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Authorities in China were expected on Monday to release a citizen journalist jailed for four years after she documented the early phases of the coronavirus outbreak from the central city of Wuhan in 2020. Zhang Zhan, 40, had travelled to Wuhan in early 2020 from Shanghai where she was based, posting first-hand accounts ... After several months of reporting that included videos.. she was detained in May 2020. She went on hunger strike in late June, court documents seen by Reuters said, prompting police to strap her hands and force-feed her with a tube, her lawyers said at the time....

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "counting on" Michael Cohen lying during former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, according to attorney and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Saturday. Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify in the high-profile trial on Monday, which will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair that happened in 2006 secret before the 2016 presidential election, as alleged in a criminal indictment. Prosecutors led by Bragg allege the $130,000 payment...

This article is posted in its entirety after a podcast from Bloomburg discussed the unfair NYC property tax system.New York City’s notorious property tax system — which places a higher burden on rental properties and advantages affluent white areas at the expense of lower-income neighborhoods of color — appears headed for a major overhaul.The state’s highest court voted 4-3 on Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit by a coalition called Tax Equity Now New York that sought to have the convoluted system declared illegal.The Court of Appeals revived two claims from the suit, which had previously been dismissed by lower courts....

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During its quarterly meeting on May 7, 2024, the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) refused to refer Election Complaint(SEB2023-025) to the Attorney General(AG) for investigation and prosecution per a motion from SEB member Dr. Janice Johnston. The case is possibly one of the most important election cases in Georgia's history. Sadly, board member Rick Jeffares, who had promised support for the case, was a day late and several dollars short. Jaffares failed to show up at the hearing. The moment was critical and would have allowed him to second Johnston's motion to refer the case. His vote would have forced...

A First Communion service in Louisiana erupted in panic when a 16-year-old armed with a rifle attempted to storm the church through a back door. But parishioners spotted the teen and swarmed him — holding him outside until police arrived and arrested him. The terrifying scene unfolded at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville — which was full of parents with young children who were there for the rite of passage in the church. The incident was streamed live on the church’s website Saturday morning as Fr. Nicholas G. Dupré led the faithful in prayer from the altar. In...

Iranian member of Parliament Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani said in an interview this weekend that he believed his country had successfully developed a nuclear weapon, contrary to international law, but would not admit to it. Ardestani claimed that Iran would still claim to be abiding by the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement brokered by American President Barack Obama that dramatically reduced sanctions on Tehran in exchange for promises not to expand its nuclear development. Iran has consistently violated the nuclear deal for years; President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 but the other four countries...

Based on the latest available data and an enhanced version of a stress-tested methodology from a scholarly journal, a new study by Just Facts has found that about 10% to 27% of non-citizen adults in the U.S. are now illegally registered to vote. The U.S. Census recorded more than 19 million adult non-citizens living in the U.S. during 2022. Given their voter registration rates, this means that about two million to five million of them are illegally registered to vote. These figures are potentially high enough to overturn the will of the American people in major elections, including congressional seats...

**SNIP** Police initially shut down the carnival in Chester County Saturday night after a group of juveniles created what officials described as an "unsafe environment" for those at the fair. Additional officers from agencies around the county were also called in to help with crowd control. While they didn't specify exactly what happened, police said the large crowd in the outer lot of the Exton Square Mall was creating a disturbance. **SNIP** Police are also investigating a fight that they say occurred inside the mall after the carnival was shut down. The department released surveillance footage captured by a business...

One of Europe’s most notorious people-smugglers has been arrested in Iraq following a BBC investigation. Barzan Majeed was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday morning, a senior government official said. For several years, he and his gang were heavily involved in the people-smuggling trade - in boats and lorries - across the English Channel. The BBC tracked down Majeed - also known as Scorpion - to the city of Sulaymaniya, where he said he had transported thousands of migrants across the channel. “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count,” he said. A senior member of the...

Louis Knuffke, a LifeSiteNews Washington D.C. correspondent, was interviewing Heather Idoni, 59, over the phone on May 13 when she disclosed that she had had 3 stents placed above her heart two weeks ago and was told to take daily doses of heart medicine. However, prison officials have not given her a single dose, she told Knuffke, and jail personnel have told her that their records say she has been given them every day. Idoni, who said she was suffering from fluttering of the heart, terminated the interview after saying she would request a trip to the hospital. Knuffke then...

