Free Republic

Kazakhstan's president fired two more top security officials on Sunday after the worst unrest in three decades of post-Soviet independence and authorities said the situation was stabilising, with Russian-led troops guarding key facilities. The sacked officials were deputies to former intelligence chief Karim Massimov, who was arrested on suspicion of treason after violent protests swept the oil- and uranium-producing Central Asian republic that borders Russia and China. Thousands of people have been detained and public buildings torched during mass anti-government protests in the past week. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued shoot-to-kill orders to end unrest he has blamed on bandits and...

A private blood-testing company's claim that the COVID-19 "pandemic is over" in a northern Alberta community could lull residents into a false sense of security, says an infectious diseases expert. More than 1,200 people in the hamlet of La Crete, 700 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, paid $100 each in mid-December to have their blood tested for antibodies by Ichor Blood Services, a private lab specimen collection company based in Calgary. The tests found antibodies in most of the 991 unvaccinated individuals who were tested. Ichor CEO Mike Kuzmickas said he believes the results show La Crete is relatively safe from...

She has played the Queen and a gangster’s moll but her latest casting has sparked controversyNobody is quite what they seem. And actors? Well, for actors that’s the job. Dame Helen Mirren, as well as being herself for 76 years, has by now notably been Lady Macbeth, a London gangster’s moll, a thief’s wife, an alcoholic cop, an action hero, Prospero and also a British monarch at least four times. Now she takes on Golda Meir, the late prime minister of Israel, in a new biopic, and the casting has caused controversy. The choice of a non-Jewish actor to star...

Want to see a real Capitol Insurrection? In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists shot up the House Gallery, wounding five members of the House. Jimmy Carter pardoned them all. In 1983 the Weather Underground bombed the Capitol. Bill Clinton pardoned them. Now, as Mark points out, January 6th wasn't an insurrection, but Democrats will lie to make you believe it was.

Independent watchdogs and critics of government are absolutely crucial to any democratic nation, state or local city/town.  Watchdogs interview experts, speak out, and "raise a lantern" over government operations to inspect its books, audit it, and keep their fellow citizens informed.Watchdogs fill a much-needed government oversight gap.  Truth is, the public influences businesses and governments in entirely different ways.Businesses are highly customer-conscious — They need to be because consumers "vote" with their dollars every day for the products and services they want.  So if a new business provides consumers a better deal or a more useful product/service, dollars will naturally...

In a quiet response to the Senate Judiciary Committee three days before Christmas, the Biden DOJ says it won’t withdraw a controversial memo used to activate the FBI Counterterrorism Division to investigate parents voicing their opposition to a variety of topics – primarily mask and vaccine mandates, and teaching critical race theory. This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed the pre-Christmas response – stating: “[I]n December we asked why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was getting involved in parents expressing their concerns at school board meetings. Now, just to be crystal clear, there’s no excuse for real threats or acts of...

Virginia's outgoing Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, faced multiple calls for his resignation following a blackface scandal in 2019, with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., demanding Northam step down. Yet Northam did not resign, and Kaine recently said he was "glad" the governor remained in office.

Joe Biden has conducted far fewer press conferences than five of his immediate predecessors in his first year in office and has given less interviews with the media than the six presidents who served before him. In Year One, President Biden has only given nine formal press conferences – six solo and three jointly with visiting foreign leaders. He has also conducted 22 media interviews. By comparison, at this point in their respective presidencies Donald Trump conducted 21 press conferences, Barack Obama was at 27, George W. Bush at 19, Bill Clinton at 38 and George H. W. Bush at...

A psychotherapist has claimed the trauma suffered by ancestors in the European witch hunts has harmed today's generation of women. Cali White, from West Sussex, insists women have inherited 'self-destructive' behaviours like a 'deep-rooted mistrust' of other females and a 'fear of being heard or seen' after their forebears had to adopt the traits to survive the witch hunts. During the Early Modern era - 1450 to 1750 - tens of thousands of women were executed as 'witches' across the continent. Cali is a lead curator of an exhibition I am Witch - Tales from the Roundhouse, which is to...

