Free Republic

Late last year, when the fate of the reflation trade and the price of oil was still unclear, Exxon made the only decision that it could in order to preserve its dividend: it announced that it would cut 14,000 jobs worldwide by 2022, or about 20% of its workforce, and it would extend reductions well beyond that original time frame. The cost savings would go to fund the one thing the once world’s largest corporation was best known for – its generous dividend, which at one point last year yielded about 10% (it has since shrunk to 5.6%). Fast forward...

Surgeons in South Africa are preparing to reconstruct the face of Nine-year-old Rodwell Khomazana who was mauled by a hyena during a night time church service in Zimbabwe. Doctors in one of the city's main public hospitals stabilised his condition, but lacked the resources to fully repair the boy's ravaged face. His desperate mother reached out to medics in neighbouring South Africa, who agreed to operate Khomazana for free in a private Johannesburg clinic. Nine-year-old Rodwell Khomazana lost his nose, left eye, most of his upper lip, parts of his forehead and other parts of his face when the animal...

The ongoing global semiconductor shortage is causing prices of electronics to rise while at the same time pressuring suppliers and material providers to continue raising prices. In the midst of the shortage, demand for consumer electronics has continued to rocket higher. Ergo, industry officials believe that the increases are likely to continue, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. The effects can be easily seen in consumer electronics. The report notes that items like one ASUS laptop that formerly cost $900 now costs $950. An HP Chromebook laptop that used to cost $220 has seen its price rise to...

After an ambulance attended a deadly shooting in Oakland, California, Juneteenth revellers proceeded to twerk on and jump on the vehicle, not stopping their party for anything.

Some of the specific goals included in the playbook are as follows: Each film or series with a creative team of three or more people in above-the-line roles (Directors, Writers, Producers) should ideally include a minimum 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. This will increase to 50% by 2024. Casting actors whose identity (gender, gender identity, nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability) aligns with the character they will be playing. Aiming to include one character from each of the following categories in speaking roles, with minimum 50% of these to be women: LGBTQIA+, person with a disability,...

Covid booster vaccine plan to come in a few weeks - Matt Hancock By Francesca Gillett & Becky Morton BBC News 21 June 2021, 02:24 BST Updated 21 June 2021, 09:48 BST Plans for a Covid booster jab programme in the autumn will be set out in the next few weeks, Matt Hancock has said. The health secretary said ministers were waiting for results from trials of different combinations of vaccines. It comes after doctors and NHS trusts said planning for a booster rollout must start now as it will involve bigger challenges.

Shane Fuhrman cites ‘threats’ and ‘divisiveness’ as reasons, but gives no further explanation.. The mayor of Silverton suspended recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at town meetings Monday, saying the pledge has led to threats and community divisiveness. “Due to direct and indirect threats, inappropriate comments in and out of public meetings, and the general divisiveness this is creating in our community, we will not be doing the Pledge of Allegiance during town of Silverton board of trustee meetings,” said Mayor Shane Fuhrman during Monday’s town board meeting. “And it’s removed from agendas and our protocols until such time that...

Join together with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Au-thority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

President Duterte gave anti-vaxxers two choices: get anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin or leave the country since they don’t want to join the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program. “Ito ‘yong ayaw magpabakuna. Kayong ayaw magpabakuna, ipabakuna ko ‘yong itong sa bakuna ng baboy, ‘yong Ivermectin. Iyon ang ibakuna ko sa kanila (These people who don’t want to get vaccinated. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I will vaccinate you with the vaccine for pigs, the Ivermectin. That’s what I will put in you),” the President said in his taped public address on Monday night. The parasitic drug Ivermectin is being used experimentally...

ENGLEWOOD, Colorado. — A gynecologic oncologist at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood said she is seeing more late-stage cervical cancer cases because so many women put off their screening tests during the pandemic. “Screening went down drastically during the pandemic, especially during the times of lockdown,” Dr. Allison Staley said. Additionally, she said as women skipped their PAP and HPV tests, some cancers, or abnormalities went undiagnosed, and now she is seeing more late-stage cancers. “The majority of them are further along, they are more advanced, and we’re seeing that people are having to have additional hospitalization for further work...

