Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Pentagon, attempting to overturn new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that have led to most mainstream media outlets being banished from the building. The newspaper said the rules violate the Constitution’s freedom of speech and due process provisions, since they give Hegseth the power to determine on his own whether a reporter should be banned. Outlets such as the Times walked out of the Pentagon rather than agree to the rules as a condition for getting a press credential. During her briefing Tuesday, Pentagon...

The New York Times sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday over the Pentagon's new policy that requires media outlets to pledge not to gather information unless defense officials formally authorize its release. That policy, unveiled in September, includes a ban on credentialed journalists reporting even unclassified material that isn't expressly approved for public consumption by Defense Department brass. The Times said the Pentagon policy represents an attempt to force reporters to rely solely upon officials for news involving the military and would unlawfully permit their punishment for failing to do so. The Times — and NPR — are among...

FOX News has identified the man reports say was arrested by the FBI in connection with pipe bombs planted in Washington, D.C., the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as Brian Cole. FOX says Cole was living in Virginia at the time of his arrest on Thursday morning. FOX 5 has confirmed that he was a resident of Woodbridge. No other details were immediately available, including possible charges.

A federal judge on Dec. 2 ordered the Trump administration to stop making warrantless immigration arrests in the District of Columbia without probable cause. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the plaintiffs made a strong case that immigration officers have been arresting immigrants without warrants or conducting assessments to determine if each individual poses a flight risk. Federal law states that an officer can arrest an immigrant without a warrant “if he has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law...

An Oregon attorney accused of relying' on the totally plausible — and often totally erroneous — output of so-called artificial intelligence was slapped with a fine by the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday.The appellate court determined that Portland civil attorney Gabriel A. Watson filed briefs citing two made-up cases and used a fabricated quote that was attributed to a real piece of case law.In a first for Oregon, the Courts of Appeals ordered Watson to pay $2,000 to the state judicial department, charging him $500 for each baloney citation and $1,000 for the bogus quote.

The federal offices are back open and hundreds of thousands of federal workers have returned to work after the longest shutdown in history. But nothing is back to normal — federal workers say morale and trust in leadership are at an all-time low, tensions are high between furloughed staff and those who worked through the shutdown, schedules are slipping and projects are being pushed back, and more people are accelerating their retirement plans or leaving federal service altogether. The recent shutdown, however, has just exacerbated the existing problems and added to what federal workers described as an already extremely trying...

hen Vladimir Putin declared this week that Russia was ‘ready’ to fight a war in Europe, the remark barely seems to have rippled the surface of Britain’s political consciousness. It should have sent a shockwave...Yet Britain continues to behave as though danger is tidily scheduled for years in the future, safely beyond the horizon of any present responsibility. It is a comforting delusion, but a very dangerous one. Britain cannot lead Europe if it cannot defend itselfWhat Putin understands – and what Britain refuses to face – is that Europe is vulnerable in ways that matter more than tanks or...

Desperate to replace money that she had allegedly stolen from three friends by lying to them and saying she had bought plane tickets for their daughters to travel with her to Florida, a 47-year-old woman went to the Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates to find a vulnerable victim, which ended up being a 66-year-old retired nurse, prosecutors said during closing arguments of her trial Wednesday, Dec. 3. Cherie Lynnettee Townsend is charged with murder in the May 3, 2018 stabbing death of Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes, who was found bloodied and with 17 stab wounds,...

Hostility toward the US president is somewhat lower in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and PortugalPARIS, December 4. /TASS/. Almost one in two EU citizens surveyed perceive US President Donald Trump as "Europe’s enemy," according to the results of a poll of 9,500 residents in nine EU countries conducted in late November and published in the French magazine Le Grand Continent. "According to the latest figures, Trump is largely perceived as Europe’s enemy. On average, 48% of EU citizens surveyed see him this way, while 10% consider him a friend [of Europe] and 40% view him as ‘neither friend nor foe,’"...

Overshadowed by the recent revelations in the Epstein files, the 62nd anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination came and went with little notice. Yet new documents relating to that still-unsolved murder—released only recently by the Trump administration—deserve far more scrutiny than they have received from corporate media. From the moment the latest batch of disclosures emerged this past March, the Democratic Party and their allies in corporate media assumed their familiar role as CIA stenographers, either overlooking—or outright refusing to look at—what more than 60,000 documents revealed. At an April 1 House hearing, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)—illustrating the Democratic...

