Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Letters from 22 women documenting Rupnik’s abuse add to allegationsOne former sister said the superior of the community had ‘forced’ the women to write letters to Fr. Marko Rupnik describing their relationship with him and what he had done to them as well as forgiving him.Previously undisclosed letters from 22 women alleging abuse by Father Marko Rupnik are part of the record of the ongoing canonical criminal trial of the disgraced priest.In the letters, “22 women described alleged spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse by Father Rupnik while he was their spiritual director,” OSV News reported Thursday. The letters...

A California-based space technology company’s plan to test a satellite carrying a giant reflective mirror has prompted warnings from experts who fear the technology could worsen light pollution, disrupt ecosystems, and interfere with scientific research. Reflect Orbital recently received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch and test its Eärendil-1 demonstration satellite, which will carry a giant space mirror designed to redirect sunlight back to Earth from low Earth orbit. (snip) The demonstration mission aims to test whether sunlight can be reflected onto specific locations on Earth. The reflected light would illuminate an area around three miles...

Recent primary results could steer presidential hopefuls in the wrong direction for 2028. The far left is having a moment, and Democratic presidential aspirants are no doubt watching. Progressive activists think they have the key to winning all over the map, buoyed by Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory in Michigan’s Senate primary, Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Francesca Hong’s polling advantage ahead of the Aug. 11 primary and scattered wins by Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates. But presidential hopefuls be forewarned: Three warning lights are blinking red. First, even in what looks like a strong Democratic year, these candidates are...

Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million into a New Mexico abatement fund after a judge found the company’s platforms contributed to the youth mental health crisis in the state, marking another major blow to Big Tech in a growing wave of child safety litigation. The order, reported by CNBC, follows an earlier finding that Meta willfully violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The company had already been hit with $375 million in civil penalties earlier this year. The new $567 million abatement fund brings the total price tag in the case to nearly $1 billion. Judge Bryan Biedscheid...

TODAY'S NEWS, August 6-7, 2026 Writer: Larry Schweikart Larry Schweikart 4 hours ago 8 min read TODAY'S NEWS, August 6-7, 2026 HEADLINES: Trump issues Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship; Senate panel contempt citation for Dr. Fallacy heads to DOJ; Continuing bad news for DemoKKKrats; Doordash Delivery Drones are on their way to you The News of Today is the History of Tomorrow

The U.S. Department of War has revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s eligibility to access classified information over what the department says was an unauthorized disclosure involving Air Force One’s capabilities. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move Friday on X, saying it took effect immediately and also bars Kendall from holding any sensitive position. "Effective immediately, the Department of War has REVOKED former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s eligibility for access to classified information and his ability to hold any sensitive position. This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One’s capabilities...

Jason Arday is no longer a professor at Britain’s prestigious Cambridge University, but that august institution is going to need some time to recover from the damage he has done. Indeed, the entire academic world, and the DEI industry as well, are reeling from Arday’s sudden and shocking unmasking and downfall. They had so very much invested in him as a living symbol of the success of their analysis, and of the correctness of their worldview, that now they are due for some serious soul-searching and reevaluation of their entire approach. Will they engage in that thorough and honest self-examination...

Spain announced it would temporarily establish border controls for flights and ships from Italy as a row between the two countries over the influx of migrants into Ceuta intensified. Passport, nationality and visa checks would be conducted for visitors and maritime passengers arriving from Italy from midnight on Friday until Sept 7 "amid the persistent irregular migratory pressure" from Rome, the Spanish government declared. Spain said the measures would apply while Italy applied its own measures, which Rome said were motivated by the mass migration rush by 72,000 people to Spain's African exclave of Ceuta on July 30. Hours earlier,...

Eric Swalwell once dated Katie Miller, the woman now married to Trump's top deputy Stephen Miller, and the long-buried romance has reportedly surfaced at the center of the fight over the FBI's 'Fang Fang' files. Lawyers for the disgraced former Democratic lawmaker brought up the relationship as they battled to stop the Justice Department from making public its investigative file on his ties to suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, according to the Sources Say newsletter. Fang, who fled to China in 2015 as the FBI closed in, spent years cozying up to rising California Democrats, helping bundle donations for Swalwell's...

“. . . it’s subversion and nothing about it is accidental. it’s a well worn playbook to use the democratic institutions of a high trust state to destroy a civilization.” —El Gato Malo on Substack The days might still be long, but this is a dark season in our country’s politics. Everybody’s nervous and many are furious, and yet all that emotion goes nowhere, just eats you up while you watch and wait for signs that help is on the way. What would that help even look like? Maybe a concerted effort to bum-rush a whole lot of bad ideas...

