Free Republic

🌍 Top 10 contributors to global real GDP growth (2026) 1．🇨🇳 China — 26.6% 2．🇮🇳 India — 17.0% 3．🇺🇸 United States — 9.9% 4．🇮🇩 Indonesia — 3.8% 5．🇹🇷 Türkiye — 2.2% 6．🇳🇬 Nigeria — 1.5% 7．🇧🇷 Brazil — 1.5% 8．🇻🇳 Vietnam — 1.6% 9．🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia — 1.7% 10．🇩🇪 Germany — 0.9% 📌 China + India alone = 43.6% of global growth 📌 Asia-Pacific accounts for ~50% of total growth Source: IMF

"The War On Children" exposes the ongoing battle for control of the next generation and their minds. This film reveals the battle plan being used to control the future. To win this war you have to understand the tactics of your enemy. Click image to watch on YouTube.

Bitcoin slid toward $81,000 on Saturday as thin weekend liquidity magnified selling pressure, with traders pointing to Middle East tensions, U.S. political risk and lingering crypto-specific uncertainty. What to know: Bitcoin slipped below $81,000 in thin weekend trading, extending a bout of weakness as risk appetite faded. Geopolitical tensions, including an explosion at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and a brief U.S. government shutdown, pushed investors away from riskier assets like cryptocurrencies. Crypto-specific pressures, from negative spot bitcoin ETF flows to ongoing deleveraging and industry infighting, have left bitcoin rangebound around $80,000 to $82,000 and vulnerable to further downside.

A row erupted Sunday within Britain’s governing Labour Party after the ambitious mayor of Manchester was prevented from trying to re-enter Parliament at a special election in the city, with critics claiming Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not want to see a potentially dangerous rival back in the House of Commons. Andy Burnham, who has been in charge of the Greater Manchester region since 2017 and has expressed interest in being Labour leader in the future, made a request to the party’s governing committee on Saturday to stand as the candidate in the upcoming election for the Gorton and Denton...

Explanation: On flight day 13 (November 28, 2022) of the Artemis 1 mission, the Orion spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth. At over 430,000 kilometers from Earth, its distant retrograde orbit also puts Orion nearly 70,000 kilometers from the Moon. In the same field of view in this video frame from flight day 13, planet and large natural satellite even appear about the same apparent size from the spacecraft's perspective. On flight day 26 (December 11, 2022), the uncrewed spacecraft splashed down on its home world concluding the historic Artemis I mission. The Artemis II mission, carrying 4 astronauts...

On Friday, a young woman who had her healthy breasts removed at age 16 for supposed transgender “medical care” was awarded $2 million, marking the first successful detransitioner malpractice lawsuit in the nation. Fox Varian’s psychologist and surgeon were held liable by a jury in Westchester, New York, according to independent reporter Benjamin Ryan, who attended the three-week trial.

Engine start was initiated using the onboard battery. Afterwards, following an initial unsuccessful start of the left engine, both engines were started around 9:53 a.m. But problems continued to mount as the aircraft taxied toward the runway. During taxi, the pilot and two pilot-rated passengers discussed that a thrust reverser indicator light for an unspecified engine was inoperative, though they believed the thrust reverser itself was working properly. Meanwhile, the right-seat passenger attempted to contact ZTL ATC and activate the flight’s IFR flight plan three times between 10:08 and 10:10 but was unsuccessful due to the controller’s workload and associated...

Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” Renee Good’s were, “I’m not mad at you.” Both were fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month. Neither was holding weapons. They were observers, present to record, witness and alert their communities. We all saw what happened to them. ICE brutality is not new. The agency has instituted inhumane conditions and separated families for decades. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, but that was also true in 2004. What has changed is not the violence. The change is that we can no longer pretend we do...

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) has announced Friday that all driver's license tests will now only be in English. This change will begin on Friday, Feb. 6 and will apply to all driver license classifications, including oral exams, FLHSMV said. Before, these tests were offered in multiple languages for non-commercial driver licenses. For commercial drivers, the tests were only available in English and Spanish to get both their learner's permit and driver's license. That includes the "Class E Knowledge Exam" for the learner's permit which consists of 50 multiple choice questions covering Florida traffic laws,...

"In a stunning 5-4 ruling, the U.S Supreme Court has granted President Donald Trump broad wartime authority under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act" - breaking news dropping like thunder. This means Tren de Aragua thugs get shipped straight to El Salvador's monster prison - no more games, real enforcement hitting violent gangs hard and making streets safer for American families.

