Free Republic

The Japanese defense minister on Saturday prayed at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Japan’s Asian neighbors as a symbol of the country’s past militarism. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, despite repeated past pledges to visit on the day marking Japan’s surrender, has so far stayed away from the shrine to avoid exacerbating diplomatic tensions. Visits by Japanese politicians to the shrine, which also commemorates World War II war criminals, have been criticized by China and South Korea. They see it as showing a lack of remorse over Japan’s wartime atrocities. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has regularly visited the controversial shrine to...

Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run in one of a dwindling number of majority-Black districts after Republicans redrew her former seat has deeply divided colleagues. Florida’s primary next week will test whether Debbie Wasserman Schultz can survive her latest fall from grace within the Democratic Party she’s served for decades. Her run in the state’s 20th District has roiled the caucus: Wasserman Schultz, 59, is facing a crowded slate of challengers —several of them younger, several of them Washington outsiders — in an election cycle that has increasingly seen its voters oust longtime incumbents in favor of generational insurgents. ~~~~~ But...

A progressive New York City lawmaker says shoplifters should be left in peace to steal items like toothpaste and soap. Emily Gallagher - a Democrat Socialist member of the New York State assembly - shared a clip on her X account that also villainized drugstores, which have been forced to lock products in plexiglass cases because of rampant theft. Gallagher wrote that 'no one should be arrested - much less jailed' for stealing toothpaste' and said in a speech that such thefts were just 'crimes of poverty.' Speaking at an event, she continued: 'People who were stealing things like toothpaste,...

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, the official Joe Biden publicly threatened and forced out of office in 2016, claims in his book Biden’s Corruption and War: The True Story of the 1 Billion Dollar Prosecutor that hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars connected to Ukraine were recycled through political interests and “globalist networks.” According to a Blaze Media column citing Shokin’s first-person account, massive sums of U.S. aid intended for Ukraine were recycled through political and globalist networks. He alleges $350 billion in American taxpayer money was diverted into these opaque channels amid the chaos of war. Arms...

A senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence official is the new owner of a historic building overlooking the White House Complex, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.Located approximately 650 feet northeast of the White House grounds, the 100-year-old Securities Building on 15th Street was purchased on July 21, 2026 for $8.4 million by the Philip Qiu and Family Foundation, filings show. The building’s new owner, Philip Qiu, has held numerous positions within Chinese intelligence and state security arms, according to university records and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.Qiu did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

PETA, the organization widely known for its over-the-top progressive activism for animals, is refusing to condemn Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after serious animal abuse allegations came to light from his tenure as Detroit’s health director. A report from the Daily Mail found that El-Sayed was the subject of whistleblower complaints after he ascended to the post of health director in Detroit. Under his watch nearly 4,700 cats and dogs were euthanized, and an untold number died from malnutrition and lack of medical care, all while being subject to unsanitary conditions. The problem grew so bad that one former employee...

A Massachusetts teenager who allegedly used ChatGPT for searches about 'killing his family' before murdering his mother and brother flashed a wide-eyed stare in court, as prosecutors claimed he spent $2,000 on cereal bars following the murders. Arjun Aravind, 17, was arraigned in Concord District Court on Thursday after being accused of killing his mother Sudha Venkatesan, 45, and his younger brother, Siddharth Aravind, 14, inside their $1 million home in Acton two days prior. Aravind, who had his hands and ankles cuffed, glanced around the courtroom at times, with his dark, wavy hair partly obscuring his face. A police...

Weeks before Americans begin voting in the midterm elections, the Trump administration wants to change the rules for voting by mail before the courts have even decided whether the president has the authority to do so. Two federal courts have already concluded that key parts of President Trump’s mail-ballot executive order cannot take effect while the litigation proceeds. Now, the administration is asking the Supreme Court to set those rulings aside and allow the order to take effect anyway. If it succeeds, the rules governing how millions of Americans vote by mail could change just weeks before Election Day. And...

