Free Republic

China remains the world’s top coal consumer, with fossil fuels supplying over 87% of its primary energy. Renewables’ share was 40% in 1971 when China was poor, but plummeted to 7.5% in 2011 — and has risen slowly over the next 13 years, to just over 10% in 2024. On this trajectory, a full transition to green energy would take four centuries. So while the vision of China as a renewable superpower is mostly eco-propaganda, we should heed two lessons from Beijing’s energy policies. First, China has dramatically scaled up energy use — and has grown rich in the process....

When anti-regime protests spread like wildfire throughout Iran in mid-October of 2022, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was quick to lay the blame on the usual foreign suspects. “I say explicitly that these riots and this insecurity were a design by the U.S. and the occupying, fake Zionist regime and those who are paid by them,” he told a class of cadets at a police college in Tehran. He suggested that the ultimate goal of the U.S. and Israel was regime change in Iran. This elicited a response on Twitter from Iranian rapper Hichkas, who defended foreign support for...

🚨Republicans have FLIPPED TWO council seats in Wellington Florida This makes a total of THREE 🔵->🔴 FLIPS in Palm Beach County Florida last night President Trump’s home county had a Red Wave last night, Florida grows more red every day, @FloridaGOP will win big in November

The U.S. federal civilian workforce shrank by 12% from 2024 to January 2026, data from the Office ​of Personnel Management showed, reflecting the Trump administration's efforts to slash government agencies' headcount. The departments with the biggest workforce cuts during this period were Agriculture (-27.6%), Treasury (-24%), and Health ​and Human Services (-19.5%). On the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security — which handles President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown — saw a small uptick in its workforce (+0.4%). A majority of federal employees who left their jobs did so through voluntary resignations or early retirements. These figures may change as...

The Department of Homeland Security asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to let it end its Temporary Protected Status designation for Haitian migrants, after the high court let it end the designation for Venezuelans last year. The request comes after the department asked the Supreme Court to let it end the designation for Syrian migrants last month, though the justices have not yet issued a ruling in the case. Solicitor General D. John Sauer warned the high court in the latest filing that more cases are “waiting in the wings," and asked them to settle the matter on ending the protected...

President Trump signaled on Wednesday that he plans to tap into the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down rising gas prices. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again, but right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down,” Trump said during an interview with Local 12 in Kentucky. The president shrugged off rising gas prices as a “matter of war” earlier in the day and expressed confidence the market would settle soon. I figured we’d be hit a little bit. We were hit less than I thought...

A conservative Los Angeles County engineer sued his employer Tuesday for refusing to let him work from home in June, when the LGBT Pride flag will be flown from the building where he works. Eric Batman, an employee of the county's Department of Public Works for 24 years, "cannot participate in a celebration that his religion deems sinful," his lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Washington — Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear Tuesday that an elections bill known as the SAVE America Act faces an unlikely path to passage, reiterating his skepticism about the bill's chances as President Trump threatens a legislative blockade until Congress approves the measure."There are no easy ways to do this," Thune told reporters Tuesday. "Believe me, we've examined all the options."The legislation, which the House passed last month, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, along with photo ID to cast a ballot. But Mr. Trump has demanded that the legislation go farther and ban all...

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled Monday to block intervention by District Attorney Fani Willis in the legal battle over paying attorneys fees related to the indictment of President Donald Trump. The president, some of his co-defendants and their attorneys are in the midst of seeking more than $16 million, collectively, in legal fee recovery due to the dismissal of the indictment. In her role as DA, Willis was seeking to prevent the payment of the $16 million citing, among other reasons, how it would impact the office’s budget and subsequent ability to perform...

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump rejected former President Joe Biden’s assertion of executive privilege over a tranche of documents requested by the Senate as part of various probes into the 46th president, determining it is "not in the best interests of the United States." White House counsel David Warrington wrote Monday in a letter addressed to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and obtained by Fox News Digital that Trump "does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege" over records sought in four congressional probes. The letter directs NARA to provide the materials to Congress. The dispute centers on...

