Free Republic

On Tuesday President Trump’s press secretary Stephanie Grisham left her post and will be replaced by campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. McEnany will work in tandem with two others newly tapped by for the Trump administration’s communications team: Alyssa Farah as White House director of strategic communications and Ben Williamson as senior adviser for communications. Meanwhile, Grisham will return to first lady Melania Trump’s team as chief of staff and spokeswoman. Here’s what to know about McEnany, now tasked with facing off with media on behalf of the administration and guiding a very blunt president who often prefers to go it...

THE UK has surpassed coronavirus-ravaged Italy's deadliest day after 938 Brits died from the disease - taking the grim total to over 7,000. Positive cases in the UK have also hit 60,733 - up from 55,242 infections yesterday. The Department of Health today confirmed a total of 7,097 have died in the UK from coronavirus. The figure was expected to be high as yesterday's UK total death toll of 6,159 did not include Manchester, Leeds or Northern Ireland. And the true death toll is actually higher as the DoH figures today did not factor in Northern Ireland, Southampton or Charing...

TYLER, Texas, April 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas said he “will refuse” a potential vaccine for the coronavirus if it is made using tissue from “aborted children.” In a tweet, he expressed his sadness over the fact that “even with Covid-19 we are still debating the use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research.” Pro-life organization Children of God for Life, which focuses on the question of ethical vaccines, had found out that several of the leading COVID-19 vaccine developments are using aborted fetal cells. Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life,...

FORT WORTH Judge Glen Whitley says church is banned anywhere in Tarrant County. Too risky

First two paragraphs: "The Strategic National Stockpile says its supply of N95 respirator masks, surgical masks, face shields, gowns and other medical supplies needed for front-line workers to fight the coronavirus pandemic across the country is nearly depleted. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The Associated Press Wednesday that the federal stockpile was in the process of distributing all remaining personal protective equipment in its inventory to state and local governments which will, in turn, pass it down to health care and essential workers who need it. HHS said it will keep a small portion in reserve...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled that he is open to the idea of defunding the World Health Organization (WHO), a pro-abortion U.N. entity with suspicious ties to communist China. “We‘re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it, and we’re going to see,” Trump said early in yesterday’s conference. Trump continued to criticize the WHO, saying the organization got “every aspect” of its response to the crisis wrong, but he was less definite in his statements about cutting funding...

The IRS continues to make decisions about implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and related Economic Impact Payments. Below are the latest updates about how payments will be disbursed and the timing of payments. Stimulus Payment Timing at a Glance Stimulus payments should start about April 15 for those that the IRS has direct deposit information on file from 2018 or 2019, or shortly after. Paper check (mailed to address noted on return) - beginning in May, starting with lowest Adjusted Gross Income (see Timeline below) Not Required to File – SSA-1099 and RRB-1099...

In the late morning hours of December 29, 1924, a British pilot took off from Amman, Jordan... he soon reached the mountain-plateau site of Masada, where King Herod had built an elaborate palace-fortress. At precisely 11:15 A.M., the pilot began conducting a series of aerial photography sorties. Taken at the altitude of 4,500 feet, the images were immortalized on glass negatives, which were deposited several years later in the library of the Institute of Archaeology of University College London. Having been granted access several years ago to this unique aerial photography collection, my (Stiebel’s) attention was drawn to a subterranean...

PENSACOLA, Florida, April 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A Florida pro-life activist is calling on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to intervene and shut down a Pensacola abortion facility that stands accused of bringing customers from coronavirus hotspots to the state in violation of a state-imposed quarantine. Cris Dosev, a Marine veteran and former Republican congressional candidate, has been working to raise awareness of the American Family Planning (AFP) abortion center, which he says is inviting non-Florida residents into its doors – many from Louisiana, despite the Florida government placing a 14-day quarantine on travelers from the Bayou State. “While we will...

Francis Interview: Will Through-The-Wall-Consecration Be Next? Thinking of people “anoints” him, Francis told his hagiographer Austen Ivereigh in a TheTablet.co.uk interview (April 8),“It takes me out of my self-preoccupation” and “I have my areas of selfishness.” Francis new mantra is “creativity.” He uses it with different modifications ten times.Again, he plays his Hitler card, accusing “populist speeches” and “political decisions” of “a few European politicians,” but lacks the guts to give names.His solution for a better economy: “This is the time to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it.” He calls this “the contemplative dimension.”Francis mentions a bishop...

