Free Republic

Marco Rubio just. SHUT DOWN attacks on Trump for negotiating with Russia and China: “People need to grow up when it comes to foreign policy a little bit.” “I think the world is a safer place when the leaders of the most powerful nuclear arsenals in the world are at least communicating with one another.” Diplomacy between nuclear superpowers isn’t a weakness. It’s a necessity. x.com/StateDept/stat…

Explanation: This is an unusual rainbow. For one thing, the rainbow is not complete, appearing only in a sunlit fan -- but that by itself is not very unusual. What is most unusual is the fake location of the Sun. The Sun appears to be toward the front, just below those hills -- but it is not. That is not how rainbows work. Rainbows involve a backward reflection from falling rain, so that the Sun must really be behind you. In this case, gaps between clouds near the setting Sun allowed rays to cross the entire sky and appear to...

Staying quiet is riskier than speaking up, Ukrainian officials say, as President Trump goes further than ever in prioritizing Russia’s interests.Ukraine has been here before with President Trump. But this time, as the American leader plays down Russian violence and makes it harder for Kyiv to respond, Ukrainian leaders have taken a different tack. They have punched back.A senior Ukrainian official likened it to a last chance to sound an alarm as a tsunami approaches. Even before the latest blowup with Mr. Trump, things were looking difficult for Ukraine. Daily strikes were ravaging its energy infrastructure and economy. Ukrainian air...

French President Emmanuel Macron pressed ahead with a trip to the Arabian Gulf as violent riots rocked France, fueling fresh criticism of his leadership as his government struggled to contain the unrest. What began weeks earlier as purportedly student-led demonstrations over classroom conditions escalated into widespread riots involving a range of political and ideological factions across France over the weekend. Images and videos posted to social media on Saturday and Sunday showed groups of men waving foreign flags while engaging in acts of destruction on the streets of France's major cities. A Fox News Digital investigation found that communist organizations,...

President Donald Trump is handing American farmers an $8 billion lifeline as soaring diesel prices threaten to eat into harvest profits, leaving taxpayers to help cover rising agricultural costs. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will distribute one-time payments through its new Harvest Fuel Relief Program to offset rising fuel expenses and other financial pressures during the 2026 harvest season, according to the agency. The announcement follows months of rising diesel prices fueled partly by disruptions to global oil supplies amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, Reuters reported. “This $8 billion dollar investment will help bring certainty to our farmers during...

Fool's Ball, Week Seven, Pigskin Pickem ThreadYour home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

China’s ambassador suggested his country could easily overpower the Philippines, a key U.S. treaty ally, reflecting an increasingly aggressive Chinese push to flex authority over the hotly disputed waters of the South China Sea. The Philippines summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan on Monday to protest his remarks, amid mounting military tensions throughout the Indo-Pacific, according to local Filipino news agency TV5 News. The confrontation unfolds as the U.S. military diverts warships to the Middle East and burns through critical missile stockpiles fighting Iran, according to USNI News and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). China “may easily win”...

PARIS — The nation of France has thrown its support behind the American conservative movement, graciously spending the past week filming a massive campaign ad for the Republican Party. With midterms just over two weeks away, the entire nation of France took it upon itself to film a sprawling attack ad, demonstrating with incredible realism the dangers of voting Democrat. "Wow. Thanks, France," said Republican Senate candidate Jon Husted. "This must have cost billions of dollars to film. We really didn't expect this level of support from the French. Honestly, you didn't have to go so far as burning...

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday are set to announce an initiative to offer cash rewards for tipsters who help uncover allegations of fraud in government programs. The president and vice president will appear in the Oval Office with conservative YouTube personality Nick Shirley, whose video series from Minnesota late last year led to fraud investigations of day care centers there that receive federal money. Shirley, who posted videos showing empty buildings that purported to be active day care centers, will be presented with a check for $10,000, according to a White House official who spoke...

The shelves are absolutely ransacked. Glass jars and other items have been ripped off all the shelves and smashed on the ground. Yet the looters didn't steal (or even touch!) the ham, bacon, or other delicious pork options in the refrigerators. The looters also avoided the toilet paper and tissues on the other side of the store.

