Free Republic

When the coronavirus pandemic first emerged in early 2020, governments quickly put out information on what symptoms to look out for, little knowing then that much of the transmission was asymptomatic. The public was told to look out for a high temperature and a new continuous cough, with a loss of taste or smell, fatigue and a sore throat also named as possible symptoms (some added at different points of the pandemic). Fast forward to the present day and more symptoms are being reported and recognized. The variation in symptoms has happened over time as several variants of the virus...

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New weekly applications for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department. In the week ending July 3, the seasonally adjusted number of initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 373,000, rising 2,000 above the previous week’s revised total of 371,000. Another 99,001 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a program created in March 2020 to expand jobless aid to gig workers, contractors and others who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment benefits. Twenty-six states have pulled out of the program, which expires in September.

Six Target stores in San Francisco are adjusting their times, opening hours later and closing hours earlier to try to curtail soaring theft.They join Walgreens, which has closed 17 stores over five years in direct response to criminal activity. Last month, a video went viral of a hooded and masked man riding his bike into a San Francisco branch of the chain, loading a trash bag with merchandise, and riding back out — past a powerless security guard and two others filming on their phones.Early Monday evening, at least nine men and women smashed cases and stripped shelves in San...

What if I told you The Lancet, Nature, and other so-called “scientific” journals were the most powerful tools used by the powers-that-be to propagate a multitude of Covid-19 lies and send the entire planet towards economic collapse? What if I also told you much of what these journals have published over the last year have killed countless people. You’d probably think I was giving them too much credit. After all, who reads scientific journals?But when we look at the effects of their various lies, we see that their influence on our lives was far greater than most realize even if...

State officials have called the election for Sept. 14, and ballots will hit mailboxes weeks before then.

WASHINGTON, Sunday, July 7. The city has been rife with rumors to-day, relating to the movements of PATTERSON's column. One report had it that JOHNSTON had been defeated, with a loss of two thousand killed and a large number wounded. Another report had PATTERSON defeated, and that he was falling back. From Col. LAMON, who left Martinsburgh yesterday afternoon, I learn that Gen. PATTERSON was at that place, and had no expectation of a conflict with the rebels before the middle of the week. I visited to-day all the fortifications along Arlington Heights. They are in a state that they...

House Sergeant at Arms William Walker announced on Wednesday that the remainder of the fencing around the Capitol will be removed starting as soon as Friday. The fencing — which was put up shortly after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when attendees of a nearby pro-Trump rally attempted to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results — will take three days to come down. Walker cited the Capitol Police’s assessment showing a lower threat level than earlier this year, noting that it will “monitor intelligence information and the associated threat environment” moving forward.

Contrary to much of modern-day theology, God never promised us a life without trials and suffering, but rather one in which we would be refined and carefully molded into His image. He never intended for us to settle for the narrow life of living solely for ourselves with affections set on the things of this world, but rather to live with hands outstretched and hearts touched by the infirmities of others. There are some people who have such an aversion to the idea of hardship that they immediately shut down at the mere mention of it. If they don’t hear...

Sex education is a sensitive subject. But during nine years at the prestigious Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, seven of which she spent as the director of health and wellness, Justine Ang Fonte seemed to be handling it with success. She developed curriculums for students from kindergarten through 12th grade; hired three other health educators; and organized documentary viewings, discussions and workshops for parents. She also was a regular speaker at educational forums, like the National Association of Independent Schools’s People of Color Conference, and offered workshops and presentations at other New York City schools. One...

“We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). The final link in the chain that eternally binds believers to Christ is their joy or exultation in God. Perhaps nowhere outside of Scripture has Christian joy been expressed more beautifully than in these stanzas from Charles Wesley’s hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace! Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, Your loosened tongues...

