Free Republic

A woman who lives on a cruise for free for half the year has revealed all the perks that come with it – and the one “weird” thing she can’t do. Christine Kesteloo, who is originally from the US and lives in the Netherlands when she’s not sailing, has visited a whopping 109 countries and counting. The 44-year-old doesn’t cook, clean, make her bed, do laundry or pay for food, and it’s all thanks to her husband Pete’s role as a chief engineer for the Holland America Line cruise company. Christine, who documents her life at sea for her almost...

WEST LA FAYETTE, Ind. — A crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people turned out to hear Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk speak on Thursday at Purdue University, with many eager to ask the conservative commentator a question. Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of the conservative student group, visited West La Fayette as part of his “American Comeback Tour.” The tour included stops this week at Illinois State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A campus police officer provided The College Fix with an estimate on attendance near the end of the event. Hundreds of students lined...

President Trump, Treasury secretary Bessent, and Commerce secretary Lutnick are effectively teaching a course right now on the fundamentals of international trade. How many Americans previously understood that nations around the world use tariffs and other economic tools to keep American-made products from reaching their markets? Hasn’t the United States been spreading the gospel of “free trade” for centuries? Doesn’t commitment to “free markets” separate the civilizational West from more authoritarian countries with “closed” economies? Shouldn’t a “rules-based international order” ensure that the rules are the same for all participating countries? Or asked another way: How “free” can international trade...

Folk rock legend Neil Young and his band Chrome Hearts will open an upcoming European tour with a free concert in Ukraine, according to a post on his website. The 79-year-old Toronto-born musician, who was part of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, said it would be “a free concert for all.” Details are still being worked out, including the show’s date and location: “We are currently in talks,” Young said. “Keep on Rockin’ in the free world,” he ended the statement, a reference to his 1991 hit song, alongside an image of the Ukrainian flag against a blue...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that he believed Vice President JD Vance was correct in his criticisms of European speech laws during a recent speech. Maher said, “JD Vance…the other week, made a speech, in Munich. A lot of people were shocked by it. I thought half of it was pretty shocking because it was about this election that they just had in Germany where there is a party on the ballot that is very Nazi-friendly.” He continued, “But the first part of the speech was about free speech, that I didn’t think he...

The “special relationship” between the US and the UK got awkward Thursday, when Vice President JD Vance confronted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office over the longtime American ally’s weakening of freedom of speech. Earlier this month, at the Munich Security Conference, Vance had riled European opinion by decrying what he called “the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values—values shared with the United States of America.” Vance stood by his comments Thursday when pressed by a reporter, saying: “I said what I said, which is that we do have,...

The former special counsel who brought two criminal cases against President Donald Trump received $140,000 in free legal services from a prominent Washington law firm last month. Covington & Burling provided Jack Smith with the gift of pro-bono legal assistance, Politico first reported citing a disclosure he filed last month in connection with him leaving the Justice Department. It’s unclear why Smith sought outside lawyers, but Trump had repeatedly ripped Smith and his team, vowing to fire them and strongly suggesting they should be criminally prosecuted. “They ought to throw Deranged Jack Smith and his Thug Prosecutors in jail,” Trump...

In March 2024, the Metro Council voted to refuse a proposed settlement of $105K with Turner for what he posted on social media in 2020.. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The attorney for former Nashville firefighter Tracy Turner has announced a victory in his civil rights case against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. Turner, who was demoted following posts made on his personal Facebook page, was awarded nearly $1.8 million by a federal jury on Friday. His attorney says that the $1,775,513 in damages comes from the retaliation against Turner based on his exercise of free speech. “He...

Los Angeles “Chief Recovery Officer” Steve Soboroff said Saturday night that he would work for free, after coming under fire for earning $500,000 for three months of work, even though his salary was to have been paid privately. Earlier in the day, as Breitbart News reported, Ambassador Ric Grenell, who is representing President Donald Trump in overseeing the recovery effort from last month’s devastating fires, criticized Soboroff harshly for his salary.

Bill Burr is fired up. The comedian and actor, 56, blasted insurance companies and praised accused UnitedHealthcare CEO-shooter Luigi Mangione while speaking about the LA fires during his Tuesday appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Burr revealed that, like many people in Los Angeles, he had to evacuate after flames threatened his home. “I got lucky,” he said. “You know, the winds moved. “And I think everybody did a great job. Unlike the internet,” he added, alluding to the rapacious criticism of state and local officials’ response to the fires. Burr went on to mock online critics who liken themselves to...

