Free Republic

The Michael Jackson biopic gives new meaning to the word 'sanitizing'The new biopic about Michael Jackson offers snapshots of his life from ages 8 to 24. It doesn't have a plot, really, just a timeline in which he gradually moves toward separating himself from his abusive father. With the exception of his early plastic surgeries, which he ascribes to a desire to make his face more symmetrical, there's nothing remotely questionable about the behavior of the kid we see in Michael. He's gentle and childlike and in love with animals and toys and Peter Pan. We are meant to understand...

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on ​Britain if Prime Minister Keir Starmer does ‌not drop the digital service tax, The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing an interview with the president. Trump told ​The Telegraph he would “put a big ​tariff on the UK” if it did not ⁠drop its tax, which is viewed as ​unfairly targeting U.S. tech companies. The United Kingdom rolled ​out its 2% digital services tax in 2020, a move that has been criticized by Trump and his ​predecessor Democrat Joe Biden. The digital service tax ​targets companies like Apple (AAPL.O), Alphabet's Google...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Florida authorities say a woman is under arrest after she was asleep behind the wheel with her Tesla stopped in the middle of Interstate 75. According to state police, Kimberly Brown, 37, was found around 2 a.m. on I-75 on Friday, April 24, intoxicated at nearly twice the legal limit. Florida State Trooper Kenn Watson called the situation very dangerous, as Brown should not have been driving. “Unfortunately, she was intoxicated more than twice the legal limit and had made the assumption that the Tesla would get her home safely,” Watson said. Authorities said Brown was using...

President Trump has called off sending a US delegation to Pakistan Saturday for peace talks with Iran – nixing a trip he said would be a waste of time. Trump, who told a Post reporter in Islamabad to “come home” shortly after he made the announcement, said too much time was being “wasted” on traveling. “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president posted on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’...

A partner at the prestigious Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell has issued a formal apology to a federal bankruptcy judge after discovering that a court filing contained numerous fabricated legal citations and other errors generated by AI. Business Insider reports that a senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, sent a letter last week to Chief Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan acknowledging that a previous filing submitted by the firm contained inaccurate citations and what he described as AI hallucinations. The filing was made on behalf of Prince Global Holdings, the bankrupt firm that Sullivan & Cromwell represented in...

Democrat governors, many believed to be vying for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination, gathered on Thursday for a pricey Los Angeles fundraising event. The private gathering — where tickets cost as much as $100K a pop — was attended by top party members like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Arizona’s Gov. Katie Hobbs, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among others, the LA Times reported. A ticket to attend the event, closed to the press, cost anywhere from $45,000 up to $100,00, with the money going to the Democrat Governors Association (DGA). The evening was expected to rake...

In a little-known mountainous area called Hunza Valley, located far north of Pakistan, people seem to defy all medical odds. It is primarily home to the Burusho and Wakhi people, who for centuries have survived and thrived in remote villages — with minimal amenities and rudimentary health facilities. Studies have found that the average life expectancy here is around 100 years. My husband was born and raised here, and is from the Burusho indigenous community. After we got married, I left the U.S. and we settled down in the Central part of the valley. Here are some intriguing habits that...

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu's application accepted by Federal Court judge at hearing on FridayDays from being deported, an 11th-hour decision by a Federal Court justice on Friday means that Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, who was found responsible for the fatal Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018, can stay in Canada for a little while longer. Sidhu was behind the wheel of the semi-truck that blew through an oversized stop sign with a flashing yellow light, right into the path of the Saskatchewan junior hockey team’s bus, on April 6, 2018. The collision killed 16 players and staff and injured 13 others. He...

Is robbing the Louvre a good idea? Left-wing influencer Hasan Piker and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino did a much-discussed video interview with the New York Times this week on the ethics of theft, and came out four-square in favor of stealing things, including artwork from the Louvre. SNIP When asked about the propriety of hitting up the Louvre, Tolentino heartily endorsed it. Piker explained, “Yeah, I think it’s cool. We gotta get back to cool crimes like that. Bank robberies. Stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature.”

Fentanyl sales. Arms dealing. Kidnapping. Extortion. Murder. Court documents from Thursday’s massive Mexican Mafia takedown revealed the terrifying alleged crimes of foot soldiers conducting the gang’s sinister business in Southern California. The California Post watched Thursday as FBI agents executed a raid on the bungalow of Andrew “Speedy” Hernandez — just one of 43 alleged gangsters arrested in 30 stunning raids targeting the Mafia’s crimes in Orange County.

