Free Republic

A University of Chicago student was killed in a freak tragedy when a stray bullet ripped through his subway-car window during the commute home from his summer internship, police and loved ones say. Max Solomon Lewis, a 20-year-old junior from Denver, Colo., succumbed Sunday morning to injuries he suffered from the slug that pierced a window of the train at the 51st Street Green Line station, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “It’s a senseless tragedy for so many reasons,” classmate Zach Cogan told the outlet. Lewis, who was pursuing a double major in economics and computer science, had snagged a competitive...

China has said it "will never allow" any country to intervene militarily in a Taiwan Strait conflict, one day after Japan's deputy prime minister posited a collective defense of the self-ruled island by Japanese and U.S. forces. Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, called recent remarks by senior Japanese official Taro Aso "extremely wrong and dangerous," saying they "undermine the political foundation of China-Japan relations." Aso, who is Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's deputy as well as the country's finance minister, told a political fundraiser in Tokyo on Monday that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be seen...

The Vatican has detailed laws, rituals and roles to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns. But none of them apply when he is sick or even unconscious, and there are no specific norms governing what happens when a pope becomes incapacitated. As a result, even though Pope Francis remains hospitalized while he recovers from intestinal surgery Sunday at a Rome hospital, he is still pope and very much in charge. The Vatican said Tuesday Francis had eaten breakfast, read the newspapers and had a walk, and that his post-operative recovery was proceeding normally. Here's how...

Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the discredited “1619 Project,” has rejected a tenured position at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill. Instead, she will join Ta-Nehisi Coates, a former columnist at The Atlantic, at one of America’s most prestigious Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Howard University. Hannah-Jones argued that the controversy over her hiring and tenure had more to do with racism and sexism than her outright lies about American history. “It’s pretty clear that my tenure was not taken up because of political opposition, because of discriminatory views against my viewpoints and, I believe,...

“This is phase one, and I’m not going away.” A 73-year-old white woman has completed a 40-day hunger strike for slavery reparations to Foundational Black Americans (FBA). Rachelle Zola lost 23 pounds and drank only water, Pedialyte, and bone broth during the last two days of the fast, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. She documented the journey on her YouTube channel. Zola’s hunger strike was her way of supporting H.R. 40, a bill that would establish a federal commission to hold hearings on slavery and discrimination and recommend remedies. The bill was first introduced more than 30 years ago....

China seems to be moving in to fill the void left by America’s withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. military left its final base in the region on Friday. An anonymous source reported Kabul authorities are now working with China toward a deal, which would invest in Afghanistan’s infrastructure. The deal, through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is a trillion dollar program that has provided funding for a variety of infrastructure projects. Sources report the deal would also extend the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the flagship project of BRI that involves constructing infrastructure that reaches to Afghanistan....

Under the reconciliation process, certain budgetary items can pass the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes. But all other issues require 60 votes to cut off Senate debate. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) says that should change. He spoke to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday:We need to get rid of the filibuster for constitutional issues, just as we have done for budget issues. If you want to argue about how high a wall ought to be, whether or not you ought to build a wall, those are issues that are political, and let’s have the...

NILES, Ohio (WKBN) – New devices purchased by the Niles Police Department proved their worth over the holiday weekend. Ashaja Reese, 41, of Youngstown, was stopped in her tracks after she drove away from a traffic stop, according to police. Officers pulled her over on Route 46 Friday because the license plate on the car she was driving returned an active warrant for the owner, police said. They found out that Reese was the person with the active warrant, but what she didn’t know is that the officer who pulled her over placed a Piranha pursuit intervention device under her...

The far left has been injecting Antisemitism into the American political discourse since the early 1970s when leftist African American leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Louis Farrakhan, and the beloved bigot, Al Sharpton, all went public with their Antisemitism. One would think that in today’s times of wokeism and cancel culture, the Jew-haters of the left would be exposed, shamed, and weeded out of the leftist movements. However, the opposite is happening. According to Melissa Langsam Braunstein of the National Examiner, fighting Antisemitism can get you canceled.Woke theology teaches that Jews are privileged oppressors. So, when Jews are...

