Free Republic

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the alliance by telling it to withdraw forces from member nations or face consequences. This goes far beyond Ukraine," Stoltenberg warned. "This is about how Russia is actually challenging, contesting core values for our security. Then warning that NATO should withdraw all forces and infrastructure from almost half of our members. "They said that if we don't do that, if we don't meet their demands, there will be what they call ‘military-technical consequences,'" he added. The leader of the 30-member alliance said that in response to...

A potential treatment for Covid-19 using plasma from recovered patients is to be trialled by doctors at London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospital.The first donations of the plasma have been collected and transfusions will begin in "the coming weeks", the hospital's Biomedical Research Centre said in a statement. It is hoped the potential treatment, known as convalescent plasma, will help patients whose bodies are not producing sufficient antibodies to fight the virus.The hospital says if the trials prove the treatment to be effective, NHS Blood and Transplant will begin a national programme to deliver up to 10,000 units of convalescent...

Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion. The 15-page research document, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, lays the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China. It states that to the “endangerment of other countries” the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in can also...

DOJ and DHS Issue New Asylum Rule Applies President’s authority to suspend entry to asylum Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen today announced an Interim Final Rule declaring that those aliens who contravene a presidential suspension or limitation on entry into the United States through the southern border with Mexico issued under section 212(f) or 215(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) will be rendered ineligible for asylum. The Acting Attorney General and the Secretary issued the following joint statement: “Consistent with our immigration laws, the President has the broad authority to...

Just one day after their mid-Judiciary Committee chat that helped to launch the FBI probe of the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh, Sens. Chris Coons and Jeff Flake made an appearance at the Global Citizens Festival, an annual concert held on the week of the United Nations’ General Assembly. “Hi, global citizen. I’m Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware,” Coons said. “And I’m Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona,” Flake added. “It was our personal relationship that made the politics of compromise that prevailed yesterday possible,” Coon said. “So we’re here to support bipartisan leadership on foreign aid,” Flake added. Then,...

At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications. In...

Press Statement Heather Nauert Department Spokesperson Washington, DC October 12, 2017 On October 12, 2017, the Department of State notified UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the organization and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to UNESCO. This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO. The United States indicated to the Director General its desire to remain engaged with UNESCO as a non-member observer state in order to contribute U.S. views, perspectives...

September 19, 2017 The full text of President Donald J. Trump’s speech to the United Nations 72nd General Assembly can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/19/remarks-president-trump-72nd-session-united-nations-general-assembly The full video of President Donald J. Trump’s speech to the United Nations 72nd General Assembly can be found here: https://youtu.be/H8xHdGSJWLs

Why Cleveland Police, Not Outside Officers, Will Be Handling Arrests During RNC CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Thousands of police officers from departments around the country will help Cleveland police provide security during the Republican National Convention, but those police officers won't be arresting anyone. While those officers can detain anyone they feel has broken the law, a Cleveland police officer will actually make the decision whether to make a formal arrest, Deputy Cleveland Police Chief Ed Tomba told cleveland.com Wednesday. Cleveland police will take the lead, partly because it's Cleveland's convention, Tomba said. But it also makes more sense to have...

Reminder to Marylanders that the closing date for registration and changes to party affilation is tomorrow April 5. MD primaries are closed, to have an impact you must register as GOP or Dem only. Radio PSA on WMAL had a brief item about the surge of questions that BOE has received from unaffiliated voters. I've never heard a public announcement of this sort before. What it means is yet to be determined, but along with Gov Hogan (R) election, it just may point to another record turnout. Another point. The Board of Elections is advertising for election judges, a paid...

Excerpt:I hate to say it, but doctors have something of a flatulence problem: at the moment, they know embarrassingly little about the bubbles brewing in your bowels. “What comes out of the backside only tells us about the last 20cm of the gut,” says Peter Gibson at Monash University in Victoria, Australia....Gibson wants to know what’s happening in the previous 130cm of the digestive tract, leading up to that final explosion.... Digestion depends on the subtle interactions between your genes, diet, metabolism, and the myriad micro-organisms inhabiting your body, each of which may leave its signature in gaseous by-products. A...

