On Wednesday’s edition of The Late Show on CBS, host Stephen Colbert reported that he will be part of a group of 105 comedians from 15 countries to travel to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis, but before he does that, he lamented, “Pope Francis is less pro-LGBTQ than NASCAR.” Colbert began, “If you are longtime viewers of the show, you know I'm a Catholic, which means I believe that one of the virtues is humility. Well, tonight I've got something to be extra humble about, because I can announce that this weekend Pope Francis is going to meet me at the Vatican! Right? I mean, come on. I mean, am I excited? Is the pope Catholic? I'll let you know after I meet the freakin' pope!”     Longtime viewers also know that Colbert uses his Catholicism to push un-Catholic progressive culture war issues on everything from abortion to gender ideology, but on Wednesday, it was same-sex marriage and homosexuality that were on Colbert’s agenda, “Of course, meeting the pope is a huge honor, and absolutely nothing could possibly sully the joy of this trip.” That led to a clip of CBS’s Errol Barnett declaring that “Italian media reports Pope Francis used a homophobic slur once again on Tuesday.” Colbert reacted, “Happy pride? Why? Why, Pope Frankie, why? You're the progressive pope. You've made landmark statements in support of same-sex civil unions, conducted LGBTQ+ outreach, and said of gay priests, 'Who am I to judge?' Evidently, you were the pope! But you're supposed to be the cool pope! The Vatican ally!” Expressing his displeasure, Colbert added, “I can't believe that I am alive for the first time anyone's ever been disappointed by the Catholic Church. 'Cause now all of a sudden, Pope Francis is less pro-LGBTQ than NASCAR. Don't believe me? They sell shirts that say ‘yaaaascar.’ It's not easy to be less tolerant than NASCAR. You know their slogan: ‘Pretty sure our fans did January 6th.’” Further explaining the situation, Colbert reported, “Yesterday at a closed-door Vatican meeting, Francis allegedly used a highly offensive Italian term to describe gay men. And to make matters worse, this happened just two weeks after the Vatican issued an apology amid reports that he had used the same word in an earlier meeting with bishops. The bishops tried to stop him, but they couldn't get to him in time because they can only move diagonally.” Ultimately, Colbert’s disappointment over the term may be real, but it is still a façade for his movement to get the Church to embrace social liberalism. Meanwhile, some of Colbert’s fellow comedians also making the trip to the Vatican include ABC’s The View’s Whoopi Goldberg and NBC’s host of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon. Here is a transcript for the June 12 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 6/12/2024 11:37 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: If you are longtime viewers of the show, you know I'm a Catholic, which means I believe that one of the virtues is humility. Well, tonight I've got something to be extra humble about, because I can announce that this weekend Pope Francis is going to meet me at the Vatican! Right? I mean, come on. I mean, am I excited? Is the pope Catholic? I'll let you know after I meet the freakin' pope! I will be joining an incredible delegation of 105 comics and humorists from 15 countries, as part of a meeting to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists. The pope, the Vatican, comedy, I can't wait.  I hope we get to meet the original priest and rabbi that walked into that bar! Find out what happened. Never found out what happened. This invitation was extended by the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Communication. In my opinion, the top two funniest dicasteries.  I know that's controversial. I'm going with some of my buddies, because among others, the U.S. Delegation includes Jim Gaffigan, Conan O'Brien, Tig Notaro, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, and Chris Rock. Chris, Chris please, for safety's sake, I would just keep Mary Magdalene's name out of your mouth. 'Cause the pope wears a big ring.  Of course, meeting the pope is a huge honor, and absolutely nothing could possibly sully the joy of this trip. ERROL BARNETT:  Italian media reports Pope Francis used a homophobic slur once again on Tuesday. COLBERT: Happy pride? Why? Why, Pope Frankie, why? You're the progressive pope. You've made landmark statements in support of same-sex civil unions, conducted LGBTQ+ outreach, and said of gay priests "Who am I to judge?" Evidently, you were the pope! But you're supposed to be the cool pope! The Vatican ally! You were -- how do I put this? EWAN MCGREGOR [as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith]: You were the chosen one! COLBERT: I can't believe that I am alive for the first time anyone's ever been disappointed by the Catholic Church. 'Cause now all of a sudden, Pope Francis is less pro-LGBTQ than NASCAR. Don't believe me? They sell shirts that say "yaaaascar." It's not easy to be less tolerant than NASCAR. You know their slogan: "Pretty sure our fans did January 6th." Here’s what happened, I’m not saying definitely, that’s their motto, they said that, not men, they said that. Here's what happened. Yesterday at a closed-door Vatican meeting, Francis allegedly used a highly offensive Italian term to describe gay men. And to make matters worse, this happened just two weeks after the Vatican issued an apology amid reports that he had used the same word in an earlier meeting with bishops. The bishops tried to stop him, but they couldn't get to him in time because they can only move diagonally. 

