Free Republic

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — The man accused of shooting and killing a St. Jude researcher in a robbery this weekend made his first court appearance Wednesday. A judge told Marious Ward that the district attorney could pursue the death penalty in his case. Ward, 24, is charged with first-degree murder, murder in perpetration of a felony, especially aggravated robbery, attempted murder, attempted robbery, and use of a firearm in a felony in the case. He is accused of killing Alexander Bulakhov, 32, during a robbery Sunday evening on Tennessee Street in downtown Memphis. Bulakhov was walking with his wife and...

GRAND HAVEN, MI — Ottawa County Commissioner Roger Bergman, a moderate Republican from Grand Haven, will not seek reelection in 2024. He was the only incumbent commissioner to beat an Ottawa Impact challenger in the 2022 Republican primary election. Ottawa Impact is a group of far-right Republicans who ran on a platform of individual freedom and parental rights. Bergman, of District 10, represents the cities of Ferrysburg and Grand Haven and Spring Lake Township precincts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. He’s been on the county board of commissioners since 2012. Prior to his role as a county commissioner, Bergman...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — After spending five minutes in the room with President Biden, President Xi Jinping made the call to go ahead and invade Taiwan. "This has been very enlightening, now if you'll excuse me for a moment," said President Xi, stepping out of the room. "Oh man, that was so hard to keep a straight face! Woo. Okay, someone get me the army chief, it's a green light all the way." According to sources, the meeting started off with President Biden offering to show President Xi how to use a fork. "Can you say 'fork'? We use these...

would not have thought that a busload of Jews (and their supporters) would be stranded in a European airport because the bus drivers refused to take them. Five years ago I would not have been surprised.One year ago I would not have thought it would happen in the US. Two weeks ago I would not have been surprised. Who knew that DC bus drivers were such deep and sincere Anti-Zionists! (Not anti-Jew, of course. Big, important distinction!) I wonder if they feel the same way about the US? They should. Let me back up a bit, and show you a...

NEW YORK (WKBW) — New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc. James announced the lawsuit Wednesday at Canalside alongside state and local leaders. The lawsuit alleges that hundreds of PepsiCo products have been found along the Buffalo River and caused public harm in Buffalo. "And at the end of the day people that produce things have a responsibility for the things that they produce and this announcement demonstrates that no corporation how big or small how powerful or wealthy they may be in above the law," Assemblymember Jon Rivera said. In addition, the lawsuit...

VIDEOAntony Blinken looked like he was in a state of great anguish verging on outright grief during Biden's San Francisco meeting with his paymaster, Xi Jinping. Is it because he has given a sneak peek at the blackmail material that Xi has on Biden or did his Deep State overlords just tell him Joe gotta go?

A yet-to-be-identified man who was arrested in connection to the murder of hockey player Adam Johnson has reportedly been released on bail. Johnson died after the skate blade of his fellow player, Matt Petgrave, slashed his throat during a hockey game. Petgrave was missing in action from his team's recent game but received a standing ovation from the crowd. According to The Sun, the man who was arrested yesterday in connection to the death of Johnson has been bailed. At the moment, the identity of the detained individual charged on suspicion of manslaughter has yet to be revealed. In a...

Baby Indi Gregory died last night after she was taken off life-support following the order of England’s Court of AppealIndi’s father Dean Gregory, who says he is not religious, had her baptized before her death, saying the court ordeal has been like “hell… and I want Indi to go to heaven.”

A Wall Street analyst has been fired after he was filmed telling a Jewish American to “go back to your country” while he also covered hostage posters with signs accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state” committing “genocide.” Freepoint Commodities confirmed in a statement that the employee seen in a now-viral video “is no longer associated with” the company that “does not tolerate discrimination and hate speech directed against any group.” He was identified by journalist Andy Ngo as Kurush Mistry, which sources later also confirmed to the Financial Times. The woman with him — who called Israelis “rapists” —...

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) PresidentRandi Weingarten was slapped with an X community note after asking where the “women” were during an all-male Jewish prayer service. Weingarten, who said in 2010 she considers herself to be a “deeply religious” Jew, quoted Jewish conservative commentator Mark Levin’s video footage of the minyan — a quorum of Jewish adults, traditionally male, required for certain religious observances — outside the White House. “Where are the women?” Weingarten asked in the post, which has its comments section limited to Weingarten’s followers. The post garnered a response from Levin as well as a community note...

