NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (March 19)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Our top story tonight, President Trump criticizing NATO, saying the allies are finally getting nicer about the Strait of Hormuz, but too late. And the Pentagon assuring Americans Operation Epic Fury is nothing like the forever wars in Iraq, in Afghanistan, Mariotsu and the White House. The Pentagon releasing new numbers on Operation Epic Fury. Israel says Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles. Arian Pazdar brings us the latest developments. Lawmakers in the House grilled top intelligence officials on China, Iran and cyber threats. Chris Bobb has what the officials say the U.S. is up against. The Chinese regime, working to control industries in Latin America, poses a direct national security threat to the U.S. That's according to a panel of experts on Capitol Hill. Jack Bradley with more on China's malign influence in the region. The Senate Homeland Security Committee votes to advance the nomination of Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. President Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security now heads to the floor for a full Senate vote. And long lines at airport security showing up at more major airports, while DHS funding is stalled in Congress. Jason Blair reports. This is NTD Evening News, live from our global headquarters in New York City. Here's Tiffany Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. President Trump saying NATO countries are now getting much nicer about opening the Strait of Hormuz, but their support comes too late. Meanwhile, the Pentagon declaring the U.S. is winning decisively and assuring Americans that Operation Epic Fury is nothing like the four other wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We now go live to NTD's Washington correspondent Mari Otsu at the White House. Mari, good evening. Hey, Tiff, good evening. That's right. And President Trump today was meeting in the Oval here with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takeichi saying that Japan is, quote, really stepped up to the plate, unlike NATO. And this is coming as today a joint statement was released by Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan, saying that they're ready to, quote, join appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Hormuz Strait and take steps to stabilize energy markets. Take a look. But honestly, Japan, China, Europe, parts of Europe get a lot of their oil through the Strait. We get none. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the Strait, and they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. They're getting much nicer. But as far as I'm concerned, it's too late. President Trump criticizing NATO countries for the delayed military support a day after he warned them, musing, I wonder what would happen if we finished off what's left of the Iranian terror state and let the countries that use it, we don't, be responsible for the so-called Strait. That would get some of our non-responsive allies in gear and fast. Meanwhile, the president saying the US is not putting boots on the ground in the Middle East. No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you. But I'm not putting troops. That's as the White House and Pentagon double down, asserting that military advantage comes from keeping classified details classified. We're not going to tell people how many or how long or what we're willing to do or what we're not willing to do. Why didn't you tell US allies in Europe and Asia like Japan about the war before attacking Iran? One thing you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Meanwhile, the Pentagon drawing a clear line between Operation Epic Fury and the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The media here, not all of it, but much of it wants you to think just 19 days into this conflict that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth. War Secretary Hegseth saying that the operation is laser focused, with the objectives remaining the same as they were on day one. No nuclear Iran, no ballistic missiles and destroying the regime's Navy. President Trump saying the US is substantially ahead of schedule. Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like Bush, Obama and Biden squander American credibility. This is not those wars. President Trump knows better. Epic Fury is different. It's laser focused. It's decisive. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is saying that Iranian defections are occurring at multiple levels of the Iranian government and military, and he's predicting that the regime will, quote, ultimately collapse within itself. He's also announcing that the US is moving to seize those funds that were transferred abroad by those Iranian defectors, with the goal of returning them to the Iranian people. Back to you. All right, Mari, thanks for those updates. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth today releasing new numbers, showing America's successful military operation against the Iranian regime. And Israel says Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles. NTD's international correspondent Arian Pazdar brings us the updates. We fight to win and we are winning on our terms, following our objectives. The Pentagon on Thursday giving an update on the operations in Iran. