Free Republic

Zohran Mamdani is not a serious person. How do we know? Because, with just a few days to go before Election Day, he has not expressed his views on New York City ballot proposals two through four, which strike at the heart of the “affordability crisis” he pretends is central to his campaign. I say “pretends” because none of Mamdani’s signature campaign proposals, estimated to cost $7 billion per year, will actually reduce the cost of living in New York. He must know that, unless his pricey Bowdoin College education left him appallingly ignorant of how the real world works.You...

As politicians prepare to jet into Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual UN climate meeting, philanthropist Bill Gates has provided a straightforward insight: climate summits like COP30 should prioritize what truly improves human lives, and not just chase reductions in emissions or temperatures. His point is both refreshingly overdue and, frankly, obvious common sense. I have long argued that policymakers should always ask: What’s the smartest way to do the most good with limited resources? For billions of people in the developing world, tackling immediate challenges like poverty and disease outweighs chasing distant temperature goals.In poor countries, parents are not...

Two of the biggest unions in the federal workforce — the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association — are demanding that Democrats reopen the government now. It’s not because they’ve turned MAGA or suddenly embraced the GOP budget: both unions are as progressive as ever. It’s because their members are working without pay. And the plight of these workers shows just how difficult it is for Democrats to wring concessions through shutdown tactics.Because it’s illegal for federal workers to strike, these employees don’t have much choice. They are subject to what could be called...

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts declined to distance the conservative organization from Tucker Carlson, in response to criticism that Tucker has become "anti-semitic." KEVIN ROBERTS: I'll have more to say on this in the coming days, but today I want to be clear about one thing. Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned. My loyalty as a Christian is to Christ first and to America always. When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with other allies, we do so with partnerships on security, intelligence, technology. But when...

Trump’s trade war isn’t working, but neither did previous administrations’ policy of accommodation.As President Trump meets Xi Jinping in South Korea, I believe America’s China strategy needs a course correction—but not a knee-jerk reversion to a pre-Trump status quo. If we want to win the competition with China, we need to think well beyond the next election and even the next decade. We need to rebuild a durable bipartisan consensus over how to approach the world’s most consequential relationship. That will require a plan that avoids the big swings we’ve seen in our China strategy the past two decades. For...

Positive results continue to emerge from the Trump administration’s ongoing experiment in tightening the labor market for truck drivers. As we highlighted last week, trucking spot rates are rising for legal American drivers. Now, in an especially stunning turn of events (and an entertaining one, for industry watchers), the American Trucking Association is admitting that, actually, there never was a labor shortage. “What we have in the United States is a quality problem around drivers, much more so than an absolute number,” says one official. “There’s never been a lack of people with [licenses]... what we lack is the number...

As a young person deeply engaged in politics, I am often asked why my generation is elevating figures like Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, in New York. People across the political spectrum want to understand how a candidate who openly advances antisemitic rhetoric has gained traction among young voters.To me, Mamdani’s popularity is unsurprising – it reflects how my generation has been raised, educated, and conditioned to think.The reality is that when teachers support Mamdani and when teachers unions endorse him – as they have – students are not far behind. The New York State United Teachers and the United...

The scandals engulfing the Democratic Senate hopeful expose a rift between the state’s provincial and national identities Since I moved to Maine half a decade ago, I’ve found that my friends in other places don’t really keep up with the comings and goings of Maine life. For me, that’s kind of the point of living here: It’s nice being out of the way, and to hear my friends muse wistfully, “I’ve always wanted to visit Maine.” These are attempts to solicit invitations to come stay with us in Vacationland, and they’re about as close as my friends to the west...

I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible. It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out. If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the...

~3 minutesTurning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk predicted his own assassination in chilling text messages to friend and former colleague Candace Owens — years before he was assassinated in Utah.Owens posted screengrabs of a text exchange from April 6, 2018 on her podcast in which the person she identifies as Kirk predicted he would be killed because of his work with Turning Point USA.“If I tell you the true prophecy I know in my gut it’s really sad,” Kirk wrote, adding, “But I hope its wrong.”Candace Owens shared the sadly prophetic texts on an episode of her podcast on Monday,...

The lapse in benefits could be temporary if the Trump administration complies with a recent court order requiring them to use emergency money to fund SNAP. The impact of the food aid lapse will sweep across red and blue states alike: Just over half of all SNAP recipients live in states that backed Trump in last year’s election.More than two dozen Democratic state officials — including those in California, Massachusetts, Kansas and Kentucky — sued the Trump administration over the lapse in benefits in a separate lawsuit that is still pending a formal decision. Republican officials have pointed the blame...

