Free Republic

The Russian Communist Party has announced it will form a coalition government with the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) in three regions where Kremlin-backed candidates suffered rare gubernatorial election defeats over the past week. Incumbents from the ruling party in the Far East Khabarovsk region and central Russia’s Vladimir region lost gubernatorial runoffs to LDPR on Sunday. Candidates from the Communist Party and A Just Russia will compete for the governor’s seat in the Siberian republic of Khakasia on Oct. 7 after its governor’s withdrawal from the race. “We will now form a coalition government in Khabarovsk, Vladimir and Khakasia,”...

About 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. last year, making them the second largest group of foreign students in the U.S., after people from India. “The chilling effect on Chinese students choosing the United States as their preferred place to go for study will be enormous,” said Rosie Levine, executive director of the US-China Education Trust, a nonprofit education group. “There are some 99 million Communist Party members in China, so depending on how they enforce this, it could catch up probably every Chinese student interested in coming to the United States who could have some Communist Party connection...

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a high-profile meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, in Budapest. Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, has called Orbán his “comrade in this fight for the ideas of freedom,” and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is Orbán’s “Christian sister.” Last year, Donald Trump hosted the Hungarian leader three times at Mar-a-Lago. How did this one country in Europe become a beacon for right-wing ideas—and leaders—around the world? Once upon a time, Hungary was the poster child of “regime change”—the peaceful transition from communism to democracy. The process was indeed peaceful. But was it...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions the Trump administration is implementing against foreign authorities who it says are "complicit" in censoring Americans. "For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights," Rubio wrote on X. "Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority." Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of...

BERLIN (AP) — Members of Germany's biggest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader, the party said Friday. Merz's election with a strong mandate appears to mark at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Making his third run for the CDU's top post, he took 62.1% support in a ballot of the party's membership to beat two centrist contenders. A party convention next month will have to sign off officially on the membership vote, but that should only be a formality. Armin Laschet,...

Russia said on Sunday that Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in the country’s capital Moscow on an official visit, as it is set to host ceremonial events marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory in World War II next week. A statement by the Kremlin said that Xi will pay an official visit to Moscow between May 7-10, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, where he will take part in Victory Day events in the country’s capital.

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

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) - For generations, leftist activists have fought the Institutional Revolutionary Party in the southern state of Guerrero through the ballot box and the rifle. After skirmishes, massacres and hundreds of martyrs, they were celebrating victory Monday with dancing and the honking of horns in the state's famous resort, Acapulco. Official state election results showed former Acapulco Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca with a stunning victory, 55 to 42 percent, over the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has run Guerrero for 76 years. "After nearly 50 years of social struggle, we have achieved the miracle of the vote," said...

Congressional Republicans are turning up the heat on Chinese influence in the U.S. with new legislation aimed at shutting down Chinese "police stations" operating across the country. These covert outposts, reportedly set up by the Chinese Communist Party, are part of a more significant effort to monitor and intimidate Chinese nationals and dissidents living in the U.S. The proposed bill seeks to counter these foreign operations, which many lawmakers consider a serious threat to American sovereignty and national security. The move underscores growing concerns over China's expanding reach on U.S. soil and its efforts to interfere in American affairs. This...

Last week we went to Somalia as American tourists. We stayed only a night, but that was plenty of time to wander unescorted through the local market, explore town in a battered Toyota station wagon, and even head out into the desert to admire some ancient cave paintings. It might seem an odd choice of vacation spot, given that Somalia, so long synonymous with "failed state," appears to be growing ever more dangerous. The insurgency against the American-backed Ethiopian occupation persists, and just last week it was reported that a particularly radical group has launched a campaign to murder relief...

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — In one week’s time, Gov. Ned Lamont went from vetoing nearly $3 million in funding for nonprofit organizations to signing a revised bill that provided the exact same funding – only by a slightly different mechanism.The $3 million in funding that the governor vetoed and then ultimately signed will go to an array of nonprofit organizations including Planned Parenthood, various LGBTQ+ groups around the state and agencies providing services for immigrants and refugees.

