Free Republic

A Chinese court has sentenced to death 11 members of a notorious family that ran scam centres in Myanmar, according to Chinese state media. Dozens of members of the Ming family were found guilty of conducting criminal activities, with many receiving lengthy jail sentences. The Ming family worked for one of the four clans that ran Myanmar's sleepy backwater town of Laukkai, close to the border with China, and turned it into a hub for gambling, drugs and scam centres. Myanmar eventually cracked down, arresting many members of these families in 2023 and handing them over to Chinese authorities. A...

China has executed 11 members of a notorious Myanmar mafia family that was infamous for duping victims in fake online romances. The Ming crime family was sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, with the same court also carrying out the executions on Thursday. Residents in the UK and the US have fallen victim to similar, sophisticated schemes, after being lured into romantic relationships that resulted in the loss of large amounts of cash. The clan members were executed for crimes including 'intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment',...

Jacob Chansley, known as the "QAnon Shaman," claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) knew that an alleged Ukrainian spy participated in the riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison over his involvement in the January 6 riot but was released earlier this year, said in an interview with conservative activist Laura Loomer that the FBI questioned him about the presence of Sergai Dybynyn, an alleged Ukrainian spy with reported ties to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has risen to prominence amid the Russia-Ukraine war.The FBI has not confirmed...

Key Points The Party for Freedom will be departing the ruling coalition over the alliance's lack of support for their asylum proposals. The PVV won a landslide victory in the Netherlands' general election in 2023, knocking former Prime Minister Mark Rutte's party off the top spot. ======================================== The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after disagreements over immigration proposals led to far-right leader Geert Wilders withdrawing his party from the ruling coalition. Wilders said in a CNBC-translated post on the X social media platform that his Party for Freedom (PVV) party would be departing over the alliance's lack of support for...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 35-year-old Chinese national was charged this week with taking pictures of B-2 bombers and other “vital military installations” at Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB) back in December, according to federal court documents. According to court documents, Wu admitted to investigators that he had taken videos of the B-2 bomber, as well as Whiteman’s perimeter fencing, gate and military equipment. He then showed investigators his phone and the photos he had taken. Further in the court documents, Wu is described as a Chinese national who illegally entered the country on June 22, 2023, near Nogales, Arizona....

Venezuela's most violent gang, which has already sparked chaos across the US, has moved its headquarters to the outskirts of a major American city, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Dubbed the 'epitome of evil', the notorious criminal organization Tren de Aragua, or TdA as it is known by federal agents, previously operated out of an infamous South American prison so completely under gang leaders' control that it had its own zoo, swimming pool and nightclub. But after kingpin Hector Guerrero Flores escaped last year, the mafia moved its command center to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico on the US border - directly...

A father was deported to Mexico last month after living in the U.S. for over 30 years, leaving his six children without their only parent, his lawyer said. According to Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, Rosalio Vasquez Meave was arrested on September 15. His lawyer, Michelle Edstrom, said he was dropping off his children at school when an ICE vehicle pulled him over and detained him.

Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2 million (€1.7 million) from North Korean officials to ship firearms and ammunition from California. A Chinese national in California has been sentenced to eight years in prison for shipping firearms and ammunition to North Korea. North Korean officials paid Shenghua Wen around $2 million (€1.7 million) to ship two containers of weapons and other items from Long Beach in California to North Korea via Hong Kong in 2023, according to the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic...

Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s venture capital firm quietly scrubbed key officer details — including former Obama officials — as scrutiny grows over the family’s skyrocketing wealth, The Post has learned. Omar (D-MN) went from nearly broke to being worth up to $30 million in just a year — as a massive, up to $9 billion fraud scheme involving the Somali community in her district unfolded right under her nose in Minnesota. Close to 90 people have been charged so far, including at least three with direct ties to the lefty Squad member, though she has not been charged. It...

If the Somali fraudsters produced a Netflix special, the title would be “C.R.E.A.M.: Cash Rules Everything Around Minnesota.” And the center of this fraudulent universe might very well be Ilhan Omar. Once a woman with negative net worth is now listed as a multimillionaire in Congress. How coincidental that this multi‑billion‑dollar fraud scandal detonated in her own district. Back in 2019, Omar’s financial disclosure looked like the starter pack of a millennial fresh outta college: more debt than dollars. Fast forward to 2024, and her household reports a combined net worth between $6 million and $30 million — a 3,500...