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth saying US strikes are increasing every day. To date, we've struck over 7000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure. That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was. As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build. Iran's continue to degrade. According to the secretary, the US is continuing to strike factories that produce ballistic missiles, adding that hundreds of Iran's defense industrial bases have been hit directly. Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all. Ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90 percent since the start of the conflict. Same with one way attack UAVs, think kamikaze drones down 90 percent. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also giving an update on Israel's military operation in Iran on Thursday. Under President Trump's visionary leadership, America and Israel are acting together in Iran with great determination. Netanyahu laid out the main goals of the operation, which includes three points. Removing the nuclear threat. Second, removing the ballistic missile threat and removing both of these threats before they're buried deep underground and become immune from aerial attack. And third, this means creating the conditions for the Iranian people to grasp their freedom, to control their destiny. He added that Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or to make ballistic missiles. According to Netanyahu, that's crucial because Iran has been creating chaos in countries across the region. They've attacked civilians and Americans and American assets in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman. And they've even attacked through their proxies, Cyprus and Europe. Netanyahu says Israel has long been warning that the Iranian regime would use its ballistic missiles to attack countries across the region, which has now become a reality. Aryan Pasdar, NTD News. Seven U.S. allies are now eyeing a potential Strait of Hormuz coalition, but are they willing to put their money where their mouth is? Expert analysis tonight on Capitol Report with Steve Lance at 7 p.m. Eastern. Lawmakers press the nation's top intelligence officials on global threats with China, Iran and cyber warfare taking center stage. New details emerging on foreign operations inside the U.S. and escalating conflicts abroad. NTD's Chris Bobb reports. Our state and local officials are on the front lines of increasingly dangerous unrestricted warfare activities being undertaken by Chinese nationals. Marijuana grow operations protected by armed militants. Secret police stations engaged in transnational repression. Chinese operated SIM farm sites, crypto mining facilities and land purchases near strategic locations. The CCP is exploiting legal gray areas. Lawmakers in the House Intelligence Committee questioning top U.S. intelligence leaders Thursday. FBI Director Kash Patel pointing to real world examples of Chinese Communist Party activity on U.S. soil and limits of federal authority. We have our capabilities with folks like CFIUS when it comes to the purchases of land around military bases that only extends one mile under the current law. So the FBI had to get creative. A 400 acre farm in the state of Texas was owned by a CCP official. The FBI executed a unlawful possession of firearms. We seized the land in its entirety and that CCP national is back in mainland China and we are working to get them back here off the coast of Louisiana. They shut down that CCP drilling center, which we believed was actually used to provide and steal data and intelligence. Lawmakers also raising questions on China's cyber capabilities. China continues to rapidly advance its AI capability. The president just launched a new national security cyber strategy and within that is what the FBI just launched 60 days ago. It's the most comprehensive cyber program we've ever put out called Winter Shield. Just a couple of months ago, our banking infrastructure was hit by a ransomware attack from overseas. In one weekend, the FBI disrupted and kicked off every one of those bad actors from that network, saving the American people, their valued billions. 19 days into Operation Epic Fury questions over Israel's role in U.S. actions in Iran. Did Israel force the U.S.'s hand and make us take action as some have claimed? No. In that last line of questioning, the CIA director saying Iran possesses uranium enrichment to 60 percent, which doesn't have a civilian use. The only use for that would be the development of nuclear weapons. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Bobb, NTD News. A Senate-appointed panel in Washington today examining China's malign influence in Latin America. