Free Republic

Ron DeSantis is due to spend Friday in Britain on the last leg of a world tour aimed at enhancing his foreign policy credentials before an expected run for the Republican nomination. Formally, DeSantis will meet the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, in his role as governor of Florida, the third most populous US state. Nigel Farage’s new rightwing Reform UK party is also trying to secure a meeting. Despite being greeted by the prime ministers of Japan and South Korea on earlier legs of the trip, he won’t meet the British prime minster, Rishi...

As the pandemic took hold, a Kansas City-area meeting and event planning business began hawking “I Shake Hands” stickers to help ease awkward social encounters. “We didn’t want the sticker to say, ‘We Don’t Shake Hands’ because that is kind of off-putting,” said John DeLeon, vice president of operations and sales at MTI Events, adding that the idea was that anti-shakers could simply choose not to wear one of the stickers. “But if someone had the sticker on in that group, then that was the indication that it was OK.” Now, as workers return to the office, friends reunite and...

Muslim students at a Sydney public school can refuse to shake hands with women even at an awards ceremony. The Hurstville Boys Campus of Georges River College introduced the policy to allow Muslim boys to instead put their hand on the heart as a greeting. The Year 7 to 10 school's two principals told guests at its 2016 presentation day, including notable community members, that students may decline the gesture. The practice comes from the Muslim teaching of hadith that states: 'It is better to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle than to touch the hand of...

BOSTON -- As millions of Catholics prepare for the traditional midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the Boston Archdiocese is making an unusual plea to parishioners. NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that church leaders are asking anyone with cold or flu symptoms to take certain precautions and avoid some rituals. The announcement comes days after two elderly men on Cape Cod died of flu complications. But public health officials warn against overreactions saying the cases are not unusual considering the ages of the victims, 89 and 90. Parishioners attending Christmas Mass are urged not to shake hands as a sign of...