Free Republic

Last week, I noted that 83% of voters share my belief that America’s founding ideals are worth fighting for. On top of that, 85% think it’s accurate to describe America’s founding ideals as freedom, equality and self-governance. Seventy-three percent believe those ideals provide a good foundation for bringing people together and unifying the nation. Unfortunately, though, just 30% of voters say our nation is doing a good or an excellent job of living up to those ideals. Even worse, looking forward a generation or so, only a third of voters (33%) believe we’ll draw closer to living out those noble...

A team of researchers from Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, has found evidence of a genetic Australasian influence in more parts of South America than just the Amazon. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of a genomic dataset from multiple South American populations across the continent.Back in 2015, a team of researchers found what they described as an Australasian influence in native people living in the Amazon. They had found what they described as a Ypikuéra population signal—a genetic...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Monday offered a $10 million reward for information on a Hezbollah operative who was convicted last year in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The State Department said the reward will be given to anyone who provides information preventing Salim Jamil Ayyash from planning or engaging in any attack against a U.S. citizen or American interests. Ayyash is a senior member of Hezbollah's Unit 121, an assassination squad that the department said reports to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

....The Calabrian artist Andrea Grosso Ciponte has avoided making any specific comparisons between the present day and the stirring true story behind Freiheit!: The White Rose Graphic Novel. As a result the book itself is mercifully free of self-serious references to our own times. The narrative proceeds with a spare and haunting economy: siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl join forces with fellow university students in Hamburg, Freiburg, Berlin, and Vienna to undermine Hitler’s oppressive regime from within. They read forbidden books, gather beneath the moonlit trees of Munich’s English Garden, and—most famously—distribute six leaflets urging fellow dissenters to “dissociate yourselves...

Hours after the New York Times broke a story on the Justice Department investigating sex trafficking allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), Gaetz appeared on Fox News’ Tucker to refute the claims.Asked about the story by Tucker Carlos, Gaetz says “It is a horrible allegation, and it is a lie.”Gaetz reiterated claims made on Twitter and elsewhere that the allegations stem from a former Justice Department official who was attempting to blackmail him. That official, who Gaetz named as “David McGee,” contacted Gaetz’s father, according to the Republican House member.Gaetz says his family went to the local FBI in Florida,...

Cardinal Burke floats ‘excommunication’ for Biden over his ‘aggressive’ abortion promotionThe Cardinal said that a politician who claims to be a Catholic and yet openly and aggressively promotes procured abortion is in the state of apostasy.March 30, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke said that pro-abortion Catholics in public life such as President Joe Biden, who “obstinately and publicly” deny truths of the faith and act against them, must not only be denied Holy Communion but must now face the charge of the “crime of apostasy” where the “canonical penalty” for the guilty is “excommunication.”“Such a person who claims...

The catastrophic impact of Vesuvius effectively froze the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in time, like insects trapped in amber. This has provided archaeologists with unique insights into the lives of those living in the shadow of the volcano thousands of years ago. The opportunity to actually walk around an ancient city, almost as it was, allows us to connect with our past in tangible ways.The scientific study of the remains of victims of Vesuvius are, however, not without controversy. Until very recently, the prevailing theory was that the heat and force of the pyroclastic flow pouring out of Vesuvius...

Our commentary last week seemed to have stirred a hornet’s nest, with a few things taken out of context. Some clarifications are in order.I am NOT an anti-vaxxer. I clearly stated that in areas outside of the current COVID-19 hotbed areas, mass vaccination should proceed as planned.What I suggested was that in Metro Manila and all areas included in the “bubble” with runaway (uncontrolled) transmission, it’s probably more prudent to suspend vaccination in young and healthy adults 20 to 40 years of age, and reserve whatever limited supply of vaccines we have at the moment for the vulnerable sector of...

A widening investigation into allegations of high-level corruption on the island of Malta, first levelled by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, stretches to China and a $400 million investment into Europe by a Chinese state power company, Reuters has found. Caruana Galizia was murdered in October 2017 as she investigated a web of companies that she believed were funneling bribes to Maltese politicians. Now, Reuters and a consortium of journalists have traced two firms involved in that web to relatives of a senior Chinese executive for Accenture, the global consultancy firm. The executive, 43-year-old Chen Cheng from Shanghai, negotiated investments...

The UK Government has agreed a deal with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on the manufacture of up to 60 million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine has one big advantage over the others currently being used. While the jabs from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna need to be kept at ultra-low temperatures, the Novavax jab is stable for up to three months in a normal fridge. However, the it has not yet been approved by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency). While trials did not study the effectiveness of the vaccine when separating the doses between the jab...

