Free Republic

JOURNALISM WINS THE 150th PREAKNESS STAKES!

The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section is charged with ensuring cases against elected officials are not politically motivated. The Trump administration is considering changing that.Federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to three people familiar with a proposal delivered to attorneys in the section last week.Under the proposal, investigators and prosecutors would also not be required to consult with the section’s attorneys during key steps of probes into public officials, altering a long-standing provision in the Justice Department’s manual that outlines...

A raid on Abby’s Bakery in Los Fresnos heralded the crackdown to come. Ahead of the owners’ trial for “harboring” undocumented workers, the community is seeing the impact of the president’s policies.Most mornings, Leonardo Baez, a father of seven, wakes up hours before sunrise to mix bread dough in the border city of Los Fresnos, Texas. Punishing and laborious work, yes, but owning a beloved bakery has been a lifelong dream of his, he said.It is now in jeopardy.In February, federal agents swooped down on his shop, Abby’s Bakery, detained workers they said were in the country illegally and pressed...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, followed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of various NATO countries, about ending the war in Ukraine. Trump said the call with Putin will be about stopping the “bloodbath” in Ukraine. “Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end,” Trump wrote Saturday in a post on his social networking site Truth Social. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed in comments to...

WASHINGTON — A key House Republican holdout on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to provide tax cuts, border security, defense spending and green energy clawbacks is still calling for deeper spending cuts to chip away at the national debt — as the legislation heads for a critical vote Sunday. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of several GOPers who tanked the bill in the House Budget Committee on Friday, says he and other fiscal hawks are still hoping for hundreds of billions dollars more in savings to help reduce the nation’s $36 trillion debt. The Texas Republican huddled with White House...

Just this past weekend Trump reshaped the world: Brokered a ceasefire between India and PakistanBrokered and in-person meeting between Ukraine and RussiaAnnounced trade agreement between US and ChinaSigned executive order to slash prices on prescription drugsHamas agreed to release the last known American hostage in GazaSigned executive order for self-deportation program for free flights and financial incentives for illegal aliens to leave the USASigned executive order establishing National Center for Warrior Independence to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans by 2028

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., said he saw "Make Syria Great Again" signs around Damascus as Trump's popularity grows inside the war-torn country. One of the few U.S. members of Congress to meet with Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, says the former terrorist wants to pivot his country away from China, Iran and Russia and closer to the U.S. amid signs of President Donald Trump's growing popularity among the war-weary Syrian people. "There's actually signs around Damascus to say, 'Make Syria Great Again.' So they're big fans of President Trump," Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told the Just the News, No Noise...

SummaryTrump to speak to Putin, Zelenskiy, wants end to 'bloodbath' Russian conditions go further than US proposal, source says Kremlin says negotiations need to remain private Russia's Lavrov notes 'positive role' of U.S. in talks Moscow says Putin could meet Zelenskiy if agreement is reached ISTANBUL, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow's negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian...

Joe Rogan defended Kanye West’s latest song, titled “Heil Hitler,” on his podcast Tuesday and echoed the song’s antisemitic stereotypes. West, who now goes by “Ye,” released the track last week, in which he sings the chorus, ““All my n—s Nazis, n—a, heil Hitler.” It’s the latest in Ye’s long stream of blatantly antisemitic comments and actions. Since its release, it has attracted both harsh criticism as well as some support from conspiracy-minded figures. The chorus of praise also includes Rogan, one of the country’s most popular podcasters, who spoke up for the track’s music as well as its message....

Early one morning in September 2024, two teams of F.B.I. agents descended simultaneously on a pair of homes in Orange County, New York. The agents arrived to serve arrest warrants on Mout’z Soudani, 76, a local real estate investor, and Stewart Rosenwasser, 72, a prominent former judge and recently retired county prosecutor. The two were accused in a conspiracy case. Mr. Soudani surrendered. Mr. Rosenwasser did not. Instead, he barricaded himself inside his home in Campbell Hall, N.Y., a suburb 65 miles north of Manhattan, exchanging gunfire with F.B.I. agents, according to local news reports, which cited an unnamed source...

