Free Republic

The government is open again, but only because Democrats finally admitted defeat. After orchestrating the longest shutdown in American history — 43 days of economic carnage and manufactured crisis — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) walked away with exactly what they deserved: nothing. No wins. No concessions. No extensions of the pandemic-era ObamaCare subsidies over which they had been holding the country hostage. Just a battered economy, furious constituents, and a party eating its own.House and Senate conservatives refused to blink, and Democrats had nowhere left to go.The wreckage they left behind...

Gov. Hochul is reportedly open to raising taxes on corporations in the Empire State to help fund socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s freebie-filled agenda for New York City. Hochul, who is up for re-election in 2026, is sticking to her vow to not hit high-earners with higher taxes — but has had preliminary conversations about raising revenue by upping the corporate tax rate, according to Politico, which first reported the story. The hike would help fill the more than $4 billion budget gap facing the state next year and cover some of the costs associated with Mamdani’s socialist dream in the...

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney Leah Saffian has confirmed that multiple federal prison staffers have been FIRED for illegally breaking into Maxwell’s privileged attorney-client emails, emails that were then funneled straight to Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin, who blasted them to the media like political propaganda. Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, apparently believes his lofty position as a former law professor grants him the license to trample on the Bill of Rights. By leaking Maxwell’s privileged correspondence to the media, he’s not just undermining the legal process, he’s trampling her constitutional rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of confidential communications,...

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud. The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.” “Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” she asked during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this...

A 47-year-old airline pilot from New Jersey is the first person known to have died from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite. Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine publicly reported the cause of death Wednesday after months of investigation. Their findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. The man’s death had previously been seen as a mystery, since medical examinations showed no evidence of a heart attack or other life-threatening issues. According to the researchers, the man started feeling sick four hours after consuming a hamburger...

It's not pleasant to shiver from the cold, but for some, it has the appeal of making the body burn more energy as heat than when staying in a warmer environment. This process of burning energy through heat loss is called thermogenesis. While scientists and pharmaceutical companies are exploring ways to trick the body into thinking it's cold, obesity researchers set out to investigate another route: a form of thermogenesis triggered by eating specialized diets rather than temperature. After conducting a series of mouse studies, the researchers concluded that diet-induced thermogenesis led to nearly the same amount of weight loss...

The Republican leader of the Indiana Senate said the chamber would not meet to redraw the state's congressional map, rejecting pressure from President Donald Trump and the state's governor. “Today I’m announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December,” Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray said in a statement. The White House has repeatedly pushed Indiana, where Republicans control seven of nine congressional seats, to join the national mid-decade redistricting push to shore up the party's narrow House majority in next year's midterm elections. Vice President JD Vance...

BOSTON (AP) — It wasn’t a croc — there really was an alligator on the loose in Boston. And the story of the city’s slithering saurian appears to have a happy ending. The small alligator, spotted along the Charles River in Boston multiple times this week, has been rescued and delivered to safety, wildlife officials in Massachusetts said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause new California laws expected to require thousands of companies to report emissions and climate-risk information. The laws are the most sweeping of their kind in the nation, and a collection of business groups argued in an emergency appeal that they violate free-speech rights. The measures were signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, and reporting requirements are expected to start early next year. Lower courts have so far refused to block the laws, which the state says will increase transparency and encourage companies...

Michelle Obama says black people can’t swim or go to the gym due to “white people hair standards.” “Braids are for y’all so we can work harder.” “Why do we need an act of law to tell White folks to get outta our hair?”

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney Leah Saffian has confirmed that multiple federal prison staffers have been FIRED for illegally breaking into Maxwell’s privileged attorney-client emails, emails that were then funneled straight to Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin, who blasted them to the media like political propaganda. Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, apparently believes his lofty position as a former law professor grants him the license to trample on the Bill of Rights. By leaking Maxwell’s privileged correspondence to the media, he’s not just undermining the legal process, he’s trampling her constitutional rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of confidential communications,...

