Free Republic

Germany will remain in the running for the 2036 Summer Olympics despite its president expressing concern about the 100th anniversary of the Nazi-era Berlin Games, the nation’s Olympic sports head Thomas Weikert said on Saturday. The German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) is due to decide later this year on putting forward a candidate from Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and the Rhine-Ruhr region for the 2036, 2040, or 2044 Games. The first of the three dates could be contentious, however. “The president views the year 2036 as historically problematic for a German bid,” a spokesperson for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on...

The gold medal hopes of one pair of U.S. athletes were dashed this week, as the American women's bobsled team came in last place after stopping to ask for directions. Elana Meyers Taylor and Jadin O'Brien, competing in the 2-Woman Bobsled event, were considered strong contenders to reach the podium but suffered a shocking fall in the standings after briefly stopping during the middle of their run to ask for directions to the finish line. "They just wanted to make sure," one spectator said. "They were given clear directions before the competition… and a map… but they ended up not...

Violent clashes erupted in parts of western Mexico on Sunday amid a military operation that led to the death of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, triggering widespread security concerns throughout the region. Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as "El Mencho," during an operation in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico's Ministry of Defense said in a statement on X. It said he was wounded during the raid in the town of Tapalpa and died while being flown to Mexico City. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who also confirmed the cartel leader's death,...

The Lone Star State has played a surprising role in the toppling of the Red Star nation and its immediate aftermath. The Soviet Union began running episodes of the CBS nighttime soap opera Dallas in the early 1980s just to show how eeeeevil those scheming bourgeois Texas capitalist hoarders and wreckers could be. The best-laid plans of mice and Mensheviks backfired when Soviet audiences gazed in awe at the wealth of the Ewings and wanted a little of that for themselves. Even the quotidian details of American life seemed astonishing to them, as Karol Markowicz, now with the New York...

Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) stormed Guadalajara International Airport on Sunday in apparent retaliation for the death of their notorious leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. The attack has led to widespread panic, with videos showing passengers and airport staff fleeing for cover amid reports of gunfire and armed confrontations. The violence comes just hours after Mexican authorities confirmed El Mencho’s elimination in a targeted operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, reportedly conducted with U.S. assistance. Chaos reported at Guadalajara International Airport in Jalisco after suspected CJNG cartel attacks outside and possibly inside the airport, allegedly in retaliation to...

History will record the early 21st century as the era of the “Great Betrayal.” We witness a profound moral collapse within Western academia, media and political movements — a collapse defined by a deafening silence regarding the systematic butchery of the Iranian people by the Islamic Republic, contrasted against the ever-present, mobilized rage against the State of Israel’s war in Gaza. This disparity is not an accident of geography or a result of ignorance. It is a calculated, ideological alignment. The Western Left — comprising Marxists, post-modernists and self-described “progressives” — has abandoned the Enlightenment principles of liberty, secularism and...

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation today to repeal Donald Trump’s global tariffs, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The binding measure will be treated as a privileged resolution that must receive a vote on the Senate floor. The measure would terminate the emergency that Trump declared in order to slap tariffs of up to 40% on products Americans buy from other countries. In the wake of Trump’s tariff declaration, costs have...

Unwise people will say to a parent who has had the marrow ripped out of their souls, having a child die on them, "I understand what you're going through." Oh, you understand? -- that you are feeling discomfort at this situation; but if you were my peer, if you also lost a child, you would never say "I understand", you would have the sense to shut your face and say NOTHING, after you own experience of personally having to fend off all the goody-two-shoes "sympathetic" people who are actually morbidly afraid of death and so have to "stim" (self-stimulate) emotionally...

In this highly amusing Globe & Mail story, Canadians are stunned to discover that Alabama is not the dirt poor hillbilly backwater they think it is. They're totally gobsmacked when they learn Alabama's per capita GDP had edged higher than Canada's. "Canadians could probably stomach having their living standards slip relative to the broader U.S., the epicentre of the world's tech revolution. But Alabama?"

