Free Republic

Elon Musk's SpaceX said Monday it will buy wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar (SATS.O), opens new tab for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion, a major deal crucial to expanding Starlink's nascent 5G connectivity business.The companies also agreed to a deal that will enable EchoStar's Boost Mobile subscribers to access Starlink direct-to-cell service to extend satellite service to areas without service. The spectrum purchase allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand the cell network's capacity by "more than 100 times."...The push comes amid fast-rising wireless usage. In 2024, Americans...

Decarlos Brown Jr. had 14 arrests before allegedly stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to death. The FBI announced Tuesday that Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., the suspect in the stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina train, has been federally charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. "The brutal attack on Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail was a disgraceful act that should never happen in America," FBI Director Kash Patel said. "The FBI jumped to assist in this investigation immediately to ensure justice is served, and the...

White House Border Czar Tom Homan joined Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC today to discuss ICE actions in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey have both vowed to fight the Trump administration over deportations, with Mayor Wu calling them "oppression" while Maura Healey attacked the National Guard, saying they "do nothing" for public safety. Mika tried to defend Healey and Wu over their sanctuary state/city policies, and Homan was having none of it. Homan also brought the receipts, telling the audience exactly who ICE rounded up in Boston. That includes a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, arrested...

French President Macron late Tuesday appointed Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu as France’s new prime minister and tasked him with immediately trying to get the country's fractious political parties to agree on a budget for one of the world's biggest economies. Lecornu, 39, was the youngest defense minister in French history and architect of a major military buildup through 2030, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine. A longtime Macron loyalist, Lecornu is now France's fourth prime minister in barely a year. A former conservative who joined Macron’s centrist movement in 2017, Lecornu has held posts in local governments, overseas territories and...

Explanation: What's that rising up from the Earth? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early in July, astronaut Nicole Ayers saw an unusual type of lightning rising up from the Earth: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears near the center of the featured image in red, white, and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 25 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights...

France: Jihadis threaten to burn Notre Dame CHURCH in Paris unless authorities release Ibrahim Alisaoui, who killed 3 French.

It’s not just Cracker Barrel’s ill-fated logo change that has been irking customers — as corporate bean counters this year quietly forced the chain to serve up day-old biscuits and microwaved meatloaf, The Post has learned. The unsavory menu staples at the folksy restaurant — including biscuits that arrived at tables “hard,” “rubbery” and “like a rock” — were the result of a nonpublic February directive that prioritized “cost savings” and “efficiency” over customer satisfaction, multiple employees told The Post. Instead of making biscuits fresh each day as Cracker Barrel’s kitchens had done for years, the chain’s 650 locations were...

The writing’s on the wall — if you can read it. Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992. The math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency, the lowest point since the current...

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry says it ‘condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the brutal Israeli aggression’. An Israeli attack in Qatar’s capital, Doha, targeting Hamas officials has drawn swift condemnation from across the region and beyond, with the United Nations chief calling it a “flagrant violation” of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the Israeli military carried out the attack in Doha on Tuesday against Hamas leaders. It was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas...

It must have been a frustrating interview for Associated Press Supreme Court and legal affairs reporter Mark Sherman. He was interviewing Justice Amy Coney Barrett about her new book and he could barely get a word out of her on the subject uppermost in his mind: President Donald Trump.This frustration was reflected in the title of his AP story on Monday, "In new memoir, Supreme Court Justice Barrett reflects on historic cases, is largely silent on Trump."Despite the fact that Trump was rarely mentioned in her book, Sherman tried to get Barrett to comment on the one who appears to...

The US economy employed 911,000 fewer people than originally reported as of March 2025, providing stark new evidence that the labor market was downshifting long before this summer. The data covers the period from April 2024 to March 2025 and trims the average monthly jobs gains seen during this period (roughly the last 10 months of Joe Biden's presidency and the first two months of Trump's) from a monthly average of 147,000 to about 71,000. Data had previously suggested the economy added about 1.76 million jobs in that 12-month span. The new total is less than half that, marking another...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, faced sharp criticism for failing to keep a man with a history of mental illness, arrests and erratic behavior off the streets before he fatally stabbed a young Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train last month, a killing that critics say could have been prevented. Police say 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who fled the war in Ukraine only to be killed in an apparently random attack on Aug. 22, was stabbed by a man with a long record of criminal charges and psychiatric crises. The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., had served...

