Free Republic

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. revealed on the House floor on Tuesday his diagnosis for depression led to extended hospital treatment.Kean’s speech to the House floor served as the first time he disclosed the reason for his absence from Congress.He said, “I believe that I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey’s seventh congressional district, colleagues in this chamber, and to the American people about my absence.”

Heads up, faithful P&E readers: this is big. The Supreme Court has released its decision in Trump v. Barbara, the “birthright citizenship” case that has attracted much attention since President Trump issued his Executive Order 14160 immediately after assuming office for his second term. Cutting to the chase, the Court in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts has today invalidated the Executive Order. While the decision, of course, will have massive impact on 14th Amendment scholarship, it might well have an equal or greater impact on the different, yet related issue of who can be (or who cannot be)...

Thousands of people have marched in South Africa's main cities to demand that all undocumented migrants leave the country. Police officers - backed by private security guards - have been deployed because of fears that protests could turn violent. Anti-migrant groups had set Tuesday as the deadline for undocumented migrants to leave. Many foreigners have already fled to escape violence and intimidation. South African police say 25,000 have been repatriated so far. Most are from other African countries. One undocumented Malawian told the BBC he was "happy to be going back" but "heartbroken" to be leaving behind four young children....

High Point police arrested a Thomasville man Sunday morning outside a church after officers found him armed with flamethrowers, a CO2-powered launcher designed to resemble a handgun, crossbows and more than 500 rounds of ammunition during Sunday services, authorities said. High Point 911 received a call around 10:15 a.m. about an armed man sitting in a truck in the parking lot of Wesley Memorial Church on Chestnut Drive. The caller reported the man had a gun and was wearing camouflage clothing. An off-duty officer working at the church responded immediately, with additional officers arriving within minutes. According to High Point...

Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia is facing fuel shortages as Ukraine steps up its long-range drone campaign, with repeated strikes setting oil refineries ablaze and forcing multiple regions to introduce unprecedented petrol rationing. Speaking to Russian state television late on Sunday, the Russian president acknowledged for the first time that Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure were affecting domestic fuel supplies. “Of course, they create problems, that’s obvious,” Putin said. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” Putin said Moscow would seek to ease the shortages by boosting fuel imports, while redoubling efforts to protect refineries from...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) vowed that “Anthony Fauci will answer to the American people” in an X post as he ramps up his investigation into the former top health official’s role in the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said his investigation into COVID-19 origins has been blocked in the past but is now moving forward with broader access to records. Paul suggested that newly reviewed evidence and a subpoena for testimony will force answers to long-running questions about the pandemic and government-funded research.

Andy Burnham will today set out his Left-wing plan for a decade in power, as he plots a tax raid on middle-class Southerners. The would-be prime minister will begin to reveal his plan for when Sir Keir Starmer is shoved aside next month. He is set to be given the keys to No 10 in a Labour 'coronation', in which the public will have no say. But despite his lack of mandate, the former Greater Manchester mayor will demand ten years in power. Mr Burnham will put devolution at the heart of his programme, arguing that transferring powers and money...

A 50% top rate of income tax, a mansion tax, a fresh tax blitz on buy-to-let landlords and tougher taxes on inheritances may only be the start as Labour looks set to take a sharp lurch to the left. Many fear what will happen if net zero zealot Ed Miliband is made chancellor. But whoever Burnham appoints, they will face relentless pressure to do the one thing Labour MPs always want: hike spending and find somebody to tax to pay for it. They will pretend only the rich will pay, but as we've seen, in practice working people and pensioners...

From Roman freedom to Viking happiness, the iconic words in the Declaration of Independence reveal thousands of years of humans wrestling with how to live well together – and the power of language to put those ideas into action. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." When Thomas Jefferson drafted these words in the Declaration of Independence, two things were on his mind. One: he needed to find "terms so plain and...

Two people were shot during in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning, police confirmed, and it is believed the shooting took place during a naked bike ride. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers responded to the corner of Temple and Alameda streets around 11 a.m. “A male suspect, wearing all black clothing and on a scooter, shot two victims with a BB gun,” a department spokesperson confirmed to KTLA.

