Free Republic

A Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism has been accused of picking up men on a sugar daddy website. Julia Varvaro, 29, allegedly had a profile on Seeking.com, a site that is often used by young, attractive singles looking for older, wealthier partners to help fund their luxury lifestyles, according to the Daily Mail. The profile, which was under the name “Alessia,” said its owner worked for a government agency and offered “seductive sophistication.” It used the same photo as Varvaro’s Instagram account and described Alessia as “flirty, fun, and fond of sultry spaces,” as well as...

Yvette Flunder, the lesbian leader of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in Oakland, California, who is also the presiding prelate of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, has drawn criticism for questioning parts of the Bible she finds “problematic” and suggesting that they be removed. The frustrated 70-year-old, who is married to her same-sex partner Shirley Miller, also suggested that the Bible needs a third Testament. “This is a very dangerous thing that I’m about to say now, ... a bit dangerous. I’m of the opinion that we need a third testament because the Bible has become problematic,”...

An appeals court has ruled that the Ten Commandments can be displayed in public school classrooms throughout Texas, reversing lower court rulings against the law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision regarding whether a Texas law that requires the display of the Decalogue is constitutional. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee, authored the court opinion, being joined by eight other appeals court members, including Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod. Duncan wrote that the law “requires no religious exercise or observance” on the part of public school students, and thus...

Longtime Democrat David Scott, 80, suddenly died on Tuesday night after mounting concerns over his advanced age. Scott served as a representative from Georgia for 23 years and served as the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee before being replaced by Angie Craig. He faced several primary challengers who cited concerns over his old age and wanted a new vision for the Democratic Party. He is the second sitting member of Congress to die this year. Republican Doug LaMalfa from California, 65, died during surgery in January. Scott's last vote came on Monday afternoon, when he voted for the...

https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2046894247761043566 Gunther Eagleman™@GuntherEagleman·7h🚨 OBAMA EXPOSED! President Trump posted this last night!“This should shake every single American in their shoes. I hate to say this, but President Barack Obama, there is now incontrovertible evidence that he was the spearhead of a seditious conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people and overthrow the United States government back in 2016.We must, absolutely must, hold every one of these criminals accountable for the crimes that they committed.They are the most heinous crimes committed in American history.James, James Comey, John Brennan, Clapper, Rice, Biden was in the meeting on July 28th in the...

King Charles III 'viscerally despises' Donald Trump privately, royal author Tina Brown has claimed ahead of the four-day US state visit next week. The former Vanity Fair editor said a royal adviser had also told her that the monarch was 'especially pained' by the President's attacks on Pope Leo XIV. Charles and Camilla's trip comes amid a worsening UK-US relationship after verbal attacks by Mr Trump on the British military, its Nato allies and Sir Keir Starmer. The King's first visit to the US as monarch is intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and herald the start...

Viktor Orban, the valiant populist, the restorer of the Christian faith in Hungary, the welcome thorn in the side of the EU Establishment, and the strong ally of President Trump since his first bid for office, has lost his own re-election bid. I had a feeling it would come to this. Sixteen years of uninterrupted administration as a strong force for conservative, right-wing nationalist populism have come to an end, at least under Orban’s leadership. Sometimes, voters have a strange fatigue when it comes to governments. Fourteen years of a “Conservative” UK government ushered in the Labour Party in 2024....

A Houston federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit by Kash Patel that claimed Frank Figliuzzi defamed the FBI director in a comment on the MS NOW show “Morning Joe.” Figliuzzi, a former FBI official, had said Patel has “been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,” the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Figliuzzi’s statement is rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation,” U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. wrote in his decision. The lawsuit is unrelated to the $250 million defamation lawsuit that Patel filed Monday against The Atlantic magazine...

We’ve discussed many times the fact that humans and Neanderthals are so similar that Neanderthals provide no evidence we are closely related to some type of primitive non-human hominid. Now, a new pre-publication paper reviewed by New Scientist provides more evidence for this, proposing the radical hypothesis that Neanderthals are not only closely related to humans — they are descended from us!Michael Marshall asks, “Are Neanderthals descendants of modern humans?” He writes:Among the many other human species that once inhabited Earth, the Neanderthals are the most famous. They lived until relatively recently and in many ways, they were like us.Just...

In 2020 Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Virginia twice since William Howard Taft. Then in 2024 Trump lost once more, this time to Kamala Harris. Now he has in effect lost it a fourth time as Virginia voters approved on Tuesday a fiercely contested referendum redrawing congressional districts to favor Democratic congressional candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. “This is really a country election. The whole country is watching,” Trump said. If so, it watched Trump suffer a major blow – one that will prompt renewed questions about his political acuity and judgment. It was...

