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Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, a Chinese newspaper warned on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could expand the conflict into a “world war.”

The high tensions between Russia and NATO have seemingly escalated in recent weeks after the military alliance’s announcement last month of its largest military exercise in more than 35 years. Dubbed “Steadfast Defender 2024,” the operation launched in late January and will run through May. It ultimately will include participation of around 90,000 military personnel from 31 NATO allies and Sweden.

NATO officials have said the exercise will test the allies’ ability to quickly deploy forces and test new defense plans. Military analysts have speculated Steadfast Defender is meant to prepare alliance members for the potential of a future Russian invasion on NATO territory.

The military alliance’s announcement about the operation did not mention Russia by name, though based on documents from the military alliance obtained by Reuters, Russia is viewed as the biggest security threat to its member nations. One of the primary goals of the exercise will be to “demonstrate NATO’s ability to rapidly deploy forces from North America and other parts of the alliance to reinforce the defense of Europe.”

In a Sunday opinion piece titled, “NATO is pushing the Russia-Ukraine conflict toward a ‘world war,'” published by the Global Times, a nationalistic English-language tabloid published by the propaganda department of the ruling Communist Party, noted NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s recent visit to the United States in which he spoke about the “readiness” of NATO along with the investment in aid and defense.

“Clearly, this is not just about NATO seeking funds. This is a clear preparation of public opinion to expand the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a world war,” Global Times‘ opinion piece read.

According to NATO’s website, Stoltenberg warned of challenges amid the war in Ukraine in a speech in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, adding that “NATO has implemented the biggest adaptation, the biggest change for our Alliance, since the end of the Cold War with more forces on higher readiness. For the first time in our history, we have combat-ready troops in the eastern part of the Alliance. And Allies are now actually investing more in defense.”

However, the Global Times‘ opinion articled warned of impacts NATO may have as it could lead to “divisions and confrontations” on a global scale.

“This strategic adjustment by NATO may enhance its internal cohesion in the short term and continue to maintain its position as the world’s most powerful military force held by the US and the West. However, in the long term, it may lead to more divisions and confrontations globally, profoundly affecting international relations and the security environment around China,” the opinion article stated.

“The danger of war will inevitably increase as NATO advances and expands globally, and those affected will not be limited to Asia,” the Global Times, whose views do not always reflect official policy in China, added.

Newsweek has reached out to NATO and the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

The warning comes after Dmitry Medvedev, former president of Russia and a staunch ally of current Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned in a social media post on Friday about the potential for a “big war” with NATO.

Writing in an extended social media post on Friday on VKontakte, a Russian social media network, Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman for the Security Council of Russia, decried the organizers of “Steadfast Defender 2024” as “Western politicians who have s*** their pants and their mediocre generals in NATO have once again decided to scare us.”

He also claimed that Russia would never initiate a first strike against a NATO member nation, but claimed that it would respond to any potential aggression against its own “integrity” or increased NATO association with Ukraine, warning of a “big war” that would follow.

Read more at: msn.com

In light of recent events in Texas, where the state Governor Gregg Abbott stands firm in dodging a United States Supreme Court ruling of authorizing border patrol agents to tear down razor fences that the Texas National Guard has installed, former Navy Seal and renowned author Matt Bracken warned of a possible secession of the state from the union and return to being its very own “Republic of Texas.”

On top of the migrant crisis, President Joe Biden’s regime likes to think of the country as “the most powerful force on Earth” as it gears up toward a multi-front war with various countries such as Iran, Russia, Yemen and other countries.

“Joe Biden is still living in the 1980s or maybe, he’s just living in a total fantasy land. But he still thinks America’s military and the U.S. sanctions are the most powerful forces in the world,” Brighteon founder and “Health Ranger Report” host Mike Adams said during a recent episode, where he had Bracken as a guest. “[Treasury Secretary] Janet Yellen thinks we can fund unlimited wars by printing money, even though we can’t manufacture munitions. We’re gonna have a war with Russia, Iran, China and Texas. But we would not have the capacity.”

The novelist agreed, adding that Russians and the other nations can surge their armaments. “If we go to war with them, we’re out of all of our weapons in two or three weeks, completely out,” he said a matter-of-factly. He added that Russia has extra strong missiles. “They have fired missiles at specific targets early in the war and they nailed the barracks. It’s sort of like a brushback pitch by a baseball pitcher. That’s a message for the Pentagon: ‘You’ve got nothing that can stop these dudes,'” he said.

