Free Republic

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are jetting off to the Virgin Islands to ring in the new year, leaving the country behind to grapple with a seemingly never-ending migrant crisis. It will be the first family’s second holiday trip in two years to St. Croix as the US deals with a deadly disaster — last year Biden enjoyed his tropical vacation while a winter blast killed dozens of people.

Shortly after replacing disgraced and ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Mike Johnson agreed to make good with the base and release the J6 footage from Capitol security cameras that the Capitol police have kept under wraps, with some limited exceptions. Johnson’s release of the J6 footage has done a great deal to re-introduce Americans to the falsity of the official narrative of January 6th. The latest release includes footage of Capitol police firing “flash bangs” unnecessarily at the crowd, as well as police opening doors and behavior of protestors inside the Capitol that fails to conform to any definition of “terrorism.”...

Former President Donald Trump has a double-digit lead over President Joe Biden in the key swing state of Michigan, the latest CNN Poll found.The survey showed Trump leading Biden nationally by eight points, 39 percent to Biden’s 31 percent, in a race that includes independent candidates. That gap, however, only grows in individual states such as Michigan, where Trump is now leading Biden by ten points — 50 percent to Biden’s 40 percent. Another ten percent said they would not support either candidate. .Further, the survey showed Trump leading Biden by five points in Georgia — 49 percent to 44...

A Russian man flew from Europe to LAX without a passport, visa or plane ticket last month, and officials have no idea how he did it. Neither, it seems, does the man himself. Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava faces a charge of being a stowaway on an aircraft related to a Nov. 4 flight, but according to a report by Jason Koebler published jointly by 404 Media and Court Watch, he “was not a stowaway in the traditional sense.” “[Ochigava] seemingly interacted with flight crew, ate two meals on the plane, spoke to other passengers on the flight, and, at one point...

Former President Donald Trump is towering over his Republican opponents in the primary race, and he is leading in several states, including those that vote on Super Tuesday, the latest data from Morning Consult found.Morning Consult data, fielded December 1 to 3 among 3,526 potential GOP primary voters, shows Trump towering over the GOP field with 66 percent support. His lead is 53 points ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who garners just 13 percent support. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley comes in third place with ten percent support, followed by entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (six percent), former New Jersey...

Harvard University president Claudine Gay plagiarized numerous academics over the course of her academic career, at times airlifting entire paragraphs and claiming them as her own work, according to reviews by several scholars. In four papers published between 1993 and 2017, including her doctoral dissertation, Gay, a political scientist, paraphrased or quoted nearly 20 authors—including two of her colleagues in Harvard University’s department of government—without proper attribution, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis. Other examples of possible plagiarism, all from Gay’s dissertation, were publicized Sunday by the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and Karlstack’s Chris Brunet. The Free Beacon worked...

America’s top universities should abandon their long misadventure into politics, retrain their gaze on their core strengths and rebuild their reputations as centers of research and learning.

HOT on the heels of Shakira’s success at the Latin Grammy Awards in Sevilla last week, the Columbian music icon is in the news again today. In a surprise turn of events, globally renowned singer Shakira has accepted a substantial fine to avoid a prison sentence. This decision concludes a legal battle that started in 2018, as reported by El Español On November 20, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter appeared at Barcelona Court, acknowledging her tax evasion between 2012 and 2014. The court, aligning with all parties, has agreed to suspend Shakira’s three-year prison sentence. In return, she will pay a fine...

Does journalist Christiane Amanpour truly believe the terror group Hamas is a reliable source of combat information? On the Tuesday edition of Amanpour & Co. (which runs on CNN International and later on tax-funded PBS), Amanpour talked with familiar face Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and defended the fatality tally put out by Hamas as truthful and accurate. She even ludicrously claimed Hamas’s numbers have never been questioned before. The verbal scuffle began when Regev pointed out what should be obvious to journalists, that Hamas is holding children and infants hostage and is “not going...

An Italian news investigation uncovers Tablighi Jamaat’s global influence, ties to terrorism, and its ambitious goal to establish Sharia, posing a severe threat to the safety and security of Italy and Europe. In a recent video exposé, Italian news group Fuori dal Coro unveils the growing influence of Islam in Italy through an extensive investigative video. The report focuses on Tablighi Jamaat, a contentious Muslim missionary movement recognized as the world’s largest religious proselytizing group. Operating globally, the group raises concerns due to its ties to terrorism, promotion of universal imposition of strict Islamic rules, and its ambition to replace...

resident Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping are planning to meet again following their four hour talk in San Francisco that cemented agreements on fentanyl and defense contacts, the White House said Monday. National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters another high stakes meeting was on the agenda as he defended Biden's comment last week where he stood by calling Xi a 'dictator.' The comment did not go over well in China's state-run media, although Xi Jinping gave a speech to American CEOs Wednesday immediately after his sit-down with Biden where he declared China is 'ready to be a partner...

