Free Republic

The therapy, marketed as Zepbound and Mounjaro, took the crown from Merck at a striking paceMerck, which has claimed bragging rights as the maker of the world’s best-selling drug, Keytruda, since 2023, has officially been surpassed by Eli Lilly. Lilly’s tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity, saw $10.1 billion in sales in the third quarter, the pharma giant said Thursday, bringing year-to-date sales of the product to $24.8 billion. Merck, meanwhile, reported that Keytruda, a cancer immunotherapy, earned $8.1 billion in the third quarter, bringing year-to-date sales to $23.3 billion. Tirzepatide took the crown...

Activist Judge Collen Kollar-Kotelly BLOCKED President Trump’s proof of citizenship requirement for federal voter registrations. This is nothing more than pure lawlessness. It is becoming more evident by the day that Democrats depend on fraud and broken election systems in order to gain control over the American people and push their dangerous policies. Kollar-Kotelly sided with far-left Democratic groups that sued the Trump administration for having the audacity to demand that voters in US elections are actually US citizens. According to the AP, Judge Kollar-Kotelly ruled that asking for proof of citizenship violated the separation of powers. That doesn’t make...

As the saying goes, the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Last week, The Daily’s news section published a piece titled, “Hoover-affiliated historian calls fascism fears a ‘category error’ amid No Kings protests.” As someone who attended the lecture titled, “Is this the End of the Post-WWII New World Order,“ I paid close attention to the commentary from two prize-winning historians, Niall Ferguson and David M. Kennedy, and former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. And for a talk that was two hours long, the title does a comically awful job at capturing the conversation’s complexity. Instead, it focused on...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released additional FBI files Wednesday revealing that hundreds more Republican groups and persons were targeted in a “fishing expedition” brought by special counsel Jack Smith. In a press conference alongside other GOP senators, Grassley announced that he was making public the 197 subpoenas issued by Smith as part of the Arctic Frost probe, which became “the vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.” “I’ve obtained through legally protected whistleblower disclosures,” Grassley said. “197 subpoenas were issued by Jack Smith and his team. These subpoenas were...

In deep Big Papi voice: Daa ... Doyers lose!After being outlasted in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium — a marathon of a watch that is tied for the longest game in World Series history — the Toronto Blue Jays are now one victory away from the franchise’s first championship since 1993 (they also won it in 1992). The series, which stands at 3-2 in their favor, will now resume in Canada.Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who walked through the playoffs like Thanos with all the Infinity Stones, have struggled to get hits from its very expensive lineup. They were so...

Documents show Maduro drafted letter asking Russia for missiles, radars and upgraded aircraft as U.S. forces amass in the Caribbean.Amid a buildup of American forces in the Caribbean, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is reaching out to Russia, China and Iran to enhance its worn military capabilities and solicit assistance — requesting defensive radars, aircraft repairs and potentially missiles — according to internal U.S. government documents obtained by The Washington Post. The requests to Moscow were made in the form of a letter meant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and was intended to be delivered during a visit to the Russian...

Downtown Santa Cruz will be closed to vehicle traffic on Halloween as thousands of costumed people are expected to pack Pacific Avenue and surrounding streets. To keep celebrations safe, Santa Cruz police have designated the downtown core a Safety Enhancement Zone, with triple fines for violations, including public drinking, fighting, and disorderly conduct. The zone runs all weekend and ends Monday morning. Police say there will be a heavy law enforcement presence, and they’re treating Halloween as a multi-day event as crowds began celebrating early. Families can trick-or-treat downtown from 2 p.m. to sundown before nightlife crowds take over. Businesses...

Kumar, who is running for Santa Clara County Assessor, claims the text “could not have originated from” the campaignThe campaign text that flashed across Sunnyvale City Councilmember Richard Mehlinger’s phone pledged that Rishi Kumar would put money back into his pocket if elected as the next Santa Clara County Assessor. Kumar, a former Saratoga City Councilmember, is one of four candidates looking to fill the seat left vacant after longtime Assessor Larry Stone stepped down earlier this year. But Mehlinger already had endorsed one of Kumar’s opponents — Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor — and decided to write...

The elections on Tuesday hardly seem to be top of mind for President Trump.He has spent the last week crisscrossing Asia, talking trade, nuclear weapons and rare earths, and is headed to Florida this weekend. He has not appeared in person in any of the major states hosting elections, like New Jersey or California, to pump up his party’s candidate or cause. In Virginia, where a weak Republican candidate for governor is lagging behind an impervious-looking Democrat, he’s offered only a tepid endorsement late in the campaign.(This has not, of course, stopped Democrats from talking about him, either in California,...

