An elite former Brown professor and anesthesiologist who raped a woman on his yacht and fled during the trial is nabbed at sea; justice delayed, but not denied.

The U.S. Marshals Service, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, captured Dr. Ronald Fischer, one of Rhode Island’s most wanted fugitives, on a 56-foot sailboat off the New York/New Jersey coast, NBC News reported.

BREAKING | NBC News: The U.S. Marshals and US Coast Guard have caught Dr. Ronald Fischer on a sailboat off the NY/NJ coast.

Dr. Fishcer was on trial for raping a woman on his boat in Rhode Island in 2003 when he fled just before closing arguments. Reported w/ @jonathan4ny

— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) July 16, 2026

Fischer, a once-respected anesthesiologist who headed the department at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket and served as an assistant professor at Brown University, had been on the run since 2005.

He was convicted in absentia of first-degree sexual assault after raping a woman on his yacht, the “Lion King,” at a Portsmouth marina.

In 2003, Fischer used personal ads and his polished doctor persona to lure a woman aboard his boat. What followed was a brutal rape. The victim later described her terror in chilling detail:

“All I could think was, I am alone in the bottom of this boat, and no one will hear me if I scream.”

This wasn’t an isolated incident. Fischer had a documented history of preying on women. He previously pleaded guilty to assault in a strikingly similar case and lost his medical license in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

He was no “one-time offender.” He was a serial predator who used wealth, status, and a luxury boat to target victims.

While on trial in Newport, Rhode Island in April 2005, just days before closing arguments, Fischer emailed his lawyers with the subject line “Goodbye.”

He wrote that although he believed the trial was going well and expected acquittal, he refused to risk “extremely and unacceptably harsh penalties.” Instead, he announced he was leaving the United States to enjoy “a good, safe, secure and comfortable life” in another country.

He vanished. Authorities say he used at least 17 aliases, was a “master yachtsman,” world traveler, and “internationally connected.” He was featured multiple times on America’s Most Wanted. The jury convicted him anyway.

For over 20 years, this rapist doctor sailed free while his victim lived with the trauma.

On Thursday, Deputy U.S. Marshals and U.S. Coast Guard personnel intercepted Fischer on his 56-foot sailing vessel The Silver Lining, registered under the alias Richard Graydon, according to NBC News.

The boat was stopped roughly one hour offshore from the NY/NJ coast by a U.S. Coast Guard response boat.

Fischer was taken into custody without incident and is being held in Manhattan.

“This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability,” said Wing Chau, U.S. Marshal for the District of Rhode Island. “For more than twenty years, Ronald Fischer believed he had successfully escaped justice…Thanks to outstanding investigative work, exceptional intelligence analysis, and seamless coordination between agencies, Fischer is finally in custody.”

The post Fugitive Rapist Doctor Ronald Fischer Finally Caught After More Than 20 Years on the Run – U.S. Marshals and Coast Guard Seize Predator on Sailboat Off NY/NJ Coast appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

China blocks thousands of websites, including major news and social media platforms such as The New York Times, the BBC, YouTube, X, and Facebook. Since 2002, authorities have blocked numerous internet services, including Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Yahoo.

Provincial authorities have also built their own filtering systems on top of the national Great Firewall. Researchers found one in Henan Province that blocked content at a scale reportedly ten times greater than the national system. Censorship rules also extend to mobile apps, including bans on apps focused on minority languages, Bible content, and foreign-language learning.

China’s censorship apparatus is reinforced by the shutdown of private English tutoring centers. Since 2021, the government’s “double reduction” policy has banned for-profit tutoring in core subjects including English, closing firms such as Wall Street English, one of the world’s largest English-language tutoring chains. State schools, meanwhile, largely omit English speaking practice, since it is not tested on the gaokao. Over the same period, China’s ranking on the EF English Proficiency Index has fallen from 38th globally in 2020 to the “low proficiency” tier by 2022, where it has remained since.

A population with weaker English proficiency has less practical ability to read foreign reporting, evade keyword filters, or verify what state media says about the outside world. This compounds the isolation the Great Firewall is designed to enforce.

Beijing’s Great Firewall serves a dual purpose: cutting the population off from information the government has not approved and punishing anyone who tries to get around that barrier. The system’s enforcement power increasingly comes from identity infrastructure, not just blocked URLs. Since 2017, real-name registration has been mandatory for social media, messaging apps, and SIM cards, tying every account to a citizen’s legal identity.

