Free Republic

A terrifying attack on an Indianapolis city councilman’s home has ignited fears that mounting opposition to the data centers that power artificial intelligence is taking an increasingly violent turn. Ron Gibson, who is serving his third term on the Indianapolis City-County Council, said someone fired 13 shots into his front door early Monday – and left a handwritten note that said “NO DATA CENTERS”. That was just days after Gibson attended a Metropolitan Development Commission meeting to support a data center project, one the developer said would be used at least in part for AI, in a local neighborhood —...

The disgraced relative of an Iranian warlord being deported from California has reached out to her former LA love interest from an ICE detention center to beg for help. Married Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, niece of terror mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani – former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who was taken out in a deadly 2020 U.S. air strike – frantically called Maziar Aflaki, 68, on Monday from the facility in Pearsall, Texas. But on hearing her voice, retiree Aflaki declined to accept the call, claiming years of harassment and abuse at the hands of Afshar. He told the...

California governor candidate Eric Swalwell has broken his silence about online rumors that have swirled for days alleging inappropriate contact with female staffers. The East Bay congressman and Democratic frontrunner in the governor’s race slammed the allegations as a fake rumor designed to derail his candidacy weeks before voting begins in the June 2 primary election. “This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race,” said Micah Beasley, Swalwell spokesperson, in a statement....

RICHMOND, VA — Virginia's Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday ignored questions on whether she would entertain calls from the Department of Homeland Security to end sanctuary policies in the state. "Governor Spanberger must end her sanctuary policies that allow these illegal aliens onto our streets and work with DHS to protect the citizens of the commonwealth," the agency said in a post to social media. Virginia — and in particular Fairfax County — has made headlines in recent weeks for a string of deadly attacks carried out by illegal aliens. Earlier this month, authorities charged 28-year-old Guatemala native Misael...

Dozens of congressional Democrats are demanding that Republicans remove President Donald Trump for his latest threat against Iran, but one lawmaker says the idea isn’t "realistic." Several congressional Democrats want to invoke the 25th Amendment, a decades-old addition to the Constitution that empowers a president’s Cabinet to remove him from office if he is unable to do the job. Some Democrats are arguing that Trump’s latest threat against Iran on Truth Social — where he declared that a "whole civilization will die tonight" unless his demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz are met — is proof that he has...

THE SUN RISES AGAIN over a fractured camp. Confusion everywhere. Attacks flow from outside the MAGA movement and from within it. An old ally, whether feigned or real, turns his fire on the Don. Alex Jones, once a loud voice for the cause, now broke down in tears on his broadcast and urged his listeners to cut bait on Trump. He spoke of Trump’s failing health, swollen ankles, a mind that babbles, and the need for intervention. Trump is gone, he said. Be sad about it. Mobilize against the Democrats instead. Like an ocean tide, Jones has historically moved towards...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained an illegal immigrant who was released back into the community after allegedly kidnapping a 4-year-old girl from a laundromat in New York, a report said. The Department of Homeland Security told the New York Post that Carlos Corte-Corte, 38, of Ecuador, was taken into custody by ICE on March 31 and placed into removal proceedings following the March 28 incident at Laundry Kingdom in Patchogue. "This three-time deported criminal illegal alien, Carlos Corte-Corte, kidnapped an innocent four-year-old girl from a laundromat on Long Island. New York sanctuary politicians chose to release this kidnapper...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his "Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan" on Monday, which quickly prompted pushback from conservatives online and skepticism from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, with one top official saying she will "review" the move. Mamdani’s office explained in a press release that the preliminary report, which the mayor had promised to release within 100 days in office, shows racial disparities in areas like housing, education, and income, and the new plan aims to "establish a new framework for how New York City measures affordability, understands inequity and plans for a more equitable future." "The...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s presidential library will be the biggest building in Miami and feature a replica of the ballroom he’s adding to the White House, his son Eric said on Monday. “It’s gonna be the tallest building in Miami, by far the best location in Miami,” he told reporters at the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll. “The piece of land is incredible and we’re really excited.” The president unveiled dramatic renderings of his forthcoming library last week showing a skyscraper towering over the Miami skyline — with the “Trump” family name illuminated near the top of the building....

Maine's Supreme Judicial Court said Monday that a proposed expansion of ranked-choice voting would violate the state constitution. A bill pending in the Legislature would expand ranked-choice voting to races for governor and legislative seats by counting only the final vote tally to decide a winner. The bill has enough support in the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass, but lawmakers asked the state supreme court to examine the constitutionality of the measure, LD 1666, ahead of the 2026 elections. In a unanimous advisory opinion, the justices on Maine's highest court said the language of the state constitution makes clear that the...

