that he’s investigating why federal prosecutors brought a felony obstruction charge against hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in an internal email ordered a review of the matter, directing employees to hand over files, emails, and other documents.

Martin wrote that the use of the charge, obstruction of an official proceeding, was “a great failure of our office.” He ordered the supervisors to provide a preliminary report on the matter to him by Friday.

“We need to get to the bottom of it,” Martin wrote. He’s calling it the “1512 Project,” because the offense falls under that section of the law.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), did not respond to a request for more information.

Section 1512 of U.S. law prohibits people from obstructing, influencing, or impeding any official proceeding, or attempting to do so. It carries a prison term of up to 20 years.

Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington charged about 260 people who were in or around the Capitol on Jan. 6 with obstructing an official proceeding.

Former police officer Joseph Fischer, one of the accused, challenged the charge in court. That led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded prosecutors were interpreting the law too broadly.

“On the Government’s theory, Section 1512(c) consists of a granular subsection (c)(1) focused on obstructive acts that impair evidence and an overarching subsection (c)(2) that reaches all other obstruction,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “Even setting surplusage aside, that novel interpretation would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.”

Before President Donald Trump took office, the government dropped the charge or asked the courts to vacate the charge against most of the defendants or convicts.

Trump pardoned about 1,500 people charged over Jan. 6.

Martin, since taking over the U.S. attorney’s office following Trump’s inauguration, has signed numerous court documents asking judges to dismiss charges against Jan. 6 defendants, pointing to Trump’s executive order.

His filing in the case of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and some co-defendants prompted a judge to remove travel restrictions that had been imposed.

Martin, who attended Trump’s rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6, has served on the board of a group called the Patriot Freedom Project, which raised money to support Jan. 6 defendants and their families. He’s also listed in court filings as an attorney for at least three defendants, including one who pleaded guilty to felony charges.

Martin has written about Jan. 6 on his blog, saying he watched thousands of hours of video from that day.

“If you watch it for a while you realize that 99.9% of it is normal people doing normal things: sauntering around and through the Capitol grounds and building,” he wrote.

Alexis Loeb, the deputy chief of the DOJ section that prosecuted the Jan. 6 cases before leaving the government in 2024, said that Martin appears to be in his role “purely to execute on the president’s political priorities more so than the work of protecting public safety in Washington.”

Some people charged over Jan. 6 have expressed gratefulness to Martin. One person wrote on the social media platform X that she is now able to start the rest of her life with relief.

“My honor. Thank God not men,” Martin responded.

It’s unclear whether Trump intends to nominate Martin to the permanent post, which would require Senate confirmation. A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a text message about Martin on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“Believe me, you can’t fit.”

Those words, spoken by a Lyft driver named Ibrahim, have prompted a lawsuit against the rideshare company by plus-sized rapper Dank Demoss.

The self-described “big beautiful woman” disclosed she weighs 489lbs.

Demoss shared a video showing a verbal exchange with the driver to social media on Jan.19, claiming the rejection unfolded earlier this month in Detroit when the Lyft driver rolled up in his Mercedes-Benz sedan and immediately locked his doors.

“I can fit in this car,” the rapper, who also goes by Dajua Blanding, could be heard saying in a video she posted.

“Believe me, you can’t,” the driver shot back – adding later there was no room in the back and that his tires wouldn’t be able to handle the weight.

The driver in the now-viral clip was shown apologizing to Demoss, but maintaining that he was canceling the ride and telling her she should order an XL vehicle.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by PAID PHAT QUEEN 👑🐘 (@dankdemoss)

“AM I WRONG ? @lyft what yall got to say about this yall driver discriminated against me ….. I JUST FEEL LIKE YALL TREAT BIG PPLE LIKE SHYT LIKE WE DONT BELONG HERE,” Demoss wrote.

She filed a lawsuit citing discrimination, and claimed that she suffered from emotional distress and humiliation after being denied entry into the driver’s car.

“I’ve been in cars smaller than that,” she told FOX2 after the suit was filed.

“I just want them to know that it hurt my feelings.”

She says she is taking action against Lyft to “change the world.”

“If I stand for something, I’ll fall for anything. Fighting for my community, my people, and making a change in the world, not just for me, but for everyone,” Demoss said.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by PAID PHAT QUEEN 👑🐘 (@dankdemoss)

“Lyft unequivocally condemns all forms of discrimination – we believe in a community where everyone is treated with equal respect and mutual kindness. Our community guidelines and terms of service explicitly prohibit harassment or discrimination,” the company said in a statement, according to Fox 2 News.

In December, then-President-elect Donald Trump warned federal employees working from home that they would have to return to the office, or “they’re going to be dismissed.”

Now, according to Axios, the Trump administration will send out a memo Tuesday afternoon offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office, in what would amount to an 8-month severance through Sept. 30, a White House official tells the outlet.

“The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards. We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” said the anonymous senior administration official.

More via Axios:

It’s not clear how many workers would be eligible for this offer, or how it would be paid for.

• According to guidance posted on OPMs website, in order to be eligible for severance pay workers must have completed at least “12 months of continuous service,” as well as meet other requirements.
• Political appointees aren’t eligible for severance, per the website.

Many federal workers are already feeling scared about the administration’s crackdown on DEI, its return-to-office policy and the effort to reclassify civil servants.

• That unease could increase take-up on this new offer.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president has the authority to fire federal employees.

• While that is true about at-will political appointees, federal workers have more protections.
• Leavitt was defending Trump’s firings of at least a dozen agency inspectors general.

During the pandemic, approximately 2.3 million federal employees shifted away from traditional office spaces. This shift was not just a temporary adjustment, but a transformational move that many hoped would persist post-pandemic due to its perceived benefits in work-life balance and reduced operational costs.

The Biden administration, acknowledging these benefits, continued to support telework, facilitating the reduction of government-owned real estate and integrating flexible work arrangements into the fabric of federal employment. However, with Trump’s election, a quick pivot is on the horizon.

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s call for a return to office has been met with resistance from federal employees and unions. Approximately 56 percent of the civil service is covered under collective bargaining agreements that include telework provisions, while a full 10% of federal jobs are now designated as fully “remote,” according to the Washington Post.