Five current and former Refugio, Texas, city officials were arrested on Wednesday for fraud after they allegedly mishandled hundreds of thousands of dollars that spanned 19 transactions. Refugio Mayor Wanda Dukes was charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, a first-degree felony, for misusing funds from the Refugio Economic Development Corporation between October 2023 and October 2025. City Secretary Callie Shreckengost was also charged with misapplication of fiduciary property. Current City Council Ixtlazihuatl Vasquez, former City Council Frank Hosey, and former City Council Michael Rocha were all hit with third-degree felony charges of abuse of official capacity. According to the indictment,...

FIRST ON FOX: Harvard allegedly failed to adequately safeguard research collaborations with Chinese institutions, including universities tied to Beijing’s military and defense-industrial base, according to a report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. 600K more PRC STEM students will definitely fix this ! Trump suspend PRC visas for at least one year NOW!

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) added his voice to local politicians and Democrat State Representative James Talarico (D-Austin), nominee in the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas, in opposing border security enhancements

Starting last fall, the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia. That was an enormous price tag, but the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights. But since then, the department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else. The department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has long outsourced its deportation flights by chartering planes from private companies. It also uses military and Coast Guard aircraft. In a written statement,...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday boasted the U.S. has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, despite what the “FAKE NEWS” may report to the contrary, before praising Allah for the nation’s stranglehold on the critical shipping passage. “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it.” The president repeated claims that Iran’s military had been decimated: "They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing,...

The Prince Georges County Police Department (PGPD) has arrested six suspects who are accused of leading an alleged retail theft ring. A lengthy investigation revealed a multi-state organization that included Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. Six suspects involved in the ring are currently in custody. They are 30-year-old Daryl Michael Jackson of Washington, D.C., 25-year-old Cyan Rocke of Capitol Heights, 37-year-old Marco Morgan of Washington, D.C., 31-year-old Tia Courtney of Capitol Heights, 26-year-old Chyna Parker of Suitland and 22-year-old Quasaan Parker of Suitland. On Monday morning, PGPD, together with Maryland State Police, the Metropolitan Police Department,...

Milwaukee is at it again. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, as Wisconsin primary results were still coming in, Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez admitted that five of the nine USB flash drives delivered from the city’s central count facility to the county contained audit logs instead of the actual election results. “It’s a human error,” Gutierrez said. When asked by WISN 12 if it was as simple as somebody pressing the wrong button, she replied, “Correct.” Officials were forced to return to the operations center at central count to re-download the correct results from five machines....

Falling fertility on the left as key driver of US birth decline

A lot of attention has been focused on the Commie Hong running in the Democrat primary for governor of Wisconsin. However, I contend that the Minnesota Democrat primary for U.S. Senator is equally, if not, MORE significant. The main contenders are a standard issue Democrat vs Flan Southside aka Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. You might remember her from earlier this year when it was alleged that she was a ringleader of the Antifa Signal Chat that directed the Minneapolis Commie crowd harassment of ICE in an attempt to keep them from performing their duty. During these harassments, 2 people died...

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice threw in the towel in its attempt to prosecute David Hearn for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but the White House is now asking them to try again, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. White House officials are now asking the DOJ to “consider a new prosecution” of Hearn, citing sources “familiar with the discussions,” the Journal reported. Any attempt to bring new charges “would be highly unusual,” the article noted, because the U.S. Attorney Office for the District of Columbia, headed by Jeanine Pirro, already admitted it...

Earlier I posted about Kroger short-weighing a package of chicken I bought. Jimmy Wrigg has a number of videos about Walmart short weighing beef and chicken. Well, he's back and the prepackage bacon 1lb packages are a much as 2.5oz short of the required 16oz target. Evidently, the FDA allows a 1oz variation, but that should be randomly distributed if it's truly and error, with some packages with more that 16oz and some within 1oz less. Jimmy has yet to find one that's over by an ounce. Solution: weigh the package before you buy it.

Tyler Boebert, the 21-year-old son of Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, is back in legal hot water—this time facing serious felony charges related to the alleged sexual exploitation of a child. According to court records from Garfield County, Colorado, Tyler Boebert was arrested in connection with five felony counts stemming from an alleged incident dated around January 1, 2024. The charges include sexual exploitation of a child, sexual exploitation of a child with intent to deal in, sell, or distribute sexually exploitative material, a related charge involving videotaped material, and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according...