Free Republic

Forfeiture Action is the Latest Disruption of an Indicted North Korean Official’s Efforts to Generate Revenue for North Korea and its Weapons Program Through Illegal IT Worker Schemes and Cryptocurrency Theft The Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that North Korean information technology (IT) workers obtained illegal employment and amassed millions in cryptocurrency for the benefit of the North Korean government, all as a means of evading U.S. sanctions placed on North Korea. The funds were initially restrained in connection with an April 2023 indictment against...

Putin has appointed his ex-bodyguard, who is considered a likely successor for the Russian leader, as an 'angel of vengeance' tasked with trying to reclaim the territory seized by Ukraine. Former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, who once single-handedly scared off a bear from the president's mountain residence, will lead the charge on 'Operation Revenge' to reclaim the 386 square miles of Russian soil now under Ukrainian control. Dyumin, 51, grew up in the Kursk region, where a state of emergency was implemented almost immediately after thousands of Kyiv's troops surged across the border and began seizing territory. Putin has now chosen...

The former governor of Russia's Kursk region, parts of which were seized by Ukrainian forces in August 2024, has been detained and charged with embezzling money earmarked for building defences, Russia's interior ministry said on Thursday. Alexei Smirnov was head of the western region when Ukrainian troops smashed across the border in a large-scale incursion. -snip- In the first hours of Ukraine's August incursion into Kursk, Smirnov repeatedly offered assurances that the situation was under control, even as Russian border guards were left reeling and in retreat by the surprise attack.

A former deputy Palm Beach County sheriff who fled to Moscow and became one of the Kremlin’s most prolific propagandists is working directly with Russian military intelligence to pump out deepfakes and circulate misinformation that targets Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to Russian documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The documents show that John Mark Dougan, who also served in the U.S. Marines and has long claimed to be working independently of the Russian government, was provided funding by an officer from the GRU, the country’s military intelligence service. Some of the...

The worst part about the porous Biden/Harris southern border is that we don’t know who we’ve let in and how dangerous some of those people might be. However, we now know of at least one allegedly very nasty character who’s been hanging out in our country, Peruvian gang member Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, who’s suspected of almost two dozen murders back in his homeland. He was arrested Wednesday in New York State by immigration authorities. Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported on the story: BREAKING: ICE Buffalo arrested a Peruvian gang leader yesterday who is wanted for 23 murders in Peru & was...

The Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program reported that the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro's kidnapped Freddy Superlano, leader of the Voluntad Popular party founded by Leopoldo López. "These detainments can lead to forced disappearances and cruel and inhumane treatment to force the victims to make statements, as has been denounced in the past by the UN Mission on Venezuela," Provea wrote on its account on the social network X. The organization published a video on social networks showing how several hooded men put Superlano in a van. According to the information, three other opposition leaders were also kidnapped. Meanwhile, Voluntad...

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...

During his visit to Chechnya on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped at the Prophet Isa mosque in Grozny and posed for photos while holding, and kissing, a gold-leaf copy of the Quran. Putin was flanked by his hand-picked Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and top Chechen Muslim cleric Mufti Saah Mezhiev during his Quran smooch. The Grand Mufti ceremonially read a verse from the Quran, translated into Russian for Putin. The Prophet Isa mosque, constructed in 2020, is a huge and expensive structure that can accommodate 5,000 worshipers at once. “Prophet Isa” is Islam’s version of Jesus Christ, who ranks...

Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was released from Kremlin custody in a prisoner swap with the United States on Thursday morning. Karelina was freed in exchange for German-Russian Arthur Petrov at a swap in Abu Dhabi, the Wall Street Journal reported. “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release. @POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” he added. The dual-citizen spa worker was accused of treason against the Russian government...

The strikes targeted facilities in parts of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed group. U.S. B-2 bombers and other aircraft struck five underground Houthi weapons storage locations in parts of Yemen that the Iranian-backed rebel group controls, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday. The facilities, which officials said were hardened, housed "various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region," Austin said. Houthi rebels have attacked civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The group was suspected in an attack in August. The strikes were the first...

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned, according to the Washington Free Beacon. In a letter to the Columbia community, Shafik wrote that her tenure has been “a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.” "This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” she added. In recent months, Shafik has come under fire for her handling of anti-Semitism on campus following Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel that began last October. “I have tried to navigate a path that upholds academic principles and...

