Free Republic

Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis. Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget at the end of March that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before… Most striking for a country long accustomed to bipartisan American support: 57% of Republicans under 50 hold negative views of Israel. Support has cratered among the religiously unaffiliated, Black Protestants and Catholics. Among American Jews, support has...

DoxyPEP is becoming less effective against gonorrhea as antibiotic resistance rises, even as protection against chlamydia and syphilis remains durable, according to study results published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “We report a rapid loss of effectiveness of doxycycline PEP for prevention of gonorrhea in male individuals living with HIV or receiving HIV PrEP or PEP in Southern California,” the authors wrote, noting that their findings might merit revision of guidelines recommending doxyPEP for gonorrhea prevention. DoxyPEP refers to taking a single dose of doxycycline—an antibiotic related to tetracycline—as post-exposure prophylaxis within 72 hours after sex to prevent sexually transmitted...

Democratic lawyer Marc Elias appears to believe that Democrats do not need to stop at simply sacking and packing the Virginia Supreme Court in response to the adverse ruling on the radical gerrymandering plan. Elias reminded Democrats that they could eliminate the entire Virginia government under the state constitution.The demand for radical action was prompted by the Virginia justices, including one appointed by then-Democratic governor Mark Warner, who found the Democratic effort unconstitutional. It does not matter that leading Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also believed that the Democrats could be found in violation of the state constitution in pushing...

The South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial in the killings of Murdaugh’s wife and son. The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh’s double murder convictions and life sentence, ordering a new trial in the killings of his wife and son. In the latest twist in a winding legal saga, the state’s top court ruled that Murdaugh was denied his right to a fair trial because of Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill’s “improper external influences on the jury.” “Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice,” the court wrote in...

(Links * | * | *)The Jewish Voice Pictorial. vols. 7-10. (1944-7). United States: Cleveland, Ohio, p.8 The Arabs of the Middle East. (End of 1945). THE Arabs of the Near East have quite unexpectedly been brought into the foreground by the end of the Second World War in Europe. In contract with the attitude of America, England and others towards the Jews, who threw themselves, body and soul, into the struggle against Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy and contributed so very much towards winning the war in the Near East, is the suddenly manifested great friendship for the Arabs...

For Jonás’ family, who are Muslim, turning away from Islam constitutes a grave betrayal of their culture and roots. Despite this, following a long journey of searching and formation, the young man received the sacrament of baptism during the Easter Vigil at the cathedral in Getafe, the Spanish city where he has lived since he was barely a year old. His decision came after a personal encounter with Christ, when he realized there was no turning back: He was firmly convinced that the Catholic faith was the true one. The 25-year-old, who did not share his last name, first became...

South Carolina’s top court on Wednesday undid the murder convictions against Alex Murdaugh, the lawyer a jury had found guilty of murdering his wife and one of his sons in a trial that captivated the country. In a unanimous opinion, the state’s supreme court said that “shocking jury interference” by a court clerk who oversaw jurors during the 2023 trial meant that Mr. Murdaugh’s convictions must be overturned. The nearly six-week trial ended with his conviction in March 2023. Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before determining that he had killed his wife and son. Prosecutors had described the...

You get ten questions of current events. I got 8/10 right. See if you really are a 'News Junky'!.............

Mohammad Baghdadi Khan responded to criticism online by writing, "Who said councillors can’t drive cars like this?" A newly elected Green councillor in Bolton has posted video footage of himself driving a Lamborghini shortly after winning a seat in last week’s local elections. Mohammad Baghdadi Khan, also known as Baggy Khan, shared the video online following his victory in the Halliwell ward of Bolton, Greater Manchester, reports the Daily Mail. The footage shows Khan behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan Spyder, a model that can cost up to £270,000. The clip also includes scenes from his election win. Reports...

BLUE MOUNDS, Wisc. – Ridglan Farms, a breeder of beagles for scientific experiments, has withstood attacks from the animal rights movement for years. Activists have broken into its buildings to document the conditions inside them, rescued some dogs, and pushed Wisconsin authorities to cite the company for animal abuse. On April 30, Ridglan finally buckled to the public pressure, handing the movement against animal testing one of its biggest triumphs. Big Dog Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy announced that the groups reached an agreement to purchase 1,500 beagles for an undisclosed amount of money. The dogs are...

