Free Republic

Over 700 members of the Muslim community have gathered in Dublin to celebrate Eid al-Adha. The feast of the sacrifice is regarded as the holiest festival in the Muslim calendar and was celebrated indoors at Croke Park. A group protested outside the venue as attendees arrived. Shaykh Dr. Umar Al-Qadri, of the Irish Muslim Council, went out and wished them a good morning. Inside, as the call to prayer began, a woman stood up holding a rosary beads and began to recite the Hail Mary. She shouted “shame” as she was escorted away by security. There was no reaction from...

The decision, finalized during the closing days of the 2025 legislative session, is expected to have wide-reaching impacts on collectors, investors, and coin dealers throughout the state and beyond. The tax exemption repeal is part of Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5794 (ESSB 5794), a broader revenue package aimed at adopting recommendations from the 2024 tax preference review process, eliminating obsolete tax preferences, clarifying legislative intent, and addressing changes in constitutional law. The repeal is set to take effect on October 1, 2025. The National Coin & Bullion Association (NCBA), which has championed the tax exemption since its inception, expressed deep...

An environmental artist created a huge “Free Palestine” message in the sand on the beach backing on to US President Donald Trump’s golf resort in County Clare. Sean Corcoran worked with two friends to create the 106-meter (348-ft) wide installation on Doughmore Strand in Doonbeg on Monday. “I couldn’t just stand by while atrocities are being carried out in Gaza. Like so many of us, I’ve felt helpless for the last few months. I’d like to be on the right side of history. I don’t want to look back in ten years and feel like I did nothing,” he said....

Is it possible to upload the consciousness of your mind into a computer? – Amreen, age 15, New Delhi, India The concept, cool yet maybe a little creepy, is known as mind uploading. Think of it as a way to create a copy of your brain, a transmission of your mind and consciousness into a computer. There you would live digitally, perhaps forever. You'd have an awareness of yourself, you'd retain your memories and still feel like you. But you wouldn't have a body. Within that simulated environment, you could do anything you do in real life – eating, driving...

Former President Joe Biden got lost in his own closet at the White House, a Secret Service whistleblower claimed to MAGA Senator Josh Hawley. The Missouri Republican shared the intel with Fox News host Sean Hannity Friday, adding to the ongoing speculation that Biden's administration worked to cover-up his declining mental state. 'He [the Secret Service member] told me that Biden used to get lost in his closet in the mornings at the White House,' Hawley explained, adding that his source was assigned to Biden while he was the president. 'I mean, the guy literally stumbling around in the White...

In a world increasingly shaped by political polarization, it’s easy to view ideology as a product of culture, community, or circumstance. But what if part of what influences our political beliefs lies not in where we were raised or what we’ve experienced—but in how our brains are wired to think? A new study published as part of the Genetics and Human Agency initiative suggests that intelligence—both measured through IQ tests and encoded in our DNA—may play a significant role in shaping political views. Drawing from data on over 300 biological and adoptive families, researchers found consistent links between higher cognitive...

Earlier, we had audio of the application of evidently intersectional DEI to the protection of former presidents: Two female Secret Service Uniformed Division officers got into a physical fight outside former President Obama’s D.C. residence while guarding it. The audio featured the immortal words, “Can I get a supervisor down to Delta 2 immediately before I whoop this girl’s ass.” Now, Susan Crabtree has video:ON LINK As noted at Outkick: The U.S.S.S. is responsible for the lives of the President, their families, former Presidents, the Vice President, the VP’s family and a small group of other people. It’s a job...

The FBI’s Washington Field Office is folding its federal public corruption squad, the same unit that aided Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump, three people familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The field office has three units that work on public corruption issues, but this one — known internally as “CR15” — was deeply involved in the bureau’s “Arctic Frost” investigation, which was the precursor to the Smith probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies. That investigation resulted in one of the two federal criminal cases against Trump, both...

The late Hugh Hefner's legendary home, which served as the backdrop to his Playboy magazine, was sold in January 2016 to Greek-American business mogul Daren Metropoulos for $100 million. Daren, 42, is the son of billionaire businessman Dean Metropoulos, 79. Dean is a fan of Hefner's fantasy home, as he was photographed partying it up at the 29-room Holmby Hills property in 2012 alongside rapper Snoop Dogg and an entourage of bunnies. He entrusted the makeover to architect Richard Landry, who has renovated multiple star's houses such as Tom Brady, Kylie Jenner, Rod Stewart, Mark Wahlberg and Sylvester Stallone. Dean...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk are pushing America to boost its birthrate to “return to being a Christian nation.” On May 1, Clinton spoke at the Newmark Civic Life Series in Manhattan at the 92nd Street Y, New York. She argued that there is a “very blatant effort to basically send a message, most exemplified by Vance and Musk, and others, that, you know, what we really need from you women are more children… and what that really means is ‘You should go back to doing what you were born...

