Free Republic

When Americans think of the beverage that fueled the American Revolution, they usually picture black tea — but it turns out that green tea was just as popular. The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, told Fox News Digital. British subjects “were as likely to be drinking green tea as black tea, whether you were in Jane Austen [era] England … or you were in colonial Boston,” he added. “There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea,”...

It’s the kind of discovery that sounds more Indiana Jones than archaeology lab. Researchers digging in Israel say they may have uncovered ruins linked to the Ark of the Covenant — the gold-covered biblical chest said to have held the Ten Commandments. The Ark is described in scripture as a sacred chest built by the Israelites after their Exodus from Egypt. It was kept in the Tabernacle, a portable sanctuary some scholars date to around 1445 BC. According to the Bible, Moses himself placed the stone tablets inside. And then — like a divine disappearing act — it vanishes from...

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s longtime shrink practiced as a clinical social worker without a license for years — and is facing felony charges over tens of thousands of dollars in bogus insurance reimbursements. Alison Winter, 52, who was Heuermann’s jailhouse therapist for nearly three years, had already been charged with three counts of grand larceny when she was present for his confession to his wife and daughter that he had murdered eight women, Newsday reported. She was arrested in November, 2024 on the grand larceny charges as well as scheme to defraud and 14 counts of unauthorized practice...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried Apple’s recent $200 price hikes on computers and tablets, which the tech giant blamed on a memory chip crunch — and called for breaking up Big Tech. “We need to break up a lot of these companies that are far, far too big, and we need to be instituting consumer protections for people,” the New York Democrat told Fox News. Most analysts believe the so-called “RAM-ageddon” crisis is a result of the rapid build-out of data centers to power artificial intelligence, which has turbocharged demand for memory chips. Citing memory chip shortages, Apple jacked...

Luigi Mangione’s wild ride through the justice system stalled out Monday — when he got stuck in a Manhattan court elevator for 20 minutes, delaying a hearing in his federal case. The 28-year-old accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was in the lift with his escort of US Marshals, headed to the courtroom, when the contraption suddenly stopped, courthouse sources told The Post. “It was some sort of elevator issue, that’s all I know,” Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said when asked about the snafu outside the courtroom. “Can’t wait to hear what you guys find out about that!”...

A blue-collar Democrat running to keep her seat in rural Washington has a secret drug-fueled past filled with kinky fetish parties, nudism and an alleged fondness for nitrous oxide “whippets.” Before Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez took control of Washington’s Trump-friendly 3rd Congressional District outside Portland, she was a budding college politician who presided over a “Latex Fetish Ball,” drugged-up nude frolics and even an LSD giveaway, according to social media posts unearthed by The California Post. Ex-roomies further have alleged that the Dem rising star was once an avid “dumpster diver” who offered spoiled avocados in exchange for rent while...

An Australian man has been arrested over the murder of a teenage girl whose naked body was found inside a suitcase alongside a railway line in Thailand. The 46-year-old man, from Ballarat, Victoria, was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Thai girl Tunchanok Donhomla as he allegedly tried to board a plane at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on Friday evening, local media reports. His arms and neck were allegedly covered in scratch marks at the time of his arrest. According to local media, the man allegedly picked up the teenager from the Beach Road vice strip in Pattaya...

Iran doubled down on its control of the Strait of Hormuz Sunday — declaring on state-run TV that all ships must get permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before sailing through the critical choke point. The announcement followed Iranian attacks on two ships that were transiting the strait in recent days — prompting strikes by the US, and tit-for-tat retaliation by the Islamic republic.The violence threatened to unravel the delicate peace deal less than a week after the two sides met in Switzerland for talks on a permanent agreement. President Trump accused Iran of violating the cease-fire and warned...

A radical, Israel-hating California teacher claimed she married a Gaza resident online to help him gain American citizenship — and push her pro-Palestinian agenda. Laura Pinho, a dance teacher at Canoga Park Senior High School in California, announced her nuptials in a wild June 16 CODEPINK Zoom webinar called “Challenging Zionism In Our Schools.” When CODEPINK activist Marcy Winograd congratulated her on her marriage and asked her to share details about her life, Pinho, 51, launched into a pedantic monologue about how she only married Salem S.E. Abu Amra to advance “Palestinian rights and freedoms.” “I have power as an...

The author of a new book about William Shakespeare is claiming that the works of the famed playwright were actually written by a black, Jewish woman. The book, The Real Shakespeare: Emilia Bassano Willoughby by Irene Coslet, argues that Shakespeare was actually Emilia Bassano, a dark-skinned Jewish woman who was an English poet during the Elizabethan period. The Amazon description for the book, which says it is set to be released on March 30, questions if Shakespeare was indeed “a white man from Stratford.” “Debate still rages over the identity of the most beloved poet of all time and ‘father’...

