President Joe Biden announced Monday that the United States had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri in a drone strike over the weekend.
Zawahri, who was an Egyptian doctor, replaced Osama bin Laden after he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALS in May 2011. He was listed as the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” and helped to plan the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“Zawahri has been a high-level target of the United States, one of the most wanted people in the world for over 20 years,” Jeff Smith, a research fellow in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, says. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
Smith joins a bonus episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the significance of Zawahri’s death, the future of al-Qaeda, who might replace him, and counterterrorism operations in the Middle East.
Eve Nunez’s life was turned upside down in 1969, when she was raped. She was only 14.
When Nunez became pregnant, a relative encouraged her to have an abortion, concerned that her pregnancy would bring shame to the family. Nunez chose life.
“I had a grandma that passed away when I was 6,” Nunez says, “and she always taught me the importance … of wanting to live, and the importance of life.”
More than 50 years after giving birth to her son, Nunez continues to act on behalf of the unborn.
Today, she is a minister and an advocate for life who volunteers her time and resources to help women facing crisis pregnancies.
Nunez joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to share her story and why she is so committed to standing for life.
Also on today’s show, we cover these stories:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi begins her trip to Asia, which may include Taiwan despite China's fierce objections.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis encourages his state agencies to ignore directives from the U.S. Department of Education.
Kansas voters head to the polls to vote on an abortion-related amendment to the state constitution.
Joe Biden campaigned for president in 2020 as a practical politician with a moderate record. He promised to unite America under a Biden presidency. He even said, "There will be no blue states and red states with me."
More than 18 months into the Biden administration, America is witnessing a radical departure from the candidate who made those promises in 2020.
From Day One, the Biden administration pursued policies that appealed to the far left and socialists rather than working-class Americans. As a result, Americans appear more divided than ever on key questions about our country's future and the policy decisions confronting us.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a bestselling author who is out with a new book, "Defeating Big Government Socialism: Saving America's Future," joins us on "The Daily Signal Podcast" today to tell us about his latest work and what's at stake. Listen to the interview or read a lightly edited transcript.
Health care affects every single American. Republicans and Democrats argue over the best way to provide the essential service to the population.
But in Texas, a sweeping series of health care reform bills was able to make their way through the state Legislature. And it was done on a bipartisan basis.
Dave Balat, director of the Right on Healthcare initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, was instrumental in getting that legislation passed.
"When it comes to good health care bills, there really shouldn't be a left and right divide," Balat says. "It should be about what's best for patients."
Balat hopes he can spread these bills across the nation.
"These [bills] are designed for communities," he says. "They aren't by any means Texas-specific. And I'm working with a number of states already to try to export these ideas and give them the support that they need to implement exactly what has been done."
Balat joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss how his organization helped get these policies passed, and how other states can use Texas as a model.
We also cover these stories:
The U.S. enters a recession.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., makes a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on a tax-and-spend bill.
Justice Clarence Thomas will not be teaching his constitutional law class at Georgetown Law after student backlash.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan next month and Beijing is not happy, threatening "determined and forceful measures" if the trip happens.
“[China] will have to take determined and forceful measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity” if the trip proceeds, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to the Financial Times.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper is among those cautioning Pelosi, D-Calif., against any decision to cancel or postpone the trip while warning what message it would send to China.
"At this point, given the bluster and proclamations coming out from Beijing, I think if she doesn't take the trip it'll look like she stood down in the face of Chinese rhetoric and protestations," Esper says.
Esper joins this episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan, wokeness in the military, and the Army’s recruiting crisis.
We also cover these stories:
Democrats seek term limits for Supreme Court justices.
A poll finds that Americans aren't on board with protests at Supreme Court justices' homes.
A Florida state agency sues a Miami bar for staging drag queen shows for children.
Classical education is a trusted model of learning. Virtual reality is a new technology still being fully developed. Despite the view of some that the two could be in conflict with each other, Erika Donalds disagrees.
“Classical education ... is content-based, and [virtual reality] is the perfect way to deliver that content,” says Donalds, the president and CEO of the Optima Foundation.
Donalds established the Optima Foundation, which has grown to be a network of charter schools, to give parents better education options for their children. After the pandemic, Donalds realized that some parents and students preferred an at-home model, but online education fell short of providing students with a strong education.
