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AUSTRALIA - Amid all the talk about tariffs with China, and how they steal America’s intellectual property and establish all kinds of trade barriers with this country, you might have missed this story. It’s not about economics, but at the same time, it tells you a lot about what authoritarian countries like China fear the most.
Beginning on May 1, China will accelerate its crackdown on religion, and Christianity in particular. Foreign missionaries will be banned from preaching unless they obtain formal approval from the government.
According to Chinese state media, the goal of the new regulation is to protect “national security” and “political stability” by forcing people to attend official, state-run religious services with pre-approved messaging. Additionally, Chinese state media has recently boasted about the fact that religious groups — which the government calls “cult organizations” — have been increasingly shut down in China. At this point, one of the fastest ways to disappear in China is to deliver a sermon that upsets the ruling party. Click here to read more.
A Florida teacher’s contract will not be renewed after she was accused of using a student’s preferred name in violation of the state’s law.
Brevard Public Schools (BPS) said the teacher who worked at Satellite High School had allegedly been calling the young person by their preferred name but did not have parental permission to do so, WESH reported on Thursday, noting the parent contacted school leadership over the issue.
“This directly violates state law and the district’s standardized process for written parental consent,” the district stated.
District leaders said they investigated the issue and “Based on the teacher’s own admission that she knowingly did not comply with state statute she received a letter of reprimand. Teachers, like all employees, are expected to follow the law.” Click here to read more.
WASHINGTON D.C. - Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a bold claim at a Cabinet meeting Thursday with President Donald Trump, promising that his department will uncover environmental causes of autism by September.
“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Kennedy told Trump in front of reporters.
“By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
Trump, who as early as his 2016 presidential campaign called autism an “epidemic” and asserted that its prevalence is linked to vaccines, hailed Kennedy’s work.
“Think of that: So, it was 1 in 10,000 children had autism, and now it’s 1 in 31. Not 31,000—31. That’s a horrible statistic, isn’t it? And there’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” said Trump. Click here to read more.
OPEKA, Kan. - A calf dying from tetanus has a second chance at life, thanks to a 9-year-old Kansas girl and her family.
When 9-year-old Ainsley Hastings got a call about getting an Angus bull calf, she saw potential, WIBW reports.
“I was like, ‘I want him. I want him,‘” Ainsley said. “He’s sassy, too. He’s kind, nice.”
However, her new calf named JB came with a challenge: he was dying after tetanus attacked his nervous system, a condition with a survival rate of only 20%.
“When we got him, he was not even able to move up off of his sides,” said Kylie Hastings, Ainsley’s mother. “He was very rigid. We had to hold his neck up manually to get him to eat.”
The Hastings family, with Ainsley in the lead, took the odds and the recovery process into their own hands.
“So, I actually took two old sawhorses and some ratchet straps and kind of built a sling out of it to keep the pressure off to help him build strength on his own feet,” said Caleb Hastings, Ainsley’s father. Click here to read more.
WASHINGTON D.C. - The core function of any sovereign state is to protect its people. This is not merely a matter of tradition or political sentiment. It is the cornerstone of legitimacy. No policy, program, or platitude that undermines national security can long endure in a system that values its own continuity. The United States today faces a dilemma of precisely this sort in the form of student visa issuance to nationals of the People’s Republic of China. It is not a question of prejudice. It is a question of prudence.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) subjects its citizens, wherever they reside, to the sweeping dictates of the 2017 National Intelligence Law. Most notably, Article 7 of that law mandates that all Chinese citizens and organizations must, upon request, support and cooperate with state intelligence work. There are no geographic exceptions. There are no due process requirements. And there is no meaningful ability for a citizen, once contacted by the state, to say "no." Click here to read more.
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