Free Republic

In a stretch of Louisiana with about 170 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, premature death is a fact of life for people living nearby. The air is so polluted and the cancer rates so high it is known as Cancer Alley. “Most adults in the area are attending two to three funerals per month,” said Gary C. Watson Jr., who was born and raised in St. John the Baptist Parish, a majority Black community in Cancer Alley about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. His father survived cancer, but in recent years, at least five relatives have died from it....

President Trump sent Tom Homan to Minneapolis to declare victory and go home, and so he has. Trump’s border czar announced the end of the ICE surge that had roiled the city and our national politics. Homan says ICE is getting more cooperation from county jails in handing over incarcerated illegal aliens, and immigration authorities have detained many of the illegal immigrants they had been targeting. It’s not clear how extensive the supposed new cooperation is, but Homan certainly forged a better relationship with state and city officials. The big story here is that semiorganized resistance on the streets, with...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning up to three times more likely than in a world without global warming, a team of researchers warned on Wednesday. The hot, dry and gusty weather that fed last month’s deadly wildfires in central and southern Chile was made around 200% more likely by human-made greenhouse gas emissions while the high-fire-risk conditions that fueled the blazes still racing through southern Argentina were made 150%...

Amber Glenn, a figure skater with Team USA in the Winter Olympics, claimed that it had been a “hard time” for the LGBTQ community under the Trump administration. While speaking to reporters, Glenn claimed that the Trump administration’s policies weren’t “just affecting the queer community, but many other communities,” according to The Blast. “It’s been a hard time for the community overall and this administration. It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights,” Glenn told reporters. “And now, especially, it’s not just affecting the queer community,...

President Donald Trump’s approval rating with Republicans has taken an eight-point hit since the fall, according to data from a national polling series. Newsweek contacted the White House via email for comment outside regular working hours. Republican National Committee (RNC) national press secretary Kiersten Pels told Newsweek that Trump has "lowered prices, secured the border, and ensured workers keep more of their hard-earned pay," adding: "With strong momentum, Republicans are united, energized, and ready to win in the midterms." Why It Matters It signals a measurable softening in GOP support over just more than three months, as overall approval numbers...

COLTS NECK, NJ — After putting out a new song titled "Streets of Minneapolis" as a show of support for anti-ICE protesters, musician Bruce Springsteen issued a statement threatening to keep releasing songs until deportations were stopped. The news quickly spread across the country, with frightened Americans buying up canned goods and preparing to take shelter due to Springsteen's threat to continue putting out new music unless the trump administration ended all ICE operations. "I can do this every day, and nobody wants that," Springsteen said in a video posted online. "If you want to prevent me from releasing...

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said early Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ended its enhanced immigration operation in the state of Maine. The Republican senator said she had several “direct conversations” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem since the agency launched its operation over a week ago, which comes after she’d received no information from the agency at the start of its heightened presence. While not saying when the operation ended, Collins said in a statement, “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.” It is unclear how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity...

Bruce Springsteen has released a song in honor of Alex Pretti and Renee Good titled "Streets of Minneapolis." Springsteen announced the release Wednesday on Instagram. "I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis," Springsteen said. "It's dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good." The slow-burning song builds from just acoustic guitar and voice to a fuller band tune, including a harmonica solo, and ends with chants of "ICE...

Kristi Noem has been left utterly humiliated as her hard-charging ICE agents were given new rules last night to ignore 'agitators' and only arrest 'criminal' migrants as part of Trump's new deportation agenda. *** Trump appointed Homan to take command of immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Homan is a longtime rival of Noem and her rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski. [Ed. note: gratuitous, superfluous] 'This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it. Draw down the number of people here,' Homan told reporters.New guidance for ICE directs agents to...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he told U.S. President Donald Trump that he meant what he said in his speech at Davos, and told him Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with a dozen new trade deals. Carney rolled his eyes and rejected U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s contention to Fox News that he aggressively walked back his comments at the World Economic Forum during a phone call with Trump on Monday. “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney said to reporters as...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded a two-hour meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office late Monday after she was elbowed aside amid backlash over her handling of the latest deadly shooting in Minneapolis by ICE agents.Trump held the crisis talks with Noem after he revealed border czar Tom Homan was headed to take charge of Homeland Security efforts in Minneapolis after protester Alex Pretti was killed during a brutal takedown by Border Patrol agents, the New York Times reported.Noem has faced widespread criticism after she was quick to brand Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who had charged at officers...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump shifted toward a more conciliatory approach with Democratic leaders in Minnesota on Monday, a sudden change in tack following an outcry over the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the state this month during the administration's nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The about-face comes after Saturday’s shooting death of Alex Pretti by federal agents raised doubts — including from some Republicans — over how the Trump administration has gone about aggressively deporting migrants and confronting protesters opposed to the policy.

