Free Republic

For Boris Johnson this was his darkest hour. A moment for sombre reflection, as haunting as the sounds of muffled drums and Chopin's funeral march. The grim news that had broken just moments before – that the death toll from the pandemic had surpassed 100,000 Britons – had left the Prime Minister visibly shaken. His face was flushed, his hair seemed whiter than ever. This terrible milestone had, of course, been some time coming. Yet even this accomplished wordsmith struggled to summon the mots justes for the occasion. He intoned how hard it was 'to compute the sorrow contained in...

More than a million Beijing residents undergoing coronavirus testing amid a fresh outbreak have been administered anal swabs, which are considered more accurate and raise the chances of detecting COVID-19, said a Chinese disease specialist. The key districts of Daxing and Dongcheng began a mass testing drive on Friday after a nine-year-old boy tested positive for the more virulent strain of the virus, first discovered in London and the southeast of England last month. Health authorities in the Chinese capital said they were aiming to screen more than two million people in 48 hours. Among them, around 1.6 million inhabitants...

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch blasted so-called cancel culture and a "woke orthodoxy" that he described as "awful" and suggested was a threat to the free exchange of ideas in the U.S. and around the world. "For those of us in the media, there's a real challenge to confront: a wave of censorship that seeks to silence conversation, to stifle debate, to ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential," Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp., said in recorded remarks while receiving an award from the Australia Day Foundation, according to The New York Times. "This rigidly enforced conformity,...

Processed goods like jelly or gravy could be unavailable in NI at the end of the protocol grace period, according to Stormont's agriculture minister. Edwin Poots acknowledged Northern Ireland has plenty of homegrown produce, such as beef or potatoes. But he warned trimmings like Bisto or trifle could be missing from traditional Sunday dinners. He also stood by his claim that action was needed to avert "a major crisis" over food supplies. However, political opponents have accused him of scaremongering. Mr Poots said the official minute of a meeting he held with suppliers - at which he was told of...

Nearly five years after one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history, a small town at the centre of the tragedy is still grappling with the aftermath. When Tom Harding walked out of the courtroom after being acquitted of criminal negligence causing death, he didn't speak. The former train driver instead ducked away from the news cameras, overcome with emotion. His one-time colleague, Richard Labrie, did have something to say. "Could you back up a little bit so I can look at my paper? Because my eyes are full of tears," the ex-rail worker urged media crowding around him....

The Biden administration is expected to repeal the ban on transgender Americans from serving in the military, multiple people informed of the decision told CBS News. The announcement is expected as soon as Monday, one senior Defense official and four outside advocates of repealing the ban told CBS News. The senior Defense official told CBS News the repeal will be through executive order signed by President Joe Biden.

A Tacoma police officer whose SUV was surrounded by a crowd was seen on camera running over a pedestrian Saturday night. The incident was captured on camera and distributed on social media. Tacoma police officer Wendy Haddow said officers were called to Ninth South and Pacific where cars were blocking the intersection and doing burnouts and doughnuts. A crowd of about 100 people had gathered to watch. A Tacoma police officer who arrived soon found himself surrounded by people who were banging on the windows and SUV in a threatening way, Haddow said. Some of the SUV’s windows may have...

Facebook has gone down for thousands of users in the United States and Europe on Friday night, with some unable to access the site and others reporting that porn had flooded their video feeds. Downdetector.com which measures website problems saw the problems start to occur around 10pm EST. At least 4,800 users in the U.S. reported on Downdetector that they were unable to log in. The most common issue appeared to revolve around those attempting to log in to the site - which they were unable to do.

There are concerns about Katie Couric as a guest host of “Jeopardy!” after her “condescending, elitist” remarks that GOP and Trump supporters should be “deprogrammed.” Days after “Jeopardy!” producers announced Couric would be a guest presenter of the ABC show following the death of beloved host Alex Trebek, she went on Bill Maher’s show and backed Trump’s impeachment and Twitter ban.

