Free Republic

ROME, Italy — Pope Francis once again voiced his concern for Europe’s demographic winter on Saturday, urging Italians to have more children. “I am worried about the low birth rate,” the pontiff told an Italian association of local politicians. “There is a culture of depopulation that comes from the fact that few children are born.” “It is true, anyone can have a dog, it is true: but we need children,” he continued. “In Italy, Spain … there is a need for children.”

Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that “everybody should vote for” President Joe Biden if they wanted democracy to survive. Partial transcript as follows: HUTCHINSON: Donald Trump isn’t a Republican. And, yes, maybe, by name, he considers himself a Republican, but Donald Trump cares more about authoritarian rule than he does our rule of law. He doesn’t care about preserving our Constitution. He cares about leveraging it for his own power and his own gain. So, when we look at this next election, we need to think about, if we want our democracy to...

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the terrorist organization Hamas would not survive the war it ignited with Isreal after its attacks. Brennan said, “I’ve been involved in counterterrorism for the better part of 40 years, and I must say, this is the most horrific series of attacks that I’ve ever had to witness or to talk about. Unspeakable, unadulterated evil, as President Biden said. What they did to babies, murdered them, elderly, women, children, I can’t get over it. It’s sickening, absolutely sickening. This was purposed by Hamas.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) plans to come after his speakership will fail. Anchor Margaret Brennan said, “I want to start, though, on the news from Congressman Matt Gaetz, who says he’s going to seek a motion to vacate. He’s going to try to oust you as speaker of the House.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged citizens to be even more resilient and unified as “the enemy really hopes to use winter against us.” In his daily address on Sunday, Zelensky said winter will be a difficult due to Russia’s relentless shelling of the country’s infrastructure, which has caused widespread power outages in parts of the country. “To get through this winter, we have to help each other more than ever and care for each other even more,” Zelensky said in his statement. “And please don’t ask if you can help, and how. Just help when you see you can.” “To...

David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, is issuing a dire warning about the state of American democracy should President Donald Trump win a second term. Writing in The Atlantic, Frum argues bluntly that America "wouldn't survive" a second Trump term, even as the country is limping to the finish of his first term. In fact, Frum believes that Trump has already proven that an American president can get away with discarding guardrails in place to keep him in check without suffering significant political consequences.

James Altucher, who might best be described as a renaissance man, recently wrote a sobering piece about New York City. Altucher is bearish on the city’s future for a variety of reasons. I don’t quite share his pessimism, especially considering all of the variables likely to affect a NYC comeback—the widespread availability of a vaccine, government policy, “pandemic fatigue,” technological innovations, etc. But I am confident in saying that if the city resists tearing down the barriers to innovation—high taxes, burdensome regulations and gratuitous mandates—recovery will be all the more difficult. I say this as someone who lives in Upstate...

A 101-year-old Italian man born during the Spanish flu pandemic has reportedly survived a coronavirus infection as the outbreak continues to ravage his country and spread globally. Gloria Lisi, the vice mayor of Rimini, a city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the Italian north, said the man had been released from a hospital earlier this week and returned to his family. She identified him only as Mr. P. "He made it. Mr. P. made it," said Lisi, according to the ANSA news agency. Lisi said the man was admitted to a hospital in Rimini last week and...

Due to a plethora of reasons, there are at least ten countries which may not survive the next 20 years. Although the list concocted by Top Lists remains highly speculative, it is worth knowing which nations may become extinct.

Laura Maikata’s baby boy was born at a gestational age of 23 weeks and weighed 600 grams at birth. His chances of survival were slim. His parents named Jonathan Amos, which means “God’s gift and carried by God.” Writing about her experience on her blog, Jonathan’s mother says this about getting the news tat doctors wanted to perform a C-section to remove the baby: I felt my skin prickle a bit, then I went white. We were delivering this baby. I looked at Steve. He looked very brave and very worried simultaneously. He walked over and held my hand. They...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - About 5,500 more people could survive a major tsunami hitting the Pacific Northwest if they just walk a little faster to higher ground after roads are knocked out, a new study shows. The report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at 73 communities along 700 miles of coastline in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. The area is considered most at risk from the next major earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where two plates of the Earth's crust come together miles off the coast. Emergency preparedness experts...

