Free Republic

Roy Cooper, the former Democrat governor of North Carolina now running for Senate, added an ex-member of the notorious Bloods gang to a Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force in 2020. In the wake of George Floyd's 2020 death, Cooper created the task force via executive order, The Washington Free Beacon reported. Cooper, who tapped then-state attorney general turned current Gov. Josh Stein to lead the task force, stocked the panel with a mix of state officials and community activists, including Kerwin Pittman, who was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit murder, serving 14 years in prison for...

US special envoy Jared Kushner says next month’s Knesset election has made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government act “a little irrational” when it comes to Gaza. “I think we agree with the Israelis on the end state for Gaza,” Kushner says at a press appearance during a visit to Kyiv, where he was taking part in negotiations over the war. “They just have crazy elections, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards,” he adds.The US has been trying to advance the Board of Peace’s plan to decommission the weapons of Hamas and all other armed groups in...

The boat’s occupants have been brought to shore in the maritime city, where it is understood they will be processed as is routine for small boats. Videos circulating on social media show groups of people being taken on lifeboats to shore, where several coaches are parked. Around 500 demonstrators are believed to have joined a protest in the area, with some dressed in all black – similar to those who joined an anti-illegal migrant protest which blocked the Port of Dover on Saturday. Cllr George Madgwick, leader of Reform UK in Hampshire, wrote in a post on X that “over...

This video details the historical shift of economic power from the British Empire to the United States across the late 19th and 20th centuries. It argues that this transition was not an accident but a result of deliberate industrial, financial, and political strategies. Key Stages of the Economic Shift: American Industrial Ascent (1860s - 1890s): Following its Civil War, the United States utilized Alexander Hamilton's protectionist blueprint, infrastructure investment, and the rise of powerful industrialists (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan) to overtake Britain’s manufacturing output by the 1880s (3:30 - 6:50). Impact of World War I (1914 - 1918): The conflict drained...

Editor’s note. This is amazing. This post first ran in August 2012, so imagine my surprise when a reader somehow ran across this piece while doing research on the Web and inquired about the original source –14 years later! No sooner had we posted “A ‘Tripadvisor’ for Abortion Clinics” than a reader sent me a link to another post on “The Abortioneer” website from last May. For those who didn’t read the first story, this website is the online equivalent of a place for abortion practitioners to hang out to compare notes about the business of killing unborn babies. This...

On Sunday, Aug. 30, two former Israel Defense Forces soldiers — Ariel Saat, of the IDF’s Givati Brigade, and Eliyahu Green, a former captain in the IDF’s Duvdevan Unit — addressed students in a classroom in Cal Poly’s Baker Science building. The event was organized by the campus group Mustangs United for Israel in conjunction with an off-campus Hillel organization. They were entirely within their rights to organize the event (as were the students who protested it).

“Cattle are being found dead across remote stretches of Oregon with their blood apparently drained and their udders, tongues or genitals removed through clean, scalpel-like cuts. There are no signs of a struggle, no tracks surrounding the carcasses and none of the torn flesh or tooth marks normally left by predators…… One local law enforcement officer admits in the film that the baffling evidence has pushed even him toward an extraordinary explanation: 'My personal opinion, it's aliens.'“

Why did British police patrol the streets unarmed while officers in New York considered carrying a gun essential to doing their job? In this 1966 report, ITN’s Peter Woods explores the stark differences between British and American policing. NYPD officers react with disbelief to Britain’s largely unarmed police force, with one lieutenant describing the idea as “sort of ridiculous” and predicting chaos if New York officers were expected to work without guns. The report also follows firearms training at the New York Police Academy and shows unarmed British police searching for Harry Roberts, wanted in connection with the murder of...

I was working in a public space when a nearby conversation caught my attention. One student told a colleague that she would be taking several difficult classes the next semester. He responded, “just use AI, and the classes will be really easy.” I sighed in disappointment. Approximately 80% of undergraduate students worldwide use generative artificial intelligence to help with their coursework. AI can be a powerful tool for students in higher education, but only if they have already developed the ability to read and write effectively and to think critically. These fundamental skills are best developed independent of generative AI...

