Free Republic

In the days before he was brutally stabbed to death at his home in Rio de Janeiro last month, Manhattan art dealer Brent Sikkema had fallen madly in love with a younger man, The Post has learned. The revelation was included in a Rio Civil Police filing obtained by The Post. “In the passenger seat of the car, Brent spoke on a video chat with a man who spoke halting English,” reads the report, which summarizes the witness statement of Luiz Otavio Martins, Sikkema’s longtime driver in Rio. “The driver could see the young man on the video call. He...

California gun owners didn’t get to enjoy a full week of freedom as they did when Judge Roger Benitez enjoined the state’s ban on “large capacity” magazines a few years ago, but as attorney Kostas Moros wrote on X, the Ninth Circuit’s delayed stay in Rhode v. Bonta allowed them to experience what purchasing ammunition is like in the rest of the country for a short period of time. [embedded court ruling] Unfortunately, that brief taste of freedom came to an end, at least temporarily, on Monday evening as a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit granted Attorney General Rob...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: Fiducia Supplicans has been repudiated in places where the Church is flourishingIn Africa and Asia, attachment to ecclesial Tradition leads to a repudiation of the Bergoglio-Fernández project to confuse Catholics with their (sadly) celebrated declaration, Fiducia Supplicans.The declaration Fiducia Supplicans and the reactions it has engendered allow us to observe a division of continental dimensions pulsating through the Church: In Europe, approval; in Africa and Asia, repudiation. This is therefore not something marginal, or which has to do with “ideological groups,” as the Pontiff asserts.This is the ecclesial reality: In old Europe, Christian faith and culture...

Elections and other political processes are pivotal to the quality of a country’s governance. Elections can either greatly advance or set back a country’s long-term democratic development, as well as U.S. foreign policy priorities. The most fundamental principle defining credible elections is that they must reflect the free expression of the will of the people. To achieve this, elections should be transparent, inclusive, and trusted by voters and those elected. There have been several questionable elections. In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in an election marred by voter fraud, and violence. But the 2020...

Female Anglican ‘bishop’ addresses Pope Francis and cardinal advisers on ‘role of women in Church’Catholics ‘couldn’t have a stronger signal that Bergoglio is planning the faux ordination of women deacons, with a trajectory towards the faux ordination of women priests and bishops,’ Deacon Nick Donnelly wrote.Jo Bailey Wells, an Anglican ‘bishop’VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A female Anglican prelate gave a speech to Pope Francis and his Council of Cardinals on Monday as part of the group’s discussions on the “role of women in the Church.”On February 5, the Vatican released images and sparse details about the current Council of Cardinals...

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump does not have immunity from charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday, bringing the former U.S. president a step closer to an unprecedented criminal trial. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted because the allegations relate to his official responsibilities as president. "We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter," the unanimous panel wrote. The court...

Mark 7:1-13 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they “disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”For instance: “If someone says to father or mother, ‘Any support you might have had from me is qorban’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.” If you claim to be a person of love but fail to honor your parents, something is seriously off. Thus the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is a disregard of love.In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good...

President Joe Biden had some good economic news last week. The American economy added 353,000 new jobs, nearly twice what many people predicted. Previous months’ job gains were also revised upward, and for a change, it wasn’t government jobs that were leading the advances. Wages grew faster than expected. Consumer spending was strong. Simply put, they were really, really good economic numbers. Biden also had some horrible political news last week. A new poll had his overall approval rating at 37 percent, the lowest of his term. He trailed former President Donald Trump by 20 points on who was best...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] The Interdiction on "Communicatio in Sacris" Before the Second Vatican CouncilIn practice, we can hardly say that we recognize the same church, the same religion. Inspired by Saint Augustine, the erudite classicist Aram Frenkian (1898–1964) formulated an extremely important question in one of his studies: “Is perfection at the beginning or at the end?” A rhetorical question, of course, as the answer from the African Doctor indicates the perfection of knowledge at the origins, before Adam and Eve committed the “original sin.” Similarly, for classical Catholic thinkers, things have always been the same: the apostolic Church was that...

The Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization responded Tuesday to proposals to release at least some of the 136 Israeli hostages still in captivity in exchange for a pause in fighting, demanding an end to the war and the release of more Palestinian terrorists. Hamas is negotiating with Israel through Egypt and Qatar as intermediaries, with the U.S. playing a role in guiding proposals. The U.S. is known to favor a temporary ceasefire that can be made permanent — a position oddly close to that of Hamas.

President Joe Biden declared he was wearing a Ukraine tie and pin during an address on Tuesday trying to sell American taxpayers on an $118 billion “border security” bill that would spend $20 billion on border security and $60 billion on Ukraine aid. “I’m wearing my Ukraine tie and Ukraine pin — which I’ve been wearing because they’re in dire straits right now defending themselves against the Russian onslaught,” he said, while addressing the public on the Senate border bill he is trying to convince Congress to pass. The United States has already spent at least $113 billion on the...

After a weekend of U.S. strikes against its proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, Iran has issued a strongly worded warning not to target a ship that U.S. officials and analysts suspect of providing real-time intelligence for attacks on other vessels in the Red Sea and serving as a forward operating base for its commandos. In a slickly produced video published on the Iranian Army’s Telegram channel Sunday, a narrator says in English that “those engaging in terrorist activities against the MV Behshad or similar vessels, jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks.”

I gave a statement to the local sheriff, and they needed footage for documentation," @extrezionx told Storyful. "They also followed up with me stating the woman that I helped pull out of the truck had actually had a seizure." https://www.foxnews.com/us/truck-slams-gas-pumps-new-Truck slams into gas pumps in New Mexico, igniting fireball-igniting-fireball

Meat is good for you. There are experts who might disagree with me, and many researchers continue to search for evidence linking meat to heart disease, for example. But as a Harvard-trained, board-certified psychiatrist specializing in nutritional and metabolic psychiatry, I’ve long been curious about the relationship between food and brain health, as well as overall well-being. And in my research, I’ve yet to find a credible, plausible health argument against eating meat of any kind (including red meat, seafood, and poultry).

Jussie Smollett is trying to get his conviction for faking an attack overturned again - this time claiming he should never have been prosecuted in the first place. The Empire star is arguing he shouldn't have been charged with felony disorderly conduct in December 2021 because prosecutors made a deal to dismiss the first indictment. Smollett's attorneys filed legal documents with Illinois Supreme Court detailing the deal, which involved him doing community service and forfeiting his bond in return for charges being dropped. The actor is taking his appeal to the state's highest court after it was previously denied by...

For four years now, either as a physical virus or as a looming threat, the COVID-causing pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has been the elephant in every room—sometimes confronted and sometimes ignored but always present. While once we dreamed of eradicating COVID, now much of society has resigned itself to SARS-CoV-2’s constant presence—a surrender that would once have been unthinkable. Worldwide, there were more than 11,000 reported deaths from COVID between mid-December 2023 and mid-January 2024, and more than half of those deaths occurred in the U.S. In that same time frame, nearly one million cases were reported to the World Health Organization...

President Joe Biden blamed former President Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” for the broken border system and his administration’s expected failure to convince Congress to pass a $118 billion bill that would allot $20 billion for border security but $60 billion for Ukraine. “Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump,” Biden said during a public address on Tuesday. He claimed that Trump thinks the bill is “bad for him politically,” and, therefore, it is being opposed by Republicans in the House and Senate.

President Joe Biden claimed during a White House press conference this week that if Congressional Republicans do not pass his highly controversial border bill, former President Donald Trump will be “the only reason the border is not secure.” Biden made the remarks after setting numerous records during his presidency for the historic number of illegal aliens that have stormed through the southern border. Biden, who repeatedly stated throughout his first three years in office that the border was secure and that there was no crisis, has now changed his views on the issue as polling ahead of the November elections...

Tucker Carlson has confirmed he is in Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin - and he's doing it because 'Americans are not informed' about the war in Ukraine. The former Fox News host announced on X on Tuesday that he would be publishing an interview with the Russian despot, following widespread speculation after he was pictured leaving the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday. Carlson, 54, said the interview would air 'unedited' on his website, without a paywall, and on X, making him the first American to interview Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 'Two years into a war that's reshaping...

The helicopter carrying the conservative billionaire crashed in the Los Ríos region of southern Chile, his office said in a statement. Pinera, who was 74 years old, was Chile’s president from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022.