Free Republic

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has a new problem, and this one is harder to delete.New original reporting by The Wall Street Journal published Friday has tied Platner to an active profile on Kik, a messaging platform with a long and well-documented history of child exploitation, and that law enforcement officials and online safety advocates have repeatedly flagged as a danger to minors.The account, listed under the username "phustle0331," featured a mirror selfie of a towel-clad man. It was linked to other online handles associated with Platner, and remained active as recently as this week.When pressed, Platner's campaign confirmed...

In what could be viewed as the most brazen conflict-of-interest issue in President Trump’s second term, the Pentagon just awarded Dell Technologies a $9.7 billion contract to manage Microsoft software across the entire U.S. military. Trump bought Dell stock just months earlier, publicly urged Americans to buy Dell computers weeks before the announcement, and received a $6.25 billion pledge from the Dell family. That’s the conflict part. WHAT HAPPENED The Department of War awarded Dell Federal Systems, the government-focused subsidiary of Dell Technologies, a five-year, $9.7 billion contract to supply and manage Microsoft software licenses and subscriptions, across the U.S....

For years, China has built what many observers have described as the most extensive surveillance network in human history. Now, thanks to rapid advances in artificial intelligence, that network is evolving into something far more powerful--and far more concerning. According to recent reporting from the Financial Times, Chinese authorities are upgrading their already vast surveillance infrastructure with advanced AI systems capable of analyzing behavior, identifying individuals, predicting crowd activity, and even anticipating potential social unrest before it occurs. This is no longer simply about cameras watching street corners. It is about creating a real-time digital map of an entire society....

There seems to be no shortage of crazy passengers on commercial flights these days. A United Airlines flight heading to Minnesota on Friday was forced to make an emergency landing in Wisconsin after one of the passengers aboard allegedly tried to get into the cockpit. This was according to audio from air traffic control. The flight departed from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Friday evening and landed in Madison, Wisconsin, instead of Minneapolis for security reasons surrounding the out-of-control passenger. Flight tracking data showed that the plane landed approximately 90 minutes after takeoff. Fox News Reported: A United Airlines...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs started the Western Conference finals with a win in Oklahoma City, then ended the series the same way.The defending champions are dethroned. Wembanyama and the Spurs are headed to the NBA Finals.

A "predator's paradise" May 31, 2026. by Daniel Greenfield. Let’s sum up. Graham Platner is not an ‘oyster farm’, not working class and was not forced to fight in Iraq. Or to put it another way, everything he says about himself is a lie. But well before all this, he did talk about being a Communist, got a Nazi tattoo and posted some nasty stuff. The campaign and its allies defended Platner as just posting things without really meaning them.

Our esteemed editor was once excoriated for saying that the public had had enough of experts. ‘The people of this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.’ His remark sits within a fine conservative tradition: there is William F. Buckley, who stated: ‘I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.’ There is Thomas Sowell, who wrote: ‘Intellectuals are people whose end products are intangible ideas…Whether their ideas turn out to work… is another question...

On May 24-25, we marked the anniversary of Israel’s hasty withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and with it, bringing thousands of Lebanese Christians to Israel. Here is the story of one young man.

WASHINGTON — A massive 300-foot-wide, 150-foot-tall American flag has been draped over the Hoover Dam in Nevada as part of the celebration for America's 250th anniversary.The installation went up on Memorial Day to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to the country, and will light up each night until July 4. The display uses more than 550 automated LED lights and is completely powered by the dam's hydroelectricity.

“ A wild street fight in buzzy West Hollywood early Saturday morning ended after one woman threw another to the ground by her hair and beat her senseless in front of shocked onlookers. He told The California Post the women had fought each other two other times that night, before onlookers grew tired of separating them and let them go at it. The video shows a woman in a black dress grabbing another woman in a black skirt by her hair as they exchange punches before throwing her to the ground. “Ooooh,” onlookers exclaimed. The woman in the black dress...

