Free Republic

A glamorous Russian escort has been charged with the assassination of a high-ranking Ukrainian defector who was blown up by a bomb in a trash can, according to reports. Margarita Reut, 32, was arrested in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea after Thursday’s blast killed Robert Shageev — an officer in the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet who was wanted for high treason, according to the Telegraph. The blast, allegedly carried out on Kyiv’s orders, killed the 49-year-old commander on the spot. Reut was quickly arrested and confessed, according to reports. She was remanded on a charge of terrorism leading to death, according...

It’s a family of holiday killjoys. The sister of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has also dismissed classic American holidays as her candidate brother has been called out for hating on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and the national pastime of football. Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago, had several social media posts resurface in the wake of her sibling’s primary victory in the Wolverine State earlier this month. “Excuse me if I don’t celebrate the transfer of stolen land from one colonizer to another,” Abdelhadi posted on Twitter, now X,...

Jesus is coming back soon! FULL SERMON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0fzCpE1P-o&t=122s

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has made at least $174,000 annually for nearly eight years as a member of Congress, but like many of her “Squad” colleagues, she has yet to put a substantial dent in her student loan debt, according to House financial disclosures. The Bronx and Queens Democrat has owed between $15,001 and $50,000 in federal student loan debt since her election to the House in 2018. That’s the same amount she owes now, according to her August disclosure, where lawmakers report ranges for debt and income. The “Tax the Rich!” pol reported less than $81,000 in...

Alaska Democratic Senate hopeful Mary Peltola rejected support this week from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the state by double-digits in her failed 2024 presidential campaign. “Alaska is a must-win Senate seat for Democrats to retake control of the Senate,” Harris wrote in a fundraising email, urging the public to “help Mary Peltola get the support she needs” by splitting a donation between Peltola’s campaign and the ex-veep’s Fight for the People PAC. Harris continued, “So if there’s anyone who can flip Alaska and secure the Senate majority for Democrats – it’s Mary. But she cannot do it...

A Georgia financial advising CEO was sentenced Friday to 20 years behind bars for masterminding a $380 million Ponzi scheme to fund his lavish lifestyle of yachts, private jets and luxury shopping. Todd Burkhalter, the founder of Atlanta-area Drive Planning LLC, orchestrated one of Georgia’s largest schemes and stole millions from over 2,000 investors in the years-long con. Burkhalter, 59, was ordered to serve two decades in federal prison by US District Court Judge Tiffany R. Johnson, while two of his executives were sentenced to less than five years for their roles this week. Burkhalter’s attorneys had asked for a...

MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace criticized President Trump's "extraordinary deception that needlessly exposed respected members of the White House press corps to a potentially deadly Iranian missile strike as he departed Turkey. His claim is that he was 'just doing what my Secret Service bodyguards wanted me to do' when he secretly was smuggled off Air Force One and onto a nondescript military plane is okay, as far as it goes. What he didn't do was warn the folks who thought that they'd be flying with the President that they would be on the decoy plane. His willingness to risk the...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

...at the Carrarzu Iddia archaeological site in Bortigali, a short distance from the town of Macomer. The monument still preserves its burial chamber and exedra and provides new insights into Nuragic civilization...The monument, which had long been completely hidden by vegetation, was rediscovered thanks to survey activities...The tomb is located on the southern slope of Crastu Littu, at an elevation of approximately 740 meters...The funerary monument is constructed of trachyte blocks... the burial chamber and the monumental semicircular exedra preceding the entrance...are still clearly visible......the space is divided into two levels near the entrance -- a construction solution that has...

David Ellison is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by 12 states seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. And, in a move seemingly aimed at gaining leverage in the showdown, he’s prepared to start moving Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the merger is resolved through a settlement with the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, Variety has confirmed. Ellison told Paramount senior execs last week that he will relocate Paramount’s operations outside of the state of California if the deal doesn’t close by Sept. 30, sources confirmed to Variety. The...

For nearly three decades, a onetime Compton gang leader named Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been one of the most vocal theorists about one of the most debated celebrity killings ever. Rapper Tupac Shakur was at the height of his fame when he was fatally shot Sept. 7, 1996, while riding to a Las Vegas nightclub in a BMW driven by Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight. The events surrounding that night have been exhaustively investigated and recounted in numerous stories, documentaries and police investigations. But the mystery about exactly what happened has endured. This week, Davis is on...

