Free Republic

About 50 survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau will return to the site on Monday to remember the day it was finally liberated on 27 January 1945. They will be joined by heads of state including King Charles and other European royalty, Emmanuel Macron of France and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. But it will be the survivors - most in their late 80s and 90s - not the dignitaries, whose voices will be heard during the commemorations at the camp, where 1.1 million people were murdered, most of them Jews. Their message is to tell the world what...

Have you traced your family tree? The origin of some of the most popular last names can reveal a lot about a family’s history. Some surnames say a lot about a family’s history without any further explanation — consider Schwarzenegger, Obama, or even Boyardee. But even common last names can hold a lot of significance and provide a glimpse into someone’s heritage. Smith — the most common last name in the United States — is shared by more than 2 million Americans, yet it holds an etymological clue to understanding how those people might connect to their ancestors. Let’s look...

[Catholic Caucus] “Angelic Sins” and the New OrthodoxyIn my previous article, "Pope Francis’s Autobiography, or Why the Pope Shouldn’t Be a Psychoanalyst," I outlined the problem that arises when someone wielding as much authority as the Holy Father bases his assessments of the faithful under his care on personal assumptions about their psychological issues, combined with a tendency to generalize individual observations (not to mention potential imaginations) to a segment of the Church community.However, the entire situation—of which Pope Francis’ words in his autobiography are merely a symptomatic manifestation—has broader dimensions. Undoubtedly, there are many, but here I would like...

Every so often, when the conversation veers toward the societal costs of illegal immigration, one can almost predict the emergence of a tired refrain, delivered with all the sincerity of a child rehearsing lines for a school play. “Who will pick our crops?” they ask, as though this plaintive wail were some profound economic insight rather than the rhetorical equivalent of a fig leaf hastily employed to cover up moral abdication. It’s a question designed not to spark a discussion on the issue, as you’ll often find they can’t discuss much further than that line. It’s brought up as a...

President Donald Trump says he will impose 25 percent "emergency" tariffs on Colombian goods after the South American nation refused to allow two two flights from the US carrying returning migrants to land. “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals," Colombia President Gustavo Petro said in a statement on Sunday, Jan. 26. "I deny the entry of American planes with Colombian migrants into our territory. “The US must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them." In response, Trump said Petro's actions jeopardized US national security and that the tariffs would jump to 50...

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla and a vocal critic of the U.S. foreign policy, has embarrassingly folded to President Donald Trump’s strategic pressure, making a drastic U-turn by sending the presidential plane to collect Colombian deportees previously barred from landing. This move comes after Petro’s initial bravado in blocking two U.S. military deportation flights, a decision that sparked a fiery response from the Trump administration. President Trump, in a characteristic show of force, didn’t just criticize Petro’s actions but retaliated heavily by implementing severe economic and travel sanctions against Colombia. The sanctions included an emergency imposition of...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The State Bar of Texas is dropping efforts to discipline Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations that his failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election amounted to professional misconduct. The decision, revealed Wednesday in court filings, ends a yearslong attempt to potentially sanction Paxton over making false claims of fraud when he filed a lawsuit that questioned Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Republican President Donald Trump. The move comes a month after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Paxton’s top deputy could not be sanctioned over similar accusations. A disciplinary commission...

WATCH: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's full remarks upon swearing in

President Donald J. Trump may reject the credentials of the far-left British government’s incoming ambassador to the U.S. Labour Party grandee, Lord Peter Mandelson, who previously branded the American President a “bully,” a “danger to the world,” and “little short of a white nationalist and a racist.” Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s choice of the scandal-ridden “Prince of Darkness” for the role generally assigned to career diplomats is inexplicable to many. Mandelson had to resign in disgrace from Tony Blair’s Cabinet on two occasions, only to be given a de facto promotion to the European Commission, where he was also...

