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ANNUAL BIKE RALLY HAS 700,000 ATTENDEES! NOTE MOSTLY OLD GUYS, LOL…

LET’S RIDE

Record 700,000 bikers descend on US city for historic festival that began with only nine stuntmen and some horses

This year’s 85th anniversary could match or surpass the 75th rally’s record

INTERSTATE 90 is bracing for an explosive week as more than 700,000 bikers roar into town for the 85th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

This year’s milestone event is expected to break attendance records and bring the thunder to South Dakota’s Black Hills.

Large group of motorcyclists in a parade. — A record 700,000 bikers are expected to flood Sturgis, South Dakota, for the 85th annual motorcycle rally from August 1 to 10Credit: City of Sturgis South Dakota

700,000 bikers at a US city festival. — The iconic event, which began in 1938 with just nine riders, now brings in over $1.4 million in state tax revenueCredit: City of Sturgis South Dakota

The rally officially runs from Friday, August 1 through Sunday, August 10, but the action kicks off even earlier with pre-parties starting July 28.

Sturgis, a small town in Meade County, transforms into the fourth largest city in South Dakota during the rally.

What began in 1938 with just nine stunt riders and a few horses has become the biggest motorcycle rally in the world.

Attendance has climbed steadily over the decades, from 3,000 in 1940 to a record 747,032 in 2015.

In the past five years, the rally has averaged around 500,000 people annually.

Last year’s turnout dropped 8.1% from 2022, totaling 458,161 attendees, according to Harley-Davidson.

This year’s 85th anniversary could match or surpass the 75th rally’s record.

The city of Sturgis rakes in major profits during the rally, with $784 million generated in 2022 alone, according to officials.

The event also pumped $1.4 million in sales tax revenue into South Dakota’s coffers in 2024, despite a slight decline from 2023.

Opening ceremonies kick off August 1 with a flag procession, a blessing of the bikes by Mayor Kevin Forrester, and a parade featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Harley-Davidson dealership shuts for good after sudden sale to rival – but fans of the iconic brand can still get a bike

Centenarian rider Gloria Tramontin Struck will serve as grand marshal, leading the celebration after nearly 85 years on the road.

The speed limit near rally hotspots like Buffalo Chip and Full Throttle is just 35 mph, and traffic slows it down even more – low-speed handling is key.

Many riders also take the opportunity to explore Black Hills landmarks like Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The rally brings together bikers from all over the world to celebrate freedom, horsepower, and the open road.

Sturgis Bike Rally

Dates:
August 1–10, 2025
(Pre-party runs July 28–31)

Location:
Sturgis, South Dakota – in the Black Hills

Anniversary:
85th annual rally, first held in 1938 with just nine riders

Expected Attendance:
700,000+
(2015 record stands at 747,032)

2023 Attendance:
458,161 – down 8.1% from the previous year

City Revenue:
$784 million generated in 2022

State Sales Tax (2024):
$1.4 million collected during rally week

Major Concert Headliners:
ZZ Top, Gene Simmons, Nickelback, Jason Aldean, Marilyn Manson, Five Finger Death Punch

Buffalo Chip Pass Sales:
Up 67% compared to 2024

Vendor Count (2024):
896 registered temporary vendors

Speed Limit Near Rally Venues:
35 MPH — slower with rally traffic congestion

Nearby Attractions:
Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial

Grand Marshal:
100-year-old biker Gloria Tramontin Struck

ZZ Top opens the lineup on August 1 at 10 PM, followed by Gene Simmons on August 3.

Other major acts include Five Finger Death Punch, Marilyn Manson, Jason Aldean, Nickelback, Buckcherry, Tesla, and Stone Temple Pilots.

Concerts are included with camping admission and typically begin at 8 pm or 10 pm nightly.

Buffalo Chip pass sales are up a staggering 67% over last year, showing the massive anticipation for this year’s rally

MUSK GETS $29 BILLION IN RESTRICTED STOCK FINALLY!

