Free Republic

At a time when much of Europe’s ecclesial discourse on migration focuses almost exclusively on humanitarian assistance and social integration, Bishop Antonio Suetta of the Diocese of Ventimiglia-San Remo has issued a strikingly direct challenge to Catholics: welcoming migrants without sharing the Gospel is ultimately an incomplete form of charity. In a pastoral letter published on May 24 for Pentecost and titled No Greater Love, the Italian bishop argues that Christians betray their mission if they provide migrants with food, shelter and legal assistance while remaining silent about Jesus Christ. The document, unusual in tone within today’s European ecclesial climate,...

Vice President Kamala Harris acted like a “courtroom prosecutor” in her insistence that President Joe Biden immediately endorse her for the 2024 Democratic nomination after he abruptly ended his bid for a second term, former first lady Jill Biden writes in her forthcoming memoir. In “View from the East Wing,” out June 2, Jill Biden recounts the conversation on July 21, 2024, when the 46th president told his second in command he would be the first commander-in-chief not to seek re-election since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. “Oh my God, Joe. Are you sure?” Jill Biden recalls Harris saying before pushing...

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a former teacher and principal known in Congress for her colorful outfits and matching hats, said Friday she will not seek re-election this fall. “This has been a journey, but it’s time. It’s time. And I know all of you are wondering, ‘What is the congresswoman going to do?’ Well, the congresswoman is going to not seek another term,” Wilson said at a ceremony where a street in the Miami area was named in her honor. The street is next to a school that is also named after her. “Even leather wears out,” she said, adding...

A taxpayer-funded California “Peace Ambassador” is a convicted murderer now being charged with another felony, authorities said Friday. Michael Angel Alvarez, nicknamed “Diablo,” was arrested Friday for allegedly possessing body armor as a violent felon belonging to the 18th Street gang, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. Alvarez worked for Healing Urban Barrios, an organization performing paid “violence prevention” services for the city of Los Angeles’ “Peace Ambassador” program, according to the DOJ. The Daily Caller News Foundation could not identify an attorney for Alvarez. Healing Urban Barrios did not respond to a request for comment. Los Angeles’ Peace Ambassador...

(In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House's 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together) At a time when the American public is expressing unprecedented levels of distrust in the Israeli government, Congress just proposed tying the U.S. to the Israeli military more than ever before. Buried in the House's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more...

Shares of Dell Technologies rocketed 32% after the company reported its fastest pace for revenue growth for any period since returning to the public market in 2018. The stock closed its best day ever. AI server revenue increased 757% from last year. Shares of Dell Technologies closed 32.76% higher on Friday, wrapping its best day ever after the company reported its fastest pace for revenue growth for any period since returning to the public market in 2018. The stock narrowly beat its previous record from March 1, 2024, when it popped 31.6%. Shares are now up 234% in 2026. Dell,...

Socialist LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is getting hammered online after appearing visibly rattled by a staged homeless encampment protest outside her own home. “I’m glad my kids didn’t have to see that,” Raman told comedian Adam Conover on his podcast released Wednesday before adding, “I thought this campaign was going to be about bike lanes and transportation.” Raman was referring to a staged Memorial Day protest outside Raman’s Silver Lake-area home. Footage from the stunt shows homeless people climbing out of tents, staging an open-air barbecue and one individual walking around carrying a bucket as neighbors recorded the scene.

Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, Messier 104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, the Sombrero Galaxy. Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen across the spectrum and is host to a central supermassive black hole. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the Virgo...

Republicans have pounced on an old statement as they seek to make gender politics the focus of the Senate campaign.A few days before he won the race to be the Texas GOP’s candidate for U.S. Senate, Ken Paxton tried to call an ad-spend truce with his runoff opponent, the four-term incumbent John Cornyn. Ostensibly, a ceasefire would enable him to pour those dollars into campaigning against the Democratic candidate, James Talarico. The scorched-earth line of attack that a PAC affiliated with him landed on: Talarico thinks God isn’t a dude. Or, in exact terms, that one time he said...

Where’s the beef? Not in Texas — at least, not as much as it used to be. Texas barbecue joints are shutting their doors across the Lone Star State as sky-high beef prices turn brisket — once the centerpiece of a blue-collar meal — into a luxury item that many customers can no longer afford. From Houston suburbs to rural smokehouses, pitmasters say soaring wholesale beef costs, inflation and shrinking customer traffic are crushing margins and forcing some of the state’s most celebrated BBQ institutions out of business. SNIP “When brisket costs $36 a pound for the consumer and then...

