Author: The Daily Signal

Virginia's new law banning mask mandates in schools isn't optional, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears says. 

Schools are “not going to be able" to require students to continue wearing masks, Sears said during an interview Thursday with "The Daily Signal Podcast." 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill Wednesday that, as of March 1, will prohibit schools across the commonwealth from requiring the wearing of masks because of COVID-19. Although many school districts across the country have ended mask mandates, several counties in Northern Virginia have opted to continue masking children. 

Schools have to "allow the parents the opportunity to decide for themselves whether their children will wear a mask," Sears says in the podcast interview.

Youngkin and Sears, both Republicans, were sworn in Jan. 15 for four-year terms after winning Virginia's Nov. 2 election.

During the campaign, the two committed to returning power to parents in the education of children. On the podcast, Sears discusses why she and Youngkin stand against critical race theory and other far-left policies that have affected children across the state. 

We also cover these stories:

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns that the world is in a "moment of peril" because of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. 
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sues the Biden administration over mask mandates for air travel. 
• A local Black Lives Matter chapter in Kentucky pays the $100,000 bond of the man charged with trying to assassinate a candidate for Louisville mayor. 

Enjoy the show!

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America's elites are selling out their country to the Chinese Communist Party. Politicians, athletes, filmmakers, and others from the highest echelons of American society have apparently decided it is more profitable to kowtow to Beijing than it is to support their own country.

So says Peter Schweizer, author of the new book "Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win," which exposes how even President Joe Biden's family is implicated.

As Schweizer explains, "In the case of the Bidens, these commercial ties really began when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States. [His son] Hunter Biden went to Beijing looking for financial deals and what we found is that the Bidens have received some $31 million from four Chinese businessmen.

"The story takes an even more dramatic turn when you realize that those four Chinese businessmen all have links to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence."

Schweizer joins the show to discuss how and why these elites are "helping China win."

We also cover these stories:

• Biden orders that Trump White House visitor logs for Jan. 6, 2021, be provided to the special congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot.
• NATO's secretary-general says Russia is continuing to build up its military around Ukraine, contradicting Russia’s claims of pulling troops back from the Ukrainian border.
• Voters recall and oust three members of the San Francisco Board of Education over the city’s slow reopening of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the board's plan to rename 44 of the city's schools because of the alleged racism of the people they are named after.

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Nate Hochman is on the ground in Canada reporting on the unfolding situation with the Freedom Convoy protests.

He joins this bonus episode of the Daily Signal Podcast to paint a picture of what’s really going on, regardless of what the corporate media says.

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Masks have become a flashpoint in the global response to COVID-19. But what the corporate media doesn’t want you to know is: They don’t work.

"I think it's one of the most consistent things we can see across locations, is that there's been really no impact from masking," Ian Miller, the author of the new book "Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates," says.

"The data's publicly accessible. It's all from [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] or The New York Times or Johns Hopkins [University] or the World Health Organization. ... [People] are getting their information exclusively from either the experts like [Dr.] Anthony Fauci, who have been provably wrong over and over again, or from mainstream media outlets that have just done a really poor job of covering this and presenting the data."

Miller joins the show to discuss why masks and mask mandates didn’t work, and in fact, might have made things worse.

We also cover these stories:

• President Joe Biden says he still wants diplomacy to prevail in the Ukraine-Russia crisis, but adds that the U.S. is prepared to impose severe sanctions against Russia if it invades its neighbor.
• Former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann demands that the "factual background" section in special counsel John Durham’s most recent filing be removed from the record.
• The Senate votes 50-46 to confirm Robert Califf as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

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The COVID-19 pandemic revealed disturbing trends about how critical race theory and LGBT indoctrination were being promulgated in schools. Parents, infuriated that their kids are being brainwashed, went to school board meetings to express their discontent. Now, some educators are attempting to hide their lesson plans from parents who would take issue with them.

But there’s pushback. Many state legislators across the country are introducing bills that would require educators to be transparent about what they're teaching kids. The director of education policy at the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, Matt Beienburg, says these bills are simply about empowering parents with respect to their children's education.

"It's bringing transparency. These are our public schools, and it's to say, 'We don't think that the content that's being taught to K-12 students should be materials that are taught in secret,'" he explains.

Beienburg joins the show to discuss efforts by state governments to promote curriculum transparency.

We also cover these stories:

• Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says a federal filing by Special Counsel John Durham proves former President Donald Trump was illegally spied on at Trump Tower and at the White House.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is walking back his earlier claim that Russia would attack his country on Feb. 16.
• Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser says the city soon will lift its COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.

