Free Republic

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed a new executive directive Friday aimed at strengthening city protections for immigrant communities in the wake of what she described as “unlawful and chaotic” federal immigration raids across the region. During a news conference, Bass called the directive necessary to help Los Angeles “understand how to protect itself from our federal government,” referencing a series of immigration enforcement actions that have occurred in the city over the past six weeks, including recent incidents in MacArthur Park and Ventura County. “We saw MacArthur Park earlier this week, which I think, now after all assessments, is...

Explanation: Transfusing sunlight as the sky grew darker, this exceptional display of noctilucent clouds was captured on July 10, reflected in the calm waters of Vallentuna Lake near Stockholm, Sweden. From the edge of space, about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface, the icy clouds themselves still reflect sunlight, even though the Sun is below the horizon as seen from the ground. Usually spotted at high latitudes in summer months, the night shining clouds have made a strong showing so far during the short northern summer nights. Also known as polar mesopheric clouds they are understood to form as water vapor...

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino took a day off from work after a clash with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Epstein files. .... Snip.... FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios. Why it matters: The dispute erupted Wednesday amid the fallout of the administration walking back its claims about Epstein by determining the convicted sex offender didn’t have a celebrity “client list,” and that...

The sequence of characters "9e112725- REMAINDER REDACTED BY ME "is an example of a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), also known as a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). UUIDs are 128-bit numbers represented as a 36-character alphanumeric string, including hyphens, designed to be unique across all systems and networks. They are widely used in computing for various purposes, including: Identifying data records: Like a database table might assign a unique UUID to each row, helping to distinguish one record from another, according to Cockroach Labs and PlanetScale. Tracking user behavior: In product and web analytics, UUIDs are used to track user activity...

When several countries endorsed the notion of some high-risk people taking the antibiotic doxycycline after unprotected sex to lower their chances of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, as the U.S. did last year, there was a theoretical concern the shift could drive antibiotic resistance in some bacterial infections. That risk no longer appears to be theoretical. In a newly published letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reported a steep rise in resistance to tetracycline — the antibiotic class to which doxycycline belongs — in gonorrhea isolates collected from across the country since results of the studies investigating...

The wife of Lufthansa airline’s billionaire CEO fatally ran down a babysitter while on vacation in Sardinia — then flew home to Germany while under investigation for vehicular homicide, according to reports. Vivian Alexandra Spohr, 51 — the wife of CEO Carsten Spohr — was behind the wheel of a BMW X5 on Tuesday afternoon when she struck Gaia Costa, 24, on a pedestrian crosswalk in the upscale Italian resort town of Porto Cervo, according to Corriere News. Spohr allegedly continued driving until onlookers waved her down... Spohr was formally identified as being under investigation for involuntary manslaughter — but...

A billboard that reads “Yes! I Buy Crack Houses,” put up by what appears to be an out-of-state investor, is drawing sharp criticism across Cleveland. After backlash from community members and city officials, that particular sign has been taken down. But others like it remain in place. Local real estate investors Avery and Tania Mullins said the signs go too far. “To me? It just wasn’t funny,” said Avery Mullins. “What was your point? I didn’t understand,” Tania Mullins added. The Mullins, both born and raised in Cleveland, have seen these billboards pop up across the city with slogans ranging...

The new Gottesman Pool opened in Central Park just over two weeks ago, and some New Yorkers have already called it a “disaster.” The massive outdoor pool opened on June 27, but swimmers are already reporting three-hour waits, excessive crowds, and fighting. Some New Yorkers on social media have expressed concern about swimming in the oval-shaped, 285-by-120-foot pool. “I saw this pool after hours. No joke, there was like a two-inch slick over the top of the entire pool,” one pool-goer said. “I literally wretched looking at it.” There is a bevy of videos on social media showing the pool...

One officer said the teen's alleged conduct was the worst he had seen in his entire 39-year career. Ateenager is being accused of numerous acts of heinous sexual assault on a 7-year-old while they both were passengers on a school bus for students with special needs in central Indiana. Prosecutors allege that 15-year-old Landon Doty raped the younger student several times while other students were on the bus.

Spanish Prime Minister Assails Israel: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez unleashed a tirade against Israel during a speech to parliament, accusing the country of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and calling on the European Union to suspend its cooperation agreement with the Jewish state. “No one that tramples on the EU’s founding principles — or that uses hunger and war to annihilate a legitimate state — can be a partner of the European Union,” he said on July 10. Sanchez also compared the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.Spanish Court...