WMAL Radion in Washington DC just announced Rep. Kevin McCarthy has dropped his bid for Speaker of the House

African Leaders: Ebola Could Lead to Food Crisis Des Moines - Financial aid and global co-ordination are needed to prevent the Ebola health care crisis from becoming a food emergency, agriculture ministers from West African nations at the centre of the Ebola epidemic said on Wednesday. In Sierra Leone, where thousands are infected and more than 900 have died, 40% of the nation's farmers have abandoned their fields, said Joseph Sam Sesay, minister of agriculture, forestry and food security. The region of the country that grows coffee and cocoa beans has been struck hard by Ebola. About 90% of agricultural...

Top US Lawmakers Urge West Africa Travel Ban 2014-10-16 07:37 Washington - Senior US lawmakers overseeing homeland security on Wednesday joined calls for authorities to impose a temporary ban on travel from West Africa, in order to prevent an Ebola outbreak. Two American health-care workers at a Dallas, Texas hospital have been diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a Liberian man who died of the disease last week, and President Barack Obama's administration has shifted into overdrive in efforts to contain the disease's spread. "A temporary ban on travel to the United States from countries afflicted with the virus is...

I Felt Like I Was Doing MacGyver Medicine - MSF Doctor Johannesburg - Lack of equipment in Ebola-stricken countries is forcing doctors to improvise as they try to administer much needed healthcare, Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) staff said on Tuesday. "I had to do a blood transfusion on a child using a syringe," paediatrician Dr Julia Switala told reporters in Johannesburg. "I have seen and done things I never thought I would do. It felt like I was doing MacGyver medicine," she said referring to the resourceful television character. Switala said she spent four months in...

Second Patient Hospitalized in D.C. Area With Possible Ebola Virus UPDATED: Oct. 3, 2014 2:46 p.m. WASHINGTON (WNEW) — A hospital in D.C. says a person with possible Ebola symptoms has been admitted out of “an abundance of caution,” but the city’s health department says it has “no confirmed cases” at this time. Just a few hours later, officials from Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Maryland released a statement about a patient “presented with flu-like symptoms and a travel history that matches criteria for possible Ebola.” “Our care team immediately implemented guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and...

This Day in History 15.9.1916: First Tank in Action In September 1916 the German reserve infantry regiment no. 28 was in the Flers front section at the Somme. One of the most gruesome battles in the First World War had been fought out here, in June of that year. More than a million soldiers lost their lives. German and allied troops faced each other on a front that was 40 kilometres wide. After the first British assault had failed their opponents dug themselves in. Long rows of trenches were laid out, barbed wire and machine gun nests secured the positions...

Sierra Leone Expects to Uncover 100s of Hidden Ebola Cases Freetown - Sierra Leone said on Wednesday it expected to uncover up to 20% more Ebola victims when it imposes a nationwide curfew to find the dead and sufferers who have yet to go to hospital. The government has announced the shutdown, with the population of six million confined to their homes except for essential business, for 72 hours starting from 19 September. More than 20 000 volunteers will go door-to-door to remove bodies and take patients who have not yet gone to hospital into the care of medics. The...

(Blah, blah, blah about Obam).... (Snip) Hundreds of mutations An international research team has analyzed about a hundred Ebola virus genomes from 78 patients in Sierra Leone. The patients were diagnosed with Ebola in late May to mid June. The researchers found more than 300 genetic changes that make the 214 Ebola virus genomes distinct from the viral genomes tied to previous Ebola outbreaks. Moreover, over 50 changes had occurred since the start of the 2014 outbreak, suggesting the virus is in fact mutating. There are many cases where a change to the genome of an organism has no consequence....