Free Republic

The U.S. Navy faces a dangerous shortage of attack submarines, leaving it stretched too thin to meet global demands. While the fleet is already below its 66-boat goal, the reality is worse: about one-third of subs are non-deployable at any time due to massive maintenance backlogs and crew shortages.

Money laundering isn’t new — and neither is China’s role in it. Millennia ago, Chinese merchants developed schemes to “clean” the profits of commercial trade and avoid taxation. Today, their successors are doing much the same. Only now, they’re laundering billions through the U.S. financial system and fueling one of the deadliest fentanyl-fueled drug crises in American history. In a step in the right direction, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (known as FinCEN) issued a sweeping advisory on Aug. 28 warning that Chinese money laundering networks now represent “one of the most significant money laundering threat actors facing...

Writing for these pages recently, Rahm Emanuel, a stalwart of the Democratic Party, asked if China could be the external threat that restores internal cohesion to American politics. It’s a good question, but Dan Wang asks an even better one in “Breakneck,” his brilliant book—equal parts gripping and depressing—about “China’s quest to engineer the future.” His question, distilled to its essence, is this: Can the success of China—with its dams and bridges, highways and high-speed rail networks, high-rise cities, world-altering factories and, increasingly, top-notch tech and military prowess—arouse or alarm America into rediscovering its soul and recovering the productive mojo...

Newsdump Alert: Israeli Offensive Rolls On In Gaza City... In a previous life your host with his three thousand song collection playing it back to... "And then secondly there are those that want instant sex instead of true love The pregnancies of now 13, 14 to 17 year-old girls is now an epidemic. Don't blame the girls blame the boy too. We make it one sided all the time" Dr. Billy Graham... 37 Trillion Dollars In The Hole There Is A "Government Shutdown Deadline" coming up... Dad got a birthday card from me today I picked it up at the...

US signals rare earth quid pro quo with Myanmar junta but China has a lock on the largely rebel-controlled minesPresident Donald Trump is miffed that the US is aced-out by China in processing rare earths that are especially prized for making strategic-use magnets. Those magnets are critical to creating high-tech weaponry and equipment used by the military and aerospace industries, including for US warplanes needed to check China. China hopes to strengthen its near-monopoly over the world’s military-grade processed dysprosium, terbium and other rare earth elements by securing rebel-held mines in Southeast Asia’s war-torn Myanmar while boosting support for its...

Two wars — Ukraine and Gaza — are killing civilians, destabilizing allies, and draining American power. At their core stand Russia and Iran, two regimes that cannot survive without Beijing’s support. If America wants to end these conflicts on terms that serve U.S. interests, it must compel China to use its leverage — or face consequences. Only Donald Trump has the toughness and pragmatism to make that happen. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has leveled cities, created Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, and cost American taxpayers tens of billions in aid. Hamas’s assault on Israel and the regional...

China said on Friday (Sep 5) it would impose temporary anti-dumping duties on European Union pork imports, delivering another blow to shaky ties between the economic powerhouses as Brussels vowed to protect its producers. The two sides have navigated a challenging relationship in recent years, complicated greatly by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Chinese authorities launched the probe into European pork imports last year during scrutiny by Brussels of Beijing's state subsidies for the domestic electric vehicle industry. The investigation has "preliminarily determined that imports of relevant pork and pig by-products originating in the European Union are being dumped", a...

A U.S. Department of State (DOS) employee was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed to be working for the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).“The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top-Secret security clearance. He will spend years of his life in prison for passing classified information to individuals he believed to be Chinese government agents,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Today’s sentence serves...

The last thing you want to see out of the window during the middle of your flight is a frigate of a foreign navy firing its guns. This was unfortunately the case for the passengers on a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Queenstown, New Zealand in February. The Boeing 737 had inadvertently flown within the vicinity of three Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea, an incident that sparked controversy as Australia's military was unaware that the Chinese Navy had vessels just 300 nautical miles off the country's east coast. The audio recording of the conversation between the flight crew...

Another update from your FBI on our efforts to defend the homeland and protect the American people. Today, State Department employee Michael Charles Schena was sentenced to 48 months in prison for attempting to sell out his country. He was paid to use a covert communication device to take pictures of CLASSIFIED documents containing national defense information and then send them to individuals he believed worked for the Chinese government. Schena’s actions directly undermined U.S. national security and put Americans at risk. No amount of money is worth betraying your country, and the FBI will do EVERYTHING in our power...

