Free Republic

On this date in 1557, the handless Mapuche cacique Galvarino was executed by the Spanish during the Arauco War. The Mapuche people, still extant today, inhabited present-day Chile and Argentina; Spanish explorers pushing south from the wreck of the Inca Empire encountered them, and naturally antagonized them. Rebellion broke out among the Mapuche in 1553, led by Caupolican and his able commander Lautaro; they won some signal victories but the conflict was never decisively finished by either side. The Arauco War — encompassing many distinct rebellions and campaigns punctuated by relative calm — ran until the early 19th century....

World leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have been in serious discussions regarding the next pandemic. The 17th Group of 20 (G20) Heads of State and Government Summit, which convened under the theme ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’, took place in November in Bali, Indonesia this year and concluded with the adoption of the G20 Bali Leaders Declaration. The declaration, which consists of 52 paragraphs, highlights the “unparalleled multidimensional crises” such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change and sets out the commitments and undertakings made by all G20 countries in respect of the global economy, health and climate. South Africa is...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will have an opportunity on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for where the central bank is headed when policy makers meet next month—and he’ll likely use it to make the case for slower but steady interest rate hikes. In a speech Wednesday afternoon at the Brookings Institution, Powell is expected to reinforce the dual message central bank officials have been making for weeks: that the Fed is on track to ease up slightly on its pace of monetary policy tightening, likely slowing to a 50 basis point increase next month after four straight 75 basis...

Corruption in the Canadian medical establishment. Ontario is telling doctors to consider psychiatric drugs for those who won’t take the vaccine. ☆ We no longer can trust our mainstream media, which is why independent journalists such as myself are the new way to receive accurate information about our world.

Joe Biden made a big deal of promising to fight for human rights as a critical part of his Presidential campaign: The United States is committed to a world in which human rights are protected, their defenders are celebrated, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable. Promoting respect for human rights is not something we can do alone, but is best accomplished working with our allies and partners across the globe. President Biden is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our diplomatic leadership, and one that is centered on the defense of...

Brazilian football legend Pele was taken into hospital on Tuesday in Sao Paulo, in a visit that was not scheduled. Pele was taken into the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil by his wife Marcia Aoki and a caregiver on Tuesday, according to ESPN Brazil. They state that he arrived unscheduled as a result of swelling all over his body, unlike previous, scheduled visits. The 82-year-old has been in and out of hospital with increasing regularity in recent years. He underwent surgery to remove a tumour on his colon in September 2021 and spent a period in intensive care,...

St Peter's Basilica Converted into a Debate HallCardinal Ravasi organised a panel discussion ("Lectio Petri") on 22 November inside Saint Peter's.The four participants sat behind a desk in the basilica's sanctuary, in front of the communion table. Each of them had a bottle and a glass in front of them.The Novus Ordo regards churches as secularised meeting rooms. Among the participants was the Protestant pastor and theologian Paolo Ricca, 86.He spoke about Mt 16, where Christ calls Peter a rock ("on this rock I will build my church"), and suggested that "one Peter is not enough", that "we too are...

ndiana Senator Mike Braun is running for governor. Our CBS/FOX partners in Indianapolis report he filed the paperwork to run as the state's leader this morning with the Secretary of State's office. Braun was elected to the Senate in 2018 with this first term expiring in 2024. That's when current Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb's final term in office ends due to term limits. Braun has consistently said he would make a decision on running for governor by December 1.

Cristiano Ronaldo has a lucrative offer to move to Saudi Arabia on the table after his departure from Manchester United, but the Portugal forward is set to wait until after the World Cup before deciding on his next move, sources have told ESPN. Al-Nassr are willing to offer him a 3½-year contract worth more than $119 million (£100m) a year. Sources have also told ESPN that as part of the agreement, Al-Nassr have indicated they would be willing to compensate Ronaldo for the wages he would have earned had he seen out the last six months of his contract at...

A 41-year-old woman was found decapitated in the kitchen of her Philadelphia home Tuesday afternoon. Police arrested 34-year-old Ahmad Shareef who was found hiding in bushes several blocks away and charged him with murder and abuse of a corpse. Shareef is being held without bail. The victim was identified as Leila Al Raheel. Both are reported to be Syrian immigrants. Reports state the murder was domestic violence. Neighbors said multiple children and adults lived in the house and that it was the scene of “constant drama” with police called there many times. One said it was a “house of horrors.”...

