Free Republic

The drug was first detected in illegally manufactured opioids in North America in 2022The animal sedative medetomidine is increasingly showing up in the U.S. illegal drug supply, according to three reports released Thursday. Medetomidineopens in a new tab or window, which is used to sedate pets and is somewhat similar to xylazineopens in a new tab or window, was first detected in illegally manufactured opioids in North America in 2022. Investigators say the drug is being mixed in with other illicit drugs, mainly fentanylopens in a new tab or window, the synthetic opioid behind most overdose deaths. On Thursday, the...

A new deadly drug called carfentanil is in Santa Clara County, medical experts say. It's a synthetic opioid like fentanyl, but much stronger. On Wednesday, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michelle Jordan announced that the county's first overdose death due to carfentanil was reported last week. "Carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl," Dr. Jordan said. National Fentanyl Awareness Day highlights the dangers of the drug causing a crisis in San Francisco and killing thousands across the country. Last week, a 39-year-old man was found dead with M30 pills, counterfeit pills made to look like prescription oxycodone. "What I'm really...

Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS)—the same technology which is powering the development of tailor-made medicines, cancer diagnostics, infectious disease tracking, and gene research—could become a prime target for hackers. A study, published in IEEE Access, highlights growing concerns over how this powerful sequencing tool—if left unsecured—could be exploited for data breaches, privacy violations, and even future biothreats. Led by Nasreen Anjum from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Computing, this is the first comprehensive research study of cyber-biosecurity threats across the entire NGS workflow. NGS is a cornerstone of modern biotechnology, enabling rapid and cost-effective DNA and RNA sequencing that supports...

Authorities released information about the man accused of stabbing an Edmond police officer Thursday during a traffic stop. At 4:30 p.m., an Edmond police officer was conducting a traffic stop near 15th Street and Broadway when a man approached and pepper-sprayed the officer. That led to an altercation, during which police said the officer was stabbed at least twice. Backup officers arrived, deployed their stun guns on the suspect and took him into custody. Edmond police also said a good Samaritan rendered aid to the officer before help could get there. "We saw a cop fall, and then we...

'They need to agree to serious long term changes'.. Robby Starbuck is standing firm in his lawsuit against Meta after its chatbot defamed him for almost a year, saying the time for apologies is over. "It’s too late to solve this with an apology. It’s been nearly a year. People doxxed my kids," Starbuck told ... The anti-DEI crusader alleged that Meta’s AI chatbot gave users false and defamatory statements about him, wrongly claiming he is a White supremacist who was arrested as part of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court Tuesday. Starbuck...

New analysis from the Media Research Center has found that coverage of Pete Hegseth by the major news networks during Trump’s first 100 days has been 100 percent negative. This goes beyond media bias. It’s the weaponization of media. From the moment Trump nominated Hegseth to be Defense Secretary, you could tell that Democrats and their media allies wanted his scalp. Democrats turned the Hegseth hearing in the Senate into a clown show. The fact that the media is still gunning for him shows that they are still obsessed with the idea of bringing him down.

The Good News: We’ve gone from over 120,000 people a month coming across the border illegally in April 2024 to fewer than 10,000 in April 2025.

Three siblings were rescued by Spanish authorities after parents suffering from ‘Covid syndrome’ kept them locked in the home and wearing masks since 2021. Three children were kept in the home by German parents in deteriorating conditions for years. Neighbors contacted police after they noticed the children had not been attending school. The abused children were so disoriented after being forced into a strict lockdown for years that they reportedly ran outside after being rescued and were amazed by the sunlight and grass. Harrowing photos published by Spanish media showed the kids, who are German, emerging from the home wearing...

What is Self-Deportation? Self-deportation is the act of leaving the U.S. on your own initiative when you’re illegally present. Who’s Illegally Present in the U.S.? If you’re in the U.S. for any period of time — an hour, a month or 50 years — without being admitted or paroled, or for any length of time after your authorized period of stay expires, you’re illegally present. The Immigration and Nationality Act defines whose presence in the U.S. is illegal. ICE enforces this law. Self-Deportation Fact Sheet Self-Deportation Fact Sheet View the Fact Sheet Self-Removal Basics If you’re illegally present in the...

President Trump just defunded NPR... but at what cost? A survey of leading economists and media analysts may surprise you. The Babylon Bee has compiled the following list of severe ramifications of NPR being defunded: NPR may have to resort to reporting real news: A clear violation of their freedom of speech. No one will know the plight of Mongolian yak farmers: How will people learn if they are not told? There will only be 297 media outlets pushing state propaganda: So few options. Forced to drop the "N" and "P" and just be known as "R": Years of brand...

