Free Republic

Switzerland agreed to buy F-35 jet fighters to park on a remote runway. Then the U.S. zeroed in on the Wangs, who owned the rustic hotel next door. UNTERBACH, — The Hotel Rössli, a century-old lodge in this Alpine valley village, enjoys a spectacular view . ... But it is the view from the back that caught the attention of American intelligence agencies. About 100 yards from the rear of the rustic, wood-paneled inn .. cuts the runway where the Swiss military had agreed to base several F-35s, the world’s most advanced jet fighter. The airstrip, only partly fenced, is...

Indiana University has faced criticism after abruptly firing Professor XiaoFeng Wang on the same day FBI agents executed search warrants at his home. The university also removed the couple’s online profiles, causing concern among academics regarding their due process. Federal authorities have confirmed the investigation is ongoing. Wang has brought approximately $23 million in federal grants to the university. However, Wang was barred from his office and denied access to university resources prior to his dismissal. Veracity IIR president Doug Kouns said, “He’s right there on the cutting edge of this kind of research as far as data privacy, cybersecurity...

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 127 pages of records from the Georgia Institute of Technology of communications among four individuals. These records reveal that the individuals, who are mentioned in the Durham probe indictment of Michael Sussmann, worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2016-2021. The documents also suggest the group was interested in targeting then-Trump campaign adviser Steve Bannon. Judicial Watch obtained the records through an October 13, 2021, Georgia Open Records Act request for records of communication among Rodney Joffe, April Lorenzen, David Dagon, and Manos Antonakakis. According to The New York Times:...

Have you traced your family tree? The origin of some of the most popular last names can reveal a lot about a family’s history. Some surnames say a lot about a family’s history without any further explanation — consider Schwarzenegger, Obama, or even Boyardee. But even common last names can hold a lot of significance and provide a glimpse into someone’s heritage. Smith — the most common last name in the United States — is shared by more than 2 million Americans, yet it holds an etymological clue to understanding how those people might connect to their ancestors. Let’s look...

Hunter Biden received wires that originated in Beijing for more than $250,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019 — wires that listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address for the funds, Fox News Digital has learned from a congressional committee. The first wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated July 26, 2019, was for $10,000 from an individual named Ms. Wang Xin. There is a Ms. Wang Xin listed on the website for BHR Partners. It is unclear if the wire came from that Wang Xin. The second wire transfer sent to Hunter...

This is a very crucial moment in history and a man like this does not appear to have the character and integrity to do one of the most important jobs in the world.”... enna Wang, 58, told The Daily Mail she had a secret fling she had with Democrat VP candidate Gov. Tim Walz when he taught in China. Walz and Wang had to keep their fling a secret because her father, CCP official Bin Hul, would have disowned her for being with a Westerner. Wang came forward with the story because of all the lies that have surfaced since...

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese American scholar was convicted Tuesday of U.S. charges of using his reputation as a pro-democracy activist to gather information on dissidents and feed it to his homeland’s government... Prosecutors said that at the behest of China’s main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, Wang lived a double life for over a decade. He held himself out as a critic of the Chinese government so that he could build rapport with people who actually opposed it, then betrayed their trust by telling Beijing what they said and planned, prosecutors said.... Instead of sending the...

Last Monday I pointed out that China’s foreign minister Qin Gang had suddenly vanished and hadn’t been seen in three weeks. Officially, he was said to be ill but unofficially there rumors that he’d done something potentially embarrassing to the party. Today, Qin was officially removed from his post and replaced, once again suggesting that whatever led to his disappearance was seen as a career-ending mistake.Mr. Qin was abruptly removed as foreign minister on Tuesday after having disappeared from public view for 30 days. The move ended the career of a diplomat who had leaped to the top as one...

Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang said China is directing the 'full power' of its industries toward AI ... Chinese government is spending three times as much as the U.S. government is to become the world’s undisputed AI leader. "The country that is able to most rapidly and effectively integrate new technology into warfighting wins. If we don’t win on AI, we risk ceding global influence, technology leadership and democracy to strategic adversaries like China," Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "The Chinese Communist Party deeply understands the potential for AI...

