Free Republic

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday said evidence shows four bolts that hold the door plug in place on the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing at the time of last month’s blowout on Alaska Airlines flight 1282. The bombshell new finding from federal investigators comes one month and a day after the January 5 incident that triggered a 19-day emergency grounding of all Max 9s, and re-ignited scrutiny of Boeing following the fatal Max 8 crashes of 2018 and 2019. ... In their 19-page preliminary report released Tuesday, NTSB investigators included observations from a laboratory disassembly...

Prince Harry has flown back to the United Kingdom to see his father, according to media reports, after the shock announcement on Monday from Buckingham Palace that King Charles III has cancer. Harry, who arrived in London Tuesday from California, has been involved in a long-running, public falling out with his family in the years since he and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from royal duties, though the duke did make a brief visit to the UK for Charles’ coronation last year.

A lot of ink has been spilled in recent days about the Senate’s $118 billion border bill, most of it detailing just how awful the proposed legislation is — awful, that is, if your goal is actually to secure the border. The bill creates a new baseline of admitting 1.8 million illegal immigrants annually, doles out work permits and green cards on the whim of federal bureaucrats, and funnels billions of tax dollars to the same NGOs that have for years facilitated mass illegal border crossings. And that’s just for starters. But not much has been said about Mexico’s role...

Officials in Phoenix, Arizona, have apparently arrested several of the illegal aliens suspected in the brutal attack on New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers that was caught on video. Fox News reported that sources it spoke to within Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the arrest of the illegal migrants allegedly involved in the beating of the officers occurred Monday. The outlet noted that ICE and Homeland Security Investigations reportedly performed the arrest at a Greyhound bus station. So far, officials have not revealed the suspects’ identities.

As President Joe Biden’s border crisis continues, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is calling a measured proposed in the U.S. Senate “a complete disaster.” The proposal is supposed to tighten current immigration and asylum laws, but also fast-tracks eligible asylum claims. “The open borders policies it enshrines would destroy our country,” posted Paxton on X. In addition to encouraging nearly 2 million illegal aliens annually to enter the country, paying out over $1 billion to the toxic NGOs that settle illegal immigrants all over the nation, empowering Mayorkas to abuse the asylum process on his arbitrary whim, and ending catch-and-release,...

On today's Morning Joe, a screaming Joe Scarborough [see screencap] harshly condemned Speaker Mike Johnson as a liar and phony Christian for endorsing Trump's opposition to the border bill. Scarborough repeatedly imagined Johnson speaking in a heavy southern accent, though he has none, and made multiple snide references to Johnson's Bible. This, from the quondam conservative who, it was recently revealed, has turned into a Biden phone buddy and frequent adviser. You might call Scarborough a Biden flunky par excellence.As supposed proof of the border bill's conservative bona fides, Scarborough read at length from the Wall Street Journal's editorial board...

The House Judiciary Committee and the Weaponization subpanel on Monday revealed internal documents secured via the subpoena of Amazon, highlighting the Biden administration's efforts to address "propaganda" and "misinformation" in books the online retailer sold. Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan outlined the effort in an X thread reminiscent of the "Twitter Files" reports that addressed federal involvement with that platform. Kicking off the episode, Jordan asserted, was a 2021 email from a White House official seeking an opportunity to discuss "the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?" "Why was the Biden White House so upset with...

Two giant feet, a knee, a bicep and an enormous head -- archaeologists have reassembled these few marble fragments to reconstruct the Colossus of Constantine, a larger-than-life statue of the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity. Rome officials unveil a reproduction of a 13-metre high Colossus of Constantine. © Tiziana FABI / AFP A reproduction of the 13-metre seated statue, a bronze cloak draped over Constantine's left shoulder, was publicly unveiled on Tuesday, offering a rare view of the towering statues built in ancient Rome to glorify the gods or emperors. "The impression one has before this sculpture of the...

Former President Donald Trump said he plans to give New York “a heavy shot” in his campaign, as he believes there is potential to “flip” traditionally Democratic-leaning states in the general election. *** “Do I think we have a chance? New York has changed a lot in the last two years. We have migrants all over the street. They are living on Madison Avenue. Nobody can believe what’s happened to New York,” he said. President Trump said he believes Democratic strongholds such as New York, where he claimed people are “unhappy” because crime rates have hit “record levels,” can be...

Explanation: What's different about this galaxy? Very little, which makes the Spanish Dancer galaxy, NGC 1566, one of the most typical and photogenic spirals on the sky. There is something different about this galaxy image, though, because it is a diagonal combination of two images: one by the Hubble Space Telescope on the upper left, and the other by the James Webb Space Telescope on the lower right. The Hubble image was taken in ultraviolet light and highlights the locations of bright blue stars and dark dust along the galaxy's impressive spiral arms. In contrast, the Webb image was taken...

Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer are back with their dramatised reconstruction of Mann vs Simberg and Steyn, now installed in a far grander courtroom - 132 - at the District of Columbia Superior Court. Day Twelve began with Judge Irving unleashing what US legal scholars call a can of jurisprudential whupp-ass on the Plaintiff: Plaintiff's presentation of the case at times seemed a bit disjointed. And, yes, there were many evidentiary objections, but they were ground -- there were grounds for them... It seemed that there was very … … intended to go back with the jury during deliberations, figures...

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign barely lasted into 2024, but he sounds as if he’s still in the thick of the race. The governor isn’t addressing pressing state issues such as soaring homeowners insurance rates or the need for more affordable housing. Political analysts say DeSantis is still in campaign mode but for the next presidential race in four years. “He clearly is running for 2028,” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. “He is looking for ways to stay relevant in the national conversation. … reminding [GOP] voters that, ‘Hey, I’m still...

The Ukrainian Parliament has decided the nation’s state of martial law will not expire later this month, extending it a further 90 days. Martial law will last until May 13th in Ukraine at least — and likely much longer than that, as the national Verkhovna Rada confirmed a law approving a presidential decree made on Monday. The measure passed with an overwhelming majority in the parliament where 11 opposition political parties were suspended in 2022, accused of fomenting “division or collusion” by President Zelensky. As noted by Ukrainian state media, the original martial law was activated on the day of...

Seventy current and former NYCHA workers were busted Tuesday in a 10-year, $2 million pay-to-play corruption scheme involving the largest number of federal bribery charges brought in a single day in Department of Justice history. The avalanche of bribery and extortion crimes occurred in about a third of the 335 developments in the New York Housing Authority — the country’s biggest public housing agency — when the suspects demanded cash in exchange for lucrative construction, maintenance and no-bid contracts, officials said. The defendants, all of whom were working for NYCHA at the time, sought between 10% and 20% of the...

President Joe Biden’s administration contemplated concealing its efforts to spend millions of dollars to fund research to suppress online “misinformation” after Daily Caller News Foundation reporting, according to a report the House Judiciary Committee published on Tuesday. Biden’s National Science Foundation (NSF) received funding for “misinformation” research in a plan dubbed “Track F,” the DCNF reported on Feb. 19 2023, linking to videos of the agency’s efforts. NSF program manager Michael Pozmantier sent an email declaring he was “going to see about pulling them [the videos] down or locking the page ASAP” the following day, according to a screenshot in...

GOP lawmakers and extremist pastors joined together to repent over LGBTQ freedoms, abortion, and nonbelievers NATIONAL GATHERING FOR PRAYER AND REPENTANCE House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and two dozen members of Congress assembled at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., last week for the second-annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. The event was chock-a-block with Christian nationalist pastors and featured a clarion call for spiritual warfare, with members of Congress beseeching fellow Christians to “tie the hands of Satan” and to “bind the demonic forces” that are supposedly possessing America.

The Drive-by Media is taking cheap shots at the late country music legend Toby Keith. He died last night after a long battle with stomach cancer. Keith was 62. The media described Keith as “polarizing” and the Associated Press accused him of “overt patriotism.” As if that was a bad thing? Keith often wore his politics on his sleeve, especially after the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in 2001, and early on he said was a conservative Democrat, but later claimed he was an independent. He’s played at events for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the...

President Biden is being criticized online after he claimed that he met with Francois Mitterrand, the former president of France who passed away roughly 30 years ago. Biden told an audience in Las Vegas on Sunday about a meeting he had with French President Emmanuel Macron during a G7 meeting in England after he had already assumed the presidency. "I sat down and I said, ‘America’s back,’" Biden recalled. "And Mitterrand from Germany – I mean from France – looked at me and said…" François Mitterrand was France's president between 1981 and 1995. He died in 1996. Biden appeared to...

Tucker Carlson will publish an interview with President Putin.

The Republican National Committee's chief of staff is set to resign from his position later this month, Politico reported. Mike Reed has been the RNC's chief of staff since Jan. 2022, but in an email obtained by Politico, he said he's stepping down to focus on his “growing family [that] needs and deserves my attention.” Sources close to Reed say he's accepted a job with Cornerstone, a government relations and public affairs firm. “I know the timing of this news comes as many rumors in the press swirl and we prepare to merge with the presumptive nominee. I assure you,...