Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — On New Year’s Eve, Lee Zeldin did something out of character for an Environmental Protection Agency leader who has been hacking away at regulations intended to protect Americans’ air and water. He announced new restrictions on five chemicals commonly used in building materials, plastic products and adhesives, and he cheered it as a “MAHA win.”It was one of many signs of a fragile collaboration that’s been building between a Republican administration that’s traditionally supported big business and a Make America Healthy Again movement that argues corporate environmental harms are putting people’s health in danger. The unlikely pairing...

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has arrived in Kyiv and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The People’s Memorial of National Remembrance," Zelenskyy wrote Tuesday on X. "A memorial honoring our heroes, warriors, our people who defended Ukraine against the enemy, fought, and made the ultimate sacrifice in this war. Together with @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte, we honored the memory of fallen Ukrainian defenders today. Eternal honor to our warriors. "Eternal gratitude for their sacrifice and for defending the country. It is our duty to preserve the memory of our fallen heroes." Rutte's visit comes after Russia attacked Ukraine...

VMI’s loyalists should not confuse a proposed legislative “study”—a proposed task force, in this instance—for being anything other than hostile to the school itself. The Democrats are coming. They yearn to lash out and there it sits—VMI—on the open plateau of Virginia’s culture wars, an optimal target of opportunity. To put it another way, you’re as likely to get a sympathetic, balanced, sensible response out of the current General Assembly on the subject of this long‑venerated, state‑owned school—VMI—as you would out of the Trump administration on the subject of immigration.

Four Massachusetts residents are accused of using more than 100 stolen identities to get over $1 million in food stamps and pandemic-era unemployment benefits in a multi-state fraud scheme, federal prosecutors say. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said stolen identities from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico were used to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendants also allegedly submitted fraudulent documents in order to receive more than $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada. --snip-- Three defendants charged...

Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va) ran on a platform of making Virginia more affordable. Now she and the expanded Democrat majority in the legislature are set on imposing new taxes on dog walking and grooming, guns and ammunition, storage facilities, dry cleaning, home repairs, electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment, and creating some new income tax brackets. The Governor admitted that "these new taxes seem like they will raise the cost of living for the folks that spend money on these items. However, none of the things we're putting new taxes on are necessities. No one needs to own a...

NEWS: Dubai is building a 4 mile long @boringcompany loop tunnel with four stations linking the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Mall, with an eventual length of ~14 miles. Only @Tesla vehicles will be used in the tunnel of course. "This phase will pave the way for expansion into the full project alignment, which will extend up to ~14 miles and include 19 stations, connecting Dubai World Trade Centre and the financial district with Business Bay."

Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime. “A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network. It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for “voluntary questioning” in April in their capacity as...

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the brand’s intellectual property, last month shifted its e-commerce and wholesale licenses to another company. The fate of Eddie Bauer’s brick-and-mortar fleet is uncertain as its operating company prepares to file for bankruptcy. There are more than 250 Eddie Bauer locations in North America. In January Eddie Bauer IP owner Authentic said that Catalyst Brands — responsible for the operations of several brands in Authentic’s stable — would continue to operate those retail and outlet stores. But Catalyst is readying a bankruptcy filing for the entity that runs Eddie Bauer’s locations, according to a source...

Why We Can Know God ExistsHumans possess a natural sense that there is something higher than themselves. Throughout history, some thinkers even argued that merely understanding the word “God” proves His existence. If God means the greatest possible being, and existing in reality is greater than existing only in the mind, then God must exist. Others claimed that since truth cannot be denied, and God is truth itself, God’s existence must also be undeniable.These arguments sound convincing. Yet experience tells us that God’s existence is not obvious to everyone. A math equation may be clear to a trained mathematician and...

Jill Biden’s ex-husband was arrested Monday on charges he murdered his wife in Delaware in December, according to a report. William Stevenson – who was previously married to the former first lady – has been hit with first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing his current spouse, Linda Stevenson, 64 at their home, Fox 29 reported. Cops responded to a domestic dispute call on Dec. 28 and found Linda unresponsive on the floor. She was declared dead at the scene but the cause hasn’t been released yet. The 77-year-old husband – who owns college bar The Stone Balloon near the University...

