Free Republic

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is moving quickly on President Donald Trump’s directive to overhaul the State Department and has notified Congress of plans to eliminate or consolidate more than 300 offices. On Thursday, Rubio notified Congress of some of the plan’s particulars. The elimination or consolidation of more than 300 department offices amounts to nearly 45% of the State Department’s stateside offices, according to a document shared with The Daily Signal by a senior State Department official. The document outlines that these bureaus will focus on energy and technology, humanitarian affairs, internal operations, foreign assistance, strategy, and security, respectively....

MSNBC’s Katelyn Burns took to dramatic fearmongering on Wednesday that the ‘big, beautiful bill’ would kill trans-identifying individuals.In an article griping about President Trump’s plan to keep Medicaid from paying for transgender hormone injections, MSNBC repeated the debunked falsehood that lack of access to so-called “gender-affirming care” will cause people to die.The “one big, beautiful bill,” which passed the House and is making its way through the Senate, would prevent taxpayer dollars from funding opposite-sex hormones for adults and minors. But MSNBC’s Katelyn Burns, a freelance columnist who proclaims the title “the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S....

Migrants illegally in the US are facing a new challenge, as they head to immigration court their cases are being dropped. But although that might sound like a good thing, having a case in court gave people temporary legal status in America, that dissapears when the case does, leading to mass arrests... Activists are having meltdowns.

Explanation: What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Although details remain uncertain, it surely has to do with an ongoing battle with its smaller galactic neighbor. The featured galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partner is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. This ring's blue color is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner galaxy appears older, redder, and threaded...

Chaotic scenes unfolded in lower Manhattan as federal agents stormed Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's office and handcuffed a female staffer in dramatic video footage. The 77-year-old longtime congressman erupted in fury after Department of Homeland Security officers burst into his office Wednesday before accusing his staff of 'harboring rioters' in scenes captured on video. 'President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are sowing chaos in our communities, using intimidating tactics against both citizens and non-citizens in a reckless and dangerous manner,' Nadler said in statement to Politico. 'If this can happen in a Member of Congress's office, it can...

MT. VERNON, VA — In a massive scandal upending centuries of historical beliefs, researchers have discovered that George Washington signed the vast majority of his orders with an auto-feather device. "After careful study and research of early American history, we've discovered a device called the 'Auto-Feather' that George Washington used to sign pretty much every one of his presidential orders," historian Fineas T. Barlow told the press. "We have even learned he used the auto-feather device to issue military orders and even to sign letters to his wife." Historians discovered the auto-feather while looking through an old storage cupboard in...

Hundreds of billions of screaming insects are emerging from the ground throughout the US in a jarring sight that hasn't taken place in 17 years. The long-awaited cicada invasion is here, and the bugs have already been spotted hatching in at least three states: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Scientists are also expecting billions more to emerge at any moment in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This startling awakening of cicadas is referred to as Brood XIV. The insects last appeared in 2008, and now the next window in their synchronized...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Sunday that he would support President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" if the debt ceiling hike was removed. Paul told CBS' "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that he and three other Republican senators will hold out against the bill unless it is modified. "I think there are four of us at this point, and I would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good direction," Paul said. "I want the tax cuts to be permanent. But at the same time, I don't wanna raise the debt ceiling...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on CBS News to counter the false information being spread by Margaret Brennan on behalf of Wall Street corporations. The topics of interest surround China and tariffs. Let me clarify for the audience that does not follow closely. Tariffs are paid by the importer based on the wholesale price of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate. Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer...

DECATUR, Ga. — The saga continues at a DeKalb County home where squatters are still planning a summer pool party -- even after a key figure was reportedly taken into custody and police increased patrols in the area. Just days after their father passed away, a metro Atlanta family says strangers moved into his DeKalb County home without permission and began throwing parties. Four siblings—Lisa, Kevin, Marcus, and Marlene—say they grew up in the home, which makes it even more painful to see how it's being treated now. The squatters have posted videos from inside the house and are now...