Venture capitalist Kenneth Ballenegger has been suspended from the US investment firm he cofounded, Oyster Ventures, after making offensive remarks on X on the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to screenshots shared with Business Insider, Ballenegger wrote on Sunday: "After the war, Israel should handle Gaza like China handles Xinjiang. Full surveillance state. Re education camps. Sterilizations. It's warranted and the only way to pacify the jihadi population." Responding to criticism from a former colleague, Ballenegger continued: "They reproduce like rabbits and raise them to be terrorists, creating more poverty misery and terrorism. Why should we allow that. The world would be...

Bhutan, landlocked country of south-central Asia, located on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas. Historically a remote kingdom, Bhutan became less isolated in the second half of the 20th century, and consequently the pace of change began to accelerate. With improvements in transportation, by the early 21st century a trip from the Indian border to the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, that once took six days by mule could be made in just a few hours by car along a winding mountain road from the border town of Phuntsholing

An attorney for one of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Fulton County district attorney's 2020 election interference case admitted at a hearing Wednesday that he had shared witness proffer videos of key figures in the case with a media outlet, saying he thought it was in his client's interest to do so. Jonathan Miller, an attorney for Misty Hampton, made the confession during an emergency hearing for a protective order that was prompted by the publication of parts of the video statements of Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall by ABC News and The Washington...

The Florida teacher who was beaten unconscious by a hulking teen student over a video game said she’s now forced to live off donations — and wants no mercy shown for her attacker at his upcoming sentencing. “Everybody that knows me or knew me [before the attack], knows that I’m a totally different person now,” Joan Naydich told Fox 35. “My whole life was just turned upside down.” Then 17 years old and standing at 6 feet 6 inches tall, Brendan Depa assaulted the paraprofessional inside Matanzas High School in February, leaving her with five broken ribs, a severe concussion...

Dear FRiends, We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers. If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today: Click here: to donate by Credit CardOr here: to donate by PayPalOr by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you.

Israeli comedians have mocked the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) once again for its pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel bias in a sketch with a satirical interview of Gaza-based Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar. Last month, the comedy show, Eretz Nehederet (“wonderful land”) mocked the BBC for its sensational reporting of “fake news” about an alleged Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian hospital. An errant rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists had caused the blast. On Tuesday night, the comedians were back for more. The interview sees a BBC anchor describing the October 7 terror attack as an incident in which Hamas “peacefully invaded” Israel. Sinwar...

The government is introducing emergency legislation to mark Rwanda as a safe country, the prime minister says, after the UK Supreme Court ruled the flagship asylum policy was unlawful. Rishi Sunak said the UK was working on a new treaty with Rwanda following the court's decision. The treaty would protect against the removal of asylum seekers from Rwanda back to their home country, he said. "We need to end the merry-go-round" of legal challenges, he added. Legal heads are being scratched as to how the emergency legislation might work Declaring a country safe is not the same as proving to...

A Michigan hair salon is facing a discrimination charge over a social media post earlier this year that declared transgender customers were “not welcome” and instead should “seek services at a local pet groomer.” In the charge filed on Wednesday, the state’s Department of Civil Rights claimed a July Facebook post made by Traverse City’s Studio 8 Hair Lab owner Christine Geiger violated the state’s civil rights act by unlawfully discriminating against three claimants. “If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman please seek services at a local pet groomer. You are not welcome at this salon. Period,”...

Explanation: Cataloged as M1, the Crab Nebula is the first on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab Nebula is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the death explosion of a massive star. The violent birth of the Crab was witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. Roughly 10 light-years across, the nebula is still expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometers per second. You can see the expansion by comparing these sharp images from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. The...

An interview with John Gravino, author of "Confronting the Pope of Suspicion"Members and friends of the Roman Catholic Church around the world have watched with alarm as Pope Francis has used the recent Vatican “Synod” to promote radical changes in Catholic teaching and practice. For instance, “transgender” people and those in same-sex “marriages” are now eligible to serve as godparents at baptism; that is, as the sponsors and models of Christian living to new Christians. The Stream‘s John Zmirak interviewed an expert on Pope Francis, Catholic philosopher John Gravino, to find out what’s going on. Could you briefly explain what...