Zerohedge

Canada’s last-minute decision to cooperate with President Trump on border security and efforts to curb fentanyl trafficking was a key factor behind the president’s 25% tariff threat. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to strengthen border security, a former US official who led an anti-fentanyl task force under President Trump’s first term has argued that laws in Canada hinder a proper crackdown on the flow of drugs in the US.

“Well, several months ago, you had the biggest lab in the history of the world taken over by (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in Vancouver… It made Breaking Bad look like minor league,” former State Department official David Asher told Canada’s state-funded CBC News’ chief political correspondent, Rosemary Barton, in an interview last weekend. 

Asher claimed that the fentanyl super lab was “definitely” connected to Chinese organized crime and also pointed to possible connections with Iran and even rogue biker gangs. 

“Definitely there was ties to Chinese organized crime, possibly Iran as well,” he said, adding, “The facts haven’t been released by your government…I think they know they’re sitting on a big scandal here.”

Asher continued, “The fact this thing emerged and it’s tied to these biker gangs, who’ve been hired to go down to the United States, in some cases, and assassinate people like my former boss Secretary (of State) Mike Pompeo, President Trump, and others. You know, this is another whole level of scandal.”

Watch this whole interview segment with David Asher of the Hudson Institute as he schools Rosie
“Well, several months ago, you had the biggest lab in the history of the world taken over by (RCMP) in Vancouver… It made Breaking Bad look like minor league”

“The most of the drugs… pic.twitter.com/MPwqvWRq99

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) February 9, 2025

“But the key thing to focus on is that someone was making over 100 million doses of deadly fentanyl – right under your noses – so how many other labs do you think you have in your country?” the former State Department official questioned. 

He explained that Canada has “very little border enforcement … most of the drugs are going from Mexico to Canada and then being brought south into the northwest United States on ships. You have almost no port enforcement with police. So we have no idea – except for our sources – what is actually going on. And we hear some bad things.” 

Asher stated that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Security Intelligence Service are top-notch organizations, “but your problem is your laws: It’s the Stinchcombe law. Basically, every time we try to go up on a phone number in Canada, almost all the money laundering networks are tied to China, which is about 90% of all the money laundering in the US. So when we’re targeting those numbers – the police have to inform that individual that the US is targeting their number. That’s crazy – how can we run an undercover police operation in the country?” 

Latest headlines on the US-Canada border situation:

• Trudeau Bends The Knee: Canada Will Send 10,000 Troops To Border, Name Fentanyl Czar To Delay Trump Tariffs

• Trump Effect: Canada Bends The Knee, Puts $1.3 Billion Into Border Security After Tariff Threat

• US & Canada Unveil Possible Blueprint For Post-Tariff Partnership To ‘Disrupt & Dismantle’ CCP-Fueled Fentanyl Crisis

Let’s rewind to April 2024, when we covered the House Select Committee on China that revealed the Chinese Communist Party used tax rebates to subsidize the manufacturing and exporting of fentanyl chemicals to North America. 

The report stated, “Through subsidies, grants, and other incentives, the PRC harms Americans while enriching PRC companies.” 

Recall this report in August: Chinese Narcos In Toronto Run “Command & Control” Fentanyl Laundering Network Used In TD Bank Case: US Investigator. 

Chinese Narcos In Toronto Run “Command & Control” Fentanyl Laundering Network Used In TD Bank Case: US Investigator https://t.co/X82NgBTohs

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 31, 2024

China hawk Kyle Bass.

The United States seized 43 pounds of Fentanyl at the Canadian border last year alone. That’s enough Fentanyl to KILL 9,700,000 Americans…and that’s what we caught. Imagine what got through…and Trudeau is upset about tariffs? Mexico and Canada KNOW DAMN WELL what to do. pic.twitter.com/msShpAuiEN

— 🇺🇸 Kyle Bass 🇹🇼 (@Jkylebass) February 3, 2025

Meanwhile, on the southern border…

USAF Spy Jet Flies Second SIGINT Operation On US Border With Focus On Narco Hub https://t.co/463lu63JJs

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 8, 2025

A coordinated North American strategy is emerging and essential to stop the drug death crisis in America, killing 100,000 folks (many working-age or military-age men and women) per year. This is hybrid warfare by Beijing – and folks have to start asking why the Biden-Harris regime fueled the crisis with open-border policies. It doesn’t seem like ‘America First’ – more like ‘China First’. 

Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Chinese communist regime remained a major perpetrator of transnational repression in 2024, according to the latest data released by the U.S. human rights organization Freedom House.

The Washington-based nonprofit organization recorded 23 governments and regimes perpetrating 160 incidents of physical transnational repression across 34 countries in 2024, the organization said in a Feb. 6 statement. Methods used by authorities in these countries included assassinations, abductions, assaults, detentions, and unlawful deportations.

The Chinese regime was one of the leading perpetrators along with Uganda, Cambodia, Russia, and Iran in 2024, the organization said. The transnational repression targeted exiled political activists, journalists, former regime insiders, and members of ethnic or religious minorities, according to the Freedom House report.

The report recorded 1,219 incidents of direct, physical transnational repression between 2014 and 2024. The Chinese regime “remains the most prolific perpetrator, committing 272 incidents, or 22 percent, of recorded cases” in the past decade, according to Freedom House researchers.

“Transnational repression continues to threaten democracy, freedom, and security globally,” Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director for strategy and design at Freedom House, said in a statement.

Lai Rongwei, CEO of the pro-democracy nonprofit Taiwan Inspirational Association, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 8 that “the Freedom House report feels very real and credible” to him.

“Because Taiwan is at the forefront of China’s threats, China’s various means of infiltration against Taiwan are currently taking place in Taiwan and becoming more and more severe,” he said.

Lai said that since 2019 and 2020, after the Chinese regime’s violent suppression of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy “anti-extradition law” movement, many Hong Kong people have gone to Taiwan to escape the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) surveillance and persecution.

“During events held by some Hong Kong associations in Taiwan and events commemorating the June 4th Tiananmen massacre in Taiwan, you can see many of the CCP-supported and pro-China groups come to the scene to cause trouble,” he said.

Lai said that his organization has long observed the CCP’s transnational repression and that the regime employs both formal and informal methods to carry out overseas repression.

“The formal [methods use] diplomatic and economic means, such as economic sanctions, trade sanctions, and economic aid, to force the governments of other countries to follow China’s position,” he said.

