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The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has surpassed last winter’s peak, underscoring the severity of the threat the virus continues to pose as the extremely contagious Omicron variant tears through the United States. As of Sunday, 142,388 patients with the virus were hospitalized nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, surpassing the peak of 142,315 reported on Jan. 14 of last year. The seven-day average of daily hospitalizations was 132,086, an increase of 83 percent from two weeks ago. The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out...

A powerful cold front is expected to rip through the Northeast and Midwest this week, with extreme temperatures reaching as low as -45 degrees as the US braces for the coldest air chill in three years. More than 15 million people are under wind chill advisories after temperatures plummeted to -25 to -45 degrees on Monday. The National Weather Service also warns that parts of northern New York and Massachusetts could see wind chills of between 35 and 40 below zero between 7pm Monday to 3pm on Tuesday that could cause 'frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10...

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb and Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa on Tuesday paid a visit to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo to offer greetings to Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church on the occasion of Christmas. During the visit, Sheikh El-Tayyeb voiced hope that this new year could bring about more happiness and prosperity to the Egyptian people, asserting that all heavenly messages have several moral commons. He asserted that greetings in such occasions are part of the Islamic philosophy which places high the human values and calls for maintaining brotherly ties. Meanwhile, the...

On Monday morning, pilgrims seeking to attend a Mass scheduled for their private group were turned away because the face masks they wore were not the specific FFP2 masks (similar to N95 masks) stipulated by the Italian government.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is refusing to let pilgrims enter to attend Mass because they’re wearing the wrong type of face mask. On Monday morning, pilgrims seeking to attend a Mass scheduled for their private group were turned away because the face masks they wore were not the specific FFP2 masks (similar to N95 masks) stipulated by the...

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that models show the omicron surge could drive California hospitalizations past the record of last winter and cause a “tremendous strain” for facilities in the coming weeks.Newsom sounded the alarm after being asked by a reporter about new guidelines that say health care workers who test positive and are asymptomatic for COVID-19 are allowed to return to work. No quarantine or testing is required.The California Nurses Association has opposed the move and Newsom was asked about whether his policies are causing COVID confusion since he’s previously talked about the asymptomatic spread of the virus.

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Malmstrom Air Force Base, MontanaMalmstrom Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Cascade County, Montana, United States, adjacent to the city of Great Falls. It was named in honor of World War II POW Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom. It is the home of the 341st Missile Wing (341 MW) of the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC).On Aug. 15, 2008, the 564th Missile Squadron inactivated at Malmstrom AFB, as the last ICBM squadron inactivated to that point. The 564th MS had been the first operational ICBM squadron in the...

If there is one thing Witman Hung Wai-man enjoys, according to those who know him well, it is having a big birthday bash with many guests, where drinks flow, karaoke fills the air and everyone has a good time. People close to the flamboyant personality, who is well connected in political and business circles and once harboured ambitions of becoming a lawmaker, were not at all surprised that he chose to celebrate his 53rd birthday in style on Monday. “He is a party animal and throws a birthday party practically every year,” said a source familiar with him. “He loves...

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a case brought by a Northern Irish gay rights activist, who claims a bakery discriminated against him by refusing to create a cake with a message supporting gay marriage, as inadmissable. Gareth Lee ordered a cake in May 2014 from Ashers Bakery located in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He requested the cake bear the message “support gay marriage,” a message to which the owners, the McArthurs, objected on account of their Christian faith. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom had reached a unanimous verdict in favor of the McArthurs in 2018,...

enate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans are stepping up a personal campaign to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the Senate and help the party's chances of regaining control of the chamber. The recruitment effort has included McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who held Cabinet positions in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations. Moderate Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, have also been in direct contact with Hogan to note that his centrist brand of politics would be welcome in a chamber riven with partisanship. Several other Washington officials have made financial pledges or...

A federal judge in Washington, DC, questioned former President Donald Trump's actions during his speech on January 6, 2021, as he considers for the first time whether Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol. During a court hearing Monday, Judge Amit Mehta pointed out repeatedly that Trump on January 6 asked the crowd to march to the Capitol, but that he didn't speak up for two hours asking people to stop the violence. In the year since the US Capitol attack, judges remind us what it means to be American "The words are hard...

