Facing an increasingly polarized political climate, the wife of Senator Rand Paul says she sleeps with a loaded gun as a precaution against "unhinged" people being goaded by Democrats into harassing Republican lawmakers.

The Paul household used to keep its doors unlocked, but now feels "under assault" by self-described activists who resort to intimidation, harassment and even physical violence, Kelley Paul told Breitbart News.

"It's bizarre. I've never been like this in my whole life... We used to never even lock our doors, and now that has all changed," she said.

"We've updated all of our security systems at home. I sleep with a loaded gun by my bed."

Kelley also expressed deep concern about lawmakers who have encouraged their constituents to confront Republican politicians.

The Patriarchate of Georgia has released a statement refuting the information spreading through the Ukrainian media about its supposed support for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

"Such information began to spread after the meeting of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia with the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrei Paruby last week in Tbilisi. The information that the Georgian Church has recognized the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church does not correspond to reality," today's statement emphasizes.

It notes that Paruby spoke to Pat. Ilia of the desire of some Ukrainians to receive autocephaly for their Orthodox Church, to which the Georgian primate responded by speaking of the difficulty of attaining this dream at present and advised being extremely careful "so as to prevent a civil confrontation."

"As for the position of the Georgian Church on the issue of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, it remains unchanged: Until the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow fix their final official positions on the basis of canonical Church norms, the Georgian Patriarchate refrains from commentary," the Georgian Church's statement reads.

French doctors have admitted they do not know why clusters of babies have been born with limbs missing, saying they cannot find any link between the cases and will not be investigating further.

Thirteen children have been born missing hands, forearms or arms in three rural areas of France between 2007 and 2017.

The public health authorities had initially said the incidences of abnormality were "probably down to chance". But doctors at a research organisation said the likelihood of it being coincidental was "more than infinitesimal" and demanded a full investigation.

They believe the clusters may be linked to the use of pesticides and described the French authorities' lack of action as a "health scandal".

Emmanuelle Amar, an epidemiologist and director of the group Remera told the Guardian it would be scientifically remiss not to continue research.

The limo that killed 20 people in a crash in upstate New York was unsafe and should never have been on the road, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Instead, a close-knit group of family and friends are dead.

The limousine was carrying a group of friends and relatives to a 30th birthday party near Albany, New York, on Saturday, when it plowed through a junction, hit two pedestrians and a parked SUV, and plunged into a ditch. All 17 passengers were killed, along with the two stricken pedestrians and the limo's driver.

Among the victims were sisters Mary Dyson, Abby Jackson, Allison King, and Amy Steenburg; and husbands Adam Jackson, Robert Dyson and Axel Steenburg. Amy and Axel Steenburg had only been married since June, while Abby and Adam Jackson left behind two daughters: four-year-old Archer and 16-month-old Elle. The remainder of the group were close school and neighborhood friends, including another newlywed couple, Erin and Shane McGowan.

"They were all friends," Valerie Abeling, Mrs. McGowan's aunt, told the New York Times. "Most of them were lifelong friends. Relatives, cousins, family." Grieving friends have launched a crowdfunding campaign for Archer and Elle Jackson, the two children orphaned by the crash.

The Stalinist anti-Christian mission is now about to reach its goal two generations after Stalin, at a time when the West is facing the second coming of Marxism...With a weakened and demoralized Church, a new Soviet era will face little if any resistance in the West as it begins to take control and subvert the remains of Christian culture

Catholic abuse crisis is likely no accident, but a strategy to 'destroy church from within'

The shocking accusation by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò that Pope Francis helped cover up sexual misconduct - an accusation the Pope has so far declined to answer - as well as the litany of sexual abuse cases among clerics, force any Catholic to ask the question: how could this possibly take place in the moral institution that is the Roman Catholic Church?

One possible - little known, but very important - answer dates back to the Bolsheviks and their Communist leader Joseph Stalin.