Deported alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia is facing more allegations of abuse after an audio recording reportedly of his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, begging a judge for a temporary order of protection. In a recording of an August 2020 court hearing obtained by USA Today, Sura describes the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Abrego Garcia. Sura recalled multiple instances of alleged abuse, claiming that Abrego Garcia pushed her, grabbed her by the hair and slapped her. "On Wednesday, he hit me, like around like, three in the morning, he would just wake up and like, hit...

The Soviet Union launched the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 in 1972, one of a series of Venus missions. A Soviet-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus in the 1970s is expected to plunge uncontrolled back to Earth, possibly within the first two weeks of May. It's too early to know where the half-tonne mass of metal might come down or how much of it will survive re-entry, according to space debris tracking experts. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek predicts the failed spacecraft will re-enter around 10 May. He estimates it will come crashing at around 242 kph, assuming it remains...

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation, citing xenophobic stances as the reason. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Friday designated the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing extremist organisation that poses a threat to democracy and the constitutional order. The office, also known as BvF, cited the AfD’s xenophobic stances on ethnicity as the reason for the decision, stating the party was being discriminatory towards non-ethnic Germans. According to the statement released on Friday, the office's experts have examined whether the AfD's...

Just over 100 days into the Trump administration, there is mounting anger over the government’s assault on immigrants, its sweeping attacks on workers and social programs and its efforts to establish a right-wing dictatorship in the United States. Trump’s poll numbers are falling sharply, and recent weeks have seen demonstrations involving millions of people in cities throughout the United States. The response of the Democratic Party is to smother this opposition and prevent it from challenging the domination of the corporate-financial oligarchy and the two-party system, through which the ruling class carries out its policies of imperialist war and social...

Stocks rose on Friday as Wall Street digested a better-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report for April, which eased recession fears and lifted the S&P 500 for its longest winning streak in just over two decades.

A new study suggests that ancient Egyptians may have captured the Milky Way in their artwork more than 3,000 years ago, potentially offering our galaxy’s earliest-known visual representation. Astrophysicist Or Graur, an associate professor at the University of Portsmouth, identified a striking visual detail of the Milky Way while examining depictions of the sky goddess Nut. His findings, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, point to a black, wavy line on Nut’s body in certain funerary artwork. Nut frequently appears in Egyptian tomb art and religious texts as a naked woman covered in stars, her arched figure...

Donald Trump’s attack dog Stephen Miller is tipped to become the next national security adviser. Mr Miller, the deputy chief of staff and the brain behind the administration’s immigration crackdown, is the top candidate to replace Mike Waltz, who was axed from the role on Thursday by Mr Trump. The US president announced Mr Waltz would be appointed to the role of UN ambassador following hours of media fanfare over his removal. Mr Miller’s name was floated as a possible contender shortly after Mr Trump made the announcement. A staunch loyalist to the president, he has been an aggressive defender...

ealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed discredited claims that the MMR vaccine contains "a lot of aborted fetus debris." He made the remarks during a town hall event on Newsnation on Wednesday, saying this "debris" was the reason many religious groups don't get vaccinated. Why It Matters The claim comes amid a serious measles outbreak in Texas that has already claimed the lives of two children in a Mennonite community with low vaccination rates. Kennedy Jr., who has long faced criticism over his comments about vaccines, has vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule. Despite...

College students don't work very hard these days, write Rick Hess and Greg Fournier of the Manhattan Institute. Full-time students say they average 20 to 25 hours of class time and studying each week, and some estimates are even lower. Thirty-five hours a week would be a reasonable amount of time, according to traditional measures. They're not more likely to have paying jobs than earlier generations, research shows. In 2024, the average first-year student reported spending 5.3 hours per week in campus activities and clubs, 9.3 hours working for pay and 11.9 hours relaxing and socializing. Yet most think they're...

Open source AI models are more likely to recommend men than women for jobs, particularly the high-paying ones, a new study has found. While bias in AI models is a well-established risk, the findings highlight the unresolved issue as the usage of AI proliferates among recruiters and corporate human resources departments. "We don't conclusively know which companies might be using these models," Rochana Chaturvedi, a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois in the US and a co-author of the study, told The Register. "The companies usually don't disclose this and our findings imply that such disclosures might be crucial...