Free Republic

A man who federal authorities believe was driving from Northern California to Washington, D.C. to kill several notable figures was instead arrested in Iowa. According to the criminal complaint from the United States District Court’s Southern District of Iowa, Kuachua Xiong was arrested along Interstate 80 in Cass County on Dec. 21. The complaint states a Cass County deputy saw Xiong driving erratically heading east on I-80 before pulling him over. Xiong told authorities his journey through Iowa started near Sacramento, California and was supposed to end in the nation’s capital. When he was pulled over, Xiong allegedly told the...

Although Peng Shuai’s story has sex and sports, making it media fodder, a more significant person vanished from view in 2018—and no one seems to care. Much media coverage has been devoted to Peng Shuai, a Chinese women’s tennis player, whom her Communist Chinese government apparently “disappeared.” However, the head of Interpol disappeared too, and that deserves more attention. Because Peng was an international figure and used social media to claim a “high-ranking government official” in China sexually assaulted her, the media was eager to cover her disappearance—mostly because of the political popularity and sensitivity to the #MeToo movement. After...

The Biden admin’s announcement that they will quadruple at-home rapid testing by December is very welcome. We need a moonshot for testing, as we did with vaccines. There should be enough #covid19 tests for every American to get tested twice a week. And testing should be free.

A top Chinese nuclear power expert and also a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official committed suicide for unknown reasons in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province, based on a variety of outlet reports.On June 17, Zhang Zhijian, male, 58, professor of nuclear power at the Harbin Engineering University (HEU), jumped off of an office building and killed himself, according to an official notice released by his employer. The announcement said local police declared they had ruled out the likelihood of murder after investigating the scene. However, it did not mention any possible cause of death.Zhang had two other conspicuous titles before...

A massive Chinese rocket is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry to Earth this week — and experts have no clue yet where its remnants will land. The roughly 100-foot-tall core of the Long March 5B rocket launched the 22.5-ton “Heavenly Harmony” unmanned Tianhe space station module from Wenchang in Hainan province on Thursday, the Guardian reported. Tianhe soon separated from the launcher and entered its planned initial orbit — but the core stage is likely to make an uncontrolled re-entry amid the thickening atmosphere, SpaceNews reported. “It’s potentially not good,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at...

On April 26, Xinhua, the mouthpiece of the communist regime, published an article to commemorate a Chinese carrier-based J-15 fighter jet pilot, who died in an accident as a result of his jet’s electronic control system malfunctioning during a landing; the article inadvertently revealed the weakness of the carrier’s combat capabilities. There have always been doubts about the true capability of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aircraft carriers and their carrier-based J-15 pilot training. This unprecedented report appears more of an attempt to restore public confidence, as the CCP’s media rarely publicizes such accidents involving the military. In fact, the...

Wang reportedly admitted having thrown six coins wrapped in red paper inside the plane's engine. A picture of the coins has now been shared online. The incident reportedly took place at an airport in Weifang. A male passenger, identified with the last name Wang, was scheduled to fly from Weifang to Haiku on a Beibu Gulf Airlines flight GX8814 when he threw a handful of coins into the engine. Fortunately, the staff was soon alerted about the coins in the engine after workers found coins on the ground during the pre-takeoff inspection. The staff managed to recover all the coins...

LOS ANGELES - An armed man was arrested overnight for allegedly impersonating a National Guard member. As FOX 11 first reported, authorities told us 31-year-old Gregory Wong was taken into custody on assault weapon charges after being found with a cache of weapons. The Los Angeles Police Department said Wong was arrested near the intersection of E. 1st Street and N. Main Street in downtown Los Angeles around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Several protests over the death of George Floyd have been held in the area. Sources told FOX 11 investigative reporter Bill Melugin that Wong got dropped off by an...

Kim Jong Un is rumored to be dead, according to a Hong Kong broadcast network, while a Japanese magazine is reporting that North Korea’s rocket man is in a “vegetative state” after he underwent heart surgery earlier this month.

Key Points Social workers at a New York City hospital battling the coronavirus outbreak say the hospital dragged its feet at taking precautions to protect staff there from getting infected. “Last week they wouldn’t let us wear masks and told us [the coronavirus] wasn’t spread on surfaces or clothes,” one of those social workers at NYU Langone Health told CNBC. New York City is the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Social workers at a New York City hospital battling the coronavirus outbreak say the hospital dragged its feet at taking precautions to protect them from getting...

