Free Republic

Pope Francis is getting more non-Catholics to do his work. The latest is Nicolas Brown, who directed "The Letter: A Message for Our Earth," a documentary on the pope's 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."The 90-minute film will air Wednesday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings). But for those who can't wait that long, the documentary is already on YouTube, which helped produce it. "We decided to make this film and not put it behind a paywall. We purposely did not go to Netflix and put it behind the reach of...

More than two decades after the tragedy of 9/11, the new St. Nicholas Church and National Shrine at Ground Zero was officially opened on the feast of St. Nicholas on Tuesday. A much simpler St. Nicholas Church used to stand on the same spot, but it was destroyed by falling rubble on 9/11. In 2010, Church leaders reached an agreement to build a new church, and after more than a decade of starts and stops, the church held its first Liturgy, on its patronal feast, celebrated by Bishop Apostolos of Medeia, reports Ekathimerini. “Today is a joyous day for...

“For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell” (Proverbs 9:14-18).

Former President Donald Trump shot down Russian attempts to trade former Marine Paul Whelan for “Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout, former national security adviser John Bolton said Thursday — as Trump ripped his successor for agreeing to send Bout home in exchange for the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner. Bolton recalled in an interview with CBS that he was in the midst of his 17-month tenure at the White House when Whelan was detained on concocted espionage charges in December 2018. “The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” said Bolton, 74, “and it wasn’t made,...

German authorities say they have foiled a plot by a far-right terrorist group to overthrow the government. More than 3,000 police officers took part in raids across the country, with a self-styled prince among 25 people arrested. But who is Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss - the 71-year-old alleged mastermind - and what is the Reichsburger movement that's said to have inspired the plan? Heinrich XIII comes from a German aristocratic family that goes back to the 12th century, the House of Ruess, and authorities say the plotters planned to make him leader of a new government. According to German news...

Under the Trump administration the U.S. launched a trade war against China. It started with various tariffs on Chinese products. The Biden administration topped that by using the flimsy pretext of alleged 'forced labor' in Xinjiang to make it more difficult to import goods from China. This contradicted Biden's plan for climate change as nearly all solar panels are made from raw materials found in Xinjiang. The trade war continued with the chip war against China's technological progress. The tariffs and restriction run counter to the World Trade Agreement which the U.S. is increasingly willing to ignore. The administration has...

Saudi Arabia’s warm welcome of Chinese President Xi Jinping was in stark contrast to the muted reception for US President Joe Biden in July.Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (Dec 7) to a lavish welcome, a move seen as a not-so-subtle reminder to the United States that the Saudis can forge other alliances, said an analyst. Mr Xi is in the Gulf state to hold bilateral talks with top Saudi leaders, including King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as part of a three-day visit focusing on energy ties. Four royal air force...

A nonprofit group founded by twice-failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is raking in donations in at least nine states without license to do so, meaning it could face criminal investigations and fines. Charities such as the New Georgia Project are barred across the country from soliciting donations if they have not filed their tax forms with the IRS. Despite the New Georgia Project failing to file its tax forms by the federal Nov. 15 deadline, the organization is still raising funds nationwide through ActBlue, a left-leaning fundraising platform software, records show. "NGPAF has already been mobilizing voters, and...

It’s the little engine that could … bring down Google and perhaps the human race. A tech company has developed a state-of-the-art AI chatbot so sophisticated that it could render search engines — not to mention countless jobs — obsolete. Unveiled last week by the OpenAI company, ChatGPT has already amassed more than 1 million users worldwide with its advanced functions, which range from instantaneously composing complex essays and computer code to drafting marketing pitches and interior decorating schemes. It can even whip up poems and jokes — an ability previously thought to be relegated to humans. In fact, ChatGPT’s...