Below is my column in the Hill on the resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his anti-free speech legacy. The collapse of free speech in Canada is a cautionary tale for Americans. It shows how Trudeau and the Liberal Party used faux rhetoric of tolerance and inclusion to justify intolerance and exclusion. Here is the column: With Justin Trudeau’s announcement that he will step down as prime minister, Canada is now looking for a new leader after a decade under his policies. The question is whether anyone will look for the remnants of Canadian free speech in the...

Nigel Farage says he wants to "mend fences" with Elon Musk, after the billionaire Trump adviser called for him to be replaced as Reform UK party leader. Just before Christmas, Farage told journalists his party was in "negotiations" with Mr Musk, the world's richest man, about a potential donation. But come the new year, the relationship had soured, with Tesla boss Mr Musk saying Farage "did not have what it takes" to lead the party. Farage suggested the snub was over a disagreement about Mr Musk's support for the jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Speaking on LBC, Farage said he...

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean claimed Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In” that once in office, President Donald Trump will attack free speech, causing the country to be “done for as we know it.” Host Ari Melber said, “I am curious what you see here in the political side of this. These are political efforts to change how people act or change coverage or have some impact. ABC, going to make its own decisions but it was widely covered that the case was not an obvious loss by any means and their statement, I am referring to what ABC...

The bot could even start showing up alongside your tweets with more info on what you’re posting With X facing fierce competition from rival platforms Bluesky and Threads, Elon Musk has decided to give away a feature that was previously locked behind a paywall. Now, everyone can use X’s edgy AI chatbot, known as Grok, to help with their writing, whip up images and fetch the latest news. What separates Grok from its peers is its “rebellious streak” and witty retorts, according to Mr Musk, who has previously slammed OpenAI and Google’s AI tools as being too “woke”. One thing’s...

Colorado Democrats are celebrating a new law that will go into effect on January 1 that will extend free Medicaid coverage to illegal migrants who are pregnant as well as migrant children. Dubbed “Cover All Coloradans,” the program opens up state Medicaid funding for prenatal and postpartum care, physical, dental, vision, and mental health care for children, with an initial price tag of up to $51 million in costs to the Colorado taxpayer, according to CBS News. Democrat Gov. Jared Polis’ administration is working with a list of immigrant activist groups to alert migrants that they are eligible for the...

US politics the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a 4-3 ruling directing local election... The President of the Russian region of Abkhazia carved out of Georgia in 2009 is resigning... Two communications cable in the Baltic Sea have failed...Investigations underway to determine if the damage was deliberate... A Lebanese official says Hezbollah has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal... Two killed another critically wounded in knife attacks in New York City... Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution... immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Civil War... Tonight an Israeli air attack in Beirut near government buildings and foreign embassies with at least...

Rasmus Paludan’s prosecution lays bare Sweden’s dangerous abandonment of free speech, where courts silence dissent and protect Islam from critique—even as they condemn a politician already hunted, violently attacked, and forced to live in constant fear for his life simply for defending Western values.In a decision that has ignited fierce debate over the limits of free speech and judicial interpretation, Danish-Swedish politician and lawyer Rasmus Paludan was sentenced to four months in prison by the Malmö District Court. The case, rooted in Paludan’s 2022 Quran-burning protests and speeches on Islam, questions the extent of free expression protections in Sweden, the...

Ford Motor Company is hoping to boost sales of its electric vehicles (EVs) by giving away free at-home charging stations, executives announced this week. “Auto shoppers say they’re more likely to buy an electric vehicle if they could fill up at home. So we’re going to make it easy for our customers,” Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote on X: If you buy or lease a new [Ford] electric vehicle, we’ll include a complimentary home charger. This is part of something we’re calling the Ford Power Promise, which is about giving our electric vehicle customers convenience, peace of mind and expert...

new planet-wide electric field that is as fundamental to Earth as gravity has been discovered in a major scientific breakthrough. The ambipolar electric field, which begins 150 miles above the planet, has been described as a “great invisible force” that lifts up the sky and is responsible for the polar winds. The polar winds interact with the jet streams to help drive the majority of weather patterns across the globe. Until now, the field had only been theorised, but a Nasa team, which includes scientists from the University of Leicester, has now sent a rocket into the field and measured...

The famed Langer’s Deli in downtown Los Angeles could close, its owner tells the Los Angeles Times.Norm Langer, 79, has spent almost his entire life growing up around and running the 77-year-old delicatessen.But with the persistent public safety and homelessness issues plaguing nearby MacArthur Park and the surrounding area, Langer is “considering closing,” he told Times columnist Steve Lopez, who called the possibility a “hole-in-your-soul development.”Langer added that he hopes city officials provide “improved lighting, increased police patrols, social services outreach and targeted clean-up efforts,” and Lopez noted that “the more I talked to Langer, the more I got the...