Free Republic

The judge who oversaw the trial of Derek Chauvin has given an explosive interview as he spoke out for the first time in four years. Peter Cahill was in charge of proceedings in 2021, when jurors spent three weeks listening to testimony about the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd, an unarmed black man, had been suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill in the lead up to the fatal run-in with Chauvin and three other officers. Restraining Floyd, Chauvin knelt on his neck and back for what officials later deemed was over 9...

Nigel Farage will this week outflank Sir Keir Starmer by committing to scrapping the two-child benefit cap and fully reinstating the winter fuel payment. The Reform leader will appeal to Left-leaning voters in a challenge to Sir Keir in a speech launching his biggest attack yet on the Prime Minister. His intervention is likely to spark a fresh wave of demands from Labour rebels for Downing Street to speed up planned policy shifts on both fronts. Sir Keir is open to scrapping the two-child benefit cap but Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is understood to be resisting an immediate announcement until...

Another massive Russian drone and ballistic missile attack is being carried out against Ukraine tonight This video shows people trying to escape on foot from a Russian suicide drone in Kyiv

It takes guts to walk around in a MAGA hat, what with all the liberal tolerance on display. Not even a 72-year-old gent is spared from the open-minded inclusiveness. From Florida: Laura Elizabeth Garrett, 33, was at Northeast Park and Paw Place located at 4630 East Bay Drive in Largo around 5:30 p.m. when she got into an argument with a 72-year-old man wearing a MAGA hat. … [T]he victim told investigators that Garrett hit him on the back of the head and shoulder area with a can she was holding before she jumped a fence and walked away. …...

Elyse Martin-Smith began meeting with her classmates at Harvard University last summer to plan the annual Black student graduation hosted by a campus group she leads. The ceremony was set to be a celebration of Black culture, featuring musicians, poetry readings, messages about the historic struggle for racial equality, and a speech by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the “1619 Project,” Martin-Smith said. Students had reserved Harvard Memorial Church on campus for the event, she said. But in early May, Martin-Smith said she received an email from university officials saying she would not be allowed to host the Black graduation...

Anglican Priestess "concelebrates" Catholic Mass? A Case Study in SynodalityIt seems that one of Mackinlay's priests has allowed an Anglican priestess to feign the concelebration of a Catholic Mass during which she also received Holy Communion. The woman, a known lesbian and LGBT-rights advocate, was one of two Anglican women who were dressed in vestments and remained near the altar throughout the Mass. Although the 'Canon' did not speak, she attempted to read the Gospel and helped herself to a chalice containing the Precious Blood.It is fairly common to hear that the definition of Synodality remains a mystery, even years...

The 37-year-old Crypto trader accused of kidnapping a 28-year-old Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment repeatedly shocked his victim with electric wires, held him upside down from the top of a staircase, cut his leg with a saw and threatened to kill the victim’s family — all to get the password to the man’s Bitcoin account, prosecutors said Saturday. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Eric Schumacher ordered John Woeltz held without bail on assault and kidnapping charges as police continued to search for his accomplice. He also issued a restraining order against Woeltz, so if he does get out of...

Satan’s voice always has these three qualities: 1. It Contradicts God’s Commandments 2. It Creates Anxiety Rather Than Peace 3. It Accuses us and Brings us Down …Just like Adam and Eve in the Garden, Satan always lures us away from God’s Commandments. That is why we need to form our conscience well in the 10 Commandments and not just stop at “Thou shalt not murder.” There is much more to that commandment than killing another person. …Always test the voice/decision and to see if it creates peace or anxiety in our hearts. This is a vital part of discerning...

YOU ARE NOT SUPERMAN There are times when some events of life overwhelm us. Things at home or things at work can drain us. Sometimes we sense an urge to be "Superman" or even "God". We want to "fix" things or "make everything better." In reality, this feeling can be the source of great stress and tension. We sometimes have to admit that certain things can't be fixed; certain things will not go away. Got a problem, talk about it. It may not get "fixed" or go away, but you will feel better! CAPT Thom Dansak, CHC, USN

Jill Biden’s former press secretary Michael LaRosa went off on the Bidens for concealing one scandal after another. “This was a group in the White House who were allergic to transparency, and I’m talking about just in the East Wing. The very first day walking into the White House, the usher was fired, and I couldn’t get reporters straight answers, because nobody would give me straight answers,” LaRosa said on Fox & Friends. Michael LaRosa said the Bidens lied about everything from the dogs biting secret service agents to wedding arrangements. “They took days and months to be deliberative, and...