Recently, I came across a video on Youtube of a presentation by former Soviet KGB propagandist Yuri Bezmenov, aka Tomas Schuman, who worked for the Soviet Union's Novosti Press Agency until he defected in 1970. In this 1983 video, he claimed that the West was slowly being subverted into Marxism by the methods of "ideological subversion," a form of warfare the KGB used against America.

I'm still buzzing as I write this column. I'm not long back from Edinburgh and I was so proud and inspired to march alongside well over 100,000 other supporters of independence for Scotland. We filled our capital city today with men, women and children from all walks of life and scores of dugs as well.

Sheldon is a kick in the arse off a horse and marched with purpose while Hamish was there with proud owner and SNP MP Brendan O'Hara and displayed impeccable manners and temperament.

It was a pleasure to walk alongside them from Johnstone Terrace near to Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Park down the Royal Mile. A relatively short 15 minute walk that took in excess of 90minutes to complete such was the incredible size of the crowd. I was there with my immediate family, my two girls Gail and Gabrielle, but the truth is we were all part of the one big family, The Indy Family.

To put the turnout into perspective imagine over one million people marching in London and you get the picture. Police estimates of the crowd ranged from 100,000 to 120,000 and the banners and placards were from every part of our broad movement.

The English Scots For YES group was there, alongside the Pensioners For YES, the YES Bikers, the Catalonia flags, EU flags, Red flags and a sea of saltires that depicted national identity and pride but without chauvinism or arrogance.

There was even a new Rangers Supporters For Independence banner which was made welcome. Young and old, men and women, black and white all marched with hope in their hearts and a vision for a new, better, fairer and nuclear-free Scotland in their heads.

According to one angered woman in the UK, Brits "don't want any more immigrants, we want Britain to be Britain."

The 2016 referendum on the membership of the EU saw 52% of Brits back Brexit with immigration being a major factor swinging people's votes. For many, Brexit is a promise of reduced inflows of immigrants from Europe but also a step towards an overhaul of the UK immigration system.

Following the vote, expressions of anti-immigrant sentiment within the British society have become more prominent and visible.

On Saturday, a woman on the London tube was seen allegedly yelling at a teacher Nassima Iggoute, who filmed the woman and uploaded the clip on Facebook.

In the video, the woman is seen saying among other things:

"I'm on a train and there ain't one f**king British c*** on here, and what!"

The 'deception' around electric car maker Tesla will catch up to the company soon, according to hedge fund manager David Einhorn. He compared Elon Musk's behavior to Lehman Brothers executives shortly before the bank's demise.

In a letter to investors, Einhorn wrote that like the investment bank that famously collapsed a decade ago "the deception is about to catch up to TSLA. Elon's Musk erratic behavior suggests that he sees it the same way."

According to Einhorn, "Lehman threatened short sellers, refused to raise capital (it even bought back stock), and management publicly suggested it would go private. Months later, shareholders, creditors, employees and the global economy paid a big price when management's reckless behavior led to bankruptcy."

Plumes of smoke and explosions have been seen coming from Canada's largest oil refinery as the owners of the Irving Oil site confirm that a 'major incident' is underway at their energy plant in New Brunswick.

Residents near the crude oil processing plant have reported hearing loud explosion coming from the 780 acre site. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses have taken to social media to post images of black smoke rising from an area inside the refinery.

Irving Oil has confirmed that they are responding to a 'major incident' at the Saint John, New Brunswick facility. It's not yet clear what caused the incident.

Israel's detention at its international airport of Lara Alqasem, 22, an American student holding a visa to study at Hebrew University, has gone on five days today. Reports from the Israeli media are that Alqasem, whose father is Palestinian, will get a hearing of her appeal of the deportation order- "within days," her lawyers hope.

This is plainly a battle between liberal forces inside Israel and the rightwing government. The Israeli government is denying visitors to Alqasem and is determined to deport her for pro-boycott views that Alqasem has sought to distance herself from.

The Times of Israel reports today:

The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday was set to schedule a hearing for an appeal against the deportation of a US student of Palestinian descent, who was denied entry into the country last week over her alleged support of the movement to boycott Israel.

Alqasem is raising money by crowdsource in order to fight the deportation.