Free Republic

Ontario Civil Liberties Association researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt and several fellow Canadian academics have penned an open letter to support those who have decided not to accept the Covid-19 injection. The group emphasises the voluntary nature of this medical treatment as well as the need for informed consent and individual risk-benefit assessment. They reject the pressure exerted by public health officials, the news and social media, and fellow citizens. Control over our bodily integrity may well be the ultimate frontier of the fight to protect civil liberties.

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Guatemala has begun to receive flights of undocumented migrants sent back from the United States under a new policy allowing fast-track expulsions for some families at the U.S.-Mexico border, Guatemalan and U.S. authorities said on Wednesday. The measure announced by U.S. officials last week, called "expedited removal," applies to families that have not sought U.S. asylum or who do not qualify, and comes as border arrests in recent months have risen to 20-year highs.... ...President Joe Biden's administration has said it is working on offering more ways for Central American migrants to legally enter...

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department is looking into the whereabouts of a $5,800 bottle of whisky given to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the Japanese government, a U.S. government document made public on Wednesday showed. A notice from the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol dated July 22 listing gifts to U.S. federal employees from foreign governments reported in 2019, said the whisky was donated to Pompeo by the government of Japan on June 24, 2019.... The New York Times quoted two unnamed people briefed on the matter as saying that the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tuna fishing boat based in the Pacific island nation of Fiji that has been accused of essentially enslaving its crew was blocked Wednesday from importing seafood into the United States, part of an increasing effort to keep goods produced with forced labor from entering the country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued an order to stop any shipments in American ports from the Hangton No. 112, a longliner operated by a Chinese national, after the agency determined there was credible evidence that the crew was subjected to conditions defined as forced labor under international standards. It’s...

Senate Democrats are set to unveil legislation that would tax energy companies responsible for major greenhouse gas emissions to pay for the costs of climate disasters. The Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), would require between 25 to 30 of the U.S. corporations responsible for the most greenhouse gas pollution to pay $300 billion into a fund over 10 years. The legislation would require companies to pay into the fund if they were responsible for at least .05 percent of global carbon dioxide and methane emissions between 2000 and 2019 based on data from...

Former United States President Donald Trump has lodged a legal challenge to a Justice Department (DOJ) order that his long-sought tax returns be turned over to a House of Representatives committee. In a filing in federal court in the District of Columbia on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said the House Ways and Means Committee lacks a legitimate basis for seeking his federal tax returns, and that the Justice Department erred when it backed the committee’s request.... The Democratic-led Ways and Means Committee has said it wants the tax data to determine whether the IRS is properly auditing presidential tax returns in...

On the 17th floor of a non-descript Manhattan office building, opposite Hudson Yards, part of the deadliest coverup in human history was hatched last year, alleges a devastating congressional report into the origins of Covid-19 There, on the corner of 34th street and 10th Avenue, is the headquarters of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit devoted to “Wildlife Conservation”, whose big-noting, British-born founder, Peter Daszak, somehow wound up at the center of a pandemic that has killed millions of people around the world. The House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican minority report, released this week, found “strong evidence that suggests Daszak is the...

Two of the dozens of Texas Democratic state legislators that fled to Washington, DC last month are currently on vacation in Portugal, the Texas Tribune reported. Reps. Julie Johnson and Jessica Gonzáles and their wives planned the trip a year and half in advance and had non-refundable tickets, according to Texas Monthly reporter Jonathan Tilove.... ...The news of the legislators' absence broke as more than 100 state legislators from around the country fly in for a "week of action" to promote the "For the People" Act, a sweeping voting rights bill that is currently stalled in the Senate....

“My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding" (Proverbs 5:1).

Under the supreme command of General Douglas MacArthur, my father faced Japanese bullets on the beach of Balikpapan in 1945 and saw some of his friends die. He volunteered for this service because he did not want imperial Japanese totalitarianism to threaten Australia. His father-in-law, Reverend Ralph Blanchard, subsequently campaigned strongly for the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With that document the world came together to try to put an end to totalitarian abuses. But in 2021 in The West, the unborn have no right to life, anti white racism is a fashionable game, religious faith...