Today, 40 years ago, four armed men hijacked a Mumbai-Frankfurt-New York flight during its stopover in Karachi, triggering a 17-hour hostage crisis. The standoff ended in a bloody commando assault that killed several passengers, including 23-year-old Indian flight attendant Neerja Bhanot, who later came to be known for her extraordinary bravery in saving lives. Pan Am Flight 73 was a Mumbai-Frankfurt-New York flight carrying 379 passengers and crew when it was hijacked during its stopover in Karachi on September 5, 1986. The four hijackers had disguised themselves as airport security personnel before storming the aircraft. Hindustan Times reported the following...

Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different,...

While it might have only been visible in hindsight, it's hard to deny that westerns in the '50s and '60s had an elegiac tone that grew slowly but implacably. It was there in Shane and The Searchers and suffused The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Wild Bunch. By the time Sergio Leone completed his reinvention of the western with the Dollars trilogy and made Once Upon a Time in the West it was the whole premise of the movie. Budd Boetticher made the six acknowledged westerns in his Ranown Cycle between 1956 and 1960 and by the time...

Illicit Iranian funds are flowing through U.S.-dollar clearing accounts, creating an enforcement dilemma for Washington As the Trump administration tightens its economic squeeze on Iran, it faces a surprising weak link in its campaign to cut off the regime from the global financial system: America’s own banks. Billions of dollars of Iranian funds are flowing through clearing accounts at American banks each year, Western officials and researchers say, despite sanctions that prohibit anyone subject to U.S. law from taking part in almost all financial activity linked to Tehran. Iran accesses the accounts through foreign partners that maintain relationships with U.S....

U.S. — The State of Massachusetts has officially been ruled incompetent by reason of insanity. The landmark decision, handed down this morning by the United States Supreme Court, has ruled that the entire state is unfit to hold trials, engage in civil service, or do anything else besides make clam chowder. "We find the entire state grossly incompetent due to being completely insane," announced Chief Justice John Roberts. "The entire state needs to be shut down and prevented from doing anything whatsoever until it gets help. We have ordered a large, large fence to be built around the entire state...

Rome authorities have tightened security around the Colosseum and other popular tourist attractions in the Italian capital due to a rise in crime. In late August, the area around the ancient amphitheater was officially declared a "red zone" - an increase in the presence of law enforcement officers and their powers were expanded. The special regime will be in effect until at least December 24, 2026, write CNN. The reason for the increased security was, in particular, a series of incidents in the Colosseum area. In July, about 50 young people attacked police officers using fireworks, as a result of...

A mega-dinghy carrying 140 migrants has reached the UK from Normandy after what is believed to be longest-ever Channel crossing by people smugglers. On Sunday, the French coastguard said it had detected the vessel, which was shadowed by a number of rescue boats in case it got into difficulties. It said authorities would not intervene at sea because of the risk to life with so many migrants on board. The launch site – a beach east of Cherbourg in the Baie de la Seine – was around 230 miles from Calais. It reflects a change in tactics by people-smugglers, who...

Scientists are weeks away from results that could either confirm or shatter one of history’s most enduring biblical mysteries.Noah needed incontrovertible proof. He got it. “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.” (Genesis 8:11) Now, we need incontrovertible proof that his legendary Ark has been unearthed. >>>“Current data increases the likelihood that it is Noah’s ark with each passing day,” the archaeology professor told the Turkish news agency iHA.He is leading an international team...

Dr. Amy Acton, a Democrat running unopposed in her party's primary for Ohio governor, faces some steep challenges in the coming general election. She is trying to be the first Democrat in 20 years to win the office in a state that has become dominated by Republicans. Her presumed opponent, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, has national name recognition and a personal fortune that he is plowing into his campaign. But Acton's most formidable obstacle may be a ghost from her recent past: the COVID-19 pandemic. Acton, a physician, was Ohio's public health director when the coronavirus hit the United States in...

In defiance of medical advice to eschew the Internet, I am briefly out of my coma and attempting to catch up on world affairs. I see Operation Epic Fury has evolved into Operation Economic Outcast, as the US sanctions first imposed on Iran in, oh, November 1979 are apparently starting to bite. .. how's Operation Economic Outcast going? The picture at right is from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit this week in Bishkek. I doubt many readers have heard of Bishkek, possibly because until 1926 it was known as Pishpek. But I gather it's the capital of some no-name stan...

Video of the cargo plane that crashed at/near Miami International airport in Florida. Casualties unclear