The Chinese regime also uses technological means to target overseas dissidents, such as monitoring their online activities and hacking their phones, Lai said.

The CCP also dispatches China’s national security agents to track down their so-called enemies overseas, according to Lai.

“They also use local agents in some pro-China groups in the local societies of various countries, including spies and informants that they’ve developed. The local agents may also be some pro-China people in society who have been bribed by the CCP for a long time,” Lai said. “These people are there to help increase the CCP’s influence locally. And they go to various occasions and events to harass and counter those who they think are unfriendly to China. Many people, from politicians to civilians, have been harassed by them.”

In 2022, it was revealed that the CCP had set up secret police stations in Western locations, including New York City, to carry out transnational repression against dissidents, human rights activists, and religious minorities.

There are also reports that CCP agents have sent threats, including bomb threats, to theaters worldwide to intimidate them into not hosting Shen Yun, a performing arts show that showcases traditional Chinese culture before communism. The show is performed by a New York-based performing arts company.

“A large number of Chinese people have fled China. Some are economic criminals escaping with large sums of money; some are political dissidents; and some come abroad because they know state secrets or technological secrets,” Yeau-Tran Lee, an adjunct professor at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, said of various people that have left China in recent years.

“In order to implement its long-arm repression, China has resorted to every possible means, including using national security and intelligence agencies, to target these people,” Lee told The Epoch Times on Feb. 8.

Every system within the CCP needs political achievements to make money and expand, Lee said.

“The CCP has so many intelligence and security agents. After Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement was put out in 2019, a large number of the CCP’s agents were transferred overseas, which has increased the CCP’s transnational repression in other countries,” he said.

In terms of the effect of the CCP’s transnational repression, Yao-Yuan Yeh, professor of political science and international studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, said that “it makes people feel that China’s spies are not only in China but also abroad everywhere.”

“This can produce a chain effect, silencing those who may be dissatisfied with the Chinese regime abroad, whether they are Chinese or foreigners today, and preventing them from speaking out on the internet. This creates self-censorship through the terrorizing actions [of transnational repression],” Yeh told The Epoch Times on Feb. 9.

As for the countermeasures against the CCP’s transnational repression, Yeh said that “each country needs to consciously prevent or reject the CCP’s transnational repression in their country.”

On an international scale, Yeh said that the United Nations and other international organizations should strongly condemn transnational repression.

“In international relations, when there’s [a] human rights violation, the most important thing to do is to speak out to expose it, telling all other countries how many evil things this country has done,” he said.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.

Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Prosecutors acted with “unrelenting integrity,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said, as the Justice Department pursued cases against 1,583 people for events on Jan. 6, 2021—a date etched into the American psyche with unforgettable images of vandalism and violence at the U.S. Capitol.

President Donald Trump, who had attracted a massive crowd to Washington that day amid a dispute over his 2020 election loss, decried these cases as “political persecutions.” He tossed out the prosecutions upon his return for a second presidential term on Jan. 20.

Saying he was ending “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years,” Trump commuted sentences for 14 serious Jan. 6 offenders and issued full pardons to all remaining defendants—1,569 people, based on federal data.

Trump showed mercy even to those convicted of assaulting officers—a controversial move. He previously stated that only peaceful, nonviolent offenders deserved consideration.

But he justified that decision by pointing out that the convicted Jan. 6 defendants had already been locked up for years, often in “inhumane” conditions. They were targeted for political reasons and were punished more harshly than many people who committed worse offenses, including killings, he said.

A half-dozen of the former Jan. 6 prisoners told The Epoch Times their side. The publication also reviewed Justice Department statements about each interviewee and dozens of other resources for this story.

​The interviewees, ranging from a 25-year-old entrepreneur to a 55-year-old former New York police officer, say much information has been suppressed and distorted.

They, like many Americans, continue to question why security in and around the Capitol was clearly insufficient on Jan. 6.

They also suspect a government setup—and a coverup.

Although officials have rejected such claims, a government watchdog’s recent report reignited questions over the actions of “confidential human sources.” Twenty-six of these informants were present on Jan. 6, the Inspector General’s report said.

Four of the informants entered the Capitol; 13 others entered restricted areas on the grounds—without FBI permission. The FBI didn’t authorize the informants to encourage violence, either. But the report left it unclear whether informants obeyed that order.

Setting the Record Straight

The interviewed Jan. 6 defendants say many Americans still incorrectly believe that police officers were killed in the melee; 140 officers were hurt, none fatally, despite initial reports.

It’s unclear how many civilians were injured, but Trump supporters were the only people who died that day. Police fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, 35, and beat Roseanne Boyland, 34, who was knocked unconscious in a stampede; her cause of death remains in dispute. Investigators cleared officers of wrongdoing in both cases.

The Jan. 6 interviewees agreed that, as more videos surfaced, the American public has begun to see a wider, clearer picture of the day’s events.

Before violence broke out, many thousands of people listened to Trump’s speech at The Ellipse, a park about 2 miles from the Capitol, where Congress was preparing to certify the 2020 election results.

Trump said the group should march to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.” But before his speech ended, protesters—possibly mingled with provocateurs—had already clashed with police at the Capitol.

Videos show some people walking into the building through already-open doors—past police who made no attempt to halt them. Some of those nonviolent people faced criminal trespassing charges.

Others violently tangled with police, smashed windows, and forcibly entered the building. Nearly 200 people pleaded guilty to assaulting officers. Officials set property damage at $1.5 million.

Common Themes Emerge

Several Jan. 6 interviewees say they regretted reacting badly amid the mayhem as police fired munitions and chemicals.

Some people accused police of excessive, unprovoked force. Those accusers include a retired New York police officer. However, a Capitol Police report found all 293 reported uses of force were justified—and a survey found some officers complained they were discouraged from using sufficient force to repel aggressors.

Two of the six interviewees were convicted of assaulting officers—the offense that sparked much criticism of the Trump pardons. Both of those defendants’ alleged assaults were tied to retaliating against police with pepper spray or pushing against barricades.

All six interviewees allege they were subject to constitutional rights violations, harassment, and other maltreatment because of their status as Jan. 6 defendants.

None of those interviewees was convicted of seditious conspiracy; one was acquitted.

They consistently stated that it was preposterous to call them “insurrectionists” and rejected prosecutors’ assertions that they tried to halt the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden.

At most, the interviewees said they expected Congress to pause the election certification to allow further exploration of election irregularities in a half-dozen states. Some said they didn’t even intend to protest; they just wanted to hear Trump speak and show support for him.