Emergency crews responded to a major explosion at a Palm Springs building late Saturday morning, as authorities investigate the cause—including the possibility of terrorism. The blast occurred just before 11 a.m. at the American Reproductive Centers on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive. The force of the explosion was felt up to two miles away, and nearby structures sustained damage. “It’s all on the table—including terrorism,” said Lt. William Hutchinson, speaking to The Desert Sun from the scene. Witnesses described hearing a deafening boom, and videos circulating on social media show significant damage, including shattered windows at a...

From habeas petition to its ruling, it took the Supreme Court only about 24 hours to provide relief to Tren de Aragua foreign terrorists.

There is a high probability that the small battery in your smartphone contains lithium from Chilean deposits, Indonesian nickel, as well as cobalt mined in Congolese mines controlled by the Chinese and employing local children. Critical minerals and rare earth metals have today become the central point of geopolitical rivalry between powers, because whoever controls critical minerals controls the future. "You can't produce clean energy without dirty extractive industry." These words from the director of advanced magnet lab perfectly capture the paradox of our times. On one hand we talk about decarbonization and green transformation' on the other we need...

Two other Asian cities made the top 10 of the 2025 Happy City Index - Seoul ranked 6th and Taipei 8th.Singapore has been ranked the world's 3rd "happiest" city for 2025, behind Copenhagen and Zurich. Two other cities in Asia made the top 10 - with Seoul in 6th place and Taipei in 8th. That's according to the Institute for the Quality of Life's latest Happy City Index, which tracked 82 indicators across six major themes that "directly influence" the happiness of residents. The six categories are citizens, governance, environment, economy, health and mobility. Scoring a total of 979 points,...

The number of homeless people in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties is higher than ever, according to the latest numbers from the national biannual homelessness count. Known as the point-in-time count, the federally mandated census takes place every other year and is focused on creating a snapshot of who is homeless on one night in January. It is broadly understood to be an undercount, but officials still view the data as useful in identifying national trends and making comparisons between jurisdictions. Surveyors identified 12,034 homeless people in the tri-county region this January, with 87% of them residing in Multnomah County,...

The U.S. Federal Reserve just pulled off something stealthy — over four days last week, without fanfare, the Fed vacuumed up $43.6 billion in U.S. Treasurys. That’s $8.8 billion in long-dated 30-year bonds on May 8 alone, plus another $34.8 billion earlier in the week. Not exactly small change. Quietly returning to the quantitative-easing trough isn’t standard Fed housekeeping — it’s like a bank robber returning to the scene because he forgot his car keys. Let’s talk straight: This isn’t tightening. It’s stealth easing. It’s monetary policy on tiptoes. Some traders have begun to notice, and smart investors should too....

The man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York arts institute in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday (May 16) for an attack that also wounded a second man, the district attorney said. Rushdie, 77, has faced death threats since the 1988 publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses," which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, denounced as blasphemous, leading to a call for Rushdie's death, an edict known as a fatwa. Hadi Matar, 27, a US citizen from Fairview, New Jersey, was found guilty of attacking the...

A really influential film, seen decades after its influence has percolated into dozens (if not hundreds) of films and redefined a whole genre, can elicit a feeling of déjà vu. Who knew that an ultra low budget horror b-movie would spawn a subgenre that persists to this day (Night of the Living Dead) or a gang picture originally imagined as a western, marketed to dopey teens (The Warriors) would be copied over and over with immensely larger budgets for decades. Then there were the films that looked like game changers from their opening weekend. Anybody leaving The Godfather in the...

Two of the WNBA's best young stars had to be separated during the second half of Saturday afternoon's season-opening contest between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky. Following a hard foul from Caitlin Clark on a layup that found Angel Reese on the ground, the Sky forward quickly jolted herself up off the floor and went after the Fever guard. She was held back by teammates—and a referee—as Clark walked away from the scuffle. Here's a look at both the play and the resulting drama: Clark was assessed a flagrant foul on the play, while both Reese and Clark's...

...while at the same time cutting interest rates for the private EU central bank owned by the same people as the Federal Reserve. Globalist Controlled Rating Agency, Moody’s, Just Downgraded The US Credit Rating In A Desperate Attempt To Stop Trump’s Success In Saving The US Economy And Launching The Golden Age