Free Republic

A businessman tied to the Vatican’s London property deal admitted to prosecutors that he spied on behalf of the Vatican on a broker involved in the deal, and passed information on to an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State. The spying admission emerged in newly released recordings of interviews conducted by Vatican prosecutors in the financial crimes trial, in which 10 figures connected to the property deal have been indicted. The recordings also allege other efforts at suspect intelligence-gathering by figures involved in the deal, and highlight Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s alleged efforts to conceal Vatican payments to Cecilia Marogna,...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is testifying at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing regarding human rights abuses in China.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) showed how fragile Democrat Joe Biden’s Judicial nominees really are with an embarrassing exchange between Cruz and Biden’s pick to rule over landmark legal cases. A video snippet of the smackdown made some great political theater- and, more importantly, really shows the viewing public the left’s agenda to promote radical activist judges to dismantle the civil liberties of American citizens. “She couldn’t even answer a simple question,” filmmaker and political pundit Dinesh D’Souza said about the video clip he posted of the Cruz wreckage.On Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Cruz asked radical nominee Kenly Kiya Kato...

A study has shown how SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to severe microvascular damage seen in severely-ill COVID-19 patients by transforming human heart vascular cells into inflammatory cells, without infecting them. The research indicates blocking antibodies could represent a new treatment to alleviate cardiovascular complications. Until now, it remained unclear whether heart cells are infected by the virus or damaged because of an excess cytotoxic defense response. This response, known as 'the cytokine storm', comes from our immune cells, whereby cytotoxic cells attack and kill the infected cells by releasing proteins, called cytokines. A team exposed human heart pericytes, which are cells...

ROME, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Italy's national Catholic military chaplain has hit back at a renegade, vaccine-denying archbishop, accusing him of inciting insubordination among the armed forces and police over their role in enforcing COVID-19 laws. The national chaplain, Archbishop Santo Marciano, issued a statement to all military and law enforcement personnel on Monday night, hours after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano made a statement urging them to disobey orders and not be "automatons". Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador in Washington, has been in hiding for more than three years since issuing a broadside against Pope Francis, demanding his resignation. He...

The NBC broadcaster might have been joking, but social media wasn't. Comrade Al Michaels won't get credit for inventing the Washington Commanders new nickname, but he might have helped popularize it. During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Michaels joked that the team may become known as something else entirely. And after the two-year process to come up with the new name, it could come across as something of a red scare to owner Dan Snyder. “People will get used to it,” Michaels said. “They'll start calling them the Commies and social media will have a blast with it.“...

So here is the grim reality of life in Woke America 2022. In November, I spoke at a peaceful conference held by an organization that is deemed a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League. The title of my talk was "Race, Immigration, and Con. Inc: How I Came to See the Light." It was a wide-ranging discussion of my three decades of reporting on the nation's demographic and cultural deterioration — which I've chronicled firsthand on college campuses, at our borders, and in every crime-ridden, riot-prone, and mass migration-transformed metropolis, from Los Angeles to Seattle...

The nation’s leading expert on protecting the electric grid from attack urges governors to take the lead because the Biden administration won’t. In a new alert, Peter Vincent Pry, the executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, said concerns are growing that Russia, North Korea, and Iran are inching closer to testing an electromagnetic attack on the U.S. grid, or parts of it. He noted the current crisis in Ukraine could spark a Russian attack, and he cited state media making the threat in the past. “In April 2021, during the previous big crisis between...

The Bishop of Las Vegas, responding to a pro-abortion column written by a Catholic politician, has asked all Catholic politicians who do not agree with the Church’s teaching on abortion not to present themselves for Holy Communion. “It is my sincere hope that Catholic politicians and Catholics at large take this moment to look deeply into their own hearts, and re-examine the church’s moral conviction on the inviolability and dignity of human life,” Bishop George Thomas wrote Jan. 24. “If a politician from the Diocese of Las Vegas finds himself or herself at odds with the church’s teaching on the...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. It's casual FRiday here at the Canteen. Pull up a seat and relax. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. Birthday wishes for all of the February babies.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup...

Update (1600ET): As Ottawa braces for thousands of protesters to converse on the city this weekend just like they did last weekend to support the "Freedom Convoy" truckers, the premier of Saskatchewan publicly declared on Thursday that he would end all COVID restrictions later this month.Premier Scott Moe declared Thursday that "it's time to look at ending all COVID restrictions...people are asking their government for a return to normal, and a removal of public health restrictions."Watch the dominos fall... FYI Premier Scott Moe, the governor of Saskatchewan, a Canadian province that borders the US, announces an end to all COVID...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Thursday signed a bill into law that bans transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams, NBC News reported. "This bill has been an important priority for a lot of the people behind me," Noem said at a press conference, "and I appreciate all of their hard work in making sure that girls will always have the opportunity to play in girls sports in South Dakota and have an opportunity for a level playing field, for fairness, that gives them the chance to experience success." The new law will apply to...

Below is my column on the campaign to cancel Joe Rogan and his podcast. Various celebrities and artists have joined the movement for censoring Joe Rogan, including Mary Trump. The White House has called for even greater action from Spotify to limit or remove content. We have also heard the same false narrative that, since the First Amendment only covers government action, this is not by definition of free speech issue. The argument is entirely divorced from any understanding of free speech. As we have previously discussed, the First Amendment is not the full or exclusive embodiment of free speech....

"This is still and unlawful protest. The fact they're allowing traffic to flow through is a positive step in the right direction but it still is not lawful" RCMP cpl. Curtis Peters said. Truckers protesting COVID-19 health measures hace set up a new blockade 15 kilometers north of Coutts, near the town of Milk River. Mounties confirmed to Postmedia Thursday morning protesters have set up the new blockade at Highway 4 and Highway 501. The blockade began the prvious night, and is at a section of the highway that was previously an RCMP checkpoint...

Stunning video shows the moment a teen opened fire in broad daylight in a crowded New York City mall as shoppers ran for cover.

Workers in Los Angeles will earn about a dollar more per hour after Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Thursday that the minimum wage will be bumped up to $16.04 beginning in July. The hourly increase from the $15 per hour rate follows the city’s municipal code that states wages will be increased annually.

Citing the rise in wages and transportation costs, Amazon will increase the price of a Prime membership in the U.S., with the monthly fee going from $12.99 to $14.99, and the annual membership from $119 to $139. This is the first time Amazon has raised the price of Prime since 2018. For new Prime members, the price change will go into effect on February 18, 2022, and for current Prime members, the new price will apply after March 25, 2022, on the date of their next renewal.

A female former banker has been awarded nearly £2.1 million ($2.8 million) damages for victimization and sex discrimination after she found a witch's hat on her desk. The award, to Stacey Macken, 50, a former employee of the French investment bank BNP Paribas, is thought to be among the largest handed out at a UK employment tribunal. Macken found a "large Halloween-style black witch's hat" in front of her computer after arriving at work one morning, according to evidence presented to and accepted by the court. Macken's former personal assistant told the court that the hat appeared overnight after male...

The Texas grid may fail again this year, according to a local investigative journalist who this week raised the alarm about the grid's state of preparedness ahead of an Arctic weather front. "This is not a good start. Tried checking @ERCOT_ISO dashboard about grid conditions and it's down. Tried checking hourly resource outage data, that's down too," Jeremy Rogalski from K-HOU TV tweeted on Wednesday. He later added that he had gotten in touch with a spokesperson for the Energy Reliability Council of Texas who'd told him that the grid operator was having issues from an upgrade made back in...