Free Republic

On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel took to X to announce the official shuttering of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters building. Patel first made this announcement in May during an interview on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures program with Maria Bartiromo. Since Congress holds the power of the purse to designate what happens with federal buildings, Patel cleared the proper channels in order to finally execute his plan. December 26: Shutting down the Hoover Building.After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a...

As we close out 2025, we want to look back on what was a landmark year for defending life, religious liberty, parental rights, and free speech at the ACLJ.Our legal team’s workload ramped up significantly this year, and this was only possible because of supporters like you. 220 pro-life legal contacts and cases, including defunding abortion and defending pro-life advocates306 free speech matters104 international matters, including defending persecuted Christians and Israel276 school contacts and cases protecting the rights of students, parents, and teachers192 government matters battling corruption and the Deep StateBelow is a wrap-up of some of our biggest cases...

I almost forgot Kwanzaa even exists, because the only person I’d ever really heard talk about it was Ann Coulter, and she seems to have dropped off the face of the planet—and there are so few people who actually even celebrate it. As a child in school, I vaguely recall a teacher reading some picture book about it and all I remember is the African garb and maybe some candles.Anyway, it was Coulter who actually provided more than just colorful pictures in a children’s book, explaining the relationship between Kwanzaa and anti-white attitudes and Marxism:[Ron] Karenga’s invented holiday is a...

If hindsight is 20/20, then 2025 was a year where irony is produced by algorithms and politicians think diplomacy is a TikTok trend. To toast our survival is the annual Rear-View Awards, the only column where irony is not just a category, it is the entire piece.Metaphor of the year: Hollywood director Rob Reiner, the onetime foil to Archie Bunker, was apparently murdered by his son, proving that sitcom dysfunction can mirror life and be “All in the Family.”Best market correction: Hunter Biden no longer getting $400,000 for his artwork. He is down to $100 bucks to spray-paint obscenities on...

December 26: Shutting down the Hoover Building. After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility. Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could. When we arrived, taxpayers were about to be on the hook for nearly $5 billion for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035. We scrapped that plan. Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already...

The president of the Kennedy Center sharply criticized a musician Friday for canceling a Christmas Eve performance at the venue after the White House announced that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the building. Richard Grenell, the center’s president, accused musician Chuck Redd of political intolerance in a letter responding to the sudden withdrawal, which Grenell said came just days before the scheduled concert. The letter, shared with The Associated Press, said the cancellation was explicitly tied to the recent renaming of the facility, which Grenell described as honoring Trump’s efforts to preserve the arts institution.

Wyoming's oil and gas producers say Christmas came early last week when the Bureau of Land Management extended the deadline for compliance with bonding requirements that threatened to shutter small operators across the state. The Direct Final Rule delays enforcement of Biden-era regulations that would have increased bonding costs by 1,400% while the Trump administration works toward permanent solutions. "This marks significant progress in addressing the anti-oil and natural gas regulations that were handed down during the previous administration," said Pete Obermueller, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. "While this rule does not cover new bonds and does not...

Preaching at AmFest, Tucker Carlson displayed his lack of integrity, fueling speculations of being bought and paid for by Islamists in Qatar, and brandishing the crown with which he has been coronated as a dangerous antisemite. His voice rising like a pre-pubescent child, he attacked the invisible boogeyman, but everyone knew who and what he meant. “Attacking millions of Americans because they’re Muslims—it’s DISGUSTING. And I’m a Christian, I’m not a Muslim,” he shrieked in a room so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. Trying to reclaim the room and eke out some kind of affirming response...

The parole board of Massachusetts is set to release 39 "emerging adult" convicts imprisoned for murder who were given life without parole but have now become eligible after a court ruling. The ruling states that those between 18 and 20 at the time of their offense are "emerging adults" and are not permitted to be given life without parole. Since the ruling was made last year by the state's Supreme Judicial Court, the board has greenlit the release of 39 first-degree murderers as well as those guilty of accessory to murder as they deny parole to 12 other inmates, according...

Zohran Mamdani's pick to lead the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) has never been a firefighter. Lillian Bonsignore, who has previously served as the EMS chief for the FDNY, will also be the first person to lead the department who is also openly gay. Bonsignore is a veteran EMS employee of the FDNY but has never served as a firefighter herself. Bonsignore said that she "knows the job" and "knows what the firefighters need" despite being primarily in the EMS role. She retired in 2022 and will be the second woman to serve as the FDNY commissioner under...

