Free Republic

Kevin O'Leary describes the situation with China succinctly. Video transcript with timestamps (courtesy of OpenAI 4o): [0:00] So nobody's talking—like nobody's talking about China like you are. Why? [0:05] Because I've lived it. I've lived it for almost a quarter of a century. Um, the way it works—let me be very specific so it's not just noise, okay? Let's say you have a great innovation here in America. Somebody comes along and creates a product that reduces the cost of maintaining a hotel bathtub or sink by 30%. A company like Drain Wig. You know, it's just a very simple...

Global leaders, including Trump and Putin, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, expressing condolences and solidarity with India against terrorism. US President Donald Trump, Russia's Vladimir Putin and other world leaders condemned the terrorist attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday and extended unstinting support over the terror strike that left 26 tourists dead. The attack took place in Baisaran meadow, around five kilometers from Jammu and Kashmir' resort town of Pahalgam. Donald Trump said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the “incredible people of India, have full support” of the US and deepest sympathies. Track Pahalgam terror...

BRICS member China has unveiled the world’s first Gold ATM that melts, tests, and converts gold into instant bank transfers. The ATM has already witnessed long queues of people trying to sell off their generational gold. Users need to book an appointment to use it, and according to early reports, appointment slots are full until as late as May. The Gold ATM is operated by China’s Kinghood Group and is installed at a mall in Shanghai. The machine weighs, checks the quality, and analyses the Gold before dispensing the money equivalent to the price that was put in. The ATM...

Now that Pat Gelsinger is no longer occupying the corner office at embattled chipmaker Intel (INTC), he can acknowledge one thing about the semiconductor industry.Nvidia (NVDA) has a wide, wide lead over its rivals on the tech front..."They have built meaningful moats around their franchise," he added.Gelsinger led aggressive efforts to turn around Intel for more than three years. He slashed thousands of jobs, improved costs, secured CHIPS Act funding, built chip foundries, and promised fast AI chips that could compete with Nvidia and AMD (AMD).He was fired in early December amid missed financial targets, lack of progress on the...

China has warned countries against striking a broader economic deal with the United States at its expense, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiraling trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. The Asian country respects all parties resolving economic and trade differences with the United States through consultation on an equal footing, but it will firmly oppose any party striking a deal at China’s expense, its Commerce Ministry said. Chinese officials “will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner” if any country sought such deals, a ministry spokesperson said, addressing a news report that the Trump Administration was...

Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2021 campaign received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraiser who is listed by a Chinese intelligence agency as an official, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered. Gary Yu, the founder of Boston International Media Consulting, helped raise over $300,000 for Wu with the help of a Chinese civic association he leads. However, Yu — whose Chinese name is Yu Guoliang — is listed as an official by an agency of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), and also operates as a recruiter...

President Donald Trump's love of gold has extended from the inside of Trump Tower to the decor of the White House... to a new island in the Pacific? The president has been offered the island of Bougainville — complete with its large gold mine — as the 'deal of the century'. Currently part of Papua New Guinea, Bougainville voted overwhelmingly for independence in a 2019 referendum — but the result wasn't legally binding. However, Bougainville's president, former rebel commander Ishmael Toroama, remains undeterred. 'Bougainville is for independence. It is only a matter of time,' he told The World in October,...

Dubai -- US airstrikes targeting an oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 74 people and wounded 171 others, the group said Friday, marking the single-deadliest known attack under President Donald Trump’s new campaign targeting the rebels. Assessing the toll of Trump’s campaign, which began March 15, has been incredibly difficult as the US military’s Central Command so far has not released any information on the campaign, its specific targets and how many people have been killed. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes, many of which likely have...

Yesterday’s New York Times story on Charles W. Freeman’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration for a top intelligence post was yet another instance of the paper trying to distance Obama from what could have been a disastrous personnel decision. Freeman, who was tapped to head the National Intelligence Council (which produces the National Intelligence Estimates that are vital to policy making), is not only rabidly anti-Israel, but has ties to hostile foreign powers that go way beyond questionable. The Times claimed, “When Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, announced that he would install Charles W. Freeman,...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken rolled out the red carpet Friday for Liu Jianchao, China’s leading envoy — and the architect of its global scheme to kidnap and silence anti-Communist dissidents. Liu’s “Operation Foxhunt” included setting up Chinese “police stations” including in New York, to find and extort dissidents. His trip to the US was capped by the reception at the State Department by Blinken on Friday morning, the day after he met President Biden’s deputy national security adviser Jon Finer. It had also included a visit to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan, a reception with a...

