Free Republic

Bye bye Blaine? In oral arguments yesterday, the Supreme Court questioned the litigants in a challenge to a Montana constitutional provision that bars any government benefit from flowing to private schools run by churches — even tax breaks for contributions. While it’s sometimes dangerous to assume a direction from the Socratic style of questioning used at Supreme Court hearings, NPR detects a significant drift in yesterday’s debate for Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito compared the exclusion of parochial schools from taxpayers-funded aid programs to unconstitutional discrimination based on race.That view...

In a wide-ranging speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that Germany had made a mistake during the 2015 refugee crisis. Not, she said, by welcoming asylum-seekers fleeing conflict, but by not preparing for their arrival as civil conflicts began cropping up across the Middle East and northern Africa. “The mistake was not to have paid attention to create an environment where people can stay in their own country,” the chancellor said. She warned that the mistake should not be repeated with Libya, where the conflict between the UN-backed government and rival...

Taiwanese president writes Pope Francis: ‘Dialogue’ with China ‘impossible’ The president of a vulnerable nation has reminded Pope Francis that it is difficult to 'dialogue' with a tyrant. TAIPEI, Taiwan, January 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― The president of a vulnerable nation has reminded Pope Francis that it is difficult to “dialogue” with a tyrant. Tsai Ing-wen, the recently re-elected president of the island nation of Taiwan, wrote an open letter to the pontiff on Tuesday in response to his 2020 World Day of Peace message. In his letter, Pope Francis declared, “We need to pursue a genuine fraternity based...

A Butler County girl currently fighting cancer received the surprise of her life courtesy of the Butler County Sheriff's Office. Naomi Short, 8, was surprised this weekend when she got to meet and ride a unicorn. The animal, named Anna Marie, is part of the Sheriff's Office's mounted patrol. "I'm obsessed with unicorns," she said. "I've always wanted to meet a real unicorn in real life. It was so pretty and magical." Short was diagnosed with stage 4 pineoblastoma, a rare brain cancer, in October. The sweet but sassy third-grader just completed radiation and starts chemotherapy Friday at Children's Hospital....

Stephen Walder spent £1,000 a week on cocktails of drink and cocaine“In two 36-hour binges on my own I drank 112 cans of Red Stripe,” Stephen Walder confesses. Spending £1,000 a week on his alcohol addiction - washed down with cocaine - was something he didn’t think twice about.But he admits he “doesn’t know” how he is still alive after drinking can after can after can in his last ever binge. From an innocent sip of cider at 13 he started regularly drinking pints of lager at 16 one or two nights a week. But his habit soon spiralled to...

Newly revealed documents raise questions about the alleged Ukraine whistleblower. Fox News host Laura Ingraham reported Wednesday evening that she obtained a chain of State Department emails stemming from a standard request for comment from New York Times journalist Ken Vogel, whose reporting helped generate scrutiny of Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Hunter Biden, 49, is the son of Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, and Republicans have called for him to testify during the Ukraine-related Senate impeachment trial against President Trump. On May 1, 2019, Vogel contacted State Department official Kate Schilling about a story he was...

In recent weeks, Sen. Bernie Sanders has criticized his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination for having too much “baggage” to win the diverse coalition needed to defeat President Donald Trump in November. But as the Vermont independent tops national polls for the first time, newly unearthed baggage from his own decades-long political career could call his own past statements and judgment into question. As the leading member of a self-described “radical political party” in the 1970s, Sanders repeatedly compared Vermont workers to enslaved black people, according to archival interviews obtained by The Daily Beast. In one 1976 conversation, Sanders...

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani dropped a bomb Thursday morning warning that he is going to start revealing documents related to the Biden family’s corrupt and criminal dealings in the Ukraine and elsewhere around the world. Later Thursday evening, Rudy revealed that he’s going to start hitting the swamp tomorrow and unleash on top level Democrats who sold their public office for millions of dollars! Rudy also said Democrat officials conspired with foreign officials to “destroy” the Trump candidacy! “Starting tomorrow we will begin cracking through the Swamp media’s cover-up of TOP level Democrats selling their public office, resulting...

The Americans killed in a firey plane crash yesterday have been identified, with their families expected to land in Australia early tomorrow to bring their loved ones home. Captain Ian McBeth, 45, First Officer Paul Hudson, 43, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jnr, 43, died instantly yesterday when their C-130 Hercules plane crashed in the south of New South Wales, exploding into a ball of flames. The three firefighting aeroplane crew members were killed just before 2pm yesterday when the aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling fires near Cooma in the state’s Snowy Mountains region. The plane...

ABC News' Trish Turner said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was spotted playing a game on paper.

Priest’s Parents Vanish in Southeastern Turkey Search Continues 12 Days After Disappearance 01/23/2020 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on January 11, 2020, the elderly parents of a Chaldean Catholic priest in Turkey disappeared. The absence of Hurmuz and Simoni Diril was discovered the following day, and their son was informed that it was a kidnapping. The man who witnessed the abduction said that the couple was taken by PKK members, two men and one woman. An investigation into the disappearance remains ongoing by the Turkish authorities. A search for their location has...

Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Mike Bloomberg claim they’re proposing a moderate, less disruptive approach to health-care reform when they advocate a public option—a government policy offered as an alternative to private health insurance—in lieu of Medicare for All. Don’t believe it. My research finds that such proposals would increase the federal deficit dramatically and destabilize the market for private health insurance, threatening health-care quality and choice. While estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and other analysts have concluded that a public option-style proposal would reduce federal deficits, those effects are predicated on two flawed assumptions: first, that the government...

Yemen: Shi’ite jihadists target Sunni mosque in missile attack, murder at least 73 JAN 21, 2020 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER “At least 73 soldiers killed in missile attack ‘on mosque’ in Yemen,” by Samuel Osborne,” Independent, January 19, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): At least 73 soldiers have been killed in a missile attack reportedly launched by Houthi rebels at a mosque in Yemen. Dozens more were left wounded in the attack, which targeted a mosque in a military training camp in the city of Marib, two medical sources told Reuters. The Iran-aligned Houthis did not immediately...

Several members attending a furry convention in California on Friday helped restrain a man who was assaulting his girlfriend until police arrested him, according to officials.

The US Embassy Warns of Serious Consequences in the Event of Getting Close to it Thursday 23 , January 2020 Baghdad (NINA) - The American Embassy warned of grave consequences in the event of getting close to it. The Embassy wrote on the walls of the external checkpoints warnings of approaching them without official approval, threatening serious consequences if they crossed them. The warning came with the launch of a million demonstration on Friday to expel foreign forces from the country. / End

Taliban Kill 6 Members of Same Family, Including An Infant, Say Afghan Officials Representative Image Representative Image The Taliban denied any involvement, saying the attack on Saturday was triggered by a personal dispute. LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 19, 2020, 8:31 PM IST Kabul: Afghan officials on Sunday said the Taliban executed six members of the same family, including an infant girl, in a remote village in the country's north. The Taliban denied any involvement, saying the attack on Saturday was triggered by a personal dispute. However, local Afghan officials said the family was accused by the Taliban of working in prostitution....

The Islamic State of Sweden

The Abbey of Our Lady of Phước Sơn is home to 220 monks, including 80 novices and postulants. In Vietnam, there are about 1,002 Cistercian monks and 244 Cistercian nuns.Novices and postulantsPhước Sơn (AsiaNews) – “Young Vietnamese are attracted to the monastic life,” says Fr Gioan Baotixita Dung, a Cistercian monk at the Abbey of Our Lady of Phước Sơn. The abbey, which is about 70 km south of Ho Chi Minh City not far from Vũng Tàu, is home to 220 monks, 80 of whom are novices and postulants. In addition to work and prayer, the monastery is also...

Netanyahu, Gantz to visit Trump, discuss peace plan next week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with President Trump and other officials and discuss a long-awaited Middle East peace plan. Vice President Pence said during a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem that Trump had asked him to invite Netanyahu to Washington to discuss "regional issues, as well as the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land.” Netanyahu "gladly accepted" the invitation. Pence said he would also invite Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's political rival and the leader of Israel's Blue and White Party....

The Welsh government has announced new education plans meaning parents will no longer have the right to opt their children out of lessons about relationships, sexuality or religion. Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams said the move would be tested from next year before becoming a compulsory part of the new curriculum in 2022. Introducing LGBT themes in place of sex educationMuch like the new sex education guidelines that have been introduced in England, which are set to come into force from September this year, the Welsh programme also introduces LGBT themes. The draft guidance outlines themes that are to be...