Free Republic

Texas health officials on Monday declared the measles outbreak that began in West Texas earlier this year is now over after more than 700 cases were confirmed. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said that as of Aug. 18, 762 measles cases were confirmed since January, with the majority of infections occurring in children and most cases involving people who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination statuses. Two deaths occurred in unvaccinated school-age children who lived in the outbreak area, marking the first U.S. measles death in more than a decade. “The Texas Department of State Health Services...

TREMONTON, Utah — Two police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call were shot and killed in Utah, and a man was taken into custody after bystanders persuaded him to drop the gun, authorities said Monday. The officers were identified as Sgt. Lee Sorensen, 56, and Officer Eric Estrada, 31, of the Tremonton-Garland Police Department. A sheriff’s deputy and a police dog also were shot and wounded in their car as they arrived to help at a neighborhood in Tremonton on Sunday night. The deputy from Box Elder County was released from the hospital Monday and the dog was hospitalized...

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR announced Tuesday the 2026 FedExCup Regular Season schedule, which features a total of 35 official FedExCup events and includes the TOUR’s return to Trump National Doral as a new Signature Event. The 2026 Regular Season will culminate with the 20th edition of the FedExCup Playoffs, which concludes in Atlanta with the TOUR Championship, where the world’s best players compete for the ultimate prize, the FedExCup. “We're excited to showcase the game’s greatest players competing at golf’s most iconic venues,” said CEO Brian Rolapp. “Inspired by our players and fans, we’re accelerating the...

-snip- “The Russian demand that Ukraine give up parts of the Donbas would be, just to illustrate the scale, comparable to asking the United States to give up Florida,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters after the White House meeting. During the closed-door meeting, Finnish President Alexander Stubb called the eastern Ukrainian cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk “a bastion against the Huns,” a description that appeared to impress Trump, according to the officials. Zelensky didn’t reject land swaps out of hand during the discussions with Trump, but he said it would be difficult to move populations and override Ukraine’s constitutional...

Asylum seekers are due to be removed from an Essex hotel after a council was granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking them from being housed there. The injunction was sought by Epping Forest District Council to stop migrants being placed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, which is owned by Somani Hotels Limited. Thousands of people have protested near the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the town. Mr Justice Eyre made his judgement after refusing an 11th-hour effort from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to get...

S&P Global on Monday affirmed its 'AA+' credit rating on the U.S., saying the revenue from President Donald Trump's tariffs will offset the fiscal hit from his recent tax-cut and spending bill. Trump signed the massive package of tax-cut and spending bill, dubbed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act', into law in July. The bill, which delivered new tax breaks, also made Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent. "Amid the rise in effective tariff rates, we expect meaningful tariff revenue to generally offset weaker fiscal outcomes that might otherwise be associated with the recent fiscal legislation, which contains both cuts and...

F/A-XX Handout Photo from Northrop Grumman.F/A-XX Handout Photo from Northrop Grumman. ===================================================================== Key Points and Summary: Northrop Grumman’s new concept art for the Navy’s F/A-XX landed with a message: the program isn’t dead yet. ===================================================================== -The design’s clear echo of the YF-23 “Black Widow” signals maturity and continuity, not nostalgia—convergent engineering toward range, stealth, and survivability at sea. -Unlike past winner-take-all fights, F/A-XX isn’t directly competing with the Air Force’s sixth-gen jet, but parallel programs strain budgets and the defense industrial base. -The art is a bid to steady skittish lawmakers and show the Navy has a credible path if...

On Monday night, Sigal Chattah, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, sounded the alarm after a shocking betrayal of justice allowed an alleged child molester to escape accountability, which “outraged” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Gateway Pundit reported Monday that Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, head of the Technological Defense Division at the Israel National Cyber Directorate, was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of attempting to lure minors for sexual purposes. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Alexandrovich was caught attempting to solicit sex from a minor electronically during a multi-agency sting operation targeting child predators. He...

Someone needs to tell Margaret Brennan that Volodymyr Zelensky is the leader of a country at war and not, in fact, a lost little boy looking for his mommy.The CBS anchor on Sunday adopted her irksome trademark tone of reproach in an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio wherein Brennan suggested that a White House meeting the next day might result in the head of Ukraine being “bullied” by President Trump. “You know there’s concern from the Europeans that President Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away,” she said. “That’s why you have these European leaders...

