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Showing posts from December, 2021

206 Marines Booted From Corps for Refusing Vaccine

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U.S. Marines with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. step off in the early morning during an operation to push out Taliban fighters on July 18, 2009, in Herati, Afghanistan. (Joe Raedle/Getty) More than 200 U.S. Marines unvaccinated against COVID-19 have been discharged, the Washington Examiner reported Thursday. Active-duty Marines had until Nov. 14 to get vaccinated or apply for an exemption. Those members who did not comply would face being discharged. A total of 206 Marines had been discharged through Wednesday, a service branch spokesperson told the  Examiner . The number of discharged Marines represented slightly more than one-tenth of 1% of the total active-duty members — roughly 182,500 — the Examiner reported. The latest  statistics  showed that 94% of active-duty Marines were fully vaccinated, with another 1% having been partially vaccinated. Roughly 9,125 active-duty Marines — 5% of the active force — had not been vaccinated, though

GOP as Clear Favorite to Capture House in 2022

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The U.S. House of Representatives chamber is seen Dec. 8, 2008, in Washington, D.C. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty) Ratings from a nonpartisan election handicapper indicate that Republicans have a distinct advantage when it comes to winning control of the House in next year's midterm elections. The Cook Political Report 's ratings Thursday show that Democrats are defending eight "toss-up" districts, with five of those districts either leaning or likely Republican, across seven states. Arizona's 6th District (open seat), New Jersey’s 7th (Rep. Tom Malinowski), and Texas’s 15th (open) are Democrat and "lean Republican," The Cook Report said. Two more toss-up Democrat seats — Arizona's 2nd District (Rep. Tom O'Halleran) and Michigan's 10th District (open) — are in the "likely Republican" column. Republicans, meanwhile, are defending six toss-up seats in four states, though only Illinois' 13th (open) currently leans Democrat, according to t

Arnold Schwarzenegger And Maria Shriver Are Finally Divorced

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FILE PHOTO: Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) and Maria Shriver walk to the grave site at the funeral of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, United States, March 11, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson  Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have officially finalized their divorce, more than 10 years after proceedings began. Court documents filed on Tuesday showed that a final settlement had been reached between the “Terminator” star and the U.S. journalist, formally ending their 35 year marriage. The terms of the divorce settlement were not made public. Shriver, the niece of slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy, filed for divorce in 2011 after Schwarzenegger ended his term as California Governor and admitted fathering a child with the couple’s housekeeper some 14 years previously. Schwarzenegger and Shriver married in 1986 and had four children together

Apartheid Hero Tutu South Africans pay respects to late anti-apartheid hero Tutu The casket containing the body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrives at St Georges cathedral for his lying in state, in Cape Town, South Africa, December 30, 2021. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham December 30, 2021 By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -Hundreds of mourners queued on Thursday to pay their respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu whose body lay in state at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town where the anti-apartheid hero preached against racial injustice. Tutu, a Nobel Peace prize winner widely revered across racial and cultural divides for his moral rectitude and principled fight against white minority rule, died on Sunday https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tears-tutu-giant-struggle-neighbour-who-brought-round-groceries-2021-12-29 aged 90. His death represents a huge loss for South Africa, where many called him as “Tata” – father. Since Sunday, church bells have been rung every day in his honour and tributes and prayers have poured in from around the world. Tutu will lie in state at the cathedral on Thursday and Friday, ahead of a requiem mass funeral service on Saturday where President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to deliver the main eulogy. “I am basically just here to pay my respects,” said Randall Ortel, a medical doctor and one of the first members of the public in line to enter the church. “He is definitely one of my role models and I want to emulate what he has done in his life,” he said. Amanda Mbikwana said she had arrived as early as 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) with her mother and nephews. “We have known Tata’s work, he has stood up for us and we are here today in a free country to give him the honour, to celebrate his life and to support (his wife) Mama Leah and the family,” said Mbikwana, a human resources manager. “THE VOICE OF REASON” Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 in recognition of his non-violent opposition to white minority rule. A decade later, he witnessed the end of that regime and chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help unearth state-sponsored atrocities during that era . “He was always the voice of the voiceless and always the voice of reason,” said fellow anti-apartheid activist Chris Nissen, as he waited in line outside the cathedral. Tutu’s simple pine coffin with rope handles, adorned with a single bunch of white carnations, was carried into St. George’s, which provided a safe haven for anti-apartheid activists during the repressive white-minority rule. Emotional family members met the coffin outside the entrance, where six black-robed clergy acting as pall bearers carried the closed coffin inside to an inner sanctuary amid a cloud of incense from the Anglican thurible. Tutu, who requested the cheapest coffin and did not want any lavish funeral expense, will be cremated and his remains interred behind the cathedral pulpit he often used to preach against racial injustice. In Johannesburg, a memorial service was held at St Mary’s Cathedral, where Tutu was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1961 and where he later served as the first Black Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985. An interfaith prayer service was also held in Pretoria, the capital city.

