Free Republic

Rare evidence of medieval Rome's thriving community of Anglo-Saxons has been found close to the city's Palazzo della Rovere near the Vatican, according to a statement released by the University of Cambridge. The team has unearthed 20 coins, including 19 silver pennies and one halfpenny, minted by a son and grandsons of the Anglo-Saxon king -- and first king of England -- Alfred the Great. Scholars have long known about the Anglo-Saxon enclave in Rome. There are modern place names that preserve this legacy, including the embankment between the Tiber and the Vatican that is still called the Lungotevere in...

A fugitive wanted for nearly 14 years in the alleged kidnapping and shooting of an Iowa woman was arrested in San Diego after authorities said he reinvented himself as a popular chef under a fake name, even appearing in local news segments while hiding from law enforcement. Brian Anthony Williams, 50, was arrested Tuesday at Miss B's Coconut Club in Mission Beach, California, where he had been working under the name "Troy Williams," the U.S. Marshals Service said. Williams had been wanted since 2012, when he and several others allegedly kidnapped, assaulted and shot a woman before abandoning her in...

As questions remain as to what happens next for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike after a botched execution attempt last week, her accomplice and former boyfriend has at least another five years before his next parole hearing in the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Tadaryl Shipp, 49, was 17 years old when he, Pike and another person tortured and killed Slemmer, their classmate from a vocational school, in a crime with "satanic elements" that still haunts investigators 31 years later. Prosecutors accused Shipp of holding Slemmer down when she tried to escape her attackers...

Former state trooper John Nagel pointed the finger at his opponent, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and the Democratic Party for allowing Somali American gang-linked violence to escalate in the Twin Cities. Residents of Eden Prairie and surrounding Twin Cities suburbs have been left fearing for their safety after a string of gang-related incidents this month, including the shooting of two teens outside an Eden Prairie High School football game and more than 100 shell casings recovered in a Bloomington neighborhood. "Where is Ilhan Omar in all of this?" Nagel, a Minnesota native who spent 30 years as a state trooper,...

Democrat socialist Abdul El-Sayed has made a lot of braindead comments regarding football over the years, and throughout his campaign for state senator in Michigan. El-Sayed once connected American football to toxic masculinity and the transatlantic slave trade, but he's also pandered by embracing the NFL and Detroit Lions in his campaign messaging. In a 2021 essay in response to then Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden, El-Sayed wrote, "The toxic masculinity at the heart of America's most popular sport — and men's sports culture more generally — is way deeper than a few emails." In separate remarks, he...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As demonstrators, including the headline-grabbing CodePink agitators, descend on the nation’s capital late Saturday afternoon for a “coordinated global day of action” against Israel, they will join a worldwide wave of marches and planned disruptions that may appear to be unfolding independently. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, anti-Israel demonstrators carried signs deploying emotionally charged language against Israel, including one featuring a Palestinian flag and a bloodied hand with the message, “STOP GENOCIDE.” Nearby, two women carrying mock machine guns flanked a cardboard image of a handcuffed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a noose around his...

Nothing stirs the heart like a movie that captures the spirit of a nation. From tales of courage in war to stories of everyday people standing up for what’s right, patriotic films remind us of the values that shape America—freedom, resilience, and unity.These movies, spanning decades and genres, celebrate the grit and hope that define the American experience. Whether they’re set on battlefields or in small towns, they spark a sense of pride and inspire us to reflect on what it means to be American.15. ‘The Right Stuff’ (1983)Warner Bros. Pictures This epic dives into the early days of America’s...

After years of uncertainty, delays, and preparations, we finally have a timeline for when the historic SS United States will be sent to the bottom of the Gulf.Late on Friday night, October 9, 2026, officials in Okaloosa County, Florida, announced that the legendary ocean liner is scheduled to be deployed as the world’s largest artificial reef during the second week of November 2026.The ship will be sunk approximately 22 nautical miles, or 25 miles, southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida.While an exact date has not been announced, county officials say the operation will be weather-dependent, meaning the timeline could change.This...

A bar ethics complaint has been filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly making prejudicial statements about the “Cornell 7” in the days before being appointed special prosecutor to look into criminal charges for the Ivy’s Chi Phi frat members, The Post has learned. Two days before she was appointed special prosecutor to reopen an investigation into a 2024 alleged gang rape at Cornell University’s Chi Phi house, James posted on social media: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.” “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand...

A weapon discovered in 2023 on Mount Geumseong in southwestern South Korea has been identified by researchers from the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage as a Hwangja Hwatong, a handheld gunpowder weapon that fired arrows or pellets, ZME Science reports. The 600-year-old bronze weapon measures about nine inches long and weighs about two pounds. Engravings on the handle record the weapon’s name, weight, manufacturing supervisor, craftsman, and an incomplete date. When researchers compared the inscription with historic records of firearm production, they determined that this weapon was made in either 1377 or 1437. “It comes from a crucial...

