Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] The Tenebrae of Maximilian KolbeSeize the opportunity to bring a brilliant new look into the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe to your city.During hours of darkness in Holy Week, the Church observes the peculiar liturgy of Tenebrae. As the Office progresses, the candles on the lampstand are extinguished one by one, until darkness is total. It’s a mournful liturgy, to express the desolation of the Church as the Light of the World is about to be eclipsed. So goes the Passion of St. Maximilian Kolbe in the new movie Triumph of the Heart. It begins in the darkest...

"Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME," Trump wrote on Truth Social. President Trump on Saturday attacked Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker and again threatened to send National Guard troops and federal agents to Chicago to combat crime.Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said on Saturday that local police there wouldn't cooperate with the federal security presence that Trump might send."Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and...

After months of negotiation and concessions, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has found herself in a cycle of pressure from the White House. As much as any other world leader, Claudia Sheinbaum has gained the reputation of a Trump whisperer. Over and over, the Mexican president has entered tense negotiations with President Trump and — to the surprise of many — exited with praise. “I like her very much,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office in February. “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” he said after pausing tariffs against Mexico in March....

John Malone helped create the modern media industry over the last half century. In a new memoir, “Born to Be Wired,” he looks back on what he has wrought. Pop quiz: Which media mogul backed Rupert Murdoch’s launch of Fox News, supported Ted Turner’s plans for CNN and helped lay the groundwork for the internet revolution that powers Instagram, TikTok and Google? Need a hint? He’s also the second-largest private landowner in the United States, with 2.2 million acres. Of all the captains of industry who have transformed what we read, watch and talk about over the last half century,...

Four years ago, Nigel Farage decided he had achieved all he could in British politics. The gregarious English populist had campaigned for decades for Britain to leave the European Union, arguing the U.K. needed to make its own regulations and stop European migrants flowing in freely from the Continent to live and work. By 2021, Brexit was finally done. And so was Farage. “This has taken away the better part of my adult life,” he said as he announced he was quitting as leader of his anti-immigration party Reform UK. “I’m done.” Now Farage is back—and Reform UK is currently...

Summary Mayor directs police against collaborating with National Guard Johnson says federal troops, agents could come within days Chicago police to wear uniforms, not wear masks, mayor says White House calls city order a publicity stunt WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Chicago police will not collaborate with any National Guard troops or federal agents if U.S. President Donald Trump deploys them to the city in coming days as threatened, Mayor Brandon Johnson said on Saturday.The Democratic mayor, surrounded by other city leaders, signed an executive order aimed at preparing Chicago for any U.S. enforcement operation as Trump has done in...

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald Was Just Scanned by An AI — And It Revealed Something No One Expected Beneath the icy depths of Lake Superior lies the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a ship that vanished without warning nearly fifty years ago. No distress call. No survivors. Just silence. Now, for the first time, advanced AI has scanned the wreck with breathtaking precision. What it revealed was not just decay or twisted steel, but details that no one expected to see. How could one of the most respected ships on the Great Lakes disappear so suddenly? The answers hidden in this scan...

Verizon customers across the U.S. Saturday reported issues with the network on their cellphones, with some saying that their devices have been limited to SOS mode for several hours.

Heavy fighting, casualties on both sides, four IDF missing, on-scene phone videos of everything, including Hamas attacks on civilians. Some Hamas leadership offed, the rest have fled. Lots of fake reports from Gaza Health Department, fakestream media taking it as gospel without verification. Humanitarian aid paused. Transcript linked below video.

Vandals splattered red paint across the entrance of the ritzy Greenwich Village building where New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn lives early Friday, in the latest attack by anti-Israel activists enraged over the paper’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. Officers were called to Fifth Ave., near East 11th Street, just before 5 a.m. on Friday, according to cops. Residents were confronted with red paint covering the steps, walls, sidewalk and lamps outside the entrance, along with graffiti reading, “Joe Kahn Lies, Gaza Dies” scrawled in black marker on the pavement.

