Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Iran not willing to negotiate on missile capabilities, Khamenei's adviser says - report - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

Iran has reportedly rejected US calls to halt uranium enrichment, but said it was willing to discuss the “level and purity” of enrichment or a regional consortium.

 

Women walk near ballistic missile launch vehicles in Tehran on February 11, 2026, during a rally marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Women walk near ballistic missile launch vehicles in Tehran on February 11, 2026, during a rally marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
(photo credit: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Iran's missile capabilities are its red line and are not a subject to be negotiated, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, said on Wednesday, according to Nournews.

On Friday, Iran and the United States started high-stakes negotiations via Omani mediation regarding Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran has reportedly rejected US calls to halt uranium enrichment, but said it was willing to discuss the “level and purity” of enrichment or a regional consortium.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his accompanying delegation depart for the site of the talks in Muscat, Oman, February 6, 2026. (credit: Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his accompanying delegation depart for the site of the talks in Muscat, Oman, February 6, 2026. (credit: Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS)

Trump issues further threats to Iran 

US President Donald Trump has affirmed that Iran does want to make a deal with the US, adding that it “would be very foolish if they didn’t.”

“They weren’t talking to anyone else, but they’re talking to me… we took out their nuclear power last time, and we’ll have to see if we’ll take out more this time,” he said, referencing June 2025’s 12-day war in which joint US-Israeli strikes destroyed much of Iran’s nuclear arms production infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Trump told N12 that he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East in case the negotiations with the Islamic Republic fail.

The US president explained that the Islamic Republic "really wants to make a deal" and added that he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interested in reaching one.

"I don't think Netanyahu is out of the negotiations with Iran. He wants a deal, too. He wants a good deal," Trump noted.

James Genn, Goldie Katz, and Tobias Holcman contributed to this report. 


Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-886308

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Iran is a threat, and so is the DNC - Matthew G. Andersson

 

by Matthew G. Andersson

If Democrats win in the midterms and take the White House in 2028, our enemies' agendas will rule.

 

When Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with President Trump this week in the White House, many issues will be on the table.  

One of those issues should be the importance of maintaining political continuity in the United States, now that it is on the right track.  

Because, if the Democrats makes gains in the midterms, and get control of the House, and the purse, and if they get back in the White House in 2028, their objective will be to systematically unwind U.S. national and international policy and security.  

Under President Trump, the U.S. is finally asserting itself in tangible, confident and powerful action.  

The conflict with Iran is at a critical juncture, and if it fails, or worse, results in turmoil, which the progressive left is banking on, in order to create domestic political capital, it will turn Iran, and its radical anti-American ideology into an ally, a cause, and a weapon, for U.S. domestic factionalism and unrest, which is the DNC’s signature strategy

The GOP is currently funded at a large margin over the DNC.

American companies, and American technology entrepreneurs, appear to appreciate the industrial and economic path that the country is now on, but they have to stand firm against the agenda they were lured into by the Obama and Biden administrations concerning racial activism, unqualified welfare, and deceptive programs like the “green new deal.”  

But there is another psychological element that could supercharge a DNC comeback.  

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In 2004, author Wolfgang Schivelbusch wrote “The Culture of Defeat,” where he chronicled how losing nations create a mass culture of revenge ideology.  The Nazi party is an example, where it based its appeal on “rising from the ashes,” creating a “payback” narrative after WW1, while also casting that mass appeal in racial, ethnic and religious terms.

The progressive left in the U.S. is especially eager to frame a comeback in those same terms.  

That means that failure is not an option in America’s new posture of military strength and resolve.  

Failure is exactly what the DNC is obsessed with, because failure appeals to the mass psychology of not only its urban base, but to the millions of illegal migrants that swarmed into the country and were transported to those same concentrated cities.

If radicals like Hakeem Jeffries in the House, Corey Booker in the Senate, along with other anti-American fundamentalists like Minnesota’s Ilhan Abdullahi Omar; New York’s AOC, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani build a growing political bloc, it will reverse current Middle East policy, freeze military modernization, radically increase social spending, and seek to realize its fantasy, in the shadow of Obama, of transforming the United States into a pacifist, socialist state.

There is some speculation that Rahm Emanuel will seek the 2028 DNC nomination.  That could be just as dangerous, as it means the Obamas and their entourage are back, again, in the White House.

This makes the Iran conflict into something more than what partisan critics inaccurately call a proxy war for Israel: it is part of a series of stakes for U.S. resources, national security, defense modernization, military operational fitness, and the positive feedback this creates in American industrial development and economic growth.  

Iran is domestically unstable under its aging ruler Ali Hosseini Khamenei, but conflict failure can turn him into a new cult symbol of revenge activism that is absorbed and amplified by the current DNC party.  

Some critics claim that Russia and China will come to Iran’s aid.  That is not likely in operational terms.  There is no love lost between Iran and Russia, and China will not be distracted from Taiwan and the Australasian sphere.

That brings up one other key risk to current political continuity.  

University of Chicago political science professor, John Mearsheimer, has made a career criticizing the Israel lobby, AIPAC.  But it is merely one of hundreds of lobby groups seeking to advance its interests in a marketplace.  And while the DNC may be gratuitously open to its viewpoints, it can also completely shun them because they have another sponsor that is eager to make transformational inroads into U.S. domestic politics: China.  China is the DNC’s national role model: one party, absolute control, economic nationalization, social credit system, mass surveillance, and absolute censorship. And China can dwarf other funding sources, while destabilizing American monetary policy. 

