Free Republic

The Doomsday clock has kept track of the likelihood of humanity's annihilation since it 1947 and on Thursday, a panel of scientists will again unveil it for the 75th time to determine our fate. The clock's hand has remained at 100 seconds to midnight for the past two year, but with war looming between Russia and Ukraine, climate disasters worldwide, conflict in space and coronavirus cases spike around the globe it is hard to imagine the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists turning back time. The closet the clock has come to hitting midnight was two minutes before at the height of...

The national drug regulator has given the green light to the Novavax vaccine, along with two oral treatments for patients currently suffering from COVID-19.The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) on Thursday approved the Novavax vaccine, also called Nuvaxovid, for adults aged 18 years and over, making it the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine in the country’s arsenal.It is advised to be used as a primary vaccine only as studies into using Novavax as a booster shot are still in progress.Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday said he hoped the new jab would increase the nation’s vaccination rates.“We know that some people have...

Unilever has lost 26 billion dollars since announcing its boycott of Judea and Samaria. Half a year after notifying Avi Singer, the owner of Ben & Jerry’s Israel, of the termination of the company’s contract with him due to his refusal to boycott Judea and Samaria, Unilever shares are in an unprecedented dive. Within six months, the company’s stock plunged 20.7%, translated into a 26-billion-dollar loss. For comparison, the stock of major competitor Nestle has risen 5% in the last six months. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jewish communities abroad, who are currently waging a wide-ranging struggle against Unilever...

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1 KJV).

COVID-19 case counts have dropped across the United States in recent days, stoking optimism that the Omicron-fueled wave is subsiding.Thirty-four states have recorded a decrease in cases in recent days, not including states that reported a single-day drop, according to an Epoch Times analysis.That includes some of the states that saw huge Omicron-fueled increases, including New York, California, and Florida.Omicron is one of the newest variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.Other states that have seen fewer cases recently include Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.States in every region of the country...

In an almost surreal way, writing about COVID-19 as a political commentator has become almost second nature. Two years ago, I would have laughed at the idea that we’d still be covering the virus, but here we are, still having it be part of our daily conversation.That’s not by choice, of course. Instead, it’s because our leaders have insisted on tying the two areas of health and politics together so tightly. When a pandemic is constantly used to crush liberties and hand power to people with tyrannical leanings, that’s not a story that can be ignored.In all the disinformation and...

Yesterday, I covered how one city in the United Arab Emirates announced that booster shots would be required for travelers intending to visit. Several other countries require proof of vaccination or other documentation before granting entrance to travelers. But, one European country announced this week that a negative COVID-19 test will no longer be required for travelers entering the country. Travelers visiting Sweden will no longer be required to show a negative Wuhan coronavirus test to enter the country, Reuters reported Tuesday. In a statement, the Swedish government said "travelers are no longer considered to pose a particular risk of...

I asked a friend (who's Canadian) if she'd listened to Brandons press conference. She replied with one word: "Pathetic". Pretty much summed it up. So...I thought I'd try to solicit a FReeper survey of one-word adjectives to tag to Brandons press conference today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight (FR wit and brilliance). LGB!

California remains the most expensive state for gas, outpacing the national average by more than a dollar, according to AAA. However, Hawaii and Washington and Oregon are not far behind, according to AAA's latest data. Currently, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in California will cost motorists $4.65, according to AAA. It's a significant jump from the national average, which rose one cent from a week ago to $3.31, according to AAA. This increase, which marks the third week of consecutive gains in 2022, is being "driven primarily by the cost of crude oil," according to AAA. Here...

In 2020, our nation’s economy was booming. Then everything came to halt when COVID came to us from China. The country went into lockdown in an effort to “slow the spread,” sending unemployment levels skyrocketing to historic highs. But thanks to President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, the federal government authorized three vaccines in record time and the lockdowns ended. Yet a year later, our nation has yet to recover the jobs it lost, as incentives to remain unemployed predictably kept people from going back to work. But four states have managed to see a full recovery of the jobs lost...

