Large parts of Oregon are well on their way to becoming part of Idaho instead. Twelve Oregon counties have voted to redraw the American map and become part of Idaho.
The Greater Idaho movement was launched around 2019 and involves merging a number of counties in the state of Oregon into Idaho. The two states are largely different as Idaho is Republican while Oregon is largely governed by Democratic politics. However, several counties in primarily eastern Oregon are also largely Republican, which is why there have been efforts to merge at least these parts of the state with Idaho.
This would mean redrawing the map of the US, something that is now well underway.
In January this year, a bill was introduced in Oregon by Senator Dennis Linthicum and a number of counties in the state have now started referendums on the issue. In total, twelve out of fifteen eastern Oregon counties have voted to investigate or begin the process of acquiring statehood, according to the Greater Idaho Movement.
The plan is for at least 17 of the 36 regions to be included in Idaho, which would mean about 62 percent of the state’s land area, but only nine percent of its population. It would, however, increase the population of Idaho by about 21 percent.
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The US state of Florida is planning to remove vaccine requirements for attending school. Florida’s Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, argues that it is “slavery” to force parents to have their children injected.
In the United States, vaccines are required for children attending school, with requirements varying from state to state, but often including vaccines against diseases such as measles and polio. Ladapo said during a press conference on Wednesday that the state now plans to work toward removing all vaccine requirements for schoolchildren in Florida.
— Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery, he says according to NBC News.
The Surgeon General points out that parents should have the right to decide for themselves and that forcing vaccination is “immoral”.
— Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don’t have that right.
“Absolutely frightening”
Other doctors and health experts, however, criticize Ladapo’s statement and argue that there will be a greater risk for children to become ill.
— The idea that children would be allowed to go to school unvaccinated is absolutely frightening, says Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is unclear when the vaccine requirements are planned to be abolished, but Ladapo says that Florida’s Department of Health will collaborate with the governor to implement the plan.
For the first time in 66 years, the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing.
The extensive military parade marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with over 100 new domestically produced weapons systems – including nuclear missiles, hypersonic weapons and unmanned vehicles.
China conducted its second-ever military parade on Wednesday to mark Victory Day – 80 years after the end of World War II. The massive display at Tiananmen Square in Beijing became a demonstration of power where Chinese President Xi Jinping received 26 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The parade, witnessed by 50,000 spectators and 10,000 participating soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army, Navy and Air Force, marked the first time in 66 years that the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing. The last time this occurred was in 1959, during perhaps the most tense period of the Cold War.
Dressed in a gray Mao suit, Xi Jinping spoke from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. He focused on China’s victory over “Japanese aggression” in what he called the “global anti-fascist war”, but chose not to mention the United States by name despite the country’s decisive role in the war’s final stages.
— Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games, Xi declared and continued:
— The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity.
Photo: Kremlin/CC BY 4.0
Nuclear arsenal in focus
Al Jazeera correspondent Katrina Yu emphasized the historical significance of the speech from Beijing:
— It really is difficult to understate how much of this is a part of the national psyche, the psyche of the Communist Party that, in the previous 100 years, China was repressed, invaded and humiliated by foreign forces.
Over 100 types of domestically produced weapons rolled along Chang’an Avenue. Particular attention was given to the new nuclear-capable missiles. For the first time, submarine-based JL-3 missiles were also displayed, whose extended range theoretically allows the entire US mainland to be reached from the South China Sea without submarines needing to advance into the Pacific Ocean.
The new intercontinental ballistic missile DF-61 also made its debut. It is estimated to be over 20 meters long with a range exceeding 12,000 kilometers. Additionally, the DF-5C was presented, which may have a range over 20,000 kilometers, carry ten nuclear warheads and reach speeds over Mach 10.
The hypersonic missile YJ-21, called the “carrier killer”, was also presented. The weapon is said to be able to strike aircraft carriers at Mach 10 – ten times the speed of sound – at a distance of 2,000 kilometers.
Trump’s sarcastic reaction
US President Donald Trump reacted to the parade with a sarcastic post on Truth Social:
“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader”, he wrote and continued:
“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory… May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America”.
Photo: screenshot/Trump/Truth Social
The Kremlin later commented on Trump’s statement and briefly explained that “no one even had this in their thoughts”.
New warfare technology presented
During the parade, China showcased its investment in modern warfare technology. Unmanned surface vessels (USV), underwater drones and unmanned aerial vehicles were presented alongside the new LY-1 laser system for shooting down drones and missiles. According to China, the new HQ-29 air defense system can defend against hypersonic missiles – a claim that has yet to be verified.
“For Xi, the point is to reinforce the impression that the People’s Republic of China has arrived as a great power under his leadership. Another is the array of leaders at the parade, which suggests that the PRC cannot be isolated, and is unafraid of pressure and bullying, particularly from the United States”, comments Ian Chong, political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
Above the parade, the air force conducted flyovers with helicopters carrying banners with messages such as “Justice will prevail”, “Peace will prevail” and “The people will win”.
