Free Republic

Lord Williams of Oystermouth wades into conversion therapy debate as No 10’s stance sparks boycott of its LGBT conference.Lord Williams signed the open letter to Boris Johnson, along with senior clergy, including the Dean of St Paul’s, the Very Revd Dr David Ison; the Bishop of Buckingham, the Right Revd Dr Alan Wilson; the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn; and the Dean of Manchester, the Very Revd Rogers Govender. In the open letter, obtained by ITV News, they added: “To allow those discerning this journey to be subject to coercive or undermining practices is to make prayer...

Republicans on Tuesday blocked the Senate from advancing a $10 billion deal on coronavirus aid amid a stalemated fight over whether to attach a Trump-era immigration policy to the agreement. Absent a breakthrough, the stalemate would delay the coronavirus bill until after a two-week break that is expected to start by Friday. To pass the deal before that, they would need buy-in from all 100 senators. Senators voted 47-52 to advance legislation that’s being used as a vehicle for the coronavirus agreement, falling short of the 60 votes needed to move forward.

Turkey's Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul held its first Tarawih prayer in 88 years late Friday, a special evening prayer during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A number of events for Ramadan will also be held at the mosque, which was converted into a museum in 1934 and regained its status as a mosque in 2020, when it was opened for worship on July 24 of that year. As part of COVID-19 restrictions in Turkey, however, the mosque could not be used since the pandemic began due to the risk of infection. But with most of the population...

When Carlos got pinched by the fuzz, he was holding some hot commodities. Flaming hot, in fact. No, that's not slang. The illegal behavior that landed Carlos (not his real name), a ninth-grade student at a high school in the southern suburbs of Chicago, in the deans' office on a mid-September morning in 2019 was the illicit sale of chips to one of his fellow students. For the crime, he was summarily sentenced to a one-day suspension from school—and his mother was called to pick him up. As Karlyn Gorski, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Chicago,...

Revised national guidelines for the College of Policing will allow for sacramental access at crime scenes where operationally possible following the conclusion of a working group set up in the aftermath of the murder of MP Sir David Amess. The murder in October 2021 raised a number of questions concerning the appropriate response to granting access to priests or other ministers of religion to crime scenes for homicide or traumatic violence where the victim remains in situ. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick and Cardinal Vincent Nichols agreed to establish a joint group to consider this and whether any changes...

Now, there are finally sanctions on Vladimir Putin which might — might — result in a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. Putin has put forth conditions to the Ukrainians by which he would agree to stop his war. He says that if Ukraine would agree to a neutral geopolitical position between Russia and the West, cede Crimea and most of the Black Sea coast, and give up the Tuesday, Joe Biden took to a podium at the White House and did perhaps the one virtuous and potentially effective thing he’s done since his inauguration. Biden signaled, as part of the...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday warned that President Biden will have to tack to the center after the 2022 midterm elections if he expects to fill another vacancy on the Supreme Court should Republicans win back control of the Senate.

Reminder:New Durham revelations per @jsolomonReports on War Room just now - this was all a Clinton founded conspiracy to smear Trump - and by reference regain political & legislative power.It worked. Polling below. https://t.co/3UlRWx2XGO— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) April 5, 2022

Andy Torres was practicing playing the drums Saturday morning, when his music apparently made another man so angry, he attacked the musician with an ax. “With no warning, just came up from behind … it was very scary, it was surreal,” Torres said. Torres was wearing his heavy metal costume and mask, practicing his drumming at Todd Longshore Park in Canyon Country just after 7 a.m. Saturday. He says the attacker came at him in a rage and destroyed his $500 portable drum set. “He could’ve simply told me to shut up, to quiet down and I would have obliged,”...

“‘Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 5:19). People resent prohibitions and demands on their behavior. Even believers, out of ignorance, misunderstanding, or blatant disregard, sometimes want to water down God’s standards. But when anyone “annuls” (breaks, sets loose) any part of God’s Word, he or she is not following Christ’s example. Jesus did acknowledge that not all of God’s commands are of equal importance. He told a pharisaical lawyer that one divine commandment is above all others and that...

Item: President Joe Biden will propose a minimum 20% tax rate that would hit both the income and unrealized capital gains of U.S. households worth more than $100 million as part of his budget proposal to be released on Monday. … The administration projects that more than half of revenues for the new payment would come from the nation’s roughly 700 billionaires. (Bloomberg, March 26, 2022) Two reasonable questions to ask about any public policy idea: First, what problem is the idea meant to solve or ameliorate? Second, what are the trade-offs? (Getting one thing typically means giving up another.)...

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America 04/05/22 UPTON QUITS! 4 down and 6 to go. Others losing badly, who's next?

Destroying arms control treaties is “unacceptable,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin. During the visit, which was aimed at cementing economic ties between the two countries amid China’s heated trade war with the United States, Putin thanked Xi for helping their countries achieve a trade turnover of more than $100 billion a year. He added that Russian-Chinese relations have reached an “unprecedented level.” “In the joint agreement that we signed on strengthening global strategic stability in the modern era we empathized the principled stance of Russia and China...

Bucha is the latest shiny object that the Western cats are chasing mindlessly without taking time to think critically about what Russia is actually doing on the ground. Russia’s invasion on February 24 was not a classic military attack. What do I mean? If Russia was intent on conquering and subjugating Ukraine without regard to the fate of Ukrainian civilians it would have launched massive missile and airstrikes on all major cities, bridges, airfields, railroads and communication systems. It did not do that. Not my opinion. The first phase of Russia’s special military operation consisted of the following: Moved troops...

Despite the biggest increase in average hourly wages for production and non-supervisory workers in 40 years, these people are actually worse off. Why? Rising prices are eating up their income gains. Year-over-year, average hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory employees were up 6.7% in March, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Other than the lockdown distortions in April and May of 2020, this was the biggest gain since 1982. This includes jobs in all industries that are non-management, ranging from assembly line workers to computer coders. In dollar terms, the average wage of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees increased by...

President Joe Biden will reportedly extend the 90-day student loan repayment pause through August. Biden’s announcement of an extended pause may come on Wednesday, the Hill reported. Biden’s original extension was to sunset May 1.

Philadelphia and music legend Bobby Rydell has died. The former teen idol is probably best-known in the area for the song “Wildwood Days,” but he had so many hits — “Volare,” “Wild One” and so many others. …

Former President Barack Obama sparked laughter after he referred to President Joe Biden as the “vice president” on Tuesday during his return to the White House. The former president was introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris before taking the podium

U.S. Rep. Ted Budd has a double-digit lead in the Republican primary to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a poll released Tuesday shows. Budd, a three-term congressman representing North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, leads former Gov. Pat McCrory by 16 percentage points among likely voters, according to the poll, which was conducted by Emerson College and the news outlet The Hill. A total of 36% of Republicans who were surveyed said they would vote for Budd in the May 17 primary election, while 22% said they would vote for McCrory, who served as governor from 2013 to 2017. Former...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that the Biden administration can “Absolutely” cut red tape to get military equipment to the Ukrainians more efficiently. Durbin said, “The United States and NATO are on their side. We have provided massive amounts of equipment, ammunition, and resources for them to engage in the fight. We need to do more and we need to do it quickly. Time is of the essence. If the parliamentarians made one thing clear, they need help and they need it yesterday. They don’t need to wait for weeks...