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission investigates the Chinese regime's growing threat in the Western Hemisphere. NTD's Washington correspondent, Jack Bradley, has more. On Capitol Hill, a panel of experts say that the Chinese Communist Party's influence in Latin America is now a direct threat to the United States. The more ports you control, the more control you have over the global economy. Chinese companies own or operate at least 10 ports in Latin America, working to turn these into military installations and potentially even spying on or cutting off U.S. trade. Chinese companies use bribery and opaque procurement processes to secure contracts in the region for projects such as a dam in Ecuador, roads in Bolivia, and ports and other infrastructure in Panama. And even then, those projects are of low quality, sometimes fail, and leave the host country in billions in debt. China promises upgrading, right? It promises production. It promises all of these things, and it doesn't ever happen. It has never happened. And it's not because they're the best option. They're just the only option. All the startups that are out there in Latin America right now that are capital starved are looking for a U.S. option, and there aren't any. On top of that, China has also set up police stations across Latin America. The human rights group Safeguard Defenders has found over 100 such Chinese police stations globally, much of them in places like Panama, Peru, Brazil, and several other countries. These types of surveillance activities are usually or mostly directed at Chinese diaspora populations. And they spy on everyone else too. Chinese companies are required by law to share any and all information with Chinese authorities. That's why when they do a business deal, it's more than just a business deal. The mayor of a very large city in Latin America described how when Huawei shows up to pitch their 5G wares, it's the Huawei, the finance, the government, the diplomats, everyone shows up, a delegation of 15 folks from Beijing coming to town, whereas the Western alternatives send a regional sales representative. As China races to gain control over economies in Latin America, the panelists are urging lawmakers to create incentives for U.S. companies to do business in the region and thereby counteract the CCP. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Jack Bradley, NTD News. The Senate Homeland Security Committee has voted to advance the nomination of Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. President Trump's nominee to replace outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, now heads to the floor for a full Senate vote. The vote follows Mullen's testimony yesterday, where he engaged in tense exchanges with Committee Chairman Senator Rand Paul. Paul questioned Mullen about past statements, including a comment saying he understood why a neighbor attacked Senator Paul back in 2017. Paul voted against Mullen's nomination, while Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted in favor in the 8-7 vote. A full Senate vote on Mullen's nomination comes as Democrats block funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to scale back its immigration enforcement tactics in exchange for funding the department. Delays getting through airport security are popping up more airports around the country. TSA employees are working without pay, while the DHS shutdown is almost in its fifth week. NTD correspondent Jason Blair has more. Up to 30 percent of TSA employees have been calling out at some major airports around the country. At Houston, over 40 percent called out on Tuesday. Long airport security lines are becoming a more common sight, with Newark and Philadelphia being some of the latest, and the nation is currently in peak spring break travel season. TSA employees have been working without getting paid. The Department of Homeland Security is currently partially shut down, while a funding agreement is stalled in Congress. And all of this while conflict continues with Iran, and threats against the homeland are high. President Trump weighed in on Wednesday, saying the Democrats' purposeful DHS shutdown is causing chaos at the airports. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats won't vote to fund the DHS unless Republicans meet their demands for ICE reforms. Republicans have consistently refused at this point in time to enact the type of bold, meaningful, and dramatic changes to ICE that are necessary to get ICE under control. House Speaker Mike Johnson, alongside other House Republicans, expressed their frustration. American airports obviously are reaching a breaking point, so severe that airlines are pleading with Democrats to please fund the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS has reported that 300 TSA agents have left the agency since the shutdown began on February 14th. And the TSA deputy administrator says that things will only get worse. As long as they don't get paid, they're going to continue to call out. They can't afford to come in, and they're going to quit altogether. Reporting at Reagan National Airport, Jason Blair, Entity News. Meanwhile, as Congress is battling over DHS funding, are travelers feeling the impact of the partial government shutdown? Entity's Sam Wong was at the Ronald Reagan Airport in D.C. to hear from travelers. How was your travel? Do you think it was impacted by the shutdown at all? Not for us. No, it wasn't. We had TSA pre-checked, so it was easy breezy for us. How was it for other people there, though? Well, not so good. The line snaked around like Disney. Flight was good. The airport travel was pretty normal. No delays or anything. The lines weren't exceptionally long. We kind of sailed right in and got through security and seamless. We were scheduled to be back here on Monday, and we're just getting back today. The security checks, you know, going through, they