Free Republic

The US – the world’s largest foreign aid provider – abruptly froze nearly all overseas assistance on Friday, with exceptions only for emergency food relief and military funding to Israel and Egypt.The sweeping order, issued just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, appears to halt assistance to Ukraine.Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued an internal memo instructing all agencies to immediately suspend foreign aid programs unless explicitly approved by the new administration.“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo,...

Major US tech stocks like Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta and Tesla were set for a stunning $1 trillion rout on Monday as fears over an advanced Chinese artificial intelligence model triggered hysteria from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Shares of Nvidia plunged nearly 13% in early trading, erasing hundreds of billions in value as investors learned about DeepSeek — a China-based startup which has made waves in the industry after launching a free, open-source large-language model in December. DeepSeek claims to have developed the advanced model in just two months at a cost of under $6 million — and without access...

Secession movements have dotted the American landscape for a long time. While the Confederacy was the only secession movement that had any traction, most of these movements were quixotic at best and laughable at worst. There’s a new secession effort on the horizon, and just like the Confederates of the mid-19th century, Democrats are behind it. Newsweek reports that California’s secretary of state has given the green light to a secession movement to gather signatures for a petition to put California’s secession from the U.S. on the ballot in 2028.The reason for this movement is exactly what you would expect.“Calexit,...

President Donald Trump is following through on his promise to reinstate service members who were kicked out of the military for refusing to comply with Covid-19 mandates. Trump is signing an executive order directing the Department of Defense to bring back the affected service members and restore them to their prior rank.

Connecticut’s Democrat Governor Ned Lamont is proudly telling illegal migrants to feel free to move to his state as he is also pushing for even more H-1B migrants to take American jobs. “You’re welcome here,” Lamont said in a recent press conference. CT Insider reported: Last week, Lamont said, “My advice is, send your kids to school. My advice is, keep going to church. We don’t collect the immigration status of people who are going to church or kids who are at school. Our cops are busy trying to keep the streets safe, they’re not asking the immigration status of...

Catholic Charities Milwaukee is outrageously advising illegal aliens on refusing to comply with ICE, demanding rights they do not have, lying about U.S. laws, requesting help from foreign officials in undermining immigration law enforcement, and more. The infamous video in question begins with a woman, Barb Graham, introducing herself as “an attorney at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the Refugee and Immigration Services Program.” She claims to be helping illegal aliens to understand their “rights” if ICE comes to arrest them. “All people living in the United States, including people who are undocumented, have certain rights under...

Politicians and those who have worked in the public broadcasting industry have criticized NPR, PBS, and VOA, claiming that they promote leftist propaganda on the taxpayer’s dime. National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, and Voice of America are facing calls for defunding or reform because of concerns about left-wing bias. Three broadcasting services that receive public funding are being targeted to lose taxpayer money because of purportedly biased coverage. Politicians and those who have worked in the public broadcasting industry have criticized NPR, PBS, and VOA, claiming that they promote propaganda on the taxpayers’ dime. On Inauguration Day, PBS News...

President Trump has banned DEI from the federal government, but the left isn’t going to let it go. The San Antonio Express-News reported the latest race-based hoax, which is the claim that President Trump’s order banning DEI means that the Tuskegee Airmen have been erased from Air Force history as taught to new recruits. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of blacks, ranging from pilots to cooks and nurses, who formed the Army Air Corps’ 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group. They had an excellent combat record, and their abilities went a long way to breaking the color...

Is there some kind of implosion going on in Colombia?Hours after President Trump announced sanctions on the onetime ally for refusing to accept two planeloads of repatriated illegals after agreeing to take them, Colombia's far-left president, Gustavo Petro, now has massive street protests from the locals angry over the foolish fight he picked.🚨BREAKING —> Following today’s pathetic decision by socialist President @petrogustavo, the Colombian people are organizing massive protests demanding his ouster! pic.twitter.com/lfodJMicb8 — Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) January 26, 2025The locals have very good reasons for being angry:.The U.S. imports 17% of its coffee from Colombia. But 40%...

British voters support several key policies associated with U.S. President Donald J. Trump. An Opinium poll involving 2,000 participants surveyed opinions on 16 statements derived from Trump’s inauguration speech, adapted to a British context—and without President Trump’s name attached—finding huge support for a ‘Britain First’ platform. Presented with the pledge, “We will declare a national emergency in the Channel, and we will begin the process of returning thousands and thousands of criminal migrants back to the places from which they came”—a reference to Britain’s ongoing boat migrants crisis—35 percent strongly agreed and 23 percent somewhat agreed, against just 12 percent...