Washington — A California man who prosecutors described as "one of the most violent defendants on January 6, 2021" was sentenced to 151 months — about 12 ½ years — in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to violent and obstructive conduct during the Capitol riot. Daniel "DJ" Rodriguez admitted as part of a plea agreement in February that he attacked former Washington, D.C. police officer Michael Fanone with a taser, causing him to lose consciousness, and that he worked to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Rodriguez will also have to pay $96,000 to cover...

A police officer who was injured in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection confronted House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a meeting on Friday, asking him to publicly denounce statements by GOP members who have voted against honoring police and downplayed the violence of the attack. Officer Michael Fanone has said for weeks he wanted to meet with McCarthy, who has opposed the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack and has remained loyal to former President Donald Trump. ...

Nishad Singh is third person in founder’s inner circle agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors ... The collapse of FTX has set off the largest crypto-related bankruptcy ever ... Singh said that in mid-2022 he learned that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research was borrowing FTX customer funds. By September 2022, Alameda was no longer able to repay the billions of dollars that it had taken from FTX, Mr. Singh said. He said that, at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried, he falsified FTX’s revenues to make the company more appealing to investors. ... Mr. Singh also pleaded guilty to...

On the same day that that the Bahamas extradited FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to the U.S. to face criminal charges, two former executives at FTX and Alameda Research pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal fraud charges. Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and FTX co-founder Zixiao (Gary) Wang, also its former chief technology officer, were charged for their roles in contributing to the crypto platform’s collapse. [Snip]

The mystery chunk of animal flesh that washed up on the beach. (@bootscootinaf/TikTok) A huge, smooth, pink, severed flesh-tentacle-thing discovered on a quiet island beach in Australia has drawn speculation over what kind of animal is now missing a piece of its anatomy. The "giant random animal part" was found and filmed by TikTok user Afri Gregory, and has since gone viral with millions of views sparking tons of speculation about whale penises. "It is massive, look! That's my foot. It's like the size of my leg. Eeew. Disgusting!" Gregory exclaimed in the footage, taken on an island off the...

A government official (left) was fired after he was accused of sexual harassment by a woman who eventually beat him with a mop. A government official in northeastern China has been fired after a video emerged of a woman attacking him with a mop while accusing him of sexual harassment. The 14-minute video that went viral shows the official’s subordinate, surnamed Zhou, throwing items on his desk before retrieving a mop to attack the man, surnamed Wang, the deputy director of the poverty alleviation department of Beilin district, in Heilongjiang Province. Read the condensed version of this story, and other...

BREAKING: Joe Biden spoke to South Korean President about North Korean nuclear issue in 14-minute phone call; both agreed to meet shortly after inauguration - @YonhapNews

FED ALERT: Prosecutors questioned Hsiao Yen Wang about a shadowy-seeming Chinatown fund-raiser reported on by The Post. The feds are eyeing a Chinatown donor to Clinton's presidential campaign to see if she was "coerced" into being a front for someone else's contribution.--SNIP--The LA Times reported on the April 9 fund-raiser, which netted about $380,000 - some from donors of meager means..... following stories about Clinton fund-raiser Norman Hsu, who has been charged with campaign-finance and other violations.

Wang Wenliang, a Chinese national briefly shook Clinton’s hand at a 2013 fund-raiser in her home;a separate Wang company pledged $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation, the first of several totaling $2 million. The Clinton fundraiser was one of at least three interactions between Wang and McAuliffe. McAuliffe initially said he could not remember ever meeting Wang, though he later clarified that his staff had informed him of several likely meetings. Among the donations of DOJ interestwere a total of $120,000 in contributions to McAuliffe from a company controlled by Wang. DOJ told McAuliffe's attorney there were questions over foreign sources...

Mr Obama was briefed immediately on the suspected poisoning of the 41 year-old, which Chinese officials are linking to Mr Heywood’s powerful political allies, when American diplomats were told of the murder allegation. Gu Kailai, Mr Heywood’s former business partner and the wife of Bo Xilai, a senior politician who had been tipped for the highest political office, is suspected of ordering the Briton’s murder in a case at the centre of a political storm in China. The couple have disappeared from sight as the Communist Party attempts to regain stability....... Mr Obama was informed of suspicions over Mr Heywood’s...

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe lied about meeting Wang Wenliang, the Chinese donor to his 2013 gubernatorial campaign whose contributions are now the subject of an FBI investigation. McAuliffe told CNN after the story broke that he thinks he has never met Mr. Wenliang.