Free Republic

GIVING IT ALL YOU'VE GOT Ever hear the expression "Giving it the whole nine yards"? Do you happen to know where it comes from? I used to think it was a sports term. "Not so", say several experts. But there seem to be at least two schools of thought on the phrase's origin. Both seem plausible. I'll let you decide. One explanation says that it's an expression from the construction trade. A full truck load, according to this rationale, will dump nine cubic yards of sand or gravel at your work site. In such a case, I suppose the...

THE BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT HAS FALLEN — THIS IS WHAT REAL POWER LOOKS LIKE After just a few days of mass non-compliance, the Government of Bulgaria has resigned. No tanks. No violence. No chaos.Just people — united — refusing to comply. This is the truth globalists fear more than anything: When citizens realise their collective power, governments collapse. Not through elections engineered by elites. Not through courts captured by ideology. But through unity and refusal. Bulgaria has just proven a fundamental principle of history: Governments rule only with the consent of the governed. Remove that consent — peacefully, collectively, relentlessly —...

Canada’s governing Liberals were one seat short of a simple majority in Parliament after a Conservative lawmaker defected and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party Thursday. Michael Ma was the second Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker to join the Liberals in just over a month. Ma, who represents Markham–Unionville, said he entered politics “to focus on solutions, not division.” “I have concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the steady, practical approach we need to deliver on the priorities I hear every day while door knocking in Markham–Unionville,” Ma said in his statement. His move puts the Liberals one seat...

An alleged gunman remains on the loose after “multiple” people were shot and at least two were killed on the campus of Brown University, police said. The Rhode Island Ivy League school sent out a first alert to students on campus shortly after 4:20 p.m. of an active shooter near the Barus & Holley Engineering school building.At least two people have been killed, a law enforcement source said.Providence police confirmed multiple people have been shot.“Multiple shot in the area of Brown University. This is an active investigation. Please shelter in place or avoid the area until further notice,” the PD...

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a case that sparked national attention, watched as new testimony and never-before-seen footage from the day of his arrest in a McDonald's was unveiled during a hearing this week. Mr Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges related to the 2024 murder of Mr Thompson, a father of two, as well as federal counts that carry the possibility of the death penalty. The pre-trial hearing is focused on the defence's attempts to keep certain evidence out of the trial, which has not been scheduled yet,...

The normally proud and defiant French are waving the white flag in the face of migrant terror. Paris has shockingly decided to dim the lights on its annual New Year’s Eve fête along the iconic Champs-Élysées. The massive midnight concert that drew a jubilant crowd of a million people last year — with the festivities having drawn throngs to the “most beautiful avenue in the world” for six decades — has been scrapped and replaced by a pre-recorded video to be viewed in the safety and comfort of French living rooms. The fireworks will still illuminate the Arc de Triomphe...

VILNIUS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava in a deal brokered by an envoy for U.S. President Donald Trump. In return, the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Potash is a key component in fertilisers, and the former Soviet state is a leading global producer. The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko since Trump's administration opened talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western governments had...

Left-wing Canadian lawmakers are working to introduce a new bill that would end existing protections for people of faith against prosecution under national “hate speech” laws. Canada’s Criminal Code, which bans what the government deems “hatred against any identifiable group,” contains a so-called religious exemption that protects Canadians who “in good faith” cite religious texts or beliefs. But the left-wing Liberal and Bloc Québécois parties are currently negotiating new legislation, Bill C-9, with an amendment that would remove this exemption.

Corrections officers at a South Carolina prison intercepted a covert package dropped by a drone containing a selection of indulgent fare and banned substances. Guards unwrapped the package to find steak, marijuana, crab legs, an abundance of cigarettes, and to spice it up, a tin of Old Bay seasoning. The illicit meal was dropped into the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C., by a drone, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said on X on Monday, with the caption, “seems some folks were planning an early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner along with their marijuana and cigarettes...

Two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed during an attack Saturday near the city of Palmyra, Syria, according to the Pentagon. Three additional U.S. soldiers were wounded in the assault, the Pentagon added. President Trump in a social-media post called it “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.” He warned “there will be very serious retaliation,” adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al Qaeda and Islamist rebel commander, “is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

Police are responding to a reported multi-victim shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At least two persons were injured by gunshot wounds. Authorities said that more victims are feared. Authorities confirmed that a masked suspect opened fire and then fled the spot. Officers have secured parts of the campus and are searching for the suspect. The condition of the victims is not yet known. Police have urged people to avoid the area as the investigation continues.

