Free Republic

Debt owed by Vietnam to China for construction of a rail line in the capital Hanoi is now due for repayment, but the project remains behind schedule and trains are still unable to run, government sources say. Work began in October 2011 on the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway and trains were projected to begin running in 2015. But after ten years of construction, the project—which covers a 13.5 kilometer line and 12 elevated stations—is not ready to serve passengers, and investment costs have soared to U.S. $868 million from the initial $553 million. Vietnam has borrowed $670 million of...

Joe Manchin is the gift that keeps on giving. Well, at least if you are a Republican hoping someone holds the line against Joe Biden’s “build back better” agenda.The West Virginia senator has already demanded (and will get) deep cuts to the formerly $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. He’s also stood in the gap against some of the more harmful climate change and entitlement provisions. To continue that theme, he nuked another major Biden priority today.As RedState reported, the progressives have been pushing new reporting requirements to snoop on bank accounts with at least $10,000 in outflows over the course of...

Remember Dr. Deborah Birx? While Dr. Anthony Fauci stole most of the spotlight the moment COVID-19 became a serious issue, Birx brought up the rear. She was often seen as the more reasonable and less political of the two. Of course, as a lifelong Democrat, such assumptions were always foolhardy. And as if to make sure no one suffered under that illusion, she recently appeared to make a ridiculous claim about Donald Trump and the coronavirus.According to Birx, had measures she suggested been implemented earlier, 130,000 lives could have been saved. But the Bad Orange Man was just too focused...

Authorities in the U.S. and Europe say they've coordinated on one of the largest dark web drug busts in history. The coordinated police operation, dubbed “Dark HunTor,” involved a large number of law enforcement agencies, including the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Europol, and various other U.S. entities, including the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Postal Service. So far, “HunTor” has resulted in the arrest of 150 people worldwide, as well as the seizure of some $31.6 million from both cash and digital currencies (aka Bitcoin and other cryptos). Police say that they have also seized approximately 234 kilograms of narcotics.......

Michigan governor frequently broke her own COVID rules at home.. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.) was spotted late Friday night without a mask in the standing-room only area of a popular Washington, D.C., cocktail bar, hours before she pulled out of an early-morning canvas for flailing Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. A video shared with the Washington Free Beacon shows Whitmer, who has repeatedly come under fire for breaking her own coronavirus restrictions, socializing in the crowded bar at the Hotel Washington. A hotel staffer who spoke with the Free Beacon noted that bar patrons are required to wear...

Mark Levin claimed Monday former President Barack Obama joined Terry McAuliffe in Richmond to spread misinformation about both Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin and parents concerned about critical race theory while ignoring the Republican ticket's diversity and qualifications. On "The Mark Levin Show" on Westwood One, Levin, a resident of the Northern Virginia area at the epicenter of the school curriculum debate, said Obama demeaned Virginia parents when he characterized Youngkin's concerns about critical race theory as "phony trumped-up culture wars" and "fake outrage". "Barack Obama came here and made an ass out of himself; it was quite the clown...

Oct. 25, 2021 -- People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are not only less likely to die from the virus, but they’re also less likely to die from any cause in the months following vaccination, according to a new study.The study team, which included researchers from the CDC and health care groups across seven states, found the results while studying the safety of the three authorized COVID-19 vaccines.The results were published Friday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.“COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States have shown again and again to be safe. This study also confirms their...

George Soros Backs New Media Firm to Fight Disinformation Called “Good Information Inc.” Conservatives are calling out Soros for this clearly "Orwellian" move. Tell me this isn’t the most purely “Orwellian” thing you’ve ever heard… According to Axios, George Soros is backing a new media firm in a move to help combat disinformation. The working name of this group? “Good Information Inc.” See, that’s how you know you can trust it, because it has “good information” in the title… Clearly this is just Soros being the great arbiter of truth that he is, right?.. Follow on Telegram @WeLoveTrumpNoah Joining Soros...

TRAILER AT LINK 14 years ago today I debuted my documentary HILLARY! UNCENSORED at Harvard on and East Coast swing that included a showing at the oldest Republican club in New York City. During the 2008 election cycle, there were 21 million views of various clips of the documentary. As you may recall, Obama barely won in several primaries and stole what she thought was rightfully hers. She always believed she was destined to become the most powerful woman in history. For those who missed it, we chronicled the biggest campaign finance fraud up to that time. And she got...

Synopsis The report comes ahead of a crucial decision that the Biden administration has to take on India buying military arms from Russia and whether it plans to impose sanctions against the country under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) . There has been a considerable drop in India's dependence on arms and equipment from Russia but the Indian military cannot operate effectively without Russian-supplied equipment and will continue to rely on its weapons systems in the near and middle terms, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report has said. "Many analysts in India and beyond conclude that the...

