Free Republic

HELSINKI, April 15 (Reuters) - Finland's much-delayed Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor, Europe's largest, began regular output early on Sunday, its operator said, boosting energy security in a region to which Russia has cut gas and power supplies. Nuclear power remains controversial in Europe, primarily due to safety concerns, and news of OL3's start-up comes as Germany on Saturday switches off its last three remaining reactors, while Sweden, France, Britain and others plan new developments. OL3's operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which is owned by Finnish utility Fortum (FORTUM.HE) and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, has said the unit...

Who's miserable and who's happy?The human condition lies on a vast spectrum between “miserable” and “happy.” In the economic sphere, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs, and unemployment. The surefire way to mitigate that misery is through economic growth. Comparing countries’ metrics can tell us a lot about where in the world people are sad or happy. Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI) gives us the answers. My version of the misery index is the sum of the year-end unemployment (multiplied by two), inflation, and bank-lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita....

BILLINGS, Mont. — A wind energy company was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed over the past decade at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a Tuesday court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was charged in the deaths of eagles at three of its wind farms in Wyoming and New Mexico. In addition to those deaths, golden and bald eagles were killed...

Shareholders in the Walt Disney Company have a lot to be unhappy about lately. Anyone unlucky enough to have purchased its stock on March 12, 2021, has lost over 52% of their investment at yesterday’s closing price. Simply Wall Street comments:In the wake of The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE:DIS) latest US$15b market cap drop, institutional owners may be forced to take severe actions[.] (snip)Significantly high institutional ownership implies Walt Disney's stock price is sensitive to their trading actionsThe top 25 shareholders own 38% of the companyAnd that’s not all. The company announced yesterday that it is abandoning two huge projects,...

Canada has enthusiastically embraced euthanasia. And maybe that’s not surprising given that socialist countries must inevitably ration treatment, and the best rationing is accomplished by limiting the number of people who need serious care. However, many Canadians are now thinking of euthanasia, not just as a cure for untreated or untreatable illnesses, but also for homelessness and poverty.These numbers come from a Research Co. poll asking Canadians about their attitudes toward Canada’s expanding Medical Assistance in Dying (or MAID) program:One third of Canadians are apparently fine with prescribing assisting suicide for no other reason than the fact that the patient...

PBS wrote the following:The US Capitol Building in Washington DC:This building is so radioactive, due to the high uranium content in its granite walls, it could never be licensed as a nuclear power reactor site.Original: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/interact/facts.htmlArchive: https://web.archive.org/web/20000609114742/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/interact/facts.htmlTherefore, anyone who works in the U.S. Capitol Building, but is afraid of radiation from nuclear power, is very ignorant of science and math.

Boston, Mass., May 16, 2023 / 13:00 pm The FBI and local police have opened an investigation after three mutilated animals were left on the property of a pro-life pregnancy center in Orlando, Florida, last week. On May 10, a staff member from the facility discovered the decapitated corpses of a “very large” chicken, baby lamb, and another “large bird” in front of the clinic, according to Bob Perron, executive director of the Catholic-based JMJ Pregnancy Center. When the staff member informed him about the dead animals, Perron thought it was a joke. “I mean, who would even think that...

Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America hopes to implement the jurisdiction-wide practice of girls serving in the altar and being tonsured as readers. This would include not just young children, but even students of the Archdiocese’s Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, according to a resolution submitted to the Metropolis of New Jersey’s Clergy-Laity Assembly yesterday. The resolutions, which are intended to be passed on to the Archdiocesan Clergy-Laity Congress, read: Resolved: That the Metropolis of New Jersey Local Assembly convey to the Archdiocesan Clergy-Laity Congress the request to develop the role...

An owner of a restaurant that held a private event for the San Francisco Republican Party — the content of which reportedly made a San Francisco Chronicle reporter vomit — told SFGATE in an interview Thursday that he would not have hosted the event if he had known it was going to be as controversial as it turned out to be.