Shooter's motives still unclear despite extensive investigation into the attack that nearly changed American history.. As the one-year mark nears since the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, questions remain unanswered; notably, why did Thomas Matthew Crooks carry out the attack, and how did he get so close? Despite the year's passage, the mystery endures surrounding the 20-year-old Pennsylvania native’s motivation. Fox News Digital spoke with two former federal officials about the lingering questions. Former FBI agent John Nantz said Crooks did not fit the profile of a politically motivated extremist. "Crooks looked not so much like an ideologue, not...

“It’s like: ‘How dare you find humor in these things — you’re meant to be ashamed and scared, and if you don’t feel ashamed and scared we’re going to do everything that we can to push you back there.’”Last week, Lily Allen revealed that she can’t remember how many abortions she’d had before getting an IUD, which is a form of contraception, at 23 years old. Speaking to her best friend Miquita Oliver on their podcast, Miss Me?, Lily said: “I have an IUD now, I think I’m on my third, maybe fourth, and I just remember, before that was...

The disgraced financier’s calendar for Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, details his planned meetings with some of the country’s richest men On Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, Jeffrey Epstein had a full calendar. He was scheduled to meet that day with Bill Gates, Thomas Pritzker, Leon Black and Mortimer Zuckerman, four of the richest men in the country, according to schedules and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Epstein also planned meetings that day with a former top White House lawyer, a college president and a philanthropic adviser, three of the dozens of meetings the Journal reported he had with each...

SACRAMENTO, CA — In the latest front on his war against the Trump administration's immigration policies, Governor Gavin Newsom officially declared California a sanctuary state for child slavery. The announcement followed on the heels of Newsom expressing outrage over ICE launching operations to rescue unaccompanied minor immigrants from working in California's marijuana fields, with the governor seeking to provide child slavers with a safe place to do their business. "It's our duty to provide a place for child slaves to work without fear," Newsom told reporters. "Here in California, we still look to build a bright future, where child slavery...

HBO will air the show, expected to arrive in 2026The as-yet-untitled sketch show will star the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator, alongside some familiar faces from that series and notable guest stars, according to a report from LA Times. The Obamas will serve as executive producers through their company Higher Ground Productions. There is no official release date for the show, but it is likely to air next year as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. In a press release, HBO wrote: “President and Mrs. Obama wanted to honour America’s 250th anniversary and celebrate the unique history of our nation...

For years, the MAGA base has been demanding real accountability, not just for January 6th protestors or anti-Hillary meme posters, but for the actual predators and monsters who walk free among us under our broken, two-tier justice system. One of the biggest demands from Trump’s America First supporters has been the truth around Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed client list. MAGA was promised sunlight on this issue. They were promised justice. And instead, many feel as if they’ve been gaslit, stalled, and handed recycled documents while the real power players skate free, without a care in the world. From the very beginning,...

Last month’s NATO summit in The Hague gave off the disturbing impression of an alliance finally crossing the fine line between serious defence policy into the realm of make-believe. The main outcome was presented to the world as a “new 5 per cent defence spending pledge” by all allies. The previous target, dating from 2014, was 2 per cent. President Trump naturally claimed the new benchmark as a “big win”, with the White House calling it a “monumental victory” and a “dramatic” increase in defence contributions across the alliance. Yet hardly any of this is true. Of the 5 per...

Price controls are the failed idea that never dies. Yet they are surging in popularity among Democrat politicians. During her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris floated the idea of passing federal legislation to prosecute grocery stores for so-called "price gouging." And now Zohran Mamdani, frontrunner for mayor of New York City, announced plans to freeze rents in nearly 2 million rent-stabilized apartments. That’s roughly half of the city's rental stock.As Robert L. Schuettinger documents in Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls: How Not to Fight Inflation, attempts to cap prices stretch back thousands of years. The results have been bleak....

Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for arresting and incarcerating him over his involvement in the anti-Israel protests on campus. The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a press release on Thursday announcing that he filed a lawsuit “detailing the harm he has suffered as a result of his politically motivated arrest and detention.” Khalil is seeking $20 million in damages. He told a reporter that if he wins the lawsuit, he would use the money to help other foreign students who have been detained in a similar fashion. Recently released after 104 days in detention, Mr....

For a while now, I’ve been trying to figure out who Zohran Mamdani reminds me of. Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, just won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, running on a platform that would make Karl Marx beam with pride Was it Fidel Castro he brought to mind — the socialist-turned-communist who transformed Cuba’s once-bustling economy into a cautionary tale? Or maybe Hugo Chávez — the man whose brand of socialism sent Venezuela’s economy off a cliff? SNIP And then it hit me: Zohran Mamdani reminds me of President Trump. Yes, that Trump — the same one...