Free Republic

There has always been a touch of the actor about Emmanuel Macron, and the President of France was at his theatrical best at Davos on Tuesday. Sporting a pair of aviator sunglasses to conceal a broken blood vessel in his eye, Macron played the part of a man unjustly treated. Not just him, but all of Europe. “We do prefer respect to bullies,” concluded Macron in his address to the World Economic Forum. “We do prefer science to plotism, and we do prefer rule of law to brutality. You are welcome in Europe and you are more than welcome to...

The price of silver surged to an unprecedented peak yesterday, closing at a historic high of $94.48 per ounce. This remarkable rally is fueled by a powerful combination of escalating geopolitical tensions and a severe, long-term physical shortage. With visible inventories dwindling, the psychologically significant $100 threshold is now within striking distance. Key metrics underscore the scale of the move: Previous Session Close: $94.48 USD (Record High) Year-to-Date Performance: +30.75 % Gain from 52-Week Low: +101.48 % 30-Day Volatility: 66.27 % Beyond the headlines, a fundamental supply crisis provides a solid foundation for higher prices. The global silver market has...

The Maine State Police (MSP) were part of a massive enforcement action Wednesday against Yezi Craft Cannabis, a.k.a. Yezi USA, LLC, on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield, a Chinese-controlled cannabis company with a checkered history and multiple disciplinary actions. Although the details of Wednesday’s enforcement actions at 201 Norridgewock Road are still filtering in, the locations history and ties to Chinese organized crime are apparent from public records from the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP). Yezi Craft Cannabis and its related companies are a prime example of how Maine’s labyrinthine cannabis rules are no match for sophisticated criminal groups from out...

Far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was one of the organisers of the storming of a Minnesota church to protest ICE on Sunday, raked in over $1 million during six years leading a Minneapolis civil rights nonprofit that addresses anti-poverty issues. Armstrong, whose website identifies her as a civil rights lawyer and "scholar-activist," helped organise the storming of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. In a Facebook post, she claimed that one of the church’s pastors is a leader at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstration is one of many throughout the Twin Cities in protest of...

A long-running effort to help disadvantaged students of color in Los Angeles schools is under legal challenge by a group that claims the nation's second-largest school system is discriminating against white students.

And I have very expensive Medicare Advantage PPO insurance. Where have all these people clamoring for medical services come from, and why has medical care literally been hijacked in the State of Florida? I couldn't even understand the woman at the specialist's office, her foreign accent was so thick. This appointment was on a referral from my PCP. Where is DeSantis on all of this? Is it the same in other states as well? Why are we allowing foreign hordes to debase the quality of medical care available to US citizens in their own country?

A pastor from Odisha’s Dhenkanal was hit, forced to eat cow dung, and made to chant Jai Shri Ram by members of the Bajrang Dal. The incident, reported by Maktoob Media, took place on January 4 when the pastor, along with his family and a few others, was attending a prayer meeting at a house in Parjang village. A mob of around 40 people gathered outside and forcibly entered the house of Pastor Bipin Bihari Naik. “They started beating everyone inside the house. Besides us, there were seven families who were praying with us. My children and I managed to...

One of my earliest memories dates to when I was three or, at most, four. Every day, I was glued to our black-and-white TV watching Romper Room, a television show for preschoolers. Miss Nancy opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and then conducted a 30-minute preschool class. This is what Miss Nancy was like back in the 1960s: It’s very sweet, very loving, very patriotic, and very appropriate for the 3-5-year-old set. But what happens when an entire political party is taken over by a horde of Miss Nancys? And worse, what happens when those Miss Nancys don’t focus their...

David Halimi grew up Jewish in Tehran, watching Bonanza. He now produces rodeos in Northern California and owns a bar modeled on Cheers. At 73, Halimi is known around Chico as the man behind a Western wear store stocked with thousands of cowboy boots, a rodeo circuit that draws bull riders from across the region, and a U-shaped bar where locals joke about who might be the town’s version of Norm. Less obvious — but no less central — is that he is also a longtime synagogue president, a Hillel board leader, and a professor who teaches business analytics at...