A volatile mix of potential international revenge ideology, coupled with a radical domestic socialist agenda, backed by a resurgent Iran and expanding China, puts current U.S. foreign and military policy into a fail-safe imperative.  But the best fail-safe strategy is redundancy — and victory. 


Matthew G. Andersson is a former aerospace CEO and author.  He has testified before the U.S. Senate and is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of Chicago.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/02/iran_is_a_threat_and_so_is_the_dnc.html

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Academics from China who attended Chinese military-run schools work at U.S. colleges and labs - Jerry Dunleavy

 

by Jerry Dunleavy

Graduates of China's "Seven Sons" defense universities found perches for themselves at U.S. colleges and research labs, and many have access to valuable intellectual property.

 

A recent oversight report demonstrated that numerous high-ranking American universities have brought in Chinese scientists who have attended blacklisted Chinese universities tied to and run by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army.

A conservative non-profit watchdog group, the American Accountability Foundation, reported this week that it found nearly two dozen Chinese academics working at elite U.S. schools and labs “who, because of the dual-use threat of their research, close ties to the military research sector in China, and/or clear ties to the Chinese Communist Party" are threats to U.S. national security, and as such "should be expelled from the United States or never be re-admitted."

The report laid out multiple instances of Chinese scientists graduating from Chinese schools found under the umbrella of the CCP’s so-called “Seven Sons of National Defense” or administered by China’s State Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, or SASTIND.

Document shows "troubling backgrounds"

The AAF research document — titled "Chinese Scientist Infiltration Threat Assessments" — says that Chinese students working at some of America’s top colleges, often receiving U.S. federal funding (some of it from the Pentagon) to conduct research into advanced technologies, have troubling backgrounds which could pose a risk to U.S. national security.

Previous reports by Just the News — detailing how American colleges and labs have brought in card-carrying members of the CCP, members of the infamous Thousand Talents Program, and former employees from blacklisted Chinese defense companies to conduct advanced science and technology research in the U.S. — also detail multiple other examples of Chinese academics who attended either Seven Sons or SASTIND-run Chinese schools beforehand.

The Chinese schools in question include Northwestern Polytechnical University, one of the Seven Sons schools, as well as the SASTIND-run Chinese colleges of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, South China University of Technology, Zhejiang University, and Xidian University.

The American universities that these Chinese graduates attend, work for, or have been affiliated with include Harvard and others.

“It's called unrestricted war. What that means is it's a ‘People's War’ — focused on the people and weakening the inside, from the inside out, under no rules,” Casey Fleming, the CEO of BlackOps Partners, told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Monday regarding the CCP’s efforts to undermine America. “In World War Two, you had the Geneva Conventions. Here there are no rules. Everything is fair, and that's what they're doing. And there's over 100 different methods to weaken us.”

TheSeven Sons” infiltrate America’s top research colleges

The House Select Committee on the CCP said last year that the “Seven Sons” are “a group of elite Chinese universities known for their deep ties to the PLA and central role in military research and development.”

The House committee assessed that these seven academies are “China’s leading defense-focused universities, whose primary mission is to advance defense research and development and drive state-directed military-civil fusion efforts” and that “most maintain partnerships with state-owned defense conglomerates and operate as training grounds for future military leaders, engineers, and technicians working on weapons systems and defense programs.”

The committee warned that the Seven Sons “play a central role in developing advanced military technologies, including hypersonic weapons, unmanned systems, cyber warfare tools, and aerospace engineering, often in direct coordination with the PLA and its affiliates” and that “graduates from these institutions frequently enter roles within China’s military, intelligence, or state-owned defense enterprises.”

Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology wrote in 2020 that “the Seven Sons of National Defense are important feeders for China’s military and defense industry.” The center said the Seven Sons “contribute the lion’s share of new hires at Chinese defense state-owned enterprises” and “produce nearly three quarters of the elite university graduates hired by China’s largest defense companies.”

The Hoover Institution in 2020 argued that the Seven Sons “act as fronts for and extensions of the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security” and “directly support military-civil fusion; the PLA; and the defense research and industrial base, weapons programs, and myriad other entities that are part of the PRC’s military, public security, and surveillance apparatus.”

The RAND Corporation also warned in 2023 that the “Seven Sons universities contain researchers likely to be tied to China’s military-civil fusion strategy.”

SASTIND grads also make their way to America

The House CCP Committee referred to SASTIND as a “Chinese defense agency” linked to the PLA. The committee’s report from last year said that SASTIND “co-administers 58 Chinese universities — out of more than 3,000 Chinese universities — engaged in military-civil fusion research.”

“SASTIND-affiliated universities maintain specialized labs, programs, and departments dedicated to military research,” the House CCP committee said. “SASTIND plays a critical role in managing China’s defense R&D outside the PLA, coordinating weapons development, setting technical standards for defense industries, and integrating efforts across provincial and national levels.”

The House report also called SASTIND “the Chinese government agency responsible for coordinating the development of military technologies, weapons systems, and dual-use scientific research.”

The House CCP committee also assessed last year that SASTIND is “the PRC’s principal civilian authority overseeing national defense science, technology, and industrial activities.”

The China Aerospace Studies Institute, a think tank within the U.S. Air Force, said in 2020 that SASTIND is “responsible for the formulation and implementation of national defense science and technology industrial plans, policies, standards, and regulations.” The China-focused Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) assessed that the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology “oversees China’s defence industry through its subordinate agency, SASTIND.” 

