Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday decried criticism of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, dismissing Democratic-led calls for the jurist to resign or recuse himself from January 6, 2021-related cases as an "inappropriate pressure campaign." The Kentucky Republican — who voted to confirm Thomas to Supreme Court in 1991 and played a leading role in installing three conservative jurists to the court during President Donald Trump's tenure — rejected the concerns as a "coordinated effort to nullify" the justice's presence on the court

Helsinki, Finland, Mar 30, 2022 / 05:05 am (CNA). The verdict in the closely watched trial of a Finnish Christian MP was announced on Wednesday. A court in Helsinki dismissed all charges against Päivi Räsänen, a physician and mother of five, and Juhana Pohjola, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. The court said in a unanimous ruling on March 30 that “it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts.” The court said in a unanimous ruling on March 30 that “it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts.” It ordered...

Sean and the Sheep Pong

All 4,000 Navy members seeking a religious exemption to the abortion-tainted jab have been granted a temporary reprieve.FORT WORTH, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — A federal district court judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Navy from requiring 4,000 service members to take abortion-tainted COVID jabs. Judge Reed O’Connor issued a preliminary injunction on Monday against the Department of Defense (DOD) jab mandate. He previously stopped the DOD from enforcing it against dozens of Navy SEALs in a January 3 ruling. The ruling covers the 3,320 active-duty sailors and 864 reserve sailors who have religious objections to the COVID vaccines....

NINEVEH PLAINS, Iraq — The predominantly Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian region of Nineveh Plains remains immersed in turbulence due to political, military and social strife. Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian displaced persons therefore remain anxious to return home. Haifa Boutros, a Syriac IDP from Bartella, east of Mosul, stated to Irfaa Sawtak website: “We do not want to return to Nineveh because nothing encourages us to return, and we no longer have confidence after what we have experienced in 2014. We settled in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), and we do not know whether we will stay here or emigrate.” Distrust in the security situation and...

A Black Lives Matter activist and her husband both pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that they defrauded donors who gave to their nonprofit and spent most of the $1 million raised for their own personal gain. Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, and Clark Grant, 38, used the funds from the charity to pay for restaurant meals, vacations and trip to the nail salon, an 18-page indictment handed down by a federal grand jury earlier this month alleges. They're also accused of illegally collecting an estimated $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits and lying on a mortgage application. The couple founded nonprofit Violence...

Moscow, March 28, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church hopes that a new meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis will take place this year. "Preparations are being made for a meeting between the pope and the patriarch, which will take place this year. It will be an offline meeting," Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said on the program Church and the World on Rossiya-24 TV. According to earlier reports, the patriarch and the pope conducted a videoconference on the situation in Ukraine on March 16. Metropolitan Hilarion said the online meeting had to...

Flight tracking info suggests Putin may be in a hideaway near Surgut, in Siberia Defence minister Sergei Shoigu is believed to be in a bunker in Ufa, in the Urals Use of bunkers would be alarming as they suggest nuclear option is on the table New evidence has emerged Vladimir Putin and his highest ranking commanders are running the war in Ukraine from top secret nuclear bunkers. Movements of planes used by top Kremlin officials show Putin may be in a hideaway near Surgut, in western Siberia, it has been claimed. His defence minister Sergei Shoigu - who has been...

A lawsuit that aimed to stop the Obama Presidential Center from being built in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park has been dismissed by a federal judge. The crux of Protect Our Parks’ complaint is that under regulatory statutes, federal agencies should have considered relocating the proposed Obama center site entirely to avoid damage to the environment, according to the lawsuit. The city and Obama Foundation officials have said federal agencies closed the final review into the project because they determined the Obama center’s construction and nearby roadway fixes would not pose a “significant impact” on the environment - a finding the...

A high school runner was sucker-punched by an another competitor who ran into his lane during the race at a Florida track meet. Just as the pack was coming down the straight portion of the track in the 1,600-meter race, the attacker made a beeline for the runner from the infield at the Tohopekaliga Tiger Invitational in Kissimmee on Saturday. The teen, who was dressed in black running shorts and black T-shirt, appeared to come out of nowhere and caught the runner dressed in white-and-red by surprise. The stunned runner fell to the ground after leading the race. Before the...

A North Carolina medical student and trans rights activist seemingly bragged on Twitter about intentionally injuring a patient who mocked her for wearing a pronoun pin saying she/her. Kychelle Del Rosario, a fourth-year student at Wake Forest University's School of Medicine, claimed to have purposefully missed the patient's vein during a blood draw so she would have to jab him twice in a since-deleted tweet. 'I had a patient I was doing a blood draw on see my pronoun pin and loudly laugh to the staff 'She/Her? Well of course it is! What other pronouns even are there? It?' I...

"The battalion still operates as a relatively autonomous entity. It has been prominent in defending Mariupol in recent weeks, and its resistance has been widely praised by members of the government."

The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new strategic plan on Wednesday that lays out a path toward ending the global emergency of COVID-19. In its third strategic preparedness and response plan on COVID-19, the WHO acknowledged the pandemic remains an acute global crisis but charted a path to end the global emergency if key measures are implemented rapidly.

Will Smith was asked to leave the Oscars after slapping Chris Rock, but he refused, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement Wednesday. "Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated," the statement said. "While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently." "Mr. Smith's actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is expanding its probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack to include the events leading up to the preceding rally, and the wider conspiracies that fueled the violence, people familiar with the issue told The Washington Post. Before supporters of former President Trump attacked the Capitol, many participated in a rally that had multiple speakers, including Trump himself.

Progressives aren’t upset about the law; they’re upset about losing their stranglehold over educationWhen you scratch a millimeter beneath the surface, or just actually read the damn bill for yourself, you see how innocuous the whole thing is. Why was the law even needed? And why, you might wonder, the extraordinary outrage and all the public tantrums? On its face, rather than some Christian theocratic decree, the law seems to act as a reminder, more than anything else, for educators to stick to age-appropriate topics. None of this is about gay rights — little is these days — but rather...

Ukrainian regular army units defending the city have moved to the Kherson front as Ukraine retakes lost territory outside the city of Mykolaiv—territory that was lost because Kherson’s territorial defense forces didn’t fight, and they didn’t blow the main bridge connecting the city with Russian forces coming up from Crimea. As a result, Kherson still remains the only major Ukrainian city to fall to Russia. This article in Russia’s Novaya Gazeta (link runs article through Google translate) gives us clues as to what happened. How did you take Kherson? "Stupidity or betrayal, perhaps both," says former governor of the Kherson...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ The Air Force Finally Gets To Eat! Take That Navy and Marines! Seventh Air Force and 8th Fighter Wing command teams conduct the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Wolf Pack’s new dining facility at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, March 23, 2022. The new facility will increase dining capabilities from 120 seats to more than 700, and is expected to be completed by September 11, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Steven Adkins) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies'...

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View ” that President Joe Biden should govern via executive order because he can’t build consensus with “insurrectionists” and “crazy people.” Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said, “In a recent New York Magazine interview, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned Democrats they could be in trouble going into the midterms. She thinks they’re still in the game, but the president and moderate Democrats need to stop thinking they can return to an era where a backroom deal with the GOP could be reached because that kind of thinking killed the Build Back Better Bill....