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While many world leaders and top musicians will be taking the stage Thursday at the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany, ahead of the G20 summit, President Donald Trump won’t be there…because he wasn’t invited. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg and other world leaders will gather for the event with the likes of Coldplay, Pharrell Williams, Shakira and Ellie Goulding, all with the hope of raising as much as $661 million from governments for dealing with international health, gender equality and education issues. A source familiar with the policy goals of...

Berlin, Jul 4 (AFP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s scientist-husband will take leaders’ spouses at a G20 summit, including Melania Trump, to a climate research centre amid a bitter row over global warming. Joachim Sauer, who usually shuns publicity, will take the visiting dignitaries sightseeing through Hamburg on a river cruise and to the spectacular new Elbphilharmonie concert house. But the quantum chemist has also insisted they stop off at the German Climate Computing Centre — an itinerary point sure to put the spotlight on the US First Lady after President Donald Trump in June pulled out of the 2015 Paris...

Now that the Islamic State is on the verge of defeat, some of those who are fleeing back to the European countries that sheltered them before they left to join the jihad are having difficulties finding jobs. Sweden is now grappling with how to reintegrate these men into society. Returning jihadi Imak Udih complained, "I apply for a lot of jobs, but I can't get any. They say that because I killed unbelievers in Syria I can't be trusted. But I was just following my faith. Persecuting me for that violates my religious freedom." Swedish Culture and Democracy Minister Alice...

A young Greek boy awaiting a heart transplant had his wish come true shortly after being visited by First Lady Melania Trump. The first lady visited the boy at a pediatric hospital in Rome on May 24, after she and her husband, President Donald Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, reports CNN. "Upon landing in Belgium, I learned a young boy and his family who had been waiting for a heart transplant was informed that the hospital has found a donor," the first lady said in a statement. "I read a book and held hands with this special...

I saw some notices when I was in China of delighted Freepers who had also visited China recently. Yes, it was possible to get Free Republic in China!! I am interested in what those travelers, and others, thought of China.

Uber may be assisting in illegal immigration, some Mexican officials claim. Arnulfo Leon Campos of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration said that transporters of undocumented immigrants are using the private ride-sharing service to cross border points without being detected. “Traffickers of people going to the United States diversify their operations and now use private vehicle services like Uber to transport undocumented people,” he said. The statements were made last week after four Uber cars were stopped in the state of Zacatecas on their way to Durango. Cases like these have become more common, officials said, as it becomes increasingly complicated...

The absence of Islamic terror attacks in Poland and Hungary has been attributed to these countries' refusal to take in an adequate portion of the flood of Muslim refugees that have swarmed into Europe over the last few years. The leaders of Hungary and Poland think this is a good thing. Hungarian Prime Minster Viktor Orban called these migrants "a poison" and said "every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk." Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydo called the European Union's policy of allowing mass migration from the Middle East "folly." EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos slammed the governments...

Barack and Michelle Obama, along with their two daughters, are on a five-day luxurious resort holiday in Bali They will be staying at the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, Ubud, where villas overlook lush rice fields The former president will travel to the island of Java to speak at the 4th Indonesian Diaspora Congress Obama's stepfather was Indonesian, and the former president lived in Jakarta for a few years in the late 1960s Barack and Michelle Obama, along with their two daughters, are taking a luxury vacation to Indonesia - where the former president lived in the 1960s. Soldiers...

With everyone running off to various parts of the world for exciting spring or summer plans, it seems only natural to address an issue regarding the lack of international franchise success within the U.S. Aside from all the McDonalds’, Starbucks’, and KFC’s lining most street corners of metropolitan locations worldwide, other countries have a few delicacies they’ve been covertly keeping to themselves all this time. It’s okay, we’re here to reveal these mouthwatering fast food restaurants from all over the world in efforts to finally bring them to the United States. I don’t know about you, but I could go...

President Trump and his family will make their first visit to Camp David this weekend, according to the White House. “The first family heads to Camp David. Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend,” Stephanie Grisham, communications director for first lady Melania Trump, tweeted Friday evening. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Alerts of the president’s visit were issued by the federal government earlier this week, according to The Frederick News Post, which noted a Federal Aviation Administration notice being issued. Similar notifications were sent in March and May but didn't lead to a visit. This is the first visit Trump will make as president to...