Tesla awards CEO Musk millions in shares valued at about $29 billion

Tesla is awarding CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $29 billion, just six months after a judge ordered the company to revoke his massive pay package.

The electric vehicle maker said in a regulatory filing on Monday that Musk must first pay Tesla $23.34 per share of restricted stock that vests, which is equal to the exercise price per share of the 2018 pay package that was awarded to the company’s CEO.

In December Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick reaffirmed her earlier ruling that Tesla must revoke Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. She found that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent.

At the time McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys, who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million.

The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package.

CITIES WITH THE MOST SKYSCRAPERS, MOST IN CHINA!

These 10 Cities Have More Skyscrapers Than Anywhere Else in the World

This ranking offers a fascinating glimpse into where and why the world is building tall.

Image may contain Architecture Building Cityscape Urban City Outdoors Aerial View Nature Sea and Water cities with the...

From soaring skylines in East Asia to vertical expansions in the Middle East, skyscrapers have become defining features of modern urban landscapes. Some of these metropolises are even best known the world over for reaching for the heavens, like New York or Hong Kong. But not all cities build upwards equally. Some have turned high-rise architecture and once-impossible feats of modern engineering into a signature, driven by population density, land constraints, and economic ambition. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which maintains a database of high-rise structures, the following destinations below are the cities with the highest number of completed buildings over 150 meters (roughly 492 feet) in height. The rankings, updated as of July 2025, offer a fascinating glimpse into where and why the world is building tall. These are the cities with the most skyscrapers on the planet.

What counts as a skyscraper?
As per this data, a skyscraper refers to a completed building that is at least 150 meters (about 492 feet) tall. This benchmark is widely accepted in urban development and architectural databases as the minimum height for a high-rise structure to be classified as a skyscraper.

Where is the data from?
The rankings are based on the latest figures (as of July 2025) from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The CTBUH tracks the height, construction status, and structural details of buildings worldwide, including commercial, residential, and mixed-use towers.

Does this data change often?
Yes. In fast-growing cities, especially in Asia and the Middle East, new skyscrapers are completed regularly, shifting the rankings every few months. The data in this story reflects the most recent available snapshot from CTBUH at the time of publication.

1. Hong Kong: over 550 skyscrapers

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No city in the world has embraced vertical living like Hong Kong. With over 550 completed buildings taller than about 490 feet, the skyline is a forest of high-rises squeezed between mountainous terrain and the sea. A shortage of flat land, coupled with rapid economic growth in the late 20th century, made vertical development inevitable. Many of Hong Kong’s residential skyscrapers are tightly packed and uniform, while commercial landmarks like the International Commerce Centre and Bank of China Tower punctuate the skyline with dramatic architectural flair.

2. Shenzhen, China: over 380 skyscrapers

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3. New York City, USA: over 320 skyscrapers

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Often credited as the birthplace of the skyscraper, New York still ranks among the top with over 320 skyscrapers. From the historic Chrysler Building to new icons like One World Trade Center and the pencil-thin towers of Billionaire’s Row, the city’s skyline has constantly reinvented itself. Zoning laws, air rights trading, and engineering breakthroughs have allowed for dramatic verticality. Unlike its Asian counterparts, many of New York City’s skyscrapers blend commercial, residential, and institutional functions within a single footprint, reflecting the city’s layered, mixed-use urban fabric.

4. Dubai, UAE: over 250 skyscrapers

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5. Guangzhou, China: over 220 skyscrapers

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Another Chinese city leading the skyscraper race, Guangzhou has over 220 completed skyscrapers. As the capital of Guangdong province, it’s a key economic hub and trading center with a long history. Skyscrapers here are clustered along the Pearl River and the Zhujiang New Town CBD, where landmarks like the Canton Tower and the Guangzhou International Finance Center rise. The city’s skyline reflects both historical depth and contemporary ambition, blending cultural motifs with cutting-edge design.