Kyle Massey, an outspoken anti-Trump Hollywood actor, is the latest Disney star to be arrested and charged with attempting to rape a child. Massey, the former star of That’s So Raven on the Disney Channel, is now facing felony charges for allegedly luring and grooming a 13-year-old girl into having sex with him. Massey is the latest in a long line of Disney employees who have been accused of sex crimes against youngsters and convicted. Massey slammed Trump in 2016 shortly before he was elected president, tweeting, “You ain’t got the answers, trump…” In March 2020 he also slammed President...

Several Clarke County School District parents started a petition after they’d learned that CCSD had quietly rescinded the mask mandate for summer school, as previously reported in Flagpole. While communication on masks was sent out via a letter to parents, several parents complained that there was not enough of an effort to make sure that parents were notified of the change. “Masks are optional for fully vaccinated individuals during Summer School. Aligned with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, CCSD strongly urges anyone who is not fully vaccinated to wear a mask while indoors,” spokesman Donald Porter said in a...

Imagine a somewhat buffoonish, past-his-prime, cognitively challenged man entrusted with the survival of the free world who is surrounded by handlers who both take care of him and count on him to come through in the clutch. If you are thinking of Joe Biden, you are only half correct. More than half a century ago, Dean Martin perfected the role of the bumbling big cheese in his 1960s spy spoof movie series based on the Matt Helm novels. Martin, of course, was playing a self-absorbed, alcohol-drenched hedonist with a gun whereas Biden is the leader of the free world with...

Sen. Mitt Romney has seized on a hot Southern California housing market. The Utah senator and former Replublican presidential nominee sold his 11,000-square-foot La Jolla mansion, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Romney announced the sale during a virtual discussion with the Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s largest business association. No price was announced for the beachfront home at 311 Dunemere Drive, but the property was assessed at $15.3 million, according to the report. Romney and his wife Ann paid $12 million in 2008 for the property, which at the time included a 3,000-square-foot home. The couple demolished it and built the...

After more than 15 years and half a billion dollars in funding, the Navy’s dream of building an electromagnetic railgun capable of nailing targets up to 100 nautical miles away at velocities reaching Mach 7 has no hope of becoming a reality anytime soon. The Navy announced on Friday that the service has “decided to pause” research and development of the much-hyped electromagnetic railgun (or EMRG) at the end of 2021 in light of “fiscal constraints, combat system integration challenges and the prospective technology maturation of other weapon concepts,” according to a statement provided to Military.com. “The decision to pause...

Parents have accused America's top high school of a 'purge' after slashing its intake of Asian American students by 20 percent because 'they are the wrong minority.' Anti-Critical Race Theory campaigner Asra Nomani, whose child graduated from the school this year, claims Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) in Virginia is making race a factor in the admissions criteria and discriminating against Asian children. She said TJ, which ranked the number one school nationwide in the US News Best High Schools report in April and as a public school has no tuition fees, has 'systematically set out...

A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in California was vandalized with “horrific graffiti” in a despicable act that’s being investigated as a hate crime, officials say. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said the likeness of the civil rights icon at Martin Luther King Jr. Park was defaced over the July Fourth holiday weekend. “The LBPD are investigating this as a hate crime and we are working to catch whoever committed this awful act,” Garcia tweeted Monday. “Our MLK statue is a symbol of hope and justice for the community. This hate and desecration has no place in our city.”...

About two years ago, I spoke to a class of UNC-Chapel Hill students about free speech: what it is and why it is important. I covered some basic points such as the kinds of speech the First Amendment does and does not protect. I also talked about the importance of respecting dissenting opinions, and how shutting down ideas is not the most effective way to get people to change their minds. To my surprise, several students stated that they believed that it was their constitutional right to prevent someone else from speaking, if they disagreed with what was being said....

As the end to America’s “forever war” rapidly approaches, the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul are watching a worsening security situation and looking at how to respond. In the countryside, districts are falling to the Taliban in rapid succession. America’s warlord allies are re-arming their militias, which have a violent history, raising the specter of another civil war once the U.S. withdrawal is finished, expected in August.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said the Biden Administration will be sending goons door-to-door to harass Americans who have not been vaccinated.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) put out a “Dear Colleague” letter as the nation headed into the Fourth of July weekend in which she described the Fourth as her “favorite non-religious holiday.” The Fourth of July is my favorite non-religious holiday, one when we all draw inspiration from the great courage of our Founders,” Pelosi said. […] “My favorite Fourth of July quote this year was presented by Barbara Clark Smith, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History, who said that the signing of the Declaration of Independence was ‘an extraordinary achievement… They did find...