Free Republic

<p>YOKOHAMA, Japan —For now, only the sick can leave.</p> <p>Growing desperate after days of being cooped up, Vana Mendizabal, 69, suddenly realized: What if her only escape route from the ship and the mandatory 14-day quarantine would be to come down with the virus?</p>

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Mexico was in talks to buy a batch of Russian-made military helicopters. Mexico has long-standing military ties with Russia and the Mexican armed forces use an extensive fleet of Russian-made helicopters. Lavrov, on a visit to Mexico, said a new supply agreement with Russia's Rosoboronexport arms exporter could follow an earlier purchase of about 50 Russian helicopters. "The Mexican side is currently considering concrete proposals from Rosoboronexport, including the supply of helicopters," Lavrov said. In 2018, Mexico's then-incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said he would cancel the...

A debate between some of the Democrats running for President tonight who met qualifying criteria. Bernie Sanders, who won the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, came under intense criticism.... The Russian Defense Ministry says that the Israeli military endangered an airline with 172 passengers on board by launching an early Thursday morning air attack on Damascus using the airliner as a shield.... Turkey says it will respond to any attack on its military forces in northwestern Syria's Idlib.... Official word of the death of an Al-Qaeda leader in a US military operation...... The French teenager who blasted Islam online...

This is a video of an apartment building on fire in Wuhan today. This building is OCCUPIED. I put this on DropBox to post here, please click on the source link to view the video. My wife is fairly new to the US (8 months from China) and today she has started to finally see how the Chinese government and system really treats their subjects. A sobering experience for her, to say the least. My prayers go out to everyone in China right now. Please share this video!

Trump posted this video featuring a woman comparing him to Superman.

CHEROKEE, Iowa -- A Marcus, Iowa, man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for stealing copper from wind turbine sites around Marcus and burglarizing several businesses. Andrew Bock, 35, pleaded guilty in Cherokee County District Court to first-degree criminal mischief, third-degree burglary and third-offense possession of a controlled substance. Bock was charged with stealing copper and materials valued at $7,390 from nine wind turbine sites on Oct. 12 or Oct. 13. He was accused of causing $11,080 in damage to the wind turbine sites.

Twitter locked the account of investigative journalist James O’Keefe last month after he and Project Veritas released undercover footage showing Bernie Sanders staffers praising Stalin’s gulags and promising that “cities will burn” if Donald Trump is re-elected. According to Project Veritas, “Twitter’s end game is likely similar to that of their Silicon Valley friend Google; in the words of Google’s Head of Innovation Jen Gennai ‘Prevent the next Trump situation.’” Twitter claims it locked O’Keefe’s account because of “privacy violations,” after O’Keefe posted a publicly available FEC paystub of one of the Sanders’ staffers who praised violence and gulags. Project...

The strain is showing, and pretty early into construction along Interstate 35 through Waco. Some readers on the Trib Facebook page began to crack upon learning Waco-area transportation leaders last week approved $76 million worth of work to I-35 near New Road with hopes of finishing in 2023, around the same time larger I-35 reconstruction wraps up to the north. The Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board approved the work, including new ramps, frontage roads and overpasses at Valley Mills Drive and New Road, as part of a long-range plan called Connections 2045. The improvements, divided between two $38 million...

I am not supposed to talk about politics at work. I am in sales. Sometimes I see someone wearing a MAGA hat or a Trump 2020 hat and comment, I like your Hat. Well today I was working with a husband and wife customer. They were very chatty, asking questions and listening to information about our products, when the wife asked me where I was from. It is a frequent question because I have an Accent. I told her I am originally from Ukraine. Well that was the trigger she was waiting for. She immediately began bashing President Trump and...

“We believe in American exceptionalism,” reads the opening line of the 2016 Republican Party Platform. “We believe the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth.” Yet today, the Republican Party finds itself entertaining some of the same unsettling nativist and authoritarian impulses that characterized Europe throughout the 20th century. These ideals are antithetical to what it means to be a Republican, and what it means to be American. Defending Democracy Together is a 501c4 advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans — many of whom have served in Republican administrations and write for conservative publications....

CHICAGO — The brutal beating of a 68-year-old man by 11 teens on a passenger train here Monday was captured in a disturbing, graphic video obtained by Fox News. The Chicago Police Department told Fox News the beating is under investigation, but no one is in custody because the victim “was unable to identify his attacker(s) due to his injuries.” A police source told Fox that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office “wouldn’t touch” the case if the victim can’t identify those accused or is unable to cooperate.

