Free Republic

The resignation of Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, on Tuesday followed a lengthening catalog of plagiarism allegations that appeared to steadily sap her support among the university’s faculty, students and alumni. But for many of Dr. Gay’s critics, her departure was also a proxy victory in the escalating ideological battle over American higher education. Taking down Dr. Gay was a “a huge scalp” in the “fight for civilizational sanity,” Josh Hammer, a conservative talk show host and writer, wrote on the social media platform X.

‘Aliens,’ or a foreign power? Pentagon UFO chief says someone is in our backyard This week, the director of the U.S. government’s UFO analysis office stated that there is “evidence” of concerning unidentified flying object activity “in our backyard.” According to physicist Seán Kirkpatrick, who heads the congressionally-mandated All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, this alarming UFO activity can be attributed to one of two extraordinary sources: either a foreign power or “aliens.” To be sure, the ramifications of either would be significant. But Kirkpatrick’s comments, which come as he is about to retire after a 27-year defense and intelligence-focused career, are...

How a small plane’s 16-day trip from Vermont to Florida might foreshadow a new era of battery-powered air travel long considered implausible.

Ross Abramson, a software engineer and recent New York University graduate, had a fairly conventional news diet until recently. He regularly checked his phone for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And as a Jew with an interest in Israel, he would browse a handful of outlets like The Times of Israel. Then the brutal Hamas-led attack on Israel happened on Oct. 7, and Mr. Abramson found himself turning to an outlet he said he didn’t rely on much before: Fox News.

Attorneys who’ve been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can’t pay the millions more that he’ll owe in legal expenses going forward. Attorney Andrew Parker wrote in documents filed in federal court on Thursday that his firm and a second firm representing MyPillow in lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems can’t afford what it would cost to represent Lindell and MyPillow through the rest of the litigation. Continuing to defend him would put the...

Martin Scorsese urges filmmakers to fight comic book movie culture: ‘We’ve got to save cinema’ The storied filmmaker is revisiting the topic of comic book movies in a new profile for GQ. Despite facing intense blowback from filmmakers, actors and the public for the 2019 comments he made slamming the Marvel Cinematic Universe films — he called them theme parks rather than actual cinema — Scorsese isn’t shying away from the topic. “The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” he told GQ. “Because there are going to be generations now that think ... that’s what movies are.”...

Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD -0.29%decrease; red down pointing triangle said it has stopped cutting the tails off its famous Clydesdale horses after months of pressure from animal-rights activists who say the practice is cruel. The brewing giant’s concession to activists comes as it tries to navigate its way through the culture wars, after a consumer backlash over a promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney buffeted sales.

After botching a series of executions by lethal injection, the State of Alabama is planning to use nitrogen gas to put condemned prisoners to death. The first execution will amount to a human experiment, because neither Alabama nor any other state has ever tried to kill people this way. Late last month, prison guards distributed the state’s new execution protocol to prisoners in solitary confinement on Alabama’s death row. One hundred and sixty men and five women await execution in Alabama. They would be secured to a gurney, their nose and mouth would be covered by a mask, and nitrogen...

Party leaders have rallied behind the president’s re-election bid, but as one top Democratic strategist put it, “The voters don’t want this, and that’s in poll after poll after poll.”

Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period at the height of his fame. The allegations between 2006 and 2013 were the result of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. Brand denies the allegations. Five alleged victims, four of them anonymous, were interviewed in the Dispatches documentary aired on Saturday night.

Furious protestors screaming “close the border” heckled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Jerry Nadler, and other Democrats Friday during a Midtown press conference on the Big Apple’s escalating migrant crisis. The New York pols were drowned out by the angry screams as they tried to talk outside the Roosevelt Hotel mega shelter Friday morning.

A decade ago, high school football seemed doomed. Stories of retired NFL players haunted by head injuries filled the news. Participation dwindled as parents feared putting their kids in the sport. Then the pandemic further dimmed Friday night lights across the country and threatened to speed football’s decline. But the sport has staged a surprising comeback. Turnout of boys for high school football rose 5.6% last year, according to recently released data by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

A lithium deposit discovered in a volcanic crater along the Nevada-Oregon border may hold up to 40 million metric tons of the rare metal — possibly the largest ever in the world, which could have a massive impact on the electric vehicle industry, according to a new study. The deposit hidden within the McDermitt Caldera is estimated to hold between 20 million and 40 million metric tons, which would be nearly double the current record of about 23 million metric tons found over the summer beneath a Bolivian salt flat, researchers reported in Science Advances. It would also greatly boost...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sunday he pardoned a dad who angrily protested a Loudoun County school’s handling of his daughter’s sexual assault. Scott Smith, a plumber who erupted at a rowdy school board meeting on June 22, 2021 — reportedly unleashing a storm of profanities — was arrested and subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct. “I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin told “Fox News Sunday.” “We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a...

RICHMOND — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has repeatedly encouraged Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to run for president in 2024, according to two people familiar with entreaties made in at least two face-to-face meetings. The previously unreported meetings took place months ago, but Murdoch’s ask has taken on fresh relevance as Youngkin continues to lay the groundwork for a potential last-minute White House bid and as Murdoch outlets hyped his presidential prospects this month with a mix of sober Wall Street Journal analysis and buzzy Page Six blurbs.

Former president Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in a sprawling racketeering case have until Aug. 25 to surrender to authorities in Atlanta — and, unless plans change, be booked at “Rice Street,” the notorious Fulton County Jail. There have been ongoing problems with overcrowding in the jail, along with violence, overflowing toilets and faulty air conditioning. The sheriff called the environment a “humanitarian crisis” last month when the Justice Department opened an investigation after an inmate was found dead, covered in bed bugs and lice. And the building is falling apart, a point the sheriff tried to illustrate to...

Putin got confused about the age of the child of a deputy mayor during a discussion at the Kremlin, sparking social media comments about the state of the Russian president's health. Unproven rumors have persisted about Putin's condition since the start of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These have included that the Russian president has cancer, Parkinson's disease, and even dementia. The Kremlin has insisted Putin is in good health. However, adding to the speculation was footage from Wednesday's meeting of the group "Russia—the Land of Opportunities," a non-profit set up in 2018 to help citizens develop business ideas. The...

I offered to help prep Chris Christie for the debate with Donald Trump. Christie helped prep Trump in 2016, saying he played Hillary Clinton very aggressively so that Trump would think the real thing was “a cakewalk.” And now, sitting at a table in the Times cafeteria with the former New Jersey governor, I figured I could play Trump. We have both known the blackguard for decades. And let’s be honest. We want Christie on that wall. After years of watching Republicans cower before Trump, it’s bracing to see the disgraced former president finally meet his mean match. Even my...

Greg Gutfeld has installed his brand of insult conservatism as the institutional voice for the next generation of Fox News viewer. And it’s catching on.

The shot encodes for relaxin, a hormone which is known to improve blood flow. Patients have received the injection in a phase one trial looking at dosage levels. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Sky News: 'It's like science fiction medicine.'