“Let’s keep this our little secret,” child predators sometimes tell their victims. This apparently was the attitude, too, of a Nevada official who was hiding youth “trans” castration surgeries from parents. This man was also using a loophole to get Medicaid (our tax dollars) to pay for the sexual-distortion treatments (SDTs).This time, however, the dark secret has been brought to light, by an undercover operation by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). As that organization reported Friday (note: the official, being woke, uses the wrong pronouns to identify a cited youth):Deshaun Eli Mack, a Family Services Specialist with the Nevada DHHS [Department...

Staring at a fern in my apartment, a wild thought strikes me: this plant might be pulling off quantum tricks to soak up sunlight.Quantum physics -- the bizarre world of particles dancing as waves and entangled across space -- isn’t just for labs or sci-fi flicks. It’s the hidden pulse of life on Earth and our guide to finding life among the stars. With rules like superposition (particles existing in multiple states) and entanglement (spooky links defying distance), quantum mechanics shapes everything from chloroplasts to cosmic chemistry. How does this subatomic weirdness drive life here and fuel our search for...

Evidence of human violence towards other humans during the Paleolithic period is rarely seen in the archaeological record. According to a Live Science report, however, one such case occurred around 17,000 years ago in what is today northern Italy. In 1973, archaeologists uncovered in the Riparo Tagliente rock shelter the partial skeletal remains of a man, known as Tagliente 1, who they determined had died in his 20s.Although the reasons were not readily apparent at the time, recent reanalysis of his bones suggests he may have been the victim of a bloody ambush. Electron microscope scanning and 3D imaging revealed...

Micro-brain sensors placed between hair strands overcome traditional brain sensor limitations. Georgia Tech researchers have developed an almost imperceptible microstructure brain sensor to be inserted into the minuscule spaces between hair follicles and slightly under the skin. The sensor offers high-fidelity signals and makes the continuous use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in everyday life possible. BCIs create a direct communication pathway between the brain's electrical activity and external devices such as electroencephalography devices, computers, robotic limbs, and other brain monitoring devices. Brain signals are commonly captured non-invasively with electrodes mounted on the surface of the human scalp using conductive electrode...

A doctor in the south-central region of Los Angeles County is calling it quits after years of battling denizens of a rooftop homeless encampment that have continuously terrorized her and her employees, costing the general practitioner tens of thousands of dollars in the process. Dr. Tahani Soliman owns the building she runs her practice out of on the corner of Rugby and Zoe avenues in Huntington Park. A multi-level parking garage next door to her practice has reportedly been a hub for unhoused people, who are easily able to access her roof, camp out, steal electricity and scrap metal from...

Ukrainian forces target 5 airfields deep inside Russia, striking 40 aircraft including bombers and reconnaissance planes Ukrainian forces destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes with a drone attack on air bases deep within Russian territory on Sunday. Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the attack, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95...

Two unofficial exit polls at 7pm have the results at 50.1% and 50.3% respectively for PO (Tusk's) candidate Rafal Trzaskowski.

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if the so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill became law, it would “throw poor people away.” Host Kristen Welker said, “One of the big issues in what is now called the big, beautiful bill act is Medicaid, and he makes the argument people should have to work in er to get Medicaid benefits. What’s wrong with that argument? Why shouldn’t people have to go to work in ER to get Medicaid?” Warnock said, “This is what the legislation does; they’ll throw poor people away. I believe in work. I...

For the fourth consecutive year, the Atlantic hurricane season kicks off without a named storm forming before June 1, and there are no immediate signs of formation. The Atlantic Basin hurricane season spans 183 days, running from the start of June through Nov. 30. Historically, the basin’s first named storm tends to form around June 20, with an average season producing around 14 named systems. However, in years that are expected to be busier than usual, named storms generally need to form before their letter’s climatological date to meet seasonal projections.

Ukraine launched a "large-scale" drone attack deep into Russian territory that security officials claim destroyed 40 military bombers as it gears up for another round of talks in Istanbul to explore prospects of a ceasefire. A Ukrainian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the attack took over a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones hit airfields including the Belaya air base in Russia's Irkutsk region, more...