Free Republic

US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder has said that Ireland and the US have “similar interests” that are among key issues for the relationship between the two countries. Mr. Pudzer is in Dublin to discuss priorities ahead of Ireland’s upcoming EU presidency, which is due to begin in July. “I think one of the one of the key areas would be what we call deregulation, what you guys call simplification,” he said on RTÉ’s Six One News. “I’ve had a conversation with the Irish ambassador to the EU, and I know that simplification is going to be on the...

The NYT Misrepresents the History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict. A welter of factual errors and misleading judgments has produced a distorted description of the 1948 War. Benny Morris. 27 Feb 2024. As we saw from the savage Hamas assault on southern Israel on 7 October, the Palestinians have certainly been active protagonists in their more-than-century-long battle against Zionism and Israel. But the New York Times would have it otherwise. Indeed, the underlying narrative in their magazine piece of 6 February 2024, “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Long Shadow of 1948,” is that the Palestinians have always lacked agency and have...

US rapper Kanye West has announced the postponement of a forthcoming concert in Marseille, France, "until further notice". The announcement comes a week after this summer's Wireless Festival in London - which West had been scheduled to headline - was cancelled following the UK government's decision to block him from entering the country. French media reported that Interior Minister Laurent Nunez was looking to ban the 11 June gig. An unnamed source, said to be close to Nunez, was cited as telling the AFP news agency that the minister was "highly determined" to ban the event.

Accused SantaCon cheat Stefan Pildes actively flaunted his lavish lifestyle on Instagram — before being busted for allegedly funneling millions in charity cash from the annual Christmas-themed booze fest to bankroll his bougie vacations. The founder of the notorious seasonal bar crawl, who was arrested Wednesday on wire fraud charges, shamelessly paraded himself globetrotting with his wife and friends on trips to Nevada’s Burning Man festival, the Las Vegas Sphere and ski getaways, videos on his Instagram account show. Pildes, 50, was also seen blowing the would-be donations on a string of concerts last year, including Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem Ball”...

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it. St. Vincent De Paul’s MSC-South facility is San...

Massive Fire Breaks Out At BYD Factory In China's Shenzhen: Video Videos of the massive fire in BYD's factory in Shenzhen have been circulating on social media, showing clouds of smoke rising from the parking facility. A massive fire broke out at a multi-level parking garage within BYD's manufacturing complex in Shenzhen's Pingshan district. The fire engulfed the building, sending thick pillars of black smoke into the sky and prompting a large scale emergency response. The blaze in the "three-dimensional" parking structure located in the Ma Luan subdistrict was contained by local fire and rescue teams, with no casualties reported...

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2026 – A federal authority that allows U.S. intelligence officials to spy on the communications of foreign nationals is set to expire April 20. Lawmakers remain divided over whether, and how, to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications from non-U.S. persons located abroad, often with the assistance of American telecom and technology companies. Nearly a dozen House Republicans have opposed a clean extension of the law, with some calling for stricter warrant requirements before agencies can access Americans’ data. American’s emails, texts, or calls can be...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Homecomings Are Still The Best! Col. Nate Vogel, 22nd Air Refueling Wing commander, poses with his family following his fini flight at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. Vogel took one last flight on a KC-46A Pegasus before relinquishing command of the 22nd ARW. (U.S Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Felicia Przydzial) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Marines Fight! Sailors Fight with Sumo Suits! PACIFIC OCEAN - U.S....

One day after Sen. Ruben Gallego said he was “betrayed” by good friend Eric Swalwell, a New York lawmaker is calling on Gallego to release communications between him and the former California congressman. “Yesterday we heard claims of drugging, choking, rape,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said, referring to news reports about Swalwell, D-Calif., who resigned from the House Tuesday after reports of sexual misconduct. “I think it’s imperative for Ruben Gallego to release every text message, every email, every social media exchange, every photo or video of his interactions with Eric Swalwell.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a highly unusual public apology to a colleague Wednesday, saying her criticism of Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his writing in an earlier immigration case was unfair. “At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” Sotomayor said in a statement. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.” Sotomayor’s statement followed remarks she made last week in Kansas in which she criticized Kavanaugh for his concurring opinion in a...

Before Michelangelo, before Leonardo, there was Giotto. Step back into the 14th century to discover the life and legacy of Giotto di Bondone, the man hailed by history as the "Father of European Painting." In this documentary, we explore how a humble shepherd boy from Vespignano shattered the flat, symbolic traditions of Byzantine art to breathe real human emotion, three-dimensional space, and dramatic narrative into the world of the living. Using our analysis model, we decode Giotto's revolutionary "Divine Spark"—from his legendary discovery by Cimabue to the breathtaking frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel that serve as the "visual vernacular" of...

