National Affairs

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were safely evacuated from the governor’s residence early Sunday morning after a fire broke out that authorities later determined to be the result of an intentional arson attack involving Molotov cocktails.

The suspect, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, has been charged in connection with the incident, which caused significant damage to the governor’s residence in Harrisburg.

No injuries were reported, and the family’s two dogs were also safely removed from the building during the early morning response by police and firefighters.

According to law enforcement, Balmer called 911 following the attack, identified himself by name, and made statements referencing Governor Shapiro’s position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“Shapiro needs to know he ‘…will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,’” Balmer told the 911 operator, according to a search warrant filed by Pennsylvania State Police.

The warrant also quoted Balmer saying, “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” and indicated that he spoke in a manner that appeared to be scripted.

Authorities said these statements, combined with other evidence, indicate that the attack was politically and religiously motivated.

The man accused of setting fire to Governor Shapiro’s residence while his family slept inside confessed that he did it in support of Palestine.

You get that? He planned to burn a Jewish family alive—for Palestine.

The suspect, Cody Balmer, called 911 after the attack early… pic.twitter.com/k0NvnKcSeZ

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 16, 2025

Corporal Benjamin Forsythe wrote in the affidavit that Balmer targeted the governor “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine,” and also cited Shapiro’s Jewish faith as a factor in the attack, though the warrant did not provide additional details regarding how religion influenced the motive.

The fire at the governor’s residence was reported shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday.

Emergency crews arrived on the scene and quickly evacuated the residence while working to contain the blaze.

The local fire chief later said the outcome could have been far worse if certain doors in the residence had not been closed, which prevented the fire from spreading further throughout the home.

In addition to the 911 call and physical evidence from the scene, law enforcement cited troubling content found on Balmer’s social media accounts.

According to reports, he had posted images of himself pointing a firearm at the camera, and shared photos of Molotov cocktails and other incendiary imagery.

A probable cause affidavit also stated that Balmer allegedly planned to physically assault Governor Shapiro with a hammer if he encountered him during the incident.

News outlets have also reported that online activity linked to someone with the same name as Balmer includes statements identifying as a “registered socialist,” support for Black Lives Matter, and criticism of the MAGA movement.

BREAKING: Leaked messages from Cody Balmer.. He's a Democrat. pic.twitter.com/Vlqk7ztmG0

— aka (@akafaceUS) April 14, 2025

While Balmer had reportedly expressed criticism of both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the suspect’s statements and online activity have drawn increased scrutiny following the attack.

The arson occurred during Passover, which prompted initial speculation that the timing may have been intentional.

Investigators have since confirmed that religious and political motives are central to their understanding of the case.

Governor Shapiro’s office has not issued a detailed statement since the attack but confirmed that the governor, his wife, and children were unharmed and grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their swift actions.

Federal and state agencies continue to investigate the incident. Balmer remains in custody as the legal process moves forward.

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CNN’s Scott Jennings slammed Democrats defending Harvard University after President Trump threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding.  He pointed out how disturbing it would be for Americans to realize they’re funding an elite university with an endowment rivaling the budget of a small country.

“I think, as a political matter, if you went out to the American people right now and said ‘well, we’re just not gonna make it as a country unless we give $9 billion to Harvard, it’s sitting on $53 billion.’ You’d get your ass kicked, I imagine, in a political campaign,”

"If you went out and argued to the American people right now and said, well, we're just not going to make it as a country unless we give $9 billion to Harvard, that's sitting on $53 billion, you'd get your ass kicked. I imagine, in a political campaign."

Scott Jennings is right. pic.twitter.com/9203Ev2EdG

— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) April 15, 2025

Jennings added that while these universities “do important work,” there was no justification to keep funding institutions that disregard the will of the American people.

“… I don’t agree that we need to continue to fund people who don’t listen to us when we say ‘you have problems.’”

“I would argue that it’s a national security problem that these Ivy League colleges are turning out people who fundamentally hate Western civilization. So there are points to be made here, and they need to listen.”

It is unacceptable that Americans should continue funding these liberal universities that continue to advance an anti-American agenda. 

Trump had requested Harvard to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and take action against anti-semitic protesters. However, the university refused to comply, forcing the administration to cut $2.2 billion of the $9 billion in federal funding and $60 million worth of contracts. 

