Free Republic

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has accepted US accusations that Europe was doing too little to fund its own defence and security, but now believes they are on the same page. "We know we have to do more on our own and we have been free-riders in the past," he told the BBC's Today Programme, "they're asking us to do more and we are doing more." Merz was in the UK to boost defence ties with Germany, as part of a historic friendship treaty that also aims to tackle irregular migration and promote youth exchanges. ...Merz told Nick Robinson, in his...

The Department of Justice announced that a former Voice of America employee has been indicted for making death threats against not only Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), but also directed at her family and members of her staff. A press release issued Thursday from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and Chief Michael G. Sullivan of the United States Capitol Police said that the Maryland resident has been charged "with influencing a federal official by threatening a family member, influencing a federal official by threat, interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, and anonymous telecommunications harassment." "Seth Jason, of...

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My latest song. Don't be negative.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he has directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release relevant grand jury testimony related to the disgraced, late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Religion Forum threads labeled *Prayer* are closed to debate of any kind.

President Donald Trump calling Israeli Prime Minister...Israel's deadly bombing... Tucker Carlson with a special release tonight discussing the Jeffrey Epstein... The "Wall Street Journal" out with a story...Trump saying the story is falsified... Later this evening...Trump on Truth Social saying he is directing Attorney General... In Southern Syria tonight fighting is raging between trial fighters and Druze militia...Israeli air attacks... A Maryland man arrested for threatening Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene... as outsider politicians...Massie...Greene...push for release of those Jeffrey Epstein files the insider politicians... A government committee in Israel voting this evening to fire the Attorney General... The US Senate...

It’s finally passed and heading for President Trump's desk for signature. The recissions package has made it over the finish line in a 216-213 vote in the House. It had to be bounced back from the Senate, which passed it on a 51-48 vote, as the upper chamber had made slight adjustments to it during the vote-a-rama process. The GOP has slim majorities in Congress, but they’re getting the Trump agenda through. 216-213:House approved the Trump WH's 1st round of DOGE spending cuts, $9B in foreign aid & public broadcasting from previously approved funding by Congress. Republicans Fitzpatrick (PA) &...

Moa were nine species of giant flightless endemic birds that belonged to six genera grouped into three different families. They evolved into a wide variety of sizes to become the largest terrestrial herbivores in prehistoric New Zealand.

Our country cannot get its fiscal house in order unless and until it starts slowing the explosion of Medicare spending.The budget reconciliation measure Congress recently passed includes some important reforms designed to help reduce entitlement spending. But any realistic assessment of the nation’s fiscal position reinforces why Washington must go much further in reducing spending than the half-measures enacted in recent weeks.In March, as lawmakers were beginning debate on the “big, beautiful bill,” the Congressional Budget Office released its annual version of the “Long-Term Budget Outlook,” which features economic and budgetary projections for the next three decades. The CBO report...

Auditors found one in 35 voters didn’t have proof of citizenship — then looked the other way.After revelations that Oregon’s “motor voter” system registered hundreds of possible noncitizens, the state government launched an audit. Auditors found one in 35 voters didn’t have proof of citizenship — then looked the other way.Oregon officials discovered in September hundreds of potential noncitizens had registered to vote. They examined limited data and eventually found the motor voter system had placed more than 1,600 possible ineligible voters on the rolls. State leaders commissioned an audit — which, as Oregon journalist Jeff Eager first reported, found...

According to a statement released by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), LMU researcher Enrique Jiménez was able to decipher a Babylonian hymn that had been lost for 2,000 years. Jiménez, in collaboration with the University of Baghdad, is working on digitizing all cuneiform tablets from the legendary ancient Sippar Library, once located on the banks of the Euphrates River north of Babylon. Using artificial intelligence, the team was able to identify 30 different fragmentary pieces from the same composition, which turned out to be a previously unknown hymn consisting of 250 lines. The piece was written by an ancient...

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would...

Live by the federal subsidy ... well, you know the rest. And if not, Robert Kennedy Jr just served up a big reminder.Republicans in Congress got thwarted in their attempt to defund providers delivering pediatric sex-change therapies. Instead, the HHS Secretary will act within his authority to deny Medicare and Medicaid funds to hospitals and clinics that provide these services, forcing them into a choice between funding for actual care and pandering to the extreme Left at the expense of children. National Review got the scoop:The Department of Health and Human Services will soon begin the rule-making process to prohibit...

Late Thursday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal published an "exclusive" involving President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. That "scoop," as our Joe Cunningham notes, amounts to a "bawdy" birthday card purportedly sent by Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday...in 2003. Setting aside the time, context, and rather ridiculous nature of the described communication, WSJ noted that Trump flat-out denied having authored the note. "This is not me," he said in response to the story. "This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of...

There's rarely a dull moment in New York City politics, and the mayoral race is no exception, with all of the candidates in the race continuing to make the push to convince Big Apple residents that they are the one to lead the iconic city for the next four years.Democrat nominee and media darling Zohran Mamdani, for instance, was paraded around Capitol Hill on Tuesday by another admitted Democrat Socialist, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an effort to win over Congressional holdouts in their party who have not yet endorsed Mamdani in part over concerns about his pro-Hamas, antisemitic views...

Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublin’s relationship with Washington. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee accused Ireland of “diplomatic intoxication” Tuesday in a sharp rebuke of the draft legislation, invoking a derogatory stereotype of the Irish people. “Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober...

We already knew that Donald Trump was acquainted with Jeffrey Epstein. The two were both young New York City multi-millionaires back in the day and ran with some of the big dogs in a big town. There are photos of Epstein with Trump and his then-girlfriend, Melania. So one wonders why it would be BLOCKBUSTER news on the pages of the Wall Street Journal that Trump received an invitation to Epstein's 50th birthday before anyone with a badge and gun knew the financier was a sick pervert. No, really, that's the big news from the Journal that has been leaking...

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CBS announced the cancellation of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert - just days after the host blasted the network's $16 million settlement with President Trump as a 'big fat bribe.' Colbert's show, which began in 2015, will now come to an end in May 2026, executives with the network and Paramount, its new parent company, announced on Thursday. 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,' they said in a statement. 'We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time,'...