Free Republic

The Nobel Foundation, the group responsible for administrating the various Nobel prizes, on Sunday issued a clarification around the rules for handing out the prizes after Venezuela‘s opposition leader María Corina Machado offered her peace prize to President Donald Trump, which he accepted. “The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations,” the foundation wrote in a statement posted to X on Sunday. “It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,’ and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize.” “A prize can therefore not, even symbolically,...

The Trump administration apologized in court for a “mistake” in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student who was detained trying to fly home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, but still argued the error should not affect her case. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman, was detained at Boston’s airport on Nov. 20 and flown to Honduras two days later. Her removal came despite an emergency court order on Nov. 21 directing the government to keep her in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the United States for at least 72 hours. “On behalf of the government, we...

The U.S. political system is currently experiencing previously unimaginable levels of partisan and ideological polarization. And at the same time, public disaffiliation with both major parties is reaching historic highs. Gallup has been conducting large-sample polls of partisan self-identification since the 1980s and now reports that a record 45 percent of Americans consider themselves political independents. Self-identified Democrats and Republicans each represent a dismal 27 percent. As recently as 2004, Democrats and Republicans were both at 34 percent of Americans, with 31 percent self-identifying as independent. This seemed normal and sustainable at the time. A long period of ideological “sorting...

John Cleese has joined the growing list of voices expressing their dismay at the BBC over its coverage of the ongoing protests in Iran. The widespread civil unrest in the Islamic Republic is said to have been sparked by the country’s economic woes, which as seen inflation skyrocket to more than 42 per cent and food prices surge by 72 per cent. However, hostilities had been threatening to boil over for months prior to the latest protests against the regime’s corruption, civil rights abuses, and critical energy shortages. Despite the monumental moment in the country’s history, the UK’s national broadcaster...

n the wake of an ICE shooting that killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, academics have joined the chorus of left-wing radicals seeking to abolish the federal law enforcement agency. "Abolishing ICE is the moderate position," said Victor Ray, an associate professor of sociology, criminology and African American studies at the University of Iowa. In another social media post, Ray referred to the shooting, which killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, as a "murder." Nobody has been charged with murder in the case.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. and its allies made a compelling case that protecting and promoting human rights is not only the right thing to do; it lays the foundation for a stable international order. Although often honored in the breach, that proposition has stood the test of time. It is now being eviscerated. In a May 2025 speech in Riyadh, President Trump signaled a tectonic shift in the U.S. approach to international human rights. After lavishing praise on his host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who U.S. intelligence believes ordered the murder and dismemberment...

Extraterrestrial beings hitching a ride on the 3I/ATLAS comet may have already landed on Earth, according to controversial psychic Uri Geller's bold assertions. With the mysterious cosmic wanderer 3I/ATLAS approaching our planet – reaching its "closest approach" on Friday – wild speculation has run rampant about what it might contain.

But what if the most clandestine intelligence program in U.S. history was shut down not because it failed, but because it had uncovered something too extraordinary to reveal? But from 1977 to 1995, the CIA secretly funded one of the strangest efforts in modern espionage: Project Stargate. Trained under the then-classified program, “psychic spies” used remote viewing to mentally perceive targets without travel. Millions went into the effort, with military and intelligence officials hoping it could yield intelligence that no satellite or informant could. Tested under controlled conditions, participants were tasked with describing enemy facilities, tracking fugitives, or even locating...

The secret fear of the loudest die-hard critics of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is not that he will fail as the city’s leader but that he has a very good chance of succeeding. If the new administration demonstrates it can deliver on its promise to lower the cost of living while managing our city efficiently and keeping the streets safe, it will become clear that the fearmongers who have been screaming warnings about a coming municipal apocalypse were peddling nonsense all along.

The House vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files was, in the end, 427-1. That’s a margin typically reserved for proclamations and post office namings, not for what was perhaps the biggest defeat of President Donald Trump’s second term, a fight that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene declared on Tuesday had “ripped MAGA apart.” A group of Epstein’s survivors, sitting together in one section of the House gallery, applauded. Democrats applauded. Some Republicans applauded. No one seemed to say much to Rep. Ro Khanna as he stood in the center of the floor, toward the front, chitchatting with colleagues. When...

Since immigration-enforcement agents began their descent on Chicago, acting with seemingly unprecedented speed and ferocity, Evelyn Vargas and her colleagues at Organized Communities Against Deportation have been in a frenzy. They help run an emergency hotline that refers people who have been detained to immigration lawyers and directs their families to support services such as food pantries, emergency housing, and mental-health care. (On a single day last week, it took 800 calls.) And they oversee a team of 35 “rapid responders” who have been sprinting across the city to film arrests, aiming for at least two to arrive on the...

Disney (DIS) has had a rough week. It faced a massive boycott from customers after briefly pulling the plug on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” a late-night talk show on ABC. The decision to suspend the show came after comedian Jimmy Kimmel made jokes relating to President Donald Trump’s reaction to the death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on Sept. 10. Disney’s decision to cut the show sparked a huge boycott from consumers, who threatened to cancel their Disney vacations and streaming services such as Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Many consumers claimed that canceling the show over Kimmel’s...

A Missouri veteran says he “100 percent” regrets voting for President Donald Trump after his British-born wife, a longtime green card holder, was detained by federal agents and now faces deportation. Donna Hughes-Brown, 59, was stopped by officers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on July 29 after returning from a holiday in Ireland. She spent five days in custody in Chicago before being transferred to a detention facility in Campbell County, Kentucky, where she remains while removal proceedings play out. Hughes-Brown’s husband, James Brown, said he believed he was voting to remove “criminal illegal immigrants,” not trap law-abiding residents with...

President Donald Trump’s recent focus on urban crime presents a classic dilemma for Democrats. If they point out that his lurid portrait of a violent epidemic is inaccurate, they risk turning off voters who agree with him on an emotional level. But if they go along with it, they risk legitimizing his power grab. Trump and his Republican allies clearly hope to ride this issue all the way into next year’s midterms, so Democrats need to come up with a counteroffensive soon. Fortunately for them, there is a group of Democrats who know exactly how to run — and win...

Elon Musk’s newly-launched independent political party, the “America Party,” poses a real risk of being a spoiler for Republicans ...

Media outlets that spent years screeching about Jan. 6 and fawning over BLM riots are eager to ignore or dismiss violent ambushes of ICE officers.. Under the cover of darkness, 10 people, some carrying firearms, allegedly attacked the Prairieland Detention Center utilized by ICE in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, shooting a police officer in the neck. This is major news that should be plastered across the front pages and home pages of every prominent media outlet. It is a major crime with an apparent political motivation, allegedly committed by an Antifa terror cell. Along with numerous guns, communication radios,...

The U.S. Army is now rolling out a new policy that disproportionately impacts Black soldiers, and one officer is questioning the motivations behind the announcement. Military.com reported Friday that the Army is now planning to prohibit shaving waivers, requiring all soldiers to adhere to strict new grooming standards. Previously, soldiers who suffered from the skin condition pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) were allowed to ask for a waiver to bypass requirements to stay clean-shaven, as PFB patients can often have painful bumps and scarring from the use of a razor. Soldiers who have PFB — which causes ingrown hairs that lead to...

Donald Trump has frequently poured scorn on those who served in the US military. Even though he avoided serving after obtaining a note from a friendly doctor who said he had bone spurs, he famously mocked late Republican John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate and a prisoner-of-war, saying he preferred people who did not get captured. He would later stun his chief of staff, former Marine General John Kelly, during a visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of the First World War, when he allegedly claimed those who gave their lives were “suckers” and “losers”. Now,...

Donald Trump’s rambling speeches and stream-of-consciousness press briefings could be symptoms of his “cognitive decline,” according to one of America’s top rhetoric experts. The warning comes as Trump and his aides are seeking a congressional probe into Joe Biden’s mental state during his one-term presidency. The extent to which Biden, now 82, hid his capability has led to major questions over whether he was fit to lead the country.

The court’s three liberal justices said they would have kept the policy on hold. Just after beginning his second term in January, Trump moved aggressively to roll back the rights of transgender people. Among the Republican president’s actions was an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.