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Former President Barack Obama in a major speech on Thursday called for more regulation of social media content, in order to diminish “disinformation.” The former president delivered a speech on the issue at Stanford University after spending months studying the subject.

[Catholic Caucus] The Truce of ’68 RevisitedTwenty years ago, the writer George Weigel coined the phrase “the Truce of 1968” to describe the aftermath of the public dissent from Humanae Vitae, Paul VI’s encyclical reaffirming the Church’s teaching on contraception. In Weigel’s telling, the Church’s failure to publicly discipline the theologians who rejected Humanae Vitae (the Vatican allowed the priests who had dissented publicly to recant privately), taught Catholics that one could dissent without major repercussions and that the Vatican would not back those bishops who tried to enforce adherence to the encyclical. One could quibble with the word “truce”...

A gay man has sued a West Virginia party store claiming a worker branded him a 'f****t' and chased him bare-chested for trying to return a 'gender-fluid' Halloween outfit. Trevor Anderson, from Charleston in West Virginia, says he remains a shell of himself following the October 2021 incident at his local Spirit party store. Anderson claims he has turned to cigarettes to cope with the stress, and says boyfriend Jonathan Pereira has threatened to dump him over the marked change in his behavior. The drama began after Anderson purchased a plaid mini-skirt and a belly shirt for his Halloween costume,...

In a coordinated legal action between a number of Hillary Clinton operatives and associates, almost two dozen separate documents were simultaneously filed on April 19 in special counsel John Durham’s case against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. This sudden flurry of mass filings included responses from former Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, campaign manager Robby Mook, Clinton campaign lead lawyer Marc Elias, contractors Fusion GPS, the Clinton campaign itself, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The trigger for the flurry of filings was a request by Durham to unseal a number of emails involving the parties. The emails are...

Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation against a student from Zambia for dancing in front of a war memorial. The woman, identified by local media as Rebecca Ziba, 21, posted a clip of herself 'shaking a**' next to the Memorial of Glory in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk. She is now suspected of committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation which 'provides for the responsibility for the rehabilitation of Nazism'. While the original Instagram post seems to have been taken down, a clip on Twitter suggests that it was captioned:...

The Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday issued a 9-0 unanimous opinion in favor of a taxpayer and against the IRS in a case about the interpretation of a confusing statutory deadline. In the case stylized as Boechler, P.C. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the taxpayer, a law firm in Fargo, North Dakota, was notified by the IRS that there was a discrepancy in their 2015 tax filings. For one reason or another, Boechler never responded to the initial notice. The agency subsequently issued an “intentional disregard” penalty along with their intent to seize and sell off the...

[Catholic Caucus] Why Bishops BetraySo, let us say that I am a Bishop, and that I am on record with saying that I hope that, “one day”, women will be able to be ordained. Even if I were, say, a Jesuit, there is no damn way I do not know that this will never, ever, happen. In fact, as a Bishop, I would know it even in a Biden-advanced state of mental fog. Why would I, then, say such a thing, giving scandal worldwide? Below are my takes. No, ignorance in good faith is not one of them. One: I...

A Florida lawmaker has slammed Disney for wading into the political debate surrounding the so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill and says the company is a guest in the state and doesn't deserve special privileges. Republican Representative Randy Fine, 48, told CNBC's Squawk Box that Florida should eliminate Disney's self-governing status after the company injected itself into the 'Don't Say Gay' bill debate. 'When Disney kicked the hornets nest several weeks ago, we started taking a look at special districts. And we found that six of them had been created before the Florida constitution was actually put in place. 'And they...

Florida lawmakers have voted to strip Disney of its special status as a self-governing area as the war between Governor Ron DeSantis and the company rumbles on. The Republican led House gave final passage to a bill that would end the Reedy Creek Improvement District, meaning the firm will no longer be able operate as a self-contained government. 'It seems as [though] Mickey and Minnie have joined us in the chamber today,' State Rep. Randy Fine, who sponsored the bill, said Thursday ahead of the vote as the sound of yelling filled the chamber. The House passed the measure with...

