Free Republic

Several industry groups have warned world leaders of a worldwide supply-chain “system collapse” due to pandemic restrictions, coming as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested that the current period of higher inflation will last until 2022. The International Chamber of Shipping, a coalition of truck drivers, seafarers, and airline workers, has warned in a letter to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly that governments need to restore freedom of movement to transportation workers amid persistent COVID-19 restrictions and quarantines. If nothing is done, they warned of a “global transport system collapse” and suggested that “global supply chains...

ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING (AP) — A city in northern China has killed three housecats after they tested positive for COVID-19, according to a local media report Wednesday, as the country takes increasingly strict measures to contain new outbreaks. The authorities in Harbin, where 75 cases have recently been discovered, said the action was taken because there was no available treatment for animals with the disease and they would have endangered their owner and other residents of the apartment complex in which they lived, Beijing News online said.

[Catholic Caucus] Solemn Mass at St. Peter's Basilica for the Feast of the Dedication of Saint Michael the Archangel At the Altar of Saint Michael the Archangel - 4 images (click to enlarge):They have tried to kill us -- yet we live! "And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me."(Via Messa in Latino)

Nearly 3,000 miles from Tehran where mass executions were carried out in 1988, a murder trial in Sweden could produce new revelations that complicate life for Iran’s president-elect. Iran’s president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, helped decide which prisoners lived or died during mass executions in 1988. A trial in Sweden may shed more light on his role.Credit...West Asia News Agency He was a 28-year-old student and member of a communist group in Iran serving a 10-year prison sentence in 1988 when, according to his family, he was called before a committee and executed without a trial or defense.

Kia was arrested on Monday. On Thursday, the court decided to order detention for this person on charges of grossly and unlawfully abusing his position as someone with access to classified information and violating national security to avoid him destroying documents or escaping. The arrested person is accused of espionage for reasonable reasons, the Swedish Security Service said in a statement. His arrest comes a month after the arrest of an Iranian couple, who had obtained refugee status in Sweden by presenting a false Afghan identity. They were the agents of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). In...

Today, any connection with slavery, however tenuous, is enough to make historical figures into non-persons. It’s time to treat the subjugation of Jews in Arab lands with the same seriousness. Although anticipated with trepidation, the United Nations’ Durban IV commemoration, titled “Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent,” seems to have turned out to have been a damp squib. But it might not be long before another excuse for an anti-Israel hatefest presents itself. The propaganda strategy behind the Durban conference—to paint one nation (and one nation alone) as racist—remains alive and well on campus and in...

Deborah Lyons, the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, a wanted terrorist with the Haqqani Network, a Taliban component with close ties to Al-Qaeda. Lyons had served as Canada’s ambassador in Kabul when the Taliban carried out a suicide bombing against a Canadian embassy convoy. Lyons put up a monument to the security contractors who were wounded and killed, but they sued after being abandoned afterwards.

Hamas is building thousands of rockets and has resumed work on its tunnel network in Gaza, IDF spokesman Lt.-Col. Amnon Shefler said. "They continue to manufacture thousands of rockets and upgrade their offensive capabilities, including rocket ranges and underground tunnels, attack UAVs [and] naval forces." "Furthermore, they continue to deliberately position these in close proximity to civilians in order to use them as human shields, knowing that the IDF adheres both to our morals and to the rule of international law."

Sergeant in the army explains from his point of view what's going on in the military with the vaccine mandates

Doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are reporting an increase in kids being admitted to the hospital due to several viruses going around. Typically, children's hospitals expect to see more sick kids coming in in the fall and winter, but this year the uptick in activity is happening much earlier than ever before. Dr. Julia Sammons, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at CHOP, says they're seeing more cases of COVID-19 and also other respiratory viruses including RSV - or respiratory syncytial virus. RSV is an infection that can be dangerous for young children. So why the early, increased uptick? Even...

