China: Two journalists reportedly held after exposing graft
https://www.dw.com/en/china-two-journalists-held-after-exposing-alleged-corruption/a-75792382
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Greed + evil
Olympics T-shirt marking 1936 Berlin Games raises eyebrows
Olympics T-shirt marking 1936 Berlin Games raises eyebrows
Canadian School Shooter Reportedly Identified As Transgender
Canadian School Shooter Reportedly Identified As Transgender
Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada in the town of Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday in one of the country's deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. Initial reports by local police and the Canadian media described the shooter as female.
However, the authorities reluctance to release the identity of the suspect was an immediate red flag. Their reports only indicated that the shooter was a female in a dress.
Independent journalists now say they have the identity of the alleged shooter, corroborated by family members: Jesse Strang, a 17-year-old biological male who started identifying as a "woman" in 2023, is reportedly the culprit behind the school massacre which left 10 dead and 25 wounded.
In an exclusive interview with "Juno News" Jesse Strang's uncle, Russel G. Strang, confirms that Jesse was the shooter and that he identified as transgender.
Strang's social media and YouTube accounts contain transgender symbolism as well as the online name "JessJessUwU" (a meme phrase that people may recognize from the bullet casings tied to the gay suspect charged in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson).
Locals in Tumbler Ridge also confirmed the shooter's identity as Jesse Strang, as reported by the Western Standard, though his transgender status is not mentioned.
Before heading to the school, Strang allegedly murdered his mother and younger brother, both of whom were well known in the community.
The fact that Canadian authorities incorrectly asserted that the shooter was "female" led to initial confusion, but this action is essentially required according to Canada's strict "hate speech" laws protecting trans identity. In other words, Canadian police are often compelled to lie about the gender of suspects when they are trans.
The tragedy represent yet more evidence that transgenderism is a dangerous mental health crisis. Multiple mass shootings (including school shootings) have been perpetrated by transgender suspects in recent years, and suspected Charlie Kirk shooter, Tyler Robinson, was living with his transgender boyfriend at the time of the shooting.
In almost every instance, the transgender status of the shooter has been covered up or dismissed by authorities and the establishment media.
In Canada, trans activists receive substantial legal privileges and protections making any discourse on the dangers of trans ideology impossible.
Somali Fraud: Three Key Takeaways From Tuesday's Senate Hearing
Somali Fraud: Three Key Takeaways From Tuesday's Senate Hearing
Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The magnitude of Minnesota’s Somali welfare-fraud problem has only begun to surface - and it is tied to other fraud in ways that many Americans do not realize, according to statements made during a Feb. 10 Senate hearing in Washington.
A subcommittee focused on immigration and border security held a two-hour hearing titled, “Somali Fraud in Minnesota—The Tip of the Iceberg.” Both houses of Congress are exploring the problem and its possible remedies.
Two witnesses who testified are former State Department employees who worked abroad as foreign service officers. Both men reported seeing weaknesses in America’s systems for verifying backgrounds and identities of foreigners who apply for U.S. immigration benefits.
Committee chair Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), announced he is preparing legislation to stop fraudsters from sending stolen U.S. taxpayer dollars overseas with no meaningful scrutiny.
The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said, “No one is here to defend fraud.” But he accused Senate Republicans of “choosing to point to a few isolated incidents and using them to cast suspicion on entire communities.”
1. The ‘Tip of the Iceberg’
Prosecutors estimated that fraudsters bilked $9 billion or more from 14 of the state’s Medicaid programs since 2018—and “credible reports” indicate some Minnesota officials knew about fraud dating to 2011 yet allowed it to persist, Cornyn said.
The Justice Department has charged 98 defendants, 85 of whom are of Somali descent, in Minnesota fraud cases; 64 have been convicted. Prosecutors have issued more than 1,750 subpoenas, executed more than 130 search warrants and conducted more than 1,000 witness interviews, he said.
Despite those large numbers, Cornyn said, “This recent episode, unfortunately, appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.”
The depth of Minnesota fraud is still being uncovered—and more schemes are now coming to light in states such as California.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she has previously asked for more resources for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, which has brought the federal fraud charges.
Recently, 14 assistant U.S. attorneys left that office, Klobuchar said, citing news accounts indicating those prosecutors resigned over a controversy related to investigating the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7.
“If we’re going to go after fraud, losing that talent is a huge problem,” she said.
Nationally, the Government Accountability Office estimates that between $233 billion and $521 billion are lost each year to “fraud and improper payments of federal benefits and other public funds,” Cornyn noted, repeating the numbers twice for emphasis.
