Free Republic

In an era of renewed great power competition, China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has become the top focus of U.S. defense planning and budgeting. China’s navy, which China has been steadily modernizing for more than 25 years, since the early to mid-1990s, has become a formidable military force within China’s near-seas region, and it is conducting a growing number of operations in more-distant waters, including the broader waters of the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and waters around Europe.China’s navy is viewed as posing a major challenge to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain...

Unnamed alleged officials in the administration of President Joe Biden confessed to Reuters this weekend that attempts to communicate with the communist regime of North Korea since Biden took office have been met with silence. Reuters, citing the officials, claimed the Biden administration used several traditional “behind-the-scenes” avenues to reach out to dictator Kim Jong-un in an attempt to rekindle diplomatic talks, but Pyongyang did not respond to any of them. Since Biden’s inauguration, North Korean state media — often the only metric for gauging regime sentiment in the highly secretive country — has largely ceased referring to the United...

If it passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Biden, it would result in new background check requirements for all gun transfers conducted by private parties. As it currently stands, unlicensed or “private sellers” are not required to conduct a background check for transfers on firearms, and this includes sales made at gun shows – which has resulted in opponents of such transactions calling this the “gun show loophole,” and additionally have argued this is how many criminals obtain their firearms. All licensed dealers, including those who sell at gun shows, are in fact required to conduct...

Twelve states have asked a Federal Court to keep federal agencies from using the so-called Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases to calculate the benefits of emission reduction regulations. The new cost estimates, ordered by President Biden on day one, claim enormous distant future damages from today’s emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Preventing these supposed damages could justify massive new regulations, but the States say this is illegal because Congress never authorized it. The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) has been around for some time. Obama introduced it as a policy measure, which Trump then canceled. Now Biden...

Britain is only "at the beginning" of the coronavirus pandemic and measures such as social distancing and masks are "likely" to continue long term one of the country's most senior advisors to the government has said.When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Azra Ghani, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London whose modelling work with Professor Neil...

Viganò: Pope Benedict ‘surrounded himself with inadequate, unreliable or even corrupt collaborators’Archbishop Viganò in a wide-ranging interview speaks of Pope Benedict's collaborators and the situation of the Church under Pope FrancisNTERVIEW WITH ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ BY RADIO SPADA (Translation and Notes on square brackets by Dr. Robert Moynihan. Printed by LifeSiteNews.com with permission of Archbishop Viganò.) Radio Spada: Good morning, Your Excellency, we thank you for the dialogue we will have. Let’s begin with Galleria neovaticana [the book title may be translated as “The Neo-Vatican Gallery”], a new book by Marco Tosatti for which you wrote the Preface. Allow...

China could attempt to take control of Taiwan by the end of the decade, the admiral leading U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said todayTestifying in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Adm. Phil Davidson said China’s aggression in the region leads him to believe its goal of seizing Taiwan is a more imminent issue. “I think our concerns are manifest here during this decade, not only on the development – the numbers of you know, ships, aircraft, rockets, etc. that they’ve put in the field – but the way they’re advancing those capabilities as well in combination with everything that you...

Media whore Dr. Fauci says Donald Trump should endorse the vaccine. Is the weasel Fauci suffering Biden dementia? Does he not remember thanking Trump 10 days ago for endorsing the vaccine? pic.twitter.com/07WUcHNLLp— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) March 15, 2021

U.S.—According to sources, the party that screamed about the rise of fascism for the last four years has been cheering on the military for attacking a popular journalist. "Yeah, get him! Take Tucker down!" shouted one pink-haired woman wearing a "Trump = Hitler" T-shirt for old times' sake. "I'm glad the military is criticizing a reporter. This is the only way we're going to be able to take down the fascists once and for all!" CNN, the station that narrowly saved our country from sliding into fascism through its bold coverage of the Trump administration, also cheered excitedly as the...