Trump, who described the university as a “joke,” has also threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status, which seems reasonable move for an institution that charges over $50,000 per year in tuition.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration wrote a joint letter accusing the oldest and wealthiest university of failing to live up to its expectations.

“Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”

They requested that the university take several actions to correct the situation, including ending DEI hiring and admission practices by August 2025.

The demand letter also requested Harvard to reform its admission criteria to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”

No matter how Democrats try to spin it, those demands were reasonable for any institution that truly respects and upholds American values and intends to benefit from the same for the foreseeable future. 

Nonetheless, Harvard is seemingly unwilling to comply with those demands, which it termed as “an attempt to control the Harvard community.” 

“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

Ironically, Harvard may have justified the federal funding freeze by emphasizing its status as a “private institution.”

Michigan U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Waterford Township, wants the federal government to step in when the state’s monopoly utilities struggle to restore power following severe weather. Stevens recently introduced the Prolonged Power Outage Relief Act to expand federal disaster assistance to include outages impacting more than 25 businesses or homes for more than 48 hours.

The amendment to the Small Business Act would allow those impacted to apply for low-interest loans to repair or replace appliances, machinery, or equipment or to purchase generators and other power sources to mitigate future outages.

“After ice storms and tornadoes swept our state earlier this month, it is more important than ever to make sure Michiganders have the support they need to continue to care for their families,” Stevens said in a statement.

“That’s why I introduced the Prolonged Power Outage Relief Act, because at a time where prices are on the rise, families and small businesses shouldn’t have to shoulder the cost of power outages alone,” she said. “Keeping businesses open and families fed is key to ensuring that storms don’t cause long-term financial hardship for Michiganders, and I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation to get the job done.”

Read the Full Article at The Midwesterner.

Valerio Pucci / Shutterstock.com

Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk shared a post on X Wednesday detailing how Gen Z is not participating in the allegedly paid-for protests occurring across the country.

“They were told college was the only way to succeed. LIE,” Kirk posted. “They were told they’d never own a home and like it. LIE. Young men were told they were toxic. LIE. Young women were told to be childless boss babes to be happy. LIE.”

Gen Z is not participating with the astro-turfed, bought and paid for "Hands Off!" protests because they know it's a scam.

They were told college was the only way to succeed. LIE

They were told they'd never own a home and like it. LIE

Young men were told they were toxic. LIE… pic.twitter.com/gozahLV8Po

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 8, 2025

His comments come after several ongoing weeks of what appear to be paid-for protests happening across the country. Most of the protests are aimed at President Donald Trump and DOGE’s Elon Musk, who’ve uncovered huge amounts of normalized government waste and corruption, culminating in most of the major issues we’re facing today. The protests were organized by a group that calls themselves pro-democracy and favors progressive ideologies, but as the American people legally democratically voted to elected Trump and his cabinet, it is still unclear what these people think they’re protesting.

Why Gen Z Doesn’t Care About The Progressive Movements

“They are part of a generation that has been demonized by older generations that sold them out, belittled them, and borrowed off their backs. Their parents and grandparents inherited a rich, powerful America only to hand them a weakened, debt-riddled country, divided over gender, race, class and every other abstraction invented in a university they graduated from with no debt but now costs $75,000 a year plus interest. They were told to downsize the American Dream or abandon it altogether,” Kirk explained in his post.

“Wave after new wave of young people are rejecting the lies of the Boomer left. They’re choosing a rebirth of freedom and opportunity. I see it with my own eyes every week on college campuses across America. The kids are waking up.”

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing a potential criminal referral following revelations that Facebook was willing to grant the Chinese Communist Party access to the data of Americans.

As we reported on Thursday, Sarah Wynn-Williams, META’s former director of global public policy, made a series of shocking allegations against her former employer, claiming the company briefed the CCP on advanced U.S. technologies.

Wynn-Williams claimed Zuckerberg did everything and anything he could to cozy up to China, which put America’s security at risk.

During her testimony to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, the Facebook whistleblower said Zuckerberg sought “to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion business in China.”

“There’s a straight line you can draw from these briefings to the recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use,” she said.

