Free Republic

Canada is poised to take on Facebook, following the example set by Australia, which began a war with the tech giant when the country’s publishers backed proposed legislation demanding payment for their content. Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault condemned Facebook’s actions as “highly irresponsible” last week when the social media giant removed all Australian news content from its sites in retaliation. Guilbeault warned that Canada would be next in making sure Facebook paid for news content from Canadian publishers. Guilbeault is charged with drafting legislation in the next few months that would require Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay...

Bureaucracy is the pillar our government uses to oppress us. Lucky for us it’s made out of glass ... There is a saying in some parts of the Balkans, “hiqja qimen thiut” which roughly translates to: every hair from the boar. This phrase grew in popularity, especially around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and fall of communism in the Eastern Bloc states. What it means is a simple metaphor - the government is the boar and it can be killed by subtly plucking every hair from its fat body. Less poetically, it’s a guide on how...

The Wollman and Lasker rinks will not be closed after all, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio suddenly folding to pressure to keep the ice rinks open. Sunday was destined to be the last day of the season the rinks would be open in Central Park. The mayor wanted to shut them down because they are run by the Trump Organization, whose contracts he has been trying to cancel in the wake of the Capitol riot.

MIAMI - It seemed like a match made in finance heaven. In 2010, China, its economy roaring and state companies looking to expand globally, set its eyes on Latin America, a region starved of capital but rich in natural resources the Asian giant lacked. The result: a record $35 billion in state-to-state loans that year. Fast forward a decade and the once-torrid relationship is starting to mature in ways that suggest China may be growing wary of its once do-no-wrong partner. For the first time in 15 years, China’s two biggest policy banks — the China Development Bank (CDB) and...

A popular Chinese beverage chain has apologised for using sexist slogans on its merchandise, after they sparked widespread outrage online. Sexy Tea shop had referred to women as a "bargain" on one of its mugs, adding that customers could pick up women while waiting for their drinks. The shop had in the past also sold tea bags with the slogan "Master, I want you" along with images of tadpoles. The shop later said it had no intention of "disrespecting women". It added that it would recall its latest range of mugs and was "very ashamed" of its latest creation.

Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, will appear for his confirmation hearing vowing to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, will appear Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process with bipartisan support. In his own prepared remarks, Garland focuses on prioritizing policing and civil rights to combat racial discrimination — he says America doesn’t “yet have equal justice” — as...

The family of a Texas boy who apparently froze to death — after the family’s mobile home lost power during an intense cold snap — have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the region’s utility providers, blaming them for the tragedy. Cristian Pavon Pineda, 11, was found lifeless in a bed next to his toddler brother Monday, as temperatures inside plunged into the single digits and the family struggled to keep warm.

GENEVA - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that white supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are becoming a “transnational threat” and have exploited the coronavirus pandemic to boost their support. “White supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are more than domestic terror threats. They are becoming a transnational threat,” he told the Geneva forum. Without naming states, Guterres added: “Today, these extremist movements represent the number one internal security threat in several countries.” In the United States, racial tensions simmered during the turbulent four-year presidency of Donald Trump. His successor Joe Biden has said the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S....

U.S. President Joe Biden will launch changes on Monday to the main U.S. coronavirus aid program for small businesses to try to reach smaller, minority-owned firms and sole proprietors left behind in previous rounds of aid. The changes, to be formally announced by Biden on Monday, come as small business bankers say demand for Paycheck Protection loans is slowing as firms reopen. The officials said the program will also set aside $1 billion for businesses without employees in low- and moderate-income areas, which are 70% owned by women and people of color. The SBA will provide new guidance making it...

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The renaming of 44 schools in the San Francisco Unified School District is apparently being put on hold after intense local and national blowback. In a statement first released in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, SF school board president Gabriela López said it would make reopening schools during the pandemic the “only focus,” and that renaming committee meetings will be cancelled for now. In response to widespread criticism that the school board had not consulted historians before the near-unanimous decision, Lopez promised a "more deliberative process moving forward, which includes engaging historians at nearby universities to help" with future...

