Free Republic

New reports allege that millions of taxpayer dollars have been fraudulently stolen from the Minnesota welfare system and then sent to the Somali-based terror group Al-Shabaab... It details how, over the past few months, the then-acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson, was investigating several different cases of fraud in the state. Thompson called it a “crisis.”....What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away..." Just...

PLANO, Texas - Two North Texas men have been indicted for an alleged scheme to sail to a foreign island, murder all the men, and enslave the women and children. The men planned and trained for nearly a year, legal documents say, in an elaborate attempt to fulfill their "rape fantasies." International murder and kidnapping charges The indictment: Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, of Allen, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of Argyle, have been indicted by a grand jury on counts of conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography. The charges were given...

If you don't have a Real ID the next time you fly, it could cost you. The Transportation Security Administration has proposed a rule that would charge travelers who lack a Real ID an $18 fee at security checkpoints, according to a notice published Thursday in the Federal Register. "This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance, which was signed into law more than 20 years ago and finally implemented by Secretary Noem as of May 2025," a TSA spokesperson told CBS News, noting that the agency would soon provide additional guidance.... The TSA...

Countries enforcing race or gender diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies will now be at risk of the Trump administration deeming them as infringing on human rights. The State Department is issuing the new rules to all US embassies and consulates involved in compiling its annual report on global human rights abuses. The new instructions also deem countries that subsidise abortion or facilitate mass migration as infringing on human rights.... The changes reflect a major shift in Washington's established focus on global human rights protection, and signal the expansion into foreign policy...

The US State Department will focus on “natural rights” like freedom of speech in its next human rights report, a senior State Department official said Thursday, as the Trump administration targets traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions. The move further institutionalizes changes seen in the latest report released in August, which covered the 2024 calendar year. That report alleged “significant human rights issues” in allied countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany over “serious restrictions on freedom of expression.” The State Department instructed all embassies and consulates in a diplomatic cable Thursday to begin preparing the...

GE Appliances announced more than 150 million dollars in new contracts for U.S. based suppliers as part of its decision to shift key washer and dryer production from China to its massive Appliance Park complex in Louisville, Kentucky. The new contracts range from 330,000 dollars to 41 million dollars each and cover critical inputs for clothes care production. According to the company, the supplier categories include plastics, castings, steel, aluminum and other core materials required to build its new lineup of washer and dryer units. GE Appliances said the move increases its domestic supplier spending by 3.3 percent. What Products...

Don't call it the "great replacement," because that would be horrifically racist and show you to be a white supremacist Nazi who should, of course, be shot in the street by a transgender furry pro-Hamas "diversity is our strength" and "be kind" warrior. But, since I am a hermit who spends all his time in front of a keyboard, and too old to care about being called names, I will risk the furry's wrath and point out the obvious. The whole point of the mass migration being forced on us is to replace the current citizenry and especially the culture...

I don't spend a tremendous amount of time on social media or listening to people's podcasts, but I have noticed over the past few weeks that there are now people who seem pretty convinced that the "official story" about what happened to Charlie Kirk is some kind of artificial narrative designed to conceal a much darker truth. The darker truth, according to people like Candace Owens, is that Kirk was assassinated by some combination of US government and foreign entities for reasons that aren't entirely clear but which may have to do with his feelings about something related to foreign...

When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.

Socialist Zohran Mamdani is now the mayor-elect of New York City. Unfortunately for the city, they're about to find out what a bad decision they made. Mamdani recently interviewed with PIX11 News’ politics managing editor and anchor Dan Mannarino, where he was asked about his plan for "free" buses and how he would pay for them. He was asked where he was going to get the $700 million that he would need for the plan if New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) was not for raising taxes. Q: “How are you getting the $700M to make the buses free if...

In recent days, prolonged water cuts across Tehran have created widespread panic among the Iranian capital’s 10 million residents. Last week, after years of drought and reduced rainfall and snowfall, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran’s residents would have to ration water—and eventually evacuate the capital—if there was no rain by late November. They’ve had years of warning, but Iran’s rulers have done nothing to resolve an increasingly existential water crisis. A few experts have been warning about the impending doom for decades. Most Tehranis, insulated from the hardships long faced by poorer, peripheral provinces, are only now feeling...