A former Broadway child star was fatally stabbed at her home in New Jersey over the weekend, CBS News reported Friday, citing the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. Imani Smith, who was just 26-years-old, was found with multiple stab wounds in her Edison, New Jersey home on Sunday. She was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital and is survived by her parents and three-year-old son. The former Broadway actress is known for playing Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway from 2011 through 2012. She has been described by former cast mates as having a "great voice," and bringing...

I have win10 on a couple computers and it turns out they can't be updated to win11

For much of 2025, the dominant narrative among economists, market strategists, and Wall Street commentators was straightforward and gloomy. Trade shocks would slow growth. Immigration crackdowns would tighten labor markets. Tariffs would reignite inflation. A recession, many said, was not a matter of if, but when. That story has not played out.Instead, the U.S. economy continues to outperform expectations and outpace other developed nations. Growth has persisted even as consumer confidence has fallen, the labor market has cooled, and trade policy uncertainty has lingered. For investors, this disconnect between sentiment and reality is not just interesting. It is actionable.At the...

Multimillionaire Sami Sheen says it’s “impossible” to pay her bills on time because it’s simply “not fun.” The 21-year-old daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards — who has been a highly successful OnlyFans creator since June 2022 — made a barrage of candid admissions to her TikTok followers Monday. “At what age do I have to start adulting?” she asked in a selfie-style video, confessing that she’s “so bad at being an adult” because she still views herself as a “16-year-old girl.”

Russian forces appear close to being pushed out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, with only a small number of isolated troops remaining and even pro-Kremlin voices acknowledging the setback, according to a report.

President Donald Trump on Friday cast himself as the ultimate arbiter of any peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, in an exclusive conversation with POLITICO.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Trump in Florida on Sunday and told reporters he’s bringing with him a new 20-point plan for peace. The framework includes a proposed demilitarized zone and the meeting is expected to focus on U.S. security guarantees. But in an interview, Trump appeared lukewarm to Zelenskyy’s latest overture and in no rush to endorse the Ukrainian president’s proposal.“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump said. “So...

Scientists have reversed Alzheimer’s disease in mice, potentially showing a pathway to treat the illness among humans, according to a Dec. 22 peer-reviewed study published in the Cell Reports Medicine journal.Alzheimer’s is traditionally considered irreversible. In the study, researchers treated two groups of mice with P7C3-A20, a pharmacologic agent. One group carried human mutations related to amyloid processing, while the other carried a tau protein mutation. Both amyloid and tau pathologies are two major early events of Alzheimer’s. Researchers say that as mice develop brain pathologies resembling Alzheimer’s, they are ideal subjects to test how P7C3-A20 affects Alzheimer’s in humans....

Leftist Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan recently appeared wearing an Islamic garment on a Somali-language YouTube channel out of Minneapolis to tell Somali migrants that she’s “got your back.” Flanagan was chosen by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz as his running mate in 2018. She is not a Muslim; she is instead a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) native Americans and has won election as Walz’s running mate in two elections. With President Donald Trump’s administration focusing on the massive fraud and welfare funding theft by Somali migrants in the Gopher State, Flanagan apparently wanted to reassure...

NEW DELHI — A Hindu extremist mob in northern India assaulted two Christian couples and an attorney for several hours, accusing them of forced conversion. In Haryana state’s Titoli village, 5 miles from the city of Rohtak, the mob forced one of the Christians, a pastor, to set fire to a heap of Bibles while the Hindu extremists recorded videos that immediately went viral, resulting in 32 complaints to the police. Pastor Jehovah Das, 65, and Vinod Masih, 42, along with their wives, had been invited to a Christian family’s home in the village to pray and bless the arrival...

Geopolitics, diversification, and Fed easing contribute to the U.S. dollar’s downward pressures.While the so-called Santa Claus rally delivered year-end gains for stocks and precious metals, the U.S. dollar received a lump of coal to finish a not particularly strong 2025. The U.S. dollar index, a measure of the greenback against a weighted basket of currencies, is on track for its largest annual decline since 2003. This year, the index has dropped 10 percent, with nearly all of the damage occurring in the first half of 2025, when it tanked almost 11 percent. The alternative trade-weighted dollar index—a measure created by...