All expressed gratitude to Trump for acting on their behalf.

And all are hopeful that a new congressional probe will “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people,” as House Speaker Mike Johnson ((R-La.) stated on Jan. 22.

Several Jan. 6 defendants said that now that they have regained their freedom, revealing the truth about Jan. 6 is their most fervent wish.

Nonviolent 21-Year-Old Labeled a ‘Terrorist’

Alexander Sheppard recalls that, as a schoolboy in Worthington, a historic central Ohio community of 15,000 people, he learned about Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed rights.

But he says being prosecuted for Jan. 6 shattered his “naïve” notions about exercising his rights to free speech and protest.

Just before Jan. 6, Sheppard was a 21-year-old marketing entrepreneur. He made a last-minute decision to make a six-hour drive from Ohio to Washington for Trump’s “Save America” or “Stop the Steal” rally.

He arrived at 6 a.m., early enough to score a close spot at the Ellipse. He stood in a massive crowd, about a half-dozen rows away from the stage, as Trump delivered his speech that afternoon.

“It was an atmosphere of love and patriotism and love for our country,” Sheppard said.

But after marching to the Capitol, he saw officers firing tear gas into the crowd. At times, he and others got “riled up” over police “using unnecessary force on people.”

Amid the chaos, “I made the dumb decision to go inside the building,” he said. “I didn’t think I was breaking any laws. Like I said, I thought we had a First Amendment right to protest.”

Upon entering the Capitol, he and others were mesmerized by its grandeur. He took many videos and pictures that were later used against him.

“If I thought I were committing a crime, I wouldn’t have recorded so much of it,” he said, adding that he remained nonviolent and committed no vandalism.

Fatefully, Sheppard was nearby when Babbitt was shot; he drew his hands to his head in disbelief as she fell to the floor. His proximity to that much-scrutinized event probably made him more high-profile, he said. The officers escorted him and others out of the area.

Nearly two months later, just after Sheppard set foot inside the airport in Columbus, Ohio, for a business trip, about 10 federal agents swooped in.

He was stunned to be arrested. He was even more shocked to be facing a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, plus five misdemeanors for being disorderly and protesting inside the Capitol.

Sheppard was released to await trial. Two years later, in January 2023, jurors convicted him of five charges. His sole acquittal: a misdemeanor for entering a room where he photographed a portrait of America’s first president, George Washington.

A judge sentenced Sheppard to 19 months in prison, half the time prosecutors had sought.

In prison, Sheppard learned he was labeled a “terrorist,” which disqualified him from certain privileges.

He asks, “How could I be labeled a ‘terrorist’ when I was charged with nothing violent?”

Even before the Supreme Court issued its June ruling, a judge agreed with Sheppard’s attorney’s contention that the Fischer case raised a “substantial question” about the validity of his sole felony conviction.

Sheppard’s lawyer claimed “that question will not be decided until after he has served more time in prison than is warranted by his misdemeanor convictions,” a judge wrote in January 2024. “Accordingly, he asks the Court to release him from prison at the end of his likely misdemeanor sentence.”

The judge cut Sheppard’s prison term to six months; he was released in May 2024.

He said he still benefited “in a big way” from Trump’s pardon. It wiped his criminal convictions—but not charges—from his record. And it lifted his post-release requirements, such as obtaining permission to travel outside of southern Ohio, submitting to urinalysis, and reporting to a court official.

Now 25, Sheppard has been doing menial labor but hopes to land a better job; he mourns the loss of his solid reputation and unblemished record.

But he sees public and media perceptions shifting.

“When I was facing more than 20 years in prison, I was a ‘January 6 Insurrectionist.’ Later on, I was referred to as a ‘Capitol Rioter.’ Now that I WON in the Supreme Court, was PARDONED by the President, and will have ALL charges dismissed, I am called a ‘January 6 Participant,’ he wrote in a Jan. 29 social media post.

He wants people to know: “We were all denied constitutional due process, and that is why it made sense for President Trump to pardon basically everyone.”

“This pardon, it really gives to all of us a new lease on life,” he said. “We get to start fresh.”

Mother of 8 Has Some Regrets but Bright Outlook

Rachel Powell says she went to Washington on Jan. 6 to protect America’s future for her eight children and seven grandchildren—but ended up being separated from them for many months because of it.

Now 44, Powell said she had harbored concerns—which grew after the 2020 election—about election integrity in her home state of Pennsylvania. She wanted her children to inherit “a fair and free vote.”

“Everything in America depends on that,” she said.

But Powell admits regretting some of her actions on Jan. 6. Outrage over officers’ seemingly unprovoked use of force hijacked her better judgment, she said.

Accused of pushing barricades, Powell said that was a misperception. “The police were moving the barricades towards us,” she said.

“And people like me, I wasn’t going to move,” Powell said. “I was going to stand there and hold the line—because I had the right to.”

She entered several locations in and around the Capitol. People were jammed into the West Terrace tunnel and falling on top of each other.

“I could hear a woman screaming for help at the bottom of that pile,” near the tunnel entrance, Powell said.

Powell helped other people to pull fallen protesters out of the way. “By [the] time we got to the bottom of that pile … there was Roseanne Boyland, clearly dead at my feet,” she said.

Horrified and fearful for her safety, Powell retreated to the other side of the building.

In an act she now sees as irrational, she decided to break a window. Powell thought that creating a new ingress point for protesters would prevent other deaths. “And I know that that sounds crazy, but that’s what it was,” she said.

Powell said people in the crowd passed implements to her, which she used to strike the window frame, including an object that prosecutors called “an ice axe.”

“And from using that tool for probably 60 seconds, they gave me a deadly weapons charge,” she said, adding that the axe “disappeared back into the crowd” and she “never saw it again.”

Shortly after that, police fired exploding canisters of noxious gas, and she couldn’t see or breathe. “It’s like, all of a sudden, it just snapped me out of it. And I was like, ‘What are you doing?’” she said.

Powell struggled her way out and left.

In a little more than a week, the FBI circulated a “wanted” poster showing pictures of her in a pink knit hat and sunglasses.

On Feb. 4, 2021, police raided her home in Mercer County, Pennsylvania; they broke through the door as a helicopter hovered overhead. Powell, who wasn’t home then, turned herself in. She was freed under strict home confinement rules.

