Free Republic

A self-described Hamas operative who infiltrated the US Air Force and once boasted that he’s “been a terrorist since he’s been a kid” was busted alongside two Pittsburgh women after the feds foiled an apparent terror plot involving a pair of pipe bombs, the Justice Department announced this week. Mohamad Hamad, 23, who has dual citizenship in the US and Lebanon, was already charged for defacing a synagogue was hit Tuesday with a nine-count superseding indictment along with Talya Lubid, 24, and Micaiah Collins, 22. “Mohamad Hamad lied about his loyalty to the United States, among other false statements, in...

A Bronx librarian was forced to quit her job because she was traumatized by the unending parade of unhinged patrons — including one who flopped around on the floor naked, another who threatened to “cut off [her] f–king toes,” according to a lawsuit. Kelly Coffey said her New York Public Library horror story began after she started as a senior librarian in the young-adult sections of the Parkchester branch in November 2022. An agitated man came in, talking to himself and looking for his phone, according to Coffey and court papers. “He had his hands in his pockets” and suddenly...

The last of three friends accused of killing a driver in Colorado by throwing a rock through the windshield of her car was convicted of first-degree murder Friday. The teens were driving around suburban Denver in 2023, throwing rocks at passing cars, when one struck and killed 20-year-old Alexa Bartell in a crime prosecutors classified as murder. ... On April 19, 2023, after seeing Bartell’s car leave the road after being hit, the three friends circled back a few times to look again, according to testimony and investigators. One of them, Kwak, took a photo as a memento, but no...

LOS ANGELES — Jurors convicted a Southern California judge of second-degree murder on Tuesday for fatally shooting his wife while the couple argued and watched television at home. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was on trial for the 2023 death of his wife Sheryl, 65, in their Anaheim Hills home. Ferguson took the stand in his own defense, admitting to shooting his wife but saying it was an accident. Jurors reached their decision Tuesday afternoon, a day after deliberations began. After the verdict was read in court, Ferguson was given a moment to hug his son before...

Terrifying video shows a diver being attacked by a shark as horrified beachgoers watched on helplessly. The unidentified diver is assumed dead after the attack at a beach in Israel that has been drawing tourists to see the sharks — with one video showing one swimming right up to a child standing in the water. The attacked diver was heard screaming, “They’re biting me!” before being dragged further out to sea off the city of Hadera on Monday ... They’re eating him, eating the man!” .... “Wow, wow, he’s with the shark, he’s fighting him,” ... “I was in the...

Dem House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday rejected a Democratic National Committee big’s controversial plan to fund primary challenges against passive party members in safe districts. Jeffries of New York instead touted his intent to back all House Democratic incumbents across the country in the 2026 cycle and push the party to focus on knocking off Republicans. “I look forward to standing behind every single Democratic incumbent, from the most progressive to the most centrist and all points in between,” Jeffries told ABC News’ “This Week” when asked about the opposing stance by Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David...

A Southern California mayor is under fire for wanting to eliminate his city’s homeless population by giving them “all the fentanyl they want” — a shocking remark he reinforced by calling for a federal “purge.” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris shared his controversial views during a Feb. 25 city council meeting when a resident took issue with the city’s attempt to address the homeless crisis by “enclosing” the unhoused at an abandoned golf course near a residential neighborhood. “What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” Parris said as he interrupted the woman’s comments, according to footage of...

A Florida gun nut has been indicted in New Jersey for allegedly boarding an Amtrak train with a “small arsenal of weapons,” including a slew of ammunition, handguns, and a booby-trapped rifle, authorities said. Jeffrey O. Kennerk of Fort Lauderdale was caught on a Virginia-bound Amtrak train with a slew of assault weapons, large-capacity ammunition magazines, handguns, and silencers, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office announced. “This defendant allegedly hauled a small arsenal of deadly weapons and ammunition through busy transit stations, and on a train filled with passengers,” Platkin said in a Wednesday statement. Transit police in Newark-Penn...

The Brooklyn woman accused of leaving a brick scrawled with a swastika and the word “Nazi” on a parked Tesla is a super-woke family therapist who was involved in criminal justice diversion programs — and blamed Elon Musk for her heinous actions as she was taken into custody. Natasha Cohen was released on her own recognizance following her arraignment on hate-crime charges Saturday night, according to prosecutors. Cohen,46, has a private practice, working with children, adolescents and their families for more than two decades. *** Several of Cohen’s social media posts are critical of President Trump. Recently, she posted a...

A former opinion page editor of the New York Times broke down in tears and apologized to Sarah Palin while testifying in court over a 2017 editorial that she says was defamatory. James Bennet testified on Thursday that he “blew it” when he falsely claimed in the editorial that the former Alaska governor’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence in the weeks and months leading up to the 2011 assassination attempt on then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.). The Times has acknowledged the editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected the “honest mistake.” Bennet got choked up...