She also highlighted that China was given access to user data of Americans who interfaced with Chinese citizens, whose data was kept by the Chinese government.

Watch:

And here you have it, straight from a former Facebook employee . . .

Meta was willing to store data in China & give the Chinese government access to it

To hell with Americans' user data and personal information

It's always been profit & power for Meta pic.twitter.com/zgd4f3LQ7a

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 9, 2025

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said the revelations could lead to a criminal referral against Zuckerberg.

Hawley posted on X:

“And here you have it, straight from a former Facebook employee … Meta was willing to store data in China & give the Chinese government access to it … To hell with Americans’ user data and personal information.

It’s always been profit & power for Meta.”

He continued:

“This is extraordinary. This is exactly contrary to what Facebook has represented for years,” Hawley said in a video shared with his post.

Watch:

What our investigation has revealed – Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg did business with the Chinese Communist Party, built censorship tools for them, and turned over user data – and lied about it to Congress & the American people. Now it’s time for consequences pic.twitter.com/cJwAYJ2sgj

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 10, 2025

“Here they’re willing to build data centers [to] store data in China. They’re willing explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it,” he said.

“And if that means that American user data is also compromised, they’re willing to do that, too. All for profits in China. There was virtually nothing they weren’t willing to do.”

However, Hawley believes there is more to uncover.

“They’re flying CCP officials to the United States and doing meetings, I mean, that is something. So I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Hawley said, according to NOTUS.

“We may need to refer him to the Department of Justice. We’ll look and see if there are other instances that we need to be pursuing in that regard,” Hawley said.

He also noted that Zuckerberg’s previous testimony about Meta’s partnership with China was “at best highly misleading.”

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also weighed in, saying that “American people are going to be pretty outraged that Mark Zuckerberg sold out America with China and that he imperiled our national security.”

Hawley said he had written to Zuckerberg to testify about Facebook’s cozy relationship with China.

“After yesterday’s shocking revelations, it’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to come to Capitol Hill, take an oath, and answer to America for how he has sold out our country’s security for China profits,” Hawley posted on X, along with a copy of his letter to Zuckerberg.

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Another high-ranking potential DEI hire was kicked out of the military for contradicting the chain of command in a completely woke fashion.

Commander of the U.S. 821st Space Base Group at Pituffik in Greenland, Space Force Col. Susannah Meyers, demonstrated unparalleled hatred for her country by apologizing for Vice President JD Vance’s visit. Trump and Vance have expressed interest in taking over the Denmark-owned territory for national security reasons. The duo has also expressed support for the inhabitants’ right to self-determination.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple,” Vance said at the space base. “You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security of this incredible, beautiful landmass.”

However, the colonel contradicted Vance’s speech, which criticized Denmark’s handling of the territory, saying it did not reflect the military base’s position. She also offered a lasting promise of friendship.

“[I] spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you,” Meyers said in an email sent to all base personnel,  those from Denmark and Greenland.

“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”

“I commit that, for as long as I am lucky enough to lead this base, all of our flags will fly proudly — together.”  

Col. Susan Meyers, commander of the 821st Space Base Group which oversees the military base in Pituffik, Greenland sent out an email to people working on the base after JD Vance’s visit.

She wrote that she "spent the weekend thinking about Friday's visit — the actions taken,… pic.twitter.com/33DQj3l1Ff

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 10, 2025

The speech sounds like it was crafted at the Democratic Party headquarters and simply handed to her to deliver in an attempt to discredit the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

Nonetheless, the consequences of overstepping her authority were swift and unforgiving. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell reacted in a blistering response. 

“Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense,” he stated.

Col. Meyers was subsequently removed from her position by Space Base 1 commander Col. Kenneth Klock “for loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”

“Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” the firing notice reiterated.

Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump's agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.

⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/ITFeGw0kUf pic.twitter.com/MO68aje1X2

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellATSD) April 11, 2025

Department of Defense Chief of Staff Joe Kasper told Military.com that “civilian control of the military is a bedrock principle of our armed forces.” Arguably, undermining the civilian chain of command by a military officer borders on rebellion. Similarly, a military officer has no authority to decide the country’s foreign policy or how the military should respond in any given situation.

