Free Republic

In our latest undercover investigation, we exposed an apparent covert effort inside the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) the non-partisan watchdog Congress created to keep the federal government honest and efficient — to sabotage the Trump administration’s overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services. Steven Putansu, a 16-year veteran and current Assistant Director at the GAO, was recorded on hidden camera openly admitting that his colleagues “stole and backed up” vaccine research data that the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had allegedly deleted. The stated goal: keep the data “outside...

According to waste water testing done by SLO County Public Health, there were 60 positive influenza cases in November in the county, up from 36 in October. The California Department of Public Health says seasonal flu, or influenza, cases are increasing, especially for places like Southern California and the Bay Area.

Damage to a Russian launch site has stopped Moscow from sending people into space for the first time in over six decades, it has been reported. Moscow’s space agency Roscosmos said that Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan had sustained damage during a launch on Thursday carrying Russian and American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). But Russian space bloggers said the damage to Russia’s only launch site for crewed missions was more serious than authorities were claiming. One expert, Vitaly Egorov, said if the damage is as suspected, Moscow will have lost the ability to launch people into space for...

Judge James Boasberg took the next step toward ‘contempt prosecution’ after he revived his criminal contempt inquiry against President Trump over Alien Enemies Act deportations. A federal appeals court recently lifted the hold on Boasberg’s contempt inquiry so the judge is going full steam ahead and harassing Trump Administration officials. In March Boasberg granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the Trump administration from deporting thousands of Venezuelan nationals believed to be members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang under the Alien Enemies Act. In an unsigned order earlier in April, the US Supreme Court on Monday vacated Judge...

Though charged in 2023, Colombian national Michael Nunez Daza was only extradited to the U.S. earlier this year. The Justice Department this week announced Colombian national Michael "Luky" Nunez Daza, the leader of a transnational drug money laundering operation, has been sentenced to 60 months in prison, as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Take Back America.Nunez Daza's sentence follows him pleading guilty in August to one count of money laundering conspiracy in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida, in which he also was sentenced. The department, in announcing the sentence Wednesday, said that it was part...

Airlines around the world canceled and delayed flights heading into the weekend to fix software on a widely used commercial aircraft after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.Airbus said Friday that an examination of the JetBlue incident revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive requiring operators of the A320 to address the issue and said it may cause “short-term disruption” to...

Juan Orlando Hernández was accused of receiving millions in bribes and partnering with cocaine traffickers. He was convicted in Manhattan in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison.President Trump announced on Friday afternoon that he would grant “a Full and Complete Pardon” to a former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who, as the center of a sweeping drug case, was found guilty by an American jury last year of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.The news came as a shock not only to Hondurans, but also to the authorities in the United States who had built...

Perpetuating false definitions of the earliest stages of life mirrors the dehumanization that enabled Nazi experiments on the ‘subhuman.’The 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials is a powerful moment to reflect on the horrors of unchecked human experimentation during World War II. This milestone reminds us of the atrocities that produced the 1947 Nuremberg Code, a cornerstone of medical ethics emphasizing informed consent, minimal risk, and the prohibition of exploiting vulnerable human beings. The code, a voluntary international guideline, prioritizes the physical and mental safety of all human subjects over any “greater good” for society.Yet, as we reflect on this...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained Burna Caroline Ferreria, a Brazilian national and mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, for overstaying a 1999 tourist visa. Held in Louisiana pending deportation, her lawyer says she has no criminal record and shares custody of her son—a claim disputed by a White House source. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Scripps News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested Burna Caroline Ferreria, the mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew. DHS said Ferreria, a Brazilian national, entered the United States on a B-2 tourist visa, which required...

“Woodburn suspended its Flock license plate reader system for at least 60 days after residents raised concerns about federal immigration enforcement access. The City of Woodburn is committed to keeping our community safe while respecting the concerns of our community members," Mayor Frank Lonergan said. "Based on community input, pausing the Flock camera system is a prudent step."

