Free Republic

A woman named Lonna Drewes accused Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) of drugging and raping her during a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, adding to the weighty allegations of sexual misconduct against the California Democrat. Drewes told reporters she met Swalwell in 2018 while working as a model in Beverly Hills. She said she owned a “fashion software company” at the time and that Swalwell offered to help her with connections. Drewes said they met two times socially and that she believed “he was my friend.” On the third occasion, she said he sexually assaulted her in a hotel...

USS Frank E. Petersen (DDG-121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) operated in the Persian Gulf after transiting the strait as part of the U.S. plan to “ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines,” according to a Saturday U.S. Central Command news release. Frank E. Petersen is part of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, while Michael Murphy is an independently-deployed destroyer, according to USNI News’ Fleet and Marine Tracker. The pair of ships transited back through the strait to the Gulf of Oman, according to ship spotters.How the U.S. will clear the strait remains an open question. Over...

Another woman accused Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., of rape Tuesday, just hours before the embattled lawmaker is expected to resign from the House. "He raped me. And he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died," Lonna Drewes said Tuesday, while describing an incident that she alleged took place in Swalwell's hotel room in 2018. Drewes said she was working as a model and software engineer in Beverly Hills when she met Swalwell, who offered business and political connections. When meeting him for the third time under the guise of going to...

Spain’s Council of Ministers will approve on Tuesday a royal decree initiating an extraordinary regularisation process for nearly half a million migrants in the country, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced. In a post on X, Sanchez described the move as "normalisation," acknowledging the reality of nearly half a million people, calling it "an act of justice and a necessity." Underlining that Spain is ageing, Sanchez linked the role of migrants to the country being the fastest-growing economy in Europe. "Neither technology nor automation will solve this challenge on their own in the coming years. The path is clear: better integration,...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomed his Indonesian counterpart — Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin — to the Pentagon today, where the two men announced the establishment of the Major Defense Cooperation Partnership between the two countries. ... The partnership will serve as a framework to advance bilateral defense cooperation between the U.S. and Indonesia in order to maintain peace and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific region. ... The new cooperation agreement features three "foundational pillars" that are based on each country's national sovereignty and mutual respect: military organization and capacity building; training and professional military education; and exercises and operational cooperation....

Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert who occasionally has sparred with church leaders over their criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, said in an interview on Fox News Channel on Monday night that the president’s social media post with the Jesus-like image was “a joke.” “Of course, he took it down because he realized a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor,” Vance said. He repeatedly dismissed the focus on the president’s fight with the pope, saying it “isn’t particularly newsworthy” and there will be disagreements from time to time with the Vatican. But Vance also suggested the...

SWALWELL 2028!!!Why not? Eric Swalwell (if not hit with massive lawsuits) will have time on his hands to run. Plus scandal can't harm him any more since he has fallen as low as one can go.Ultimately, Swalwell 2028 merch would be a big humor hit. As an ice breaker, imagine walking into a party wearing Swalwell 2028 gear. It would definitely inspire a lot of laughter

The first direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in move 40 years began today (Tuesday) at the American State Department. The meeting is taking place at the US State Department in Washington, with Israel making it clear before it began that the talks will have no impact on the fighting in Lebanon. At the same time as the talks opened, the IDF announced preparations for increased fire from Hezbollah. As they began, incessant alarms sounded in Kiryat Shmona and other settlements in the Galilee region, after a drone strike at the entrance to Nahariya. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Starting this Saturday, employers in New York State can no longer use credit history in the hiring process. The governor signed the bill into law in December. It takes effect statewide on April 18, 2026. New York City passed its own credit check ban in September. The bill also applies to an employer’s decision to fire or promote a current employee. A person’s credit history might affect a lot of other areas like renting or buying a home, but it will no longer have an impact on their ability to get a job. There are some exceptions...

There's no lack of blame to go around for the overnight spat between Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, and President Trump doing his late-night tweets.AdvertisementFollowing the heavily advertised 60 Minutes segment featuring the pope's three closest and wokest U.S. cardinals repeating their criticisms of Trump's Iran actions and work restoring U.S. immigration law, Trump put out these intemperate tweets:B R E A K I N G 🅱️ President Trump SLAMS Pope Leo for catering to woke radical leftists.. 👀 pic.twitter.com/5Ua04zcvuG — American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) April 13, 2026The president posted this not long after attacking the Pope: pic.twitter.com/RlRhO63ZCoAdvertisement —...