Speaking in an epic press conference about how things are going ever since the state opened “Alligator Alcatraz” to start cracking down on the illegal immigration problem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) explained that voluntary departures of illegal aliens have increased tremendously in the weeks after the state opened Alligator Alcatraz. Speaking about the matter of voluntary deportations picking up ever since Alligator Alcatraz was reopened, the Florida governor said, “Since the opening of Alligator Alcatraz, we have seen an increase in the number of illegal aliens who are taking the voluntary departure where they can get a plane ticket...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has warned that ongoing anti-government protests could soon lead to killings in the streets if violence continues unchecked. He described the escalating unrest as a sign of weakness among demonstrators and promised decisive measures to punish those involved in riots. Vučić emphasized that his administration would resist external pressures and prevail against attempts to destabilize the country. Recent clashes have marked a sharp escalation in the protests, with demonstrators setting fire to offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in cities like Valjevo and Novi Sad. Police responded with tear gas, batons, and stun grenades,...

Dustin Grage @GrageDustin: Flashback to when Sen. Omar Fateh claimed the real terrorists looked like his white Republican colleagues on the Minnesota Senate floor. An ethics complaint was later filed against him for violating the Senate’s code of conduct. Jul 16, 2025 https://x.com/GrageDustin/status/1945576885078933720

When your flagship talk show spends more time reading legal disclaimers than delivering punchlines, the problem isn’t bias—it’s boredom. ... Let’s be clear: The View’s bias isn’t a flaw; it’s the product. It exists as a corporate-subsidized safe space where the Obama-Clinton catechism can be recited without fear of contradiction. Russia stole the election. Trump is a Kremlin agent. Fauci is The Science™. The CIA are the last line of defense against tyranny—so long as they’re not investigating Democrats. The real reason the “liberal media matrix” is dying is not because Trumpists stormed the control room, but because it has...

Putin probably has all the pro-Russian territory of Ukraine already. Ukraine will not give up territory without a fight. Putin will probably effectively insist to the end that: 1. Russian assets to be returned by the EU, US & UK (over a specified time), 2. Ukraine to not be a threat to Russia as follows: a. Ukraine to be neutral, b. Ukraine not to be a member of any military alliance, c. Ukraine not to have secret treaties, d. no foreign military personnel, or any that have been employed by a NATO member government, to be on territory under control...

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has come under fire for stating that it would be unwise to send troops into Ukraine. “We are the only European troop contributor to station a combat-ready brigade in Lithuania. Doing that and also stationing troops in Ukraine would probably be too much for us,” Wadephul told the Table Today Podcast. Sending troops to Ukraine is highly unpopular in Germany among the citizens, despite the government’s eagerness to support Ukraine with manpower. The foreign minister suggested that Germany could provide military and technical support without entering Ukraine. Critics claim he is simply attempting to appease...

Former MSNBC anchor Joy Reid condemned President Donald Trump, Elvis Presley and others on Friday as some of history’s many "mediocre White men" whose achievements are stolen or counterfeit. Reid criticized Trump’s review of the Smithsonian during an interview with Wajahat Ali for his "The Left Hook" substack, in an episode titled, "How Mediocre White Men and Their Fragility Are Destroying America." They argued that across America’s institutions, there is a phenomenon of "mediocre White men" with no actual culture of their own who co-opt the achievements of Black people to aggrandize themselves. Ali opened the episode by talking about...

Serbia has reportedly signed a major contract with Israeli weapons producer Elbit Systems, emphasising the emerging political alliance between the two countries.On August 17, Israeli media reported that the Balkan country would acquire defence technology for $1.6 billion (€1.4 billion) over a five-year period.The agreement comprises two groups of products. On the one hand, Serbia will buy long-range precision strike artillery-rocket systems as well as different unmanned reconnaissance and drones. On the other hand, the country is investing in ISTAR capabilities (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance), which will include night-vision equipment and electronic warfare systems...The agreement will also include...

FRISCO, TX — After witnessing the debut of the Minnesota Vikings' new male cheerleaders, the Dallas Cowboys expressed relief that they would no longer be known as the gayest team in the National Football League. Long regarded as by far the most super-gay NFL franchise, Cowboys executives privately admitted that they were glad to have that crown taken from them by the now vastly more gay Minnesota Vikings. "We now look entirely heterosexual by comparison," said Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones. "I've been trying for years to find a way to get rid of the ‘gayest...

Yosemite National Park fired a park ranger last week for hanging a transgender pride flag on the park’s iconic El Capitan rock formation in May. Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who has been a ranger and a wildlife biologist in the park since 2021, said they were fired Aug. 12 from what they described as their dream job. They said park leadership told them they “failed to demonstrate acceptable conduct” in their role by participating in the trans flag display. “I’m devastated,” said Joslin, who is trans and uses they/them pronouns. “We don’t take our positions in the park service to make...

SoftBank will invest $2 billion into Intel as the struggling chipmaker pulls back on spending and lays off thousands of workers. In an announcement, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the investment aligns with the firm’s belief that “advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States.” SoftBank’s investment in Intel makes it the sixth-largest shareholder, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last year, the Japanese investing firm committed to spending $100 billion in the US during President Donald Trump’s four years in office. SoftBank has already teamed up with OpenAI on Project Stargate, a $500 billion initiative...