Free Republic

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Hariri's resignation, the Saudi purge, and the Houthi missile fired at Riyadh are interconnected.Saturday night was a busy one for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom’s 32-year old heir to the throne excelled himself. He surpassed the high levels of chaos and human misery he had already achieved as the defence minister who launched the air campaign on Yemen. First up was the sudden resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri after just one year in office. Hariri made his announcement from Riyadh, which is a curious place...

Saudi authorities carried out a new wave of arrests targeting royals and former cabinet ministers, people familiar with the matter said, a move that appears intended to further consolidate power in the hands of the Saudi leadership at a time of political transition. At least 10 princes and more than two dozen former ministers were detained by Saudi authorities on Saturday night, according to people familiar with the matter. It was unclear if charges were filed. [snip]

Steve Bannon has made it no secret that he is trying to defeat Republican senators whom he sees as supporters of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. One of his projects is persuading Erik Prince to run in the Republican primary against incumbent Sen. John Barrasso in Wyoming. Prince, the founder of the now defunct military contracting firm Blackwater, is a controversial figure who will, if he runs, no doubt be demonized by the media as he has been — often unfairly, in my view — in the past. Among his assets are significant military and foreign policy experience, starting with his...

A new memoir by Mayte Garcia, ex-wife of the late singer Prince, reveals a beautiful but tragic story about their son who lived just a few days outside the womb. Yahoo News reports their baby boy, Amiir, was born on Oct. 16, 1996 with a genetic disorder called Pfeiffer syndrome type 2, and lived for six days. Despite Amiir’s genetic disorder and his short life, he was precious to his mother and father. In her new book, “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince,” Garcia said their main concern was for their son’s life. Here’s more from the report: When...

Prince wasn’t big on the stock market — but he did have nearly $1 million in gold bars. The Carver County District Court released an inventory of the late singer’s estate last Friday. While many items are still being appraised and valued, the documents obtained by PEOPLE make it clear that the “Purple Reign” icon had exactly zero dollars worth of “stocks, bonds and other securities.” Apparently he preferred to keep his cash the old fashioned way. Sixty-seven 10 oz. gold bars, valued currently at $836,166.70, were found in his possession when he died of a fentanyl overdose on April...

Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media looks at Donald Trump's tweets in reply to a Saudi prince who tried to pick a fight with him...

An American sailor named George Mendonsa spontaneously takes hold of a complete stranger, 21-year-old Austrian-Jewish refugee Greta Zimmer, bends her backward, plants a kiss on her mouth and continues on his way. Unbeknown to either, famed photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt has captured the encounter. The resulting image, published soon after in Life magazine, came to symbolize the exuberance of that moment, in a country overflowing with vigor and youth, at a time when anything seemed possible.....In 2012, a London-based blogger who uses the pseudonym Leopard wrote a provocative post on Crates and Ribbons titled “The Kissing Sailor, or ‘The Selective Blindness...

Newly released Department of State documents reveal that the Crown Prince of Bahrain was given an audience with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after he donated $32 million to her foundation. The documents, released Monday by Judicial Watch, included emails between Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band and former Clinton State Department aide Huma Abedin, which appear to show that Abedin acted as a middleman between Clinton and her foundation’s donors. Band and Abedin’s email exchanges show that Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman had to go through the Clinton Foundation in order to set up a meeting with Clinton after the former...

MINNEAPOLIS Some of the pills taken from Prince's estate in Paisley Park after his death were counterfeit drugs that actually contained fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, an official close to the investigation said Sunday. The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said nearly two dozen pills found in one Aleve bottle were falsely labeled as "Watson 385." According to Drugs.com, that stamp is used to identify pills containing a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, but the official said at least one of the pills...

law-enforcement official tells The Associated Press that tests show Prince died of an opioid overdose.