Afterward, a court ordered Powell’s minor children to remain in the custody of another relative. The separation was particularly gut-wrenching because Powell enjoyed more togetherness with her children than many moms. She became a single mother after her 17-year marriage disintegrated and was also a homeschooler and homesteader.

Her case finally went to a bench trial in mid-2023. She denied leading any organized effort to overtake the Capitol despite using a bullhorn to direct other protesters. Powell told The Epoch Times that she borrowed the bullhorn from another protester, and she was relaying information about the Capitol’s layout based solely on her observations that day—her first visit to the Capitol.

“I did not know the layout of the whole Capitol,” she said, alleging that prosecutors “tried to paint me as a ringleader.”

In late 2023, a judge convicted Powell of nine charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property, civil disorder, and “physical violence … with a deadly or dangerous weapon.”

In early 2024, she began serving a prison term of 57 months—nearly five years—with no credit for three years of house arrest.

“I don’t understand how that’s happening in America, that American citizens can be detained in their homes for undetermined amounts of time,” she said, calling that practice an injustice that should end.

Powell’s experiences at a West Virginia prison caused her even more concern.

She was housed at the Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton—a facility where whistleblowers alleged “a rampant culture of abuse and misconduct,” several senators wrote in September 2023.

They called on the Attorney General and Bureau of Prisons to investigate. The Epoch Times was unable to determine the results of that probe by publication time.

Powell alleges she witnessed deplorable conditions and medical neglect of inmates, echoing the whistleblowers’ complaints.

Now, Powell said she is on a mission to reform conditions at that prison “because once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and it would be wrong not to do something about it and to leave those women in there, suffering.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said—the same phrase she used to describe her motivation for participating in the Jan. 6 protest.

But if she could do it over again, Powell said she would have just sat down in protest, “and I would have never left that public sidewalk—ever.”

After being pardoned, Powell sees a bright future—for America and her family.

“I love our president. I think he’s a good man. I think the next four years are going to be fantastic … and I think that the time is ripe for these changes,” she said.

Being away from her loved ones made her value them more.

“We’re all gonna be stronger because of this, and we’re all more loving … we want more unity in our family,” she said.

“It’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes … I really think it’s going to be beautiful.”

Pre-Dawn Tactical Team Arrests Husband-to-Be

Barry Ramey, then a 38-year-old aircraft mechanic, was living a good life in sunny Florida and was engaged to be married.

But around 5:30 a.m. on April 21, 2022, as he left his apartment to go to work, a tactical team rushed him in the parking lot, “flashbangs thrown at me, and guns pointed at me,” Ramey said. That was nearly 16 months after Jan. 6, 2021—and two months before his planned wedding date.

Afterward, Ramey said he accepted responsibility for his actions, which included discharging pepper spray at police on Jan. 6. But he said the accusations and punishment he faced as a result were “over-the-top.”

“I know I committed a criminal act, but I’m not a criminal … I don’t live a life of crime,” Ramey, now 41, told The Epoch Times after Trump pardoned him. He had no prior criminal history, court records confirm.

As Ramey awaited word on a possible pardon, “it was definitely a nail-biting situation,” he said. Ramey thought that he might only get his sentence commuted because his assault conviction classified him as a violent offender.

He also was connected to the Proud Boys, one of the most controversial groups of Jan. 6 defendants.

On Jan. 6, Ramey gathered with the Proud Boys group, although he did not know who they were at that time, his attorney said in a court record. Since then, Ramey said he and other Jan. 6 defendants started a Proud Boys chapter “to look out for one another in very dangerous situations” while incarcerated.

Five Proud Boys were among the 14 offenders whose sentences Trump commuted; they were freed from prison, but their convictions remain in their records.

Ramey received a “full and unconditional” pardon.

“It feels good to know I don’t have to live my life as a convicted felon,” he said. “I can go back to being a productive member of society and trying to leave the world a better place than I found it.”

In March 2023, Ramey was sentenced to five years in prison for felony charges of civil disorder and “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers,” a Justice Department statement noted, along with misdemeanors for disorderly conduct and “physical violence” on the Capitol grounds; he did not enter the building, his attorney said.

Prosecutors argued he deserved a harsher prison term because he attacked police with a “deadly and dangerous weapon”—the pepper spray.

Ramey countered: “The police use it all the time. They even get pepper-sprayed in their training. So [if] it wasn’t deadly and dangerous then, is it deadly and dangerous now?”

Read the rest here…

X user DataRepublican claims to have identified seven NGOs, partially funded by American taxpayers, that appear to be key players within the so-called Deep State Uniparty. According to their analysis, these organizations have shaped public discourse over the past decade through radical propaganda, portraying Donald Trump as a “threat to democracy,” but in actuality, it’s not democracy itself but rather the challenge that Trump and the MAGA movement pose to their political regime. 

Here is more color on DataRepublican’s report titled THE UNIPARTY UNMASKED – They Believe They Are “Democracy”: 

The seven NGOs in the chart below, in my view, represent the Uniparty. Each of these organizations receives substantial financial support from USAID or the Department of State.

Around 2019, the phrase “democracy in danger” began to dominate public discourse, amplified by the media. This was odd—after all, the U.S. is a democracy (or more precisely, a constitutional republic). But as I traced the influence of these NGOs, a pattern emerged: they are controlled by establishment politicians, they play a major role in shaping political narratives worldwide, and their core mission is always framed as “protecting democracy.”

Originally, these NGOs were created to support U.S. democratic efforts abroad—many of them emerging during the Cold War to combat the spread of communism. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, their original purpose faded. Instead of dissolving, they redefined their mission. Now, they have positioned themselves as the guardians of democracy itself.

This shift explains why Trump’s re-election was framed as a “threat to democracy.” To these NGOs, “democracy” means themselves. Their survival depends on maintaining that role, and any challenge to their authority is perceived as a direct attack on democracy itself.

“Note what they all have in common? They are all dedicated to advocating democracy. And they have redefined “democracy” to mean themselves,” DataRepublican said. 

If the Uniparty has redefined “democracy” to represent itself, then it’s no surprise that it has spent the past decade waging an informational war against Trump. Across corporate media, the Uniparty unleashed the cannons of propaganda and relentlessly labeled him—and his MAGA supporters—as a “threat to democracy.”

DataRepublican breaks down each of the seven NGOs… They all have one thing in common.

