Free Republic

The South Korean government said Tuesday no unusual activity has been detected in North Korea after unconfirmed reports described leader Kim Jong Un as in fragile condition after heart surgery. The presidential Blue House says it had no information about the rumors on Kim’s health. Speculation often surfaces about North Korea’s leadership based on attendance at important state events. Kim, who is in his mid-30s, missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15, the country’s most important holiday. “We have no information to confirm regarding rumors about Chairman Kim Jong Un’s health...

During Monday's coronavirus task force meeting, President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of U.S. manufacturing in keeping supply chains secure during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond, particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals. China has imported pharmaceutical products to the U.S. since the 1990s, becoming the United States' second-largest exporter of medications and medical supplies. However, the Trump administration has looked at ways to diminish China's role in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain. Defense Production Act policy coordinator and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro said in March he was working in collaboration with Trump on an executive order...

On Oct. 5, 1962, Eon Productions released a project called Dr. No—a spy flick that screened the very first depiction of James Bond on screen. Starring Sean Connery as the British secret agent, the box office smash would go on to gross $59.6 million worldwide and $16.1 million domestically—which amounts to a whopping $215.1 million after inflation. Thus, the 007 series was born. And the success of that original film has continued through 2020, as last weekend was scheduled to premiere the 27th installment of the franchise with No Time to Die.

Far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore bashed President Trump’s call to “liberate Michigan” by posting a video montage of people punching and kicking a Trump dummy and calling for a party on Election Day. On April 17, President Trump tweeted an all caps call to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.” It was a reply to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the autocratic Democrat whose arbitrary actions during this coronavirus pandemic brought out thousands to protest in the state capital. In response, the Bowling for Columbine director promoted acts of violence by posting a video of people punching and kicking a dummy made up to look...

While much of western Europe has struggled to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Germany has appeared to navigate the outbreak relatively smoothly, with widespread testing and contact tracing that has helped keep its death rate far lower than its peers. Perhaps, then, it’s time to look to Germany for how to lift the lockdown too. On Monday, Germany started to tentatively lift its restrictions, with smaller retailers of under 800 square meters being allowed to reopen, as long as hygiene and social distancing measures could be maintained. Larger car dealerships, bike shops and book shops have also been allowed to open...

During Monday's coronavirus task force meeting, President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of U.S. manufacturing in keeping supply chains secure during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond, particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals. China has imported pharmaceutical products to the U.S. since the 1990s, becoming the United States' second-largest exporter of medications and medical supplies. However, the Trump administration has looked at ways to diminish China's role in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain. Defense Production Act policy coordinator and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro said in March he was working in collaboration with Trump on an executive order...

Subway robberies are skyrocketing despite a plunge in ridership during the coronavirus crisis - forcing the MTA to call in outside contractors for backup, according to sources. March saw 51 robberies across the 472-station subway system - compared to 33 the previous year, according to NYPD stats. There was a mere 3.4 percent drop in overall major felonies on the system, even as ridership dropped by nearly 90 percent from pre-crisis levels. The surge came while the MTA and NYPD struggle with virus-induced personnel shortages, with 5,055 NYPD personnel still out of work due to the virus as of Sunday...

The possibility that pubs may not reopen until a vaccine for Covid-19 has been found has been described as a “nightmare scenario” by the body that represents Dublin publicans. The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) said many pubs will be put out of business permanently if such a lengthy closure occurs. It was commenting after Heineken Ireland put its staff on a four-day week for two months due to the falloff in demand for its beer products since the lockdown began. […] Minister for Health Simon Harris said at the weekend he could not see how people could return to “packed...

The New York Times has done some shameless things in its past, but exploiting a man’s death to serve its agenda has to be among its worst. That’s what it did in a recent portrait of, as New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait put it, “a man killed by Fox News”: Ginia Bellafante’s story of the COVID-19 death of Joe Joyce, owner of Brooklyn’s JJ Bubbles bar. On March 1, Joyce and his wife took a cruise to Spain. Joyce was a fan of Fox News, especially host Sean Hannity, who declared on air that Americans were getting “unnecessarily” scared by...