McMahon and his accomplice Zhu Yong conducted surveillance to harass and intimidate Americans on behalf of China

The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek is allegedly syphoning American user data to China’s communist government, according to a new congressional report. Released on Wednesday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the 16-page analysis contends that the China-based AI firm “collects detailed user data, which it transmits via backend infrastructure that is connected to China Mobile.” A state-owned telecommunications giant, China Mobile was flagged by the Pentagon earlier this year for having ties to Beijing’s military. In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibited the firm from operating within the U.S. over concerns that...

If there is a single moment in time in which the fate of Western civilization was decided, it is the battle of Marathon, 490 BC. The Persians under their king Darius landed in Greece, only 26 miles from Athens itself. A vastly outnumbered Greek force marched out to meet them. The Persians had already conquered huge swathes of the Middle East and South Asia. A relative handful of quarrelsome Greeks seemed unlikely to pose much of a challenge to them. But they were. When the day was done, the Persians were vanquished. The idea of Persian invincibility was destroyed forever....

Lusaka, Zambia (CNN)The trail of blood outside the warehouse door was the only immediate sign that a murder had taken place. But CCTV footage seized by police, and seen by CNN, revealed a brutal afternoon of carnage. At midday on Sunday, May 24, three Zambian attackers with iron bars entered the grounds of a Chinese-owned textile warehouse in Lusaka. Police said they were pretending to be potential customers. But the trio did not want to do business. Over the next 17 minutes, the CCTV footage shows, they beat two men and one woman to death in the courtyard, before dragging...

Ndola is one of the most prominent towns in Zambia's Copperbelt province. Today, the numerous copper mines in the region provide the region's wealth. But in the past, a darker industry spurred the settlement. Still standing near the center of town, the Slave Tree was the central location where Swahili slave traders met to discuss their gruesome transactions. Under its shade, Swahili traders such as Chipembere, Mwalabu, and Chiwala held councils of war and sold enslaved people to the Mambundu from Angola. Much of central and southern Africa, including modern-day Zambia, was crisscrossed by slave traders transporting human captives...

KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Little about Kolwezi, a small city in southern Democratic Republic of Congo, hints at its global importance. Nondescript and ringed by slag heaps, pits and quarry lakes, the city is home to some of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world. Now, Kolwezi is at the center of U.S.-Chinese competition over critical minerals. Earlier this year, mining firms began shipping ore along a U.S.-backed railway that terminates in Angola's Atlantic port of Lobito. A massive infrastructure project is focused on this rail line -- which is viewed as a bid to counter...

President Joe Biden on his visit to sub-Saharan Africa pledged another $600 million for a cross-continent rail corridor project Wednesday, telling regional leaders that “Africa has been left behind for much too long. But not anymore. Africa is the future.” Biden used the third and final day of his visit to Angola to showcase the Lobito Corridor railway, where the U.S. and allies are investing heavily to refurbish 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of train lines in Zambia, Congo and Angola. The project aims to advance the U.S. presence in a region rich in cobalt, copper and other critical minerals used...

China expanding African arms sales By Andrei Chang Hong Kong, China — Increasing quantities of China-made military equipment have been finding their way to Africa, traded for oil, mineral resources and even fishing rights. Zambia has used its copper resources to pay China in a number of military deals, for instance, and Kenya has been negotiating with China to trade fishing rights for arms. Among the most popular Chinese military exports to Africa are the J-7, K-8 and Y-12 aircraft, which are relatively inexpensive and easy to operate. China sees those countries already armed with the K-8 and J-7 aircraft...

Mr Li is the face of the world's fastest growing power, China. He clinches oil deals, builds hospitals and motorways, sells merchandise, takes over companies and lays oil pipelines. Over the next few months, as part of the series Looking for Mr Li, four journalists from Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Dutch broadcaster VPRO will be reporting on the upside and the downside of globalisation, with China's expansion being the common theme in all the pieces. This report is the last to come from Zambia. The iron gates to the Chinese NFC-A company's industrial estate in Zambia's Copper Belt are shut...

Zambia Hit by Nationwide Power Blackout Monday January 21, 2008 10:31 PM By JOSEPH J. SCHATZ Associated Press Writer LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) - Zambia was plunged into darkness Monday night in what appeared to be the second nationwide power outage in three days. The electricity network went down at about 7:30 p.m. and was restored about four hours later. There was no immediate explanation for the blackout. On Saturday, Zambia was without electricity for about eight hours, leaving more than 300 miners temporarily trapped underground in the country's Copperbelt province. It was not immediately known if any miners had been...