DataRepublican then summarized the entire thread (which can be viewed here via Thread Reader): 

After thinking it over last night, here’s how I would summarize it: These seven NGOs (eight if you count the off-the-chart Solidarity Center) together function as an “off-the-books” shadow U.S. government.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created to unify the U.S. against communism. Its four core organizations reflect a neat ideological symmetry of America’s two-party system:

• CIPE pushes free-market policies, Solidarity Center represents labor and unions.
• IRI serves Republican interests, and NDI aligns with the Democrats.

CEPPS is another umbrella group that includes IRI and NDI but also brings in IFES under the guise of fortifying election integrity.

And to make sure the narrative sticks, Internews Network spreads these viewpoints through global media.

Most of these NGOs were born during the Reagan years. While not all USAID and State Department funding flows through them, they control the purse strings for much of America’s global financial influence.

DEI initiatives created a system of unaccountability and dependency, which ended up injecting more money into them and further entrenches their power.

They see any challenge to their authority as a threat to democracy itself. But their greatest enemy is still the same one they’ve had since the Cold War—Russia. They’ve never lost the “Cold War” boomer mindset.

In their minds, they’re the superheroes keeping America from crumbling. And that entitles them to their travel perks, cushy post-election gigs, and all the other benefits that come with running an unacknowledged empire.

In recent weeks, Trump sent Elon Musk’s DOGE into federal agencies as a wrecking ball to the Uniparty, halting their grift and use of NGOs to siphon taxpayer funds in an unlimited slush fund via USAID. 

The Uniparty’s next propaganda blitz has already appeared in the news headlines, indicating Trump and Musk are setting off a “constitutional crisis.” 

The problem this time is that the Uniparty’s media reach and propaganda efforts have been neutered, with Musk now controlling X and trust in mainstream media at record lows. As the Uniparty grows more panicked, the Deep State will likely become even more desperate.

Hence this: 

Tonight, Democrats openly called for:
🚨 War
🔥 Revolution
🪧 Fighting in the streets

All against ‘Nazi’ @elonmusk and ‘dictator’ Donald Trump.
pic.twitter.com/Mxge0TZiC0

— William Watson (@NY_PatriotVoice) February 4, 2025

Tennessee preacher Dr. Steve Caudle appears to call for violence against Elon Musk while spreading a rabid form of misinformation about DOGE:

“Sometimes the devil will act so ugly that you have no other choice but to get violent and fight.”

Disgraceful. pic.twitter.com/5KK3K2yHkN

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 10, 2025

‘BRING YOUR A–!’: Democrats lash out at @elonmusk and DOGE as millions spent on “woke” programs are slashed from the federal budget. Liberal lawmakers threatened “to see” the billionaire “in the streets” as they vowed to “fight back.” pic.twitter.com/FRnAS13oa3

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 11, 2025

Marching orders were given.

Authored by Roderick Law via RealClearHealth,

As President Trump and border czar Tom Homan set about getting control of our southern border, they have an opportunity not only to clamp down on the horrors of human trafficking and drug smuggling. They can also deal a blow to the Chinese companies that make $3.5 billion a year selling contraband e-cigarettes and vapes in the U.S. and the Mexican cartels that smuggle them.

It is estimated that 98 percent of the electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) sold in the nation are illegal products, and most of them are made in China. They are cheaper, more potent and manufactured with far less health and safety regulation than American products. Often, the products are flavored, packaged and branded to appeal to children and adolescents.

Last summer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally got serious about the flood of untested and possibly hazardous products that find their way from China to U.S. convenience stores. The agency launched a taskforce with the Department of Justice to crack down on vape smuggling. In October, it announced that it had seized $76 million worth of contraband vapes. In December, authorities interdicted $81.5 million worth of e-cigarettes and vapes just in Chicago.

While fighting smuggling and holding retailers accountable for selling illicit products are productive steps, the FDA has it in its power to impact demand for contraband vapes. The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has had jurisdiction over e-cigarettes since 2016. To sell new tobacco products in the United States, companies must file a “premarket tobacco application” (PMTA) and receive a “marketing granted order” (MGO) from the CTP. Companies pay “user fees” to the FDA to cover the cost of the research and testing on the products.

E-cigarettes and other vapes have been marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking – delivering nicotine without tar and some other byproducts of tobacco. They have helped many smokers quit and are therefore considered a harm-reduction tool. But the CTP has approved just 34 new products out of 26.6 million applications since 2019. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the ENDS market. Users want selection and low prices. Retailers want product for their shelves. Illegal Chinese vapes fill the void.

On the surface, CTP seems like low-hanging fruit for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. But efficiency isn’t the real problem. Ideology is. On nicotine, the FDA shares a prohibitionist mindset with the anti-smoking activist groups it works closely with. In fact, it shares a revolving door with those special interests. The FDA has taken it upon itself to limit the availability of harm-reducing ENDS.

The CTP allegedly does a lot of goalpost moving. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by two domestic vape manufacturers who maintain the agency pulled what the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals characterized as a “regulatory switcheroo.” The companies say the agency changed standards and imposed new requirements for approval after the companies submitted their PMTAs. Asked by Justice Brett Kavanaugh why the companies were suing the FDA instead of simply resubmitting amended applications, their lawyer cited the agency’s glacial approval pace. The companies simply “can’t afford to wait that out.”

For their part, retailers have long complained that the FDA is unclear and even evasive about what products are legal for sale. The agency moved to address the issue by launching a Searchable Tobacco Products Database. But inexplicably, the database didn’t include two of the most popular products on the market, Zyn and Juul. They’re legal products. The FDA notes that the database “is not an exhaustive list of all tobacco products that can be legally marketed.” Then why bother with a database at all?

The problem of illegal, potentially dangerous Chinese vapes lining the shelves of gas stations and smoke shops can’t be fought on just one front. President Trump has promised (indirectly) to staunch the flow of products from across the Mexican border. The CTP needs to do the job Congress gave it and process applications. If it won’t, it and the FDA more broadly need a serious housecleaning.

Roderick Law is the Communications Director for the Functional Government Initiative. He is a graduate of the George Washington University, with a BS in international affairs and a MA in security policy studies. 

By Yiqin Shen, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

Billionaire investor David Tepper ramped up his stake in China-related stocks and ETFs last quarter, just before the development of DeepSeek reignited a rally in the country’s shares.

The president and founder of Appaloosa Management LP, who made waves in September with a call to buy “everything” related to China, increased the firm’s holding of e-commerce company JD.com by roughly 43% in the fourth quarter, according to the latest 13F filing.