only had like a couple of those open, so a lot of backup. When we got to the airport, the line for TSA check was from gate 8 outside. There was maybe about like 80 to 100 people waiting out there. It took maybe three to four hours to check out. Did you notice a shortage in TSA workers? Yeah, they closed gate 8, so you had to go to gate B to go through TSA. The impacts of the shutdown are definitely showing up. I can tell you travelers are super frustrated. A lot of short tempers out there, not a lot of kind words being said, and a lot of questions being asked, like, why is this happening? Who do you think is ultimately responsible for the shutdown? The Democrats, of course. Keeping America safe is number one priority, and why should people be fighting against that? That I don't understand. Everybody that has control over that does, you know, because they can't get together on it. Well, I'm going to go with the Democrats on that one. I know they have issues with homeland security and whatnot, and that's kind of what they're, they have their own agenda of whether they don't want things to go forward, but I don't think the entire nation should be put through delays and things of that nature because of it. Honestly, who knows, man? I think it's both parties. It's always both parties. At the end of the day, they all want to get whatever they want. From what I hear in the news, it's a pretty clear cut that the Democrats have some sort of bone to pick with ICE. Who's your intended victim here? Is it truly the American people, or is this a bone you have to pick with the administration and the leaders of ICE? So if you've got a bone to pick with them, fight with them. Don't get into, you know, impacting the services for the citizens. Coming up, the Supreme Court set to hear a ballot case next Monday. The court's final ruling could have major implications on mail-in voting before the midterms. Arlene Richards gives us a preview. A five-year-old girl's devastating crash is now driving action in Washington. Lawmakers say a new bill could change commercial truck licensing nationwide. Christina Corona reports. And a Senate committee reviews a controversial big tech regulation that allows online platforms to censor speech. Takeaways from the hearing next. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. An upcoming Supreme Court case set to challenge Mississippi's mail-in ballot law, which allows ballots to be accepted days after Election Day. A ruling against the law could have a significant impact on the midterms. NTD's Arlene Richards brings us a preview. Mail-in ballots are President Trump has said there can never be a real democracy with mail-in ballots. Last March, he signed an executive order to enforce federal election requirements for all ballots to be received by Election Day. Massive fraud all over the place. Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Mississippi versus the Republican National Committee, or RNC. It addresses state absentee ballot return deadlines in federal elections. Mississippi allows officials to count mail-in ballots that arrive up to five days after Election Day as long as they're properly postmarked. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state's law violated federal election law. Mississippi argues in their petition to the Supreme Court that the Fifth Circuit's ruling is deeply wrong and raises an issue of exceptional importance. They caution that if the justices uphold that ruling, it will have destabilizing nationwide ramifications. The case comes as candidates for federal, state, and local offices are ramping up their campaigns, and at a time when election rules face heightened scrutiny, including mail-in ballots. Because the Democrats want it, it's the only way they can get elected. The president has also been pushing to pass the proposed voter eligibility requirements of the Save America Act. You have to prove citizenship to be able to register to vote in this country, and the second component is that you actually have to show an ID to vote in this country. The act passed two times in the House, but Democrats are doubling down against it in the Senate. The RNC and the Mississippi Republican Party sued Mississippi in 2024 because they believe the state's election law threatens election integrity. They argue that Election Day is the day set by Congress when voters cast their final votes, and the ballots are then closed. Some 30 states have similar laws allowing for ballots to be accepted after Election Day. If the Supreme Court upholds the Fifth Circuit's decision, it would impact races across the country. Arlene Richards, NTD News. A five-year-old girl seriously injured in a crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver is now at the center of a push for new legislation. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for changes to commercial driver license rules. NTD's Christina Corona tells us more. