Free Republic

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves. Trump in a social media post announced the agreement he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez. “The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote.

[Catholic Caucus] Liturgy Wars—The Latest Volley: A Papal “Thus”The drafters of Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday catechesis did not serve him well, accomplished liturgical scholar contendsIn recent months a number of prominent attempts have been made to double down on the party line that the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council conforms to the Council’s own desires and is beyond criticism, and that the older liturgical rites have little, if any, place in the life of the Church.One only need recall three recent examples: Cardinal Arthur Roche’s July 29 interview with The Tablet; the subsequent article in the secular Spanish...

It’s all about how and where. It seems that everyone is talking about data centers these days; they’ve taken over the Internet with memes and conspiracy theories. As a computer professor, I decided to apply an academic research regimen to the situation and cut through the exaggeration and emotion that often accompany these current polarizing issues. Two important points to begin with: AI’s water and power usage. As I have demonstrated in my previous article, data centers use about 0.02% of the water supply in the US according to recent sources, and most future data centers are already planned to...

President Trump’s return to office was made possible in part because of increasing support from three traditionally Democratic groups: Hispanic voters (41% supported Trump, a 6-point improvement from 2020), young voters (46%, up 10 points) and Black voters (15%, up 7 points). There isn’t much evidence that Democrats have figured out how to talk to these voters again, but for two of the three groups, Trump’s declining approval rating is doing the job for them. In a recent Marquette survey, two-thirds of young Americans said they disapproved of Trump, and 56% said they would support the Democratic candidate in their...

Leslie Poles Hartley famously dubbed the past “a foreign country.” This summer, for the first time, I sensed that the present can be one too. My annual visit to the land of my childhood and youth exposed me to a culture very different from the one that nurtured me. Growing up as a grammar schoolboy in 1970s and ’80s England, I absorbed the importance of personal restraint; emotional self-control in public; privacy; acting with honesty and fairness, even to one’s own hurt; and respecting others regardless of their social status or opinions. At the level of society, such personal values...

The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY! At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer." "This Historic Transaction MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices...

Dr. Kwasniewski: Worst crisis in Church history is happening right now It is manifestly the case that the modern(ist) crisis is far worse than all the earlier ones put together.On June 8, 2026, a journalist named Wouter J. Suenens published an article at The Catholic Herald entitled “The Traditional Latin Mass does not need the SSPX.” In this article he claimed that the crisis through which the Church is passing today is just one of many in her history, and not even the worst. On this basis he maintains that the Society of St. Pius X is guilty of poor...

🚨RILEY GAINES JUST WON — THE NCAA SETTLED AFTER FOUR YEARS AND RESTORED HER AS THE SOLE FINISHER IN THE 2000M FREESTYLE! Follow: t.me/+uT8Yg-ELrtJjM… They finally folded. Riley Gaines says she’s “beyond thrilled” that her lawsuit against the NCAA has been settled after more than four years. Gaines will receive an undisclosed amount in punitive damages and have her name restored as the sole finisher in her place in the 2000M freestyle. “They finally did the right thing,” Gaines told supporters at a rally outside the courthouse. “And I promise to use this settlement to further the cause of keeping...

California is one step closer to banning disposable nicotine vapes — with environmentalists arguing the gadgets’ metals would be better off in electric vehicle batteries. State lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 762 Wednesday, sending the measure to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for a signature or veto — with repeat violators facing civil fines of up to $2,000. The bill would permanently ban disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation devices containing tobacco products, prohibiting anyone from “importing or manufacturing” them for sale in California starting Jan. 1, 2027. It would also prevent the sale of those kinds of e-cigarettes starting on Jan. 1, 2028....

It’s snowing in August. Police executed the “largest cocaine seizure” in decades this week when they seized 580 pounds of the cartel-tied drugs stashed in a Long Island City storage unit, officials announced Friday. Nelson Salcedo, of Englewood, New Jersey, was arrested in the middle of moving the alleged $10 million in coke Wednesday in what cops say is tied to a wide-reaching drug trafficking scheme. “This was a massive shipment of narcotics, tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey. And because of the work of the investigators standing...

Welcome to FAFOland “. . . the worse they become, the more they blame you for it.” —El Gato Malo on the Lefty-left As the Democratic Party pulls out all the stops to make itself ridiculous, their proxy warriors in the federal judiciary play chicken with the executive branch on sane, uniform standards for mail-in ballots. The Democrats don’t want sane, uniform standards for mail-in ballots because they are insane. They want to “defend Democracy” with mail-in ballot chaos. Democracy is their flabby rubric for any artifice or subterfuge that beats a path to power so they can continue their...

