Free Republic

Nine people have been arrested in France following an investigation into the murder of a far-right nationalist student by suspected militants from the far-left. Those detained include a parliamentary assistant for a deputy from the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) party. Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old maths student, died in hospital on Saturday - two days after being beaten and kicked about the head by a gang of masked young men in Lyon. It happened after a small demonstration by far-right feminists - who Deranque was supposed to be helping protect - at the city's Institute of Political Studies (IEP), commonly...

On President’s Day, the First Amendment Troop staged “ResistDance” - a tribute and act of artistic dissent - at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Memorial. The piece honored Renée Good and Alex Pretti. It was created by the advocacy arm of Hungryman Productions, led by Bryan Buckley, a two-time Academy Award nominated director, writer, and activist, as well as the director, writer and producer of the upcoming Fyre Fest the Musical, and choreographer Matthew Steffens, part of multiple Tony Award nominated productions. The troop consisted of dancers from multiple Broadway shows including Hamilton, MJ & Wicked, along with several Kennedy...

Over the past 18 years, officers at Maryland’s Frederick County jail have asked thousands of inmates two standard questions: What country are you a citizen of? And where were you born?If the answer was anything other than the United States, local officers deputized with special federal authority launched an investigation into whether the person was in the country illegally. Since 2008, Frederick County has turned over 1,884 people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. But that is coming to an immediate halt under a law signed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore that prohibits immigration enforcement...

Follow live updates on New York City politics as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a record $127 billion budget proposal Tuesday. The eye-popping amount — that one insider called “insanity” — is up around $11 billion from the current year. The socialist city leader’s plan includes a whopping 9.5% proposed property tax hike on New Yorkers, which he claims would be a “last resort” — while allocating another $1.2 billion for migrants. Mamdani, 34, unveiled his preliminary budget from the Blue Room at NYC City Hall this afternoon. Get the latest news, analysis and more from our local politics reporters with...

Parents surprised to see a man with a beard wearing makeup and a dress at Countryside Elementary. He uses a man’s name but instructs the children to call him “Miss”. Parents were not informed of the staff change.

Newsom knows if the true scale of CA fraud comes to light, his presidential campaign is over’ California Governor Newsom, our own International Man of Mystery has been focused on anything but California as he gallivants around the world – first to Davos, then Germany last week where he threatened “climate deniers.” Today he is in London signing a climate agreement with the UK. I’m sure Californians are relieved that Gov. Newsom is single handedly saving us from climate change. While he gallivants, California’s climate is normal, but the state of the state is a hot mess. Another $370 million...

Research led by Scott Duncan (Auckland University of Technology) and Melody Smith (University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau)In A Nutshell Play isn’t just for kids: Playful adults cope better with stress, feel more positive emotions, and report higher life satisfaction. Design matters: Cities and social norms often discourage adult play, but embedding playful spaces into everyday life could boost community well-being. It’s a mindset, not a toy box: Adult play is about curiosity and spontaneity, whether through humor, movement, creativity, or social interaction. Play strengthens relationships: It builds empathy, emotional intelligence, and even bridges generational divides. Somewhere along the...

The country’s most famous “Maryland Man” is allowed to stay free in Maryland for the foreseeable future, thanks to a federal judge’s ruling. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, appointed in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama, declared Tuesday that the government had presented no viable plan for deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to the Associated Press. Unless a higher court intervenes, the Salvadoran national can’t be held while he faces an indictment charging him with human smuggling.

A new report from City Journal‘s Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo takes readers inside all that is alleged about Nick Fuentes’s involvement in the Ali Alexander-underage photos scandal. Fuentes and Alexander, both of whom are far-right activists, have a longstanding relationship, and the latter is perhaps best known for having allegedly solicited nude photos from two underage boys, including a 15-year-old. According to Thorpe and Rufo, Fuentes allegedly knew about Alexander’s proclivities before Milo Yiannopoulos, another far-right activist, publicized them in 2023. From Thorpe and Rufo’s report: On a livestream in 2017, Fuentes said there was “abundant evidence” that Alexander...

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation this week that would eliminate federal liability protections for vaccine manufacturers, which is a legal shield that has been in place for four decades. The bill, cosponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. If passed, the bill will make changes to the federal law to abolish the liability shield provided to vaccine manufacturers under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which largely protects vaccine manufacturers from product liability lawsuits and requires most injury claims to be directed to a federal compensation program....

