Free Republic

U.S. President Donald Trump declared Representative Ilhan Omar’s seat “conceded” by Democrats over federal court filings referring to her as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a name Omar has denied is hers. Prosecutors referred to the Democrat running for reelection in Minnesota as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar” in a federal court filing submitted Wednesday that was obtained by Newsweek. Omar pushed back the next day, saying in a post on X: “Whenever the news turns bad, this creep reaches for one name: mine. So let’s make it crystal clear. My name has always been Ilhan Omar.” On...

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting enforcement activities at the Santa Cruz Main Jail on Saturday morning. Federal immigration agents had arrived at the facility in an attempt to take an individual into custody, but left without detaining anyone, according to a department social media post. “The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to protecting public safety, maintaining community trust and carrying out its responsibilities in accordance with California law and applicable county policies governing cooperation with federal immigration authorities,” the department said.

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. So, there are things seen(which are physical) and things not seen(which are spiritual). The not seen is eternal(everlasting) that...

A UC Berkeley professor has stopped grading students’ homework for correctness after noticing artificial intelligence tools were helping them rack up top marks. Richard Borcherds, a renowned mathematician who received the prestigious Fields Medal in 1998, said widespread student use of AI has undermined the value of traditional homework grading. “Student use of AI for homework is now widespread,” Borcherds told The California Post. “Grading for correctness just adds a huge incentive for them to use AI for homework instead of doing it themselves, and penalizes students for honesty.” Paying graders to evaluate AI generated answers is also a waste...

Breaking: Brazil's incumbent left-wing president Lula will win re-election after beating Bolsonaro, according to Grupo Folha projection

Giving murderers a pass isn’t compassion, it’s cruelty. The debate over the virtue of the death penalty has intensified after the failed execution of Christa Pike, a monster who tortured a woman to death and kept a piece of her skull as a souvenir, and the proposed execution of Nidal Hasan, a Muslim terrorist behind the Fort Hood Massacre whose victims included a pregnant servicewoman and her baby. Protests over these proposed executions have either ignored Pike and Hasan’s victims or offered immoral cliches posturing as moral such as, “taking a life doesn’t bring back the dead.” “The death penalty...

When Chase Minnema, 26, first began questioning his gender identity as a teenager, he wasn't sure what the future would look like. While he always dreamed of becoming a parent, he never expected he would one day carry and give birth to his own child. Now, the Virginia-based video processor and his partner, James Brewer, 29, are settling into life with their 6-week-old son, whom they describe as happy, healthy and deeply loved. "Being parents is the best experience of our lives," they told Newsweek. Minnema, started to question his identity when he was 14, initially he wondered if he...

Leo XIV openly rejects the reign of Christ the King over states and nations Errors are found throughout Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas in which he says society has 'autonomy' from religion and that the state has 'full autonomy' from the Catholic Church.“Now, this authority, perfect in itself, and plainly meant to be unfettered, so long assailed by a philosophy that truckles to the State, the Church, has never ceased to claim for herself and openly to exercise. The Apostles themselves were the first to uphold it, when, being forbidden by the rulers of the synagogue to preach the Gospel,...

A major labor union has launched an ad blitz ripping Dem Gov. Kathy Hochul as so “radioactive” and “toxic” that midterm candidates from her own party want nothing to do with her. The Transport Workers Union of America, whose local members include roughly 40,000 city subway and bus workers toiling under an MTA contract that lapsed in May, began airing the scathing spots Friday, a day before early voting opened. “Governor Kathy Hochul is so radioactive, even Democratic candidates are running away from her,” the ad kicks off, referring to the state’s top Democrat who effectively controls the MTA through...

Cuba’s government has spent decades recruiting Americans to betray their country. It objects to Secretary of State Marco Rubio inviting Cubans to cooperate with the CIA. Havana apparently believes espionage should remain a privilege of the dictatorship. The Trump administration is right to disagree. Rubio is challenging a comfortable assumption in Washington: that Cuba is too broke to matter. A regime unable to keep the lights on can still penetrate a government, compromise an intelligence officer, and help America’s adversaries. Poverty has never disqualified a country from espionage. It can make espionage one of its more valuable exports. I am...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo’s Amoris Laetitia Summit: Doctrinal Confusion and a Secret Final Report A Vatican summit meant to celebrate Amoris Laetitia instead ignited controversy over marriage, sexuality and the Church’s moral teaching. From a nun’s shocking remarks about Our Lord to calls to recognize new forms of family life, here’s the radical trajectory, Bishop Schneider’s warning, and the final report that never saw the light of day. Amoris Laetitia: An Aberrant DocumentAmoris Laetitia is certainly not the worst of Francis’s magisterial documents, but within the apostolic exhortation it is possible to identify statements and provisions concerning the relevant application...

