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A Shanghai court on Friday sentenced Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, not seen in public since 2017, to 13 years in jail and fined his Tomorrow Holdings conglomerate 55.03 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), a record in China. Xiao and Tomorrow Holdings were charged with illegally siphoning away public deposits, betraying the use of entrusted property, and the illegal use of funds and bribery, the Shanghai First Intermediate Court said. It added the punishment was mitigated because both had admitted their crimes and cooperated in recovering illegal gains and in restoring losses. China-born Xiao, known to have links to China’s Communist Party...

Ioane ‘John’ King, one of the prominent cast members of the Starz drama Spartacus, has died at age 49 of adenocarcinoma cancer, which spread to his pancreas and other organs. He announced his condition in January. No information on where he died was available. SNIP King’s death is the second to strike the Spartacus cast. Costar Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010 and died 18 months later at age 39.

[EXCERPT] Sleep problems are common among Americans, but a growing body of research reveals glaring racial and ethnic disparities in sleep quality and quantity that have major health consequences. Compared with white Americans, people who are African American or Black, Hispanic or Latinx, American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander are more likely to have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting deep, restorative sleep. These groups are also more likely to have sleep disorders such as insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea, yet are less likely to receive a doctor’s diagnosis and get treatment for these problems, researchers have...

For patients with Lynch syndrome (LS), daily resistant starch (RS) seems to have a lasting protective effect against noncolorectal cancers, according to a study. John C. Mathers, Ph.D., from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues present long-term cancer outcomes based on a planned 10-year follow-up from recruitment in the CAPP2 trial in which participants with LS were randomly assigned to 30 g RS or placebo daily for up to four years. Overall, 463 and 455 participants received RS and placebo, respectively. The researchers observed no difference in colorectal cancer incidence at up to 20 years of follow-up (52...

A car belonging to the daughter of famous Russian political scientist and philosopher Alexander Dugin exploded late Saturday in Moscow, according to media reports. Darya Dugina’s car exploded on Mozhayskoye highway around 9.45 p.m. local time, with witnesses claiming the blast rocked the vehicle in the middle of the road and scattered debris. Preliminary reports said she died instantly. The elder Dugin has arrived at the scene, according to a video on social media. There is no official confirmation or information on the cause of the explosion. It is unclear if the explosion was an assassination attempt targeting her father,...

OAKLAND, Calif. - The East Bay Rowing Club held a special race in the Oakland Estuary Saturday as part of its boycott of the USA championship in Florida. The club hosted their inaugural ‘Boats without Barriers’ to boycott Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law. The club said they won't participate in the national race as long as the law remains in effect.

Praying daily since 2015:Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested in a recent interview that the United States’ green energy push will be the "greatest peace plan" in world history. "If we want to be energy secure and energy independent, that means we've got to produce our own energy," Granholm said in an interview with VOA News on Friday. "My counterpart in Ireland, the energy minister there, has said that no one has ever weaponized access to the sun. No one has ever weaponized the wind. Perhaps a move to clean energy will be the greatest peace plan the world has ever known."

Speaking on Saturday during a "Fox & Friends Weekend" segment, Jennifer Sey, a former Levi Strauss & Co. executive, reacted to the news that a four-year-old child recently was asked to leave a preschool because he would not adhere to mask-wearing rules. "I think it's illustrative of the fact that we've put the most onerous restrictions on very small children all the way up to young adults since the very beginning," said Sey, a mother of four. "We treat them as if they're the most dangerous among us," she added, "when the fact is they're least at risk from serious...

As Forth Worth-based Ginny Mac squeezed out a bluesy tune on her accordion Saturday afternoon, Faith Davis stood in the crowd of the Cotati Accordion Festival, recalling how she once hated the reedy, organ-like sound of the instrument. Davis, who lives in the coastal mountains west of Willits in Mendocino County, explained the first time she attended the festival was several years ago when she was still married and her spouse was just learning to play the instrument. Allen Maier and Sebastian Davin are going on 15 years of bringing the funk to company events, bars, and weddings around Minnesota...

