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China’s US influence could face crackdown under slate of new bills

China’s US influence could face crackdown under slate of new bills

FIRST ON FOX: China could face a crackdown on its influence in the U.S. on multiple fronts if a slate of new targeted bills is passed. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., led the introduction of three bills aimed at curbing Chinese influence this week. The measures specifically take action on China’s acquisition of U.S. farmland, its predatory investment and its connections to U.S. education institutions.  “China continues to buy up American farm land, steal our patents and expand their authoritarian world view,” Lankford told Fox News Digital. “America will demonstrate to the world our values and maintain our economic and military strength to assure the globe has the best opportunity for freedom. No one in China should doubt America’s resolve and commitment to liberty.” TRUMP ‘HOPES’ PUTIN AGREES TO CEASEFIRE AS MOSCOW SIGNALS NO TRUCE YET The Countering Adversarial and Malicious Partnerships at Universities and Schools Act (CAMPUS) would prohibit joint research between U.S. universities and those in China connected to its military and bar federal funds from going to schools that partner with entities linked to it.  The next bill, known as the Belt & Road Oversight Act, is designed to monitor China’s predatory lending practices and counter any economic coercion. The measure would establish officers at all worldwide embassies who would be charged with tracking its investments in critical infrastructure.  POLAND CALLS ON US TO PLACE NUKES WITHIN ITS BORDERS AMID RUSSIA THREAT The third bill would conduct oversight into any purchases of U.S. agricultural land that could pose a national security threat. Named the Security and Oversight of International Landholdings (SOIL) Act, the measure specifically bans any federal assistance for certain real estate holdings that are owned by foreign entities and expands disclosure requirements for land purchases made by any such entities.   Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., co-sponsored both the CAMPUS and SOIL Acts.  PENTAGON CALLS MARK MILLEY ‘CORPULENT’ AS IT KICKS OFF REVIEW OF PHYSICAL FITNESS AND GROOMING STANDARDS The bills targeting China’s influence come after the country held recent nuclear talks with Russia and Iran in Beijing.  Ahead of the meeting, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the discussions would be about “developments related to the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions.” SECRETARY HEGSETH SAYS THE DOD DOES NOT DO ‘CLIMATE CHANGE CRAP’ CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The meeting was downplayed by President Trump earlier in the week. He suggested U.S. adversaries could be talking “de-escalation.”  “Well, maybe they’re going to talk about non-nuclear problems. Maybe they’re going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons,” Trump said in the Oval Office. 

Trump allies mount campaign to get DOGE codified by Congress

Trump allies mount campaign to get DOGE codified by Congress

FIRST ON FOX: A group of President Donald Trump’s House GOP allies is leading a bill that would enshrine the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its efficiency efforts in federal law, giving it some protection from various legal challenges over the next year and a half. “This creates a reporting structure that allows what DOGE is doing with the Cabinet to be relayed to Congress, which is our Article I authorities, which is really the idea of being good stewards of taxpayer funding,” Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who is leading the bill, told Fox News Digital in an interview. The legislation more generally codifies Trump’s executive order directing Cabinet secretaries and heads of other executive offices to coordinate with DOGE on various government efficiency plans. DOGE PROTESTERS RALLY OUTSIDE KEY DEPARTMENT AFTER EMPLOYEES ARE TOLD NOT TO REPORT TO WORK  It would give Elon Musk and DOGE Acting Administrator Amy Gleason more standing to implement various cuts within the federal government, as part of Trump’s plan to cut federal waste. “What Elon has done is that he’s created kind of this algorithm that works in the background, that sifts through all of these different programs, 24 hours a day, to look at anomalies and how they’re being utilized, to go ahead and say, ‘Hey, is this something for analysis? Is this something that we need to take a look at?’” Mills said. “That’s really what this is — it’s about modernizing and maximizing.”  The legislation is co-sponsored by House DOGE Caucus co-chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., of which Mills is also a part. Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; Barry Moore, R-Ala.; and Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, are also helping lead the bill. DOGE AND AGENCIES CANCEL 200,000 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS  If passed, such a bill would likely help shield DOGE from Democratic efforts to block it from gathering federal government data. Musk and DOGE were recently ordered to turn over a broad array of records by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in response to a lawsuit by more than a dozen Democratic attorneys general.