DANA THOMPSON, A FORMER LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF COUNSEL TO REP. MAXINE WATERS, REGISTERED AS A LOBBYIST ON BEHALF A HOST OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY-LINKED ENTITIES, THE NATIONAL PULSE CAN REVEAL. Thompson, who also served as Chief of Staff for Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, was a former Principal at lobbying behemoth Podesta Group before co-founding Fulcrum Public Affairs, the “only 100% Black and Latinx-owned government relations firm in Washington, DC.” While at the Podesta Group, the project of Democratic heavyweights John and Tony Podesta, Thompson registered to lobby on behalf of three Chinese Communist Party-linked entities: a controversial telecommunications...

A federal judge on Wednesday agreed with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's statement that pro-lifers “have no place” in New York.The judge then moved to make that recommendation a legal reality.The Washington Examiner reported that a federal judge struck down a Trump administration rule that would have allowed for healthcare workers to refuse to provide or refer to sterilizations, abortions, and medically assisted suicide if doing so violated their faith.

"There is something called a secret golden share that every Chinese company has to issue to the CCP leadership. That's Xi [Jinping] himself, and it turns out that ByteDance can't negotiate anything unless he's made a decision," the O'Leary Ventures Chairman told "Mornings with Maria" guest host Cheryl Casone. "The secret share is a veto power over all other shareholders," he explained. "They do not have any rights once the secret share has been issued, so now we're dealing with what to do with the secret share, because until she decides what's going to happen, it doesn't matter what shareholders...

The government of Brazil stopped issuing work visas for Chinese electric carmaker BYD after local authorities rescued 163 Chinese nationals working in conditions “analogous to slavery” at a BYD factory under construction in the city of Camaçari, Bahia, Reuters reported Friday. BYD, a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is building the plant at a location once occupied by American carmaker Ford, which sold the location to the local Bahia government in 2023 after Ford ceased all operations in Brazil in 2021. Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on December 23 that construction work on BYD’s factory in...

The far-left New York Daily News reported that a woman died after she mysteriously caught fire on a Brooklyn subway car. The headline is a straight-up lie: “Woman dies after she catches fire in Brooklyn subway car; NYPD suspects homicide.”The Daily News deleted the tweet, but here’s a screen cap: Screen shot of Daily News BS spin. The police made very clear that a suspect currently in custody is believed to have deliberately lit a sleeping woman’s clothes on fire and then sat there to watch her burn … alive.So… She didn’t “catch fire.” The only way to “catch fire”...

Indonesia seize luxury yacht Equanimity sought in 1MDB probe: Police JAKARTA (REUTERS) - Indonesia on Wednesday (Feb 28) seized a luxury yacht on the island of Bali sought by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation linked to Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). “We have been inspecting the crew since yesterday and now we are taking action since we have received approval from the court to seize the boat,” Agung Setya, director of economic and special crimes at the Indonesia’s criminal investigation bureau, told Metro TV. Television footage in Indonesia...

As Democrats are politically targeting former President Donald Trump for allegedly paying hush money during the 2016 presidential election, President Obama's "illegal foreign influence operation" is flying under the radar. Earlier this week, actor Leonardo DiCaprio testified in federal court that Malaysian financier Jho Low revealed his plans to donate up to $30 million to help Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. "It was a causal conversation about what party he was in support of; I told him what party I was in support of. And he told me that he, or he and a group, were going to make a significant...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel appeared in court on Thursday and told reporters he is innocent of criminal charges that he conspired to funnel foreign funds into Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential re-election, while also plugging his upcoming album.... ...Last week, the Justice Department unsealed charges against Michel and Low Taek Jho, a wealthy Malaysian businessman with a tabloid partying reputation known as “Jho Low,” alleging they conspired to steer foreign campaign contributions into Obama’s 2012 campaign. It is a crime for foreign nationals to make political contributions in U.S. federal, state or local elections. Federal prosecutors...