Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Contradictions in Pope Francis’s remarks on sex abuse are frustrating reporters May 30, 2019 (CatholicCulture.org) — In his latest interview Pope Francis says that he does not remember whether or not Archbishop Vigano told him about Theodore McCarrick's sexual misconduct. He also insists that he knew "nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing" about McCarrick's misconduct. Those two claims do not sit comfortably side by side. If you told me that you studied French in high school, I might not recall that fact five years later; it wouldn't stand out in my mind. But if you told me that you had wrestled...

The real Russian ‘conspiracy’ is happening in the energy sectorBy Daniel Turner | Fox NewsMay 31, 2019 -snip- The foundation for impeachment was Russia: Russia meddling in our election, Russia allegedly colluding with the Trump campaign to subvert our democracy, Russia using social media to create division, Russia stealing Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russia leaking sensitive information to WikiLeaks, and so on.Even Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his farewell press conference Wednesday [May 29, 2019], spoke of the serious threat from Russia.But amidst all this talk Russia’s nefarious influence, there is real Russian collusion happening right now, and it’s in full...

With just over 24 hours to go until the Champions League final gets underway, tens of thousands of football fans have descended onto Madrid as they get ready to soak up the sun and drink the Spanish capital dry ahead of the biggest game of the season. Liverpool and Tottenham will meet in the first all-English final in the tournament for 11 years and 100,000 supporters are expected to arrive in Madrid to watch the action unfold. The influx has already started with a carnival atmosphere building nicely as the revellers pour into the country and settle in for what...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel took aim at Donald Trump’s world view in a speech on U.S. soil, saying unilateralism risks bringing down post-World War II alliances and trade wars threaten the “foundations of our prosperity.” “More than ever, our way of thinking and actions have to be multilateral rather than unilateral,” Merkel said in a commencement speech to Harvard University’s class of 2019 that combined tough criticism of nationalist policies with philosophical vistas of a change for the better. Merkel, 64, was addressing a receptive audience on Thursday as she seeks halt a deterioration in the trans-Atlantic alliance under Trump’s...

Uber Technologies Inc has reported a $1 billion loss as the ride-hailing service spends heavily to build up its food delivery and freight businesses, sending revenues up 20 per cent in its first quarterly report as a public company. Uber's quarterly earnings report on Thursday, the company's first since going public earlier this month, was received positively by investors, with revenue beating analyst expectations. Revenue of $3.1 billion matched the high end of the range Uber forecast for the quarter and the loss of $1.0 billion compared with the company's forecast of $1.0 billion to $1.11 billion.

A draft resolution set to be debated this weekend at the California Democratic Party State Convention, obtained by Fox News, accuses the Israeli government of willfully "aligning with the virulent Islamophobia" of white supremacist groups in the U.S. -- and links Israel indirectly to the Oct. 2018 massacre of 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The resolution could prompt a dramatic floor debate at the convention if the party's Resolutions Committee decides to table it, Fox News is told, as prominent national Democrats have wrestled with high-profile allegations of anti-Semitism in their ranks in recent months. Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar...

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes told Fox News‘ Sean Hannity Thursday night that he is certain “someone” was running an intelligence operation against the 2016 Trump campaign “on foreign soil,” and that one or more U.S. allies were likely involved. “I think we can be sure about one thing and that is on foreign soil, someone was running operations against Trump campaign people,” he said. “Now, we don’t know if that was our government, if it was the British government or some type of firm of some kind, but I think it is definitely a fact that on...

Canon law expert predicts married priests in the West after Amazon Synod May 30, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Thomas Schüller, a German canon law expert and university professor, predicts that the upcoming Amazon Synod will ask for married priests for the Amazon region, after which the German bishops will also “for sure” ask for them. “This [Amazon Synod] will encourage the bishops’ conferences and the regions of the Universal Church — which are also affected by the lack of priests — to make a similar request while at the same time honoring a freely chosen celibacy.” Rome would “surely examine such...

Pornography online attracts millions of erotica-hungry people ready to see sex on-demand. You can simply ask your phone to show you anything you desire and there it is: any time, any place. With the advent of deepfake porn, the possibilities have expanded even further, with people who have never starred in adult films looking as though they’re doing sexual acts on camera. Experts have warned that these videos enable all sorts of bad things to happen, from paedophilia to fabricated revenge porn. What are deepfakes? Deepfakes are videos and images that use deep learning AI to forge something not actually...

