Free Republic

Chinese nationalists are calling for Russia to return land they claim was stolen by the Kremlin in the 19th century. A video on Chinese social media has called on Beijing to take advantage of Moscow's weakened position to seize large parts of Siberia and Russia's Far East. The clip has gone viral in China and has racked up millions of hits among viewers on TikTok. -snip- The Treaty of Aigun in 1858 forced China to cede much of Manchuria to the Russian Tsar Alexander II. The territory, comprising some 600,000 square kilometres, is part of Russia's Far East and includes...

Bush tackles historical sagas on vacation CRAWFORD, Texas — Gas prices are climbing, motorists are fuming, President Bush is vacationing with a book about the history of salt. There may be a connection. Bush is reading "Salt: A World History" by Kurlansky, chronicling the rise and fall of the world's [formerly] most strategic commodity. The other books are "Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar" by Radzinsky and "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by Barry. The analogies between salt and oil are striking. For most of history, salt was synonymous with wealth. It established...

QUESTION: Was the Sinaiticus Codex actually rescued from a wastepaper basket? What is your evidence for this?