Free Republic

Lindsey Austen received an alert that a drone was approaching her home in Richmond on Monday – prompting her to excitedly run outside to see it. Austen told Storyful it was the first time one of her packages had been dropped off by the flying robot. She began recording before the drop-off turned out to be a total disaster. Footage showed the drone hovering high above her pool in her backyard, making tons of noise as the propellers kept it in the air before a hatch opened, releasing her package. 'Oh my god,' Austen said in shock. The drone dropped...

Wirskye also shared texts in which Anthony expressed being “on the verge” and fantasized about stabbing someone and licking the blood from the blade. The prosecutor told the court that Anthony’s girlfriend, Valeria Perez, went to school officials that very morning and reported that she had broken up with him and that he was stalking her. Roughly one hour later, Metcalf was stabbed to death under the Memorial High School tent at David Kuykendall Stadium. He died in his twin brother's arms. Text messages recovered from that morning show Anthony writing “I’m low key on the verge,” a statement Wirskye...

After most of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ top legislative goals failed this year, Rep. Rachel Williams, who heads the hard-line conservative group, told reporters they needed “reinforcements in Cheyenne.” On Tuesday, the caucus failed to reach that goal, instead losing majority control in the House and backsliding in the Senate. The caucus, which officially formed in 2020, won majority control of the House for the first time in 2024. But when most of its top legislative goals fizzled in the 2026 budget session, the group’s leadership blamed the failure on lacking a supermajority in the House and insufficient support in...

Conor Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was placed on Russia's wanted list over allegations he fought as a mercenary for Ukraine. Kennedy, 32, could face seven to 10 years in prison if convicted in Russia. "When I heard about Ukraine's International Legion, I went to the embassy to enlist the next day," Conor Kennedy spent about 2½ months in Ukraine before returning to the United States and resuming his law studies at Georgetown University.

Five teenage boys have died and four people have been taken to hospital following a two-vehicle crash in County Kildare. The collision occurred on the M9 Northbound at Junction 3 at about 03:00 local time on Sunday. Gardaí said the bodies of the five teenage boys, all occupants of one vehicle, have now been removed from the scene and taken to Naas General Hospital where post-mortem examinations will take place. They said the vehicle had been travelling on the wrong side of the carriageway when a head on collision occurred with a second car. The driver and front passenger, both...

0:25 VIDEO AT LINK . Woman refueling her SUV. Can you spot what's wrong?..................

Iryna Zarutska's family is going to file a lawsuit regarding her vicious murder in a Charlotte train car. We should be able to sue these negligent judges who let violent criminals back out our streets to victimize us again and again. Decarlos Brown, Jr., the murderer of Iryna Zarutska, had at least 14 prior arrests, including for violent felonies. HOLD THE JUDGES ACCOUNTABLE.

The number of people admitted to German trauma centres with life-threatening stab wounds linked to violent crime has risen sharply over the past decade, according to an analysis of data from hundreds of hospitals. The study by the German Society for Trauma Surgery (DGU), published in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, examined 3,664 seriously injured patients treated at 600 German hospitals between 2013 and 2024. The number of such cases rose from 212 in 2013 to 336 in 2024, an increase of almost 59%. The figure peaked at 382 in 2023. Although knife-related injuries remain a small proportion of all serious trauma...

A passenger plane carrying nearly 300 people struck its tail as it took off from Munich airport in an incident that was described as a 'near disaster'. Footage showed the tumultuous departure of the Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 on Saturday. A cloud of dust was thrown into the air as the tail hit the ground. Inside the cabin, a loud scraping noise was heard as the plane, which was carrying 271 passengers and 16 crew, lifted off the runway. The 250-ton plane skidded across grass, hit light posts and soared towards trees as the crew – made up of three...

Earlier this year, shortly after it was announced that the publisher Simon & Schuster had bought the rights to Jason Arday’s memoir, the then professor of sociology of education at Cambridge University gave an interview to The Bookseller. “I always wanted to be a person who flew close to the sun,” Arday mused. “But sometimes I wonder: did I fly too close?” On the evidence of his book – due to be published in the UK on August 27 – and all that has emerged about Arday in recent weeks, the answer is probably yes. Titled Great and Unfortunate Things,...

