Free Republic

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sought to energize activists at a Democratic state convention in South Carolina, as the party's 2024 vice presidential nominee works to keep up the high national profile he gained when Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate. Walz, a former schoolteacher who went on to serve in Congress and then became his state’s governor, keynoted the South Carolina gathering in Columbia, traditionally a showcase for national-level Democrats and White House hopefuls. Speaking to convention delegates for more than half an hour, Walz used colorful language and spoke plainly as he lobbed...

U2 frontman Bono on Thursday called for Israel to dump Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while urging freedom for the Hamas terrorist group’s hostages and an end to the war in Gaza. He revealed his list of geo-political demands on accepting an award in London, England, adding Israel would be best advised to act, and “be released from the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts.” Bono’s words of advice to Israel came 48-hours after he attacked the Trump administration for cuts to USAID: U2 were present at the 2025 Ivor Novello songwriting awards ceremony to receive the Fellowship of the...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a blistering verbal assault on the United States and President Donald Trump during a nationally televised speech, calling Trump a liar who brings shame on the American people, as the regime’s signature chant “Death to America” rang out repeatedly. The remarks were aired Saturday on Iran’s state-run Channel 1 and featured a crowd erupting multiple times into chants of “Death to America,” “Death to England,” and “Death to Israel,” as Khamenei accused U.S. leaders of using military power to spread war. “Some of the things the U.S. President said in his recent visit...

President Donald Trump is calling on Republican lawmakers to support “The One Big Beautiful Bill” that would cut taxes and stop illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid. Trump took to Truth Social to urge Republicans to galvanize behind the bill. “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’ Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need,” he wrote. “The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed...

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa slammed Afrikaner refugees who left for the United States on Tuesday, saying that it was “cowardly” for them to leave racial discrimination and threatened expropriation. Ramaphosa spoke the day after after the first flight of 49 white Afrikaners granted refugee status by the U.S. arrived in Washington, DC. As many as 70,000 more have sought to apply to enter the U.S. under the policy. Ramaphosa, who styles himself as a pro-business moderate, and is set to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump later this month, made the remark at a surprise visit to a local...

A member of the House of Lords has called on the British government to nominate U.S. President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to prevent a war between India and Pakistan. Lord Sarfraz, a Pakistani-heritage businessman and Conservative politician, submitted a formal request on Monday that Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer’s government nominate President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition for his instrumental role in averting a full-scale war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.” “India and Pakistan were at the brink – once again – but like never before. The nuclear-armed neighbours had...

A fireball from a parked RV sparked a fire that tore through an iconic Queens diner from the movie “Goodfellas” – and now one mayoral candidate is calling for a camper crackdown. The fire erupted at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at GoodFellas Diner in Maspeth with 60 firefighters eventually arriving to put out the flames, according to the FDNY. The blaze came seven years after the same diner caught fire. Two civilians were evaluated on the scene and refused medical attention, the department said.

Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker urged Americans to “mobilize” against President Trump on Monday, a day after he delivered a fiery speech in New Hampshire calling for “disruption” and “mass protests.” “Let me be clear, we’re in a perilous moment in this country,” Pritzker said during an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, when asked about what he was trying to convey in his speech at a New Hampshire Democratic Party dinner Sunday night. In his speech, which conservatives quickly blasted as “reckless,” the governor declared that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace.” “They have to understand that we...

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told an audience of Democrats in New Hampshire on Sunday that they should take up mass protests against President Donald Trump and Republicans, denying them any “moment of peace.” The New York Times reported — admiringly: Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois strode into a ballroom filled with top New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday and by the end of his nearly 30-minute speech had them ready to storm the political barricades against President Trump. “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he told the group of Democratic activists, officials and donors, who jumped to their...

