Free Republic

BIG SUR on the TIBERThe Synod on Synodality looms as a watershed moment in the radical transformation of the Catholic Church into a globalized religion, stripped of dogma and Catholic identity.“Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.” ~Bill Murray, CaddyshackThis is the dawning of the New Age of Aquarius and Leo, where consciousness, not truth, is the end goal for...

A dog famous in China for traveling around with its owner was reportedly stolen, sold for less than $30 and eaten, according to media reports from Asia. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the dog’s name was Chutou and that he was an eight-year-old border collie who gained over a million followers on China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, for accompanying his owner, identified by multiple outlets simply as “Guo,” on journeys across China over many years. Guo, according to SCMP, took a solo trip to Georgia last month and left Chutou behind in the care of his father...

The first officer of a United Airlines jet warned the pilot "you are still slow and a little low" before the aircraft hit a light pole and tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike while landing at Newark Liberty Airport on May 3. A preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board about the May 3 incident said the airliner was hit by a 34 mph wind gust just before crossing the highway, and confirmed the jet struck both the light pole and the tractor-trailer. The crew of United Flight 169 heard a thump and felt a jolt as...

Hundreds of police in the force whose officers handcuffed Henry Nowak as he lay dying felt 'controlled and pressured to be certain ways' during mandatory diversity training. More than 6,000 Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary officers and staff were taught about racism, unconscious bias and the 'importance of being an ally'. A survey following the course revealed one in seven participants (16 per cent) had felt 'controlled and pressured' to adopt certain ideas during the teaching. A similar proportion of 14 per cent thought 'mistakes would have been held against me', while one in five (20 per cent) feared...

A total of 219 people have been injured in clashes between football fans and police across France after Paris St-Germain (PSG) won the Champions League final against Arsenal. Eight were in a serious condition, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. Thousands of officers were deployed to curb unrest that disrupted bus, train and rail services in the capital, Paris. Fifty-seven of them were injured. Nuñez said 780 people had been arrested over the violence - with more than 450 in custody. A person was found dead after an accident on Paris's ring road, which rioters tried to block overnight. Some 6,000...

The hiring of Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley as the Vikings’ new G.M. will carry a specific benefit for his former team. Per the league, Teasley qualifies as a diverse candidate under the NFL provision that gives the former team of a newly-hired G.M. or head coach a pair of third-round compensatory draft picks.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have gotten a lot of attention over the past decade. In these pages, we’ve often lamented that universities’ focus on superficial measures of diversity undermines merit and overlooks viewpoint diversity. A new book by Duke professor Adrian Bejan, Diversity Through Freedom, emphasizes a different kind of diversity: the organic, inevitable, and beneficial diversity found in nature. He calls it “a phenomenon that has a mind of its own” that can’t be “shoehorned into a few distinct (antagonistic) classes.” The Martin Center sat down with Professor Bejan to discuss his book and its implications for higher education....

As the Trump administration continues its effort to root out federal funding for diversity initiatives, the National Institutes of Health has modified its grant review process to identify research that contains words associated with race or gender, which has held up some grant disbursements and forced scientists to rewrite proposals. “I feel that this kind of censorship is making the path forward to support narrower and narrower research only to include, for example, white, straight, cisgender men,” said a program director at one of NIH’s institutes. “Any other population is being scrutinized, which is highly, highly, highly problematic for a...

In clips circulating on social media, women are seen running through crowded streets while groups of men pursue them. Moments later, the women are surrounded, their clothing torn off as they are groped and assaulted, while bystanders film and shout, with some appearing to cheer. In a statement, they described the Alue-Do festival as a fertility ritual, saying symbolic acts such as dragging and pouring sand on individuals are traditionally meant to invoke blessings for couples struggling to conceive

Robert Prevost’s last act on social media before he became pope was a retweet. It was April of last year. Donald Trump had hosted Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, where the two men laughed about the unlawful deportation of a U.S. resident to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Cardinal Prevost saw the post — a Rocco Palmo dispatch citing the words of Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar — and reposted it to his Twitter following. Image “Do you not see the suffering?” Menjivar had asked in the Catholic Standard. “Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay...

WHAT HAPPENED: A 19-year-old Afghan migrant was arrested in France for allegedly raping sheep and goats at an educational farm near Marseille. The animals were found tied up and injured, prompting the farm owners to install cameras that captured the acts. Police from an anti-crime unit arrested the suspect on April 10 after catching him in the act. Authorities said DNA evidence linked him to multiple abused animals. The suspect, who arrived in France in November 2025 and was awaiting residency, denied the allegations through an interpreter.