A bombshell new report found “insufficient evidence” to back up most of its supposed benefits — and raised serious red flags about hidden risks. “Patients deserve honest conversations about what the science does and doesn’t tell us about medical cannabis,” Dr. Michael Hsu, an addiction psychiatrist at UCLA and lead author of the study, said in a statement. SNIP Even though more than half of users try it for acute pain, Hsu and his team found no solid clinical evidence that it works. Current guidelines don’t recommend cannabis-based treatments as a first-line option for pain management.

The EU has agreed to indefinitely freeze Russia’s sovereign assets in the bloc, as Moscow stepped up its threats to retaliate against Euroclear, the keeper of most of the Kremlin’s immobilised money.The decision by the EU to use emergency powers to immobilise €210bn (£185bn) of Russia’s central bank’s assets marks a significant step towards using the cash to aid Ukraine’s defence.European Council president António Costa confirmed on Friday that EU leaders had delivered on a commitment, made in October, to “keep Russian assets immobilised until Russia ends its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates for the damage caused”.Before this...

Ronald Exantus was released early from 20-year sentence for stabbing 6-year-old Logan Tipton in Kentucky home invasion A man who was released from prison early after racking up good behavior credits following his conviction for fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Kentucky boy during a 2015 home invasion was arrested weeks later for violating his parole. Ronald Exantus, 42, of Indianapolis, was serving a 20-year sentence for the killing of Logan Tipton, who was brutally slain in his Versailles, Kentucky, home, when he was released back onto the streets in October. Despite confessing, Exantus was found not guilty of murder by reason...

Battery tech is evolving at such a pace that it’s difficult to keep up with what’s happening across the industry. On a global level, several OEMs have committed to commercialising solid-state batteries by the end of the decade. Toyota plans to launch its first solid-state battery-powered EV by 2028, while BYD and CATL are looking at 2027 for introducing their version of these new-age batteries. Enter, BMW. While the Bavarian marque was already invested in the idea with Solid Power, this new arrangement with Samsung SDI aims to fast-track...

The newly published National Security Strategy is beautiful. What makes the document powerful isn’t the prose but the clarity. For the first time in decades, America has a strategy grounded not in theories, slogans, or airy talk of an “international community,” but in the... In Newsweek last year, I argued that America had to shake off the primacist hangover of the post–Cold War with what I called foreign policy stoicism: humility, hierarchy, and a sober respect for the nation-state, oriented toward changing what can most easily be changed and prioritizing the most concrete threats. The think-tank world—even the conservative one—treats...

In the 1980s, the U.S. negotiated the exile of world leaders like Haiti’s Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to France and Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines to Hawaii.Now, President Donald Trump wants Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power. Maduro’s “days are numbered,” Trump told Politico in an interview released on Dec. 9. His Administration considers Maduro the head of a government-sponsored cocaine smuggling syndicate. Since September, he’s blown up 22 alleged drug boats off Venezuela’s coastline, parked a carrier strike group in the Caribbean, and flown F/A-18 attack jets near Venezuela’s border. On Wednesday, the U.S. seized an oil tanker...

A joint statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz read: "In response to the detonation of a Hamas explosive device that wounded our forces today in the yellow zone of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the elimination of the terrorist Ra’ad Sa'ad, head of Hamas’ force-build-up directorate." "Sa'ad was one of the architects of the October 7th massacre and had recently been involved in rebuilding the terror organization, planning and carrying out attacks against Israel, and reestablishing an offensive capability, in blatant violation of the ceasefire terms and...

A groundbreaking study from the University of Ottawa, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has uncovered critical insights into Greenland’s hidden geological structures. By mapping the Earth’s temperature beneath Greenland and northeastern Canada in intricate 3D models, this research sheds new light on the historical and future dynamics of the region’s ice sheet. The findings are crucial not only for understanding past climatic shifts but also for predicting the potential impact of Greenland’s ice on global sea levels. Understanding Greenland’s Thermal Landscape The research, a collaboration between the University of Ottawa, the University of Twente, and...

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, allowing the administration to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed this summer withholds Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and other major abortion sellers, delivering a major victory to pro-life advocates seeking to end taxpayer support for organizations that kill babies in abortions. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s preliminary injunction, ruling that the measure in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does not constitute an unconstitutional punishment. “It instead...