Free Republic

A Catholic priest is under investigation for allegedly starting a years-long relationship with a 17-year-old stripper — and paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep quiet about it. Robert Sullivan, 61, is on leave as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Homewood, Alabama, after he was publicly accused of initiating a relationship with Heather Jones, now 33, when she was a vulnerable teenager in 2009. Jones said in a letter to the Diocese of Birmingham — and shared with the Guardian — that she first met Sullivan while she was dancing at a strip club he...

The Kremlin has confirmed the names of those who will attend the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska this Friday, August 15, among other details about the schedule. -snip- Alongside Putin will be Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund. -snip- The summit, to be held at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage and centred on agreeing a settlement on Ukraine, will begin at 11:30 a.m. local time, the Kremlin said, according to...

DNI Clapper to NSA Director Rogers: “That’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it” Stunning admission that manufacturing intelligence is a “team sport” requiring “compromise on our ‘normal modalities’” WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard declassified a Top Secret email from then-DNI James Clapper exposing his efforts to suppress concerns raised by then-National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers regarding the politicized January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that President Obama ordered. On December 22, 2016, Rogers wrote an email to Clapper, then-FBI Director James Comey, and then CIA Director John Brennan expressing serious concerns...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised President Donald Trump for his efforts to broker an end to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, as preparations continued for the Friday summit between the American and Russian leaders in Alaska. The Trump administration "is making quite an energetic and sincere effort, in my opinion, to stop hostilities, to stop the crisis and to reach an agreement that is of interest to all those involved in this conflict," Putin said during a meeting of his top officials to prepare for the Alaska summit, according to a readout published by the Kremlin. The process could...

Miller claimed to have led the team that drafted the 2017 ICA that concluded the Russians interfered in the 2016 election with the aim of electing President Donald Trump. The Pentagon has reportedly revoked the security clearance of former CIA official Susan Miller, who has appeared on an array of media outlets in recent weeks discussing her alleged role in drafting an intelligence community assessment (ICA) related to the Russia collusion hoax. Miller claimed to have led the team that drafted the 2017 ICA that concluded the Russians interfered in the 2016 election with the aim of electing President Donald...

I was heartened to see my former employer, Duke University Health System, quietly reverse its commitment to woke racism this year. I had joined the internal resistance to its diversity, equity, and inclusion crusade and was fired because of it. Here’s my story. Without public notice, the 38,000-employee organization scrubbed its website of the commitment to DEI it had trumpeted in 2021, when it proclaimed racism a “public health crisis,” and “equity” as its cure. Now, all such fealty to DEI has been discarded with its new 2025 statement of values. The title of its 2021 pledge to patients –...

FBI Director Kash Patel has uncovered a bombshell memo written in 2017 chronicling the extensive political obstruction that career agents in three cities faced from their own bosses and the Obama Justice Department during the 2016 election as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation. "Shut it down!" then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the detailed timeline of political impediments that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. The agents tried to get the help of federal prosecutors to determine whether or what...

Republicans are leading the charge against alcohol consumption in the US. Across the US, drinking rates have plunged to their lowest level in 90 years. Only 54 percent of adults said they had a drink last month, according to Gallup data. That's the lowest level since the polling group began collecting the figures in 1939. Only 46 percent of Republican voters reported having any alcohol in all of last year, a one third drop from 2023. By comparison Democrat drinkers only decline by five percent in the same period. 'Americans' drinking habits are shifting amid the medical world's reappraisal of...

A man is going viral on social media for his "Texas-sized" appetite after devouring three 72-ounce steaks in one single day — and then some. Video creator Mohamed Mbengue, known online as MoMotion, became the first man to accomplish the challenge three times in one day at an iconic Texas steakhouse, the business announced on Thursday, August 7. Big Texan Steak Ranch, located in Amarillo, is renowned for its daunting food challenge, which requires diners to eat an entire five-item meal to receive it for free. Since the steakhouse's 1960 inception, the competition has attracted notable figures such as The...

