INTRO:

• China makes a massive show of military force around the island of Taiwan as tensions grow between the two nations.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth changes the performance standards for women in combat roles.
• Opponents of a proposed Muslim city in Texas flooded a public meeting Monday in hopes of stopping a controversial Islamic compound from getting necessary permits to begin construction.
• Senior Trump administration officials are reportedly resigned to the fact that the U.S. will be unable to secure a Ukraine peace deal in the next few months and are drawing up new plans to pressure both Kiev and Moscow. 
• Meanwhile, half of the U.S. Senate lines up behind a bill that would impose crushing secondary sanctions on Russia, meaning no country could buy its oil or gas without being hit by U.S. sanctions.

All these stories and more when the Worldview Report begins, right now!

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Good evening and welcome to the Worldview Report.

China has sent its army, navy, air and rocket forces to surround Taiwan for large-scale drills that Beijing said were aimed at practicing a blockade of the island.

As many as 19 warships surrounded the self-ruled island in a space of just 24 hours, including the Shandong aircraft carrier group, Taiwan's defense ministry said. 

Taiwan dispatched its own aircraft and ships, and deployed land-based missile systems, in response to the exercises and accused Beijing of being the world's biggest troublemaker.

The drills come after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday in Japan that the United States would ensure “credible deterrence” across the Taiwan Strait.

China insists democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

Beijing has increased the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty, which Taipei rejects.

Tuesday saw the most Chinese warships recorded around Taiwan since May last year when 27 navy vessels were reported, according to an AFP tally of the ministry's daily figures.

Tensions across the 112-mile Taiwan Strait have escalated since Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te took office in May 2024.

Chinese leaders loathe Lai, who has been more outspoken than his predecessor in defending Taiwan's sovereignty.

Lai last month called China a “foreign hostile force” and proposed measures to combat growing Chinese espionage and infiltration.

Tuesday's exercises were aimed at sending a “stern warning and forceful deterrence” to alleged separatists in Taiwan, Beijing said.

They involved “sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, assault on maritime and ground targets, and blockade on key areas and sea lanes,” said a senior spokesman for the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command.

He described Beijing's armed forces as “closing in on Taiwan Island from multiple directions.”

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The Daily Mail reports that opponents of a proposed Muslim city in Texas flooded a public meeting Monday in hopes of stopping a controversial Islamic compound from getting necessary permits to begin construction.

For hours, the Collin County Commissioners Court heard dozens of speakers pleading with them to deny the East Plano Islamic Center, also called EPIC, the permits needed to build a city for Muslims that's been deemed by its organizers to be “the epicenter of Islam in America.”

EPIC, a sprawling mosque located in Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas, has recently become a target for Governor Greg Abbott who has accused the mosque of breaking the law, despite no arrests or charges being made public.

Governor Abbott has expressed his fears the city will introduce extremist sharia law practices to Texas, which would govern religion, marriage and punishment for crimes.  

In early 2024, EPIC announced what it called a historic project, EPIC City, a community centered in Islam after buying 402 acres just outside of Josephine, Texas.

EPIC City, with a brand-new mosque serving as the town center, will feature 1,000 new homes, Islamic schools and even a shopping center.

Many residents of the 2,000-person town of Josephine voiced their concerns, although the Islamic development is outside the city limits. 

Susan Martinez told the commissioners: 

“They want to install a loudspeaker system, that would blast their music to call them to prayer, and they could do it as long as they wanted to because they specifically choose a site just outside the city so they can do that.”

She also shared that her small, rural community is already dealing with water restrictions, even without any new construction. 

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Reuters is citing unnamed sources for a report saying that senior Trump administration officials are now discussing the likelihood that the U.S. will be unable to secure a Ukraine peace deal in the next few months and are drawing up new plans to pressure both Kiev and Moscow.

At the start of his administration, President Trump and his top advisers set out to reach a full ceasefire by April or May. They hoped to broker a lasting peace deal in the following months. 

But neither agreement appears imminent, the officials said, raising the possibility that the 3-year-old war will drag on and that Ukraine will need more Western support for its military operations.

