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Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias underscored the persistent “threat of war” with Turkey in a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the signing of a deal to upgrade defense cooperation between Athens and Washington. “Greece is facing a casus belli, a threat with war if it exercises its sovereign rights and, I have to say, Greece is facing daily provocation,” Dendias said Thursday at the State Department. “Greece is committed to resolve disputes with diplomacy and always in accordance with international law.”... ...Dendias hailed the revisions to the U.S.-Greece security deal as a bulwark against Turkey, which also...

Beijing, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, is staging a series of test events -- giving a strong taste of what the Games will look like and what coronavirus measures will be in place.... ...Chinese officials say participants will stay in a "closed loop" -- a strict bubble insulating them from spectators and the outside world for the whole Games. Athletes will have to be fully vaccinated or undergo a 21-day quarantine on arrival in the Chinese capital... ...State media showed overseas participants landing in Beijing met by police in hazmat...

My latest song. Weep for what was lost.

roi kais (@kaisos1987) Tweeted: The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar close to Hezbollah with a rather defiant cover this morning that mimics the Christian politician, Samir Geagea--whose people are accused of shooting yesterday in Beirut--to Hitler, the Nazi oppressor. The title is one word "certainly" / "without a doubt".

Bill Gates has touched down in New York City for his daughter Jennifer Gates’ wedding this Saturday. The Microsoft founder, 65, grinned as he exited a helicopter at an NYC heliport with a small group of family and friends Thursday, dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt and carrying a brown leather bag. Sadly, Gates’ outfit was considerably outshined by another relative’s positively Princess Beatrice-esque hat, which appeared to depict a flower.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority 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 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is what the Lord says. He created the heavens, He is God! He formed the earth and made it. Yes, He established it! He...

“In Target, fruit snacks were limited, protein bars were nearly gone too, and Lunchables were low in stock,” the outlet said. “We saw the least amount of available frozen foods at Publix and snack foods like beef jerky were running low.” “Both stores had limits on pet foods,” WJXT added. CEO of the Michigan Pork Producers Association Mary Kelpinski told the Detroit Free Press the supply chain crisis is hurting suppliers’ ability to keep food on the shelves. “Nationally, our numbers are down,” Kelpinski said. “Demand is very good. Everyone wants bacon, but we have fewer pigs.” The challenge of...

“The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29 KJV).

After having lost a legal battle, the Biden administration tentatively plans a mid-November restart of a Trump-era policy that forces migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration court hearings, according to a court filing late Thursday. President Joe Biden had ended the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy when he took office this year, saying it was inhumane because of the violence migrants faced waiting in Mexico for their court hearings.

Report: Billie Eilish targeted by anti-Israel bots over message to Israelis Singer's Instagram page targeted by pro-Palestinian bots and inundated with "Palestine solidarity-themed comments," report says. American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish was targeted by anti-Israel bots on Instagram after promoting her new album in a video for MTV Israel, a new report by the entertainment industry group Creative Community for Peace revealed.

Following Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ continued defense of the anti-trans sentiments in comedian Dave Chappelle’s new special, The Closer, at least 1,000 incensed employees are now reportedly planning to participate in a virtual work stoppage on Oct. 20. For nearly a week now, trans and trans-allied staffers have been voicing concerns over Chappelle’s ridicule of the LGBTQ community throughout the special, during which he self-identifies as a TERF (or “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”) and repeatedly dismisses the concept of a gender identity altogether. But in the wake of heated criticisms from both employees and customers, Netflix execs have made the bizarre...

SARS-CoV-2 has taken us on a rollercoaster, and not just on graphs of case counts. The natural tendency to project linearity to trends makes each hill and dip feel unnatural. The media exacerbates perceptual changes with its hyperfocal attention on each new development, even expected ones like breakthrough infections. People feel they are being jolted around. The early efficacy results of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were positively stunning. Demonstrating more than 90% vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection when the goal was a 50% reduction in severe disease caught people off guard. It was the first bit of...

