Free Republic

Chinese army personnel have helped to clear debris made by protesters at Hong Kong Baptist University in Kowloon Tong. ---- It was the first such action by the Hong Kong garrison since the 1997 Handover. Article 9 of the law stipulates that the garrison shall not interfere in the local affairs of Hong Kong, whilst Article 11 states that the garrison shall notify the local government in advance of any military activities, such as training exercises and manoeuvres if the public interest is affected. But at the time, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung has said that the public should not over-interpret...

Hong Kong police have fired three live rounds at two protesters in Sai Wan Ho during city-wide strike action. Protesters were blocking roads at an intersection outside Tai On Building in Sai Wan Ho. At around 7:15am, a police officer tried to give chase before he pulled out a service pistol and pointed it at them, according to footage captured by Cupid Producer. He then grabbed a protester in white, and shot another black-clad protester in the stomach at close range.

A billionaire West Virginia coal tycoon was among seven Americans killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of the Bahamas on Thursday evening, according to local officials and reports. Chris Cline, 61, a former coal miner who turned his Foresight Energy company into a billion-dollar operation in 2015, was killed in the crash at about 5 p.m. local time, the Palm Beach Post reported.

After six years of extensive archaeological excavations led by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a 350-meter-long section of the Pilgrimage Road was unveiled at a festive ceremony in the City of David. The road served as the main thoroughfare for pilgrims walking from the Pool of Siloam, where they would ritually purify themselves, en route to the Holy Temple during the Second Temple Period.

...Then the name of President Obama appears, his middle name, Hussein, emphasized with capital letters. We are clearly meant to recall this Muslim name as Obama himself appears on the screen. . . he’s shown in apparent distress, mourning the atrocities committed in the name of Jesus during the Crusades. . . “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross”: That’s the title of the film in English.

No president since Lincoln has faced the prospect of an internal rebellion as has Trump. The departments of his own government are aligned against him. The Justice Department in no way answers his summons. The FBI uses overwhelming force to intimidate his supporters. The intelligence agencies conspire for his removal. The media, some of which appear to be merely part of the same apparatus, lie to the public in order to foment hysteria and create a popular clamor.

The family of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan Wednesday after nearly a decade on death row, is “living in straight terror” and seeking a Western country to grant expedited asylum in the face of violent protests calling for her death... Embassies take days and sometimes months to process asylum requests, however, and Chowdhry noted that, given the amount of animosity against Bibi, she may not have that much time before someone attempts to kill her.

Police in Pittsburgh are responding to reports of an active shooter at a synagogue. There are unconfirmed reports of multiple victims. There is also an unconfirmed report that the suspect shot at responding officers. The status of the suspect is unknown at this time.

A Karachi-based Christian woman of only 18, Beenish Paul, was thrown from the second-floor building of her own home for refusing to "marry" a local Muslim man who was running a trafficking ring. She is now paralysed. A 2nd year chemical engineering student from Karachi, was beaten so badly by a mob of young Muslim men accompanied by an Islamic cleric, that he lost his sight. His only hope for restoration of part of his sight in one eye is expensive hospital treatment abroad, and/or our prayers. His neighbors use bigoted and abusive language against him as the swarm of...

Who would have suspected that a handheld genetic test used to unmask sushi bars pawning off tilapia for tuna could deliver deep insights into evolution, including how new species emerge? ------- The study's most startling result, perhaps, is that nine out of 10 species on Earth today, including humans, came into being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. "This conclusion is very surprising, and I fought against it as hard as I could," Thaler told AFP.

The Christian campaign group that acted for the family of Alfie Evans could face an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Guardian has learned. ---- The high court judge Mr Justice Hayden was particularly critical of the role of Pavel Stroilov, a Russian-born law student who appeared to have taken the lead in representing Alfie’s parents for the Christian Legal Centre (CLC). The judge described Stroilov, who formerly worked for the Ukip leader, Gerard Batten, as a “fanatical and deluded young man” whose legal advice was “inconsistent with the real interests of the parents’ case”.

David Hogg, student activist in the Florida school shooting, was also featured six months prior to the shooting in this news story, on a California beach.

Vice President Pence did something unthinkable in Jerusalem last week: he referenced the bible in support of Israel’s right to exist. “The Jewish people held fast to a promise through all the ages, written so long ago, that ‘even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens,’ from there He would gather and bring you back to the land which your fathers possessed.” Few politicians today, and probably not any in Western Europe, would express themselves in similar terms. Moderns can reverence Marx, Lenin, and Marcuse with impunity, but not Moses. But as Orwell stated,...

It was just over ten years ago that the Duke lacrosse case finally dragged its weary way across the finish line. That case was a storm petrel, flying before the thunder. We should have watched its course more carefully, because it was about to become a paradigm of what was to follow. -------- And so we stumble on without understanding why we once believed that the rule of innocence until proven guilty was necessary. Or that if we sacrificed the individual to satiate the appetite of the mob, we gave up everything that was worth preserving in society anyway.

It was just over ten years ago that the Duke lacrosse case finally dragged its weary way across the finish line. That case was a storm petrel, flying before the thunder. We should have watched its course more carefully, because it was about to become a paradigm of what was to follow. --------- And so we stumble on without understanding why we once believed that the rule of innocence until proven guilty was necessary. Or that if we sacrificed the individual to satiate the appetite of the mob, we gave up everything that was worth preserving in society anyway.

3500 years ago slaves toiling in the harsh mines of the Sinai scribbled some graffiti on the desert rocks. One of them wrote: "Moses then provoked astonishment." That, plus a lot of other inscriptions, deserve more than a passing glance. ------ "He sought occasion to cut away to barrenness our great number, our swelling without measure." (Sinai 349) "Our bond servitude had lingered. Moses then provoked astonishment. It is a year of astonishment." (Sinai 361) Anyone familiar with the book of Exodus will immediately spot parallels with the account of Pharaoh's attempt to reduce the number of newborn Israelites; and...

The Oscar Blackout protesters are peddling a neurotoxin to African Americans. "You are helpless", they insist. "Organized and all-powerful white supremacists control every detail of life. You can do nothing to create art. Your only hope is to note every moment when white people appear to have more than you. Rage against and envy that greater amount of something. The more angry and destructive the protest, the better. Think Ferguson, think Baltimore. Shame, mock, and vilify whites. Only then can the good things of life be yours." This message ruins lives.

Since January 15 the French army’s “Opération Sentinelle” has protected 722 Jewish schools and synagogues, some 24/7 even when the establishments were empty. The operation came to be regarded as too dangerous for the soldiers who were regularly targets of attacks. Over time the men were worn out. (snip)

(snip) Instead of ‘Je suis Charlie’, the demonstrators should have been shouting ‘J’accuse’. And the objects of appropriate rage were all there, at the head of the rally, putting their heads on one another’s shoulders and looking oh so statesmanlike. They should have been pinned to the wall and asked, fists at their noses, how they allowed this tragedy to happen and what they are going to do to make sure such tragedies don’t happen again. Those 17 people didn’t die in an Alpine avalanche or a car accident. They were monstrously murdered by the enemies in our midst, those...

Just days after a new California law redefining rape came into effect, several shocking but unsubstantiated rape allegations have been leveled against fraternities on the UC Berkeley campus. One stunning university police report cites accusations of a mass rape at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, where not just one but five victims were supposedly drugged and raped on the same night at the frat house near campus. In another allegation, a specific perpetrator was named, arrested, and shamed publicly — only to be later declared “factually innocent” as the rape charge was quietly dropped, after his reputation was ruined. Suspiciously,...