Free Republic

The Islamic Republic of Iran is involved in the illicit procurement of technology for weapons of mass destruction, the German intelligence agency for the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern wrote in its May report. In the 206-page report, that was reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, the intelligence agents wrote: “The fight against the illegal proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction and the materials needed for their manufacture, as well as the corresponding delivery systems [e.g. rockets], including the necessary knowledge, in cooperation with other authorities, is also the responsibility of counterintelligence.” The intelligence report continued, “From these...

Over the past week, two events occurred involving my kids that made me realize that America is failing our children. We are raising what might be the most closedminded and indoctrinated generation ever to grow up in this country. If we cannot course-correct and start teaching our kids to be open-minded, get informed and always be civil to those they oppose, then the current civic war rifling through our politics and social media lives will only grow worse as this generation comes to power. Let me explain. The first event occurred in California when my daughter and I were touring...

FLORENCE, S.C. – A new organization in South Carolina has made a mission out of making sure that those who are eligible take advantage of the earned income tax credit on their 2019 federal and state taxes. Working Hero South Carolina is a statewide campaign led Rania Jamison. The organization is an offshoot of a California-based organization founded by Joe Sanberg that has helped 2 million people receive more than $4 billion in state and federal taxes. “Working Hero Action was founded in California by a rags-to-riches guy named Joe Sanberg,” said Jamison, the state director of Working Hero South...

Lancaster County Council member Larry Honeycutt is no longer a Democrat. Honeycutt, elected to his fourth term in 2018, informed the local party Thursday that he was leaving. In an interview, the 81-year-old said he doesn’t plan to run for office again or join another political party. [photo caption] Lancaster County Council member Larry Honeycutt [photo credit: FILE PHOTO] “I’ve thought about this for some time, and I’ve done what I felt like in good conscience that I should do,” he said Friday. “I don’t plan to go back. I’m not going to join anyone else. I’m going to be...

Table of Contents Centralized Cashless Payments in China Facial Recognition to ‘Name and Shame’ Is Not Enough Push vs Pull Payments: Centralization vs Decentralization China Has Control Over Your Financial Sovereignty Like a scene from an Orwellian nightmare, authorities in Shenzhen China show where the future of centralized cashless payments is headed. And it isn’t pretty. CENTRALIZED CASHLESS PAYMENTS IN CHINA China is known for its high rate of technology adoption. Of the 2 billion or so smartphones around the world, two-thirds of them are in China. Unlike most users in the West, Chinese smartphones are particularly popular for making...

After seeing messages such as “Abortion is Murder, Upheld by Goulish Lawmakers,” “We Honor the Flag of the God Blessed Nation, Shame on the NFL” and others, a reader wrote to The Citizens’ Voice’s “Ask the Voice” series about whether a church can display political messages. The reader also asked how to report a violation, if in fact there was one...

... as Brazil reels from one of its worst-ever school shootings, the response from President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing administration and his supporters this week has been the opposite [oh how UK, Australia, Canada and Germany responded to their own school massacres over recent decades]: What Brazil needs, they say, is more guns... “...imagine if a decent person had been armed at that school. They could have stopped the attack from ending in the bloody way it did,” said Rogerio Mendonca, deputy leader of the governing bloc in the lower house of Congress.

[photo caption] M1A2 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles converge on a smoke signal during a live-fire exercise at Grafenwoehr, Germany, in March. President Trump is pushing a plan that demands allies pick up the full cost of hosting U.S. troops in their countries, plus a 50 percent premium for American protection, according to a news report. [photo credit; MARTIN EGNASH/STARS AND STRIPES] STUTTGART, Germany — President Donald Trump is pushing a plan that demands allies pick up the full cost of hosting U.S. troops in their countries, plus a 50 percent premium for the privilege of American protection, according...

North Korea is keen to have sanctions eased, as the country faces a dire food shortage, a former U.K. ambassador to North Korea said. [photo caption] Children wave from a window at a kindergarten in Samchon, North Korea, in this photo taken by a World Food Program official in October 2015. An estimated 11 million North Koreans, more than 43 percent of the country’s population, are undernourished, according to a U.N. report issued Wednesday. [photo credit: Korea Times file] After a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi last month failed to produce...

