Free Republic

An annual gathering of top international security figures that last year set the tone for a growing rift between the United States and Europe opens Friday, bringing together many top European officials with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. The Munich Security Conference opens with a speech by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of 15 heads of state or government from European Union countries whom organizers expect to attend. The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference's tradition,...

The transgender teenager responsible for Canada’s worst school shooting in nearly 40 years struggled with his physical appearance and was fixated with guns and drugs. Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old from the remote town of Tumbler Ridge who was born a male, wrote online about his 6ft frame and his desire to be a “petite” woman. He shot dead his mother, Jennifer Strang, and his 11-year-old stepbrother on Tuesday afternoon before walking to his former school 10 minutes away and opening fire on pupils and staff, killing eight before taking his own life. Police initially described the shooter as a...

A woman was seen trying to set fire to a South Kansas City warehouse on Thursday, the same site that had been proposed as a possible immigration detention center. Video from our crew shows the woman igniting window areas at the building and flames briefly flaring up. KMBC reporter Andy Alcock said he witnessed the woman throw what appeared to be a liquid onto the windows before the fire started. Grandview firefighters responded and put out the flames. No injuries were reported. The warehouse has been the focus of protests and public concern after reports surfaced that it could be...

The vessel's captain was ordered to stop for an inspection, but failed to comply and fled, Japan's fisheries agency said.Japan seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its skipper, authorities said on Friday (Feb 13), an incident that could deepen a spat between the Asian giants. The episode on Thursday off southern Japan came three months after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that Japan would intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force. "The vessel's captain was ordered to stop for an inspection by a fisheries inspector, but the vessel failed to comply and fled," Japan's fisheries agency...

A Yeshiva University student was attacked by several “masked thugs” in a Washington Heights subway station on Thursday night, according to school officials and authorities. Just after 7 p.m., police responded to a 911 call about an assault at the West 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue 1 train stop, according to the NYPD. The 20-year-old student of the private Jewish university was punched and kicked by four unidentified individuals, according to police and Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, a clinical assistant professor of Jewish values at Yeshiva’s Sy Syms School of Business.

The Trump administration said it's ending a credit for automakers that install a so-called "start/stop feature" in the vehicles, part of a broader rollback of environmental regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The start/stop feature, which is today widely used in newer vehicles, shuts off gas engines when cars idle, such as when they're stopped at a red light or stuck in traffic. The Environmental Protection Agency described the technology as "almost universally hated" in its Thursday announcement about the broader overhaul. About two-thirds of cars are now manufactured with the start/stop feature, which is aimed at making internal combustion...

MP Rupert Lowe, who launched an independent inquiry into the mass child rape that occurred throughout England at the hands of clans of mostly Pakistani Muslim men, has called on the government to launch an investigation into cases of missing girls in grooming areas to determine whether they may have been trafficked to Pakistan as sex slaves. “I believe there are currently countless British women being used as sex slaves overseas. This may sound insane. It is not. Look at these gangs. Nobody would have believed the extent of the evil before it was uncovered. This is very real,” the...

***U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled the government must pay to fly back or accept at a port of entry any of the men who are now in countries other than Venezuela. Upon arrival in the U.S., they will be detained as they fight accusations they are Tren de Aragua gang members. The judge previously ruled the government violated the due process rights of the 137 Venezuelan men, and they were entitled to a hearing. But Boasberg had left the door open for a legal process that didn’t entail their physical return. “Apparently not interested in participating in this process,...

A sleepy race to succeed Gavin Newsom as California Governor just got a little bit of a jolt, as Senator Adam Schiff publicly put his chips on East Bay House Representative Eric Swalwell. California Governor Gavin Newsom is termed out of office once the November 2026 election rolls around, though interestingly, no one is really paying much attention yet to the race to replace Newsom. We have eight credible Democrats running, and splitting up the vote so much that some pollsters have Republican candidates currently winning the race. So it behooves these Democratic candidates to do something to shake up...

A horrible tragedy occurred yesterday in Canada when a killer, later identified as a “trans identifying woman,” shot nine people to death and injured 27 others, before turning the gun on himself. The Canadian establishment has been desperate to hide the truth about the shooter, but this was not a secret the establishment could sit on.AdvertisementThe shooting took place at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in tiny Tumbler Ridge, a remote rural community in British Columbia. The killer began by murdering two people at a home, then headed for the secondary school (grades 7-12), where he opened fire. Six people...

