Free Republic

The entrepreneur tells Michael Odell about inheritance, his new London hotel, dancing on the tables at 74 and why he has stopped afternoon drinkingSo what does a billionaire business tycoon eat for breakfast? I’m sitting with Sir Richard Branson in his spanking new, 120-room Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch, where I imagine they served him something delicious this morning. I am wrong. “I went to E Pellicci in Bethnal Green, it’s a proper old East End restaurant,” he beams. “The welcome you get and the size of the breakfast is incredible. You should go there — 84-year-old Maria Pellicci still runs the...

The well-loved Afrikaans author and academic Prof. Daan Wybenga, 69, has just been tortured to death in his house in Clarens, in the Free State. His body was found on Monday night in his home. Wybenga is the latest casualty in South Africa’s spate of sadistic black-on-white murders, fueled by racial animosity and years of communist propaganda. His body was so badly mutilated that his son, Mr. Wim Wybenga, 37, could only recognise him by his hands. According to him, the killers threw boiling water over his dad, hit him over the hand, tied up his hands and feet, and...

SAO PAULO (CNS) — A Catholic prelature in Brazil's Amazon has decreed that its parishes will not accept donations from any person or company that displaces minorities or damages the earth. Bishop José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira of Itacoatiara has prohibited parishes, pastoral communities, groups and movements linked to the prelature -- similar to a diocese — from receiving financial resources from those he says "damage the Amazon." "We decree, for an indefinite period, that in parishes, communities, pastorals, groups and movements of the Prelature of Itacoatiara, we will not receive financial resources, in currency or other goods, from politicians,...

Six Department of Education employees used “forged permission slips” to take their own kids and grandchildren to Disney World and on other city-funded trips meant for homeless students, investigators alleged. The secret perks robbed some of the city’s most disadvantaged kids of a chance to enjoy the Magic Kingdom — a trip that cost $66,000 for 50 or so adults and kids, a staffer said — and other multiple-day trips in 2016 to 2019 to Washington, D.C; New Orleans; Boston; upstate Rocking Horse Ranch Resort; and Frost Valley YMCA campground, according to a newly released report by the Special Commissioner...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday defended a state agency’s involvement with a $10 million donation to a charity founded by his wife as a “cherry on top” deal using funds from a settlement between the agency and the state’s largest Medicaid contractor. State law mandates that money from the settlement be put in a trust fund or a general fund under legislative oversight. DeSantis called the settlement “100% appropriate”

Prince Harry has resigned from the charity he set up in Princess Diana's honor after a "devastating" breakdown in relations with the chair, who has alleged abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny and misgynoir — misogyny directed at Black women. Sentebale was founded by Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in Southern Africa in 2006 and has been one of the British royal's most important projects. When he quit the palace in January 2020 it was at a dinner for Sentebale that he used a speech to justify that dramatic departure saying: “When I lost my mum 23 years ago,...

A Washington-based Muslim nonprofit, which is one of the largest operating across the US, agreed this week to settle a case brought by a former board member and employee rather than open its books to reveal sources of foreign funding, The Post has learned. Evidence in past court proceedings has shown links between The Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation Inc. and both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR Inc. settled with Lori Saroya Thursday, months after US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled any assets owned by the group are all within the “scope of permissible discovery” as part of the...

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to controversial political operatives through their charity, according to documents reviewed by The Post. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been spending big on high level Democrat party aligned sources, according to public records, including hiring a ‘disinformation expert’ who worked at a company involved in every high-profile US election since the 90s. The move could further widen the divide between Harry and his family, after brother Prince William recently met with President Donald Trump. King Charles is also said by the British press to have maintained...

EXCLUSIVE — One day before anti-Israel protesters caused mayhem in Washington, D.C., burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he spoke to Congress, scrawling graffiti across federal property, and burning American flags, the National Park Service granted the organizing group a public gathering permit.... The NPS said in the permit documents that ANSWER “refused to provide specific locations for onsite contacts.” ANSWER is a project of a charity in San Francisco called Progress Unity Fund, according to tax records.... The NPS is already facing scrutiny for its handling of the Wednesday protest. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) sent...

