Free Republic

Soot-choked “black rain" has fallen across multiple districts of Moscow after Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone assault against the Russian capital, scoring a direct hit on a vital energy facility. Close to 200 long-range strike drones targeted the metropolis early on Thursday, overwhelming local air defences and setting the strategic Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya ablaze. As thick columns of dark smoke billowed thousands of feet into the air, residents in the southeastern suburbs and surrounding towns, including Balashikha and Lyubertsy, reported a fine, oily drizzle that coated vehicles, streets, and clothing in a dark, toxic residue. The multi-directional aerial...

@DNIGabbard Today, on my final day as Director of National Intelligence, I’m releasing never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Dr. Fauci provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with politicized elements within the Intelligence Community to suppress the truth about his actions and hide the virus’ lab-leak origins, and lied to Congress while under oath in 2024. It’s time you know the truth

California’s powers-that-be have steered more than a half-billion dollars of other people’s money to their favorite charities and causes since 2011, and way more than half of that haul came at the behest of Gov. Gavin Newsom. That includes millions donated to nonprofits tied to Newsom’s wife, which may have something to do with the federal investigation into Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. These donations often come from businesses and people hoping to influence elected leaders, steer public policy, demonstrate their stellar citizenship to the masses, or perhaps a bit of all three. While state law sets caps...

[Translated from Hebrew by Twitter.] For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn! With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn. Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration. I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli...

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a crackdown on open-air drug dealing Wednesday, declaring the city will "no longer tolerate" public drug sales, public drug use and the sale of stolen goods in two neighborhoods that residents and business owners say have been plagued by crime and disorder for years. "We will no longer tolerate open-air drug sale and use and vending stolen goods," Wilson said in a press release Wednesday. "We are expanding police personnel in the area to engage directly with individuals participating in these activities, explain that the behavior is no longer tolerated and help ensure that the...

The three Colorado Republicans running for governor defended their qualifications, described their visions for the state and traded jabs over each other’s character at an often contentious televised debate that routinely veered into unusual territory Tuesday night in Denver. The 60-minute debate at the University of Denver, sponsored by 9News, The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics, featured state Rep. Scott Bottoms, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer and missionary leader Victor Marx. It stands to be the only primary debate to include Marx, a first-time candidate and the race’s fundraising leader, who has declined to participate in the GOP’s other gubernatorial debates,...

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reminds service members that they may return to active duty after an instance of Absence Without Leave (AWOL) by August 30, 2025, and be exempt from criminal liability. The easiest way is to submit a report through the Army+ app. The algorithm remains unchanged. The service member submits a report, which takes approximately five minutes to complete. The Main Directorate of the Military Law Enforcement Service (Military Police) receives the submission and verifies the data provided. The service member must report in person within 24 hours to the Military Police (MP) station chosen when...

The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested the longtime U.S. ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy. Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated” and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally. She concluded:...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday he would not walk away, vowing ​to fight any challenge from his leading party rival Andy Burnham and potentially ushering in a new bout of political instability. Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, won ‌a decisive victory for Labour to claim a parliamentary seat in northwest England, and has signalled that he will use it to enter any contest to replace Starmer. The scale of his victory in Makerfield in northwest England prompted more Labour lawmakers to say Starmer, unpopular and under pressure from the populist Reform UK in surveys, should consider stepping...

The Chicago man accused of burning a cross in Grant Park last week made his first court appearance on Thursday, as a judge denied prosecutors' request to keep him locked up until trial. Merlin Lu, 21, is charged with two felony counts of hate crime, one felony count of property damage, one felony count of arson, and additional misdemeanor charges including disorderly conduct and burning a cross to intimidate. At his first court appearance on Thursday, Cook County prosecutors sought to have him detained while he awaits trial, but the judge said the state failed to show what he did...

