Free Republic

LONDON -- Consumer prices across the 19 countries that use the euro currency are rising at a record rate as a result of a huge spike in energy costs this year, official figures showed Tuesday. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said the eurozone's annual inflation rate hit 4.9% in November, the highest since recordkeeping began in 1997 and up from 4.1% in October, the previous high mark. Across the eurozone, inflation is running at multiyear highs, including in Germany, Europe's largest economy, where the annual rate has hit 6%. Even that is below the 6.2% recorded at last count...

Miss USA has been running since 1952 and has traditionally been a celebration of thin, mostly white, able-bodied women — but this year’s pageant was noted for the diversity of its contestants. Organizers of the proudly progressive contest have been actively pushing to make it more inclusive, according to NBC. The event was dubbed “Pageantry Reimagined,” and featured just nine blonde contestants.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is planning to bring President Biden's social and climate spending bill to the floor as soon as the week of Dec. 13, a source familiar confirmed to The Hill. Schumer's plan is to bring the bill, known as Build Back Better, to the Senate floor once Democrats finish their conversations with the parliamentarian, who provides guidance on what can be included in a bill passed through budget reconciliation. "As soon as the necessary technical and procedural work with the Senate parliamentarian has been completed... the Senate will take up this legislation," Schumer told reporters...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. home prices rose briskly in September, another sign that the housing market is booming in the aftermath of last year's coronavirus recession. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price climbed 19.1% in September from a year earlier. The strong price gains marked a deceleration from August's 19.6% year-over-year increase. Still, September prices in all 20 cities set new records. Phoenix was the nation's hottest market, registering a 33.1% price increase. It was followed by Tampa (where prices rose 27.7%) and Miami (25.2%). All 20 cities reported double-digit increases. The smallest gains were in Chicago (up 11.8%) and...

When the frizzy-haired Marxists at my local library start ranting about seizing the means of production, they’re not talking about factories anymore. They’re talking about you, your womb, & its output. We have put childless despots like this in positions of authority over our kids. They have cleverly figured out that their great nihilistic cultural project requires your children to see it through to the end. And they are coming for them. You can hear the plains vibrating as the great galloping horde approacheth your elementary school. After all, their harebrained schemes will only work if they can fool a...

The City Council Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance to prohibit the possession, purchase, sale, receipt and transportation of "ghost guns" in Los Angeles. The ordinance prohibits the possession, purchase, sale, receipt or transport of a non-serialized unfinished firearm frame or receiver or non- serialized firearm. Such weapons -- known as "ghost guns" because they are virtually untraceable -- can be assembled by unlicensed buyers from legally purchased kits.

Stephen McNallen’s path to founding a racist, whites-only church now headquartered in the foothills north of Sacramento started with fantasy novels and, eventually, found a measure of infamy through the discovery of an ancient skeleton McNallen, the 73-year-old founder of the Asatru Folk Assembly, was an avid reader of sword-and-sorcery novels like “Conan the Barbarian” when he was in college in the late 1960s in Wichita Falls, Texas. One summer in a corner of a bookstore, he found something that would put him on the path to creating a U.S.-based church that worships Norse gods such as Thor and Odin...

A teenager in Philadelphia was shot 18 times and killed at a bus stop on Monday. Police said in an emailed report that a 14-year-old Black teenager was at a bus stop Monday afternoon when he was shot 18 times. The motive for the two unknown shooters is unclear. Police have not yet made any arrests related to the incident.

France had previously said it could stop UK boats landing in its ports, but backed down and returned to the negotiating table after the UK Government threatened to start “rigorous” checks... The ongoing row with the UK is being seen by many in Europe as an attempt by Mr Macron’s administration to garner domestic support and fend off political opponents in the run up to next April’s presidential election. One senior EU diplomat said: “It is quite clear that France is trying to use this dispute for domestic political purposes.” Another EU source told the Mail most governments within the...

Government opposes Josh Duggar's request to prohibit witness' testimony On Tuesday, the government opposed the request from Josh Duggar's attorneys to prohibit witness Bobye Holt's testimony. In new court documents obtained by Fox News, an assistant United States attorney claimed Bobye Holt's testimony should not be prevented by "clergy privilege," as Duggar's attorneys claimed. The government argues that Holt is “not clergy or a church leader…She is simply a long-time family friend of the defendant and the mother of the girl he was dating when he molested Jane Does 1 through 4." "The defendant is asking the Court to adopt...

