Free Republic

Perhaps US intelligence has an idea about who is increasingly the real power behind the throne in BeijingXi Jinping effectively vanished in July and the first half of August. Some China watchers speculated that his unexplained absence was a sign he was losing his grip on power. But he has since reappeared and been very visible again. At the end of the month, he visited Tibet, then indulged in a high-profile, backslapping meeting with Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tianjin. He capped off his busy two weeks with the September 3 military parade in Beijing...

Ghana's embassy in Washington, D.C., has been temporarily shut down after an investigation found that staff members were collecting illegal extra charges for at least five years. The country's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, posted about the probe on Facebook on Monday, calling his actions "drastic and decisive." Why It Matters Some 172,558 Ghanaians live in the United States, according to 2023 figures published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Many of them will rely on the Washington embassy for passport services, visa services, citizenship matters and emergency assistance. Besides not having traditional access to these...

Content warning: This story contains references to violence, suicide, child abuse and self-harm. A suicide attempt, depression, substance abuse, insomnia, surveillance, threats. These are just some of the experiences reported by the low-paid moderators tasked with sifting through Facebook and Instagram’s most disturbing images. The tech giant Meta, which owns both platforms, has kept the whereabouts of this operation a closely guarded secret since moving it from Kenya, where the company is facing lawsuits over working conditions and human rights. For months, it has also refused to name the company that won the lucrative contract to provide the content moderators...

One of President Trump's most valuable cabinet members, Marco Rubio, who wears both the Secretary of State cap, and the National Security Advisor cap, gets called on to perform a lot of duties. One of them is the equivalent of barroom bouncer. At the United Nations, he threw out the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro from the U.S. premises. That was after a string of leftwing buffooneries and outrages. Two days ago, it was buffooneries: It should be noted that this was the assessment of Colombians who also believed he had not just been drinking but snorting cocaine. It ought...

Grok Summary of Video Transcript:Summary of MaxAfterBurner's Breaking News Video on B-52 Bombers and Venezuela TensionsIn this YouTube video dated around November 20, 2025, former fighter pilot Ryan (MaxAfterBurner) provides a real-time briefing on U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bombers reportedly heading south toward the Caribbean, potentially as a show of force amid escalating tensions with Venezuela's Maduro regime. He speculates on their mission, flight path, and role in a possible conflict, while analyzing target packages briefed to President Trump on November 18. The tone is informal, speculative, and pro-U.S. intervention, emphasizing regime change over endless war.Key Developments and ContextB-52 Deployment: Two...

US Homeland Security News @defense_civil25 🚨Alert: President Trump orders US Marshals to remove Defiant Fed Governor Lisa Cook after she refuses to step down!

A key leader in the world economy is warning that undue interference in the Federal Reserve’s operations by President Donald Trump could pose a serious economic risk to the U.S. and the rest of the world. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in an interview with Radio Classique on Monday that efforts to remove Fed Chair Jerome Powell or Fed Governor Lisa Cook would “represent a very serious danger for the U.S. economy and the world economy.” “If U.S. monetary policy were no longer independent and instead dependent on the dictates of this or that person, then I believe...

A child under the age of 12 has died through euthanasia for the first time since the law was changed two years ago. Health minister Sophie Hermans said the case had been reported to the committee that reviews all late-term abortions and medically assisted deaths of children. Hermans revealed the child had died at the end of last year when she presented the committee’s annual report to parliament on Monday. No details about the child’s circumstances, such as their age, gender or their medical condition, were given. The death has also been referred to the public prosecution service, as happens...

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the clerical regime in Tehran and its proxies have committed a range of attacks against Americans. This memorandum provides select documentation of these assaults. While the list is not comprehensive, it demonstrates that Tehran continues to pose a threat to U.S. forces in the Middle East, the American homeland, and Americans residing across the globe. November 1979-January 1981: Iranian students — with the backing of Tehran — take 66 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. April 1983: A suicide car bombing kills 63 people, including 17 Americans, at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut....

The Secret Service abruptly halted the security clearance renewal for former Director Kimberly Cheatle. Secret Service Director Sean Curran reversed course and decided against renewing Cheatle’s top-level security clearance after RealClearPolitics brought up Senator Ron Johnson’s opposition to the agency. RealClearPolitics reported: The Secret Service was moving forward with renewing former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s top-level security clearance but reversed course after RealClearPolitics inquired about a key senator’s opposition, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and previously chaired the full Homeland Security panel, argued that...

The Democrat Party is hemorrhaging support with no end in sight, according to a shocking analysis of new voter registrations. Fueled by President Donald Trump’s gains among men, younger voters, and Latinos in 2024, more new voters nationwide chose to be Republicans than Democrats for the first time since 2018, according to a report from the New York Times which relies on voter registration data compiled by L2, a nonpartisan data firm. Perhaps more troubling for Democrats, the data suggests Democrat Party activists can no longer rely on the party’s tried-and-true methods to reverse the trend, leaving panicked party leaders...

