The Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) redacted “key findings” in the public version of a report on dangerous pathogen research conducted in Chinese labs that was being funded with American taxpayer dollars.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, filed a letter Tuesday asking the DoD to release the unredacted version of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report and explain the taxpayer money sent to China to fund these experiments.

“With DoD secretly funding risky research on dangerous pathogens and diseases in China, this alarming Inspector General investigation demonstrates Washington hasn’t learned any lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Ernst in her letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

The letter explains that while some of the projects have been identified, the full extent is unknown, according to the OIG report titled “Review of DoD Funds Provided to the People’s Republic of China and Associated Affiliates for Research Activities or Any Foreign Countries for the Enhancement of Pathogens of Pandemic Potential.”

“This is due to DoD not sufficiently tracking or monitoring expenditures made from its own contracts and grants. Additionally, Navy officials didn’t even bother responding to the OIG’s specific questions,” Ernst wrote.

The information surrounding the projects, funded by taxpayer dollars, is required by law to be disclosed to the general public, due to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, Ernst noted.

“The description of the project omits any mention of China or the collaboration with a company closely affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation

Julian Assange is now a free man, but he should never have been charged with a crime to begin with. 

The Wikileaks founder, who has spent the last five years in a British prison, was released Monday after striking a deal with President Biden’s Department of Justice. Assange pleaded guilty to violation of the Espionage Act for publishing classified material about U.S. government operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan beginning in 2009. He traveled to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory, on Tuesday and was expected to appear in court there on Wednesday before continuing on to his home country of Australia to be reunited with his family.

As Assange’s years-long ordeal comes to a close, it’s worth noting that what was done to him is criminal — and it poses a very real threat for journalists who dare to question the national security state. Put simply, what Assange did is no different than what The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and many other corporate media outlets do every day: they publish and report on classified material that was stolen or obtained illegally by sources.

The main difference between Assange and these outlets is that Assange did what he did in order to hold power to account, whereas the corporate press does it in service of power — at least when a Democratic administration is in the White House. From the earliest days of Wikileaks, Assange’s goal was to publish information that was beyond the control of states, specifically

Hundreds of migrants from Tajikistan, a country known for being an ISIS breeding ground, have crossed the southern border in never-before-seen numbers under President Biden’s administration. 

More than 1,500 Tajiks have been apprehended between October 2020 and May 2024, a stark increase from the previous 14 years, during which only 26 Tajikistan nationals were caught. At least 500 Tajiks have been caught in 2024 alone, with most claiming asylum, according to the New York Post.

The article by the Post’s Jennie Taer follows multiple reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested eight Tajikistan nationals with connections to ISIS in three major U.S. cities.

The House Homeland Security Committee attributed the rise in ISIS-connected crossings due to “Custom and Border Protection’s … limited ability to fully vet and screen those crossing” into the United States. Officials have since then expelled the individuals from the country.

A recent article by Foreign Affairs labeled Tajikistan “a fertile recruiting ground” for ISIS-K, a regional branch of the Islamic State, citing the nation’s “poverty, a lack of social opportunities, and petty criminalization.”

“It’s only a matter of time before one of these individuals connected to a terrorist group is involved in something devastating on U.S. soil, and this administration will be responsible,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn. 

The most recent border encounter total reached 170,723 individuals in May alone, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Of those, nearly 100,000 are single adults.

The majority of these illegal border crossers