“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

the US Uber Photo by: Nam Y. Huh / AP Uber sign displayed on car. By: ALEXANDRA OLSON, AP Business Writer Posted 9:07 AM, Mar 09, 2026 NEW YORK (AP) — Uber launched a feature Monday to allow both women riders and drivers across the U.S. to be matched with other women for trips, expanding a pilot program aimed at addressing concerns about the safety of its riding-hailing platform. The new feature is being rolled out nationwide despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against the policy in California, filed by Uber drivers who argue that it is discriminatory against men....

"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." — General George S. Patton, Jr. Don’t lose the plot. Embrace the suck. This is the world’s hard time, for now. The birth of anything can be a bloody horror. It can even look like death. Don’t be too afraid to see what comes on the other side of this awful spectacle. So many Americans are rooting and wishing for the Iran war to turn out badly for Western Civ. And why? Because Trump. And why? Because at the same time he is ending Iran’s long-running nuclear blackmail game, he...

Multiple white male police officers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are suing the Philadelphia Police Department over alleged discriminatory hiring and promotion practices. The lawsuit — filed by America First Legal on behalf of five white police officers — contended that the law enforcement professionals were “passed over for promotions and denied advancement because of their race and sex,” according to a Feb. 26 release from the group. Philadelphia allegedly tried to conform the racial demographics of the police force to the population of the overall city, causing them to pass over white officers for promotions.

Zara Larsson has found herself at the center of a social media storm after responding to a fan’s TikTok post that referenced abortion, prompting widespread debate about humor, boundaries and celebrity responsibility. The controversy began earlier this week when a TikTok user shared a video from one of Larsson’s recent concerts, filmed during her performance of "Midnight Sun." In a caption overlaid on the clip, the fan wrote that she had not realized she was pregnant at the time of the show and added that "at least my baby got to hear Midnight Sun before I aborted it." Larsson, 28,...

BOGOTA, March 8 (Reuters) - Colombians were heading to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and choose three of the presidential candidates who ​will contest elections this May, a vote that will shape the next ‌president's ability to push through legislation and fulfill their agenda. Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in an election analysts predict will ​be divided among some two dozen parties, likely forcing the next president ​to form a coalition government. ... President Gustavo Petro, whose term ends in August, has repeatedly questioned the...

Pro-Trump Kentucky Senate Republican candidate Nate Morris said that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whom he hopes to replace in the Senate, is doing everything he can to block the SAVE America Act and enacting national voter ID to vote. Morris spoke to Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle as Trump urged the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act. He wrote on Truth Social, “The United States Senate should focus on, exclusively if necessary, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!!! It’s what everyone wants!!! President DJT.” “We have somebody in Mitch McConnell who is making it his last effort to do everything...

Donald Trump said a full-scale invasion of Iran would be 'a waste of time' on Thursday and called for the country to get a new leader who would 'clean out everything.' Trump spoke to NBC News as the Islamic Republic sought a new supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Khamenei and their foreign minister said a ground invasion would be a 'disaster' for the US. 'We want to go in and clean out everything. We don't want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,' Trump told NBC. 'We want them to have a good leader. We have some...

Virginia's legislature has passed a bill prohibiting schools from teaching what it considers to be falsehoods about the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including portraying it "as peaceful protest." The General Assembly approved the measure Thursday, as a first-of-its-kind legislation to combat false statements by supporters of President Trump. The bill says that school instruction must "Not describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest." Schools may also not "state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that federal appeals courts must follow a deferential standard of review to the Board of Immigration Appeals’ determination that asylum seekers did not experience the level of persecution necessary to qualify for asylum protections. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that appeals courts can only diverge from the judgment of the Board of Immigration Appeals when the evidence presented was “so compelling that no reasonable factfinder could fail to find the requisite fear of persecution.” In doing so, she upheld a decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals and...