When the Term “Liberalism” ChangedA great transformation of the meaning of liberalism in this country manifested itself with the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1932. Instead of emphasizing individual freedom and (concomitant) limited Constitutional government, the term now referred instead to a doctrine of ever-expanding government control over the economy, including higher taxes and more regulations. (This transformation of the term’s meaning was discussed by the legal historian Ronald Rotunda in a 1968 essay titled "The Liberal Label: Roosevelt's Capture of a Symbol.”) During the 1932 campaign, incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover – hardly an advocate of...

According to a statement released by the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), a study conducted by scientists from UCSB and Stanford University has determined that the forager-farmer Tsimané people of lowland Bolivia and the hunter-gatherer Hadza people of Tanzania have highly diverse yet similar gut microbiomes, sharing more than 1,200 bacterial species. More than 60 percent of these bacterial species are rare or absent in the microbiomes of people living in industrialized populations. The researchers were surprised because the Hadza consume mammals, birds, fish, and foraged fruits and vegetables, while the Tsimané eat more fiber in the form of...

The Iron Curtain is cracking. A civil war is brewing inside the DSA over its support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani — with his socialist comrades up in arms over his attendance at an Oct. 7 vigil and his support of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Youth chapters within the New York City Democratic Socialists of America endorsed a protest outside City Hall Wednesday — on the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel — condemning the mayor’s “failures to uphold his commitment to the Palestinian Liberation Movement.” Sources said that the heads of the local chapter moved swiftly to...

La Brújula Verde reports that a camp used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers has been found just underneath artifacts left by the first farmers of the Neolithic period in intact archaeological layers in Tina Jama, a mountain cave on the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Federico Bernardini of Ca’ Foscari University, Elena Leghissa of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and their colleagues suggest that farmers arrived in the region some 7,500 years ago. Prior to the arrival of farming in the region, hunter-gatherers built a hearth in the most sheltered part of the cave. They also closed off the...

According to a report in La Brújula Verde, a bronze signet ring engraved with an image of the Lighthouse of Alexandria has been recovered from the submerged island of Antirhodos, in what was Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor, by a team from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. The ring could have been used to press a raised image of the lighthouse into wax or soft clay in order to seal letters or amphoras, or to validate documents. Hisham El-Leithy of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the image of the lighthouse resembles depictions of...

A painting by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will be auctioned at Christie’s as part of its Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale in London on October 21. Amaryllis Lily (1948) carries an estimate of £300,000–£500,000 ($396,000–$661,000). The painting depicts a red amaryllis belladonna, otherwise known as a March lily, blooming in a plant pot situated on a table against a dark backdrop. Churchill gave the painting to his daughter, Lady Mary Soames, who then donated it in 1995 to the Churchill Fellowship. Proceeds from the sale will be used to support Churchill Fellowship’s “Making Space for the...

Full question that I asked: William Wilberforce only ever passed laws to abolish the slave trade. How can he in good faith be called an abolitionist of slavery? The slave trade is not slavery, that's just only the slave trade and we look down on that abolitionism and do not consider it true abolitionism.------------------------ Your distinction is historically important: abolishing the slave trade is not the same thing as abolishing slavery. The slave trade concerns the buying, selling, and transportation of enslaved people; slavery is the underlying institution in which people are held in bondage. A country can prohibit the...

Aerosmith announced two Los Angeles concerts with a slew of all-star guests, and fans won’t have to wait long to see them live. The legendary band announced Oct. 7 that “California Dream On: Aerosmith and Friends” will take the stage Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, alongside some very big names. Run-DMC, the Black Crowes, Heart, Billy Idol, Eric Church, and Slash will all be part of the upcoming concerts. Duff McKagan, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, and many others have also been announced to perform with the band at the Hollywood Bowl. The comeback concerts come three years after Aerosmith halted...

Republican attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy dropped a withering 52-count “public indictment” against Democratic incumbent Letitia James — accusing her of “dereliction” of duty ahead of their debate Thursday. The sweeping accusations were part of a cheeky campaign stunt that Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, wielded to argue her opponent has been too busy taking aim at President Trump to address the needs to New Yorkers during her two-terms. “The People do not allege that the defendant has been idle. They allege that she has been busy with the wrong things,” said Komatireddy, who also listed the “Exasperated People of...

WASHINGTON — Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly refused to answer whether he considers Iran or Israel to be the “greater threat to the United States.” When presented with that question during his debate Thursday against Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers, El-Sayed ripped it as a “ridiculous hypothetical.” “Here’s what’s happening right now: our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,” El-Sayed, a Democrat, replied. “We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply.” “This is a situation...