The author also pointed out that Americans do not stand a chance with the sophisticated “engineering skills” of Iranians. He quoted Larry Johnson who said that attacking Iran kinetically now is the stupidest move “because it will just unite all of them and they’ll forget that they hate the Ayatollah and the Crusaders. He said it would be much smarter “if we just continue to destabilize them internally, and politically, because attacking them kinetically is so stupid.”

In one of his books that is about to be released, entitled “Doomsday Reef,” Bracken also presented a scenario about 10-15 years post-United States empire collapse, Texas and Louisiana, have supposedly freed themselves following a massive 80-percent reduction in the American population. “The recovery begins with the oil refineries because they have the latent capacity in this scenario, fuel is everything. You cannot run a modern economy. Fuel is the lifeblood,” he described a chapter in his book. “General Jackson in Texas, he had the foresight to occupy the region between Galveston and Houston, which is called Texas City, and call volunteers, retired infrastructure workers, engineers, soldiers, and start rebuilding it.”

According to him, once the Texas militia – not the American army or the National Guard –can fuel its own boats, ships and trucks, buses and airplanes, it can then expand its control and eventually take control of all of Texas. They will declare it as a republic, without having further to do with the United States. “Texas, under the Lone Star flag, will be an independent country,” he predicted based on his current analyses.

Read more at: naturalnews.com

The Iranian-backed terrorists responsible for murdering three U.S. soldiers, and injuring dozens more, in an attack over the weekend have started to evacuate their bases after President Joe Biden’s administration leaked to the media this week that they are gearing up to respond by carrying out a sustained bombing campaign.

The news comes after NBC News reported on Wednesday that the U.S. retaliatory strikes would be a “campaign” that lasts “weeks,” according to U.S. officials.

The officials went as far as to say that the U.S. would target “Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations,” the report added.

CBS News reported late on Wednesday that the the terror groups that make up Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, have “evacuated their bases in Iraq and Syria, fearing U.S. retaliatory strikes after Sunday’s attack.”

A U.S. official further telegraphed America’s forthcoming punches by telling ABC News that “these are going to be very deliberate targets — deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks.”

Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director & Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Nonproliferation & Biodefense program, criticized the Biden administration for tipping off the enemy about what its plans were.

“Having let these attacks go on for so long—resulting in the deaths of three service members—the administration must now ‘shock the system’ of the regime to deter further attacks,” Stricker told The Daily Wire on Tuesday. “The blow must be so devastating that Tehran orders its proxies to stand down.”

Read more at: dailywire.com

The Biden administration has whined for months about the public’s negative views on the economy, arguing that people are operating on “false perceptions influenced by right-wing media.”

Most Americans have figured out that government officials and the corporate media have a habit of misrepresenting economic data to convince the public that the economy has never been better.

Last June, the White House unleashed a media campaign with corporate media to blast out the message that “Bidenomics” worked and the economy has never been better. But polling data from Real Clear Politics shows that despite the PR blitz, the president’s polling data went down.

People know when their wallets are hurting, and gaslighting them has not been effective.

Yet another data point released Tuesday supports the public’s position that the nation is less prosperous than the government would like us to believe.

Bloomberg cites a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association that reveals US household utility debt hit a record as an alarming number of Americans can no longer afford heating and cooling their homes.

NEADA said one out of every six ratepayers is behind on energy bills, adding residential utility debt hit a new record last year of $20.3 billion.

The group, representing state-level directors of low-income utility assistance programs, pointed out household heating costs have soared 20% since the start of Covid.

Folks in New York and Michigan have been impacted the most by soaring energy bills, the report said. As of Sept. 30, there were more than 7 million households on utility bill assistance.

Looking at the US CPI Northeast Urban Household Energy index, a basket of household fuels, such as propane, kerosene, and firewood, as well as electricity prices, remains near record highs.

Meanwhile, more than 60% of Americans reported that their wages were lagging well behind inflation.

Read more at: zerohedge.com

In a controversial and heart-wrenching case, Montana’s Child Protective Services has been accused of forcibly transporting a 14-year-old girl from her family in Montana to Wyoming for gender transition treatment, leading to a complete revocation of her parents’ custody.

The family’s media representative, Mattie Watkins, has disclosed a distressing account to The Gateway Pundit involving the Kolstad family of Montana.

Todd and Krista Kolstad have been embroiled in a legal and emotional struggle for their 14-year-old daughter after Montana CPS took drastic action that is tantamount to “kidnapping.”

