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Why the Panama Canal matters more than ever to US security



The Panama Canal, far from being a relic of a bygone era, remains a critical asset that the United States cannot afford to ignore — especially when foreign adversaries like China are capitalizing on its strategic location.

For more than a century, the canal has been vital to U.S. national security and economic interests. But when President Donald Trump recently made waves by suggesting that the U.S. should consider repurchasing it, many were quick to dismiss him as a provocateur. His remarks were not baseless, however, and he hasn’t been the first U.S. president to assert sovereignty over the critical trade route.

Trump’s call to repurchase the canal was not a random or reckless suggestion — it was a recognition of the strategic importance of this vital asset.

In 1976, Ronald Reagan declared, “The Panama Canal Zone is sovereign U.S. territory.” Following in Reagan’s footsteps, Trump declared in a series of Truth Social posts that the canal is a “vital national asset” due to its pivotal role in U.S. trade and military logistics. Indeed, the canal handles around 40% of the world’s cargo, with approximately 72% of its traffic tied to U.S. ports. This means that the U.S. depends on the smooth operation of the canal for both its economy and its security.

Moreover, the canal plays a critical military role: It is the quickest route for U.S. naval ships to transfer between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, saving thousands of miles that would otherwise require a dangerous and time-consuming detour around South America. In times of crisis, those extra 8,000 miles make all the difference.

History sets the stage

Panama exists as an independent nation because of U.S. intervention. In 1903, when Colombia refused to allow the U.S. to build the canal, the U.S. supported Panama’s independence, ensuring the new country would grant America control over the Canal Zone. The U.S. built the canal at a tremendous cost — both in dollars and in human lives — and the strategic importance of this waterway has never diminished.

However, in the 1960s and ’70s, rising anti-colonial sentiments led to growing resentment in Panama toward U.S. control. Amid these tensions, the U.S. transferred control of the canal to Panama under the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaty. Despite the good intentions of that agreement, the transfer of control has created a vacuum that other nations, most notably China, are eager to fill.

China’s expansion demands a US response

China’s growing influence in Panama is not just an economic concern — it’s a national security threat.

China has been aggressively expanding its footprint in Latin America, and Panama has been one of its primary targets. Chinese companies now manage key ports along the canal, and Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative has solidified Panama’s role as a critical part of China’s global strategy. Moreover, China is building a fourth bridge over the canal and has used telecommunications infrastructure to establish a firm presence in the region.

The most worrying aspect of China’s involvement is its potential for military leverage. The Panama Canal is a chokepoint — a strategic vulnerability in global trade and military operations. If tensions between the U.S. and China were to escalate, Beijing could use its influence over Panama to disrupt U.S. access to the canal, with severe consequences for both U.S. trade and naval operations.

Trump’s call to repurchase the canal was not a random or reckless suggestion — it was a recognition of the strategic importance of this vital asset.

Under current circumstances, the canal’s control is increasingly falling under the sway of a nation that does not share U.S. interests. With Chinese tech companies like Huawei involved in the region and Chinese-built surveillance systems monitoring the canal, the risk of espionage or sabotage cannot be ignored.

A threat to national sovereignty?

While Panama’s president may assert that the canal “belongs to Panama,” the reality is that the canal’s significance extends far beyond Panamanian borders. It is a key asset in the global balance of power, and its strategic importance to U.S. national security cannot be overstated.

Trump was right to bring it back into the spotlight. If we are to maintain our status as a global superpower, we must ensure that our vital trade routes and military chokepoints remain under friendly control.

The Panama Canal is not a relic of American imperialism, as the media is attempting to portray — it is a linchpin in the U.S. economy and defense strategy. As China’s influence continues to grow in Latin America, we must re-evaluate our position on the canal. Trump’s stance may prove essential for safeguarding America’s future. The time to act is now, before the canal becomes yet another piece of infrastructure that is no longer in America’s sphere of influence.

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State Department details horrific persecution of Christians in North Korea, including the life imprisonment of an infant over a Bible



Christians may be subject to increasing statist pressure, hatred, and persecution in the United States, but farther afield, the situation is far more dire.