Following the U.S. Department of the Interior’s call to limit water deliveries from Lake Powell, Arizona’s top water official warned of an impending water crisis that could affect the drinking water for millions of people. “This is really getting to (be) a health and safety issue… the health and safety of those who want to turn on the tap and have water,” Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s director of water resources, told Phoenix’s 12 News on Sunday. He said Arizona and other Western states have until the end of the week to respond to an emergency request by the federal government to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is naming Lorraine Voles as her new chief of staff, replacing Tina Flournoy who is leaving the administration, in the latest shakeup in her office, the White House said. Voles was brought into Harris’ office by Flournoy last summer, as the vice president faced a flurry of negative headlines and staff departures. She was Vice President Al Gore’s communications director and an adviser to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2008. Harris’ deputy chief of staff, Michael Fuchs, is also leaving the White House in the coming weeks. Harris’ national security adviser, Nancy McEldowney, stepped...

"Lightyear" producer Galyn Susman says they're "excited" the creative team was able to restore a same-sex kiss between two female characters in June's upcoming animated Pixar film."Yes, we have a kiss," Susman said when asked about the reinsertion of the scene during a virtual press day for the "Toy Story" universe film in early April that Insider attended."We've always had the lesbian couple. They've always been a part of the film," Susman added. "Being able to put back the kiss was important to us. It's a touching moment."

A trendy pay-as-you-feel restaurant chain allegedly traded while insolvent for years and underpaid employees by nearly $400,000. Lentil as Anything, a popular group of eateries in Sydney and Melbourne that lets customers choose what they pay, survived the pandemic thanks to nearly $400k in GoFundMe donations but an accounting firm alleged it went under a year earlier. Worrells sent a recent report to creditors detailing the mismanagement of the company, which alleged Lentil as Anything was 'likely insolvent' as far back as June, 2019, the Syndey Morning Herald reported. 'It is our preliminary position that the company was likely insolvent...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed Tuesday that lawsuits seeking to hold the world’s largest energy companies financially liable for climate change and the rising sea levels that threaten California’s coastal communities should stay in state court, setting the stage for a legal offensive comparable to one that won multibillion-dollar awards against Big Tobacco.

Applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week as the total number of Americans collecting aid fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years. Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 184,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which levels out week-to-week volatility, rose by 4,500 to 177,250. About 1.42 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits in the week of April 9, the fewest since February 21, 1970.

“‘If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell’” (Matthew 5:29–30). We must be willing, as Jesus teaches here, to relinquish whatever is necessary to protect us from evil and...

The commander of a Norfolk, Virginia-based U.S. Navy destroyer was recently reassigned to onshore duties after a federal appeals court stayed a lower court decision that had allowed him to stay with the ship despite refusing the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine. The Daily Press reported Wednesday that the commander, who remains unnamed in legal filings, was reassigned after U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit stayed U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday’s injunction. The lower court’s injunction had previously prevented the Navy from relieving him of the ship’s command despite being unvaccinated against COVID-19. The Navy destroyer was due to...

Bill Murray has been accused of 'inappropriate behavior' and seen his latest movie shut down, reports say. The 71-year-old actor had the complaint filed against him last week before Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogan's Being Mortal was temporarily shelved, it was claimed. The details of the allegations were not immediately clear but Searchlight Pictures said an investigation has been launched. Murray has previously been accused of misbehaving on set, having allegedly been part of a ferocious bust up with his Charlie's Angels co-star Lucy Liu. He is said to have berated the actress after she confronted him over tweaking the...

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Former President Barack Obama placed blame on tech companies for failing to address the disinformation problem he said the industry has amplified during a speech Thursday at Stanford University. The new information ecosystem, fueled by the rise of dominant social media platforms, is “turbocharging some of humanity’s worst impulses,” he said in the roughly hour-long speech. “But not all problems we’re seeing now are an inevitable byproduct of this new technology. They’re also the result of very specific choices, made by the companies that have come to dominate the internet generally, and social media platforms in particular. Decisions that intentionally...