[p.A2 highlight] Set aside the absurd tweets. On big issues such as the United States-China rivalry and North Korea’s nuclear arms programme, US President Donald Trump offers a more realistic view of the world than America’s foreign policy establishment, says Professor Hugh White of the Australian National University. [p.A38] US President Donald Trump is the bane of America’s bipartisan foreign policy establishment. He consistently trashes the most fundamental principles and objectives that have guided America’s approach to the world, under both Republicans and Democrats, since the end of the Cold War almost 30 years ago. Washington’s policy experts in the...

[pp. S1742-3] By Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. Carper, Mr. Reed, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Markey, Mr. Schatz, Ms. Smith, Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Booker, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Merkley, and Mrs. Feinstein): S. 729. A bill to prohibit the use of funds to Federal agencies to establish a panel, task force, advisory committee, or other effort to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change, and for other purposes; read the first time. Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being...

Recent polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that although voters like the concept of Medicare for All, net favorability falls by almost 50 points when they are presented with hard truths such as the higher taxes, less provider choice, and increased wait times that will inevitably result

... western New York state ... assemblyman ... David DiPietro [R-East Aurora] ... last month ... introduced a bill that would divide New York into three autonomous regions, each controlled by its own governors and legislatures. He argues that what works for New York City is dragging the rest of the state into economic oblivion...

[Highlight] MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL - "There are some points that we don’t agree to yet, but I think we will agree. I think, when President Xi (Jinping) and myself meet, every point will be agreed to. We are going to have a great trade deal with China if it all works out... It is going to be great for both countries – not just us, not just them."- U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [Highlight] WORKING TOWARDS AN EARLY AGREEMENT - "I hope our two sides will continue to act in a spirit of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, and step up consultations...

North Korea has agreed to hand over a list of its still-unknown uranium and plutonium enrichment facilities inside the country, as its leader Kim Jong-un promised to dismantle all of its such facilities, not just the regime’s well-known Yongbyon site, a top U.S. nuclear envoy said, early Friday (KST). Stephen Biegun, the special representative for North Korea, said in a speech at Stanford University in California, that the North has “committed to the dismantlement and destruction” of all its uranium and plutonium enrichment facilities both to U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and to leaders in Seoul. The Korea Times...

Chinese scholars predicted on Thursday that there will be three major ways to realize the reunification of the island of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland – war, peaceful negotiation and brinkmanship without actual violence, with brinkmanship the most likely option regarding the current situation across the Taiwan Straits. President Xi Jinping’s remarks on Wednesday at a gathering in Beijing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the issuing of a “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” have delivered a strong message announcing the mainland’s determination and sincerity regarding the peaceful reunification of the country. He stressed that “peaceful reunification” and “one country,...

<p>Iranian-backed hackers scrambled to break into the personal emails of US Treasury officials after harsh economic sanctions were placed on Tehran last month, a cyber security group said.</p> <p>The hacking group, named Charming Kitten, also targeted foreign nuclear experts in data tracked by Certfa analysts in the UK.</p>

Dec 14, 2018 - Is your local landfill financially prepared to fund its closure and monitoring after it is filled? NY State Comptroller issued a report yesterday which concludes that it will cost approximately $300-million over the next 30 years to close and monitor 80 current and former municipal landfills in NY. There is a state fund in NY meant to help local governments with such bills. The state government adds $250,000 to that fund every year. This represents woeful underfunding, the report concludes.

The federal government’s failure to study risks of oil spills in the powerful Gulf Stream is “stunning” and “beyond foolish” given the stakes and current’s force, drilling opponents said this week. Packing more power than all of the world’s freshwater rivers combined, the Gulf Stream flows about 55 miles off the South Carolina coast. Yet federal regulators haven’t done computer simulations of how oil spills would interact with this mighty river in the sea, The Post and Courier reported earlier this year in its investigative project “Into the Gulf Stream.” Critics said this omission is particularly glaring in the wake...

In the waning days of her congressional race, Republican Katie Arrington attempted to paint her opponent as a one-issue candidate, concerned only with offshore drilling. The issue, however, is likely one of the main forces that helped Democrat Joe Cunningham turn the 1st Congressional District blue for the first time in four decades. And it may have resonated with an important constituency that Cunningham’s staunch opposition to fossil fuel exploration likely spoke to: conservation-minded conservatives. “It’s a huge group in the 1st District,” said outgoing Rep. Mark Sanford. Sanford, who lost to Trump loyalist Katie Arrington in a primary for...