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Apartheid Hero Tutu The casket containing the body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrives at St Georges cathedral for his lying in state, in Cape Town, South Africa, December 30, 2021. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham Hundreds of mourners queued on Thursday to pay their respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu whose body lay in state at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town where the anti-apartheid hero preached against racial injustice. Tutu, a Nobel Peace prize winner widely revered across racial and cultural divides for his moral rectitude and principled fight against white minority rule, died on Sunday https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tears-tutu-giant-struggle-neighbour-who-brought-round-groceries-2021-12-29 aged 90. His death represents a huge loss for South Africa, where many called him as “Tata” – father. Since Sunday, church bells have been rung every day in his honour and tributes and prayers have poured in from around the world. Tutu will lie in state at the cathedral on Thursday and Friday, ah

Hong Kong Court Denies Bail To Former Stand News Editors Charged With Sedition

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Police are seen outside the Stand News office building, after six people were arrested "for conspiracy to publish seditious publication" according to Hong Kong's Police National Security Department, in Hong Kong, China, December 29, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu A Hong Kong court denied bail to two former senior editors charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials a day after police raided the Stand News pro-democracy media organisation, prompting its closure. About 200 officers raided the office of the online publication on Wednesday, froze its assets and arrested seven current and former senior editors and former board members, in the latest crackdown https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/hong-kong-police-arrest-6-current-or-former-staff-online-media-outlet-2021-12-28 on the city’s press. Media advocacy groups and some Western governments criticised the raid and arrests as a sign of further erosion of press freedoms since China imposed a sweeping national

CDC Director Continues To Backtrack On COVID Recommendations

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the NIAID and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arrive to participate in the White House COVID-19 Response Team’s regular call with the National Governors Association in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus, Monday, Dec. 27, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has continued to change her messaging for COVID-19. How long have the “experts” at the CDC known that PCR tests could stay positive for 12 weeks? Why are they just NOW changing their guidelines? Is this driven by “science” or is it driven by Biden’s terrible poll numbers? Biden’s incompetence now defines this administration! — Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX)  December 29, 2021 The the national public health agency has been put under scrutiny recently for its new guidance, which was released Monday and shortens the

DEA, Ariz. Police Seize Record 1.7M Fentanyl Pills At U.S.-Mexico Border

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Tablets believed to be laced with fentanyl are displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration Northeast Regional Laboratory on October 8, 2019 in New York. (Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images) The Drug Enforcement Administration along with Arizona police seized a record 1.7 million fentanyl pills at the U.S.-Mexico border. The DEA confirmed it teamed up with Scottsdale Police and Arizona’s Attorney General’s Office to carry out the drug bust earlier this month. The agency did not give details of any arrests or the specific location of the sting operation. During a press conference, however, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the agency’s latest seizure helped prevent thousands of overdose deaths. “DEA agents in Arizona seized approximately 1.7 million pills and 13 pounds of fentanyl in a single operation,” she announced. “I am confident that the DEA agents and the task fore officers prevented a significant number of overdoses and overdose deaths with just that seizure alone.”

South African Study Finds Omicron Could Displace Delta By Boosting Immunity

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(Reuters Image) Researchers in South Africa have suggested Omicron could displace the Delta variant. According to a study this week, infection with the new variant boosts immunity against the Delta variant, in turn, making reinfection less likely. Scientists wrote, “these results are consistent with Omicron displacing the Delta variant, since it can elicit immunity which neutralizes Delta making reinfection with Delta less likely.” New research from AHRI's  @sigallab shows infection with  #Omicron  also creates a neutralising immune response against the Delta variant. The results are submitted as a preprint to medRxiv. More details ▶️ https://t.co/d04BBSGRY6 pic.twitter.com/TfS8HLrGMf — Africa Health Research Institute (@AHRI_News)  December 28, 2021 Additionally, an earlier study found there is a reduced risk of hospitalization and severe illness for people infected with Omicron compared to the Delta variant. However, the scientist who led the recent study said people who were inf

Sen. Rand Paul Highlights Govt. Waste In Annual Festivus Report

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) As the year comes to an end, one senator is sounding the alarm over wasteful government spending throughout 2021. Republican Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is known for calling out wasteful government spending when he sees it as displayed in a floor speech back in May. “The FAA was named for spending $57,000 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses,” Paul explained. “These included the distance from knee-to-knee while sitting and the length of the buttocks…$58,000, this was your government money put to good use.” In that same floor speech, the Kentucky lawmaker also highlighted how the National Institutes of Health spent taxpayer dollars to study cocaine and the risky sex habits of quail. “…$800,000 of taxpayer money to study whether Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine,’ Paul noted. “You think, we could have just poll

Iran executes 100 CHILDREN each year as brutal ‘eye for an eye’ justice system sees scores of kids on death row

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IRAN horrifically executes 100 children each year as their brutal “eye for an eye” justice system sees scores of kids on death row. The barbaric laws, known as Qisas, leave prisoners – including children as young as nine – facing torture, unfair trials and public executions as punishment. 5 Mehdi Sohrabifar was flogged before being secretly executed alongside his cousin Credit: Amnesty International 5 Amin Sedaghat and Mehdi were just 17-years-old when they were put to death by authorities Credit: Amnesty International 5 Pictures show a man being led to the gallows by his victim’s family in Iran apart of their ‘eye for an eye’ laws Human rights groups have again hit out at the country’s vile depravity which takes place behind closed doors and defies international laws after a report revealed shocking truths hidden behind  the criminal justice system . The annual report of Human Rights Activists of Iran revealed 85 youngsters are currently on death row – despite capital punishment being