Today, February 22/ 5 Adar, marks 46 years to the day [on both calendars] since the Miracle on Ice victory over the Soviet Union.Team USA is all smiles.(February 22nd is another double birthday observance day; also tis the birthday of the father of our nation.)Adar is the month of Purim. As such, it is a month for Jewish commentaries involving wine.The Secret of WineAnd wine maketh glad the heart of man.. (Psalm 104:15)Wine enters, secrets emerge (Sanhedrin 38a.3)"Wine isn't just a drink in Jewish tradition -- it's a symbol of joy, sanctity, and ritual. From welcoming Shabbat to celebrating holidays...

Being gay in Morocco is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. But it was the violence from her family that forced Farah, a 21-year-old gay woman, to flee the country. After a long journey to the United States and a third-country deportation by the Trump administration, however, Farah said she is now back in Morocco and in hiding. “It is hard to live and work with the fear of being tracked once again by my family,” she told The Associated Press, in a rare testimony from a person deported via a third country despite having protection...

Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover exploring Mars. Opportunity explored the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Caught in a dust storm in 2018, Opportunity stopped responding, and NASA stopped trying...

Showdown Career Politician on the Ropes as Grassroots Conservatives Demand New Blood Cornyn Flooded With Swamp Cash While Texas Voters Ask: What Has He Actually Delivered? Texas Republicans are sending a clear message: they’re tired of Washington insiders who talk conservative at home but cut deals behind closed doors. After more than two decades in the U.S. Senate, John Cornyn is facing the political fight of his career — and this time, it’s coming from within his own party. Attorney General Ken Paxton and Congressman Wesley Hunt are crisscrossing the Lone Star State, hammering Cornyn as the embodiment of the...

The Reverend Jesse Jackson died this week, prompting tributes from far and near:Former president Barack Obama said Jackson "laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land".So his principal contribution was as Obama's warm-up act? One begins to understand why the Rev was so eager to "cut his nuts off". So poor Jesse had to make do with being (as I used to call him back in the Nineties and Oughts) President-for-Life of the Republic of Himself. The pansies of The Orange County Register refused to print that phrase, which is why I no longer...

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Aww, would you look at that? Conservatives are answering Zohran Mamdani's call for shovelers in New York City, even though he's demanding that volunteers show their papers.We're not sure what's funnier here: that conservatives are 'signing up' to help, or that Mamdani isn't bright enough to see his own hypocrisy about the whole paperwork thing. Hey, show your ID to shovel snow, but don't worry about it when you vote. Socialists.Or is he a commie?Eh, either way ...

When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine surpassed 1,418 days last month, it officially exceeded a historic milestone — the same span of time it took Moscow to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. And unlike the Red Army that pushed all the way to Berlin eight decades ago in what it called the Great Patriotic War, Russia’s 4-year-old, all-out invasion of its neighbor is still struggling to fully capture Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland. After Moscow failed to seize the capital of Kyiv and install a puppet government in February 2022, the conflict turned into trench warfare with tremendous cost....

Mexican security forces have killed notorious cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, widely known by his alias “El Mencho,” in a major operation that authorities said represents one of the most significant blows to organized crime in recent years. Oseguera, the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed during a pre-dawn raid carried out by Mexican military forces in western Mexico, according to senior government officials.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has designated the U.S. House of Representatives Sharia Free America Caucus an “anti-Muslim hate group,” the first time in CAIR’s 32-year history that it has designated a congressional caucus an extremist organization, according to a Feb. 18 statement from the group. “Caucus members support extreme policies that would effectively ban the practice of the world’s second-largest religion in the United States,” the designation states, explaining that “like canon law for Catholics and halachah for Orthodox Jews, Sharia refers to the rules that Muslims follow, including praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, giving in...

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said the Trump administration would need guidance from the courts on how to handle tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down duties authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. “Well, we need the court to tell us what to do. They’ve created a situation where they struck down the tariffs and gave zero guidance on this,” Greer said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “Historically, you know, as a trade attorney, in my experience, courts will normally give you some instruction on what to do, when.” “The Court of International...