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Least terns. A federal lawsuit. Greenpeace. Vandals. Industrious beavers. Angry homeowners. Bureaucratic delays. These were among the obstacles and setbacks that had to be overcome before the Creek Turnpike was built. At one point, the chairman of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority declared it a “total disaster” and exclaimed: “The Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, God only knows when that’ll be completed,” John Kilpatrick said, as reported by the Tulsa World’s Wayne Greene on Oct. 19, 1990. “If we had it to do all over again, we wouldn’t do that project,” the exasperated Kilpatrick said after federal bureaucrats held up construction of...

Eliminating the Problem How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probably tell you all about it. Much of the difficulty in obtaining the permits necessary for such tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidents in the past, and so on, people aren’t quite ready to trust the tech. The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the...

“No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of 'Julius Caesar' at this summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines’ values," the airline said in a statement. Just hours before the theater world gathered for the annual Tony Awards, Delta Air Lines revoked its four-year-old sponsorship of New York's Public Theater, according to reports. The airline found issue with the summer production of Julius Caesar, featuring the assassination of the title character, who in this staging bears an unmistakable resemblance to Donald Trump. "No matter what your political stance may be, the...

Three Muslim youths who orally and anally raped and urinated on a 5-year-old girl got off with probation and no time served. Bizarrely, Janice Kroeger, the Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, called the rapists "the real victims of this tragic turn of events." "These three boys are all doing well in school," Kroeger said. "We shouldn't discourage this accomplishment by subjecting them to the scarring effects of incarceration. They are already suffering PTSD from their arrest and these judicial proceedings. There's no need to compound this by putting them in a juvenile detention center." Kroeger lashed out at the little girl's...

NEW YORK – The sons of President Donald Trump have said their company is launching a new hotel chain inspired by their travels with their father’s campaign. The Trump Organisation is calling the new mid-market chain “American Idea” and said it will start with three hotels in Mississippi. At a party at Manhattan’s Trump Tower, Donald Trump Jr said he and his brother, Eric, got a “crash course in America” while travelling across the country with their father’s presidential campaign. “We saw so many places and towns and so many stories,” he said. The first of dozens of hotels in...

The city of Madrid has joined the likes of other Progressive cities like New York City and banned “manspreading” on mass transit. According to Spanish news source the Local, the Municipal Transportation Company (EMT) will be posting signs on the bus system discouraging men from spreading their legs when sitting. A tweet by the Madrid City Council shows the signs will include a big red “x” next to a photo of a man with his legs spread and the phrase, “Respect the space of others” next to it: In a statement provided to the Local, the EMT said, “The new...

The race to create self-driving cars is on—but what happens when they’re everywhere and nobody has to drive? That could lead to a “passenger economy” worth $7 trillion by 2050, according to a new report by Intel and analyst firm Strategy Analytics. While the name of the potential new market is lame, the amount of cash it's estimated to drive is not: the study predicts self-driving cars will free up 250 million hours of commuting time per year, providing the backbone for a thriving $800 billion industry by 2035, when the study predicts fully autonomous vehicles will begin to proliferate...

GreenPower should help local economy Not only were civic leaders at Friday’s groundbreaking for GreenPower Motor Company’s electric-power bus plant, but several local business people were there hoping the company will not only stimulate the local economy, but maybe their’s as well. The Vancouver, Canada-based company broke ground Friday on 10 acres of land it purchased from the city on Hope Drive at the Porterville Municipal Airport. Within a year, it will be turning out electric buses for not just the City of Porterville, but for cities and schools across the nation. It has already set up a limited operation...

Greater reliance on user fees, federal loans rather than grants, and corporatization are three keys to the Trump administration’s infrastructure initiative released as a part of its 2018 budget. The plan will “seek long-term reforms on how infrastructure projects are regulated, funded, delivered, and maintained,” says the six-page document. More federal funding “is not the solution,” the document says; instead, it is to “fix underlying incentives, procedures, and policies.”In building the Interstate Highway System, the fact sheet observes, “the Federal Government played a key role” in collecting and distributing monies to “fund a project with a Federal purpose.” Since then,...