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Hundreds of protestors have gathered in front of Australia’s Parliament House in solidarity with the massive Convoy to Ottawa that converged on the Canadian capital around the weekend of Jan. 29.Calls for a similar movement have been echoing Down Under for days, and on Jan. 31, a crowd organised under a “Convoy to Canberra” campaign gathered in front of the national legislature, according to videos circulating on social media.Australian Parliament House. pic.twitter.com/TcEltQ38zk — Tony (@mrtdogg_1) January 31, 2022The crowd can be heard chanting, “What do you want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now!” One individual addressed the crowd saying...

Kathy Barnette, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, won a non-binding poll of Republican leaders in the northwest part of the state this weekend. Barnette hopes to make history by becoming the Senate’s first Republican African American woman; KDKA's Jon Delano reports.

Pregnant 35 year old reporter Charlotte Bellis is not being allowed to return home from Afghanistan to her home country of New Zealand because of the archipelago's strict Covid-19 protocols. She had been covering "the difficult conditions mothers and babies face" in the country, and has now herself been forced to take up shelter in Kabul, according to AP. She is 25 weeks pregnant and has been vaccinated three times. She was working as an Afghanistan correspondent for Al Jazeera, where she resigned in November because it is based in Qatar, where "it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried...

The global fashion industry is on the rebound as BMO Capital boosted Under Armour’s rating to Outperform from Sector Perform. Fashion retailers breathe a sigh of relief as demand picks up but comes at a high price for consumers. This year, about two-thirds of fashion executives expect to increase costs due to snarled supply chains. Average prices are expected to rise about 3% across all clothing and apparel, according to the State of Fashion 2022 report by the Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Co. About 15% of respondents said clothing and apparel prices could jump by more than 10%....

Greece is now imposing fines on people age 60 and older who are unvaccinated – even as COVID-19 cases have been declining. As of last week, people 60 and older who refuse to get vaccinated will be fined 50 euros – equivalent to around $56.60. That fee will then rise to 100 euros in February and every month afterward. Health officials say the threat of a fine has helped increase the take-up rate to more than 90% of this age group, Reuters reported. Health Minister Thanos Plevris said the fines would be collected through the tax office with the money...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Creech Air Force Base, NevadaCreech Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) command and control facility in Clark County, Nevada used "to engage in daily Overseas Contingency Operations of remotely piloted aircraft systems which fly missions across the globe." In addition to an airport, the military installation has the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab, associated aerial warfare ground equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the type used in Afghanistan and Iraq. Creech is the aerial training site for the USAF Thunderbirds and "is one of two emergency divert airfields" for the...

Sarasota Nurse Practitioner Vanessa Hamalian: “I feel such passion to give primary healthcare access to all people that is free of judgment and condemnation and respects the individual’s intelligence and ability to make good choices for themselves and their families.” Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021:Nurse practitioner Vanessa Hamalian unexpectedly found herself confronting a life-changing dilemma. It was the same one hundreds of thousands of other Americans faced time and again throughout 2021.Earlier in the day, her employer of seven-and-a-half years, a family physician in Greater Sarasota, Florida, informed his staff he had obtained a supply of Moderna vaccines and that...

A woman who identifies as a wolf says that people often have 'misconceptions' about her her 'spiritual and psychological' life as a animal. Naia Ōkami, 27, from Seattle, identifies as a British Columbian wolf and regards herself as an otherkin therian - a subculture who believe their soul is that of an animal, rather than a human. In 2017, Naia came out as a transgender woman on social media and in November 2019, she revealed to her followers that she had legally changed her gender to female. She insists that despite sometimes barking and howling like a wolf, she is...

Republican businessman Kevin Rinke has more money to spend on his 2022 gubernatorial campaign than his GOP rivals, but James Craig collected more donations from supporters. Campaign finance statements filed Monday show Rinke gave his own campaign $2 million, technically making him the top fundraiser between Oct. 21 and Dec. 31, 2021. However, Rinke only raised $4,938 from other donors. Craig led the Republican field with $607,830 in donations from supporters. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reported raising $2.53 million for her re-election campaign in the last months of 2021. She had $9.9 million total to spend at the end of...

ATLANTA — The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., who is conducting a criminal investigation of former President Donald J. Trump has asked for an F.B.I. risk assessment of the county courthouse in downtown Atlanta, citing “alarming” rhetoric used by Mr. Trump at a rally in Texas over the weekend.

