Free Republic

About 1.2 million international students studied in the U.S. last year, of which about 266,000 are Chinese, according to the Institute of International Education's (IIE) data. "I frankly think it's good that people come from other countries and they learn our culture, and many of them want to stay here, I think it's good," Trump said in the interview which aired Thursday evening. "Not everybody agrees with me, and it doesn't sound like a very conservative position and I'm a conservative guy; I'm more of a common sense guy."

I have to admit I was a bit shocked when scrolling through X to discover this post from the CIA. There were pictures, but without explanation. That's CIA Director John Ratcliffe and folks whose faces are blurred out (likely active CIA assets), apparently meeting with Cuban officials. Here he is outside the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. That looks like he's standing with Chief of Mission Mike Hammer. So what was Ratcliffe doing there, and why was the CIA posting about it? Turns out he was there to meet with Raúl Castro's grandson, who is a colonel in the Ministry of...

Given that we spent over a trillion dollars in Iraq and maybe more in Afghanistan, and Joe Biden left $50 billion in equipment in the latter, the idea that you would spend less than $30 billion and have a chance to overthrow the worst government in the world—one that’s caused most of the problems we’ve had in the Middle East—is a bargain, if it works, and I think it will, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

The Tennessee Legislature has sent Gov. Bill Lee a narrow but important reform to the state’s deadly-force law, and the fight over SB1847/HB1802 shows how much can change between a bill’s introduction and the final version that reaches a governor’s desk.The Tennessee Legislature passed SB1847 on April 23, the last day of the legislative session. SB1847 includes the legal justification to use deadly force to protect property under certain limited circumstances. In this correspondent’s reading of the law, the legal ability to use deadly force under the bill is not very wide or broad. In the previous law, residents could...

The grass is real in AT&T Stadium, well, at least for the next two months. Renamed “Dallas Stadium” for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the artificial surface at the home of the Dallas Cowboys was replaced with a Kentucky bluegrass and rye blend grown in Colorado. The North Texas FWC Organizing Committee held a press conference on Thursday to showcase the pitch ahead of June 14, when the Netherlands and Japan clash in the first group stage match in Arlington. Here are all the 2026 World Cup matches played in Texas AT&T Stadium general manager Tod Martin speaks with reporters...

The Trump administration has blocked $60 million in fraudulent student loan applications since launching a new risk assessment tool last month, the Daily Caller has learned exclusively. The Department of Education launched a new risk assessment tool on April 26 to screen federal student aid applicants for fraud. Since the tool launched two weeks ago, the administration has found about 300,000 fraudulent applications that amounted to $60 million in student loans, officials told the Caller. “We’re using best in class technology, and we’ve been able to stop a lot of those fraudulent activities that are there,” a senior administration official...

While B.C.’s human rights code notionally protects people on the basis of political belief, this didn’t help a Simon Fraser University political science professor who was denied a job over his lack of support for DEI. Indeed, the tribunal decided in April not to give the matter a hearing. Article content Josh Gordon had taught at the SFU policy school from 2014 to 2021 on various contracts. He applied for a tenure-track position in 2021, but, despite having positive student reviews, a history of teaching in the faculty (contract renewals and pay increases indicated he was performing well) and a...

The Democrats can’t let go of the tired and played race card, so my optimism about November is at an all-time high. Here is a prediction. The GOP holds the House in November, wins Michigan’s Senate seat, and the balance of power doesn’t change much. Don’t bet your house on my prediction, but I feel pretty good about it. Why do I feel good about it? Because the Democrats are getting crazier by the minute. Let me explain by sharing this from Jamelle Bouie, who I believe used to frequently appear on MSNBC panels, before they changed the name to...

The Trump administration is probing more than 120 biological laboratories funded by U.S. taxpayers in 30-plus countries in a bid to end potentially dangerous experiments within gain-of-function research, federal officials confirmed Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the investigation following a months-long review of U.S. holdings and files on the Washington-funded biolabs operating overseas, including to uncover specific locations as part of President Donald Trump's executive order in May 2025 to ban all federal funding for gain-of-function research in China or other nations without proper oversight. "The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens...

Though it’s a watered-down version of the long-discussed PRIME Act authored by the Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, the House has passed an important measure to start returning the regulation of intrastate food production to state and local authority. In practice, the return of meat production to local control will be a victory for producers and consumers, restoring flexibility and real community markets. But first, go back to 1942, when the farmer Roscoe Filburn grew wheat on his Ohio farm that he only intended to use on his own property. Penalized for violating the federal Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, Filburn...

