Free Republic

The White House on Friday launched a website deeming a laboratory leak as the “true” origin of the covid-19 virus, embracing a theory that has become a popular explanation for a pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans but remains divisive in the intelligence community and opposed by many virologists. The new website, which features an image of President Donald Trump striding between the words “Lab Leak,” appears to draw entirely upon a report overseen by House Republicans last year, which concluded the outbreak began with a lab leak in China. The White House site also echoes the...

Forgive us if we missed it, but we don’t recall Donald Trump campaigning to invade Panama and retake its famous canal. But there was the President-elect on the weekend, threatening our Central American ally with punishment if it doesn’t meet his demands. “Our Navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama—I say, very foolishly, by the United States,” Mr. Trump told a crowd in Phoenix. “This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop.”...

The US is watching “very, very closely” for signs of an attack by China on Taiwan, the chief of the US military has said. “There’s no indications or warnings of anything imminent at this time,” General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told BBC News. “But again, we watch it very, very closely.” He said that a decision to attack by Beijing would be a “political” and policy choice, and based on China’s view of the “cost risk-benefit at the time”, as he acknowledged the repeated threats made by president Xi Jinping to reclaim the...

Russia’s capture of the strategic city of Lysychansk means the front line in Ukraine’s east will shift as Russian forces regroup before pushing further south and west, military analysts and Ukrainian officers said Sunday, ensuring that the next phase of the battle will be just as bloody as the last. To take Lysychansk and its neighboring city of Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces moved in from the north, east and west and created a pocket of territory that became indefensible toward the end of June. Now those Russian forces are in a position to attempt a similar maneuver on other Ukrainian-held cities...

As a volunteer of the 29th Olympic Game that will be held in Beijing soon,I gave up my summer holiday and have been working in the Olympic village since 20th this month.Every day,we work really hard to prepare well for the coming of the big event,and I'm wondering if anyone here will come to Beijing.