A gun rights advocate says he has major concerns about the legality of the shooting Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti after watching footage of his killing. Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, analyzed one of the several videos taken of the shooting of Pretti on Saturday and shared his damming opinion that the killing was unwarranted on social media. Pretti, who was a US and an intensive care nurse who treated critically ill military veterans, was killed shortly after 9am on January 24, after an altercation involving multiple federal officers. Video footage showed he was wrestled...

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz again invoked Nazi-era comparisons when speaking about ICE operations in the state, suggesting that events unfolding in Minnesota will one day be written about in a manner similar to Anne Frank’s diary. “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said at a news conference. “ Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody is gonna write that story about Minnesota, and there’s one person who can end this now,” Walz added, referring to President Donald Trump. Walz has repeatedly used Nazi-related metaphors when criticizing...

A fresh MAGA civil war has erupted ahead of the midterm elections, with one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal allies lashing out at Vice President JD Vance over abortion and accusing him of being “friends with degenerates.” The scorched-earth tirade by MAGA acolyte Laura Loomer took place shortly after Vance appeared at the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., where he touted Trump as the most pro-life president in history and encouraged anti-abortion activists to “take heart in how far we’ve come.” But Loomer questioned his presence at the event, asking her 1.8 million followers on X:...

During his many trips to the World Economic Forum as a central banker and later as an investment executive, Prime Minister Mark Carney made some significant deals, but always in private. During his first trip as Canada’s prime minister to the annual gathering of billionaires, investors, chief executives and politicians, Mr. Carney stole the show. I was in the group of journalists who traveled to Davos with Mr. Carney. We had been given the text of his speech under embargo to allow us draft reports of our articles that we would adjust to reflect the prime minister’s delivery. As most...

President Donald Trump’s second term has been a debacle, according to a damning new CNN poll released Friday. A majority of Americans polled in the survey -- 58% -- characterized Trump’s first year of his second term as a “failure,” according to the poll. Just 42% of respondents said Trump’s second term has been a success. There were virtually no silver linings for the president in the survey. A plurality of respondents said Trump “made things worse” on several issues he outlined in his inauguration speech, while a lion’s share of those polled said the president has “gone too far”...

A total of 18 House races have shifted toward the Democrats ahead of the crucial 2026 midterms, according to The Cook Political Report. Newsweek contacted the White House and the Democratic National Committee for comment via email. Why It Matters The Cook Political Report’s recent shift in ratings for 18 U.S. House races towards Democrats indicates momentum ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. These changes could influence party control of the House, with Democrats needing just three more seats to secure a majority, according to the new analysis.

Ex-legal fixer Michael Cohen on Friday accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of forcing him to testify against his former client, Donald Trump, as part of their civil fraud and “hush money” cases against the now-sitting president. “I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post. “Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook.” Cohen took to the independent journalists’ platform to reveal his thoughts about participating in the legal proceedings, as Trump...

The U.S. political system is currently experiencing previously unimaginable levels of partisan and ideological polarization. And at the same time, public disaffiliation with both major parties is reaching historic highs. Gallup has been conducting large-sample polls of partisan self-identification since the 1980s and now reports that a record 45 percent of Americans consider themselves political independents. Self-identified Democrats and Republicans each represent a dismal 27 percent. As recently as 2004, Democrats and Republicans were both at 34 percent of Americans, with 31 percent self-identifying as independent. This seemed normal and sustainable at the time. A long period of ideological “sorting...