Free Republic

KEY POINTS Closing arguments in the criminal hush money case of former President Donald Trump began in New York. Trump, who is headed to a rematch against President Joe Biden in November’s election, is the first former American president to face a criminal trial. The Republican is charged with falsifying business records related to reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A defense lawyer told jurors in a New York courtroom Tuesday that former President Donald Trump “is innocent” of crimes related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a warning to his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday over his attendance at a Kyiv-led peace summit in Switzerland next month."If [Biden] is not present, it will be just like applauding Putin: personally applauding and doing so standing," Zelensky said, as he urged as many countries as possible to participate in his peace summit."If you want peace, you will be there and you will speak, even if you don't agree with something," he said. "And if you want war, you will go to the mob that Russia wants to organize.

Guatemala’s Attorney General is delving into the dark world of child trafficking at the US border, and shockingly, her investigation may implicate the Biden administration. This unsettling revelation has led to an even more disturbing response: Biden’s State Department allegedly threatened to revoke the visas of Guatemalan congressmen’s children studying in America if the congressmen didn’t support removing the AG. This blatant act of coercion marks a desperate and dangerous escalation. Rep. Warren Davidson has courageously exposed this tactic, confronting Secretary of State Tony Blinken about the administration’s attempts to oust the AG. The timing couldn’t be more telling, as...

The CTA has committed to providing as many as 250 buses for use during the Democratic National Convention this summer, even though the agency has faced staff shortages that led to service cuts in recent years. The head of the union that represents bus drivers says he anticipates having enough staffing for both the DNC and regular scheduled bus service. But designating buses for the convention has some advocates concerned. “Pulling CTA operators from their regular routes to a specified task that doesn’t serve all of Chicago is of tremendous concern,” said Kyle Lucas, with the transportation advocacy group Better...

VIDEOHere you see new NYU graduates reveal what happens when young minds are subjected to years of leftist brainwashing. They tell us their "concentrations" (is "major" now supposed to be a taboo word?) are which results in great inadvertent comedy. I mean how can you not laugh when a new graduate tells you that his major (oops, I mean "concentration) is "Equilibrium or Negotiated Paradox."Most if not all these graduates will end up as useless slugs with ZERO useful skills feeding at governmental or corporate grant troughs.

Former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley consoled an Israeli community that had been ravaged by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, during a Memorial Day trip she made to the Israel-Gaza border. Haley, 52, assured citizens of the Middle East ally that the US remains committed to supporting Israel despite the spate of anti-Israel protests that have swept the country. “What I will tell all Israelis: America is with you. Americans are with you — 1,200 people were brutally murdered. Let’s not forget what happened on Oct. 7,” she said in a video posted on X by Danny Danon, a Likud...

The Israeli military suspects munitions or some other combustible substance it was unaware of caused a secondary explosion and a fire to spread in a complex housing displaced Gazans in southern Gaza’s Rafah, killing Palestinian civilians, following an airstrike on two top Hamas terrorists in the area. The military says it had been tracking Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar ahead of the strike on a compound they were in on Sunday night, in the Tel Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah. According to the IDF’s intelligence, the area had been used for Hamas activity, with a rocket launcher just...

Mitt Romney may have infamously tied a dog in a kennel to the roof of his car for a cross-country trip but at least he didn’t shoot it, the Utah Republican senator said, as outrage over the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, telling her story of killing a 14-month-old hunting dog continued to ripple through US politics. “I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me,” Romney said, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as reported by HuffPost. Noem’s story of killing Cricket the dog – and an unnamed goat –...

MADRID (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday secured from Spain a pledge of additional air defense missiles to help fight the about 3,000 bombs that he says Russia launches every month at Ukraine in the third year of the war. However, Ukraine still urgently needs another seven U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russia hitting the power grid and civilian areas, as well as military targets, with devastating glide bombs that wreak wide destruction, Zelenskyy said. “If we had these modern Patriot systems, (Russian) airplanes wouldn´t be able to fly close enough to drop the (glide) bombs...