We’re barreling towards the 2024 election with few safeguards in place to stop the cheating from taking place again. Most politicians aren’t even talking about it, even though very few laws have been passed since 2020 to stop the cheating. In Arizona, because the governor is now Democrat Katie Hobbs — even though an exit poll from Rasmussen Reports showed Kari Lake beat her by 8 points — she vetoes any substantial election integrity bills. The only state that appears to have successfully passed any significant election integrity legislation since the 2020 election is Georgia. Surprisingly, Georgia’s RINO Governor Brian...

The Supreme Court last month denied Navarro's bid to leave prison early while he appealed the conviction. >Donald Trump Jr. visited ex-Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro in prison, he confirmed to ABC News.Navarro is currently incarcerated at a Miami federal prison while serving his sentence for contempt of Congress. He received a four-month sentence in January over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee.Trump Jr. told the outlet that Navarro was in "good spirits" and that "It’s important to show support."The Supreme Court last month denied Navarro's bid to leave prison early while...

UNC-Chapel Hill's Board of Trustees on Monday approved the transfer of $2.3 million in diversity and inclusion spending to public safety priorities in the 2024-25 budget. The trustees held a special meeting Monday morning. The board is scheduled to hold its regular meeting Wednesday and Thursday. The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to vote next week to eliminate diversity goals and jobs at member institutions, including UNC-Chapel Hill. A Board of Governors committee last month approved a complete rewrite of the system's existing diversity, equity and inclusion policy. The move is likely to create job losses at the...

Melinda French Gates announced on Monday that she is leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation next month.Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda, his ex-wife, had tried to continue working together on projects at foundation, one of the largest private philanthropies in the world, following their 2021 divorce.“After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. My last day of work at the foundation will be June 7,” French Gates wrote on X on Monday. “This is not a decision I came to lightly."Gates said that she...

Now more than ever, we need to make sure that our elections are fair, lawfully conducted, and free of foreign influence.Congressional Democrats insist that the SAVE Act — which requires proof of citizenship to establish eligibility to vote in federal elections — is unnecessary because federal law (18 USC § 611) already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Those making this argument ignore a glaring problem: the government officials who register voters and conduct federal elections aren’t allowed to require proof of citizenship. It’s therefore shockingly easy for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, leaving our elections dangerously vulnerable...

Up to now, there is a winner and a loser out of this Manhattan trial. The winner is President Trump, who keeps getting stronger. The loser is New York, or the perception that the Empire State is a banana republic. Using the legal system to target political opponents is Banana Republic 101. This is from Jonathan Turley:Cohen’s testimony will be the culmination of this travesty of a trial. But Bragg already jumped the shark with Daniels. After three weeks, legal experts are still debating what the crime was that Trump was seeking to conceal by recording payments for a standard...

Onlookers at Ocean Beach in San Diego, California, stood by and watched as a boat sped onto the beach and unloaded what appeared to be a load of migrants being smuggled into the U.S. Events like this are becoming commonplace on Southern California beaches. Late last week, a cell phone video posted on social media captured the events as a boat landed on Ocean Beach in San Diego. An undetermined number of migrants disembarked from the beached boat and ran onshore in an effort to disappear into the neighboring community. The Invasion Continues! After last week’s startling revelation that boatloads...

At least 21 people were shot, three of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago. Breitbart News reported that 16 people were shot in Chicago, two of them fatally, Friday into Saturday evening alone. One shooting fatality occurred Friday shortly before 7:30 p.m. and the second at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. Another fatal shooting occurred Saturday morning about 3:16 a.m. “in the 6200-block of South Campbell Avenue,” ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times noted. A man in his 30s or 40s was shot twice in the back and killed.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s paralegal testified on Friday that his office deleted from their evidence three pages of phone records between convicted liar Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson without notifying former President Donald Trump’s legal team, according to reports. Trump attorney Emil Bove questioned paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider on Friday about three pages of 2018 phone records between Davidson and Cohen that Bragg’s office had deleted, according to CNN. Additional phone records between Daniels manager Gina Rodriguez and then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard regarding Daniels’ claim about her alleged affair were also deleted, according to The Epoch...