A federal judge on Saturday denied a state government request to block the Trump administration's deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In a ruling, District Court Judge Katherine Menendez said the immigration enforcement operation "has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota". But, she said, state officials had not proved that the Trump administration's surge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis was unlawful. The ruling comes as thousands nationwide have taken to the streets to protest the fatal shootings of two US...

The ‘experts’ predicted market crashes, massive inflation and recession. They were all wrong.When I imposed historic tariffs on nearly all foreign countries last April, the critics said my policies would cause a global economic meltdown. Instead, they have created an American economic miracle, and we are quickly building the greatest economy in the history of the world, with other countries doing just fine! Countless so-called experts, including those featured frequently in The Wall Street Journal, predicted confidently that the Trump tariffs would crash stock markets, crush economic growth, cause massive inflation, destroy American exports, and trigger a “worldwide recession.” Nine...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) compared Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to fictional villains on Friday, calling them both a “sycophant” as tensions rise over the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. “A sycophant is more than just a ‘yes-man,’” Tillis wrote in a lengthy post on social platform X. “It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage.” He added, “They aren’t just being nice, they are using excessive flattery, often insincerely, to get what they want, whether that’s a promotion, social status or favor.”...

Los Angeles ICE protesters CHASED OFF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT and wouldn’t let them put out the fire they lit at the ICE detention center Let me repeat that. Democrat rioters in California are setting fires and then being allowed to STOP THE FIRE DEPARTMENT “Protesters setting a dumpster on fire right outside the downtown detention center where many federal immigration detainees are being held. Firefighters responded but then backed away when they were confronted by a handful of protesters”

The dad of a Florida woman charged with posing as a teen to molest five middle-school-age boys has bizarrely claimed to The Post his daughter is “mentally defective” and the real victim of the sex crimes. Before Alyssa Ann Zinger, 25, was arrested for allegedly having sex with underage boys, the accused pedophile grew up in a “good Christian home” in suburban Tampa — but dealt with a myriad of mental disorders, (snip) “She had a lot of problems growing up. Our daughter has been to 10 to 12 psychologists and psychiatrists throughout her life,” the 55-year-old dad said, adding...

Virginia Democrats failed to comply with state law and the legislature's rules when trying to implement emergency powers, a judge says. The Democrat-controlled Virginia General Assembly gave final legislative approval earlier this month to a proposed constitutional amendment that would give lawmakers emergency powers outside the 10-year redistricting process to gerrymander the Old Dominion's congressional maps. "Virginia's proposed redistricting amendment is a response to what we're seeing in other states that have taken extreme measures to undermine democratic norms. This approach is short-term, highly targeted, and completely dependent on what other states decide to do themselves," Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger...

A man’s first date with a woman he met online veered into unexpected territory when, just minutes into their coffee meetup, her entire family appeared at the next table. The moment was recounted on TikTok by user Brian (@brianbrister), whose account of the date begins like many others in the online dating era: light banter over coffee, signs of mutual chemistry and early optimism. But just minutes into the conversation, his date interrupted the flow with an unusual announcement: “Oh, by the way, my family’s here.” “I was like, ‘Oh! They’re in town visiting, that’s so fun,’” Brian recalls. “She...

A student was struck by a vehicle during an anti-ICE rally Thursday in front of Fremont High School. The SUV, which displayed a Trump flag, fled the scene, video of the incident shows. The episode was captured and shared first by News Channel Nebraska, which also reported that the girl was alert as she was taken by rescue personnel to the hospital. Fremont police issued a one-paragraph update Friday morning, saying they know the identity of the driver, who is a juvenile, and that an investigation is ongoing. School officials released a brief statement Thursday afternoon, which in part described...

Compassion. Empathy. Caring. These are the virtues that the left claims for itself, both in rhetoric and in policy. But their compassion is remarkably selective. They riot in the streets when a criminal suspect is killed by police, but have nothing to say when an innocent woman is butchered on a bus by a repeat offender. Today I want to focus on their so-called compassion for such criminals, because it's clear they have little concern for the victims of violent crime, but I would argue they also have little real concern for the criminals themselves. Since my last video analyzing...

As I was saying yesterday, it's Queers for Palestine all the way down - or, even more bizarrely, NPR Ladies d'un Certain Âge for Somali Daycare Fraudsters. Traditionally, the Chinese curse you to live in interesting times. On my first long-ago acquaintance with the Land of 10,000 Quality Learing Centers, Minnesota - like my neighbours across the Connecticut River in Vermont - appeared cursed to live in irredeemably boring times. If you were as skilled as the respective creators of the Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart sitcoms, you could parlay that into big bucks. But in neither state was...