In February 1958, the immense prime-time audience that tuned into Edward R. Murrow’s CBS program See It Now was treated to a historical first: a television interview with a former president of the United States. Among various other topics, the great journalist asked Harry Truman about how he was getting along financially. As was his custom, the plainspoken Missourian minced no words about his situation. “You know,” Truman told Murrow, “the United States government turns its chief executives out to grass. They’re just allowed to starve.” Truman went on to claim that only his recent inheritance of the family farm...

'Gutfeld!' panel discusses media's coverage of vaccine and COVID data.

Vice President Kamala Harris will focus on defending international rules in the South China Sea, strengthening US leadership in the region and expanding cooperation on matters of security during her trip to Vietnam and Singapore, a senior White House official told Reuters. The trip will be Harris's first to the region, making her the only US vice president to visit Vietnam and is aimed at rallying international support to counter China's growing global influence. The countries are critical partners for the United States because of their location, size of their economies, their trade relationship with the United States and security...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A 76-year-old man who was vaccinated has died as a result of COVID-19 complications. That is according to information released Wednesday from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. According to Dr. Sherri Young, the man did have an underlying medical condition and passed away while at a medical facility. Dr. Young says this should not discourage people from getting the vaccination, but just proves there is still COVID-19 in our communities and we need to protect those with underlying conditions and protect the elderly.

Vietnam is set to approve the use of Gilead Sciences's antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of patients who have contracted the coronavirus, state media reported on Tuesday (Aug 3). The Southeast Asian country successfully contained COVID-19 for much of the pandemic, but has seen a spike in infections and hospitalisations since an outbreak which emerged in late April. After receiving donated supplies of remdesivir, Vietnam has already been using the drug for COVID-19 treatment in some health facilities, the state-run VTC newspaper cited deputy health minister Nguyen Truong Son. "The ministry is studying the inclusion of remdesivir in the...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission has approved a supply contract with U.S. firm Novavax to buy up to 200 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Commission said on Wednesday. The move is part of the EU's strategy to diversify its vaccine portfolio after the bloc betted heavily for the coming years on messenger RNA (mRNA) shots produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. "Our new agreement with Novavax expands our vaccine portfolio to include one more protein-based vaccine, a platform showing promise in clinical trials," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement. French drugmaker Sanofi, in partnership with...

A Florida Army sergeant is one of the first known Christian troops to get a religious exemption allowing him to grow out his hair and beard, according to a report. Sgt. Jacob DiPietro had applied for the religious exemption in November 2019 because he observes the Nazarite vow from the Old Testament that states, “No razor may be used on their head” and which insists believers “must let their hair grow long,” he told Task & Purpose. DiPietro’s request “to wear a beard and uncut hair” was finally approved last week after Army officials confirmed that it was “based on...

After a series of US-backed arms sales packages to Taiwan during Trump's last year in office, severely ratcheting tensions to where they are now, President Biden's administration on Wednesday approved its first arms sale to the island claimed by China. Bloomberg is describing the potential $750 million deal as including 40 new M109 self-propelled howitzers, essentially a highly maneuverable tank-like military vehicle with a giant gun, and some 1,700 kits designed to convert projectiles into more precise GPS-guided munitions.M109A6, Wiki CommonsThe contract by BAE Systems must first pass through congressional review, which is expected, and while it's not a large...

The number of coronavirus infections over the last few days has put Israel at a crossroads that requires quick decisions. The public has largely been understanding of the government’s restrained policies during the fourth wave of the virus, and experts have praised the professionalism of the discussions and the decision-making process. But due to the soaring incidence of the virus, the government’s stated policy of “living with the virus” is beginning to give way to familiar and harsher measures that have a major impact on daily life and the economy. On Tuesday, the coronavirus cabinet was meeting once again. Earlier,...

On New Year’s Day of this year, Rochelle Walensky was just a college professor in Massachusetts. You’d almost certainly never heard of her. You definitely didn’t vote for her at any point, because Walensky had never run for office. As of January first, Walensky’s political power was precisely the same as yours and everyone else’s in this supposedly self-governing republic: she had one vote out of a nation of 320 million people. And then, just a few weeks later, everything changed, for her, and for the rest of us. Joe Biden appointed Walensky to run the Centers for Disease Control...