Free Republic

The dramatically scaled-down Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be closed to the press, a convention spokesperson and Republican official familiar with the plans tell CNN. Reporters will not be allowed on site as RNC delegates vote to formally nominate President Donald Trump as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee, but the vote will be livestreamed, the Republican official said. The restriction is unprecedented in modern American political history, but Republican officials said they were forced to limit attendance due to social distancing restrictions imposed by the governor of North Carolina. "Given the health restrictions and limitations in place...

Just like in the UK we are now looking to put Muslims in positions of power, desperately hoping that this will actually make things better. Appeasement never works with them and suicide bombers in the UK were doctors and teachers, so their position in the country does not necessarily mean loyalty. This will come back to haunt us.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday. The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported. The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used...

Bananas may be on the road to extinction The banana could be on the verge of extinction, claims new research. Scientists believe the world's most popular fruit could disappear within 10 years, unless it is rescued by biotechnology. Since edible bananas are sterile mutants, new varieties cannot easily be produced by natural methods. This leaves the banana open to attack by pests and diseases at plantations and farms in central America, Africa and Asia. In the 1950s the Gros Michel banana was wiped out by Panama disease, caused by a soil fungus. Its successor, the Cavendish, is now threatened by...