Free Republic

On Monday, Cuba experienced a total shutdown of its National Electric System, as reported by the Union Eléctrica (UNE). The organization confirmed the collapse and announced that protocols for restoring power were being activated. "A complete disconnection of the National Electric System has occurred. Protocols for restoration are being implemented. We will continue to provide updates," the UNE stated in a Facebook post. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Mines indicated that an investigation into the causes of the blackout is underway, though no further details were provided. The nationwide blackout followed a day already plagued by severe service disruptions....

The Oscars, once Hollywood's premier celebration of cinematic artistry, have increasingly come under fire for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates over pure merit and storytelling excellence. Titled "Why the Oscars Suck: Diversity, Equity Inclusion Standards Fail Art," this critique highlights how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Representation and Inclusion Standards-introduced in 2020 and fully enforced for Best Picture eligibility since 2024-have transformed the awards into what many view as a politicized checklist rather than a genuine honor for filmmaking achievement.

The chief of the Federal Communications Commission is confirming U.S. broadcasters must "operate in the public interest," and delivering fake news is not that. It is FCC chairman Brendan Carr who issued a statement calling for broadcast corporations to correct how they are report about the Iran war. "Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up," he confirmed.

Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent and CBP Operations Commander Gregory Bovino is set to retire at the end of March, bringing an end to a nearly 30-year career with the agency. Bovino is best known for leading U.S. Customs and Border Protection teams in the most sweeping mass-immigration enforcement operations in the agency’s history, according to DHS.

The Brief * The State Department has reduced the fee to renounce U.S. citizenship from $2,350 to $450, an 80% decrease. * The change took effect Friday after years of legal challenges from groups representing Americans seeking to give up their citizenship. * The fee had been raised in 2015 amid a surge in renunciations tied partly to stricter U.S. tax reporting rules for Americans living abroad.

Dear FRiends, We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. This means no spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers. And because we are not a 501C, we have preserved our God-given, constitutionally protected right to free speech without government intervention. All of the above means Free Republic remains an independent, grassroots, user-funded, conservative forum. If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthy God-Family-Country endeavor, please consider making a contribution today: Click here: to...

Jimmy Kimmel didn’t host the Oscars on Sunday — that job went for the second year in a row to the fantastic Conan O’Brien — but in presenting the documentary categories, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host still had a few sharp things to say. In coming out to present the documentary short and documentary feature Oscars, Kimmel joked that O’Brien had gone out and accidentally “exposed his face to the sun and was incinerated. So I will be finishing out the rest of the program.” But turning serious, he noted that with documentaries, “We hear a lot about courage at...

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...