6. Shanghai, China: over 200 skyscrapers

Image may contain Christian Jones City Architecture Building Cityscape Urban High Rise and Outdoors

7. Tokyo, Japan: over 190 skyscrapers

Image may contain City Architecture Building Cityscape Urban Landmark Tokyo Tower and Tower

Japan’s capital isn’t known for towering height due to strict seismic and zoning regulations, but it still boasts over 190 skyscrapers over 492 feet tall, an impressive feat in a country frequently rocked by earthquakes. Tokyo’s vertical growth has been strategic, concentrated in business hubs like Shinjuku, Marunouchi, and Roppongi. Its towers often prioritize structural resilience and design elegance, with standout buildings like the Toranomon Hills, Midtown Tower, and Shibuya Scramble Square. Even with height limitations, Tokyo’s skyline remains dynamic and futuristic.

8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: over 180 skyscrapers

Image may contain Architecture Building Landmark Petronas Twin Towers and Tower

9. Chicago, USA: over 160 skyscrapers

Image may contain Architecture Building Cityscape Urban City Outdoors Nature High Rise Sky Bridge and Metropolis

With a long-standing legacy in architectural innovation, Chicago has over 160 high-rise buildings exceeding 492 feet. Its skyline marries architectural innovation with industrial grit, from the early steel-frame Home Insurance Building (now demolished) to today’s bold supertalls like the St. Regis Chicago and Willis Tower. While New York may overshadow it in numbers, Chicago’s contributions to vertical design, especially the development of structural systems, have been globally influential. The city’s high-rises are concentrated around the Loop and along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, offering one of the most cohesive and historically rich skylines in the world.

10. Wuhan, China: over 150 skyscrapers

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MICHAEL JORDAN’S FORMER HOME IN CHICAGO SUBURB WAS FINALLY BOUGHT BY AN INVESTOR WHO LISTED IT ON AIRBNB

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/lifestyle/michael-jordans-former-highland-park-illinois-mansion-now-listed-on-airbnb/vi-AA1HN5fK?t=13

THE WORLD NEEDS WATER-MIT JUST INVENTED GETTING IT FROM THE AIR!

MIT Invents “Bubble Wrap” That Pulls Fresh Water From The Air…Even In The Driest Places In The World

MIT researchers have invented a new water-harvesting device — a high-tech version of “bubble wrap” — that can pull safe drinking water straight from the air, even in extreme environments like Death Valley, the driest desert in North America, according to LiveScience.

In a study published June 11 in Nature Water, the team described how their innovation could help address global water scarcity. “It works wherever you may find water vapor in the air,” the researchers wrote.

The device is built from hydrogel, a material that can absorb large amounts of water, sandwiched between two glass layers resembling a window. At night, the hydrogel draws moisture from the air. During the day, a special coating on the glass keeps it cool, allowing water to condense and drip into a collection system.

The hydrogel is molded into dome shapes — likened to “a sheet of bubble wrap” — that swell when absorbing moisture. These domes increase surface area, helping the material absorb more water.

LiveScience writes that the system was tested for a week in Death Valley, a region spanning California and Nevada that holds the record as the hottest and driest place in North America.

Despite the harsh conditions, the harvester consistently produced between 57 and 161.5 milliliters of water daily — about a quarter to two-thirds of a cup. In more humid regions, researchers expect even greater yields. According to MIT representatives, this approach outperforms earlier water-from-air technologies and does so without needing electricity.

One major breakthrough was solving a known problem with hydrogel-based water harvesters: lithium salts used to improve absorption often leak into the water, making it unsafe. The new design adds glycerol, which stabilizes the salt and keeps leakage to under 0.06 parts per million — a level the U.S. Geological Survey deems safe for groundwater.

Though a single panel can’t supply an entire household, its small footprint means several can be installed together. The team estimates that eight 3-by-6-foot (1-by-2-meter) panels could provide enough drinking water for a household in areas lacking reliable sources. Compared to the cost of bottled water in the U.S., the system could pay for itself in under a month and remain functional for at least a year.