The money manager also boosted his stake in Alibaba, another e-commerce giant, by 18%. The stock remains the hedge fund’s largest holding, accounting for about 16% of its $6.4 billion portfolio.

The moves came amid a volatile stretch for Chinese stocks, when investors showed signs of wavering commitment after Beijing rolled out a stimulus blitz in late September. The government’s efforts sparked a frenetic rally into early October, but the momentum faded in the following months amid disappointment over the scale of fiscal stimulus, a weak economic outlook and a property crisis. Alibaba fell 20% in the fourth quarter, while JD.com declined 13%.

Tepper also added exposure to the KraneShares CSI China Internet exchange-traded fund (ticker KWEB) and to the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (ticker FXI), as well as to KE Holdings Inc. and Baidu Inc., the filing showed. Chinese stocks and ETFs giving exposure to the country’s shares made up about 37% of his portfolio as of the end of December, in terms of market value, little changed from the previous quarter.

China’s market has been on a stronger footing to start the year, with some of China’s equity benchmarks outperforming US and European peers. That’s in part because of China’s growing clout in the artificial-intelligence space, on the back of the success of DeepSeek’s AI model.

As a result, investors have been re-evaluating the nation’s beaten-down shares, although they’re also assessing the impact of US President Donald Trump’s move to slap 10% tariffs on China. On Friday, the Hang Seng Tech Index entered a bull market while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index is less than 5% from overtaking its October peak.

Alibaba, which is building its own AI model, has climbed nearly 30% since the start of the year. The company may be able to manage the US-China trade war’s impact on revenue better than its Chinese rivals because its overseas operations are more geographically diverse, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Full 13F breakdown below (link).

Authored by Frank Miele via RealClearPolitics,

Donald Trump has always been a complex character, but to fully understand him now, one must begin with the assassination attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

Listen to how Trump described that experience in his second inaugural address:

“Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”

Even his harshest critics were hesitant to challenge Trump’s grandiose assertion because – at some level – they could put themselves in Trump’s shoes. And now, three months after the election and a mere three weeks after he was sworn in, the evidence is plain that Trump is a politician reborn, with a purpose renewed. If Making America Great Again started as an election slogan, it has been transformed into a divine mission.

Trump 2.0 is the Democrats’ worst nightmare. If he had won a second term in 2020, forcing him to govern with a Chuck Schumer-controlled Senate, he would have been virtually powerless. He would have limped through that second term with the usual bluster and name-calling, but without any new vision or agenda. His mandate would have been simple – keep the economy strong and don’t rock the boat too hard. Play golf whenever possible. 

There would have been no Elon Musk and no Department of Government Efficiency. There would have been no Bobby Kennedy Jr. or Make America Healthy Again. It is unlikely there would have even been a housecleaning at the FBI or CIA. Remember, there would not have been a raid at Mar-a-Lago, nor a “deranged” special counsel, nor a Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol. We would be living in an entirely different world, led for four years by an entirely different Trump on a glide path to retirement.

The 2024 election would have been a complete unknown. Republicans would have scrambled to find a worthy successor to Trump, but there would be no anointed one. Almost certainly not Mike Pence, but then who? Josh Hawley? Tom Cotton? Nikki Haley? Tim Scott? Not J.D. Vance, who would still be a mid-level literary author and never have been elected senator from Ohio. The Democrats would not have had to suffer through the embarrassment of a senescent President Joe Biden. They would have had a legitimate primary battle in 2024 between Govs. Newsom, Shapiro, Pritzker, and Hochul, and Sens. Klobuchar, Warren, Gillibrand, and maybe Sanders. Kamala Harris would have been an afterthought – or withdrawn before Iowa just as she did in 2020.

The likelihood of a Democratic victory after two consecutive Trump terms would have been high. MAGA itself might have fizzled out from attrition and eight years of mainstream media overkill.

So it’s easy to theorize about the role of divine providence bringing us to this point, but one can’t discount the importance of Trump’s own character in asserting his will against the established order either. His ability to withstand the full court press of two impeachments, two special counsels, two assassination attempts, and multiple felony indictments and convictions to convince the American public to return him to the White House is nothing short of miraculous.

If Trump was indeed “saved by God,” there must have been a reason – something that made Trump a perfect vessel for reshaping our times, even though not perfect himself. So what is it?

I’ve tried to think of analogs for Trump’s persona in life and literature and largely come up empty. As a politician, Trump is sui generis. You can scan the Bible for other examples of imperfect perfection such as King David and Cyrus the Great, but it’s best not to impute to a contemporary such as Trump the authority of the Old Testament. So where else do we turn?

A few authors have noted the similarity of Trump to Napoleon Bonaparte, including for his ego, his exile, and his support from the common man. I myself have written twice about such a connection, including once in 2016 before he was elected and once in 2022 after he was banished to Mar-a-Lago. The columns stand the test of time, but there might be one avatar for The Donald drawn from literature that is even more appropriate.

I am thinking of the character known simply as the Mule in Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy. Book two of the science fiction series, “Foundation and Empire,” introduces the Mule as a character of such intense individuality that he has the power to break every expectation, exceed every limit, and avoid virtually every trap put in his way as he attempts to conquer the galaxy.

As Asimov has another character explain, “He has no name other than that of the Mule, a name reportedly applied by himself to himself, and signifying, by popular explanation, his immense physical strength, and stubbornness of purpose.”

We need not worry about physical strength in our comparison, but “stubbornness of purpose” can be applied to Trump and to only a few others in U.S. history, including George Washington during his role as commander in chief of the Continental Army and Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief of the Union Army. Were it not for Trump’s extraordinary second term, his divine commission, we might never have even understood his stubbornness of purpose. Oh yes, he was considered mule-headed for his unwillingness to follow political conventions, but until his return from exile, he still tried to curry favor with the ruling class by trying to fit in with expectations rather than imposing his will through brute force.

When Corey Lewandowski encouraged Republicans to “Let Trump be Trump,” we thought we knew what he meant. And to some extent, we did. It meant that the unpolished, imperfect Trump was the most authentic politician since “Give ’Em Hell Harry” Truman and that voters would reward that authenticity with votes. But it wasn’t until the last month or two that we could appreciate how the untrammeled Trump would be able to completely reshape not just the political world, but the actual world, by following his instincts and just getting things done, dammit.