“SASTIND seeks to build institutions into ‘universities with national defence characteristics’ by expanding their involvement in training and research on defence technology and deepening their cooperation with defence companies,” ASPI said.

Seven Sons grad at the University of Wisconsin

AAF’s report said that “as a leading researcher in engineering physics with close ties to several critical nuclear research organizations, Dr. Ziang Yu poses an immediate threat to U.S. security. Dr. Yu’s attendance at one of China’s leading defense universities only raises further concerns.”

Yu’s LinkedIn page and Google Scholar page say that he is a postdoctoral associate with the University of Wisconsin’s department of nuclear engineering and engineering physics.

The Chinese scientist’s LinkedIn profile also says he received an undergraduate degree at Northwestern Polytechnical University. It has been dubbed one of the CCP’s “Seven Sons of National Defense.”

Neither Yu nor the University of Wisconsin responded to a request for comment.

The university has long been on U.S. government blacklists, including being blacklisted by the Pentagon. The Defense Department has the Chinese school on its list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activity” and says this list “is an important continuing effort in highlighting and countering mechanisms of unwanted technology transfer to foreign countries of concern.”

The Commerce Department in 2021 described the school as “a Chinese military university that is heavily involved in military research and works closely with the People’s Liberation Army on the advancement of its military capabilities.”

The House Select Committee on the CCP described the school as “a core Chinese military university” last year. The House committee said that the school “was created by the merging of several engineering universities and institutions — including the Air Force Engineering Department of the PLA Military Engineering Institute.” The committee said the university “hosts 13 major defense laboratories and 44 designated defense research areas.”

Neither Yu nor the University of Wisconsin responded to a request for comment.

Yu’s school profile says he is a postdoc research associate at the Microstructure Materials Modeling group at Wisconsin, which is also called “Professor Yongfeng Zhang’s Research Group.” Dr. Yongfeng Zhang of the University of Wisconsin himself received two degrees from the University of Science and Technology of China, according to his online biography.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added that particular Chinese university to a blacklist “for acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of advancing China's quantum technology capabilities, which has serious ramifications for U.S. national security given the military applications of quantum technologies” and said it was “involved in advancing China's nuclear program development.”

Zhang was previously a senior member of the U.S. government’s Center for Thermal Energy Transport under Irradiation, and was also a staff scientist in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Department at Idaho National Lab. Zhang did not respond to a request for comment.

The Wisconsin lab, led by Zhang and counting Yu as a member, receives funding from the Energy Department’s Nuclear Energy University Program, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Yu’s co-author for a 2025 research paper received support from the Idaho National Lab.

“Yu presents security concerns as a graduate of Northwestern Polytechnical University, a known collaborator of the People’s Liberation Army and one of the Seven Sons of Defense in China,” the AAF report argued.

Grad from “problematic” Chinese school did work for U.S. national laboratory

The AAF report assessed that “Zongliang Xie is conducting research in fields that have potential military applications. He is doing so at Lawrence National Laboratory, a lab with a substantial amount of federal funding. The Chinese University, which Xie attended, is a high-risk institution due to its ties with the CCP military's adjacent research.”

Xie’s LinkedIn page lists him as a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and his Google Scholar page lists him there too. Xie is part of the Molecular Foundry at the lab, and he says that “I’m working on AI-driven polymer design and nanocomposite fabrication techs.” Xie’s LinkedIn profile also says he received a PhD and undergraduate degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

The Pentagon has the Chinese school on its list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activity,” and the House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that Xi’an Jiaotong is administered by SASTIND.

An alarm had been sounded last year

Bethany Allen, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s head of China investigations and analysis, warned last year about the troubling joint venture between Xi’an Jiaotong University in China and Liverpool University in Britain, with ASPI saying the “findings raise serious questions about research collaboration into sensitive technologies, including those with military applications.”

Allen said that Xi’an Jiaotong is “a leading Chinese defence university that has supplied the Rocket Force of the People’s Liberation Army and is supervised by China’s defence-industry ministry.”

Neither Xie, the University of California, nor the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab responded to a request for comment.

The University of California manages Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The DOJ announced in 2018 that the Advanced Persistent Threat 10 hacking group “acted in association with the Tianjin State Security Bureau” to hack the national laboratory.

A separate Chinese national last year reportedly had his access to the national lab revoked due to his prior attendance at the Harbin Institute of Technology, which is on the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security’s blacklist since 2020 in part because the school “has sought to use U.S. technology for Chinese missile programs.”

The report by AAF argued that “concern is raised from Xie’s academic background at Xi’an Jiaotong University, an institution flagged as high-risk due to its affiliation with CCP research initiatives” and concluded that Xie “is a high risk” to U.S. national security.

Chinese academic who attended SASTIND school was “in good standing” in Florida

The report released by AAF argued that “Jinghan Gao's research on high-temperature-resistant materials and related work in energy-efficient storage and semiconductor technologies represent serious dual-use risk technology and national security concerns.” 

Gao’s LinkedIn page and her University of Florida profile say she received her PhD and her undergraduate degree at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Gao’s LinkedIn says she was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida until last year, but that she is now a postdoc fellow at the University of Michigan. Her Google Scholar profile lists her at Michigan, and the electrical and computer engineering department at Michigan lists her as a research fellow. “Jinghan Gao was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,” a spokesperson for the University of Florida told Just the News. “She left UF in 2025 in good standing.” The spokesperson did not answer specific questions related to any concerns the U.S. university may have had about Gao’s attendance at a Chinese military-linked school. The University of Michigan did not respond to a request for comment.

