Free Republic

The newly elected Pope Leo XIV has suggested that the Vatican could host high-level negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as Istanbul talks were watered down following Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to come face to face with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin's statement on Friday, the supreme pontiff plans to "if necessary, provide the Vatican, the Holy See, as a direct meeting (place) between the two sides." Parolin has also expressed his disappointment with the talks in Turkey, which took place on Friday. "It's all tragic because we hoped that a...

The House of Representatives on Dec. 6 voted to pass a bill that will block a proposed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to effectively mandate that most cars produced in the United States be fully electric by 2032.The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Nov. 13, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) The bill, H.R. 4468, dubbed the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023, passed the House by a 221–197 vote. That included total GOP support; Democrats, meanwhile, sought to have the bill sent back to committee.The bill would block an EPA rule that would require roughly...

Foreign investments are leaving China. Half of the $250 billion to $300 billion foreign bond investments since 2019 have exited, and U.S. private equity and venture capital investments in China have fallen by more than 50 percent, according to a JP Morgan report last month. Foreign direct investment into China in the second quarter of this year reached a 25-year low at $4.9 billion, with a year-on-year decline of 87 percent, according to Chinese official data.Bloomberg and fDi Markets data on new investment projects—a more telling indicator of whether foreign firms are still investing in the country—show a 40 percent...

Below is my column in The Hill on Attorney General Merrick Garland at the midpoint of his tenure at the Justice Department. For an Attorney General who said that he wanted to restore the trust of the public in his department, Garland has manifestly failed to achieve his goal. It appears that the Justice Department and FBI are now trusted less than under his predecessor, Bill Barr. A new poll shows that 55 percent of the public view the Trump indictment as “politically motivated” and 56% believe that it constitutes election interference. A similar majority wanted Trump pardoned if convicted....

Environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in 2024 as a Democrat. The filing was confirmed Wednesday by his campaign treasurer, John E. Sullivan. The 69-year-old is the son of former New York senator, US attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy. In March, Kennedy tweeted that he was considering a run. “If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race,” he...

Collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank operated without a chief risk officer between April 2022 and January 2023 while the operation's United Kingdom-based Head of Risk stands accused of prioritizing pro-diversity initiatives over her actual role. This revelation comes after the firm became the largest bank to collapse since the 2008 financial crisis - disclosing a $1.8 billion loss in its finances. SVB's former head of risk, Laura Izurieta, who formerly performed a similar role for Capital One, left the bank in April 2022. She wasn't replaced until January 2023 when the bank hired Kim Olson, formerly of Japanese bank Sumitomo...

In the wake of two bank failures, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury announced a bank bailout program that could be dubbed “QE Extra Lite.”Last week, Silicon Valley Bank was shuttered by federal authorities after the bank suffered significant losses selling bonds in order to raise capital. When that news hit, depositors rushed to pull funds from the bank, making it functionally insolvent. Then over the weekend, federal authorities shut down Signature Bank.On Sunday, the FDIC created “bridge banks” to handle both insured and uninsured customer deposits. Banking regulators assured depositors that they would have full access to all...

Leaked emails from a Colorado elementary school revealed administrators going behind a parent's back to secretly transition a student. Laurel Elementary School Assistant Principal, Amanda Pawelski, and Poudre School District Chief Equity Officer, Marlena Gross-Taylor, were caught in leaked emails discussing going behind a parent's back to instruct an elementary school student by their preferred pronouns. On March 31, 2022, Amanda reached out to Marlena, who was only a few months into her new position, about an unidentified student who has 'expressed their pronouns and chosen name but their parents directly [told] school staff not to call the students by...

Information has reportedly included income, filing status, refund amounts. Major tax preparation services have reportedly been sending sensitive personal financial information to Facebook as part of a potential advertising scheme, according to a report released Tuesday. Companies such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have allegedly been sending Facebook "not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts," a report from the Verge said on Tuesday. The information "can be used by the company to power its advertising algorithms," the outlet...

WATCH what happens when CNN ambushes Kari Lake outside of an event

NY State Supreme Court reinstates all fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay, says the state violated rights, acted arbitrary & capricious, notes:“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19.”

Mass migration has quickly spiked Canadians’ housing prices and rapidly reduced the share of Canadians who can own homes, admits the pro-migration New York Times. “Basically southern Ontario has become unaffordable” amid a massive inflow of immigrants, real-estate agent Bryan Adlam told the newspaper for an October 8 article, and added: “I have two clients I have right now whose budget is $500,000 to $600,000, which is not chump change,” he said. “Are they going to be renters for life? Probably. Has owning a home become unattainable for someone on the lower income echelon? I would say, yes.”

Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner were born in the same year and buried in the same graveyard. But as Louise Perry points out in her book “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution,” they met completely different fates. Marilyn died a tortured sex symbol of the burgeoning sexual revolution, while Hefner lived large as the quintessential playboy, capitalizing on the same sexual liberalism. “The story of the sexual revolution isn’t only a story of women freed from the burdens of chastity and motherhood, although it is that,” Perry writes. “It is also a story of the triumph of the playboy —...

We need DAILY reminders (just like they indoctrinate our kids in government indoctrination centers), that REAL LIFE events once happened and perhaps should happen again

A PILOT has allegedly stolen a plane and is threatening to slam it into a Walmart, forcing police to evacuate the store, as well as nearby homes and a local Dodge dealership. Police in Tupelo, Mississippi, where the plane is flying overhead received a call from the man around 5am Saturday when he made the threats. The plane is believed to be a Beechcraft King Aire 90, and its erratic circular flight pattern was seen in online flight trackers. The police have asked people to avoid the area until the all-clear is given. "With the mobility of an airplane of...

It was the worst Nuremberg Rally ever. Old Joe Biden has taken the old adage, variously attributed to Lenin, Goebbels, Saul Alinsky, or other enemies of freedom, to heart: “Accuse your enemy of what you’re guilty of doing.” In a dark, threatening speech Thursday night, he declared that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” For the first time in American history, a president has declared that his primary political opposition is outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse. To drive his messaging home, Biden delivered his divisive and un-American...

Watch the movie at selectioncode.com!

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said he was “sobbing” as he watched the Jan 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol happen, according to a new book. In Atlantic journalist’s Mark Leibovich’s new book, “Thank You For Your Servitude,” Ryan said he felt “disturbed” about what was taking place in a building in which he spend most of his political life, according to CNN. Ryan, who was Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) running mate in the 2012 presidential election, retired from his position as House Speaker in January 2019. He stepped into the role following former House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio)...