Free Republic

TULSA, Okla. — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg drew a packed crowd Saturday, April 18, at Will Rogers High School for a town hall focused on key issues ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. A full gymnasium welcomed Buttigieg as he took the stage, with attendees filling the space to hear and take part in the discussion. The event was part of a broader series of stops as he continues engaging with communities ahead of November, following a fundraiser for the Kansas Democratic Party in Wichita. Tulsa mayor Monroe Nichols joined Buttigieg at the event after extending an invitation earlier...

Lena Dunham is walking back her support for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Dunham’s new memoir, Famesick, hit stands on April 14, and in her own words, she reflects on campaigning for Clinton. “I hit the ground running just a day or so after Girls wrapped, campaigning for Hillary Clinton in more American states than I’d ever been to in my life,” she writes in the book, according to the Daily Mail. “And now I know, I wish I’d just posted a ‘BERNIE’ sign in my window instead,” she explained, referring to former Vermont...

As media hype falters and globalists posture, Trump’s campaign to secure the world’s chokepoints reshapes power—and leaves Iran and its allies with little leverage left. Possibly the most amusing fake news item Saturday morning came from The New York Times. Under the rubric “Iran War Live Updates,” a headline screamed, “Iran’s Military Says It Has Reimposed ‘Strict Control’ of Strait of Hormuz.” To which an inquiring mind wants to know, “What Iran military?” It’s gone, Kemo Sabe. The floating bits are at the bottom of the sea. The terrestrial bits have been crushed, blasted, pulverized, or incinerated. Ditto most of...

Video Summary: The YouTube video from the channel Black Conservative Perspective (uploaded April 18, 2026) is titled "Judge Delivers BRUTAL TAKEDOWN To Teen Thug Thinking He Would Get Away With Filming His Own Assault!" Main Content: It covers a real court sentencing hearing where a high school senior (treated as an adult) was given 180 days in jail for his role in a violent assault at a barbershop. The teen and a co-defendant filmed themselves entering the shop and brutally attacking a customer who was simply waiting for a haircut. The victim suffered a shattered jaw and severe facial injuries....

Businesses can begin filing for tariff refunds on Monday as the federal government starts unwinding billions of dollars in import duties imposed by the Trump administration under emergency powers, opening the door to what could be one of the largest repayments to importers in U.S. history.

Pro-Russian former President Rumen Radev has won Bulgaria’s parliamentary election by a landslide, ​official results showed on Monday, crushing long-dominant political forces and possibly pushing ⁠the EU and NATO member state closer to Moscow. The performance, exceeding opinion poll forecasts, is one ​of the strongest results for a single party in a generation and may end, for now, the chronic instability that led to eight elections in five years. Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party had 44.7% of the vote after 97.52% of ballots were counted, suggesting it could rule alone, but he has not ruled out a coalition with a pro-European...

Sir Keir Starmer will battle to save his job in Parliament on Monday by setting out further details of the “unforgivable” error by officials in not telling him Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting. In a Commons statement, Sir Keir will be faced with allegations he misled Parliament after telling MPs the proper process had been followed in appointing Lord Mandelson to the post of ambassador to the US, insisting he had been kept in the dark about the peer being red-flagged by security experts. Sir Keir effectively fired the Foreign Office’s top official Sir Olly Robbins last week...

They’re holed up in a bank demanding three large pizzas, a helicopter, and a personal phone call from Sydney Sweeney. . . ."— Greg Gutfeld on Iran’s negotiating position. The Russians have a phrase for it: negotiation-incapable (ne peregovorosposobny). That is what the Iran delegation demonstrated during a long day of talks with the US team over the weekend in Islamabad. What part of “no nukes” didn’t they understand? All of it, apparently. The corollary question on the table — arguably more pressing for Iran — was: how much more punishment are you willing to suffer to sustain your dream...

Tokyo — A powerful earthquake struck off the northern Japanese coast Monday, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to issue a tsunami alert for a wide section of coastline, though waves of only about three feet were observed and the emergency appeared to be easing. The quake registered a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 but was later upgraded to 7.7. It occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. (2:53 a.m. Eastern on Sunday), at a depth of about 6 miles below the sea surface, the agency said....

CENTCOM confirmed Sunday that the U.S. Navy fired into the engine room of an Iranian-flagged vessel after it allegedly violated a maritime blockade. The command also highlighted a six-hour standoff with the tanker in the Arabian Sea. In a post shared on X, the command said the action followed repeated warnings. “U.S. forces operating in the Arabian Sea enforced naval blockade measures against an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, April 19,” CENTCOM said. The command described how a guided-missile destroyer, USS Spruance (DDG-111), intercepted the vessel, M/V Touska, as it transited the North Arabian Sea...

