Free Republic

According to WalletHub’s 2026 “Best States to Live In” study, New Mexico ranks dead last in the nation — a sobering distinction that underscores years of troubling trends in education, health, and public safety. The annual analysis compares all 50 states across 51 separate indicators, including affordability, economic performance, education and health outcomes, quality of life, and safety. While some states perform strongly in certain categories and poorly in others, New Mexico’s overall placement at No. 50 signals broad, structural weaknesses that continue to drag down the state’s standing nationwide. WalletHub assigns New Mexico an overall score of 39.68, the...

According to CENTCOM, the Iranian naval presence in the Gulf of Oman has been denied, stating that none of the 11 warships stationed east of the Strait of Hormuz before the beginning of hostilities remained in the area within the first 48 hours of Epic Fury. In the weeks leading up to the current conflict, Iranian naval forces trained alongside Chinese and Russian warships in Marine Security Belt 2026 near the Chabahar, which was also struck by U.S. forces.The U.S. command also said the strikes have targeted Iran’s small submarine fleet, composed of numerous midget submarines and a handful of...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot held a call on Monday with his ​Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss ‌the Iran war and both agreed to work on de-escalation, Barrot's office said in a statement. Both ministers ​committed to seeking a political solution ​that would guarantee collective security and take ⁠into account the aspirations of the ​Iranian people, the statement said. Barrot "reiterated the Iranian ​regime's responsibility for the ongoing escalation, after it unjustifiably attacked several countries in the region," the statement ​said. He also criticised the Iranian regime for ​refusing to respect the resolutions from the United Nations' ‌Security ⁠Council...

On Los Angeles streets, tents aren’t just signs of homelessness — they’re where gangs openly deal drugs and collecting rent. Whether its RV rows choking Compton Boulevard, Skid Row’s packed tent maze or the once-quiet pockets of the Westside, encampments have morphed into open-air drug markets. This isn’t chaos — it’s control. Gangs blend into the population, hiding in plain sight, running street commerce behind tarps and inside RVs while City Hall looks the other way. Nowhere is it clearer than Compton Boulevard, where more than 100 RVs sit bumper-to-bumper, windows blacked out. Outreach workers and residents say many are...

President Trump stunned Washington insiders Monday by announcing that he will attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25 — after snubbing journalists and skipping all prior dinners during his presidency. “The White House Correspondents Association has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner, a long and storied tradition since it began in 1924, under then President Calvin Coolidge,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our...

As Republicans celebrated the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with praise for Donald Trump’s decisive action, Democrats faced their own divisions and a reckoning over how to present a united front. Most were quick to condemn the US president for sidelining Congress to launch an illegal and unconstitutional war and demanded a swift vote on a war powers resolution that would restrain his military onslaught. But some in the party also felt obliged to acknowledge the authoritarian Khamenei’s death as a positive development and demonstrate their support for US troops. A small band of centrist Democrats have...

But a new study has found a growing connection between cannabis use and detrimental effects on mental health. Smoking weed has previously been found to have an impact on the brain by altering dopamine activity that closely resembles patterns observed in psychosis. Now, a study led by McMaster University and published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has shown that increasing cannabis use and worsening mental health symptoms are appearing together more and more often. “We see that Canadians who use cannabis tend to be more likely to meet criteria for anxiety and depressive disorders, and more likely to report...

As President Trump pointed out, it isn’t rare earths that are critical to national security, it's the “rare processing” industry. ...In a Chinese plant, this process requires over 200 workers managing chemical tanks and adjusting valves manually. The Saskatchewan facility was able to reduce this by approximately 80 workers and an AI that receives thousands of data points every second and can make the necessary adjustments that no human team could coordinate.

A powerful San Francisco group is unleashing $10 million this year to kill taxes that they say will destroy the city’s fragile economic recovery — and potentially increase the price of food and goods for already cash-strapped residents. Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, a moderate advocacy group, plans to beat back a wave of lefty initiatives and candidates this year that they say will derail years of progress in liberal San Francisco, according to its director Jay Cheng. One of the group’s main targets is a so-called “CEO tax” — a June ballot measure backed by progressives and labor...

A mother was stabbed to death at a Virginia bus stop by an illegal immigrant with dozens of prior arrests, including for rape and assault, according to authorities. Stephanie Minter, 41, was allegedly fatally stabbed by Abdul Jalloh, a Sierra Leone national, at a bus stop on Richmond Highway in Fairfax County last Monday, according to Fairfax County Police and the Department of Homeland Security. Minter, of Fredericksburg, was found in the bus stop shelter with multiple stab wounds to her upper body. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Police identified Jalloh, 32, as the suspect in...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pals in the state Legislature are pushing a bill to give him the power to slap a 25% tax liability “surcharge” on Big Apple corporations. The democratic socialist mayor and his liberal followers have been on an ideological crusade to hike taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for their freebie-filled promises made during the 2025 campaign. “This legislation would authorize New York City to charge a surcharge on corporate taxes, allowing the city to increase its corporate taxes should the mayor and City Council deem this necessary and appropriate,” said Assemblywoman Diana Moreno and Sen....