Besides inflicting financial damage, fraud “directly affects the safety and security of Americans,” Cornyn said, adding that “much of the fraud is committed by aliens—many of them criminal aliens—and we don’t know what they’re doing with those stolen funds.”
Across America, illegal immigrants reap $8 billion in Medicaid fraud and $3 billion in earned-income tax credits per year, according to 2023 estimates from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Cornyn said.
2. Illegal Immigration Tied to Less-Obvious Fraud
Matt O’Brien, a former immigration judge who serves as FAIR’s deputy executive director, testified that many Americans do not realize that “immigration-related fraud represents a large and largely unacknowledged share” of the nation’s fraud losses.
That type of fraud includes “crimes committed to maintain life in the United States when someone lacks lawful status,” he said. Examples include identity theft, false U.S. citizenship claims, Social Security fraud, and tax fraud.
Migrants, facing pressure to succeed, “recognize opportunities created by weak oversight,” O’Brien said.
They also “may rationalize fraudulent conduct based on ideological narratives common in their home countries.”
“The result is widespread, repeated fraud that touches nearly every part of our government systems,” he said.
Yet data about immigration-related fraud is “remarkably scarce,” O’Brien said, noting the best figures are probably two decades old.
In addition, there is no “coordinated federal strategy” for detecting and prosecuting immigration fraud. Those responsibilities are “scattered across” state agencies and at least seven federal agencies.
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow who focuses on immigration issues for The Heritage Foundation, testified that in his former work as a foreign service officer, he was “lied to many times a day about every aspect of applicants’ cases.”
A U.S. consulate officer who interviews applicants serves as “the first line of vetting;” the next step involves checking U.S. databases for records about the person. But, he said, if the applicant comes from a nation that lacks accurate records or is unwilling to share the data, the records check is useless.
“Typically, the more corrupt and poor a country is, the more visa fraud,” he said, adding, “Somalia is as poor and corrupt as countries get.”
His former duties included supervising consular operations in Somalia. There, he routinely saw fraudulent marriage claims and unauthorized letters of support from the Somali government, among other falsifications.
Crime and corruption “seem to follow immigrant populations into host countries, at least in the first generation,” Hankinson said.
3. Low-Tech and High-Tech Solutions
Another former foreign service officer, Phillip Linderman, a board member of the Center for Immigration Studies, said it is a “supreme challenge” for consular officers to properly vet documents. And, he said, “there were always powerful voices in Washington constantly insisting that all visas be issued—and fast.”
A simple policy change could be effective, he said. “U.S. policy should curtail visa services in those countries that tolerate or are complicit in high levels of fraud,” Linderman said.
The State Department already tracks which countries have high visa fraud rates. But officials in that agency keep those records to themselves and “do almost nothing with them,” he said. “This is a big mistake.’
He urged the State Department to use that information in diplomatic relations with those countries.
Linderman also encouraged agencies to “apply the growing power of artificial intelligence and to look at fraud patterns in all immigration benefits—from visas all the way through to naturalization.”
In general, immigration benefits should be denied for people “whose identities we cannot verify and whose documents are unreliable and whose criminal records cannot be checked adequately,” he said.
Cornyn suggested both high-tech and low-tech measures.
“We can invest in fraud prevention and detection mechanisms ... [and] require agencies to require biometric identification,” Cornyn said, before any applicant receives government money or benefits.
“Furthermore, we can require automated and recurrent identity verification, random audits and in-person identity verification” for programs that receive public funds, he said.
As a low-tech measure, Cornyn said he will propose the “Stop Somali Cash Fraud Act,” which addresses a problem that Homeland Security highlighted recently.
During the past two years, $700 million in cash—packed in suitcases—“has been flown out of the Minneapolis airport,” Cornyn said, noting many of those funds were “tied to Somali couriers.” Homeland Security officials said that practice has occurred for nearly a decade, Cornyn said.
That money “could be used to fund Somali terrorist organizations like al-Shabaab,” Cornyn said. The Treasury Department began investigating that possibility in December.
Under Cornyn’s proposal, noncitizens would be required to disclose the source of large sums of cash they intend to transport overseas. They also would need to give additional background details 72 hours prior to scheduled air travel, which would give officials time to investigate.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute and a former policy adviser for a Republican congressman, agreed with Democrats who said Somalis and other immigrants were being unfairly characterized.
After leaving “terrible conditions,” many immigrants start businesses and otherwise contribute to society, he said.
Bier proposed a sweeping change: “Congress should end the broken welfare systems—namely the oversight-free aid to states that led to all the fraud in Minnesota.”
The California high speed rail fiasco rolls on
California High-Speed Rail chiefs pitch train to Yosemite – but plan mocked as ‘gaslighting’
This surely is the way Islam worked in the 7th century...some religion of peace?
Iranian regime executing wounded protesters in hospital beds — as brutal retribution continues ‘every day’: sources
Iranian thugs are executing of anti-regime protesters with wanton and brutal abandon — even murdering wounded demonstrators lying in hospital beds, sources told The Post.
Horrifying footage is being shared inside Iran of security forces raiding hospitals to look for those wounded during last month’s protests, where thousands of others were killed in the brutal crackdown.
“They were in hospitals, with IV lines or breathing tubes attached to them,” one source said of the people being killed.
“And then, when you look closely, you realize they were shot in the head.
“They were executed — given the final shot — inside the hospital,” the source added.
Another source said that the executions are being carried on “every day,” with another claiming that sexual violence against the protesters is running so rampant that “some of the detained girls have even asked their families to send them contraceptive pills.”
More than 207 people have been executed over the last three weeks, according to Iran’s “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, a coalition of political prisoners being held in 56 jails across the country.
Ali Heydari, a 20-year-old protester arrested during the brutal Jan. 8 crackdown, was the latest demonstrator executed by the state, according to the Washington-based National Union for Democracy in Iran nonprofit group.
In addition to those killed by the regime, the group warned that hundreds of detainees are at an imminent risk of death, with many of them being held without due process or official notice to their families.
The campaign leaders also claimed that attorneys and medics helping the protesters have also found themselves at risk of retaliations from the regime.
“In line with increasing the atmosphere of repression and public intimidation, the executioner regime has proceeded to arrest a number of lawyers, physicians, and medical staff, which indicates its increasing terror of the people’s courageous uprising last January,” the group said in a statement.
Despite President Trump’s claim that Iran had decided to halt the execution of protesters last month, reports have emerged of the killings carrying on as part of the regime’s attempt to suppress dissent.
Trump has warned that the killings, along with Iran’s failure to agree to a new nuclear deal, could incite direct military actions from the US, with Tehran warning that such a move would result in all-out war.
Many left in the aftermath of the government crackdown are still waiting for America to get involved, with one source expressing bittersweet emotion after hearing fireworks set off by pro-regime demonstrators celebrating the upcoming anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
“For a brief moment, I actually felt hopeful. I thought maybe the US had finally started striking government headquarters,” the source said. “And then reality hit again.”
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Mexico is a feifdom of the drug cartels
Mexican cartel drones disabled after forcing El Paso airspace closure
Drones operated by Mexican drug cartels entered US airspace late Tuesday, forcing a brief closure of the skies over El Paso, Texas, a Trump administration official told The Post Wednesday morning.
“Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace,” the official said. “The Department of War took action to disable the drones. The FAA and DOW have determined there is no threat to commercial travel.”
The Federal Aviation Administration initially announced a 10-day restriction on air traffic over the border city, effective at 11:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET Wednesday).
A welcome development in India
Indian Coast Guard Seizes Three Sanctioned 'Dark Fleet' Tankers Carrying Illegal Iranian Oil...to India
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
New York Medicaid transport plagued by fraud, with drivers scamming up to $196M, and funneled to the Democrats
New York Medicaid transport plagued by fraud, with drivers scamming up to $196M
Where foes a bureaucrat get the funds to do this?
New York drivers are accused of bilking up to $196 million from a badly managed Medicaid transportation program.
A federal audit by the Department of Health and Human Services found the shocking amount had been paid to transport companies enrolled in the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) program, but rides “did not meet or may not have met Medicaid requirements.”
The 2022 report claimed almost half of $445 million in taxpayer money paid out in 2018 and 2019 in New York City was mismanaged. This included rides that were not properly documented, drivers who were not properly licensed, rides that weren’t pre-authorized by a medical practitioner and services which were billed but never happened, according to the report.
The federal government demanded New York State immediately pay back $84 million of the money and put a further $112 million under review.
In one shocking example, the owner and two employees of Queens-based Purple Heart Transportation were indicted by the state Attorney General for allegedly stealing $19 million, in a scheme that involved paying weekly cash kickbacks to patients who lent their IDs to use for Medicaid billing.
Purple Heart claimed to rack up 1,000 miles a day on New York’s crowded streets. They then allegedly funneled the proceeds overseas through shell companies, according to the AG. In October 2019, the three were arrested after returning to the US from their native Guyana. Ringleader Sean Ally, an illegal immigrant, and one accomplice pleaded guilty and were sent to prison, according to a lawyer involved in the case.
Despite the alarming audit, which included 322 transportation providers in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul rewarded the company in control of doling out the funds, Medical Answering Services (MAS), by expanding its approximately $1 billion contract in 2023.