At a coronavirus-task-force briefing at the beginning of April, White House adviser Jared Kushner explained the approach that would — as events proved — get the country through its ventilator crisis. The media relentlessly pilloried and mocked him, distorting his words in the process. Kushner said at one point that states shouldn’t be drawing on the federal stockpile just to hold ventilators in their own reserves (the administration was worried about ventilators sent to New York state not making it to hard-pressed hospitals in the Big Apple).

The coronavirus quarantine has contributed to a surge in the demand for prescription tranquilizers and sleep aids in the United States, as Americans continue to feel on edge about the uncertainty of the disease, according to a new research report. The largest spike was in prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs, which rose 34.1 percent from mid-February to mid-March, per the pharmacy benefit management organization Express Scripts. From February 16 to March 15, prescriptions for antidepressants rose 18.6 percent, while sleeping medications ticked up by 14.8 percent.

A policeman has been suspended after he was filmed threatening to “make something up” so he could arrest a man for breaching coronavirus lockdown laws. Lancashire Police was forced to apologize for the unnamed officer’s behavior after footage of the incident in Accrington was shared online. Tonight they have confirmed he has been suspended from duty with immediate effect and the force has referred itself to the police watchdog over the clip. The video captured a young man being shouted at by a policeman in Accrington on Friday afternoon after he was pulled over for being out of his house....

China and the largest newspaper in Germany have been in a war of words, according to reports, over the role of President Xi Jinping in the coronavirus pandemic. "You [Xi], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace,” wrote Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest paper, Bild, which...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered on Monday the creation of a task force to investigate why the novel coronavirus has disproportionately affected the state’s African-American community. “The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color throughout our state,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in her executive order. “For example, while African Americans represent 13.6 percent of our state’s population, they represent a staggering 40 percent of the deaths from COVID-19.” Whitmer’s task force will investigate and study strategies to address the disparity as well as the historical and systematic inequalities pertaining to race that have amplified the death rate in the...

Residents in one New York county have filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday against the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the agency of covering up the coronavirus pandemic. The three residents in Westchester County -- which was seen as an original hotspot for the virus -- claim the WHO failed to quickly declare a pandemic and monitor China’s response to the original outbreak. It seeks unspecified damages for the alleged harm the organization caused to the county's roughly 756,000 adult residents.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday cited "extreme urgency" in clearing U.S. pharmaceutical distributors from legal hurdles in order to provide the controversial anti-malaria drug to coronavirus patients. The Justice Department penned a response letter Monday notifying one of the country's largest wholesale drug distribution companies, AmerisourceBergen, that antitrust hurdles have been removed as part of an "expedited, temporary review procedure." The DOJ letter dated April 20 says the drug corporation is now set to work with federal government agencies and health care providers to distribute hydroxychloroquine to patients with coronavirus symptoms. The anti-malaria drug has been controversially touted...

The Biden campaign is facing backlash over an attack ad against President Trump and his apparently weak treatment of China during the coronavirus outbreak. Critics are saying it is "racist" and "xenophobic." President Trump and his reelection campaign have been slamming former Vice President Joe Biden in recent days, attempting to tie the presumptive Democratic nominee to the communist regime as suspicion continues to grow that China had been dishonest about the origins of the pandemic as well as the data it has shared with the rest of the world regarding known cases and deaths within the country. On Saturday,...

Former Vice President Joe Biden announced on Monday night that he brought in $46.7 million dollars in March, the most the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s raised in a single month since launching his campaign nearly one year ago. Biden – who struggled to bring in cash for much of his campaign, has seen his fundraising spike the past couple of months. He raised just $8.9 million in January, but doubled his haul to $18 million in February. Thanks to a series of sweeping primary victories by Biden stating in South Carolina on Feb. 29 and extending into mid-March, all but...

It appears President Trump had the last laugh as his satirical video mocking President Obama's recent endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden has garnered more views within hours than Obama's 12-minute address did in the last week. Obama endorsed his former running mate after all of Biden's primary rivals withdrew from the presidential race. The widely publicized endorsement received 10.2 million views since last Tuesday. However, the video Trump shared surpassed Obama's video, earning 10.3 million views within roughly 13 hours despite the former president's remarks still having more likes and retweets.

China is becoming increasingly assertive in the region as the coronavirus crisis eases on the mainland while raging elsewhere in the world, with a crackdown in Hong Kong and sabre-rattling around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.