New police data shows foreign nationals feature disproportionately in violent offences, with sharp regional disparities and rising political pressure. Germany’s latest police crime statistics (PKS) have reignited the migration debate, with new data showing a stark overrepresentation of foreign nationals in violent offences. According to the figures, non-German suspects—particularly from Syria and Afghanistan—feature disproportionately in serious crimes. While foreign nationals account for around 15% of the population, their share of violent crime suspects is significantly higher. The imbalance is especially visible at regional level. In several federal states, including Bavaria, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg, roughly half of all suspects in violent...

Texas Congressman Keith Self has dropped a bombshell on the growing reality of Sharia-adherent communities taking root inside the United States. Far from some future hypothetical, these enclaves are here, now, and operating openly in his own district.Self laid it out plainly: “Sharia is alive, well, and operating in Plano, Texas. Right now, as I speak, there is an existing Sharia-adherent enclave run by the East Plano Islamic Center in my congressional district. It’s been functioning for 12 years right in our midst. This is not a hypothetical or future threat. It is here, now and operational.”He continued: “It is...

A former Los Angeles Unified School District employee has been charged in what prosecutors described as a pay-to-play scheme that directed more than $22 million in contracts to a single technology company, making it one of the largest money laundering schemes in the district’s history. Officials with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office allege that between 2018 and 2022, 53-year-old Pasadena resident, Hong “Grace” Peng, who worked as a technical project manager for LAUSD, of illegally awarding Innive, a Texas-based tech company, millions of dollars worth of contracts for work on the district’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS)....

Heart-pounding audio captured the frantic moments before Sunday’s fatal collision involving an Air Canada passenger plane and a firefighting truck at LaGuardia Airport — with one air traffic controller admitting after they “messed up.” Air traffic controllers urged an incoming plane to go around as the crash unfolded on the ground, killing the jet’s pilot and co-pilot, according to LiveATC audio. The truck was cleared to cross the airport’s Runway 4 before air traffic controllers urged a Frontier plane bound for Miami and the vehicle to stop. “Stop, stop, stop, stop,” the controller frantically demanded. “Truck 1, stop, stop, stop....

The Oscars, once Hollywood's premier celebration of cinematic artistry, have increasingly come under fire for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates over pure merit and storytelling excellence. Titled "Why the Oscars Suck: Diversity, Equity Inclusion Standards Fail Art," this critique highlights how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Representation and Inclusion Standards-introduced in 2020 and fully enforced for Best Picture eligibility since 2024-have transformed the awards into what many view as a politicized checklist rather than a genuine honor for filmmaking achievement.

Two people have been taken to hospital overnight after an alleged machete attack in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, days after a fatal stabbing in a separate incident in the city's outer north. Police allege a 25-year-old Manor Lakes man armed with a machete attacked a man and a woman near the corner of Queen and Flinders streets just after 2:30am on Monday. The woman in her 20s was transported to hospital in a serious condition with upper body injuries. The man, believed to be in his 20s, was treated for mid-body injuries and transported to hospital in a stable...

More than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, firing a weapon. Virginia just decided that the way to go is with the ‘free all the illegal alien criminals’ party. And that leads to women being stabbed to death at bus stops. By Muslim illegal aliens with 30 priors because arresting them and handing them over to ICE interferes with what is currently the supreme cause of the movement after previous stints with ‘BLM’ and ‘Hamas’ (not to mention the drag queens). It’s not good for America. It wasn’t good for Stephanie. But it’s working out pretty well...

Advocating for diverse viewpoints on campuses is now apparently akin to saying “All Lives Matter,” or pushing a supposedly sinister Make America Great Again plot. That’s according to two recent op-eds, penned by professors at Stanford and Johns Hopkins, opposing efforts to get professors and students with different opinions onto campus. Academia has lost public trust precisely because anyone not of the far-left is admonished on campuses. Accusing proponents of viewpoint diversity of being Trumpy conspiracists certainly doesn’t help. Any professor who truly cares about academia should want more views on campus, regardless of their own politics. “It’s profoundly anti-intellectual,...

Maryan Hashi remembers the thoughts running through her mind when she began hitting the ski slopes in northern Sweden. As a Black woman from Somalia, she felt like an “alien.” “Am I wearing the correct clothing for this? Does it fit? Do I look weird? Am I snowboarding correctly? Do they think it’s weird I’m on the slope?” she said. “But I carried on — I felt if I didn’t, I was never going to commit to anything in my life.” A few years later, snowboarding is the 30-year-old student’s big passion and it is helping her integrate into her...