Free Republic

Taiwan's military mobilized its forces and said it was confident it could protect the island, after China started two days of "punishment" drills around Taiwan on Thursday in what it said was a response to "separatist acts". The exercises, in the Taiwan Strait and around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands that sit next to the Chinese coast, come just three days after Lai Ching-te took office as Taiwan's new president, a man Beijing detests as a "separatist". China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has denounced Lai's inauguration speech on Monday, in which he called on China to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In yet another scandal involving the conservative Supreme Court judge, Democrats released a damning photograph of Justice Samuel Alito reading the Constitution. After releasing the photo, Democrats argued that Justice Alito had clearly been radicalized and could not be trusted to make impartial rulings on the constitutionality of any case due to the fact that he had read the Constitution in the past. "This is shameful behavior unbecoming of any Supreme Court judge," argued Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "To think that we have had a dangerous extremist sitting on our highest court this whole time is...

SACRAMENTO, CA - In a recent move to increase voter access, strengthen election integrity, and improve the voting process, California Governor Gavin Newsom has just signed a bill banning legal citizens from voting in local, state, and federal elections. Sources close to the Governor's Office say that the bill prohibits all legal citizens from casting a vote, including but not limited to "any person possessing a proper driver's license, passport, social security card, or other valid means of state or federal identification." "It is my sincere hope that this measure will help defend the electoral processes of the great state...

(RNS) — Nearly three years ago, Bishop Stewart Ruch of the Anglican Church in North America’s Upper Midwest Diocese admitted “regrettable errors” in handling sexual abuse allegations against a lay minister, before taking a leave of absence. An acting bishop took over the diocese and another ACNA bishop, Todd Atkinson, was tapped to assist him. But Ruch’s absence hasn’t quelled the simmering controversy in the diocese, a sliver of the small, theologically conservative denomination that split from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in 2009 over those two denominations’ acceptance of LGBTQ clergy and marriage for same-sex...

Joe Biden on Thursday held a joint press conference with President William Ruto of Kenya in the East Room. ..... Snip..... The greeting ceremony on the South Lawn earlier Thursday was a disaster. Biden struggled with simple directions and could barely walk. The joint presser was also a mess. Biden called on a list of pre-approved reporters and got confused: “Do I ask the next question, as well? A reporter asked Joe Biden a question about Haiti. Biden forgot the reporter’s question right after she asked it. Another reporter was forced to repeat her question. Biden read his entire answer...

State lawmakers have passed a bill that, if signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker, will change the term “offender” in state law to “justice impacted individual.” The proposed change blew up on social media, with some people mistakenly thinking that people who commit crimes would get a rebranding. Instead, it would only apply to participants in one program meant to rehabilitate people and keep them out of prison. The specific proposed law, House Bill 4409, would remove the term “offender” and replace it with “justice impacted individual” for men and women in the state’s “Adult Redeploy Illinois” program, commonly...

Matthew Queen, a former administrator and professor for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been charged with falsification of records. The United States Attorney’s Office alleges that Queen sought to cover up a report of sexual abuse that occurred at the Southern Baptist affiliated seminary in 2022. The announcement comes amid the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ongoing investigation of Southern Baptist entities. Southern Baptist leaders were made aware of the DOJ’s probe in 2022 shortly after the release of a Guidepost Solutions report, which revealed the failures of the denomination’s Executive Committee to properly respond to reports of sexual abuse across...

Recent reports reveal that the celebrated “all-electric” or “zero emissions” fire trucks, being lauded from San Diego to Portland to Albuquerque, are not as environmentally friendly as advertised. Each of these new fire trucks, purchased with the assistance of federal funding, is equipped with a diesel engine to ensure functionality when the electric battery is depleted. This revelation highlights a significant discrepancy between the marketed image of these trucks and their actual operational design. The report indicates that each of these supposedly zero-emission trucks includes a diesel engine to guarantee that it can still pump water or drive if the...

How bad is President Joe Biden’s border crisis? So bad that even the illegal immigrants are complaining about the lack of security. Intrepid Fox News reporter Bill Melugin interviewed a Turkish national who just illegally crossed the southern border in Jacumba, California, a small town 70 miles east of San Diego, after paying a Mexican cartel $10,000. “In fact, American people is right, completely true,” the migrant tells Melugin. “Who comes into this country? They don’t know. OK. I’m good. But how if they’re not good? How if they are killers, psychopath, else? No guarantee of that. No security, no...

