Free Republic

A bill in Congress confuses device clearance with medical judgmentPicture an older patient already juggling a box of daily pills: a blood thinner, a blood pressure combo, metformin, a proton pump inhibitor, and something for sleep. A new cough leads to an online symptom check. An automated artificial intelligence (AI) system flags likely bronchitis and, with a few clicks, prescribes an antibiotic. No clinician looks at the medication list. No one notices the new drug interacts with the blood thinner. The patient's next stop is the emergency department. That scenario would come a step closer if Congress redefines who --...

On an icy Friday morning, Mahad Omar watched armed federal agents run down the street and tackle one of his neighbors to the ground. They handcuffed the man and put him inside a black-tinted S.U.V. Mr. Omar, 28, an Uber driver, immigrated to Minneapolis from Somalia two decades ago. He had never imagined seeing something like that in his community. “Minneapolis is a great city,” Mr. Omar said after the agents had left and residents emerged from their homes to discuss in hushed voices what they had seen from their yards and windows. Several women wept. “It’s never been like...

It's time to celebrate the drug's greatest global winLast year, an inspiring milestone in global health went largely unnoticed in the U.S. How much do you want to bet it was even less on the radar of Americans who still think that ivermectin — a Nobel Prize-winning anti-parasitic drug — can vanquish COVID-19? Sadly, some of them are now embracing another baseless claim: namely, that ivermectin can help cure cancer. Aye yi yi. Will certain people's willing suspension of disbelief never end? But today, instead of angst-ing over dangers of modern "medical freedom," I'm focusing on something else. (Even though...

When my daughter turned 1, we gave her a stuffed-lamb toy to try to coax her away from her pacifier. Fortunately, it worked like a charm and Lambchop became a member of the family. Lambchop now joins us during family meals, family vacations, and even family photo shoots. As my daughter has grown, I’ve had to convince her that sometimes Lambchop has to stay in the car while she’s at school or on a playdate so it won’t go missing. While she’s gone and I’m running errands, Lambchop rides shotgun. And when my daughter gets back in the car, she...

SummaryChallengers say bans violate Constitution and Title IX law Arguments involve laws passed in West Virginia and Idaho Trump backs states in crackdown on transgender athletes

The doll was expected to be available at Mattel's online shop and at Target stores starting Monday for a suggested retail price of $11.87.Mattel Inc. is introducing an autistic Barbie on Monday as the newest member of its line intended to celebrate diversity, joining a collection that already includes Barbies with Down syndrome, a blind Barbie, a Barbie and a Ken with vitiligo, and other models the toymaker added to make its fashion dolls more inclusive. Mattel said it developed the autistic doll over more than 18 months in partnership with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization that...

Iran is systematically crippling Starlink, the satellite internet service said to be almost impossible to jam. Military-grade GPS jammers deployed since January 8 have cut satellite internet performance by as much as 80% in parts of the country, according toAmir Rashidi, director of digital rights at the Miaan Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on Iranian internet censorship and digital rights.

Former CNN host Don Lemon unloaded on Stephen A. Smith for being ignorant and “cozying up” to white people. While he claimed he is not one to criticize black people, Smith left him no choice after the radio host and sports analyst delivered his take on last week’s ICE agent shooting of a Minnesota activist. “I try not to criticize, especially black men, or just black people in general, you know, because we get so much sh*t. The rules are different for us,” Lemon said on his podcast show. “But Stephen A. Smith goes off and talks about sh*t that...

The Somali fraud scandal has captured Americans’ imaginations. The story is almost unbelievable: Somalis in Minnesota allegedly set up fraudulent housing services, meal programs, and autism-therapy offerings, which formed part of a “web” that stole “billions of dollars in taxpayer money.” Some fraudulently obtained funds, according to federal law enforcement sources, ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab terrorists.Meantime, on the West Coast, another pattern of fraud has taken root: foreign criminals have developed sophisticated schemes to cheat and steal from unsuspecting Americans. I spoke with a veteran blue-city police detective, who has spent two decades investigating serious crimes, in...

WASHINGTON, DC – Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the collapse of the country’s currency and surging inflation, with many calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. Yet the government’s response has differed from earlier waves of unrest. Whereas Iran’s rulers were quick to suppress the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, the security forces were slow to react as the current protests intensified. Rather than brutally cracking down, President Masoud Pezeshkian initially responded with belt-tightening reforms to free up funds for subsidies to the poor. But this stopgap didn’t hold. While the...

