Free Republic

China is losing its influence; it’s in decline. At the same time, however, China, ruled by a despotic regime, is responsible for 28.7 percent of global manufacturing output (more than 10 percentage points ahead of its No. 1 rival, the United States). This utter dependence on China for manufacturing must be stopped. As I write this, three countries are working to siphon customers away from China. Will their efforts prove to be successful?I speak from experience when I say the following: communist China is not a fun place to live in. Moreover, with its frequent power cuts and the Chinese...

Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation has declined donations from Google and Facebook because of the companies’ censoring of persons and groups with conservative points of view. Outgoing foundation president Kay C. James sent letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai explaining that the Heritage Foundation could “not in good conscience accept money” from companies that suppress conservative speech and content. Heritage turned down a $225,000 donation from Google and returned a $150,000 donation from Facebook in October 2020. James made it clear to the Big Tech companies that her organization is assisting Congress to revise...

A space enthusiast from Chennai who worked independently, found a debris from the Vikram moonlander that scientists had been looking for and helped guide them to the spot where it had crashed. Shanmuga Subramanian...looked for it on the images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital (LRO) Camera that the US space agency had released to the public. LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro... said that Subramanian "is totally indpendent of the LRO, totally independent of the Chandraayan 2 team, just someone who is very interested in the Chandraayan 2 mission (who) used our data and identified a spot where there was a...

One of India’s largest cities, Chennai, is dealing with a crippling crisis: It has run out of water. In the middle of a particularly hot summer, the four lakes that supply the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu have dried up; together they contain just 1% of the volume they did last year. Residents don’t have enough water to drink, bathe or wash clothes. People are working from home; malls have closed their bathrooms; and restaurants have shut their doors. The natural instinct is to blame the situation on climate change and, indeed, the last monsoon’s rains were...

MUMBAI – Chennai Super Kings outthought and outmanoeuvered high-flying Mumbai Indians to beat them by 22 runs and emerge champions in the third Indian Premier League here Sunday. Electing to bat, Chennai posted 168 for five, thanks to Suresh Raina’s unbeaten 57 and then restricted Mumbai to 146 for nine in a grand finale at the packed D. Y. Patil Stadium. MS Dhoni has added another feather to his captaincy hat. With Chennai struggling at 68 for 3 after 12 overs Dhoni got into the act: 100 runs were added in the last eight, and Raina scored 44 at a...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, February 5, 2010 Resident of India Pleads Guilty in International Online Brokerage “Hack, Pump and Dump” Scheme WASHINGTON - A resident of India pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft charges arising from an international fraud scheme to "hack" into online brokerage accounts in the United States and use those accounts to manipulate stock prices, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Deborah K.R. Gilg of the District of Nebraska. Jaisankar Marimuthu, 35, a native of Chennai, India, pleaded guilty...

NEW DELHI: A high alert has been sounded at all airports in the country, particularly those in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, following threats of a possible terror attack by Al-Qaida. The security alert was issued on Thursday morning after the Director of Trichy Airport in Tamil Nadu received an anonymous letter warning of an attack by Al-Qaida at airports or on aircraft in South India. The letter said about 10 Al-Qaida terrorists will break the security cordon and carry out attacks at airports. The airports that are placed on high alert are Chennai, Kochi, Trichy, Thiruvananthapuram and Coimbatore. The...

PLANS to install 500 condom vending machines in the capital of one of India's worst HIV/AIDS-affected states have angered Muslim groups so much they have taken to the streets to protest a "condom culture". Critics of the plan by the Tamil Nadu government and India's National Aids Control Organisation to put 500 machines in the capital of Chennai and 1000 more across the state later said it would degrade women and corrupt the young. "We must fight AIDS, but these machines at public places will only promote sex outside marriage among the younger generation," said MH Jawahirullah, who heads Tamil...

Here are some out takes from my reporting in Chennai after the tidal wave. It wasn't THE place to be for reporting on the tsunami by any means, as the city was spared the huge levels of damage seen elsewhere. But it was frightening enough. NOTE: The figures mentioned below have long since been revised as better information has been collected. Like every disaster, the tsunami hit India not with cruel indifference, but with perverse cruelty, striking hardest those least prepared to deal with tragedy—poor people with no money in the bank to fall back on. Most of the dead...