Gao is still listed as a post-doctoral research associate at the Interdisciplinary Microsystems Group at the University of Florida, where she is listed as a member of Professor Roozbeh Tabrizian’s Research Group.

The “sponsors” for the microsystems group include the National Energy Technology Laboratory, NIH, NASA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and DARPA.

The AAF report contended that “Gao’s research on high-temperature stability materials has clear defense implications” and said “these risks are elevated by Gao’s academic and research affiliations” including attending “a high-risk institution in China.” 

Chinese student from “high risk” school went on to AI research in Indiana

The report written by AAF described Xiaoyi Chen as “an expert in AI machine learning, who comes to the U.S. from PLA-tied universities, and whose mentor at Indiana University was raided by the FBI.”

Chen’s GitHub page states that “I’m currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Indiana University Bloomington, under the supervision of Prof. XiaoFeng Wang and Prof. Haixu Tang. Before joining Indiana University, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Software and Theory from Peking University.”

The House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that Peking University is administered by SASTIND. ASPI says that Peking University “is assessed as high risk for its high number of defence laboratories and defence research areas, strong relationship with the defence industry, supervision by SASTIND, secret-level security clearance, and links to China’s nuclear weapons program.” The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2022 also said the Chinese military’s air force “established the ‘Dual-Enrollment Program’ with” Peking University.

Wang — directly mentioned by Chen as her mentor — was fired by Indiana University in March of last year the same day that the FBI searched Wang’s home. Wang has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. The Department of Justice has revealed few details, and the investigation is ongoing.

Chen, for her part, lists her research areas as “Backdoor Attacks and Defenses” and “AI Web Security.” Indiana University has previously highlighted Chen’s AI research work under Wang’s guidance. Chen also previously conducted web application firewall research funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Neither Chen nor Indiana University responded to a request for comment.

“Dr. Chen poses serious national security concerns. Her research presents notable dual-use and national-security concerns due to her specialization in AI machine-learning security and backdoor attacks,” the AAF report concluded. “Further, she has academic ties to PRC institutions with documented links to China’s military and intelligence ecosystem, and she received funding from the Chinese Government during her time at Peking University.”

“PLA-aligned” university grad went on to Harvard and Michigan State

The report by AAF warned about “Bao Xianyang, at Harvard, who is working on Department of War-funded polymers research that could enhance the PLA’s capabilities in a broad variety of military materiel, from vehicles to protective equipment to weapons.”

Bao’s LinkedIn says he studied at the South China University of Technology. The House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that the school is administered by SASTIND. The China Aerospace Studies Institute said the South China University of Technology is a “PLA and defense-aligned” college.

Bao has a profile at Michigan State which says that he is a postdoctoral research associate at the Extreme Soft Materials Laboratory, which aims at developing next-generation technologies” including “physics-empowered tactile robots.” The profile for Bao at Michigan State says that “he aims to develop tough and sustainable soft materials for engineering and biomedical applications.”

Bao did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Michigan State told Just the News that “any inquiries regarding the employment status of a particular individual at the university must be made through the Freedom of Information Act.”

Bao is also listed as a research associate at Harvard, and his X profile lists him as a postdoc researcher at Harvard’s Suo Group. Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.

Bao has dozens of publications through the Harvard group. Bao has also received federal research funding. Harvard said in 2025 that a paper co-authored by Bao “had federal support from the National Science Foundation under the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.”

Chinese “Military-Civil Fusion” college grad in Wisconsin

The report penned by AAF said that Yujie Zhu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison “is a leading expert in the development of the next generation of semiconductors and came to the U.S. from a Chinese university with close ties to the CCP.”

Zhu’s Google Scholar page lists him as a postdoc researcher at Wisconsin. His profile at Wisconsin says that he “received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from North China Electric Power University (Beijing) in 2017 and received his PhD. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2023.”

The House Select Committee on the CCP committee has warned about Tsinghua University, which is administered by SASTIND. The committee also said that Tsinghua “has a documented history of serving the PRC’s national security and defense apparatus, including involvement in defense research and alleged cyberattacks targeting various international entities.”

The Pentagon assessed in 2020 there were “Military-Civil Fusion linkages” with Tsinghua, noting the school’s “PLA-affiliated labs.” A report prepared for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2022 also noted the PLA Air Force “established the ‘Dual-Enrollment Program’ with Tsinghua University.”

Zhu is currently listed as a researcher at the Mesoscale Computational Modeling Research Group at Wisconsin. Zhu’s research at Wisconsin has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Lab, and the Department of Energy.

Neither Zhu nor the University of Wisconsin responded to a request for comment.

The AAF report argued that “Dr. Zhu’s research has put him in partnership with researchers directly funded by United States military research laboratories” and that “Dr. Zhu’s work on technology that could lead to significant technological advancements in national security and defense applications make him a high-risk visa holder.”

“Not just any Chinese academic institution”: Chinese grad at Wisconsin and Michigan

The report penned by AAF said that Xiangwei Guo’s “work on technology that could lead to significant technological advancements in national security and defense applications make him a high-risk visa holder” and that “combined with his field of study, Guo and his fellow research team’s Chinese education background make them a massive national security liability in the United States.”