The reason that I'm making this prayer request a Catholic Caucus, I know that our brothers in Christ don't believe in prayer through intercession which I respect. My younger brother was recently diagnosed with metastatic cancer in his spine, liver and ribs. Short of a miracle from our Lord, the outlook is not promising. Our grandmother was raised with her cousin, Catholic Bishop Vincent McCauley who is listed as a Servant of God. I would ask for an intercession prayer from Catholic members and a prayer from my Christian brothers and sisters for healing through Jesus's name. Thank you.Lord, we...

President Donald Trump took questions from reporters as he traveled to disaster sites in North Carolina and Los Angeles on Friday and at one point discussed Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) – who Trump said looked like he got “hit with a baseball bat.” A reporter asked Trump, “Senator Schiff was joining you on this trip and he was too busy. Are you disappointed?” “I don’t know. I was told that Schiff was going to travel with us to California. I wasn’t thrilled, to be honest with you,” Trump replied, adding: “And I saw him last night on television. It looks...

The Monroe Doctrine, established in 1823, was originally drafted to protect U.S. interests against European powers that could try to recolonize South American countries gaining independence from Spain and to ward off Russian moves into the Pacific Northwest. Czarist Russia bloodlessly desisted from attempts to colonize the West Coast and Alaska. However, U.S. hemispheric dominance has proved more difficult to enforce in Latin America, involving the U.S. in local conflicts that have led to past military interventions. President Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, declared before the Organization of American States in 2013 that “the Monroe Doctrine is over.” But...

An Ohio woman died in her backyard as a result of the harsh winter weather while letting her dog outside, according to authorities. Eugenia Michele Wadman, 43, was found dead in her backyard on Jan. 19 just before 11 a.m....wearing only “light pajamas” when the misfortune fell on Saturday night. Wadman “appeared to have fallen and sustained injuries consistent with struggling and crawling on the snow-and-ice-covered yard,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, according to the sheriff’s office. A preliminary investigation indicates she may have injured herself and fallen onto the icy ground where she was immobilized due to...

He railed against some TV channels claiming the raids are "random." It's not happening. It's not random, it's surgical tageting criminals first. Sweeps do not occur.

A number of President Trump’s most vocal and controversial allies are considering runs for governor in 2026, opening the door to the president having more influence in state capitals across the country. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) has been laying the groundwork for a run in Florida, while former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) also said he has started to think about a run in the state. Vivek Ramaswamy has said he will launch a bid in Ohio, while Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said this week she is “seriously considering” a run for governor in her state. And Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)...

A Florida Republican has demanded President Donald Trump spare thousands of migrants from deportation amid fears his crackdown could hurt the GOP. Trump aggressively went full-steam ahead with his pledge to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in US history in his first week back in power, arresting over 2,000 people in a widespread crackdown and put and end to Biden-era immigration programs. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar issued a desperate letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday begging them to spare migrants who entered the country under Biden's 'humanitarian parole' program from deportation. While Trump won...

After four years, federal officials under President Trump are once again working on the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump's new border patrol chief, Michael Banks, says the construction of the wall exemplifies the administration's "commitment to enhancing infrastructure and operational effectiveness." Banks also posted images of the construction underway in New Mexico (Deming), saying that they are working on plugging gaps in the wall that were left after former President Joe Biden stopped construction of the wall in early 2021.

President Trump fumed on Sunday after Colombia turned back two US military flights carrying deported migrants — vowing to impose sanctions and an “emergency 25% tariff” on the South American country. “I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia,” Trump wrote Sunday.

Explanation: Why does this comet have so many tails? C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has developed several long and intricate tails visible from Earth's southern hemisphere over the past two weeks. Many observers reported seeing the impressive comet without any optical aid above the western horizon just after sunset. At least six different tails appear in the featured image captured five days ago from the dark skies above Paranal Observatory in Chile. One possible cause for the multiple tails is dust and gas being expelled from the comet's rotating nucleus. The outward push of the Sun's complex solar wind may also play...

Vice President JD Vance fired back at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops over its denunciation of the Trump administration rule change allowing ICE raids in churches and schools. Last week, the religious group slammed the move for “turning places of care, healing, and solace into places of fear and uncertainty for those in need” and warned that it endangers “the trust between pastors” and “the people they serve.”