David McGee, an attorney with Beggs & Lane, is the man the Florida Republican named during an appearance Tuesday evening on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show in which he responded to reports that he is under federal investigation over a former relationship. McGee served for six years as the first assistant at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and for seven years as the lead attorney for a Justice Department's Organized Crime Task Force, according to his biography on the website of his law firm, which is based in Pensacola, Florida. (Cut) The New York Times reported Gaetz, 38, is being looked...

TOKYO—Japan and Indonesia pledged on Tuesday to tighten security ties and signed a deal to facilitate transfers of defense equipment and technology, as their near neighbor China expands its economic and military might. China’s territorial claims in the East and South China seas have become a priority issue in an increasingly testy Sino-U.S. relationship and also raise significant security concerns for Japan. “I think this is (a) historical first in bilateral relations between Japan and Indonesia,” Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said, referring to the transfer pact. “We invite the Japanese side to participate in the modernization of Indonesia’s defense...

The United States on Tuesday joined more than a dozen other nations to express shared concerns about a World Health Organization study into the origins of the CCP virus, pointing to the report’s delay and lack of access to crucial data. “Together, we support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation, free from interference and undue influence, of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads the statement signed by the governments of Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. “In this regard, we join in...

* Illegal migrants said they’re coming to the U.S. because of President Joe Biden, natural disasters and violence in their home countries. * A landowner where migrants frequently cross on their way to a processing facility said they tell him they’re here because Biden invited them. * Some of the migrants said they did not want to leave their countries but had to because of corruption and a lack of opportunity. RINCON VILLAGE, TEXAS—Illegal migrants are crossing through private land seeking asylum in the U.S. for a number of reasons including Joe Biden’s presidency and factors such as violence and...

In Kelly v. Montana Department of Transportation, (D MT, March 23, 2021), a Montana federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55046 (D MT, March 9, 2021). The magistrate recommended dismissing 1st Amendment objections to the removal of a "spiritual cross" that plaintiff had erected along side of a highway in memory of his stepson. Rejecting free speech claims, the magistrate held that "a spiritual cross erected on public land adjacent to a highway constitutes government speech." Rejecting free exercise claims, the magistrate said in part: Kelly does not allege that the Defendants prohibited him from...

Data was withheld from World Health Organization investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday (Mar 30). The United States, the European Union and other Western countries immediately called for China to give "full access" to independent experts to all data about the original outbreak in late 2019. In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and...

Washington D.C., Mar 29, 2021 / 03:51 pm MT (CNA).- The percentage of Catholics who say they are a “member” of a church has dropped by nearly 20 points since the year 2000, according to a new report by Gallup released on Monday. Among respondents who said they were Catholic, only 58% actually said they were a member of a church. This figure is down 18 points from the 76% of Catholics who said they were a member of the Church, in a previous Gallup survey from 1998-2000. In the past decade, Catholics saw a twice-as-steep decline in members than...

At best it is experienced as cold and distant, at worst hurtful and offensive,’ says Bishop of Achonry Paul DempseyIreland’s youngest Catholic bishop has expressed regret at language used in a recent Vatican document banning blessings for same-sex couples. Earlier this month the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Pope Francis, said “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.” Bishop of Achonry Paul Dempsey (49), in a statement released through the Catholic Communications Office on Friday evening, said of the language in...

North Carolina residents have come together to increase the reward money for information leading to the arrest of a man who shot a Lancaster woman in a road rage incident last week. The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office said in the days since the shooting, one resident came forward anonymously offering $10,000 as a reward and more people have come forward to help raise that amount since, now at $20,000. The man in question is accused of driving alongside the car of Lancaster couple Ryan and Julie Eberly were in on Interested 95 near Lumberton around 11:40 a.m. on March 25,...

ROME (AP) — A British judge has blasted Vatican prosecutors for making “appalling” misrepresentations to the court about their investigation into the Holy See’s investment in a London real estate deal, determining they don’t have much of a case against their key suspect. In a remarkable ruling made public this week, Judge Tony Baumgartner of Southwark Crown Court reversed another judge’s decision to seize the British-based bank accounts of broker Gianluigi Torzi and awarded Torzi legal fees. The Vatican had requested the seizure as part of its corruption investigation into Torzi and other suspects whom prosecutors accuse of fleecing the...