US deploys missile systems
China declared that all of the more than 100 weapon types displayed were domestically produced. Despite the Chinese economy slowing down, the country’s defense spending has increased by more than 7 percent for four consecutive years and now amounts to approximately 4.2 times Japan’s defense budget. The military balance in the region has thus shifted markedly and China is gaining increasingly greater military influence.
Unmanned watercraft on display. Photo: Xinhua
Parallel to this development, the US and Japan are conducting extensive military exercises together. The US Army will for the first time deploy its medium-range missile system Typhon in Japan during the Resolute Dragon 25 exercise taking place September 11-25. Typhon can launch both Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles from land.
In July, the US placed two new weapons systems at its base in Okinawa: the MADIS air defense system and the NMESIS robot system that can combat ships. Both systems will also be used on Ishigaki Island during the Japanese-American exercise and military activities in the region are expected to intensify in coming years.
Modi abstained
Military parades on Victory Day are a relatively new phenomenon under Xi Jinping’s era – the first was held in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary, and this year’s parade was thus only the second of its kind.
Despite friendly meetings with Xi Jinping and Putin during the SCO summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to leave China before the military parade.
According to analysts, this was partly to avoid offending Japan, but also to signal that New Delhi certainly has strategic alternatives to the US but simultaneously remains concerned about maintaining its Western partnerships and cooperation.
Documents from the Epstein investigation have been requested from the US Department of Justice by the House Oversight Committee. In total, over 33,000 additional documents have been made public.
Since the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was exposed, there has been strong interest in gaining greater insight into the investigation, particularly since a number of well-known names have been linked to the convicted sex offender. Last year, federal judge Loretta A. Preska released classified lawsuit documents, where among others Prince Andrew is accused of having sexual relations with minors at orgies on several occasions.
During Donald Trump’s election campaign, he declared that more documents would be released if he became president, including Epstein’s “black book” with names of clients who he flew with his private jet, called “Lolita Express”, to his private island in the Caribbean. After being elected president, however, he chose to put a lid on it, something that upset Trump’s voter base. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have also demanded that the documents be released.
Democrats argued that Trump had broken his promise and he was accused of trying to cover up the investigation. To force the release of the documents, they therefore implemented “the rule of five”, which in short is a law that makes it possible to force federal agencies to release documents if five members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs request it.
Full transparency
Now 33,000 documents from the investigation have been requested from the Department of Justice by the U.S. House Oversight Committee, reports CNN.
— We’re in the process of uploading those documents for full transparency so everyone in America can see those documents, says the committee chairman, Republican James Comer.
The primary reason is that they want transparency in the case. However, they note that 97 percent of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public.
“There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims”, says Democrat Robert Garcia, who sits on the committee.
It is unclear, however, whether the documents contain any new information.
Israel previously had “total control” over the US Congress, and it was completely impossible for anyone who spoke “ill” of the Jewish state to build a political career. This is stated by US President Donald Trump in an interview with Daily Caller published this week.
— There was a time where you couldn’t speak bad, if you wanted to be a politician, you couldn’t speak badly, Trump explained.
He emphasized that Israel had long held a completely unique position in Washington, but claimed that this is changing.
— If you go back 15 years, probably that’s when it started, right. Israel was the strongest lobby I’ve ever seen. They had total control over Congress, and now they don’t, you know, I’m a little surprised to see that.
He continued to develop his reasoning:
— If you go back 20 years. I mean, I will tell you, Israel had the strongest lobby in Congress of anything or body, or of any company or corporation or state that I’ve ever seen. Israel was the strongest. Today, it doesn’t have that strong a lobby. It’s amazing.
“Not winning the world of public relations”
According to Trump, American politics has fundamentally changed – today there are, as he puts it, “all kinds of Israel critics” and “lunatics” among the country’s top politicians.
He was referring among others to the so-called Squad, consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib – a group of left-wing Democratic congresswomen who have made their mark with sharp criticism of Israel.
The president connected the changes in public debate to Israel’s bloody invasion of Gaza.
— They may be winning the war, but they’re not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it is hurting them.
At the same time, Trump highlighted his own role in the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem, true to form. He declared that “no one has done more” for Israel than himself, and described the country as “amazing”, because he himself has received “good support” in return.
TRUMP: “ISRAEL HAD TOTAL CONTROL OVER CONGRESS, AND NOW THEY DON’T”
“Israel is amazing… Israel was the strongest lobby I’ve ever seen. They had total control over Congress, and now they don’t.
Although Trump claims that the Israel lobby doesn’t have the same power over American politics as before, there are many who don’t share that conclusion.
The Nordic Times has among other things highlighted how libertarian congressman Thomas Massie revealed that all Republican congressmen have a personal lobbyist from AIPAC with whom they maintain close contact and who tells them how to vote on various issues.
— Why would they want to tell their constituents that they’ve basically got a buddy system with somebody who’s representing a foreign country? It doesn’t benefit the congressman for people to know that. So they’re not going to tell you that, he states.
The Nordic Times has also reported on how AIPAC as recently as the last election boasted that almost all candidates they financed won their respective elections while managing to “stop” a number of Israel-critical candidates.