In 2024, the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China rolled out a National Online Identity Authentication app requiring a national ID card and facial recognition to generate a “web number” that can follow a user across platforms. Rights groups, including ARTICLE 19, warn that this consolidates data previously scattered across private platforms into a single system accessible to police.

Separately, China’s blacklist system, not a single “social credit score” as it is often described, but a network of more than 60 sector-specific blacklists run by different agencies, can bar a flagged individual from flights, high-speed rail, and certain jobs. A 2024 UK immigration tribunal ruling found that blacklisting can amount to persecution when it targets protected political or religious expression. For speech offenses specifically, however, the harshest punishment in practice is not administrative but criminal prosecution. Qiao Xinxin’s case shows how the two systems work together: real-name registration and surveillance infrastructure make it possible to identify who is speaking, while charges such as “inciting subversion of state power” make the punishment severe once authorities do.

Qiao Xinxin, legal name Yang Zewei, helped launch the BanGFW Movement in March 2023, calling for the dismantling of China’s censorship system. The BanGFW Movement, also known as the Wall Demolition Movement, drew in a scattered network of Chinese dissidents living abroad, with participants spread across Southeast Asia and settled in North America and Western Europe. Organizers distributed online tutorials teaching Chinese internet users how to circumvent censorship, and Qiao produced a companion guide referred to as the “Wall Demolition Handbook.”

The movement urged supporters to hold placards outside Chinese embassies, contact foreign governments, and reach out to international media. After the campaign gained traction, Chinese police began pressuring Qiao’s relatives in Hunan to persuade him to abandon the effort and return to China.

On May 31, 2023, he disappeared from his home in Vientiane, Laos. Rights groups including RSF say he was seized in a cross-border operation and transferred to China. He surfaced in detention in Hunan, where authorities formally arrested him on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” He was sentenced, in a closed-door trial, to five years and sent to Chishan Prison in Hunan.

Mistreatment of prisoners held for speech and information offenses in China is documented well beyond Qiao’s case. A 2022 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights found China’s detention and prison system to be characterized by “general violence,” in breach of the international prohibition on torture, barring extradition to China from all 46 Council of Europe member states.

A 2026 Safeguard Defenders survey of 59 former prisoners documented beatings, Taser and pepper-spray use, prolonged stress positions, shackling, and solitary confinement that, in some cases, lasted far longer than the 15-day legal limit set by China’s own Prison Law, a limit that international law treats as the threshold for psychological torture. The same survey found that solitary confinement is an official punishment for inmates who refuse forced labor or fail to meet production quotas.

Taiwanese rights defender Lee Ming-che, who was held in the same Chishan Prison as Qiao, described working 12-hour days during his five-year sentence there. Fellow rights advocate Cheng Yuan was reportedly held in a high-security unit within the prison, where he performed forced labor before being transferred to a unit without it.

In August 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders said she had received “consistent allegations” of torture and denial of medical care affecting imprisoned rights defenders, including individuals held on speech-related charges.

Against that backdrop, activists connected to the BanGFW Movement, including spokesperson Liu Dongling, allege in interviews with The Epoch Times and Kanzhongguo that Qiao has faced similar treatment inside Chishan Prison’s First Ward. They claim he was forced to produce military-style rubber footwear for export to Africa and, after he resisted, was subjected to beatings by fellow inmates, pepper spray, solitary confinement, and restraint straps that bound his arms and legs to a metal bed until he lost control of his bodily functions.

This is how the CCP’s censorship machine works: digital repression outside the cell and physical coercion inside it. The purpose is to silence dissidents and warn others not to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party. By arresting an activist in Laos and transporting him to a closed-door trial in China, the CCP has also shown that it is willing to cross international borders to punish those it deems a threat.

The post Extraterritorial Arrests and Torture: Beijing’s Censorship Reaches Beyond China’s Borders appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Just when you think the lawlessness and corruption in our justice system can’t get any worse.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine L. Hanaway has filed a petition for a writ of quo warranto to remove Ray County Prosecutor Camille Johnston from office after explosive revelations of repeated intimate and romantic relationships with criminal defense counsel and defendants including an illegal alien being prosecuted for sexual assault in her own jurisdiction.

According to the petition, Johnston allegedly engaged in undisclosed romantic relationships with individuals whose criminal cases intersected with the Ray County Prosecutor’s Office, including a defense attorney who represented criminal defendants in cases prosecuted by her office.

The Attorney General alleges Johnston failed to recuse herself or seek the appointment of a special prosecutor despite what the filing describes as obvious conflicts of interest.

