Free Republic

As San Diego State prepares to open Pac-12 play against Texas State on Saturday, it's dealing with a mumps outbreak among more than a dozen players. On Sept. 18, the university confirmed three cases of mumps on one of its athletic teams, which the San Diego Union-Tribune identified as the football team. A more recent update from the university has increased that number to 14 confirmed cases and one probable case as the highly contagious virus spreads within the locker room. As the school monitors the outbreak, it will work with the San Diego Public Health Services on daily screenings,...

Sen. Eric Schmitt’s effort to trip up former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith on Tuesday, the Missouri Republican seemed to mistake basketball teams playing about 650 miles apart. Schmitt accused Smith of perjuring himself during a Senate hearing after repeatedly prodding him about whether he’d attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024. The hometown Hawks were playing the Golden State Warriors. Schmitt appeared to be trying to set Smith in Atlanta at the time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she...

I emerge briefly from my coma to find that, in a turbulent world, some things never change. In 2022, all the experts were talking about international sanctions bringing Russia to its knees within weeks, and anyway Putin was obviously dying if not dead already. Four-and-a-half years later, the experts are still agreed that sanctions will bring Russia to its knees any day now, and that Putin is deader than ever.Oh, no, sorry, my bad: now the sanctions are going to bring Russia Iran to its knees within weeks, and their leader is as dead as the Kremlin's not-so-strongman was in...

Vice President JD Vance says it's apparent that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Republican, is preparing to run for president in 2028. Polls show Vance is among the top choices among likely GOP voters to become the next GOP presidential nominee. However, he's remained noncommittal, telling NBC News recently that he's focused, at least for now, on electing Republicans in the midterms. “It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said. “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod’s canonical commission calls for diocesan synods, provincial councils every 10 years, ‘complete revision’ of Code of Canon Law A canonical commission established by Pope Francis proposed changes to 34 canons of the Code of Canon Law in light of the Final Document of the 2021-2024 synod on synodality.“In the long term, however, there is an obvious need for a complete revision of the two Codes to reflect the theological and ecclesiological issues that have emerged,” the commission, referring to the Code of Canon Law (1983) and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (1990), stated in...

Roughly 500 troops are deploying to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley this week, sources confirmed to NewsNation, as federal forces step up border operations following a shooting incident involving the Coast Guard. Video obtained by NewsNation shows troops being dropped onto islands in the sector from Chinook helicopters. The deployment comes days after Coast Guard personnel came under gunfire from suspected cartel members on the Rio Grande. The Coast Guard said Coast Guard Forces Rio Grande personnel encountered gunfire from the Mexican border near Garceno, Texas, on Saturday while conducting joint interdiction operations with federal partners. Personnel returned fire. No injuries...

The case sat largely out of view for years while a criminal conviction hung over the man who filmed the encounter. Now that his conviction is overturned, the retaliation claims are finally getting a public airing. Kingsport police in Tennessee sent eight armed officers to raid a man’s home in a pre-dawn operation after he filmed and criticized one of their officers for speeding, according to a First Amendment lawsuit now being made public. The man, Joshua Gibbons, says the raid was retaliation for embarrassing police, and his conviction has already been thrown out by a Tennessee appeals court. The...

Ever since the start of the Iran war, the Democrats and their media allies have been rooting against America and President Trump. This was particularly true regarding the Strait of Hormuz, a major global economic shipping channel through which much of the world's oil (and other commerce) flows. Late last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out what the Strait, and its control, means for not just the United States, but the world, saying that allowing Iran — especially a nuclear Iran — to control the Strait would allow the Islamic nation to control energy for countless nations. But...

What to Know: Early snow, icy trails, and vanishing daylight make autumn one of the trickiest times in the backcountry. After four tragic hiker deaths in Washington in a single week, search and rescue volunteers share how to navigate fall’s hidden hazards.Neil Gehring, 26, went missing during an overnight backpacking trip in Olympic National Park. He set out on August 31 for a two-day traverse from Boulder Lake to Appleton Pass, starting and ending at the Madison Falls Trailhead. He would never return home.Gehring was found dead on September 13 on the northwest slope of 6,000-foot Mount Appleton.Doug McCall, president...

Is the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important chokepoints, returning to normal? Crude oil exports through the strait have returned to prewar levels, according to CNBC-cited data. Seven-day averages, as of last Monday, were 13.5 million barrels per day through the strait, roughly matching the prewar crude baseline. More notably, total crude exports from the Middle East region, including the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, reached 19.5 million bpd—above the prewar baseline of roughly 17 million bpd. The uptick in exports has occurred despite tumultuous circumstances, i.e., Iran repeatedly declaring Hormuz closed, US naval blockades, and the...

