Free Republic

A Finnish politician and former Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen will face Finland’s Supreme Court on 30 October, marking the seventh year of a “hate speech” case over her public expression of Christian beliefs on marriage and sexuality. Räsänen, who has twice been unanimously acquitted alongside Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, was charged in 2021 with “agitation against a minority group” after quoting the Bible in a 2019 tweet, a radio debate and a 2004 pamphlet. The tweet questioned the Finnish Lutheran Church’s support for the Helsinki Pride event, asking: “How can the Church’s doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the...

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Stephen A. Smith that President Donald Trump will literally “take over” New York City if Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani wins the race. Cuomo, an independent mayoral candidate, joined Stephen A. Smith on SiriusXM’s Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Smith for a Tuesday interview that will air in full on Wednesday evening. As the days of the race wind down and Mamdani continues to lead his competition by double digits in most polling, Cuomo warned Trump will use the self-described democratic socialist to “take over” New York City with the military. “If Mamdani...

On September 24, 2025, a South Korean court confirmed Pastor Son Hyun-bo’s detention, rejecting his appeal for review. To most Western readers, this name may mean little. But in Korea, Son is no fringe figure. He leads Segero Church in Busan, one of the country’s largest congregations, baptizing over 1,000 new believers annually. His arrest marks a chilling escalation in what many now call a war on religious liberty. Son’s story reads like a Korean epic. In 1993, he took over Noksan Jeil, a dying Presbyterian church in Busan with twenty members. He renamed it “Segero”—“To the World”—and built it...

AUSTIN - Judges in Texas are now able to refuse to perform marriages for religious reasons, the state's highest court decided Friday. While the Texas Supreme Court's addition to the judicial conduct code does not include reasoning for the change, it follows a years-long debate over whether judges within the state are obligated to perform same-sex ceremonies. Texas Supreme Court ruling What we know: The ruling, amending Canon 4 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, was signed Friday, Oct. 24. Click to open this PDF in a new window. The comment reads as follows: "It is not a violation...

In what later became a public example of the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office’s new immigration enforcement powers, the agency arrested a pair of undocumented truck drivers Tuesday, one operating with a license that was suspended because of a DUI after the driver reportedly bypassed a Wyoming Port of Entry. That driver originated from Venezuela and was going 17 mph over the speed limit while evading inspection, Laramie Sheriff Brian Kozak said in a Tuesday social media video discussing the arrest. That driver had no commercial driver’s license and was driving on a Colorado operating license, which was suspended due to...

Authorities reportedly seized a total of 21 kilograms of cocaine. The authorities seized two packages with cocaine on Oct. 10 that amounted to 13 kilograms of cocaine, and Saturday's interception contained eight kilograms. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey's aide LaMar Cook was arrested and charged in an alleged drug trafficking scheme, after investigators intercepted cocaine that was allegedly supposed to be delivered to a building Cook worked in. Cook, who was the deputy director of Healey’s Western Massachusetts office, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and has been ordered to be held without bail, according to Fox News. The 45-year-old has...

Updated, 3:15 p.m. ARLINGTON, VA — A ground stop issued at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday has been lifted, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. A ground delay is now in place. In an alert posted on the agency's website, the FAA said departing flights were delayed due to "security." The alert is in effect until 10 p.m. ET, the FAA said. As of 3:15 p.m., the average flight delay was 32 minutes.

Prince Harry showed off his take on an American accent during a recent podcast appearance. He said: "This is the most American sentence I could think of: 'I ordered breadsticks with ranch dressing at Applebee's.'" Harry attempted to start, then laughed and asked the host to repeat the sentence. "That was decent," Hasan commended the Prince. After Harry repeated the host’s second line, “Hey, do you like my Cybertruck?”, Hasan turned to people off camera and said: "You guys out there, you cannot laugh like this. We're having a real thing." "No, but by the way, the laughter, it's encouraging....

Chandra Hooper-Barnett, an award winning black principal, lost her job after her controversial statements about the academic performance of black students. Will her departure help, or hurt, these black students? I asked Grok: “Fact check recent claims by a school principal named Chandra Hooper-Barnett. Also fact check the claims of her critics. Talk about her past awards as a teacher. Will the students be better off, or worse off, now that she is no longer working at the school?”This is Grok’s response:Here’s a news article about this:https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dallas-principal-removed-calling-meeting-181828135.htmlDallas principal removed after calling meeting with only Black students about their grades: ‘You...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis bans H-1B visas at state universities, ordering institutions to hire Americans instead of foreign workers, citing visa abuse and prioritising local graduates for taxpayer-funded jobs. In a bombshell directive shaking up higher education, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that state universities will no longer be allowed to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas, ordering institutions to prioritise American citizens and Florida residents for all university positions. “Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job,” DeSantis declared. “We will...