In newly released emails from when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton sent business-related emails to her staffers. Not only do these new emails prove that Ms. Clinton used her private email address to conduct business, which she vehemently denied two weeks ago, but it also proves that she lied about whether her employees used private email. The emails, obtained by the House committee investigating the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, show Mrs. Clinton emailing aides about whether she would survive the firestorm surrounding the attack and her perceived responsibility. "Did we survive the day?” she wrote to a...

Treating patient ZERO required over 70 nurses, doctors and and assistants, rooms, machines such as one for kidney dialysis, which are now contaminated, at a cost to taxpayers of over $500,000. If the virus sweeps across the USA, it is obvious we can't spend those kinds of funds and resources on each patient. I envision martial law, directives to 'shelter in place' and no help at all from anyone. Aside from the normal worries, food, fuel for winter heat, protection from the sure-to-come hungry mobs, how do we survive this killer disease that sports a 70% mortality rate?

In an exclusive Arutz Sheva interview on Thursday, Hof Ashkelon Regional Council chairman Yair Farjoun said that his region, which has been battered by rockets from the terror enclave of Gaza, cannot continue under the current status quo. "Out of 160 rockets, 60 fell in our territory - that's a serious blitz," Farjoun commented about the renewed rocket barrage, which began with a breach of the ceasefire on Tuesday around 4 p.m. The chairman continued "it's incredible to see how people live here by sheer miracles; beside a direct hit on a synagogue, rockets have landed just 200 meters (650...

"What to Do Right Now if the Hard Times Have Begun and You are Not Prepared:There are two possible scenarios for the beginning of hard times: 1.Scenario One: You have some money and many of the local stores are still open for business. 2.Scenario Two: You don't have any money, or you do have some money but the stores are all closed. The overwhelming vast majority of people who have thought about the possibility of hard times are expecting the hard times to unfold according to the first scenario above. Therefore they have not done anything to prepare for any...

Should you be so trusting and turn over your weapons you will be put on a "black list" in spite of everything. The enemy will always need hostages or forced laborers later on (read: "work slaves") and will gladly make use of the "black lists." You see once again that you cannot escape his net and had better die fighting.

A dog had a miraculous escape after leaping off a roof and falling 50 feet on to a ledge at an apartment block. Kai, a two-year-old Shiba Inu, bounded over the side of the roof garden after his owner Tracy Aron took him up for his morning exercise. The pup had been jumping over the connected rooftops when he took a wrong turn and fell four floors on to a ledge below at the townhouse on the Upper West Side of New York. The protective fencing that usually surrounds the edge of the building had been removed due to renovation...

The miracle dog who wagged his tail after surviving a gas chamber has found a permanent home. Daniel, a beagle mix named by animal control workers in Alabama after the biblical figure who survived the lion's den, joined four other rescued dogs at a home 1,000 miles away in New Jersey. ... Mr Dwyer said he and his family had two ‘meet-and-greets’ with Daniel before being approved for adoption, and the dog has become fast friends with the Nutley family's other four pooches. They have two dachshunds, a beagle mix and a pit bull mix. ‘By Thursday evening they were...

After the election two years ago, Time Magazine questioned whether the Elephant had become an extinct political animal. The most recent election raised questions as to whether the Donkey should be deemed an endangered species. Questioning either party's ability to survive is reasonable, and it helps sell magazines. However one or two elections are not sufficient to life-death assessments. Political parties are not immortal. They are born and eventually die. Survivability is dependent upon Darwinian adaptations rather than a genetically determined lifespan. Actuarial analyses can be reasonably attempted if they are based on longer periods. Enormous change in the American...

Microsoft (MSFT) shares are falling today, even as the company announced it would increase its dividend by 23% and issue $6 billion in debt, debt on which it could pay as little as 3.73% interest. Apparently investors were less than excited by the news. Perhaps they're scared by Microsoft's mounting growth challenges and persistent inability to break into huge new businesses (XBox, excepted)--or maybe they wanted a higher dividend hike. Regardless, the shares are trading near their 52-week lows. But here's the only crucial question for Microsoft investors: Can the company last another 10 years? If so, the stock is...