While Trump is optimistic that the United States could take control of Greenland peacefully, he has not ruled out any option. Thus, the military official should be investigated for gross insubordination or even treason for making a military declaration contradicting the Commander in Chief. 

Meanwhile, Col. Meyers is the latest woke commander to be kicked out of the military. On April 9, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the removal of U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield from her position as the U.S. representative to NATO’s Military Committee for what he called “a loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”

However, some Democrats alleged the admiral was fired for refusing to hang Trump’s and Hegseth’s pictures, which sounds like insubordination. Seemingly, some liberals have no problem with military officers disobeying lawful orders. 

Others relieved of their duties since Trump took over include Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, and Cyber Command’s Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh.

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is begging President Donald Trump to undo his executive order and rejoin the UN-run agency.

The U.S. formally withdrew from the WHO after President Trump issued an executive order earlier this year.

Trump cited the agency’s failure to hold China accountable and its role in pushing radical globalist health agendas as key reasons for the decision.

The U.S. has since halted all funding to the WHO, redirecting resources to domestic health initiatives that prioritize American interests.

At a Thursday press conference in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pleaded for the U.S. to rejoin the agency, claiming it was in the country’s “best interest” to remain.

Tedros said:

“I hope there will be some formal engagement for a very honest and candid dialogue for the U.S. to come back to the World Health Organization.

I’ve said it many times: the U.S. withdrawal from WHO is a lose-lose.

It’s in the best interest of the U.S. to stay in WHO. It’s a matter of health security — one that keeps the U.S. safe, and the rest of the world safe, by being part of the WHO.

It also has many other benefits for the U.S. to remain within the WHO family.

All the investments it has made are in its own best interest. That’s what we believe, and I hope they will reconsider and rejoin the WHO family.”

In March, the WHO began major staffing cuts and financial restructuring due to a lack of funds.

The Trump administration accused the global health agency of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises after Trump signed the executive order to end its funding.

President Trump noted how the U.S. “paid $500 million” to the WHO and highlighted how China was paying significantly less, which he deemed “a little unfair.”

Trump said:

“That’s a big one. So, we paid $500 million to [the] World Health Organization when I was here, and I terminated it.

China, with 1.4 billion people, we have 350 … nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally.

But, let’s say we have 325, they have 1.4 billion, they were paying $39 million, we were paying $500 million.

Seemed a little unfair to me, so that wasn’t the reason, but I dropped out.”

Faced with an income gap of nearly $600 million this year, the WHO has proposed slashing its budget for 2026–27 by 21%, from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.

According to the note, the WHO’s executive board reduced the proposed budget for 2026–27 from $5.3 billion to $4.9 billion in February.

🚨 President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization pic.twitter.com/YyKYMP53Ur

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2025

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A newly surfaced set of leaked documents reveals that a violent criminal organization from Venezuela, Tren de Aragua (TdA), may be operating in the United States with the backing of the Venezuelan regime led by Nicolás Maduro.

Television host and independent journalist Emerald Robinson published the documents on her Substack platform, outlining evidence that connects Tren de Aragua not only to drug trafficking and gang violence, but also to broader geopolitical goals involving the destabilization of democratic nations, including the United States.

Immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization through an executive order that described its ties to the Venezuelan government.

The order stated:

“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”

While Tren de Aragua has long been known as a violent criminal enterprise originating in Venezuela, the newly leaked briefing paints a broader picture.

According to the materials shared by Robinson, the organization operates as a paramilitary arm of Maduro’s socialist regime, working in coordination with military intelligence.

The leaked briefing reportedly provided to Trump administration officials in recent months describes the operational framework used by Tren de Aragua to enter the United States.

According to the documents, members of the group travel through various foreign countries before illegally crossing into the U.S. Once inside, they are dispersed into safe houses located across 20 different American cities.

The purpose of their entry, the documents claim, is to undermine domestic security and assist the Maduro regime in its broader objective of destabilizing Western democracies.

Robinson wrote:

“According to the briefing, the TdA members move from Venezuela through several foreign nations before entering the USA illegally and being spread out in safe houses in 20 different cities. For what reason? TdA members have come to the USA in large numbers to undermine our public safety and support ‘the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the USA.’”

