Free Republic

The U.S. CDC raised its response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic ​Republic of Congo to its highest level on Friday, but said the risk ‌of the disease spreading in the United States remained low. The move, reserved for the most severe health crises, signals growing concern over the rare strain's rapid spread. The outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has infected over ​1,200 people in Congo, including 321 deaths, and 20 cases in neighboring Uganda, ​reaching the highest first-month total of any episode of the disease, the ⁠World Health Organization said this week. The Centers for Disease...

OVER 190 flags have been taken down from a historic building as government officials warn employees to remember who they work for. The move sparked backlash in the diplomatic community. A long row of American flags hangs vertically along a large glass wall inside a modern building with a high, geometric ceiling. 4 The State Department swapped out all the flags, representing other countries, in their atrium for rows of American flags Credit: Instagram/statedept. State Department employees applaud as colleagues walk through the lobby of the State Department headquarters in Washington, with numerous international flags hanging from the ceiling in...

It's funny, how those things we keep hearing from the left never happen, keep happening. The latest comes to us in an election issue, in a state, Utah, where mail-in ballots are used. That's a system that just invites fraud and tampering, and that is precisely what has happened; Acting Deputy Atty. General Trent McCotter, on Tuesday, announced the indictment of a United States Postal Service (USPS) worker who has been indicted for the destruction of over 300 ballots. That is, conceivably, enough to tip an election, although it's not clear that was a result this time.🚨Acting Deputy Attorney General...

The U.S. diplomat arrived in West Africa in mid-June with little fanfare, hopscotching along the Atlantic coastline for scheduled visits with senior government officials in the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Gabon, whose president greeted him inside an opulent seaside palace. The American, a career State Department official named Christian Ehrhardt, was an unlikely diplomatic VIP. For nearly two decades, he served as an officer in the agency’s security branch, focusing on embassy protection, before being summoned to Washington last year to lead a new initiative — the Office of Remigration. Since then, Ehrhardt, 41, has crisscrossed Africa, trying...

In an unprecedented move, 22 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia, issued a joint statement condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran for what they called “hostile actions and extraterritorial operations against individuals on the soil of other countries,” and demanded the immediate cessation of such actions. In the statement, published on Thursday, June 11, the Islamic Republic’s security services were accused of using local and international criminal networks to carry out assassination plots, kidnappings, intimidation, and harassment against dissidents, journalists, and citizens in Europe, North America, and Oceania. The signatories emphasized that attempts...

A law enforcement initiative in Memphis, Tennessee, has resulted in 189 missing children being found and the arrest of 12,747 individuals over the past year, with overall crime expected to hit a 25-year low, the White House said on Tuesday.Arrests made by the Memphis Safe Task Force, a multi-agency initiative established by presidential memorandum in September 2025, include 1,408 known gang members, as well as 1,363 people apprehended for narcotics offenses, 1,276 for firearms violations, 131 for homicide, and 125 for sex offenses, the White House said on the task force's first anniversary.One of the individuals arrested through the task...

A faction of hardliners inside Tehran took advantage of the country’s phantom supreme leader to launch the summer attacks in the Strait of Hormuz that derailed a peace deal with the US, according to a new report. After the US and Iran agreed to the Memorandum of Understanding in June, Iranian moderates led by President Masoud Pezeshkian believed the cease-fire would create a pathway to permanently end the war. Those hopes, however, were dashed when Iran attacked three vessels sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, an attack greenlit not by Tehran’s army, but by its newly appointed paramilitary chief, Hossein...

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe paid an unannounced visit to Moscow yesterday, spending eight hours in the Russian capital before returning to the US. Though he visited the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that they had met – though Ratcliffe certainly spoke to his counterpart Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR external intelligence service, and other top Russian security officials. The list of topics urgent enough to prompt the first personal visit of a US cabinet-level official to the Kremlin in six months is short. Ratcliffe could have been responding to reports of a planned Russian escalation...

Iranian officials reportedly abandoned peace talks in the wake of President Donald Trump's threat to 'blow the s*** out of them,' just hours after Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland for negotiations with Tehran. The president threatened Iran to restart his bombing campaigns on the country through profanity filled phone calls and posts on social media while Vance began negotiations. Iranian officials back out of the talks after having filed a formal complaint with Pakistani and Qatari mediators and also refused to pose for photographs, according to the Telegraph. Tehran's Chief negotiator Mohammed Ghalibaf warned that the US should...