A maniac with a history of random attacks on women — who also once decapitated a pigeon in the middle of Penn Station — was released again after his latest arrest, for allegedly kicking a 7-year-old boy in an unprovoked Brooklyn attack, according to cops and prosecutors. Jesse Daniels, 23, randomly stormed up to the boy and dealt a swift kick to his left ear that knocked him to the ground around 2:35 p.m. March 6 on Schenectady Avenue near Union Street in Crown Heights, according to cops and video posted online by the neighborhood’s Shomrim Patrol. The boy —...

This is a MASSIVE move by Scott Bessent. The Treasury Department has said the IRS will be revising the Form 990 used by NGOs in an effort to uncover fraud and hidden sources of funding. I’ve gone through hundreds of 990 forms. The way they’re set up right now, they do not have to disclose who their donors are. Perfect example is GLSEN. They have two anonymous donors that give them millions and millions of dollars and they don’t have to disclose who they are. Keep in mind that the people running GLSEN are trans activists. I imagine that if...

Beneath rolling storm clouds and a spattering of spring rain, about two dozen people holding blue and white signs march in front of Harvard University’s Science Center. Circling around a young woman holding a megaphone, their chants ricochet off stately brick buildings dotting the campus. The woman in the middle shouts: “What’s outrageous?” “Harvard’s wages!” the crowd replies. ... The strike comes at a tenuous time for Harvard, which has endured the glare of the national spotlight as President Donald Trump assails the university with the full force of the U.S. government. Harvard has faced government lawsuits, billions of dollars...

State lawmakers in New York are considering a series of "four bad bills" that critics are warning could lead to the release of mass murderers, serial killers and other violent convicts. Among the examples Suffolk County officials and the families of victims raised at a news briefing Friday are serial killer Joel Rifkin, who murdered between nine and 17 women; commuter shooter Colin Ferguson, who killed six and wounded 19 on the Long Island Rail Road; and the White supremacist gunman Payton Gendron, who livestreamed the massacre of 10 people at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in...

ISLAMABAD — Tehran held firm in its claim that its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi would not meet with US negotiators for a second round of talks during his Saturday visit to Islamabad — throwing into question the future of the negotiations. Abbas and the Iranian delegation left for the airport shortly before 6 p.m. local time after holding meetings with primary Pakistani mediators Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Friday that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would leave the US for “direct talks” with Tehran in Pakistan...

“Iranian officials left peace talks in Pakistan this afternoon without meeting the US delegation, ruling out 'maximalist demands'. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday and held a series of meetings with Pakistani officials, including the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan's Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, today. But Iran said it would 'not accept maximalist demands' as their officials left without meeting US representatives.”

A Virginia transgender substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly plotting a chilling “murder spree” at a local school — and bragging online about having a disturbing hit list. Hadyn Dollery, 19, was busted on school grounds Monday after posting threatening messages on Discord targeting John Champe High School in Stone Ridge, about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and multiple outlets. Police said a tip on the department’s Safe2Talk app exposed the suspect’s sinister online posts. The accused would-be attacker allegedly unleashed threats against family and friends on the messaging app, including disturbing...

A North Hollywood couple’s routine walk around their neighborhood quickly turned into a nightmare after they discovered their dog had accidentally ingested meth. Nikolas and Jenifer Dorhoutmees enjoy regular walks through their neighborhood with their 3-year-old Australian cattle mix named Uni. While visiting North Hollywood Park, Uni began sniffing around. Soon after, they noticed the dog’s condition had changed drastically. “Drooling, diarrhea, all of it,” Jenifer told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “We checked her gums, they were white.” Unsure what was happening, the couple rushed Uni to the veterinarian. Then, Jenifer said she remembered KTLA covering a similar story in November...

A trove of documents from the now-dead cybersecurity chief of Los Alamos National Laboratory — where two of the 11 missing or dead US scientists worked — purport to show that the US government secretly conducted UFO-related experiments for decades, according to a new documentary. Reporter Jeremy Corbell claims in the upcoming flick “Sleeping Dog” that he received the valuable classified documents from the son of the deceased ex-cybersecurity chief at the highly secretive New Mexico lab. “Throughout my work as a journalist, I have become a central clearinghouse for sensitive [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena] material in my reporting,” Corbell said...

When he was 19, James Broadnax jotted down rap lyrics, thoughts and even job leads in a notebook that would become evidence at his capital murder trial. Prosecutors selected lyrics with alleged references to gang affiliation and shootings to convince jurors that instead of life in prison, Broadnax, who is Black, should be put to death after his conviction — a move his lawyers argue biased the almost all-white jury. Broadnax isn’t the only defendant or even the only person on Texas’ death row whose rap lyrics have been introduced to a jury. Rap lyrics have featured in hundreds of...