Free Republic

LIMA - Peru's port authority said it hopes to fix an "administrative error" that gave China's Cosco Shipping exclusivity over operations at the new Chancay megaport. The National Port Authority (APN) said in a statement late on Friday that it has requested the annulment of its own decision in February 2021 that granted Cosco exclusivity, through a judicial process. The authority said the legal process would not affect the port's construction in northern Peru and it still plans to begin operations at the end of the year. "The construction process and the future operation of the Chancay Port Terminal will...

Several recent vetoes seem out of character, even at the national level for Dems. Free condoms for high school kids. Housing bill that would have declared it a human right. Decriminalize psychedelics. Custody courts must consider gender affirming. Ban caste discrimination.

Major state-owned companies across China are setting up corporate militias under the direct management of local garrisons of the People’s Liberation Army, according to official reports. Shanghai Municipal Investment Group, a major property and infrastructure developer affiliated with the city government, held a formal opening ceremony on Sept. 28 for its new People’s Armed Forces department, which will be run by the People’s Liberation Army’s Shanghai garrison, according to reports in The Liberation Daily News and The Paper.

Eddie Brokenbough was struggling to make ends meet. The 46-year-old, whom relatives described as a dedicated father of 10, experienced difficulties finding a good-paying job because, like many Philadelphians, he had a criminal record. To supplement his income as a construction flagger, Brokenbough sometimes worked as a political canvasser, knocking on doors for organizations trying to get out the vote. On Monday, Brokenbough was fatally shot while canvassing for the progressive group One PA by another canvasser from the same organization after the two men had an altercation.

Walsh managed to regain control of his account. Meanwhile, several journalists contacted the hacker Doomed and reported on the hacking of Walsh's account. According to Walsh, several of these media outlets published private information obtained thanks to the Hacker. According to the conservative commentator, this constitutes a violation of his privacy and is a crime, so he will take legal action against the media and journalists involved in this matter.

Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz has held talks with Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Halliburton (HAL.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) about projects in Ukraine as the country looks to lure back foreign investment to its energy sector, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Oleksiy Chernyshov, chief executive of Naftogaz, told the FT that he held meetings in Washington with Halliburton and ExxonMobil in recent days.

Three major utility companies in California are looking to restructure customer billing, and part of that means customers could be charged based on how much money they make. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric filed a joint proposal this week for a flat-rate charge based on income. The plan would break monthly bills in two parts: The fixed-income rate, plus a reduced usage charge based on consumption. Under the proposal, it would cost as little as $15 a month for low-income households and up to $85 more per month for households making more...

A top Florida State University professor whose research focused on race in the criminal justice system abruptly left his post in the wake of years-long allegations of academic fraud. A Fellow of the American Society of Criminology, Eric Stewart has had six research studies retracted, blemishing FSU’s top-ranked criminology department. Stewart was first accused of falsifying data in 2019 by Professor Justin Pickett of the University of Albany, who co-authored a 2011 study with Stewart. The study tested if the public’s prejudicial views impacted their desire for harsher sentences for black and hispanic Americans. The published findings were that as...

BEIJING, April 6 (Reuters) - China's Fujian maritime safety administration launched a three-day special joint patrol and inspection operation in the central and northern parts of the Taiwan Strait that includes moves to board ships, it said on its WeChat account.

What is ACE otc? We are a dealer of over-the-counter political swaps, enabling eligible investors to hedge and/or speculate on the outcomes of certain events - in our case, political outcomes like elections, acts of Congress, regulatory decisions, and judicial opinions.

In 2020, Nature endorsed Joe Biden in the US presidential election. A survey finds that viewing the endorsement did not change people’s views of the candidates, but caused some to lose confidence in Nature and in US scientists generally. ***** Remainder is paywalled.

The current size of Ensign Peak’s holdings remains a tightly held secret. The firm, based in Salt Lake City, was incorporated in 1997. Under SEC rules, it must disclose some types of investments, like U.S.-listed stocks, that it manages directly, which amounted to roughly $40 billion on Sept. 30. The remainder of the portfolio is made up of investments such as fixed-income securities, private companies or funds. Ensign Peak had an estimated $100 billion of holdings in 2019.

Charles McGonigal, who had been the special agent in charge of the FBI‘s counterintelligence division in New York, is accused of taking secret payments from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch, according to court documents. Mr. McGonigal, 54, is one of the highest-ranking FBI officials ever charged with a crime. He faces one count of violating U.S. sanctions, one count of money laundering and two conspiracy counts.

the once-unknown, gum-chewing, no-nonsense West Virginian is infamous in Europe. European leaders, typically used to dealing with fellow heads of state, are now seeking facetime with the newfound Davos Man himself. They are getting plenty of it. ***** Manchin said that Scholz countered that the U.S. places too many penalties on European cars entering the American market. So the West Virginian pulled out his cellphone and Googled “tariff cost on autos in Germany.” In bold, the search engine’s front page excerpted the relevant part of a 2019 Deutsche Welle article: “US levies a 2.5 percent tariff on European auto imports,...

Counter-terrorism police have raided a home in western Germany after a man was suspected of preparing a terrorist attack with cyanide and ricin, officials say. The man was taken into custody. The operation took place on late Saturday night, just before midnight, when a heavily-armed team with protective clothing raided an apartment in Castrop-Rauxel, a small city in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The residence of a 32-year-old suspect, who is an Iranian citizen, was searched by order of a judge,” police said in a statement. “The accused is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence endangering the state by procuring...

The Moore County Sheriff’s Office says is investigating incidents at multiple electric substations in Moore County that were shot up on Saturday night as a “criminal occurrence,” causing more than half the county’s Workers from Duke Energy and authorities from the sheriff‘s office were at the substation off N.C. 211 near West Pine Middle School looking over the damage around midnight. Deputies were scanning the the area for bullet casings and other evidence, and vehicles were going through the woods in search of more evidence at the scene. In a text message to a reporter, Chief Mike Cameron of the...

More than 7,000 people were murdered over three months in South Africa, according to new police statistics, which showed a rise in violent crime from the same period last year. ***** Almost 1,000 women were among those murdered during the period in 2022. More than 13,000 women were also victims of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and 1,277 women were victims of attempted murder. “The rate at which women are abused, violated and some killed in South Africa remains worrying and unacceptable,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told a news conference. The figures also showed that kidnappings doubled...

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican on Saturday (Nov 26) accused Chinese authorities of violating a bilateral pact on the appointment of bishops by installing one in a diocese not recognised by the Holy See. A statement said the Vatican learned with "surprise and regret" that the bishop of another district had been installed as auxiliary, or assistant, bishop in Jiangxi.

President Biden ordered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to dismantle the Canadian Freedom Convoy over fears that the nationwide protests against vaccine mandates would start impacting trade in the United States, documents show. Biden’s request was made moments before Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, which the Prime Minister defended the controversial decision while testifying in Ottawa Superior Court on Friday.

Pigs in Las Vegas are once again feeding off of casino scraps after going without during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 closed many hotels and restaurants on the strip, limiting food that was sent to nearby livestock farms. That left many farmers struggling to feed their pigs. ***** about 90% of the pigs’ diet comes from casino food scraps. Now that restaurants are back up and running, pigs are now feasting again. "This month, on Friday, we will actually reach the number of pigs that we had pre-pandemic," farm manager Sarah Stallard told the...