Free Republic

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced on Friday that the coronavirus has been declared a public health emergency in the U.S. Beginning at 5 p.m. on Feb. 2, U.S. citizens returning from Wuhan will be subject to quarantine. Azar said that President Trump is also temporarily suspending entry into the U.S. for foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the virus.

Stocks fell sharply on Friday, wiping out the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gain for January, as investors grew increasingly worried about the potential economic impact of China’s fast-spreading coronavirus. The Dow dropped 603.41 points, or 2.1%, to 28,256.03 in the 30-stock average’s worst day since August. The S&P 500 had its worst day since October, falling 1.8% to 3,225.52. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.6% to 9,150.94...

Ever since history began, man fallen away from Paradise has tried to kill God. Since the time of the fall, God’s presence has been an unbearable wound for man, a cunning killer. It triggered the memory of Paradise lost, filling him with pain and indignation; it became his inner revolt when he recalled how beautiful and good he had been; it triggered the gnashing of his teeth at the thought of the lost Father’s embrace, in which Adam had leaned his head on the Father’s bosom and heard God’s heartbeat. Orphaned, amidst the thorns of the earth and his own...

The United Nations’ World Health Organization on Jan. 9 announced an outbreak of a new—or novel—coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China. In the three weeks since the announcement, the virus has intensified in China, infecting thousands there and is now spreading across the globe, far beyond its origin in Hubei province. Indeed, this new coronavirus has taken nearly 200 lives in China. As Chinese public health officials strive to contain the virus, it’s important to identify three early lessons that can be drawn from the outbreak and the initial response to it to prevent this Chinese epidemic—and others that will undoubtedly...

The American people have the former national security advisor to blame for the presence of the self-serving brothers on the National Security Council staff. During his four decades as an accumulator of power in the nation’s capital, a holder of high offices in the State Department, and finally a stint as President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton has been well known for his scrupulous attention to the hiring and firing of his staff. He always has demanded unwavering personal loyalty as well as fealty to his own—not his president’s—policy agenda. He has performed the most rigorous vetting on all...

Live from WH press room. Running a little behind. Key Points The Trump administration will hold a briefing about the coronavirus outbreak Friday afternoon at the White House. It will involve members of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, which includes national security advisor Robert O’Brien, Health Secretary Alex Azar and other leading officials. It is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. You can watch it here.

RUSH: It is so pleasing. I have to admit, it is so satisfying to see all of my predictions about what the Democrats are gonna do come true. Even after 31 years, folks, it still provides imminence pleasure when I am able to tell you in advance what they’re gonna do, and then they do it. What I’m specifically talking about is Chuck You Schumer. We just heard Chuck You Schumer lay out what the Democrats are gonna be saying from now to the election. What did I tell you yesterday? What did I say the day before? They’re gonna...

When the President is acquitted of these two charges will double jeopardy be in effect here regarding the abuse of power charge specifically towards the Ukraine issue?

The six countries being added to the list are Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sudan. Those are added to the current seven included in the ban: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Britain officially leaves the EU tonight at 2300 GMT (6pm EST / 3pm PST). Live coverage from the UK's Sky News.

... [W]hat will get the Trump [campaign] working at full throttle is the central message of the Sanders campaign: that the United States needs a political revolution. It may very well need one. But most people don’t think so, as Barack Obama has argued. And getting two million new progressive votes in the usual area codes is not going to change that. ... But some of his other ideas are stillborn, or never get beyond the fringe. Socialism, despite its flavor-of-the-month appeal to young people, is not popular with the general public. Just 39 percent of Americans view socialism positively,...

(Michael Brace/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) _____________________________________________________________ Deep inside our DNA lurks a legacy of lust and romance between estranged human bloodlines reconnecting on an epic journey around the globe. It now seems we might have been misreading key details in this erotic tale. A new method for analysing our genomes for traces of Neanderthal genes has revealed modern African populations – long assumed to be Neanderthal-free – also have a mixed heritage after all. "This is the first time we can detect the actual signal of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans," says geneticist Lu Chen from Princeton University in the US. "And...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31 (C-Fam) Last November at a summit in Nairobi, the UN Population Fund announced that it would take $264 billion to reduce global maternal deaths and protect women and girls from violence. The agency just released a publication outlining the details of how the billions would be spent—and the fine print includes abortion. One of the enduring legacies of ICPD in 1994 is the compromise that was struck among nations: that the legal status of abortion was for national governments to determine, and that where legal, it should be “safe.” In the past quarter century, the same...

Shifty Schiff gave short shrift to his unconstitutional/unauthorized 'impeachment inquiry' (not to mention that he totally deprived the accused his constitutionally guaranteed due process rights) and he brought his incomplete case to the senate (ie, the jury) and expects the senate now to re-open discovery and bring new witnesses and new documents to make HIS case. No thank you! You presented your case to the jury and failed to convince them. You lost. Sit down and shut up! Your time is up. The senate should vote tonight and end this farce without giving the media any more time for jury...

After more than three years of shock, hyperbole, bitter recrimination, political tomfoolery and, most of all, uncertainty, Britain is leaving the European Union today. Now a reality, Brexit feels like nothing so much as the final scene of the classic movie, “The Graduate,” where, after Katherine Ross jilts her fiance at the altar and flees with Dustin Hoffman, the two lovebirds hop on a bus, look around, and are utterly baffled about what to do next.

One of the most common and beloved tropes on a reality show comes when a contestant announces, often with a melodramatic flourish, that they are “not here to make friends.” It’s an ingenious and endlessly useful phrase — one that is both recognizably true (the contestant’s only real goal is victory) and terrifying in its implications... they'll do whatever it takes to become become the bachelorette. I thought of the phrase on Wednesday while reading Mark Zuckerberg’s comments, during Facebook’s quarterly earnings call, about his new goal for the 2020s. He said (emphasis mine):“We’re also focused on communicating more clearly...

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been transferred out of solitary confinement in a British prison, where he has been waiting for his extradition trial for over nine months. That’s according to canberratimes.com.au. Assange’s contact and access to visitors was severely limited in what many saw as a punitive action, according to the story. If he is extradited to the United States, he will face charges of spying and conspiracy. Some consider it a landmark test of the protection of journalists’ sources. Assange critics claim he is not a journalist. Assange’s legal team and other inmates reportedly led the effort to...

The XQ-5A Valkyrie on a 2019 test flight AFRL ____________________________________________________________________ The jet-powered XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator drone has returned to the air three months after being damaged in a landing mishap. On January 23, the unmanned aircraft being developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions completed its fourth flight test at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The fourth in a planned schedule of five flights, the most recent test was designed to push the performance envelope of the Valkyrie. In particular, the flight took the drone to its highest altitude yet as engineers collected...

Last yearJoe Biden bragged about how he coerced Ukraine into firing its top prosecutor Victor Shokin by threatening that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees from them. While this type of interference in a foreign government by the then-Vice President of the United States is highly inappropriate in itself, what makes it even worse is that the prosecutor he got fired was probing a firm for which his son Hunter Biden worked. On Tuesday fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin filed an official complaint against Joe Biden for interference in Ukraine’s legal proceedings.  Yesterday Rudy Giuliani...

Why the heck are we delaying voting until next week. Gives commie/libs more time to make up more lies and bring forth more fake whistleblowers!