Free Republic

The Oscars 2026 might be over, but fans’ fury over “dirty” celebrities is just getting started. A picture showing trash, including discarded water bottles and snack packets, strewn across Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre has gone viral on social media — sparking backlash over the hypocrisy of the elite, who grandstand about the environment. “Aren’t some of them environmentalists?” one critic pointed out. “Where’s all that ‘protect the planet’ energy now?” “Save the mountains, keep them clean, blah blah blah … but look at the mess they leave,” another chimed in of the hypocrisy. “Nobody’s buying it anymore. As the saying goes:...

WASHINGTON — President Trump will sign an executive order Monday afternoon formally creating a benefits fraud task force chaired by Vice President JD Vance — the president’s designee to lead a nationwide “war on fraud.” Vance will join Trump in the Oval Office for the signing, underscoring the president’s continued emphasis on the project after highlighting a social-services scam scandal in Minnesota that has led to dozens of indictments, including for phony nutrition and autism care programs. A document describing the looming order says “there is strong reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and...

As a cofounder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook, Peter Thiel is widely recognized for his expertise in tech. But for a while now, the billionaire venture capitalist is sounding the alarm on an entirely different sector: real estate.During an interview with Common Wealth Canada in late 2024, Thiel drew upon the insights of 19th-century economist Henry George to underscore the gravity of America’s real estate crisis (1).snip“The dynamic ends up being that you add 10% to the population in a city, and maybe the house prices go up 50%, and maybe people’s salaries go up, but...

A graffiti message reading “Kill a Jew, go to heaven” was found over the weekend on a bike trail in New York City’s Riverside Park. The sprayed sentence was discovered on a large stone along the trail between 97th Street and 105th Street, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a major hub of the Jewish community. The Combat Antisemitism Movement, a global coalition of pro-Jewish groups, tweeted that it was “a direct public call for violence against Jews.” The nonprofit added, “Last month alone, 28 antisemitic incidents were reported in New York.” U.S.-based organization StopAntisemitism also responded to...

Yesterday I had some figures from the NYC vs LA deathmatch over who can spend more on the homeless population. Los Angeles was looking pretty good with $650,000 per housing unit for the homeless, but don’t count NYC out yet. These numbers come from the NY comptroller’s annual report via Mike Bird of the Economist. New York City’s unsheltered population increased from 3,588 in FY 2019 to 4,504 in FY 2025 — a 26 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels In that time, spending on services for this population has more than tripled, growing from $102 million in FY 2019...

In an expedited procedure, the European Commission recently raised tariffs on ceramic and porcelain products from China. Additional tariff measures are also being considered to protect the European internal market from the Chinese export engine. Is the EU economy now facing a trade war with Beijing, alongside the potential import halt on rare earths? Tensions in international trade policy are escalating on multiple fronts. After the U.S. Supreme Court initially declared the tariff regime implemented by President Donald Trump since April of last year unlawful, it appears the administration has explored new ways to stabilize its tariff policy going forward....

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring a Republican elections reform bill to the floor next week and kickstart a marathon debate that could potentially last days.

There is no institution that has lost more trust among the American people since 2020 than our judicial system. This is not surprising. The legitimacy of the court depends upon it being seen as non-partisan arbiters of the law, and ever fewer Americans see them as such. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) started this when he allowed only 28 percent of President Obama’s nominees to be confirmed in the final two years of his presidency — and that was before his double standard with respect to the Supreme Court nominations of Merrick Garland and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Iranian officials are using the Epstein scandal to fuel conspiracy theories aimed at eroding US support for Israeli operations, with a broader effort to sway public opinion in the US against the US-Israel alliance.

In another interesting development out of the ongoing Operation Epic Fury, or, as our Israeli allies call it, Operation Roaring Lion, the Israel Air Force (IAF) has destroyed an aircraft that was employed by the late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to coordinate with proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. While the late, unlamented Ayatollah is coordinating with nothing more than six feet of Iranian soil now, there was always the possibility that this aircraft could have been put to some nefarious purpose, like spiriting regime loyalists out of harm's way. No longer. Now the airplane has been reduced to...