It was just like the old days: As New York wrestles with a race-tinged tragedy, Al Sharpton sends a nastygram. SNIP Yet Friday’s race-baiting, however deplorable, is also ironic. It may have benefited Sharpton’s interests — and certainly his ego — but it also undercut a black mayor struggling to govern an increasingly unstable city. Indeed, government in New York — even in Albany — is now overwhelmingly run by black, brown or otherwise minority incumbents. How does racializing a crisis help them?

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Paglia on relevance of 'Humanae vitae' today The President of the Pontifical Academy of Life offers his thoughts on a bioethical perspective that he says calls for a worldwide alliance among all the sciences for the future of the planet and humanity.By Vatican NewsA two-day Congress organized by the Jérôme Lejeune International Chair of Bioethics opened on Friday, 19 May on the subject “Humanae Vitae, the audacity of an Encyclical on Sexuality and Procreation”. In his introductory greeting to the assembly, Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, emphasized...

Washington State University fired its head football coach Nick Rolovich and refused to accommodate his sincerely held religious beliefs, a lawsuit against the university argues.SPOKANE, Washington (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic head football coach allegedly fired for refusing to violate his conscience over taking the abortion-tainted COVID-19 jab had two high-profile supporters accompany him during a recent court date for his lawsuit. Nick Rolovich is a devout Catholic who lost his job at Washington State University after he refused to take the abortion-tainted COVID jab; Democratic Governor Jay Inslee had mandated in 2021 that all state employees would be required to...

A healthcare worker claims she has receipts after screaming for help while trying to take an e-bike from a Black man. Dr. Rashad Richey discuss on Indisputable

Italian media claims that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to the proposal of the Pope to receive special envoys to discuss a truce.Moscow and Kyiv agreed to the proposal of the Pope to receive his special envoys to discuss a truce. This is reported by the specialized portal of the Vatican information Il Sismografo without naming the sources of its information. The report notes that Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, might go to Moscow as a papal special envoy, while Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, head of the Conference of Italian Bishops, could go to Kyiv....

Justice Neil Gorsuch called government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic the “greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country” on Thursday... “Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale,” he said. “Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on.” ... Gorsuch slammed deference to “experts” for decision-making during the pandemic and warned that doing so could lead to losing “many cherished civil liberties.”...

Documentary on how the United States is blessed with immeasurable geographic advantages that puts every other country to shame.How Geography Made The U.S. Ridiculously Overpowering

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec. Putin just announced he has banned Capitol police officer Michael Byrd from ever entering Russia... Putin playing games... divide and conquer. I wonder if Mr Byrd planned on traveling to Moscow? Discussion is interesting on this thread...

As has been long predicted, the first of many hit pieces on Casey DeSantis, the wife of Ron DeSantis, has dropped. Politico did the honors on Friday, attacking the recent cancer survivor as too involved in her husband’s life, citing numerous anonymous sources and some non-anonymous ones who really should have been. The big bombshell in the story can be summarized as follows: Ron and Casey DeSantis have a good marriage, and they also support each other in their endeavors. I know, it’s shocking stuff, but Politico did its level best to try to turn Casey DeSantis into an ominous...

Democrat state legislators in New York are reviewing legislation that would have sought-after kidney transplants rewarded to illegal aliens ahead of thousands of Americans who are waiting for such donations. According to the New York Times, Democrat legislators in New York are considering the plan to open organ transplants, specifically kidney transplants, to illegal aliens. Such transplants are typically reserved for Americans with Social Security Numbers (SSNs).

Former Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s epic courtroom battle challenging the signature verification process in Maricopa County drew to a conclusion Friday, leaving the fate of the case hanging in the balance.Lake’s attorneys argued signatures weren’t properly verified in the 2022 governor’s race, potentially allowing thousands of illegal ballots to be cast.Catch up with coverage from the last two days:Recap: Fiery Moments from Day 1 of Kari Lake Election Court BattleFireworks at Day 2 of Kari Lake Election Trial as Expert Witness Challenges Signature Verification Time: ‘Don’t Believe It Can Be Done’Check out highlights from Day 3 below via...