Free Republic

In the United States, and around the world, protests are vital forms of political expression. The ability of protesters to deliver their message depends on the presence of journalists, who not only inform the public but also hold the police accountable when they engage in violence or abuse.But this fundamental right is being undermined by police abuse of journalists themselves, according to a new report by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. In 2020, 142 journalists were arrested or detained when Black Lives Matter protests swept the nation. Although that number has declined this year, 56 arrests and detainments were documented in...

Explanation: Every time two massive black holes collide, a loud chirping sound is broadcast out into the universe in gravitational waves. Humanity has only had the technology to hear these unusual chirps for the past seven years, but since then we have heard about 90 -- during the first three observing runs. Featured above are the spectrograms -- plots of gravitational-wave frequency versus time -- of these 90 as detected by the giant detectors of LIGO (in the USA), VIRGO (in Europe), and KAGRA (in Japan). The more energy received on Earth from a collision, the brighter it appears on...

The 42 finalists in this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced, each one showing anthropomorphic expressions from the animal kingdom. A seal that appears to be giggling, a baboon that looks like it's singing and a very angry starling - this year's finalists show animals in comedy moments snapped by photographers from around the world. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were founded by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, both professional photographers and passionate conservationists. In addition to providing some light-hearted relief, the competition aims to highlight the important message of wildlife conservation in an engaging and positive way,...

'If he wanted to run, that's OK with me. I think we'd win by a lot.' Former President Donald Trump continues to say Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t run against him in 2024 and can’t beat him if he does, while reminding voters DeSantis wouldn’t be Governor without Trump’s endorsement. During an interview with South Florida radio host Brian Mudd, Trump offered his latest in a series of statements essentially claiming he made the Governor and DeSantis knows better than to run against him in 2024. “I do think if I run, he won’t,” Trump said. “I know they try and...

Notice how much the ocean has risen between 1950 and now.

A National Education Association (NEA) Board of Directors member and English teacher at a Pennsylvania high school posted to Facebook that she thought unvaccinated individuals with religious exemptions deserved to die, according to a screenshot of the post obtained by the social media account Libs of Tik Tok.Mollie Paige Mumau took to Facebook to condemn all individuals who have not been vaccinated due to religious exemptions, accusing this group of “hiding behind religious exemptions because they don’t want anybody to tell them what to do,” according to a screenshot of her post. Mumau said religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine...

CNN was finally forced to fire Chris Cuomo over the extensive assistance the prime-time host provided to brother Andrew regarding his various scandals. So you might think that "The Most Trusted Name in News" would be on high alert to avoid any similar journalistic malpractice by its anchors. But incredibly, as our Nicholas Fondacaro has reported, CNN permitted Don Lemon on his show last night to air a segment on the Smollett trial . . . without mentioning that Smollett had testified that Lemon himself had tipped him off that the Chicago police were not buying his story about being...

The Biden administration reportedly spoke to journalists and producers from major news outlets during the last week to influence reporting on the nation's economic woes in the Biden administration's favor. CNN Chief Media Correspondent Oliver Darcy said Monday in "Reliable Sources" that a source told him that the Biden White House "has been working behind the scenes" to "reshape coverage" on the economy "in its favor," according to a transcript of the show's December 6 episode. Throughout the past week, senior White House and Biden administration officials reportedly held briefings "discussing with newsrooms trends pertaining to job creation, economic growth,...

A Council Bluffs teacher is under arrest accused of leaving a series of threatening notes around school referencing gun violence. Council Bluffs police said an investigation into a series of anonymous handwritten notes led them to Abraham Lincoln High School teacher Katrina Phelan, 37. Police said all the notes referenced committing gun violence on school property and were found in Phelan's classroom, or a girl's restroom. According to police in an affidavit, all four notes in question were either found and recovered by students in Phelan's classroom or by Phelan herself. The affidavit says Phelan admitted to writing three of...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As Russia appears poised to invade Ukraine, Biden today issued a forceful statement warning Putin that if he does, America will evacuate haphazardly and leave $86 billion in weapons behind. "Listen, folks...for real this time...no joke... I ain't kiddin' around here," said Biden to a gelatinous puddle of quivering goo on the ground he mistook for the press. "If Russia invades Ukraine, we will send a bunch of troops. And then we will immediately pull those troops out and leave all our state-of-the-art weapons behind. I'm not even messing around, Jack!" General Milley confirmed that this tactic was a...