A former Clinton administration staffer claimed that Hillary Clinton was so detested during her husband’s time in the White House that she was known as a “Nazi schoolmarm” who made aides run in fear. Buzz Patterson, the former Air Force Aide to Bill Clinton who carried the “nuclear football” wherever the president went, took to X to reveal intimate details of the former First Couple. He said he primarily lived in the White House and was “always in close proximity to both Bill and Hill”, which made him quickly learn that the mood of the day “depended solely on the...

A 23-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of a 65-year-old man who had taken his mother into his home after learning she was sleeping in her car. Brian Ibe, of no fixed abode but formerly of Moore Park in Newbridge, County Kildare, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Peter Kennedy by reason of insanity. Peter Kennedy took Brian Ibe’s mother, Martha, into his home after learning she was sleeping in her car. In 2019, he also allowed Ibe to move in but called gardaí (police) when Ibe became aggressive and threatened him around Christmas...

Archaeologists uncovered a testicle-shaped dagger buried at the ancient Gullberg fortress, and experts believe the dagger, with two round testicle-like decorations on the hilt, was worn, well, where you’d think it would be worn. Arkeologerna announced the find—via a translated statement—that occurred at the Gothenburg-area fortress, which was built in the 14th century A.D., initially as a simple blockhouse surrounded by a palisade wall. The fortified site on a cliff overlooking the Göta River was likely in response to the nearby Danish-Norwegian castles on Hisingen. The site continued to expand and was used as a fortress for centuries until eventually...

The "What Was That" singer also opened up about her eating disorder in a new interview.In the lead-up to her new album Virgin, Lorde has started to slowly open up about her broadening gender identity with the world. But before she was ready to do that, she confided in one of her new friends: Chappell Roan. In a Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (May 15), the New Zealand native revealed that she and the “Pink Pony Club” singer have gotten quite close over the past year, and that one of the things they’ve discussed is Lorde’s changing relationship with...

Thad Roberts was a 25-year-old intern at NASA's Johnson Space Center when he promised to give his girlfriend the moon. But unlike so many young lovers before him, he actually delivered on that promise. In 2002, Roberts enlisted his girlfriend Tiffany Fowler (who was also a NASA intern at the time) and another intern named Shae Saur to help him break into Johnson Space Center and steal 17 pounds of moon rocks worth up to $21 million. The trio used their NASA IDs to slip into the space center after hours and make off with a 600-pound safe containing moon...

Authorities in Edison say they executed the township’s largest asset seizure to date during a raid Thursday at a massage parlor suspected of prostitution and money laundering, recovering more than $750,000 — including $600,000 in cash sewn inside a giant teddy bear. The yearlong undercover investigation led by the Edison Police Department’s Vice Unit targeted Bliss Spa on Woodbridge Avenue and the Edison home of its manager, 47-year-old Daniela Diienno. Police said they recovered $650,000 in cash — most of it concealed inside the stuffed animal — as well as a 2025 Tesla Model Y, a Rolex and a Cartier...

Campaigners say the true rate of paternity fraud - the intentional misidentification of a child's biological father - remains unknownMen are being left heartbroken after investing time, resources, love and energy into raising children they believed were theirs - only to find out it was all a lie. This breach of trust not only impacts the men who were falsely led to believe they were fathers but also deeply hurts the children involved and others connected to the situation. Paternity fraud refers to the deliberate misidentification of a child's biological father. One of the most shocking aspects of this issue...

Several of the key voter groups that provided President Donald Trump’s most important electoral gains in November are recoiling from him as his term moves past the 100-day mark. But it remains unclear how much Democrats can benefit from these growing doubts. In 2024, Trump improved his performance among some big voting blocs that have historically favored Democrats, including Latinos, younger men, non-White voters without a college degree, and, to some extent, Black men. Trump’s advances generated exuberant predictions from an array of right-leaning analysts that he had achieved a lasting realignment and cemented the GOP’s hold on voters of...

The United Kingdom does not have a blasphemy law, but that didn’t stop the Criminal Prosecution Service trying their best, leading to something of a volte-face (about-face) after backlash. 50-year-old Hamit Coskun was charged with acting with intent to cause “harassment, alarm or distress” against the “religious institution of Islam” by the UK’s Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) this week after allegedly burning a copy of the Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in London. Yet after a short campaign by free speech activists, including the Free Speech Union, which is supporting Coksun, and Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick, the charge has...

Researchers have found a new way to test for water contamination. And it's thanks to our poop. In late 2024, researchers from Chungnam National University and Gyeongsang National University published their findings on a new technique for detecting fecal contamination in water using human viral DNA, known as microbial source tracking (MST), in the journal Water Research. And while this may make you let out a little "ew" under your breath, it's critical to know that fecal contamination is, in fact, a significant issue both globally and here in the United States. The World Health Organization explained, "In 2022, globally,...