To some Americans, Iowa, a rural state in the middle of the US, is dismissively thought of as "fly-over country". Yet the Hawkeye state is well-known in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited twice - before he took office in 2012, and in an earlier stay as a low-level local official on a 1985 trip to study farming technology. Iowa was once again a destination for Chinese visitors last week, though those who descended upon the state were not there to study soybeans, but democracy in America. Amid its chaos, young "democracy tourists" learnt first-hand that it can be...

An increasing number of individuals who identify as “gender non-binary” have emerged among the clerical ranks in mainline Protestant denominations. Following the ordination of transgender clergy in the United States, non-binary clergy appear to be the next wave of sex and gender revisionism. While clergy already ministering within Christian communities have come out to their churches as non-binary, a number of non-binary identifying individuals have made headlines as the first to be ordained openly within their denomination. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, non-binary is relating to or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that is...

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Some Arab countries are trying to get the Jews they forced out to return FEBRUARY 7, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM More than 850,000 Jews lived in Arab countries in the 20th century. With the creation of Israel in 1948, all but a few thousand Jews were forced to leave the Arab countries where they had lived for generations and centuries. But today, there is a palpable longing in most Arab states for the Jews to return. Many believe that only with a Jewish presence will their countries blossom and develop as they did in the past. World Israel News...

Across the country, coronavirus fears are sparking allegations of discrimination against people of Asian descent. It's bad enough that it prompted a CDC official to warn that being Asian isn't a risk factor for coronavirus. Now some Asian Americans in Austin say they've become targets... Flannigan says any Asian or Asian Americans targeted because of unfounded coronavirus fears should file a report with the Anti-Defamation League. "Austinites are better than this, y'all. Like we do not need to be downshifting into racism or discrimination or hate when comes to a public health issue," he said.

Late Tuesday, the board for the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee terminated President Liz Gilbert and her chief of staff, Adam Alonso. The move comes just one day after the board suspended the pair and launched an investigation into “toxic workplace” allegations. Alonso and Gilbert had previously come under criticism for continuing to do work for New Jersey Democrats while leading the host committee full time. The New Jersey Democratic Party connection does not inspire a lot of confidence. In interviews, the two experienced political hands described the host committee as having a toxic culture rife with power struggles, backbiting and...

Army Lt. Col Alexander Vindman was escorted off the White House grounds and dismissed from the National Security Council Friday afternoon, according to reports. His twin brother Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who served as a lawyer on the NSC was also fired and left with Alex. President Trump continued to drain the swamp as of this Friday he fired Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, just hours after firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council official who testified at House impeachment proceedings against the commander-in-chief. Like Vindman, Sondland testified at the impeachment proceedings. “I...

Switzerland goes to the polls on February 9 in a national referendum that could criminalize homophobia–and Coca-Cola has made the bold move of supporting calls to make the anti-gay hate speech illegal. If the country approves the move, it will criminalize homophobia to the same extent as other forms of discrimination based on race, gender and religion. The Coca-Cola Company in Switzerland has publicly shared support for the initiative. Early indications are that the referendum has the majority support of Swiss voters, says The Local. But the campaign hasn’t been without controversy. The youth wing of the Swiss Peoples Party...

Central Piedmont Community College Charlotte, North Carolina 1:51 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Good music. But we have to get down to business. We’re in North Carolina, and they talk business. But I want to just thank everybody for being here. Wonderful crowd. Oh, look up there. Look at all those wonderful people. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you very much. And thank you to Ben — a special guy. He was very tough, you know, on the campaign trail. I had to fight him for a long time. (Laughter.) He wouldn’t go away. He doesn’t give up. And he’s...

HONG KONG, July 25, 2019 – Bain Capital today announced the merger of ChinData, a leading Chinese operator of campus-style, hyperscale data centres, and Bridge Data Centres, a wholesale and custom build data centre company, to form one of the leading pan-Asian data centre platforms. The new parent Company, ChinData Group, will continue to operate under the ChinData and Bridge brands respectively. Bain Capital acquired ChinData in May 2019 from Wangsu Science & Technology Co. Ltd and has owned Bridge Data Centres since 2017.The combined company delivers hyperscale, wholesale and custom-build data centre solutions to leading regional and global customers,...