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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP)-Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence on Saturday shortly before protesters, angered by an unprecedented economic crisis, overran the compound and stormed his nearby office. Thousands of people had surrounded the leader's home to demand his resignation, blaming government mismanagement for a downturn that has subjected this island nation's 22 million people to months of bitter hardship. As the crowd surged the gates of the presidential palace, troops guarding the compound fired in the air to hold them back until Rajapaksa was safely removed...

Pro-abortion protesters were quickly escorted out of a Mass last month at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Chicago, according to the church’s bulletin. A video of the June 26 protest shows protesters standing up from the pews during Mass and entering the aisle to begin a demonstration. One of the protesters can then be heard reading aloud the statement of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned the regulation of abortion to the states. “This is the statement of the Archbishop of Chicago,” the protester shouted at the...

LAKELAND, Fla. — A 13-year-old girl was arrested by Lakeland Police during an abortion rights protest on the Fourth of July. Lillie Johnson told News Channel 8 she will not be deterred from exercising her First Amendment rights after video of her arrest went viral. “If anything this has encouraged me more to fight for the freedom of anybody and everybody. No matter what, no matter who,” Lillie said. Lillie’s mother, Lauren Johnson, recorded video Monday of Lakeland Police officers detaining her daughter at Munn Park. “It’s important to use your voice and to use it peacefully and appropriately, and...

The Biden administration proposed a rule that would require the states to track greenhouse gas emissions and set declining emission targets for highway traffic on Thursday. The Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for states and municipalities to “track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their highways.” The proposed plan would establish declining carbon dioxide targets statewide and create a method for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. The rule looks to monitor state-by-state emission levels by adding a new greenhouse gas performance management measure to the existing FHWA rules,...

While fears may be growing that another COVID-19 surge will be upon us in the coming months, there is some indication that the future is now.There’s a reason data show that, while the positivity rate of COVID tests has spiked to five-month highs, and hospitalizations have steadily climbed to four-month highs, new daily COVID cases have held steady for the past couple of months.The new cases are being undercounted because results of widely available at-home tests aren’t being reported for government tabulation. The Fourth of July holiday has also caused reporting delays. And many states have stopped providing daily updates,...

Vice president Kamala Harris responded with an incoherent word salad when asked in an interview whether Democratic presidents and congresses failed by never codifying abortion rights over the nearly 50 years Roe v Wade stood. 'I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled,' Harris said. Roe v Wade was passed in 1973. Since then Democrats have had 15 congressional majorities, and four presidents. In the interview with CBS News' Robert Costa, the Vice President also...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida woman was arrested Thursday after police said she hid her mother’s body in a freezer to continue collecting the woman’s disability benefits. On April 28, 2022, police in the city of Sebastian found the body of Marie Hoskins inside a chest freezer while conducting a welfare check at her home. Police said the victim’s daughter, 64-year-old Michele Hoskins, told officers she found her mother’s body in her bedroom. Further investigation found that Marie Hoskins, 93, had been dead for around two weeks from natural causes before her daughter bought the freezer to hide her...

The man accused of gunning down Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese prime minister was linked to a religious group he blamed for breaking up his family and causing his mother’s bankruptcy, police said. Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told police his original intention was to attack the leader of the group — which authorities declined to name, The Guardian reported. “My mother got wrapped up in a religious group and I resented it,” the Kyodo news agency and other media quoted him as telling police. Japan’s longest serving prime minister was killed Friday during a campaign stop near a train station...

“Freedom is under attack in your state,” California’s Democratic leader said in the punchy advertisement, paid for by Newsom’s re-election campaign and aired on the rightwing Fox News channel. “Republican leaders – they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors. I urge all of you to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.” DeSantis was asked about those attacking Florida – he didn’t hold back. “Well look…everyone wants to talk about me and Florida. I’m just sitting here little old me doing my job....

I've heard it said more than once now. "We're in a war." We are. The President of the United States has declared war on its citizens. We are in a war for the soul of the country. In violation of Federal law, SCOTUS Justices are being harassed while at dinner. The White House is all in favor of it. In fact, Biden is inciting violence upon on the Supreme Court. Biden: "We can not allow an out of control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy." pic.twitter.com/Xjzd3SHdhB...