“We imagine that you could one day deploy an array of these panels, and the footprint is very small because they are all vertical,” said Xuanhe Zhao, an MIT professor and co-author of the study. “Now people can build it even larger, or make it into parallel panels, to supply drinking water to people and achieve real impact.”

The researchers plan to continue testing the device in other low-resource areas to better understand its performance under different environmental conditions.

FREDDY THE CUSTOM INSPECTION K-9 WAS DOING HIS JOB WHEN A MEAN EGYPTIAN KICKED HIM!

Man who kicked customs dog at Dulles ordered to leave U.S.

A 70-year-old man pleaded guilty to attacking Freddie the Beagle and was ordered to pay $840 in vet fees.

Freddie, a K-9 with the CBP’s Beagle Brigade with his handler CBP Agriculture Specialist Mellisa Snyder at Dulles International Airport in October. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)

Freddie the Customs and Border Protection beagle spent Tuesday morning doing his typical work: patrolling the international baggage claim area at Washington Dulles International Airport for undeclared agricultural products. Then the morning took an unusual turn.

After the dog alerted his handler that a piece of luggage from Cairo was suspicious, the duo approached the suitcase’s owner, a 70-year-old man from Egypt.

“He violently kicked Freddie with sufficient force to lift the 25-pound beagle off the ground,” a CBP news release says. A veterinarian said the dog suffered contusions to his right rib area and ordered “rest and a mild dose of pain meds,” agency spokesman Stephen Sapp said in an email.

Customs officers arrested Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie and took him to a local jail. He was charged with willfully and maliciously harming a police animal.

Further investigation revealed what Freddie had detected: 55 pounds of beef, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of vegetables, corn seeds and herbs — items that were not allowed into the country and seized, according to the news release.

“Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared and prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle,” Christine Waugh, CBP’s Area Port Director for D.C., said in a statement. “We rely heavily on our K9 partners and Freddie was just doing his job. Any malicious attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

In a quick resolution, Marie pleaded guilty in federal court during his initial appearance Wednesday. He was ordered to pay restitution for Freddie’s vet fee — $840 — and had to report to CPB to be removed from the U.S. He flew to Egypt on Thursday.

Freddie the beagle suffered bruised ribs. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

It was just the latest chapter in an eventful life for the 5-year-old beagle, who was found on a median in Georgia before going to work for the U.S. government. The Washington Post wrote about Freddie and fellow Dulles sniffers in November.

His handler said at the time that he has learned to sniff out meat like cane rat, pigeon, snake and camel in addition to beef and pork. He is part of a “Beagle Brigade” used around the country to keep out diseases, invasive pests and plants.

According to CBP, the agency’s agriculture specialists and canines seized nearly 3,600 prohibited items including plants, meat, animal by-products or soil at U.S. entry points in a standard day last year.

Freddie’s plight drew attention on social media; well-wishers asked for updates in the comments on videos posted earlier this year on an official Facebook page.

In an Instagram post Friday, the agency said the pup would make a full recovery and shared a photo of him sampling a Starbucks “Pup Cup.”

“Freddie should be back in a week,” Sapp said in an email.

PRIVATE JETS OF CLIMATE FIGHTERS SUCH AS JOHN KERRY AND BERNIE SANDERS CAUSE MORE CLIMATE DAMAGE THAN AIRLINES!

Study Exposes the Hypocrisy of Climate Cultist Elites and Their Fossil Fuel-Guzzling Private Jets

Private jets produced more emissions than all flights at a major international airport in 2023, according to a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The ICCT found that that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of private jets outweighed the emissions of all flights, including commercial ones, departing London’s Heathrow airport in 2023. Just one private jet produces as much GHG emissions as 177 cars or nine heavy-duty trucks, and there has been an increasing trend in private jet emissions over the past decade, the report states.

“Private jets are a surprisingly large source of air and climate pollution,” ICCT aviation fellow Daniel Sitompul said.