Which brings us back again to the Mule. In Asimov’s epic narrative, the Mule is the one unpredictable factor that has the potential to change the course of galactic history – a history which has otherwise been mapped out with surprising precision by Hari Seldon, the inventor of psychohistory. Seldon provided mankind with a plan to rescue civilization from a coming dark age, and everything was going swimmingly until the Mule arrived on the scene. From that point on, everything became unpredictable, as this one individual is so far outside the box that the box becomes irrelevant.

That is Trump. There are other similarities too. People either love the Mule or hate him, in part because of a technique of mind control that the mutant was born with. No one has accused Trump of possessing extrasensory abilities, but they do accuse him of being a cult leader – a Svengali who can brainwash his disciples and expects absolute devotion. Maybe they are right, but it is not necessary to conclude that Trump uses mind control in order to explain his impact on the zeitgeist. Sufficient is “stubbornness of purpose.”

Viewing Trump as a real-life Mule, the random element in an otherwise orderly and predictable set, is beyond question. He is a disruptor deluxe. And depending on the outcome of his mass re-invention of American political norms, he will either be – like the Mule – the progenitor of a new world order created in the service of self-aggrandizement, or something more.

What that “more” can be, we are waiting to find out. But one thing is certain: There is no one else like Donald Trump on the world stage today. His kind arrives once in a generation, or once in a hundred years or more. Or on the scale of Asimov’s “Foundation” – once in a millennium.

Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His book “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake” is available from his Amazon author page. Visit him at HeartlandDiaryUSA.com or follow him on Facebook @HeartlandDiaryUSA and on X/Gettr @HeartlandDiary.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has canceled a planned February 18 visit to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump. It is being reported Tuesday as an indefinite postponement.

The key factor, which has reportedly brought US-Egypt relations to a low point, is Trump’s ‘takeover’ plan to expel Gazans into Egypt and Jordan. Another factor is Trump’s repeated reference to Sisi as “the general” – which was used publicly when Israel’s PM Netanyahu recently visited the White House.

“Egyptian officials viewed this as dismissive, sources said,” The New Arab reports. And then there was this during Trump’s first term, back in 2019 at a G7 summit:

“Where’s my favorite dictator?” Mr. Trump called out in a voice loud enough to be heard by the small gathering of American and Egyptian officials.

The same report writes of Trump’s controversial Gaza plan, “an Egyptian diplomatic source in Washington said Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had warned US officials and members of Congress that implementing Trump’s relocation plan could lead to a resurgence of radical Islamist groups in the region.”

Jordan is lockstep with Egypt on this. Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday in an awkward meeting which saw the monarch reject Trump’s pressure.

The king tried to preempt further pressure from Trump by pledging to take in 2,000 Palestinian children. Otherwise Jordanian sources have said they would seal the borders and potentially declare war in Israel if a mass ‘cleansing’ campaign ensues.

“The president and the king fielded some questions from reporters from the Oval Office, where Abdullah tried to slow roll Trump’s Gaza proposal, which is vastly unpopular in the Middle East,” The Hill reports. “Trump, meanwhile, vowed to press on but also lauded Abdullah and his pledge to take in 2,000 sick Palestinian children.”

So in the end, nothing much came of the Abdullah-Trump meeting, but likely Jordan was offered some major incentive by Trump behind the scenes.

The King immediately following the meeting emphasized Jordan firmly rejects any displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and said all Arab leaders stand united on this.

Watch: Trump put a clearly nervous Abdullah on the spot in front of the press pool…

JUST IN | US President Donald Trump and King Abdullah of Jordan spoke briefly to reporters ahead of their meeting. Below are key highlights from their remarks:

King Abdullah of Jordan:
➤ When asked about accepting Palestinians, the King mentioned a plan involving Egypt and… pic.twitter.com/lPTmeGvREY

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 11, 2025

Below are some key lines from the press Q&A at the White House meeting:

* * *

King Abdullah of Jordan:

Asked about accepting Palestinians, the King mentioned a plan involving Egypt and discussions initiated by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He said, “We have to keep in mind how to make this work in everyone’s best interest.”

In response to Trump’s plan for a parcel of land for Palestinian refugees in Jordan: “I have to do what is best for my country.”

Announced that Jordan will accept 2,000 ill children from Gaza for medical treatment.

President Donald Trump:

Repeated his call for removing Palestinians en masse. Said Palestinians will live in “another location that is not Gaza.”

Stated the U.S. will “run Gaza very properly,” but, “we’re not going to buy it.”

Proposed the possibility of designating “parcels of land in Jordan and in Egypt” for Palestinians.

Called Abdullah’s pledge to take 2,000 sick Palestinian children “a beautiful gesture”.

Gaza: “We’re going to take it, we’re going to cherish it,” says Trump

Expressed doubt about Hamas meeting the captives release deadline: “I don’t think they’ll make Saturday’s deadline.”

Abdullah plays the game…

King of Jordan to Trump:
“Mr. President I truly believe, with all the challenges that we have in the Middle East, that I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace, and prosperity to all of us in the region.” pic.twitter.com/TBeKgEHAQA

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 11, 2025

Meanwhile…

Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Chinese health authorities have said this winter’s flu season is less severe than the year before, but medical experts cast doubts over the transparency of its respiratory illness situation.

Residents from four different cities have expressed concerns about an uptick in respiratory infections within their families and communities when speaking to The Epoch Times.

Some suspected their flu-like symptoms may actually be caused by COVID-19, fearing that doctors were instructed to avoid such diagnoses, given that the authorities declared a victory in its fight against the pandemic almost two years ago.

In Shenyang, northern China, a woman named Xu said she’s noticed more people sick with respiratory illnesses have seen local hospitals packed again during the Lunar New Year holiday.

“I’m feeling unwell myself and haven’t recovered. The hospital said I contracted influenza A, but I believe it’s just COVID-19,” Xu told The Epoch Times on Feb. 7. She expressed concerns about how quickly the virus circulated among humans this time, saying her son, daughter-in-law, and their school-aged daughter have all fallen ill. “The authorities are concealing the scale of the outbreak.”

Flu Toll Questioned

China’s top health body has acknowledged the country is grappling with a spike in respiratory infectious illness, but said the rate of influenza has shown signs of slowing down.

During the regime’s most recent briefing, National Health Commission (NHC) officials reiterated its previous assessment, saying the scale and intensity of the spread of respiratory infectious diseases this year is lower than it was during the previous winter season.

