Tag: perpetual war

Mysterious Drone Threat Emerges At America’s “Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier,” Prompting Curfews

One of the most strategically important US military bases outside the continental U.S., often described as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the central Indian Ocean, faces a mysterious drone threat, according to a new report.

TWZ cited the UK Ministry of Defense, which said it was aware of reported drone sightings over the remote US-UK military base but declined to identify the drones.

“We are aware of reported sightings of drones (UAS) over Diego Garcia,” the UK Defense Ministry (MoD) told the military blog Monday morning. “We are unable to provide any details about a situation which may affect the security or operation of the joint U.K.-U.S. base on Diego Garcia.”

“The U.S. and U.K. Commanding Officers on Diego Garcia consider and implement appropriate measures to ensure the security and safety of the base and the safety of the personnel on the island,” MoD added.

TWZ noted that US officials “were less forthcoming” about the drone threat against Diego Garcia.

“As a matter of operational security, we do not discuss specific force protection measures or security procedures at U.S. military installations,” an official from U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) told the outlet on Friday. “We remain vigilant in protecting U.S. personnel and facilities.”

Last Friday, the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page said drones were spotted near the base’s fuel tank farm, and a daytime curfew had been imposed. “

“Inbox: Diego Garcia. Drones spotted near fuel farm. Base on 0700 to 1900 curfew until further notice. Note: message us if you have further information, thanks,” the Facebook post read.

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Wuhan’s ‘Bat Woman’ Runs A New Lab Creating Coronaviruses That Can Infect Humans. U.S. Tax Dollars Are Still Supporting Her Work.

Shi Zhengli is recruiting researchers for “pathogen discovery/coronavirus” and “cross-species infection risk” work. NIH-backed scientists continued collaborating with her after COVID, including on research using materials she supplied from her new Chinese laboratory.

Shi Zhengli, the Chinese virologist whose years of bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology made her one of the most scrutinized scientists in the world after COVID-19, did not disappear.

She moved on to another powerful Chinese state laboratory, where she is now helping train a new generation of coronavirus researchers.

Chinese-language records reviewed for this report show Shi is currently affiliated with Guangzhou Laboratory, a national laboratory established in 2021 that describes itself as part of China’s strategic scientific and technological apparatus for combating respiratory diseases. Her current research profile focuses on discovering new viruses in bats and other wildlife, studying their biological characteristics, and investigating the mechanisms that allow viruses to jump between species.

Even more striking is what Guangzhou Laboratory is recruiting scientists to do under Shi today.

A 2026 doctoral recruitment notice lists Shi as an adviser in pathogen biology with a research concentration explicitly described as “pathogen discovery/coronavirus.”

Another 2026 doctoral program, jointly operated by Guangzhou Laboratory and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, lists Shi as an adviser for “pathogen discovery and cross-species infection risk research.” Students in the program conduct their coursework primarily through the Wuhan Institute of Virology before carrying out most of their scientific research and dissertation work at Guangzhou Laboratory.

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Is America Headed for a Special Skills Draft?

A YouTuber with a million followers, Ryan McBeth, devotes his latest video and Substack column today to a denunciation of an article I wrote last month for Responsible Statecraft, “Why is the Selective Service war gaming a ‘special skills’ draft?”

Mr. McBeth also attacks the Quincy Institute (the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that publishes Responsible Statecraft) and an Instagrammer I don’t know but who posted a short video calling attention to my article.

I’d never heard of Mr. McBeth before he contacted me this week, but it’s apparent from his videos and articles that he has no expertise about the Selective Service System (SSS), its history since 1980, or its current plans, and didn’t do his homework before posting his latest video or an equally errror-filled one a few months ago about automatic draft registration and the possibility of a military draft.

To his credit, Mr. McBeth contacted me before he posted his new video, shared a draft of the script, and included some of my comments in his video and article — none of which was he required to do. He even made some changes to his script in response to my comments, although at the same time he introduced some entirely new factual errors in the final published version of the video.

In his new video, Mr. McBeth claims that “there is no provision” for any type of special-skills draft, but that’s just wrong. In the past, the SSS operated both a general “cannon fodder” draft of young men and a “Doctor Draft” with different criteria and age limits. Since the 1980s, the SSS has been required by law to maintain readiness to activate either a general draft or a draft of “persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care occupation” (the Health Care Personnel Delivery System, HCPDS) — a form of special-skills draft.

