Free Republic

SummaryAP access limited for continuing to use Gulf of Mexico AP says it will remained focused on free speech rights Trump executive order changed name to 'Gulf of America' July 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday declined to lift restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump's administration on White House access by Associated Press journalists after the news organization declined to refer to the body of water long called the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America as he prefers. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit kept in place a June...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, instead sending members home early for a month-long break from Washington after the week’s legislative agenda was upended by Republican members who are clamoring for a vote.Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Tuesday morning that he wants to give the White House “space” to release the Epstein information on its own, despite the bipartisan push for legislation that aims to force the release of more documents.“There’s no purpose for the Congress to push an administration to do something they’re already doing,” Johnson...

The Education Department’s civil rights division lost nearly half its staff amid mass layoffs, prompting questions about whether it has the ability to address complaints. The Trump administration insists it hasn’t wavered in its duty to protect the civil rights of America’s children even as it dismantles the Education Department. Yet its own data shows the agency has resolved far fewer civil rights cases than in past years, despite families filing more complaints. The Education Department’s civil rights branch lost nearly half its staff amid mass layoffs in March, raising questions about its ability to address a deep backlog of...

BUSRA AL-HARIR, Syria (AP) — Israel’s army said Monday it has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clashed with Druze militias. Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militias and clans in Syria ’s Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups. Syria's Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people have died and nearly 100 others have been injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported at least 89 dead, including two children, two women...

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israel has agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and warned Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. Trump announced the development as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House on Monday. The U.S. leader has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza. “My Representatives had long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to...

Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking at a moment when threats against judges are on the rise, warned on Saturday that elected officials’ heated words about judges can lead to threats or acts of violence by others. Without identifying anyone by name, Roberts clearly referenced Republican President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York when he said he has felt compelled to issue public rebukes of figures in both parties in recent years. “It becomes wrapped up in the political dispute that a judge who’s doing his or her job is part of the problem,” Roberts said...

The Senate is taking a prolonged procedural vote dragging past a third hour during a rare Saturday evening session as Republicans struggled to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline. The proceedings came to a standstill and Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol to break a potential tie. Tense scenes were playing out in the chamber as senators huddled in negotiations, and then broke off for private meetings. Several Republican senators were registering their opposition to proceeding. Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push...

Both Jennifer and Greg are security specialists. But while Jennifer works for Fox, Greg calls NPR his professional "home." Prior to working at NPR, he spent 20 years as a correspondent for both The New York Times and The Associated Press (via NPR).

ran launched a missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites. The announcement was made on state television as martial music played. A caption on screen called it “a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America’s aggression.” The attack came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran.

President Donald Trump’s decision to strike three nuclear sites in Iran could deepen a divide among some of the Republican’s supporters, including high-profile backers who had said any such move would run counter to the anti-interventionism he promised to deliver. Notably though, immediately following Trump’s Saturday announcement of the strike, some of those who had publicly spoken out against U.S. involvement voiced their support. The lead-up to the move against Iranian nuclear sites had exposed fissures within Trump’s “Make American Great Again” base as some of that movement’s most vocal leaders, with large followings of their own, expressed deep concern...

Globalize the Intifada," "decolonize," and "defund the police" don't really mean what you think they do, right? Well, neither does "Death to America." It really is something of a love letter to America, at least according to MSNBC. MSNBC is now trying to convince their dwindling audience that just because Iranians chant "death to America" doesn't mean they want death for America. Richard Stengel--a perfect member of the transnational elite--doesn't understand why Trump is so hung up on Iran getting nuclear weapons. He's been in Tehran and watched Islamists shouting the chant, and he had a perfectly good time. NYC...

Protests that sprang up in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement raids and prompted President Donald Trump to mobilize National Guard troops and Marines have begun to spread across the country, with more planned into the weekend. From Seattle and Austin to Chicago and Washington, D.C., marchers have chanted slogans, carried signs against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and snarled traffic through downtown avenues and outside federal offices. While many have been peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds. Activists are planning more and even larger demonstrations...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a...

Washington (AP) — After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday’s parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation’s capital kicked off on a more downbeat note.Thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally and protest march, as the community gathers its strength for a looming fight under President Donald Trump’s second administration. “This is not just a party,” Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. “This is a rally for our lives.”Smith acknowledged that international attendance numbers for the bi-annual World Pride were measurably down, with many potential attendees avoiding...

A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump White House to ban the Associated Press from the Oval Office and other restricted spaces for now in a ruling that blocked a lower court's ruling that claimed the ban was unconstitutional. In a 2-1 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted in part a stay of the lower court's April 8 ruling that declared the content-based ban unconstitutional. Both of the judges who ruled in the administration's favor were nominated by President Trump in his first term.

President Donald Trump is free to bar the Associated Press from some White House media events for now, after a U.S. appeals court on Friday paused a lower court ruling mandating that AP journalists be given access. The divided ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit temporarily blocks an order by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who ruled on April 8 that the Trump administration must allow AP journalists access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and White House events while the news agency's lawsuit moves forward.

A 19-year-old man was arrested after spending months planning an attack on a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit, authorities said Wednesday. The man was planning a mass shooting at the Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command in Warren, commonly known as the Detroit Arsenal, on behalf of the Islamic State group, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. But he didn’t know that he had been scheming with two undercover FBI employees, who recorded audio and video images of their meetings with him, including handwritten diagrams of the site, referred by the Army as TACOM, authorities said.

U.S. stocks leapt after China and the United States announced a 90-day truce in their trade war. The S&P 500 jumped 3.3% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 1,100 points, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 4.3%. Hopes for an economy less encumbered by tariffs also sent crude oil prices higher. The U.S. dollar strengthened against other currencies, and Treasury yields jumped on expectations the Federal Reserve won’t have to cut interest rates so deeply this year in order to protect the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro, the Central American country’s first female president. Castro, the leftist opposition party candidate, won out over the country’s ruling party in November. She will be inaugurated Jan. 27. She is the former first lady and her husband, José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army in a coup in 2009. She rode a wave of popular discontent with 12 years of National Party governance, which peaked in former President Juan Orlando Hernández’s second term.

For years, President Donald Trump blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents — from judges to educators — as threats to American identity, culture and values.Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the White House election.“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New...