Free Republic

Wait, is being rude a felony now? Apparently it is, at least in (of all places) Florida. The New York Post reported Saturday that “three men stormed a University of South Florida parking garage and harassed Muslim students during dawn prayer on Tuesday — an incident captured in videos that showed the group shouting slurs, waving bacon and crowding worshipers as they bowed.” For that “all three face a felony count of disturbing schools and religious assemblies under Florida’s hate-crime enhancement statute, along with misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and disrupting a school or lawful assembly.” Wait a minute. They...

The number of new international college students in the United States has plunged by double digits, a new report by the Institute of International Education reveals — even as domestic student numbers continue to rise. Enrollment has fallen by 17 percent this fall after a shift that could cost the US an estimated $1.1 billion and eliminate 23,000 jobs nationwide, according to the analysis. The sharp decline in foreign students follows a series of Trump administration moves to tighten immigration rules, including reduced access to student visas. Schools were urged to limit the number of foreign students they admit, while...

Americans have grown sour on one of the longtime key ingredients of the American dream. Almost two-thirds of registered voters say that a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost, according to a new NBC News poll, a dramatic decline over the last decade. Just 33% agree a four-year college degree is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime,” while 63% agree more with the concept that it’s “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of...

In an interview with The Atlantic, Andriy Yermak, President Zelensky's chief of staff, who helped negotiate the updated proposal, reiterated that position: 'Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory. 'As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory. The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.' Donald Trump is said to be preparing to recognise Russian control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories in a bid to...

President Donald Trump is reportedly delaying his healthcare plan after House Republicans pushed back on his idea to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Trump that the subsidy extension is a no-go for many Republicans in Congress. The Wall Street Journal reported that the speaker “cautioned the White House that most Republicans don’t have an appetite for extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies , according to people familiar with the matter, showing how hard it will be politically to stave off sharp increases in healthcare costs next year for many Americans.”This comes after the...

For millions of Americans relying on Social Security, small changes to the formula that calculates annual benefit increases can have an outsized impact. Social Security checks are a cornerstone of retirement income for over 50 million Americans, and Congress is now considering legislation that could reshape how those benefits adjust for inflation. It comes as Americans of all ages continue to navigate rising costs. In October, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that benefits would grow by 2.8 percent in 2026 through the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Yet for many retirees, even modest increases barely keep pace with the real...

Standing at the podium in the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was, instead of answering questions about the Trump administration, answering questions about her own family. The mother of Leavitt’s nephew was detained by ICE this week. Bruna Caroline Ferreira, “a criminal illegal alien from Brazil,” allegedly overstayed a tourist visa that expired in 1999 according to the Department of Homeland Security. No doubt an embarrassing moment for the usually forthright Leavitt, it also crystallized how the shockwaves of Trump’s immigration are being felt across America. Now, I’m an upstanding citizen, thank you very much. I can’t say I...

During last week’s excruciating Oval Office make-nice between an insultingly buddy-buddy American President and a fraudulently obsequious New York City mayor-elect, the contest was over which pol was the more patronizing. At one point Trump graciously granted his petitioner permission to call him a “fascist” while clearly implying the guy’s OTT campaign rhetoric had been embarrassing. Donald Trump sat regally on his throne, patting Zohran Mamdani’s arm while commending “Attaboy!” as if petting a golden retriever that had fetched a ball. For his part, Mamdani stood mutely by the Resolute desk with cartoonish humility, hands over crotch. This cowed performance...

Whatever happened to Britain, or the UK, or England, or whatever they’re calling it? We can’t even agree on what it’s called. But what happened to England, the England that, if you’re over 50, you grew up learning about, the England that controlled the world, the England that ran the largest empire in human history at the end of World War One? Britain, which is an island in a pretty inhospitable climate, controlled literally a quarter of the Earth’s surface – and not controlled in the way the United States controls the rest of the world with an implied threat...

Those who worry about how to cope with China’s leadership in technology—and there are plenty of them—think hard about electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and open-source artificial intelligence. For such people, we have some bad news. This week we report how China is rapidly pressing ahead in two other frontier technologies, autonomous vehicles and new drugs. As these industries spread around the world, they will exemplify the power of Chinese innovation. China’s progress in each of these important areas has been staggering. A robotaxi revolution is gathering pace, which could reshape transport, logistics and everyday urban life. The country’s autonomous...

A Korean spa in New Jersey has been ordered to implement “gender identity-friendly” policies and educate staff on “non-discrimination” after being sued for refusing to allow a male into the women’s nude section. The man, Alexandra “Allie” Goebert, first launched the discrimination suit against King Spa in 2022. King Spa is a wellness facility modeling itself after a jimjilbang, a traditional Korean health center which requires nudity in some areas. For that reason, the nude areas of the spa had been strictly sex-segregated. As previously reported by Reduxx, the incident involving Goebert first occurred in August of 2022 when he...

A left-wing group is putting up billboards in high-crime cities where President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, telling military service members that is not what they “signed up for” and encouraging them to refuse “unlawful orders.” Win Without War, a self-described “diverse network of activists and national organizations working for progressive foreign policy,” launched its billboard campaign in September in Washington, DC, before expanding to Chicago, Memphis, and the military bases Ft. Bragg and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. One of the billboards asks, “Did you go airborne just to pull security for ICE?” before directing people to a...

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789 laid the foundation for thanksgiving celebrations on the last Thursday of November. While an annual thanksgiving holiday would not become a federal holiday until 1863 under a proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, Washington’s ideas for such a holiday led to advocacy for it to become a federal holiday throughout the nineteenth century.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin about signing a letter to President Biden calling to prioritize evacuating Afghan allies who face retaliation from the Taliban.

A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. TA generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. Zoomers rarely date, supposedly out of fear that they would have to grow up, take charge, and head a household. Yet the opposite, sympathetic generalization of Gen Z seems more accurate. All through K-12, young men, particularly white males, have been demonized for their “toxic masculinity” that draws accusations of sexism, racism, and homophobia....

MOUNT RAINIER, Wash. - A new study has revealed that Mount Rainier is experiencing a significant reduction in size due to shifting climate patterns. The findings, published in the "Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research" journal, indicate that since 1950, Mount Rainier has decreased by more than 20 feet. Researchers attribute this shrinkage to the melting of snow and ice over the years. Researchers have been tracking the height decline using satellites, laser measurements and historical photographs.

Students attending American public schools are struggling. Test scores from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released this year, indicate that 33% of 8th graders—a greater percentage than ever before—are reading at the “below basic” level.Additionally, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, down from 24% in 2019, and only 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.Parents across the country, especially in big cities, have...

Trust is like a bridge built over years but burned in moments. For generations, American parents have walked their children across that bridge each morning, delivering them into the care of teachers and administrators who promised to guard them like their own. But what happens when the guardians become the very danger parents sought to protect their children from? Across Colorado, that bridge is collapsing. School districts that once partnered with families in raising children have transformed into ideological fortresses, operating in shadows and silence. Parents send permission slips for field trips, imagining museums and monuments. They pack lunches and...

At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments. “If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday. Bartiromo then told him: “It sounds like you would vote ‘no’ in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.” He added that “we can’t afford it” and that he wishes the U.S. government was “in a position to return the...

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing! 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.~ Psalm 100 (KJV) ~ The FReeper Canteen Presents...