Overnight Friday, the Hezbollah terrorist organization launched several rockets that hit the Saint Georges Orthodox Church in southern Lebanon, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit revealed on Friday. The launches hit buildings in the Christian village of Marjaayoun. IDF soldiers are not operating in the area near the church. The IDF released footage showing the impact of the rockets launched by Hezbollah and which hit the church in southern Lebanon. “This incident further proves how Hezbollah continues to endanger and harm Lebanese civilians," said the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The two sources put the fund at $300 billion, though other officials involved in mediation would not confirm the amount, according to the report. Two diplomats briefed on the latest draft called it “an international ‘investment fund,’ which the United States would help facilitate in the event of a final deal,” and plans for which would be discussed during the initial 60-day negotiations period that the memorandum would kick off, the report says.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have gotten a lot of attention over the past decade. In these pages, we’ve often lamented that universities’ focus on superficial measures of diversity undermines merit and overlooks viewpoint diversity. A new book by Duke professor Adrian Bejan, Diversity Through Freedom, emphasizes a different kind of diversity: the organic, inevitable, and beneficial diversity found in nature. He calls it “a phenomenon that has a mind of its own” that can’t be “shoehorned into a few distinct (antagonistic) classes.” The Martin Center sat down with Professor Bejan to discuss his book and its implications for higher education....

“Your name will no longer be Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). Each signals a pivotal redemptive-historical turn. Abram’s case inaugurates the line through which Messiah comes (Matthew 1:1). Theological Implications 1. Election: God selects a pagan from Ur (Joshua 24:2) and redefines him. 2. Universality: “Many nations” anticipates Gentile inclusion (Romans 4:11-17; Galatians 3:8). 3. Irrevocability: The covenant is “everlasting” (Genesis 17:7); Paul calls the gifts and calling of God “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Los Angeles District 4 City Councilwoman and socialist candidate for L.A. mayor, Nithya Raman, has gotten a small taste of what Angelenos have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and she does not like it one bit. An advocacy group called Safe Cities USA decided to stage a full-on homeless encampment at Raman's doorstep over Memorial Day weekend, and she was shocked that the campaign for mayor has come to this. She thought she'd be spouting World Economic Forum (WEF) garbage about bike lanes, transportation, and 15-minute cities. Instead, she's being confronted with what the majority of Los Angeles...

@mtgreenee We just said goodbye to our good friends Thomas and Carolyn Massie. The civil war in the Republican Party is successfully gutting the true America Firsters, like myself, Thomas and others. But I don’t think most Americans realize the extent of what’s happening, how bad it is, and what it’s going to produce. After taking the hard principled stand against war with Iran in June 2025 and releasing the Epstein files, the neocon controlled Republican establishment now backed by the President set out to destroy us. Thomas and I took two different routes but ended up in the same...

A federal judge on Friday barred President Donald Trump from adding his name to that of the Kennedy Center. Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily blocked the Washington, D.C., cultural landmark from being closed for two years for renovations. The Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees in December voted to rename the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center,” 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as a trustee. “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced a sweeping agreement with Hungary’s new government led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, including the release of more than €16 billion in previously frozen EU funds, Hungary’s decision to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)... The Commission president emphasized that the European Union and the Hungarian government had already established an intensive joint working structure... The European Commission president also announced that Brussels would release €10 billion from previously frozen EU funds following progress in negotiations and reforms. In addition, she revealed that €4.2 billion in cohesion funds tied to...

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired to oversee reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, chose to resign rather than face disciplinary action for interfering with an investigation into his conduct, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday. O’Hara, who led local police during the recent federal immigration crackdown in the city, was under investigation on accusations that he was engaging in intimate relationships with city employees. The mayor told O’Hara he would be disciplined, which could include his termination. He chose to resign instead, Frey said. “It was an extremely painful decision, obviously, but I concluded that that...

The Battle of Qarqar, fought in 853 BCE, stands as a landmark event in the annals of military history, notable for featuring the earliest documented military alliance among a coalition of twelve kingdoms. This confederation was assembled to counter the expansive ambitions of the Assyrian Empire under King Shalmaneser III. The battle, although not decisively conclusive in its military outcomes, offers profound insights into the geopolitical dynamics of the ancient Near East and the complexities of coalition warfare. Background and Strategic Context During the early 9th century BCE, the Assyrian Empire, led by Shalmaneser III, was in a phase of...