Tariffs Fall and Investment SurgesTrade shapes power structures, and when two economies tighten bonds, the ripple spreads far beyond shipping lanes and customs desks. On Feb. 12, 2026, the Trump administration finalized a sweeping trade agreement with Taiwan that cuts tariffs, boosts American exports, and pours hundreds of billions into U.S. industry.Taiwan agreed to eliminate or sharply reduce tariffs on nearly all American goods, as duties on U.S. beef, dairy, and corn were reduced immediately to 0%. Pork belly tariffs fell from 40% to 10%, and ham fell from 32% to 10%. Taiwan also removed non-tariff barriers on motor vehicles,...

The State Department has just reported to Congress that the far left group ‘Code Pink’ is linked to the Chinese Communist Party. This should come as a surprise to no one. Code Pink began making a nuisance of themselves during the presidency of George W. Bush. They portrayed themselves as an anti-war group. Of course, once Obama became president and continued most of Bush’s foreign policy and the wars, they became curiously silent. Some of them were even guests at Obama’s inauguration. Now that Trump, a Republican, is president again, they are back to their old tactics of showing up...

Changes could be coming to longstanding Massachusetts building codes that advocates say would make it much easier to build multifamily housing. Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Thursday establishing an advisory group to explore allowing new residential buildings with a single staircase, which is banned for those taller than three stories under the current building code. The change would make it much cheaper to build mid-sized multifamily projects, encouraging increased production “We’re all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone,” Healey said in a statement. “While the double stair...

Software stocks have been pummeled over artificial intelligence fears in recent weeks.Now, investors can add logistics and freight names to the list of stocks getting sold on worries about AI.Shares of logistics and freight operations companies C.H. Robinson (CHRW) and Universal Logistics (ULH) suffered double-digit losses on Thursday after a little-known Florida company announced a new tool that would scale freight volumes without increasing headcount....snip...Nearly three-quarters of the companies that make up the S&P 500 flagged AI as a material risk in filings, up from just 12% in 2023, according to a study by the Conference Board conducted in October.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Valentine Special Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Pull up a seat and relax. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup or a glass, and start a conversation. You never know...

Mineral gas deposit of 80.70 billion cubic metres has been confirmed at Bhairabi Rural Municipality-1 of Dailekh district. This is confirmed in the final exploration report submitted to the Government of Nepal by the Chinese Company, China Geological Survey. Spokesperson at the Department of Mines and Geology Dharma Raj Khadka stated that the storage data was released after a comprehensive study by the Chinese team. In the preliminary report made public earlier, it was estimated that there could be 1.12 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the area. He said further testing and the final study have proved larger...

Washington — The Senate failed to advance a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, likely paving the way for another partial government shutdown without a last-minute breakthrough.In a 52 to 47 vote, all but one Democrat — Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — opposed moving forward with the bill, which would fund DHS through September. The motion needed 60 votes to succeed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, voted against the motion in a procedural move that allows him to bring it up again....snip...Democrats want to restrict immigration agents from wearing masks, require...

Video Transcript SummaryNearly five years after a horrific sulfuric acid attack on March 17, 2021, in Elmont, Nassau County, New York, police have arrested and charged 29-year-old Terrell Campbell of Brooklyn.The victim, then-21-year-old Hofstra University student Nafiah Ikram (also referred to as Nafia Ekram), was ambushed in her driveway by a hooded assailant who threw acid in her face, causing severe burns to her face and arms, permanent scarring, vision loss in one eye, and ongoing emotional trauma.Campbell, a flower delivery worker and aspiring rapper (known as "Yung Based Prince"), was arraigned on Tuesday (February 10 or 11, 2026, based...

The Environmental Protection Agency repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. It means the agency can no longer regulate them. President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather. Led by a president who refers...

The end of the Trump administration's Minnesota operation comes as immigration hawks have pushed Trump officials to avoid caving to Democratic policy demands. The Trump administration’s decision to end its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis could undermine Democrats’ messaging leverage on the eve of an expected partial government shutdown.By pulling out of Minneapolis — the epicenter of the left’s fight to overhaul federal immigration enforcement after federal agents killed two American citizens — administration officials and allies argue that Democrats will lose political steam as attention gradually fades from the administration’s aggressive enforcement actions.“I know everyone was concerned about ICE’s...