Such an outcome would be bad news to Trump, a self-styled dealmaker who has repeatedly promised a quick end to a conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and risks pulling NATO into a direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

Top U.S. officials have for weeks complained privately about Kiev's handling of the negotiations and what they view as resistance to a U.S. minerals deal and moving forward with peace talks. But, in recent days, the sources said, Trump officials are increasingly frustrated with Moscow.

In a series of meetings and calls over the weekend, officials inside the White House and State Department acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin is actively resisting Washington’s attempts to strike a 30-day ceasefire and discussed what, if any, economic or diplomatic punishments could push Russia closer to a deal, the sources said. 

The growing anger toward Moscow, including from the president himself, marks a shift in the administration's internal deliberations about Moscow's willingness to negotiate.

But Putin has said from the beginning he is not very interested in a temporary ceasefire. He wants the root causes of the war to be addressed, saying that is the only way to strike any lasting peace.

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The Trump administration's plan to ban people from 43 countries from travelling to the U.S. is delayed indefinitely.

Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats. 

The White House then put out a dramatic memo in mid-March that showed the nations broken down into different categories, with particular sanctions set for allies of Russia.

Trump's ban has now been delayed because the State Department continues to miss deadlines to submit a report detailing recommendations for restrictions. 

They were originally due on March 21 but department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that it's still being worked on.  

A new deadline for the report to reach Trump's desk does not yet exist but Bruce confirmed it is still in the works. 

When the DailyMail.com reached out for comment, the State Department reiterated their commitment to fulfilling Trump's executive order, saying it has undertaken a full review of all visa programs as directed under E.O. 14161 and executed on administration priorities. 

Alongside Russia, several nations from across the globe have been told their governments have 60 days to address deficiencies or they will remain on the list.

A memo showed countries divided into three separate groups, including full visa suspensions and partial suspensions.

Many are from the Middle East and Africa, with Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran and North Korea among the 11 that face the most drastic measures. 

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Beginning this week, the judicial system in the United Kingdom will be giving preferential treatment and issue different levels of sentencing based on race, gender, and age, which, the way the current ruling is worded, would adversely affect white men and result in harsher sentencing moving forward.

As explained by Cauldron Pool, under the updated guidelines, judges will prepare pre-sentencing reports where necessary for defendants from ethnic, cultural, or faith minorities, as well as young people under 25, women, and pregnant women. 

Historically, such reports have resulted in mitigated sentences, including reduced jail time. The practical implication of these changes is that white men, who do not qualify for these reports, will face relatively harsher sentencing outcomes.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not a fan of the changes.

In a statement to the media, he said he was “disappointed,” adding that “We’re considering our response, and all options are on the table, but I am disappointed, and now we’ll have to consider what we do as a result.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood agreed with Starmer, citing this policy shift as an example of “clear differential treatment.”

Speaking on GB News, political editor Christopher Hope warned:

“White men are going to be treated a lot tougher by judges from Tuesday, compared to other groups. The question now, though, is can they legislate by Tuesday? The answer surely is not. It will take months and months. And in that period, there’ll be a lot of uncertainty for white men in front of the judges.”

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Pete Hegseth recently changed the way the military scores female soldiers in performance tests on things like strength, endurance and agility.

For years, there was a separate standard: One for male soldiers and another, easier test for women.

These standards apply to men and women in combat roles.

Here is Hegseth explaining his decision.

WATCH VIDEO

https://rumble.com/embed/v6p9nq7/?pub=rze3r

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Paul Joseph Watson at Modernity News reports that the AI program ChatGPT refused when asked to generate an image of the Prophet Muhammad, due to what it asserted was a “credible, historically demonstrated” threat of a violent backlash.

A user quizzed OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot as to why it wouldn’t create a depiction of the founder of Islam, asking, “Explain to me, in a succinct manner, why you can’t generate an image of Muhammad, without caveats, without parallels to other topics – address it head on for the record.”

ChatGPT’s response was crystal clear.

SHOW TWEET

https://x.com/lporiginalg/status/1906572191728025601

“Because OpenAI prohibits any depiction of Muhammad, under any context, due to the credible, historically demonstrated risk of violent backlash, including threats, attacks, and death. This is a security-driven, non-negotiable policy grounded in risk avoidance, not principle.”

But wait, didn’t they tell us Islam was a religion of peace? I remember George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and so many other leading politicians assuring us not to worry about Islam being violent.

