Former President Obama will make appearances on TikTok to push for voter registration, a report says.  As part of a broader Democratic initiative to reach approximately 30 million potential voters through non-traditional means on National Voter Registration Day, Obama conducted a series of interviews with 25-year-old TikTok influencer and non-profit director Carlos Espina for TikTok, Axios reported.  Espina, who has 10.5 million followers on the Chinese-owned platform, has made appearances with President Biden and Vice...

China slapped new export controls on a batch of minerals such as antimony – vital for the U.S. defense industry as a flame-retardant component used in machine bearings – in a move that could send prices in the defense sector soaring.  The little-known metal antimony is used in ammunition, infrared missiles, nuclear weapons and night vision goggles, as well as batteries and photovoltaic equipment. China produced nearly half of the world’s antimony last year. The...

A televised mayoral debate in Sao Paulo, Brazil got heated Sunday night, after one of the six candidates attacked another candidate with a metal chair. The Associated Press reported that Pablo Marcal, a personal development influencer turned right-wing politician, spoke about allegations against one of his opponents, José Luiz Datena, a former TV presenter turned candidate, during the debate. Marcal said Datena had wanted to slap him, adding, ‘You’re not even man enough to do...

Following revelations of private memoranda and conversations between Supreme Court justices published in the New York Times, legal experts are warning that such sensitive leaks are ‘destructive’ to the high court.  The New York Times reported that internal memos and deliberations that they claimed showed Chief Justice Thomas as having ‘molded’ the outcomes of three major cases the court considered dealing with Jan. 6 rioters, and granting former President Donald Trump certain immunity for presidential...

A long-term study of Havana Syndrome patients was shut down after a National Institute of Health (NIH) internal review board found participants who reported being pressured to join the research.The study had until now not found evidence linking the participants to the same symptoms and brain injuries. The internal investigation that halted the study was prompted by complaints from the participants about unethical practices. This comes after the intelligence community released an interim report last...

China on Sunday released U.S. pastor David Lin, who has been in jail since 2006 in what the State Department has deemed was a wrongful detainment.  The now 68-year-old pastor was formally arrested in 2009 for ‘contract fraud’ and sentenced to life in prison after allegedly aiding a non-government sanctioned house church. His sentence was later reduced and he was set to be released in April 2030. According to a U.S.-based China advocacy group, China...

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley released a wide-ranging report Monday morning detailing the failures of the Secret Service in connection with the first assassination attempt against former President Trump in July, including new whistleblower allegations that are ‘highly damaging to the credibility’ of the agency.  Hawley, R-Mo., shared his report with the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump to supplement their investigation.  Hawley found a ‘compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and...

The Apache tribe in Arizona is taking a fight with the federal government and copper producers to the Supreme Court, which they hope will protect what they say is their religious rights to sacred ground.  Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group representing the tribe’s interests, is fighting to preserve Oak Flat — what the Apaches say is their ‘direct corridor to the Creator and the locus of sacred ceremonies that cannot take place elsewhere.’ According to...

A bipartisan pair of senators is introducing a new bill on the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords to deepen cooperation between U.S. and Middle East partners.  The LINK Act, brought forth by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., co-chairs of the Abraham Accords Caucus, would establish a ‘military subject matter exchange program’ to deepen cultural ties and strategic cooperation between American troops and allies in the Middle East.  ‘In the face of...