Free Republic

A call for peace between Russians and Ukrainians has landed a Ukrainian priest named Roman Kurach in hot water. Kurach, who serves with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, has had to apologize publicly after his words prompted an intervention by some Ukrainian journalists and sparked what the local media called a “massive scandal.” During a Sunday prayer, the priest asked God to “work a miracle and bring these great peoples together: Ukraine and Russia.” He also beseeched the Lord to make Russians and Ukrainians “stop exterminating and killing each other” and help them “build the kingdom of heaven here, on Earth”...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was mocked online for his "awkward" entrance with his wife, Casey DeSantis at the wedding of Iowa Republican Taylor Collins in Des Moines on Saturday night, with social media users accusing him of stealing attention from the bride and groom. Videos of the event shared online show the Florida governor entering the wedding reception, held at the Beaux-Arts-style building, with his wife and walking straight into the room after the newlywed couple. Collins and his bride can be seen stepping to the side and clapping for the Republican governor as the audience in attendance cheers. DeSantis...

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called for replacing Juneteenth with Election Day as a national holiday, deriding the celebration of the end of slavery in the US as “useless.” “Single day voting, on Election Day,” the 37-year-old entrepreneur and longshot 2024 White House contender proposed in a speech before Iowa voters on Saturday. “We will make Election Day a holiday in the United States of America, so there’s no complaints about it.” < However, Ramaswamy told the crowd that in order to make room for another federal holiday, one of the current 11 would need to be removed from...

While MSM is hyping stories about ticks causing meat allergies. A closer look at the alpha-gal protein shows that it’s in many childhood vaccines and the COVID shots. It’s not a coincidence they are hyping beef as a negative for the environment right as the shots they mandated are causing massive beef allergies. This is the weaponization of our food supply.

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 BREAKING: With a few minutes to spare, Trump responds to Jack Smith "protective order" in January 6 case: 3:58 PM · Aug 7, 2023 ·

eff Gunter, a dermatologist who was ambassador to Iceland during Donald Trump's administration, announced Monday he's running for U.S. Senate in Nevada, joining an increasingly crowded field of Republicans looking to unseat first-term Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen. In a three-minute introductory video, Gunter presented himself as a loyal Trump supporter committed to furthering the former president's movement. “I'll fight to support Donald Trump and his amazing and great America First agenda,” Gunter says in the video. Rosen is one of the top Republican targets in next year's election as the GOP looks to wrest the Senate majority from Democrats, who...

EEMSHAVEN, Netherlands — Tugboats towed a freight ship that burned for a week on the North Sea while carrying thousands of cars into a Dutch port on Thursday for salvaging, laying to rest fears that it could sink close to shipping lanes and a protected habitat for birds. The Fremantle Highway was taken to the northern port of Eemshaven, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said. A boat that has special booms to clean up oil spills accompanied the nearly 200-meter-long (around 650-foot-long) vessel as a precaution. The ship with 3,784 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones, on...

Tou Thao, the former Minneapolis police officer who held back a crowd of bystanders during George Floyd’s fatal arrest in May 2020, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Monday for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Thao gave a short comment on his role in Floyd’s death in a statement prior to his sentencing in a Minnesota courthouse. “Obviously, on that day, we didn’t intend on – I didn’t intend on doing any malice or anything like that, or try to hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best I thought I could,” he...

Matthew 14:13-21Friends, in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand. Jesus went up on a mountain and sat down with his disciples. In Scripture, mountains are places of encounter, where God comes down and men and women go up.The disciples want to dismiss the hungry crowd, but Jesus says, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” Jesus is interested not only in instructing the crowds but in feeding them as well. The disciples bring forth a poor pittance—five barley loaves and two fish—and observe that this is woefully inadequate...

Ohio voters will decide Tuesday whether future changes to the state constitution require a simple majority or 60% support, a decision that will have a major impact on a November fight over a pro-choice abortion measure. Buckeye State voters will be asked in the fall whether a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” should be added to the constitution as states navigate the fallout from the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. But Republican lawmakers scheduled an undercard fight this summer. If “Issue 1” passes, it would make it harder for pro-choice advocates to lock in abortion rights through a...

grand jury is set to consider whether to indict 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in connection with alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. If indicted, this would be his fourth this year. Lawyers who have followed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation, including some who have worked with her in the past, expect her to invoke Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, which is modeled after the federal act of the same name, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Signs are certainly pointing in that direction,” said law professor at Georgia...

