Free Republic

Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gathered about 100 top supporters and donors over the weekend at South Florida’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to say “thank you” — and to foreshadow what might be next. DeSantis supporters see those moves, along with the weekend event at the Hard Rock, as clear signs the Florida governor is once again eyeing a White House bid. The main event Saturday evening featured DeSantis speaking with Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., He needs to repair his image nationally,” said one of the attendees. “I don’t know anyone is going to be like...

New FBI data confirms previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising. The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That’s based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with quarterly data through December. “It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest...

The photo of Judd Blevins was unmistakable. In it, Blevins, bearded and heavyset, held a tiki torch on the University of Virginia campus, on the eve of Unite the Right, a 2017 coming-together of the nation’s neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. Connie Vickers had found the photo online along with others showing Blevins marching alongside an angry mob — a crowd of men recorded throughout the night spitting and shouting “Jews will not replace us!” Vickers had it enlarged at a local print and copy shop. On a January night in 2023, she and Nancy Presnall, best friends, retirees and...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Mice accidentally introduced to a remote island near Antarctica 200 years ago are breeding out of control because of climate change, and they are eating seabirds and causing major harm in a special nature reserve with “unique biodiversity.”

Ken Paxton hit the campaign trail with a smile last week. Beaming in photos he posted of events in Collin County, Denton County, Grayson County and Tarrant County, the Texas Republican attorney general campaigned and promoted more than a dozen candidates on the ballot in this week’s primary election. Most are new faces to the Republican Party, because Paxton, the legally embattled but popular statewide official, isn’t seeking to shore up his party’s incumbents: Paxton is out for revenge. “It’s time for a whole new slate in Collin County,” he wrote in one post with a photo of him and...

An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data from the cities targeted by Texas’ “Operation Lone Star,” which buses or flies migrants from the border to major cities in the interior — shows overall crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most migrants. Overall crime is down year over year in Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, New York and Los Angeles. Crime has risen in Washington, D.C., but local officials do not attribute the spike to migrants.

Nearly a quarter of Democrat voters say they would vote for a candidate based solely on their abortion position, an NBC News poll released Friday found. Twenty-four percent of Democrats said they would base their vote on abortion when asked if “any one issue [is] so important that you would vote for or against a candidate solely on that basis.” The survey was conducted November 10-14 with 1,000 registered voters and has an overall margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points. “The poll also finds that the highest share of single-issue women voters (22 percent) say abortion is their top...

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the United States was losing moral credibility for not calling out Israel’s military moves in response to the Hamas terror attack. Kristen Welker said, “As The New York Times points out today, Hamas is actually sitting on a lot of that fuel, food and aid that you reference. Their headquarters is underneath that hospital there. So, ultimately, they are the ones who are depriving the civilians of Gaza of all of those necessary aid items that you referenced. If there were to be a cease-fire, what’s the guarantee...

Former President Donald Trump is considering a visit to the U.S. Capitol early next week, as House Republicans consider who should be the next speaker, two GOP lawmakers and two Trump allies confirmed to NBC News. The former president, who has not set foot on Capitol grounds since prior to the Jan. 6 riot, is considering making an appearance in an effort to “unify the party,” according to one Republican lawmaker who discussed the possibility with a member of Trump’s inner circle Thursday morning. While a small handful of Republican lawmakers have suggested Trump himself should serve as the next...

Experiencing discrimination may change how the brain and the gut communicate with each other, a new study has found. The disruption, the researchers say, could promote behaviors that increase people’s risk of obesity. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Mental Health, included more than 100 participants, mostly women, who filled out questionnaires to gauge their experiences of discrimination in their day-to-day lives. The participants then underwent brain scans as they were being shown pictures of sugary and fatty foods, such as cake and ice cream, along with pictures of lower-sugar and low-fat foods like fruit and salad. They...

Trump said members of his own party "speak very inarticulately about this subject. "I watch some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera," he said, referring to conservatives who don't support abortion exceptions in cases including abortion and rape. "I said, 'Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks." "Because Democrats don’t want to be radical on the issue, most of them, some do," he continued. "They don’t want to be...

ATLANTA — The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, NBC News has learned. NBC News is choosing not to name the website featuring the addresses to avoid further spreading the information. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faced racist threats ahead of the return of the indictment and additional security measures were put in place, with some employees being allowed...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said in a statement that its diversity, equity and inclusion committee would be eliminated, as would any job duties connected to it. Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity. (snip)...

Only four veterans of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are backing his 2024 election bid, a recent tally shows. Of 44 former Cabinet members surveyed by NBC News, just former chief of staff Mark Meadows, budget chief Russell Vought, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, are supporting their onetime boss. “As I have said, I am proudly supporting & endorse Donald J. Trump for president in 2024. He is the only person I trust to take a wrecking ball to the Deep State. I’ve seen his willingness up close & behind closed doors....

WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party gears up for the 2024 presidential race, there’s a large image in the rearview mirror that refuses to go away: The 2020 presidential election. About a week ago, the Colorado GOP selected a 2020 election denier to lead the party for the next two years. That came weeks after the Michigan Republicans selected a 2020 denier to lead their party as well. When a party loses a presidential election, typically it sorts through the wreckage and figures out how to move forward. The GOP, however, has not done this following the aftermath of the...

Former President Trump on Tuesday declined to say whether he will stick by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) as his bid to become Speaker appeared to hit a wall. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump told NBC News in a phone conversation when asked if he stands by his endorsement of McCarthy. “I got everybody calling me wanting my support,” Trump told NBC. “But let’s see what happens and we’ll go — I got everybody calling, wanting my support. That’s all I can say. But we’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it all works out.”

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump declined Thursday to appeal a court order ending his lawsuit challenging the FBI’s seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, paving the way for investigators to finally get hold of the bulk of documents collected in the search. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week dismissed the lawsuit he filed after the Aug. 8 search. The appeals court overturned U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order appointing a special master to review the trove of documents federal agents recovered and preventing the government from using them in its investigation into Trump’s...

NBC host Chuck Todd said Sunday on KNBC’s “Today in LA Weekend” that he believes America is seeing the “beginning of the end” of former President Donald Trump’s political career. Anchor Conan Nolan said, “Part of the narrative following the midterm elections that Republicans are finally getting that they can’t win with Donald Trump. They’re tired of losing. Mike Allen of Axios has a piece where he says that he quotes one Republican as saying that President Joe Biden has carefully and cautiously waged war in Ukraine with no American troops, and he has had just one of the best...

NBC host Chuck Todd said Sunday on KNBC’s “Today in LA Weekend” that he believed Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) would end up being the Speaker of the House. Anchor Conan Nolan asked, “We have a Southern California in the leadership of the Democratic Party on the House, Pete Aguilar from San Bernardino. The other House member with clout is Kevin McCarthy. Do you believe he’s going to be the next speaker?” Todd said, “I don’t know. I have to say I wouldn’t put my house payment on it. I wouldn’t put my mortgage on it. I think he’s going to...