Free Republic

There's a reason very few new automakers have been launched over the past 40 or so years. Building and selling cars takes a tremendous amount of infrastructure. When you add in having to create not just a new design, but a new method of powering your car, you see why big auto has generally been a closed club. Tesla (TSLA) , of course, has crashed that party, becoming the first startup electric vehicle manufacturer to operate at scale. You can credit that to the genius and drive of Elon Musk. It may have been lost in his recent conversion to...

Former President Trump said Friday that he’d be willing to debate one of his Republican primary rivals if the race is “very close” after next month’s New Hampshire primary. He also signaled he would participate in general election debates run by Commission on Presidential Debates, which he has often criticized. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump if he would do a debate with any of his Republican challengers if there is only one left in the race after the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary.

Aminata Diallo was being escorted from her foul-smelling holding cell to an interview room inside the Hôtel de Police in Versailles, France, the first time she heard the name Tonya Harding. Harding’s name is infamous in sports, of course. A decorated American figure skater, she was a central figure in the notorious case involving the assault of her biggest rival only weeks before the 1994 Winter Olympics. The scandal — a sudden and violent attack by a mystery man, accusations and denials, tabloid headlines — led to worldwide attention and, years later, a feature-length movie about Harding. But to Diallo,...

Zuckerberg’s most trusted lieutenants, unveiled what he called “our response to Twitter”. The product chief showed off what has internally been codenamed “Project 92”, or in some iterations “Barcelona”: a prototype app that the Facebook-developer hopes will finally kill its rival. The app is expected to be called Threads and screenshots suggest it will feature a continuous scroll of text like Twitter with buttons similar to the Like and Retweet functions, according to technology news site The Verge. Zuckerberg’s company is already courting celebrities and influencers to test the app. Meta has been negotiating with TV host Oprah Winfrey and...

President Biden once hammered an opponent for being too old for office — even though he was almost 20 years younger than the oldest-ever commander-in-chief is now. Biden, running to stay president despite being 80, was a 29-year-old local Delaware councilman in 1972 when he ran the cruel — and ultimately successful — campaign for Senate. Biden repeatedly bashed incumbent Republican Sen. Cale Boggs for being too old at a mere 63 — which is 23 years younger than Biden will be at the end of a second term as president if he wins reelection. His campaign approach was described...

President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, on Feb. 25 pledged to work with allies to hold the Chinese regime accountable for its unfair trade practices. In remarks at her confirmation hearing conducted by the Senate Finance Committee, Tai described the Chinese regime as “as simultaneously a rival, a trade partner, and an outsized player whose cooperation we’ll also need to address certain global challenges.” “We must remember how to walk, chew gum, and play chess at the same time,” she added. Tai, who grew up in Taiwan and is a fluent Mandarin speaker, is the top...

In recent weeks, James’s office has sought bank records relating to the Trump Organization and its affiliates. She has continued a lawsuit brought by her predecessor against the now-defunct Trump Foundation, alleging violations of federal and state laws governing nonprofits. Her office has joined or spearheaded some of the dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration’s most controversial plans, including efforts to add a new question on citizenship status to the 2020 census and a plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

Orange County congresswoman Loretta Sanchez let loose on resident Obama for endorsing her rival in California’s U.S. Senate race, accusing him of being part of the “entrenched political establishment” that has failed California voters. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced their support for U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris early Tuesday morning, praising her record as California’s attorney general and a prosecutor. Harris has been a longtime political ally of the resident. Sanchez said she was “disappointed” that Obama would intervene in a Senate race between two Democrats, ... I believe that California voters are deeply concerned about the entrenched...

Officially, the election on March 17 is among Israelis. Depending on how we vote, either Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will remain in office and form the next government led by his Likud party, or Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni will form a government. But unofficially, a far greater electoral drama is unfolding. The choice is not between Netanyahu and Herzog/Livni. It is between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama. As the White House sees it, if Herzog/Livni form the next government, then Jerusalem will dance to Obama’s tune. If Netanyahu is reelected, then the entire edifice of Obama’s Middle East...

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Fistfights broke out between pro- and anti-Russian demonstrators in Ukraine's strategic Crimea region on Wednesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered major military exercises just across the border. The tests of military readiness involve most of the units in central and western Russia, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised statement. He said the exercise would "check the troops' readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security." In Kiev, opposition leaders who took charge after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled were working on forming a new government to chart a path forward...