“It’s pretty well known that in a typical year, private jets are responsible for about 2 percent of aviation emissions,” ICCT research director and co-author of the new report Dan Rutherford told The Washington Post. “What we’ve done for the first time is, we’ve basically used flight trajectory data to break that out into the individual contributions of airports and countries.”

The report measures and maps the GHG emissions produced globally by private jets throughout 2023 through a combination of data sources including worldwide flight paths, engine emission databases and airport coordinates, according to the report. ICCT then used the data to “spatially allocate fuel use and emissions to airports and countries for about 94% of private jet activity globally,” according to the report.

Data also indicated that GHG emissions from private jets have increased globally from 2013 to 2023, according to the report.

ICCT compared these data with Heathrow airport’s 2023 sustainability report that notes the emissions of its departures that year, the report indicates. Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport and is now the fourth busiest in the world, though it was the seventh busiest in 2023, according to Time Out.

Though several environmentalists, celebrities and Democrats shun GHG emissions and support policies that seek to limit them, many of them have been caught using private jets to fly to and from occasions like sporting events and climate change policy summits. For example, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference ushered in guests who arrived on private jets and proceeded to exchange ideas about cutting GHG emissions.

Prominent celebrities that preach about climate change initiatives while still regularly using private jets include Leonardo DiCaprio, Taylor Swift, Oprah and Steven Spielberg among several others. Notably, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also recently defended his private jet usage while on his “fighting oligarchy” tour.

TEXAS SUPREME COURT MAKES COMMON SENSE DECISION REVERSING CRAZY APPELLATE COURT AWARDING $100 MILLION JUDGMENT IN CRASH CASE

Werner Wins $100M Nuclear Verdict Reversal by Texas Court

Ruling Ends Yearslong Battle Stemming From 2014 Fatal Wreck

The case stretches back to a 2018 trial in which a Houston jury returned what stands as one of the highest monetary judgments against a motor carrier. (Werner Enterprises)

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The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Werner Enterprises, reversing a $100 million jury verdict against the motor carrier upheld by an appellate court in a 2014 fatal crash in which a pickup truck lost control on a slick interstate, traveled across the highway median and collided with a Werner tractor traveling on the opposite stretch of road.

“The foregoing holdings dispose of all claims and require rendition of judgment for the defendants,” the Texas high court wrote in a June 27 ruling. “The court of appeals’ judgment is reversed, and judgment is rendered for the defendants.”

The case stretches back to a 2018 trial in which a Houston jury returned what stands as one of the highest monetary judgments against a motor carrier. Werner first appealed the jury verdict in October 2018 to the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. That appeal ultimately was denied in a 5-4 decision after languishing in the legal system for several years.

In its case before the state appeals court, Werner objected to the jury’s finding that the driver and company were negligent and also to the judge’s decision to allow certain evidence in the case. Werner also objected to the jury’s award of future medical care expenses for the plaintiffs.

But the Texas high court rejected the notion that the Werner driver shared in the fault for the accident.

“This awful accident happened because an out-of-control vehicle suddenly skidded across a wide median and struck the defendant’s truck, before he had time to react, as he drove below the speed limit in his proper lane of traffic,” the court wrote. “That singular and robustly explanatory fact fully explains why the accident happened and who is responsible for the resulting injuries. Because no further explanation is reasonably necessary to substantially explain the origins of this accident or to assign responsibility for the plaintiffs’ injuries, the rule of ‘proximate causation’ does not permit a fact finder to search for other, subordinate actors in the causal chain and assign liability to them.”

(Supreme Court of Texas via YouTube)

The high court said that nothing the Werner driver, Shiraz Ali, did or didn’t do contributed to the pickup truck hitting ice, losing control, veering into the median and entering oncoming traffic on an interstate highway.

However Ali was driving, the presence of his 18-wheeler in its proper lane of traffic on the other side of Interstate 20 at the precise moment the pickup truck lost control is just the kind of “happenstance of place and time” that cannot reasonably be considered a substantial factor in causing injuries to the plaintiffs.