Since our founding, brave men and women who have selflessly answered the call of duty to defend our precious liberty have shaped the fabric of our Nation.  In the course of fighting for our freedom and security, many of these heroes have been captured and often subjected to shocking conditions and unimaginable torture.  On National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, we honor the more than 500,000 American warriors captured while protecting our way of life.  We pay tribute to these patriots for their unwavering and unrelenting spirit.In every major conflict in our Nation’s history, American prisoners of war (POWs)...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITYSUBJECT:       Providing Federal Support for Governors’ Use of the National Guard to Respond to COVID-19By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the “Stafford Act”), and section 502 of title 32, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.  Policy.  It is the policy of the United States to take measures to assist State Governors under the Stafford Act in their responses...

  Roosevelt Room  3:05 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  I want to thank everybody for being here.  It is a great tribute to the banking business.  The money that’s been done, and the money that’s been essentially loaned — these are great loans for the banks and they’re great loans for small business, and we appreciate it.We’re looking forward to speaking with the top CEOs from the banking industry and finance industry.  Some of you I know very well and great relationships with.  You do an incredible job.  Respected all over the world.  You’re the biggest and the best.And we’re meeting to...

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro told "The Story" Wednesday night that China has its sights set on controlling various United Nations agencies like the World Health Organization, and is using the WHO's current director-general as a surrogate. "The U.N. itself has 15 specialized agencies, including the WHO," Navarro told host Martha MacCallum. " ... What China has been doing very aggressively over the last decade is to try to gain control of those by electing people to the top. It already controls five of the 15, also, by using proxies, colonial-like proxies, like Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus] at the WHO."...

Politicians: Take this drug if you’re sick. Can’t hurt. Scientists: Stop! We need to do a double-blind, randomized trial first. -- A debate rages over a malaria drug that might treat Covid patients. It hasn’t proved its value in scientific trials. But people who are sick don’t want to wait for the results of trials. They want access to the drug now. Science confronts personal liberty. For the scientist’s view of this debate, I interviewed an M.D. who used to be part of the FDA’s drug approval division. That view is presented in this Q&A as the responses to questions...

Even after an unambiguous, direct denial from the source of the alleged report, ABC is still pushing the story that: "As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting." Buried deep in the article is a clear and direct denial: "The Pentagon did not comment Tuesday, but on Wednesday evening following the publication of this report, the Defense Department provided a statement from Col. R. Shane...

Will Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) keep confirming judges in this time of pandemic? “We will go back to judges,” he said in an interview. “My motto for the rest of the year is leave no vacancy behind.” The whole landscape was barren, and the fires burned everywhere. And in the smoldering remains of the Senate, Mitch McConnell sat on a throne of skulls making preparations to confirm his 8,999th judge. Mitch McConnell would leave no vacancy behind. The people were long gone. The streets were empty, and some old scraps of burned newspaper tossed on the hot, sulfurous...

Easter looming, Kansas Republican leaders on Wednesday revoked Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s order limiting religious gatherings to 10 people as the state’s coronavirus death toll jumped 40 percent. House and Senate leaders — meeting as a body called the Legislative Coordinating Council — voted along party lines to throw out the directive. Their decision came as the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to more than 1,000 and the death count ticked up to 38. Church gatherings have produced three case clusters across the state and health officials fear Easter gatherings could further spread the deadly coronavirus....

Griffith University scientists have led an international team to date the skull of an early human found in Africa, potentially upending human evolution knowledge with their discovery. The Broken Hill (Kabwe 1) skull is one of the best-preserved fossils of the early human species Homo heidelbergensis and was estimated to be about 500,000 years old... Discovered in 1921 by miners in Zambia, the Broken Hill remains have been difficult to date due to their haphazard recovery and the site being completely destroyed by quarrying. Using radiometric dating methods, Professor Grün’s analyses now puts the skull at a relatively young date,...

A chain of abortion facilities in Maine have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to push a no-contact service for the abortion pill. Just six days after Maine reported its first case of the coronavirus, Maine Family Planning program director Leah Coplon had successfully implemented the program under the guise of social distancing and helping to reduce the spread of the virus. Maine Family Planning was already participating in a clinical trial attempting to prove the safety of TelAbortion with pills dispensed by mail. Currently, an FDA safety system called REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) dictates that abortion pills...