@Nigel_Farage I’m here in Davos to put the global elites on notice. We will not live by their agenda. Change is coming to Britain.

Higher education is approaching a period of profound disruption, and many colleges may not survive, Arthur Levine, the newly appointed president of Brandeis University, said during a recent event. Levine estimated that between 20 and 25 percent of colleges will close in the coming years, while community colleges and regional universities move increasingly online. He made these remarks during a recent American Enterprise Institute event titled “Tackling Higher Education’s Challenges: A Conversation with Frederick M. Hess and Brandeis University President Arthur Levine.” Wealthier institutions may have the resources to withstand the transition, but many others do not. Levine said that...

Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper said the force of the explosion had even affected a railway line 5km (three miles) away. Factory valves were ejected during the blast and landed on the tracks, causing delays and disruptions to trains passing through Baotou. Residents of a nearby village said around 70 to 80 per cent of the windows in the village’s 500 to 600 households were shattered, according to The Paper. Baotou Steel Group is a large state-owned steel enterprise. The factory involved in the accident primarily produces composite steel with added rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium, widely...

Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau publishes the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. This is the country’s only source for state and local spending data, allowing a detailed state-by-state comparison. The survey also divides spending data into categories, making it possible to analyze which public services states prioritize. Overall, public welfare is the largest expenditure for most states. However, the level at which states prioritize assistance programs over other public services, such as roads and police, differs. Minnesota, for instance, has a massive welfare system, dedicating a larger share of its revenue to assistance programs than most...

IRGC members defecting, one got hung (Javid Chalis), government officials defecting to side of Pahlavi (Interior Ministry official), proxies from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. (estimated between 5 and 10 thousand), coming in to commit atrocities in major cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Chalis. Pahlavi makes address on television directly to Khamenei (Freep nick: Haminahaminahamina?), provided here with Farsi audio, Englishsubtitles. Transcript linked below video.

"Timing, not haste, drives what will happen next." —Thomas Sowell. Larry Fink of BlackRock and the World Economic Forum. Minneapolis, the sucking chest wound on America’s body politic, gets a break this week from Gawda’mighty, who is turning the heat down to subzero so that ICE-Watch nose-rings can hole-up in their Soros-paid motels, play League of Legends with their DoorDashed Chick-fil-A nuggets, and rest up for the next inning of their motley revolution. ICE itself might even have to lay off its daily round-up of rapists, cut-throats, and child-molesters, to wait out the cold-snap. Meanwhile, things elsewhere roughen up a...

Ukrainian President Zelensky is planning to travel to Davos on Thursday for a meeting with President Trump, according to a Ukrainian official. Split screen: Zelensky plans to meet Trump in the Alps soon before White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner head to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both meetings will focus on Trump's peace plan for Ukraine.

A lawsuit filed by a group of towns which challenges the state’s 2024 affordable-housing law was dismissed Tuesday by a federal court judge. United States District Judge Zahid Quraishi dismissed the suit because he said the towns were not allowed to bring this type of constitutional challenge to federal court.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would not use force to acquire Greenland, the first time he has ruled out using military action to acquire the territory. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump lamented that the United States “probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable.” “But I won't do that,” he added. “That's probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force.”

Many people who successfully lost weight on Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs are having trouble weaning themselves off the injectables, according to the BBC, because the hunger for food comes roaring back with a vengeance — and hence the pounds start creeping up again, hinting that patients are likely to develop life-long dependencies on the substances. “For the first 38 years of my life, I was overweight — now I’m six stone (38kg) [83 pounds] lighter,” Tanya Hall, a Wegovy user who can’t get off the drug, told the news organization. “Therefore, there’s part of me that feels like...

Across the country, adult LGBT groups collaborate with school GSA clubs to lure students to their unsupervised events, with activist adults. Note the "youth" age range on the poster: 13-24. his MassResistance mother from Cape Cod testified in 2016 before the Massachusetts Legislature, detailing how her son’s high school steered him to an outside LGBT group without her knowledge. Homosexual adults there persuaded him that he was really “gay.” He continues to lead a homosexual lifestyle. She will be telling her full story in our next MassResistance article.As we’ve outlined earlier, school GSA clubs recruit and attract students who...