President Donald Trump is putting cash behind his crackdown on taxpayer fraud, preparing to offer Americans rewards for tips that help bring fraudsters to justice. Trump and Vice President JD Vance will unveil a $25 million Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP) during a Tuesday afternoon announcement with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in the Oval Office, a White House official told Fox News Digital. WHIP will offer eligible tipsters up to $30,000 if their information leads to a successful fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action, the official said. Trump also plans to present independent journalist Nick Shirley...

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Republican lawmakers that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are ineligible to play in the league because they are "both men," responding to a congressional inquiry without supplying the definition of "women" that lawmakers had requested. "With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men," Engelbert wrote in the Oct. 16 response. The letter, which is dated Oct. 16, was provided to OutKick by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), which represents Freedom. The...

Bangladeshi authorities say they were not informed of the recent execution of two Bangladeshi nationals in the holy city of Mecca until after it had taken place, local media reports. A Bangladeshi man and woman were executed last Wednesday after being convicted of committing an "indecent act" inside a mosque, according to the Saudi interior ministry. The ministry did not specify the nature of the offending act. Bangladesh says it has reached out to the Saudi Arabian government to ask for more details about the case. The two Muslim countries share a close relationship due to their religious affinity and...

Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, is giving roughly $80 million to help Democrats in the midterms as the flood of spending in the sprint to Election Day begins to come into focus. The first of two campaign finance filing deadlines this week will also provide a look at the Trump political operation’s big spending to help Republicans battle significant headwinds in midterm races. Mr. Bloomberg is particularly focused on ensuring a sizable Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, the chamber that Democrats are most hopeful of flipping. We already know some details about what...

Donald Trump ran on a promise to end job-killing regulation, and now is the moment when we’re within sight of the fulfilment of that promise. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering a bill called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. That isn’t a very descriptive name, but the author of a fine Substack called Energy Talking Points has a better one — he calls it “Freedom-to-Build legislation,” and says that it’s the biggest attempt at permitting reform that the United States has made in 46 years.

Worse Than They’re Telling You. Prop 1 — officially the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act — is being presented to voters as a measure about privacy and routine reproductive care — things like contraception and miscarriage treatment that are already legal in Idaho today and privacy is protected in every instance. But the operative language goes much further than the campaign behind it is letting on.

Message at a Doha security conference comes as allies worry the U.S. will leave them to clean up after the Iran war DOHA—Regional security officials received a sobering American message as they gathered in the Qatari capital and braced for a potential new round of escalation between the U.S. and Iran: They need to look out for themselves. Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and President Trump’s special envoy for Syria and Iraq, said the grand bargains that have underpinned global security for decades are undergoing major transformation, and countries in the Middle East and elsewhere should focus on...

Federal agents and law enforcement partners are engaging in operations across Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn Tuesday, the FBI said. Federal law enforcement sources tell CBS News New York the operations are related to alleged healthcare fraud. Video from one storefront at Eighth Avenue near 41st Street in Brooklyn shows at least eight people wearing law enforcement apparel. Some of the footage shows agents wearing jackets that say "HIS," which is the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

Jessica Valenti, the abortion industry’s ever-reliable cheerleader, was positively giddy yesterday. On October 14, she breathlessly unveiled a new University of Pittsburgh study on her Abortion, Every Day Substack, claiming that Americans will happily vote for abortion ballot measures even when they contain no limits on how late in pregnancy an abortion may occur. Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that voters have suddenly abandoned their longstanding opposition to late abortions. Not for a minute. The study, “Is the Viability Limit Necessary to Win Back Abortion Rights?: An Empirical Study,” comes from University of Pittsburgh researchers Greer Donley, Dana Loll, and...

The mayor of the previously sleepy French city of Limoges has accused Emmanuel Macron’s government of having failed to properly equip police, claiming that officers ran out of ammunition as rioters stormed City Hall and set the historic building ablaze. Limoges Mayor Guillaume Guérin of the centre-right Républicains party told broadcaster BFMTV that around 700 “ultra-left” Black Bloc rioters joined the protest on Saturday of around 5,000 intent to “destroy, smash, and kill people.” The LR mayor detailed a level of premeditation and planning among the alleged leftist arsonists, saying that they came equipped with a battering ram weighing over...