Free Republic

A retired Russian spy general who ran a company supplying secure communications to Vladimir Putin’s Defence and Interior ministries has been found dead in Moscow. Major-General Igor Laptev’s body was discovered in his study at his apartment on Verkhnyaya Krasnoselskaya Street on August 20. The 83-year-old had a gunshot wound to the head, according to reports in Russia. As reported by pro-Kremlin newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, it was claimed that the decorated former KGB and FSB officer had taken his own life. A possible motive has not been disclosed, nor is it clear whether a note was left. Details are also...

More than half of the illegal migrants disembarked in Italy by NGO vessels since Giorgia Meloni came to power were brought there by German organisations. Of the 42,338 people that entered Italy via NGO operations since October 2022, 22,513—just over 53%—arrived aboard vessels linked to German organisations. If organisations of other nationalities operating German-flagged ships are included, the figure rises to around 27,000. Italy received 157,651 people by sea in 2023, 66,617 in 2024, and 66,316 in 2025. Vessels operated by these types of organisations—some of which have been accused of people trafficking—accounted for approximately 8% of all arrivals in...

On Friday’s CNN This Morning, contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro, formerly of NPR, offered a very cynical assessment of the first couple’s private life. Discussing Melania Trump’s first public appearance in more than a month, Garcia-Navarro declared the marriage “very transactional” and claimed that Melania fails to fulfill the “traditional” First Lady role. Who made her the Melania expert? Would she like someone publicly judging her marriage as a sham? Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Sal Grover and Kirralee Smith, both recently fined ($100k and $95k) for misgendering men imposing on womens spaces, have received death threats from a range of transactivist organisations. Sal Grover, a single Mum, has pulled out. I don't blame her one bit. It is sickening that women exercising free speech in this country are subject to this bull sh*t. Kirralee has decided to proceed and both are Warriors. Let Women Speak events in Australia require (and tbf, receive) considerable police presence in order to defend these (usually middle-aged) women from the "be kind" crowd, who have in the past been...

I live in New York, which is a very expensive city, so I have become somewhat desensitized to paying stupid amounts of money for normal things. I don’t regularly experience sticker shock because, to some extent, I live inside the sticker shock. But lately, even I have been losing the plot. A few months ago, I paid $35 for tortellini at a restaurant and received four pieces of tortellini. I recently saw supermarket strawberries listed for $15. The other day I was shopping for a trash can and discovered that a distressing percentage of them cost more than $100. And...

A missing US Attorney found dead in an office at a federal building in San Diego killed himself, the California Post has learned. Local police discovered Acting US Attorney Andrew Haden, 48, dead inside an office at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building Wednesday. Sources familiar with the case told The Post that Haden hanged himself.

Kentucky middle school parents are furious over instructional packets teachers assigned their kids that were filled with AI slop like misspelled state names and a faulty table of elements, according to a report. The packet, handed out on the first day of class at Farnsley Middle School in Louisville, featured a US geography map with jaw-dropping flubs like Kentucky being mislabeled “Venecky” and Louisiana as “Lookoong,” according to local news station WDRB. “Mom, did you know that we live in Venecky?” Stacey Morris said her son joked to her on the drive home after his first day. She didn’t know...

A hearing on the merits of a recall petition filed against Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is scheduled for Aug. 31 in King County Superior Court as a new poll showed a majority of voters want her to leave office. The 9 a.m hearing before Judge Patrick Oishi was scheduled Wednesday after the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office reviewed the petition by a North Seattle couple, Melinda Jacobson and Dale Osterud, and forwarded it to the Superior Court. The Prosecuting Attorney's Office review is the first step in the review process.

Alaska’s first two ranked-choice elections were embarrassments, marked by complexity, confusion and delay. But, oh, for the good old days of mere humiliation. This year operatives finally cracked the many devious ways the system can be outright gamed. Alaska is now the poster child for dirty-pool politics. Alaskans won’t know until the end of August which “final four” candidates for each office will be on their ranked-choice November ballot after this week’s jungle primary. Residents will need that time to recover from the trauma of a monthslong campaign in which they were not valued as “we the people,” but duped...

War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit to Iowa is fueling speculation that he could be testing the waters for a 2028 presidential run. Officials familiar with Hegseth’s thinking told the Washington Post that the Iowa visit fits the actions of someone considering a run for president after his time in the Trump administration ends. One of those officials, speaking anonymously, described the trip as something of a test run for a possible 2028 bid. Iowa’s longstanding role as an early presidential proving ground has added to the speculation surrounding Hegseth’s visit. Hegseth traveled to the state in his personal capacity and...