An open letter from more than 1,200 California academics and teachers is protesting the state’s proposed K-12 math curriculum, which the signatories state amounts to “an endless river of new pedagogical fads that effectively distort and displace actual math.”Signatories of Independent Institute’s “Open Letter to Replace the Proposed New California Math Curriculum Framework” include 900 academics, at 67 California colleges and in universities, who assert the state is “on the verge of politicizing K-12 math in a potentially disastrous way.” The letter sends a similar warning as another from hundreds of the nation’s top scientists and mathematicians that expresses “alarm”...

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Congress should "can" President Joe Biden's multitrillion dollar Build Back Better Act, which Democrats are seeking to pass with budget reconciliation to avoid relying on votes from Republicans. "Honestly, I would just can this whole bill," said Musk, ranked number two on the 2021 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. "Don't pass it. That's my recommendation."

Jussie Smollett has admitted changing his description of his attackers from 'white' to 'pale' under cross-examination from the special prosecutor at his trial where he became increasingly defensive on Tuesday, his second day of testimony, snapping at the prosecutor for using the N-word while reading aloud his texts and insisting he has permanent injuries from the incident. Smollett took the stand again on Tuesday morning at his trial in Chicago where he is accused of lying to police about being the victim of a hate crime on January 29, 2019. During questioning by special prosecutor Dan Webb, the 39-year-old became...

Thanh Hoa has suspended the use of a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine batch after over 120 students were hospitalized following their inoculation. Since November 30, the central province has been vaccinating children aged 15-17 with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. However, over 120 of the children were admitted to hospitals after exhibiting symptoms like nausea, high fever or breathing difficulties, the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday. Of these, 17 had severe reactions, but their health has stabilized and they continue to be monitored at the hospital, the center said. The cause of their symptoms has yet to be confirmed...

This is just an observation… I am a professional shopper so I am in and out stores all day every day numerous times. Last week and thru this weekend there were Salvation Army bell ringers at almost every location I worked. The last two days there have been zero. A quick look on the internet “news” shows how they’re going to spin it. A. Lack. Of. Workers. Due. To……Covid! How convenient! Nope nope nope ….. it’s NOT because we stepped into a pile of CRT poop. It’s a “lack of workers due to covid” 🤔 Anyone have any similar observations...

“Taking the form of a bond-servant” (Philippians 2:7). Christ submitted Himself to the Father’s will. When Christ emptied Himself, He not only gave up His privileges but also became a servant. First, He was a servant by nature. Paul used the Greek word morphe (“form”) again to indicate that Christ’s servanthood was not merely external but His essence. It was not like a cloak that could be put on and taken off. Christ was truly a servant. The only other New Testament use of morphe is in Mark 16:12. There Jesus appears in a resurrection morphe—a form fully expressing the...

It's time for The Jesse Kelly Show! Let's have some fun!Listen live at the link below. E-mail Jesse at jesse@jessekellyshow.com. When he takes listener calls, the studio line is 877-377-4373.Jesse's show is now on over 200 radio stations across the nation, replacing Buck Sexton. Those of us who miss Rush very much know that no one could ever replace him, but if you give Jesse a chance, you'll find him to be a very intelligent, refreshing, naturally funny truth teller.Jesse is a former Marine. He and his beautiful wife live in the Houston area with their two young sons. He's...

Smollett’s hate-hoax fairy tale did expose how gullible Americans can be when you yell ‘racism.’Spare a thought for Jussie Smollett’s lawyers. Think of them being much like infantrymen who walk through fire on the way to glory, except they’ve been slogging through a mire of bulls*** on their way to absurdity. While wearing flip-flops. Their field commander is an insistently moronic fraud. The Iwo Jima flag they struggle to raise is the reputation of a dim actor who thought he would raise his profile by telling the world that he was attacked by the world’s least likely lynch mob —...

The world’s first plant-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate has proven to be more than 75% effective against preventing the Delta variant of the virus, a Canadian drugmaker said Tuesday. Medicago’s vaccine was 75.3% effective against the variant when enhanced with GlaxoSmithKline’s booster, according to a late-stage study from both companies. “These are encouraging results given data were obtained in an environment with no ancestral virus circulating. The global COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to show new facets with the current dominance of the Delta variant, upcoming Omicron, and other variants likely to follow,” GSK Chief Global Health Officer Thomas Breuer said in...

Gizzi writes that a “secretary of one of the most powerful Vatican Cardinals” told him straightfowardly: “Pope Francis is dying.” Furthermore, Gizzi asserts that sources inside the Vatican do not expect Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) to see the end of next year, 2022, and are in “pre-Conclave mode”. Without more details, one can only speculate as to what exactly the situation is, but apparently Francis is said to be terminally ill and not expected to live another 13 months for that reason. A diagnosis has not been revealed or rumored, but colon cancer would be a possibility, considering Bergoglio’s colon surgery...