The Home Office has vowed to introduce new "capped safe and legal" routes for refugees to come to the UK from later this year. The department said it would allow organisations like universities, community groups and businesses to sponsor refugees who applied to come to the UK, a model based on Canada's asylum system. The government also said it would press ahead with changes to how human rights and modern slavery laws are applied to asylum applications to root out what it described as "vexatious" claims. The Conservatives said no extra people should be let into the country until illegal...

The mother of transgender California track athlete AB Hernandez seems to believe that the winner’s podium at a female track event is no place for females.In a speech at the San Francisco Pride Summit on Thursday, Nereyda Hernandez took strong exception to the recent California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) decision to give first-place honors to the female athletes who finished behind her son. Hernandez says the new rule has rendered her son “invisible.”

John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, has pleaded guilty to mishandling classified security information as part of notes he compiled for a book. Bolton, now a prominent critic of the US president, was indicted on 18 counts related to improper handling of classified material, and initially pleaded not guilty. On Friday, he admitted to a single charge of illegal retention of classified information. The documents he retained included diary entries containing national defence information, some of it classified at the top secret level. Bolton faces a prison sentence of up to five years and has agreed...

As readers may recall, in recent years, after announcing a rare bit of activity from yours truly, I have generally observed that I am engaging in such against the advice of my doctors. So it was that I spent over a month in Ukraine, venturing hither and yon and trying to stay one step ahead of the bombs and drones. I was there to research a personal project, but did not manage to complete my work, and was planning to return in late summer. I understand that, in a world where Victoria Nuland and Lindsey Graham lob darts at the...

Left-leaning website Wikipedia has taken the drastic action of permanently blocking one of its founders from editing pages — after he had campaigned to make it more balanced and fair. Last month, Larry Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID), a group designed to help reinforce the online encyclopedia’s “original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,” by emphasizing neutrality and transparency. However, Sanger — who coined the name “Wikipedia,” drafted the site’s foundational set of rules and guidelines, and launched the site alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001 — is now indefinitely blocked from editing, the most drastic action the site can take...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Bronco on the job!” Bronco, a puppy from Mutts With a Mission, poses for a photo aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) in Newport News, Virginia, March 28, 2023. George Washington is undergoing refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipyard. RCOH is a multi-year project performed only once during a carrier's 50-year service life that includes refueling the ship's two nuclear reactors, as well as significant repairs, upgrades, and modernization. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist Seaman August Clawson) Canteen Mission...

President Donald Trump clashed with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in a meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday, multiple sources told ABC News, over the war powers resolution passed Tuesday in the Senate -- a rare rebuke of Trump that saw with four Republicans voting with Democrats.Multiple sources described the clash between Trump and Cassidy as a shouting match. Senate Majority Leader John Thune tried to intervene to de-escalate the situation and other senators tried to jump in to ease tensions over the resolution, which aims to limit Trump's ability to wage war in Iran but does not have the force...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) didn’t mince any words Tuesday in calling out what he characterized as the “bulls—” arguments of fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) on social media, revealing the tensions within the Senate Republican Conference over how to push forward on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. Tillis said Lee’s push for Republicans to force Democrats to actively hold the floor in continuous debate to block the bill — in other words, to force Democrats to employ a talking filibuster — is “goofy.” “I think it’s silly. All of it’s just goofy stuff,” he said. “It’s...

The Senate on Tuesday approved a House-passed resolution directing President Trump to withdraw U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran after four GOP senators broke ranks and voted to undercut Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief. The Senate voted 50 to 48 to approve the resolution, which passed the House 215-208 earlier this month. The measure came straight to the Senate floor Tuesday for an up-or-down vote on final passage. It does not need Trump’s signature because it is a concurrent resolution. But it does not have the force of law, even though it’s been approved by both chambers. It directs Trump...

Nigel Farage has said "it's not the public's business" to know details of how he spends a £5m ($6.5m) gift from a billionaire Reform UK donor. Speaking to the BBC, the Reform leader said the money from British cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne was an "unconditional gift, I can spend it on cars if I want to". He went on to say the money was for his personal security and he will need protection "until the day that I die", but declined to confirm how much he has spent. Farage has argued he did not need to declare the gift because...