Free Republic

Many people ease into Halloween by watching a scary movie or two. They might be classicists and opt for Universal horror like James Whale's Frankenstein films or Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula. Gentle souls might opt for a haunted romance like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, while cineastes will choose Kubrick's The Shining or William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Millennials who think they invented irony will go straight to the Scream franchise or horror comedies like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead. I want to take you to hell. More specifically a Japanese hell, as imagined in Nobuo Nakagawa's cult classic Jigoku,...

Putting toothpaste back in the tube: Mamdani says he has never supported the global jihad. At the same, he has publicly — sometimes lavishly — lauded men convicted of supporting Hamas and has praised Muslim leaders who themselves called directly for jihad and defended jihadists. Democratic mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani has indignantly declared that he has never supported “global jihad” — but the self-described democratic socialist has praised Muslim radicals who themselves were provably jihad supporters or defenders.In Wednesday’s mayoral debate against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, Mamdani declared that he was being accused...

"I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!,..." 1:14 VIDEO AT LINK....................

America’s Founders made the presidential pardon power absolute, and they did so as a protection against injustice. But Hamilton and Madison might be having second thoughts as they watch President Trump dole out pardons as a form of political legal tender. In the latest example, Mr. Trump on Wednesday pardoned crypto kingpin Changpeng Zhao, who happens to be a Trump family business partner. “I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.” One of those people wasn’t Mr. Zhao, unless...

Detectives investigating the £76m heist at the Louvre have uncovered evidence of an inside job, The Telegraph understands. Sources close to the investigation claim that digital forensic evidence shows a member of security was in contact before the heist with individuals thought to be the perpetrators.

Catherine Connolly’s lop-sided victory to be Ireland’s next head of state was accompanied by a surge in vandalized ballots from right-wing voters. DUBLIN — Independent socialist Catherine Connolly swept to a landslide victory Saturday to become Ireland’s next president, dealing a record-breaking rebuke to the two center-ground parties of government.Jubilant supporters of the 68-year-old Connolly, a lawmaker from the western city of Galway, embraced and kissed her as final results from Friday’s election were announced at the Dublin Castle count center.In her victory speech, Connolly struck an immediate note of unity. She stood side by side with Ireland’s government...

Social and religious conservatives spent more than a year lobbying first the Trump campaign and then the administration against mandating or subsidizing insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization, which they consider akin to abortion.Last week, their work paid off.President Donald Trump unveiled policies to lower the cost of fertility drugs and to create a new pathway for optional employer-based coverage of IVF, arguing the moves would make it easier for couples to have children. But Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to make fertility treatments free for all patients, will not have the government pay for it or require...

Vice President JD Vance has maintained a narrow lead over Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the latest hypothetical poll for the 2028 presidential race, according to a survey from Emerson College. The poll shows Vance with 46% support, while Newsom trails closely with 45%, leaving 10% of participants undecided. While neither figure has formally announced a presidential bid, both are widely considered the likely frontrunners for their respective parties in the next election. A Tightening Contest The results are the latest in a series of head-to-head match-ups conducted by Emerson College, which indicate a tightening race. Vance’s current one-point...

On 6 September 2025, two boys aged twelve and fifteen were walking home from basketball practice in Cobblebank, an outer suburb of Melbourne, when they were chased and set upon by a group of assailants who then hacked them to death with machetes. Seven teenagers have since been arrested and charged with murder. This double murder has become a flashpoint in the city’s ongoing crimewave. A surge in violent crime and property crime is afflicting the city, still regularly (but less credibly) listed among the world’s most liveable. The Melbourne crimewave is the most visible manifestation of endemic disorder created...

Fadwa Barghouti, wife of archterrorist Marwan Barghouti, has appealed directly to US President Donald Trump to intervene and help secure her husband’s release from Israeli prison, her son Arab told AFP. Barghouti, 66, has been serving multiple life sentences since 2002 for orchestrating murderous attacks against Israelis. He is widely believed to have planned the Second Intifada, which claimed thousands of Israeli lives from 2000 to 2005. Barghouti has continued inciting to terrorism from his jail cell. Despite his convictions, he is viewed by many Palestinian Arabs as a unifying figure and potential future leader. In a public statement, Fadwa...

