Free Republic

Russia has effectively given up its effort to replace the dollar with the yuan in foreign trade because of U.S. secondary sanctions, Bloomberg reported. Russia began shifting aggressively to the yuan after the start of its full-scale war with Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions. By 2024, the currency accounted for nearly half of the country’s foreign trade settlements, became the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange, and overtook the dollar in bank deposit volume. The situation began to shift after the U.S. tightened secondary sanctions against banks in June 2024. Fearing restrictions, Chinese financial institutions started cutting...

Colorado Democrats and immigration activists cheered after Gov. Jared Polis (D.) signed a signature 2022 health care law providing coverage to children and "pregnant persons" living in the United States illegally. Four years later, Polis, now a lame duck, is calling to gut the Cover All Coloradans program in his final budget proposal in an attempt to address the state's spiraling Medicaid costs, and left-wing groups aren't happy. Polis released his budget on the eve of the midterm elections—one day after the legally mandated deadline to do so—and proposed $600 million in state Medicaid cuts. He called Medicaid's growth "unsustainable"...

A Utah teenager who disappeared in May of 2025 has been found alive in Oregon after spending more than 500 days in captivity, and a 39-year-old man has been arrested in connection with her disappearance. Kylie Arellano, who is now 17 years old, was rescued from a home in Oregon after authorities received a tip from the parent of another player she had met through the online game “Among Us.” The suspect, identified as Adam Hunter Harmel, has been charged with transporting Arellano across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Arellano was last seen by her...

Holdout tenants and leftwing democratic socialists are clashing with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and pro-housing advocates... The fight is over Mamdani's plan to redevelop a NYCHA complex in Chelsea, which would replace about 2,000 units of public housing with private developers’ mixed-income housing. “The escalating conflict has created uncomfortable optics for the mayor. The newly minted DSA members accuse Mamdani, who campaigned as a champion of working class New Yorkers fighting wealthy interests, of abandoning his values,” Gothamist reports. Mandani, along with other DSA members in his administration, argues that the Chelsea complex is in such bad condition...

People who have recently worked for the federal government in immigration enforcement roles will soon be barred from holding many Montgomery County government jobs under a bill passed unanimously by the County Council on Tuesday. “We’ve got a lawless federal administration undermining faith in the government across the board,” Councilmember Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5), the bill’s sponsor, said before Tuesday’s vote. “It is incumbent on us to take every step that we can to demonstrate that here, we have our residents’ backs and we are drawing lines in the sand.” Representatives for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not...

Five years ago, my son Liam's son James died of a heart attack. He was just 11 years old. In his anger and grief, he turned away from God and the Catholic faith I brought him up in. I have prayed for him and with him every day since. Yesterday in our nightly phone call Liam said he was praying to his guardian angel and that he could feel the prayers working. I could hardly contain myself. I thought I had detected some movement in the right direction over the last several weeks, but this was more than I could...

Beijing targets California’s tech, research and innovators in its quest for superiorityOver the last half a century, Chinese spies have taken aim at a wide swath of California targets.They have worked as a Boeing aerospace engineer and a naval engineer at defense contractor Power Paragon to obtain highly classified information on U.S. space shuttle and Navy projects. They have assumed the roles of electrical engineering professor at UCLA and software engineer at Google and even worked as a driver and aide to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein when she chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee.Intelligence experts say that China continues...

A 19-year-old former college student was arrested after allegedly tearing down an American flag and attacking Turning Point USA members with a cane. Three people were assaulted during the confrontation at the University of Texas at Tyler, prompting campus police to intervene and arrest the suspect. TPUSA Event Turns Violent The incident occurred November 10 during a Turning Point USA gathering at the University of Texas at Tyler. Organizers were hosting a “Pick Up the Mic” event featuring open political discussions. The gathering followed a format similar to Turning Point USA’s “Prove Me Wrong” events. SNIP

New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America drafted a resolution urging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Members will vote on it at the chapter’s biennial citywide convention on Saturday, November 14. Co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser signed the proposal, which argued that a winning campaign could “deliver a democratic socialist agenda” for working-class Americans. The resolution called Ocasio-Cortez one of the most recognizable figures in American politics and described her as the most popular Democrat in Congress. It listed Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as fellow democratic...

Families of the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group were told their loved ones won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas as the conflict in the Middle East continues, according to a report. Relatives of the 7,000 service members who are part of the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group were left incensed after they were told the Iranian attacks continue to “pepper” U.S. ships enforcing the blockade of Iran, meaning their loved ones will not be coming home for the holidays, according to audio of a November 9 meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, obtained by MS NOW....

