Free Republic

Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people “drank the Kool Aid” and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones. Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People’s Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones’ religious cult, mostly...

What makes the Galápagos tomatoes particularly notable is not just that they produce alkaloids, but that they are generating types not seen in modern tomatoes...The team examined more than 30 tomato specimens collected from various locations across the islands. They discovered that tomatoes growing on the eastern islands produced alkaloids similar to those found in today's cultivated varieties. However, tomatoes from the western islands were synthesizing a different form of the molecule—one that matched the chemical profile of ancient eggplant relatives.This distinction is due to stereochemistry, which refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. Two compounds can...

Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired more than 20 Department of Justice employees who were involved in investigating the January 6 protest and the case regarding President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to a new report. On Friday, at least 20 employees from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team were let go, including two prosecutors, seven support staff members, and U.S. Marshals, according to reports from Reuters and Axios. Per Axios: The firings are part of a massive purge aimed at clearing DOJ of attorneys and support staff who took part in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump...

Now Zohran Mamdani, in addition to ticking off the Jewish Americans who make up 11% of his city’s population, is ticking off Italian-Americans (another large minority). An old Twitter post (2020) has resurfaced, and it’s not a good look for the wannabe mayor of the Big Apple.

Border czar Tom Homan revealed the Department of Homeland Security has already located 10,000 of the approximately 300,000 migrant children that went missing under the Biden administration. “Have you heard that anywhere?” Homan said on Fox News. “No, the media’s simply not covering it. And look, this should be a nonpartisan issue. Arresting public safety threats and national security threats, everybody should be on same page on that. Rescuing children, I mean, it should be a nonpartisan issue. Everybody should be in lockstep on that, but they’re not. The media’s lying. The Democrats don’t want President Trump to be successful,...

The City of Los Angeles has declared itself to be in a state of rebellion against federal law. See Mayor Karen Bass’s executive directive, which officially aligns the city on the side of lawbreakers–in many cases, violent lawbreakers–and against the rule of law.Violence against federal law enforcement officers has gotten out of hand. Most recently, in executing a raid on a marijuana farm in California, federal agents were attacked by a mob of 500 rioters and fired upon. They made 200 arrests and rescued ten children who were being exploited as laborers.Outraged at escalating violence against law enforcement, President Trump...

The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens. The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in...

As he looks back at the defeat of former Vice President Kamala Harris last fall, the thing that keeps bothering Andrei Cherny, a onetime Democratic speechwriter and state party leader, is that he didn’t know what Harris would have done as president if she had won. The way he saw it, President Donald Trump ran on his own ideas, but Harris only ran against Trump’s. “The oldest truism in politics is you can’t beat something with nothing,” Cherny said. Now Cherny, the co-founder of a nearly 2-decade-old liberal policy journal, is organizing a group of Democratic thinkers to re-create what...

The Count of Monte Cristo

A Secretive Muslim Community, Established By A Pakistani Cleric With Ties To Islamic Terrorist Organizations, Has Been Tucked Away In South Carolina For Forty YearsIn the wake of President Trump’s B-2 Bomber “Operation Midnight Hammer”, a surprise strike on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, concerns have surged nationwide about possibility of retaliation on American soil. With tensions still unsettled in the Middle East, chatter has turned toward the risk of sleeper cells hiding in plain sight, particularly after the Biden administration allowed tens of millions of undocumented people to enter the country. Over the past week, we have received several emails from...

President Trump banned a Secret Service agent connected to the Butler assassination attempt from getting anywhere near him, according to RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree. Trump told his Secret Service detail about his concerns about the unidentified junior agent at a Christmas party for the agents last year. “As you guys can see, that person is no longer welcome here,” Trump said to the agents at the Christmas party at Mar-a-Lago, according to RCP.