Support Free Republic this weekend... The Public Prosecutors Office in Paris opening a probe of schools attended by young children. There have been allegations of violence and sexual abuse involving more than 100 schools and childcare facilities. A television news program earlier this year offered up a series of allegations regarding care facilities for very young children... This week Norway became the ninth nation joining a French-led nuclear deterrence plan. Other nations involved are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK which already possesses nuclear weapons. Nations in the scheme will host French nuclear forces namely...

At thirty-seven, Ned Dougherty seemed to have it all: a Mercedes-Benz, a private jet, and a well-known nightclub in the Hamptons. Then he met death, and nothing was ever the same. On July 2, 1984, after a fight with a business associate, Dougherty collapsed on the sidewalk. He felt like he was falling into a dark, endless pit. Medical records show he had respiratory and cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for an hour and six minutes. “I was literally dead in every sense of the word at that point,” Dougherty told The Epoch Times. “And my journey on the...

A Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy pulled over 36-year-old Kathleen Thomas in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, back in February. His accusation was simple. He said he saw her holding or working a cellphone with her right hand. There was one detail he had not accounted for. Thomas does not have a right hand. Her right arm ends at the elbow. She showed him. He kept going and wrote the citation anyway. The bodycam footage surfaced this week, and people online noticed fast. The video shows the deputy lecturing Thomas about distracted driving while she flashes the arm that physically cannot...

Since October 7, one of the most inconvenient facts in the entire debate has become impossible to ignore: Hamas does not merely tolerate Palestinian civilian suffering—it exploits it, it wants it. Many observers who were previously unaware of this (longstanding Arab "Palestinian" leaderships) reality were confronted with it in 2024 when reporting revealed internal communications from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. According to the reporting, Sinwar viewed mounting Palestinian casualties and destruction not as a strategic failure, but as a strategic success. The more devastating the war became for Gaza, the greater the international pressure on Israel, the greater the diplomatic...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,...

THE STRUGGLE to breastfeed is a defining feature of early motherhood for many women. Of the approximately 90% of mothers in rich countries who start breastfeeding, a quarter give up within a few weeks, often because they fear they are not producing enough milk to feed their babies. For many years doctors have assumed that true cases of poor supply are rare, occurring in no more than 5% of mothers. The prevailing advice to worried parents from health authorities in places such as England and America has, therefore, been to stimulate the release of milk by either putting the baby...

Riots immediately erupted in the French capital following Paris Saint-Germain’s victory over London’s Arsenal Football Club in the Champions League Final on Saturday. UPDATE 5/31 0145: Hundreds of arrests across France According to updated figures from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, at least 416 people have been arrested throughout France on Sunday, including 283 in Paris. At least seven police officers were injured during the rioting, including one seriously, Le Figaro reported. In addition to clashes with police and setting fires, Minister Nuñez said that 15 cities across the country experienced looting, including multiple instances in cities such as Grenoble, Strasbourg,...

The concept of the Einstein-Rosen bridge is often understood as a cosmic shortcut, akin to a tunnel that links distant points in spacetime. While that image makes for compelling science fiction, a new study shows that it does not match the actual physics behind this concept. Recent research suggests that the original bridge theory was not a wormhole but a mathematical feature of how time is structured. This new realization could help solve a persistent problem in physics. The study, led by Professor Enrique Gaztañaga from the University of Portsmouth, along with K. Sravan Kumar and João Marto, was published...

When Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed in December 2024, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa declared that he would embrace a “zero problems” foreign policy, in the hopes that would help break the country’s isolation and solve some of its economic problems. The prospect of a stable Syria enticed at least $28 billion in investment deals from Middle Eastern countries in 2025, and even more has been secured so far in 2026. The continuation of that trend amid the current war with Iran has amplified Syria’s central geopolitical and economic pitch—that it can be a potentially transformational corridor for energy flows, commercial...

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh 🚨 JUST IN: MAGA is on track to FLIP the Michigan US Senate seat RED, according to a new polling average 🔴 Trump-endorsed Mike Rogers: 43.9% (+3.2) 🔵 Abdul El-Sayed: 40.6% Good, KEEP PUSHING! Winning Michigan would be HUGE. Democrats are about to nominate "Abdul" and Rogers must defeat him! @Pollsmax average 0:00 / 0:39