Syrian rights activist and cousin of Assad tears into Europe for supporting new ‘terrorist’ regime

Syrian rights activist and cousin of Assad tears into Europe for supporting new ‘terrorist’ regime

Syrian human rights activist Ribal al-Assad tore into Europe for lifting sanctions against the nation’s new “terrorist” regime, which he warned is no better than his first cousin, ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.  After days of bloodshed, Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the forces that overthrew Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), on Thursday signed a temporary constitution putting the country under Islamist rule for at least five years. But al-Sharaa’s government has gone on a “revenge killing spree,” going after low-level officers who had been conscripted into Assad’s armed forces, along with Alawite and Christian minorities, among others, according to al-Assad. “They couldn’t have refused [military service]. Those who refused were put in jails,” he said, adding that any high-level officers in Assad’s forces had fled the country.  RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER IN SYRIA SHOWS NEED FOR US, EUROPE TO ‘KEEP A CLOSE EYE’ ON ISLAMIST REGIME: GREEK FM While much of Syria was happy to see the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, religious and ethnic minorities have remained skeptical of the new leadership once tied to al Qaeda.  Ribal al-Assad insisted the new regime is “an Islamic caliphate. They want a theocracy. They want to replace a dictatorship with cult, as it happened in Iran 45 years ago.” He said Christians were caught up alongside Alawites in the revenge spree because “Christians and Alawites live together. In my town, we have Christians who live there. We’ve always, lived … side by side, and they celebrate holidays together.” In December, the Biden administration removed the longtime bounty on the head of HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.  Europe suspended a range of sanctions on the new Syrian government late last month, though the U.S. still has many other punitive financial measures in place.  “After 14 years of devastation of destruction of so much mass killing, you know, it’s really not normal for the international community to come, you know, and to have, for example, the Europeans lift sanctions … on this terrorist regime and say, ‘Oh, there are snapback sanctions in case this regime does something that with the sanctions will be reinstated,” said al-Assad.  “What worse could [HTS] do for you to reinstate them?” ISRAEL FACES NEW SYRIA CHALLENGE AS IT ADJUSTS TO NEW STRATEGY AMID REGIONAL POWER STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE Al-Assad tore into the European Commission for inviting al-Sharaa to a donor conference to raise money for his government. “European countries [are going] to give him money, to give him more funds so he could encourage and reward him for the killing that he’s done, instead of saying, ‘We will not lift sanctions until we see a new program, a modern constitution, secular constitution that guarantees equality of all citizens and the rule of law.” Government forces have crushed an insurgency that began last week by armed militia loyal to Assad.  And rights groups say hundreds of civilians, largely belonging to the Alawite minority sect of Islam, which counts Assad as a member, died in the violence that erupted along Syria’s coast.  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) alleges close to 1,000 civilians were killed in the past week’s violence.  Thousands of civilians who fled the sectarian violence are still sheltering at a Russian airbase along the Latakia province, according to Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION SEEKS TO REIN IN ERDOGAN’S TURKEY OVER TIES TO US FOES “Our military sheltered more than 8,000, according to yesterday’s data, probably closer to 9,000 Syrians, mostly women and children,” she said Thursday.  Entire families, women and children included, were slaughtered as part of the past week’s sectarian killings, the United Nations said.  Al-Sharaa claimed the government would investigate “the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them.” The U.N. Human Rights Office has counted 111 civilian killings but expects the figure to be much higher.  “In a number of extremely disturbing instances, entire families — including women, children and individuals hors de combat — were killed with predominantly Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular,” U.N. human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al Kheetan said Tuesday. “Many of the cases documented were of summary executions. They appear to have been carried out on a sectarian basis.” Abdulhamid Al-Awak, part of a committee tasked by al-Sharaa with drawing up the new constitution that will establish a transitional government for five years, told a news conference Thursday the constitution would require the head of state to be a Muslim and said Islamic law is the main source of jurisprudence. But Al-Awak said the constitution would include protections for free expression and the media.  “There are many, many, many, many clauses in that constitution that are hilarious,” said al-Assad.  “The transition period is for five years, but it can be extended indefinitely, you know, based on security and political conditions. You know, what does that mean? “The president, he could appoint one third of Parliament with full legislative powers. You know, this is again, this is crazy. All political parties at the moment are suspended. No opposition, no representation. Nothing.” The document will “balance between social security and freedom” during the rocky political situation, said Al-Awak. The constitution also claims the state is “committed to combating all forms of violent extremism while respecting rights and freedoms” and that “citizens are equal before the law in rights and duties, without discrimination based on race, religion, gender or lineage.”  It banned arms outside military control and cracked down on “glorifying the former Assad regime” as a crime. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council rejected the draft document Friday and called for it to be rewritten, arguing it did not go far enough in protecting Syria’s many ethnic communities. It argued the constitution “reproduced authoritarianism in a new form” and said “any constitutional declaration must be the result of genuine national consensus, not a project imposed by one party,” even after a breakthrough agreement on Monday with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led authorities calling for a ceasefire and a merging of their armed forces.  Al-Assad called on the U.S. to step in to