Free Republic

After the 2024 humiliation, the left is back. It could hurt the party in 2026. Kim Strassel speaks with law professor Jonathan Turley about why the charges were dismissed against James Comey and Letitia James and how Donald Trump is separately using the legal system to the executive branch’s benefit. What could get in the way of a coming 2026 Democratic wave, given history and the current public mood? Nothing but the Democratic Party itself, which is sitting placidly by as the progressives who lost them last year’s election mobilize to take over even more of the party. Bernie Sanders...

With climate change steadily dismantling the icy habitat essential to their existence, new research suggests polar bears are rapidly rewiring their own genetics in a bid to survive. The species is being forced to adapt to the harsher reality of a warming Arctic, in what scientists believe is the first documented case of rising temperatures driving genetic change in a mammal. Researchers from the University of East Anglia in Britain say these findings, published Friday in the journal Mobile DNA, offer a rare glimmer of hope for the species. "Polar bears are still sadly expected to go extinct this century,...

Maryland will launch a study to analyze the economic impacts of climate change to determine the costs associated with storm damage and health outcomes. The move is part of the Moore-Miller administration's strategic approach to investing in a clean energy economy and modernizing the state's energy infrastructure. "While the federal government has spent the past year rolling back climate protections and driving up energy costs, Maryland is taking a responsible step toward understanding the true price tag of climate change," Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. "This study will give us a clear, data-driven look at the real burden...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has delayed a decision on whether to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies indefinitely despite years of warnings from conservationists that populations are shrinking. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced during the waning days of then-President Joe Biden’s term in December 2024 that the agency planned to add the beloved backyard pollinator to the threatened species list by the end of 2025, calling the insect “iconic” and “cherished across North America.” But the Trump administration quietly listed the effort as a “long-term action” in a September report on the status of...

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Friday to yank $73 million in federal highway funding meant for New York after an audit found more than half of the Empire State’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to foreign-born drivers in the US illegally. “What New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization — for 30 days, 60 days, one year — New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said during a press conference at DOT headquarters in DC Friday. “That’s contrary to the law.” “But we also found that...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is returning to "The View" for another round. The Republican congresswoman from Georgia will sit for a second interview on the ABC talk show Jan. 7, Executive Producer Brian Teta revealed on his "Behind the Table" podcast Wednesday. Perhaps by little coincidence, Greene's last day in Congress is scheduled for Jan. 5.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has granted a full pardon to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk whose case has become a rallying point for election-integrity activists across the country. Trump has previously described Peters as a "political prisoner" on several occasions.

"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour, / England hath need of thee, she is a fen / of stagnant waters” begins a famous sonnet by William Wordsworth about the spiritual troubles of two hundred years back. Of course, things seem just as catastrophic today as they did in 1802. After the English people voted for Brexit, the elites of England seem to have declared war on the country’s culture and liberties. They are swiftly bankrupting the country and breaking its party system; they make a mockery of the established Christian religion while the king celebrates Muslim holidays; they...

… Among other requirements, Minneapolis' separation ordinance forbids Minneapolis police from taking part in immigration enforcement or assisting ICE agents. It also prevents city employees from investigating an individual when the only law they've violated is being in the United States illegally. City employees are also restricted from inquiring about immigration status except when required to do so by law. This week, the council presented a revised version of the separation ordinance with tougher language intended to combat ICE, amid a targeted immigration operation ordered by President Trump focused on the Somali community. The new ordinance declares the city will...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) says work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are now being enforced in every county in Oregon. The policy changes at the USDA follow the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R.1). ODHS said about 37,000 Oregonians are immediately affected. The statewide rules took effect on Dec. 1, 2025, expanding the work requirements from six counties. The shift affects adults classified as able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). These are people aged 18 to 64 who do not live with children under 14. Those individuals must now...

Diary of disturbing disinformation and dangerous delusionsThis claim:“We lowered the price of everything.” — Former President Joe Biden, Friday We say: Uh oh, Joe’s into the Rocky Road again. Maybe if you too slept through his presidency you could buy Biden’s line that his was a golden age of affordability. But if you had to buy groceries or pay for gas then, you surely saw how inflation ran red-hot on his watch: Home prices alone soared 38% and gasoline prices rose 31% — while real wages fell 4%. Affordability? Please.

