Free Republic

Four upstate New York children who were poisoned and killed by their mother and grandmother had an allergy medication that induces drowsiness and kratom in their systems, according to a new report. The disturbing details into the horrific June murder-suicide in Mechanicsville were revealed in a toxicology report, sources told NewsChannel 13. Harper Harmon, 13, and his three younger siblings — Hudson, 11; Gracelynn, 10; and Gavin, 10 — were all given kratom and diphenhydramine, the ingredient in Benadryl, before they died, according to the report. Kratom — also known as “gas station heroin” — is a psychoactive herbal extract...

Elon Musk took the spotlight at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday. Well, not in person! But he and his influence took center stage as filmmaker Alex Gibney discussed his new doc, simply called Musk, during a press conference around lunchtime.The film about the owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, world-premiering in the Italian fest's Venice Open -- Out of Competition program, comes from producers Jigsaw Productions (Gibney, Jessie Deeter, Erin Edeiken), Closer Media (Zhang Xin), Anonymous Content (Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw) and Double Agent (Dana O'Keefe)...A couple of questions focused on the tech mogul's support for...

President Trump on Monday said oil prices “will drop precipitously” after the Iran war is won, as Iran seeks to maintain its control of the Strait of Hormuz with a “restricted zone.”“Oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon. It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon.”The announcement came as Labor Day saw record-high gas prices at an average of $4.15 per gallon in the U.S., with the...

Explanation: Why are Saturn’s poles geometric? Saturn’s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s. Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides). The geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when the fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles. In the featured image composite by the Hubble...

Political streamer Hasan Piker is facing renewed attention over comments he made about Lindsay Clancy, days after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in the case involving the deaths of her three children, as reported by Breitbart.Piker discussed the case during a livestream after a Plymouth County Superior Court jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following seven days of deliberations.Judge William Sullivan declared the mistrial on September 4 after jurors repeatedly indicated they remained deadlocked. During the livestream, Piker questioned why anyone would automatically side with prosecutors rather than accept the defense's argument that postpartum psychosis played a significant...

New system used 357,000 tokens on 2026 test, beating rivals with design that reuses earlier reasoningAn analysis showed OpenAI's new artificial intelligence (AI) model earned a perfect score on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) for the first time. While top-tier AI models have previously posted near-perfect scores, this result is drawing attention because it used fewer tokens than existing models. According to results posted on GitHub on Sunday, OpenAI's new GPT-6 Astra was the only evaluated model to score a perfect 450 in the 2026 CSAT LLM Solution Log. The evaluation tested models on questions from the 2026 CSAT...

(Reclaim The Net)—Britain’s police arrested at least 62,199 people over five years under laws governing what people say online or over the phone.That’s a busy period for the written word. And the number of those charged over the same period is 18,510, while 12,292 people were convicted.The Big Brother Watch report, Britain’s Free Speech Problem: How Growing Restrictions Are Stifling Speech Online and Offline, covers the period between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2025.The laws are Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, and Section 179 of the Online Safety Act...

Republican Bruce Blakeman could pull off a stunning upset in New York’s closely watched governor’s race — with the conservative challenger just four points behind Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in a new poll. Hochul only leads the underdog and current Nassau County executive 49.6% to 45.7% among likely voters, according to the survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates for the Blakeman campaign. The remaining 4.7% of likely voters are undecided, the poll, based on interviews with 800 likely voters from Aug. 27-31, shows. The nail-bitingly close results reflect growing dissatisfaction with Hochul’s ability to lead the Empire State. More...

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said he is willing to consider raising the SSI payroll tax rate and increase the amount of income subject to the tax. The tax applies to the first $184,500 of a worker's earnings. Trust funds are projected to be able to pay full scheduled benefits until the third quarter of 2034, when continuing income would cover 83% of scheduled benefits.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — Days after Lindsay Clancy's murder trial ended with a deadlocked jury, her ex-husband and father of the three victims in the case is threatening legal action against people speculating that he was involved in his children's deaths.Lindsay Clancy, 36, admitted to killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — by strangling them with exercise bands in the family's Duxbury home. At the time of the children's deaths, Lindsay Clancy was married to Patrick Clancy, the children's father. On Jan. 24, 2023, Patrick Clancy ran to pick up dinner for...