SNIP The leading candidate to win Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress was chased away from the city’s Pride March on Friday by an angry mob — a day after footage surfaced of pro-Palestinian agitator berating him inside a restaurant. A person filming Wiener walking through a park is initially heard complimenting the candidate, who is gay, on his actions on “trans issues” before launching into a blistering attack. “You’ve been terrible, you’ve been terrible on Gaza,” the person is heard yelling. “You do not belong here anymore, Scott. And it breaks my f—ing heart. It breaks my heart. It breaks...

WASHINGTON — Democratic congressional leaders downplayed wins for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s handpicked challengers in primary races Tuesday, as moderates clamored for results to be a wake-up call for the party establishment. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed the elections showed “a great united party,” and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) touted his “great working relationship” with Mamdani, while stressing there was still some “work to do” in easing tensions with congressional Democrats. “We’re seeing tremendous energy from all different areas of our party. You’re seeing centrist energy in Virginia, Iowa, and NJ. Progressive energy in...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to never accept the US Supreme Court’s ruling allowing President Trump’s administration to strip deportation protection for Haitian and Syrian migrants. “To have people who frankly taught the world about freedom have their own freedom put into jeopardy by the actions of a Supreme Court and federal administration — it is not only cruel, it’s not something we will ever accept,” Hizzoner said in a video statement after Thursday’s bombshell 6-3 ruling. The high court ruled that the “temporary protected status” statutes don’t allow for judicial review and that lower courts can’t intervene in the Trump...

The Iranian and Egyptian soccer federations have urged FIFA to strip any “Pride Match” displays and rainbow symbols from Friday’s World Cup match in Seattle. The contest, slated for June 26 at Lumen Field, is scheduled during the city’s Pride weekend and has been referred to as the “Pride Match.” While FIFA confirmed to the New York Times that rainbow flags remain permitted at all World Cup matches this summer, its president, Gianni Infantino, has previously distanced the governing body from the event’s promotional themes. He insisted there would be no official “Pride Match” at the tournament in an interview...

Israel and Lebanon signed a framework peace agreement on Friday — icing out Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah — following four days of negotiations in Washington. “In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said at a signing ceremony. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agreement as a “first step” to returning Lebanon to its prior prosperity before Hezbollah moved in and promoted terrorism. “The people of Lebanon have suffered tremendously now for decades as a...

Pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter is everywhere — even the chorus of scandals around Mayor Eric Adams. The brouhaha began with the pint-size singer’s racy music video, showing her writhing in a little black dress at the altar of a Brooklyn church, moments after men bloodily killed themselves over her. An unholy uproar ensued, leading an “appalled” bishop to discipline the flamboyant Catholic priest who opened the church’s doors to the booty-baring Carpenter. And now, the sacrilegious saga has ended in an unlikely place — with the sultry Sabrina putting the hitherto unknown priest and church on the radar of feds...

The man accused of bribing a top Eric Adams adviser in a $120,000 scheme has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Yan Po Zhu, 51, also known as Andy Zhu, and Frank Carone, a lawyer and Adams’ former chief of staff, were arrested this week along with three others on fraud and money laundering charges. Zhu — who allegedly made payments to Carone in exchange for a contract to house migrants at his Queens hotel in 2022, per court documents — donated $100,000 to American Changle Association in 2018 and has long associated with suspected CCP agent Linda Sun....

Ex-Mayor Eric Adams’ former top adviser and political power broker was arrested Wednesday, and authorities raided the homes of several ex-NYPD officials as part of multiple corruption probes. Frank Carone, 56, had his home searched by the feds in the early morning operation and was arrested in an alleged bribery scheme that also involved his brother Anthony Carone, 54, according to police sources. Separately, the FBI seized former chief of department Jeff Maddrey’s phone seized today, sources said. And the NYPD and the FBI conducted search warrants to seize phones from Assistant Chief James McCarthy, and the NYPD’s former top...

Americans age 50 and older are getting divorced—with almost half of all broken marriages in recent years coming from aging Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. Gray divorces doubled between 1990 and 2010, until they comprised about one in four of all divorces nationally... And though divorce has been dropping in most age groups across America, it has not among people 50 years and older. Michael Stutman, a top New York City divorce lawyer, thinks a “popular culture” shift around modern marriage expectations, coupled with staring down the barrel of mortality, could be playing a part. “The thing about people who...

Buster Posey tried to move on from the Giants’ Pride Night controversy. Instead, his response seemed to frustrate just about everyone. The Giants president of baseball operations met with reporters Tuesday at Oracle Park and opened with a brief statement acknowledging that fans had “strong feelings” about the issue. But when follow-up questions came, Posey repeatedly shut them down. “I’ll answer baseball questions,” Posey said. That did not go over well. The controversy began on June 12, when Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verse references on their Pride Night caps. A fourth pitcher, Sam...