Free Republic

The FBI on Monday announced it reopened the investigation into cocaine found at the White House. “Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases. These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case. I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative...

Payment card giants Visa and Mastercard have announced plans to integrate with AI “agents,” enabling them to make purchases on users’ behalf by accessing their credit card information. According to Visa, the agents would verify purchases with users at first, but would gain more autonomy over time. AI agents, or “personal assistants,” are advanced versions of popular chatbot large language models (LLMs). They are designed to simplify users’ lives by taking over critical functions across work and day-to-day life. So far, progress on these AI agents has been slow, with little to show for it. However, the payment card companies...

Federal judges are considering hiring armed private security forces amid fears that US Marshals will not protect them because they work for Donald Trump. The judiciary has been dealing with rising number of threats against magistrates who have ruled against the Trump administration's agenda. .... Snip.... Some judges are concerned the security provided by the Marshals Service will not be enough to protect them, or that the White House will revoke their services as retaliation for their rulings. The idea for private security came up in a series of closed-door meetings in March, when a group of roughly 50 judges...

Trans folks went topless outside Downing Street during a protest calling out the oppression of the community across the UK. The protest action – which took place on Sunday (25 May) in London – was organised by activism group STRIVE (Standing for Trans Rights, Inclusion and Visibility Everywhere) as a means of “bringing our voices to the very place where too many harmful policies and decisions have been made” about the “safety, dignity, and rights of trans people across the UK”. Trans people and their allies came out in force for the demonstration and marched from Marble Arch to Downing...

“Is the Blue Party really only the customer service desk for the administrative state?” —Jeff Childers It’s pretty universally acknowledged that America’s recent wars — say, starting with Vietnam — have been stupid, pointless, and fake in instigation. And yet the soldiers we sent into these fiascos acted bravely and honorably for the most part. So, it has felt a little weird to celebrate their sacrifices minus any sense of political justice, victory, or meaning in the endeavors they sacrificed for. Ergo, the holiday is lately reduced to a celebration of grilled meat. This Memorial Day, for a change, the...

President Donald Trump is visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day on Monday hours after blasting his political opponents and perceived enemies as “scum” in a social media post marking the solemn occasion honoring America’s war dead. In the early morning Truth Social post, Trump criticized members of the federal judiciary as “USA hating” as well as “monsters,” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, as “incompetent.” The all-caps message, posted just before 7 a.m. ET, sees the president wishing a “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country...

26 May 2025Saint Philip Neri, Priest on Monday of the 6th week of EastertideSt. Philip Neri Church - Lafayette Hill, PennsylvaniaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingActs 16:11-15The Lord opened Lydia's heart to accept what Paul was sayingSailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis, and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that particular district of Macedonia. After a few days in this city we went along the river outside the gates as it...

A Russian military expert stunned Kremlin hawks when he revealed that Ukraine's army currently enjoys a significant advantage over Putin's army. There is growing confidence among Russia's pro-war faction that Vladimir Putin can achieve all his military goals in Ukraine. Western analysts believe that Putin's aims have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country, and that he is more than ever determined to seize all of Ukraine. With Donald Trump seemingly unwilling to get tough with Russia, many Kremlin supporters are starting to smell victory. However, Andrey Klintsevich warned that Ukraine's army was still a...

Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler stumbled upon a large database of login information and passwords containing over 184 million records recently. He mentioned the discovery in an article on Website Planet. The data was not encrypted in any form and stored publicly, which meant that anyone with knowledge of its existence could download the data. The sheer size of the database, more than 47 gigabytes of data, makes it one of the largest leaks in recent history. In early 2024, a 70 million records password dump was discovered. A preliminary sampling of the data unveiled emails, usernames, passwords, and also links...

(AFP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Germany along with Ukraine’s other key Western backers had lifted range restrictions on weapons they send to Kyiv to fight against Russia. Merz, who took office early this month, also vowed that “we will do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine, including militarily”, in close coordination with other supporters. “There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans,” he said. “This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by...

Lots of pictures.

Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise in the United States, but the road ahead for charging infrastructure looks a whole lot bumpier. Despite growing interest in EVs, the pace of building high-speed chargers isn’t just lagging, it’s actively falling behind. Add in looming policy shifts under the Trump administration, and the gap between supply and demand could widen even further. It’s understood that the number of high-speed EV chargers being installed across the US dropped more than 21% through the first quarter compared to last year. With this in mind, BloombergNEF has cut its expectations for EV installations...

At least 11 people were injured Saturday night when gunfire erupted during a Memorial Day weekend gathering on a docked charter boat in Little River, South Carolina, police said. Horry County Police said in an online statement Monday morning that 10 of the people hurt in the shooting were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including one who was in critical but stable condition. An eleventh victim suffered a non-gunfire-related injury, police said. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, and detectives are working to identify those responsible for the shooting. "Thus far, the investigation indicates that the shooting was an...

Russia does not see the Vatican as a serious venue for peace talks with Ukraine because the Holy See is the seat of Catholicism and is surrounded by Italy, a NATO and EU member, three senior Russian sources told Reuters. They also point out that many Russian officials cannot even fly there due to Western restrictions. The Vatican has so far been silent in public on the idea raised by U.S. President Donald Trump after a call with President Vladimir Putin that Pope Leo XIV could host talks aimed at ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two. Italian Prime...

Gunfire erupted in a Jackson, Tennessee, park Saturday night leaving seven people, including juveniles, injured and police seeking the perpetrators of the shooting, authorities said. The shooting occurred at the Kate Campbell Park northeast of downtown Jackson, according to the Jackson Police Department. One of the gunshot victim was hospitalized in critical condition, two were in stable condition and four others were treated and released, police said in an updated statement Sunday morning. Police officers responded to the park after receiving reports at around 8:41 p.m. of a shooting incident involving juveniles, authorities said in an earlier statement.

Merz will tell Netanyahu "not to overdo it" in a call this week, though notes Germany will remain more guarded in its criticism than others for 'historical reasons'. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that Israel's recent attacks on Gaza are taking a humanitarian toll on civilians that can no longer be justified as a fight against terrorism. "Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has incresingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism," he told broadcaster WDR in a televised interview...

Former Congressman Charlie Rangel, a fixture on Capitol Hill for nearly half a century, has died, it was announced Monday. He was 94. Rangel, a Harem political institution, was first elected to Congress in 1971 by defeating the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. for the seat.

"A hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant."That's the definition Google assigns to the word "Podunk." For many it's a mythical place filled with country bumpkins and nothing to do.As it turns out, Podunk actually exists and it's right in Upstate New York.There are no official signs to let you know you've arrived, other than map coordinates and the nod of a street sign reading "Podunk Road," but one can actually visit the hamlet of Podunk, New York. The tiny no-stoplight-town, made up of a handful of houses, is inside the town [township] of Ulysses, nestled within the...

Eighteen people were injured, four critically, in a knife attack Friday in the German city of Hamburg, authorities said. Hamburg police said they have arrested a 39-year-old German woman, who they believe acted alone in carrying out the attack at the city’s Central Station, after a major police operation. She is in police custody and expected to be brought to a court on Saturday, police said. Seven people were “badly injured,” while seven others were “lightly injured,” police said. The victims are aged between 19 and 85 years old. The four critically injured, who include a 24-year-old female, 24-year-old male,...