Free Republic

Vance Boelter pleaded guilty on Thursday to the murders of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, one of Minnesota's most consequential legislative leaders, and her husband, Mark, as well as the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. The shocking acts of violence nearly a year ago to the day scarred the state and injected a new level of fear into politics. Boelter, 58, shuffled into the federal courtroom in downtown Minneapolis, wearing orange prison garb, white velcro sneakers and shackles around his ankles. He was unemotional as he told the judge he was of a clear mind...

An [terrorist]-linked gang who stabbed and battered a British couple to death then threw their bodies to crocodiles have been found guilty of their murder. World renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were ambushed in South Africa whilst out searching for rare gladioli flowers in remote mountains. The devoted couple who were married for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town met a bad end whilst setting up camp beside a forest dam in a national park. A court heard how they were viciously tortured for Rachel's gold credit card PIN number and bank account details...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned that Iran will need to "pay the price" for dragging out negotiations on a nuclear deal that would end the war. "Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore - They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!!" He added, "They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay...

Johannesburg — Multiple attackers killed 12 people and wounded at least nine in a late-night mass shooting in Johannesburg, police said Wednesday, the latest in such attacks that have shaken the South African city. Police said they believe more than 10 suspects were dropped off in a minibus in an informal settlement in the Cleveland suburb of Johannesburg late Tuesday night and started shooting. The attackers "moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle," police said in a statement. The victims were nine men and three...

The wife of a federal judge who blocked President Donald Trump’s decision to shutter government websites that promoted gender ideology founded an organization that received funds from the United States Agency for International Development, an agency that the administration is currently targeting. U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a decision on Tuesday ordering federal health agencies to restore pages about transgenderism they had pulled after a Trump executive order about “gender ideology extremism.” ... “No backend remedy could ameliorate the inability to provide all required care during an appointment time to a patient who cannot return in the future,” Bates...

In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? Not at all. They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence that occurred in our lifetimes.Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.This Christian genocide was endorsed by major world powers, aided and...

NEW DELHI: How far will a country go to secure a favourable deal for itself? Pretty far, it seems. Mauritius has offered a couple of sun-drenched islands to India as part of a trade and investment deal. While the offer has been talked about for a while, Mauritius has revived it - at a time when it's very keen on persevering with the 1983 double-taxation avoidance treaty with India. Mauritius foreign affairs and trade minister Arvin Boolell said that it was up to India to use the islands to its advantage. He said the "blue economy" had great potential. India...

President Donald Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser confirmed that U.S. and Nigerian forces killed 199 suspected terrorists and seized massive new evidence about ISIS extremists during a recent secret mission deep in Africa. Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, dropped the details during an appearance on the “Just the News, No Noise” show, declaring the operation “the most successful counterterrorism operation since September 11.” “This is a historic moment, because that operation in Nigeria … that one operation led to the killing of 199 enemies,” Gorka stated. “That is the most successful counterterrorism operation since...

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Cologne University have made an unexpected discovery in Israel's Negev Desert: carved figurines with apparent African origins.The figurines were uncovered during excavations at Tel Malhata, an elliptical-shaped mound located in the eastern sector of the Arad -- Beer-sheba Valley.The site is often identified as Moladah, the biblical town of Simeon, and one of the cities of Judah (although other identifications have been suggested). Previous excavations at the Tel have found occupational layers dating from the Middle Bronze Age to the Byzantine period.According to a study published in 'Atiqot -- Publications of the Israel...

A blue-glowing spider was only the first clue. Deep in Angola, scientists uncovered a hidden world of species still waiting for names after long trek. A crowned crab spider that glows bright blue under ultraviolet light. An armored cricket that can squirt defensive fluid. A ladybird orb-web spider that mimics a toxic beetle. These are among the dozens of species potentially unknown to science discovered during a February 2026 expedition to Angola’s remote Lisima plateau. The survey, called the Cassai Life Atlas, was conducted by The Wilderness Project, an organization founded by South African explorer Steve Boyes. The team of...

Danny aka Capt PPRune posted 9th July 2003 17:08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPRuNe SCOOP!!!!! As you may have observed from the above posts which have been copied here from a thread on the African forum, the Flying Bomb, as the popular press liked to call it, has been found, impounded and the crew arrested in Beirut. What you may also have sensed from the above posts is that several PPRuNers were directly involved in the tracking, finding and securing of the 'rogue' B727. Perhaps this should serve as a warning to all those dodgy leasing companies, often based in Miami, with very...

Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, both researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and giving false statements to federal law enforcement, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced. According to the criminal complaint, Vincent Munster, a citizen of the Netherlands, 53, is the Chief of the Virus Ecology Section, Laboratory of Virology at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana. Claude Kwe, a citizen of Cameroon, 38, is a research fellow in Munster’s section. The work of...

Remember how South Africa used to be a functional country? 🚨 New product alert! 🚨🇿🇦 Introducing the new SVI Gimbal Gunport, a patent-pending product designed for armoured security vehicles. 🙌✅ Weapon secured in place🎯 Vastly improved accuracy👉 No risk of in-cabin ricochet👀 See it in action here: https://t.co/YAexKHcKNq pic.twitter.com/bLpBqKQl8L— SVI Engineering (@SVI_Engineering) June 2, 2026 Progress? Re-engineering Arrow Loops for the modern failed progressive state! pic.twitter.com/wtz76sDNi8— Mark the Red (@MarktheRed21) June 2, 2026At this point just drive a tank or apv— NPC767480 (@NPC00767480) June 2, 2026I remember seeing a South African anti-carjacker flamethrower on TV when I was a kid...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have killed “hundreds” of Islamic State militants in Nigeria, crediting President Donald Trump’s directive to protect Christians in the country from Islamist violence.During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Hegseth said Trump charged the military with taking steps to protect Nigerian Christians roughly a year ago after learning of their targeting by the Islamic State terror group.Building the partnerships necessary to carry out such a mission took time, the secretary said, but the president remained persistent, and the right assets were eventually put in place."And over the last month,...

More than 1,100 people were suspected of having contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, the head of the African Union's health agency said on Sunday in a commentary for the Financial Times. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director general Jean Kaseya said there were 263 confirmed cases in both countries as of Saturday, with 43 confirmed deaths. More than 1,100 suspected cases were still being investigated, he wrote in the editorial. On Thursday, the Africa CDC said there had been 246 suspected deaths from the virus. "We must move at the speed of...

The rapid spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has created a "deeply alarming" situation, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned. Speaking two weeks on from the outbreak being declared, MSF Deputy Director Dr Alan Gonzales said never before had "so many cases" been recorded so soon. His comments came as the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visited the eastern Congolese province of Ituri - the worst-hit area - to oversee virus containment efforts. There are now more than 1,000 suspected Ebola cases in the DR Congo, and at...

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday evening, seeking to support the medical response to the fast-growing outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo. W.H.O. said on Friday the outbreak now includes 906 suspected infections and 223 suspected deaths. “To come here is to really show to the community that they’re not alone. Pushing orders from my comfortable office in Geneva is easy, but I’m asking my colleagues to work with the community and I am asking communities to protect themselves,” Tedros told reporters upon his arrival in the DRC. The...

USA Responds with a Zinger! The Trump administration intends to accept a further 10,000 Afrikaner refugees into the United States in addition to the 6,000 Afrikaners already accepted, raising the 2026 cap to 17,500. Meanwhile, several patriotic Afrikaner organizations appealed to President Trump to help Afrikaners stay in their ancestral home. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced he was increasing the refugee cap for white South Africans because of “an unforeseen emergency refugee situation”, signing an executive order to “increase the ceiling to 17,500.” Trump blamed the South African government for “recent increases in the incitement of racially motivated violence”....

Africa's population has grown more than sixfold since 1950 and is projected to keep expanding through the end of the century — even as growth slows across most of the world — according to a Pew Research Center analysis published last week.Drawing on United Nations population data, the report finds that the continent currently holds 19% of the global population but is home to 28% of all people under 25. That share is expected to rise sharply in the decades ahead.Africa's population stood at roughly 230 million in 1950. It has since grown by approximately 1.3 billion people. Under the...

Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients at the heart of the latest outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, forcing the medical staff to scramble to evacuate the patients as gunfire rang out in the area. It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on the Mongbwalu General Hospital but Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told The Associated Press the attackers demanded that two bodies of their relatives be handed over to them. There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff,...