Rothbardi1776 "CONFIRMED: John Durham has interviewed the Clinton Foundation whistleblowers who have testified before Congress and blew the whistle on multiple decades of malfeasance, corruption, tax evasion and more. They have all the evidence. In detailed, chronological order." "Clinton Foundation Whistleblowers Doyle, Moynihan v IRS (US Tax Court). Tax evasion was used to take out Al Capone. What will happen to the Clintons?" SNIP: 2nd Twitter Feed: LWDoyleUSALWDoyleUSA "Following question was posed on separate thread: "Have you seen anything that would suggest that Durham has interviewed the Clinton Foundation whistleblowers?" W/o going into details, answer is YES . . !!...

Health provisions remain a sticking point in spending package amid efforts to reduce price tag, rally factions Democrats’ sweeping plans to bolster Medicare and Medicaid benefits have been scaled back amid an assault from industry groups and opposition from centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), with popular coverage expansions likely to be narrowed in hopes of reaching a deal this week. U.S. coronavirus cases tracker and map A proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision benefits is in danger of falling from the tax-and-spending package rapidly taking shape in Congress. A framework to expand Medicaid to...

The Harvard Kennedy School’s faculty and student body remains overwhelmingly white, according to the school's annual diversity report released Wednesday. The report — which revealed scant changes across various demographics of the student body, faculty, and staff composition — comes as HKS has introduced efforts to boost diversity and inclusivity at the Kennedy School. The racial diversity of U.S. students, who comprise 53 percent of the student body, marginally increased compared to last year. The proportion of students identifying as Black or African American increased slightly, from 8 to 11 percent, while the percentage of students who identify as Latinx...

[H/T Ymani Cricket]SNIPhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-115SPRT26354/html/CPRT-115SPRT26354.htmGovernment ethics and internal watchdogs found safety or ethics lapses on Fauci’s watch, including:At least 10 children in a pediatric AIDS drug study died in what an investigation concluded was a death toll “significantly higher” than expected and unexplained.An Office of Government Ethics investigation that cited NIAID for failing to review and clear two-thirds of its workers who were moonlighting in private industry for possible ethical conflicts.A 1992 Department of Health and Human Services inspector general investigation that concluded NIAID failed to police two conflicts of interest in a vaccine experiment.A pregnant Tennessee woman died in 2003 after...

The great global supply chain crisis of 2021 — which has ensnared groceries, holiday shopping and everything in between — has bottlenecked West Coast ports, and drawn the involvement of the White House to address it. As the disruption reaches a boiling point and adds to rising price pressures, longshoremen, union representatives and truck drivers have pointed fingers over which party is best positioned to alleviate some of the strains.... ...While the pandemic has exacerbated strains in the economy amid an unprecedented demand surge, a 2019 study published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics probed the dearth of truckers....

KANSAS CITY, KS—It was a sad day for circle-driving fans this Sunday, as no drivers finished the race at the Kansas City Speedway. This was due to the fact that gas was simply too expensive for any racer to afford to reach the finish line. “More circles! More circles!” chanted the crowd, but all the cars were stopped as their tanks ran out of gas, and no more circles were to be driven. “I really wanted to finish driving the requisite number of circles,” said Kyle Larson, who was leading up until all the drivers quit. “We did some calculations...

Nine therapists in New York have been arrested and charged with stealing millions of dollars from a state health program that aims to help very young children who have developmental delays, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The therapists stole over $3 million from the New York State Early Intervention Program over more than four years, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). ... ...the therapists allegedly submitted fraudulent documents for thousands of EIP therapy sessions that never took place in order to get millions of dollars as payment. Some of the therapists are accused of falsely billing sessions every day for...

Five people were rushed to area trauma centers after a shooting aboard a Metro train on its way to the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station, authorities said Saturday... ...The shooting was reported at about 7:40 p.m. Friday. An argument broke out as the eastbound C (Green) Line train left the Avalon Station in South Los Angeles, a passenger told ABC7, and the shooting occurred before the train reached the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station. "There was a big argument and I saw the gun come out and he started firing into a bunch of people," witness Andrew Maynard told Fox11. "He started shooting again....

Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said it may take weeks "if not months" of follow-up investigation before charges, if any, are filed. The Santa Fe County district attorney said the investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of Rust could take weeks, if not months, and she would not rule out criminal charges. Speaking to The New York Times ahead of a planned press conference Wednesday, district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said her office has not “ruled out anything” following last week’s shooting death of Rust’s director of photography, Halyna Hutchins. “Everything at this point, including criminal charges,...

An FDA panel on Tuesday recommended emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 by a vote of 17-0, with one abstention. However, during the hearing, many members, including the chairman, expressed concern about being given a "binary choice." They argued data indicate the risks outweigh the benefits for healthy children while those with underlying conditions who do face significant risks from contracting COVID-19 should have access to the vaccine. The question before the panel, the Roster of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, was: "Based on the totality of the scientific evidence available,...