A growing number of Americans are looking at dual citizenship as a fallback plan in times of widespread uncertainty and deepening political divisions, with young people leading the change.A recent survey conducted by Harris Poll found that four in ten U.S. adults (42 percent) have considered or plan to relocate outside the country to improve their quality of life or financial position. Among Gen Zers, this number went up to 63 percent, while 52 percent of millennials were considering moving abroad."For most of modern history, the American Dream was rooted in one place: America. But that's shifting," Tim Osieki, director...

A judge agrees with Harvard’s argument that the ban would cause ‘immediate and irreparable harm’ to the institution. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the actions against Harvard were a ‘warning’ to universities nationwide.WASHINGTON — A multifront assault by the Trump administration against the nation’s oldest university intensified on Friday when Harvard sued to block the government from barring international student enrollment, and a judge issued an immediate order to halt the ban. The rapid-fire legal action is the latest in Trump administration attacks against the university as it claims Harvard failed to adhere to its demands to combat antisemitism.But...

Moscow’s advantage on the Ukraine battlefield is waning, experts say. But President Donald Trump seems disinclined to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin to engage in ceasefire talks.Russia’s battlefield strength in Ukraine has started to wane and it could run into serious shortages of manpower and weaponry by next year, even as President Donald Trump retreats from pressure on Moscow to end the war, according to senior U.S. and European officials and military experts. In recent days, Trump appears to have abandoned the threat of harsh financial sanctions he repeated as recently as two weeks ago if Moscow doesn’t agree...

Nathan’s Famous has found a foothold in Ukraine, a hot dog-loving country.The hot dog statue wore tennis shoes and held a Ukrainian flag in its left hand and an American flag in its right. (The hot dog had hands.) Standing outside the flagship store of the Ukrainian gas station chain Socar, the statue displayed a sign advertising “Nathan’s Famous” hot dogs in the same green curlicue script that promotes the chain at its original location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island and Nathan’s outlets everywhere. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Ivan Pozniak, a 35-year-old airline pilot, walked past the statue and into...

ATLANTA (AP) — The billionaire heir and the former bartender.Many Democrats have been in and out of the spotlight as the party looks for effective counters to President Donald Trump and his second administration. But two disparate figures, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have seen their national profiles rise by delivering messages that excite a demoralized and fractured party. The governor, a 60-year-old heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, and the congresswoman, the 35-year-old with working-class roots, both won their first elections in 2018. Both have urged mass resistance and accused their party...

PAINTSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party.A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was “the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,” an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote last November.Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party’s “Rural Listening Tour,” a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the...

SummaryJudicial reform raises concerns over rule of law in Mexico Critics fear reform may increase organized crime influence Election agency could disqualify ineligible candidates after vote CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, May 24 (Reuters) - When residents in the state of Durango vote in Mexico's first judicial elections next weekend, Leopoldo Chavez will be on the ballot for federal judge - despite the nearly six years he served in a U.S. prison. Chavez was convicted on drug offenses: for smuggling over 4 kilograms of methamphetamines in 2015. Durango is part of Mexico's Golden Triangle, a cartel-controlled region growing marijuana and opium poppies....

President Donald Trump this week enjoyed one of his biggest legislative victories during his second administration. "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL" has PASSED the House of Representatives!" Trump touted in a social media post Thursday. The president's post came soon after the GOP-controlled House passed Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts package by a razor-thin margin. The Republican-crafted measure is full of Trump's campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. Ahead of the House vote, two surveys released earlier in the week indicated that the president's poll numbers remained underwater.

A frightening moment played out in front of a KTLA news crew along a popular shopping corridor in Pasadena Friday morning. While setting up a live shot outside an Apple Store on Colorado Boulevard, KTLA reporter Kimberly Cheng and photojournalist Andre Cox encountered an agitated man carrying several cases.

“This is an existential crisis — it’s an extinction event,” said Beau Flynn, a producer of big-budget movies like “San Andreas,” which despite being about an earthquake in California was filmed mostly in Australia. “These are real things. I am not a dramatist, even though I’m in the drama field.” Michael F. Miller Jr., a vice president at the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, who oversees film and television production for the union, said that roughly 18,000 full-time jobs have evaporated in the past three years, primarily in California. “We are allowing California to become to the entertainment industry...