Text messages released as a part of the probe into former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo show a former top political adviser to then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg sharing disparaging sentiments about Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. A text exchange uncovered by Josefa Velásquez, a senior reporter at The City, reveals that Lis Smith – a former senior adviser to Pete Buttigieg, and former girlfriend of disgraced New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer – called Blasey Ford "looney tunes," and "the height of Me Too overreach." While former presidential candidate and...

Aspirin use is associated with a 26% raised risk of heart failure in people with at least one predisposing factor for the condition. Predisposing factors included smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. "This is the first study to report that among individuals with a least one risk factor for heart failure, those taking aspirin were more likely to subsequently develop the condition than those not using the medication," said study author Dr. Blerim Muja. The influence of aspirin on heart failure is controversial. This study aimed to evaluate its relationship with heart failure incidence in...

Rich countries can’t say they weren’t warned. For almost as long as Covid-19 has been around, scientists, academics and campaigners have called on wealthy nations to share vaccines around the world — not only to protect people in those countries, but also to reduce the risk of new mutant variants emerging that could evade vaccines for everyone. Those sounding the alarm have repeated the same mantra: No one is safe until everyone is safe. Despite these warnings, this is exactly what appears to have happened, some of these experts say. The new omicron variant emerged in southern Africa with a...

Switzerland may reintroduce a work-from-home mandate to stop rising COVID-19 cases and limit the spread of the new Omicron variant, the government said after an emergency meeting Tuesday. The government met to consider the possible mandate and other proposed renewed restrictions amid Omicron, saying in a statement, “The combination of a rapid circulation of the Omicron variant and the already high strain on hospitals could be problematic.” The government is in talks with regional authorities about the potential work-from-home mandate for the unvaccinated and those who have not had COVID. It had lifted a similar previous mandate in late June.

Chancellor Ronnie Green believes the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is racist. Under his leadership, UNL recently released a plan to address “institutional racism” as part of its “Journey for Anti-Racism and Racial Equity.” From racially motivated hiring practices to divisive trainings, the plan would inject Critical Race Theory (CRT) into every corner of campus. At the foundation of UNL’s plan are the writings of Ibram Kendi, who has openly called for discrimination on the basis of skin color. Kendi has written that “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two lower court judges and upheld California’s ban on high-capacity magazines Tuesday in a split decision that may be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. “The statute outlaws no weapon, but only limits the size of the magazine that may be used with firearms,” the judges ruled in the 7-4 decision. The majority reasoned that “the record demonstrates that the limitation interferes only minimally with the core right of self-defense, as there is no evidence that anyone ever has been unable to defend his or her home and...

President Joe Biden has not visited grieving families in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but he will travel to Minnesota on Tuesday afternoon to promote infrastructure. The White House told reporters on Monday that Biden had no plans to visit Waukesha, Wisconsin, even after six people were killed in the Christmas parade attack and over 60 people were injured.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two lower court judges and upheld California’s ban on high-capacity magazines Tuesday in a split decision that may be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. “The statute outlaws no weapon, but only limits the size of the magazine that may be used with firearms,” the judges ruled in the 7-4 decision. The majority reasoned that “the record demonstrates that the limitation interferes only minimally with the core right of self-defense, as there is no evidence that anyone ever has been unable to defend his or her home and family due to the...

As of Tuesday, all unvaccinated travellers will be banned from planes and trains in Canada if they are over 12-years-old, according to the Canadian Press. On top of this, a negative COVID test will not be able to be used as a substitute for the vaccine. Throughout the 2021 election, Trudeau and his Liberals campaigned on bringing tougher COVID rules to Canada. Barring the unvaccinated from planes and trains was at the centre of their message. "If you indicate to your airline or railway company that you're eligible to board, but fail to provide proof of vaccination or valid COVID-19...

A Lubbock, Texas, man was shot and killed while arguing with his ex-wife over their child custody arrangement, and it was all caught on cell phone video. The incident unfolded on Nov. 5, according to attorney Matthew L. Harris, who is representing the victim's widow. Harris says the footage was filmed by Jennifer Read.