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill held a roundtable featuring Delilah Coleman and her father, Marcus, sharing their story nearly two years after a devastating crash. Authorities say a 20-year-old illegal immigrant driver, Parthab Singh, was operating an 18-wheeler when he caused a multi-vehicle pileup, leaving five-year-old Delilah with a traumatic brain injury, skull fractures, and weeks in a coma. Her father says she lost the ability to walk, talk, and eat. We're trying to change these laws. There shouldn't be another Delilah out there. Every time when these accidents happen, it crushes us, our family, because we know that I'm out here doing something about it, at least trying. Lawmakers say the case highlights concerns over commercial driver licensing and roadway safety. How do you know what you're picking up if you can't read English? How do you help instruct on loading the truck? How do you communicate with mechanics if you have a mechanical problem out on the road if you can't speak or read English? Supporters say English proficiency is critical for drivers handling heavy commercial trucks. It's common sense that if you want to drive an 80,000-pound truck, you should be able to read and understand the English language. Unfortunately, in 2016, the Obama administration decided to remove the English language proficiency requirement from the out-of-service criteria. As we have seen on the news, this has created disastrous conditions on the roads that have led to several tragic accidents. This comes as lawmakers advanced Delilah's law, which would bar states from issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants and require English proficiency. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the bill Wednesday in a 35-to-26 vote. Last month, Delilah and her father were invited guests at the State of the Union, where President Donald Trump highlighted her recovery. She said Delilah would never be able to walk or talk, have a good life. She wouldn't even be able to eat again. But against all odds, she is now in the first grade learning to walk. And she's here this evening with her dad, Marcus, a fantastic man. The bill now moves on to the full House for consideration. Christina Corona, NTD News. A controversial law that allows big tech to censor online speech celebrates its 30th anniversary, and a bipartisan Senate committee is weighing its role going forward, whether to change it, leave it as is, or get rid of it entirely. Here are some takeaways from yesterday's Senate hearing. Congress included Section 230 to ensure that online platforms would not be liable for the illegal speech of another person. Senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday leading a hearing to debate the future of Section 230, a controversial regulation that online platforms have been using to censor speech. In recent years, online platforms have been relying on Section 230 as a defense in a number of lawsuits challenging the removal or demotion of user posts. On its 30th anniversary, and as technology continues to advance and influence children, a Senate committee reassesses big tech's use of the regulation and whether they should use their lawmaking authority to change or remove it. There's this idea that Section 230 is perfectly written 30 years ago, as if it is a constitutional provision, as if it is the only federal statute that must not be touched. That's preposterous. A panel of expert witnesses offered varying opinions. Some believe eliminating the section wouldn't change much because even harmful speech can be protected under the First Amendment. If Congress doesn't have the power to prohibit that, they also don't have the power to tell platforms to change their algorithms and downrank it. Others felt that amendments or clarifications should be made to the section so that companies can be held accountable. Yes, we have a case involving a 12-year-old girl who through Snapchat's friendship recommendation algorithm was connected to an online sex predator. Honestly, they don't give a rip and flip. When you've got somebody like Mark Zuckerberg who says each kid is worth $270 to him. Blackburn was referring to internal metadocuments estimating the lifetime value of a teen user at $270. Some senators expressed concern that companies have too much power to, for example, silence speech it doesn't like. Others questioned whether Section 230 is used as an excuse to avoid protecting users. The witnesses and members of the committee will exchange correspondence on this matter until April 8th. Reporting by Arlene Richards, NTD News. Coming up, the Chinese Communist Party forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience. A new book by Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek exposes the state-sponsored campaign in China. Our conversation next. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer, a state-sponsored campaign sustained by the large-scale murder of prisoners of conscience. A new book titled Killed to Order, exposing the Chinese Communist Party's crime of forced organ harvesting. Joining us now to introduce his book is Jan Jekielek, author and senior editor at the Epoch Times. Jan, thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you now. Killed to Order, such a powerful title. You've got some big names praising your book. Dr. Phil, Gordon Chang, Peter Schweitzer, just to name a few. Now, you say this issue, forced organ harvesting, gives people everything they need to understand America's biggest adversary. Why is that? I mean, you want the punchline right off the bat, right? The summary is that the Chinese Communist Party has figured out how to instrumentalize absolutely everything. And this Killed to Order industry that they've built is