Free Republic

South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in has placed the country on “red alert” after it reported its fifth death and more than 123 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infected to 556.

Parasite recently became the first foreign film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The first foreign film ever nominated in that category, however, was Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937). I can't speak to whether or not Parasite deserved its prize, but Grand Illusion's reputation as one of the glories of cinema has only grown, even though it was essentially a "lost film" for generations. Fascists across Europe set out to destroy every print; a stashed negative was discovered in Moscow and "returned to France in the 1960s, but sat unidentified in storage in Toulouse Cinémathèque for over 30 years."...

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration on Friday night in a case that contested the president’s “public charge” rule, which critics have called a “wealth test” for legal immigrants. The policy in question, the Immigration and Nationality Act, would make it harder for immigrants who are “likely at any time to become a public charge” to obtain green cards. The policy discourages legal immigrants in the process of obtaining permanent legal status or citizenship from using public assistance, including Medicaid, housing vouchers and food stamps. The case heard by the court, Wolf v. Cook County, sought...

WASHINGTON – Former astronaut Mark Kelly, the Democratic Party’s hope for flipping a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, tried to do no harm this month when he was asked about Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I will ultimately support who the nominee is of the Democratic Party,” he said. That was enough for Kelly’s Republican rival, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who is trailing him in early polls, to go on the attack. The television spot she debuted days later spent nearly as much time talking about plans by the democratic socialist from Vermont to raise taxes and award new benefits to undocumented...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and for America: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14) Religion forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

President Trump grew enraged with senior advisers this week when 14 Americans who had tested positive for the coronavirus returned to the U.S. after he had been granted assurances that infected patients would remain in quarantine overseas. Trump and his coronavirus task force were told last weekend that Americans who had been in quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise liner, where the virus had spread, would be brought home, but that those who had symptoms would remain in Japan. However, the administration ultimately decided to bring back the 14 Americans who tested positive for the virus and place them in...

Britain's Tyson Fury defeated American boxer Deontay Wilder of Alabama on Saturday night in Las Vegas to capture the WBC heavyweight title. Fury, whose previous fight with Wilder, in Los Angeles in 2018, ended in a draw, knocked down Wilder in the third and fifth rounds -- and dominated the bout until Wilder's team threw in the towel during the seventh round, according to the Associated Press. "The king has returned to his throne!" Fury said after the fight.

Although major killer asteroids are extremely rare, minor asteroids called meteors often impact earth going unnoticed. Most of the time they burn up in the atmosphere. However, if they do not these smaller scale asteroids can weigh anywhere from 20 pounds to upwards of hundreds or thousands of pounds. Maybe even more! Fortunately, these smaller scale asteroids do not usually collide with highly populated areas and mainly impact the earths large swaths of uninhabited areas. Most of these collisions go unreported or unnoticed. However, reported collisions are usually added to a list. For example, a map simulation from an asteroid...

The vast majority of key ingredients for drugs that many Americans rely on are manufactured abroad, mostly in China. Antibiotics, which turn life-threatening infections into minor nuisances, are considered the single biggest advance in modern medicine. A leading Chinese economist gave voice to the worst fears of U.S. policymakers in March, in a speech to an annual national congress.

After racking up a big win in Nevada, Sen. Bernie Sanders is in a commanding position in the 2020 Democratic presidential race...we’ve reached the point where it will be hard for establishment Democrats to stop him without inflicting a great cost on their eventual nominee...The only way to avoid that outcome at this point would seem to be either have all other candidates drop out and unite around one of the more center-left Democrats...Or, alternatively, have Bloomberg unload a blizzard of negative ads targeting Sanders.

“The Apostolic Witness and the Prophetic Word” (2 Peter 1:16-21) “Cleverly devised myths.” That’s what we Christians are accused of believing. All that stuff about Jesus Christ being the Son of God and the only Savior of the world? “Just a bunch of fables, fairy tales, myths.” But then this is nothing new. Even back in the first century, Christians were ridiculed for believing the same thing. People said they were falling for a bunch of poppycock, fables and fairy tales. St. Peter refers to this in our epistle for today when he writes, “For we did not follow cleverly...