GOP candidates for Tuesday’s elections are trapped between Trump’s demands for fealty and voters who want independence.HAMILTON, N.J. — The most revealing element of next week’s election is that President Donald Trump is all but ensuring defeat for Republicans, and his party is doing next to nothing about it.The mere fact of his election last year handed Democrats a powerful turnout lever in blue-leaning New Jersey and Virginia, but Trump has further undermined GOP hopes in the two states with his conduct and has seemingly abandoned California Republicans.There are his explicit actions: The DOGE layoffs and government shutdown reductions-in-force hit...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the defence of Pokrovsk is a "priority", as elite special forces were deployed to the embattled town on the eastern front line. Ukrainian army sources told the BBC that special forces from military intelligence and assault groups were being used as regular infantry to protect supply lines to troops holding the town in the Donbas region. There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town to the west of Donetsk. Ukraine has denied claims their forces were surrounded. Moscow wants Kyiv to cede the entire Donbas region as part of a...

The Trump administration plans to claw back more than $1 billion in federal funds being spent on Medicaid for illegal immigrants in blue states. A preliminary audit from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that California, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Washington, Illinois and Oregon had misused $1,351,204,127 on healthcare for illegal aliens during the past few years. While using federal Medicaid dollars for this purpose is prohibited, Democrat leaders are using loopholes in federal laws to use funds for emergency treatment of patients regardless of their immigration status. According to the CMS, California was responsible for a sizable...

Can the nation’s greatest city survive full-on socialism?It is still technically possible that self-declared democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will not become the next mayor of the nation’s largest city and financial capital of the world. But those chances might best be described as a wing and a prayer. One would have thought that New Yorkers who voted for Mamdani in the Democratic primary months ago without knowing much about him would reconsider their support once they learned the details of his plan to turn the city into a socialist utopia. But the smooth-as-silk 34-year-old native of Uganda continues to hold...

You’re paying for them, in the name of climate aid. A £52m road through the Amazon jungle is being built using British aid that is intended to help the climate, The Telegraph can reveal. The road in Guyana goes nowhere other than a tiny village and has long been criticised by environmentalists, though it is celebrated by the oil industry. It is just one among hundreds of schemes funded by taxpayers through the International Climate Finance initiative (ICF). Few will have heard of the ICF outside Westminster circles. It is the result of the Government’s determination to push a green...

"Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents & DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus." Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) gave a press conference on Wednesday in conjunction with a massive document dump relating to a probe — undertaken by former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department — code-named Arctic Frost.Arctic Frost, which would ultimately grow into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the 2020 presidential election, included nearly 200 subpoenas aimed at Republicans in Congress and Trump allies outside of Capitol Hill — from high-dollar donors and super-PACs to Mike Lindell’s MyPillow....

Harvard's medical school was rocked by a huge explosion early Saturday morning. Law enforcement said the blast appeared to be deliberate and that two people were seen fleeing as they arrived. The explosion took place at about 2.48am in the fourth floor of the Goldenson building on the Longwood campus. No injuries were reported. 'Upon arrival at the building, the officer observed two unidentified individuals fleeing the building,' the Harvard University Police Department said.'The officer attempted to stop the individuals before proceeding to the floor where the alarm had been triggered.' Boston police checked the building for additional explosives and...

Surging early voting points to high turnout in the mayoral election. It’s a bad sign for the Democratic Socialist’s campaign Back in 2016, I suggested that Donald Trump was heading for victory, writing in the New York Post in June of that year: “As much as Trump might alienate and appal, his iconoclastic campaign aligns with what many across America are already thinking.” In The Telegraph nearly eight years later in December 2023, I correctly assessed that Kamala Harris, the vice-president at the time, was angling to oust her elderly boss, President Joe Biden.Now I have a new prediction....

Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill are neck and neck in the latest polling, showing the two New Jersey governor hopefuls less than a percentage point apart, the closest yet as election day approaches. Ciattarelli is within less than a single point, which is in the margin of error, in a stunning new poll released Saturday as the two approach the final hours of their campaign in a virtual tie. Sherrill’s lead has dropped to 50.2% to 49.3% in a new Atlas Intel poll. It’s just the latest survey to show a nail-biter in the most-watched statewide election this...