On August 24th, we warned on Forbes that Tropical Storm Isaac could pose a threat to energy markets and even rival Hurricane Katrina in its destructive power (Could Tropical Storm Isaac Turn Into Another Katrina?). While the computer models are still showing a substantial spread in solutions, it appears more likely that Isaac will make landfall somewhere near the Louisiana, Mississippi Gulf Coast. This track will provide the storm more time to intensify over the very warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. The entire Gulf Coast from Lake Charles, LA to Panama City, FL should be aware of the...

A former co-worker of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to launch a rival website Monday called Openleaks that will help anonymous sources deliver sensitive material to public attention. .............. "Openleaks is a technology project that is aiming to be a service provider for third parties that want to be able to accept material from anonymous sources,"

As critics slam the administration's Recovery.gov website for a lack of accessible data, a private company has launched a rival — Recovery.com. Onvia, a 12-year old consulting group, started Recovery.com with the goal of providing real-time data on spending that comes out of the $787 billion stimulus bill. "If the money is being spent now, we need folks looking at the dollars being spent now to flag anything that might be inappropriate or might be wasteful," Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at George Mason University, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Affluence is more apparent these days BBC World Service will be dedicating a week of special programmes from 3-11 February looking at how India is changing. The BBC's George Arney has been reporting on India for many years and, for just as long, the country's promise has been waiting to be fulfilled. How do you summarise a country which is home to one in six members of the human race, which contains a third of the world's poorest people and yet has an increasingly consumer-oriented middle-class twice the size of the population of Germany? And which - according to...

India could overtake Britain and have the world's fifth largest economy within a decade as the country's growth accelerates, a new report says. If trends continue, India's economy may then surpass the US and be second only to China's by mid-century, the report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says. Manufacturing has helped to drive India's economy The report says India's programme of reforms has brought increased competition and efficiency. But there will be a heavy cost as India demands more and more energy. Boom time Everywhere you turn in India's cities are signs of economic boom. The implications of...

China has the money to secure future energy reserves China has signalled that it could use its vast foreign exchange reserves to bolster its strategic energy resources. Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan said China needed to speed up the hunt for fresh oil and natural gas supplies. China's foreign exchange reserves are the world's largest at more than $1 trillion (£511bn), supported by the country's strong global exports. China is keen to secure future reserves of oil, coal and other raw materials needed to fuel its booming economy. Earlier this year, Beijing hosted a summit of African leaders, at which access...

HAGA-GUN, Japan (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) said on Monday it has developed a new and simple diesel powertrain that is as clean as gasoline-fuelled cars, unveiling plans to mount it on a car for the U.S. market by 2009. Diesel engines, which now power half of Europe's new cars, are slowly gaining traction with fuel-conscious consumers around the world since they typically get 30 percent better mileage than gasoline cars. Their weakness has been the higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), a greenhouse gas, and carmakers are racing to come up with ways to clear the world's...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leftist presidential candidate threatened to disrupt the swearing in of his ruling party rival Saturday, a day after lawmakers blocked the outgoing president from delivering his state-of-the-nation speech to Congress in an escalating crisis over the July 2 election. Leftist legislators yelling for a recount of votes surrounded the congressional podium on Friday, leaving President Vicente Fox, wearing his presidential sash, standing at the door of the chambers with no choice but to hand in his annual, written report and leave. Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he will never recognize a victory by...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his health care affordability summit Monday to unveil a plan to expand health access for California children as he met with noted business, labor and medical leaders to discuss reforms to the overburdened health care system. Across campus at the University of California, Los Angeles, state Treasurer and Democratic nominee Phil Angelides staged his own "town hall" event with the associate director of the university's Center for Heath Policy Research and a handful of senior citizens and university students. Angelides pledged to sponsor legislation to expand the state's Healthy Families Program and force all companies...

/begin my excerpt Exclusive: Kim Pyong-il To Attend A Conference Of Overseas Mission Chiefs  Analysis: "Kim Jong-il to display solidarity among family in the midst of the missile crisis" It is revealed that Kim Pyong-il(age:53, see photo,) half brother of Kim Jong-il and N. Korean ambassador to Poland, is to attend a conference of overseas mission chiefs in Pyongyang soon. It is drawing some attention.According to Japanese media reports on July 18, N. Korean leadership, after rejecting a resolution at the UN Security Council, is to convene the conference of overseas mission chiefs where the leadership conveys its future direction in foreign affairs, and Ambassador Kim...