Authorities are crediting a 14-year-old girl with helping break up a human trafficking operation in San Jose earlier this week.

Another day, another preventable MS-13 murder enabled by the “sanctuary city” policies of which Democrats are so proud.Last week, two illegal alien MS-13 gangsters were among three people charged with murdering a 14-year-old girl, Ariana Funes-Diaz, in Maryland. To make matters worse in this tragedy, neither of the alleged teenage killers should have been free to terrorize American communities in the first place.According to Breitbart, Josue Rafael Fuentes-Ponce and Joel Ernesto Escobar were released from custody by Prince George’s County officials last year “after being charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, participation in gang activity, conspiracy to commit...

"Robert Mueller was knee-deep in this scandal, along with Andrew Weissman and the agent sent to prison, but because Reno gave him very limited authority, Durham was not able to prosecute Mueller, who was not in the FBI at the time. Mueller kept four innocent people in jail for years to protect the informant status of Whitey Bulger, a mass-murdering Boston mobster who ended up dying in California, and it ended up costing the government $100 million plus in civil judgments."

The Walt Disney Company is considering boycotting Georgia over its new abortion law, even as Disney profits from doing business in China, a notorious human rights violator that is putting Muslims in internment camps. Disney CEO Bob Iger told Reuters on Thursday the company is likely to cease filming in Georgia if the pro-life law takes effect.[snip] Disney apparently has no issue with doing business in China, which has undertaken mass detentions of Uighur Muslims, placing them in internment camps. Disney opened a $5.5 billion resort in Shanghai, China, in 2016. Iger called Shanghai Disney the company’s “greatest opportunity since...

Eddie Markey just dodged a bullet, which only goes to show that it is better to be lucky than good. If Shannon Liss- Riordan of Brookline is Markey’s only opponent in the 2020 Democrat primary for the U. S. Senate, then he has little to worry about. He will have even less concern if a second or third Democrat jumps into the primary race seeking to knock him off. That would only further split the Democrat vote and guarantee Markey the nomination. And while there may be a serious Republican out there willing to take the veteran Congressman on in...

Since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has achieved more for Israel and the Jewish people than any other president before him. Since 1948, the State of Israel has seen friendly presidents of the United States as well as unfriendly, but today Israel’s greatest friend sits in the White House. Since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has achieved more for Israel and the Jewish people than any other president before him, even rivaling Harry Truman, who voted in favor of and later recognized the Jewish state. The list of accomplishments President Trump and his administration have produced...

A female concession employee was injured by a cow elk in the Mammoth Hot Springs developed area at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Yellowstone National Park spokeswoman. The employee was transported to the hospital via ambulance but additional details about the extent of her injuries have not been released. Park biologists and rangers hazed the elk to get the animal to leave the area, which is home to the park headquarters, the Mammoth Hotel and the Albright Visitor Center. Two women were injured by cow elk protecting their newborn calves last spring. Elk are attracted to the Mammoth...

Progressive politicians like Al Gore, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.N.Y., don’t hesitate to blame any kind of severe weather – even if it is decreasing over time – on global warming. With the devastating Dayton, Ohio tornadoes fresh on our minds, it is useful to examine exactly why (modest) global warming has produced fewer – not more – of such events. The simple answer is that tornado formation requires unusually cool air. Very few thunderstorms produce tornadoes. In the hot and humid tropics, they are virtually unheard of. The reason why is that (unlike hurricanes) tornadoes...

... [C]ollege tuition is not an act of God, beyond human control. It is a result of decisions taken by colleges themselves—above all, decisions to bulk up their bureaucracies. Bureaucratic outlays rose at nearly twice the rate as teaching outlays from 1993 to 2007, according to the Goldwater Institute. From 1997 to 2012, colleges hired new administrators at twice the rate of any student-body increase, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting found. Colleges inevitably claim that government mandates force this administrative bloat upon them. But the vast majority of administrative hires are voluntary: for every dollar in mandated bureaucratic...

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10).

Latin America accounts for one third of world's homicides, life expectancy dropping in some countries: study. (Full title). The rising number of people being murdered across Latin America and the Caribbean is so high that the life expectancy in some of those countries is dropping, a new study claims. Unlike the rest of the world where homicide rates have generally dropped, statistics in some countries show that the murder rate has skyrocketed in recent years. So much so, that Latin America now accounts for about a third of the world’s homicides. ... more than 2 million people aged 15-19 in...