Wilmette police confirm O'Connor went on a bike ride Sunday at 6 a.m. and did not return. Earlier this month, Arsenio Hall filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against O'Connor for claiming that the comedian supplied drugs to Prince. The lawsuit calls O'Connor's accusations "despicable, fabricated lies" and adds that "O'Connor is now known perhaps as much for her bizarre, unhinged Internet rants as for her music." O'Connor, whose biggest hit was a 1990 reworking of the Prince song "Nothing Compares 2 U," posted on her Facebook page about a week after Prince's death that he was a "long time...

A specialist in painkiller addiction hurriedly made plans to see Prince hours before the music legend was found unconscious, a lawyer said Wednesday, offering possible new clues on the singer's sudden death. Prince's representatives had contacted California-based Howard Kornfeld, who treats people with addictions to opioids, on April 20 and the doctor planned to fly two days later to the pop star's compound in Minnesota, said Kornfeld's attorney William Mauzy. "Dr Kornfeld felt that his mission was a life-saving mission. He certainly felt it to be urgent," Mauzy told reporters in Minneapolis. But Prince died on April 21 just as...

Prince's family has a guardian angel ... who goes by the name George Lopez, because we've learned the comedian has fronted money to the family the singer left behind. Turns out ... George was tight with Prince, and he learned all of the assets in the estate have been frozen until a judge determines how much the administrator can give family members for living expenses. Prince was generous with his family, giving them money and even homes during his life. Some of the singer's siblings are now cash strapped because they've been temporarily cut off, and we've learned George has...

The Heir Hunters International team is now working around the clock on the genealogy of the alleged 'love-child' to establish a firm connection with Prince. Once the investigators are happy that the heir is genuine on paper they can demand a DNA test and submit a legal claim against Prince's estate. John Hilbert, partner in Heir Hunters International based in Los Angeles, also told Daily Mail Online of a SECOND potential heir who has come forward with another seemingly 'legitimate' claim. This individual claims to be offspring of Prince's father, John Nelson. Mr Nelson, better known as jazz musician Prince...

It appears that the pop star Prince may have died without a will, leaving behind a multi-million dollar and growing estate. Although Prince has one full sister and five half-siblings, Prince’s family members will not be his biggest heirs. Both the federal government and Minnesota’s state government will assess so-called “death taxes” or estate taxes on Prince’s assets, taking away more than half his estate. Between his physical assets— cash, investments, home, etc.—and his future royalties, Prince’s estate has been estimated to be between $300 and $500 million. If Prince were married, he could have passed on the entirety of...

Authorities in Minnesota obtained a search warrant in connection with the death of pop star Prince and also won a court order to keep the findings secret, documents showed Thursday. Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud of the Carver County, Minnesota, sheriff's office cited intense media scrutiny surrounding the death of the 57-year-old performer, in his request for a state district court judge to seal the warrant. Prince, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, died at his home, a compound known as Paisley Park, in suburban Minneapolis on April 21. Authorities investigating the death found prescription opioid medication on him, according...

SHOCKING News The Cause Of Death For Singer Prince Was Full Blown AIDS! video only on link

ICONIC musician Prince was diagnosed with AIDS just weeks before his death, according to reports in the US. An industry source interviewed by The National Enquirer messaged friends on April 19 to share that the singer was suffering from the disease. It is said the singer was 'preparing to die' for weeks and the source claimed 'he was in bad shape'. “Doctors told Prince his blood count was unusually low and that his body temperature had dropped dangerously below the normal 98.6 degrees to 94 degrees. “He was totally iron-deficient, very weak and often disoriented. "He rarely ate and when...

Sen. Karin Housley says that she plans to introduce a bill Monday hoping to make the color Minnesota's. Housley says she's a huge Prince fan and that seeing the world lit up in purple makes her proud. She says Prince was special and "he was ours."

The most entertaining part of CNN's State Of The Union is often the tail end when host Jake Tapper presents cartoons he has drawn to illustrate stories in the news. And today he did not disappoint with an interesting angle on the death of Prince, namely the Tipper Gore connection. He reminded us via illustrations that Tipper Gore's once notorious Parents Music Research Center came about in reaction to Tipper and her daughter listening to a Prince album.