In an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, the UMD team said they found that in addition to exposing Russian troop pre-deployment sites, the location data made it easy to see where devices in contested regions originated from. “This includes residential addresses throughout the world,” Levin said. “We even believe we can identify people who have joined the Ukraine Foreign Legion.” They also shared a written statement they received from Starlink, which acknowledged that Starlink User Terminal routers originally used a static BSSID/MAC ...Rye said Apple’s response addressed the most depressing aspect of their research: That there was previously no way for anyone...

Hundreds of graduates at Harvard University walked out of their commencement Thursday after the school announced 13 students who participated in the recent pro-Palestinian protests on campus would not be allowed to receive their diplomas with fellow students. Groups of graduates walked out chanting “Free, Free Palestine” and “Let them walk, let them walk” in reference to the students barred from walking at the ceremony, The Associated Press reported. A total of more than 1,000 students participated in the walkout, according to the school’s protest groups.

Another ministry of truth operation tried to go after MRC Free Speech America’s credibility with a big swing and a miss. Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) bills itself as an “independent website that has promoted awareness of media bias and misinformation by rating the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources, large and small.” The website traffic cop went after MRC Free Speech America’s new website on May 17. It rated MRC Free Speech America’s “Factual Reporting” as “MIXED,” citing without any specific evidence that MRC Free Speech America promotes “propaganda,” “some conspiracy theories,” and uses “sources that fail fact...

President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law on May 26, 1924...despite the various and often invidious motivations of the Act's supporters, its effect was overwhelmingly positive for Americans of all races...The act led to a significant decrease in immigration, which had positive social and economic effects.

A Utah Senate candidate who vowed to "push back against the establishment" if he's elected has earned the support of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said he is the "type of Republican" needed in the upper chamber to replace retiring GOP Sen. Mitt Romney. Paul endorsed Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs on Thursday, backing a man who gained notoriety in 2020 for his opposition to mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic. "In 2024, Utah will elect a Republican no matter what. It's about what type of Republican," Paul said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. "We need someone who...

A Las Vegas judge sentenced Pastor Bobby Cornelius Smith of New Beginnings Ministries Church of God in Christ to one year of probation on Monday, the result of a plea deal that will see the disgraced pastor avoid jail time but have to register as a sex offender. Despite this grotesque development, Smith was not run out of the church or made to resign, but instead will remain the pastor. According to KLAS: A grand jury previously indicted Smith for 11 felony charges, including nine counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, and one count of child...

Media Matters followed suit with several liberal outlets by laying off at least a dozen staffers following a federal probe and lawsuit by “X” chief executive officer Elon Musk.Staffers, some of whom have been with Media Matters for years, took to social media announcing their sudden departure from the outlet. The layoffs followed federal probes filed by Republican Attorneys General Ken Paxton of Texas and Andrew Bailey of Missouri into the outlet for possible fraudulent activity by allegedly manipulating data on “X,” formerly known as Twitter.

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 MORE documents from unsealed classified docs case. This is from the official FBI report dated June 3, 2022--two months before the armed raid of MAL. Trump had delayed his planned trip to relocate to Bedminster for the summer in order to greet degenerate midget Jay Bratt (chief of DOJ counterintelligence unit who now runs Jack Smith's prosecution in Florida) and three Washington FBI agents. Here, according to FBI, is what Trump--charged now with obstruction--said to the group:

Explanation: Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball of cosmic yarn. It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Wound up spiral arms are pulled out into sweeping tidal tails as NGC 3169 (left) and neighboring NGC 3166 interact gravitationally. Eventually the galaxies will merge into one, a common fate even for bright galaxies in the local universe. Drawn out stellar arcs and plumes are clear indications of the ongoing gravitational interactions across the deep and colorful galaxy group photo. The telescopic frame spans about 20 arc...

Russian patriotic bloggers expressed anger on Wednesday over the arrest of the former commander of Russia's 58th army, who was detained for fraud, and cast him as a talented general who had the courage to speak the truth to incompetent superiors. Russia's state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday that Major General Ivan Popov had been arrested on suspicion of "large-scale fraud". It was not possible to contact Popov directly, who Russian media said stood accused of stealing 100 million roubles ($1.1 million) of metal. Following a June 2023 mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against Russia's defence establishment, Popov said he...

NATIONAL TAFFY DAY | MAY 23 May 23rd celebrates a mouth-watering confection on National Taffy Day. Taffy candy has been made and sold for many years and has become a favorite souvenir of many vacationers. #NationalTaffyDay Salt water taffy in was invented 1883 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Confectioners make this sweet treat using boiled sugar and butter. They stretch and pull the concoction until it is a chewy consistency that can be rolled and cut. The flavors range from buttery to tart to sweet. There is a flavor for everyone, and it seems like they introduce a new one...