instrumentalizing human bodies, human body parts, and it views human beings that are being used for this as basically fodder for replacement parts for other people and for profit and for, of course, elite longevity. So that's one piece. But there's also all sorts of other ways in which the Chinese Communist Party instrumentalizes, for example, allies. This is something I've been talking about, our so-called allies. For example, Iran was a centerpiece of the Chinese Communist Party's Middle East strategy, the centerpiece of its Belt and Road initiative, its Huawei build-up infrastructure of telecom, and also its white-labeled persecution and censorship systems. But now, as this Iran war wages on, China basically has really been nowhere to be found. And I think a lot of people are watching that and they're seeing how China has instrumentalized Iran, but also, frankly, everything. And this is really the take-home message since you asked right off the bat. And Jan, in your book, you talk about your own hesitation, believing that something as atrocious as forced organ harvesting could exist when you first heard inklings of this. Give us a sense, what was the evidence that cemented this in your mind, that this isn't just happening inside China, but is state-run by the party? Well, the evidence at the beginning that really got me to think was Jacob Levy. He was an Israeli transplant surgeon. He had a patient who had basically a really bad heart condition and was probably going to die pretty soon. But one day, the patient tells him, look, I'm tired of waiting. I'm going to go to China and get it done in two weeks. And it's scheduled. And Jacob Levy couldn't believe this, right? Of course, because there's two huge red flags here. The fact that this could be done. One is that it's scheduled. It means that you know when someone's going to be dead. Normally, you need to have a catastrophic accident of some sort, a motorcycle accident, a car accident. And the ethics team that looks at this person decides this person really is not coming back. That means we can transplant those organs into a person that needs them to save a life. But here, you actually know when this death is going to happen. So obviously, you're making that person dead. That's one red flag. The other part was the two-week wait time. How is that remotely possible? Because the reason you have to wait long in a normal situation, ethical situation, is that after that catastrophic accident, which itself is rare, you have to match blood type. You have to match tissue type. You have to organ scan the person. The size has to be right. And that's rare, very simply, in any ethical system. And then you have to kind of rush to get the person who's nearly dead and the person who's looking to live close together so you can actually do that. Here, we're doing it in two weeks, scheduled. It just means that there's some very large population of people that already have been pre-matched, so to speak, to do it. I mean, it's in your title, Killed to Order. Speaking of your book, you talk about your own journey discovering Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Talk to us about that and how that fits in here. I think you made the point really well that the reason my book is called Killed to Order is because there's essentially kind of a stable of people that are being used in this horrible way. And in order to get that, you have to have a very kind of unique situation when it comes to organ trafficking. There are these run-of-the-mill organ trafficking situations around the world, black markets. But this isn't exactly a black market because this took advantage of a very large group of people that the Chinese Communist Party chose to dehumanize first. They've actually been expert over generations now doing that, putting people into a sort of black class and making the rest of the society kind of struggle against these people. It started with the landowners. There are various groups. Falun Gong became a group in 1999 that was targeted this way. This was a group of people practicing truthfulness, compassion, tolerance. Actually, another way to translate it to be true, good, and endure. I recently remembered that translation. Very bottom-up, very grassroots movement. And the regime, 70 to 100 million people were doing it by the end of the 90s. And the regime decided to crush it. Jiang Zemin, the dictator at the time, made that edict. And they basically said, eradicate them. And that meant put these people into a system of re-education. But these people didn't re-educate easily. They were very resilient to that. So they incarcerated a massive group of people. And now you have this situation where you have a massive group of incarcerated people, say a million, we don't know exactly, and they're also dehumanized. So it activates that quirk in our psychology that allows us as human beings to kind of go along with horrible things, which we normally wouldn't do to our neighbor. And some very evil person figured out, hey, listen, we can actually monetize this, right? So we have this large population. We can take their vitals, pre-match them, and then we can kill them to order. If someone within the party, like a super elite, wants it, I mean, basically now has unlimited on-demand organs available to them. And if someone from outside wants it, we're