Free Republic

Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday. Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans. It is too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but researchers said the tweets appeared aimed at sowing division in America. “We do know that it looks like it’s a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches...

The researchers used advanced ancient DNA capture techniques to retrieve ancient DNA from 25 individuals dating back 9,500-4,200 years and one individual dating back 300 years from northern and southern East Asia... Prof. FU and her team found that these Neolithic humans share the closest genetic relationship to present-day East Asians who belong to this "second layer." This suggests that by 9,500 years ago, the primary ancestries composing the genetic makeup of East Asians today could already be found in mainland East Asia. While more divergent ancestries can be found in Southeast Asia and the Japanese archipelago, in the Chinese...

Hong Kong’s football fans make a loud habit of booing China’s national anthem before matches kick off. As a special administrative region under the “one country, two systems” model, the city can compete in sporting events as Hong Kong, but China’s March of the Volunteers is the anthem that comes out through the speakers before games. It hasn’t tended to go down well in recent confrontational times and is usually greeted with a cacophonous and abusive response, but under proposed legislation anyone who doesn’t “stand and deport themselves respectfully” while it is playing, or who distorts or insults it in...

Hong Kong recently announced that it is extending the city’s coronavirus emergency restrictions until June 5. Yet only four people have died of covid-19 in Hong Kong, and the city has seen just three locally transmitted cases in the past month. So why extend the restrictions? Because June 4 is the anniversary of China’s brutal crackdown on peaceful democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Every year since 1990, Hong Kong residents have taken to the streets to commemorate the massacre. Now, Beijing is trying to prevent the annual march by declaring it a danger to public health. It’s just the latest...

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” King Lear enjoined, but this we must do to upend the wrath that has emanated from the most powerful foe America has faced. As terrible as the coronavirus crisis is, we must imagine a world ten or 20 years from now, in which the People’s Republic of China’s nominal gross domestic product is 50 percent larger than that of the United States.What power would an unconstrained China wield? What force of arms would they muster to intimidate and to control?If China’s actions in the coronavirus catastrophe offer any window into this...

Brian Dugan Yeargan sentenced to four weeks in prison after leaving hotel room for three hours to buy masks and thermometer An American cargo pilot who admitted to “poor judgment” in breaking a quarantine order to buy medical supplies has become the first foreigner imprisoned in Singapore for breaching its restrictions meant to curb the coronavirus. FedEx pilot Brian Dugan Yeargan, 44, from Eagle River in Alaska, was sentenced to four weeks on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to leaving his hotel room for three hours to buy masks and a thermometer. Singapore has one of the largest outbreaks in...

As the Trump administration seeks ways to penalize China for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, it need look no further than Tennessee. The Lewisburg, Tennessee-based American Bondholder Foundation holds $1.6 trillion of century-old Chinese debt, including interest, dating to before the founding of the communist People’s Republic of China, that it wants the administration's help in redeeming. There is an estimated $6 trillion or more of the debt outstanding worldwide. The bonds were issued by the Republic of China -- which ousted the imperial government in a coup -- as far back as 1912 and backed by gold; they...

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains of companies around the world and has made some of them reconsider the chain as this reliance on Chinese manufacturers has revealed vulnerabilities during the current situation. Hence, looking to diversify its production, Apple is reportedly looking to move nearly 1/5th of its production from China to India. A report by ET reveals that Apple executives have been in touch with Indian government officials for the last few months and are now considering the possibility of moving a considerable chunk of their manufacturing operations to India through Apple’s contract manufacturers. "We expect Apple...

It is a risky bet for US President Donald Trump’s administration to push for building advanced semiconductor factories in the US due to growing fears about the US’ heavy reliance on Asia for chip supply and potential disruptions from uncontrollable factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The US government is in discussions with chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), to build new fabs in the US to create a self-sufficiency in chips, the latest in a slew of Trump’s renewed “Make in the US” efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Even before the pandemic, the US had...

While the global economy remains in a state of near ubiquitous lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the US military has been busy. According to an update posted on the Pacific Air Forces website, a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber part of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron was one of two B-1s conducting a training mission in the South China Sea in support of Pacific Air Forces’ training efforts and “strategic deterrence missions to reinforce the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region.“ The training missions follows what Stars and Stripes described on April 30 as a “show of force” by...

The great waves of plague that twice devastated Europe and changed the course of history had their origins in China, a team of medical geneticists reported Sunday, as did a third plague outbreak that struck less harmfully in the 19th century.

The French government has been notably restrained in their criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for unleashing a pandemic upon the world.  One possible reason for their reticence is a single, highly embarrassing fact: They essentially built the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s P4 lab in which the coronavirus now sweeping the world was being researched, and from which it escaped.  That the French delivered the turn-key, high-containment biolab to China has long been public knowledge, but now a German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, has added riveting details to the story.  The insider information comes from interviews with French...

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is set to introduce a bill to help companies move their manufacturing from China to the United States as momentum builds for the country to “decouple” from the Chinese regime as a result of the pandemic. Green told The Epoch Times that his forthcoming bill would allow firms to deduct the entire cost of capital spending associated with relocating from China—known as “immediate expensing”—to lure companies to move to the United States. The bill would pay for this with money collected from U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, he proposed. The idea of covering 100 percent of...

Crazy footage has emerged showing a monkey riding-up on a motorcycle and trying to snatch a toddler. Warning: Distressing content.

Earlier I wrote about the Chinese government’s concern over the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment building around the world because of the coronavirus pandemic. A recent think tank report said the backlash could be the worst China has faced since Tiananmen Square in 1989. But it’s not just the external backlash that has China worried. The government is also trying to crack down on internal dissent from people who are understandably angry that their relatives died in the outbreak. Some had even tried to organize lawsuits but the police were quick to shut down those efforts. The Chinese authorities are...

Comrades, I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our party’s cause will be carried on. In answering the question, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations. Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the...

In our exultation, we forgot to finish the job. Communism lived on in mainland China, and is once again challenging the free world for dominance. When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved, the Western world thought, with considerable justification, that the generational struggle with communism had ended. But in our exultation, we forgot to finish the job. Communism lived on in mainland China and is once again challenging the free world for dominance.This time, theyÂ’re doing it with our money. As we have begun to realize these past few years, and as the coronavirus outbreak has made...

No immediate reports of casualties, say officials | A magnitude 5.0 earthquake jolted Indonesia's North Sulawesi province Thursday, according to the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG). BMKG said the earthquake’s epicenter was 66 kilometers (41 miles) northeast of Melonguane district in the Talaud Islands. The quake occurred 21 kilometers (13 miles) below the surface, it added. There were no immediate reports of casualties, said officials.

The coronavirus outbreak has already taken a great toll on the Chinese economy, with all headline readings pointing towards a record slowdown in growth during the first two months of the year. But there is an even greater danger for what was once the world’s fastest-growing major economy: that Covid-19 will become the catalyst that will bring its many long-simmering problems to the boil. At the centre of these problems is a rising systemic risk in its banking and financial systems caused by a high level of debt accrued over the past decade. The outbreak could not have occurred at...

Up to 50 residents in Sofia will be given a device that can record their movements using GPS satellite location data. Several nations are testing similar wristbands to make sure people are obeying orders to stay at home. South Korea and Hong Kong have also been using electronic trackers to help enforce quarantine. The trial in Bulgaria will use Comarch LifeWristbands, developed in Poland. As well as confirming a person is staying at home, the device can monitor the wearer's heart rate and be used to call the emergency services. The device was introduced after people were caught leaving their...