“Instead [the pickup driver] losing control and hurtling across the median was the substantial factor in bringing about the injuries,” the court wrote. “The presence of Ali’s truck on the other side of the median at that precise moment was merely ‘the condition that made the harm possible.’ ”

“This appeal presents several distinct questions of law of manifest importance to the jurisprudence of the state, at least some of which require the reversal and rendition of the judgment below,” Werner argued in its brief filed with the high court in August 2023. Werner said the state court of appeals’ denial imposes a legal duty on Texas motorists in the state’s largest appellate district to anticipate that vehicles on the other side of a divided highway “will lose control and cross directly into their path.”

It argued further that “a failure to foresee this remote possibility and do everything possible to avoid it, including getting off the road entirely, can make a driver 100% responsible for almost any accident.”

Werner said the relevant facts of the accident are undisputed: Ali was proceeding in his lane, operating and in control of a Werner tractor-trailer, when the plaintiff’s vehicle suddenly careened into his path, leaving him no time to avoid a fatal collision.

Werner ranks No. 18 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 32 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.

CHINA DELIVERED FAKE DRIVER LICENSES TO ALLOW MASS ILLEGAL VOTING FOR BIDEN IN 2020 ELECTION, FBI HID THIS INFORMATION, TIK TOK USER DATA USED TO CREATE FALSE ID’S

Patel, Bongino say prior FBI leaders hid evidence of Chinese interference in 2020 election

“Previous FBI leadership chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people,” the bureau’s new top two leaders say.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino alleged Tuesday that the bureau’s prior leadership “chose to play politics” and hide evidence from the American people of a Chinese plot to hijack the 2020 U.S. election with fake mail-in ballots for Joe Biden.

The two FBI leaders’ statement came a week after Just the News reported Patel turned over to Congress earlier this month a long-hidden intelligence report raising concerns that China had mass-produced fake U.S. driver’s licenses to carry out a scheme to swing the 2020 election to Biden with fake mail-in ballots.

Patel located the evidence based on information that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, got from whistleblowers and forwarded to the FBI, officials said.

Patel and Bongino said Tuesday they are committed to getting Grassley and the American public more evidence about the plot and the failure to fully investigate it.

“Based on our continued review and production of FBI documents related to the CCP’s plot to interfere in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, previous FBI leadership chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people – exposing the weaponization of law enforcement for political purposes during the height of the 2020 election season,” Patel and Bongino said in statement given to Just the News.

“Thanks to the great Oversight work of Chairman Grassley, the information the old FBI regime covered up will now be released to the public,” they added. “This FBI leadership team will continue keeping our promise of aggressive transparency and working around the clock to fix the underlying problems to restore the FBI to the trusted institution the American people deserve.”

The newly declassified intelligence reports from August 2020 weren’t corroborated or fully investigated and instead were recalled from intelligence agencies at about the time that then-FBI Director Chris Wray testified there were no known plots of foreign interference ahead of the 2020 election in which Biden defeated Donald Trump, officials told Just the News.

When they were recalled, FBI officials asked fellow spy agencies to destroy their copies of the intelligence report, which included detailed information from a cooperating confidential human source.

“This report was recalled in order to re-interview the source. Recipients should destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings,” the recall notice obtained by Just the News stated.

The subject line of the FBI intelligence bulletin succinctly stated the potential nature of the alleged plot: “Chinese Government Production and Export of Fraudulent US Driver’s Licenses to Chinese Sympathizers in the United States, in Order to Create Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Mail-in Votes for US Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, in late August 2020

That said, the FBI bulletin provided significantly detailed information for agencies to investigate as leads to make sure the U.S. election wasn’t being hijacked by a foreign power seeking to exploit a sudden explosion in mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic that struck earlier in 2020.

“In late August 2020, the Chinese government had produced a large amount of fraudulent United States driver’s licenses that were secretly exported to the United States,” the report reads “The fraudulent driver’s licenses would allow tens of thousands of Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party to vote for U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden despite not being eligible to vote in the United States.”