Holy cow! McDonald’s biggest burger ever is finally coming to the US. The fast-food chain revealed that the Big Arch Burger will be rolling out nationally on Tuesday, March 3 — and they’re calling it their “most McDonald’s, McDonald’s burger” yet, per the McDonald’s Menu Spotter. Lucky for New York City-based Golden Arch fans, the highly anticipated burger is already widely available in Manhattan, according to the McDonald’s app. The burger, available for a limited time, is “a love letter to fans who simply can’t get enough,” featuring two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of melted white cheddar cheese, crispy...

There were many defining moments featured in the months-long battle for the ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery: Sit-downs to woo President Trump, high-profile Congressional hearings, a brutal bidding war, and a tampon. Yes, a tampon. During the deal negotiations, while Netflix was wooing skeptical GOP lawmakers that it wasn’t a left-wing company looking to get more powerful by snapping up WBD, a delegation of lawmakers paid a visit to its headquarters, and one was both shocked and disturbed to find a basket containing tampons in the men’s restroom. To be clear, there are other factors involved in CEO Ted Sarandos’s...

'I was terrified,' Wilson said of the latter shoot during an interview with Vanity Fair. 'Before this, I was very much the person who didn't show any skin, ever, at all. 'Even in my day-to-day, like going to the beach with friends, I would not wear a swimsuit.' The star added, 'So it was very, very nerve-racking, but I wanted to do [the shoot] because I wanted to have more confidence in my own body. 'I do feel confident in my own body, but I wanted to prove that confidence to myself, if that makes any sense.' In September last...

Iran posed an “intolerable risk” to the U.S. with its missile threat and, during negotiations, wouldn’t accept “free nuclear fuel forever” – all of which led up to Saturday’s attack on Tehran. Senior administration officials briefed reporters on the hours leading up to “Operation Epic Fury.” One official described Iran’s missile inventory and said it posed “an intolerable risk to the United States.” The US had “indicators” that Tehran was going to launch a preemptive strike against American assets in the region, pointing to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region, including ones in Qatar, Kuwait, the United...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom received intense blowback for calling the joint US-Israeli airstrikes in Iran an “illegal, dangerous war” while ripping President Trump’s decision to attack Tehran.. “The corrupt and repressive Iranian regime must never have nuclear weapons. The leadership of Iran must go,” Newsom wrote on X Saturday, after the US and Israel launched the coordinated strikes early that morning. “But that does not justify the President of the United States engaging in an illegal, dangerous war that will risk the lives of our American service members and our friends without justification to the American people. "President Trump is...

The infamous picture of Bill Clinton in a hot tub with a mystery woman is from a 2002 trip to Asia the ex-president took with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and madam Ghislaine Maxwell, The Post can reveal. Clinton was grilled on the racy photo during his deposition before the House Oversight Committee Friday, insisting he did “nothing wrong” and did not have sex with the woman whose face was redacted in the picture released as part of the Department of Justice’s files on the sex predator. The snap that landed Bubba in hot water was taken at the Emperor suite of...

Chilling photos show the tense moments President Trump and Vice President Vance orchestrated the monumental strikes on Iran while hundreds of miles apart. Trump, wearing a “USA” cap, led discussions from Mar-a-Lago with his national security team, pictures shared by the White House show. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, joined the president in monitoring the mission. Vance oversaw a second cohort of officials from the Situation Room in DC, which was dialed in to the Mar-a-Lago operations. Seated at the head of...

Israel’s Operation Lion’s Roar, was “the largest ever military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force,” with 500 Iranian targets struck, the IDF said Saturday. The campaign, which ran in tandem with the US’s Operation Epic Fury, dropped hundreds of munitions on roughly 500 Iranian targets and involved more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft. The military reportedly focused on Tehran’s aerial defense systems and missile launchers. The strikes “severely degraded the offensive capabilities of the Iranian regime — the launch sites in western Iran,” the IDF said. “The IDF will continue operating to significantly degrade every aspect...

Congressional Democrats on Friday said they received a counteroffer from the White House to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The department has been shut down since Feb.14 after lawmakers failed to strike a deal on immigration enforcement restrictions. “We have received the White House’s counteroffer and are reviewing it closely. Democrats remain committed to keep fighting for real reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, said in a statement. The negotiations over DHS funding are heightened after federal immigration agents shot and...