Ever since ABC paid Trump $15,000,000 because they lied repeatedly about Trump, their already biased coverage seems to have gotten worse. Rarely do they highlight the positive things happening in America. Instead, they rush to amplify any perceived problem. Today's "news": 1. Overt gushing about the "Olympian" who was seen pulling material out of the reflecting pool. [Did Good Mourning ever cover the failed attempts by Democrat party leaders to fix the pool?] 2. Fear mongering over a bump in mortgage rates. [The record setting inflation under Biden: how did Mourning cover it?] 3. Breathless coverage of a lawsuit by...

President Donald Trump said “certain levels of inflation” can reduce the burden of the national debt “very rapidly,” putting a long-running bond-market concern into unusually direct language. The remarks came in a TIME interview conducted Monday and published Thursday, and were reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Timiraos. Trump also said Federal Reserve interest-rate policy is hurting the economy more than inflation and blamed high rates for making it harder to reduce federal deficits. “Certain levels of inflation will also pay off that debt very rapidly. Very rapidly.” Pressed on how Washington could bring down the debt burden, Trump...

This is a short video by a woman who succinctly tells America/the World what Islam is - a demonic religion owned by the Devil. She lived it, she escaped, and here she tell her story.

The Cornell University Gang Rape Story unraveled a little more Wednesday when additional text messages between the alleged victim (known only as Jane Doe) and one of the men she’s accusing of rape were released. Two years ago, in the early hours of October 20, 2024, 20-year-old Jane Doe claims she was gang raped by seven members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity. Until she filed a massive civil suit earlier this week alleging it was rape, all the contemporaneous statements from Jane Doe (that we’ve seen) indicate she voluntarily took drugs and engaged in four hours of consensual group...

Pakistan will use “whatever means are available” to defend Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the country’s defense minister said Tuesday, offering one of Islamabad’s clearest indications yet that it could become directly involved in the widening regional conflict. Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declined to say whether Pakistani forces had already participated in airstrikes. He said, however, that Pakistan’s military capabilities would be available to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. “I’m not going into detail, but obviously when I say that we are bound by this arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia,...

Nina Manes was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with her family when she asked her mother Tali to take her to the toilet near the front of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. As they approached, Tali heard shouting and banging coming from behind the cockpit door and immediately realised something was wrong. She alerted a flight attendant before the cockpit door opened and revealed Captain Smit Machchhar covered in blood as he fought with his co-pilot. Tali began screaming for help, shouting: “He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!” Her husband Tzvika heard the screams, collected...

Tensions between the two countries have risen over Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Helmand provinces. Afghanistan’s Taliban government has claimed that nine civilians, including women and children, were killed in the strikes and 11 others were injured. Pakistan, meanwhile, has said that its airstrikes targeted terrorist hideouts and that, according to initial reports, 22 terrorists were killed. The claims of both sides have not been independently verified. According to the Balochistan online news network The Balochistan Post, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the strikes carried out on Wednesday night targeted three houses in Chogam in Kunar’s Shultan...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally filed a misconduct complaint against the Minnesota federal judges who admitted to the New York Times that they are using their power as judges to obstruct the Trump administration’s agenda. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told followers on X that the DOJ is targeting the judges for engaging in an “unethical partisan press tour on immigration cases.” “Judges who covet publicity undermine public confidence in the rule of law,” McCotter added. Attorney General Todd Blanche blasted the clearly biased judges, saying that the U.S. government has a right, “just like every litigant...

Europe will release a “massive amount” of diesel fuel, President Trump announced Friday after pressuring allies to open their emergency reserves. “Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” No details were immediately available about how many barrels of oil Europe will release and when they will hit the market. Trump’s statement followed an emergency G7 meeting, chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron, on the global energy situation. The Elysee Palace confirmed that Trump and Macron...

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal questioned the competence of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson during the confusion over the news conference after the July 26 Bite of Seattle triple-fatal shooting, new records The Center Square obtained Thursday show. At 10:12 p.m., Jayapal messaged Gov. Bob Ferguson, writing “I’m wondering if we should be there at all. I don’t think she knows what she is doing.” The city's response to the shooting and getting timely information out to the media and public has haunted Wilson's administration, resulting in her requesting the resignation of the police chief and apologizing for a lack of quick...