Just two months after October 7, international organizations were already discussing how to apply the term “famine” to the situation in Gaza. This was revealed by World Health Organization representative to Israel, Dr. Michel Thieren, on the Mosaïque podcast last week. The podcast was created by Akadem and the French Institute of Israel, and former journalist Antoine Mercier hosted the episode. Thieren attended a multilateral governance meeting about Gaza in Geneva in December 2023. During the meeting, Thieren said organizations discussed how important it would be to scientifically demonstrate the occurrence of a famine in Gaza, and how to use...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released additional FBI files Wednesday revealing that hundreds more Republican groups and persons were targeted in a “fishing expedition” brought by special counsel Jack Smith. In a press conference alongside other GOP senators, Grassley announced that he was making public the 197 subpoenas sought by Smith as part of the Arctic Frost probe, which became “the vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.” “I’ve obtained through legally protected whistleblower disclosures,” Grassley said. “197 subpoenas were issued by Jack Smith and his team. These subpoenas were...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warned on Friday that President Trump’s growing involvements in Ukraine’s war with Russia and in the Caribbean Sea against Venezuela could further unravel and greatly upset the MAGA base. Paul, in an interview with Dasha Burns on Politico’s “The Conversation” podcast, said the $20 billion “economic stabilization” agreement with Argentina could be “the dealbreaker … because it’s an enormous amount of money.” “But if there is more money going to Ukraine, and it looks like he is coming down on the side of getting us involved with Ukraine on their side of the war [with Russia]...

From Constantine’s Cross to the Evil Eye: Rome’s Festival of False GodsAt Constantine’s Arch, Leo XIV lit a candle beside leaders of every creed; at the Vatican, screens glowed with the image of a woman holding the “evil eye.” The symbolism wrote its own commentary. The Cross that once conquered pagan Rome has been replaced by a talisman meant to ward off misfortune; a fitting emblem for a Church now terrified of proclaiming the exclusive truth of Christ.What began as a “Meeting for Peace” beneath the Arch of Constantine ended as a weeklong festival of pluralism, a Nostra Aetate jubilee...

Explanation: Three objects stand out in this thoughtful telescopic image, a view toward the mostly stealthy constellation Lynx. The two brightest (the spiky ones) are nearby stars. The third is the remote globular star cluster NGC 2419, at distance of nearly 300,000 light-years. NGC 2419 is sometimes called "the Intergalactic Wanderer", an appropriate title considering that the distance to the Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is only about 160,000 light-years. Roughly similar to other large globular star clusters like Omega Centauri, NGC 2419 is itself intrinsically bright, but appears faint because it is so far away. NGC...

The artificial intelligence giant Nvidia on Wednesday notched yet another historic milestone, becoming the first company to be worth $5 trillion. The value of Nvidia alone is now worth more than the GDP of every country on earth, except for the United States and China, according to World Bank data.

The deputy director of Governor Maura Healey’s western Massachusetts office, LaMar Cook, was arrested and terminated from his position after several kilograms of suspected cocaine were seized. The Hampden District Attorney’s Office told 22News that an ongoing investigation is being conducted after multiple parcels were seized that contained a combined total of approximately 21 kilograms of suspected cocaine. 22News obtained the court documents that state two packages sent from an address in Atlanta, Georgia, were intercepted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 8. The packages contained approximately 12 kilograms of cocaine (several imprinted with the word...

2025 headed toward both record dog attack fatalities & record pit bull-inflicted fatalities BAXLEY, Georgia; DAYTONA BEACH, Florida; NASHUA, New Hampshire; BACLIFF, TEXAS––Nine pit bulls killed four people in five days between October 8, 2025 and October 12, 2025. That brought the 2025 U.S. dog attack death toll to 70, just five behind the record toll of 75 reached in 2024, with 52 confirmed deaths by pit bull, five behind the record toll of 57, reached in 2023. The four most recent victims included three people who were killed by their own or their own family’s pit bulls, plus 86-year-old...

Universal Basic Income: Make Slavery Great AgainThe Evil of AimlessnessI once worked in communities supported mainly through a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI). Most money was received from the government for no (or token) work, or from mining royalties, where others worked digging on the communities’ lands. There were walls black and heaving with cockroaches while children slept with dogs on stained mattresses below, and babies covered head to toe in pustular scabies while the mother complained about a sore back. This was not universal, but not uncommon. Other communities that stood out as strong and healthy had people...

Police were taking down narcotics smuggling at the airport. The cartels fought back hard. There's outright open warfare in the streets of Rio. The drug cartels are using drones to fight.