Free Republic

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week unveiled the 18-person committee that will advise him on his judicial nominations, he said the committee reflected the city it served. But to some observers, something seemed off. Though Jews make up an estimated 10 percent of the New York City population and represent such a significant share of New York City lawyers that the Jewish lawyer has become a cultural stereotype, the mayor’s 18-person committee seemed to have no Jews on it. On Monday, Elizabeth Forspan, the president of the Brandeis Association of Queens, a group of Jewish legal professionals, sent a letter...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Wednesday he would push to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former head of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response invoked his Fifth Amendment right at a hearing on Capitol Hill. “That’s a vote that will happen in committee next week. It will be in contempt of Congress,” Paul told reporters after the hearing. “We believe that with his … immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t...

A new aircraft is coming in hot. JetZero, the California-based aerospace company, is in the midst of ejecting Boeing from the game with its newest prototype — the Z4. The aircraft is a blended-wing-body, and it’s aimed at disrupting air travel. The Z4 is set apart from the traditional tube-and-wing design most airliners have today. JetZero’s new model blends the wings and body into one surface. This creates an aerodynamic lift and could help conserve fuel.

The Trump administration is ending a key health insurance subsidy program that aimed to keep premiums for seniors' prescription drug plans in check, claiming that it benefits corporate insurance companies, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. Medicare Part D -- the government health insurance program's prescription drug benefit -- is used by tens of millions of older or disabled beneficiaries. The program's subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, the administration announced Tuesday.

Back on the Menu? Why a Horrible Little Insect Could Jeopardize RFK Jr’s Quest to Heal America With Red MeatTens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of Americans may now have a meat allergy.Back in January, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did something amazing, something I and many others had been hoping he would do. He turned the food pyramid on its head. Or, rather, he turned it the right way up—finally, at long last.“For decades Americans have grown sicker while healthcare costs have soared,” Kennedy told the assembled press at the White House.“The reason is clear: The hard truth is...

The Kentucky senator believes the former Covid czar belongs in prison. A recent Trump administration prosecution suggests it might not be an idle threat.Sen. Rand Paul’s said Anthony Fauci belongs in prison. The Kentucky Republican will get his chance to make the case Wednesday when the former Covid czar is slated to appear under subpoena before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that Paul chairs. Paul reiterated his objective on X Monday, saying the pardon President Joe Biden gave Fauci — Biden said to shield him from a vindictive Trump administration prosecution — would not protect Fauci if he...

Nine-banded armadillos are a common sight across the southern US. You’ll find them digging in flower beds and underneath your porch. Sometimes, unfortunately, they unsuccessfully attempt to cross a busy road. They are, for the most part, harmless. But experts say the adorable armored creatures may be the culprit behind a rising number of cases of an ancient disease. Well, “ancient” is only partly true — leprosy, aka Hansen’s Disease, is a 4,000-year-old illness, but it infects as many as 200,000 around the world today. In the US, there are a few hundred cases a year and numbers are climbing....

Washington — Sen. Lindsey Graham is being remembered in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, with an afternoon funeral at the National Cathedral and an arrival ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in the morning. President Trump will deliver his eulogy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are also expected to attend Graham's funeral. Graham, a four-term senator known for his close relationship to the president and his hawkishness on foreign policy, was a key player in a number of major bipartisan agreements before his death on July 11. He had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he...

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet in Washington today before the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican senator was a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and his final act as a public official was to visit Kyiv and secure an agreement on a new Russian sanctions package. Trump will welcome Zelenskyy to the White House later before the funeral at Washington National Cathedral. It'll mark the second sit-down between the two leaders this month. The Ukrainian president will then move on to the Capitol for a meeting with senators, a source told the Reuters news agency. Posting...

Reform UK say they are reporting Green Party leader Zack Polanski to the police after he shared a post to his Instagram which included a photo of a man wearing a top featuring the name "Nigel" alongside an image of a guillotine. Polanski accepted a request to collaborate with another account and shared a series of pictures of a Green Party event on Sunday with his 713,000 followers. One of the images showed a man wearing a T-shirt which said: "We're only making plans for Nigel". A Green Party spokesperson said: "Once this image was brought to [Zack's] attention he...