HHS said state officials should work with MAS to “refund to the federal government any unallowable amounts.”
It is unclear if the state ever complied. Officials did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
“Medicaid is generally vulnerable to fraud because its patients don’t usually pay copays, and so may not notice or report improper billing claims,” Chris Pope, a Medicaid expert and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Post.
“Non-emergency transportation is particularly prone to fraud, because it allows people who aren’t licensed medical professionals to claim funds from the program.”
The state disputed the HHS report, admitting to only a small number of inconsistencies. It claimed most of the suspicious rides actually did meet requirements, or were due to bookkeeping growing pains as MAS expanded its territory.
The problems have since continued, The Post can reveal. In the last year, the New York Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has reached agreements to reclaim $13 million allegedly stolen by NEMT contractors.
According to the settlement from the AG’s office, one Bronx-based company called American Base No. 1 will repay $4.75 million to resolve allegations it grossly inflated milage, among other alleged scams, including one driver who claimed 96 unique trips amounting to driving 2,158 miles in just a single day.
Another Bronx company, NBT Transportation, will pay back $1.5 million to resolve allegations it submitted claims for fake toll expenses from Medicaid, according to the AG.
Seaman Radio Dispatchers of Manhattan was sued for $1.2 million for allegedly collecting Medicaid transportation payments for dead people while the company’s taxi license was suspended. The defendants have denied civil charges against them, and the case is ongoing, court records show.
Other companies mentioned in the lawsuits and settlements used false addresses to claim payments, hired unlicensed or banned drivers — some of whom had previously been convicted of Medicaid fraud — and operated kickback schemes with passengers.
A Western New York State Senator told The Post of one harrowing fraud in his district involving a drug addict using NEMT to attend methadone treatments. The driver concocted a kickback scheme with the patient, splitting the fare if the patient promised to request the same driver.
The Senator’s office said instead of going to treatment the driver began taking the patient to “drug dealing areas.” The patient has since died.
The AG’s office also said they sent cease-and-desist letters to another 54 transportation companies suspected of fraud and abuse in January 2025.
MAS has sole control over the state’s ballooning Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) program. A 2019 Cuomo-era report showed NEMT costs had skyrocketed 131% since 2011, but state lawmakers who spoke to The Post had no idea how much the program costs today — saying the governor’s office has not made that information available to them.
In a 2025 letter to Gov. Hochul urging she return NEMT to county-level control, Republican New York State Senator George Borrello wrote, “Medicaid transportation used to be a local responsibility, run cost-effectively by counties that understood their communities.
“Now it’s a billion-dollar boondoggle run by unaccountable brokers who answer to no one, while fraud is exploding and taxpayers are getting ripped off.”
In 2011, Cuomo had taken NEMT away from county-level management and awarded contracts to regional brokers, giving over $400 million in contacts to Maxwell.
By 2017, Maxwell’s MAS brokerage had control of all the state’s regional contracts, including New York City.
MAS owner Rus Maxwell, and his husband, have donated over $300,000 to ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo and his successor, Hochul, even hosting a fundraiser for Hochul just two months before she renewed his company’s contract.
Maxwell did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
Maxwell’s husband, Syracuse firefighter Morgan McDole, donated half of his yearly salary, $37,500, to Cuomo’s campaign claiming at the time that it was an expression of gratitude for the governor’s gay marriage support.
In 2022, husband McDole donated an additional $52,000 to Hochul’s campaign.
Less than one month after the AG’s office announced the $13 million in lawsuits against MAS contractors in June 2025, McDole donated $16,000 to Hochul and Maxwell donated $26,000 to the Hochul-controlled New York State Democratic Committee, campaign finance documents reviewed by The Post reveal.
Together, the two donated $236,000 to Cuomo and over $100,000 to Hochul.
The New York Department of Health (DOH) declined to answer questions from The Post about the 2022 audit or if the state has since implemented reforms.
Unlike other states such as Florida, Texas and Minnesota, New York is notoriously tightlipped about its $115 billion annual Medicaid spend, by not providing details about where taxpayer money ends up, as we recently reported.
The Post recently uncovered how the state lost $1.2 billion of taxpayer money to scammers and middlemen through the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) and how it spends up to $400 million a year on Social Adult Day Care centers, which mostly duplicate the offerings of senior centers.
Both of these programs, like NEMT, were Cuomo-era Medicaid overhauls that have been continued by Hochul. Prior to these changes — which were sold to taxpayers as cost-saving and fraud-reducing — the state spent about $50 billion a year on Medicaid.
Gov. Hochul has ignored recent bipartisan calls for an independent audit of the state’s Medicaid behemoth.
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