A snake fell out of the sky and landed on a woman mowing her yard. The bizarre incident didn’t stop there. Peggy Jones was then attacked by a hawk. Jones was on her tractor mowing at her home in Silsbee, near Beaumont on Tuesday afternoon. She describes how suddenly a snake fell on her, wrapping around her arm. “The snake was squeezing so hard, and I was waving my arms in the air. And then, this hawk was swooping down clawing at my arm over and over,” explains Peggy Jones. “I just kept saying, ‘Help me, Jesus, Help me, Jesus.’’

Other screening questions will remain the same -- for everyone. Potential donors will be asked about risk factors including sexual activity -- whether they have had sexual contact with a new partner in the past three months or had anal sex, which would require them to wait three months before donating. The Red Cross said the decision is supported by decades of data collection and assessments, including the ADVANCE study, which was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approved new rules for blood donation in May that eliminated waiting periods on the basis of sexual orientation...

A Black man is taking legal action after claiming that he was harassed and racially discriminated against by his supervisor while working at a California university, leading to him experiencing “panic attacks,” heightened fear, anxiety and other health issues, court documents allege. Court documents show Vaughn is seeking damages due to the institution’s failure to protect him from a hostile work environment. “Ms. Rubin’s repeated race-based harassment of Mr. Vaughn and other non-white SFSU employees would be indefensible anywhere, but especially at an educational institution where diversity, inclusivity, and respect… should be upheld,” Rubin’s attorney Arash Sadat told the San...

Britons have never been given a proper say over our draconian, punishing climate laws. ‘I’ve knocked on hundreds, literally thousands of doors, and had tens of thousands of conversations with voters… and I just don’t have conversations about climate change.’ So said an anonymous MP, despairing at the British public’s lack of interest in climate change. He was quoted in a 2018 report by the environmental think-tank, the Green Alliance. The findings were stark. Ten years after the UK had passed the Climate Change Act, which commits the British government to stringent, legally binding decarbonisation targets, there was no sign...

It was an extraordinary corporate pledge — a promise that not only fit the zeitgeist of an increasingly climate-anxious society, but also sought to reconcile pent-up guilt over mounting plastic waste. In videos featuring Hollywood star Daryl Hannah, press releases, website testimonials and telephone calls with reporters, one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers had apparently vowed to go plastic-free by the end of the decade. It’s iconic Barbie doll — whose smiling polyvinyl chloride face has brought joy to generations of children — would eventually be made of such natural materials as mushrooms, seaweed, clay and bamboo. One of...

Ron DeSantis has broken with 70 percent of the Republican base, telling NBC News, “Of course [Trump] lost: Joe Biden’s the President.” The stunning remarks, though caveated with complaints about mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, are unlikely to endear DeSantis to his party’s voters, a majority of whom are already soured by the Florida Governor’s lackluster campaign and toxic online strategies.DeSantis, who has spent the last two weeks watching some of his chief donors abandon his beleaguered presidential campaign, told NBC News: “Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner,” before being...

In wake of the hit "Barbie" movie, the announcement of an "EcoWarrior" Barbie doll drew the attention of media organizations and consumers, including an apparent pledge from toymaker Mattel to stop using plastic by 2030. A news release, published Tuesday on a website that looked remarkably similar to Mattel's corporate page, even had CEO Ynon Kreiz seemingly drawing the line at producing more plastic dolls: "We have made more than a billion plastic Barbies, and enough is enough." The EcoWarrior Barbie was promoted by Daryl Hannah, who is known for her ecological advocacy, with the actor appearing in a YouTube...

The alleged leader of an MS-13 clique in New York City “was the one signing the death warrants” for the ruthless gang — including ordering up the slaying of a 16-year-old boy found nearly decapitated in a Queens park, federal prosecutors said Monday in closing arguments at his murder trial. Melvi Amador-Rios, 32, the head of the Centrales Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13, was allegedly behind the gruesome stabbing death of Julio Vasquez in 2017, and also called for the murder of another teen who was left paralyzed by the attempt on his life, according to prosecutors. “They kill anyone...

Governor Glenn Youngkin headed to the Hamptons this weekend. Not for a relaxing day at the beach, but for a private dinner at the home of Wilbur Ross, Donald Trump’s former Commerce Secretary, who amassed a room of GOP mega donors to meet with the Virginia Republican.Not officially billed as a fundraiser, Gov. Youngkin is said to have impressed dinner attendees – reportedly a who’s-who of the moneyed, establishment conservative class.State elections for the Virginia legislature occur in off-years with Republicans currently holding a four seat majority in the House of Delegates (the lower legislative house) and the Democrats holding...