Fool's Ball Week 4 Your home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

Psychological warfare. Public opinion warfare. Legal warfare. Known as the “three warfares” doctrine and relatively unknown in the West, these concepts serve as key strategies guiding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its quest to win a war against the free world without firing a single shot. Psychological warfare seeks to demoralize the enemy; public opinion warfare seeks to shape the hearts and minds of the masses; legal warfare seeks to use systems of law to deter enemy attacks. This explanation was set out in a recently released 650-page report that provides a comprehensive illustration of the Chinese communist regime’s...

Pope: We are sinners, but Jesus with his death has made us 'just' and 'holy'At the general audience, Francis said: "What is hidden behind the word 'justification', which is so decisive for faith? It is not easy to arrive at an exhaustive definition, but in the whole of St Paul's thought it can be said simply that justification is the consequence of 'the mercy of God who offers forgiveness' (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1990). This is our God, who is good and continually forgives".Vatican City (AsiaNews) - We are sinners, but "holy" in that Jesus Christ has "justified" us....

Older American adults who are fully vaccinated are more concerned about COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated, according to a poll released Wednesday by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll found that about 25 percent of vaccinated adults aged 50 and older said they are not worried about either them or a family member becoming infected with COVID-19. In comparison, 61 percent of unvaccinated Americans aged 50 and older said they aren’t worried. “Vaccination is not providing people with relief,” AP-NORC said. “Those who are vaccinated are more worried about infection from the...

Biden’s Vax Mandate To Be Enforced By Fining Companies $70,000 To $700,000 On Saturday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House quietly tucked an enforcement mechanism into their $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” bill, passed it out of the Budget Committee, and sent it to the House floor. Buried on page 168 of the House Democrats’ 2,465-page mega bill is a tenfold increase in fines for employers that “willfully,” “repeatedly,” or even seriously violate a section of labor law that deals with hazards, death, or serious physical harm to their employees. The increased fines on employers could run as high as $70,000 for serious infractions,...

An elderly Japanese man developed 'restless anal syndrome' after catching Covid, in what doctors claim is a world first. The unidentified 77-year-old was admitted to Tokyo Medical University Hospital after testing positive for Covid. Despite his age, he did not require any oxygen during his stay and managed to start breathing normally again 21 days after being admitted. However a problem of another kind emerged several weeks after he was discharged. The man began to suffer 'deep anal discomfort' about 10cm above his perineum, the region between the genitals and the anus. This gave him an 'essential urge to move',...

Almost 200 Minnesota healthcare workers sued their employers in a bid to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates at their facilities. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of unnamed workers in various hospital systems across the state, identifies about two dozen healthcare institutions, hospitals, and federal officials as defendants. That includes the Mayo Clinic, Fairview Health Services, University of Minnesota Physicians, and Regions Hospital. “Plaintiffs’ employers are placing a substantial burden on their employees not to practice their religious-based objection to the COVID-19 vaccination or live under the threat of having their religious exemption withdrawn at any time,” the lawsuit (pdf) said. Employer...

Robby Walker is lucky to be alive. After the 52-year-old father from Florida contracted COVID-19-related pneumonia, a ventilator wasn't enough. He needed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment in which blood is routed through a machine that purifies and oxygenates it, giving the patient's lungs a chance to recover. But no ECMO machines were available in Florida or nearby states because other ECMO patients were using them.

The Father loves you; it is at this point that multitudes of believers fail God. They are willing to be convicted of sin and failure over and over again, but they will not allow the Holy Ghost to flood them with the love of the Father. The legalist loves to live under conviction. He has never understood the love of God or allowed the Holy Spirit to minister that love to his soul. Isaiah was writing to a stubborn people of God whom he says “went on backsliding in the way of his heart” (Isaiah 57:17). Despite this, Isaiah described...

United Airlines Holdings Inc. is moving ahead with plans to terminate close to 600 employees who didn’t meet its Covid-19 vaccination deadline, company officials said Tuesday. United in August said it would require all of its 67,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated—the first major U.S. airline and one of the first large U.S. companies to do so.