Nottingham, England, Jan 6, 2022 / 05:00 am (CNA). A parish in England has asked Catholics not to attend Mass if they are “not vaccinated and/or won’t wear a mask.” The Parish of the Holy Family, East Nottingham, in central England, issued the request most recently in a newsletter dated Dec. 26. Under the heading “Keeping safe,” the parish asked Massgoers to use hand sanitizer and wear a face covering when attending the parish’s three churches. “If you are not vaccinated and/or won’t wear a mask, please do not come to Mass,” it said. The parish made the same request...

Disorders of the immune system are on the rise everywhere thanks to the global popularity of the so-called Western diet. Autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have spiked in recent decades, according to scientists James Lee and Carola Vineusa at London’s Francis Crick Institute. Lee and Vineusa have devoted their study to investigating the cause of such illness, which they believe can be blamed on the recent pervasiveness of fast foods, which “lack certain important ingredients.” “Numbers of autoimmune cases began to increase about 40 years ago in the West,” Lee...

The COVID bureaucracy has spent two years now preaching lies, censoring anyone who challenges the lies, and eventually coming around to admit the same truths they previously denounced. In the case of masks and vaccines, the flip-flop was even more elaborate: They insisted masks didn’t work (when they were scarce) and that the vaccine was suspicious (under Trump), only to spin around and tout both. And now that neither works effectively against the omicron variant, the narrative is falling apart again. Over the weekend, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky appeared on numerous news shows and bluntly...

Senate Republicans are threatening they will attempt a takeover of the Senate agenda by forcing votes on issues ranging from the Keystone XL pipeline to abortion rules to a U.S-Mexico border wall if Democrats weaken the filibuster. Republicans are also looking at smaller bills such as a proposal to prohibit the administration from imposing a fracking ban by executive order, a prohibition on the IRS implementing new reporting on banks to disclose individuals’ banking activity and mandatory detention for illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes.

Although he's now one of the most lauded comedians in Hollywood, Larry David never saw himself becoming a writer or a comedian. After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1970, he was lost and had little direction from his parents, who wanted him to take a job as a mailman. The future writer for "Saturday Night Live," co-creator of "Seinfeld" and creator of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" joined the Army Reserve for one very important reason: to avoid going to Vietnam. He regretted it almost immediately. He had never held a weapon, and he was terrible at push-ups and sit-ups....

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on the constitutionality of President Joe Biden's vaccine mandates for private businesses and federal contractors, countries in Europe that have already implemented wide spread vaccine passports are feeling the heat from citizens. Widespread protests against medical apartheid already implemented from Germany to France, where French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants to "piss off" the unvaccinated and eliminate them from public life, have become a regular occurrence. Germany: France: Austria: Italy: Belgium: Czech Republic: Meanwhile up north in Canada, people are also taking to the streets.

Dozens of hospitals in New York have been ordered to stop elective surgeries due to low bed capacity. The New York State Department of Health made the announcement on Saturday, which ordered 40 hospitals, mainly in the central and western regions, to stop non-essential, non-urgent elective surgeries after meeting the state's threshold for low-capacity facilities. The order means that impacted hospitals must turn away these types of procedures for a minimum of two weeks. "We will use every available tool to help ensure that hospitals can manage the COVID-19 winter surge," Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said.

Rumor has it

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider Calls on Pope Francis to Rescind Traditionis CustodesROME, January 10, 2022 – Bishop Athanasius Schneider is inviting Pope Francis to “rescind” the canonical provisions contained in Traditionis Custodes and in the Responsa ad dubia issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) just before Christmas. The auxiliary bishop of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, is also calling on his brother bishops to voice “publicly and frankly” their “deep concerns” about these documents, in keeping with the parrhesia and “sensitivity” of synodality.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowIn a reflection titled, “The Duty...

Key Takeaways: 1- The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday in two cases on an emergency basis. 2- No provision in the Occupational Safety and Health Act authorizes OSHA to make medical decisions for employees by coercing them to be vaccinated. 3- The court will likely issue an order in the two cases in the very near future either halting the vaccination mandate or allowing them to go forward. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday in two cases on an emergency basis. Both cases involve lawsuits stemming from the Biden administration’s attempt to expand vaccination of Americans in light...