12 July 2025 Saturday of week 14 in Ordinary Time Church of St. Giovanni Gualberto, Livorno, Italy Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingGenesis 49:29-33,50:15-26'God has turned the evil you planned into good'Jacob gave his sons these instructions, ‘I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me near my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave in the field at Machpelah, opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial-plot. There Abraham was buried and his wife Sarah. There...

At 1am on Thursday, Dartsia Liuba went to the basement of her Kyiv apartment building with her two children and husband, Roma. The air-raid siren had gone off. A Russian attack was coming. Liuba scooped up her seven-month-old baby daughter, Halyna, and woke her bleary-eyed nine-year-old, Orysia, and they staggered down three floors to wait in sticky darkness. Soon explosions began. There was an ugly whine in the sky immediately above their district of Podil. It came from a Shahed kamikaze drone. The streets echoed with booms and rat-tat-tat machine-gun fire as Ukrainian air defence units tried to bring it...

In the wake of concerns over flooding at properties adjacent to a solar farm off Spur 100, NextEra Energy Resources says it has submitted a remediation plan to the city and Kerrville Public Utility Board. Residents who voiced their displeasure over the situation at a May 6 meeting of the Kerrville Planning and Zoning Commission said the flooding has been happening for three years. Resident Jim Gallops, who lives in the 900 block of Spur 100, said the flooding brings boulders toward his property and a silt fence has been in view since March of last year. “We used to...

(Reuters) -The Pentagon is urging Japan and Australia to clarify what role they would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.Elbridge Colby, the U.S. under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pushing the matter during recent talks with defense officials of both countries, the report said, citing people familiar with the discussions.According to the newspaper, the reported request caught both Tokyo and Canberra off guard, as the U.S. itself does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan. Colby said in an X post that the Department of Defense...

Picture this: You walk into your own living room, ready to relax, and your spouse is dressed in full hazmat gear. Not because it’s Halloween, or the in-laws are visiting, but because the government says you need to “save the planet.” Welcome to the world of “green” heat pumps—a glorious technological leap forward in the same way New Coke was a glorious leap forward in soda. The only thing missing is a government-mandated sticker: “Now With Bonus Legionella!” No, really. If you’re wondering why climate commissars keep demanding you tear out your trusty boiler and install the latest in eco-absurdity,...

Meet the shameless serial shoplifter who is still waltzing free down NYC store aisles despite a staggering 254 arrests. Anthony White, 63, who has made larceny a career, was busted as recently as May on burglary charges after being paroled from prison on parole in December. The thief was allegedly ripping off stores where he had already been banned for theft — but was set free by judges after his arraignments on the latest offenses, court records show. Rampant shoplifting like White is accused of has prompted stores across the city to lock their goods behind plastic barricades. While the...

President Trump is considering authorizing fresh funding for Ukraine for the first time since he took office in January, multiple diplomatic sources told CBS News.The sources indicated the new funding could be intended to send a message to Russia, which has pounded Ukraine with drone and missile attacks in recent days. Russia this week launched what Ukraine described as the largest drone attack since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022 — the latest in a wave of aerial assaults that have pummeled Kyiv and other cities.Mr. Trump hinted earlier this week that he planned to send Ukraine more defensive...

This week the father of Austin Metcalf was 'swatted' by fans of Karmelo Anthony for the 6th time! That makes twice this month. Austin's mother has been swatted 2 times. This youtuber gets his info from Journalist Sarah Fields who is on X. Miss Fields has been covering the Karmelo case like no one else.

The DOJ dropped its investigation into Pfizer for possible foreign bribery after Pam Bondi, who previously served as outside counsel for Pfizer, became Attorney General. ... Sounds quite fishy like a conflict of interest that @TheJusticeDept would drop a case against @pfizer considering @PamBondi represented them and is now AG @AGPamBondi ? ... Pfizer bribery probe? Dropped. Bondi walks in... case walks out. Who’s brave enough to say it? We’re being played.. ..... The DOJ's decision to drop the Pfizer investigation raises serious questions about influence and accountability. When former Pfizer counsel Pam Bondi steps into the AG role, and...