Guo’s Google Scholar page lists him as affiliated with both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan, with his online profiles indicating he was a postdoctoral researcher at Wisconsin until last year, and that he is now at Michigan.

Guo himself previously attended Zhejiang University, a school with close ties to China’s defense industry. 

The House Select Committee on the CCP assessed last year that Zhejiang “is not just any Chinese academic institution — it is co-administered by SASTIND, holds classified PRC research credentials, and operates several defense laboratories” and “it has a documented history of involvement in Military-Civil Fusion projects and has conducted cybersecurity research funded by the Ministry of State Security — China’s internal security and intelligence agency.”

Neither the University of Wisconsin nor the University of Michigan responded to a request for comment. Just the News attempted to reach Guo through emails to both schools, but did not receive a response.

Guo had been listed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Mesoscale Computational Modeling Research Group at Wisconsin, and has received Chinese government funding when conducting research, including from the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and the University of Science and Technology of China.

Research projects which Guo has been involved with have also received U.S. government support from the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and DARPA.

The report by AAF concluded that “Guo attended a university in China known to work directly on defense applications” and that “Guo’s research is part of a real concern that the Chinese could overtake the United States in critical technology like semiconductors, making Dr. Guo a high-risk visa holder.”

Chinese “military research” university grad came to key U.S. research institute

The AAF report says that Xuewen Dong is “at Stevens Institute of Technology” and that he “is doing leading research on edge computing with application for drones and unmanned vehicles” and “comes to the U.S. from a university affiliated with the defense infrastructure in China.”

“It is not Stevens’ policy to provide information on a member (or former member) of its community beyond identifying their role with Stevens and their dates of service,” a spokesperson for the Stevens Institute told Just the News. “In this case, Dr. Hong [sic] was a visiting scholar at Stevens from January 2024 through September 2025. As is typical at most research universities, visiting scholars are unpaid and spend their time observing and assisting existing university faculty.”

Dong is currently listed as an associate professor and doctoral supervisor for “Computer System Architecture” at Xidian University. His faculty profile page for the Chinese university also says that he received his undergraduate degree, his master’s degree, and his PhD from that school. Dong did not respond to a request for comment.

The House Select Committee on the CCP noted that Xidian is administered by SASTIND. The committee also assessed that the university is “one of the country’s core institutions supporting military research.”

The Pentagon has blacklisted the Defense S&T Key Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technology at the university as well as the Defense S&T Key Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing at the school, putting them on the list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activity.”

Dong has been named as the co-author of a 2025 paper which lists his affiliation as being with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

The Stevens Institute receives federal funding from the Defense Department, the Energy Department, HHS, NASA, and the NSF, and it also receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funding, including from NIH, ONR, the Department of Transportation, and other agencies.

Dong is also currently listed as the deputy director of the Engineering Research Center for Blockchain Technology Application and Evaluation of the Ministry of Education and the deputy director of the Xi'an Key Laboratory of Intelligent System Security — both run by the Chinese government.

“His research into mobile intelligent vehicles could provide optimization for technologies such as unmanned aerial drones, autonomous ground vehicles, and advanced predictive targeting or navigation systems,” the report by AAF said of Dong. “Compounding the concern is Dong’s institutional affiliation with Xidian University, which is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told “Just the News, No Noise” on Friday that part of the reason that the China challenge is so large is “because for four years, there was an open border policy that allowed them and other adversaries to infiltrate America, not just through cyber warfare, but personally come here, buy land, go to our universities, and inject themselves illegally, and if not, improperly, into our way of life.” 


Jerry Dunleavy

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/academics-china-who-attended-chinese-military-run-schools-work-us

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FBI has 'substantiated' irregularities in Georgia 2020 vote counts, probing if they were intentional - Steven Richards and John Solomon

 

by Steven Richards and John Solomon

FBI identified to court in a search warrant five categories of confirmed irregularities in Fulton County voting, unsealed affidavit.

 

The FBI has "substantiated" some major irregularities in how votes were counted in Georgia's largest urban area in the aftermath of the 2020 election and is probing whether those failures were intentional efforts to violate federal election law, according to a bombshell affidavit unsealed by a federal court on Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans first filed the affidavit last month to establish probable cause for a raid that seized about 700 boxes of Georgia 2020 elections ballots from a storage warehouse in the Atlanta area, after getting a referral from Trump White House election integrity czar Kurt Olsen.

The affidavit included information gleaned from FBI interviews with about a dozen unnamed witnesses recounting various allegations that dated back to the disputed 2020 election in Georgia in which Joe Biden was narrowly declared the winner over Donald Trump.

"Some of those allegations have been disproven while some of those allegations have been substantiated, including through admissions by Fulton County," Evans wrote. "This warrant application is part of an FBI criminal investigation into whether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws."

Many of the substantiated allegations were previously reported by Just the News over the last five years based on its review of ballot records.