A young man who once wondered if he would live past 1941 will be turning 105 years old Saturday. James (Pat) Bollich grew up in Louisiana. He trained at Fort Polk and arrived in the Philippines in November, 1941, less than a month before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Jamie Bollich wrote, “U.S. and Filipino forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, but after four months their food and ammunition ran out and the 70,000 troops were forced to surrender.”

Daily Readings from the USCCBSolemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mass during the Day“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.” Luke 1:46–49Today we celebrate one of the great solemnities on the Church’s liturgical calendar: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Belief in her bodily assumption first took root in the early Church among...

Japanese Crown Prince Akishino, the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, on Thursday said he has “mixed feelings” about the government’s revision to the Imperial House Law that reinforces a rule dictating only men can become emperor. “I believe there is no difference between men and women” in serving the roles of the imperial family to respond to social needs, Akishino said at a news conference ahead of a trip to Paraguay later this month to mark the 90th anniversary of Japanese emigration to the South American country. The comments by Akishino, the next in line for the throne, come just...

"Love . . . is not jealous" (1 Cor. 13:4). Jealousy thrives in a climate of selfish ambition. Jealousy is an insidious sin that cries out, "I want what you have, and furthermore, I don't want you to have it." It replaces contentment with resentment and spawns a myriad of other sins. The Corinthians, in truth, were jealous of one another's spiritual gifts. First Corinthians 12:31 literally says, "You are earnestly desiring the showy gifts, but I show you a more excellent way." The word translated "earnestly desiring" is translated "jealous" in 1 Corinthians 13:4. It means "to boil" and...

If you look at a map of the 2024 presidential election results, you can draw a squiggly line down the state of California, splitting it in two from north to south. The coastal area of the state voted overwhelmingly blue, while the inland area is almost entirely red (with the exception of three small counties bordering Nevada). Many of the rouge-colored counties flipped from blue to red in that most recent election, but new research analyzing the state’s political leanings has mapped out some core findings from California’s political divide. A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California...

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, the official Joe Biden publicly threatened and forced out of office in 2016, claims in his book Biden’s Corruption and War: The True Story of the 1 Billion Dollar Prosecutor that hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars connected to Ukraine were recycled through political interests and “globalist networks.” According to a Blaze Media column citing Shokin’s first-person account, massive sums of U.S. aid intended for Ukraine were recycled through political and globalist networks. He alleges $350 billion in American taxpayer money was diverted into these opaque channels amid the chaos of war. Arms...

Calls to poison centers involving liver injuries caused by medications, supplements, alcohol and other substances jumped nearly 400% between 2000 and 2024, according to a new study from UVA Health published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Researchers led by UVA's Christopher P. Holstege, MD, looked at liver damage caused by "xenobiotics," foreign substances not naturally found in the human body. This category includes drugs, food additives, alcohol and environmental pollutants. More than 80% of the liver injuries required inpatient care, with the majority of cases stemming from medications. Acetaminophen was the most frequently implicated substance. "Xenobiotic-induced liver injuries reported to...

I am a Marvel Comic Universe SUPERHERO. I AM CAPTAIN FREE-STUFF!My superpower is to acquire expensive things and pay nothing!Here is my Marvel Comic Universe picture. BTW, the face actually looks a lot like mine, without glasses and if I let my facial hair grow:So, why am I Captain Free-Stuff? Well, I will tell you! After purchasing my new home, I have, in addition to the 1620 sq ft upstairs, another 1620 sq ft of semi-finished basement. I plan to cut out about 7-800 sq ft and make it an elegant downstairs apartment. It has double-glass doors that allow entry...

Dick Cheney’s heart problems were never a national secret. I was Mr. Cheney’s cardiologist for 27 years, including his two terms as vice president. During his time in the White House, he needed stents, a defibrillator and medical treatment for an arrhythmia and a blood clot in his leg. After the defibrillator was implanted in his chest in 2001, he would frequently show visitors to his West Wing office a sample device provided to him by the manufacturer.