The leaked intelligence further alleges that the gang’s operations are being supported by approximately 300 military intelligence officers, all tied to Venezuela’s regime.

These officers reportedly train TdA operatives in riot tactics, sabotage, espionage, and other forms of urban disruption.

Robinson added:

“How do you know it’s a hostile foreign army? Because TdA terrorists are supported by 300 military intelligence officers who train them to engage in ‘riots, sabotage, disinformation, espionage, social conflict, and armed aggression’ inside the USA.”

BREAKING: Trump Declares Venezuelan Narco-Terror Group ‘Tren de Aragua’ a Foreign Terrorist Organization

A new report reveals Tren de Aragua, a paramilitary wing of the Maduro regime, is operating in secret across 20 U.S. cities, conducting irregular warfare, sabotage, and… pic.twitter.com/sJHpDwQlqh

— LindellTV (@RealLindellTV) April 8, 2025

The documents also identify a senior figure within Venezuela’s intelligence ranks who is connected to the Cártel de los Soles — one of the largest drug cartels in the world.

This individual reportedly serves as the link between Tren de Aragua, the Maduro regime, and other transnational criminal groups.

Despite the serious implications of these findings, deportation efforts targeting TdA members have drawn criticism from left-wing activists and elected officials.

In particular, attention has turned to the CECOT maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where some TdA agents have been transferred.

Critics have focused on conditions at the facility rather than the criminal backgrounds of those detained.

The leaked documents raise questions about national security and border enforcement policies in place under the previous administration.

With millions of individuals having crossed the border since 2021, including during the early years of Joe Biden’s term, the possibility of embedded foreign operatives has become a renewed topic of concern among intelligence analysts.

Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security has released a formal statement in response to the documents as of Wednesday.

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Sarah Wynn-Williams, META‘s former director of global public policy, dropped a devastating bombshell during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism this week.

Wynn-Williams, who has since become a whistleblower against the big tech giant, made a series of shocking allegations against her former employer.

The former META director claimed that her company briefed the Chinese Communist Party on advanced U.S. technologies—including AI—just to get a seat at Beijing’s lucrative tech table, while putting America at risk.

“These briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence – explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies,” said Wynn-Williams, according to the New York Post.

“There’s a straight line you can draw from these briefings to the recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s Llama model,” she added.

On the surface, Project Aldrin was presented as Meta’s covert initiative to enter the Chinese market, but Wynn-Williams claimed there was much more to it.

Meta’s briefings helped the CCP by giving them insight into emerging technologies in the U.S., Wynn-Williams said.

She also revealed that Meta built a censorship engine for the CCP and took down accounts belonging to Chinese dissident Guo Wengui.

Below is Wynn-Williams’ opening statement:

“My name is Sarah Wynne-Williams, and I served as the Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook, now Meta, for nearly seven years, starting in 2011. Throughout those seven years, I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine U.S. national security and betray American values. They did these things in secret to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion business in China.

We are engaged in a high-stakes AI arms race against China. During my time at Meta, company executives lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public. I sit before this committee today to set the record straight about these illegal and dangerous activities.

Meta’s dishonesty started with a betrayal of core American values. Mark Zuckerberg pledged himself a free speech champion, yet I witnessed Meta work hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics. When Beijing demanded that Facebook delete the account of a prominent Chinese dissident living on American soil, they did it—and then lied to Congress when asked about the incident in a Senate hearing.

The willingness to censor was not the only troubling thing I witnessed. I watched as executives decided to provide the Chinese Communist Party with access to Meta user data, including that of Americans. Meta does not dispute these facts. They can’t. I have the documents.

As recently as this Monday, they claimed that they do not operate their services in China—another lie. In fact, they began offering products and services in China as early as 2014. That hasn’t stopped. Their own SEC filings from last year show that China is now Meta’s second-biggest market.

Meanwhile, Meta’s AI model, LLaMA, has contributed significantly to Chinese advances in AI technologies like DeepSeek. Facebook’s secret mission to get into China was called Project Aldrin and was restricted to need-to-know staff. There was no bridge too far. Meta built a physical pipeline connecting the United States and China.

