Free Republic

Treatment Action Group (TAG) is profoundly disappointed and outraged at the lack of health care protections for people living with and affected by HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and hepatitis C (HCV) in the bill to end the U.S. government shutdown. With only a promise of a future vote to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, millions of people now face unaffordable health insurance costs. As we approach World AIDS Day on December 1, we demand that legislators defend access and affordability of health care, especially for those with preexisting conditions. Several of the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills, which...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported an illegal alien whom Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with trying to help evade arrest by federal agents. Over the weekend, ICE agents deported illegal alien Eduardo Flores-Ruiz of Mexico. Flores-Ruiz crossed the southern border in 2013 and was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in Nogales, Arizona. He was swiftly deported to Mexico, but illegally crossed the border again, a felony. Flores-Ruiz also faced charges for strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. In April, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Dugan for allegedly helping Flores-Ruiz evade arrest by...

Keir Starmer is facing another major challenge to his authority as angry Labour MPs vowed to force changes to new hardline migration measures that would bring an escalation in the deportations of children and families. The policies – which include the possibility of confiscating assets from asylum seekers to contribute to costs – have caused significant divisions inside the party, with some MPs accusing their colleagues of not taking seriously public anger about illegal migration and asylum. The Conservatives have said they could support the government to pass the tough new laws in the event of a major Labour rebellion....

[Catholic Caucus] Synod document suggests women’s leadership, female deacons will be addressed in final reportCardinal Mario Grech, a top Synod on Synodality official, has already expressed support for women deacons, as have other Synod participants.The Synod on Synodality released a teaser interim report on women’s role in Church leadership, anticipating that the “question” of the women’s diaconate will be addressed in the final report.The Synod on Monday published the interim report, in which it announced the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), headed by the heterodox Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, is currently drafting the final report on “the...

Explanation: What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail? The answer is blowing in the wind — the wind from the Sun in this case. This continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun has been quite variable of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy, CMEs, that push out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The result is a blue hued ion tail for Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that is not only impressively intricate but takes some unusual turns. This long-duration composite image taken from Alfacar, Spain last month captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult....

A southern city, Charlotte N.C., is emerging as a human trafficking hotspot due to its convergence of highways, demand for cheap agricultural labor and gang activity. Data found 106 minors were trafficked in Charlotte last year, about half of whom were aged 15 or younger. This was nearly double the 45 to 60 children identified annually between 2018 and 2022, figures from the city's Metro Human Trafficking Task Force showed. Statewide, the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NCTH) recorded 301 human‑trafficking cases in North Carolina in 2024, involving 580 victims. The vast majority of last year’s cases were sex trafficking, but...

For nearly two years the Office of Inspector General investigated travel spending at Chicago Public Schools. The report found 'questionable, excessive and even exorbitant' travel spending across the district. Inspectors say it's fueled in part by federal COVID relief money and a broken travel expense process with no official oversight, according to a new report. The report found eight schools used more than $142,000 of CPS funds to pay a vendor for 15 staff trips to Finland, Estonia, Egypt and South Africa. However 13 out of the 15 trips were not pre-approved as required. One trip was even rejected, but...

The far-left New York Times will never admit why this is happening, but it did report that the 2025 summer box office was the worst since 1981, the worst in 44 years. “Multiplexes in the United States and Canada had their worst summer since 1981, after adjusting for inflation and excluding the Covid pandemic years,” the Times reported. This was supposed to be the summer when the North American box office returned to form — finally from the pandemic slump. “We believe that a dramatic reawakening of the industrywide domestic box office has begun,” Adam Aron, chief executive of AMC...

Federal agents have arrested 130 people in two days in Charlotte, North Carolina, the latest city to face President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, according to a US official. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told the BBC that a number of the people arrested are criminals and gang members. But local leaders say the operation is doing more harm than good. DHS said a US citizen allegedly injured an officer by ramming a law enforcement vehicle with their car. By population, Charlotte is roughly a quarter of the size of Los Angeles and a...

A woman broke down in tears during a Thursday school board meeting in Royal Oak, Michigan, where multiple left-wing speakers demanded that a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter be shut down. Officials at Royal Oak High School approved the chapter on Oct. 21, according to Fox News, prompting protests from left-wing students and groups, including a walkout. During the meeting, the woman claimed that the conservative-leaning student group would promote “radicalization” of students. “I’m a lifelong Royal Oak resident, a supporter of the Royal Oak community, as well as an advocate for young people. I too came to speak about...

Apple is in for a big shake-up with its iPhone release cycle, it seems — the upcoming iPhone Air and the mainstream iPhone 18 are now rumored to be arriving in a spring slot rather than the usual fall slot. The pivot, reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and echoed in supply-chain chatter picked up by The Information, indicates that Apple is heading for a two-wave annual cycle that could be the new normal. A split iPhone release calendar begins to take shape Gurman also says Apple plans to divide iPhone introductions between spring and fall for years, with perhaps five...

Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In the stunning spacebased perspective, the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by far flung New Horizons in July of 2015 when the spacecraft was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto. That was about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen...

Protests in Mexico have absolutely exploded over the weekend and heading into Monday, as large (and violent) crowds are growing and honing in on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The situation is undeniably now at revolutionary levels. See for yourself right here: MANY VIDEOS AT LINK............................. 🟢 Mexico Erupts In Revolution, President Claudia Sheinbaum Targeted For Removal Her time in office is being referred to as a “reign of terror”. The core of the people’s dissatisfaction is that she is allegedly working for the cartels, not the people: Here is Fox News confirming the cartel runs her Government: Sheinbaum said a...

Latin America’s most market-friendly country veers right as surging crime and illegal immigration rattle voters Chileans rallied behind hard-line conservatives in elections Sunday as rising anger over crime and immigration pushes the mineral-rich country to the right, setting the stage for a possible alignment with President Trump.In the first round of a presidential vote, some 70% of voters backed the four leading right-wing candidates. José Antonio Kast, a 59-year-old ultraconservative former congressman, secured 24% of the vote, earning a spot in the Dec. 14 runoff vote.Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party, allied with President Gabriel Boric’s leftist government, placed first...

Acting FEMA Chief David Richardson resigned on Monday, according to CBS News. David Richardson, a Marine Corps veteran and assistant secretary for DHS’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, was appointed to assume the duties of FEMA Administrator in May after Cameron Hamilton was abruptly removed from the post. “Mr. Richardson led FEMA through the 2025 hurricane season, delivering historic funding to North Carolina, Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Alaska, and overseeing a comprehensive review that identified and eliminated serious governmental waste and inefficiency, and refocused the agency to deliver swift resources to Americans in crisis,” a DHS spokesperson said...

EXCLUSIVE — In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election, President Donald Trump was doing nonstop rallies, many of them outdoors despite an assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left him bloodied after a bullet struck his ear.The rallies felt more like festivals than political events, with crowds gathering hours early amid music and pageantry. Local heroes, union leaders, elected officials, and retired military officers cycled through as warm-up speakers, firing up the audience between tracks like Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Village People’s “YMCA,” and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” Trump’s walk-out...

https://babylonbee.com/news/after-latest-head-injury-fetterman-announces-hes-joining-whig-partyWASHINGTON, D.C. — After suffering yet another head injury, Senator John Fetterman announced he was joining the Whig Party. Fetterman reportedly collapsed during an early morning walk near his home in Braddock, PA after feeling light headed. In the resulting fall, Fetterman suffered numerous cuts and abrasions. But he's perfectly fine, his office reported, aside from the fact he believes the year is now 1834. "President Jackson never should have dismantled the Second Bank of the United States!" Fetterman said upon returning to Washington a week later. "Henceforth, I shall align with the Whig Party." Democrats blasted Fetterman for abandoning...

U.S. — New polling data suggests the MAGA movement has split into approximately 77,302,580 distinct factions. Factions include, but are not limited to, Traditional Conservatism, Groypers, Anti-Zionist But Jew-Affirming, Carlsonites, Candacites, Kirkites, Trad wife influencers, The South Shall Rise Again, The North Shall Stay Arisen, Catholic, Latin Mass Catholic, Protestant, Protestant Calvinist Theonomist with Beards, Boomer Neocon Warmonger, Libertarian, and Whig. "I have never seen a more fractured movement," commented political science major Daniel Siltson. "There is always a broad spectrum of variance within a political movement, but to have it split along such hard lines so as to be...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Four men are accused of attempting to cash a U.S. Treasury check worth more than $27 million, authorities said. They were arrested at a South Florida restaurant on Nov. 10 after they unwittingly included an undercover officer in their scheme. According to a federal criminal complaint, agents arrested Carlos Manuel Villaneuva, 37, of Hialeah, Florida; Eric Renard Bedford, 44, of Houston; Jorge Cruz Garcia, 30, of Katy, Texas; and John Ryan Boxie, 43, of Houston. The four men face one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of theft of government property....

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - City leaders learned at Tuesday’s Lubbock City Council meeting that the city’s iconic Buddy Holly crosswalks must be removed to comply with state and federal law, following a directive from Governor Abbott regarding all decorative markings statewide. The Texas Department of Transportation provided clarification on Lubbock’s “creative crosswalks” and notified the city that the Buddy Holly-themed crosswalks will have to be removed. City officials previously thought the crosswalks were safe since they were art installations and not considered a political, religious or commercial message. TxDOT notified the city Nov. 5 that this was not the case....