The Indiana Senate on Thursday voted down a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts to produce two more GOP-friendly seats, rejecting President Donald Trump’s months-long campaign to pressure the Republican supermajority in the deep-red state to bend to his will. The 31-19 vote saw 21 Republicans join 10 Democrats in voting down the proposed map that would have positioned the GOP, which currently holds seven of Indiana’s nine US House seats, for a sweep of all nine seats in next year’s midterm elections. The vote comes with significant ramifications for the 2026 midterm elections as some Democratic- and Republican-led...

This image of eight teenagers laying in the shape of a swastika on a football field has been circulating online. This image of eight teenagers laying in the shape of a swastika on a football field has been circulating online. Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area. Updated at 5:50 p.m. A photo of eight teenagers lying in the shape of a swastika on Branham High School’s football field, accompanied by an antisemitic quote from Adolf Hitler, circulated online Wednesday, raising concerns in the district and beyond. The photo was...

Since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers, many have designated September 11, 2001 as the true close of the 20th century. That event indeed changed many things in the United States and in the world. It was a sign that the American-led global order established after World War II had become fragile and hollowed out. But in the decades that followed, our leaders clung to the pieties and perspectives of the pre-9/11 period, applying obsolete solutions in a new era with much different problems. In retrospect, Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign was the true start of the...

Since taking office, President Donald J. Trump has made substantial progress reversing the inflation and cost-of-living disaster he inherited from the recklessness of the Biden Administration. Inflation has been cut by more than half, gas prices have fallen sharply, real wages are growing again, and key household expenses are finally heading in the right direction.But President Trump is also clear: there is still important work ahead to ensure every American feels the full benefit of lower costs. While Democrats attempt to con Americans into believing they’re the champions of affordability, the reality is that Democrats created the problem — and...

The trade deficit has narrowed to its smallest since mid-2020, down more than 35% over last year — and more proof that President Donald J. Trump’s America First trade agenda is working.Here’s what you need to know:U.S. exports are up 6% over last year — rising to their second-highest value on record — while Inflation-adjusted exports of consumer goods are the largest ever.The seasonally adjusted trade deficit with China has narrowed to its second-smallest since 2009.In the third quarter of 2025, real exports grew by a 4.1% annual rate and imports fell by around 5% — adding about 1% to...

The United States trade deficit shrank dramatically in September, falling 10.9 percent to $52.8 billion as President Trump’s sweeping tariff policies began to reshape trade flows in line with the administration’s goals, according to data released Thursday by the Commerce Department.The deficit reduction reflected gains on both sides of the ledger. U.S. exports jumped 3.0 percent to $289.3 billion, the highest level in months, while imports rose just 0.6 percent to $342.1 billion. The combination produced the kind of outcome the Trump administration has sought: American goods finding stronger markets abroad even as the flow of foreign goods into the...

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is celebrating a “record-breaking achievement” in immigration enforcement, touting that more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the United States since the president took office in late January.This week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had successfully deported more than 605,000 illegal aliens from the U.S. since January 20 — noting the majority are illegal aliens with pending criminal charges or criminal convictions.In addition, Noem said almost two million illegal aliens have now self-deported from the U.S. during the same period, as she again encouraged...

Former President Joe Biden’s record-setting waves of mass immigration to the United States sent home prices and rents surging for the lowest-income Americans, a newly published investigation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reveals.The report, published annually by HUD, looks at “worst-case housing needs,” which is defined as Americans who are low-income but who do not receive government assistance or welfare and who pay more than one-half of their income toward housing costs.“Between 2021 and 2023, cases of worst-case needs remained elevated at 8.46 million households, virtually the same as the 2019-to-2021 period,” the report details, pointing...

Ilhan Omar’s second husband calls himself a “dirty dandy” on social media and has run off to South Africa, dodging President Trump’s accusations he is her brother. Mystery has long swirled about the embattled Minnesota congresswoman’s marriage to Ahmed Elmi, whom she was wed to between 2009 and 2017, which various politicians on the right have called a sham. Elmi, 40, left the US long before he officially divorced Omar and seemingly disappeared. However, The Post can now reveal he’s been studying in the UK and South Africa. The one-time refugee describes himself as a “dirty dandy” on his social...