Explanation: This popular group is famous as the Leo Triplet - a gathering of three magnificent galaxies in one field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65 (top). All three are large spiral galaxies but they tend to look dissimilar because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628 is seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across the plane of the galaxy, while the disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show...

On a brisk sunny morning in MacArthur Park recently, children played on a jungle gym as an open-air drug market operated nearby. Beside the park’s lake — which has witnessed more than a few bodies pulled from its murky depths — vendors prepared stuffed arepas for hungry patrons.For years, the famed park has served as an urban oasis for thousands of Westlake residents hemmed in by concrete and asphalt. At the same time, however, the city has battled waves of gang violence, drug trafficking and growing homelessness. Now, amid a city campaign to reduce crime in the neighborhood, officials have...

A planned immigration crackdown by federal agents has been canceled for the entire Bay Area for now, Mayor Barbara Lee of Oakland said Friday. "I spoke with Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, who confirmed through her communications with ICE that Border Patrol operations are cancelled for the greater Bay Area - which includes Oakland - at this time," Lee said in a statement obtained by CBS News Bay Area. A spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office told CBS News Bay Area that Sanchez spoke with ICE Thursday afternoon, who stated that the operations were cancelled at this time.

Ethics experts and Democrats say they are eager to know whether private donors behind the planned $300 million ballroom are poised to receive any benefits in return.President Donald Trump’s swift demolition of the White House’s East Wing this week stunned conservationists and many Americans. But ethics experts and Democrats say they are turning to a question related to the next phase of the project: whether the donors behind the planned $300 million ballroom that will replace the demolished annex will receive any benefits in return.Tech companies and defense contractors such as Google, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft, as well as wealthy...

Okay, I’m calling balls and strikes here. Over the last 9 months, we’ve noticed the opposition stand against anything – darn near every action the current President takes. Their latest hissy-fit of late: The White House Upgrade / East Wing Demolition – depending on how you view it...

Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Madmani delivered a speach on Saturday from a Bronx mosque to explain to voters how the World Trade Center attacks had made New York unsafe for Muslims. Madmani recounted personal stories about being questioned at airports and mocked by political rivals, using the attacks of 9/11 as a backdrop to frame Muslims as the city’s most maligned group. “I will always remember the disdain that I faced, the way that my name could immediately become Muhammad,” Madmani said, suggesting that his faith continues to make him a target in post-9/11 New York....

Imagine if in the middle of a heated political contest one of the candidates is forced off the campaign trail. That would be big news right? And also very strange. But do you know what would be even stranger? If the country's primary outlet for reporting political news declines to explain the reason for such a candidate even needing to leaving the campaign trail or even the fact that she was being forced to cease campaigning.You really don't need much of an imagination to dream up such a seemingly implausible scenario because that is exactly what Politico is currently doing....

The federal indictment of New York’s attorney general centers on a home she purchased for a relative. It is an act that rings deeply familiar to many.To some Black families, it was an intimately familiar arrangement.A woman whose parents fled a life of sharecropping in the South was among the first in her family to achieve a prestigious career. She extended her help to relatives who had less, even buying a home for a grandniece in need of stability.The house sits at the center of the indictment of Letitia James, the New York attorney general, by the Justice Department. She...

LONDON (AP) — For a week every October, people organizing international catch-ups and meetings on both sides of the Atlantic may be briefly confused: Did I just miss that conference call? Why is my grandmother calling me so early? Most people quickly remember: It’s that strange time each fall when Europe and the United States are out of sync as they switch from daylight saving time to standard time. Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. And for those that do — mostly in Europe and North America — the date of the clock change varies, partly because of...

The White House says the shutdown could halt next month’s inflation report for the first time in 70+ years, leaving the Fed without crucial price data.The government shutdown now in its fourth week likely means there won't be an inflation report next month for the first time in more than seven decades, the White House said Friday, leaving Wall Street and the Federal Reserve without crucial information about consumer prices. “Because surveyors cannot deploy to the field, the White House has learned there will likely NOT be an inflation release next month for the first time in history,” the Trump...