I investigate the evidence confirming that Tyler Robinson's room mate, who authorities believe was actually his romantic partner, is trans ANDY NGO SEP 13, 2025 I can report that the roommate — and suspected romantic partner — of the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk is confirmed as trans. On Friday, Daily Mail first identified the partner as 22-year-old Lance S. Twiggs. Twiggs lived with accused assassin Tyler Robinson in an apartment in St. George, Utah, about four hours from Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. Twiggs’ social media history remains online, and I have reviewed it to confirm...

The transgender roommate of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was previously kicked out of his parents’ house over issues surrounding substance abuse, gender identity and a persistent video game addiction, a relative told Fox News Digital. Lance Twiggs, who has not been charged with a crime, moved into a townhome in St. George, Utah, after living with his grandparents when his father kicked him out, the relative said. The 22-year-old is also in the process of transitioning from male to female, the relative confirmed. He was kicked out of his parents' home at the age of 18, according to...

Studying old paintings can give us a surprising glimpse of historic natural history. In 1611, the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder finished his epic allegorical painting Air. In it, he depicted the Muse of Astronomy, Urania, reclining on a cloud as a menagerie of feathered birds surrounds her. But while studying the animals in the picture, one researcher spotted something far more intriguing: in the top right corner, there appeared to be a bat carrying a bird in its mouth. For most people, this might not mean much. But for the ecologist Pedro Romero-Vidal it set his mind racing,...

ust before climbing steps outside the U.S. Capitol, the Air Force major predicted what his protest would cost him. “In the grand scheme of things, I’m just a nobody,” he told reporters. “What matters far more than who I am is what I have to say and the price I’m willing to pay to say it.” He had demonstrated before against President Donald Trump — for 22 days last year as part of a hunger strike, but that was anonymous. Every day, he wore a skintight white mask and a white jumpsuit as he silently sat in a lawn chair...

Politics Strange Bedfellows: Meet the PAC Working to Reelect Thomas Massie—And Partnering With the DSA to Fight ICE The embattled Kentucky congressman traveled to Pennsylvania to meet with IPAC around the time its founder wrote his campaign a check Thomas Massie poses with IPAC chairman Rafed Aljoboury (IPAC7_ORG/X) Collin Anderson October 16, 2025 Earlier this year, in June, Integrity Political Action Committee (IPAC) announced a "new coalition" with the Democratic Socialists of America aimed at fighting ICE's "crackdown on immigration violations." Two months later, an unlikely figure traveled to the area to meet with IPAC's leaders: Rep. Thomas Massie, the...

A controversial Israel-and-US-hating NYC college professor defended the murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as she clamored to bring down the US empire “by any means necessary” at a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America. Corinna Mullin, a radical political science prof once arrested for leading anti-Israel protests that resulted in $3 million in damage to the City College of New York’s Harlem campus, lauded Iran’s “phenomenal” military for depleting US weapons stockpiles in the Middle East, as she urged support for its armed forces. “Iran has won this war. . . . its indigenous military industry has produced phenomenal...

Federal immigration agents have nabbed more than 10,000 migrant gangbangers since the start of President Trump’s second term, the US Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. The milestone, reached just a year and a half after Trump launched his sweeping mass deportations agenda, includes arrests tied to murder, assault with a deadly weapon, drug trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, robbery and extortion, according to DHS. “Many of these gang members were released into our country by Joe Biden,” said DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin. “These vicious criminals murdered, assaulted, robbed, and terrorized innocent Americans for sport.” “Thanks to the Secure America Act, ICE...

In one of the latest examples of political extremes converging over Israel, Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie joined forces this week to challenge a provision expanding US-Israel defense cooperation. Khanna, a progressive California Democrat, and Massie, a Kentucky Republican, both said over the weekend that they would seek to remove a provision from the House’s annual defense bill that would expand US-Israeli defense technology cooperation. The section of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2027 that Khanna and Massie have taken aim at would require the Secretary of Defense to designate an “executive agent responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts...

South Africa will investigate the “mysterious” arrival of scores of Palestinians who were kept on a charter plane at Johannesburg for 12 hours by border police because they did not have travel papers, the president has said. A group of 153 Palestinians arrived at OR Tambo international iarport in Johannesburg on a chartered Global Airways flight from Kenya on Thursday without departure stamps, return tickets or details of accommodation, according to the border authorities. They said none of the Palestinians had applied for asylum, leading to their initial denial of entry. A pastor who was allowed to meet the passengers...