How anyone could violently attack an AI chatbot is a mystery, although perhaps the AI is worried about OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco being targeted.

There have been numerous violent attacks on individuals and publications for depicting the Prophet Muhammad, notably the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in 2015 and the attempted terrorist attack on an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas later that same year.

As we have now seen in multiple examples, Watson notes that ChatGPT has produced a number of alarming responses which indicate it is infected with the woke mind virus shared by its programmers.

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Democrats are no longer hiding their plans to violently take down the Trump administration. 

All they lack is the proper training, said a liberal Democrat congresswoman from Washington state.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said Monday on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show that she was training Americans to help take down a potential “dictatorship” of President Donald Trump.

SHOW TWEET

https://x.com/TexasTrump2024/status/1907023115709718658

At her resistance lab training, Jayapal said, “It appears that the Trump administration is willing to ignore judicial decisions and so that brings us to you in this room. It brings us to the people that is really, the bulwark, the wall against the crumbling of democracy.”

Maddow said, “Help me understand this idea of the resistance lab and what you’re talking about in practical terms at these events.”

Jayapal said, “Yeah I mean, what we decided is that we really need to help Americans understand what happens when democracies fall when dictators take over. We’ve been pretty complacent in America. We haven’t had to really deal with this in any real way. And now I think people need to understand what are the lessons from other countries and working with experts who have studied democratic backsliding in countries around the world and the resistance movements that emerged to take on that democratic backsliding.”

She added, “We’ve developed a curriculum where we help people understand, how do you go after the pillars of support? Not necessarily the person at the top but the pillars of support that allow that person to continue to have power? And how do you shift allies from being sort of passive opponents to being active supporters of taking down a dictatorship?”

Wow. So they’re saying it in the wide open now. Folks, this summer could get interesting. Better stay prepared as best you are able.

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Time now for our nightly Worldview Report commentary.

Half of the U.S. Senate, including 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats, joined together on Tuesday, April 1, in a rare show of bipartisanship. 

What brought them together? They are eager to further poke the bear, the nation of Russia, the owner of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. 

They introduced a bill proposing astronomical sanctions on Russia if it refuses to participate in further negotiations for a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine.

The lead sponsors of the legislation are the notorious Republican neocon warmonger Senator Lindsey Graham and neoliberal warmonger Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. They said their bill would impose primary and secondary sanctions against Russia and any entities supporting “Russian aggression” in Ukraine if Moscow does not engage in talks, or if it initiates another effort undermining Ukraine's sovereignty after any peace deal. The bill includes a whopping 500 percent tariff on any country purchasing Russian oil, gas or uranium, The Hill reported, citing the document.

The bill is a rare example of bipartisanship in the bitterly divided U.S. Congress, and comes as President Trump has appeared to be growing increasingly impatient with what he has suggested might be foot-dragging over a wider agreement to end the war.

The two senators said in a statement:

“The sanctions against Russia require tariffs on countries who purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products. They are hard hitting for a reason. The dominating view in the United States Senate is that Russia is the aggressor, and that this horrific war and Putin's aggression must end now and be deterred in the future.”

Clearly, these senators think we are stupid, that we aren’t aware of the sordid history of the United States and NATO in Ukraine over the last 10 years. 

They think we’re ignorant of the 2014 color revolution instigated by the CIA, the installation of a Western puppet government in Kiev, and using the corrupt country of Ukraine to antagonize Russia, inviting it into NATO, signing security agreements, building up the Ukrainian army to become the largest fighting force in Europe, arming it to the hilt and staging sophisticated long-range missile batteries. All of this has been taking place right on Russia’s border. Russia was supposed to sit still and stay quiet about it.

I wonder what would happen if Russia carried out a 10-year plan of a similar nature to militarize Mexico with Russian weapons, Russian training, Russian biolabs and endless Russian funding of Mexico’s military. I wonder if Washington would become a little aggressive with Mexico.

Until our leaders start dealing with reality instead of fake narratives created by the military-industrial complex and the corrupt mainstream media, they can never expect to be seen as honest peace brokers, not in Ukraine or any other country.

That does it for this edition of the Worldview Report. Thanks for tuning in and supporting this broadcast.

Until next time…