The current war between Israel and Hamas has not only raised questions about the conflict itself but also about the history and politics behind it. One of the more pressing questions concerns the plight of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and it is a question that has been asked since the crisis began after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.The question is: Why haven’t Arab nations taken in Palestinian refugees and assimilated them into their own societies?It would make sense, wouldn’t it? The easiest way for the entities claiming to care about Palestinians to ease their burdens would be...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Populist Javier Milei resoundingly won Argentina's presidential election Sunday, swinging the country to the right following a fiercely polarized campaign in which he promised a dramatic shake-up to the state to deal with soaring inflation and rising poverty. With 99.4% of votes tallied in the presidential runoff, Milei had 55.7% and Economy Minister Sergio Massa 44.3%, according to Argentina's electoral authority. It is the widest victory margin in a presidential race since the South American country's return to democracy in 1983. In the streets of Buenos Aires, drivers honked their horns and many took to...

Federal government workers from the State Department to NASA are circulating open letters demanding that President Joe Biden pursue a cease-fire in Israel's war against Hamas. Congressional staffers are picking up microphones in front of the Capitol, speaking out to condemn what they say is the silence of lawmakers about the toll on Palestinian civilians.

…My New Litmus Test is January 6 But right now, my litmus test issue isn’t abortion. Or mass, low-skill immigration. Or gun rights, religious freedom, national security, or any one of the many crucial questions that bedevil our stumbling country. A candidate could step forward who checks every one of those boxes, and at this point I’d keep my arms folded. That is, until he answered another simple, straightforward question: Do you believe in letting the Democrats steal our elections, stifle any challenges, and unjustly imprison citizens who protest all that — and will you collude with Democrats to keep...

JERUSALEM – Women’s rights groups and officials in Israel who have been working tirelessly for the past six weeks to document cases of rape and gender-based atrocities carried out by Hamas terrorists during their mass, brutal terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7., say the United Nations is ignoring them. They say they have also shared much of this evidence, some of it horrifyingly graphic and all of it extremely intimate, with the United Nations and groups that protect and empower women. The response: Silence. "We’ve sent letters and shared graphic documentation," Sarah Weiss Maudi, a senior diplomat and legal...

... not one country came forward with a viable solution, even temporarily, for the 1.5 million civilians who, according to the latest U.N. figures, are now internally displaced in the southern section of the Strip. Al-Hindi said the primary reason why even the moderate states, most of which have diplomatic ties with Israel, have not taken practical steps to help the civilian population in Gaza is due to their aversion to Hamas and its goals." "As a result, many Arab countries are concerned that aiding the Gazans could inadvertently benefit Hamas, given that the organization has ruled in Gaza for...

When a movie on Rotten Tomatoes has a high audience approval rating and a low critical rating, it usually means that conservatives will like it. It’s usually a movie for the people and not for the “elites.”Such is the case with Muzzle, a film that was released in September and is now out on DVD. Muzzle is is a good solid piece of movie-making created by that rarest of breeds: Hollywood people who don’t hate normal Americans. The film is rated 16+. Criminals are depicted as awful people, drugs as soul-killers, and moms and newborn babies as healing miracles. There...

Dependable, low-cost electricity is essential to keeping the lights on for millions of American family-owned businesses. It is the type of essential item that touches nearly every aspect of our lives; the bakery relies on ovens, the repair shop on power tools, and the local grocer on refrigeration, and on and on. A consistent and affordable power source ensures that they can operate without interruption and keep prices competitive for their customers despite low margins and a fragile economy. Unfortunately, misguided federal policies now threaten to further disrupt our electric grid and could cause these business to shutter. In the...

This spring, rumors were swirling that HERBL, one of California’s largest cannabis distribution companies, was on the verge of collapse. So Mike Beaudry, the company’s CEO, sent out an email on May 18 declaring that “these rumors are categorically not true. HERBL continues to be fully operational.” Less than a month later, HERBL had completely collapsed. HERBL’s failure left a trail of damage that hurt small pot brands and shorted the state some $17 million in unpaid taxes. HERBL is only the latest high-flying California pot startup to crumble, following companies like Flow Kana, which raised $175 million in capital...