The U.S. has deployed troops and anti-ship missiles into the northern Philippines as part of almost continuous, joint war drills throughout the country. One goal is to block the Bashi Channel and deny Chinese warships access to the Pacific Ocean if Beijing launches an attack on Taiwan. As a former Philippine military chief told Reuters: You can’t invade Taiwan if you don’t control the northern Philippines.BATANES, Philippines - Marilyn Hubalde still remembers the first time she heard the thunderous chop of military helicopters swooping over this northernmost outpost of the Philippines, less than 90 miles from Taiwan. It was April...

Harrison Ford says Donald Trump "doesn't have any policies, he has whims." He criticized Trump's policies, saying, "He's making money, hand over fist, while the world goes to hell in a handbasket." The Blade Runner actor declared, "I don't know of a greater criminal in history." Former president Thunderbolt Ross is hulking out at the Trump administration. Harrison Ford has criticized Donald Trump, slamming the politician's climate policies and announcing that the world is going "to hell" due to the current administration's "hubris" and "lies." "[He] doesn't have any policies, he has whims," Ford said in a new interview with...

'You can't just destroy small communities along the way'An impassioned and oftentimes angry cohort from a small California city turned up ready for a fight this week in opposition to the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s proposal to bisect the town. On Monday, residents of Shafter, a rural town of 22,000 just about 20 miles northwest of Bakersfield, showed up en masse to provide almost two hours of unanimous testimony opposing the plan to their city council. Individual pleas from community members often began calmly and then crescendoed into yelling (or even escalated to holding back tears) following a presentation by...

Opposition lawmakers and civil society activists say Ukraine’s leadership is using lawfare to intimidate opponents and silence critics. As Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, then head of Ukraine’s state-owned national power company Ukrenergo, was scrambling to keep the lights on.Somehow, he succeeded and continued to do so every year, earning the respect of energy executives worldwide by ensuring the country was able to withstand Russian missile and drone strikes on its power grid and avoid catastrophic blackouts — until he was abruptly forced to resign in 2024, that is.Kudrytskyi’s dismissal was...

I mean, since when do we judge people solely based on their statements, beliefs, actions, and behavior…? @TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/omJcg8Eknd— Ami Kozak (@amiKozak) October 28, 2025

SummaryRussia uses 9M729 missile in Ukraine, Kyiv saysThe 9M729 was at heart of arms control dispute in 2019The missile can carry a conventional or nuclear warheadLONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russia has in recent months attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile whose secret development prompted Donald Trump to abandon a nuclear arms control pact with Moscow in his first term as U.S. president, Ukraine's foreign minister said.Andrii Sybiha's comments are the first confirmation that Russia has used the ground-launched 9M729 missile in combat - in Ukraine or elsewhere.Russia has fired the missile at Ukraine 23 times since August, a second...

Spain’s foreign minister has expressed “regret” over the “pain and suffering” caused by its colonisation of Mexico. Jose Manuel Albares made the comments on Friday at the opening of the exhibition of Indigenous Mexican art in Madrid, just days after Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, renewed calls for a Spanish apology. Mr Albares said relations between Spain and Mexico were “a very human story, and like every human story, full of light and shadow. “There has also been pain – pain and injustice toward Indigenous peoples, to whom this exhibition is dedicated,” he added. “There was injustice – it is...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — At the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia’s Old City, more and more young people are seeking respite from a clamorous technological age in the silent worship of a centuries-old faith.Like other Quaker houses of worship, it follows values of simplicity and equality. There’s no clergy, pulpit or altar. No statues of saints, no stained-glass windows. No one sings or chants, burns incense or lights candles. They simply sit in silence in 200-year-old wooden pews — and wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak.“This feels different in that it’s so simple....

White House officials, at the start of the shutdown, were certain the Trump administration was better positioned to battle the left during a funding lapse.In early October, several Trump administration officials had a friendly pool going of how long the shutdown would last. The White House, at the time, was confident Democrats would quickly fold. No one guessed more than 10 days. The account, relayed by a person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, underscores just how much the administration miscalculated the Democrats’ will to keep the government closed even amid furloughs and imperiled social...

ICE is planningg a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.wired.com/story…

While many of the largest tech companies race to build massive data centers for their artificial intelligence ambitions, Apple is taking a more modest approach. In its fiscal 2025, which ended in September, Apple spent $12.72 billion on capital expenditures. Compared to Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, Apple’s barely spending at all. Apple’s different approach to AI hasn’t hurt its hardware sales yet. CEO Tim Cook told CNBC Thursday that consumer response to the company’s iPhone 17 models was “off the chart.” While many of the largest tech companies race to build massive data centers for their artificial intelligence...