Once limited to bank robbers, eccentric pop stars and health-conscious (and conscientious) Japanese tourists, the wearing of face masks in public is now common enough to be dubbed "the new normal". Normal it might be - but it's not new. From the Black Death to the suffocating smog, traffic pollution to the threat of gas attacks, face coverings have been worn by Londoners for the past 500-odd years. Although the very earliest masks were used to disguise, donning a protective (rather than costume) mask dates back to at least the 6th Century BC. Images of people wearing cloth over their...

(...) Motiva is currently assessing the impacts of Winter Storm Uri after record low temperatures necessitated the shutdown of its Port Arthur Manufacturing Complex on Sunday, February 14," said the company in its Feb. 19 statement. (...)

Anticipation is building over the next round of $1,400 stimulus checks. For many, a portion of their relief money may go straight into paying down credit card debt. Over 45% of U.S. families are still battling credit card debt, says LendingTree’s Value Penguin. Although Americans' card debt has dipped during the pandemic — as folks cut spending and follow stay-at-home orders — households are still carrying $6,270 in credit card debt on average. If you take the following shocking credit card statistics into account, it's no surprise many families are holding out for more stimulus relief from President Joe Biden....

Karen Hudson-Samuels’ career in broadcast journalism spanned over four decades in Detroit. After making her name at WGPR-TV as an anchor, producer and news director, the historian and journalist used her vision to create one of the biggest accomplishments of her lifetime. To preserve the history of the country’s first black-owned and operated television station, WGPR, Samuels worked tirelessly to bring the William V. Banks broadcast museum to life. “When this museum got into the national registry she was very, very proud,” her husband, Cliff Samuels said. The 68-year-old’s sudden death leaves the industry reciting her legacy and questioning why...

USCP Officer Brian Sicknick’ 44. Died of a stroke on Jan. 7. Brian is a Trump supporter, USCP officer, Howard Liebengood, 51, It seems self terminated Jan.9, MPD Officer Jeffrey Smith, It seems self terminated Jan.15, Of the 850 working security that day one lost a finger during a fight, while another, shot to death an un-armed female on the other side of a window she had broken. Lawmakers fain memorial Wednesday, for Brian in the Rotunda; where he has been lying in limbo. There will be a send-off milking before his remains are transported for burial. Pelosi delivers remarks...

“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease” (Proverbs 22:10).

Merrick Garland will tell senators on Monday that he will fight discrimination and domestic extremism if confirmed as attorney general, according to testimony released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It is a fitting time to reaffirm that the role of the attorney general is to serve the Rule of Law and to ensure equal justice under the law,” Garland is expected to say at his confirmation hearing. Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court was bottled up in the Senate for nearly a year in 2016. Republicans refused to give him a hearing because they argued that the winner of that...

The gist of the Congressional inquiry into the role NSA may have played in manipulating the U.S. civilian government technical standards development and approval process is not the first time the legislative branch of government has smelled a rat when it comes to NSA inserting “Trojan horses” into standards developed for civilian government and commercial use. In the case of Dual_EC_DRBG, NSA’s zeal in providing itself with a hidden back door to spy on targeted computers and networks relying on the NIST standard may have boomeranged. Back doors of any nature in information technology products is a hack waiting to...

In the right context, cursing on the job can be cathartic. But in the wrong setting, it can stain a career — like in the infamous case of Charles Rocket, who was fired from Saturday Night Live soon after dropping an F-bomb during an episode on Feb. 21, 1981. This wasn't the dismissal of a frivolous bit player — Rocket had been singled out as a potential breakout star in the 1980-81 season, a polarizing and bizarre period in SNL history. The show's original executive producer, Lorne Michaels, left the sketch series with the intent of taking a year off...