CHICAGO - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at O’Hare International Airport seized a monkey carcass and more than 100 pounds of prohibited meat from two travelers earlier this month, citing potential public health risks.

Leaders of the Make America Healthy Again movement have pitched themselves as a political force that will make or break GOP prospects in the midterms. But they have yet to make a splash in the only Senate primary where they have entered the fray — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s battle to fend off two challengers to his Louisiana seat... Defeating Cassidy — arguably the highest-profile Republican to challenge Kennedy’s rhetoric and policies on vaccines — would be a coup for the nascent movement... MAHA PAC leader Tony Lyons said his group is the largest donor to Letlow’s campaign and her...

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) died Wednesday at the age of 80, his office said. Scott, who was seeking a 13th House term this November, is the fifth member of the 119th Congress to die since lawmakers convened in January 2025. A cause of death was not immediately available. Scott, a former advertising executive who was first elected to Congress in 2002, was facing six challengers in the May 19 primary amid criticism that he was too old to perform his duties effectively.

The Vigilant Fox 🦊@VigilantFoxWYDEN: “Will you commit to releasing your written agreements with the pharmaceutical companies?”RFK JR: “No… When you passed the Inflation Reduction Act and ordered me to negotiate w/ pharma, you put in a provision that required NDAs.”WYDEN: “YOU’RE IN BED WITH BIG PHARMA!”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Video excerpts:

The Baptist General Convention of Texas (Texas Baptists) is launching a formal review of its 140-year relationship with Baylor University following concerns over a student-organized event featuring LGBT advocates, including the president of the Human Rights Campaign.On Friday, Texas Baptists Executive Director Julio Guarneri sent an email to the convention’s constituency stating that hosting speakers who are Christian, identify as gay and practice LGBT advocacy at a university-approved event is inconsistent with the convention’s views.“While we value the deep, historic bond Baylor University and Texas Baptists have shared for 140 years, and the present ministry taking place on campus through...

Liv Perrotto, a teenager whose story was shared widely online, had been given the opportunity to speak with Musk shortly before her death. According to conservative commentator Glenn Beck, Perrotto was too weak to take the call at the time and asked if it could be rescheduled. She died before the conversation could take place. Before her death, Perrotto wrote down a list of eight questions for Musk on a notepad that remained by her bedside. Her mother, Rebecca, later shared the handwritten list with Beck in the hope that Musk might still see and respond to it.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted the war in Iran has taken the focus away from Russia’s aggression against his country, telling CNN it was a “big risk” to think that efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine can’t restart until the conflict in Iran ends. Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from the presidential office in Kyiv, Zelensky said Wednesday that while technical talks with the United States are still happening, he doesn’t “see the opportunity to meet … until the question, the case of Iran will be closed.” Zelensky pointed out that it was a “challenge” that the same team...

A first-of-its-kind AI-driven application developed at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is now available to provide immediate... intervention for shock and anxiety victims in the field. Developed at the university’s AI for Resilience and Social Welfare Lab, the AI-psychological first aid (AI-PFA) app provides a digital “bridge” between the moment of trauma – such as a missile attack, an accident, or a natural disaster – and professional medical care. “The best time to use the app is immediately after the event, but the intervention remains highly effective within the first 48 hours,” said Dr. Talia Meital Schwartz Tayri. The...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An American YouTuber who sparked national outrage in South Korea for provocative stunts, including dancing on a statue honoring victims of wartime sexual slavery, was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday. The Seoul Western District Court found Ramsey Khalid Ismael, a self-proclaimed internet “troll” known online as Johnny Somali, guilty of multiple charges, including obstruction of business and distributing fabricated sexually explicit content. Prosecutors had sought a three-year term for Ismael, who also faced accusations of harassing staff and visitors at an amusement park, disrupting a convenience store by blasting music and upending noodles...

WASHINGTON — Far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar blew up at a reporter this week for asking questions about accounting “discrepancies” the Democrat blamed for overstating her net worth by millions of dollars on financial disclosure forms. In May last year, Omar (D-Minn.) claimed she and her husband, Tim Mynett, held assets worth between $6 million and $30 million. However, an amended filing reported by the Wall Street Journal last week put the couple’s wealth at between $18,004 and $95,000. The lawmaker claimed the initial filing was riddled with accounting errors. “Congresswoman Omar, the last time I spoke to you, you said...