Free Republic

Billy Halloran's peaceful trail run in Japan turned into a fight for survivalWhen Billy Halloran set out on a training run in the forest surrounding Myoko, a mountain town in central Japan, one morning in early October, he was expecting little more than a quiet workout among the trees. That changed when he noticed movement in the undergrowth—two Asiatic black bears staring back at him from less than 30 metres away. Bear encounters in Japan have surged this year, with more than a hundred people injured and at least seven killed, the highest toll since tracking began in 2006, as...

Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales allegedly had an affair with a senior aide who later died after dousing herself with gasoline and setting herself on fire, multiple sources have told the Daily Mail. Regina Aviles, 35, poured gasoline over herself before becoming engulfed in flames at her home on September 13 in Uvalde, Texas – about two hours west of San Antonio. The married mother-of-one, who was separated from her husband, had served as Gonzales's regional district director in Uvalde since 2021. Sources who spoke with the Daily Mail on the condition of anonymity said that Aviles and the married congressman...

"We're going to be signing an agreement that's been negotiated over a period of four or five months."WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump on Monday signed a critical minerals and rare earths deal with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling the leader a trusted friend and steadfast ally.Under the deal, the U.S. and Australian governments will invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral projects over the next six months, “with recoverable resources in the projects estimated to be worth $53 billion,” according to the White House. The Department of War will also invest in constructing a “100 metric ton-per-year advanced gallium...

The diagnostic categorisation for autism is so broad that families of profoundly autistic children are being left behind, says the mother of a 7-year-old nonverbal daughter. When I tell strangers that my daughter is autistic, their questions are often so far from my reality, it’s painful. Does she have a unique talent? Special interests? They picture a child who excels at puzzles. But my daughter hasn’t shown an interest in toys since she was 20 months old and is unable to tell me what she wants to be for Halloween or when she grows up. I fear illnesses like strep...

The notion that the weekend’s “grassroots” protests were organic is a joke. Try to follow the reasoning that an average, uninitiated individual might cycle through to understand the so-called No Kings movement that took center stage over the weekend. The person might say something like: Excuse me, but I already understand that the US has never been a monarchy, that we are a constitutional republic that elects rather than selects or anoints its leaders, so we do not have kings in this country. Why, then, are we supposed to be all hot and bothered about a subject that was...

Senior members of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic team arrived in Israel on Monday as the United States seeks to hold together the fragile Gaza ceasefire and intensify efforts to implement phase two of the peace agreement. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Vice President JD Vance, who is set to arrive in Israel on Tuesday. The move marks Washington’s efforts to bring momentum to Trump’s peace plan and move into the second phase of the landmark agreement brokered earlier this month, which will focus on fully disarming Hamas...

🚨 Abigail Spanberger in 2024:“The question related to ‘why doesn’t Biden just shut down the border?’ It’s because there’s actually no legal authority to do so.” pic.twitter.com/18jOMDD56x— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 20, 2025

Unicorns are supposed to be rare and mythical. But at Saturday’s No Kings protests I saw the largest outbreak in America outside a Lisa Frank store. They were everywhere, but I was surprised to see almost a dozen of them down in New Braunfels, Texas. As at many of the No Kings protests across the country, attendees embraced the example set by the taunting frog outside Portland’s ICE facility and came in outfits that you could find threatening in only the most silly and specific of contexts: Cookie Monster was there.But you don’t pass up a chance to meet a...

Virginia Republicans scored a monumental victory in 2021. After 12 years of sustained statewide losses, the party emerged from the wilderness and swept the three statewide races that year, led by outsider Glenn Youngkin, who became the commonwealth’s first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell left office in 2014.Virginia’s gubernatorial elections are unique in American politics in that no other state makes its governor a lame duck the moment he is sworn in, as term limits prohibit consecutive terms. No Virginia governor has ever run for reelection as an incumbent, although two governors have succeeded in winning nonconsecutive terms.The commonwealth’s proximity...

In early September, Kellen McMiller took part in a roundtable discussion with Gov. JB Pritzker at an event for anti-violence workers on the South Side. McMiller, 35, even posed for a photo with the governor in his neon yellow peacekeeper vest. The photo would later appear in a press release touting how violence prevention programs are helping drive down violent crime in Chicago. Just six days later, McMiller was allegedly involved in a smash-and-grab downtown that killed a man on his way to work. McMiller was one of a dozen offenders who authorities say robbed a Louis Vuitton store of...