Politico's senior executive editor, Alexander Burns, has a long history of attempting to foist far left politics upon the public. In his latest incarnation on Monday, Burns uses the defeat of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán at the polls to argue the Democrats need to embrace socialism if they want to defeat the nasty MAGA Republicans at the polls, "Orbán’s Defeat Shows What Trump’s Opponents Keep Doing Wrong."

President Donald Trump has slipped underwater with one of the most important blocs in his political coalition, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, which found his net approval among white working-class voters turned negative for the first time in his second term. The survey, conducted March 26 to March 30 among 1,201 adults, showed Trump at 49% approval and 50% disapproval with white non-college voters, a narrow but politically notable reversal for a group that helped drive his return to the White House. The shift matters because white working-class voters have long been central to Trump's electoral...

Here is a transcript of the intriguing and insightful Mo Gawdat video... Your life and mine will witness times where there will be 20, 30, 50 percent unemployment in certain sectors, maybe even more. Most of us are going to witness something we've never seen before. The interesting thing is that this is not unlike humanity's origin. Jobs are an invention that serve a capitalist system that has served humanity for a while and pained humanity for a while. And the question is, is the capitalist system going to survive artificial intelligence? Funny enough, the capitalists that are celebrating the...

VATICAN CITY — In an escalation of the public feud between the U.S. president and the supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV shared an AI-generated photo of himself dressed as Donald Trump. After President Trump shared a controversial AI-generated image of himself with overt religious imagery on the heels of bashing the pope, the pontiff retaliated by releasing his own image depicting himself with a distinctly Trump-like appearance and sitting in the Oval Office. Critics immediately bashed the image as being blasphemous. "This image is highly offensive," one social media user said. "For the pope to...

A walk down the aisles of almost any neighborhood liquor store showcases a wealth of variety that hardly seemed possible when I made my first legal purchase [mumble-mumble] years ago. You'll see 50 bourbons where there used to be five, vodkas from as far and wide as Russia's Stoli to Tito's from Texas. If you'd have told 21-year-old me that someday I'd enjoy scotch from Japan, I'd have looked at you like you were a crazy person. You'll find, as General Motors used to say about its array of cars, a spirit "for every purse and purpose." Things are already...

This is a YouTube video titled: 🚨"The Investigation is RAMPING UP" - Fani Willis PANICS as Lawmakers Uncover MASSIVE No-Bid Payments It's a partisan/conservative commentary-style video (likely from a right-leaning channel focused on legal/political news) criticizing Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Context (as of April 2026): Georgia Republican-led Senate Special Investigations Committee has been holding hearings into Fani Willis and her office. They're scrutinizing her office's spending, billing practices, no-bid contracts, and payments (especially related to the Trump election interference/RICO case). Recent hearings involved Willis testifying under questioning about financial transactions, attorney fees, and alleged irregularities. There's also an ongoing...

A Chinese tanker under US sanctions passed though the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, defying Washington's naval blockade that began on Monday. After circling the area late on Monday and initially turning back, the 600ft long vessel passed through the waterway on Tuesday. Oil tanker Rich Starry is owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd. and became a target for US sanctions because it was used to transport Iranian crude. Rich Starry is a medium-range tanker that is carrying about 250,000 barrels of methanol, according to the data. It loaded the cargo at its last port of call, the UAE's...

120 workers in Kent, Washington showed up to work -- and found out their jobs are gone. Not because the company is failing... but because it’s expanding somewhere else. In this video, we break down what really happened with Rise Baking Company, why those jobs are moving to Utah, and how the timing lines up with Washington’s new tax law signed by Bob Ferguson.

It’s not exactly a surprise. California has become the single most corrupt state in the country and the one that is most blatant about walling its corruption around with laws. California’s legislature hid FBI investigations and costs for politicians “in the public interest”. It passed a law hiding corruption. Its capitol annex project had everyone involved signing non-disclosure agreements to hide costs. And of course it was the one place that prosecuted a man for exposing the Planned Parenthood baby parts business. The moment Somali fraud became a national story, California politicians began issuing warnings. Not to the fraudsters, but...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge must end his “intrusive” contempt investigation of the Trump administration for failing to comply with an order turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador last year, a divided appeals court panel ruled Tuesday. Chief Judge James Boasberg abused his discretion in forging ahead with criminal contempt proceedings over the March 2025 deportation flights, according to the majority opinion by a three-judge panel from U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Donald Trump’s administration has a “clear and indisputable” right to the termination of the contempt proceedings, Circuit Judge...