The United States has threatened to oppose Britain's sovereignty over the Falkland Islands if Andy Burnham does not increase defence spending, The Telegraph can reveal. The proposal is among measures being drawn up by senior defence officials at the Pentagon as an incentive to hit Nato's 5 per cent spending pledge. A senior US official told The Telegraph that Britain was likely to receive "special attention" in Washington's review of its allies' commitment to Nato, which will examine whether member nations have credible paths toward the target. Officials in Washington believe that while Britain has the potential to be a...

For more than a year, the National Park Service has been quietly working to fulfill an unprecedented directive from Trump officials: Parcel off a corner of Yosemite National Park to give to a private developer. National Park Service staff in California and Washington, D.C., are trying to arrange a land exchange between a Nevada-based company and the federal government, according to four people directly familiar with discussions, as well as agency documents reviewed by NOTUS. Since the spring of 2025, the Trump administration has been looking into ways it could cede a roughly quarter-mile strip of land inside Yosemite to...

Housing in New York City has become painfully unaffordable. In June 2026, renters paid an average of $5,408 for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, while even the average studio reached $4,014. It isn't difficult to understand why young New Yorkers are frustrated, or why socialism is starting to sound appealing. Underneath that anger is a very real problem. Young New Yorkers aren't wrong for being frustrated. Housing has become unaffordable, and they are right to demand better solutions. But is socialism the answer? The Marxist Lens: Tenant vs. Landlord Before asking whether socialism can solve New York’s housing crisis, we...

The future of money is changing fast. 💳🌍 Around the world, countries are moving toward a cashless society, where digital money, online payments, and mobile wallets are replacing traditional paper cash. From Sweden and Norway to China and Nigeria, the shift to electronic payments is transforming economies and daily life. In this video, we explore: • Why cash is disappearing in many countries • How digital payments and mobile banking are taking over • The rise of a cashless world and what it means for the future of money If you’re curious about digital currency, cashless societies, online transactions, the...

This video (0:00 - 9:59) discusses reports that the Trump administration is leveraging an executive order signed on September 25, 2025—which focuses on countering domestic terrorism and political violence—to investigate the tax-exempt status of various organizations, most notably the Open Society Foundations founded by George Soros. Key points discussed: Targeting Nonprofits: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS are reportedly reviewing whether organizations like the Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and CAIR are in violation of 501(c)(3) rules. If found in violation, these groups could potentially lose their tax-exempt status and be liable for millions in back...

President Trump announced Friday he would move to allow American farmers and ranchers to process their own food, hitting back against what he called the “monopoly” created by large processors. Trump noted in a post on Truth Social that farmers and ranchers “have always been a number one priority” for him, adding that he has heard they have had an issue with big processors. The president wrote, “There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I?” “So, in order...

Palestine Action has been declared a global terrorist organisation by the US. The protest group has been added to a list that includes Hamas, al-Qaeda and Islamic State, meaning supporters face a lifetime ban from entering the US. US officials said that by promoting its "acts of terrorism" on social media, Palestine Action encouraged others to copy its tactics overseas, including in America. It is the first known case of a British Left-wing activist group being subjected to US counter-terrorism sanctions. Under the new measures, Palestine Action's assets in the US, including bank accounts and property, are being frozen, and...

Anthony Fauci’s division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided cover for sensitive CIA research on bioterrorism threats, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. An undated interagency agreement between the CIA and Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) appears to shed light on the origins of the institute’s involvement in biodefense. The CIA’s Biological Technology Center (BTC) initiated the collaboration on “forensic microbiology” on bioterrorism bugs for the intelligence community (IC). CIA funds would be used to leverage pre-existing civilian research efforts in a way that would benefit both CIA and NIH,...

New awards include ‘Allahu Akbar’ medals and Islamophobia awareness patches.Aug 28, 2026 Islamic lessons for four-year-olds. A mosque at Scouting’s historic headquarters. An inflatable minaret and “Allahu Akbar” medals at America’s National Jamboree. Behind the global movement: $87 million from Saudi Arabia. The Islamization of Scouting is no longer confined to Muslim-only troops.Across American and British Scouting, Islam is now appearing in national events, children’s activities, badges, recruitment plans, family programming and permanent infrastructure. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has placed an effective $87 million behind World Scouting’s flagship Messengers of Peace program—including a Saudi-supported operation inside America’s National...