Commissioner Ana María Archila was scheduled to meet with Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, at 2 United Nations Plaza. The meeting between Archila and Iravani was called off after the State Department—which was not informed ahead of time—met with the Mamdani administration to clarify acceptable conduct. Commissioner Archila allegedly did not inform Mayor Mamdani of the meeting; she was reprimanded for the move and directed to cancel the meeting. The development is a continuation of Commissioner Archila and the Mamdani administration’s ongoing use of public resources to advance an agenda that extends well beyond New York City. On...

Police say “graphic and dark” evidence leads them to believe two women were killed in Eugene and Raymond Horsch's house. Philadelphia police now believe at least two women were killed inside the decrepit Olney home at the center of a sprawling missing persons investigation, officials said Wednesday — a stunning breakthrough in a probe that began nearly two months ago after a chance encounter near Independence Mall. Inspector Raymond Evers said homicide detectives had recovered photos and videos on hard drives inside the home that appeared to show the deaths of two women who had been reported missing — neither...

JoeLange@JoeLange·3hWhy “purposely” create confusion?This Trump appointment has thrown DC and the entire media into confusion.“Donald Trump has tapped a close ally to serve as the country’s top intelligence official, days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role.The US president said that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and heir to a home construction company fortune, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.”“Pulte has used his role at the powerful housing agency, which oversees regulations of the federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to publicly level of a string of extraordinary allegations...

The Burmese people continue to suffer as the brutal civil war in Myanmar heads toward its sixth year. The conflict was recently brought home to America with China’s arrest of Min Zin, an American citizen who heads the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP)–Myanmar, located in Thailand. Beijing accused him of spying. China has increasingly close relations with the government in Naypyidaw, highlighted by the June visit to Beijing of Min Aung Hlaing, the commanding general who recently anointed himself Myanmar’s president. China helps Hlaing’s regime survive despite widespread popular opposition. For decades the borderlands of Myanmar have been aflame,...

A historic church in Buffalo, New York, caught fire again this week, and it was determined to be the result of arson. St. Ann’s Catholic Church was built in 1886. It permanently closed down in August 2024 and was sold to an Islamic community for $250,000.

Under Governor Abigail Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crimeWASHINGTON – The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien who has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual battery in the death of a 2-year-old girl in Virginia.According to local reporting, the child’s mother took her to the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office on July 4. Deputies began life-saving measures to save the child, who was then taken to a local hospital, where she later died.The Louisa County Sheriff’s Department arrested Raul Genesis...

Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega said the Central American country would no longer hold elections, further closing off any potential path for the opposition to challenge the government he leads with his wife, Rosario Murillo. Ortega, Nicaragua’s longest-serving leader, has remained in power since 2007 after previously governing during the 1980s. His current presidential term is scheduled to run through 2027. “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said. He delivered the remarks Sunday during a speech commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega participated in the overthrow...

On July 4, Beijing announced it had launched a new sea patrol to replace a group of ships that, in June, were an integral part of China’s effort to control waters far from its shoreline. In an extraordinary move last month, Beijing claimed part of the Pacific Ocean as sovereign Chinese water. On June 6, China’s Ministry of Transport launched “a special maritime law enforcement operation in the waters east of Taiwan Island.” Vessels from the Fujian and Guangdong Maritime Safety Administrations, the East China Sea Navigation Support Center and the East China Sea Rescue Bureau took part, sailing eastward...

The FBI thwarted a plot targeting Sunday's UFC event at the White House, and has taken multiple suspects into custody, according to the agency's head, Kash Patel. Part of the plan involved striking nearby buildings with explosive-laden drones, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday. One suspect was arrested in Ohio last week, where investigators obtained access to encrypted messages involving other alleged plotters. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit an offence against the US and attempted murder of a federal officer, according to the documents. "Allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold," Patel said in a social media...

🚨 BREAKING: DOJ has just announced a criminal indictment against 8 people for plotting a massive violent terror attack against the White House while President Trump was there. Up to LIFE IN PRISON. NO MERCY. Maximum punishment! "This alleged plot was DISRUPTED before it could be carried out." The plot was meant for the Freedom 250 UFC White House event — which went on AS PLANNED because the plot was foiled. "The first count is a conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists by way of money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical and communications equipment, as well as...

A 21-year-old Augusta woman has been arrested after Columbia County investigators say she targeted two homes displaying Donald Trump signs by slashing tires, vandalizing property, dumping trash in a yard and leaving threatening letters warning one homeowner to “get ready for so much worse.” Armani Faith Obregon is charged with terroristic threats and acts, unlawful dumping and two counts of second-degree criminal damage to property following a series of incidents that unfolded over several days in late June in a Martinez neighborhood. According to investigators, the alleged campaign began on June 28, when two neighboring homes were targeted in the...