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders seems to have swept Latino voters in the Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, an affirmation of his months-long investments in outreach that could presage his success in primaries still to come in heavily Latino states. Sanders is counting on Latino voters, the largest nonwhite contingent of voters in 2020, to carry him to the Democratic nomination. In Nevada, where Latinos make up about 19 percent of eligible voters, they helped hand him a big victory. Entrance polls showed Saturday evening that just over half of Latino voters in Nevada had backed him, roughly four times as many as...

Newsdump Update: US Simulates Nuclear Attack On Russia US Defense Secretary Mark Esper participated in an exercise at the US Strategic Command in Nebraska earlier this week. An anonymous US defense official told the media about the 'mini-exercise' that involved both sides engaging in the use of nuclear weapons.... Whoa welcome aboard with music that I heard on country music radio back in the 1970's as sung by Shel Silverstein. Shel Silverstein did a lot of creative work in his lifetime writing the song before "A Boy Named Sue" as sung by the "Man In Black" Johnny Cash. Other country...

February 23 2020 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Lv 19:1-2, 17-18 The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.“You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13 R. (8a) The...

Donald Trump's rule changes the so-called "public charge" rule that withholds green cards from immigrants dependent on government services. Federal immigration law says that immigrants desiring permanent legal status can be denied if they are likely to become a "public charge."Previously the government defined "public charge" as anyone receiving cash benefits. Those getting food stamps or housing assistance were exempt. The rule change means that green cards will only go to those who are free of dependency on government. New York and Illinois sued the administration over the change and federal judges issued injunctions preventing the rule from being...

LAS VEGAS — Second is the new first for Joe Biden. After dismal fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden sounded a victorious note when he took the stage at a union hall here and declared a comeback — even though fewer than a 10 percent of the precincts were in and showed him in a distant second to Bernie Sanders. “I know we don't know the final results yet, but I feel really good,” Biden said. “You put me in a position. You know, the press is ready to declare people dead quickly but we're alive...

If it’s not “the economy, stupid,” as James Carville famously exhorted, then it’s the judiciary, smarty-pants. Those two issues turn out Republicans and conservatives more than any others in presidential elections, and it’s a sure bet the latter is why reluctant conservatives rallied to Donald Trump in 2016 — well, most of them, anyway. And Trump has delivered in both areas, but especially on judicial appointments.His biggest triumph — shared by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — could well be the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the famously far-left appellate panel. The Los Angeles Times calls Trump’s ten appointments...

Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood was interviewed by the executive editor of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. On Friday the piece was published as The Weekend Interview in the Wall Street Journal. The interview took a newsworthy twist when the topic of politics came up. Eastwood is supporting Michael Bloomberg.Say it ain’t so, Clint. It seems Mr. Eastwood is joining the ranks of other Hollywood movers and shakers in support of Bloomberg. Bloomberg began courting voters in California back in December, focusing on smaller cities and their mayors instead of large cities like Los Angeles. Perhaps Bloomberg appeals to Eastwood as...

It is ironic that former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is presenting himself as the balanced alternative to extreme socialists like Senator Bernie Sanders. In reality, when it comes to areas of great concern to Christian conservatives, Bloomberg has been anything but moderate.As noted by Catholic activist Bill Donohue with references to his tenure as mayor, “on two key social issues — abortion and religious liberty — the presidential candidate was a total bomb.”Donohue actually claims that “Bloomberg is one of the most radical pro-abortion politicians in American history.”Among the former mayor’s accomplishments was this: “Bloomberg's passion for abortion...

A man named by Italian news agency Ansa as former construction company owner Adriano Trevisan, in his late 70s, was among almost 60 suspected or confirmed cases in Italy so far. The father-of-three died at a hospital in Padua, in the Veneto region in northern Italy, where he had been admitted along with another person who has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. A second patient - a woman - then died hours after in Lombardy, a region also in the north. The deaths have prompted local authorities in Lombardy and Veneto to shut schools, businesses...