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won a second term by a landslide in the island’s presidential election on Jan. 11, in a victory seen as a rejection of Chinese regime encroachment. Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won by a margin of around 20 percent—by more than 2.6 million votes—against her main opponent, Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomingtang (KMT) party. Supporters of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen celebrate the preliminary results at a rally outside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan Jan. 11, 2020. (Reuters/Tyrone Siu)The election is widely viewed as a referendum on whether Taiwan should pursue...

On Tuesday evening, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang celebrated the opening of his office in Manchester, New Hampshire, by squirting whipped cream into supporters’ mouths. The “uncomfortable” interaction was captured on video by ABC News reporter Christopher Donato. As shown in the video below, Mr. Yang squirts the cream into one kneeling young man’s mouth and then celebrates by shaking the bottle and joking, “That’s a full-service presidential candidate!” And he wasn’t done there, to the obvious displeasure of who appears to be the candidate’s campaign manager Zach Graumann. The businessman then squirts more cream into another kneeling male supporter’s...

China on Thursday demanded President Donald Trump veto legislation aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong and renewed a threat to take “strong countermeasures” if the bills become law. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act undermined both China’s interests and those of the U.S. in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. “We urge the U.S. to grasp the situation, stop its wrongdoing before it's too late, prevent this act from becoming law (and) immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs,” Geng said at a daily news briefing. “If the...

It's no secret in Hong Kong that I was with my boss (Jimmy Lai, the owner of Apple Daily) and a few others recently walking the halls of government in Washington D.C. Saw Speaker Pelosi and other leaders in the House and Senate. Visited the State Department. Met some folks from administration, the think tanks, and of course always see the very switched on human rights groups. This week I shot down to D.C. and saw a few folks in a follow-up. All staffs and officials. Working level folks have best info. Both trips to D.C. were in regard to...

A man has been arrested over the attack on lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a hate figure for the anti-government movement who was expected to undergo surgery on Wednesday for a knife wound to his chest. Shocking footage has revealed the moment a man lunged at the pro-establishment politician with a sharp instrument during an election campaign event in Tuen Mun on Wednesday morning.

Protesters, Politician Attacked in Hong Kong Demonstrations By VOA News November 3, 2019 A pro-democracy politician and four other people were injured when a knife-wielding man attacked protesters in Hong Kong Sunday. The assailant slashed and stabbed people at Cityplaza mall, one of several shopping centers where protesters had gathered to demand government reforms for the 22nd straight weekend. Local media reported the attacker told his victims that Hong Kong belongs to China. Four men and one woman were taken to hospitals, where two were in critical condition. Among the injured was politician Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, who had part of...

Blood was spilled in Hong Kong on Sunday evening in a fight over political differences, leaving six injured including a district councillor who had part of his ear bitten off. Four people were injured by a knife-wielding man – who was in turn savaged by an angry crowd – after he was said to have argued over political issues outside a shopping mall in Tai Koo. Another man who tried to protect the suspected attacker, who was later arrested, was also injured.

Taylor Swift will be heading to the Middle Kingdom to kick off the biggest shopping event in the world next month. The 29 year old singer has been confirmed to perform at Alibaba’s 11.11 Countdown Gala at Shanghai's Mercedes-Benz Arena on November 10, per Alizila. Swift will be joined by a number of Chinese performers such as G.E.M., Hua Chenyu, Kana Hanazawa, Ju Jingyi, Li Ronghao, Luo Yunxi, Jackson Yee, Zhang Jie and Zhang Yixing. The news of Swift's confirmation comes as the Chinese government has come under fire over the country banning South Park following an episode that was...

HOUSTON -- A group of 30 fans at the Houston Rockets' season opener against Milwaukee held signs and wore shirts in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong on Thursday night. Houston general manager Daryl Morey angered the Chinese government with a since-deleted tweet in support of the protesters earlier this month. Tuesday's opening-night games were not televised in China in the wake of Morey's tweet, which caused tension between the NBA and Chinese officials.

A Hong Kong protest-themed cake has been disqualified from a British cake decorating competition, igniting a row about 'political censorship'. The cafe behind the cake claim it was disqualified because of complaints from Chinese competitors, although the organisers insist it was due to one element being 'oversized'.