South Africa will investigate the “mysterious” arrival of scores of Palestinians who were kept on a charter plane at Johannesburg for 12 hours by border police because they did not have travel papers, the president has said. A group of 153 Palestinians arrived at OR Tambo international iarport in Johannesburg on a chartered Global Airways flight from Kenya on Thursday without departure stamps, return tickets or details of accommodation, according to the border authorities. They said none of the Palestinians had applied for asylum, leading to their initial denial of entry. A pastor who was allowed to meet the passengers...

A review of the new film and a look at its public health relevance todayEighty years ago, on November 20, 1945, one of the most unusual and important court trials in history began. The trial was deliberately convened in the bombed out German city of Nuremberg, notorious for huge Nazi party rallies. The new film, "Nuremberg," recounts the trial of Nazi leaders and remains highly relevant for engaging with public health and the politics of today in Germany, the U.S., and many other nations. On Trial in "Nuremberg" A few days after the end of World War II, in May...

North Carolina is one of the few states that allows jilted spouses to sue someone for interfering in their marriage.> A North Carolina woman will have to pay $1.75 million after a jury found her liable for destroying a Durham couple's marriage. The lawsuit filed in Durham County Court accused Brenay Kennard - an influencer with nearly 3 million followers on TikTok and 274,000 followers on Instagram - of seducing and having an affair with her manager, Tim Montague. "She has received justice from losing her husband and the father of her children," said Robonetta Jones, who was the attorney...

If there’s one thing the Labour party can agree on this week, it is that efforts by Keir Starmer’s allies to shore up his position backfired spectacularly. By briefing journalists that he would face down any challenge and accusing Wes Streeting of leading an advanced plot to overthrow him, figures around the prime minister managed only to expose the weakness of his position. The sharks were already circling – there is no shortage of senior Labour politicians convinced they can do a better job of running the country. And the botched briefing operation on Tuesday night was proof to many...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Cuqita Boyd got into a minor car wreck while driving to work in January 2022, then was charged with driving under the influence after an officer claimed she didn't follow directions during a field sobriety test. But Boyd was adamant she hadn't been drinking and asked to be given a Breathalyzer test on the side of the road to prove it so she wouldn't be late for her job as a U.S. postal worker. The Louisville Metro Police officer, Samantha Davenport, denied that request, later saying she didn't carry a portable Breathalyzer in her cruiser. That...

North Korean troops who helped Russia repel a major Ukrainian incursion into its western Kursk region are now playing an important role in clearing the area of mines, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday. Under a mutual defence pact between the two countries, North Korea last year sent some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russia in Kursk, and more than 6,000 were killed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western sources. Video published by the Russian Defence Ministry showed North Korean troops being shown different types of mines and mine detection equipment, taking part in training exercises and singing...

*** Aren’t New Yorkers proud? What an achievement. All because the city that used to be known as “the greatest city on the planet” is now filled with a poisonous mixture of young jobless communists angry at living in their parents’ basement, and foreigners who hate the country they invaded, and want to turn us into the failed third world sh**tholes they just escaped from. So, I have an idea. “If you can’t beat them, give ‘em what they want.” Here is how President Trump can win this battle for the soul of America. Stop fighting the communists and Muslim...

Julie Benson has had to "fight" to have a DNR order removed from her sister, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy but enjoys a "good life".Families have slammed the NHS for putting "do not resuscitate" orders on disabled patients without their consent. An investigation by ITV News found that multiple UK hospitals have put blanket 'Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation' (DNR) orders on at least 12 patients with learning disabilities after being ordered to stop the practice five years ago. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the blanket imposition of DNRs on disabled people had caused potentially avoidable deaths in...

Now that the older members of the Generation Z cohort have reached their mid-20s, stark differences in their mental health, resilience, and socioemotional development are evident when compared with their Millennial counterparts. Many troubling trends have been measured, including:• A 188 percent increase in emergency room visits for self-harm by girls, and 48 percent for boys, since 2010.• A 167 percent increase in suicide rates for adolescent girls, and a 91 percent increase for adolescent boys, since 2010, with no abatement,• A rise in depression during the 2010s so significant that it could explain nearly all suicide mortality among those...