When it comes to talking to Gen Z men the right is beginning to sound a bit like the left: You can’t get ahead. The whole world is stacked against you. You’re the real victim here. Podcaster Ben Shapiro recently said as much at a recent event, when he called out conservatives for inculcating young men with a “nihilistic” worldview rather than giving them the “tough talk” they need. “I think that the right is actually weirdly feminizing young men by giving them a victimology to buy into,” Shapiro said at the Jewish Leadership Conference. “This notion that you, as...

The number has skyrocketed in recent weeks and includes at least 20 judges appointed by Trump himself.The Trump administration’s bid to systematically lock up nearly all immigrants facing deportation proceedings has led to a fierce — and mounting — rejection by courts across the country.That effort, which began with an abrupt policy change by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 8, has led to a tidal wave of emergency lawsuits after ICE’s targets were arrested at workplaces, courthouses or check-ins with immigration officers. Many have lived in the U.S. for years, and sometimes decades, without incident and have been pursuing...

Americans should know we already gave socialism a chance. The only reason we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with lots of food is because the Pilgrims learned (the hard way) that socialism doesn’t work. When they came to America, they first tried sharing land. Gov. William Bradford decreed that each family would get an equal share of food, no matter how much they worked. The results were disastrous. Few Pilgrims worked hard, claiming “weakness and inability,” wrote Bradford. “Much was stolen.” The same plan in Jamestown led to starvation, the death of half the population, even cannibalism. Learning from their mistakes,...

Patel said there will be an FBI report in December that will show some of the latest crime statistics in the country, which will include the national murder rate that is expected to drop by double digits. FBI Director Kash Patel said in an interview airing Saturday that the national murder rate in the United States is at its "lowest in modern history." Patel said there will be an FBI report in December that will show some of the latest crime statistics in the country, which will include the national murder rate that is expected to drop by double digits....

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, two U.S. officials said, in a ​highly unusual absence of the top U.S. diplomat from a key transatlantic gathering. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will ‌represent Washington instead, said one of the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss matters that have not yet been made public. It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the ‌December 3 meeting, and his plans could change. But his likely no-show comes when U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been scrambling to narrow gaps over...

As U.S. military operations continue on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, taking out drug-smuggling boats, the left has been dining out on the absurd claim that the U.S. Navy's targets are nothing more than fishing boats, filled with humble fishermen. . . . I'm not sure why they did this, but the Wall Street Journal decided to interview a few, and well, yes, they are drug dealers.

Thanksgiving weekend ends on Sunday, and still there’s no peace in Ukraine. Donald Trump’s latest attempt to end the war – his 28-point plan – began to fall apart from the moment it mysteriously leaked to various international news outfits last week. As that story landed, Reuters broke some other news: Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, would stand down in January. Kellogg, who represents the more ardently pro-Ukrainian faction of the administration, had clashed repeatedly with Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been engaging in friendly dialogue with Moscow for most of the year. His departure seemed...

President Donald Trump said on Nov. 27 that the United States could eliminate income taxes over the next couple of years due to revenue generated from tariffs. Trump made the remarks during a Thanksgiving call with U.S. service members, saying the tariffs he imposed on foreign nations have generated substantial revenue and pushed companies to build their manufacturing facilities in the United States to avoid tariff costs. “We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars like we’ve never done before. And some of that’s going to go back in a form of a sort of dividend to our people, but...

Ousted Oxford Union president-elect George Abaraonye has issued an apology to the family of Charlie Kirk after celebrating when he was shot. The 20-year-old PPE student at University College, Oxford, sparked outrage in September when he wrote in a WhatsApp group of Union members: 'Charlie Kirk got shot, let's f****** go', and posted a similar message on Instagram.The comments came just months after Abaraonye sat opposite Kirk, one of the most prominent pro-Trump voices in American politics during a heated Oxford Union debate.He now claims his reaction came before the seriousness of the incident became clear.'I had very little context...

The Trump administration is working toward cutting illegal migrants off from federal tax benefits and money transfer services, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday. “At [President Trump’s] direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote on X. As part of the effort, the Treasury Department will propose new regulations “clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the...