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky contradicted Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's incorrect claim that there are 100,000 pediatric COVID hospitalizations on Sunday. Justice Sotomayor, a liberal Associate Justice appointed by former president Obama, exaggerated the number of severe COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children as she attempted to convince conservative Supreme Court justices that President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses should be enforced. 'We have over 100,000 children, which we've never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators,' Sotomayor said on Friday.

New York City health officials have announced a plan to install 10 “public health vending machines” that would dispense sterile syringes, an anti-overdose medication and other “harm reduction” supplies to help neighborhoods that have been hit hard by drug overdoses.

Authorities in Uganda have reversed their decision to demand proof of vaccination against COVID-19 on public transport. The directive attracted great ire among bus and taxi operators, as the country looked set to reopen.On the streets of Kampala, the public looks eager to get back to the life as they knew it: the capital's taxi ranks and bus stations are bustling with activity. But it is exactly in these busy transportation hubs that COVID-19 can be passed on easily. KPL 14 Inch Leather Crossbody Bags Purse Women Shoulder Bag Satchel Ladies Tote Travel Purse Full Grain Leather (Tan Brown) With...

University Middle East expert Hussein Mousavian was a former Iranian official A former Iranian official who is a faculty member at Princeton University recently bragged in an interview about how his hardline government’s death threats against a former top Trump administration official had him and his family "trembling" with fear. Hussein Mousavian, a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team who works as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, said in a recent interview that the Iranian regime’s threats to murder Brian Hook, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran, have heavily impacted Hook’s family...

It appears omicron won’t be boycotting the Winter Olympics in China. With opening ceremonies in Beijing less that a month away, the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in nearby Tianjin for the first time. The port city, fewer than 80 miles from the capital city and home to 14 million people, began mass testing for COVID on Sunday as a result of a cluster outbreak affected 20 adults and children. At least two of those who tested positive — a 10-year-old girl and a 29-year-old woman — were infected by the omicron variant. The ambitious...

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in...

For a year now, there has been a constant drumbeat in the press about January 6, 2020. It went into overdrive this past week. Congress created an investigative commission about it. Hundreds were imprisoned for it. It dominated headlines even when bigger stories, like the forced bankruptcies of thousands of businesses and the surrender and abandonment of our mission in Afghanistan, were dropped from the headlines like last week's racing results. So what was it, really, that happened on January 6, 2021, meriting such constant attention? Well, January 6 is the day that Christians celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany...

At least 164 people have died in Kazakhstan during violent anti-government protests, according to media reports citing health officials. If confirmed it would mark a sharp rise from the previous figure of 44 deaths. Almost 6,000 people have been arrested, including "a substantial number of foreign nationals", Kazakhstan's presidential office said on Sunday. The demonstrations, triggered by a rise in fuel prices, turned into huge riots as they spread across the country. They started on 2 January and grew to reflect discontent at the government and former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led Kazakhstan for three decades and is still thought...

On January 6, the media was chock full of stories about the events at Capitol Hill on the day of the riot. One potentially big event that could have overshadowed what happened at the Capitol building was a couple of pipe bombs planted near the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee buildings. Fortunately neither bomb went off, but the mystery remains of who was the pipe bomber that still remains at large. Because of the January 6 anniversary, several media outlets were speculating about the mystery of who the pipe bomber was and why the FBI has not...

People who developed symptoms from the original strain of COVID-19 typically got them five-to-six days after contracting the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Other variants of COVID-19 such as the delta variant had an incubation period of four days. But in cases of the omicron variant, the incubation period is much shorter — just three days, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)... And, according to the CDC, most people are contagious one-to-two days before symptoms appear and two-to-three days after they appear... “It is taking less time from when...

Amanda Carpenter, a former aide for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), shares what concerned her most about her former boss's interview with Fox's Tucker Carlson when Cruz backtracked on calling January 6 rioters "terrorists."