The U.S. State Department has released its annual International Religious Freedom Report, detailing the persecution of the faithful overseas.

Among the brutalities and barbarism exacted on Christians across the globe, some of the worst indignities have been perpetuated by the communist regime in North Korea.

The State Department's 2022 IRF report corroborates the claims made by the non-denominational charitable organization Open Doors, which ranks North Korea as No. 1 in the world for its persecution of Christians and stresses that the communist nation is committed to the "highest levels of persecution ever seen."

"North Korea remains a brutally hostile place for Christians to live. If discovered by the authorities, believers are either sent to labour camps as political prisoners where the conditions are atrocious, or killed on the spot – and their families will share their fate as well," stated Open Doors. "Christians have absolutely no freedom. It is almost impossible for believers to gather or meet to worship."

The State Department noted that North Korean officials currently have roughly 70,000 citizens in prison for being Christian — out of a Christian population of between 200,000 and 400,000, according to a United Nations estimate.

Victims are rounded up for possessing religious items, sharing religious beliefs, and/or for participating in religious practice.

An Open Doors 2023 report noted that North Korea's new "Anti-reactionary thought law" makes it clear that "being a Christian and/or possessing a Bible is a serious crime and will be severely punished."

The regime does not just punish the lone individual found with a Bible in his possession, but three generations of that person's immediate family.

The State Department detailed one case in 2009 where an entire family, including a 2-year-old child, were given life sentences in political prison camps "based on their religious practices and possession of a Bible."

Life imprisonment is a relatively lighter sentence given how those possessing Bibles have been punished in the past.

The report indicates that in one case, the communists captured a Korean Workers' Party member who had a Bible, then executed him at Hyesan Airfield before an audience of 3,000 people.

The North Korean Religious Freedom Database, which tracks the various victims of the communist regime's clampdown on Christians, notes that a mother in her thirties was similarly gunned down at Hyesan Airfield for having possessed a Bible. Since her husband was similarly detained, their two children became homeless and died.

North Koreans are slaughtered for simply looking at a Bible.

One male victim in his 40s was executed in 2008 after it was revealed he had read the Bible while in the Chongori concentration camp.

In 1,411 similar cases where victims were punished for their faith, 126 were butchered; 94 disappeared; 79 were maimed; 53 were forcibly relocated; 826 were detained; 147 were immobilized; and 86 were persecuted with other methods of punishment.

Despite the unimaginable cruelty inflicted upon them, the report referenced remarkable instances of Christians' fortitude.

One witness indicated that "guards beat a Christian man who had been praying to the brink of death, leaving him bleeding on the ground. The man, however, continued to pray daily, even as guards beat him with a club and kicked him with their boots on."

Whereas the FBI appears to presently regard only particular Christian sect as ideologically dangerous, the State Department indicated that the North Korean regime regards Christians altogether as the "most dangerous political class of people."

North Korean Christians looking to escape communist persecution are best off defecting to South Korea, as they have little hope of finding refuge in the neighboring country of China.

China, North Korea's powerful neighbor and close ally, similarly persecutes its Christian population, going so far as to hunt Chinese Christians internationally.

Extra to the routine harassment, torture, detentions, church demolitions, forced disappearances, and executions Christians are subjected to inside China's borders, the State Department IFR report noted the Chinese communist regime has taken additional measures in recent years to censor Christian messaging; treat religious material on the internet "on par with pornography, drug dealing and citing rebellion"; raid, shut down, and fine religious schools; and restrict the circulation of Bibles.

Open Doors rates Christian persecution in China as "very high."

Pew Research reported in 2020 that Christians were the most harassed group in the world, with harassment defined as attacks ranging from "verbal abuse to physical violence and killings," motivated by the victims' religiosity. This was found to be the case in 145 out of 198 countries.

The persecution of Christians has been steadily increasing for well over a decade.

As of January 2023, 360 million Christians reportedly lived in nations with high levels of persecution or discrimination.

Christianity Today reported that over 5,600 Christians were killed for their faith last year. Over 2,100 churches were attacked or closed, with over 71 torched in Canada alone. More than 124,000 Christians were reportedly forced from their homes because of their faith, and another 15,000 became refugees.