VIDEOShortly before the Fourth of July weekend I was faced with a barbecue emergency. I had already defrosted a Turkey and started brining it in preparation for smoking it. However, Target had a great sale on baby back pork ribs and I couldn't resist especially since a lot more people than expected were going to show up at my July 4 barbecue party. So how to cook both smoked turkey AND baby back ribs? The answer was sous vide. I didn't have enough room on my smoker to cook both at the same time so my solution was to sous...

[Catholic Caucus] “The classical Roman rite is neither dead nor threatened in its existence; rather, only the axis is shifting” — Article by Regina Einig FSSP diaconal ordinations with Bp. Meier of AugsburgThe Axis Is ShiftingThe recent Apostolic Exhortation on the Liturgical Formation of the People of God [Desiderio Desideravi] obliges no one to do more than take note of it. The very genre of the text signals intentional non-bindingness: Pope Francis has not issued a motu proprio or written a doctrinal letter, but rather he wants to “simply provide some food for thought.” The tenor of the latter...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, Kremlin-backed rebels assaulted a nursing home in the eastern region of Luhansk. Dozens of elderly and disabled patients, many of them bedridden, were trapped inside without water or electricity.The March 11 assault set off a fire that spread throughout the facility, suffocating people who couldn’t move. A small number of patients and staff escaped and fled into a nearby forest, finally getting assistance after walking for 5 kilometers (3 miles).In a war awash in atrocities, the attack on the nursing home near the village of Stara...

The U.S. Treasury on Friday said it was moving to terminate a 1979 tax treaty with Hungary in the wake of Budapest's decision to block the European Union's implementation of a new, 15% global minimum tax. A Treasury spokesperson said that since Hungary lowered its corporate tax rate to 9% - less than half the 21% U.S. rate - the tax treaty unilaterally benefits Hungary. "The benefits are no longer reciprocal - with a significant loss of potential revenues to the United States and little in return for U.S. business and investment in Hungary." The timing of the termination following...

The Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer military. Woke policies are key to dwindling recruit numbers in all branches of the service. Being a successful military recruiter at times can be difficult, especially over the last couple of years due to inept leadership and woke policies. This has led to a poor recruitment environment not seen since the Vietnam War ended. All branches of the military are currently well under their projected recruitment goals, despite generous enlistment bonuses. The Army raised its maximum enlistment bonus from...

Abortion rights advocates have noted that people in states like Idaho, which have outlawed nearly all abortions, will soon have to travel across state lines to terminate pregnancies. Planned Parenthood plans to open a new clinic just across the border in Ontario. But an estimated 5,127 women in Idaho won’t have the option to seek abortion care out of state because of parole or probation, according to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy organization whose stated mission is to “expose the broader harm of mass criminalization” and “create a more just society.” There were 4,346...

Christina Bobb, an attorney who has supported Donald Trump's legal challenge to overturn the 2020 election, has suggested a scenario in which the former president could be reinstated after the midterm elections in November. Bobb told the conservative news outlet the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) what she thought could happen in states in which there was "evidence that Joe Biden cheated" in the election Trump and his allies have continuously claimed was fraudulent. "They could withdraw their electors, or they could actually decide to award Trump electors, although I would anticipate they will probably just withdraw the electors," she...

Elon Musk has notified Twitter and the SEC [SEE LETTER HERE] that he is exercising his “right to terminate the merger agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated” due to the social media company not providing transparent access to background data that would allow authentication of “monetized daily active users” (mDAUs). It appears that Twitter Inc did not want to reveal how Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop was able to sustain operations, at an extremely high cost, without making money. That’s the essential source of the issue. The social media company did not want anyone looking at the data stream inside the...

The Federal Reserve’s policies remind me of the Cabaret tune “Money.” There is still almost $9 trillion in monetary stimulus outstanding. For all the economic cheerleaders out there like CNBC about the June job report, they generally ignore what is driving the jobs report: The Federal Reserve! Take the US U-3 unemployment rate. The Biden Administration is proud of the unemployment rate of 3.6%. But if you look at the chart of unemployment relative to The Fed’s balance sheet expansion due to Covid lockdowns, there is still almost $9 trillion of Fed stimulus outstanding. Of course, the lockdowns were pure...

Archaeologists from The University of Manchester have started a dig at a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur...Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb which has never previously been excavated, but English Heritage say that similar examples in the same region have been found to contain incomplete skeletal remains of several people, together with flint flakes, arrowheads and pottery.Today, only the large stones of the inner chamber remains, which is placed in a mound of earth and stones whose original size and shape remains a mystery. The chamber is formed of nine upright stones, with an enormous capstone estimated to...