Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration is pushing for a "compromise solution" in stalled OPEC+ oil output talks, a White House spokesperson said on Monday. OPEC+ ministers called off those talks on Monday after the United Arab Emirates rejected a proposed eight-month extension to curbs on output. Four OPEC+ sources told Reuters there has been no progress toward a deal. "The United States is closely monitoring the OPEC+ negotiations and their impact on the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic," the White House spokesperson said in a statement. "We are not a party to these talks, but Administration officials...

A fast-food franchisee says she's turning to automated drive-thrus to solve her labor shortage, rather than offering a $15 hourly wage to attract new staff. Shana Gonzales, a Checkers franchisee who owns four restaurants in the Atlanta area, told The New York Times that she wanted to hire more workers, but that it wouldn't be profitable. She said raising wages to $14 or $15 would allow her to fully staff her restaurants - but that she'd have to raise menu prices, which could deter customers.Instead, she's turning to automated technology, such as voice-recognition drive-thrus, to keep business booming, she said....

Fauci said he won’t be getting antibody tests to tell him it’s time for another shot. Instead, he’ll be watching for two factors: - A rise in breakthrough COVID-19 infections among trial participants, who got their first COVID-19 vaccine shots in early 2020. - Any new lab data that reveals COVID-19 vaccine protection is dropping off after a certain amount of time.

Mexican authorities are bracing for more border violence in the coming days as rival cartels fight for lucrative smuggling routes. In recent weeks, cartel gunmen killed more than 15 innocent victims and a dozen rivals. The most violent shootout took place Tuesday morning when gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas rolled into Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas (West of McAllen Texas, across from Roma), and clashed with members of the Gulf Cartel. While the shootout took place under cover of darkness, by daylight residents reported the discovery of nine bodies strewn along a highway leading into the city....

The company behind Keystone XL Pipeline is seeking $15 billion in damages from the US government after Joe Biden revoked its permit in January. TC Energy announced it filed a Notice of Intent to initiate a NAFTA claim to recover “economic damages” caused by Biden’s move to cancel permits previously approved by Trump. “TC Energy will be seeking to recover more than US$15 billion in damages that it has suffered as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations,” the company said in a press release. Joe Biden’s first order of business was to kill tens of...

Greg Reese reports on the life and death of John McAfee Video...

President Joe Biden delivered his 4th of July speech on Sunday, and boy was it sure different from the speech Trump gave last year. The best thing I can say about it is that it was blissfully short, at 14-minutes. I read the complete transcript so you don't have to. Biden emphasized that getting vaccinated is "the most patriotic thing you can do." The administration looks to have just missed the goal of getting 70 percent of adults vaccinated by July 4, though they did try to spin that one to claim otherwise, as Leah covered. While the Biden administration...

Explanation: Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the here imaged molecular cloud complex is a reflection nebula cataloged as IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the visible light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse....

A mass shooting during a Fourth of July block party in Ohio left one person dead and 11 others, many of who are underage, injured, authorities said Monday. Toledo Police Chief George Kral said officers were dispatched following a call around 12:24 a.m. Monday saying a male was shooting into the air and 300 people were fighting in the street near Lawrence Avenue near Wall Street. Subsequent calls to 911 reported more shots being fired. When authorities responded to the scene, they found multiple people injured, Kral said. A 17-year-old male was airlifted to a hospital and later died. Nine...

Who's signed up yet? I'm on under spacejunkie2001. still figuring out who to follow and how to find them.

A medical examiner in Michigan says an autopsy has determined that Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks died of chest trauma from an errant fireworks mortar blast, and not a fall as authorities previously reported. Police in Novi, Michigan, said the mortar-style firework tilted slightly and started to fire toward people nearby Sunday night. The 24-year-old Kivleniek was in a hot tub and tried to get clear with several other people, police Lieutenant Jason Meier said. The fire department and EMTs got to the private home shortly after 10 p.m. and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced...