Michigan Democrats quietly introduced legislation last month that would legalize assisted suicide in the state. While the country was distracted by other issues, Democrats in Lansing rolled out a package of bills designed to create what they call a “Death with Dignity Act.” The name sounds so gentle and compassionate, yet it is anything but. According to the Midland Daily News, House Bills 5825 through 5828 seek to create a legal process to allow terminally ill patients to obtain medication from doctors that would kill them. The text of House Bill 5825 says it would “regulate physician assistance for patient-requested...

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s White House counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka told The Post that he believes China intentionally flooded the United States with fentanyl in a present-day “Opium War” designed to weaken America through the “targeted killing” of its citizens. Gorka unloaded the blistering assessment Monday in a “Pod Force One” interview with The Post’s Miranda Devine — before Trump departed Tuesday afternoon for a state visit to Beijing that is expected to focus on trade relations. “They see our city on a hill as the newest version of the British Empire, and it is now payback time for the...

The Supreme Court is continuing its agenda to allow states to impose race-neutral congressional district maps with a decision to allow Alabama to abandon a plan adopted by a lower court that demanded two black-majority districts, and the 6-3 majority left Sonia Sotomayor seething in rage. She claimed, as part of the minority, "The court today unceremoniously discards the district court's meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding and careful remedial order without any sound basis for doing so and without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue. As with all vacaturs of this kind from this court, the district...

When President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in Beijing later this week, there will be a lot to discuss: war, peace, Iran, Taiwan, trade. Trump has vowed to bring up another issue too: the case of Ezra Jin. A Christian pastor and the leader of the Zion Church, Jin was arrested by Chinese police in October and his family hasn’t been able to speak with him since. Frannie Block has been following the case ever since Jin’s arrest, and has obtained exclusive access to never-before-seen footage of Chinese police arresting Christians, audio recordings of police interrogations, and...

It’s safe to say the WNBA is the most toxic and dysfunctional professional sports league in US history. And the league is incapable of learning from its mistakes. As Joe Hoft reported earlier this year, Caitlin Clark was injurted in the 2026 pre-season opener for the Indianapolis Fever. They had their golden goose, and they ran it over. To date, rather than provide officiating that was fair and protected Clark, the league allowed women in the league to pull, push, hit, poke, hammer, and totally abuse Clark. The beatings and abuse took their toll. No one could have put up...

Ireland has a unique relationship to climate change. The country has always relied on its pastoral landscapes for its national character, but the escalating climate crisis threatens this tradition because of rising temperatures and sea levels, and deforestation. Given Irish literature’s continued interest in nature, contemporary Irish poets are tackling these issues in their writing. Poetry plays a special role in times of mass environmental decline. As a literary genre that relies on flexible, open-ended and even conflicting language to address complicated issues, poetry is especially well-suited to address the complex entanglement of local and global concerns, human and nonhuman...

“Eff around and find out”: That taunt from Hakeem Jeffries celebrating Virginia’s gerrymander did not age well. On Friday, the House minority leader found out that Virginia’s Supreme Court was not quite as gleeful as he about Democrats’ attempt to virtually eliminate Republican representation in the purple state. The court just cooked the party’s infamous lobster, a district over 100 miles long that was designed to help devour the GOP’s slender majority in the House of Representatives. It also cooked the ambitions of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment, which tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw...

Massie is accused by an ex-girlfriend of making a hush money offer after she (the girlfriend) was dismissed from a job arranged by an associate of Massie, when the associate and Massie had a falling out.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) called U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Associate Justice Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom" and the "one who sold us out in Africa" after a recent redistricting ruling on Monday. SCOTUS struck down a 2023 federal court-ordered Alabama congressional map on Monday. The ruling paves the way for Republicans in Alabama to likely pick up at least one congressional seat in the 2026 midterms. Republicans currently have a narrow majority in Congress, and redistricting battles are happening in multiple states across the nation. A special master hired by a three-judge panel in Birmingham redrew the map for...

Gallrein (Trump-backed challenger 48%, Massie (small "l" libertarian incumbent) 43%