Free Republic

Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor, has been found dead. Mr Arday was found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers were called by the London Ambulance Service at 3.12pm on Friday. He said: “Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by officers. “At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious. The case is being investigated by...

“Ghostbusters” star Dan Aykroyd revealed the grim, “medieval”-like reality of living in California in a recently resurfaced podcast interview. In an republished episode of the Adam Carolla Show, Aykroyd spoke to the stark contrast between living in Los Angeles and Canada, where he hails from. SNIP But Aykroyd quickly noted the discrepancy with other parts of the city and 60,000 homeless people living on the streets. “So the underside and the overside will always, always be there,” the actor said. “We’re living in frankly medieval times.” Aykroyd said he drives “very carefully” and doesn’t go out during “prison hours,” referring...

DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced charges Friday against a woman who allegedly vandalized the capital’s World War II Memorial by pouring bubble soap into its fountain and spray-painting a cryptic message on its stone edifice. Pirro said in an X post that prosecutors in her office were filing two felony charges against Melissa L. Farris, 41, of Elizabethtown, Ky., accusing her of depredation against property of the US and destruction of veterans’ memorials. Farris was in federal custody as of Friday morning, added Pirro. An initial court appearance was not immediately scheduled. Each count carries a penalty of up...

Luigi Mangione admitted to the cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pleading guilty Friday to federal stalking charges, as the slain executive’s widow cried silently in the courtroom gallery. “I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione, 28, said in Manhattan federal court, reading from a written letter. Mangione drew glares from Thompson’s relatives as he walked into the courtroom with his hands uncuffed behind his back, but his ankles shackled, wearing a beige prison jumpsuit with a long-sleeved white shirt rolled up to his elbows. Several of Thompson’s relatives, including his widow, sat in the second...

Nearly half the states are suing the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security over what they allege is the illegal seizure of millions of truck drivers’ personal data. Specifically, 21 states and the District of Columbia filed a suit against the DOT and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and 22 states and the District of Columbia are suing DHS. In both cases, which were filed on Aug. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the states aim to stop the administration from “seizing the names, dates of birth and...

President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday. The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain. The memo directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS,...

Here’s an interesting question: how many white American men born after 1984 have had a literary piece published in The New Yorker? The answer is zero. How did we get here, and who let this happen? Every literary generation used to produce its Roth, Updike, Bellow, Wolfe, McCarthy, or Franzen. Today’s literary establishment shows no interest in producing young men of comparable prominence—especially if they’re straight and white. This is not a new or underdiagnosed problem; in fact, it appears to be a point of pride for the new generation of literary critics and publishers alike. Penguin Random House has...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop calls the devil ‘imaginary’ in assault on St. Michael devotion One social media user advised that Bishop Ferreira ‘convert to Catholicism' after the prelate suggested the faithful should instead fight ‘homophobia,’ ‘femicide.’A Brazilian bishop has attacked consecration to St. Michael the Archangel while suggesting that the devil is “rather imaginary.”“Are there theological justifications for Consecration to Saint Michael? Consecration is to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” wrote Bishop Vicente Ferreira on X last week. “Isn’t the devil we fight against rather imaginary?” he added.“The greater exorcism should be: of homophobia, of femicide, of racism, of...

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday restored several pieces of a 2021 Texas election law that overhauled mail-in and assisted voting, overturning a lower court’s block on those provisions. Five years ago, Texas passed Senate Bill 1, a wide-reaching election law that changed the way local officials administer elections and how some Texans vote, particularly aimed at initiatives Harris County implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The law was denounced by voter advocacy groups, civil rights organizations and Democratic lawmakers, who broke quorum in an attempt to stifle the bill. After several lawsuits over accessibility concerns created by...

Two federal agencies gave taxpayer dollars to charities with ties to terrorism, new reports show. The State Department worked with World Vision to distribute $2 billion in global health foreign assistance even though an Israeli court convicted the nonprofit’s Gaza affiliate operations manager of sending up to $50 million to Hamas in 2022. Separately, the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) provided nearly $80 million to 14 organizations linked to terrorism and extremism. HHS and CAIR-aligned terrorist organizationsThe Middle East Forum (MEF) recently reported that 14 terror-linked and extremist organizations, led by CAIR, collected nearly $80 million from HHS through...

