Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Eijk reflects on celebrating his first public Latin Mass in new interview'I found it a very impressive and unforgettable experience,' said Cardinal Eijk in an interview with the Italian blog Messainlatino.Cardinal Willem Eijk celebrates first public Traditional Latin Mass in Oss, Netherlands. Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk explained his reasons for celebrating a Pontifical Mass in the Tridentine Rite and described its reception among the faithful.On March 25, the Italian blog Messainlatino published an exclusive interview conducted by Father Marco Begato with Cardinal Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht and primate of the Netherlands, who celebrated his first Pontifical High...

The Windy City is blowing travelers away with its new tourist fee. Chicago's City Council has unanimously voted to create a Tourism Improvement District - and raise hotel rooms taxes in that district to 19 percent, one of the highest in the country. That’s higher than Las Vegas - and far above cities like Los Angeles, where hotel taxes sit closer to 14 percent. Under the plan, a new 1.5 percent surcharge will be added to hotel stays at larger properties, with the money funneled into tourism marketing efforts run by Choose Chicago. On a $300 hotel room, visitors could...

[Catholic Caucus] EXCLUSIVE: Dutch bishop says Church in Netherlands has collapsed, warns Germany may be nextDue to heterodox ‘reforms’ after Vatican II, just 2% of Catholics in the Netherlands now attend Sunday Mass, down from 96% in some parts of the country, Bishop Robert Mutsaerts told LifeSiteNews.Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Bishop Georg Baetzing –former German bishops' conference presidentsDutch Bishop Roberts Mutsaerts has warned the Catholic Church in Germany that it will suffer a collapse like the Church in the Netherlands if its continues with the heretical Synodal Way.In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews journalist Andreas Wailzer, Bishop Mutsaerts, the auxiliary bishop...

The Biden administration pushed COVID-19 boosters for elderly people even harder after its vaccine safety surveillance systems discovered, as early as November 2022, "statistically significant safety signals for ischemic stroke" in that age group following uptake of the Pfizer bivalent, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy in a letter Monday, disclosed Wednesday. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chair released nearly 2,000 pages of "relevant HHS records" in conjunction with the letter, in 10 batches, documenting the stroke signal and internal communications between officials "acknowledging significant statistical limitations in their ability to detect...

Explanation: In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched pass across the sky?" The volcanic mo'ai (meaning statue) of Ahu Tongariki stand guard over Rapa Nui (Isla de Pascua, Easter Island), a Polynesian island (annexed by Chile in 1888) located thousands of kilometers off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Due to the island's remoteness, the mo'ai, with their backs to the dark ocean, are able to gaze upon a clear and vibrant night sky. Pictured, these larger-than-life statues stare at the bright band of the Milky Way, partly obscured by...

The Loyola Phoenix, the student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago, has issued an editor’s note apologizing for an Instagram post calling the alleged killer of 18-year-old student Sheridan Gorman an "illegal immigrant." "On March 23, a post on The Phoenix’s Instagram page carried the following headline: ‘Immigrant Man Charged in Murder of Sheridan Gorman, DHS Involved,’" the editor’s note, posted below a Sunday article about Gorman’s murder, read. "That headline didn’t reflect the most important elements in the story, and it was taken down minutes later to prevent any further harm to affected community members," the editor’s note continued. "Additionally,...

Netanyahu seeks to pass the Budget by March 31 to avoid snap elections, which polls suggest he would likely lose. The war in Iran has shifted focus from Gaza, but polls remain unchanged since Oct 7, showing weak support for Netanyahu. To secure the Budget, Netanyahu's coalition allocated funds to allies, like ultra-Orthodox parties, ensuring their support. Polls consistently show around 40 per cent of voters sticking with Mr Netanyahu’s coalition of nationalist and religious parties, 40 per cent backing opposition parties, and a swing vote so far not moving to Mr Netanyahu, said Professor Gideon Rahat, a political scientist...

@RepNancyMace Just walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran. Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing. @RepNancyMace The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee. This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people. @RepNancyMace Washington’s war machine is hard at work. They are try to drag us into Iran...

The message urges recipients to register their support through a website and to confirm participation by sending a number via SMS. It also directs users to further information on the domestic platform Rubika. The text included a link to the campaign's website that could not be accessed from outside Iran. Tehran-based Didban Iran reported that the campaign has gained around 290,000 supporters, with total pledged amounts reaching $25 million. The website says that these sums have not been collected and instead represent pledged amounts, according to the report.