Actor Tim Matheson took a not-so-subtle swipe at former First Lady Melania Trump while praising her successor Dr. Jill Biden in a now-deleted tweet. Following the backlash that took place after members of the National Guard were sent out of the Capitol building and into a cold parking lot, the first lady appeared for a photo op with a group of them while carrying baskets of candy. The "National Lampoon's Animal House" star reacted to the gesture by complimenting Biden, which included an indirect jab at her predecessor. "So wonderful to have a First Lady with class and heart. And,...

President Biden may cast his arrival in the White House as a return to business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but there’s at least one way he’s breaking from prevailing presidential tradition: he wears a Rolex.At his inauguration, Mr. Biden laid his hand on the family Bible wearing a stainless steel Rolex Datejust watch with a blue dial, a model that retails for more than $7,000 and is a far cry from the Everyman timepieces that every president not named Trump has worn conspicuously in recent decades.To many, a president wearing a luxury watch might not seem unusual. Shouldn’t...

<p>Officials say a naked Florida man has been arrested after stealing what news footage showed to be a marked Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office cruiser and crashing it.</p><p>The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says 22-year-old Joshua Shenker was arrested after Thursday’s crash and charged with theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and other counts.</p>

President Joe Biden has many connections to Philadelphia, one being his link to the University of Pennsylvania and launching the Cancer Moonshot project from there five years ago. That effort has led to many cancer breakthroughs. The Cancer Moonshot project led to major federal funding for cancer, and now new treatments that are saving lives. “My goal is we find absolute cures,” Biden said in 2016. That was then-Vice President Biden at the University of Pennslyvania five years ago to kick off the Cancer Moonshot. “It’s a source of pride that the ribbon was cut here at the Abramson Cancer...

Joe Exotic offered a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump this week after he failed to secure a presidential pardon. The star of the Netflix series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” is serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of plotting to murder longtime rival and animal rights activist Carole Baskin, as well as violating federal wildlife laws. The former zookeeper was said to have been so confident he’d be included on Trump’s clemency list that his legal team had ordered a limousine to retrieve him from a Fort Worth prison. But when Trump issued 144 pardons and commutations just...

President Joe Biden implored Americans in his inaugural speech to come together and unify, but the right-wing media machine has wasted no time dishonestly trashing him — foreshadowing what the next four years of coverage from outlets like Fox News will look like. On Fox News Wednesday night, the network decided against airing most of the "Celebrating America" inauguration special — which every other network carried — opting to instead allow propagandists like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity to deliver fiery anti-Biden sermons.

Rabbi Michael Beals of Wilmington, Delaware, compared President-elect Joe Biden to Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt — away from “an autocratic, cruel Pharaoh” — in a send-off ceremony on Tuesday afternoon. Beals was invited to give the invocation at the close of the event, marking the Biden family’s departure for the White House.

In late December, scientists in California began searching coronavirus samples for a fast-spreading new variant that had just been identified in Britain. They found it, though in relatively few samples. But in the process, the scientists made another unwelcome discovery: California had produced a variant of its own. That mutant, which belongs to a lineage known as CAL.20C, seemed to have popped up in July but lay low till November. Then it began to quickly spread. CAL.20C accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13, according to a new study...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper took a veiled shot at Fox News during a Sunday morning discussion about media polarization with former national security advisor H.R. McMaster. McMaster and Tapper were discussing President Donald Trump’s impeachment for inciting the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. After McMaster expressed his belief that the president was largely responsible and shouldn’t consider running again in 2024, he went on to lament the media’s role in the current political divide.

Obviously in an ideal world, the "base" would assert control over the Republican Party and flush out the swamp creatures who seem to form the majority of its executive and prominent elected representatives. But assuming that movement never takes off or gains any traction, what third party options exist and what are their chances for electoral success by 2024? The range of possibilities would seem to include these: (a) Declare the existence of an alternative GOP, calling it something very similar to the Republican Party (with the word Republican in the name, such as Conservative-Republican, Constitutional-Republican, Free Republican? hmm) ......

LONDON (AP) — The British government is increasingly troubled by soccer players hugging and kissing in celebrations, risking coronavirus infections and the sport’s ability to be allowed to continue during the latest lockdown. Outbreaks at Premier League teams, forcing the postponement of matches, have heightened concerns about the avoidable and very visible close contact between players.