Free Republic

Among the world’s present-day religions, Zoroastrianism, founded more than 3,000 years ago, is one of the most ancient and historically influential. Yet even though its adherents maintain vibrant communities on four continents, they acknowledge their numbers are dauntingly small — perhaps 125,000 worldwide. Starting Friday, about 1,200 attendees from 16 countries will be assessing their faith’s prospects during the four-day World Zoroastrian Congress in New York City, the first one held in the United States since 2000. The agenda reflects a keen awareness of the challenges facing their religion. Prospects for growth are limited, given that Zoroastrians don’t seek to...

New York, NY – The mass exodus plaguing the New York Police Department (NYPD) may be having the biggest impact on its investigations with more than 100 seasoned detectives filing their retirement paperwork in June. Statistics showed that 250 NYPD detectives have retired so far this year and sources told the New York Post that another 75 veteran investigators were planning to retire in July. Before the June retirements began, the police force had 5,600 detectives. That’s almost 2,000 fewer detectives than NYPD had on the department less than 20 years ago, the New York Post reported. The detectives’ union...

In the Readings for this Sunday, Jesus continues his final journey, his fateful "death march" toward Jerusalem (Luke 9–19, the "Travel Narrative") that began formally in Luke 9:51. The past several Sundays have foreshadowed Jesus' coming suffering and death, but this Sunday we get a reprieve as themes of suffering recede into the background. We are temporarily caught up in the joy of Jesus' ministry, as he assembles around himself a congregation of disciples who constitute a spiritual "Jerusalem." In the healing ministry of Jesus and his disciples, we see a fulfillment of certain prophecies of peace and restoration to...

The Supreme Court has asked Maryland officials, including Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, to enforce state and county laws that prohibit picketing at private homes after protests started outside of the Supreme Court Justices' homes last month, NBC News reports.

Today is International Reggae Day. An annual global celebration of Jamaican music and culture, it is this year being celebrated under the theme ‘60 years of ska music’. Here are 15 songs the organisers want you to add to your playlist. 1. My Boy Lollipop — Millie Small 2. Eastern Standard Time — Don Drummond 3. Guns of Navarone — The Skatalites Headlines Delivered to Your Inbox Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. 4. Forward March — Derrick Morgan 5. I’ll Never Grow Old — The Maytals 6. Ska War — The Maytals 7. Easy Snapping —...

A previously sunken World War II-era landing craft that once was 185 feet below the surface of Lake Mead, is being exposed as waters keep shrinking. The Higgins landing craft is nearly two-thirds exposed. It is beached less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemenway Harbor. The boat was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, then was sold to a marina and eventually used as an anchor for a breakwater in the sediment, according to D.J. Jenner of Las Vegas Scuba, which conducts various tour dives on the lake, previously including the sunken boat. National Park...

Patriot Front, the White Supremacist group that loves to get attention with their odd choice of clothing and face coverings, is back in action. And as usual, conservatives on Twitter are calling them out as feds. The reality is this: They really are a white supremacist group. There really are feds among them, as there are among just about every political group in America. There just happen to be more of them in this particular merry band of idiots They’re marching again, this time in Boston:

Intelligent Life Really Can’t Exist Anywhere Else Hell, our own evolution on Earth was pure luck. In research published in 2020 from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, scientists study the likelihood of key times for evolution of life on Earth and conclude that it would be virtually impossible for that life to evolve the same way somewhere else. Life has come a very long way in a very short time on Earth, relatively speaking—and scientists say that represents even more improbable luck for intelligent life that is rare to begin with. For decades, scientists and even philosophers have chased...

Monkeypox may be spreading across dozens of nations, but doesn’t qualify as a global health emergency yet, the World Health Organization said Saturday. However, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said monkeypox was evolving rapidly and advised governments around the world to increase their surveillance, contact tracing and testing, CNBC reported. He also urged world leaders to ensure that people at high risk have access to vaccines and antiviral treatments. The WHO has said mass vaccination is not recommended at this time to stop monkeypox. The US is offering vaccines to people who are at high risk of exposure to...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday evening agreed to a forensic investigation by the US of the bullet that they claim killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, Kan News reported, quoting a statement by the Palestinian Authority's general prosecutor to Al Jazeera. "We will not give the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Aqleh to Israel at all," the prosecutor added. "Due to our belief that the occupying forces fired the bullet, we have agreed that the Americans examine it. We received several guarantees from the American coordinators that the bullet will not be passed to Israel." At the same...