CNN, in a laughable attempt to boost its ratings, has attempted to dress up a couple of its broadcasts in podcast trappings -- based on the misguided notion that viewers will be attracted to the new form rather than the losing substance of what journalists such as Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper are saying. As an inevitable result, such a desperate move has been the object of widespread mockery. What is interesting is this mockery is not only coming from the right but even from left leaning media such as the New Yorker. Jay Caspian Kang who is himself a...

IRGC: US, Israel, UAE, etc.: Nuts! All: Have it your way. 82nd AB and USMC steady as you go (2Kharg?). Iranian people: Keep hitting IRGC. We want them dead. "Compassion" junkies: STFU and go away.

First Lady Melania Trump is hosting the Fostering the Future Together summit in Washington, DC aimed at 'expanding access to educational tools' and protecting kids in digital environments, according to the White House. Trump, France's First Lady Brigitte Macron, and leaders from more than 40 other countries were joined by a humanoid robot named Figure 3 developed by the AI robotics company, Figure. The robot takes care of household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and doing dishes.

A Los Angeles jury found Wednesday that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube harmed a young user with features designed to hook kids — in a bombshell verdict that “shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core.” The high-profile case involved a 20-year-old woman who claimed she became dangerously obsessed with the apps at a young age because they were deliberately built to be addictive, using features like infinite scroll and autoplay. The tech giants were found liable for $3 million in damages. The multi-million-dollar judgment is likely to grow, as the jury of seven women and five men will...

The new documents show that Smith’s efforts to acquire Patel’s phone records during his time as a private citizen were far more extensive than previously reported. pecial Counsel Jack Smith’s targeting of Kash Patel and numerous congressional Republicans as part of his lawfare against Donald Trump was worse than originally thought, new records show. Released Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the new documents demonstrate that Smith and his team’s efforts to acquire Patel’s phone records during his time as a private citizen were far more extensive than previously reported. The bid to...

ODNI Tulsi Gabbard will soon declassify a top secret document related to Trump’s first impeachment that then-House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff locked away in a SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility] for years. Per investigative reporter Paul Sperry: “I’m told Trump intel czar Tulsi Gabbard will soon declassify an explosive top-secret document former House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff locked away in a Capitol SCIF several years ago and wouldn’t let even members of Congress see…” DEVELOPING: I’m told Trump intel czar Tulsi Gabbard will soon declassify an explosive top-secret document former House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff locked away in a Capitol...

LANSING – Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that the State of Michigan and the City of Romulus filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) challenging its plan to convert a Romulus warehouse into a mass immigration detention facility. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, seeks to declare unlawful, vacate, and set aside the agencies’ decision and requests that the Court permanently enjoin the conversion, construction, retrofitting, or operation of the commercial warehouse as an ICE detention center. “As the...

WASHINGTON — Airline passengers are experiencing some of the highest security wait times in the 25-year-history of the Transportation Security Administration — with some taking more than four-and-a-half hours to make it through checkpoints, a top official told Congress Wednesday. TSA acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified to the House Homeland Security Committee that her beleaguered agency is “being forced to consolidate” and “may have to close smaller airports if we do not have enough officers.” “It is a fluid, challenging and unpredictable situation. We understand this is frustrating and disruptive,” she added. “This is unacceptable.” More than 480 Transportation...

What’s in a name? These days...not much. The European Union does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of E.U. members Hungary and Slovakia, the European supra-state insists on paying the salaries of Ukraine’s government bureaucracy while that nation’s martial-law-holdover-president, Volodymyr Zelensky, fights to maintain control over a breakaway region that has rejected Ukrainian rule since the 2014 coup d'état of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of NATO members Hungary and Slovakia, the American-led military alliance insists on sending money and weapons to the Kyiv regime...

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is attempting to blame former President Donald Trump for the murder of college student Sheridan Gorman by an illegal immigrant living in Chicago's "amnesty zone". Pritzker claims the Trump administration should stop "politicizing heinous tragedies" and instead focus on "real solutions" to prevent such violence. However, critics argue Pritzker's policies of shielding illegal immigrants from deportation have contributed to rising crime in the state.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke on Tuesday of a “deep rift” with traditional ally the United States and said the US-Israeli war on Iran was a “breach of international law”. In unusually strong comments, the German head of state said that just as there was no going back from Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “there will be no going back to before January 20, 2025”, when US President Donald Trump entered the White House for a second time. “The rift is too deep and the trust in American power politics has been lost, not only among our allies but…...