A baby born with a rare heart defect is at the center of a bitter legal dispute between the child’s biological parents and the woman who gave birth to the baby as a surrogate against their wishes. McKenna West, 28, agreed to act as a surrogate for Los Angeles couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar. The couple opted to terminate the pregnancy at around 20 weeks after it was revealed that the boy had a rare and life-threatening congenital heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, in which the left side of the heart doesn’t develop fully. According to a...

The city of Malibu has declared a local emergency, paving the way for officials to clear homeless encampments ahead of peak wildfire season. The Malibu City Council approved the emergency declaration Aug. 10, allowing encampments to be cleared the same day notices are issued. City officials fear a spark from an encampment could be whipped up by winds and quickly develop into a large wildfire. According to city data, 41 fires in Malibu are believed to have been started by individuals experiencing homelessness.

Children’s YouTube and Netflix star Ms. Rachel has added support for reparations over slavery and Jim Crow Laws to her growing catalogue of left-wing causes, taking her latest stance via an Instagram post to her five million-plus followers.Ms. Rachel, AKA Rachel Accurso, took an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay The Case for Reparations to illustrate the need to “reckon” with America’s history of slavery.

🔥 WOW! This footage is resurfacing of Charlie Kirk MIC DROPPING communist Hasan Piker to his face KIRK: "Why don't YOU give 95% of your money away and go live on a commune!" PIKER: "Do you really think that's how it works?!" KIRK: "Why not? Go live what you PREACH. I live what I preach. I am a free market capitalist. I employ people. I took a risk. I have my own startup business. Every single day, I practice what I preach." "HE wants OTHER people to contribute to what he considers to be a good idea. What he considers...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Stop this’: Parents beg Leo XIV to halt pro-LGBT sex-ed in Catholic schoolsHundreds of parents appealed to Pope Leo XIV and filed a canonical complaint against the local archbishop, but the anti-Catholic sex-ed program is set to take effect regardless. A pro-LGBT sex-education program is set to take effect August 20 in 15 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg, Germany, despite a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße and a direct appeal to Pope Leo XIV that the Holy See has left unanswered.Hundreds of Catholic parents in the Archdiocese of Hamburg are opposing a sex-education program approved...

Federal law requires the retention of voting records for 22 months after an election. Democrats don't like that. They believe in keeping things tidy by deleting all the evidence ASAP. With BleachBit, if possible. (Anthony Fauci, call your office.) And there is no set of records they want cleaned up and tidy quite like election records; otherwise, you face the need to fight like hell in court to keep them locked away, as Fulton County did for years until the FBI got a warrant and seized them. And even after that, Fulton County has fought to keep them sealed. Nothing...

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is planning to install Islamic foot-washing stations in two bathrooms by the end of the year. The project “aims to prevent water on standard restroom floors and protect sink counters,” per local reporting. White House correspondent Natalie Winters drew attention to the $300,000, privately funded project in a post on X this past Wednesday. The project is titled “DFW – Wudu – Ablution stations – Terminal D” on the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project details page. The page states that “ablution [washing] stations” will be installed in both the men’s and women’s restrooms in...

New Mexico is still advising that children receive the normal vaccine schedule after the Trump administration’s Monday executive order, which called for paring down the number of recommended vaccines and spacing out existing shots. “Here in New Mexico, nothing has changed,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for the New Mexico Department of Health. Durham said NMDOH follows the American Academy of Pediatrics childhood vaccine schedule, which makes all vaccines available to parents if they choose. Insurance coverage for vaccines will not change either — New Mexico Medicaid plans and private insurance will continue to cover childhood vaccines regardless...

newly approved flu vaccine based on mRNA technology will provide better protection than traditional flu vaccines, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire. Corbett-Helaire, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was quoted about the benefits of the new vaccine in an August 7 GBH article. She said it trains people’s immune systems more effectively. “Think of it like a picture,” she said. “If I saw a picture of your face, it could be blurry or it could be high definition. So, typically mRNA presents proteins to the body in a very high-definition way, so the...

Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV - by Bishop Robert MutsaertsWe have often published the great texts of Bishop Rob Mutsaerts (Auxiliary of s-Hertogenbosch /Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. He has just published (in English and Dutch) an open letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the need for concern for the salvation of souls amidst the confusion of synodality and other trends.Holy Father,With reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly....