Free Republic

Oprah Winfrey is so proud of her bestie. The billionaire, 71, cried when her BFF Gayle King took off into space on the Blue Origin mission Monday morning alongside five others, including Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez. Winfrey was on scene at the launch site in West Texas and told a reporter during the livestream that she wore yellow because King, 70, is “sunshine.”

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, an MSNBC contributor and staunch critic of President Trump, said he’s quitting after owner Jeff Bezos’ “significant shift” in the paper’s mission — joining an exodus of journalists at the beleaguered broadsheet. “The announced ‘significant shift’ in our section’s mission has spurred me to decide that it’s time for my next chapter,” Robinson announced in a memo to fellow staffers on Thursday. “I wish nothing but the very best for the paper and for all of you. I won’t be a stranger, and I’ll be reading your unparalleled work every single day.” Bezos, the billionaire...

Meghan McCain vowed to make it her “personal mission to help campaign and fundraise” against any Senator who does not vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). “Any Senator who votes against @TulsiGabbard for DNI isn’t just going to have a problem with MAGA and Trump,” McCain warned. “I will make it my personal mission to help campaign and fundraise against you in your next election. And my people are probably a lot like their people.”

President-Elect Donald Trump had made peace in Europe a key campaign pledge, but several NATO member states are dedicated to total Ukrainian victory and will discuss how to “thwart” him and keep Kyiv in the war even if Washington withdraws support. London, Paris, and Warsaw are to form the nucleus of a European effort to keep Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia going even if the Trump Presidency from January 2025 tries to bring an end to the Ukraine war. Exactly how he will achieve this campaign pledge has not been publicly articulated to date. However, a ‘land swap’ between Kyiv...

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) is heading to Las Vegas for an “economic mission” after enjoying the Masters golf tournament in Georgia on the taxpayer’s dime. The mayor’s website announced Friday that Bowser would attend the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in an effort to bring retailers to the nation’s capital. “This economic mission is coordinated by the Washington, DC Economic Partnership (WDCEP), which has organized the District’s presence at ICSC since 1999,” the announcement continued:

IDF and ISA troops have completed precise operational activity in the area of the Shifa Hospital and exited the area of the hospital. The troops killed terrorists in close-quarters encounters and located numerous weapons and intelligence documents throughout the hospital, all while preventing harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams. In the central Gaza Strip, an IDF helicopter directed by IDF troops struck a booby-trapped Hamas military compound from which terrorists observed IDF troops and an additional Hamas military compound. Over the past day, IAF aircraft killed terrorists who posed an immediate threat to IDF troops, including a sniper who...

A former top aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., funneled six figures in donor funds from his political action committee into his own pockets for reported consulting work, all while spending minimal amounts on the PAC's actual mission. Corbin Trent, who previously acted as a top aide to Ocasio-Cortez and helped propel her into office, formed the No Excuses PAC after his departure as her communications director in 2019 and exiting her campaign in 2020. Trent launched No Excuses in 2021 with the goal of nuking the Senate filibuster by targeting senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kirsten Sinema, I-Ariz....

A senior CIA official this week said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is "absolutely wrong" to oppose placing all components of the intelligence community -- including those now under the authority of the Pentagon -- under the centralized control of the director of central intelligence. James Simon, assistant director of central intelligence for administration, said he supports a recommendation advanced by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, head of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, to transfer the National Security Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office from the purview of DOD to direct DCI control. "Brent...

WASHINGTON — Just 55% of the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet was mission capable as of March 2023, a disappointing statistic driven by factors like a lack of depot capacity, insufficient supply of spare parts and overreliance on contractors, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The watchdog’s assessment — published days after a Marine Corps F-35B went missing for over 24 hours in South Carolina — highlights a complaint frequently aired by government officials: prime contractor Lockheed Martin, along with its countless subcontractors, were given too much control over sustaining the stealth fighter, a situation...

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available. A package containing the deadly poison ricin addressed to President Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement sometime this week, before it was delivered to the president, two law enforcement officials told CNN on Saturday. Two law enforcement officials also told CNBC about the ricin package that was addressed to Trump. According to CNN, two tests were performed on the package, to confirm the presence of the deadly ricin poison, and the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the...

The Canadian woman accused of sending a letter containing ricin to President Trump has been identified as Pascale Ferrier of Quebec, authorities said. Ferrier was taken into custody Sunday by US Customs and Border Protection agents at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo, New York, where she is expected to appear in federal court to face charges. She was supposed to appear in court Monday, but her appearance was delayed until Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office, according to the CBC.

former U.S. military official has outlined a road map for Ukraine to pursue efforts to "lease out" a mercenary air force from the U.S. government as the country struggles to maintain air superiority in its war with Russia.

The Psyche spacecraft was supposed to launch toward its namesake, a bizarre metallic space rock in the main asteroid belt, between August and October of this year. But issues with Psyche's flight software made it impossible to hit that window... Psyche will still launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as previously planned. 2022 liftoff would have delivered Psyche to its asteroid target in early 2026. But a 2023 launch requires a different trajectory, pushing the arrival back to August 2029... NASA's Janus smallsat mission, which is designed to study two separate binary...

The Mars program is being held up (and costing way too much) for two reasons: 1. Enviro-wackos in NASA who have enough influence to demand redundant sterile systems on the spacecraft to MAKE SURE we do not send a harmful microbe to Mars on the trip. Never mind that the atmosphere there would kill said microorganisms, negating any gratitude from anything on Mars for the effort to prevent exposing it/them. 2. Many of the parts and assemblies, by demand from the racially pure leftists involved in the project, must be ordered from women/minority/approved (not white male) companies and that is...

Police have identified the victims of a car crash Saturday involving a human smuggler as a mother and daughter from Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) confirmed the mother, 59, and daughter, 22, were locals from Mission. The alleged smuggler ran a stop sign while fleeing from police and T-boned the victims’ vehicle. He also allegedly had six illegal immigrants in his vehicle, all of whom are now in custody. One of the immigrants flew through the windshield upon impact, but survived. Officers have not yet released the pair’s identities, but did confirm they were the only deaths...

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a United States Army Reserve officer, on Sunday weighed in on the U.S. withdrawal out of Afghanistan. According to Gabbard, the mission in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks was effective in defeating al-Qaeda. She added that what went wrong was the nation’s leaders “lost sight” of the mission there.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — According to Santa Cruz Police chief Andy Mills, the Mission Bell at Soquel and Dakota has been stolen. The bell went missing before there was to be a removal ceremony for it on Saturday by the Amah Mutsun tribe and the city on Saturday.

“The Kepler and K2 missions just keep on giving!” Harvard astrophysicist, David Latham told The Daily Galaxy. “Operations ended more than three years ago when the spacecraft ran out of fuel, but we continue to mine the data archives for celestial gems.” “We know the spacecraft’s retirement isn’t the end of Kepler’s discoveries,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “I’m excited about the diverse discoveries that are yet to come from our data and how future missions will build upon Kepler’s results.” “The Search for Planets is the Search for Life”...

For some, the aircraft malfunction of Kamala Harris's jet on her first flight abroad as Joe Biden's vice president to get at all those root causes to "solve" the border surge was kind of an omen.After all, the jet malfunction could have gone undetected, or been put there by some Democrat insider, happening just as anonymous Democrat operatives are moaning aloud to the press about their dread of Harris becoming the next Democratic presidential candidate. One wonders if Harris recalls the aircraft accident that took down former Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. It's speculation, of course, based on the miasma...

Crews continue to restore the Carmel Mission Museum after the restoration project started in November 2020. They're renovating and repairing the courtyard in front of the famous Basilica, which was restored back in 2013. Stephanie Zelei, executive director of Carmel Mission Foundation, talked to KSBW about the work that's being done. "Remedying the drainage issues that are affecting the foundation of the basilica... We'll be fixing the cracking and the resurfacing as it looked before," Zelei said. On top of that, restoring the bathrooms, stabilizing the adobe structure and doubling the space size of the museum. Zelei says these changes...