According to Open Doors, the ten worst countries with the highest levels of Christian persecution are: 1) North Korea; 2) Somalia; 3) Yemen; 4) Eritrea; 5) Libya; 6) Nigeria; 7) Pakistan; 8) Iran; 9) Afghanistan; and 10) Sudan.

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Japan drops pacifist pretensions, unveils $320 billion plan to ready its military for possible conflict with China



Japan announced Friday that it will double its military spending and acquire counterstrike weaponry fit for engaging China in a shooting war.

This move, previously urged by assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, signals both a recognition of the geopolitical threat posed by China and a shift away from the pacifist posture adopted by postwar Japan.

What are the details?

The Japanese cabinet approved the new "National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program," on Friday, thereby committing to increase military spending to 2% of the nation's GDP.

This increase will amount to approximately $320 billion (43 trillion yen) over the next five years, hitting an annual total of nearly $80 billion by 2027, reported the New York Times.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in response to the move, "Today, Prime Minister Kishida ushered in a new era in the defense of democracy. I want to congratulate him on his leadership in meeting the strategic challenge in a comprehensive fashion. In short, he has put a capital 'D' next to Japan’s deterrence."

"The Prime Minister is making a clear, unambiguous strategic statement about Japan’s role as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific," added Emanuel.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida indicated after the Friday cabinet meeting that Japan had hit a "turning point" requiring it to beef up its defense capabilities.

"In Japan’s neighboring countries and regions, there is more obvious shift toward attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by might," said Kishida.

Closely aligned with the U.S., the country borders three nations exhibiting varying degrees of hostility: China, Russia, and North Korea.

North Korea remains a major concern, particularly after the communist regime — hell-bent on accelerating its nuclear program — fired ballistic missiles over Japan. However, Tokyo is aware that Kim Jong Un's communist regime is not the greatest threat in the region.

China, alternatively, intends to become the world's biggest superpower by 2050. It is aggressively expanding its reach, increasing its military spending, and ever keen to seize the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands.

Japan's updated National Security Strategy states that the country faces "the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II," with China posing "the biggest strategic challenge" to Japan's efforts to maintain peace, safety, and stability for itself and others in the region.

This conclusion mirrors that reached by the Pentagon in its October National Security Strategy report, which stated that "by the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history, face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries": Russia and communist China.

Of the two, China is reckoned to be the far greater threat, as it is “the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order, and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective."

With the island nation of Taiwan only 70 miles away, the Japanese government needs to be vigilant, particularly in light of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping's recent claim that Beijing "will never promise to renounce the use of force ... and [reserves] the option of taking all measures necessary" against Taiwan and "interference by outside forces."

Peace through strength

Whereas Japan previously had a strict self-defense-only postwar principle, Kishida noted that the current Self-Defense Force "is insufficient" to engage successfully in this new environment. Thus "a major change to Japan's postwar security policy" is required.

The Associated Press reported that Japan's planned counterstrike capability will be implemented in 2026 at the earliest and will likely depend upon the deployment of long-range Tomahawk missiles.

The deployment of such weaponry will mark an end to a 1956 Japanese government policy prohibiting counterstrike capability except as a final defense measure.

Extra to obtaining standoff missiles that could trip up potential attempts by Beijing to crush its neighbors at a distance, Japan seeks to have Mitsubishi Heavy Industry produce a surface-to-ship guided missile.

Christopher Johnstone, Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "An effective Japanese counterstrike capability would set the stage for a far deeper level of command-and-control integration with the United States than exists today."

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement, "Japan’s goal to significantly increase defense investments will also strengthen and modernize the U.S.-Japan Alliance. The new strategy reinforces Prime Minister Kishida’s deep commitment to international peace and nuclear nonproliferation."

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese communist regime, denounced Japan's new strategic plan, saying that Tokyo was "groundlessly discrediting China."

"Hyping up the so-called China threat to find an excuse for its military build-up is doomed to fail," said Wang.

Just days before the Japanese cabinet's approval of the new plan, China sent two destroyers and various other naval vessels through straits near Japan in an apparent signal of the People's Liberation Army's “capabilities in safeguarding China’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests.”

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