Joe diGenova, a former Trump campaign lawyer who backed President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, will head up a Florida-based federal investigation into former federal officials who investigated Trump, a Justice Department official confirmed to NBC News on Saturday. DiGenova, 81, who was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan era, will lead a sprawling investigation targeting Trump's enemies, reaching all the way back to a previous Justice Department inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The U.S. Supreme Court will begin its final oral arguments sitting of the current term on Monday. The justices will hear several high profile arguments on various issues before the term ends in June. On Wednesday, justices will hear arguments in Blanche v. Lau, a case to determine how immigrants are admitted into the United States. The case focuses on Muk Choi Lau, a Chinese national who became a lawful permanent resident in the United States in 2007. In 2012, Lau was convicted of trademark counterfeiting in New Jersey and fled the country. However, once Lau returned, immigration officers admitted...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. For over a century, the Army-Navy Game, known as “America’s Game,” has stood as a symbol of excellence and the American spirit. Now, the recent and potentially ongoing expansion of the College Football Playoffs (CFP) and other postseason college football games threatens to encroach upon the second Saturday in December — a date traditionally reserved exclusively for “America’s Game.” Such scheduling conflicts weaken the national focus on our Military Service Academies and detract...

Here in New York, our new Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran on a platform of “taxing the rich.” But that leaves a question to which the answer up to now has not been completely clear: Does Mamdani advocate taxing the rich because he thinks it is good tax policy, or does he advocate taxing the rich as a way to take revenge and punish a group he thinks of as predators and oppressors? Currently the New York Legislature and Governor are in the midst of their annual budget negotiations, in which one of the issues is whether Mamdani will be...

Kaukji is the predestined commander-in-chief of a volunteer army for Palestine. Together with the Grand Mufti, whose confidant and best friend he is, he was one of the ringleaders of the bloody Palestinian Arab uprising against Jewish immigration in 1936-39. He was severely wounded at that time and fled Palestine. During the war, he met with the Grand Mufti, who had also gone on a journey, in Germany. He has not forgotten what he found so appealing back then: his volunteers are sworn in with the "German salute" under the green flag of the Pr0phet.

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(4/20/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesExodus 32:19-35 19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. 21 And Moses said unto Aaron,...

What Does US Companies Owned by China Mean? The phrase US companies owned by China refers to American businesses in which Chinese entities hold ownership, control, or meaningful financial influence. This ownership is not limited to outright takeovers. It spans a spectrum that includes full acquisitions, majority control, minority stakes with strategic rights, and indirect ownership through layered corporate structures. To make this clearer, it helps to break Chinese ownership into distinct and practical categories, each with real-world examples. Full Ownership and Complete Acquisitions In some cases, a Chinese company acquires 100% of a US business. The US company continues...

A D.C. police officer was ordered held without bond until his next appearance in court on child sex abuse charges. Lt. Matthew Mahl was arrested in Harford County, Maryland, Tuesday on charges of solicitation of sex from a minor and solicitation of child pornography. He has been with the Metropolitan Police Department for 23 years, most recently assigned to special operations, and 10 years ago became the first openly gay chairman of the police union. According to charging documents, Mahl met who he thought was a 15-year-old boy on reddit and began a sexually explicit series of text exchanges that...

From fake impeachments to battles with a KGB-created religious movement, Trump is engaged in a “to the political death” battle with the left. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just released another batch of declassified documents that lay bare how the 2019 Trump impeachment was built on second-hand hearsay, anonymous tips, and a coordinated narrative pushed by intelligence officials and Democrat operatives. At the same time, we’ve witnessed the Democrats’ sudden, open allegiance with a Chicago Pope. The impeachment wasn’t real, and Trump’s not engaged in a religious war. Instead, both fights—the attacks at home and in the Vatican—are the...

On Saturday’s The Weekend: Primetime, MS NOW hosts Antonia Hylton and Charles Coleman Jr. combined for a remarkable escalation—from stylistic nitpicking to smearing an entire group of Christians as extremists. Hylton quickly pivoted to a jaw-dropping—and wholly unsupported—claim: that Trump is surrounded by religious advisers who are “telling him that he is God,” or effectively God’s representative on Earth. Hylton offered no evidence for the assertion, presenting it instead as her personal “read” based on following “extremist” Christian figures. But she didn’t name a single adviser making such a claim—let alone anyone literally telling Trump he is God. The segment...