DEDHAM, Mass. (WPRI) — A Nativity display at a church in Dedham, Massachusetts, is sparking a debate.The display outside Saint Susanna Parish now features a sign that reads “ICE was here” instead of the figures of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.Below it, another message claims “the holy family is safe in our church” and instructs people to call a number if they see immigration agents.

State Senator Lea Webb, who represents Tompkins, Cortland, and much of Broome County, is facing foreclosure on her Binghamton-area home, according to recent court documents. The Ithaca Voice reports attorneys for PHH Mortgage Corporation, a New Jersey-based lender, filed a civil suit against Webb in federal district court on October 22 over missed mortgage payments. Court filings indicate that as of June 2025, Webb was in default for $7,760, roughly equivalent to three months of payments. Webb purchased the four-bedroom home in Johnson City last December for $380,000, according to county records. The property is listed on Broome County tax...

Jailed teacher Enoch Burke will not be released for Christmas like he has been in the past, a High Court judge said on Wednesday. Mr Justice Brian Cregan also said he did not intend to release him for Easter and he did not understand why he was released in the past during his previous four jailings for contempt. Others in prison for contempt were not treated like this and let out even though they fail to purge their contempt, he said. The judge gave Mr Burke a review date of March 3rd, but in the meantime he has liberty to...

When the publishers of this children’s book are aghast that it’s being used to push hilarious reactions to liberal insanity, you know you’ve hit a home run. Enter ‘Franklin the Turtle,’ a Canadian children’s book series that has become a social media sensation, as good patriots have turned it into many memes mocking liberal policies. The use of Photoshop and AI is elite. I’m sorry—they’re all hilarious. I can’t post all of them because, well, I would get in trouble, but you could imagine. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s post showing the turtle blowing up narco-terrorists was total cinema. It...

For two decades, Muhammad Abdulrahman, 58, lived with his wife and his beehives on a remote hillside in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But in May, Israeli settlers set up camp about 200 yards away and took control of the road leading to Mr. Abdulrahman’s home, blocking him from returning, he said. Israeli soldiers then evicted him and his wife, Suha Abdulrahman, the couple said. The Israeli military said that Mr. Abdulrahman left voluntarily, but he said that he has still been unable to return home. Last month, a video shared by an Israeli lawmaker on social media showed his house...

Newsom readies a presidential run while presiding over a state buckling under sky-high costs, mass exodus, and crumbling basics—leaving little to brag about beyond attacking Trump. As California Governor Gavin Newsom gears up to run for president, what in the world will he run on? Californians know that Newsom will not boast, “I will do for America what I have done to California!” Why not? Count the reasons. California’s astronomical gas prices and taxes remain the highest in the continental U.S. Ditto the state’s trifecta of the highest electricity rates, the costliest home prices, and the fourth-highest home insurance costs....

OpenAI must produce millions of anonymized chat logs from ChatGPT users in its high-stakes copyright dispute with the New York Times (NYT.N), and other news outlets, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona Wang in a decision made public on Wednesday said, that the 20 million logs were relevant to the outlets' claims and that handing them over would not risk violating users' privacy. The judge rejected OpenAI's privacy-related objections to an earlier order requiring the artificial intelligence startup to submit the records as evidence. "There are multiple layers of protection in this case precisely because of...

Federal authorities made their first arrest Thursday in connection with two pipe bombs that were planted outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The arrest marks a major step forward in a case that has vexed the FBI for nearly five years. Both pipe bombs were placed outside DNC and RNC headquarters on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, federal investigators have said. The devices — made out of 1x8-inch pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder —...

An Orange County man is facing felony charges after he allegedly broke probation by tying a pregnant dog to an SUV and driving until it died, according to prosecutors. Eric Lyn Holliday, 58 of Buena Park, was charged with one count of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a hard drug with two or more prior convictions, as well as violating probation. In a news release, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said there's a "special place in hell for people who abuse animals."

Several Democratic senators and one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, filed a war powers resolution to prevent the United States from using its armed forces to engage in hostilities with Venezuela without congressional approval. The resolution was filed by Paul and Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Va., Adam Schiff, Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y. It directs President Donald Trump to stop using the military “unless specifically authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force,” according to The Hill.