Free Republic

TikTok, the extremely popular video-sharing app, is in the midst of another round of negotiations with the U.S. federal government over data security. The Biden administration should terminate the seemingly endless discussions and either require TikTok to stop operations in the U.S. or force its Chinese owner to sell the app lock, stock and barrel to American parties. No other solution is acceptable from national security and First Amendment points of view. President Joe Biden’s failure to counter the known threat of the TikTok platform is a prime example of Washington’s bipartisan inability to recognize the comprehensive nature of the...

Gripping video captures the moment migrants in El Paso pray in vain as cops rounded them up outside a local church shelter ahead of President Biden’s first visit to the Mexican border on Sunday. City police and US Customs and Border Protection officers swept through the Texas city in the days before Biden’s arrival on Sunday, clearing immigrants from a shelter at Sacred Heart Church and outside a local bus station, the outlet reported. El Paso has taken the brunt of the record number of immigrants crossing into the US in recent weeks, with as many as 2,500 a day...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Four people accused of breaking into a Florida woman’s home in December while wearing clown masks have been arrested, authorities said Friday. According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Melissa Martinez, 23, who was a caregiver for the victim’s husband, was arrested. Also jailed were Shakira Rivera Colon, 26; Jaydie Cintron-Mayoral, 24; and Nelson David Cruz-Medina 42. The quartet was charged with home invasion, robbery and grand theft. According to an arrest affidavit, Orange County deputies responded to the burglary call in the Cypress Springs neighborhood of Orlando. Deputies said that around 3 a.m. on Dec....

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, officially resigned from the Senate on Sunday as he prepares to step back into academia as president of the University of Florida. Sasse, who led Midland University, a small private collage in his home state, prior to running for Senate, submitted his resignation last month saying that he would leave office Jan. 8 — two years into his second term. Sasse's departure opens up the seat to an appointment from Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican. The state's previous governor, Republican Pete Ricketts, has said he would seek...

At a November 18 court conference, US District Judge Loretta Preska announced she would unseal the identities of eight "Does" trying to stay anonymous in a long-running lawsuit between Ghislaine Maxwell, the pal of Jeffrey Epstein who's been convicted of sex trafficking, and Virginia Giuffre, their most prominent accuser. The exception, Preska said, was "Doe 183," whom she identified as someone with ties to Epstein and whose name appeared repeatedly in Maxwell's criminal trial. "That Doe's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has been a subject of intense media coverage, and Doe 183's name has appeared in numerous places in unsealed portions...

Pope Francis could be ousted in 'secret plan' by Vatican hardlinersVatican conservatives are waging a “secret plan” to put Pope Francis under such stress that he resigns, it has been claimed. The campaign against the Argentinian pontiff began just days after the death of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.Despite previously stating he will resign if his health deteriorates, it was thought highly unlikely that Francis would decide to step down while Benedict was still alive to avoid there being three Popes living in the Vatican – a situation without precedent that would have embarrassed the Catholic Church.But with Benedict’s death on...

Prince Harry’s claim in his new book that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his military service in Afghanistan is drawing extensive pushback from veterans, who say publishing a head count is violating an unspoken code and could jeopardize security for the British forces as well as himself. Retired British Army Col. Tim Collins, who led troops in battle during the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, was harshly critical of the claim. “This is not how we behave in the army. It’s not how we think,” Col. Collins said in an interview with the Forces News British military news organizations....

Some would argue that chicken fried steak is chicken fried steak no matter where you get it. Those people are obviously not from Texas. Us Texans know that there is a very fine art to making this dish: getting the breading just right so that it’s not too crisp, making sure the coating to meat ratio is even so as not to allow one element to overpower the other, and concocting a perfectly rich, creamy gravy that offsets the crunchiness of the crust. When all of these elements come together, it’s a song from heaven above. So without further ado,...