For example, after announcing his message to blacks is to forgive if not forget on race, Garcia-Navarro said "you also have a message to your white brothers and sisters, as you just say, which is, stop saying you aren't racist. You know, stop trying to defend yourself against something that you benefit from. Society is racist. You have to work hard to change it." See, not a question, just a verbal cue. He echoed himself: LEMON: You do. People get so upset by the idea of the possibility that someone may think that they are racist or biased or bigoted...

Pursuant to Executive Order 202.52, effective Friday July 17, 2020, all licensed establishments with on premises privileges (e.g. restaurants, taverns, manufacturers with tasting rooms, etc.) shall not serve alcoholic beverages unless such alcoholic beverage is accompanied by the purchase of a food item which is consistent with the food availability requirement of the license under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law.

A woman in Tennessee was killed and a cop was rushed into surgery following a shootout in a parking lot, graphic video shows. Footage of the Friday morning encounter between Metro Nashville Police Officer Josh Baker and Nika N. Holbert, 31, shows the 14-year veteran cop deploying his Taser on the woman while ordering her to get out of a car.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday COVID-19 mitigation orders targeting the restaurant industry and other businesses in the state will be eased. Effective at midnight April 4, capacity limits for restaurants as well as gyms and entertainment venues including casinos, theaters and malls will increase to 75% occupancy. In addition, restaurants can resume bar service, allow alcohol service without purchase of food and once again sell alcohol after 11 p.m. Revisions also change maximum occupancy limits for indoor events to allow for 25% of maximum occupancy, regardless of venue size, while outdoor events are limited to 50% occupancy. “Pennsylvanians have stepped...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday excused Democrats who launched an investigation into possibly unseating an elected GOP House representative, explaining that the margin of victory was extremely slim. “It was six votes,” Pelosi told ABC News on Sunday, noting the number of votes by which Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) defeated her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart. Miller-Meeks was ultimately seated in Congress after votes were counted, recounted, and certified by the state. Several days ago, the House Administration Committee started a process that could lead to Miller-Meeks being unseated. “It was six votes, and our candidate Rita Hart, the...

Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find “dishonesty” there. He also told her that she had “the most important job...

On Monday’s The View, the liberal hosts were more upset at Sen. Ron Johnson [R-WI] making incendiary statements about Black Lives Matter and Antifa, than they were by scandal-plagued New York Governor Andrew Cuomo refusing to resign. Co-host Joy Behar was reluctant to see Cuomo go, because he had “good points” and a Republican would be far worse: What worries me is if he resigns and fast forward down the line a Republican becomes the governor of New York state a lot of things will happen that I won't be happy with. I mean, let's talk about for a second...

BERLIN (AP) – Two German state election defeats have put the spotlight on chances of a government without Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc after September’s national vote. A possible contender to succeed her said Monday that the center-right needs to raise its game to keep the country’s top job. Final results showed that Merkel´s Christian Democratic Union was handily defeated in Sunday´s elections by two popular incumbent state governors: the Green party´s Winfried Kretschmann in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the center-left Social Democrats´ Malu Dreyer in Rhineland-Palatinate.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into the head of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's vaccination program, who had reportedly called county executives to see if they support Cuomo during his multiple scandals. According to The Washington Post, "vaccine czar" Larry Schwartz made the calls that made at least one county official fear that their response could jeopardize the county's ability to get vaccines and would impact the vaccine supply. "What we've heard about the governor and his team trying to link vaccine supply to political support, that is the definition of corruption," de Blasio said during...

After so many postponements, not many are hopeful that we will see cruising return this June. After another round of cancelations which saw Carnival Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean cancel their voyages until the start of June 2021, is it realistic that cruising will return? If we look at the signs as they stand today, it seems optimistic. Each day we are starting to see more and more positive movements in the industry. Cruises in Israel and opening of cruising in the U.K., signs for the U.S. are looking better and better. We look at whether we can...

And amid the scandals, a new development emerged on Sunday that raised alarms: Larry Schwartz, a former top aide to Mr. Cuomo who was tapped to lead the state’s vaccination efforts, has also been asking state Democratic leaders to support the governor, while continuing to discuss the urgent business of immunization.