The city of Denver will lift many of its indoor mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates later this week. “Beginning Friday, people will no longer be required, under a public health order, to wear a mask or show proof of vaccination for entry into a business" in the city, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) wrote in a tweet.

As the world began watching Royal Canadian Mounted Police descend upon truckers protesting the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement on its southern border, protesters were stationed inside a nearby building voting on whether or not to give in to police pressure trying to break up their convoy demanding vaccine freedom. After a voice vote in favor of staying put — continuing to block the entryway between the U.S and Canada — the group can be seen bowing their heads praying the “Our Father.” Over the past week, a “Freedom Convoy” of more than 50,000 truckers formed in Canada, protesting the...

SACRAMENTO -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, now is moving to dismantle the nation's largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years. The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a "positive, healing environment." "We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation," corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told The Associated Press.

A Chinese Satellite Just Grappled Another And Pulled It Out Of Orbit The maneuver raises concerns about the potential militarization of satellites designed to inspect, manipulate, or relocate other satellites. ===== A Chinese satellite was observed grabbing another satellite and pulling it out of its normal geosynchronous orbit and into a “super-graveyard drift orbit.” The maneuver raises questions about the potential applications of these types of satellites designed to maneuver close to other satellites for inspection or manipulation and adds to growing concerns about China's space program overall. On January 22, China’s Shijian-21 satellite, or SJ-21, disappeared from its regular...

Jason Wilson has had kidney failure since he was 10 years oldA South Carolina man has been declared inactive on a kidney transplant list after he said he has no plans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Jason Wilson has had kidney failure since he was 10 years old. Advertisement For a while, his condition improved, he said. But about two years ago, he began dialysis and was placed on Medical University of South Carolina Health's list for a kidney transplant. It was on Nov. 1 that he got a letter from the health system that said he would be moved...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Monday on his show “The Lead” that it was “a little bit frustrating” people were demanding schools be open without making sure all the kids, teachers, faculty, and staff are vaccinated. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said, “Right now, there are 500,000 cases per day in the United States. And we’re seeing more cases now than we did last winter, which was our largest spike to date. So there’s still a lot of COVID in the United States. While we all want to look ahead, we need to have — we need to be...

The mayor of Terry Fox’s British Columbia hometown and the leader of the federal opposition are among those speaking out Saturday, after a statue of Canadian icon Terry Fox was covered in political statements at an Ottawa rally opposing COVID-19 measures. “To have someone try and appropriate his legacy and his image for a political cause, whatever the cause, is just sickening,” Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West told Global News. “It’s just so wrong.”Photos from the rally showed the statue holding an upside-down Canadian flag, along with a sign that reads “mandate freedom.” Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he had...

Preserve the Latin MassWe are a growing movement of Catholics and non-Catholics alike who recognize that the Traditional Latin Mass, which has nurtured countless souls and enriched the Catholic Church and the world for centuries, must surely be preserved. About Preserve the Latin MassWe wish to share our experience of the traditional liturgy, which has nourished many saints throughout the centuries and continues to edify a growing number of souls throughout the Catholic Church today. We will share why Catholics of all backgrounds value and treasure this Mass and why so many non-Catholics are inspired by its beauty and majesty....

Someone needs to smack the writers of And Just Like That, the Sex and the City reboot, with a dose of reality. The entire Internet hates what they’ve done to longtime couple Miranda Hobbes and Steve Brady. (We also hate everything else about this show but there’s too much to mention here. You can read my other reviews here and here.) For some reason, the writers thought that breaking up this couple who made it through an unplanned pregnancy, infidelity, and more would be exciting for the viewers. But turning Miranda, a clearly heterosexual woman, into a non-binary attracted lesbian...

Michigan state Rep. Steve Carra, a Republican congressional candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, announced he will run in Michigan’s new 4th Congressional District, home to both Republican Reps. Fred Upton and Bill Huizenga, and called on Upton to drop out of the race. "Southwest Michigan is home to me. I have lived here my whole life. I graduated from Portage Northern High School and Western Michigan University. With the newly announced Congressional districts, I am now running in the 4th district to represent my hometown in Congress,” Carra said in a statement first shared with the Washington Examiner....