About 20 miles from Gaza, the United States has taken over a large and long-vacated industrial complex, where it has set up a civil-military coordination center. At any given time, approximately 200 American soldiers and officials are milling about in the facility in Kiryat Gat, a town in southern Israel. They are the United States’ eyes and ears, monitoring the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. It’s clear that they are not meant to be deployed as a combat team to enforce the next stages of the Trump administration’s peace plan. But neither is anyone else. None of the United...

“In an interview on the Shawn Ryan Show, Brian Harpole, Charlie Kirk’s head of security, publicly revealed text messages with Utah Valley University Police Chief Jeff Long in which they discussed the rooftop vulnerabilities and the chief vowed, “I got you covered.” The exchange took place in the days leading up to Kirk’s September 10 speaking event at UVU, where the Turning Point USA founder was fatally shot by a gunman who is said to have fired from a rooftop position.”

President Trump has always defied the laws of political gravity, seemingly impervious to setbacks that would sink any other figure and immune from the traditional ebb and flow of campaign cycles. But his capitulation in the fight over releasing the Epstein files, and other recent developments, suggest that, when it comes to Congress, the president is subject to at least some of the same currents as his predecessors, as the first signs of his lame duck status emerge. The willingness of congressional Republicans to defy Mr. Trump and back legislation requiring the disclosure of federal files on Jeffrey Epstein, the...

FRANKLIN PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- It's been about a week since Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and his team left the Chicago area. But immigration operations still continue in the area as two people were detained by U.S. Department of Homeland Security federal agents in Franklin Park. A family in Franklin Park spent the afternoon fixing the front door which federal agents knocked down Thursday morning while executing an arrest warrant for a man in his 60s. The family says that man and his wife were both taken into DHS custody for allegedly living in the country illegally. The granddaughter...

The left sees that she might be useful in their war to bring down TrumpIt is always interesting to see who the American left claims are the leaders of the American right. There was a time during President Trump’s first term when Steve Bannon fit the role – and relished playing it. Back then most days brought another media profile of the dark genius of the MAGA movement. The Guardian, New York Times and others were obsessed. Vanity Fair would send reporters to follow Bannon as he conquered America and, er, Europe. Documentary crews were perennially in tow. Indeed one...

In what federal officials are calling the largest methamphetamine seizure in Colorado history, a grand jury has indicted 15 individuals – one of whom is accused of leading a drug trafficking organization and now faces a rare “drug kingpin” charge. On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado announced the results of a massive drug bust involving federal wiretaps, extensive surveillance, and undercover operations that led federal officials to seize over 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine. Fifteen people were indicted in connection with the operation: Marco Antonio De Silva Lara, Sergio Ivan Arce Lopez, Juan Luis Cabrera Saucedo, Luis...

Washington (AFP) – In a sharp change, the United States said Thursday that its signature human rights report would start tracking countries that support gender changes for children and diversity and equity programs. Specifically, the report will ask US embassies to report on countries that allow "chemical or surgical mutilation of children in operations that attempt to modify their sex." Rubio also asked embassies to track "enforcement of policies like affirmative action of diversity, equity and inclusion that 'provide preferential treatment' to workers on the basis of race, sex or caste." The issues reflect top priorities for Trump since he...

The Trump White House is working to fix the affordability crisis, making “significant progress” in this area after Americans suffered under Bidenflation for years, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed out during Thursday’s press briefing.Leavitt pointed to the blockbuster September jobs report, which showed the addition of 119,000 jobs – more than doubling the forecast of 50,000 jobs.“These gains came after the summer passage of President Trump’s historic tax cuts and multiple big trade deals with countries around the world,” Leavitt said. “In particular, construction jobs surged by 19,000 in September, the largest monthly gain in a year.”She also...

From 10 December, social media companies will have to take "reasonable steps" to ensure that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts on their platforms and that existing accounts are deactivated or removed. The government says the ban - a world-first policy popular with many parents - is aimed at reducing the "pressures and risks" children can be exposed to on social media, which come from "design features that encourage them to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing". A study commissioned by the government earlier this year said 96%...