Free Republic

Two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) made their initial appearances in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, yesterday to face charges issued out of the Northern District of California for acting as agents of the Government of the PRC without prior notification to the Attorney General. The defendants, Yuance Chen, 38, a PRC national and legal permanent resident who resides in Happy Valley, Oregon, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, a PRC national who traveled from the PRC to Houston, Texas, on a tourist visa in April 2025, were arrested Friday on a criminal complaint charging...

Iran has sent a response through Oman to US President Donald Trump’s letter that had urged it to reach a new nuclear deal, the state news agency IRNA reports, citing the Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. Tehran reiterated its stance on not negotiating directly while under pressure, but is open to indirect talks, Araqchi is reported as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent rival teams to Washington for talks with the Trump administration as ceasefire negotiations for the war in Ukraine are underway, according to an independent investigative Russian news outlet. On Thursday, Kirill Dmitriev, a businessman and Putin's investment envoy, announced that he is in Washington this week to hold talks with U.S. officials. The official, who runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund, is meeting Trump ally Steve Witkoff at Putin's request, he said. Putin also gave the go-ahead for another rival team to engage in talks with Washington, news site Agentstvo reported on Thursday. The two teams...

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Ruling from the bench in New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. In reaching his decision, he said Khalil is likely...

Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil lamented leaving behind some “incredible men” on Friday as he left a Louisiana detention facility, which he hopes becomes a museum to what he described as “America’s racist policies.” “I leave some incredible men behind me, over 1,000 people behind me, in a place where they shouldn’t have been in the first place,” Khalil told reporters after walking out of the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, La. “I hope the next time that I will be in Jena is to actually visit this as a museum on America’s racist policies against immigrants,” the former Columbia...

"Esteemed Comrades of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! Today we ask you to review your files for any communications you may have had with unreliable elements who are critical of our Party and our leader. If you have had contact with journalists, researchers, or other subversives, we ask you to report these interactions in full to the senior comrades responsible for the important work of ideological vigilance. Also, please also indicate if you have encountered any suspicious use of the following terms…" That’s not actually how Acting Undersecretary of State Darren Beattie communicated his request for information - snip =,...

An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will make his initial court appearance tomorrow. According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to...

Syria’s new government will relocate ISIS families from camps, with Kurdish and US support. The new Syrian transitional government is seeking to find a way to deal with thousands of ISIS families who have been housed at camps in eastern Syria since ISIS was defeated in Syria in 2019. When ISIS was defeated in several villages near the Euphrates River in 2019, some of the terrorist group chose to surrender, and thousands of families of ISIS fighters ended up in the hands of the US-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The thousands of families were sent to several camps and detention facilities...

The historical fact of the migration of Nazi criminals to the American continent can no longer be denied as more and more official records are released to the population. Unlike Canada’s former PM Justin Trudeau, who refused to release documents registering the names of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in his country, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei haw vowed to declassify records regarding the very significant German Nazi migration post-WW2. El Clarin reported (translated from the Spanish): “The government is in the process of declassifying official files on Nazi criminals who sought refuge in Argentina. This was revealed by the Chief of...

While the media and military have been silent, what the Navy did against a Houthi attack is pretty magnificent. Has the U.S. grown ashamed of its military victories? There are reasons to believe this is true. In April 1988, the U.S. Navy effectively destroyed the Iranian navy following a mine attack on the destroyer USS Roberts. The Navy sank an Iranian frigate, four armed speedboats, blew up two armed oil platforms, and damaged another frigate in one of the shortest and most successful campaigns of the postwar period. Yet even today, there is no actual name attached to the engagement....

NASA updates the UN that it has detected on its radars: "Three unusual heat spots were observed in the Bandar Abbas area. There is concern that an underground nuclear facility in the area may have been damaged."

Huge explosion of 24 shipping containers of sodium perchlorate received from China for use in Iranian missiles in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran. This chemical is more explosive than ammonium sulfate. He estimates it is about 2X the size of the Beirut Lebanon explosion. This shipment by China was illegal. Israel was aware of the shipment.

CHEYENNE — Already facing serious federal charges for allegedly carrying 18,000 rounds of ammunition through Wyoming, Ricardo Paez-Quinones, 35, dug himself into an even deeper hole on Friday. Paez-Quinones was a no-show for his bond hearing on Friday morning in U.S. District Court, leading Judge Alan Johnson to put out a bench warrant for his arrest. Johnson suspected that the topic of his bond was what led Paez-Quinones to avoid coming to court, leading him to engage “in some form of self-help.” “We can receive an explanation for that at a later time,” Johnson remarked. Paez-Quinones is an illegal immigrant...

The terrifying face of an alleged Tren de Aragua gangster was revealed on Friday after he was arrested by ICE officers in Denver, Colorado - a sanctuary city. Joel Matos-Nieto, a 23-year-old illegal Venezuelan migrant with a face full of tattoos, has been accused by ICE of being a member of TdA, a gang whose members often have very specific ink. According to pictures shared by ICE's Denver Field Office, Matos-Nieto was arrested on a street in Denver and was seen handcuffed next to an agent with the DEA, which often participates in ICE raids. Since its founding in a...

Two Mexican nationals in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas were arrested during a traffic stop in Colorado last month while transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Wednesday. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, both of Mexico, were pulled over in Canon City on March 26, the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Colorado said in a news release. SNIP It’s hard to know from the article exactly what kind of ammo they had. If “.308” is right, that’s high-powered ammo suitable for hunting with common bolt-action rifles, and semiautomatic battle rifles like the FN-FAL,...

Ten years ago, when President Barack Obama and other leaders reached a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, Saudi Arabia was dismayed.Saudi officials called it a "weak deal" that had only emboldened the kingdom's regional rival, Iran. They cheered when President Trump withdrew from the agreement a few years later.Now, as a second Trump administration negotiates with Iran on a deal that might have very similar contours to the previous one, the view from Saudi Arabia looks quite different.The kingdom's Foreign Ministry issued a statement recently saying that it hoped the talks, mediated by neighboring Oman, would enhance...

Two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado last month after authorities found them transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, federal officials have announced. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over on March 26th in Cañon City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Detectives from Fremont County stopped their white Chevrolet van after it failed to dim its headlights, didn’t signal a turn, and had a broken license plate light, according to an arrest affidavit.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gangbanger as the Trump administration has alleged. Van Hollen (D-Md.), who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador on Thursday, accused President Trump of trying to change the subject on due process concerns, while he himself attempted to shift the discussion from MS-13. “What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when asked about Abrego Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties. “The subject at hand is that he and his administration are...

Trump’s Blackrock deal is far from over. Generations of sending American jobs, tech, and manufacturing to China was equivalent to feeding wild tigers near the local kindergarten. And now jungles are full of tigers used to getting their way. I made the tiger photograph in the wilds of India. I made the video below in the wilds of Darien Gap. At an Embera village called Bajo Chiquito. Notice the Georgia Bulldogs tattoo. Maybe this guy is going to Georgia. And the man to his right. Wearing the cross. As many do. And the nice watch. After crossing through Darien Gap....

A former US Attorney who served under President Joe Biden was found dead Saturday morning at her home in Alexandria, Virginia. Jessica D. Aber, 43, stepped down on January 20 after being appointed to one of the most high-profile federal prosecutorial posts in the country by Joe Biden. She assumed the role as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2021. Alexandria police confirmed that officers responded to a call early on Saturday morning but are withholding further information pending notification of Aber's family. No cause of death has yet been released. Aber, a longtime federal prosecutor,...