Free Republic

First Lady Melania Trump stepped into Valentine's Day early with a stop at the National Institute of Health on Wednesday (2-12) and was asked by a girl who was making crafts next to her what music she listens to. A bold question to ask the First Lady, but Trump did not hesitate in her response. Mrs. Trump replied, “I listen to all kinds of music. I like Michael Jackson, I like Pavarotti, I like Tina Turner, I like Miley Cyrus,” smiling as she placed a bit of extra emphasis on Cyrus’ name. Cyrus, of course, is the daughter of country...

On Wednesday evening, I attended the third annual RealClearMedia Samizdat Prize Gala in Palm Beach, Florida. RealClear, whose brands include its flagship RealClearPolitics website, is best known as a content and polling aggregator, and as an advocate of political and ideological diversity. Pursuant to that mission, the Samizdat Prize recognizes and honors leading champions of free speech from across the ideological spectrum. This year, the prize was given to longtime Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, Irish-born comedy writer Graham Linehan, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Kirk’s award was, of course, posthumous.) I am grateful to RealClear for their...

Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken legal action to support Mary Talley Bowden, M.D., in her case against the Texas Medical Board (“TMB”). In 2021, the family of a hospitalized first responder sought a court order directing Dr. Bowden, or a nurse under her supervision, to administer Ivermectin to the patient, who was on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma due to severe COVID-19 complications. A state district court granted the order. However, shortly before Dr. Bowden’s nurse was set to arrive at the hospital, an appeals court blocked the district court’s order. Dr. Bowden was not aware...

Rapper Cardi B joked Wednesday about fighting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a concert in California, saying federal officers “ain’t taking my fans” — prompting a response from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).“B‑‑‑‑, if ICE comes in here, we’re going to jump their a‑‑es,” Cardi B said onstage in the Coachella Valley after she sang part of the late Tejano musician Selena Quintanilla’s song “Como La Flor.” “I got some bear mace in the back. They ain’t taking my fans, b‑‑‑‑, let’s go!”

Tapes containing the original, high-quality transmission of the Apollo 11 moon landing were wiped after being quietly shelved in an unmarked storage area by NASA. While other recordings of the historic 1969 mission survived, the revelation that at least some moon landing video disappeared has fueled wild conspiracies that NASA has been covering up what astronauts saw or even that the whole mission was faked. Now, the truth about these 'erased' tapes has been revealed by Tim Dodd, better known as the 'Everyday Astronaut' on YouTube, who said the lost footage was only a set of backup magnetic tapes containing...

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going viral after saying on a podcast that he “used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats,” while discussing his decades-long recovery from addiction. Kennedy made the comments Thursday during an appearance on comedian Theo Von’s eponymous show, This Past Weekend w/Theo Von. Reflecting on more than 40 years of sobriety, Kennedy described the daily commitment he says has kept him in recovery. “We’ve been in recovery together for years,” Kennedy said, noting that he and Von first met at early-morning recovery meetings before the COVID-19...

𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Patriots star WR Stefon Diggs pleads not guilty to felony strangulation and other criminal charges stemming from his alleged argument with his female personal chef today. Diggs lost the Super Bowl, split from Cardi B, and now has to deal with this legal situation.

Authorities have released the audio of an emergency call made by a 13-year-old boy who swam for hours to save his family after they were swept out to sea. Austin Appelbee, his mother, brother and sister, from Perth, were on an inflatable kayak and paddleboards when they got into difficulty off the west coast of Western Australia. Mum Joanne Appelbee, 47, asked her son to swim around 4km (2.5miles) to shore - where he then ran 2km to find a phone he could use to call the emergency services. With Ms Appelbee's permission, the Western Australia Police Force has released...

After losing another massive Super Bowl bet, Drake has decided to stay away from sports gambling. The Canadian rapper wrote on his Instagram that he's "off sports betting" and is instead "sticking to what" he knows, accompanied by a video of him playing online roulette. Ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl, Drake revealed that he placed a $1 million bet on the New England Patriots to beat the Seattle Seahawks. "Bet against me if you dare," he wrote on Instagram (h/t People's Clare Fisher), seemingly playing into the "Drake Curse." Had the Patriots won, Drake would have taken home about $2.95...

Initially, archaeologists believed that humans began to live with cats about 9,500 years ago in... parts of the present-day eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This timeline coincides with the beginning of the Neolithic era, when agriculture started to spread. The grains used in farming attracted rodents, which then enticed the wildcats to come and eat the rodents. Neolithic humans then likely kept the wildcats around to keep the rodents away, paving the way for domestication. Cat remains dating [circa 9500 years ago] have been discovered in present-day Cyprus, indicating that the animals were a part of daily life by then.Cats...