The HCPDS contingency plans have some differences from the pre-1973 Doctor Draft (as the current contingency plans for a general draft differ from the pre-1973 operation of the general draft), but the HCPDS is quite explicitly an updated plan based on the prior experience of the Doctor Draft. The SSS has said explicitly (and, I think, truthfully) that its plans for a broader special-skills draft grew out of the HCPDS, which in turn grew out of the Doctor Draft. The issue isn’t whether the SSS is planning for and prioritizing a special-skills draft, but whether it would include draftees with skills in other fields in addition to health care.

Mr. McBeth also claims that that people who, though lack of awareness, didn’t register with the SSS, are being denied student loans and government jobs.

In fact, the requirement to register with the SSS to get student loans was rescinded by Congress in 2020. This change was identified explicitly by the SSS — again I think accurately, although the war in Ukraine was another factor — as one of the reasons for the sharp drop in registration since that change in the law and the FAFSA student aid form took effect. This decline in compliance was, in turn, the major reason that staff of the SSS, fearing that the failed registration program, the SSS, and their jobs might be abolished, came up with the proposal to Congress to give the SSS a second chance to try to register young men “automatically”.

As for government jobs, failure to register is only a bar to Federal employment if it is (provably) knowing and willful. By the explicit terms of the law, someone who unwittingly failed to register can’t be denied a Federal job. In practice, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which makes decisions about eligibility for Federal employment, reported in 2024 that in 99% of cases in which employment is initially denied for failure to register with the SSS, but the applicant appeals the denial to OPM, OPM overrules the initial denial and finds the applicant eligible — presumably, in most if not all cases, because of the absence of any evidence of knowledge and willfulness.

Unwitting failure to register with the SSS is not a bar to Federal student aid or Federal employment.

These factual errors are typical of the myths and misinformation spread by commentators who haven’t been paying attention to anything the SSS has done in the last fifty years. There’s an irony in this factual carelessness, in that Mr. McBeth presents himself as an expert on “disinformation”. But what’s more interesting than the fact that ignorant people make mistaken claims are Mr. McBeth’s motives for attacking me.

Mr. McBeth’s fundamental complaint against me and against the Instagrammer who amplified some of my research findings is that Mr. McBeth wants to shape the discussion about the related issues of U.S. policy toward China and the possibility of a draft, in a way that is different from the way he thinks that my reporting is likely to lead it. Again ironic, since his complaint is against exactly the sort of effort to shape debate and frame public discourse that he’s trying to engage in himself.

Mr. McBeth thinks that my work to expose the details of ongoing planning and preparation for a draft and their role in enabling more belligerent policies, even when activation of a draft is unlikely, might be used by Chinese or other foreign government information warriors to promote fear of a draft, which fear might, in Mr. McBeth’s words, “weaken our resolve to defend our allies”.

I hate to break the news to Mr. McBeth, but Americans don’t need me to tell them to oppose or fear activation of a draft. I’ve never tried — or needed — to persuade anyone not to want to be drafted. My goal has been to make potential draftees — including young people, health care workers, and people with other special skills — aware of safe ways that they can act on their desire not to be drafted, whatever the reasons they already have for opposing a draft, and to empower and facilitate (“aid and abet”, the government might say) those actions.

The goal of my work against the draft is to end planning and preparation for a draft, which (among other outcomes) would remove the possibility of fear of a draft being used to persuade people not to support actions that are premised on the assumption that a draft is available as a “fallback”.

Mr. McBeth and those who share his views can’t have it both ways:

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Canadian Military Celebrates Occupation of Haiti

Sunday was National Peacekeepers’ Day and the Canadian Forces had the temerity to celebrate the UN occupation of Haiti. Through UN missions Ottawa has contributed to major US imperial crimes.

On its Facebook page the military noted, “On this day, we honour the courage, dedication, and commitment of all Canadians who have served – and continue to serve – in peacekeeping operations around the globe. Since 1948, more than 125,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, over 4,500 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and hundreds of Canadian civilians have served in international peace support missions to more than 35 countries.”