Virtual reality allows teachers and students to meet live in a virtual space from home, she says.
Through virtual reality, children “actually go to Mars, they go to the lunar landing, and they're there when it happens in virtual reality," Donalds says.
Donalds joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the ways in which virtual reality can add to and expand classical education.
Also on today’s show, we cover these stories:
The U.S. leads the world in known monkeypox cases.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says that “highly credible whistleblowers” have accused the FBI and the Department of Justice of intentionally covering up negative information on Hunter Biden.
Conservative groups urge senators to vote "no" on a bill intended to codify same-sex marriage in federal law.
House Democrats—with the assistance of 47 Republicans—on July 19 passed the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill would federally recognize any marriage if it is legally performed in any of the 50 states, and would allow the attorney general to file civil action lawsuits against states that refuse to recognize marriages from other states.
The bill, which would formally repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, now goes to the Senate, where it will require 60 votes to overcome a likely filibuster.
While recent polling data suggests that Americans overall are more in favor of gay marriage than generations prior, Heritage Foundation research assistant Jared Eckert warns that the House-passed bill could have dire consequences if passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
“If one state—just one state—recognizes polygamy as a legitimate marriage or legal marriage, then basically, the federal government has to do that,” says Eckert.
Eckert joins the show today to discuss that and other possible unintended consequences of the Respect for Marriage Act, and what states can do to ensure their rights aren’t trampled on.
We also cover these stories
Biden is reported to be “on the mend” from COVID-19, even as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., says he has contracted the virus.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., proposes raising the mandatory age for commercial pilots to retire from 65 to 67 years old.
New polling data suggests 2 in 3 Americans favor term limits for Supreme Court justices.
Did you know that an estimated 90% of internet search queries are performed by Google?
That is an astonishing statistic when you think about one company's market dominance and ability to shape public opinion through search results. It's also highly problematic if you follow Google's pattern of anti-conservative bias and manipulation of its search algorithm.
Todd Ricketts, co-owner of Major League Baseball Chicago Cubs, is challenging Google's dominance by launching Freespoke, a search engine that promises unbiased and uncensored information for its users. Read his interview with The Daily Signal or listen to the podcast.
Hadley Arkes, a long-time commentator on abortion, natural law, and constitutional jurisprudence joins the Daily Signal podcast to discuss the arguments that should be made to defend unborn human life in America. He comments that "value judgment, ..., is a term that we began to use with Nietzsche. When people lost their confidence that they could speak about moral truth. So, they could speak about things, [that] have moral significance as we impart value to them. So, the matter of the value judgment is whether some of us, what do we care enough about? How much are we willing to value the life of that offspring in the womb? How much do we value the efforts to offer care for that life?" Arkes points the way to a principled defense of unborn human life that citizens, legislators, and judges can draw upon to instill the principle of equality for the unborn under law in America.
The economic crisis facing the nation is disproportionately hurting small businesses. Mom and pop shops are struggling to stay afloat in the face of historic levels of inflation. Against this backdrop, Democrats have proposed raising taxes on pass-through entities—small businesses including sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations.
To Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that's just insanity.
"It's a terrible time to also talk about raising taxes," says Paul. "Businesses are reeling from the inflationary rising costs; now, they would have an additional tax."
Paul has been going around the country talking with small-business owners who want relief from inflation and high taxes.
"They're very concerned, not only with the inflationary input, but adding a tax to this when small business is tenuous, and they're still coming out of the lockdowns," he says.
The Kentucky lawmaker adds that this tax hike would have unintended consequences that Democrats aren't thinking of.
"One of the unintended consequences will be closure of businesses and increased unemployment and exacerbation of the recession," he says. "This is something that we will fight steadfastly against and do everything possible not to let this happen to the American people."
Paul warned that "if we do nothing, there's a possibility inflation gets worse. I think that's the most likely scenario. I think between now and the election, we're going to see a worsening of inflation."
Also on today's show, Heritage Foundation economics expert E.J. Antoni discusses the possible consequences of inflation on the American people and how long we might be dealing with the issue.
We also cover these stories:
President Joe Biden has contracted COVID-19.
The House of Representatives passes the Right to Contraception Act.
Senate Democrats introduce a bill to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
The U.S. Coast Guard and local law enforcement intercept a sailboat carrying more than 150 illegal immigrants off the southern coast of Florida.