An outraged Colorado sheriff was forced to let a 'dangerous' inmate back into the public due to a state law that requires criminals found incompetent to stand trial to be released from jail. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams issued a warning over the release of an inmate who is considered a 'potential danger to the community' on Monday. Debisa Ephraim, 21, was given a legal 'get out of jail free card' and was released from the Weld County prison after he was found incompetent to stand trial in two of his criminal cases, according to the sheriff's office. He was...

Jackson Denio almost needed a bigger boat when he hauled in a huge 174-pound Atlantic halibut off the New England coast that he hopes will shatter a world record. The 13-year-old Hampton boy’s colossal catch came on Labor Day while he and his cousin, Austin Leaver, 14, also of Hampton, were enjoying an overnight fishing trip 75 miles offshore. “I was insanely happy. I never thought I’d catch something like this,” Jackson said, as he recalled the memorable fishing trip that’s now left him and his family buried in halibut steaks. The adventure began around 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug....

An online fundraiser designed to support a career criminal who brutally murdered a Ukrainian girl onboard a train in North Carolina has sparked fury online. Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, is facing first-degree murder charges for stabbing Iryna Zarutska, 23, onboard a South End light rail train in Charlotte on August 22. Shocking surveillance footage from the scene showed him watching Zarutska for some time after she sat in the seat in front of him, eventually taking out what appeared to be a blade from his pocket. He then stood up and loomed over the 23-year-old, swinging the knife at her...

“This is a fraud case, and we have to prove intent, and I don’t believe that there’s evidence sufficient to prove intent,” Judge Kristen Simmons said Ajudge on Tuesday dismissed the cases against Michigan alternate electors for the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors had alleged that the electors were involved in efforts to overturn former President Joe Biden's 2020 election win in the state, NBC News reported. "These cases will not be bound over to the circuit court," said Judge Kristen Simmons, a state district court judge appointed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. "Each case will be dismissed." Simmons said the...

Disney finally admitted what we all knew...they drove men away. Now they want us back. Sorry Mouseketeers it's too late for that! From Star Wars to ESPN, they spent years mocking men, turning heroes into failures, and lecturing their own audience about “toxic masculinity.” The result? Empty theaters. Disney+ bleeding subscribers. ESPN reduced to a feminist pep rally. And now the company is begging for the very men they said were irrelevant. But here’s the truth: once men are gone, they’re gone. No amount of reboots, apologies, or desperate spin can bring them back. Disney chose to lose men —...

Sen. Rand Paul all but accused the vice president of celebrating war crimes. JD Vance is just fine with that. The Kentucky Republican ripped Vance over the weekend in a social media fight that could offer a preview of future skirmishes between President Donald Trump’s heir apparent and another Republican with 2028 ambitions. Paul has long been a thorn in the GOP’s side and regularly clashed with Trump, making him a particularly useful foil for Vance and the administration as they seek to build support for last week’s attack on a boat leaving Venezuela, killing its crew because they were...

An alleged serial killer who met his victims on dating apps before savagely robbing and killing them had a lengthy California crime history that included wearing a white-face mask to hide his black identity, authorities revealed.Prosecutors charged 34-year-old Rockim Prowell on Monday for robbing and killing two men he met on dating apps in 2021 and 2023. He allegedly also attacked a third victim in February of this year, tying him up, beating him with a baseball bat, and stealing his wallet. Cops found the mask after pulling Prowell over in a car linked to the crimes. It is unclear...

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon is challenging a signature accomplishment of Gov. JB Pritzker and getting involved in a case that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was confirmed by the Senate despite criticism from Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the judiciary committee from Illinois. “I cannot and will not support a nominee whose record suggests she is more likely to attack civil rights than defend them,” Durbin said. He argued she was part of a “growing list of the president’s personal lawyers” nominated for senior Justice Department roles. Now Dhillon...