Free Republic

The 13th Academy Awards – the ones where The Philadelphia Story was nominated in six categories – were the first held with sealed envelopes to keep the winners secret. For the very first awards in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel the winners had been announced three months in advance; there were only 270 people in attendance, the ceremony only lasted fifteen minutes and it wasn't broadcast. For the next decade the Academy did its best to make the awards an event, but they announced the winners hours before the ceremony and in 1939 the L.A. Times published a leaked...

President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is not going well. He began the conflict with a promise to use an air campaign to initiate regime change in as little as “two or three days.” But about three weeks in, Iran’s government, military and security forces remain highly functional. No popular uprising has emerged. And Iran’s government has seized control of the Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil prices surging and Trump into a panic. Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, is one of the analysts who saw this situation coming a long way off. An expert...

"The purpose of this volume is to tell the story of Cicero's life, and at the same time to set forth from his writings a presentation of the concluding age of the Roman Republic, and to record the disastrous but not inglorious failure of the last Free State of the ancient world. So far as may be, I propose to let Cicero himself to speak to my readers."

After three weeks of war, the Trump administration has begun initial discussions on the next phase and what peace talks with Iran might look like, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge. Why it matters: President Trump said Friday that he was considering "winding down" the war, though U.S. officials said the expectation was there would still be two to three additional weeks of fighting. In the meantime, Trump's advisers want to start laying groundwork for diplomacy.

There's a clip on YouTube of director Samuel Fuller in the early '80s talking about the opening scene of his classic 1953 film noir Pickup on South Street. He would be about seventy years old at the time but he's full of energy and enthusiasm, as you would be if you were Samuel Fuller being interviewed for what I presume is French television. Fuller was and had been for decades something like a deity for French cineastes (the director had moved to France around this time) and he would never have an audience this avid anywhere else in the world....

Historic Big Boy No. 4014 Steam Locomotive to Tour the East Coast Union Pacific Railroad, founded by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, unveiled its plans today to celebrate the United States, its amazing history and the people behind its unparalleled success story with two new locomotives and the first Big Boy steam tour to the East Coast in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. Big Boy, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, will journey to Philadelphia for Fourth of July, with stops planned in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Our nation’s origin will be celebrated with a beautiful No....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_z7GQANdT0

A horror midair death turned a long-haul flight into what some are calling a nightmare at 35,000 feet. A female passenger in her 60s died during the first hour of a British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London — but the plane kept going, leaving her body stored in a heated galley for more than 13 hours, according to reports. Flight BA32, pressed on to Heathrow rather than turning back — a decision sources say reflects the grim reality that once a passenger has already passed, it’s “not viewed as an emergency.” Crew members were left scrambling over what...

The news of the NBA’s potential expansion has grabbed the headlines recently. And should Las Vegas and Seattle be granted their own franchises, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that one current Western Conference team — either Minnesota or Memphis — will be moved to the Eastern Conference. However, Golden State Warriors sentinel Draymond Green took things further, proposing that the Grizzlies not only move out of the West but also relocate to Nashville, saying that Memphis doesn’t have the amenities necessary to support professional athletes.

Patty Hearst was abducted by a revolutionary group in 1974, as reported by the BBC. But 50 years ago, on 20 March 1976, she was found guilty of siding with her captors. ---SNIP--- Her kidnappers were in the obscure far-left Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA, one of many small radical groups of the era. Reporting for the BBC, US correspondent John Humphrys said that little was known about the group "except what they have written about themselves in their various pronouncements. That and the fact that members of the SLA are prepared to commit murder for their cause." The group's...

Iran says it is targeting Dimona, which houses Israel’s main nuclear research center, as a “response” to an earlier strike on the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. The Israel Defense Forces said it was not responsible for striking Natanz.

“Referring to India’s rotating presidency of BRICS, Pezeshkian called on the bloc to play an “independent role in halting aggression against Iran and in safeguarding regional and global stability."

A crew of cargo thieves were busted with $7 million worth of name-brand goods including everything from ATVS and golf carts to top-shelf liquor and Disney apparel — as well as a cool $1 million in cash, authorities said. Detectives with a cargo theft division of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that its operation took place from December 2025 to February 2026. It involved 13 search warrants in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. The items recovered included MasterCool AC units, golf carts, ATVs, Sony soundbars, LG microwaves, Canon printers, Ring cameras, Craftsman tools, Classica Cordials premium...

Metro Atlanta law enforcement groups say they will be cracking down on what they call "teen takeovers" over this weekend and in the future after a series of events ended with violence and arrest. The so-called "takeover" events have spread on social media across the metro area and around the country. Officials say the events have caused traffic disruptions, fighting, assaults, and property damage. "These takeovers need to stop. They need to come to an end. They are causing chaos and violence, and we want the public to be safe," Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Jason K. Smith said at a...

Explanation: Spiral NGC 1300 and elliptical NGC 1297 are galaxies that lie on the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). At 70 million light-years distant or more, both are members of the Eridanus Galaxy Cluster. About 100,000 light-years across, at lower left in this sharp, galaxy group photo NGC 1300 is seen face-on with a prominent central bar and grand, sweeping spiral arms. Like other spiral galaxies, including our own barred spiral Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 1300 is thought to have a supermassive central black hole. A contrast in appearance and slightly more distant, NGC 1297 is the...

Naomi Seibt from Germany has filled for political asylum because the German government is monitoring her text messages, email and Youtube channel.

"The View" co-host Joy Behar called out Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., during the show on Thursday for voting to support Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to head the Department of Homeland Security. "I think he’s terrible," Behar said of Mullin. "And as I said before, Fetterman was the deciding vote to say yes to this guy. With Democrats like that, who needs Republicans?" Fetterman voted to advance Mullin's confirmation as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against the Republican DHS pick on Wednesday. Co-host Sunny Hostin also slammed Mullin and said Republicans could have come up with someone better. She also blasted...

A woman is taking civil action after alleging that her mother, who has dementia, was sexually assaulted by a senior home volunteer, an assault she says was captured on surveillance video. The video, provided to KTLA by the daughter of the alleged victim, was recorded on the afternoon of June 10, 2025. The family’s attorney identified the man seen in the footage as 39-year-old Jonathan Alvarado, a volunteer piano player at La Mirada Heights Senior Living Community, who is named in both the criminal and civil filings. The daughter had installed cameras to monitor her mother’s care. Video from inside...

The results were not what they wanted and are what’s going viral. As it turns out, those “Western circles” were right all along. According to the data they shared, the average score came in around 73, with a median just under 70. More than half of participants actually scored below 70. These are numbers that are way below the average.

Seventeen years ago, then-President Barack Hussein Obama’s Department of Justice launched a witch hunt against four Connecticut police officers who’d been rooting out illegal alien fraud. The four East Haven Police Department officers — Jason Zullo, John Miller, David Cari, and Dennis Spaulding — “were branded as criminals, their lives and families torn apart,” according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). But they weren’t criminals — they were “committed, decorated professionals engaged in the unglamorous work of enforcing the law in a community plagued by fraudulent vehicle registrations, gang activity, and illegal enterprises.” Years later, Spaulding is now...