A massive foreign worker scandal is brewing at Apple. The company reportedly fired nearly 200 Indian employees after uncovering their involvement in a major scam—stealing charitable contributions. And of course, hardly anybody is covering the story.Typical, right?Now, the big question is this: are these the “best and brightest” workers we’ve been endlessly told about, ad nauseam?NO WAY! HAHA, you can't make it up. 185 Apple employees — explicitly Telegu (Indian) — were fired today due to their involvement in a scam related to Apple's matching grants program.These foreign workers know our system is a convoluted joke. They understand that as...

DUANESBURG — The chief financial officer of Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region has been fired after allegedly defacing a Donald Trump campaign sign with swastikas in October and taking a different one from another location earlier this month. Michael Coleman, 59, is accused of using black tape to mark a Trump/Vance political sign at the intersection of Main Street and Western Turnpike with four swastikas. Delanson Mayor Gayle Gifford alerted the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office to the alleged vandalism on Oct.1 and a deputy was sent to investigate, according to documents filed in Duanesburg Town Court. “Upon...

I just got word from the North Pole that Santa is looking for really, really, kind people this year. Supply chain issues of all kinds due to red tape and weather may cause shortages and delays of the usual things children ask for at Christmas. Now, here's the thing. Santa knows that families in North Carolina have lost so much, and even everything. Houses, pets, family members, land, jobs, some whole towns were washed away in the terrible floods of Helene. Many families and children are sleeping in shelters and tents, they have no clothes of their own, their toys...

A charity run shelter in El Paso, Texas stands accused of “planning and facilitating” illegal migrants to cross over the border from Mexico into the US, according to court documents. The accusation of brazen illegality is part of a suit filed by the state Attorney General Ken Paxton against Annunciation House, a Catholic group who run a handful of shelters providing temporary housing to migrants who have illegally crossed into the US. Paxton launched an investigation earlier this year into the charity, demanding the immediate release of documentation about its migrant clients, which it has refused to do. “Annunciation House...

Governor Pritzker just came out at Will Ferrell’s house party and got booed hard.

A pro-Hamas organization that has helped organize protests on American college campuses is a “sham charity” that fundraises for a terrorist group.. In a joint action by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, or Samidoun, was sanctioned by the Treasury Department and... that Samidoun serves as a front organization and fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the U.S. deemed a terror organization in 1997 and 2001.... During Kates’ interview with NBC News, she called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel “a brave and heroic operation.” “That is something we stand...

onald Trump's presidential campaign's GoFundMe efforts have raised millions to support survivors of both an assassination attempt on the former president and the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. The two high-profile fundraisers, organized by the Republican nominee's national finance director, have raised more than $14 million. The Associated Press (AP), citing legal experts, reported that the funds do not violate campaign finance laws, and the campaign is not allowed to use any proceeds for its own political ends. According to comments Trump's campaign spokesperson Brian Hughes made to the AP, the decision to use GoFundMe was motivated by "the president...

In the most predictable news from the most unpredictable presidential race in history, Kamala Harris has declined to attend the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York next month. The historic Catholic fundraiser has always been a rare moment of genuine levity, especially in election years when both major-party nominees traditionally roast each other with mocking speeches. But not this time. Harris told organizers she won’t be there because she says she needs to focus on her campaign. Oh, give me a break!

PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will skip this year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, breaking with presidential tradition so she can campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs.

Also at the Democrat Convention last week, former President Barack Obama claimed that "unlike Democrats, Republicans believe that generosity is for suckers. They believe it's okay to take what you want. They don't care about the less fortunate or the needs of others. As Democrats our job is to convince people that democracy can actually deliver. We can't just rely on the ideas of the past. We need to chart a new way forward to meet the challenges of today." Like so many of the things he has said since he's been in politics, the claim that Republicans aren't generous...

An unlikely friendship has formed between a nine-year-old Louisiana boy and a multimillionaire businessman after the child confused him for a homeless man and offered him his only dollar. When a fire alarm in his building awoke television personality and sporting goods brand owner Matt Busbice in April, he grabbed some random mismatched clothes and headed outside. After placing an order at a coffee shop down the street, Busbice went onto the patio to quietly pray, security footage from the shop, shared with WBRZ, shows. That was when Kelvin Ellis Jr. wandered by and saw Busbice standing in the corner...