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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will be waiting for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Turkish capital this week to conduct face-to-face talks about the more than three-year war. -snip- Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv he will be in Ankara on Thursday to conduct the negotiations. He plans to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two will wait for Putin to arrive, he said. Zelenskyy said if Putin chooses Istanbul to hold the meeting, then both leaders will travel there.

Over 76,000 people have been evacuated from Russia's Kursk region, the local emergency ministry said. Russia evacuates 76,000 people from its border region of Kursk as Ukrainian troops advance into its territory in the largest incursion on Russian soil since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia's Ministry of Defence released footage on Saturday showing what it claims to be tanks, troops and artillery systems deployed to the country's western region of Kursk in a bid to fight off Ukrainian armed forces that stormed the area early this week. The Kremlin released other footage claimed to show helicopters, fighter jets...

Four days into Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, just across Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, the number of confirmed Ukrainian brigades in and around the invasion zone has grown to at least five: four army mechanized brigades and one brigade from the independent air assault force. Altogether, these units could oversee as many as 10,000 troops and 600 armored vehicles. Additional artillery, air-defense, drone and reconnaissance units are playing critical supporting roles. To put into perspective the scale of the Ukrainian force in and around Kursk, recall that Kyiv formed a corps with a dozen new brigades to...

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Kursk as troops continue to battle against an alleged Ukrainian incursion. President Putin has accused Ukraine of a "large-scale provocation." Russia said on Wednesday that it was continuing to battle Ukrainian troops that crossed into the border region of Kursk a day earlier, with a state of emergency declared by the regional governor and security tightened around a nearby nuclear power plant. "To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region...

Thank goodness, after fumbling border security for almost his entire administration, President Joe Biden is finally ready to take control and protect Americans. Well, kind of. And only because he’s desperately trying to improve his image before the November election. The Biden administration has had an infamously bad border, allowing millions to cross illegally into the country since he took office. Worse yet, the massive issue is entirely his fault as when he first took office in 2021, he undid nearly everything that former President Donald Trump had done to secure the southern border. So after millions of illegal immigrants...

Judith and Natalie Raanan. According to Israeli officials, Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hamas released two American hostages Friday afternoon for "humanitarian" purposes after kidnapping and holding them in the Gaza Strip for nearly two weeks. The release of Natalie and Judith Raanan, a mother and daughter from Illinois, was reportedly negotiated by Qatar – a major non-NATO U.S. ally under heavy scrutiny for harboring Hamas leaders who live in luxury in the capitol of Doha. "Today, we have secured the release of two Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against Israel on October 7. Our fellow...

"Are African leaders now ignoring Washington DC and its endless wars? Are they now sensing a new world of opportunities based on development and cooperation? Or are they sheep being led to the slaughterhouse? Putin is also scoring big on global diplomacy. Meetings with Africa, followed by Xi Jinping’s 3-day visit!"

Biden admin announces the release of another 45 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Cardinal Marx CharadeIt speaks to the hollowness of “reform” in the Church. Pope Francis recently rejected a preening offer of resignation by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx.It is hard to say which gesture was phonier: the offer or the refusal.Intended as proof of the Church’s commitment to “reform,” this exchange between Pope Francis and Cardinal Marx only exposes its hollowness. The faithful have grown weary of these exercises in manipulative public relations. They hear windy talk about “accountability,” even as those responsible for the abuse scandal remain in power.Marx is a beneficiary of a papal double standard: strictness for conservatives,...

Cardinal Marx: Pope Francis’ resignation decision a ‘great challenge’Cardinal Reinhard Marx said Thursday that Pope Francis’ decision not to accept his resignation as Catholic archbishop of Munich and Freising is a “great challenge.”Marx made the comment June 10, hours after the Vatican published a letter from the pope asking the 67-year-old cardinal to remain in charge of the archdiocese in southern Germany.“I find the pope’s decision to be a great challenge. After that, simply going back to the agenda cannot be the way for me and also not for the archdiocese,” he said in a statement on the archdiocese’s website.CNA...

Read: Letter from Pope Francis rejecting Cardinal Marx's resignationDear brother,First of all thank you for your courage. It is a Christian courage that does not fear the cross, it does not fear annihilating itself before the tremendous reality of sin. This is what the Lord did (Phil 2. 5-8). It is a grace that the Lord has given you and I see that you want to assume and guard it so that it bears fruit. Thanks.You tell me that you are going through a moment of crisis, and not only you but also the Church in Germany is experiencing it....

Late last month, a 2001 Odyssey-like monolith appeared in the Utah desert. Not long after, another identical-looking structure appeared in Romania. They've both since vanished (men were photographed dismantling the Utah monolith). Now, yet another monolith has been discovered, this time in California.

[Catholic Caucus] Papal Baptism of the Conjoined Twins Was a Blessing — and a Puzzle COMMENTARY: The fact that the 2-year-old girls were not baptized earlier, by someone else, suggests an inexplicable pastoral failure to heed Pope Francis’ stress on the supreme importance of the sacrament. A pastoral puzzle remains. How is it that the pastors, chaplains, doctors and nurses caring for the Bangalo twins in Bangui and in Rome did not see to it that the girls were baptized long before they turned 2 years old? No child in good health should have a baptism delayed for that length...

Sports Illustrated has introduced its next slate of finalist models for its upcoming swimsuit issue, and a plus-sized model, a 56-year-old model, and a bald fitness trainer will be among them. The magazine introduced the six finalists that the magazine touted as its most diverse ever. The finalists were winnowed down from seventeen hopefuls unveiled last October, the Daily Mail reported. Before this year’s winner is announced, the magazine is set to send the finalists to a photo-shoot conducted in the Turks & Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas. The finalists include Philadelphia native Christie Valdiserri,...

Be warned there is a new Democrat Social Media bot PR lie the Fascist are trying out today. They are recycling the seminar caller PR tactics from the Clinton years. It goes something like this "I am a life long Republican who voted for every GOP candidate since 19??. I am heart broken today that the GOP is covering up for a President who clearly broke the law...." Once again the Democrat Fascist party will simply continue lying. It is like a zombie movie. They will never stop until you destroy them politically. Until you fire these people in Nov...

Moscow, April 16, Interfax - The Russian Culture Minister will encourage Russian museums and citizens to arrange a fundraiser to help rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris that has been devastated by a fire, the director of the ministry's museums department, Vladislav Kononov told Interfax on Tuesday. "We will invite museums and all citizens who are not indifferent to what happened to organize a fundraiser to support the restoration, the rebuilding of Notre-Dame de Paris. I think it will be right. We will hold consultations with our museum institutions, and I think that they will support such an initiative....

Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old pulled out of a Texas school in handcuffs after a digital clock he built was mistaken for a bomb, withdrew from MacArthur High in Irving, Texas — or, rather, his father withdrew for him while he was in California visiting Google, according to a Texas newspaper. The family is headed to the United Nations and then, possibly, Saudi Arabia.

The King and Queen of Hollywood are set to meet another titled leader – the Pope, reports Us Weekly. The couple will reportedly visit the Vatican early this month for a “VIP meet-and-greet” with Pope Francis. Pitt grew up Baptist but told the Hollywood Reporter in 2012, “I don’t have a great relationship with religion. I oscillate between agnosticism and atheism.” But a friend tells the magazine that the glamorous couple “admire the Pope” and like his message of tolerance and non-judgement. In 2013 talking about homosexuality the Pope famously said, “If someone is gay and he searches for the...

Love her or hate her, co-star Oprah Winfrey and her big media blitz helped open the pic even if it did little to help her public image by providing more dirt for her detractors. Yet a survey by Fandango found that 72% of Butler ticket-buyers claimed Oprah’s involvement increased their interest in seeing the film which was her first movie role in 15 years. But The Butler still trailed the opening weekend grosses of two recent and similarly race- and civil rights-themed adult pics: 42 and The Help. No one, and certainly not The Weinstein Company, expected director Lee Daniels’...

For the first time in its 27-year history, a prestigious award for enhancing the global food supply has gone to a creator of genetically modified crops, a top scientist at Monsanto. The choice is likely to add more heat to an intense debate about the role biotechnology can play in combating world hunger. Robert T. Fraley, Monsanto’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, will share the $250,000 World Food Prize with two other scientists who helped devise how to insert foreign genes into plants: Marc Van Montagu of Belgium and Mary-Dell Chilton of the United States. The announcement was...