Free Republic

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Thursday to Friday. The summit has received particular attention from the international community. Fifteen heads of state, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will attend the summit. This is the first face-to-face discussion between leaders of the SCO member states since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The meeting will include Iran as the ninth member of the SCO and issue the Samarkand Declaration to expound the SCO's position on a series of international issues. As the world's largest...

Cardi B is the latest to voice outrage over the decades-high inflation and surging rents that are hammering American households this year. The “WAP” rapper provided her profanity-laced views on the state of the US economy in an Instagram live video this week– griping about a lack of available inventory and surging mortgage rates that have made it more difficult for homebuyers to afford properties. SNIP The outspoken, Grammy Award-winning artist said she was likewise shocked at how much rents have surged while helping a cousin find an apartment.

Students get into fight. An assistant football coach intervened and was shot.

In April 2022, the Biden administration announced it had created the Disinformation Governance Board – its own Ministry of Truth – a part of the Department of Homeland Security

Moderna's bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, which was granted interim authorisation by Singapore's Health Sciences Authority for use as a booster shot, targets both the original strain and Omicron BA.1 variant of the coronavirus. The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) announced on Wednesday (Sep 14) that it has granted interim authorisation to Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot, under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR). Spikevax Bivalent Original/Omicron COVID-19 vaccine is the first bivalent vaccine against the coronavirus to be authorised as a booster here. HSA said it consulted experts from its Medicines Advisory Committee and Panel of Infectious Diseases Experts...

The campaign’s response to questions about Mr. Fetterman’s health is to point to a doctor’s note, released more than 14 weeks ago, which said ‘he should be able to campaign and serve in the U.S. Senate without a problem’ if he takes his medications and exercises. That’s not good enough. Mr. Fetterman is asking voters for a six-year contract without giving them enough information to make sound judgments about whether he’s up for such a demanding job. We have called for full disclosure of health records from candidates for federal office in both parties, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden,...

The heterodox text calls for a reassessment of St. John Paul II’s magisterial document 'Ordinatio sacerdotalis.'FRANKFURT AM MAIN (LifeSiteNews) – The members of the Synodal Way Assembly approved a document calling on Pope Francis to allow women’s ordination. Nearly 82% of the bishops present voted in favor of the document. The heterodox text calls for a reassessment of Pope St. John Paul II’s magisterial document “Ordinatio sacerdotalis” (1994) in which the Pope confirmed the Church’s constant bi-millennial teaching of an exclusively male priesthood. In his apostolic letter, John Paul II quoted Pope Paul VI in his affirmation of the Church’s...

Lee and Lee-Jackson highways may officially no more. In a 9-1 decision, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to change names of Lee and Lee-Jackson highways to Route 29 and Route 50 respectively. “This is a necessary and important change for Fairfax County. We will continue to strive to realize our vision of a more equitable One Fairfax,” wrote Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay in a statement. The move comes after a yearlong review by the county’s Confederate Names Task Force, which called on renaming the highways. The task force submitted recommendations in December. Overall, updates...

Gathering in Thailand brings together Sisters of the Lovers of the Holy Cross from various Asian communities Nuns from Vietnam’s first native female religious congregation founded by a French missionary bishop have marked their 350th anniversary with a gathering in Thailand to contemplate their origins, charisms, and growth. The Lovers of the Holy Cross (LHC) nuns gathered from all over Thailand and other Asian countries at St. Joseph's Church in Ayutthaya, a historic city north of the Thai capital Bangkok, on Sept. 3 to celebrate the jubilee. Following a synod in Ayutthaya in 1664, Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte...

In New York, its supermarkets can’t sell wine, and its wine shops can’t sell potato chips. In North Carolina, wine can be purchased in supermarkets, but you have to go to a state-owned store to buy spirits. And don’t expect to find sale prices on alcohol in Michigan, where minimum prices are set by the state. Looking to buy wine, beer or spirits from an online retailer like Amazon? It’s illegal in almost every state. Welcome to the three-tier system, the almost 90-year-old set of laws that governs how wine, beer and spirits are sold in the United States. Each...

