Free Republic

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations. Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million. The arrest was carried...

A new assessment from the FBI suggests that some Venezuelan government officials are ‘likely facilitating’ members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua from Venezuela to the United States to undermine public safety in the U.S. Immediately after taking office, President Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in his executive order, Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The executive order stated: Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal...

An alleged sushi-slinging spy is in ICE custody. Ming Xi Zhang, known as “Sushi John,” the 61-year-old owner of Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, NJ, was arrested March 24 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark. Zhang was convicted in April 2024 of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and sentenced to three years’ probation. In May 2021, he pleaded guilty to having served as an agent of China in 2016 without notifying the U.S. Attorney General. ICE says he legally entered the U.S. in 2000 but later “violated the terms of his lawful admission.”...

Billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader Aga Khan has died at the age of 88, his charity the Aga Khan Development Network has announced. Prince Karim Aga Khan was the 49th hereditary imam of the Ismaili Muslims, who trace his lineage directly to the Prophet Muhammad. He "passed away peacefully" in Lisbon, Portugal, surrounded by his family, his charity said in a statement on social media. Born in Switzerland, he had British citizenship and lived in a chateau in France. ..... The Aga Khan's charities ran hundreds of hospitals, educational and cultural projects, largely in the developing world. He enjoyed a...

Liberty Daily posted a Climate Depot article about a congressional report in 2018 detailing “Russian attempts to influence” and fund environmental groups to oppose fracking in Europe and the U.S. The reason is obvious since Russia relies on oil and gas exports for its very survival. There is more to this story. George Soros gives to the same groups surreptitiously. We reported this in 2018 after The Daily Signal summarized the involvement of Russia and George Soros, who now has operatives employed in the White House. Russia funneled money to a corporation that funds radical environmental groups that are vehemently...

For years, world leaders have accused Russia of funding environmental groups in Europe to steer nations away from energy independence and strengthen Russia’s iron grip over the continent. As nations across the globe begin shunning Russian oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. leaders are also questioning how deep Russia’s ties go in the environmental community. "The Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe because they sic them on the energy projects that aren’t Russian," James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign...

The Panama Canal is considered a VITAL National Asset for the United States, due to its critical role to America’s Economy and National Security. A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. Commerce, and rapid deployment of the Navy, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and drastically cuts shipping times to U.S. ports. The United States is the Number One user of the Canal, with over 70 percent of all transits heading to, or from, U.S. ports. Considered one of the Wonders of the Modern World, the Panama Canal opened for business 110 years ago, and was built at HUGE...

Video at link.French free diver Guillaume Nery jumped into the largest sinkhole on Earth with no scuba gear, no snorkel, no gear of any sort. Just a pair of massive, rock hard cojones. "Dean's Blue Hole" is a 663-ft deep sinkhole in the Bahamas. A couple helpful little factoids to aid you in understanding the gravitas of Guillaume's dive. The average human being can hold their breath for 45 seconds - or a minute if they have an exceptionally healthy set of lungs. After that, your body essentially starts to suffocate, as cells in your organs shut down from lack...

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday night nominated former Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker for U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas. Trump has spent the past six weeks since he was elected back to the White House by filling out his Cabinet and other key roles in his administration. Other recent ambassador picks include Kimberly Guilfoyle for ambassador to Greece, and former ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson for ambassador to Mexico. The former president praised Walker as a man who has spent decades as an ambassador to children, military servicemembers, and athletes around the world. Walker played as a running...

DARIEN GAP, Panama—The grind of heavy machinery breaks the silence of the Darién jungle, where the Pan American Highway ends at Yaviza in Panama. Construction workers have cleared towering trees to make way for a steel and concrete bridge mighty enough to withstand flooding from the Chucunaque River. An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa told The Epoch Times the construction project will cut 4 miles into the Darién jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River. That would leave some 55 miles to finish the Pan American Highway, also known...

MIAMI — The search for a 66-year-old woman who fell from a Taylor Swift-themed cruise on Tuesday night has been suspended, the U.S. Coast Guard has announced. According to the USCG, the woman traveling on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas ship that left from Miami Monday went overboard the next night just before 10 p.m. At the time, the ship was about 17 miles north of Nassau, Bahamas.