President Donald Trump has renewed his push for the United States to acquire Greenland from Denmark, again prompting gasps and outrage from elected Democrats and European elites. But the historical record and geopolitical reality suggest that acquiring the island territory would be not only fair compensation for American involvement in Europe since the start of World War II, but also a critical check against encroaching Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic.Trump’s latest quip that Greenland’s defense is “two dog sleds” has the global liberal media tripping over itself to “fact-check” this obvious hyperbole and declare Trump an evil imperialist....

California is once again at the center of a high-stakes debate over taxes, population trends and the future of the state’s economy, as a prominent tech investor warns that a new wave of residents could leave within the next year. The warning lands at a moment when official data shows modest population growth returning, even as moving companies and demographers track persistent outflows to other states. The question is not whether people are leaving, but whether policy choices in the coming months will turn a steady trickle into the kind of large-scale relocation that reshapes communities and tax bases. The...

In his recent viral essay, “The Lost Generation,” published in Compact, Jacob Savage describes how U.S. media and academia in the 2010s closed their doors to millennial white men. The self-righteous, racist ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion wasn’t a problem only within those rarified fields. It also infected the U.S. armed forces. Under President Biden, senior officers worked to make our military less white, precipitating a recruitment crisis.During the first Trump administration, lethality was the military’s overriding focus. That changed in 2021. Mr. Biden issued an executive order embedding “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” across “all parts of the...

Hey, you up? Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Trump have been exchanging “friendly” missives at least twice a week — as the unlikely bromance between the socialist and conservative commander-in-chief continues to blossom, The Post has learned. The former Astoria lawmaker and the Queens native have semi-regularly been chatting via text since their chummy White House meeting in November, discussing a wide range of topics, from the toppling of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and zoning red tape in Big Apple real estate, according to sources. Insiders with knowledge of the conversation described the tone of the texts as “friendly.” “It...

The U.S. Treasury and State Departments designated several chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs) on Tuesday. The State Department has designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO and SDGT, and its leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as an SDGT, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has determined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood to be “SDGTs for providing material support to Hamas,” he added. The designations come after President Donald Trump ordered a review of Muslim Brotherhood chapters for designation...

Rand Paul is the junior United States Senator from Kentucky and a member of the Republican Party. He is the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and serves on several others, including the Committee on Foreign Relations. Paul is also a physician and the author of several books, the most recent of which is “Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up.” Look for it wherever books are sold.

Tiffany Burress, the wife of former New York Giants and Jets star Plaxico Burress, has officially launched her campaign for Congress as a Republican in New Jersey’s 9th District. Burress announced her candidacy in a press release Monday, touting her credentials as “an attorney, businesswoman, and community leader.“ The political newcomer also cast the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou, as a “disconnected” Washington insider. France: French farmers dump potatoes outside parliament to protest EU-Mercosur deal “I built my career outside of politics, in the private sector. That real-world experience is exactly what this district needs in Washington,” Burress said....

The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for immigrants from Somalia, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a post on X. "Somali nationals with TPS are now required to leave the United States by March 17, 2026," a post from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said. Temporary protected status is provided to immigrants from some countries facing safety conditions, such as environmental disasters and armed conflict. Other countries currently covered include Lebanon, El Salvador and Yemen.

Get ready, Southland residents: the SoCal Women’s Pro Flag Football League (SCWPFFL) is coming in hot! The league announced Tuesday official plans to launch its inaugural season this year and establish SoCal as a “premier destination for elite women’s professional flag football,” according to an SCWPFFL media release. It will have franchises in all eight Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Imperial. Per the league’s media release, games will be played at top high school or junior college football stadiums in each of the eight counties.

Court documents allege trafficking, stash houses, and employing illegal immigrantsA federal investigation is underway into a Phoenix restaurant owner accused of harboring undocumented immigrants and employing them in a “sophisticated operation” across the Valley. According to a federal court filing, Yung Lau, the owner of multiple sushi restaurants, is accused of human trafficking and knowingly employing people who are not citizens of the United States. Lau has at least partial ownership of Sakura Sushi locations in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert. Court documents show that undocumented workers were living in “stash houses” in the East Valley. Some workers were reportedly...