When President Donald Trump took the oath of office for the second time in January, he did not inherit a roaring economy or a nation brimming with confidence. He inherited an economy weighed down by chronic inflation, high prices, and a deep sense of anxiety among working families who felt they were falling further behind every month. But one year later, the outlook is far different. From day one onward, Trump has taken decisive action to stabilize and improve the economy. Challenges remain, and affordability is still a serious concern. But the results speak for themselves—and the best may still...

Other types of NATO assistance will still be provided to Ukraine, Mark Rutte saidMOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. The armed forces of the so-called coalition of the willing will be deployed in Ukraine on land, at sea, and in the air once a peace agreement with Russia is concluded, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said. Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), he emphasized that as soon as Russia and Ukraine sign a peace agreement, the coalition of the willing countries that have agreed to support Kiev will deploy their armed forces to Ukraine, dispatch jets, and provide sea support....

Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" shares a DM clip of the "Real Time with Bill Maher" crowd being shocked as Bill Maher tells Democrats why Zohran Mamdani is a communist and not a Democratic socialist. 'Real Time' Crowd Roars for Bill Maher's Relentless Truth Bombs | 4:02 The Rubin Report | 3.16M subscribers | 1,091,185 views | January 26, 2026

In a new interview, the former Republican congresswoman also suggested that baby boomers are the most "brainwashed generation" Former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused one-time ally President Donald Trump of abandoning the core promises behind his Make America Great Again campaign. “MAGA is, I think, people are realizing, it was all a lie,” she said on The Kim Iverson Show on Wednesday, Jan. 28. “It was a big lie for the people.” Greene, 51, claimed the Trump administration is focused on serving “big, big donors,” including foreign countries. “And if they’re donating to all these things, those are the...

Euthanasia conjoined with organ harvesting just took a particularly disturbing turn in Spain, where a woman was euthanized and then had part of her face transplanted.... Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona has performed the world’s first face transplant with a donor who passed away from euthanasia. Around 100 medical professionals took part in the partial face transplant, a highly complex operation using neurovascular microsurgery techniques that lasted about 24 hours. In presenting the milestone procedure, the healthcare director, Maria José Abadías, highlighted the “extraordinary generosity of the donor,” ​the “collective effort” behind the operation and the “pride” of all...

The Native American tribe that owns the land under Billie Eilish’s multimillion-dollar Los Angeles mansion said celebrities should “explicitly” reference the tribes if they want to use them to virtue-signal. The Tongva tribe confirmed the “Bad Guy” singer’s $3 million home does sit on its “ancestral land,” after the 24-year-old used her Grammys acceptance speech to rail against ICE and insist that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” The indigenous inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, known as the “First Angelenos,” said they appreciate Eilish’s sentiment, however, they noted that the performer hasn’t contacted them directly — and insisted...

Why Maine could soon vote on transgender athletes in girls sports Supporters of a ballot referendum on the topic delivered more than 82,000 signatures to the Maine secretary of state Monday afternoon. Posted Yesterday at 3:03 PM Rachel Ohm, Staff Writer Supporters of a referendum that would bar transgender students from sports teams and private spaces that align with the students’ gender identities said Monday that they’ve gathered enough signatures to force a statewide vote on the issue. The group behind the effort said it collected over 82,000 signatures from Maine voters — about 14,000 more than the number required...

Minecraft is now offering a free downloadable world that drops players into “segregation-era America,” complete with encounters with Rosa Parks and the Greensboro sit-ins, according to an official Minecraft Education blog post. The DLC world, titled “Lessons in Good Trouble,” is billed as an educational experience built around major civil rights movements in the U.S. and abroad. It’s listed as free on the Minecraft Marketplace. “From there, students will visit crucial moments in 1960s segregation-era America to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the activists behind the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins before visiting the Edmund Pettus Bridge...

Four-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti will return to competition in the Feb. 28 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event during the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Franchitti, whose career was cut short by injury, will make his return to NASCAR competition for the first time since 2008, driving the No. 1 Toyota for TRICON Garage on the streets of St. Petersburg. In a partnership between TRICON, Jimmie Johnson and Legacy Motor Club, Franchitti will drive the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Dollar Tree has joined the effort and will serve as the primary sponsor for the Scotsman’s first...

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called on the US to cut off aid from Israel amid reports of a new defense deal. "Trump is pushing through nearly $7 billion in weaponry to Israel. The United States should not continue spending taxpayer dollars to arm Netanyahu's genocidal government. We need health care for all Americans, not weapons for a war criminal"...