Former President Biden's son Hunter went on the "Dopey" podcast and told host Dave Manheim "I was able to scrape the money together for the cocaine, prostitutes, and private bungalows at the luxurious Chateau Marmont because I still was on the board of Burisma as part of the influence peddling scheme my father and I cooked up when he was vice-president." In response to Manheim's gasp, Hunter assured him "it was a fair deal. We didn't cheat Burisma. My dad went to bat for them in Washington. Burisma wasn't our only client. I was on the board of 14 other...

A short video of the problem. The hood on larger Mercedes EQ models (like the EQE and EQS) is not designed to be opened by owners and is restricted to certified technicians.

The Texas Board of Education gave final approval to changes to the state's high school social studies curriculum, a controversial move that will impact how students are taught about Islam and Christianity. The amended social studies curriculum, which covers U.S. history, government and world geography, comes after dozens of people gave public testimony, with most expressing their opposition to the finalized version. The board approved language asserting that "radical Islam" motivated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rather than taking a more narrow focus on the terrorist groups involved in the attack. The material also requires students to study early...

The home of Australian pastor Andrew Sedra was reportedly attacked by multiple LGBT activists, who issued threats against the family members, including their newborn son. The pastor's X account posted security footage of the attackers, saying they cut off power to the home and tried to gain entry. "On Thursday night, 4 left-wing activists including 2 hooded individuals came to our home after our address was leaked publicly online," the post said. "They threatened to kill us and destroy us, they cut out the electricity from our home and attempted to break in. They knew our whole family by name,...

Amanda Hirsch, host of “Not Skinny But Not Fat,” posted the ad for Polymarket — an online platform that lets users bet on real-life events — the same day the case ended in a mistrial following a hung jury. “On Polymarket it was predicted the verdict would be Not Guilty. Are you surprised? #Polymarketpartner,” Hirsch wrote. The post has since been deleted. Ahead of the mistrial, more than $161,000 was wagered on the outcome of Clancy’s trial on Polymarket. The trade wasn’t available to U.S.-based users, only those located outside the country. While it isn’t legal to bet on the...

Seattle Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles raised eyebrows on Monday by using the term “trigger-pullers” instead of calling violent criminals “shooters.” Sayles’ sanitized choice of words smacks of his boss Mayor Katie Wilson’s own soft-on-crime, leftist attitudes. “Working with business owners, increasing patrols, bike patrols, working with our community response group and our gun violence reduction unit as well, looking at ways to where we can identify individuals that are known — we call them trigger pullers in our community,” Sayles said. “Identifying them, making sure that we’re putting cases on those individuals, working with King County Prosecutor’s Office to...

Police are seeking to identify protesters after several officers were injured and vehicles damaged in Portsmouth at a demonstration sparked by the arrival of 120 migrants in a single dinghy. Policing Minister Sarah Jones told the House of Commons the disorder on Sunday night was "intimidating and thuggish" and warned "those who cross into illegality" would "face the full force of the law". The protests followed a large group of masked men holding a demonstration over small-boat crossings at the Port of Dover on Saturday, causing major disruption. Portsmouth City Council said the Home Office had "serious questions to answer"...

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III on Tuesday announced that he would retire at the end of the year, the Washington Post reported. His retirement comes amid pressure from the Trump administration, which has worked to revamp many of the Institute's museums and displays. Last year, the administration notified the Smithsonian that it would review museum exhibits ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Planes are grounded across the UK. The United Kingdom is experiencing major airport disruptions as flights are grounded nationwide following a technical failure in air traffic control. Huge disruption at multiple UK airports including Heathrow and Gatwick as flights blocked from taking off due to air traffic control error https://t.co/EaeMmO52Dd — LBC (@LBC) September 8, 2026 The Telegraph reported: “All flights into London Heathrow and Gatwick have been halted until at least 7pm, with airports including London City, Manchester, Stansted, East Midlands, Birmingham, Belfast City, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton also experiencing disruption. The Telegraph understands that equipment at the headquarters...

Ford joined GM this year in seeking U.S. military contracts after the Trump administration approached U.S. companies about assisting the military with their expertise in mass manufacturing. The automakers’ efforts so far are largely focused on military vehicles, but could grow with time. Simultaneously, both companies are entering the energy storage system, or ESS, market amid an expected growing need related to rising consumer energy costs and data centers. Energy storage systems use a lot of the same underlying technology as electric vehicle batteries to store power for homes, businesses and even utilities. Both markets are viewed by Wall Street...