A report citing WNBA sources, including an executive from one of the teams, revealed that despite the league's wall-to-wall coverage, it will still lose $50 million for the 2024 season.With the basketball association reportedly taking in between $180-$200 million the previous season, it is still just a fraction of the $10 billion+ earned by the NBA.Given that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in 2018 that the WNBA loses about $10 million per year, that would amount to at least $200 million and upwards of $260 million in losses since the league's inception in 1997.The report by the Washington Post detailed that the WNBA is expected to lose $50 million from the current season, citing two unnamed sources who are aware of the financial figures. The sources told the outlet that they did not have permission to publicly discuss the league's financial status. 'The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA.'WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said publicly that the NBA provides a "huge advantage" for the women's league in terms of marketing, "especially with streaming services who rely on a 12-month subscription model.""If we're only there for 4½ months ... how attractive is that? But we and the NBA are maybe the only sports properties that can give 330 days of live programming — almost the entire year. That’s hugely valuable to a subscription platform."Despite this, another anonymous WNBA team executive admitted in the report that WNBA likely would cease to exist without the financial backing of the NBA, an idea that has been the theory of sports fans for some time."The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA."Even with all the apparent success, it doesn't seem like the league can be pushed into the black simply by the existence of star Caitlin Clark, who has been a marketing sensation for the WNBA.Recent attendance reports noted that as of June 11, 2024, Clark sparked an 87% increase in attendance in away games compared to her opponent's average home attendance. Her presence also accounts for 33.5% of the WNBA's total attendance in 2024, according to Sportscasting. Average attendance of Clark's games are double the league average, as well. The league brings in 7,645 fans on average, but that number increases by 105% for Clark, to 15,142 at her games. These latest figures confirm a recent sample size, where Clark's games saw twice the attendance of other games that were played the same weekend.The Clark bump also equates to more eyes on screens. Through the first weekend of June 2024, WNBA games that featured Clark had an average of 1.099 million viewers. Games without her averaged only 414,000 viewers.Given all this information, WNBA players may want to be cautious when making complaints about Clark's favoritism, as the league is seemingly a long way from profit.Complaints about charter planes not being luxurious enough could easily result in that expense being axed, which reportedly costs around $25 million per year.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The AG is not withholding Hur’s work. He is withholding his own work.

BINGO BONGO BOOM! This Huge WIN for RNC and Election Integrity Means Huge LOSS for Democrats (Thread)

Biden's Awkward, Embarrassing Moments With Other Leaders at G7

Now that Apple is taking more cues from Android—the addition of a customizable home screen and a few other features coming to iOS 18 have been available in Android for years now—it’s time for the company to look at other features it can nick, and I’ve got the perfect one: I’d love to see reverse phone number lookup on iPhone. Spam calls are a huge problem in this day and age, and being able to look up phone numbers quickly and easily is a huge boon. This is something Google is leaning heavily into with a newly released feature on the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel 8a. I know we’re only into the first beta for iOS 18, and we’ve already seen some big reveals of what to expect. All of the AI features coming with Apple Intelligence are exciting. But I can’t help but hope Apple is already taking notes about what features it should start working on in future iOS updates, and I think reverse phone number lookup on the iPhone would be a great option. Google added reverse phone number lookup to the Pixel 8's recent call log. Image source: Google It’s really easy to see just how useful this feature could be. Yeah, we already have the option to silence spam calls—a huge boon that I take advantage of daily. But, being able to go back and look up those phone numbers and make sure we aren’t missing an important call right from our recent calls? That would be a game-changer. I get it; putting reverse phone number lookup on iPhone is probably a bit more work than ripping off that cute little Pixel 8 snapshot feature I talked about a couple of weeks ago. Still, if Apple wants to keep building on the features that will be useful for users without solely relying on AI to do that, this feature seems like a good direction to go. Of course, there are a thousand other little minute features I could list here, and I’m sure we’ll all end up talking about those at some point. I'm sure I could probably make a shortcut to do something similar to this, but that isn't a solution that will easily be available to everyone. So, for now, I can’t help but look a bit enviously at the Pixel 8 Pro collecting dust in my review drawer and wish I could take advantage of some of those newer features on my iPhone, too. But maybe I'm just being greedy. Don't Miss: Scientists found a new species of long-tailed sea creatures off the coast of Japan The post Forget AI, I want my iPhone to steal this must-have feature from Android appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $189 AirPods Pro, $169 TP-Link WiFi 6 mesh system, $45 KitchenAid hand blender, more Best Echo Dot deals for June 2024 Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Today’s deals: $20 Amazon credit, $79 AirPods, $20 Echo Pop, $899 M3 MacBook Air, $289 iScooter, more

World leaders and diplomats abroad increasingly believe President Joe Biden's stance in the Gaza war is boosting former President Donald Trump's chances of reclaiming the White House, Politico reported. Trump's "Make America Great Again" focus, plus his demand that NATO...

U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been jailed for over a year in Russia on espionage charges, will stand trial in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, authorities said Thursday.

The financial markets are bracing for disruption now that Saudi Arabia decided not to renew its 50-year petrodollar partnership with the United States, MSN reports.

Johnson & Johnson will pay $700 million to settle claims from 42 states and the District of Columbia that the company continued to market its talcum powder products even as evidence tied them to a heightened risk for cancer.