“No new infectious disease had been detected,” Mi Feng, NHC’s spokesperson, told reporters on Jan. 17, ahead of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, attributing the current infections to a combination of known germs, most prominently influenza. No data was provided during the briefing.

It remains unclear how many people were infected with the influenza virus or COVID-19 this year. The latest figures showed 112 COVID-19 infections and seven deaths in December 2024, according to a monthly report from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Since December 2022, after a leaked recording of an internal NHC meeting indicated the COVID outbreaks were far worse than the official tallies indicated, the top health regulator stopped publishing daily COVID figures and transitioned COVID-related updates to its sub-department, CDC.

In a separate report, the CDC reported 1.5 million influenza cases last December, leading to seven deaths.

Medical experts have questioned the accuracy of these flu statistics.

“It’s clear that the mortality rate is being underreported,” Sean Lin, a virologist and former lab director at the viral disease branch of the U.S. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told The Epoch Times.

The official tally means for every 100,000 people who contracted the flu in China, only one has died, a contrast to the much graver rates observed in the United States, where between 5 to 10 out of every 10,000 individuals face fatal outcomes, according to Lin’s analysis.

“Given China’s [high] level of air pollution and the large number of smokers, the number of people with underlying respiratory diseases in China is supposed to be substantial, so the death toll from influenza is likely much higher than reported,” Lin said.

Dong Yuhong, a medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases, also raised concerns about the absence of detailed data, calling them essential for preventing potential pandemics.

Dong recalled during previous COVID-19 outbreaks, there was often a noticeable gap between official numbers and the accounts of frontline workers, crematorium staff, and residents on the ground.

The Chinese regime has drawn widespread criticism for covering up COVID-related information. The scrutiny goes back to almost the onset of the pandemic, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. At that time, the regime concealed the outbreak’s true scale and silenced whistleblowers, allowing regional outbreaks to develop into a global pandemic.

Without reliable health statistics, the international community would be in the dark about the true situation in China, according to Dong.

“Real statistics are crucial for epidemic prevention. They help us understand the scale of an outbreak and evaluate the effectiveness of our response measures,” Dong told The Epoch Times.

Concerns Among the Public

Chinese citizens don’t seem convinced by Beijing’s optimism about this winter illness season, with some appearing to be cautious about the current situation.

A man working in the industrial hub of Guangdong said he didn’t travel back home for the Chinese New Year, the country’s most important festival, which fell on Jan. 29 this year. He cited concerns about the outbreaks in his hometown of Xuchang, located over 800 miles away, where he heard the situation was “severe.”

“It’s still caused by COVID-19,” the man, surnamed Shao, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 5. “The hospitals are full … many passed away recently, and the crematorium is busy.” Shao lamented missing his uncle’s funeral that day. His uncle had been healthy and, according to Shao, after getting the domestic COVID-19 vaccine two years ago, he became weak and ultimately succumbed to “white lung” pneumonia.

Shao’s sentiment was echoed by a dancing teacher in Beijing, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. She painted a grim picture of the flu season this year, describing it as “very serious” as many of her students have fallen ill and showed flu-like symptoms. Diagnoses mainly pointed to Type A flu or HMPV, a type of flu that recently attracted global attention, though “privately everyone said it was COVID-19,” she said.

The teacher recalled her relative, a young man who passed away just days after contracting the flu. She said she couldn’t help but suspect that the domestic COVID-19 vaccine played a role, given his previously good health and lack of underlying conditions.

In the central province of Anhui, a middle-aged father said his child and his mother also got sick, and in his city, he heard many infected were seriously ill.

“They say it’s just flu,” the man, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, told The Epoch Times, “but after taking [flu] medications, their symptoms haven’t improved at all.”

He said he speculated there was a “new virus” circulating, but he heard others linked it to a mutated COVID variant. Nevertheless, “all these news [reports] were concealed,” he said.

Luo Ya and Xiong Bin contributed to this report. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed his strategic plan for ordering the risky Kursk offensive which began last August, and has resulted in Ukraine forces holding hundreds of square kilometers of Russian territory for the past six months.

Zelensky said in comments published Tuesday that he’s ready to swap territory with Russia as part of a deal to end the war. He described that if President Trump gets the warring sides to the negotiating table, “We will swap one territory for another.”

The Ukrainian leader when asked in The Guardian interview precisely which territories Kiev would demand back, he responded: “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.” Obviously he has the four annexed eastern territories in mind.

In September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of the four eastern Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. In some of these areas, front line war zones are still being fought over, but the consensus is that Russian forces will soon conquer them fully as the Ukrainian army has been in slow but steady retreat.

Moscow considers to four territories to now be part of the Russian Federation, and they have been key to Putin’s war aims, given also they have are largely Russian-speaking from the start. Putin has stressed he will never give them up.

Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into Kursk was always meant to force the Kremlin to divide its forces in order to defend its land, but this by and large has not happened – or in other words Putin has not taken the bait.

Instead, there have long been reports that thousands of North Korean troops have assisted Russian forces in seeking to take it back. But Moscow hasn’t appeared in a hurry, and has not sacrificed its gains in Donetsk to make it happen.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded in a Telegram post on Tuesday, “In the Kursk region, the neo-Nazis operating there … [control] an area of ​​approximately two meters and a depth of one and a half meters” – in apparent sarcasm.

She said, “Zelensky makes similar statements in order to hide the true scale of the disaster for the Armed Forces in this direction.”

Russia’s defense ministry has made frequent statements highlighting Ukraine’s immense losses trying to hold the seized Kursk territory over the last several weeks, stressing that it is Zelensky who has gotten the worse end of the gambit. Some Russian sources have claimed Ukraine has lost some 50,000 troops during the invasion of Russian territory.

🇷🇺 Maria Zakharova:

Zelensky told The Guardian that he would offer Russia a direct territorial swap, giving up lands that Kiev holds in the Kursk region but he has not yet decided what part he will ask Russia for in return.

Land is waiting for the Neo-Nazis in the Kursk region,… pic.twitter.com/Wo9sXZ7IGU

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) February 11, 2025

While somewhat of an embarrassing blow for Moscow in the beginning, events in Kursk have not cause Kremlin leadership to panic, instead officials have constantly downplayed its strategic importance in the bigger context of the war.

For this reason, Moscow is shrugging off Zelensky’s offer of a territory swap, which means Kiev doesn’t have the leverage it thought it had in taking dozens of Kursk towns and villages, which have long been evacuated of the Russian population at this point.