They’re deep thinkers. Mayor Eric Adams copped to believing the “deep state” is real this week — echoing President Trump and the MAGA movement. “I don’t want to sound conspiracy theory, but there’s a permanent government,” Adams told comedian Andrew Schulz on the “Flagrant Podcast” Wednesday. “There are people that see presidents and mayors come and go. Their attitudes will wait you out.” The admittedly tin foil hat stance from Adams came on the same day a judge dismissed the federal corruption case that has dogged him since September.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired after The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had accidentally been added to a Signal group chat with Trump administration officials in which military strikes against the Houthis were discussed days before the strikes occurred. In a letter addressed to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Jeffries described Hegseth as being “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense” in the history of the United States. Jeffries accused Hegseth of “recklessly and casually” disclosing “highly sensitive war plans” and added that he had “risked American lives and...

Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) had a heated exchange with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic party members who she said switched their stance on support for the filibuster in the upper chamber. “Change of heart on the filibuster, I see,” Sinema wrote in a post with a screenshot of a post from Ocasio-Cortez shaming the Arizona lawmaker for not supporting ending the filibuster in order to pass Roe v. Wade protections. Sinema’s comments come as Democrats urged their counterparts to use a filibuster to prevent the House-GOP led government spending bill from advancing. It requires the Senate to...

The Kremlin rolled out its team of talking heads on Thursday morning to pour scorn on French President Macron, accusing him of everything from duplicity, nuclear sabre-rattling, bad manners, and even being the living embodiment of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler at the same time. French President Emmanuel Macron addressed his nation and the world on Wednesday evening to lay out his vision of Europe taking up the slack in supporting Ukraine and taking responsibility for its own defence. While President Donald Trump is committed to bringing peace to Europe, the continent, at least not being totally reliant on...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he was ready to come to the negotiating table to begin peace talks and expressed regret over last week’s meeting at the White House where he sparred with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance and blew a minerals deal with the U.S. Zelensky wrote on X: I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace. None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready...

Whoa. If there was one thing I didn’t expect to hear today, it was former “Meet the Press" and NBC News political pundit Chuck Todd blasting former President Joe Biden in deeply personal terms. But he did exactly that on Sunday and sure didn’t hold back, saying that Biden’s image as a family man was utter bull droppings and that “he never should have been there [in the Oval Office] in the first place. He was speaking with Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the odious Lincoln Project, on "The Warning" podcast, and the two were talking about why the Democrats lost...

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky shot down the prospect of agreeing to an immediate ceasefire with Russia despite his country being on the back foot after three years of war with a much larger adversary. Apparently bolstered by fawning displays of support from European leaders in London on Sunday, Zelensky expressed intent to continue the war until he is satisfied with the security guarantees on offer from Western powers. “If you don’t have an end to the war and you don’t have security guarantees, no one is able to control a ceasefire,” Zelensky said, according to the Financial Times. The Ukrainian leader...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that suggestions someone other than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should lead his nation was “horrific.” Host Kristen Welker said, “Let me start with Ukraine and that Oval Office meeting. The reaction continues to pour in, and you just heard me speak with House Speaker Mike Johnson. He left the door open to the possibility that it may be necessary for President Zelenskyy to resign in order to get to a broader peace agreement. Let me ask you this question, do you think that President Zelensky needs to resign in...

President Trump’s public debacle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky halted hopes for a signed minerals agreement while dividing the world — and Washington — over their support for them both. Long-simmering tensions between Trump and Zelensky exploded into the open during a heated Oval Office exchange that will have ramifications for the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and all of Europe. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called his vote to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in that meeting with Trump and Zelensky, “a mistake” in a Sunday interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It was a mistake. I think...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s behavior during White House visit on Friday as “unacceptable” and “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history,” underscoring the deepening rift between Washington and Kyiv. “It’s very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader who doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, following a contentious Oval Office meeting that derailed a planned agreement granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals. The collapse of the deal marks a setback for Ukraine as it sought to deepen economic ties with...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the formation of an “Armed Forces of Europe” in a speech delivered before the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. While the Trump administration has drawn feigned outrage throughout European capitals for daring to suggest that they meet their NATO defence spending obligations, President Zelensky was hailed with applause at the Munich Security Conference as he called for an international European army. Zelensky argued that a European army would be necessary for Europe to take back its own destiny and to ensure its safety if America refused to come to its rescue.