“China had collected private US user data from millions of TikTok accounts, to include name, ID and address, which would allow the Chinese government to use real US persons’ information to create the fraudulent driver’s license,” the report continues. “The fraudulent driver’s licenses were to include true ID number and true address of US citizens, making them difficult to detect. China planned to use the fraudulent driver’s licenses to account for tens of thousands of mail-in votes.”

GET USA RESIDENCY WITH $5 MILLION COST GOLDEN VISA, ALMOST 70,000 HAVE APPLIED!

Lutnick hails Trump’s $5mn investor visa as almost 70,000 apply

Programme to grant foreigners legal residency in US in exchange registers 68,703 people on waiting list

a person looking at the new website on a phone and laptop for the planned $5 million US residency permit — Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump card will be made of gold. ‘It will be beautiful’ © Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images

current progress 100%

Alex Rogers in Washington

Published13 hours ago

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Nearly 70,000 people have signed up for the new golden Trump Card, a visa scheme led by commerce secretary Howard Lutnick that will grant foreigners legal residency in the US at a cost of $5mn.

Last week, Lutnick’s department launched a website — trumpcard.gov — for would-be applicants to register their interest in the visa and to provide basic contact information, including their name, email address and region of the world. The card shown on the website features President Donald Trump’s face and signature, as well as an eagle, the Statue of Liberty and the American flag.

On Monday morning, Lutnick said his department’s internal online dashboard showed 67,697 people on the waiting list. Within an hour, the number had jumped to 68,703.

“The card will be made of gold,” the US commerce secretary told the Financial Times. “It will be beautiful.”

“Donald Trump appreciates these kinds of things. He cares about how it looks. He cares about how it feels. I mean, he deeply cares about that, and thinks if you’re going to buy and make this investment in America, we should give you something that is beautiful.”

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick — US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has said issuing 200,000 visas would reap $1tn for the Treasury © Eric Lee/Bloomberg

Lutnick has said the initial idea for the visa came from billionaire Trump donor John Paulson as a way to raise revenue for the US and help it pay down its $36tn debt.

The commerce secretary said the Trump Card will appeal to business leaders and companies seeking legal residency in the US for themselves or their employees.

The chief executive of a global technology company who asked not to be named said through a spokesperson that his group would seek to buy more than 100 Trump cards if the scheme comes to “fruition”, adding he viewed the initiative as a way “to welcome the world’s best and brightest to the United States — particularly entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists”.

In 1990, Congress created a route to permanent residency for foreign investors through the EB-5 visa programme, which has a minimum investment of up to $1.8mn. About 14,000 such visas were granted last year, according to Invest In the USA, an EB-5 trade association.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick is pressing for the new scheme to replace the EB-5 visa, and is planning to expedite the creation of a much larger programme within months.

The commerce department plans to issue tens of thousands of Trump cards over the summer, said people familiar with the matter. Lutnick has said issuing 200,000 visas would reap $1tn for the Treasury.

Lutnick in May travelled with the president to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and concluded his conversations with foreign dignitaries with a pitch for the Trump Card.

“Whenever I meet with international executives, I always go through it with them and sell it to them,” he said. “I can’t help myself.”

The White House still needs to determine crucial details about the scheme, although three months ago Lutnick claimed on the All-In Podcast that it would launch in about a fortnight.

The design of a special tax structure for Trump Card holders has yet to be finalised, and while the vetting of applicants is expected to be done by the departments of homeland security, state and commerce, Trump has not decided whether citizens of any particular countries would be excluded from applying.

The White House has banned travel to the US from a dozen nations and is reportedly considering others.

Italian billionaire and stablecoin Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino in April told the FT that the success of such visas depended on the tax treatment they afforded.

Ardoino, who has partnered with Lutnick’s former firm Cantor Fitzgerald in a crypto venture, said “the problem” with Americans is “wherever they go, they have to pay taxes in the US”.