In April 2023, the Montana legislature passed State Bill 99, which banned the medical transitioning of minors. However, a series of events unfolded in August that significantly impacted the Kolstad family.

Their daughter was transported to Wyoming, a state with different laws regarding the medical transition of minors, by the Montana CPS for treatment of her sudden onset “gender dysphoria,” despite the parents’ express disapproval.

In August 2023, police informed the Kolstads of a text message from their daughter claiming she was suicidal. They were notified by police that their daughter had allegedly ingested drain cleaner and taken an overdose of ibuprofen.

Todd Kolstad, a US Air Force veteran, said in a video, “Our 14-year-old daughter has struggled for quite some time in school from bullying. We have had many meetings over the years with the school systems trying to address these issues.”

Law enforcement authorities released information about a massive operation targeting human traffickers that led to more than 500 arrests.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a media briefing Monday that police had arrested 539 people in the criminal operation.

“Human trafficking and child exploitation are devastating crimes that prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” the sheriff said.

Police rescued 54 adults and 11 children from exploitation during the action dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, he added. 40 of the arrested were suspected “sexual traffickers or exploiters” while another 271 arrested were suspected “sex buyers.” Among those rescued was a 14-year-old girl.

He went on to say that the operation was in its tenth year and ended in January, known as human trafficking awareness month, but that police worked all year to arrest human traffickers.

Joining Luna at the media briefing was controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who won his position with financial help from left-wing billionaire George Soros. Residents of Los Angeles have vehemently criticized Soros over soft prosecutorial policies that they say have led to an increase in crime.

The operation included more than 95 local, state, and federal agencies, including the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force.

Alan Smyth, the CEO of human trafficking advocacy group Saving Innocence, said that his group saw an uptick in human trafficking ahead of the World Series baseball championships in Los Angeles in 2020, and they expected to see the same ahead of the NFL Super Bowl.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the purpose of the operation was to “send a message to pimps, exploiters and buyers that it is unacceptable to buy another human being for sexual purposes.”

Read more: theblaze.com

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) in introducing the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act.

The bill would prohibit federal departments, agencies and offices from conducting, funding or approving research involving human fetal tissue obtained through an induced abortion. It would not prohibit the development of new, high-efficiency cell lines, as long as those lines do not derive from fetal tissue researchers gain access to because of an abortion.

“It’s unconscionable that our government would use American taxpayer dollars to fund research that exploits or depends on the taking of innocent life. If the Biden administration won’t stop this immorality, Congress should,” said Kennedy.

“The harvesting and trafficking of the body parts of unborn babies killed through abortion is heinous and unethical. Taxpayer dollars for medical research should be spent on research that will deliver results for enhancing quality of life, instead of devaluing life for the sake of research. This legislation would stop the Biden administration’s gross abuse of taxpayer funds,” said Hyde-Smith.

Read more at: lifenews.com

Prosecutors said that a teenage girl showed no remorse after killing her friend over a dispute about sweet and sour sauce from a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The 16-year-old was convicted for stabbing Naima Liggon, also 16 years old, in August after a house party they had attended. On Thursday, she was given the maximum sentence allowed and will stay in custody until she turns 21 years old.

Prosecutors said text messages she sent after the stabbing showed she had no remorse for her actions. They also said that surveillance video showed the girl could have simply walked back into the McDonald’s for more sweet and sour sauce.

The defense tried to argue that the girl acted only in self-defense because two people were trying to jump her. They also claimed that was had experienced past trauma and had been triggered in the lethal reaction.

Naima’s mother, Joy Liggon, responded to those claims in an interview with WRC-TV outside the courtroom.

“I don’t know what this young lady went through,” she said. “I don’t know what her life experience was, but I know she committed a crime, and she took someone away from my family.”

“That she called a friend,” added Wallace Liggon, the father of the victim.

The teenager issued a statement to the Liggons in court.

“Sorry to the friends and family. I am sorry to cause you this pain,” she said in part. “I still think about the victim and I want to apologize to Naima’s mother. I am a very genuine person and I’m not a bad person.”

Joy Liggon went on to say that she was relieved the girl got the maximum sentence but added that it wasn’t enough. She had asked for prosecutors to file a first-degree murder charge, but instead, they agreed to a plea deal with the girl for a lower charge.

“You have to realize that your kids have free will and free choice to do what they want, so just keep encouraging them to do the right thing,” she continued. “Walk away from conflict. Some things are just not that serious — definitely sweet and sour sauce.”

Read more at: theblaze.com