A 71-year old Iowa City, Iowa, man was fined $855 for shooting and injuring a U.S. Marine with an air rifle in October 2021. In April, Philip Olson, who claimed he was hunting a squirrel, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor crime after turning himself in to the police, violating a local ordinance prohibiting the discharge of toy guns and slingshots, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. He accidentally shot 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Gabe Heefner in the head while the Marine was driving by, leaving the Marine severely injured.

The EU has now dropped the blockade and the transport of goods between Kaliningrad and Russia will resume. The EU decision was made before the NATO meeting in Madrid concluded; however, it looks like NATO postponed the announcement until after Biden left in order to save face on the reversal of position.

<p>Craig Staley, owner of Royal Blue Grocery, has a stack of surveillance footage capturing crime at his downtown stores.</p><p>One video from earlier this month shows a man assaulting an employee.</p><p>A surveillance image moments before a store manager was punched in the face.</p>

WASHINGTON D.C. — After years of being a social and political pariah, former Vice President Dick Cheney is overjoyed to no longer be the least likable Cheney in America. "It's incredible. I literally shot someone, and people like me more," said a gleeful Mr. Cheney. "Spying on American citizens, the war in Iraq - all water under the bridge now, thanks to my daughter. Way to go, Liz!" Having drawn frequent comparisons to Darth Vader, Dick Cheney had resigned himself to being the proverbial anchor weighing down the family name. "They always kicked me out of the family photos so...

A 2024 Republican presidential primary poll shows former President Donald J. Trump holding a colossal 40-point lead over the rest of the potential field if he decides to run.The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, obtained by the Hill, reveals that Trump drew 56 percent of respondents’ support, while 16 percent chose Gov. Ron Desantis (R-FL), making him the second leading candidate. Former Vice President Mike Pence garnered seven percent of the response if Trump were to run.Trump has repeatedly teased and hinted at a 2024 bid since December 2020, including at CPAC earlier this year and a Georgia rally in March. He...

<p>Police on Long Island are investigating a cookie hustle involving a father/daughter duo who police believe went door-to-door asking for money on the spot and promising to deliver on Girl Scout cookie orders.</p><p>Kevin Zasowski said back in April, a friendly girl, who was about 5 or 6 years old, approached him at home asking if he'd like to buy some Girl Scout cookies.</p>

Three Honduran men crossed the US border into Texas jammed into two tool boxes on the back of a pick-up truck. The three migrants were discovered by Border Patrol agents at the Ysleta Station checkpoint in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, after the black Chevrolet Silverado transporting them was pulled over for a routine check, according a press release from El Paso Sector US Border Patrol. The discovery came just days after authorities found an abandoned tractor trailer in San Antonio, stuffed with the bodies of 53 migrants who died after temperatures in the city topped 103 degrees Monday, in...

The family of former Vancouver cop Nicole Chan, the officer who died by suicide after being blackmailed into an inappropriate intimate relationship with her superiors, filed a lawsuit against the city and its police department. The lawsuit, which was filed by Chan’s sister Jennifer Chan and mother Lai Ching Ho in January but only recently came to light, claims that Chan was coerced into having an intimate relationship with her superior, Sgt. David Van Patten. Van Patten reportedly made contact with Chan while the latter was applying for a new position within the Vancouver Police Department in early 2016. The...

An alligator was caught on camera approaching a group of golfers on a Florida course while a member of the party nonchalantly took his shot. A video posted to Facebook by Melissa Walsh shows her husband, Michael West, lining up and taking his shot at the Heritage Landing Golf & Country Club in Punta Gorda while ignoring the alligator approaching him from the rear. "I was lining up my approach shot from about 125 [yards] out. I knew he was coming up diagonally behind me," West told McClatchy News. The rest of West's party laughed after he took the shot...

Former President Donald Trump’s commissioner of Customs and Border Protection told the local newspaper in El Paso, Texas that the new 30-foot high border wall’s steel beams were “impressive,” when he toured a stretch of it in August 2020.WATCH:Special Report: Spike in undocumented immigrants falling from border wall takes toll on border community“It really does, I think, physically represent exactly what we’ve been trying to do since Day One. That is to give Border Patrol increased operational capacity to do what they need to do to protect the country,” Commissioner Mark Morgan said.Nearly two years after, illegal border crossings are...