going to pay a hefty price. And we estimate that that's about a Just absolutely horrific. Actually, this month, a bipartisan bill targeting this very issue was reintroduced by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley and Republican Senator Ted Cruz. How could this bill help to end forced organ harvesting? Well, first of all, this is an excellent bill and a great step up. The previous version of this bill was Senator Cruz's. He had actually picked it up from Secretary Rubio when he was a senator and then kind of upgraded, I suppose, depending who you are, to become Secretary of State. Cruz took it on. And then they made a few changes to the bill, and now it's bipartisan with Senator Merkley. That's excellent. I think that increases the likelihood it'll be brought to the floor. Some critical provisions in there. One of them is to sanction people who are involved. Extremely important aspect. Essentially, there's a piece in there that I'm still not sure that they removed, which had to do with basically making it U.S. government policy to not cooperate in any way with the Chinese Communist Party around forced organ harvesting or around the transplant industry at all. Maybe there was a technical assistance reason for this. I'm not exactly sure. But another very important provision is establishing whether or not this is an atrocity under the Elie Wiesel Act. And that would be very valuable because the CCP still they've never actually presented an alternative explanation for the massive amounts of transplants they do without really any credible organ donor registry. Right. And so it would be finally good for a government like the U.S. government in particular to simply say, yes, absolutely, if they do investigate it, they will find that it's an atrocity. And it would be good to have that established in law. And Jan, is there a smoking gun when it comes to forced organ harvesting? There's a survivor. I mean, some people describe him as the smoking gun. I mean, I never thought we'd ever see one. Cheng Peiming, he's a man who's missing part of his liver and part of his lung. I mean, unbelievable story. You know, almost didn't make it several times. We think he maybe was some kind of scientific experiment for them. But basically, he survived to tell the tale. And the body scans that we've done here, you know, show it. He didn't even realize that he had been harvested. That's just one example. But another, there's a paper in the American Journal of Transplantation from a few years back where they actually looked at the publicly available, peer-reviewed transplant literature, about 2000 or 3000 papers in the Chinese officially published transplant literature. And they found 71 instances where the dead donor rule was violated, written into the official methods, publicly available. Right. And what that means is in those 70 studies, the people involved were actually killed by having their organs removed. That's what the methods indicate. So, you know, it's so normalized over there that that people even write it into their scientific methods. They didn't even realize that this it's a problem to do that because they really I mean, certainly they haven't provided any evidence of having any sort of credible, you know, ethical organ donation system. And the part of the other problem is, is once you've built this kind of machine of death, they did it on the backs of the Falun Gong starting in the year 2000 to 2005. That was the big surge in growth of hospitals. They built almost, you know, between 100 and 200 hospitals during this time. And and when nobody really did anything about it, they actually added the Uyghur people in 2014, 2015, dehumanized a massive group of them and incarcerated a huge group of them and added them to the mix. So, I mean, it's just it's actually something that still continues. And when we got these estimates, we estimate it's a nine billion dollar annual industry, 60 to 90,000 transplants per year annually. And there's now even more hospitals. It's harder to get the data. But the one thing that we do know is that the number of transplant hospitals has grown and these numbers are actually conservative estimates. So, I mean, it's a it's a terrible reality and it spreads. And that's another message we have to understand when no one does something, you know, for 10 or 15 years to try to deal with an atrocity, which is, again, kind of obvious, even with that one data point that you can get one in two weeks. Right. Scheduled. That's enough to create a huge investigation. We really didn't do anything. Now is the time to do it. And there's legislation out there that actually has teeth that will make a difference. So I'm excited to see what happens next. And to get your own order of kill to your own copy of Kill to Order, you can go to Amazon. But, Jan Jekielek, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. Kill to order dot com is the site. It'll take you right to the Amazon link. And we're looking to get as many books sold before the weekend. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Coming up in college basketball, the madness has begun. The first round of the NCAA tournament is underway. Dave Martin joins us with all the scores. That's next. And now for your sports news, we're joined by NBD's Dave Martin. They've got some baseball news and some NBA news. But let's start in college basketball as the first round of the NCAA tournament is just starting. What are some of the highlights of the game thus far? Well, we've already had a significant upset. The 12th seeded High Point Panthers, 12th seeded in the West, beat the fifth seeded Wisconsin Badgers, 83-82 in a real thriller today. Badgers led for a majority of the game, but High Point got several big three pointers from their three point specialist. That's Chase Johnston there in the second half. And then Johnston ended up scoring the game winning layup with just 11 seconds remaining. That was actually his first two point field goal of the entire season. He's got like 73s on the year. So congratulations to Wisconsin. They advance to play Arkansas next. The Razorbacks won just a few minutes ago. We also had a near upset over in the East region. 16 seeded Siena led Duke for a majority of the game. Duke finally took the lead with about four and a half minutes left. Ended up winning 71-65. Meanwhile, Siena left their starters in for almost the majority of the game. Pretty much 40 minutes for all five stars there. Nearly pulled it off. They will play TCU then on Saturday. The Horned Frogs beat Ohio State earlier in the day, 66-64. They also had Louisville beating South Florida, 83-79. They will play Michigan State next. The Spartans beat North Dakota State this afternoon. So that's what we've got going on so far here. The madness already beginning. All right. Well, looking at the South region, fourth seeded Nebraska has had one of their greatest seasons in school history, but coming into this event had never won the NCAA tournament. Yeah, they finally got that win today. They beat Troy this afternoon, 76-47 in a game that was really never very close. So they will advance to play Vanderbilt, the five seed next. Now the Commodores beat McNeese State, 78-68 this afternoon. Meanwhile, Miami of Ohio last night, the team with the best record in college basketball, now at 32-1. They got a win, 89-79 over SMU in a battle of the 11 seeds. They will advance to play the number six seed Tennessee in the Midwest region. Also last night, Prairie View A&M won the battle of 16 seeds. They will now play the top seed Florida next. That game will be on, it'll be tomorrow actually. Florida, the defending champs beat top seed there. Again, Prairie View A&M beat Lehigh yesterday. That was a battle of 16 seeds. You have a lot to keep track of. Thank you. Shifting gears to baseball though, Venezuela beat Team USA on Tuesday to win the World Baseball Classic. Meanwhile, the event though was considered a success, setting attendance records in the process. Has Major League Baseball commented on the future of this tournament? Yeah, they said for sure it is definitely going to continue. I don't think there's probably any question about that. As you said though, it drew a combined 1.6 million fans. That's a 25% increase over the previous high that was set in their last WBC set in 2023. Meanwhile, the highest rated TV game was the U.S.'s 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic on Sunday. That was in the semifinals, drew more than 7 million viewers. That topped when Japan beat the U.S. in the 2023 championship game with starring Shohei Otani. It'll definitely return. The only question is whether it's going to take place in spring training next time or whether they're going to do it in the middle of the summer. Now, the issue with spring training, at least for pitchers anyway, many teams wanted restrictions on how many pitches or innings their pitchers would go. For instance, the A's only wanted closer Mason Miller to pitch in save situations. Two-time reigning Cy Young winner Tariq Skubel of Detroit was only permitted to pitch one game an year. These kinds of restrictions would definitely be a lot different if it's the middle of the summer. So, the event will certainly be back in a couple of years. We'll just see what part of the season it'll be. All right, well, moving to NBA news. LeBron James and the LA Lakers play at the Miami Heat tonight with James looking for another career record. Yeah, James, if he suits up tonight, would tie Robert Harris for the most career games played in NBA history. Now, the problem is he might not suit up. He's listed currently as questionable with arthritis in his foot. As James told ESPN yesterday, he hopes to play tonight in Miami where he previously won a pair of NBA titles. Now, meanwhile, if James was bothered by the arthritis in his foot, he did not look like it last night, hitting 13 out of 14 shots from the field. That actually ties his highest career field goal percentage for a game in his career as the Lakers beat Houston 124-116. Elsewhere for the Lakers, both Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves are also listed as questionable tonight. Doncic is dealing with some hip soreness, while Reeves has a right forearm contusion. Both, though, played last night as well. But anyway, tonight's game, Lakers Heat, starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time if you don't want to watch March Madness. All the options tonight. Yeah, big night. All right, well, Dave, as always, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Tiff. And that's all for today's news. For around the clock coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night.