As a scorching cover story in BusinessWeek reveals, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman didn't just raise a criminal, but actively took part in running FTX and enjoying the spoils of the fraud. They regularly turned up in the company's offices and were included on important emails, and, most critically, flexed their prestige to open doors in Silicon Valley and Democratic power circles for their son. Meanwhile, these two advocates for the poor helped themselves to a $16 million luxury villa in the Bahamas and $10 million in cash—paid for by FTX customers. ronically, Bankman-Fried reportedly plans to invoke an "advice...

A​ disturbance in the Atlantic continues to be watched for possible formation into a tropical storm, but there are multiple scenarios in play when it comes to the track of this system as it nears the Bahamas and the southeastern United States by this weekend. W​here is the disturbance now? The tropical wave that might eventually grow into a tropical depression or storm is located near the Leeward Islands, or near the "X" in the graphic below, according to the National Hurricane Center. It's been battling an abundance of dry air for days but is now showing some signs of...

A massive wave of Haitians is reportedly heading toward Florida, with rumors suggesting a staggering 300,000 are on their way. Haiti, as you might have heard, is currently under the rule of a gang leader nicknamed “Barbecue.” And before you think it’s because of his amazing grill skills, it’s actually due to his penchant for burning people alive. So, it’s no surprise that we’re on the cusp of yet another massive wave of migrants flooding over. Among them, it’s likely we’ll find a colorful assortment of gang lords, all keen to avoid becoming the main course at “Barbecue’s” next feast....

Fani Willis, currently starring as Javert in the Fulton County dinner-theatre production of Les Magarables, took the stand yesterday. It was an arresting turn: FANI WILLIS: "Where's Belize? What continent? I'm not being funny. I don't know. I've been to Belize with him. I've been to The Bahamas with him. I've been to Aruba with him. Don't embarrass me. I'm not sure what continents those are on." pic.twitter.com/Cs1sGFT5je — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 15, 2024 Well, you can't really blame someone in Georgia for not knowing the Bahamas are in Antarctica. On the other hand, Florida is a contiguous state......

A Bahamas resort where two Kentucky mothers claim they were drugged and raped by two employees said that the women’s account of what happened does not match its security footage. Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson said they were assaulted in broad daylight by staffers at Pirate’s Cove while relaxing on the beach while their Carnival Cruise ship was docked on the Grand Island in the Bahamas. The longtime friends said they were offered a drink special by an employee, but after just 15 minutes, began to feel incredibly intoxicated. They were ushered by a staff member into a secluded area...

Two moms from Kentucky are speaking out after they were drugged and raped in the Bahamas after the US issued a travel warning for the vacation hotspot. Longtime friends Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson said their first kid-free vacation ended with a traumatic, broad-daylight assault when they decided to go to the beach after the Carnival cruise ship they were on docked at the island country. Now they’re warning other women. The moms were relaxing on a Grand Bahama beach when a resort staffer offered them a two-for-one drink deal ... they soon felt like the drinks were much stronger...

The U.S. government has raised its travel alert level for Jamaica amid a spate of murders in the Caribbean nation, urging Americans to reconsider visiting the island "due to crime and [unreliable] medical services." The State Department announced the change, to its Level 3 travel advisory, for Jamaica just a few days after it issued a warning about the Bahamas, which remained at a Level 2 advisory, urging Americans to "exercise increased caution," despite a series of murders there.

The deputy prime minister of The Bahamas has praised 2023 as a 'banner year for tourism' after the US embassy advised Americans visiting the country to be cautious. Chester Cooper spoke at an event in Tallahassee, Florida organized by the Florida Federation of Alpha Chapters in which he promoted The Bahamas to the fraternity group. 'The year 2023 was a banner year in tourism that brought us an unprecedented 8 million plus in visitor arrivals,' he proudly stated on Thursday. It came just a day after the US Embassy in Nassau issued a security and advisory warning to tourists about...

Think twice about a tropical getaway to the Caribbean this winter. The U.S. embassy in the Bahamas has released a security warning and travel advisory that the island nation is currently unsafe for tourists amidst 18 murders — “primarily” motivated by gang violence — in January alone. Safety concerns have reached a point of severity where U.S. officials say people shouldn’t even try to “physically resist” being robbed. “Murders have occurred at all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” the embassy wrote in a release, also recommending the use of “extreme caution” on the eastern side of the...