Free Republic

Government scientists have shown that they can filter the precious metal from the state's shale gas wastewater: pulling tons of lithium per day, with little left behind. They concluded that Pennsylvania alone could produce nearly half of the total US demand for lithium — starting in the first year — supplying this key compound that's needed to power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles to solar panels. A project on this scale could make Pennsylvania a rust-belt Saudi Arabia, ending US dependence on lithium from China, which now controls 90 percent of the market. People compare it to the Gold...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis used a highly derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, Italian media reported on Monday. La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest circulation dailies, both quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of "frociaggine", a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as "faggottness". The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment. La Repubblica attributed its story to several unspecified sources, while Corriere said it was backed up...

The Apprentice left the Cannes Film Festival empty-handed, with no announcement of a U.S. distribution deal following former President Donald Trump’s threat of a lawsuit and cease-and-desist demand against the filmmakers. In addition, the movie failed to win any prizes at Saturday’s closing ceremony, despite some movie pundits predicting that actor Sebastian Stan would be rewarded for his portrayal of Trump.While a buyer could materialize in the weeks ahead, the road to U.S. distribution looks uncertain as streamers and specialty theatrical labels would have to weigh the possibility of a messy and protracted legal fight. Box-office prospects also appear dim,...

Ewe-turnOn Saturday, the Australian government announced plans to ban its live sheep export trade by 2028, a move praised by animal rights groups but condemned by farmers who were “shocked” at the 4-year timeline, even as the government offered a ~$71M package to help impacted businesses make the transition.Farmers in neighboring New Zealand, renowned for its shearling natives, will have taken notice.Indeed, NZ’s own sheep population continues to dwindle, with new data released by Stats NZ in early May revealing that the nation’s total number of sheep fell by 3% to ~24M for the year ended June 2023. That’s roughly...

<p>Kimberly Helmus still gets chills thinking about her first rage ritual.</p><p>Two-and-a-half years ago after her divorce, the cybersecurity engineer embarked on a retreat to Scotland with Mia Banducci − an author and self-described "Spiritual Fairy Godmother," better known online as Mia Magik.</p>

"There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism," director Ali Abbasi said when asked why he wanted to make the film about the former president's rise to power in 1980s America. "I think it's time to make movies relevant. It's time to make movies political again."One of the most anticipated moments of the 77th Cannes Film Festival finally arrived Monday night with the world premiere of the Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young version of the real estate mogul in his pre-MAGA days. Only Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly ambitious...

The Kansas City Chiefs kicker was mocked by Pearl Jam's front man at a Vegas show after the pro athlete's Benedictine College's commencement speech went viral last week.Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and an order of nuns at Benedictine College can be added to the growing list of those denouncing the divisive commencement speech given by Kansas Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker at Benedictine College last week. At a sold-out Las Vegas Pearl Jam concert on Saturday at the MGM Grand, Vedder joined Butker naysayers — including the National Football League — in denouncing the speech where Butker condemned abortion, euthanasia,...

"NONE OF THE QUESTIONS OR ANSWERS WERE EDITED. This was part of a social experiment, where I dressed up as a radical woke feminist and asked college students different provocative questions. This video was filmed at Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University Campuses during my last visit to Atlanta."

If Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House in November, NATO may fall apart, a recent wargame found. As a presidential candidate, Trump has threatened to quit NATO unless European allies contribute more, and should he carry it out Europe may decide to go it alone on defense, the game suggests. "A US policy of frustrating NATO has the potential to cause the alliance to collapse, with the EU as a candidate for eventually replacing NATO's ultimate function — defending Europe from Russia," wrote Finley Grimble, the British defense expert who designed and ran the game. The...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Vodou faithful sing, their voices rising above the gunfire erupting miles away as frantic drumbeats drown out their troubles. They pause to swig rum out of small brown bottles, twirling in unison as they sing in Haitian Creole: “We don’t care if they hate us, because they can’t bury us.” Shunned publicly by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, Vodou is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted. Increasingly, they seek solace and protection from violent gangs that have killed, raped and kidnapped thousands in recent years....