The Sebastopol-based DNA Doe Project, which uses cutting edge science to solve cold cases, has entered “a multiyear partnership” with the Sonoma County Coroner Unit to investigate up to 20 unsolved cases in the area. The announcement comes as the organization ramps up its nationwide outreach. In April, DNA Doe Project co-founder Margaret Press and some fellow members left their comfort zone and went to Las Vegas, where they set up their booth at Crime Con, a convention devoted to true crime. “We were a little nervous,” she recalled. “We thought we’d be the geeks in the room.” The DNA...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)’s Holocaust "accusation" ... is now also calling Berlin police to action. "The preliminary investigation into the initial suspicion of incitement to hatred under article 130 of the Penal Code is being processed in a specialized department of the State Criminal Police Station”, a police spokeswoman told the newspaper “Bild” (Friday). Criminal lawyer Udo Vetter told the German newspaper: "As a result, an initial suspicion of downplaying Nazi tyranny cannot be ruled out immediately." At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the chancellery on Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of several "holocausts[sic]"...

Explore how the Newport Jazz Festival survived riots, rock, and revolution to birth some of jazz’s greatest live albums. In 1954 the smallest state in America started a tradition that changed the live jazz experience forever. Since then, the Newport Jazz Festival has been on board for every evolutionary phase of the music — bop, cool jazz, fusion, free jazz, whatever mode was making waves wound up on its stage. Luckily, the magic that masters like Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cecil Taylor worked at Newport is captured on decades’ worth of live albums that...

For most people, the first thing that comes to mind about George Thorogood & the Destroyers is "Bad to the Bone." The song. But not the album of the same name. Thorogood's iconic hit, part of enough movie and TV soundtracks to buy him much more than one bourbon, scotch or beer, serves as the title track for the band's fifth album and the first for a major label, EMI, after a tenure with the independent Rounder Records. The 10-song set caught Thorogood and his group in high flight, too, hot off dates opening for the Rolling Stones and the...

Most people dream about having a cushy retirement to make up for their decades of toil. However, there are some who insist on working despite their old age and that includes one 90-year-old hawker who goes by the surname Liu. Liu, who was born in 1932, runs a tau kwa stall at Blk 628 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 and is one of the oldest vendors in the market, according to Shin Min Daily News. Currently, his son helps out with the family business as Liu is too frail to do hard labour. But the passionate man still makes it...

Through land grabs, media partners, and spies, the Chinese assault is less of a swift invasion and more of an endless infiltration. Numerous pieces have been published discussing the inexorable rise of China, and the likelihood of the Chinese economy overtaking the United States’ economy. More concerning, though, is the fact that Chinese companies closely aligned with Beijing are directly influencing operations in the United States. They are buying up land, influencing news and media networks, and shaping the narratives on college campuses. The Chinese assault is less of a swift invasion and more of an endless infiltration. Land Grabs...

Eight years in prison is a very long time, so Mohammad Hairul is determined to make the best out of his life when he became a free man in 2019. The 38-year-old, who currently works at a local gym as a member relations executive and is a Mr World Singapore 2022 participant, was arrested for drug trafficking in March 2011. Prior to his time behind bars, Hairul worked at the same gym as a personal trainer and had been part of the team ever since he was 21. However, away from the gym when he wasn't spending time with barbells...

A video surfaced of Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman saying he wants to release “one-third” of the prison population. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s current Lt. Governor who is now the Democrat nominee for US Senate, is one of the most radical Democrat in the senate race. Fetterman is running against Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz in the 2022 US Senate race in Pennsylvania. In 2020, Fetterman said, “I agree with” releasing “a third” of the prison population.

Let’s start with the fact the PFDA (the P is not a typo) asked a federal court for 75 years to make public the many thousands of pages of data submitted to them by Pfizer to support the EUA they (the PFDA) issued. One interpretation of this action is that they wanted the data to stay hidden for a long time to hide fraud and/or criminality (same thing). The other is that they only had enough staff to complete this task within 75 years. Let’s ignore the 2nd one as absurd on its face (especially since they seem to be...

An armed robbery occurred at a New York City coffee shop directly across the street from Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán’s office, who is an advocate for defunding the police. On Wednesday at 3:15 p.m., two suspects arrived on motorcycles outside the Under Pressure Espresso Bar located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens at 30-92 31 Street, according to a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson. They demanded victims hand over their personal property at gunpoint.