The petition further alleges Johnston maintained another romantic relationship with an individual charged with domestic violence and retaliated against a staff member who became aware of the relationship. The filing claims Johnston failed to disclose the alleged conflict to victims, court personnel, or her office until a judge ultimately disqualified her from the case.

Among the most serious allegations is the Attorney General’s claim that Johnston had a prior intimate relationship with a man identified in the petition as J.G., who was allegedly under investigation for felony sexual offenses.

The filing alleges Johnston knew of the investigation, failed to recuse herself, withheld information regarding his whereabouts, assisted him after he left Ray County, and later vacationed with him.

The petition also states the individual was allegedly in the United States illegally and was later arrested in Ohio, where he remains awaiting trial on felony charges. These are allegations contained in the Attorney General’s filing and have not been adjudicated by a court.

The Attorney General also alleges Johnston created a hostile work environment by intimidating and berating employees, fostering what the petition describes as an atmosphere of fear within the prosecutor’s office.

Based on these allegations, the petition argues Johnston may have violated Missouri statutes relating to public corruption and hindering prosecution and contends that her conduct constitutes willful neglect of official duty requiring removal from office.

A judge has already approved a preliminary order immediately removing Johnston pending the full outcome of the case.

BREAKING: A prosecutor has repeatedly engaged in intimate relations with defense counsel and defendants, including an illegal immigrant who was under investigation for felony sex offenses – and then she berated and fired her staff when they found out about it.

This will not be… pic.twitter.com/WZkWtoPsgK

— Attorney General Catherine L. Hanaway (@AGCHanaway) July 17, 2026

According to the press release:

“When an elected official treats public office like their personal playground, betraying the public trust, ignoring legal obligations, and putting self-interest first, removal isn’t a suggestion, it’s a necessity,” said Attorney General Hanaway. “Johnston’s record reflects a sustained pattern of misconduct and willful neglect that has undermined the integrity of the prosecutor’s office and poses a serious threat to public safety. In Missouri, public office is public trust, not a personal entitlement, and no one is above accountability.”

This action is being taken to protect the citizens of Ray County and to restore integrity to an office that has been compromised. The petition asserts that Johnston knowingly and willfully failed to do her duties as a prosecutor, after she:

• Knowingly created an atmosphere within the Ray County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office of fear and intimidation by verbally berating her staff and employees;
• Engaged in an intimate and romantic relationship with a criminal defense attorney representing numerous criminal defendants in matters prosecuted by Johnston;
• Engaged in an intimate and romantic relationship with a prospective defendant and terminated an employee after the employee discovered the relationship;
• Engaged in an intimate and romantic relationship with an undocumented immigrant who was being prosecuted for sexual assault in Ray County and provided title to her vehicle to that defendant to assist him in absconding; and
• In each of these situations, recognized the impropriety of the relationship but continued the conduct;

Under Missouri law, the Attorney General is authorized to file a petition for a writ of quo warranto to remove an official who has unlawfully held office or forfeited it through willful neglect, abuse of duty, or misconduct. Today’s petition affirms Attorney General Hanaway’s commitment to rooting out government corruption and upholding the rule of law in Missouri.

The post Missouri AG Moves to Oust Ray County Prosecutor Over Explosive Allegations of Affairs with Defense Attorney, Defendants — Including Illegal Alien Investigated for Felony Sex Crimes appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Trump on Thursday night mentioned illicit Democrat-aligned voter registration group that was caught dumping nearly 10,000 ballot registrations in Muskegon, Michigan prior to the 2020 election.  The FBI later revealed in an email sent out in February 2023 that 13 of 20 ballot registrations were fraudulent, or 65%, in the stack of registrations delivered to the Muskegon clerk prior to the 2020 presidential election.

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In case you have not been paying attention, leftist groups around the country have been caught corrupting our elections by dumping tens of thousands of bogus ballot registrations into our voter rolls. This is taking place in state after state.

PENNSYLVANIA

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania city officials announced in October 2024 that they were investigating a massive fraudulent voter registration operation investigation involving thousands of fraudulent voter registrations. At least 2,500 ballot registrations were in question.

Lehigh County, Pennsylvania announced that they were also investigating hundreds of fake ballot registrations that were turned in recently by a questionable voter registration group. Lancaster, Monroe and York Counties in Pennsylvania have reported similar criminal acts and they are investigating. At least two counties reported that Field+Media Corps was behind the thousands of fraudulent registrations. The ballot registration harvesting group is based in Arizona.

