Free Republic

Heavily armed police officers rammed a car to arrest at least five people in Sydney, Australia. They were seen detaining several men following the collision. At least five men were pulled from the crashed vehicle in Liverpool before multiple arrests were made. Images from the scene showed the men lying on the red and footpath with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. The New South Wales (NSW) confirmed the operation in a brief statement, saying there was no ongoing threat to public safety. “A police operation is underway on George Street, Liverpool”, the statement reads. “There is no ongoing risk...

The US has approved a package of arms sales to Taiwan worth up to $11 billion — one of its biggest ever — a move that will likely draw a sharp response from Beijing. The approvals announced late Wednesday by the State Department cover a broad range of equipment, including missiles, drones and artillery systems aimed at strengthening the democracy’s defenses. The package includes a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, valued at up to $4.05 billion, as well as self-propelled howitzers worth about

Anthony Albanese has announced a significant expansion of Australia’s hate speech laws following the deadly terrorist attack on Sydney’s Jewish community at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Speaking after a meeting of the National Security Committee, the Australian prime minister outlined a suite of legislative and policy changes aimed at lowering the threshold for prosecuting hate speech, particularly targeting religious preachers and organisational leaders who incite violence or racial hatred. The reforms come amid mounting criticism that the government failed to act decisively as antisemitism surged in Australia after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent ground...

The Navy and tech firm Palantir have announced an initial $448 million contract that will see the tech company proliferate its artificial intelligence tools throughout several public and private shipyards, as well as individual suppliers, with the hope of boosting nuclear submarine production. ... Towards the end of the event, he took the stage with Palantir chief Alex Karp to jointly announce the new initiative, dubbed ShipOS or Shipbuilding Operating System, which Phelan characterized as “the most ambitious integration of artificial intelligence into naval construction, maintenance and repair and history.” “We’re deploying an AI-powered shipbuilding operating system across the maritime...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump was a bigger threat to the American way of life than radical Islamic jihad. Schultz brought up the president when NewsNation host Leland Vittert asked her on “On Balance” whether she believed that Islamophobia or jihad was a bigger threat to American life and values after a deadly attack against Australian Jews Sunday. “I think we have to focus, quite frankly, on, if we’re worried about the threat to American values, on the person who’s in the White House. I mean, we have a president …,” Schultz began. Vittert...

The criticisms against Sec. of War Pete Hegseth are “entirely political,” and anyone could have said the same things about “the Obama and Biden administration—and much more egregiously.” Hegseth has turned the U.S. military around in ways no one thought was possible, like getting the military back to meeting all of its recruiting quotas, explains Hanson during today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” Recruitment under the Biden administration fell “some 40 to 50,000 recruits,” and former Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon used excuses like “people are out of shape, in gangs, using drugs, etc.”

BREAKING: The U.S. Senate has just officially confirmed Jared Isaacman as the new head of NASA. At just 42 years old, he now becomes the youngest person in history to lead the agency. Congrats @rookisaacman! To the Moon and Mars!🚀

On a near-party-line vote, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would put a referendum before voters on adding specific abortion rights language to the state constitution. The bill — and the more than two hours of floor remarks that accompanied its passage — capped off 2025 for the state legislature, with neither the House nor Senate expected to take votes until January. Wednesday’s action was a fitting end for another year of divided government between the state’s Democratic-majority House and Republican-majority Senate, featuring a lengthy debate over an emotional issue that will almost certainly go...

“A world-renowned MIT nuclear science professor who was murdered in his home may have been assassinated by an Iranian operative, Israeli officials said. Married father-of-three Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was gunned down in the leafy Boston suburb of Brookline at 8.30pm on Monday by an unknown shooter who is still on the loose. Loureiro specialized in nuclear science, engineering and physics and he had previously spoken out in favor of Israel, a mortal enemy of Iran. Now, Israeli officials have said Iranian operatives targeted the leading nuclear fusion researcher, according to the Jerusalem Post.”

A Kentucky congressman responded to Andy Beshear Tuesday, days after Kentucky's governor blamed him for sweeping layoffs at an electric vehicle battery plant in his district. BlueOval SK said roughly 1,500 people at its Glendale plant would be laid off as Ford takes sole ownership of the facility after a partnership with a South Korean company fell through. Last week Beshear said U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Republican who represents Kentucky’s second congressional district, was partially to blame for any job losses due to his support for President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill." Beshear said Guthrie made no changes to...

