Free Republic

Authorities in Sri Lanka have detained 22 Buddhist monks after customs officers discovered about 240 pounds (110 kilograms) of high-grade cannabis hidden in their luggage at Bandaranaike International Airport. Officials said the haul is the largest cannabis seizure ever recorded at the country’s main international gateway. Drugs hidden in modified luggage Customs officers stopped the group during routine checks after they arrived from Bangkok. Investigators said the monks, many of them junior trainees from temples across Sri Lanka, each carried roughly 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of cannabis concealed in suitcases fitted with false compartments. A spokesperson for Sri Lanka Customs...

… The North Carolina State Board of Elections found the thousands of dead individuals during its “ongoing effort to verify” voters United States citizenship, according to ABC11 News. In a statement, Sam Hayes, who serves as the executive director for NC’s State Board of Elections, expressed that the number was “higher” than they had “anticipated.” “While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated,” Hayes said in a statement. “The benefit of entering into cross-state and federal database checks is that it allows us to uncover issues like this. Our goal is to use every available...

Calls are growing for California’s high-speed rail to be abandoned completely after revelations the estimated cost of completing Gavin Newsom’s fantasy train project has ballooned to a staggering $231 billion. The latest cost revisions for the project — revealed during a Senate Transportation Committee meeting — left lawmakers fuming after the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office flagged numerous concerns. State Sen. Tony Strickland, vice chair of the STC, said the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan continues to obscure true costs — and now he’s calling for the entire project to be scrapped.

The British monarch urged Americans to protect the environment during his speech before Congress, and it’s far from the first time he’s stood up for nature. King Charles is one of the world’s most vocal environmental activists — and he made sure to highlight his passion for protecting the globe in his speech to Congress on Tuesday. Charles stressed to lawmakers that “our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems.” He warned that “we ignore at our peril the fact that these natural systems … provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.”...

Former Rep. Barney Frank, a liberal icon who was a key architect of the landmark Wall Street regulations Democrats enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has entered hospice care at his home in Maine. And as one of his last acts, he is preparing to release a book repudiating his party’s left flank. A champion of liberal causes during his 32 years representing Massachusetts in the House, Frank says progressive Democrats have “embraced an agenda that goes beyond what’s politically acceptable.” “Until we separate ourselves from that agenda, we don’t win,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau spent nearly a year investigating a social media post that led to Tuesday’s indictment of one of his predecessors, James Comey. Comey was charged over an Instagram post he made in May 2025, which he later deleted after conservative uproar. The post showed an image of seashells on a beach arranged in a way that read “86 47.” The former FBI director wrote, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” President Donald Trump is the 47th president, while “86” is slang in the service industry and typically means to refuse service to someone...

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What's really happening inside Apple's AI strategy behind the Tim Cook succession? The common story is a smooth handoff to an Apple lifer -- but the reality is more interesting: Apple just restructured the entire company around a race the rest of the industry isn't running. Apple Just Positioned Itself for the Next Trillion Dollars | 20:55 AI News & Strategy Daily | Nate B Jones | 273K subscribers | 177,195 views | April 26, 2026

'Silent assassin Residents in Ontario, Canada, are warned to watch out for the toxic hammerhead worm, a non-native species .. According to the Hamilton Conservation Authority, hammerhead worms are a toxic, non-native species that first appeared in Ontario in 2017. They are believed to have arrived in North America via the introduction of plants from Southeast Asia.The term hammerhead worm encompasses various species of flatworms, also known as shovel-headed garden worms, which is a fitting description of their shape. They can grow between 5 and 10 centimeters in length and may exhibit multiple colors.They are also toxic, releasing a neurotoxin...

BREAKING: An ARREST WARRANT has been issued for James Comey — NOT just a court summons like last time The US Marshals have been ORDERED by a federal judge in North Carolina to take James Comey into CUSTODY COMEY MUGSHOT INCOMING! 🔥

[Catholic Caucus] Cdl. Marx’s same-sex ‘blessing’ guide made ‘in consultation with Rome,’ heterodox theologian claimsLay theologian Thomas Söding said he sees ‘no contradiction’ between Pope Leo XIV and Cdl. Marx, asserting the German blessing guidelines preserve a distinction from sacramental marriage.A German theologian and vice-president of a Catholic lay organization has claimed that Cardinal Reinhard Marx implementing same-sex “blessings” in Germany was done “in consultation with Rome.”Thomas Söding, the vice-president of the heterodox Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), was asked about Pope Leo XIV’s response to Marx implementing “blessings” for “couples of all gender identities” in an interview with...