Burning the Canadian flag is legal. Completely legal. A planned law that would’ve mandated the flying of the Ontario flag at all provincial buildings and banned the desecration of the Canadian flag has been scuttled by the Ford government, Global News has learned, after members of the Progressive Conservative caucus questioned the necessity of the bill. Multiple sources told Global News the proposal, spearheaded as part of a patriotism push by Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Graham McGregor, would have potentially violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and may have faced court challenges. But the Iranian flag...

Your next car purchase comes with an unwelcome passenger: a federal mandate requiring surveillance technology that monitors your every blink, glance, and head nod. Thanks to Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, NHTSA must finalize rules forcing all new passenger vehicles to include “advanced impaired driving prevention technology”—essentially turning your dashboard into a judgment-free zone that’s anything but judgment-free. The Technology That’s Watching Infrared cameras and sensors create a constant biometric assessment of driver alertness and sobriety. The tech involves infrared cameras mounted on steering columns or A-pillars, tracking eye movement, pupil dilation, and drowsiness patterns....

In just the first five months of the new fiscal year, the federal government has already spent more than $3 trillion – more than it spent in all of 2009 – $1 trillion of which it had to borrow. And what is all this money going toward? The federal government was told 15 years ago to take a full, annual inventory of everything it does. It’s never been able to get that done. “Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals,” notes the Government Accountability Office in...

New legal victory: the First Circuit just ruled that the Trump Administration can CONTINUE deporting illegal aliens to third countries. There is more work ahead on this important issue, but this is a key win for @POTUS’s immigration agenda. @thejusticedept attorneys will continue fighting tirelessly to advance and protect President Trump’s policies in court.

President Trump has just announced that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with “early stage breast cancer.” “She has a fantastic medical team, and her prognosis is excellent!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy! “Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her. “Susie, as one of my closest and most important advisors, is tough and...

Sable Offshore Corp. announced Monday that it restarted production on Platform Harmony and transporting oil to refineries in response to President Donald Trump and the Department of Energy ordering the move under the Defense Production Act. The Texas-based company has been attempting to restart the oil production facilities in Santa Barbara County for several years, including the offshore platforms and pipelines to transport oil to refineries. Local governments, environmental groups and residents have consistently pushed back, often citing safety concerns about major spills. One of the Sable pipelines is the one that ruptured and caused the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill...

"For decades, reintroducing grizzlies to California seemed unrealistic. Now, California lawmakers are considering a plan that could relocate Yellowstone grizzlies there. One skeptic says, "I don’t think it’s feasible. There’s 40 million people in California."

A clear left-right split among voters is showing the further decline of the establishment political parties. The RN’s Franck Allisio, 2024. TrisHR (cropped). The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for the National Rally (RN), which could in turn predict a strong performance in next year’s French presidential race. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) also performed well. In contrast, the traditionalist parties of recent history—Socialists and Les Républicains—are undergoing a process of collapse. In Marseille RN candidate Franck Allisio tied with the incumbent leftwing mayor, Benoît Payan, with both securing more than 35.4%...

WASHINGTON — President Trump was stunned to learn last week that US intelligence indicates new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be gay — and that his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, feared his suitability to rule the Islamic Republic for that reason, The Post can reveal. Trump couldn’t contain his surprise and laughed aloud when he was briefed on the intel, according to sources. Others in the room also found it “hilarious” and joined the president’s reaction, while one senior intelligence official “has not stopped laughing about it for days,” said one person familiar with the briefing.

U.S. intelligence has circulated to President Trump and to a small circle around him that Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had misgivings about his son replacing him, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. The analysis showed the elder Khamenei was wary of his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, ever taking power because he was perceived as not very bright, and was viewed as unqualified to be leader, according to sources. The information gathered also indicated that the father was aware that his son had issues in his personal life, according to sources within the administration, the...