Earlier this month former President Trump wondered in an emailed statement to supporters who killed Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Now, RealClearInvestigations has provided an answer.Thus far efforts by Babbitt’s family, journalists and watchdog groups to get the U.S. Capitol Police to release the identity of the officer who shot Babbitt have been futile. USCP is “shrouded in secrecy” and is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.As RCI pointed out, the refusal to name the officer has led to false rumors circulating on the internet. But the officer’s identity appears to have been revealed by...

At this point, saying that the leaders of Black Lives Matter Corporate and many of the leaders of local chapters are ignorant racists is a moot statement. Americans have been divided into two camps: Those who see the truth and those who still think fighting racism with more racism is a great idea. Nevertheless, it’s good to point out when anyone in BLM expresses their true feelings in hopes that some who still support them will realize they’ve made a mistake. Case-in-point: A Facebook post by the Utah chapter of BLM that they posted on Sunday. “When we Black Americans...

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - This may not be an election year, but some voters are switching political parties. In Arizona, Republicans have the largest number of registered voters, but more voters are switching or registering as Independents. Politics in Arizona is a constant national focus with the state Senate election audit, politicians making headlines and President Joe Biden winning the traditionally red state in 2020. New poll shows election audit unpopular with Arizona voters Examining voter registration from the Secretary of State's Office shows some interesting trends. In the years between the 2016 and 2020 general elections, Democrats saw the...

The Presbyterian Church in America has voted to change a rule in its governing document that would disqualify all gay men from serving in its ministry. The resolution to change the rule, “Overture 23,” was passed 1,400-400 at the denomination’s 48th annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri, last week. “Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character. Those who profess an identity (such as, but not limited to, ‘gay Christian,’ ‘same-sex attracted Christian,’ ‘homosexual Christian,’ or like terms) that undermines or contradicts their identity as new creations in Christ,...

The issue of racial justice topped social concerns for members of the prominent religious student group InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to a recent survey.InterVarsity released the findings of a survey on Tuesday that they conducted among 316 members enrolled at 127 different college campuses. The survey focused on multiple matters.When asked which “social issues” were “the most important” to them, 38.61% of students who responded to the survey said "racial justice" was the most important.Racial justice was ranked higher than the social concerns of “reducing abortion” (26.27% of respondents) and “religious tolerance/freedom” (25.63% of respondents).Second place in the social issues...

One of the strangest of our many human failings is the apparent pathological need to destroy anything truly extraordinary. The increasingly obvious demise of our formerly great nation as a whole is an excellent example of this, but it is hard to beat what a coalition of mostly extremely liberal factions have just done to the basic goodness — despite all the imperfections — of major college sports, all under the guise of a fake civil rights crusade. In case you missed it over the holiday weekend, the NCAA officially announced that, for all intents and purposes, there is no...

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics agreed Thursday to ban spectators from the Games after Japan declared a state of emergency to combat surging COVID-19 cases in the capital. The move comes just two weeks before the opening Games on July 23. President Seiko Hashimoto, who is the president of the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, said it was “regrettable” that the sporting event would be held without crowds.

Too big a price to pay for decelerating your epigenetic clock?If you're a gentleman looking to counteract the effects of ageing, a new study on sheep may have the answer – but you're going to have to say goodbye to your family jewels in return for a slowdown of your DNA's ageing process."Both farmers and scientists have known for some time that castrated male sheep live on average much longer than their intact counterparts," explained first author Victoria Sugrue, an anatomy PhD student at the University of Otago. "However, this is the first time anyone has looked at DNA to...

The global death toll attributed to the coronavirus pandemic has topped four million and is still climbing, according to figures released Thursday by Johns Hopkins University. A live tracker of the virus collated by the university outlined 4,001,791 people have died and more than 185 million have been infected during the pandemic. UPI reports some 40 percent of those deaths can be attributed to the three countries of the United States, Brazil and India. The U.S. leads the world in deaths with 606,218 million followed by Brazil with 528,540 and India with 405,028 million. While the U.S. missed President Joe...