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump's upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "precursor" for future meetings, as Trump is willing to continue the dialogue. He added that the European Union should "put up or shut up" on Russia, accusing it of buying Russian oil refined in India and stressing that the US and the EU must coordinate on secondary sanctions on Russia.

We’ve come to expect that no matter what President Donald Trump says or does these days, the mainstream press will rush out to say he’s wrong. So, we weren’t the least bit surprised when, after Trump said crime in the nation’s capital is out of control and called in the National Guard, news outlets immediately dismissed his claims. But who is doing the lying here? Crime in D.C. “is getting worse, not getting better,” Trump said. Nonsense, came the chorus of press reports, with headlines such as: - “Fact check: Violent crime in DC has fallen in 2024 and 2025...

The summit between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will begin at 11:30 local time (Alaska Daylight Time), and will kick off with a one-on-one conversation in which only interpreters will be present, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov announced on Thursday in a briefing. After the initial meeting, the parties will continue negotiations in the format of a working breakfast. "It is expected that everything will begin tomorrow, August 15, at approximately 11:30 local time (22:30 Moscow time/ 21:30 CET/ 15:30 ET) with a conversation between Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Donald Trump," the diplomat said. "This conversation...

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose slightly in July to its highest level since February...

250 years ago this month, the British chopped down an important symbol of American freedom—the Boston Liberty Tree. To add insult to injury, they ignominiously turned that once-stately elm into mere firewood. I knew virtually nothing about the Liberty Tree—until I was informed by Dr. Peter Lillback, the founding president of Providence Forum, for which I serve as executive director. Lillback has even begun a project to restore Liberty Trees, but that is the subject for a future column.

“‘But go and learn what this means: “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice”’” (Matthew 9:13). Jesus never shied away from speaking directly and bluntly if the situation demanded such talk. Here He pins the Jewish leaders to the wall by quoting from their own most honored scriptural authorities. Their own prophets rebuke them for their spiritual ignorance and their lack of obedience to God’s clear commands. Jesus paraphrases Hosea’s prophetic and divinely inspired words: “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). The perfect Word of God should have...

Down in El Salvador in the specialized prisons there sit one of the most dangerous of things. An army of over 70k humans who will stop at nothing. All concentrated together. This is of a huge danger to the entire western hemisphere and particularly the the citizens of the US Mexico and Canada.Since nothing lasts forever I hope there is a plan in place to bomb the prison complex if there is any indication that these animals may go free? I hope there are bombers on standby. Always.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a troubling quarterly statement as the total household debt in the US increased by $185 billion in the past three months, up 1% from last quarter, when total household debt reached $18.9 trillion. Total household debt in the US now sits at $18.39 trillion. Housing debt increased 1.1% from April to June, now standing at $149 billion. Mortgage balances increased by $131 billion, notably the largest cause of household debt. Mortgage originations increased at a modest pace with $458 billion of debt added, while HELOC balances grew by $9 billion to $411...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man is on trial this week, accused of shooting his date after an argument over a dinner bill. It’s a case, now on trial, raising new questions about online dating safety. Jamal Moreland is charged with attempted armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he met the victim through the LGBTQ dating app Grindr in February 2023. According to investigators, the two went to a bowling alley, then a liquor store. At some point, Moreland ordered food and wanted the victim to pay. When the victim refused, prosecutors say Moreland became agitated. The victim...

The proposal would recognize that while Russia cannot continue to push westward, the project for Euro-Atlantic expansion has also run out of steam. It would see the establishment of deconfliction channels, neutral zones, and lines of control that, taken together, would formalize something that resembles spheres of influence, even without naming them as such.

"The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) has obtained new documents through a Department of Defense (DoD) request for proposal revealing the U.S. military’s funding of a controversial self-spreading vaccine program known as DARPA INTERCEPT.The documents reveal, say ICAN, that the animal trials were a success and that the next step of development is to inject terminally-ill humans next." (snip) The controversy around ‘self spreading’ vaccines comes from the fact that once released into a population, they cannot be controlled as to where the vaccine goes, who it reaches, or how it behaves. This goes against long-established public health principles that...