Over-the-counter aspirin could protect the lungs of COVID-19 patients and minimize the need for mechanical ventilation, according to new research at the George Washington University. The team investigated more than 400 COVID patients from hospitals across the United States who take aspirin unrelated to their COVID disease, and found that the treatment reduced the risk of several parameters by almost half: reaching mechanical ventilation by 44%, ICU admissions by 43%, and overall in-hospital mortality by 47%. “As we learned about the connection between blood clots and COVID-19, we knew that aspirin – used to prevent stroke and heart attack –...

Perhaps one of the more perplexing developments during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the display of vaccine hesitancy among some health care workers (HCWs). Because infection preventionists (IPs) often lead vaccination drives at hospitals, they’ve found themselves having to encourage their fellow workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and it hasn’t always been an easy job.But just whom among HCWs want to avoid getting the vaccine? Investigators with the University of Illinois at Chicago wanted to address that question and presented their findings in a preprint study in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC).“A surprising proportion of vaccine hesitant...

The average transaction price for a new vehicle in America hit a record of $45,031 in September. It's the sixth consecutive month of record vehicle prices, according to Kelley Blue Book. That price represents a 12.1% increase (or $4,872 in cold, hard cash) over the same month a year ago and a 3.7% increase over the prior month.(The federal government, meanwhile, calculates new-car prices are up 8.7% year over year.)The reasons for the rapidly increasing prices of new vehicles are well documented, with inventory shortages caused by a lack of microchip availability cited as the latest problem. Last month, however,...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is asking for help identifying a woman who assaulted an employee with a metal french fry scooper. Police say the assault took place at the McDonald's on Brick Church Pike on October 2. The woman reportedly was angry about her wait time for French fries so she decided to go behind the counter and punched the employee with the metal scooper used to empty fries into a customer's carton. The employee suffered a gash to the forehead and the woman left with a friend and children inside a silver Chevy Impala.

"Short version: Private enforcement of vaccination is being done through Texas HHS's ImmTrac2 vaccine database and the CDC's IZ Gateway. Sever this connection. Long Version Texas HHS tracks instate vaccinations for children at schools. When COVID broke out, the CDC established data connections with each state to track vaccinations. This is done by an electronic file feed between our database and the CDC. That electronic file feed is called the CDC IZ Gateway. Once the CDC has this data, they send it out to third parties, such as contractor ID.ME, and it is used for vaccine enforcement with private firms....

Around 150 former Houston Methodist employees who were terminated or resigned over the firm’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate are demanding their jobs back.Attorney Jared Woodfill, who’s representing dozens of health care workers in several lawsuits against Houston Methodist, said those employees should get their jobs back following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent executive order barring any entity in the state from imposing vaccine mandates.“Gov. Abbott says very clearly, ‘Whereas countless Texans fear losing their livelihoods because they object to receiving a COVID-19 vaccination for reasons of personal conscience,'” Woodfill wrote in a letter to the hospital system this week. “That applies...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been one of the left’s favorite targets, especially amid the ongoing COVID-19 saga. Democrats and the activist media have pilloried the governor for refusing to enact the same type of onerous and draconian restrictions that other states have imposed on their residents. They claimed he was responsible for getting Floridians killed, while paying very little attention to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who actually did get people killed through his COVID policy.However, the latest data shows that DeSantis’ approach to the pandemic isn’t as deadly as the left hoped argued. According to a chart...

Editor’s Commentary: As we noted yesterday, shortages due to the failing global supply chain will make life increasingly difficult for Americans in the months ahead. But rising food and supply prices are not the only are of major concern. The energy crisis, which has been brewing for even longer than our supply chain woes, appears to be hitting its stride right at a time when millions of Americans will not have the means to address it.Winter is coming, which means heating fuels are going to be needed. But prices are already starting to climb on fossil fuel products as we’ve...