Pope Francis personally invited transgender group to receive COVID jabs over Easter, senior Vatican cardinal confirmsWhen questioned, Pope Francis reportedly exclaimed 'Absolutely vaccinate them!' Pope Francis further added that when the injections were being administered, Vatican officials were not to ask the transgender individuals about their sex.VATICAN CITY, July 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A senior Vatican official has confirmed that over Easter Pope Francis invited a group of transgender individuals to the Vatican to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Pope Francis previously gave money to the same group last year when COVID restrictions prevented them from working with their usual “customers on...

According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, 34 drownings were reported on the Great Lakes on Sunday, a 36% increase from last year, when 25 people drowned in the Great Lakes on the Fourth of July.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) did not rule out a 2024 Republican presidential run Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Hutchinson was elected Arkansas governor in 2014, reelected in 2018, and is barred by term limits from running for governor in 2022 and beyond. Anchor Dana Bash said, “Before I let you go. You said on this very show earlier this year it was too soon to start thinking about a possible 2024 presidential run. Your term is going to be up soon as Arkansas governor. Former President Trump said this week that he made up his mind about...

Prices of major food commodities are expected to ease in the coming decade after a surge in the past year, helped by higher farm productivity and slowing demand from China, the U.N. food agency and the OECD said. But emissions from agriculture are projected to climb, mostly from livestock production, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report. Agricultural commodity prices have surged since last year due to booming Chinese imports and tightening crop inventories, leading the FAO to forecast record costs in 2021 for food importers. But...

A pair of Brooklyn-based far-left attorneys who firebombed the NYPD during last year’s deadly Black Lives Matter riots can still practice law in the State of New York, while former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani cannot, with his law license suspended for the crime of questioning the 2020 Presidential Election. Colinford Mattis, who works as a corporate lawyer, and his co-conspirator Urooj Rahman, a so-called human rights attorney, both face federal charges related to the firebombing of an NYPD police cruiser and could face sentences of at least 45 years in prison. Despite the extremely violent...

AN "EMERGENCY" at Newark Airport sparked an evacuation with passengers reportedly being seen screaming and running from the buildings. Reports initially emerged that Terminal C was evacuated just after 10.30am, however 30 minutes later the airport was up-and-running as normal. One person has been taken into custody following a security breach at the airport. The airport quickly took to Twitter to confirm that the incident was "under control" adding that a customer had exited through a security door. It is unclear whether the incident was a mistake or whether it was intentional.

Wednesday a Daytona Beach police officer was shot in the head while making a routine inquiry of an individual he had spotted sitting in a parked car in front of a residence at night. The officer is still in critical condition. The shooter is a man named Othal Wallace aka O-Zone Wallace. Wallace was apprehended Saturday hiding in a treehouse in Georgia. The media – in the usual fashion – shows no particular interest in delving into the details of the shooting or its import. It should. This was not just a criminal act. It was an attack on a...

Charles Munger, Vice Chairman of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, has suggested the U.S. needs to act more like the Chinese Communist Party when it comes to banking. In an interview on Wednesday, the 97-year-old billionaire claimed American free enterprise led to mass suffering from the 2008 crash. When asked about the mysterious disappearance of Alibaba CEO Jack Ma as an issue with Chinese economics, Munger doubled down on his pro CCP rhetoric. “Well yes, but Jack Ma’s one of the swingers. So they just cut his, they said to hell with you,” he expressed. “He basically gave a speech when...

A total of 35,691 v-safe participants 16 to 54 years of age identified as pregnant. Injection-site pain was reported more frequently among pregnant persons than among nonpregnant women, whereas headache, myalgia, chills, and fever were reported less frequently. Among 3958 participants enrolled in the v-safe pregnancy registry, 827 had a completed pregnancy, of which 115 (13.9%) resulted in a pregnancy loss and 712 (86.1%) resulted in a live birth (mostly among participants with vaccination in the third trimester). Adverse neonatal outcomes included preterm birth (in 9.4%) and small size for gestational age (in 3.2%); no neonatal deaths were reported. Although...