The government of California is prepared to pay off past-due rent accumulated during the coronavirus pandemic as the state's eviction moratorium nears expiration. Derived from several packages of financial aid distributed to states and localities by Congress, California has roughly $5.2 billion at the ready — an amount that Jason Elliott, a senior counselor to Gov. Gavin Newsom on housing and homelessness, said should be more than enough to cover unpaid rents, according to the Associated Press. Newsom and lawmakers are set to hold meetings this week to discuss the state’s roughly $260 billion operating budget. One topic they are...

The American media keeps telling us two “facts.” Voter ID laws are “racist,” and election fraud claims are “false” and “baseless.” The New York Times labeled state ID and voting laws as showing “the Republican Party’s growing discomfort with democracy” and “dangerously anti-democratic.” The Washington Post described it as an “anti-democratic virus.” But if these characterizations are correct, all of Europe and virtually all other developed countries must be anti-democratic as they have even stricter anti-fraud provisions than any US state. Democrats are pushing to remove identification requirements for voting, replacing voter ID rules with a sworn statement of self-identification....

Some of the core tenets of the “woke” ideology spreading around the country mimic ideas used to justify many of the most horrendous atrocities of the past century, according to several experts.

...U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich dismissed protesters' claims for damages against officials such as then-President Donald Trump, then-Attorney General William Barr, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and others for their part in the day's events, which included law enforcement pushing people out of the park using aggressive tactics.... ...Friedrich said the plaintiffs, whose complaints were filed by groups such as American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. and Black Lives Matter, had not "plausibly alleged the existence of a conspiracy" between those officials who "targeted black people and their supporters" as the plaintiffs claimed....

More than 50 House GOP lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to relieve Vice President Kamala Harris of her duties in handling the U.S.–Mexico border crisis. The Republicans, as they have done for months, noted that Harris hasn’t yet visited the border amid a surge in illegal immigration. Some Democratic lawmakers who represent areas along the border have also called on the vice president to take more action, including a visit to the area. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) and 55 other Republicans in the House demanded Harris’s removal from her border assignment, citing recent Customs and Border Protection data that...

To understand why Iranians abstain from polling places, I am giving you a little background on democracy, freedom, and why voting does not affect which candidate has ultimately announced the winner. • There has never been a just and fair election since 1979 Khomeini’s Arab Islamic coup d’état. • The Candidate must be an Arab Muslim, regardless of which the Arab States. Iranians (Persians) are not allowed to participate in any elections as a candidate. Iranians symbolically line up at the polls. • The candidate is pre-approved months in advance by the Shiite supreme leader. Imam Khomeini only selected a...

President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Philippines battles one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths. “You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,” Duterte said in a televised address on Monday following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital Manila. Duterte’s remarks contradict those of his health officials, who have said that while people are being urged to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, it was voluntary. “Don’t get me wrong, there is a...

Their “Love in the Time of Covid” cards in each save-the-date envelope spelled it out clearly: This October wedding would be a vaccinated-only event. After all, the groom’s father, who is vaccinated against covid-19 but immunocompromised, needed to be sure he could safely attend... The couple didn’t expect...someone who hadn’t been vaccinated showing up anyway. But then a family member disclosed some shocking intel: Michelle’s father and stepmom were planning to lie about having gotten the vaccine. “That obviously threw everything completely for a loop,” she says. Not only are Michelle and her father very close, but he’s also helping...

India in 1983 was still in its infant stages of economic development; however, like today, it was a popular destination among Westerners with its marketable poverty, a lingering sense of spirituality, mysticism and a rich history. Around 20 years after United States President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, his son, John F. Kennedy Jr., was ready to take on the world as a fresh 23-year-old history graduate from Brown University. After finishing his education, he took a working year off in which he traveled to India to spend some time at Delhi University, where he researched topics of...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is praising President Joe Biden’s plan to bring four times as many refugees to the United States this year as former President Trump had planned.In a statement this week, Grandi applauded Biden’s decision to increase the refugee resettlement cap for Fiscal Year 2021 to 62,500 — a more than 315 percent jump compared to the previously established cap of 15,000 refugees for the fiscal year.“The whole pace will pick up in a few months,” Grandi told Voice of America in an interview. “In the whole of 2020, we only resettled 34,000...