FSU shooter’s biological mom kidnapped him and fled to Norway amid bitter custody battle decade before deadly rampage The biological mother of accused Florida State University shooter, Phoenix Ikner, kidnapped him and fled to Norway amid a bitter custody battle a decade before the deadly shooting, court documents reveal. Eriksen and Phoenix Ikner — who at the time went by his birth name Christian Gunnar Eriksen — both have American and Norwegian citizenship. “Instead of staying in South Florida, the defendant allegedly fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” the affidavit stated. Christopher Ikner only discovered...

People seem to always have beef with vegans — and scientists say they’ve figured out why. A new study published in the journal Food Quality and Preference found that your typical carnivore’s hatred of vegans might simply be due to envy. Researchers from University of Vaasa in Finland wanted to understand why a plant-based diet and the use of meat substitutes are still so frowned upon in Europe. “The consumption of meat and meat substitutes is a highly charged social phenomenon,” Roosa-Maaria Malila, an author of the study, said in a statement. “According to our research, consumers who prefer plant-based...

Metro First pics of teen shot dead in NYC love triangle murder-suicide revealed By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon Published April 13, 2025, 5:27 p.m. ET 205 Comments The teen allegedly shot dead by his girlfriend’s jealous ex was 17 — as the first images of the youngster were revealed Sunday. Neo Secaira left work early on Saturday to pick up his 19-year-old girlfriend in Bayside on Saturday night, only to walk into a bloody murder-suicide that left him and US Marine Frank Liu, 28, dead while their mutual love interest looked on in horror, police and sources told The Post. Photos posted...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed a bombshell Wall Street Journal report on former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline a month after the California Democrat confided in friends that she was alarmed by how much he had aged, according to a new book. “He was not the same Joe Biden,” Pelosi reportedly told a friend of the then-president’s condition after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom award during a May 2024 White House ceremony. The claim is from author Chris Whipple’s new book, “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History.” Whipple wrote...

Kamala Harris is trying to figure out her next chapter — and it might start with a think tank. The former vice president, who lost to President Trump last fall, is weighing whether to launch an “institute for policy and ideas,” with longtime adviser Brian Nelson quietly reaching out to universities — including Stanford and Howard — about hosting the venture, according to multiple reports. Harris, 60, “jokes to friends that she is unemployed for the first time,” the New York Times reported. But time is ticking. Aside from public service pensions, former vice presidents don’t receive the same post-office...

UFC Hall of Famer and former champion B.J. Penn is claiming that his family has been murdered and replaced with imposters. Penn revealed what he believes to be evidence in a series of disturbing Instagram posts, making the claim that multiple family members of his have been replaced by imposters who killed his actual family. In the videos, Penn reveals numerous images of his family members and points out features such as their eyes, ears, freckles and mouths as evidence to his claims — alleging that they do not look like their real selves. Penn alleges that the people who...

John Mellencamp is preparing for a heartbreaking outcome. Teddi Mellencamp revealed that her famous father has already started planning her burial amid her stage 4 cancer battle. The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum, 43, said on Tuesday’s episode of her “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast that the 73-year-old rock star called her “11 times in a row” to discuss a morbid matter. “Finally, I answer, I’m like, ‘I’m in the bath. Let me live a little.’ He goes, ‘I just want to make sure you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum,’ ” Teddi explained. “He’s like,...

Is this the real-life Atlantis. A 90-foot “pyramid” submerged just off the coast of Japan is turning heads — and could shake up everything we thought we knew about ancient civilizations. Sitting 82 feet below sea level near the Ryukyu Islands, the Yonaguni Monument has baffled scientists and divers since it was first discovered in 1986. The enormous stone structure, complete with angular steps and flat terraces, looks uncannily like the ruins of a man-made temple — despite being over 10,000 years old. That timeline, if proven accurate, would date it thousands of years earlier than Egypt’s pyramids or England’s...

Billionaire Republican megadonor and Home Depot founder Ken Langone has ripped the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs as “bulls–t” — claiming the president has been ill-advised amid the raging trade war. “I don’t understand the Goddamn formula,” Langone, a veteran GOP campaign donor, told the Financial Times on Monday. “I believe he’s been poorly advised by his advisers about this trade situation — and the formula they’re applying.”

Mr. President, take “yes” for an answer. On Monday, as the fallout from Liberation Day continued to rile markets, the European Union surrendered. “We have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. That would lower the price of pharmaceuticals, cars and other products that American companies export to the EU. It’s exactly the sort of agreement that would make President Trump’s tariff wars a success — forcing nations to make better deals for our workers. And if the agreement isn’t perfect, it’s at least a starting point. But is the administration even answering...