Free Republic

GREENBELT, MD — A former Trump administration National Security Advisor's legal defense faced an uphill battle, as news broke that John Bolton's mustache had agreed to testify against him in exchange for immunity. The mustache made a brief appearance to answer questions from the media shortly after Bolton surrendered to federal authorities following his indictment on 18 counts of mishandling classified information. "I had no part in this, but I will tell everything I know," the mustache said. "You wouldn't believe the stuff this guy's had his hand in. Espionage. Disseminating top-secret government intel. Working behind the scenes to undermine...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’ll meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary to try to resolve the war in Ukraine, but a date has yet to be determined. "I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation," Trump wrote on Truth Social after his early afternoon phone call with Putin. "[W]e agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A meeting location is to be determined. President Putin and...

A lady who wrote to a financial advice column detailing her financial struggles in accessing healthcare has been told about how easy it is to access assisted suicide, which would mean she “wouldn’t need to worry”. Writing to MarketWatch’s financial advice column, a woman in her sixties detailed how she was concerned about being unable to access Medicaid, a government health insurance programme in the United States, unless she sells off her assets. “It also goes against my principles to dispose of my assets just so the government will support me”, she said. As age and life experiences have left...

NYC is experiencing a sex crime wave. Mamdani will make it worse.There have been over 1,600 rapes, 2,000 sexual assaults with penetration and over 4,300 sex crimes as part of a staggering wave of assaults so far this year in New York City. Total rapes were up 42% in just the past week, and as an exclusive FPM+ report titled ‘New Rape City’ revealed, are up as high as 300% in some parts of the city. And it’s getting worse. In the middle of this shocking wave of sexual assaults, Zohran Mamdani, the socialist candidate currently ahead in the mayoral...

Ideologues foisting the harmful lies of transgenderism onto kids should be laughed — and prosecuted — out of polite society.When the transgender fever fully subsides, it won’t be because of how celebrities like Kiera Knightley respond to idiotic questions about it. But it’s telling when celebrity windsocks no longer feel obligated to pay ritual fealties to social contagions, because social contagions rely on ritual fealties to survive.In a Decider interview published last week, Knightley — who voices a character in a forthcoming audiobook recording of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series — was asked if she was “aware” of the fury...

FIRST ON FOX — A sign featuring coded language threatening President Donald Trump and equating his supporters with Nazis greeted guests to an event last week headlined by Michigan Democrat gubernatorial front-runner Jocelyn Benson and U.S. Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow. The sign, displayed by local Democrats, said "MAGA=NAZI" and "86 47." The number "86" originated in restaurants to mean "cancel" or "throw out," but in underworld slang it is frequently used as a call sign for murdering someone. The number "47" is commonly interpreted as denoting the 47th president of the United States, Trump. Recently, when Trump foe James Comey...

Townhall has been hearing whispers that the longtime New York Senator could be retiring from public life for numerous reasons, not least being that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) could make good on her move to primary him. Now, AOC venturing outside the state could be an early move to consolidate her national constituency for a 2028 presidential run, which she could do, but she has options. And this seat is gettable for her: Schumer is not well-liked among Democratic voters, and his fundraising has been abysmal.

President Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House today. The meeting is scheduled for around 3:00pm ET with livestream links below.

And Copilot is coming for your Windows 11 Search Bar ================================================================= Microsoft is pushing to make every Windows 11 PC an AI PC. In new updates, the company is focusing on further integrating AI into Windows 11 apps and experiences (not just chatbots), and making voice as much of an input option as the keyboard and mouse. The idea, Microsoft says, is that AI on a PC should be easy and natural to interact with in either text or voice; that it should be able to see your screen and information and help; and that it should be able, with...

In the shadowy corridors of power, where Democrats have long peddled their illusions of a kinder, gentler America, the truth has finally broken through like a sledgehammer. For two decades under leftist presidents—think Obama’s apologies and Biden’s bungles—the United States surrendered its edge, trading raw strength for rainbow flags and eco-sermons. Wokeism and DEI weren’t just words; they were weapons of self-destruction, softening our borders, weakening our military, and inviting chaos from abroad.Adversaries laughed as they grew bolder, turning empty threats into real assaults on our allies, flooding our streets with poison that hooked millions. Illegal aliens poured in, draining...

President Trump said Thursday that if Hamas does not heed repeated warnings to stop bloodshed in Gaza, the U.S. will have “no choice” but to use lethal force.“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president posted on Truth Social.Asked later in the Oval Office by The Hill whether that meant U.S. forces would take out Hamas, Trump said, “It’s not going to be us.”“Somebody will go in. It’s not going to be us....

The remapping of global supply chains.When President Trump announced a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, in retaliation for Beijing’s latest export controls on rare earth elements, markets saw only the headline risk. But the real story lies beyond the ticker: a structural reordering of global trade. The world’s supply chains, long anchored to the Chinese mainland, are splintering.Capital is scattering across Asia’s periphery, and shipping routes that once followed predictable trans-Pacific lines are being redrawn into a new web of uncertainty and opportunity. Alongside an eastward turn worth $100 billion in investment, the trends of the last 30 years...

Development follows string of new scandals and huge pressure from the KingPrince Andrew is set to give up all of his titles, including the Duke of York, the Telegraph understands. The development follows a string of new scandals concerning his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. It is understood he will put all his titles “in abeyance” having come under huge pressure from the King. He will also give up his membership of the Order of the Garter but will, however, remain a prince, having been born the son of Elizabeth II. The Duke’s...

On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted for the 10th time to prolong the federal government shutdown. They also voted against funding the military, thereby necessitating that the Pentagon initiate some innovative accounting in order to ensure service members are paid on time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his caucus’s latest vote, opining, “It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety.” But to most Americans, such tendentious bloviating falls...

Samantha Eggar, the vivacious British actress whose five-year run starting in 1965 included enthralling performances in The Collector, Return From the Ashes, Doctor Dolittle and The Molly Maguires, has died. She was 86. Eggar died Wednesday at her home in Sherman Oaks, her daughter, actress Jenna Stern (House of Cards), told The Hollywood Reporter. She had struggled with illness the past five years but “lived a long, fabulous life,” Stern said. After Natalie Wood reportedly turned down the role, Eggar magnificently blended strength and vulnerability to receive a best actress Oscar nomination for her turn as an innocent art student...

The Russia-Ukraine war has continued despite months of negotiations because neither side is ready yet to make a peace deal, US Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Thursday with the conservative news network Newsmax. -snip- Vance pointed to what he called a “misalignment of expectations,” saying “the Russians tend to think that they’re doing better on the battlefield than they actually are,” which he said has made negotiations more difficult in recent months.

Before and after.

A federal grand jury has indicted two far-left extremists with ties to Antifa-linked groups on terrorism charges in connection with a coordinated, ambush attack on a Texas ICE facility on July 4. The indictments, which were handed down Wednesday and unsealed Thursday, were issued against Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts on charges of providing material support for terrorism, attempting to murder federal and assisting officers and discharging firearms during attempted murders. “For the first time ever, the FBI has arrested anarchist violent extremists and charged these Antifa-aligned individuals with material support to terrorism,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a...

General Flynn is on top of this. He hints today that former Vice President Mike Pence was not what he claimed to be. We reported on Mike Pence extensively before and after Jan 6, the day that Pence showed his true colors and went down in history as a Brutus. We wrote: Former Vice President Mike Pence was chosen by then-candidate Trump during the 2016 primaries. He came across as a quiet and mild-mannered Christian man from the Midwest who loved his country. What we didn’t know back then was what lay beneath that facade. We learned while President Trump...