Free Republic

Prices at gas pumps are starting to sink and oil is on track to drop 20% in May — its largest one-month decline since 2020 — as investors remain optimistic that a deal to end the Iran war is near. As of Friday, national average gasoline prices had eased to $4.39 a gallon, according to AAA. That’s about 17 cents lower than the 2026 peak price of $4.56 a gallon – though it’s still nearly 50% higher than pre-war prices. Brent crude oil had fallen 1.3% to $91.51 a barrel as of about 2:50 p.m. ET Friday. The global benchmark...

Many Democrats — including former Biden aides — “simply don’t believe” Jill Biden’s stunning claim that she feared President Joe Biden was having a stroke during the disastrous 2024 debate, according to a political journalist. Alex Thompson, an Axios reporter who co-authored “Original Sin” with Jake Tapper, the 2025 book about Biden’s mental decline and its cover-up, cast doubt on the former first lady’s attempt to “rewrite this portion of history” during an appearance on CNN Thursday. “Well, a lot of Democrats, including several Biden aides that I’ve talked to since yesterday when this interview came out, just simply don’t...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement is facing backlash online after promoting a “Trans Period Pride” event at a public library centered on “menstrual equity” and transgender experiences with menstruation. A Tuesday post featuring a graphic with a pink tampon and blue menstrual pad read, “Join MASS NOW and the MA Trans Political Coalition for a consciousness-raising discussion on menstrual equity and the experiences of trans menstruators.” The free event will be held in June at the Boston Public Library’s Copley Branch. The event, which includes a catered dinner and “free period underwear provided to all attendees,” is...

Is it free woolly? Scientists were flabbergasted after discovering that the mammoth backbones that had been housed in an Alaskan museum for 70 years actually belonged to a whale, per a study published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. This archaeological case of mistaken identity began way back in the 1950s, when archaeologist Otto Geist happened upon some bones while traveling through the Alaskan interior, roughly 10 miles North of Fairbanks in a region formerly known as Beringia, The Smithsonian Magazine reported. He assumed the remnants, a pair of growth plates, belonged to the plush pachyderm mammoth based on their...

New York Attorney General Letitia James was accused by her GOP challenger Friday of misusing a whopping $20 million to hire outside lawyers to do her office’s work. The claims from Republican AG candidate Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, came as state Democrats quietly expanded the scope of a $10 million legal defense fund, set up last year to help their embattled comrades like James. “The $10 million legal defense fund set aside for Letitia James’s personal legal troubles is an insult to hardworking taxpayers who are already struggling with the highest costs in the nation,” Komatireddy railed in...

A far-left New York congressional hopeful who just snagged Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement spewed radical and hateful views online — trashing cops, establishment Democrats and calling the US “a f–ing disgrace.” Darializa Avila Chevalier’s disturbing social media history came to light as Mamdani on Thursday night shockingly endorsed her bid to unseat five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18 but you out of your mind if you think I’m voting for a war criminal,” she wrote in 2020, using a since-deleted X account. “This country is a f—ing disgrace,” she added. A...

Via the Associated Press, a familiar (if dispiriting) incident in space exploration: A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, shaking nearby homes and briefly painting the sky orange. Blue Origin said its New Glenn rocket exploded during an engine-firing test being conducted ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week. No one was hurt, according to officials at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Watching this footage, it's kind of incredible that "no one was hurt!" VIDEO AT LINK............. The blowup from other angles is just as unbelievable: VIDEOS...

Syria’s transitional government said on Tuesday it has recovered “remnants” of the secret chemical weapons program created by deposed dictator Bashar Assad and have arrested 18 suspects who were allegedly involved in the program. Assad was overthrown in December 2024 and sought refuge in Russia, one of the nations that propped up his rule during the long and brutal Syrian civil war. He was replaced by a “transitional government” run by an alliance of insurgents and jihadis and presided over by a former member of al-Qaeda named Ahmed al-Sharaa. The new Syrian government turned against Assad’s old patrons of Russia...

In A Nutshell A single octopus collected nearly a mile deep near the Galápagos Islands has been identified as a new species, Microeledone galapagensis, overturning a recent definition that placed its entire family exclusively in the cold Southern Ocean. Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and vivid blue on top with a deep purple-to-maroon underside, the animal displays an unusual reversed color pattern that extends inside its body, a feature researchers think may help hide the glow of bioluminescent prey. Because the DNA samples were lost and no second specimen has been collected, the entire species...

Progressive activists have discovered the perfect business model: Declare a crisis, accuse opponents of violence or genocide, demand emergency powers and funnel money into activist-run nonprofits with virtually no oversight. The latest example of this comes from the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and a coalition of local left-wing groups, which are demanding that socialist Mayor Katie Wilson declare a civil emergency over what they call a “trans relocation crisis.” They’re claiming, with no evidence, that tens of thousands of transgender-identifying individuals are fleeing Republican-led states and arriving in Seattle as refugees. Their proposed solution: a taxpayer-funded bloodletting. On Saturday, radicals flooded...