Matt Walsh, Daily Wire podcast host and best-selling children’s author, made an appearance on Dr. Phil that will reverberate across the country for quite some time. Destroying the narrative that men can identify as women and actually become women, Walsh put one very simple question to the opposing debaters who outnumbered him two to one. “What is a woman?” Neither guest who were arguing the narrative that men can be women had an answer for that. “One of the problems with the left-wing gender ideology is that no one who espouses it can even tell you what these words mean,”...

People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with a history of infection were best protected against infection from the delta variant, followed by people who were unvaccinated and had recovered from a previous infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.Those who survived a previous infection but were unvaccinated were also better protected against the delta variant than people who were vaccinated alone.“These results demonstrate that vaccination protects against COVID-19 and related hospitalization, and that surviving a previous infection protects against a reinfection and related hospitalization,” the agency’s researchers reported on Wednesday. The report analyzed infections caused by the...

Illegal immigrants worried about having proper identification to fly can now use an arrest warrant as an alternate form of ID when presenting to airport security, according to a TSA letter obtained by the Daily Caller.Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden’s Dec. 15 inquiry about illegal migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.” -Daily Caller"TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security...

<p>By Richard Bitzinger, an independent international security analyst. He was previously a senior fellow with the Military Transformations Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.</p><p>How good is China’s most advanced fighter jet, the J-20? The J-20 is a “fifth-generation” combat aircraft, which ostensibly puts it in the same league as the U.S. F-22 and F-35.</p>

Another company has abandoned its plans for a vaccination mandate and mandatory routine testing roughly one week after the Supreme Court killed President Biden's plans to enforce a corporate vax mandate through OSHA. To wit, Starbucks has joined the ranks of American megacorps including General Electric in rejecting vaccine mandates by pausing its plans to require baristas to get vaccinated, or receive weekly testing. The decision was reported shortly before President Joe Biden blasted the SCOTUS ruling as a "mistake" during his Wednesday press briefing.Instead, Starbucks says it will "strongly encourage" baristas to get vaxxed while encouraging them to disclose...

Something's very wrong at CVS, and it isn't pretty. What really got me was when an older white female manager barged into the treatment room during my pre-scheduled 12:20 pm visit, angrily telling the nurse she wasn't allowed to treat me, because I was "out of network" (even though my policy is a PPO and I'd been treated at that facility numerous times over the past several years). At age 73, I pay $150 a month out-of-pocket to be covered by a United HealthCare Medicare Advantage Choice PPO policy which allows treatment by providers either in-network or out-of-network. When I...

Please prayer for my PTSD dog's upcoming tests for his osteosarcoma

Canadian-born Diane Bederman called Trudeau a 'sanctimonious, self-serving, self-righteous, inept, unethical, immoral, and corrupt man, who can now add evil to the list.' Canadian-born Jewish author Diane Bederman blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an “immoral” and “evil man” for the leader’s targeting of the vaccine free, saying the lessons learned from the Nuremberg Trials have been forgotten. “Here we are in 2022 and our leaders are scapegoating the non-vaccinated, blaming them for the continuation of the pandemic. Like other evil leaders, they divide rather than unite,” Bederman wrote in an January 10 opinion piece titled “Is Comparing Covid Policies...

One of Prince Andrew’s well-connected ex-girlfriends has claimed that former President Bill Clinton and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were so close, they were “like brothers.” “Clinton was definitely very close to Jeffrey,” Lady Victoria Hervey, 45, said in the new ITV documentary, “Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Pedophile,” which aired in the UK Tuesday night. The socialite said she got to see the powerful group up close as a longtime pal of Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who first introduced her to Andrew. Hervey and the royal briefly dated in 1999. “I don’t know if you saw the paintings that were in...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures introduced to curb the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases. Britain was the first country to limit international travel over the Omicron variant, raising alarm bells about its mutations, and in December introduced work-at-home advice, more mask-wearing and vaccine passes to slow its spread. But while cases soared to record highs, hospitalizations and deaths have not risen by the same extent, in part due to Britain's booster rollout and the variant's lesser severity. Johnson's...