The Trump administration’s FBI has released more than 100 additional pages of writings from Audrey Hale, the transgender shooter... These newly unclassified documents, part of a massive collection of notebooks and journals, offer a chilling look into the planning and financing of the assault that claimed the lives of three children and three adults. Hale, a biological woman who identified as a transgender man, used federal student financial aid, specifically Pell Grants, to fund the purchase of firearms used in the heinous 2023 attack. The FBI-released documents reportedly include Hale’s handwritten “Account Savings Record” page, tracking federal Pell Grant funds...

Mark Block uncovered unauthorized ActBlue donations made in his name. The alias “Bernie Kane” was used to spoof conservative donors. Smurfing breaks large donations into small ones to avoid detection. ActBlue does not require ID verification for small-dollar donors. Watchdogs warn these loopholes could distort real campaign momentum. In 2023, Republican strategist Mark Block was surprised to receive a phone call alleging he had donated to Bernie Sanders. He initially dismissed it as an error but then saw proof. Small-dollar donations had been processed through ActBlue using his name and address, despite the fact that he had never contributed.

Minnesota officials are being accused of knowing about the massive alleged fraud involving daycare centers for years, and one reporter exposed the issue nearly a year ago. In a social media post on Sunday, the X account Libs of TikTok referred to a report from January when a daycare center in Minneapolis, the Quality Learning Center, was said to have received around $8 million in tax dollars since 2019. “Between 2019 – 2023 they had NINETY FIVE violations leading to them being placed on a conditional license. They got their license back in 2024 and continued receiving taxpayer dollars. No...

Facebook parent company Meta responded to legal threats by the European Union over its attempts to regulate misinformation related to the Israel war by launching an operating center. Meta released an updated content monitoring action plan on Friday detailing its approach for handling misinformation arising out of the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. The plan arrived in response to a letter from EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who threatened legal action against them over the Digital Services Act, a law that tightens the region's content moderation laws. The EU has already launched an inquiry into X, formerly known...

In a passage of the interview, Biden said: "I would pick up the phone and call the president in El Salvador and say, you either f—ing send them back or I'm going to f—ing invade"Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele responded on Monday to remarks made by Hunter Biden in a recent interview, in which the former U.S. president's son said he would threaten military action against El Salvador over deportation policies. Bukele shared a video clip of the interview on social media with a caption that read: "Is Hunter Biden sniffing powdered milk?" The post came after Biden said in an...

FBI Director Kash Patel has fired agents involved in tracking phone calls of eight Republican senators and a congressman as part of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of President Donald Trump. Communication records belonging to GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Ron Johnson (WI), Josh Hawley (MO), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Bill Hagerty (TN), Dan Sullivan (AK), Tommy Tuberville (AL), and Rep. Mike Kelly (PA) were handed over to Smith’s “Arctic Frost” team after they subpoenaed major phone companies in 2023, Breitbart News reported. That fact was unknown to the public until this week, with Patel saying he...

WASHINGTON — Police say a sitting member of Congress was carjacked Monday night in Southeast D.C. At 9:30 p.m., the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed there was an armed carjacking that occurred at the intersection of K Street and New Jersey Avenue, SE. Investigators say a white Honda CHR with Texas tags RYL-2900 was stolen from a member of Congress. Police say to be on the lookout for three men wearing black all alleged to be involved in the carjacking. WUSA9 has confirmed that the carjacking victim was Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX). His office says he was not injured and is...

Guatemala inaugurated leftist President Bernardo Arévalo in the early morning hours of Monday following a series of delays, squabbles, and confusion in Congress. The inauguration was scheduled to take place on Sunday. Arévalo, who succeeded conservative President Alejandro Giammattei, began his term vowing to “rescue” Guatemala from corruption as his political party, the Semilla Movement, faces an investigation by the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office that resulted in the party’s disqualification from politics in November. As a result, its recently-inaugurated lawmakers took office on Sunday as independents.

A former American diplomat who served as a U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested and accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba’s government, according to The Associated Press. Officials say Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint. According to sources, more details about the case are expected to be made public at a court appearance Monday. One of the two people who came forward with the complaint said the Justice Department case accuses Rocha of working to promote the Cuban government’s interests.

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and three warships have been sent to the Caribbean, where they are joining a dozen Navy warships already off the coast of Venezuela, in an unprecedented show of military force. President Trump and his administration are taking aim at the administration of Nicolas Maduro, over his alleged role in the drug trade which presents a national security threat to the United States. It’s clear that if the US succeeds in destabilizing and displacing President Maduro’s regime, it would be a blow to the region’s drug traffickers. What is less known is that it would...