The democrat party is old. It is a fact. Nancy Pelosi is 85 and although she is retired she still talks a lot and clearly wields some clout when not seeming drunk. Chuck Schumer is 75 years old and more and more frail in appearance. At 78 Jerry Nadler routinely falls asleep in hearings. Barack Obama says the democrat party is just too old. So, who comes next? Hakeem JeffriesHakeem Jeffries has a weird sounding voice. That might be why people have never really taken to him, and he cannot establish a gravitas about himself. I can't take him seriously....

Labeling Israel’s war in Gaza as genocide is not criticism but a modern blood libel, one that distorts October 7, fuels antisemitism worldwide, and must be confronted head-on. ByJPOST Editorial. February 17, 2026. The bald-faced lie that Israel committed genocide in Gaza is quickly becoming the 21st-century equivalent of the centuries-old blood libel against the Jewish people. It has crept into mainstream global discourse, and unless massive efforts are made to debunk the false claims once and for all, when the history of the two-year Israel-Hamas War is taught in the decades to come, the focus will not be on...

A decade after losing the presidency to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has learned nothing. In a testy exchange with Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Petr Macinka at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, Clinton responded angrily to the observation that Trump’s rise has been made possible by left-wing extremism. During a panel titled “The West-West Divide: What Remains of Common Values,” Clinton claimed that Trump was modeling himself after Vladimir Putin. “He has betrayed the West, he’s betrayed human values, he’s betrayed the NATO charter, the Atlantic Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she...

Marco Rubio considers it an "overused term" while Friedrich Merz thinks it "no longer exists". But while the US Secretary of State and German chancellor may not believe in the relevance of the rules-based international order, the concept — and its potential collapse — has been at the forefront of global geopolitics of late. The phrase caught the global attention in January after a rare speech, from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in which a world leader tackled the often unspoken concept head on. "We knew the story of the rules-based international order was partially false, that the strongest would...

Palantir announced Tuesday it has moved its headquarters from Denver to Miami – joining a slew of tech firms fleeing to South Florida as a growing number of industry leaders deem it the new Silicon Valley. Tech giants have been increasingly flocking to Florida from business hubs like New York and California in pursuit of lower taxes, warm weather and safer neighborhoods. “We have moved our headquarters to Miami, Florida,” Palantir wrote in a brief post on X Tuesday morning. The company did not immediately respond to inquiries about its reason for the move. Palantir was founded in Palo Alto,...

RARE SIGHTING OF "FAR LEFT": As you know if you get your news from "mainstream" outlets, anybody on the right is either "far right", "extreme right" or "hard right": even when as in France and Germany they're the most popular party in the country, they're still way out on the far extremist fringe, unlike the single-digit mainstream guys. Conversely, anybody on the left is simply "the left".So this BBC headline seems to have discovered an entirely new demographic grouping:Student death puts French far-left under pressureThe "French far-left"? What the hell did those starry-eyed peace-and-love idealists do to deserve that designation?...

Western influencers are allegedly taking Iran-funded “influencer trips” to help sanitize one of the world’s most brutal regimes and this episode pulls back the curtain on the scandal in jaw-dropping detail. You’ll learn how Tehran may be paying foreign activists to spread propaganda, why this could violate US and UK sanctions law and how figures like Bushra Sheikh and Calla Walsh are being accused of shilling for the Islamic Republic while ignoring the suffering of Iranian women and dissidents. From massive global protests demanding regime change to explosive criticism of media silence and UN hypocrisy, host Emily Schrader explores the...

Democrats Biden Official Who Created ‘Disinformation’ Board Appointed as FISA Court Adviser, Sparking Concern From Republican Senators Jennifer Daskal helped select the board's controversial director, Nina Jankowicz, and will now advise judges on foreign surveillance legal issues Jennifer Daskal (flickr.com/photos/newamerica/39221031875) Chuck Ross February 17, 2026 A Biden administration official who launched the Disinformation Governance Board and served as co-chair of the so-called Ministry of Truth has been appointed to advise the powerful Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, prompting concerns from some Republican lawmakers. The presiding judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review appointed Jennifer...

A family has accused Canada's laws of 'killing the disabled and vulnerable' months after their son, who suffered from seasonal depression, died by assisted suicide. Kiano Vafaeian, a 26-year-old blind man with Type 1 diabetes, died in December using Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, which allows patients with 'grievous and irremediable' medical conditions to request a lethal drug. Eligibility was expanded in 2021 to include people with chronic illnesses, disabilities and, pending parliamentary review, potentially individuals with certain mental health conditions. Vafaeian faced mental health struggles stemming from a car accident at 17, and according to his mother,...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials. The government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of...