The photo that accompanied the post was of two white soldiers looking at a young Black boy in Port-au-Prince as part of Operation Hamlet, which was the name for the Canadian Forces’ participation in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) from 2004 to 2017.

After consolidating a US, France and Canada military coup against Haiti’s elected government the UN mission was responsible for countless abuses. The foreign soldiers had sex with minors, sodomized boys, raped young girls and left many single mothers to struggle with stigma and poverty after departing the country. Beyond sexual abuse, the UN’s disregard for Haitian life caused a major cholera outbreak, which left over 10,000 dead and a million ill.

500 Canadian troops were part of the UN mission that backed up the coup government’s (2004-2006) violent crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. For years Canada led the policing component of a UN force that also killed dozens of civilians directly in pacifying Cité Soleil, a bastion of support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

It’s not just Haiti. Canada played a significant role in the UN peacekeeping force that contributed to one of the worst post-independence imperial crimes in Africa. In 1960 the UN launched a peacekeeping force that delivered a major blow to Congolese independence aspirations by undermining elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. As detailed in Canada, the Congo Crisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64, Canadian soldiers played a significant role in the Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) force that enabled Lumumba’s assassination. Canadian troops dominated intelligence-gathering positions within the UN mission, and they worked to undermine Lumumba. After the PM escaped house arrest and fled Leopoldville for his power base in the Eastern Orientale province, Canadian Colonel Jean Berthiaume assisted Lumumba’s political enemies by helping recapture him. Kept in place by Ottawa, the UN Chief of Staff tracked the deposed prime minister and Berthiaume informed the head of the military, Joseph Mobutu, of Lumumba’s whereabouts. The elected prime minister was killed soon after.

Through UN missions in Haiti (2004), Congo (1960) and Korea (1950) Ottawa contributed directly to major US imperial crimes. Canada’s sizable contribution to UN missions in Egypt and Cyprus were largely designed to reduce tensions within NATO. In Egypt (1956) the US opposed the British/French invasion while in Cyprus (1964) NATO members Turkey and Greece were on opposite sides.

As far as I can tell, major Canadian peacekeeping missions have always received support from Washington. Still, many liberal/Left commentators ignore the power politics driving UN missions.

In recent days Rideau Institute president Peggy Mason and Royal Military College professor Walter Dorn have been quoted in major outlets complaining about the Liberals abandoning UN peacekeeping. In the CBC Dorn explicitly linked participating in peacekeeping to Great power competition with China, noting “we’re ceding more rights and more territory for China to take over leadership.”

Dorn is correct to (indirectly) highlight the geopolitical motivations driving UN missions.

It’s correct to say that Canada’s participation in UN missions has generally been less damaging than its involvement in US/NATO wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. But, that’s not an argument for blanketly promoting peacekeeping.

The stark reality is that Ottawa has never deployed large number of troops abroad principally to promote international law or justice.

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The Long Road to War

If you’re wondering why the United States and Iran have been bitter antagonists for more than a half century, and why they are now at war, you won’t find the answer in today’s media coverage where the conflict is portrayed as a dispute over terrorism and nuclear weapons. To truly understand what underlies this ongoing conflict you need to look back much further to a history that has been forgotten, or ignored.

Known for most of its history as Persia, Iran is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world, with human habitation dating back more than seven millennia.  Despite this foundational history, by the early twentieth century Persia had become a semi-colonial state dominated by British and Russian influence. A rising nationalist movement arose determined to restore the country’s political and economic independence.

The 1953 Coup

A crucial turning point came in 1953. Iranian oil resources had been controlled by the British, who kept most of the vast profits and left little to the Iranians. Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a popular reformist who resisted foreign domination, took the bold step of nationalizing his country’s oil industry in 1951. In response, the CIA working with British intelligence organized a successful coup that overthrew his government. Although most citizens of the US and UK have little if any knowledge of this event, the 1953 coup and its consequences remain deeply embedded in Iran’s national memory, even today.

The Shah’s Iron Rule

In Mossadegh’s place, they installed a brutal dictatorial regime headed by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s monarch who ruled the country ruthlessly for the next 26 years. To protect his new-found power, the Shah condemned Mossadegh to three years of solitary confinement, then kept him under house arrest until his death in 1967. In the years following the coup, the Shah and his CIA-trained secret police, Savak, became notorious for their vicious murder, imprisonment and torture of political dissidents. Much of Iranians’ growing hatred of the Shah was focused on the United States, since the Shah was viewed as a puppet of the Americans who put him in power. 