Evans' affidavit, dated Jan. 28, cited five major areas of irregularities under investigation, including that:

  • Fulton County has admitted that it does not have scanned images of all the 528,777 ballots counted during the Original Count or the 527,925 ballots counted during the state's first recount, a major loss of evidence.
  • Fulton County has confirmed that during the Recount of votes, some ballots were scanned multiple times. "Ballot images made available in response to public record requests show ballots with unique markings duplicated within the ballot images," the affidavit said.
  • During the Risk Limiting Audit, auditors counting the votes by hand reported vote tallies for batches inconsistent with the actual votes within the batch. "The State’s Performance Review Board reported that Secretary of State investigators confirmed inaccurate batch tallies from the Risk Limiting Audit," the affidavit said.
  • Auditors assisting in the Risk Limiting Audit reported counting purported absentee ballots that had "never been creased or folded, as would be required for the ballot to be mailed to the voter and for the ballot to be returned in the sealed envelope
    requiring the voter’s signature for authentication."
  • On the day of the deadline to report the Recount results, Fulton County reported a recount totaling 511,343 ballots, 17,434 ballots fewer than the original count. "The following day, Fulton County then reported a total of 527,925 ballots counted," the affidavit noted.

You can read the unsealed affidavit below: 

Just the News reported in 2021 that a contractor sent to Fulton County to observe voting on behalf of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had chronicled widespread confusion, mistakes and irregularities in the vote count, a fact the affidavit cited. Gov. Brian Kemp also referred Fulton County for investigation for miscounting ballots based on information from Just the News.

Despite the concerns, Raffensperger insisted none of the problems affected the outcome of Biden defeating Trump in the state.

But one of the witnesses in the FBI affidavit, identified as Witness 4, was a top lieutenant to Raffensperger and acknowledged to the FBI he was unaware of some the corroborated irregularities and admitted they were possibly problematic.

"The Director of Elections for the Georgia Secretary of State in 2020, was not aware of physical ballots not matching the number of ballot images. Wit. 4 said a discrepancy like that would be problematic but did not know if anyone went back and checked that," the affidavit said.

"Wit. 4 said during the hand count, they did not audit for issues like image discrepancies. He said the images are just duplicates. It would be more concerning if there was discrepancies between physical ballots and voter count. The concern is less about the images and more about the ballots and voter count," it added. 


Steven Richards and John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/fbi-has-substantiated-irregularities-georgia-2020-vote-counts-probing-if

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Lawmaker probing J6 is worried U.S. Capitol Police intelligence was politicized against Republicans - Steven Richards and John Solomon

 

by Steven Richards and John Solomon

Chairman Barry Loudermilk, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on January 6, said he is concerned that Democrats used the department to gather information on Republican lawmakers concurrent with the Justice Department’s wider probe into Trump over January 6.

 

The House chairman tasked with investigating law enforcement and intelligence failures related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot says he is probing whether U.S. Capitol Police intelligence gathering was weaponized by House Democratic leadership against their Republican colleagues in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.  

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who is the Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on January 6, said he suspects that Democrats used the department to gather information on Republican lawmakers concurrent with the Justice Department’s wider Arctic Frost probe into alleged efforts by President Donald Trump and his followers to contest the 2020 election results. 

Loudermilk told Just the News that what former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and others told his committee raises questions about how the department’s intelligence arm might have been used to further what he says was “weaponization against members of Congress.” 

"Political weaponization against members of Congress"

“There may be some evidence out there that this [Arctic Frost] extended all the way into Congress, that there was investigation and political weaponization against members of Congress that may even have ties with the Select Committee on January 6,” Loudermilk told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Tuesday, referring to the Democrat-led committee that probed the Trump administration alongside the Justice Department.  

“There's others who have spoken to us about efforts within the political element of Congress, within the Democrat Party, who were actively seeking access to the Capitol Police database and their intelligence, and they were using that intelligence against sitting members of Congress,” Loudermilk added. 

The probe into Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Jan. 6, code named "Arctic Frost," was led by an openly anti-Trump FBI supervisor, and was eventually taken over by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. The probe treated the effort by Trump's allies to submit alternate electors to Congress to sway the certification of the 2020 election as a criminal conspiracy, even though two prior episodes in American history were not prosecuted as crimes. 

Experts told Just the News last year the FBI memo that officially launched the investigation, around the time that Trump announced he would run for president again, was thin on evidence and legal justifications. 

Snooping and snapping

The House Judiciary Committee, the parent of Loudermilk’s subcommittee, released FBI records last year showing that the Arctic Frost investigators targeted more than 160 Republicans in Donald Trump’s orbit, including members of the president’s staff and Republican officials from the House and Senate.  

Loudermilk pointed to the case of Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, a member of his subcommittee, who claims that Capitol Police searched his office. Nehls alleged in a lawsuit last year that an officer improperly entered his office during the 2021 Thanksgiving break and snapped a photograph of his office whiteboard. Later, plainclothes officers returned to the office and questioned a staffer about the whiteboard without the congressman’s permission, the court documents allege. 

“That is totally outside the realm of anything acceptable here,” Loudermilk said of the Nehls search. "He was investigated as a member of Congress by the US Capitol Police, and I know he has litigation regarding that going right now, but I think this is just the tip of the iceberg of what may have been happening, not only in the Wray FBI, but under the Pelosi House of Representatives as well.” 

"It just stinks to high heaven, but I believe I was a target,” Nehls says

Nehls also told Just the News that he believes the Capitol Police spied on him because of his outspoken criticism of the department in the wake of Jan. 6. 

“I think that the Capitol Police, they found a few weaklings in there to go out there and spy – I will say 'spy' – and look into members of Congress that were very, very outspoken and critical of January 6,” Nehls told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“We found out that these employees worked for the intelligence division of the U.S. Capitol Police. Now, why would you need these intelligence guys, these plain clothes guys, to just show up? It just stinks to high heaven, but I believe I was a target,” Nehls added. 

