Free Republic

AmericaFest 2025, the annual flagship conference hosted by Turning Point USA (TPUSA) alongside Turning Point Action, returns December 18–21, 2025, at the Phoenix Convention Center… Turning Point’s premier annual event—part conference, part rally, part media moment — the event serves as a unifying platform for conservative ideas, campus activism, policy debates, and grassroots organizing. The 2025 edition carries added significance, as it is positioned as a tribute-focused gathering that also looks ahead to the future of the movement…

The Arctic just experienced its hottest year since record-keeping began more than a century ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday. Rising temperatures in the polar region show no signs of leveling off, either, according to the agency, which said they are rising twice as fast as overall global temperatures. NOAA reviewed how the Arctic is faring in a warming world in the latest iteration of its annual Arctic Report Card. "To observe the Arctic is to take the pulse of the planet," reads the report's executive summary. Since the previous year's report card, climate change has continued...

Four moderate House Republicans are rebelling against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to join his Democratic counterpart in forcing a vote on enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., all joined a discharge petition by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on his push for a three-year extension of the subsidies. A discharge petition is a mechanism for overriding the will of House leaders to get a chamber-wide vote on specific legislation, provided it has support from a majority of lawmakers. In...

Explanation: The lovely Pleiades star cluster shines in Earth's night sky, a compact group of stars some 400 light-years distant toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Recognized since ancient times, the remarkable celestial gathering is visible to the unaided eye. The Pleiades cluster is also well-placed for viewing from both northern and southern hemispheres, and over the centuries has become connected to many cultural traditions and celebrations, including the cross-quarter day celebration Halloween. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. Galileo first sketched the...

The Trump administration plans to break up Colorado’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, the largest federal climate research lab. Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced the plan Tuesday in a statement on X. “The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado,” Vought wrote. “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country. A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.” The move would be a...

Scott tells you what he REALLY thinks about the guy who he thinks is partially responsible for trashing his career. Ouch!

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to toss “New Age notions” in America’s Chaplain Corps and make the military body “great again.” “In recent decades, its role has been degraded in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism,” Hegseth said of the Chaplain Corps in video message released Tuesday night. “Chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” Hegseth said, adding “faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care.” Across all branches of the U.S. military, there are estimated to be 3,000 to 4,000 military chaplains. The Chaplain Corps was established in 1775...

Over the past two months, protest marches in solidarity with the Palestinian people have taken place all across the United States and Canada. They have attracted a diverse crowd of people, including many Indigenous nations and communities. Participants have denounced “US imperialism” for enabling Israeli aggression, ethnic cleansing and genocide while others have charged Israel itself with “settler colonialism”.

has been transferred out of federal prison. AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez Dec 16, 2025, 2:14 PM PT Save Saved Add us on Caroline Ellison has been moved from federal prison to community confinement. That means the former Alameda Research CEO is either in home confinement or a halfway house. Ellison served about 11 months of her two-year prison sentence. Caroline Ellison, the former cryptocurrency executive and ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried, has been quietly moved out of federal lockup after serving roughly 11 months of her two-year prison sentence, Business Insider has learned. Ellison, 31, was transferred on October 16 from...

The skilled trades workforce, critical to keeping the country's infrastructure and economy running, is rapidly declining. While many companies are working to address the shortage, General Motors has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build its own pipeline of future workers. Over the past five years alone, the automaker has invested more than $242 million in its skilled trades apprenticeship program, which is geared toward training the next generation of skilled trade professionals with a combination of classroom instruction and thousands of hours of hands-on experience at a GM facility, Michael Trevorrow, GM's senior vice president of global manufacturing,...

The Trump administration is quietly authorizing millions of dollars in refugee resettlement funding, including to organizations operating at the center of the illegal immigration crisis. According to Federal Register notices published on September 22, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement intends to award nearly seven million dollars in replacement grants to two nonprofit organizations involved in refugee case management and integration services. One of those awards directs more than two and a half million dollars to a St. Paul based organization operating in Minnesota, the focal point of the Somali fraud investigations. The second...

Hillel is the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, providing a welcoming community, cultural events, and spiritual support for Jewish college students worldwide, aiming to enrich their lives. Last night, the San Francisco chapter was set on fire. During the final Shabbat of the semester—while students and staff were inside preparing for services—an attempted antisemitic mass-casualty attack was carried out at a Jewish building in San Francisco. Police have confirmed it was arson: a suspect arrested, significant damage done, the building shut down, and Shabbat and Chanukah events canceled. This is the inevitable consequence the moment campus quads were allowed to...

A new trailer for MELANIA dropped on Wednesday, a behind-the-scenes movie that follows first lady Melania Trump of her life as she prepares to enter the White House once again in the 20 days before her husband's second inauguration… "For the first time, global audiences are invited into theaters to witness this pivotal chapter unfold—a private, unfiltered look as I navigate family, business, and philanthropy on my remarkable journey to becoming first lady of the United States of America," Trump told Fox News.

CHRISTMAS BIBLE-ART EPISODE #5 of 33 GABRIEL'S AMAZING NEWS FOR MARY L U K E CHAPTER 1 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you...

Every year huge crowds gather in Paris at the Champs-Élysées to ring in the new year with fireworks and concerts. Much like the New Year’s Eve parties in Times Square in New York City, the joyous festivities are a key link in the chain of worldwide celebrations of the year to come. No more. New Year’s has been canceled in Paris. The New Year’s Eve concert was pre-recorded with actors pretending to be the audience. The fireworks will appear on TV. And there will be no one to count the countdown because the Champs-Élysées has become France’s latest ‘no-go’zone’. Ten...

During President Trump's first term, the economy was a relative strength of his. During the 2024 presidential campaign, his promises to lower prices in a country grappling with post-COVID inflation propelled him back into office. But toward the end of his first year in office this term, just 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. It's his worst mark in the six years that Marist has been asking the question. The only time in that span that Americans had a similarly negative view of a president's handling of the economy...

A pair of killers who pleaded guilty to running over a retired police chief during a crime spree in Las Vegas are facing decades in prison. Jesus Ayala, 20, and Jzamir Keys, 18, were sentenced on Tuesday in Clark County District Court in Nevada after both pleading guilty to the murder of retired California police chief Andreas Probst, 64. Ayala accepted a plea deal that landed him a sentence of 20 years to life, while Keys received an 18-year-to-life term as part of his plea deal. While the pair were charged as adults after committing the crime as minors, they...

More than 7000 people sign open letter calling on House of Bishops to rethink LLF plan PRESSURE is building on the Church of England’s bishops before a formal vote next week on the next steps in the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process. In October, the House of Bishops announced that approval for stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples, and the reconsideration of rules that bar the clergy from entering into same-sex marriage, would be subject to further synodical processes (News, 17 October). But these decisions are still subject to a formal vote at a meeting on 16...

President Donald Trump’s administration warned on Tuesday that the United States could impose fees or restrictions on European service providers in response to what it called “discriminatory” actions against US firms. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in a post on X, accused the European Union and some of its member states of “discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives against US service providers”, while arguing that EU companies such as Accenture, DHL, Siemens, Spotify and others “operate freely” in the United States. “If the EU and EU member states insist on continuing to restrict, limit, and...

Attorney General Pam Bondi “whiffed” on understanding how much President Trump’s base of supporters cared about the release of the files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview published Tuesday. “I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as...