MICHIGAN

The Gateway Pundit reported extensively about the leftist group GBI Strategies, a Democrat-linked group that received funding from Joe Biden and the Democrat Senatorial Campaign, that was caught dumping thousands of fraudulent ballots into the 2020 election in Michigan. GBI Strategies had “canvassers” working in several black-majority cities in Michigan, including Flint, Benton Harbor, Ypsilanti, Inkster, Southfield, Muskegon, Lansing, and Saginaw.

The FBI took over the GBI investigation in where it went to die.

An official with GBI, Brianna Hawkins, admitted to police that the group turned in hundreds of fake registrations and was operating in several states and Washington DC.

OHIO

In August 2024, The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections turned over several suspicious voter registration applications Ohio Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Division. According to Hamilton County Board of Elections members, the voter registrations in question were recently turned in by the self-described “progressive” voter registration organization Black Fork Strategies. Hamilton County Director of Elections Sherry Poland held up a large stack of voter registrations during a local meeting about an inch thick to show how many registrations one canvasser from Black Fork Strategies turned in with that all appeared to have the same handwriting. The investigation was turned over to the Secretary of State.

In June 2026, the FBI raided the headquarters of Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), as part of an ongoing federal investigation into suspected ballot harvesting and voter fraud operations in the key swing state of Ohio.

ARIZONA

 According to the far-left media outlet, Arizona Central, Maricopa County officials reported that 90,000 registration forms were turned in by a third-party group on the last day of voter registration (October 7) in the state. This tends to be a similar practice to other leftist registration harvesting groups – dumping thousands on state clerks around the cut off date for registering to vote.

According to the Arizona Republic 40,000 of the registrations or almost half of the total were damaged or incomplete and could not be used.

Maricopa Spokesperson Taylor Kinnerup said many forms were dated weeks prior. Arizona state law mandates that third-party groups submit registration forms to election officials “within five days” of collecting the forms from voters. So this was another infraction by the group.

The Arizona Central reported:

Officials said up to 90,000 forms were submitted by third-party groups on the last day of voter registration before the upcoming election, far more than Recorder’s Office staff expected. Since then, about 50,000 forms have been processed, although some were incomplete and require voters to provide additional information.

But the remainder — an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 forms — were entirely unusable because they were torn, wet or otherwise damaged…

…Voters who didn’t completely fill out their registration form or who filled out a form that ended up damaged may have to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.

The third-party group that dumped the thousands of registrations on the final day of registering pays their employees by the number of ballots the turn in. So they are incentivizing the fraud.

It should be clear at this point that this is how Democrats are finding their new voters. It also appears the majority of these “new registrations” may be fake or belong to non-existent persons.

The post Trump Highlights Illicit Democrat-Aligned Michigan Voter Registration Group in Thursday Address – But Several More Similar Leftist Groups Are Operating Throughout the Country appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

House Republican have put in a request to the Trump Justice Department for a formal investigation of the Zohran Mamdani administration over their attempt to hold a meeting with the Iranian regime’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The Gateway Pundit reported last week:

Commissioner Ana María Archila, head of the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, had scheduled the meeting for July 7 at 11 a.m. at 2 United Nations Plaza with Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN.

Two other senior officials from the office were also set to attend, according to calendar invitation screenshots reviewed by City Journal and confirmed by multiple sources, including a State Department official.

The meeting was called off only after the U.S. State Department, which had not been informed in advance, stepped in and met with the Mamdani administration to “clarify acceptable conduct,” according to City Journal.

House Republicans claim this is a potential violation of the Logan Act.

Breitbart News reports:

A request for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration for potential violations of the Logan Act has been filed by House Republicans, led by Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC).

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche received the letter on Thursday morning after it was revealed that a senior Mamdani official attempted to organize an unauthorized meeting with a high-ranking member of the Iranian regime while the country remains at war with the United States.

The other lawmakers who signed on to the letter are Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Earl Carter (R-GA), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Randy Fine (R-FL), Clay Fuller (R-GA), Pat Harrigan (R-NC), Wesley Hunt (R-TX), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Richard McCormick (R-GA), Max Miller (R-OH), Riley Moore (R-WV), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Claudia Tenney (R-NY).

“We write with concern about the recent actions of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Administration,” McDowell wrote. “Last week, media outlets began to report Commissioner Ana María Archila, the head of the New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, had scheduled a July 7 meeting with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani.”

Mamdani has only been in office for six months but his behavior already suggests that he sees New York City as somehow separate from the United States, as if it were its own sovereign nation. It is not and he should be reminded of that fact. Harshly.

The post REPORT: House Republicans Launching Investigation of the Mamdani Administration Over Attempt to Hold Meeting With Officials From Iran appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.