The ongoing government shutdown is a symptom of a much larger dilemma facing the Democratic Party today. Locked out of power, lacking a unifying standard bearer, and struggling with historically low approval ratings, Democrats are facing a number of strategic challenges. At the heart of Democrats’ dilemma is an inability to articulate their own path forward as they are steadfast in opposing Trump’s agenda but are not communicating their own credible and attractive alternative. This “oppose at all costs” strategy has extended to the government shutdown. Although Democrats remain unified in their opposition, they are forgoing an opportunity to offer...

“Gay-Washed” Bible’s imprimatur should be withdrawn. Here’s why.I am grateful to OSV News for reporting on my concerns about the USCCB’s granting of an imprimatur to the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) Bible. I appreciate USCCB Scripture scholar Father Pablo Gadenz responding directly to my concerns. But I found his responses unpersuasive, and I still think the imprimatur should be withdrawn, for the reasons below.First, a recap for readers unfamiliar with the issue. The updated edition of the NRSV, the flagship Bible of Mainline Protestantism, was published in 2022. Protestant Scripture scholar Robert A.J. Gagnon (who literally wrote...

Two A-List Hollywood actors will star in a pro-assisted-suicide movie. From the Hollywood Reporter story: George Clooney and Annette Bening will star in In Love, an adaptation of Amy Bloom’s New York Times best-selling memoir In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss that is to be directed by Paul Weitz. . . . With In Love, Bloom wrote about how her she slowly lost her husband to Alzheimer’s, how the two made the decision to travel to Switzerland to end his life, and the struggle to move forward as a widow. The book was an affirmation of love and...

Grassroots organizations like Scott Presler’s Early Vote Action have been working in New Jersey as the final push over the line for the Republican Party to make serious inroads in a state abused by its incompetent Democratic overlords for far too long. Presler is aiming to do in the Garden State what he did in the Keystone State last year — turn it red. Trump lost Pennsylvania by 80,000 ballots in 2020. Presler’s activism helped him win it in November by 120,000 votes. I followed Scott Presler and his organization in the final weeks leading up to the most pivotal...

This is the best all-time Trump I have ever seen (Unfotunately, it's for Spanish-speakers.). It features Trump as lead Cuban-style singer, Hegseth and Rubio on guitars and Cruz on the drums and backup singer. The gals may be Bondi, Noem and I can't recognize the third one. The message is that illegals, Democrats and Maduro have been pulling all kinds of garbage and Trump arrived to put a stop to it. Click here.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Monday he has one goal when it comes to hiring the next football coach: Find someone who can win championships. During a news conference in Gainesville, Florida, Stricklin said his decision to fire Billy Napier on Sunday following a 3-4 start to the season was ultimately because "we didn't win to the level we needed to." Napier went 22-23 in four seasons with the Gators, including 12-16 in SEC play. Although Stricklin credited Napier for leaving Florida in a much better place than he found it -- including modernizing the football program structure --...

Joe Biden and former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell in Florida after Hurricane Milton last yearLast November 8th, on the Saturday after Election Day, one of the more bizarre post-scripts to Donald Trump’s re-election emerged in the form of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decision to sideline one official accused of telling FEMA workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” while canvassing for victims of Hurricane Milton in Florida. The Daily Wire spoke to multiple FEMA officials who produced screenshots of entries like “Trump sign, no contact per leadership”:The most painful confirmation, however, came from then-FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who testified...

Planned Parenthood’s abortion empire continued its downward spiral as the abortion organization announced the closure of seven centers in California, That pushes the total number of its facilities shuttered across the country this year to 50 and highlights the mounting financial toll of federal defunding efforts championed by pro-life advocates. Planned Parenthood clearly relies on our tax dollars to prop up its abortion business. The closures, affecting Melody Health — an arm of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties — will shutter locations in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo, Santa Ana, Westminster, San Bernardino and Upland. The centers...

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has had a bad day. That's how the boss of another big US tech firm Cloudflare put it – probably feeling very relieved that today's outage, hitting over 1,000 companies and affecting millions of internet users, had nothing to do with him. The places hit by the outage vary significantly. It took out major social media platforms like Snapchat and Reddit, banks like Lloyds and Halifax, and games like Roblox and Fortnite. AWS is a US giant with a large global footprint, having positioned itself as the backbone of the internet. It provides tools and computers...