The pro-Palestinian activists who disrupted campuses across the nation are plotting their return for the new academic year. Demonstrators say all forms of protest are still on the table, despite the more than 2,000 arrests so far, as students try to figure out a new strategy to demand their schools divest from Israel, among other goals. “What we will see [is] the students will continue their activism, will continue doing what they’ve done in conventional and unconventional ways. So not only protests, not only encampments, kind of any — any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from from...

On Feb. 25, a flurry of accurate Russian drone strikes knocked out dozens of Ukrainian vehicles along the main road to Sudzha, the town that is—or was—the main base for the 10,000-strong Ukrainian force occupying a significant, but quickly shrinking, salient in Kursk Oblast in western Russia. That was “the day you started worrying about Kursk,” wrote independent analyst Andrew Perpetua. Two weeks later, it seems the bulk of the Ukrainian force—Ukrainian army’s heaviest brigades—has evacuated Kursk and repositioned on the Ukrainian side of the border. “My friends managed to leave Kursk, avoiding encirclement,” one Ukrainian source claimed Monday. “It’s...

Two days after RFK Jr. declared a "Unity Party" with Donald Trump, the White House has pulled his Secret Service. Kennedy is still on the ballot in 40 out of 50 states. He did NOT drop out of the race. Now, after partnering with Trump, Kennedy is a major target. The empire is deliberately putting him in danger. Regardless of where your vote lies, this man deserves protection for the bravery he has shown. Share this!

The Secret Service is providing Kimberly Cheatle, its former director who resigned last month, a security detail in an unprecedented effort to protect a former agency chief amid lingering national anger about the myriad security lapses under her watch that led to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the killing of firefighter Corey Comperatore, according to three sources in the Secret Service community. Cheatle has faced an ongoing firestorm of fury from Americans citizens, and even rank-and-file Secret Service special agents and officers, over the agency’s failures that created an opening for shooter Thomas Crooks to open...

Lisa J. Stevenson, Acting General Counsel Federal Election Commission 1050 First Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20463 Ms. Stevenson, As Members of Congress, we are committed to the safety and integrity of our election and democracy. We are writing to offer our support for Public Citizen's Petition for Rulemaking to Clarify the Law Against Fraudulent Misrepresentation Public Citizen is petitioning the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to clarify that 52 U.S.C. § 30124 includes deep fakes of an election candidate as a fraudulent misrepresentation. As you know, 52 U.S.C. §30124 prohibits a candidate for federal office or an employee or agent campaign...

A federal whistleblower has come forward with allegations that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was involved in the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The whistleblower, identified as Hadassah Feinberg, a former Pennsylvania State Police employee, filed a criminal complaint on February 7, 2025, detailing claims that Shapiro conspired with other officials to orchestrate the attack as part of a political scheme. ... According to the complaint, President Joe Biden made frequent visits to Shapiro in the weeks leading up to the Trump rally to discuss what was described as an “obstacle” faced by...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors are seeking to recover nearly $33 million of funds that they say were allocated for the defence of the western Kursk region, invaded by Ukraine last year, but stolen instead by corrupt officials. Ukrainian troops stormed across the border in a surprise attack on Aug. 6 and seized a chunk of Russian territory, some of which they still hold - a valuable bargaining chip for Kyiv in any peace talks with Moscow. A lawsuit filed by the office of Russia's Prosecutor General orders the head of the Kursk Regional Development Corporation, his deputies and a...

Journalist Matt Taibbi spoke to Brian Kilmeade about Mark Zuckerberg coming out against government censorship of social media and revealing the pressure he faced from the Biden administration to censor content on Facebook and Instagram. "On the whole, it is a net positive," Taibbi said. "Zuckerberg coming out and saying all this confirms a lot of what I reported and a lot of the information that came out from Jim Jordan's committee investigation into the Facebook Files. Even if it is not 100% sincere, it confirms some things and suggests that maybe these tech companies are afraid to continue doing...

The FBI has unveiled details of a massive international cyberattack orchestrated by the Chinese hacker group Mustang Panda, which used the PlugX malware to compromise thousands of computers in at least 170 countries. According to the Justice Department, the group—described as “PRC state-sponsored hackers”—is funded by the Chinese government and has primarily targeted European government devices. Since 2014, Mustang Panda has utilized PlugX malware to infiltrate government and business systems across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The malware, initially designed to exploit Windows-based devices, was modified in 2020 to spread via USB flash drives. Thousands of devices, including many home...