Free Republic

SÃO PAULO – During an interview with an Argentinian TV station aired on March 30, Pope Francis claimed that Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, convicted of bribery and imprisoned in 2018, and former President Dilma Rousseff, impeached due to alleged budgetary manipulation in 2016, were both victims of judicial persecution. His comments sparked anger among the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and other conservatives. The pontiff’s one-hour-long interview with journalist Gustavo Sylvestre of the Argentinian news channel C5N was recorded prior to his hospitalization on March 29. They discussed several themes, including Latin American politics and the...

(It's springtime, and that means a time for new starts and new beginnings. A look at how the Chinese get married is enough to put a smile on anyone's face.) All over the world people are getting married. They marry in the United States, they marry in Russia, they marry in Kenya, and they marry in China. A marriage is a wonderful and joyous event. It is a time of happiness and the beginning of a new life. it is a very special time, and a very special event. Here are some cute and fun traditions that the contemporaneous Chinese...

First Lady Michelle Obama says Jane Fonda is one of her role models, and that she admires her political savviness. During an interview with People Magazine, Obama listed "Hanoi Jane," as one of the people she would like to look and live like when she's 70 or 80 years old. "There’s Jane Fonda, a beautiful, engaged, politically savvy, sharp woman," Obama said. The comment is likely to enrage Vietnam War veterans who still remember how Fonda, now 76, went to North Vietnam in 1972 and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft battery. Fonda denounced U.S. military leaders as "war criminals"...

The US president, Barack Obama, shook hands with his Cuban opposite number, Raul Castro, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela The handshake between the two historic enemies came as they attended a ceremony in Johannesburg to celebrate the late South African leader's ability to foster reconciliation. The gesture - which comes despite half a century of hostilities - came as Mr Obama made his way to a podium to deliver a speech. It is only the second time ever that a US president has shaken the hands of a Cuban Communist leader. President Bill Clinton was the first to...

The United States is about to lose a key arms-control tool from the closing days of the Cold War -- the right to station American observers in Russia to count the long-range missiles leaving its assembly line. The end of full-time, on-site access will likely ignite complaints in Congress, with insiders from both parties arguing over whether the George W. Bush or the Obama administration is responsible.

The U.S. State Department says Sunday's presidential election in Honduras was a significant, but insufficient step, to end to political crisis that began there in June with the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. U.S. officials are stopping short of recognizing opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo as the country's next president. The State Department says the Honduran election met international standards for fairness and transparency and it has commended Porfirio Lobo for what it termed an "ample victory". But at the same time, it stopped short of formally recognizing Lobo as the country's next president and says Honduras must still take steps...

News is out tonight that long-time CBS News Anchorman Walter Cronkite has died at the age of 92 . . . . Cronkite was the news for several generations of Americans. It was a five-night a week tradition at my house to sit down and watch the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In his later years, Cronkite revealed a very strong liberal bent, far more so than was obvious in his newscasts, although he certainly leaned toward the Democrats. But his face and voice will always be synonymous with the news. Below is video of one of his most...

NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," has died. He was 92. CBS vice president Linda Mason says Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. Friday with his family by his side at his home in New York after a long illness. He was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and...

Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite has died at age 92, The New York Times reports.

Anthony J. Russo, a Rand researcher in the late 1960s who encouraged Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon Papers and stood trial with him in the Vietnam War-era case that triggered debates over freedom of the press and hastened the fall of a president, has died. He was 71.

BERKELEY - What's in a name? If we're talking about the Berkeley post office, we're talking a Category 5 storm of petty partisan politics, compliments of congressional Republicans. But liberal-minded Berkeley may get the last licks in this brouhaha, which has city leaders and citizens alike spitting mad. First, a little history. In case you missed it, our fearless leaders in Congress outdid themselves last week with their thumbs-down vote on a normally routine matter: the naming of a post office. According to Roll Call, measures to name post office buildings make up 12 percent of the laws Congress passes...