"This is the house of Tarzan, the killer of beasts and many black men". This is how Tarzan introduces himself to Jane in Tarzan of the Apes (1914). Later in the book he rescues her from a “black ape rapist”. Tarzan started off as a character written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) in the 1912 All-Story Magazine before being edited into a series of books and films. The story charts the life of an aristocratic offspring of Lord Greystoke, who is orphaned as a child in Africa, raised by apes in the jungle, and soon becomes the King of that...

Does Spencer Pratt, the conservative Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose home burned up in the Palisades fire, ever get a break over his housing arrangements? They're still picking on him over his desperate post-fire living arrangements, this time with TMZ attacking Pratt's decision to put his family in a nice hotel for a few days. Hypocrite, you see, he's supposed to be living in a silverstream trailer on the rubble of his burned home as if an arrangement like that would even be safe for a family with two small children. First, the Los Angeles Times went after him for...

15 May 2026 Friday before Ascension Sunday St. Isidore the Laborer Catholic Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).First readingActs 18:9-18'I have many people on my side in this city'At Corinth one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt you.’ So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them for eighteen months. But, while Gallio...

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress yesterday pushes states to "promote childhood independence" rather than investigate or punish the parents who permit it. The bill lists seven examples of decent parents investigated for letting their kids play outside, bike, walk to the store, etc. Five of these stories were first reported in Reason. Reps. Blake Moore (R–Utah), Janet McClellan (D–Va.), and Virginia Foxx (R–N.C.) are cosponsoring the "Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act." "I want my kids to go exploring without it being just every minute planned for them," says Moore, a father of four. No parent, he adds, should...

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday called a special session to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative districts before the 2028 elections. Kemp signed a proclamation convening the General Assembly on June 17 to address redistricting after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling ended race-based gerrymandering. The news, first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, comes as Republican-led states across the South move to redraw the maps ahead of the November midterms. The special session next month in Atlanta is expected to center on new maps that could take effect for the 2028 election cycle, particularly if Republicans lose power...

FHA loans to non-permanent residents quickly grew to represent 6% of mortgage issuances. The percentage was undoubtedly higher in places like the DFW area, where H-1B visa holders are disproportionately concentrated. I don’t have anything against people in America on H-1B visas. I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again—that I’ve found many of them to be great people on an individual level, and I wish them all nothing but the best. Individual immigrants—especially those here legally—are not at fault for flawed US immigration policy. But this might be the most radicalizing thing I’ve ever seen. Not only are American...

Those Chinese are full of themselves. If they are so special, why not just stay over there, and stop sending their people over here to have babies, steal, and spy? Smart people can suffer delusions, and it appears that Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping is delusional, if not so smart after all. Full of hubris, he once asserted Chinese intentions to become the dominant world power. Now he suggests their strategic relationship with the U.S. will be one of cooperation and “measured competition.” Competition? Measured? What a joke. All they do is steal our intellectual property. Revealing his supercilious delusions,...

EXCLUSIVE: Vice President JD Vance's anti-fraud task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers nationwide, following a wave of suspensions enacted by an anti-fraud task force targeting operations in California, Minnesota and several other states. Approximately 90% of the suspended providers have not reached out to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency tasked with combating fraud, waste and abuse, since payments have been suspended. Trump administration officials told Fox News Digital that they believe a lack of communication between alleged fraudulent providers and CMS indicates that the providers were...

The twelve apostles included "John" (Matt. 10:2). Seek to maintain a proper balance between truth and love. Some people picture John as overly sentimental and egotistical, lying with his head on Jesus' shoulder and constantly referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. But that's not an accurate characterization of one of the "Son of thunder"! He loved Jesus deeply and was amazed that Jesus loved him—especially after he wanted to burn up the Samaritans and then secure a prominent place for himself in Christ's kingdom. Calling himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (e.g., John 21:20) was simply his...

The hosts of ABC’s daytime program The View tore into Billy Bob Thornton after the actor explained that he prefers not to discuss politics, claiming that remaining quiet amounts to complicity. Thornton, currently starring in the Paramount+ series Landman, made the remarks during an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. He told Mandel that he intentionally avoids political commentary, citing comedian Ricky Gervais’s past warning to award show attendees to accept their trophies and move on. “I don’t know anything about politics,” Thornton said. “I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don’t want...