Senate Democrats on Tuesday tried to force a vote on a measure to prevent President Trump from launching a military attack on Cuba, as he repeatedly threatens action against the island. But Republicans blocked the procedural vote from moving forward, arguing that the U.S. isn't engaged in hostilities with Cuba. The issue is "moot," GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said. Democrats are seeking to get ahead of the president on Cuba after he took unilateral action against Venezuela and Iran. The resolution was introduced in March by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has also spearheaded the efforts...

A California Democrat is facing backlash after hosting a Hamas-associated group at his office on Capitol Hill last week. Rep. Derek Tran welcomed a group of leaders from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as part of the "National Muslim Advocacy Day," an annual lobbying event organized by Muslim advocacy groups. CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, was recently designated as a terrorist organization by the state of Texas and Florida following accusations that the group supported funding for Hamas. The group has since filed defamatory lawsuits against Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. Among those in attendance...

FRANKFORT — The teetering checks and balances between Kentucky’s judicial and legislative branches over the power to reprimand judges kept swinging Wednesday. The Republican-controlled legislature censured state Supreme Court Justice Kelly Thompson for portions of his recent opinion in a Lexington judge’s appeal of her impeachment by the state House. The Senate approved a censure resolution sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers. A few hours later, the House adopted a similar measure filed by House Speaker David Osborne after Republicans blocked any debate on the measure. Stivers’ resolution alleges that Thompson’s opinion “threatened attorneys and legislators participating in pending impeachment...

A wave of party switching in West Virginia is reshaping the state’s political landscape, with tens of thousands of voters — including more than 16,000 Democrats — registering as Republicans since early 2024, according to new data released by the secretary of state. West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner reported that 68,235 voters have changed party affiliation since Jan. 31, 2024, signaling a significant shift ahead of the state’s May 12 primary election. Among the biggest changes, 16,910 voters switched from Democrat to Republican, while another 20,003 unaffiliated voters also moved to the GOP, according to the data. At...

We have recently relocated from another state to Kentucky. We're in Owensboro and would like some insights about differing candidates. Thanks!

The shock announcement Tuesday comes after the UAE was the target of missile and drone attacks for weeks by fellow OPEC member Iran. Tehran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has also severely constrained the UAE’s ability to export oil, threatening the foundation of its economy. The UAE has played an influential role in OPEC’s decisions over nearly six decades. It was the group’s third-largest oil producer in February behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The UAE’s OPEC membership originated with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967, seven years after the organization was founded. The UAE came to...

As the mother of sons, I wish we didn’t spend quite so much time knocking young men. TV talking points like Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere have focussed our attention on problematic blokes to such an extent that few pose an important question: What’s up with the femosphere? It seems that for every male who’s found his mentor in Andrew Tate or the late Charlie Kirk, there’s a young woman who’s been radicalised by Greta Thunberg and AOC (Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to you and me). On both sides of the Atlantic, polling shows young women are far more likely...

From 1973 to 1977 the National Hockey League was the wild west, and Bob “Gasser” Gassoff—a 5’10”, 190-pound wrecking ball who skated for the St. Louis Blues—was one of the best enforcers in the game. His job was not to score. It was to protect the players who did. High-stick, slash, board or manhandle a Blues skill player and Gasser would drop the gloves and answer the bell, over and over, until somebody turtled or a referee had the stones to break it up. He skated to the penalty box bloodied and sometimes missing his jersey, then flashed a trademark...

CalGuard is working with federal, state, and local agencies to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the state, and break up drug-trafficking networks as part of Newsom’s border security and public-safety plan. March...the task force seized 633 pounds of fentanyl and 268,679 fentanyl pills worth more than $5 million. During a recent narcotics task force operation in San Bernardino County, officials seized 188 pounds of fentanyl, 16.8 pounds of heroin and 4.4 lbs of cocaine, worth an estimated $1.5 million. The bust helped to “significantly disrupt” a major drug-trafficking network operating in Southern California, according to California Military Department...