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In” that former President Donald Trump’s “corrupt and illegal acts” were inspiring coup attempts in Peru and Germany. Anchor Chris Hayes asked, “Finally on that question of accountability, I spoke earlier in the show about some of the international headlines we’ve seen over the last few days in Germany with what appears to be a seditious plot to overthrow the government was exposed and rounded up and arrested. In Peru, in which the president announced, essentially a coup and was in police custody within a matter of hours. How do you...

The family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick — his mother, father and brother — refused to shake hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the police departments that worked to save the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Over 140 officers were injured protecting the Capitol, including Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical substance outside the Capitol, collapsed eight hours later and died a day later of multiple strokes. His brother Ken Sicknick told CBS News that Republican leaders "have no idea...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stormed out of the briefing room Thursday as Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba confronted her on not taking his questions. Ateba yelled out a question about the upcoming U.S. Africa Summit, where President Joe Biden intends to meet with 50 African leaders. The White House reporter confronted her on why she will not take a question about the summit.

Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the latest round of western sanctions. According to data from Kpler, Russian seaborne oil shipments fell 16% on Tuesday. Russia's central bank has called the sanctions "new economic shocks" that could derail the economy. Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the European Union's price cap on Russian crude and the latest round of sanctions, squeezing revenues for Moscow's wartime economy. According to data from the analytics firm Kpler, Russia's seaborne oil shipments fell by 16%, or about half a million barrels per day on Tuesday this week. TankerTrackers.com, another analytics site, recorded an even...

George Leonard “Johnny” Johnson was the last surviving original member of the famous “Dambusters” raid of 1943The last surviving Dambuster has died at the age of 101. George Leonard “Johnny” Johnson was the last surviving original member of RAF 617 Squadron’s famous “Dambusters” raid of 1943. He died peacefully at his care home in Westbury on Trym, Bristol, on Wednesday night surrounded by his family, a source told PA. He was a bomb aimer during Operation Chastise, which was tasked with attacking German dams during the Second World War. Around a third of the RAF Bomber Command crew did not...

There were about 1.2 million same-sex couple households in the United States in 2021, according to recently released Census Bureau data. Roughly 710,000 of the same-sex couple households were married and about 500,000 were unmarried. These and many other estimates can be found in the Census Bureau’s recently released package of tables and graphics about the characteristics of same-sex couple households, which are based on American Community Survey (ACS) data. The package, which shows estimates from 2005 through 2021, was not released in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on ACS data collection. ...

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. We serve coffee, tea, hot cocoa, conversation and music.How about some homemade eggnog? A hot toddy? Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Pull up a chair. Grab a cup and start a conversation.You never know who you...

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is appointing a reparations commission that will “recommend a proposal to begin repairing the harms that have been inflicted” by slavery, segregation and racism. St. Louis joins a growing list of places trying to determine how to make amends for past practices that have harmed Black Americans. The new commission will hold open monthly meetings. There is no stated deadline for recommendations.

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Thursday on CNN’s “OutFront” that under new Twitter owner Elon Musk “bigotry” was spiraling on the social media platform. Host Erin Burnett said, “I want to ask you about something else happening tonight, and that is a Twitter dispute you are in with Elon Musk. Musk wrote, and I quote him,’hate speech impressions are actually down by one-third for Twitter now versus prior to acquisition.’ You don’t buy it. How come?”

A video of a mother in China telling her son his wife will divorce him if she gets a job trends on social media and starts gender debate. A mother-in-law in China has trended on mainland social media after she was filmed telling her son not to let his wife work to prevent a marriage crisis. In the video posted by the man’s wife, she and her husband talked with her mother-in-law, who tells her son that he can’t let his wife leave home to work, reported Sina News. Although the couple from Jiangsu province, eastern China, has been married...

(CNN) — If you've been sweating out that latest deadline for REAL ID required for US air travel, you're getting another reprieve. The US federal government has yet again delayed nationwide security requirements for driver's licenses and other identification cards, giving states more time to issue REAL IDs to residents. The identification requirements were expected to kick in this coming spring. But they will be delayed another two years until May 7, 2025. That's another 883 days away.