Entries from early 2020 in a now-exposed personal diary kept by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic show that he privately estimated the death rate from the illness was significantly lower than what he told Congress under oath only weeks later. Fauci, 85, has come under intense scrutiny for years regarding his approach leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, and his alleged links to the Chinese lab where the virus originated. He will return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to speak about his newly publicized personal records. "The...

The Democratic National Committee, cash-poor ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, has made the risky decision to post their headquarters as collateral in exchange for a $15 million loan, according to a report from NOTUS.This isn’t the first time that Democrats have used the building to secure cash, according to the report. This, however, is the largest loan that Democrats have ever taken during a midterm cycle. The move has caused concern amongst Democrat leadership that DNC Chair Ken Martin could be running the group into the ground.

The disgraced Cornell University student who went viral for declining an interview with an NYC startup because he said he didn’t want to be “working for a Jew,” claims he’s returning the upstate Ivy league campus in the fall. Austin Franco, 19, the rising junior who delivered the message to VrfID’s Jewish co-founders Gabe and Aiden Einhorn via job board site Handshake in June, told conservative nonprofit Accuracy in Media that he hardly got a slap on the wrist from Cornell.

Anthony S. Fauci, the former government official who helped lead the nation’s coronavirus response, is set to again face Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who has spent years accusing Fauci of playing a role in the virus’s creation. Paul, the chairman of the Senate’s government oversight committee, announced Thursday morning that Fauci will testify on Wednesday after being subpoenaed. Paul has been investigating the potential origins of the outbreak. Fauci, who last testified in front of Congress in June 2024, has repeatedly denied accusations from Paul and other Republicans as “preposterous.” The 85-year-old former National Institutes of Health (NIH) official left...

A major police operation is under way in Berlin after a vehicle was driven into a crowd. One person is dead and at least 17 injured. The nearby Pride parade was cancelled hours after it began. Follow the latest on this story below. .... At least one person has died, with more than a dozen injured, several seriously, after a transporter reportedly drove into a crowd. A manhunt is under way, and police say a suspect was known to police as a member of the "Islamist scene." The suspect is said to have fled after crashing into a tree. Helicopters...

Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify next Wednesday in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after being subpoenaed, panel Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday. Paul has been laser-focused on Fauci, the nation’s former top infectious diseases doctor, for allegedly covering up the U.S.’s involvement in risky viral research in a Chinese lab that the Kentucky senator says created the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. “I expect he will not tell the truth,” Paul said in a Fox Business interview Thursday. “I don’t expect him to be honest, he hasn’t been honest in the last six...

Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three children at a dance class in Southport, has been moved from prison to a secure psychiatric hospital. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed he was transferred from HMP Belmarsh to Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire. Rudakubana murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injured eight other children and two adults in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July 2024. He was given a 52-year prison sentence in January 2025 but the judge was unable to impose a whole life order due to...

Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is making a run for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) seat after his death, Sanford announced Thursday morning. “Our country is at a financial tipping point, and I can’t sit on the sidelines while Washington adds a trillion dollars to the debt every 100 days,” Sanford wrote on social media Thursday. “I’ve spent my entire time in politics fighting this fight, and I’m running for U.S. Senate to keep the American dream alive for our sons, my grandson, and those you love. Join us,” he added. Sanford’s post also featured a video of himself...

SpaceX to launch 13th Starship flight test What we know: SpaceX's latest test flight is currently scheduled for Thursday with the 90-minute launch window opening at 5:45 p.m. The latest test flight will test the company's Super Heavy booster with the objective of a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn and landing burn. SpaceX said the booster's hardware has been modified to improve relight reliability. For Starship, the company hopes to launch 20 Starlink satellites and have a successful relight of an engine while in space with a controlled entry, descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The company...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has voted repeatedly for resolutions to withdraw U.S. troops from the military conflict with Iran, told reporters Wednesday that the United States is “worse off” than it was before President Trump launched the war in late February. “I think the Iran war has not been a success. I’ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure we’re worse off than we were before the war,” Paul said on Capitol Hill. “If you look at the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz, that’s never happened before,” he said. “There’s...