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The integrity of our elections is under assault from Democrats in Washington and left-wing forces across America. Using the pretext of COVID, a web of well-funded organizations, working with Democrat lawmakers and friendly judges, systematically changed state election laws in 2020.

Cleta Mitchell, who has spent a lifetime fighting for free and fair elections, is calling out the left's tactics and encouraging Americans to take an active role in their local elections. Mitchell, a senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, leads the Election Integrity Network and hosts a podcast, "Who's Counting?"

With high-stakes debates taking place in Washington and state capitals, Mitchell tells The Daily Signal that it's a crucial moment to champion election integrity.

Read a lightly edited transcript of the interview at DailySignal.com or listen to our conversation on "The Daily Signal Podcast."

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It’s a conversation many have had at least once in their life. A friend or family member shares that he or she is struggling with same-sex attraction. 

No doubt there are countless opinions on the most loving way to respond in these moments, but a new law in Canada mandates the response to be given. Affirm the same-sex attraction—or risk jail time. 

Yes, Canada’s “conversion therapy” ban requires parents, pastors, counselors, friends, and others to affirm a person's gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, or face jail or prison time. 

Canada has surrendered “to the political sphere to let them decide how we can counsel, how we can love our LGBT neighbors in the name of Jesus, and how to teach our own kids what a biblical view of sexuality and gender looks like,” says Jojo Ruba, the communications director for the Calgary, Alberta-based Free to Care. 

Ruba joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss Canada’s new “conversion therapy” ban and the possibility of the U.S. adopting similar federal legislation. 

We also cover these stories: 

• A group of GOP lawmakers says the FBI is refusing to take responsibility for using counterterrorism resources “to target concerned parents at local school board meetings.” 
• Consumer prices increase by 7.5% last month compared with a year ago.
• Illegal immigrant deportations fell by 70% in 2021.

Enjoy the show!

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Dr. Stephen Skoly's request for a medical exemption to the state's vaccine mandate was denied. Then the Rhode Island Department of Health ordered him to stop his critical surgical care in October. 

Now, represented by the Washington, D.C.- based civil rights group the New Civil Liberties Alliance, he is suing Rhode Island to stop the state from prohibiting him from practicing medicine.  

Skoly shares with "The Daily Signal Podcast" why he asked for a medical exemption to the vaccine mandate, what he hopes to gain through his lawsuit, his views on the vaccines as a medical professional, and more.  "I would think that in most instances a vaccination like this that was authorized under emergency use authorization, you should have some freedom of choice and some freedoms that exist still in America," he says.

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Just over 20 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting those in China who followed the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. 

Today, Uyghur Muslims face imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Chinese government. Tomorrow, more innocent lives will fall victim to suffering at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party if Beijing’s totalitarian leaders do not face consequences for those human rights abuses. 

In the new film “Unsilenced,” director Leon Lee tells the true story of those who were persecuted and killed by China’s government because they practiced Falun Gong. 

 

The film highlights the stories of those who “risk their lives and use their wisdom to find ways to counter the propaganda and fight for their freedom” in China, Lee says. 

But the threats of the Chinese Communist Party extend far beyond its borders, the film director says. 

It’s past time for America to recognize “that the [Chinese Communist Party] is the biggest threat the West faces,” says Leon Lee, the director of “Unsilenced.”

Lee joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss China’s human rights abuses and the danger China poses to the Western world if China’s crimes go unpunished. 

We also cover these stories:

• Republican leaders call on podcaster Joe Rogan to stop apologizing.
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells truckers to stop their protests.
• TikTok announces new LGBT guidelines. 

Enjoy the show!

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The crisis on our southern border continues to get worse by the day, critics say. Washington's failure to control illegal immigration is resulting in an influx of drugs and gang violence that makes the country less safe.

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, is furious that a solid southern border has been transformed into the Wild West in the first year of the Biden administration.

"President [Joe] Biden inherited the most secure border in our lifetime, and with the stroke of a political pen from Day One, he started to systematically dismantle it," says Morgan, now a visiting fellow in national security at The Heritage Foundation, parent organization of The Daily Signal.

"And as each month in the past year has gone by," he says, "the border has become less secure and our country has become less safe because of this administration's, I believe, ideologic and politically driven open-border policies."

Morgan joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss how the border crisis affects Americans, and what can be done to fix it.

We also cover these stories.

• The trucker protest in Canada, called the Freedom Convoy, is up against government opposition.
• New Jersey and Delaware announce timelines for ending school mask mandates.
• Rumble offers to pay podcaster Joe Rogan $100 million over four years to move to its platform from Spotify.

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