A disgraced FBI official tipped off a Chinese company about a criminal investigation while Hunter Biden was pursuing lucrative deals with the CCP-linked business. The since-convicted FBI official who led counterintelligence efforts in New York leaked information to an affiliate of a Chinese company which was linked to Hunter Biden’s business efforts, according to a DOJ watchdog who concluded the leak tipped the Chinese conglomerate off about the bureau’s criminal investigation.Charles McGonigal, the former special-agent-in-charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, leaked information to “Person B” – an unnamed businessman who worked for the Chinese energy conglomerate...

Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) opened the Sept. 3 hearing, titled "There's a Bad Moon on the Rise," by warning that the United States risks losing the moon to China if NASA's Artemis program falters. The hearing centered on how America can stay ahead in the new space race, with lawmakers pressing the importance of Artemis and reaffirming the need for the Gateway space station and to maintain continuous operations in low Earth orbit (LEO).Witnesses underscored that delays, budget uncertainty, or wavering commitments could undermine both U.S. industry and international alliances, warning that uncertainty could drive partners and suppliers...

US President Donald Trump urged Europe to cease its purchases of Russian oil on a call with European leaders at the Coalition of the Willing, Fox News reported on Thursday, citing a White House official. Additionally, Trump stressed that European leaders should increase economic pressure on China "for funding Russia's war efforts," while stressing the importance of curbing financial aid to Russia. More to come...

One in three or more farms in Arkansas could be shuttered by next spring if the federal government doesn’t provide some type of supplemental assistance to farmers this fall, Agriculture Council of Arkansas President Joe Mencer told Talk Business & Politics. Commodity prices continue to plunge and as of mid-August the state’s ag sector was projected to lose $1.145 billion this season and that number has ballooned by another $300 million by the end of the month to $1.4 billion as rice prices spiraled downward to an eight-year low. And, the overall losses will almost certainly continue to rise, Mencer...

An international law enforcement operation called Operation Box Cutter has shut down a major criminal enterprise that was supplying precursor drugs that were used in the manufacture of fentanyl. FBI Director Kash Patel announced that 22 Chinese nationals, four Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and three Americans had been arrested in what Patel referred to as an "unprecedented" operation. "We're done playing whack-a-mole," Patel said during a press conference in Cincinnati. "We didn't arrest a couple of people. We charged an enterprise-wide system in mainland China to include dozens of individuals and banks and companies that are responsible for making these lethal...

There are many sources to reference, but China has cut off energy imports form the US since Trump's Trade Wars. Many in the diplomatic community could see Blinken/Biden dropped the ball on Brics but Trump also recognized the damage to USD dominated trade posed by Brics. In June 2025, China imported zero crude oil, zero liquefied natural gas (LNG), and virtually zero coal from the United States. Both oil and coal ended completely; however, China continued to honor LNG Contracs but rerouted all the LNG at a profit to Europe. One year eariler, China had been a major importer of...

The Russian and Chinese leader's creepy discussion involved fantasising about organ transplants and biotechnology in order to "live to 150". In a private conversation inadvertently captured in Beijing, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussed the possibility of achieving "immortality" through organ transplants and advanced medical procedures. The Chinese president, with whom Putin is said to be developing closer ties with, told his Russian counterpart via a translator: "Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 you are still a child." In response, Mr. Putin said: "With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted and...

Last night was supposed to be the deadline for American diplomats in Venezuela to vacate the country as ordered by dictator Nicolas Maduro. After the United States, along with Canada, several South American nations and the EU moved to declare Maduro’s presidency illegitimate, the tyrant had basically cut off relations with America. The White House refused to obey the order and everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see what would happen next. But at the last minute, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry sent out a “never mind” announcement and said the decision was on hold for thirty days. But that doesn’t...

For what seems like forever, conservatives have been calling out the train wreck that is the American educational system. Instead of teaching things that will help students become responsible, productive citizens, the agenda is all woke, and Donald Trump sucks. It is a good guess that we have at least two generations of budding young leftists who have been taught literally nothing about America, its friends, and enemies, and most importantly, the true difference between capitalism and communism, and what both systems of government really offer their citizens. Recently, that indoctrination was on full display. This is one kid. There...

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been overheard discussing organ transplants as a means of prolonging life on the sidelines of a military parade in Beijing. Putin suggested even eternal life could be achievable as a result of innovations in biotechnology, according to a translation of remarks caught on a hot mic. -snip- The exchange was relayed by a Mandarin translator for Putin and a Russian translator for Xi, and has been translated into English by the BBC. "In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days...