We have met the enemy — and it is watching us. There’s a growing backlash against Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers that have become ubiquitous across the country. The cameras take images of license plates and store them in a searchable database that police departments can query in the course of their investigations. Opponents of the cameras consider them an instrument of Big Brother, who’s not only watching, but constantly recording and tracking. Vandals have disabled and stolen the Flock cameras, and even shot them. There’s a movement to get jurisdictions to cancel their contracts with Flock (the...

Eric Swalwell’s accusers were left totally in the dark before the disgraced congressman was confronted by federal agents at the airport, according to one of his alleged victim’s attorneys. Arick Fudali, an attorney for Swalwell accuser Lonna Drewes, said he was surprised to learn of the federal investigation, adding that authorities had not contacted his client during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Jesse Weber Live” Thursday. “You know, certainly an interesting development,” Fudali told host Jesse Weber. “I was a bit caught off guard because Ms. Drewes has not been contacted by the FBI or anyone from federal law enforcement.” The...

NEW: The captain accused of operating an illegal charter boat that capsized in New York Harbor, killing a 27-year-old mother and her baby, is an illegal immigrant and is now in custody. Authorities say Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana does not have a captain's license and is accused of illegally operating the charter when the deadly trip turned tragic. DHS says Hernandez-Umana crossed the border in 2007 and falsely claimed U.S. citizenship. The agency says it will ensure he is removed from the country after he faces justice.@AlexisMcAdamsTV has the latest.

oodrow Wilson holds a distinction no other American president has: he earned a Ph.D., completing his doctorate in political science and history at Johns Hopkins University in 1886. That same year, he wrote an essay called “The Study of Administration,” later published in the inaugural volume of Political Science Quarterly. Historians widely credit this essay as the founding document of public administration as a formal academic field, and Wilson himself as the father of that discipline.Wilson’s central argument was that government should be split into two separate domains: politics, where elected officials set broad goals and policy direction, and administration,...

Groups of women dressed in pink gathered outside Plymouth Superior Court this week in support of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother on trial for the 2023 deaths of her three young children. Clancy's defense does not dispute that she killed her children but argues that she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from severe mental illness. Prosecutors say the killings were intentional and premeditated. Many of the women held signs or wore buttons reading "Peace for Lindsay" and "Justice for Lindsay." According to AP, several of the roughly 300 people who gathered said Clancy’s story resonated...

This video discusses the ongoing legal battles of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, specifically regarding her disqualification from the Trump RICO prosecution (0:32) and the subsequent legal fallout. Key takeaways: Financial Stakes: Following the dismissal of the criminal case against Donald Trump in November 2025, the DA's office is facing demands for nearly $17 million in reimbursement for legal fees (0:48, 5:12). The video notes that such an award could potentially bankrupt the local office (1:13). Disqualification Dispute: Judge Scott McAfee has ruled that because Willis and her office were "wholly disqualified" from the underlying case due to an...

After decades of efforts to bolster women’s role in the workforce, the male-female labor gap has now officially closed. By one measure, it has reversed. American women now hold 176,000 more payroll jobs than American men, according to July data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed. That disparity has nearly doubled since February. Compare it to the 1990s, when men held nearly seven million more jobs than women. It’s not that women are filling roles that would have gone to men. Rather, men have been leaving the labor market...

Is Erdogan siding with the jihadis? Probably. Who let Turkey into NATO? Broadcast coming in 10 minutes. Will be available for playback after the program is over.

Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf says a confidential informant working inside the Michigan Secretary of State’s office came forward recently with evidence alleging the state’s computer system is automatically registering noncitizens to vote when they update their addresses. Leaf made the allegations in a video statement, saying the informant reported that “noncitizens are automatically registered to vote when they change their address.” Leaf added, “The confidential informant provided evidence that the customer and automotive records system is programmed to congratulate and inform noncitizens that they are registered to vote.” The allegation has not been independently verified, but Leaf says his...

The U.S. deported more than 160 people to Haiti on Thursday for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians. The plane landed in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien because the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous. The U.S. government currently has a ban on U.S. commercial flights to Haiti's capital through early September because of ongoing gang violence. The deportees were clad in white, and many covered their faces out of safety as journalists filmed their arrival. Nearly all declined to talk, with...