CIA Audacity

The overthrow was considered a resounding success by the CIA, which then became emboldened to undertake a series of regime change operations in other parts of the world. This newfound bravado also influenced America’s decision to undertake its disastrous involvement in the Vietnam War starting in 1954.

A partial list of the countries destabilized and overthrown by the United States following the 1953 coup includes Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Chile (1973), and later Panama (1989), Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Regime change is now considered an accepted instrument and goal of US foreign policy. Destabilizing and supporting the overthrow of unfriendly governments has become a central function of the CIA and the State Department. 

The Islamic Revolution

Resistance to the Shah and his totalitarian rule grew over the years, and finally culminated with the Islamic Revolution in January 1979. The Shah was driven into exile, eventually settling in Egypt. His government was replaced by a theocracy headed by the previously exiled religious figure Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who became Iran’s Supreme Leader. Although Khomeini was revered among religious conservatives, he was a ruthless tyrant who executed thousands of political prisoners, often hanging his victims in public from construction cranes for everyone to see. Nonetheless, his anti-Americanism resonated with many Iranians as he stirred up further hatred and a desire for vengeance, calling America the “Great Satan.”

The Embassy Takeover

When the Shah was admitted to the United States for cancer treatment in October 1979, Iranians demanded that he be returned to Iran to face prosecution for his crimes. In a dramatic confrontation in Tehran, an angry crowd besieged the US embassy. A group of militants stormed the embassy and took the American diplomats hostage, outraging American leaders. The Iranians insisted on the Shah’s return as a condition for release of the hostages. President Jimmy Carter refused and the hostages remained captive in Iran for more than a year. Carter would spend the rest of his presidency struggling to find a way to free them. His reelection depended on it.

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The Silver Lining: The Donald’s Impending Defeat in Iran May Finally Bring the Empire Home

It is damn obvious that Washington has lost Donald Trump’s idiotic war on Iran. After all, it is now five months since the opening salvos of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, which was advertised to last only 3-4 weeks. Instead, the conflict has settled into a grinding, inconclusive stalemate at best, and, more importantly, a strategic fiasco that reveals the bankruptcy of America’s entire Empire-based foreign policy.

The fact is, the War on Iran was misbegotten from the get-go because Iran posed no credible threat whatsoever to the homeland security of the United States. Period. Full stop.

In that regard, no American president has ever launched a war on such thin, specious grounds: The one and only reason for unleashing the bombers and missiles on February 28th was to honor the request of a so-called “ally” in furtherance of his desperate need to maintain a 61-vote coalition in the Knesset.

That’s right. The Donald took America to war lest Netanyahu be thrown from office, tried and convicted for years of egregious corruption and put behind bars where he belongs.

After all, on the eve of the strikes Iran possessed no nuclear weapons; no active weaponization program that had crossed the threshold of a deployable bomb; no blue-water navy capable of projecting power across oceans; not a single of long-range strategic bombers capable of dropping bombs anywhere, let along on the far side of the Atlantic; and no ballistic missiles with ranges exceeding the 2,000 kilometers to the Strait of Gibraltar – far, far short of Washington, D.C., or any American city at 10,000 kilometers or more distant from Tehran.

Likewise, Iran’s military budget at hardly $25 billion was a pittance (2.2%) relative to the Pentagon’s bountiful $1 trillion of annual rations – while its GDP of approximately $350 billion represented a tiny 1.1% of America’s $30 trillion economy.

Yet Ding Dong Donald and his Def Sec Gymboy Kegseth – all of the latter’s performative fitness videos and martial posturing notwithstanding – have flat-out managed to lose the war.

That is to say, the Pentagon is nearly out of critical munitions, meaning that short of a land invasion by US boots on the ground there is nothing left to do. Indeed, given Iran’s vast expanse, mountainous fortress like terrain and large, well trained and brutal IRGC militias, it would be a meat-grinder like no other; and surely one that even Bone-Spur Donald doesn’t have the stomach for (and appropriately so).