Meta executives ignored warnings that this would provide backdoor access to the Chinese Communist Party, allowing them to intercept the personal data and private messages of American citizens. The only reason China does not currently have access to U.S. user data through this pipeline is because Congress stepped in. Meta started briefing the Chinese Communist Party as early as 2015. These briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence—

The explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies. There’s a straight line you can draw from these briefings to the recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s LLaMA model.

Meta’s internal documents describe their sales pitch for why China should allow them into the market by, quote, “helping China increase global influence and promote the China Dream.”

The truth about what has gone on in China matters. I filed a shareholder resolution asking Meta’s board to investigate its activity in China, and I filed whistleblower complaints with the SEC and the DOJ.

The measure of how important these truths are is directly proportionate to the ferocity of Meta’s efforts to censor and intimidate me. I relied on their commitment given in 2018 that they would waive their rights to pursue forced arbitration. Despite that public commitment, they brought a case against me for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, they have a legal gag order that silences me—even as Meta and their proxies spread lies about me. This order is so expansive that it prohibits me from speaking with members of Congress. The gag order was sought by a company whose CEO claims to be a champion of free speech.

The American people deserve to know the truth. Meta has been willing to compromise its values, sacrifice the security of its users, and undermine American interests to build its China business.

It’s been happening for years, covered up by lies, and continues to this day. I am here at considerable personal risk because you have the power and the authority to hold them accountable.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) ripped Meta, calling its attempt to silence whistleblower Wynn-Williams a “corporate cover-up.”

“This is exactly contrary to what Facebook has represented for years. [And] here they’re willing to build data centers [to] store data in China. They’re willing explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it,” Hawley said.

“And if that means that American user data is also compromised, they’re willing to do that, too. All for profits in China. There was virtually nothing they weren’t willing to do.”

Watch:

Senator Hawley questions Meta whistleblower:

"Here, [Meta is] willing to build data centers, store data in China.

"They are willing explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it—& if that means American user data is also compromised, they're willing to do that." pic.twitter.com/dXjM3SQNay

— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) April 9, 2025

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The parents of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee and whistleblower, are disputing official findings that their son’s death was a suicide, alleging that a second gunshot wound to his head was missed in the initial autopsy.

Balaji was found dead in his apartment in the Mint Hill neighborhood of San Francisco on November 26.

Authorities initially reported that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

His death came just weeks after he reportedly provided information to The New York Times, alleging that OpenAI was engaging in copyright violations related to the training of its artificial intelligence systems.

Following the official ruling of suicide by the medical examiner, Balaji’s parents, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, raised concerns about the circumstances surrounding their son’s death.

The family immediately hired a private investigator and commissioned an independent autopsy, along with toxicology and additional forensic tests.

Update on @suchirbalaji

We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police.

Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him…

— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024

“He was happy, not depressed or anything. It was his birthday week. He made plans to see us in January,” Balaji’s father said during a press conference in December.

“How can anyone believe that there was no suicide note left? We have seen the blood shots in the bathroom, signs of fight.”

OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji didn’t kill himself. pic.twitter.com/zEJX9bhGJk

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 29, 2024

The couple now claims that the independent medical evaluation revealed evidence of a second bullet wound to their son’s head.

According to the Daily Mail, the family shared that CT scans were reviewed by two radiologists who were not informed of the case details in advance.

Both radiologists independently concluded that there appeared to be two gunshot wounds, neither of which was immediately fatal.

The family has not yet publicly released the full set of forensic reports but says the findings support their belief that Balaji was murdered.

They allege the motive was tied to his whistleblower disclosures regarding OpenAI’s internal practices.

Balaji had reportedly contacted The New York Times in October 2023 and disclosed information suggesting that OpenAI had engaged in practices that violated intellectual property laws while developing ChatGPT.

His concerns centered around the way data was allegedly scraped or utilized to train AI models, according to individuals familiar with the matter.

His body was discovered next to the bathroom door, with significant blood evidence found throughout parts of the apartment.

The initial investigation by San Francisco authorities did not indicate foul play at the time.

The claim of a second gunshot wound raises new questions about the thoroughness of the initial autopsy.

As of now, no criminal investigation has been announced by local authorities.

The case remains officially classified as a suicide.

Balaji’s parents say they will continue to press for answers and are urging officials to conduct a formal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding their son’s death.

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