St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD) said two men were arrested for attempting to block FDOT crews who arrived to paint over the street mural on 9th Avenue South, west of 22nd Street South. The mural was a Black Lives Matter mural, which was installed in June 2020. Around 8 p.m. Friday, Andrew Oliver, 49, and Benedict Atherton-Zeman, 59, walked by police officers and sat down on the road attempting to block FDOT machinery, SPPD said. Police arrested both men after they refused to move. They were charged with Pedestrian obstructing or hindering traffic and obstruction, officials said.

Kristin Marino’s FDNY firefighter father Kenneth was killed on Sept. 11, when she was just 3 years old, but his nine brothers made sure they were at her wedding this week to stand in for him. Retired and new firemen from Kenneth’s Hell’s Kitchen’s Rescue Co. 1 patiently waited outside the Plaza Hotel Wednesday so they could see the beautiful bride off to her wedding. “It was truly surreal to walk out and see so many firefighters lined up in honor of my father. The sight brought me to tears and reminded me of the incredible brotherhood within the FDNY,”...

The president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum offered a tone-deaf defense of the nonprofit’s extravagant executive salaries this week, as The Post’s Page 1 expose stirred outrage that officials are exploiting the city’s greatest disaster. “Our executive compensation lags well behind that of peer institutions,” Elizabeth Hillman said in an email sent to the foundation’s trustees on Monday, adding that “recent compensation studies have supported adjustments across the organization.” But in the email, obtained by The Post, Hillman did not name any other institutions or cite specific compensation studies. Neither she nor the September 11 National Memorial...

Shrewbury, Massachusetts father Kevin Doherty was shot and killed Thursday by Snehal Srivastava after he confronted the trans man who was spraying graffiti on a bridge – before 9 AM in the morning! Doherty had just dropped his six-year-old so off at school when he saw Snehal spray-painting graffiti on the bridge near Jordan Pond. The father of the young boy took pictures of the vandalism and an argument broke out. So, Doherty call 911 for assistance. The 911 operator was on the phone with the father when shots were fired. Snehal Srivastava shot the victim dead. Snehal, who was...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called for the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to be used against President Donald Trump on Friday, suggesting he was unfit, during a discussion about his removal of Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors. "It is time to call for Article [Amendment] 25 of the Constitution of the United States of America to determine his unfitness, to determine that something’s wrong with this president. And I would suggest that we move very aggressively to talk about the danger to this country and to our democracy and not play around with this, because this...

Discover the untold story of how 371,683 German POWs experienced a psychological transformation that shattered N@zi ideology through witnessing America's overwhelming industrial might during World War II. When Afrika Korps veterans arrived in the United States in 1943, expecting to find a weak, divided nation, they instead encountered an industrial colossus producing a B-24 bomber every 63 minutes, farms larger than German provinces, and ordinary workers living better than German aristocracy. This meticulously researched documentary reveals how German prisoners of war, housed in over 500 camps across America from 1943-1946, went from hardened N@zi soldiers to advocates for democracy -...

Arch Manning’s long-awaited (and much-hyped) 2025 debut turned out to be a showcase instead for defending national champion Ohio State’s defense. Manning, the consensus Heisman favorite entering Week 1, struggled to solve new Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia’s scheme. He finished 17-of-30 passing for 170 yards, a late touchdown and an interception — plus 38 yards rushing — in a 14-7 loss.

This week, I had two separate meetings with people I’d never met before. In both, after the polite small talk, each confessed that before sitting down with me they had quickly “studied up” by glancing at my Wikipedia page. (Note to readers: Please don’t do the same.) My Wikipedia entry is not a neutral profile — it’s a hit job. It’s a curated “greatest hits” collection of my worst moments, or more precisely my critics’ worst caricatures of me.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. reached its lowest late-summer price of the past four years this month — but not in Oregon, where gas prices rose over the same time period. So far this month, the U.S. average for a gallon of gas has been about $3.13, a 3-cent drop from August 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, the average this month for a gallon in Oregon has been about $3.98, a 20-cent increase from August 2021, according to figures provided by AAA. Adjusting for inflation, national gas prices are...