The Chinese Communist Party poses the biggest long-term threat to economic and national security, according to the heads of Britain’s MI5 and the United States’ FBI. The leaders delivered the remarks at MI5 headquarters in London during a first-ever joint appearance between the leaders of the FBI and MI5. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray said China represents a particular threat to businesses. 

“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology. Whatever it is that makes your industry tick, and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market and they’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it,” Director Wray said.  

According to Wray, the two biggest threats China poses to businesses are hacking and stealing research. That allows China to enjoy innovations without having to fund the research it took to create them. Wray also said if China tried to take over Taiwan, it would be one of the biggest disruptions to global business the world has ever seen. 

China is also trying to interfere in politics in the U.S. and around the world in an effort to prevent political candidates with anti-China views from being elected, according to Wray. That includes interference in a New York congressional race earlier this year in which Wray said China tried to prevent a candidate who was a former protestor at Tiananmen Square from winning. 

The head of the MI5 said it’s important to counter China’s aggression while still finding a way to cooperate on key issues because China is such a dominant world player and cannot be cut off.

“China is central to global issues. Economic growth, health, climate change. Having for example almost 150,000 Chinese students in UK universities is in almost all cases good for them and good for us,” Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said.  

Wray made clear the Chinese government and Communist Party poses the threat, not its people. 

“We’re focused on countering not the Chinese people and certainly not Chinese immigrants in our countries who are themselves frequently victims of the Chinese government’s lawless aggression,” Wray said. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray describes the Chinese government as the biggest long-term threat to economic and national security https://t.co/ZuIcSW3xKw pic.twitter.com/sRszYphgNj

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 7, 2022

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called the remarks “alarmist” and accused the U.S. of doing exactly what it accuses China of doing.

“Facts have fully proven that the U.S. is the biggest threat to world peace, stability and development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. “This intelligence official’s remarks fully expose his deep-rooted Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice.”

More than 1 million voters in 43 states became Republicans in the last year. That’s according to data from the political firm L2 that was analyzed by the Associated Press.

The biggest switches are happening in big suburban areas around Denver, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. There are also voters flipping in the suburbs around smaller cities like Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Des Moines, Iowa.

“It’s more so a rejection of the left than embracing the right,” Colorado resident Ben Smith said when he explained his decision to change parties.

Another Colorado resident, Jessica Kroells, said there was no single moment that made her want to leave the Democratic Party after consistently voting for the party’s candidates up until 2016.

“The party itself is no longer Democrat, it’s progressive socialism,” Kroells said.

Perhaps the most high-profile person of all to start voting Republican is Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

“Massive red wave in 2022,” Musk tweeted after he said he voted Republican for the first time ever. That vote went to Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, a Latina who flipped a Democratic congressional seat in south Texas.

I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican.

Massive red wave in 2022.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 15, 2022

“The People who live and work in south Texas have had enough. We want to be heard. And we are tired of being taken for granted and treated like second class citizens,” Rep. Flores said.

Approximately 1.7 million people switched parties in the last year, 1 million joining the GOP and about 630,000 becoming Democrats. Voters switching to the Republican Party marks a reversal from the Trump administration when more Americans became Democrats.

It is possible that some voters are switching due to the ongoing primary season. They could be changing parties to vote for a specific candidate in a closed primary, where rules say state voters must cast a ballot for someone in their same party. In fact, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is asking Wyoming Democrats to do exactly that, due to falling support among Republicans in that state since she became vice chair of the Jan. 6 investigative committee.

The Democratic National Committee had no comment about party flipping. The Republican National Committee and other party leaders take credit for the changes and point to rising crime, inflation, gas price increases, and immigration policy as reasons voters are switching.

“Biden and Democrats are woefully out of touch with the American people, and that’s why voters are flocking to the Republican Party in droves,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told the AP.

To collect the data and publish the numbers, L2 used information from state voting records in addition to statistical modeling.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

There was both celebration and protest at the Supreme Court in the hours after the justices released their Dobbs decision. Both pro-life and pro-choice activists gathered by the hundreds to make their voices heard.

Pro-choice protestors chanted in unison, “Rise up for abortion rights, for abortion rights rise up.”

The group blamed Republicans for appointing a majority of the court’s members, which allowed for what they describe as an unjust reversal of precedent. 

“The Republican Party decided that they wanted this on their agenda to dominate women. I don’t know why they have an obsession to dominate women,” Elizabeth said, who was protesting and leading chants.  

Another protestor, Daisy Ferrell, said the decision made her feel “sick.” Ferrell wrote to her senators in her home state of Alabama, urging them to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would legalize abortion at the federal level. Ferrell is encouraging more women to do the same.

“We’re rolling back things. It feels like we’re regressing, we’re not a progressive society anymore, we’re literally going back in time,” Ferrell said.

Now that Roe is overturned, the protestors are hoping Congress will pass legislation at the federal level. If not, they want to try to get bills passed at the state level.

Pro-life activists at the court urged women to choose life and reach out to pregnancy resource centers if they think they need help caring for a child.

“Yes we know that we have so much work to do in the future. But this is just the beginning of helping women choose life for their baby to help support them and their babies,” Kaeleigh Ausley, a pro-life activist said.

“Whether you have economic resources or you don’t, you have a chance at life. And we are willing to provide so many resources for you,” Cassie DeJulia, another pro-life activist said.