Former second gentleman Doug Emhoff is returning to his career as a private attorney after his wife, former Vice President Kamala Harris, lost the presidential election. A longtime entertainment attorney, Emhoff has joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner and will split his time between Los Angeles and New York, the law firm announced Monday. The announcement indicated Emhoff’s practice will advise corporations on investigations and litigation, “including matters with significant reputational concerns that are international in scope.” “I am delighted to be joining Willkie, where I am looking forward to working alongside trusted and innovative legal counselors,” Emhoff...

Remember back in the fall when ABC did its best to make Donald Trump and JD Vance out to be liars when they said the Venezuelan gang members were causing problems in Colorado? It started during the presidential debate and continued on ABC's "This Week" when Martha Raddatz tried to school Vance on the topic, leading to his viral, "Martha, do you hear yourself?" moment. Well, it's looking more and more like ABC was wrong and the president and vice president were right. (Shocking, I know.) On Sunday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Rocky Mountain Field Division, along with help...

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, voiced her support on Friday for the recent halt in foreign aid seemingly impacting Ukraine. Newsweek has reached out to Greene and the White House via email for comment. Why It Matters Greene, an ally of President Donald Trump, has been a staunch critic of former President Joe Biden's Ukrainian aid amid the Russia-Ukraine war that began nearly three years ago. Trump has also criticized the billions of dollars the Biden administration has spent in supporting Kyiv and has said that if he was at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio exposed the Biden administration’s apparent lie about the Taliban holding more American hostages than originally believed, escalating his rhetoric against Afghanistan’s terrorist leaders on Saturday. Rubio responded to reports that the Taliban could have additional Americans detained in Afghanistan by threatening a “BIG bounty” on those responsible for the heinous act. “Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X. Trump’s top diplomat followed up his bombshell reveal by saying, “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their...

(JTA) — Days after stoking controversy by delivering what some believed to be a Nazi salute and making Holocaust jokes, Elon Musk appeared at a campaign rally for a far-right German political party to tell supporters to be proud of their heritage. Musk’s appearance Saturday at the rally for Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, was unadvertised and came by video. It was the second time in as many weeks that the world’s richest man and close ally of new U.S. President Donald Trump has appeared alongside Alice Weidel, the party’s candidate for chancellor in Germany’s Feb. 23 election. During...

The Mohajer 6 drone is displayed during Iran's defence industry achievements exhibition, on August 23, 2023 in Tehran. Iran unveiled on August 22 its latest domestically built drone that can fly at a higher altitude and for a longer duration with enhanced weapons capabilities, state media reported. (AFP) The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed missiles featuring artificial intelligence technology during military drills in the Gulf, state media reported Monday. The IRGC’S naval force “fired Ghaem and Almas missiles equipped with artificial intelligence from advanced Mohajer-6 and Ababil-5 drones,” the IRNA state news agency said. The report added that...

Selena Gomez shares new Instagram story crying amid the deportation of Mexicans

Daily Readings from the USCCBThe scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Mark 3:22By this time, Jesus was fully engaged in His public ministry. He had healed the sick and lame, cast out many demons, called the Twelve Apostles and given them authority over evil spirits, and preached the Good News to many. Just prior to this Gospel passage, some of Jesus’ own extended family had criticized Him, claiming that Jesus was out of His mind. Then the scribes began their public condemnation...

Home sales in 2024 tumbled to their lowest level in nearly two decades but the Northeast offered a small glimmer of hope in an otherwise challenging year for the housing market.Existing-home sales dropped to 4.06 million in 2024, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a news release on Friday, Jan. 24. That figure marked the worst year for the US housing market since 1995.The sales drop happened as the median price of a home reached a record high of $407,500, up six percent from 2023."The median home price was elevated partly due to the upper-end market's relative better...

During the past seven years, the cost to California lettuce growers of complying with the state’s environmental, labor and food safety regulations has increased by a whopping 63.7%, according to a study commissioned by the Monterey County Farm Bureau and prepared by Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, professors Lynn Hamilton, Ph.D., and Michael McCullough, Ph.D.