Three jailed men who murdered a fellow inmate by stabbing him 25 times in his cell will never be released from prison. Mark Fellows, 45, David Taylor, 64, and Lee Newell, 57, were found guilty of killing Kyle Bevan at HMP Wakefield on 4 November, using makeshift weapons including one made from a metal part from the back of a television. Fellows and Newell were already serving whole life orders for previous convictions, with judge Mrs Justice McGowan imposing "new and separate" life terms for them at Leeds Crown Court. Taylor was given a whole life order for Bevan's death,...

A man who created more than 100 fake social media profiles to blackmail and sexually assault other young Muslim men has been jailed for 16 years. Waleed Saeed, a British-born Muslim of Somali descent, was sentenced in what one Metropolitan Police officer described as the biggest "sexploitation" case he has dealt with. Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, heard how the 31-year-old used a network of fake Snapchat, Instagram and Grindr profiles to solicit intimate images of Muslim men and teenagers as young as 15, many of whom privately identified as gay or bisexual. He would then threaten to "out" them to...

WASHINGTON — Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz Friday instead of heading to Switzerland for nuclear negotiations, citing Israel’s refusal to pull forces out of southern Lebanon and US forces’ ongoing presence in the region. In a statement read over maritime radio channels, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US was in violation of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, which President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed Wednesday.

OCSO Intelligence agents have arrested a woman who used her access to a sensitive court database to warn members of a drug trafficking organization that investigators were closing in and had secured arrest warrants. Crystal Lawson, 32, was granted access to the Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS) database as part of her job as a Juvenile Probation Officer for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice when she was hired in February 2022. Later that year, she was terminated from that job after she was arrested for battery. But her access to those databases was not cut off. Between January and...

A wave of investigators descended on comedian Carlos Mencia’s Encino mansion Thursday as officers moved methodically through the property, hauling out boxes, sealed cases, and bags of materials tied to a sweeping tax fraud investigation. Photos from the scene show a heavy presence from the California Franchise Tax Board enforcement team, with officers posted across the driveway and front entrance as they carried evidence containers from inside the home to waiting vehicles. Multiple images capture officers actively removing stacked banker-style boxes and hard cases from the residence, staging them outside the property in organized piles. Black duffel bags and additional...

President Donald Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, showed up at his new job a day early on Thursday after asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The sources said Pulte is eyeing to cut hundreds of jobs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Pulte’s appearance at ODNI on Thursday caught staff off-guard, including the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, who was given a brief heads up on the visit. Trump himself has said...

Cellphone video taken Wednesday evening at a Target store in Simi Valley shows a man randomly attacking a woman while she was shopping, and then the good Samaritans who jumped in to help her and stop the man. Police ultimately arrived at the store, arresting the suspect, Rejean Tabor, who they say had been released from custody two days before after being arrested in March for indecent exposure and assaulting an officer. Tabor entered the store around 6 p.m., and cellphone video shows a woman rushing to help the woman being attacked – but she was quickly thrown off by...

House Democratic leadership's preferred candidate in Maine's 2nd district, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, lost his primary to progressive rival Matt Dunlap, state election officials announced early Friday morning. Why it matters: This is the second time this month that a candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has fallen short in their primary.

I nearly failed out of grad school, defending Chomsky's theory of syntax. Half a decade later, I'm done pretending it was worth it. Chomskyan generative grammar -- X-bar theory, Government and Binding, the Minimalist Program -- was taught to me at the University of Pennsylvania as the only legitimate science of language. It was the gatekeeper, the screener, the thing students were washed out of linguistics PhD programs over. As I've come to discover, decades of work in dependency grammar and construction grammar -- frameworks I was told didn't exist, didn't matter, or had been "subsumed" -- were doing better...

High-Level Overview: The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure is hitting severe physical, economic, and social constraints. Tech giants have committed trillions of dollars to construct massive hyperscale data centers, but nearly half of the projects scheduled to open in the United States this year have already been delayed or canceled. The briefing investigates how the friction between digital ambition and physical realities—ranging from severe power grid bottlenecks to intense local community pushback—is halting the global AI buildout. The Creator's Main Argument: The primary thesis of the video is that the explosive, unconstrained AI data center boom is hitting a...