As pathways to freedom have narrowed in immigration courts across the United States, a record number of detainees are giving up their cases and voluntarily leaving the country. Last year, 28% of completed immigration removal cases among those in detention ended in voluntary departure, a higher share than in any year prior, a CBS News analysis of decades of court records found. That figure only appears to be climbing as the Trump administration's immigration crackdown widens and detention populations swell. The percentage of voluntary departures among those detained grew nearly every month of 2025, reaching 38% in December. The analysis...

The Kremlin has set out proposals that could see Russia embrace the dollar again as part of a wide-ranging economic partnership with the Trump administration, according to an internal Russian document reviewed by Bloomberg. Article content The high-level memo, which was drafted this year, details seven points where, in the Kremlin’s view, Russian and United States economic interests could converge following a deal to end the war in Ukraine. It sees the two countries working together to champion fossil fuels over greener alternatives as well as joint investments in natural gas, offshore oil and critical raw materials plus windfalls for...

An AeroVironment LOCUST laser directed energy weapon owned by the U.S. Army was central to the chain of events that led to the recent shutdown of airspace around El Paso, Texas, according to Reuters. Though many questions still remain to be answered about how the flight restrictions came to be imposed, LOCUST was designed to respond to exactly the kinds of drones that regularly fly across the southern border from Mexico. Multiple outlets had already reported yesterday that the use of a laser counter-drone system was a key factor in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) sudden decision to impose the...

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) tapped as his health czar the founder of a left-wing nonprofit that registered patients in mental hospitals to vote. Mamdani selected Alister Martin on Jan. 31 to lead the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Martin, a former emergency room doctor, launched Vot-ER in 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic. The group creates materials for doctors to register their patients to vote in clinical settings. One of its earlier partners, the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, is an inpatient clinic for people with psychotic disorders. Citing the "therapeutic" benefits of voting, the...

~Welcome to the capital city of the European Union: JUST IN: Two Alabama women and their children were attacked on a train in Brussels, Belgium for being American The attacker reportedly approached them with a knife and asked if they were American, when they confirmed, he threatened to kiII them. pic.twitter.com/cD7Ybhxtsk The train is filled with both Flemings and Walloons, but, in a rare display of comity, both seem, objectively, to be on the side of the knifeperson. Perhaps the State Department could arrange for any American tourist in Europe to be issued with his own Vance-sized Milano motorcade. On...

US District Judge John deGravelles ordered the release into the community of four previously convicted criminals who were being held by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). All had final orders for their deportation. The individuals and their crimes are... Ibrahim Ali Mohammed (Ethiopian) — sexual exploitation of a minor. Luis Gaston-Sanchez (Cuban) — homicide, assault, resisting an officer, concealing stolen property, and robbery. Ricardo Blanco Chomat (Cuban) — homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault with a firearm, burglary, robbery, larceny, and selling cocaine. Francisco Rodriguez-Romero (Cuban) — homicide. Judge deGravelles explained "President Biden knew of their crimes, but he still allowed...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on world leaders attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany to think about a future without President Donald Trump. Newsom's comments on climate policy reflected the larger theme of his message for Europe. "I hope if there is nothing else I communicate today: Donald Trump is temporary. He'll be gone in three years," Newsom said. He added, "It's important for folks to understand the temporary nature of this current administration in relationship to the issue of climate change and climate policy." He slammed the Trump administration's rollback of the 2009 "endangerment finding" and accused the...

This is the untold story of America's first opioid crisis—and how Purdue Pharma copied the exact same playbook 120 years later. The corporate tactics, the targeting of women, the media manipulation, the blocked regulations. Every strategy that created the modern opioid epidemic was perfected in the Gilded Age, which was the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. CHAPTERS: 0:00 - The Drug You Could Buy Next to Flour 4:08 - Part One: God's Own Medicine 9:44 - Part Two: The Soldier's Disease 15:12 - Part Three:...

BREAKING: SUSAN COLLINS WILL BACK SAVE AMERICA ACT -- WON'T BREAK FILIBUSTER U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is throwing her weight behind the House-passed SAVE America Act, saying the revised bill strikes the right balance between election security and voter access — while making clear she won’t support scrapping the Senate’s legislative filibuster to get it across the finish line. In an exclusive comment to @TheMaineWire, Sen. Collins said she supports the current version of the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections. Collins said she will support the version of the SAVE Act...

Federal immigration officers arrived at the Woodland Village Apartment Complex in Lindenwold on Monday morning, causing fear among fourth and fifth grade students waiting at their school bus stop, according to the Lindenwold School District. What we know: Ring camera video posted on a community Facebook page shows children running away from the bus stop and yelling "ICE, ICE" as multiple enforcement vehicles arrived at the apartment complex, according to the Lindenwold School District. Officials said the presence of federal officers led to confusion and fear, causing students to flee the area.