A draft law has been submitted to the Russian State Legislative Assembly (the Duma) to prohibited any information that promotes voluntary rejection of childbirth from spreading among the minors. The draft law has been posted in the chamber's legislative database on Wednesday. It was authored by deputies of the Parliament of Bashkiria and two members of the State Duma. In the explanatory note they point out that the "childfree" ideology based upon voluntary refusal to have children "runs counter to traditional family values and state policy of the Russian Federation". In this connection, the draft federal law proposes amendments to...

The state's $9.5 billion Better for Families program will provide checks of up to $1,050 to state residents to stem the rising costs of living.California's state government is plowing ahead with its plan of sending free money to people to mitigate the pain of inflation. On Tuesday, state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D–Berkeley) tweeted a reminder that in October, California residents who filed a tax return in 2020 should start seeing checks appear in their mailboxes courtesy of the Better for Families tax refund program. The rough sketches of the program were announced in late June as part of the budget...

The U.S. Army has released guidance for soldiers as they fight inflation, including a suggestion that they take advantage of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. SNAP, a benefit for low-income Americans, is a program for which "service members and their families may be eligible," the guidance said, pointing soldiers and their families to the SNAP website and phone number. SNAP is one of several options discussed as part of the Army's Financial Readiness Program. "With inflation affecting everything from gas prices to groceries to rent, some Soldiers and their families are finding it harder...

VATICAN CITY — The Church of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin looks out onto the Mediterranean from Torvaianica, a beach town 20 miles from Rome that’s known more for its Mafia incursions, drugs and sex trafficking than its scenery. On a recent gray morning, after a celebration for the Assumption of Mary, a handful of middle-aged parish volunteers were at work cleaning up. The Rev. Andrea Conocchia, the pastor, showed up in sweatpants and a T-shirt reading “God is great and Jesus loves me,” a gift for his 25th anniversary of celebrating his first Mass. He apologized for his voice, still...

Senate Bill AB 587 will require social media companies to publicly post their policies regarding hate speech, disinformation, harassment, and extremism on their platforms, and report data on their enforcement of the policies. The newly signed legislation will also require platforms to file semiannual reports to the state’s attorney general’s office that will disclose their policies toward hate speech, extremism, and disinformation. The state’s attorney general’s office is also required “to make all terms of service reports submitted pursuant to those provisions available to the public in a searchable repository on its official internet website.” Last week, the state’s legislature...

Roughly 2 hours in length (Excellent summary, with detailed maps, for those wanting the latest news)

Share Tweet ... More Former President Trump is facing a new political quagmire as Senate Democrats open an investigation into allegations he pressured the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate his political opponents. Former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman wrote in a new book that the Justice Department under Trump pushed his office to pursue criminal cases against former Secretary of State John Kerry and others viewed as political opponents of Trump. Democrats, who have been happy to elevate Trump and his conduct in the wake of an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, will look into the matter, Senate Judiciary...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled Wednesday that she could back a side deal between Democratic leaders and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) if it is included in a Senate bill funding the government, setting up a potential clash with liberals in the debate over climate change. “If the Senate passes a CR, we have to keep government open,” Pelosi told The Hill, referring to a continuing resolution — a stopgap funding measure to prevent a shutdown.

The billionaire founder of the outdoor fashion retailer Patagonia says he has given away his company to a charitable trust. Yvon Chouinard said that under a new ownership structure, any profit not reinvested in running the business would go to fighting climate change. This will amount to around $100bn ($86bn) a year, he claimed, depending on the health of the company. Patagonia sells hiking and other outdoor clothing in over 10 countries. Founded in 1973, its estimated revenue was $1.5bn this year, while Mr Chouinard's net worth is thought to be $1,2bn.

During a portion of an interview with CBS aired on Wednesday’s edition of “CBS Evening News,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declined to say that inflation is near its peak and stated she doesn’t want to insert herself into forecasting things on a month-by-month basis, but she thinks it will “come down over time due to the actions” that are being taken by the Federal Reserve and that she hopes “to see substantial improvement over the coming year.” Yellen said, “Inflation remains a problem. It obviously is of tremendous concern to Americans.”