What I hate about virtue signaling is the fact that it’s easy to do and costs the speaker nothing, at least not at first, but payment is required. Those who foot the bill are usually those who put the virtue signaler in a position to act on the charade, but that’s the “at best” aspect. At worst, innocent people are often those who suffer the most.Case in point, my colleague Rusty Weiss reported on the recent reaction from Australians to the ISIS-inspired shooting that happened in Sydney. Brace your jaw so it doesn’t smash into the floor after it cracks...

Dozens more migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats as the total number of people making the dangerous journey this year passes 40,100. There were 74 arrivals in one boat recorded by the Home Office on Tuesday, December 16. It means that in 2025 so far 40,155 people have made the perilous crossing. The last time more than 40,000 migrants crossed the Channel was in 2022 when 45,755 were recorded arriving in the UK. The total for 2023 was 29,347, while 36,816 crossed last year. It comes after 732 people came to Britain in 11 small boats on Saturday...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Deck The Halls!!! Captain Ken Collins conducts the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters for the concert. Several of the ensembles within the Navy Band perform a show together at the end of the year to celebrate the holidays. (U.S. Navy Photo by Musician 1st Class Seth S. Johnson) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Deviled Eggs!! Yummy! Deviled eggs sit on party platters in the Crosswinds Dining Facility at Nellis...

House Republicans passed a bill they say will lower healthcare costs for a broad swath of Americans by roughly 11%. It's a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been managing deep divisions within the House GOP on the topic of healthcare as insurance premiums are set to spike across the country in a matter of weeks. One glaring issue that remains unresolved is Obamacare subsidies, which were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic but are set to expire at the end of this year. The legislation passed 216 to 211. Just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against...

With most European leaders talking tougher about immigration amid a rise in far-right populism and Trump administration warnings that they could face “civilizational erasure” unless they tighten their borders, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stands apart. The Iberian nation has taken in millions of people from Latin America and Africa in recent years, and the leftist Sánchez regularly extols the financial and social benefits that immigrants who legally come to Spain bring to the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy. Spain’s choice, Sánchez often says, is between “being an open and prosperous country or a closed and poor one.” His words stand in...

On January 14, Charles Foehner will begin serving a four-year prison sentence. Yes, New Yorkers, we can finally rest easy. We got him. And by him, I mean a 67-year-old man who poses no danger to society.Foehner is a retired doorman with the gift of gab, a devoted wife, and a habit of saying “groovy.” He spends his time watching naval history videos on YouTube.While there are many violent criminals with rap sheets the length of a CVS receipt walking our streets, Queens DA Melinda Katz decided to throw the book at this senior citizen, after he pleaded guilty to...

European Union leaders begin two days of talks in Brussels with a momentous decision to be taken on whether to loan tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to fund its military and economic needs. Most of Russia's €210bn (£185bn; $245bn) worth of assets in the EU are held by Belgium-based organisation Euroclear, and so far Belgium and some other members of the bloc have said they are opposed to using the cash. Without a boost in funding, Ukraine's finances are set to run dry in a matter of months. One European government official described being...

Oops, they did it again.The White House decision to cooperate with Vanity Fair, giving the magazine exclusive access to top Trump administration figures, is one more example of what happens when you let the legacy media pretend that this time, it’s changed. That its editors won’t screw you over, its reporters won’t put the worst possible spin on your remarks, its photographers won’t dream of using Photoshop to highlight your every blemish for social-media snipers to spread far and wide.Why, oh why, does every Republican administration fall in love with the idea of trying to win over the people who...

Nearly 30 years ago I wrote a short article for the Human Rights Defender about the ‘right’ to own guns. In those days there wasn’t much to say. Even in the gun-crazy United States of America (USA), the courts had consistently ruled that the vaunted Second Amendment to the Constitution was no obstacle to regulation of firearms; its power was psychological and political, rather than legal. My article was prompted by the emergence of rights rhetoric from the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), part of the Australian pro-gun lobby, which had formed an alliance with the US National Rifle...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army played a role in causing the collision last January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation’s capital, killing 67 people. The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the Army helicopter pilots’ “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and...