Free Republic

Living conditions in 90% of the world's countries deteriorated in 2021, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP's Human Development Index measures a country's health, education and standard of living. The index has declined globally for two years in a row since the first time it was calculated 32 years ago. The UNDP's report said that this erased "the gains of the past five years." UNDP chief Achim Steiner said that even at the height of the last global recession which broke out in 2007, the index declined in only around one in ten countries. The combined effects...

WASHINGTON, Saturday, Sept. 6. Farmers coming in to-day from Montgomery County, Maryland, state that the camp fires of the enemy were plainly visible last night, on the Virginia shore of the Potomac, near Edwards' Ferry and Point of Rocks. The number of fires seem to indicate a larger force than had at first been supposed present. They extended three miles along the river shore from Edwards' Ferry. This might have been a ruse to deceive us in regard to the real number of their forces. The rebels were heard industriously chopping timber all night, and, as the ferries are guarded...

China can likely sink any $12 billion American aircraft carrier and its 5,000 diverse “they/them” crew that dares to venture into the Taiwan strait. The United States obsesses over whether biological men can compete in women’s sports as transgendered males. Crime is spiking at levels not seen in 40 years. But it is considered racist to suggest that arrests, indictments, convictions, and incarcerations deter crime. Major U.S. downtowns almost overnight went from mostly safe and clean to terrifying and toxic—and we brag that we are at least “tolerant” of the medieval conditions. The Pentagon and CIA put out recruitment videos...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed "good news" from the northeastern Kharkiv region, after an apparent surprise counter-offensive forced Russian troops onto the back foot and prompted a pro-Kremlin official to call for evacuations. The Russian-installed head of the Kupiansk city administration, Vitaly Ganchev, urged women and children to evacuate the city as Ukrainian forces approached. Ganchev said the city, which lies west of the Donbas region and about 70 miles east of the city of Kharkiv, "is constantly under terror" and experiencing "constant rocket attacks from the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Ukrainian officials have declined to comment on the...

A 31,000-year-old skeleton found in a remote area in Indonesia is rewriting what we know about early medicine medical procedures according to a new study published in the weekly scientific Nature journal on Wednesday. ... The oldest previous known example of a limb amputation had been a roughly 7,000-year-old skeleton from France, whose left forearm had been surgically removed and then had partially healed. This had led researchers to believe that operations of this nature took place in established agricultural societies. The latest discovery turns that notion on its head and suggests that Stone Age hunter-gathers had a far more...

Heavy fighting erupted in areas near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine after Kyiv warned it might have to shut down the plant to avoid a radiation disaster. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily update on Thursday that some villages near the plant were bombed over the past 24 hours by “tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery”. Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets and heavy artillery into the nearby town of Nikopol four times, the area’s regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram, damaging at least 11 houses and other buildings. On Wednesday,...

Have you ever noticed that liars are often tripped up by their own contradictions? That's when they want you to believe two concepts that can't be true at the same time. Leftist liars have been trying to sell us the same song and dance that no one cares about the recession, inflation, crime, energy prices, illegal invasion, fentanyl killing kids, the ongoing supply chain disruptions, national debt, geopolitical Instability, foreign policy disasters and a government that is growing way beyond belief for weeks now. Instead, we're supposed to believe in their constantly recycled opinion pieces — Biden hits his stride,...

Comedian and Netflix star David A. Arnold dead at 54 Comedian David A. Arnold, best known for headlining two Netflix comedy specials, died at the age of 54 on Wednesday. The stand-up funnyman, who was the showrunner of Nickelodeon’s “That Girl Lay Lay” and served as a producer on the “Fuller House” reboot, died “from natural causes” at his home, his family announced

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled visit to Kyiv on Thursday as the Biden administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2 billion for Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Biden administration had notified Congress of its intent to provide $2 billion in long-term Foreign Military Financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners, that are “most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression.” Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of that will go to Ukraine...