The papyrus, which contains 133 lines of preserved text, is the longest Greek papyrus ever uncovered in the Judean Desert, although for decades it had been misclassified as a Nabatean text and practically lost in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)...Upon translation, the team that Cotton Paltiel put together realized the papyrus preserves an incredible snapshot into the Roman legal system and life between two Jewish revolts against the Romans: the Diaspora Revolt (c. 115–117 CE) and the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (c. 132–136 CE). The papyrus, which pertains to a legal case brought before a Roman court, contains the...

Labour has slipped to fourth place in a poll on who people will vote for amid growing pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the upcoming local elections. YouGov research has still Reform ahead on national voting intention on 24%, with the Conservatives second on 19%. And the latest poll has the Greens gaining two points on Labour, in third place on 18% ahead of Labour on 17%. The Liberal Democrats are fifth on 13%. Labour is expected to lose a number of seats on May 7, with Reform and the Green Party expected to make sizeable gains. There...

Santa Rosa City Schools has agreed to pay $6.25 million to settle lawsuits involving the families of two students caught in a deadly March 2023 stabbing at Montgomery High School. The settlement resolves legal action brought by the family of 16-year-old Jayden Pienta, who was killed in the fight, and the family of Daniel Pulido, the student who carried out the stabbing. The families' lawsuits alleged negligence on the part of the school district, arguing that officials failed to take sufficient action to curb escalating violence on its campuses prior to the tragedy.

Hundreds of ducks surrendered by a property owner in Riverside County will be available for adoption on Wednesday. The relinquishment of 480 ducks stemmed from overcrowding on a property in an unincorporated area of the county, according to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services. “We cannot provide long-term shelter care for this number of animals, so it’s important we work quickly to find placement with rescues, adopters and organizations willing to assist this week,” RCDAS Assistant Director Dr. Kimberly Youngberg said. The ducks were tested for zoonotic infectious diseases, all of which came back negative, officials said. The ducks...

Sports researcher Alfonso Mañas of the University of California, Berkeley, examined an illustration of a third-century a.d. Roman mosaic discovered in 1860 in Reims, France, by archaeologist Jean Charles Loriquet, according to a Live Science report. Most of the mosaic was destroyed by bombing during World War I, but Loriquet's illustration of the artifact survived in his book, which was published in 1862. Mañas said that the surviving fragment of the mosaic, housed in the Saint-Remi History Museum, closely matches the drawing, which shows animals, hunters, and gladiators. He thinks that one figure in particular, previously identified as a paegniarius,...

LABOUR has sparked fury by allowing a major Falklands oil field to go ahead — while holding back drilling in the North Sea. The massive Sea Lion development was approved by the Falkland Islands Government late last year, allowing it to move to full production. It is understood it would never be sanctioned without UK backing. The field holds hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and could keep pumping for decades. Key equipment is set to be built in UK hubs including Aberdeen, Newcastle and Rosyth. Island chiefs said the scheme will support the Falklands’ “economic independence”.

BUNNELL, Fla. — A Palm Coast man currently campaigning for governor of Florida was arrested Friday morning following a domestic disturbance involving a weapon and threats to kill law enforcement, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Kevin Cichowski, 46, was taken into custody after deputies responded to a residence on Cleveland Court in Palm Coast. Authorities say the emergency dispatch center received a report that Cichowski had battered two elderly victims in the home, striking one with a cane and throwing a cellphone at the other. One of the victims told dispatchers that Cichowski was armed with a gun...

1: Introduction Purpose of the guide 1.1 The Bank of England (the Bank), as the UK’s resolution authority, is responsible for taking action to manage the failure of certain financial institutions, including UK headquartered banking groups and UK-incorporated banks and building societies (together, firms),footnote [1] a process known as ‘resolution’. Resolution allows the shareholders and unsecured creditors of failed firms to be fully exposed to losses, while ensuring the critical functions of the firm can continue and helping to preserve financial stability. Resolution reduces risks to depositors, the financial system, and public funds that could arise due to the failure...

New radiocarbon dates for Mohenjo-Daro obtained by archaeologists at the Sindh Directorate General of Antiquities & Archaeology indicate that the city on the banks of the Indus River in southwestern Pakistan was occupied as early as 2700 to 2600 B.C., about two hundred years earlier than previously thought, according to an IFL Science report. The site is known for its burnt-brick structures spread over some 590 acres, where at least 40,000 people are thought to have lived. Evidence for a system of water infrastructure, including baths, wells, and sewage pits, has been found among the city ruins. Samples for the...