Take heart, dear reader. While it is excruciating to endure the latest political crisis manufactured by Democrats and the leftwing news media, I advise a different approach. Smile. Laugh. Cackle like Kamala. Why? The absurd flag-flying scandal, undoubtedly annoying to Justice Samuel Alito and his family, is all the proof we need that decisions pending at the U.S. Supreme Court will not go the Democrats’ way. And it is killing them to the point of debasement and emotional immolation. Yay! Two critical questions before the court will determine whether Donald Trump faces trial in Washington, D.C. this year on Special...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more…” Mark 10:29–30Jesus’ statement above is in response to Peter who said to Him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” It was as if Peter were patting himself on the back, attempting to highlight just how much he and the other disciples had sacrificed to follow Jesus. And it...

While there are a lot of choices, the early betting is on a Capitol Hill firebrand uniquely poised to bring in the libertarian wing of the GOP, which could provide a bump of 3% to 4% of the vote. “There are only two realistic GOP nominees: Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis,” Since neither is likely to pick the other as a running mate, the adviser offered libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as a good fit.

Poland’s foreign minister says the NATO nation should not exclude the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and should keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in suspense over whether such a decision would ever be made. Radek Sikorski made the comments in an interview published Tuesday in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. “We should not exclude any option. Let Putin be guessing as to what we will do,” Sikorski said when asked whether he would send Polish troops to Ukraine. But a spokesperson for Poland’s Defense Ministry, Janusz Sejmej, told Polish media on Tuesday he had “no knowledge of that”

Six people who shared a meal involving black bear meat kebabs have been diagnosed with trichinellosis, a parasitic zoonotic disease. In a new report released this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that in July 2022, a 29-year old hospitalized patient with suspected trichinellosis was reported to the Minnesota health department. His symptoms included fever, severe muscle aches, periorbital edema or eye swelling, and eosinophilia or the condition of elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. According to the report, a week prior to the symptoms appearing, the patient and eight other people...

The students who participated in the pro-Hamas protests that rocked college campuses all over the nation this month had one thing in common — a sense of entitlement. On the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, protesters not only disrupted the educational process for other students but also wanted to be rewarded for it, making demands including vegan and gluten-free food and skincare products, according to Fox News.

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Arrival of Gen. Banks at the Mississippi--Two Fights with the Rebels--No Further News from Grant, Sherman or Butler. Dispatch from Secretary Stanton. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, May 27 -- 10 P.M. To Maj.-Gen. Dix: A dispatch from Maj.-Gen. BANKS, dated May 21, on the Mississippi River, was received to-day. It details the brilliant engineering achievement of Col. BAILEY, in constructing a dam across the falls of Red River for the relief of the gunboat fleet, the particulars of which have already been made public. The army, in moving from Alexandria to the Mississippi, had two engagements with the enemy, one at...

A woman shouts slogans during a protest against Israel's military action in Gaza at Syntagma Square, central Athens, Greece, on May 11, 2024. People protesting at Athens Law School the following Tuesday were arrested [Michael Varaklas/AP] Athens, Greece – Nine people from the United Kingdom and the European Union member states are facing deportation from Greece days after they took part in a protest in solidarity with Palestine at a Greek university. A total of 28 people were arrested by Greek police during the protest and encampment at the Athens Law School on May 14 on charges including disturbing the...

When it comes to carbon sequestration and the natural world, many efforts go into planting more trees. But large land mammals also have a significant role to play. A new study analyzing the climate impacts of a small herd of European bison in Romania discovered that the bovine increased the surrounding grasslands’ carbon capture capacity by a factor of 10. This is thanks in large part to the animals’ immense bulk, as their hooves regularly compact the soil, which allows it to trap more carbon. Bovines often get a bad rap as big emitters of methane, an ultra potent greenhouse...

A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump. All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown...