Free Republic

A San Fernando Valley community is outraged and devastated after federal immigration agents forced their way onto the grounds of a church during a food giveaway and arrested a man who church officials say helps with children’s ministries. Church officials stated that “a beloved community member” by the name of Carlos Chavez was arrested. The raid interrupted the church’s food distribution ministry and an event for mothers and children in the church garden. Speaking to KTLA 5’s Kimberly Cheng, Pastor Aguilon said he was in contact with Chavez’s wife, who said Carlos, the sole provider for their family, has already...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon released a priority-shifting National Defense Strategy late Friday that chastised U.S. allies to take control of their own security and reasserted the Trump administration’s focus on dominance in the Western Hemisphere above a longtime goal of countering China.The 34-page document, the first since 2022, was highly political for a military blueprint, criticizing partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous U.S. administrations to subsidize their defense. It called for “a sharp shift — in approach, focus, and tone.” That translated to a blunt assessment that allies would take on more of the burden countering...

BERLIN (AP) — The eight European countries targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump for a 10% tariff for opposing American control of Greenland blasted the move Sunday, warning that his threats “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.”The joint statement by some of America’s closest allies signaled a possible turning point in the recent tensions over sovereignty and security nearly 24 hours after Trump’s threat.It was also the most forceful rebuke of Trump from the European allies since he returned to the White House almost a year ago. In recent months, Europeans have mostly opted for diplomacy and...

The Nobel Foundation, the group responsible for administrating the various Nobel prizes, on Sunday issued a clarification around the rules for handing out the prizes after Venezuela‘s opposition leader María Corina Machado offered her peace prize to President Donald Trump, which he accepted. “The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations,” the foundation wrote in a statement posted to X on Sunday. “It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,’ and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize.” “A prize can therefore not, even symbolically,...

Federal immigration officers have shot 11 people since September as the Department of Homeland Security has ramped up deportation operations around the country. In the majority of the shootings, officers have fired into cars — a tactic that law enforcement authorities and policing experts have been trying for decades to curtail. The vehicle shootings raise serious concerns among policing experts about the rapidly expanding deployment of DHS personnel into American communities, where officers are regularly captured on video clashing with immigrants who are in the country illegally as well as citizens who protest the arrests. The shootings “are not one-offs,”...

President Donald Trump has told his national security team that he would want any U.S. military action in Iran to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime and not spark a sustained war that dragged on for weeks or months, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House. “If he does something, he wants it to be definitive,” one of the people familiar with the discussions said. But Trump’s advisers have so far not been able to guarantee to him that the regime would quickly collapse after...

On an icy Friday morning, Mahad Omar watched armed federal agents run down the street and tackle one of his neighbors to the ground. They handcuffed the man and put him inside a black-tinted S.U.V. Mr. Omar, 28, an Uber driver, immigrated to Minneapolis from Somalia two decades ago. He had never imagined seeing something like that in his community. “Minneapolis is a great city,” Mr. Omar said after the agents had left and residents emerged from their homes to discuss in hushed voices what they had seen from their yards and windows. Several women wept. “It’s never been like...

Longtime Greenlanders have told the Daily Mail they are furious with President Donald Trump for once again floating the possibility of taking over their country. Trump revived talk about the United States asserting formal control over Greenland on Sunday, one day after US soldiers captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and brought the deposed leader back to New York to face a litany of criminal charges. 'It's so strategic,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One. 'We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it. Jørgen Bay-Kastrup is the CEO...

At the end of World War II, the U.S. and its allies made a compelling case that protecting and promoting human rights is not only the right thing to do; it lays the foundation for a stable international order. Although often honored in the breach, that proposition has stood the test of time. It is now being eviscerated. In a May 2025 speech in Riyadh, President Trump signaled a tectonic shift in the U.S. approach to international human rights. After lavishing praise on his host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who U.S. intelligence believes ordered the murder and dismemberment...

International leaders reacted swiftly on Saturday morning as President Trump confirmed U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and announced the capture of the country's leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. Many U.S. adversaries, including some of Venezuela's nearest neighbors, condemned the strikes, while other governments around the world called for deescalation and voiced concern for their citizens in the Latin American nation. Latin American reaction Colombia, which shares a border with Venezuela, called for urgent deescalation. It said it had "implemented steps to protect the civilian population, preserve stability on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and promptly address any potential humanitarian or migration...

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice on Friday released more than 300,000 pages of photos and evidence connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The vast trove includes images showing the disgraced financier and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell socializing with high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson. One photograph appears to show Clinton in a swimming pool alongside Maxwell and several unidentified, partially clothed women. Clinton broke his silence on Friday to turn the tables on Trump, releasing a statement that declared: 'The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late...

SummaryIn August 2025, President Donald Trump launched a federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., declaring a crime emergency, temporarily federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department, and deploying federal agents alongside hundreds of National Guard troops. The administration billed it as a mission to combat rampant crime, touting successes despite data showing violent crime had already been declining for two years (reaching 30-year lows).Four months later, activists, immigrants, and local Democratic leaders argue the operation has evolved into a de facto immigration crackdown. Official figures indicate about one-third (roughly 2,500) of over 7,500 total arrests were immigration-related. Early data through mid-October...

The Capitol riot of January 2021 set off the largest criminal investigation in the Justice Department’s history. For federal prosecutor Ashley Akers, it was a defining moment in a seven-year career spent untangling complex cases, from wire fraud to domestic terrorism. She helped put away dozens of rioters – including some who swung bats and beat police officers. Then the tables turned. On his first day back in office, U.S. President Donald Trump granted clemency to every criminally charged January 6 rioter. Akers resigned. Now, Akers and other prosecutors who handled Capitol riot cases face a new threat. Reuters has...

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the arrest of a man charged with placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties on Jan. 5, 2021, the warning from the Trump administration was clear: If you come to the nation’s capital to attack citizens and institutions of democracy, you will be held accountable. Yet Justice Department leaders who announced the arrest were silent about the violence that had taken place when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and clashed with police one day after those bombs were discovered. It was the latest example of the...

The shriek of whistles and a cacophony of cars honking have taken on new meaning on the streets of major U.S. cities in recent months — a warning to all those in earshot that immigration enforcement is nearby. The warning tactics from activists have become popular in cities recently targeted by Border Patrol immigration operations. Jill Garvey, a co-director of the pro-democracy group States at the Core, said during the first nationwide virtual “ICE WATCH” training session hosted with the help of community organizers from Chicago on Nov. 21. More than 500 people attended the online training session from dozens...

The C.I.A. and an Afghan intelligence official said that the shooter had been part of an Afghan “partner force,” known as a Zero Unit, trained and supported by the agency in the southern province of Kandahar. The Afghan refugee accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., fought in the late days of the U.S. war there as part of a “Zero Unit,” a paramilitary force that worked with the C.I.A., according to a person briefed on the investigation and an Afghan intelligence officer familiar with the matter. The units were known for their brutality and labeled “death...

In a meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv last week, U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll delivered a grim assessment. Driscoll told his counterparts their troops faced a dire situation on the battlefield and would suffer an imminent defeat against Russian forces, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. The Russians were ramping up the scale and pace of their aerial attacks, and they had the ability to fight on indefinitely, Driscoll told them, according to the sources. The situation for Ukraine would only get worse over time, he continued, and it was better to negotiate a peace...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — Lawmakers critical of President Donald Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine war said Saturday they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told them that the peace plan Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept is a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.A State Department spokesperson denied their account, calling it “blatantly false."Rubio himself then took the extraordinary step of suggesting online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source for the information. The secretary of state doubled down on the assertion that...

Summary U.S. hopes to ramp up pressure on Maduro government Covert operations expected to be first step, sources say U.S. options include overthrowing Maduro Human rights groups condemn U.S. strikes as illegal extrajudicial killings WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The United States is poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days, four U.S. officials told Reuters, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government. Reuters was not able to establish the exact timing or scope of the new operations, nor whether U.S. President Donald Trump had made a final decision to act....

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Several nations and environmental groups on Friday slammed proposals in the final stages of this year’s U.N. climate talks for failing to explicitly mention the cause of global warming — the burning of fuels such as oil, gas and coal — with one top negotiator warning the talks are on “the verge of collapse.” Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, a top negotiator for Panama, said the decades-long United Nations process risks “becoming a clown show” for the omission.