A female U.S. Army service member from West Penn, Pennsylvania, died suddenly on Christmas Day. U.S. Army Fire Control Specialist Pfc. Briana Kromer, 21, died suddenly at the residence of her fiance in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, while on leave from her post at Fort Still, Oklahoma. According to a fundraising campaign created by Deanne Snyder, Kromer was found unresponsive while in the shower at her fiance’s home. In spite of their best efforts, they were unable to save her. ... Her mother, Michelle and Bri were out shopping Christmas Eve. She went to church then we went to domaggios to eat...

The Republican governor of Texas delivered a frosty welcome to President Joe Biden in El Paso on Sunday, accusing him of opening the southern border to illegal immigrants and handing him a letter demanding that he take more action to tackle the crisis. Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Biden's visit — his first to the border as president — saying that the city had been cleaned up for his trip. And he characterized the trip as '$20 billion too little and two years too late' in a scathing description of Biden's failure to control illegal migration. 'Even the city you visit...

No comment pic.twitter.com/2DzUhtNd19— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) January 8, 2023

A man who showed up late to his date with a woman was in for a surprise when she tried to punish him by making him pay for takeout meals for her kids. The video, shared to Twitter by Raphousetv, documents the hotly-debated situation in which the man attempts to stop the woman as she orders meals for her children. The internet was divided by the video, with many defending the mother - while others say that despite it being rude of him to show up late, it's not his responsibility to buy them food.

A college basketball player collapsed suddenly on the court Saturday, sparking fears among his teammates and fans watching the event.Imo Essien, a sophomore guard at Old Dominion University dropped to the floor while clutching his chest with just over 13 minutes remaining in the first half in a match between ODU and Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.WAVY-TV reported: "After a few tense moments, Essien, who did not appear to lose consciousness, was helped to his feet and walked off the court with the help of the trainers."A statement from the team indicates: "He was responsive throughout and was able...

The human butt has long been the object of all manner of obsessions. We worry over it: its size, its shape, whether or not it has cellulite on it, how it looks in a pair of jeans. But now, a new source of concern emerges: the alarming possibility that one’s butt — or at least, one’s relationship to butts generally — is racist. For this we may thank the existence of Butts: A Backstory, a new book by journalist Heather Radke. To be fair, it surely is not Radke’s intention to inculcate racial anxiety in her reader: Butts feels like...

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A subsidiary of a Chinese state-run energy firm signed a deal Thursday to extract oil in the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas, a subsidiary of the state-run Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, will invest up to $150 million annually, which will increase to $540 million in three years, to pump oil in the Amu River Oil Basin, according to a statement released by the Taliban government. The contract, which represents the Taliban administration’s first international energy deal, was signed in the presence of the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar...

Prince Harry has expressed doubt over the official account of how his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash. "There's a lot of things that are unexplained," he said in an ITV interview about his memoir, Spare. Prince Harry said he had been left with a "post-traumatic stress injury" after his mother's death in 1997 and had struggled to accept she had died. He also spoke of wanting to reconnect with his family, but blamed the UK press for creating "conflict". Harry spoke of the emotional impact of the death of his mother and in his book describes returning...

Two Georgia women, who in 2020 were alleged to have hidden suitcases filled with ballots under the table where they worked, were among those honored Friday with the Presidential Citizens Medal. President Joe Biden used the anniversary of the Capitol incursion to honor 14 people for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 and in the tumult over the 2020 elections. Fulton County poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were later cleared of the allegations. During the ceremony, Biden praised the honorees for their efforts on “July 6th.” “A violent mob of insurrectionists assaulted law enforcement, vandalized sacred halls, hunted...

New Englanders are contending with some of the highest electricity rates in the country this winter as they weather the transatlantic ripple effects of a global gas crunch. Residents of New England’s six states have thus far enjoyed a relatively mild winter without rolling blackouts. But skyrocketing rates — fueled by natural gas price surges and the war in Ukraine — are taking a toll on a region accustomed to cranking up the heat.

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