Former NBA Draft first round pick (3rd overall in 2011) Enes Kanter Freedom, who has been an adamant opponent of LeBron James, the Chinese Communist Party, Nike, along with more political activism, which he believes blackballed him from the NBA, has officially declared himself a prospect for the 2027 WNBA Draft. Yes, I’m serious. In the aftermath of Sophie Cuningham making a definitive stance that women’s sports should remain female, many coaches and players have opened up the floodgates for men in their league. Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Willliams even said, "I would welcome a trans athlete on my...

The NYPD is searching for a masked suspect seen on surveillance video vandalizing a church in Long Island City, Queens. What we know: Video shows the suspect jumping a fence into the courtyard of St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church on 11th Street, then taking a hammer from his pocket and smashing a Mother Mary statue. The statue was knocked off its pedestal and broke during the incident just after 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 1, police said. The suspect jumped back over the fence and fled the scene, police said. Local perspective: According to officials, this marked the fourth time since...

The frontrunner to win the Democrat Primary for Governor in Wisconsin is currently a woman by the name of Francesca Hong and she is completely out of her mind. She is running for governor with a platform of abolishing police and ICE, trashing American holidays, and threatening President Trump. BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales reacts to several videos of Hong as she breaks down this bizarre story.

They board flights from Central America bound for the United States, not to migrate but to source used cars. Operating a cross-border circuit, these drivers transport salvaged vehicles from American scrapyards to their home roads — giving junked cars a second life and fueling the local economy. Julio César Pisquiy Nimatuj was 12 when he first drove on a highway. He discovered that he enjoyed being behind the wheel. Decades later, Mr. Pisquiy, 44, is one of these migrants who drives for a living. Every driver has their own business model. Mr. Pisquiy buys the cars in advance at auctions...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop says Catholic Church must ‘offer refuge’ to ‘queer people in our congregations’The ‘Queer Commissioner of the German Bishops' Conference’ said parishes must become ‘safe places’ for ‘queer people,’ arguing the Church has fostered ‘prejudice, mistrust, and rejection.’ A German bishop has accused the Catholic Church of failing “queer people” by allowing “prejudice, mistrust,” and “rejection,” calling on the Church to “repent.”On August 2, Bishop Ludger Schepers, auxiliary bishop of Essen and the “Queer Commissioner of the German Bishops’ Conference,” made the criticism in a public statement published by German news outlet Kirche+Leben, one week after the attack...

The conflict may have slowed, but not stopped, Iran’s nuclear program, officials and experts said. Chief among President Trump’s reasons for launching the war in Iran was preventing it from building a nuclear weapon. More than five months in, officials and experts say, the conflict may have slowed Iran’s nuclear program but not stopped it. Because Iran has barred U.N. inspections of its most sensitive nuclear sites — a key part of any eventual peace deal — the precise fate of its highly enriched nuclear fuel is unknown. And despite strikes on three key nuclear sites in 2025 and 2026,...

Eric Swalwell leveraged his past romantic relationship with Katie Miller, wife of top Trump official Stephen Miller, to keep potentially embarrassing FBI files behind lock and key, a shocking new report revealed Thursday. The news that the disgraced former Democratic Congressman from California — who resigned after several women claimed sexual assault and rape — once dated the now-wife of a top conservative leader stunned Washington. “I was an intern working on Capitol Hill,” Miller posted on X about the situation. Then Katie Waldman worked as both an intern and communications director on Capitol Hill in her 20s before moving...

[Catholic Caucus] Latest Book by Fr. Claude Barthe Compares & Contrasts the Traditional & New Sacramental RitesIn 1969, A Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae was published with the signatures of two powerful cardinals, Bacci and Ottaviani. Nicknamed The Ottaviani Intervention, it quickly become a classic, and has never gone out of print. But... where was its companion volume? You know, the one about the other six sacraments? For, indeed, the reform of the Mass was accompanied by a profound overhaul of all the other sacraments—baptism, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, penance, and extreme unction (the last two renamed...

The decision reflects internal findings that the upcoming ‘Astra’ model may possess ‘critical cyber capabilities’ and follows a string of AI-testing incidentsOpenAI is pausing some activities involving an upcoming artificial-intelligence model, Astra, after internal evaluations led the company to conclude it “cannot rule out critical cyber capabilities,” the company said in a blog post on Friday. The announcement of the slowdown, which represents one of the first times an AI developer has publicly held back model development due to security concerns, follows a series of loss-of-control incidents that have raised alarm among cyberdefense professionals and AI-safety researchers. During evaluations over...

For eighteen centuries, Christianity never taught what most American evangelicals now believe about Israel.So where did it come from?In this video I (Olivia Swing) investigated the origins of Christian Zionism — the theology, the money, and the foreign influence operations actively targeting American churches right now. What I found was a paper trail hiding in plain sight, registered with the U.S. Department of Justice.