Former Capitol Police Chief Sund confirmed that even before Jan. 6 he faced increasing pressure from Democratic leadership for access to the Capitol Police intelligence unit, which he called “very concerning.”

Sund told Just the News that “it was an ongoing process where we had, you know, people, senior staffers, like from [Senator Chuck] Schumer’s staff that wanted to be involved in intelligence briefing, wanted to have access into the Capitol Police Headquarters, specifically to be able to access into the intelligence unit.”

Though he pushed back on those efforts, Sund told the John Solomon Reports podcast that he does not know what happened after he resigned on Jan. 16, 2021, just ten days after the riot during which hundreds of protesters entered the secured Capitol building. 

“My concern is, what happened after January 6? You know, did these people then all of a sudden, now get involved? They're now on the intelligence calls, intelligence briefings, things like that. Now, are they using that for any political benefit?” Sund questioned. 

Loudermilk has doggedly investigated the Jan. 6 security failures and politicization related to the Democrat-led Jan. 6 Select Committee for years. He exposed a key witness who changed her story that was damaging to Trump and documented failures to secure key entry points at the U.S. Capitol before protesters entered. 

Pipe bomb mystery solved by Patel's FBI

He also relentlessly pursued accountability for what was the biggest unsolved mystery of that day, how the FBI had failed to identify a suspect in the planting of two pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters. 

That case was blown open last year when the new FBI Director, Kash Patel, and his then-Deputy Director, Dan Bongino, brought a new team and a fresh perspective to the mountains of data collected by investigators. The new approach led to the arrest of suspect Brian Cole Jr. of Virginia. 

Earlier this month, Loudermilk subpoenaed T-Mobile for the phone records that it had turned over to the FBI and had languished in its possession until last year.  


Steven Richards and John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/lawmaker-probing-j6-concerned-us-capitol-police-intelligence-unit-politicized

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Netanyahu signs first order to strip citizenship, deport Israeli terrorists - JNS Staff

 

by JNS Staff

Many more such terrorists would be deported, said the Israeli Prime Minister.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Nov. 10, 2025. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Nov. 10, 2025. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday signed papers to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two terrorists and deport them. It is the first-ever implementation of a law passed by a majority of 94 of the 120-member Knesset in 2023.

“This morning I signed the revocation of citizenship and deportation of two Israeli terrorists who carried out stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and were rewarded by the Palestinian Authority for their criminal acts,” the prime minister said.

Many more such terrorists would be deported, he added.

Netanyahu thanked Likud MK and parliamentary whip Ofir Katz for ushering the law through the legislature.

“I didn’t give up and I didn’t let up. For three years, I pressured the system to implement my law and it is finally happening. That’s how you fight terrorism,” said Katz, thanking Netanyahu and Likud Knesset member Amit Halevy, for his assistance with the legislation.

The terrorists to be deported are both from Jerusalem: Mahmoud Ahmad, who was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2001 for a string of shooting attacks; and Muhammad Ahmad Hussein Halsim, who was sentenced to 18 years in 2016 for stabbing two elderly women in the capital’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. 


JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/pm-signs-first-order-to-strip-citizenship-deport-israeli-terrorists/

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Welcome to the 'EUSSR': Unpopular European Regimes Grasping for Power Crack Down on Dissent - Robert Williams

 

by Robert Williams

In supposed democracies, this latest "benefit " to your people - cracking down on dissent "democratically" -- means using technology rather than firepower to crush freedom of speech.

 

  • So, if you are an unpopular regime desperately clinging to power, what do you do?

  • In supposed democracies, this latest "benefit " to your people - cracking down on dissent "democratically" -- means using technology rather than firepower to crush freedom of speech.

  • "⚠️Danger: Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing views and creating echo chambers controlled by the state. Free exploration of ideas? Gone—replaced by curated propaganda." — Pavel Durov, Founder and CEO of Telegram, X, February 4, 2026.

  • "⚠️Danger: Vague definitions of 'hate' could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to shutdowns or fines. This can be a tool for suppressing opposition. These aren't safeguards; they're steps toward total control. We've seen this playbook before—governments weaponizing 'safety' to censor critics." — Pavel Durov, X, February 4, 2026.

  • "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." — First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

  • The problem, of course, is that usually "hate" is never defined -- meaning that anything and everything can be labeled "hate" and often is. Judgments about what constitutes "hate" become entirely subjective and run the danger of existing exclusively "in the eye of the beholder."

  • France is planning a similar move, "to ban minors from Instagram and TikTok," and Germany is also seriously considering introducing such a ban as well.

  • Denmark, Greece and Britain are also in various stages of either introducing or seriously considering banning X, and European authorities are simultaneously seeking to come up with other ways to close down X.

  • All this is in addition to a €120 million fine that the European Commission has imposed on X under its "Delete. Silence. Abolish" Digital Services Act.

  • To the European governments that refuse to acknowledge that many of their citizens are sick and tired of their repressive policies, when the ayatollahs slaughter their citizens in Iran, it is not a pressing problem, but banning X is of the highest priority.

In supposed democracies, this latest "benefit " to your people - cracking down on dissent "democratically" -- means using technology rather than firepower to crush freedom of speech. (Images source: iStock)

Governing elites in Europe, in what increasingly appears to be the EUSSR (European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) race to the bottom, have been growing ever more unpopular. Disapproval ratings are skyrocketing. In France, 77% of the public disapprove of President Emmanuel Macron. In Britain, 68% disapprove of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In Germany, 64% disapprove of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and in Spain, 61% have had it up to here with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

In other parts of Europe, such as Germany and France, all sorts of pseudo-legal acrobatics are being generated to prevent political opponents from running for high office (such as here and here).