Efforts to promote Muay Thai as a global sport have been met with resistance from some corners, with fears that international exposure will dilute its tradition and heritage.Thailand’s national martial art Muay Thai could soon make its debut on the world’s biggest sporting stage, the Olympics. The combat sport already has an increasingly global audience, with many would-be fighters making trips to its birthplace to immerse themselves in the culture. After the inclusion in numerous multi-sport events such as the World Games earlier this year, the next step is for Muay Thai to be featured at the Olympics. But efforts...

"They brought this upon themselves." Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t going to let the Walt Disney Company come in from the cold anytime soon if comments Tuesday evening are any indication. Presented with regretful comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger about consequences for the company’s opposition to the state’s Parental Rights in Education law, DeSantis did not back down from previous critiques of the “Burbank-based” corporation. “We didn’t drag them in, Tucker, they went in on their own,” DeSantis said on Fox News. “And not only opposed the bill. They threatened to get it repealed. These are parents’ rights … important...

Spotify's (SPOT.N) CEO Daniel Ek renewed his attack on Apple (AAPL.O) on Wednesday in a series of tweets alleging the iPhone maker "gives itself every advantage while at the same time stifling innovation and hurting consumers". Ek tagged a number of sympathetic business leaders in his 21-tweet thread, including Musk, Microsoft president Brad Smith, and Proton founder Andy Yen. On Monday, the world's richest person Elon Musk criticized the fee Apple charges software developers - including his Twitter business - for in-app purchases, and posted a meme suggesting he was willing to "go to war" rather than pay it.

The former head of trust and safety at Twitter recently admitted that the social media company’s decision to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 was a "mistake." During a sit down with journalist Kara Swisher, ex-Twitter safety chief Yoel Roth said that despite concerns about the authenticity of the laptop story, it still did not reach a point where he wanted to remove the content — which was later censored anyway. Initial reporting suggested that Roth blocked user access from the October 2020 story, but the former Twitter division lead said the decision was not up to him.

An experimental Alzheimer's disease drug from Eisai and Biogen slowed cognitive decline in a closely watched trial but may carry a risk of dangerous side effects for certain patients, according to new data presented on Tuesday (Nov 29). The drug, lecanemab, was associated with a type of brain swelling in 12.6 per cent of trial patients, a side effect previously seen with similar drugs. Fourteen per cent of patients had microhemorrhages in the brain - a symptom linked to two recent deaths of people receiving lecanemab in a follow-on study - and five patients suffered macrohemorrhages. The companies said in...

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and advocate for the "Great Reset" transformation of the entire world into a collectivist anthill society, is recommending China as the model for other countries to emulate. "They have a great idea for the perfect society and the ruthless courage required to impose it on their own citizens," Schwab said. "Just take a look at what they have done in just the last few years. They have invented a new disease that has the potential to significantly reduce the planet's overpopulation problem. At the same time they have taken the extreme...

As a child, Dr Shao Huilin witnessed her grandmother’s long struggle with dementia. Today, the university professor, scientist and biotech start-up founder of Sunbird Bio spearheads the development of groundbreaking tests for earlier detection of the disease, as well as more personalised treatment.any of our lives have been touched by dementia, whether directly via the diagnosis of a loved one or indirectly through the experience of someone we know of. Scientist Dr Shao Huilin first encountered the neurodegenerative disease as a child. “My grandma had dementia and passed away from it when I was five or six years old though...

Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down. “My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights. The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, and was also used widely by (i)ndigenous people worldwide in a similar vein. But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf...

Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle Matthew 4:18–22Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls his first disciples. What is it about this scene that is so peaceful and right? Somehow it gets at the very heart of Jesus’ life and work, revealing what he is about. He comes into the world as the second person of the Blessed Trinity, a representative from the community which is God— and thus his basic purpose is to draw the world into community around him.Jesus says to Simon and Andrew, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." This tells us something about...

For the past month the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, has been ruffling a lot of feathers, especially for folks on the Left. He’s been doing this by basically gutting the censorship regimen that existed prior to his acquisition of the social media company. For those not familiar with the Twitter experience, beginning with Gamergate in 2014 (which more or less initiated the current “Woke Wars” in American culture), the platform became an increasingly repressive environment for people on the Right. Over the years, a greater and greater number of cultural and political touchstones were enforced to discourage criticism...