A US Air Force flight en route to Antarctica was forced to return to New Zealand after receiving a warning of "potentially hazardous" space activity. The alert was confirmed by New Zealand authorities on Wednesday. New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued the warning after being informed by Russia’s State Air Traffic Management Corporation, which led to the decision to turn the flight back. The warning was disseminated through a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). The flight, originally departing from Christchurch, New Zealand, is a part of the annual Winter Fly-in (WINFLY) operation, which connects Christchurch with Antarctic research facilities. Impact...

I am a Portland mother of three. My oldest son, now 26, attended Lewis Elementary and had such a positive experience there that my husband and I built our home only blocks from Lewis so we could send our two younger children there as well. Lewis wasn’t just our neighborhood school. It was the school our family already knew and trusted. I’ve lived my entire life in Portland, Oregon. I am also a Christian, and I believe parents have the right and the responsibility to know what their children are being taught. I never imagined that asking would get me...

You’re going to see this clip and wonder what the heck a civic agent is. It’s a bit hard to explain to an American, because we don’t really have anything like this, except for maybe a “mall cop.” In Spain, it’s a public-order officer who patrols Barcelona’s streets and public spaces, dealing with nuisance behavior and calling police when things get too serious. And according to local reports out of Barcelona and a clip shared by the UK’s Tommy Robinson, an unruly migrant was confronted by these “mall cops” and things got crazy pretty quickly. One of the civic...

Bond yields climbed Thursday, erasing most of the pullback they saw the previous day after the Treasury Department announced an intervention aimed at easing pressure on longer-dated government debt. The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond — the primary focus of the accelerated buyback — was up more than 4 basis points at 5.236%. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys — the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — moved more than 4 basis points higher to 4.696%. The 10- and 30-year yield levels were right around the level they held before the 8:30 a.m. announcement...

Forget a six-figure MBA—the path to the C-suite can start with a forklift certification. At least, that was the route for Ron Vachris, the CEO of Costco. Today he leads one of the world's largest and most admired companies, with a compensation package worth nearly $14 million. But Vachris never set out chasing the corner office. Instead, he approached his career one step at a time, guided by advice from his father, a utility lineman. "I wish I had the vision back in the '80s about what this industry and what this company could be," Vachris said last month at...

Washington, D.C. – Live Action, one of the nation’s leading human rights organizations, and Thomas More Society released a statement in response to a cease-and-desist letter sent from pro-abortion legal group Amplify Legal, which is affiliated with parent organization Abortion in America, which is a project of George Soros’ Hopewell Fund. The letter, which was posted online, argued that Live Action News published “false and defamatory” articles about 13 clients, all individuals who chose to publicly share their abortion stories. It demands that Live Action remove all related published material and immediately retract statements where abortion is described as “killing”...

I wanted to get some advise from FReepers who have walked this road. I have my first ever sleep study scheduled this weekend. Reading the prep literature makes me wonder how I'm going to sleep when I'm hooked up to all kinds of gadgets. I know I'll eventually sleep, but being away from home I'm not sure it will be a fair representation of the type of sleep I get at home. What do I need to be prepared for and to bring?

South Carolina’s Sen. Darline Graham (R) defended her headline-making debate performance — in which she blurted out “I’m not that informed on national security” — by insisting she was just “being honest.” Graham, 62, was appointed to finish out her brother Lindsey Graham’s term after the elder’s sudden July 11 death at age 71, and is running for a shot at the full term this fall after being endorsed by President Donald Trump. While Lindsey Graham was a well-known foreign policy hawk who spent decades in Congress, his sister tried to backpedal during a Wednesday appearance on Fox News’ Hannity,...

[Short video worth watching] Content below from "Independent Women's Voice." As Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed candidates gain momentum across the country, radical policies are increasingly being repackaged as appealing, mainstream answers to the economic pressures facing Americans. Independent Women’s Voice is using a new generation of campaign storytelling to challenge that sales pitch and expose what those promises made by the DSA platform could actually mean for Americans. Today, Independent Women’s Voice launched “Take Me Back!” Borrowing from the time-travel magic of the iconic film “Back to the Future,” the ad transports viewers into a future shaped by the...

For years, the United Arab Emirates has been a lifeline for Iran’s sanctions-battered economy, despite political tensions between the two countries. But that relationship was imperiled on Tuesday, when the Emirates announced a total embargo on trade and transactions with the Islamic republic. If the threat holds, Iran would lose not just a major market for its goods but a portal to the world economy, analysts say. The embargo highlights both the depth of the economic relationships that Iran has cultivated across the Gulf region and the strain they are now under. The war that the United States and Israel...