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The Meaning of Tell: Why the West Bank May Be Nearing a Breaking Point

The events in Tell, southwest of Nablus, were not an isolated act of violence. They were a warning.

For years, Israel has treated Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank as open spaces for military raids, settler invasions, land theft and collective punishment. The expectation was that Palestinians would endure the violence, bury their dead and return to the same unbearable routine.

In Tell, however, that carefully maintained equation was briefly disrupted.

The confrontation began when armed Israeli settlers entered the area near the village, attempting to attack Palestinian homes. Villagers confronted them. Israeli soldiers and armed settlement personnel then intervened, transforming the settler attack into a broader military assault.

During the confrontation, a Palestinian man seized an Israeli weapon and opened fire. Two Israelis were killed, while four Palestinians from the Ramadan family were also killed. What followed was a sweeping campaign of punishment against the entire village.

Israeli forces sealed Tell, stormed many homes and interrogated scores of residents. More than 70 Palestinians were detained in the initial crackdown. The Israeli violence soon spread to surrounding communities, where armed settlers attacked homes, vehicles and set mosques on fire.

The meaning of Tell, therefore, does not lie solely in the number of dead. It lies in the fact that Palestinians, confronted by armed settlers and soldiers, refused to retreat.

Tell may or may not become the immediate spark of a broader uprising. But it revealed that beneath the outward appearance of Israeli control, the West Bank is reaching a breaking point.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has transformed the West Bank into another major battlefield. More than 1,180 Palestinians have been killed, approximately 13,000 wounded and over 24,600 detained, including hundreds of women and nearly 2,000 children.

The assault is not limited to military raids. It is an integrated system involving the occupation army, armed settlers, military courts, settlement councils, demolition authorities and ministers who openly advocate annexation.

In 2026 alone, thousands of Palestinians have been displaced through settler attacks, demolitions and Israeli restrictions on Palestinian construction. By July, the rate of displacement had reached an average of 17 Palestinians every day – twice the daily average recorded during the previous three years.

Of course, none of this is random violence, but a deliberate policy.

Benjamin Netanyahu has effectively handed the West Bank to the most extreme elements of his coalition. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has used his governmental authority to accelerate illegal settlement construction, legalize illegal outposts and transfer powers over occupied territory from the military administration to Israeli civilian institutions – a fundamental step toward formal annexation.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, has provided political protection to settler movements while repeatedly provoking Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In exchange, Netanyahu receives what he needs most: the continued survival of his government.

With Israel’s general election scheduled for October 27, the West Bank is likely to become even more central to Netanyahu’s campaign. His political message to the Israeli right is not merely that he can provide “security,” but that he can permanently alter the geography of Palestine.

Palestinians are thus trapped in a brutal equation. If they do not resist, the army and settlers advance. If they fight back, Israel invokes “Palestinian terrorism” to intensify the very policies that produced the resistance in the first place.

Tell exposed that equation, but it also demonstrated its limitations. Indeed, Israel can demolish homes, close roads and arrest entire families. It can empty refugee camps, as it has attempted to do in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. It can maintain the illusion that overwhelming violence has pacified the Palestinian people.

But military domination is not real control. Netanyahu and his extremist ministers have so far benefited from what Naomi Klein described as the “shock doctrine”: the exploitation of collective trauma and disorientation to impose political realities that would otherwise face greater resistance.

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Veterans For Peace Condemns Marco Rubio’s Threats Against Cuba and Against US Peace and Solidarity Activists

Veterans For Peace has issued a strong condemnation of Marco Rubio’s McCarthyite report, Cuba, the Capital of 21st Century Communism, which was released by the State Department on July 20. The 100-page document charges Cuba with interfering in the internal affairs of the United States, while accusing U.S. peace and solidarity activists of being foreign agents of Cuba.

“Talk about turning things on their head,” responded Veterans For Peace. “It is the U.S. that has waged an economic war against Cuba for 64 years with a blockade that prevents it from normal trade relations with the U.S. and other countries, stunts its economic development, and denies it access to medicines and other essentials.

“It is the U.S. CIA that organized a failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, setting the stage for the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that almost led to a nuclear war. It is the U.S. that is currently enforcing a deadly oil embargo on Cuba, and it is the U.S. president and secretary of state who are openly threatening a U.S. military invasion of Cuba. What has Cuba ever done to the U.S.? Cuba is being punished for declaring its independence from U.S. imperialism and for attempting to develop a socialist economic model that is not based on exploitation and profiteering.

