August 25, 2023 - The Virginia Star

Vivek Ramaswamy Breaks His Campaign’s Fundraising Record Day After First GOP Debate

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

Conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign said Friday that he set a new fundraising record in the day following the first GOP presidential debate, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed Friday.

Ramaswamy first launched his presidential campaign in February in an interview with DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson, where he pledged to take on America’s “national identity crisis.” The conservative businessman’s campaign said he raised $600,000 Thursday after making his presidential debate debut alongside Republican heavyweights like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, where many argued he won the night.

Major Auto Union Authorizes Strike for 150,000 Workers

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union authorized a strike on Friday in negotiations with major automakers, according to the union.

The union voted 97% in favor of a strike for its 150,000 autoworkers as negotiations continue with the Big Three automakers, which include Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, according to a union press release. The union is demanding wage increases to counter inflation, defined benefit pensions, retiree healthcare, the elimination of tiers for wages and benefits among other demands.

After His Arrest in Georgia Indictment, Disbarment Hearing of Trump’s Attorney John Eastman Resumes

August 25, 2023 Rachel Alexander

The disbarment trial of former Donald Trump attorney and constitutional scholar John Eastman for his role advising the previous president about challenging the 2020 presidential election resumed on Thursday after almost a two-month break caused by conflicting schedules among the parties.

Top Story: Trump Praises Vivek Ramaswamy Following First Republican Primary Debate

August 25, 2023 Admin

Top Commentary: Commentary: The Biden Clan’s Con Is Coming to an End

August 25, 2023 Admin

TSNN Featured Story: Trump Praises Vivek Ramaswamy Following First Republican Primary Debate

August 25, 2023 Admin

China Secretly Revived Its Elite Scientist Poaching Program to Gain Supremacy in Tech War

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

China quietly revived a program in 2020 that aimed to recruit foreign-trained scientists to help the country’s efforts in bolstering its semiconductor manufacturing industry, according to Reuters.

The program, originally named the Thousand Talents Plan, stopped work in 2018 after the U.S. launched investigations into the scientists that were a part of the program, and it was later revived under the name Qiming and overseen by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to Reuters. The U.S. and China are currently in a tech war, with both countries trying to gain an advantage in the strategic semiconductor industry, which is essential for technological research.

U.S. Turns to Country Notorious for Child Labor and Unsafe Mines to Source Its Electric Vehicle Ambitions

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

In order to facilitate electric vehicle (EV) production, the U.S. is seeking to spend taxpayer dollars to develop cobalt supply chains from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country which is known for high prevalence of unsafe child labor in its mines, many of which are controlled by Chinese interests, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Labor (DOL) are jointly committing $23 million in taxpayer funds to U.S. firms and other mining companies to integrate local Congolese operations and “artisanal” mines into their supply chains, as well as to improve labor standards for miners in the DRC, which are essentially non-existent in most cases, according to the WSJ. Chinese-controlled interests dominate the DRC’s cobalt industry, refining about 75% of the global cobalt supply and manufacturing approximately 70% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, which are cobalt-intensive products that power EVs.

Group Fights ‘Race-Neutral Proxy’ Admissions in Virginia, Maryland Schools

August 25, 2023August 24, 2023 The Center Square

The Libertarian law group, the Pacific Legal Foundation, is deep into two court cases involving a Virginia high school and several Maryland middle schools and what it calls “race neutral proxies” in their admissions policies.

In an effort to have more students of all backgrounds, the schools have developed policies that put Asian American students at a disadvantage, the foundation claims.

Commentary: The Biden Clan’s Con Is Coming to an End

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

Despite years of Biden family and media disinformation, we are finally learning that Joe Biden really did fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin for looking into state corruption involving the oil company Burisma and Hunter Biden—and ultimately Joe Biden himself.

As Vice President, Biden, in his own words, bragged that he had threatened to cancel the deliverance of American foreign aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was dismissed.

Commentary: Climate Activists Have Exploited Our Children

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

A report published in the Washington Times last week, entitled “Young conservatives take climate activism to GOP presidential debate,” undoubtedly is of grave concern to conservatives and the Republican Party. A group of young Republicans called the American Conservation Coalition is warning GOP presidential candidates that they “need to engage on energy and climate or they’re going to lose young voters.”

Biden Admin Reduces Oil Lease Area to Protect Whales

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

The Biden administration issued a final notice Wednesday for the lease of 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore energy activity, a figure which represents a 6.4 million acre reduction from the initial proposal, Bloomberg News reported.

The 6.4 million acre reduction amounts to 9% of the initially proposed lease area from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), according to Bloomberg. The reduction follows the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) July decision to settle with environmentalist groups and move to introduce protections for the Rice’s whale species in a nearly 11 million acre swath of the Gulf.

CBP Data Shows Nationwide Illegal Migrant Encounters Skyrocket Almost 300 Percent Since 2020

August 25, 2023 Just the News

U.S. Customers and Border Protection’s “nationwide encounters” of illegal migrants have gone up almost 300% since 2020, which was former President Trump’s last fiscal year in office, according to a Just the News review of the latest CBP data.

Nationwide encounters of illegal migrants in FY2022 were 2.7 million, the highest total since FY2020, when nationwide encounters stood at 646,000.

Hunter Biden Traveled to at Least 13 Countries with Then-Vice President Father

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

New reports suggest that Hunter Biden traveled to as many as 13 different countries with his father Joe Biden while he was vice president during the Obama Administration.

As Fox News reports, video footage, messages, and Secret Service records obtained from Hunter’s abandoned laptop indicate that the two Bidens traveled together to such locations as Africa, Asia, Europe, and Mexico. At the time, Hunter was still leading the firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, which he used to broker many of his international business deals.

Wall Street Firms That Sold Out to China Are Now Struggling

August 25, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

Major Wall Street firms that decided to expand their asset management operations into China are struggling to capitalize on the market, according to The Wall Street Journal.

BlackRock, a top U.S. investment company, is one of many American firms that are struggling to compete in the Chinese market, ranking only 145th out of almost 200 Chinese mutual funds, with other firms like Fidelity International and Neuberger Berman ranking even lower, according to the WSJ. Factors contributing to the firm’s woes are a lack of willingness from local companies to utilize American investment banks, a struggling Chinese economy and restrictions from both the U.S. and China.