Bronx politicians are ripping Gov. Kathy Hochul after she asserted that some black children in the borough don’t know what the word “computer” means.Hochul, speaking at an on-stage forum in California Monday, stuck her foot in her mouth while trying to explain how she wants to create a diverse workforce in new areas like artificial intelligence.“Right now we have, you know, young black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is,” Gov. Kathy Hochul blabbered into a microphone Monday. ***snip*** I misspoke and I regret it,” Hochul later told the Post in a...

Transgender college runner Sadie Schreiner won three women's events at the Liberty League championship meet (Division III) on Saturday.Schreiner of the Rochester Institute of Technology won the 400 meters with a time of 55.07 and the 200 meters at 24.14.Both times would have been last in the men's races at the meet, but they were school records in the women's category, according to the site that lists the results of the meet.The 200-meter time is now a Liberty League conference women's record (beating Schreiner's own previous record of 24.50 set earlier this season). Schreiner was also the anchor leg of...

... It was the third papal meeting for Laura, 57, a saucy Paraguayan sex worker who, in her realest moments, described herself as “una travesti,” outdated Spanish slang for “a transgender woman.” She lived by a code: Tough girls don’t cry. But the first time Pope Francis had blessed her, she couldn’t suppress her tears. On their second meeting, they chatted over lunch. He came to know her well enough to ask about her health. On top of her longtime HIV, she’d had a recent cancer diagnosis. During treatment, the church sourced her a comfortable hotel room in the shadow...

Elon Musk has warned that anti-Semitism could spread across the entire political left as young leftists who openly express anti-Semitic views grow older. “The young on the left are obviously already openly anti-Semitic. As they grow in seniority, this will become the entire left,” Mr. Musk wrote in response to a post on his social media platform X on April 30 from a Columbia University’s Jewish professor who was barred from the campus last week.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appeared to criticize MSNBC anchor Katy Tur during a discussion Monday about job losses during the Trump administration by suggesting she was an “apologist” for the former president for mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic—a charge which Tur promptly denied. On Katy Tur Reports, the former House Speaker began by stating that Trump hasn’t shown that he “ever valued or did anything to support a democracy.” “I have sympathy and respect for everybody who votes. I’m just glad people vote. I know some of them will always reject those of us who might look different to them in...

At places we used to call institutions of higher learning, ignorant kids who don’t know any better and their ignorant professors who should, but also don’t, are trespassing in support of the raping, beheading, kidnapping, burning alive hostage takers of Hamas. It’s a revolting scene. Even in Nazi Germany they tried to hide their atrocities. In contrast, Hamas posts them on the internet, and their sympathizers at American universities embrace both the terrorists and their terror like the latest hula hoop fad. (Watch out, trannies, you’re so-o-o-o 2023. And watch out, BLM, you’re so-o-o-o 2021.) Much as these terror-sympathizers disgust...

Gov. Kristi Noem has “no shot” at being Donald Trump’s running mate after revealing in a forthcoming book that she shot and killed her puppy, sources close to the 45th president tell The Post. *** “She was already unlikely to be picked as VP, but had a shot,” the person said of Noem, who has been widely projected to be on Trump’s shortlist. “After this, it’s just impossible.” Noem writes, according to the Guardian, that she executed Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, after determining that the pooch’s “aggressive personality” made her “untrainable” as a hunting dog. “It was not a...

Cars will beep, vibrate or slow down if drivers are speeding under new mandatory safety technology which comes into effect this summer. From July 6, new vehicles sold in the European Union and Northern Ireland will be fitted with intelligent speed assistance (ISA) to prevent accidents. Although the UK has opted out, meaning it will not be a requirement on British roads, the technology will still be installed in most cars, and drivers can choose to switch it off on a daily basis. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, an independent research organisation, told the Sunday Times: “I think...

Sometimes you can feel like you can get more out of reading a single book then you have an entire semester of college. Some of these books might be surprisingly simple to read. Which three books made you feel much more educated and enriched after reading them?

Biden claims he "got arrested standing on the porch with a Black family" during the civil rights movement. That never happened. VIDEO AT LINK...........................