A seven-month pregnant woman whose unborn baby died after she was discharged from hospital while suffering from a life-threatening condition was told by staff to make an appointment to give birth. Danielle Brown, 31, from North Tyneside, said she was devastated to have to return home knowing the baby she was carrying was no longer alive. She said no family should be put through the same experience and wants hospitals to offer alternatives for those grieving. After she was discharged from hospital suffering with pre-eclampsia, Danielle insisted on returning to the maternity unit as she felt so unwell and was...

12 November 2026 Saint Josaphat, Bishop, Martyr on Thursday of week 32 in Ordinary Time St. Josaphat Catholic Church, Detroit Readings at MassThis is a preview of Universalis. The Universalis app gives you every day of every year, not just the single week you’re seeing now, and it doesn’t need the Internet. It gives you the official New American Bible version for the readings at Mass. As well as the Mass, it gives you the Liturgy of the Hours. It costs $9.99-12.99 on your phone, or £19.99 (about $26.50) on your computer. Get it now.Liturgical Colour: Red. Year: A(II).Readings...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) already has a replacement in mind for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as Senate minority leader once Democrats take advantage of their new congressional majorities in January. Sanders joined Jon Stewart on the latest episode of The Weekly Show, which will release in full on Wednesday, to discuss the midterm results and what comes next for the Democratic Party. [SNIP] “His institutional knowledge is helpful, but if it’s not helpful to utilize to move the system urgently, then what are we doing?” Stewart said. The Daily Show host asked Sanders if he had replacements in mind, and...

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said he believes a controversial ad from Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy may have cost him his reelection bid… “That final ad from Vivek really was kind of a lightning strike at the end, and it had an impact up and down the ticket in all the races,” Turner told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Wednesday. “An ad like that, certainly at a time in a blue wave where the water level is already high, can have outcomes that are many times unexpected.” Even as President Trump carried his district by just under 8 points in 2024,...

This video is also available on TikTok. A woman posts in the abortion subreddit saying that she’s 33 weeks pregnant. She initially was actually excited about being pregnant, and she went to a regular OB. While she was there, she said, “Lo and behold, a mini human—arms, legs, a head. It was such a clear picture of a baby.” She was excited about it until around 15 weeks pregnant. She started to feel not so excited. Now, at 33 weeks pregnant, she says, “I’m just weeks away from giving birth, and as awful as I feel about it, my mind...

Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun stood before a federal judge in Manhattan on October 8. He admitted to four felony counts: conspiracy to violate US export controls, conspiracy to smuggle goods out of the country, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors call the 44-year-old contractor a "fixer," a label that undersells what he's accused of actually doing. That's the headline fact. Here's why it matters beyond one contractor's sentencing: Sun was charged alongside Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, who pleaded not guilty. Liaw's trial, originally set for November, was pushed back to March 2027 after his lawyer...

ecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth awarded the soldier who reprimanded him and members of his staff at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier a Joint Service Commendation Medal on Thursday. “We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist,” Hegseth said in a post on social media. A Pentagon official confirmed that Hegseth welcomed the 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, to the Pentagon “where he proudly awarded Specialist Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026.”

From recycled apartheid accusations to ever-expanding genocide claims and newly coined terminology, the campaign to demonize Israel keeps finding new words for the same old obsession.The recycling of accusations against Israel isn't accidental. It's a propaganda strategy: when one label loses its punch, roll out another. VERBICIDE — The Deliberate Corruption Of Words This is verbicide: the killing of a word's original meaning through its deliberate distortion, inflation, and political weaponization. Words that carry profound historical, moral, and legal significance—apartheid, genocide, and now ecocide and wholocide—are repeatedly stretched, repurposed, and stripped of their precise meaning to serve an ideological campaign....

A judge has expanded an earlier order to stop New York from censoring pro-life groups that recommend the abortion pill reversal treatment to pregnant women. U.S. District Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York, a Trump appointee, issued an order last Friday in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates et al. v. Letitia James. The order expands an earlier preliminary injunction preventing the state from censoring talk about abortion pill reversal to include “unnamed New York members” of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA). Gabriella McIntyre, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which...

He previously said he was open to the vice president restarting talks with Tehran, but now says a deal isn’t necessary WASHINGTON—President Trump said Thursday that the U.S. didn’t need a deal with Iran and would prefer Vice President JD Vance, who has taken the lead in negotiations, work on investigating American cities run by Democrats.“I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.,” Trump posted on social media. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have...