They are now the safest country in Europe, which is something that nobody expected because they are unapologetic about the fact that they will put their citizens first before any kind of online manipulation, EU rhetoric that tries to make them feel bad and push them to taking in refugees that just end up destroying their country. Of course, when I say they, I am referring to Poland, which surprise, surprise, has turned out to be a bastion of freedom and peacefulness against this takeover that we're seeing across Europe. But not only are they doing a great job at...

How conspiracies spread has changed immensely over the history of the United States, as technology and media have evolved. But the nature of conspiracies has not. I teach communications courses at Villanova University, 12 miles from Philadelphia, on how conspiracy theories are created and disseminated. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, I have been thinking about the early history of Philadelphia and the controversial people, stories and ideas, including conspiracies, that permeated the city during the second half of the 1700s. Conspiracy theories describe alternative versions of events – such as the collapse of the...

The son of a notorious Iranian regime leader is enjoying an affluent lifestyle in Los Angeles, the California Post can reveal. Campaigners are calling for Eissa Hashemi, 43, to be investigated and deported for defiantly refusing to denounce his mother’s sickening past. On Monday, he appeared unfazed by the controversy and defiantly brushed off a reporter’s questions, declining to speak after a workout at his fancy gym. The college psychology lecturer is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, known as “Screaming Mary,” who acted as spokesperson for violent militants who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52...

Situation in eastern Iran, and spreading up the Helmand River into Afghanistan, are the ruins of dozens of archaeological sites. This is the lost Helmand Civilization. The Historian's Craft explores the Helmand civilization, a lost Bronze Age culture spanning modern Iran and Afghanistan. Tracing sites like Shahri Sukhteh and Mundigok, this overview examines evidence of advanced trade, massive urban planning, and mysterious, widespread fires that led to the civilization's eventual decline. Helmand: Iran's Lost Civilization You've (possibly) Never Heard Of | 10:58 The Historian's Craft | 132K subscribers | 13,784 views | March 11, 2026

“Saturday Night Live UK” has been slammed for a distasteful joke aimed at Meta owner and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “It’s been revealed that Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is building a bunker under his compound in California,” said “Weekend Update” co-host Ania Magliano. “And I hope he uses that bunker in exactly the same way Hitler did,” she added, prompting shocked reactions from the live audience. The joke referenced the Führerbunker, an underground air-raid shelter near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, where Adolf Hitler spent his final 105 days, ultimately committing suicide on April 30, 1945.

The AFP reports that a 600-year-old grape seed recovered from a medieval waste pit in northern France is genetically identical to grapes used today to make pinot noir wine. A team of researchers led by Ludovic Orlando of the French National Center for Scientific Research sequenced the genomes of 54 grape seeds dating from about 2300 B.C. to the medieval period. The oldest grapes in the study were found to have come from wild vines. The scientists determined that early farmers began using clonal propagation techniques as early as 625 to 500 B.C., when domesticated grapevines were grown in southern...

Link only - https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2026/04/02/judge-baker-carper-backers-blast-desantis-impeachment-push/89425782007/

President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver an update on the war against Iran from the White House on Monday. Trump says he will hold a press conference along with members of the military at 1 p.m. ET. The conference lands around the time Trump's 48-hour window for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is set to close. He has vowed to target Iran's power plants and transportation infrastructure on Tuesday if Iran does not strike a deal. Nevertheless, Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials have spent the weekend in talks with the Iranian regime, with...

The University of Virginia fired its head women’s basketball coach, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, in a shocking move after the Cavaliers made a surprise run to the Sweet 16, though reports suggest a toxic culture had developed within the program. Virginia had been coming off one of the program’s most successful seasons in recent memory – reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000 – when the school made the announcement that Agugua-Hamilton was out in a terse statement released over the weekend. But behind the scenes, Agugua-Hamilton was the subject of an internal investigation, USA Today reported. The outlet...

Chicago residents in rent-controlled housing near a site being constructed to honor former President Barack Obama have reportedly unionized in response to the controversial project. Residents of a longtime Woodlawn apartment building organized to resist possible displacement and rent increases they say are being driven by development pressure surrounding the Obama Presidential Center. Tenants at the Chaney Braggs Apartments rallied earlier this month outside their building near 65th Street and Stony Island Avenue, saying a potential sale of the property could upend the lives of families who have lived there for decades, FOX 32 Chicago reported. A California-based investor is...