Free Republic

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is prepared to offer extended visa rights and a pathway to citizenship for almost 3 million Hong Kong residents in response to China’s push to impose national security legislation in the former British colony. China’s parliament has approved a decision to go forward with national security legislation for Hong Kong that democracy activists, diplomats and some in the business world fear will jeopardise its semi-autonomous status and its role as a global financial hub. Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and the EU have all sharply criticised the move. Foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday...

When Henri met Albert the stars didn’t quite align; nor did their clocks. Jimena Canales, historian of science, tells Joe Gelonesi about her discovery of an explosive 20th century debate that changed our view of time and destroyed a reputation.Physicists and philosophers have a curious relationship. They both need each other for the cosmic dance, but one partner sometimes refuses to join in. Star physicist Stephen Hawking even declared the end of philosophy in 2011. In some ways the pronouncement was to be expected; physics triumphalism dictates that at some point philosophy will exhaust itself and be unable to solve...

Richard Robinson attempts the impossible, trying to hopeful about pessimism and despair. After concluding that God and the immortal soul are nonexistent, Robinson claims man can still create meaning by pursuing truth and beauty and virtue, most importantly courage and brotherly love. In an Atheist's Values He writes: "The human situation is this. Each one of us dies. He ceases to pulse or breathe or move or think. He decays and loses his identity. His mind or soul or spirit ends with the ending of his body, because it is entirely dependent on his body. The human species too will...