“We reject the Trump administration’s sudden return to “anti-communism” as a means of undermining the credibility of its political opponents — whether from the Democratic Party or actual left-wing organizations. If this is an attempt to intimidate those who are organizing for a just and peaceful world, it will not work. We will not be intimidated. If Trump’s and Rubio’s sudden obsession with “communists” and “political terrorists” is telegraphing their intention for a clampdown on dissent in the U.S., we take this very seriously.

“As veterans and active duty military, we swore an oath to “defend the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  We take this oath very seriously — more so than ever as the domestic enemies of our democracy ominously rear their ugly heads.  We will resist.

“Veterans For Peace will not be intimidated. We stand in solidarity with Cuba and with all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in the U.S. We will support active-duty military members who refuse to participate in an illegal invasion of Cuba. We also encourage service members to refuse illegal orders to support racist ICE raids or to suppress our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly in the U.S.” 

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Ukraine Faces Growing Air Defense Crisis As Patriot Supplies Dwindle

  • Ukraine failed to intercept any of the 24 ballistic missiles and four Zircon cruise missiles Russia fired in the August 5 attack, underscoring the strain on its missile defenses.
  • U.S. Patriot availability has become a significant constraint after extensive interceptor use during the Iran conflict.
  • Kyiv is increasingly seeking European inventories, expanded production, and eventually licensed or joint Patriot manufacturing to secure its air defenses ahead of winter.

Ukraine’s failure to intercept a single Russian missile during a large-scale overnight attack this week has raised fresh concerns over Kyiv’s dwindling supply of air-defense interceptors as Moscow escalates its ballistic missile strikes on the nearly defenseless capital and other regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that deliveries of anti-ballistic interceptor missiles from partner countries have fallen sharply, leaving Ukraine vulnerable to deadly attacks that are being launched by Russia with increasing frequency.

Following a meeting with Ukraine’s military leadership on protecting critical infrastructure on August 2, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had received only a third as many air-defense interceptors this year compared to the same period in 2025.

“Our partners have the missiles. What is needed are the necessary political decisions on deliveries and on accelerating production, including localization in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, who was in Kyiv during the most recent attack on August 5, condemned Russia’s latest strikes, which lit up the late-night skies with balls of flames from massive explosions.

“It was a vile attack on Ukrainians. I was hiding in the shelter along with a number of them and admiring their resilience. Russia is a terrorist state and needs to be contained,” she wrote on X.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also urged allies not to slow military assistance.

Speaking on August 5, he said:

“Russian strikes take no summer vacation; support for Ukraine and pressure on the aggressor must not pause, either. Every interceptor counts. They are life-saving tools.”

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Judge Halts $800-a-Day Fines Against Investigative Journalist Catherine Herridge for Refusing to Betray Confidential Sources in China-Tied Case

Investigative reporter Catherine Herridge secured a major, though temporary, victory for press freedom after a federal judge clarified that she will not have to keep paying an $800-per-day contempt fine while her legal team asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her First Amendment case.

The court also denied plaintiff Yanping Chen’s request to increase the daily fine to a staggering $5,000 and ordered that the money Herridge has already paid be returned, Herridge announced Friday in a statement on X.

The district court has clarified that I don’t have to pay the $800 daily contempt fine for refusing to disclose my confidential sources while our team asks the Supreme Court to hear our First Amendment case.

The court also denied the plaintiff, Yanping Chen’s request to raise the daily contempt fines to 5K. The court ordered reimbursement for the fines I have already paid.

This case is much bigger than one journalist, one story, or one news outlet. The outcome will impact every newsroom in this country and the ability of reporters to protect their sources and do investigative reporting that seeks accountability.

Yet, critical evidence remains hidden from the public and under seal by the District Court.

At a time when many corporate media outlets choose to settle or pressure journalists to surrender their notes, I want to acknowledge that Fox News has continued to stand behind me and fully support the First Amendment and investigative journalism by paying my attorney’s fees.

I remain committed to safeguarding the principles of investigative journalism and a free press.

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