Free Republic

When a judge offers an apology to a man accused of attempting to assassinate the president, you know something needs to change. Last week, a federal magistrate judge in Washington, D.C. offered an apology to the man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump in the middle of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California man who allegedly stormed a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun and knives on April 25, 2026, had been placed on suicide watch in the D.C. jail. His lawyers complained that it was “demeaning” and amounted to “functionally solitary...

CASPER — Father Chad Ripperger fits a familiar Western mold — up to a point. He fly-fishes. He shoots powerful handguns. He enjoys aged Scotch and expensive cigars. But the familiarity ends there. Ripperger is one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most experienced and well-known exorcists. A native of Casper, Wyoming, he is a founding priest of the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, the first Catholic society chartered exclusively for the work of exorcism under the authority of the Archdiocese of Denver. Within what the Church calls “spiritual warfare,” Ripperger’s outfit is something like a SEAL Team 6 —...

Polls opened Thursday for millions of Britons in a series of races set to heap more pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populist parties, both of which face accusations of antisemitism and bigotry at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat. Voters across Scotland, England and Wales head to the ballot box in Starmer’s biggest electoral test since his July 2024 general election landslide victory ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Opinion polls predict grim results for Labour, which could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign...

The two-tiered system of justice is really starting to grate on the American people. f my dog bites a neighbor, I face legal and financial liability. If I lie on a job application and my employer finds out, I am escorted to the parking lot before lunch. In America, accountability flows downhill, fast and without mercy — unless, of course, you happen to work in Washington. The frustration among ordinary American taxpayers has reached a pitch that no amount of press conferences or oversight hearings can muffle. We follow the rules. We pay our taxes. We accept the consequences of...

Golden Tempo, the first Kentucky Derby winner to be trained by a woman, will not race at next weekend's Preakness. Trainer Cherie DeVaux announced the news Wednesday, explaining that her barn has Golden Tempo focused on the Belmont Stakes, which will be run in her native Saratoga Springs, New York for the third and final time this year. 'We are incredibly appreciative of the excitement and support surrounding the possibility of a Triple Crown run,' DeVaux said in a statement. 'Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him...

A lithium-ion battery caught fire at a Daniel couple’s home as they were waking up on Tuesday. “The flames, my God, I couldn’t believe it,” Jack Morey said. “It just blew up and shot flames I’d say about a foot up.” Daniel resident Jack Morey Jr. was still waking up when he thought he smelled something like spilled paint in his living room. “That’s what we thought it was at first,” Morey said. It seemed like a typical morning for Morey and his girlfriend, Diana Gunderson, who were drinking coffee and feeding their animals. They noticed a strange, paint-like chemical...

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As we mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe this Friday, 8 May, it’s clear that Germany will again be the leading European military power. Already next year its defense spending will be as much as that of France and Britain combined — and it is projected to be significantly larger by 2030. The German government’s declared goal is to have the strongest conventional army in Europe. True, France and Britain have nuclear weapons, but that means less money to spend on the rest of defense. So, the question is not “will this...

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Shell has revealed a surge in quarterly profits on the back of the Middle East conflict but also given an update on costly war damage to its output. The oil and gas firm reported net profits of $6.9bn (£5.1bn) for the first three months of the year. The sum is more than double the result achieved between October and December 2025 and 24% higher on the same period last year. Like rival BP last week, Shell said the main boost to its bottom line came from oil trading, while profits in its chemicals and products business quadrupled. The headline profits...

Families hoping to make memories on a cruise were unknowingly surrounded by alleged child predators working aboard the ships, according to law enforcement officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection boarded five cruise ships, including a Disney cruise docked in San Diego, between April 23 and 25 as part of ongoing Child Sexual Exploitation Material enforcement operations, a CBP spokesperson told The California Post. “After boarding the vessels and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed all subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or...

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into a radical Northern Virginia prosecutor who allegedly discriminated against US citizens by offering preferential treatment “only to illegal alien” criminal defendants. The DOJ notified Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano on Wednesday that it is looking into potential civil rights violations related to his office’s plea bargaining, charging decisions and sentencing policies. “Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will not allow local prosecutors to pick and choose winners based on their immigration status,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. “This investigation will uncover whether this prosecutor is putting...

Enraged PETA activists encased their feet in cement at PepsiCo’s New York headquarters over the alleged abuse of bulls in its sugar supply chain, according to authorities and reports. The animal rights activists clad in bull horns blocked the entrance to the PepsiCo headquarters in Purchase on Wednesday during the multinational food and beverage corporation’s virtual annual shareholder meeting, PETA announced in a statement. Video from the scene captured the chanting protesters spilling fake blood on the roadway, with their shoes stuck in cement blocks as cars honked and cops demanded they scurry. “Pepsi profits, bulls pay the price!” the...

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2). God can use your natural abilities as a basis for your spiritual service. Peter is a good illustration of how God builds a spiritual leader. He begins with a person's natural traits and works from there. Natural traits alone don't make a spiritual leader—the person must also be gifted and called by the Holy Spirit to lead in the church and be a model of spiritual virtue. But often God endows future leaders with natural abilities that constitute the raw materials from which He builds spiritual ministries. That was...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. "(1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God...

Ireland has the highest household electricity prices in the European Union, latest figures from Eurostat show. According to the figures from the EU’s statistical agency — which cover the second half of last year — electricity in Ireland cost 40.42 cent per kilowatt-hour (including VAT and levies), which was nearly 40% above the EU average of 28.96 cent. As a result, the average household in Ireland is paying around €480 a year more for its electricity compared to the EU average. The figures show Irish electricity prices jumped by 32.7% between July and December 2025, when compared with the same...

The idea behind this is as follows: Jews were massacred and their property stolen by Arabs, therefore Arab Palestinians have a right to it in perpetuity. They believe this is true of Jewish property in Jerusalem and Hebron as well, for example. This is a cornerstone of anti-Zionism, that Jews have no right to life or property. Yet there’s another point to be made here besides the fact that the mayor of New York and a legion of progressive-aligned anti-Semites revealed their unique combination of ignorance and bad faith. There are a couple of problems with the whole concept of...

More information has become available about what led to Loay Alnaji's surprise guilty plea on Tuesday morning and a potential sentence, but that information leads to additional questions we're still running down answers for. Alnaji, readers will recall, is the pro-Hamas agitator and community college professor who killed a Jewish man, Paul Kessler, when the two were attending dueling protests on November 5, 2023. Alnaji crossed two eight-lane streets to confront Kessler, who was waving an Israeli flag on the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Westlake Boulevard in Ventura County, CA. During that confrontation, Alnaji bashed Kessler's head with...

Vandals scrawled swastikas and Hitler graffiti on multiple homes and Jewish religious sites across Queens in an antisemitic spree on Monday – including a synagogue started by refugees fleeing the Holocaust. At least four people spray painted swastikas in red and black on the sides of at least five locations across the world’s borough, according to City Council Speaker’s Office and law enforcement sources. The rabbi for Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills, which was hit by the hateful graffiti, called it “very upsetting” and noted the synagogue was actually formed by German-Jewish refugees who reached the Big Apple to...

Karina is six months pregnant, but the foetus inside her womb is not her own. The 22-year-old from eastern Ukraine is a surrogate, pregnant with an embryo from a Chinese couple's egg and sperm. At the age of 17 Karina's home was destroyed when her city, Bakhmut, became one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds in the early phase of Russia's full-scale invasion. With most of the city turned to rubble and ash, she and her partner moved to Kyiv but they struggled to find steady work. It was when Karina was in a shop one day, with barely enough...