So, if you are an unpopular regime desperately clinging to power, what do you do? It's easy! Iran's ayatollahs, China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Vladimir Putin could tell you. You simply crack down -- more than ever -- on free speech and dissent!

In supposed democracies, this latest "benefit " to your people - cracking down on dissent "democratically" -- means using technology rather than firepower to crush freedom of speech.

Concerning age limits for children, there is a valid argument to be made that leaving the faces of a generation staring at screens all day appears to be impairing not only their education but also their ability to socialize with anyone not an AI chimera, algorithmed to agree narcotically with everything uploaded, including the best ways to how to put their young, ostensibly deficient lives to an end.

As the founder and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov wrote on X:

Today, Telegram notified all its users in Spain with this alert:

Pedro Sánchez's government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of "protection." Here's why they're a red flag for free speech and privacy:

1. Ban on social media for under-16s with mandatory age verification: This isn't just about kids—it requires platforms to use strict checks, like needing IDs or biometrics....

⚠️Danger: This will force over-censorship—platforms will delete anything remotely controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo....

⚠️Danger: Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing views and creating echo chambers controlled by the state. Free exploration of ideas? Gone—replaced by curated propaganda....

⚠️Danger: Vague definitions of "hate" could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to shutdowns or fines. This can be a tool for suppressing opposition. These aren't safeguards; they're steps toward total control. We've seen this playbook before—governments weaponizing "safety" to censor critics....

Demand transparency and fight for your rights. Share this widely—before it's too late.

Durov, incidentally, born in the Soviet Union in 1984 – of all Orwellian dates! – left Russia in 2014 after Russia's FSB security service demanded that his company, VKontakte, hand over the personal data of Ukrainian Euromaidan protesters and opposition figures, and for refusing to censor posts on his site.

In Spain, in addition to an arguably justified ban on social media for people under 16 years old, Sanchez's government is introducing a legislative package consisting of five additions to censor speech online.

First, social media platform executives will not just be fined for failing to remove "illegal, hateful or harmful" content from their platforms in a timely way – they will also now face criminal liability, including possible imprisonment. As Durov warns:

"This will force over-censorship—platforms will delete anything remotely controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo."

"Sanchez," Elon Musk said more bluntly, "is the true fascist totalitarian."

Second, amplifying "illegal" or "harmful" content through the algorithms will become a crime.

"We will turn algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content into a new criminal offense," Sanchez said. "No more hiding behind code. No more pretending technology is neutral."

Third, according to Sanchez:

"We will implement a hate and polarization footprint system to track, quantify, and expose how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hate. For too long, hate has been treated as invisible and untraceable, but we will change that."

The problem, of course, is that usually "hate" is never defined -- meaning that anything and everything can be labeled "hate" and often is. Judgments about what constitutes "hate" become entirely subjective and run the danger of existing exclusively "in the eye of the beholder."

In Sudan, for instance, a British teacher at an elementary school was sentenced to 40 lashes and a term in prison for having allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. In Iran today, people who protested against the regime are being sentenced to death for "waging war against God."

The United States officially enshrines freedom of speech in the First Amendment to the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

US courts have ruled that only child pornography and immediate, direct and credible threats, as well as a few other limitations, are banned.

Some governing elites in Spain apparently want to ban X there altogether. "The next battle should be aimed at limiting... and likely banning Twitter," Minister of Youth and Children Sira Rego stated.

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, announced that she has left X and that whoever remains on X "is feeding hate policies."

France is planning a similar move, "to ban minors from Instagram and TikTok," and Germany is also seriously considering introducing such a ban as well. Germany's Christian Democratic Union — the conservative party led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the largest in the governing coalition — is reportedly set to discuss the issue at its national party congress on February 20-21, 2026.

Denmark, Greece and Britain are also in various stages of either introducing or seriously considering banning X, and European authorities are simultaneously seeking to come up with other ways to close down X.

At the beginning of February, French authorities and European Union police agency Europol raided X's offices in Paris, over "suspected abuse of algorithms, plus allegations related to deepfake images and wider concerns over posts generated by the platform's AI chatbot, Grok," according to Time Magazine.

According to The Telegraph, the raid "was triggered in the first place by an MP in Emmanuel Macron's centrist party complaining, after Musk's purchase, that X had 'reduced diversity of voices', and a separate complaint that the site hosted 'nauseating political content'".

In Britain, according to The Telegraph:

"[T]he Information Commissioner's Office launched an investigation into deepfakes on X, running in parallel to the Ofcom inquiry into the platform. Liz Kendall, the Technology Secretary, has said the Government will give its 'full backing' should the watchdog decide to block access to the site in the UK and accused those opposing the measures of allying with 'those who think the creation and publication of sexually manipulated images of women and children is acceptable'."

All this is in addition to a €120 million fine that the European Commission has imposed on X under its "Delete. Silence. Abolish" Digital Services Act.

To the European governments that refuse to acknowledge that many of their citizens are sick and tired of their repressive policies, when the ayatollahs slaughter their citizens in Iran, it is not a pressing problem, but banning X is of the highest priority.


Robert Williams is based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22265/europe-crackdown-on-dissent

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