According to the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command (PLA STC), the HNLMS De Ruyter (F804) and its embarked helicopter intruded Wednesday over the airspace of the Paracel Islands, an archipelago under the control of Beijing following its violent seizure from Vietnam in the 1970s.The Dutch frigate was forced away from the Paracel Islands using “necessary measures” and was “in accordance with laws and regulations,” Senior Captain Zhai Shichen, spokesperson for the Chinese PLA STC, said in a news release.China controls the Paracel Islands via a network of 20 outposts and support forces from the mainland. Through its artificial island...

La Brújula Verde reports that a German archaeological team under the supervision of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) recovered an exceptionally well-preserved notebook from a medieval toilet in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The discovery was made during construction of a new administrative headquarters in the city of Paderborn. The four- by three-inch book contains 10 wooden tablet pages coated in wax, onto which the object's owner etched writing using a metal or bone stylus. The volume was also carefully protected by a leather cover that was stamped with motifs of lilies. Although experts have not yet translated any of...

As lawmakers grow increasingly frustrated with President Donald Trump’s planned $1.8 billion lawsuit settlement fund and his thousands of stock trades totaling hundreds of millions dollars, a trio of House Democrats is launching a new caucus aimed at fighting malfeasance in government. The new End Corruption Caucus — details of which were shared first with MS NOW — is launching at the direction of Reps. Jason Crow, D-Col., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Mike Levin, D-Calif., spanning the party’s centrist to progressive wings. “Corruption is poisoning our politics,” Crow said in a statement. “From the disastrous Citizens United decision, to the...

LOS ANGELES — The personal live-in assistant for “Friends” star Matthew Perry was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in prison for repeatedly injecting the actor with ketamine, including the fatal dose that killed him in October 2023. Kenneth Iwamasa, 61, of Toluca Lake, California, had pleaded guilty in August 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, the Los Angeles Times reported. Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence in U.S. federal court in Los Angeles, CNN reported. She also sentenced him to two years of probation and tacked on a $10,000 fine. “You were privy to his...

Since humans developed the ability to study DNA extracted from fossils, we have uncovered a mystery that until now had no answer. In the DNA of some human species, including our own, Homo sapiens, there were "super-archaic" markers, vestiges of older, unknown species with which we had interbred and produced offspring. Unable to determine who these genomic intruders were, some scientists called them ghost populations...Researchers in China have analysed proteins from the tooth enamel of six fossils dating back around 400,000 years -- five men and one woman -- found at sites across much of the country from north to...

Top Democratic officials and lawmakers are breaking with Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner as his past blunders and online history stack up. Platner’s ascendency to the top of the ticket in Vacationland broke with the Democratic establishment in Washington, D.C., and since Maine Gov. Janet Mills exited from the race, questions about whether he is the right choice to take on Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, have exploded. Much of that is fueled by scandals that have cropped up seemingly week after week, be it a tattoo on his chest of a Nazi symbol or inflammatory posts online. Some in...

A Kansas boy found something historic during an educational field trip. Corbin Bullard, 12, is already a geology fan, especially dinosaurs. He is also a part of the 4-H Geology Club in Sedgwick County. “4-H is definitely meant to help kids find what they’re interested in and do amazing things,” Stephanie Hays, the Sedgwick County 4-H agent, said. And it was on one of the 4-H trips in Jewell County where Corbin stumbled across something unexpected. “He said, ‘Whoa.’ So, we looked down and found what I think was seven or eight large vertebrae,” Wendy Bullard, Corbin’s mother, recalled. The...

‘Revolutionary America’ Coming to Theaters from Fathom Entertainment May 31 – June 2 HILLSDALE, Mich. and DENVER, Colo. — April 17, 2026 — “Revolutionary America,” produced by Hillsdale Studios and distributed by Fathom Entertainment, the leading specialty distributor of content to theatrical partners worldwide, is Hillsdale College’s first feature-length documentary. Narrated by Tom Selleck, the film explores the Revolution through the experience of Americans between 1763-1791, bringing into focus the political principles that animated their fight for independence and self-government, as the Founding Fathers risked their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” in a fight for liberty that would shape a...

WASHINGTON — A sex therapist who vowed to force “American Zionists” into federal immigration detention centers — where many, who she claimed are also “pedophiles,” would be castrated — was soundly defeated in a Texas Democratic primary on Tuesday. Maureen Galindo, whose “insane, antisemitic views” were denounced by members of her own party, lost to opponent Johnny Garcia in the Lone Star State’s 35th Congressional District runoff, 59.5% to 40.5% when the Associated Press called the race at about 10:40 p.m. EST. Either Republican state Rep. John Lujan or Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz will face off with...

Michelangelo left hidden gems across Florence, Rome, and Milan that most tourists never find. This Italy travel guide reveals 10 masterpieces you can still visit today, from a rejected drunk god in the Bargello to the last sculpture his hands ever touched. Most people spend four hours in Florence and see exactly one Michelangelo work. This video finds ten more, scattered across churches with no lines, chapels most visitors walk past, and museums that rarely appear on any itinerary. 10 Michelangelo Hidden Gems in Italy Most Tourists Never Find | 10:17 Roam Roster | 2.06K subscribers | 61,695 views |...