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Weeks after he became Japan’s prime minister last year, Fumio Kishida pulled on a dark green bomber jacket, the hinomaru flag emblazoned on his sleeve, and climbed into a tank. Official photos show him displaying an awkward smile for his audience at Camp Asaka – the men and women of the the country’s Self-Defence Forces – an indication, perhaps, that postwar Japanese leaders and military hardware have not always been easy bedfellows. The image belied Kishida’s political grounding in a dovish wing of his Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and his background as an MP representing a constituency in Hiroshima who...

Michigan surpassed the 6 million vaccinated residents mark as the calendar flipped to 2022. In the almost five full months since, the state has seen fewer than 235,000 individuals get their first COVID-19 shot, including almost 25,000 in April and less than 16,000 thus far in May. Vaccine uptake has advanced at a crawl since late last summer, but the state still believes more holdout residents can be convinced to get a shot. After spending more than $77.6 million in state and federal funds for its vaccine advertising campaign in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, Michigan has earmarked...

Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that a spike in ObamaCare premiums could hit this fall right before the midterm elections. The party is already facing major headwinds from inflation and President Biden’s lagging approval ratings, and a health care premium spike would add a major blow.

... On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd said the network received a similar response to its invitation to all 50 GOP senators. “I should add, we asked each of the Senate’s 50 Republicans, every single one of them, to join us and none agreed on this weekend,” Todd said during his show on Sunday.

Abortion-Communion controversy: Pope Francis elevates bishop who defended serving pro-choice politiciansPope Francis promoted McElroy ahead of Salvatore Cordileone, who barred Nancy Pelosi from CommunionPope Francis on Sunday named as cardinal San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy, a Roman Catholic leader who had spoken out against the calls for bishops to exclude pro-choice politicians like President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion over their stances on abortion. The move comes in the wake of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's announcement earlier this month that he would bar Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion due to her stance on abortion....

“I have taken on the role of father and mother to my younger sisters,” says Yezidi survivor “Hala Safeel,” who lives with her family in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Hala Safeel fled from the grip of the Islamic State (ISIS), , which committed genocide against her Yezidi people, four years ago, after she suffered through three years of ISIS captivity. But she is still living through the period of imprisonment, as the fate of her parents and three of her siblings is still unknown. Safeel says: “Despite everything, and despite what...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was heckled by mourners Sunday during a visit to the Texas school where 19 children and two teachers were killed. “Abbott is a son of a b—h,” said Aracely Villalpando​, 59, of Fort Worth​. “It’s awful — he’s not doing anything about gun laws and wants everyone to own a gun​,” she said. “A lot of people like guns, and that’s OK, but how can you sell a military rifle to the public?​”​​

TAFT, Okla. (AP) — Authorities said a 26-year-old man was in custody after one person was killed and seven people were injured in a shooting early Sunday at an outdoor festival in eastern Oklahoma, where witnesses described frantic people running for cover amid gunfire. An arrest warrant was issued for Skyler Buckner and he turned himself in to the Muskogee County sheriff’s office Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. OSBI said that those shot at the Memorial Day event in Taft, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa, ranged in age from...

CNN’s Jim Acosta got into a heated exchange with a National Rifle Association (NRA) board member on Sunday afternoon over actions to counter gun violence following last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. “I’m 51 years old,” Acosta said. “This has been going on for decades, and it just seems to me that the NRA just has to look into its soul.” “I’m sorry to say it that way, sir, but you and your other board members need to look into your souls and see what can be done for these kids. These kids who keep dying over and over...

As the US marks Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer, the seven-day average for COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are more than six times what they were a year ago. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center showed a seven-day average of 119,725 cases as of Saturday. That figure held at 17,887 cases on May 28 of last year. Despite the rising infection rate, COVID-related deaths were down from last year, a sign of increased immunity through vaccines and prior infections, along with wider availability of treatments.

FOX News hack Sandra Smith interrupted Republican senatorial candidate Mo Brooks this morning during his appearance on FOX News Sunday. After Mo Brooks brought up the film “2000 Mules” Sandra Smith immediately jumped in to tell him that Reuters and other news outlets have debunked the film on the historic 2020 ballot fraud. She is the PERFECT replacement for Chris Wallace on the former conservative-leaning channel. Sandra Smith: “OK and that has been looked at and fact-checked by multiple outlets including Reuters who have debunked that as any sort of proof that there was widespread voter fraud. Mo Brooks: I’m...

It's debatable if Bananarama's version was better, but I prefer this one because it has a distinct 1960s sound that can't be replicated. Part of my playlist.

A gas-station shootout in Houston took an unexpected turn after a woman trying to flee the scene hit and killed a man who was allegedly trying to rob someone else, according to local police. On Thursday afternoon, a man approached someone at a Chevron gas station who was selling hair extensions and tried to rob him, according to news station KTRK. The man selling extensions grabbed his gun and a shootout started. "The suspect ran through the parking lot. There was a female that was in her car, and I believe she had a child in the car," Houston Police...

President Joe Biden’s administration will continue exempting a number of China-made medical products from United States tariffs even as the Chinese coronavirus crisis exposed the nation’s over-reliance on foreign countries for vital supplies. Late last week, the Biden administration announced that certain medical products made in China would continue to be exempted from U.S. tariffs. The tariff exclusion would have ended at the end of May but now they will be in place until at least the end of November.

he Internal Revenue Service this week released more troubling data for New York, with the federal agency showing more high-earning taxpayers leaving the state. Tracking returns filed in 2019 and 2020 showed that 479,826 people left New York for another state or country in those years. Over the same timeframe, just 231,439 people moved to the state. That means the state suffered a net loss of 248,387 residents. And, of course, those people took their money with them. The IRS figures show the moves generated an economic exodus of more than $19.5 billion. New Jersey and Florida were the biggest...

A man threw a rock at a mom and her children after he became impatient waiting at a Burger King drive-thru in Oklahoma, police have said. Officers in Edmond, north of Oklahoma City, said the man started yelling at the family as the woman was checking her order at the drive-thru on May 22. Police spokesperson Emily Ward told local TV station KFOR: "He began yelling to go and move. She hollered back, 'I'm looking at my food and then I'll go.' But before that could even take place, he went around her up over the median and left." The...

Explanation: How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. A recent effort is TNG50 from IllustrisTNG, an upgrade of the famous Illustris Simulation. The first part of the featured video tracks cosmic gas (mostly hydrogen) as it evolves into galaxies and galaxy clusters from the early universe to today, with brighter colors marking faster moving gas. As the universe matures, gas falls into gravitational wells, galaxies forms, galaxies spin, galaxies collide and merge, all while black holes form in galaxy centers and expel surrounding gas...

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is once again trolling liberals online with his Twitter posts. His latest antics were a direct poke at liberal politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who believe that billionaires are a bane to society and need to be heavily taxed out of existence. On Friday morning, the eccentric billionaire, Tesla CEO and possible future owner of Twitter constructed a Twitter poll asking his 95.3 million followers whether they trust billionaires or politicians less.

The FReeper Canteen Observes ------------------------Memorial Day 2022 ------------------------ HistoryMemorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet (see below) carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the...