Two Catholic bishops have expressed regret about agreeing to a White House meeting that produced a publicly distributed photo of them praying with President Donald Trump.Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, in a statement titled “A Public Apology,” said Sunday that he had received many questions and comments — some of them distraught — about the meeting on Thursday which he and 11 other bishops attended.He said the meeting was speedily publicized by the White House with photos and a video, without consent of the participants, and less than two weeks away from the midterm elections.“I feel a heavy sadness, not only...

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ordered aides to fetch him a globe associated with legendary World War II General Dwight Eisenhower — and they broke it, The Washington Post reported Thursday. According to the Post, the large orb fell while being carried by untrained staff, resulting in the loss of a large chunk of the world near Antarctica. The Post reported that historic items are typically moved around the Pentagon premises by trained curators. However, Hegseth’s office had dispatched its own team. A Pentagon official told AFP in a statement that “an accident” had occurred. However, the statement referred to the...

The Pentagon is preparing U.S. military bases to keep operating for at least 90 days without outside support as it prepares for the possibility of a major war that could cripple power grids, disrupt supply chains and threaten critical infrastructure on American soil. The new requirement is part of FORTRESS, a broader military initiative aimed at ensuring American forces can continue fighting even if the civilian systems they depend on are disrupted, according to documents reviewed by Fox News Digital. "We don't want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense. We just simply can't. It's...

[Catholic Caucus] The Lepers: Letter from the Secretariat of State blocking entry of Traditional Pilgrims to Saint Peter’s Basilica Three weeks before the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, which is in its 15th year and has always ended on the last Sunday in October, Father Claude Barthe, chaplain of the pilgrimage, received the denial.Diane Montagna reports (main excerpt):A letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State to the organizers of the annual Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage, obtained by this journalist, confirms reports that the pilgrims were barred from entering St. Peter’s Basilica in procession to pray at the tomb of the Apostle.The letter,...

This will blow your mind. A team of physicists recently trapped a single antimatter particle for months — a delicate feat where one wrong move could’ve blown up their lab, according to new research. Antimatter, which explodes when it comes into contact with the ordinary matter, was captured by researchers at Northwestern University and stored in a cold box where they used incredibly cold temps and magnets to suspend the particle in midair, according to findings published in the Physical Review Letters. “We actually coaxed this very fast positron to sit there and behave for months at a time,” lead...

Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat to a student-led protest movement in a historic election on Sunday that ends his long grip on power and heralds a new political ​era in the Balkan country. The streets of Belgrade erupted in celebration ​after Vucic's announcement, with cars honking and students shouting "victory" and "he's done". The ⁠snap elections came after almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived ​corruption and creeping authoritarianism triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a ​train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024. "Dear Serbia, tonight the voice of the people is...

Story highlights Elon Musk said SpaceX restricted Starlink in Ukraine over its alleged use for offensive drone strikes, claiming the loophole had been closed and access restored. He warned that Ukraine’s frontline would “collapse immediately” if Starlink were switched off.

"By [Thy judgments] Thy servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward" (Ps. 19:11). Heeding God’s warnings brings spiritual protection and great joy. Psalm 19:11 concludes David's hymn on the sufficiency of Scripture. How appropriate that it ends noting the value of God's warning, because guarding His people against temptation, sin, error, foolishness, false teachers, and every other threat to their spiritual well-being is a major concern to God. For example, God said to the prophet Ezekiel, "Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will...

A 12-year legal campaign resulted in Norway’s seizing a Russian research vessel in Svalbard, deep into the Arctic Circle SVALBARD, Norway—This summer, Russia’s Geographical Society leased an ice-strengthened vessel for an expedition to map Russia’s historic presence on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.The sun shone and the waters were calm, the passengers on the Professor Molchanov recalled. What they didn’t know was that Norwegian police would board it at its first stop, the Russian-run mining town of Barentsburg, with a court order to seize the ship and its paperwork.The Russians were in no mood to cooperate.The episode last month in...