With his threatening, ominous speeches, is Biden trying to convince us...or himself? "I will not stand by and let elections be stolen by people who simply refuse to believe that they lost," bellowed President Joe Biden during his primetime "Gates of Hell" speech last Thursday night. He looked angry and sounded angry as he shook his fists in the ominous red lights framing his podium. Biden has also said that questioning the election is a "dagger at the throat of democracy." Really? Is Hillary Clinton putting a dagger to the throat of democracy as she still questions the outcome of...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Ukraine Thursday -- paying his second visit to the country's capital city since the war with Russia began more than six months ago. The top US diplomat will meet with Ukrainian officials. His trip comes as Ukraine has launched a counteroffensives aimed at reclaiming Russian occupied areas in the south and northeast of the country. It also coincides with a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

German and Spanish missile manufacturers jointly aim to develop a hypersonic missile interceptor, a move that will seek to modernize wider Europe’s missile defenses against emerging new Russian threats. The European Hypersonic Defense Interceptor (EU HYDEF) project will cover the concept phase to develop a so-called endo-atmospheric interceptor, which will aim to cover threats from 2035 and beyond. It will run for 36 months at a projected cost of US$110 million, with the EU contributing almost $100 million to the effort. Defense News reports that the program’s goal is to field a countermeasure that can eventually be integrated into existing...

Thursday 8 September 2022The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary Feast St Mary's Catholic ChurchSalem, South Dakota Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(II).First readingMicah 5:1-4 ©He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the LordThe Lord says this:But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,the least of the clans of Judah,out of you will be born for methe one who is to rule over Israel;his origin goes back to the distant past,to the days of old.The Lord is therefore going to abandon themtill the time when she who is to give birth gives birth.Then the remnant of his brothers will...

Just before 11 a.m. Moscow Standard Time on March 1, after a night of Russian strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, a set of Russian-language Twitter accounts spread a lie that Ukraine was fabricating civilian casualties. (snip) Late last month, the network of accounts shifted to focus almost exclusively on Ukraine, echoing similar narratives and content across accounts and platforms. A popular post by the account @QR_Kod accused the Ukrainian military of using civilians as human shields. Another post by @QR_Kod portrayed Ukraine as provoking Russia at the behest of its NATO masters. Both tweets received hundreds of likes...

A leading Catholic scholar claimed that alleged alien abductions stories have parallels with people who say they have encountered demons. Theologian Dr Paul Thigpen went on to add that aliens are in fact more than likely " demons ". He also said that the US government know more than they publicly state in relation to UAPs ('Unexplained Aerial Phenomena' - a US military term for UFOs ). Dr Thigpen told the National Catholic Register: “With UAP we may actually be dealing with extraordinary phenomena of various origins despite similar characteristics. “Extra-terrestrial hypothesis – the notion that we are encountering non-human...

If you’re a GOP congressional candidate, who should you take advice from on how to win your election? Mitch McConnell -- who, by all appearances, is a Disney animatron created to trip up Republican contenders -- or Ron DeSantis, ultra-successful governor of Florida and a candidate who won a nail-biter in 2018, which was a very Democrat year? If GOP candidates follow DeSantis, the Vegas odds favor them bagging their Democrat opponents. DeSantis is no Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits. He’s smart, tough, and relentless – and he’s right on the issues. He wins. Expect DeSantis to dispatch hatin’ Charlie Crist...

A Black woman from Michigan says she was racially discriminated against when three employees at a Fifth Third Bank told her a casino jackpot check she was trying to deposit was fraudulent, according to a recently filed federal lawsuit. Lizzie Pugh, 71, tried to deposit the check April 11 at one of the bank’s Livonia branches, according to the suit filed Aug. 29 in U.S. District Court in Michigan. The lawsuit said Pugh had a check in hand from the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant, where she had hit a slot machine jackpot on April 9 while...

While some of the fiscal Republicans remain in office and continue to work hard in defense of the pre-MAGA Republican agenda by supporting bipartisan legislation, they are largely outshined by election deniers and Trump-endorsed candidates. Representative Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, just lost her primary to the Trump backed candidate in Wyoming, known as Cheney territory, after taking a stand against former President Trump and fighting to preserve our democracy. It’s a notable example of just how great the influence of MAGA Republicans in fact is. GOP establishment figures like the Cheneys are being pushed...

Greece’s government has written to the country’s NATO and European Union partners and the head of the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by officials in neighboring Turkey and suggesting that current bilateral tensions could escalate into a second open conflict on European soil. In the letters, copies of which were seen Wednesday by The Associated Press, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of his country’s historic regional rival — and NATO ally — should be censured by the three bodies. “By not doing so in time or by underestimating the seriousness of the...

The race for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District’s seat will take its final shape Sept. 13. Republican primary voters will decide who will face off in the general election against U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the two-term Democratic incumbent from Manchester. The five Republicans running in the Sept. 13 primary present voters with the opportunity to nominate a conservative from the younger generation of the party in state Rep. Tim Baxter, former White House aide Karoline Leavitt or former U.S. State Department official Matt Mowers, who was the 2020 nominee for the CD 1 seat, losing to Pappas in the general...