Free Republic

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Head, Elon Musk, made a massive revelation while speaking to Lara Trump on her Fox News program, My View. During the segment, Musk explained how over 100,000 federal workers were taking unemployment while still collecting paychecks from the government. For context, DOGE was established during one of Trump’s first executive orders and charged with fighting fraud, waste, and graft in the federal government. Since the department started work, it has had a number of bombshell reports that have electrified conservatives. Such was shown when Elon Musk appeared on Fox alongside Lara Trump on May 2,...

Multiple fires were set by Antifia militants at the University of Washington campus in Seattle on Monday night. A group of black bloc Antifa occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering building and blockaded the doors. The building opened just a few weeks ago and the $100 million price tag was funded by private donors, taxpayers, a federal grant, Amazon, T-Mobile and Boeing. Activists blocked streets with bike racks and dumpsters and set them on fire. Antifa gathered rocks to throw at police. The fires were set around 10:30 pm local time and neither police nor fire fighters were on the scene as...

Gabrielle Wimer’s suspension ‘effectively is an extended vacation,’ one person who spotted her says ... Columbia University medical students accused the Ivy League school of pushing a double standard after a classmate who was suspended following her arrest for storming a Barnard College building returned to campus. The student, Gabrielle Wimer, appears to be on course to graduate later this month. Wimer was one of the four anti-Israel Columbia students arrested for storming Barnard’s Milstein Library in March. The Ivy League university promptly suspended the quartet and restricted them from campus, though officials didn't say how long the punishments would...

Ukraine fired drones at Moscow days before Vladimir Putin was set to host world leaders at a Victory Day parade through the capital. Russia was forced to cancel Second World War anniversary events in occupied Crimea because of security concerns. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has said he cannot guarantee the safety of delegates attending the march through Moscow on Friday, which will be attended by Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. ...It came as Ukrainian forces launched a second incursion into the Russian region of Kursk, breaking across the border and destroying bridges. On Monday Kyiv fired dozens of drones...

Small Reforms to Improve the US Medical SystemThe American system of medical-care delivery has no name. It is neither single payer nor based on private enterprise. It is a patchwork of cockamamie carrots and sticks, agencies and incentives, exceptions and accounting tricks, cajoles and punishments, cobbled together over some 50-100 years of legislation that itself was a product of pressure-group pushes, graft, loopholes, mandates, and subsidies. It’s not even a clean public-private partnership. It’s a public-private-nonprofit-grifter-payola regulatory cacophony of confusion and chaos over which pharmaceutical companies and professional lobbyists exercise the dominant influence. Still it quasi-functions. It hobbles along year...

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) reacted Monday evening to President Donald Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on movies made outside the U.S. by asking for a $7.5 billion tax credit for the industry instead. Trump made the tariff proposal Sunday as a way of shifting Hollywood production back to the U.S., after decades in which the industry sought to cut costs by filming in Canada or even as far away as South Africa. The president’s proposal drew applause from unions that represent “below the line” workers in the film industry, such as the Teamsters, which praised the president for taking American...

Massive airstrikes targeting Houthi-held Sana'a International Airport and al-Dailami airbase in Sana'a Over 15 strikes so far This after the IDF ordered an evacuation of the airport earlier

Latest statistics reveal alarming increase in rapes, reaching 5,206 incidents in 2024, nearly triple the figure reported six years ago ... Spain has seen an alarming rise in sexual violence over recent years, culminating in a record-high number of rapes, which reached 5,206 incidents in 2024, ... With an average of 14 rapes per day across the country, the figure nearly triples the 1,878 cases reported in 2019 when five daily incidents were reported. The upward trend has remained consistent year-over-year since 2018 ... Regional breakdowns show that communities like Catalonia, Madrid, and Andalusia report the highest numbers, although increases...

Germany faces criticism from all directions for its authoritarian actions against the country's largest opposition party ... The German government appears to be seriously preparing for a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party after the country’s powerful domestic spy agency classified the party as “definitely right-wing extremist.” Now, world leaders are reacting to the classification, with Hungarian Prime Minister saying he backs the party and its co-leader Alice Weidel. After the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) gave the AfD its new designation, which paves the way for a ban of the entire party, Orbán asked...

U.S. President Donald Trump will sit down with newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney in Washington, DC, on Tuesday for the first meeting between the two since the Canadian’s election win. They’ll have a lot to talk about. The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader and former central bank governor pledged during the Canadian election campaign Trump would “never break” Canada, vowing Ottawa would look to forge new trading alliances with its southern neighbor even as he added the “special relationship” with the U.S. is “over.”

Germany's conservative leader Friedrich Merz narrowly lost a vote in the Bundestag to become the next chancellor in an unexpected setback that plunges Europe's largest economy into political uncertainty. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which finished second in the most recent election, demanded fresh elections after Merz's loss, the first time in German history that a chancellor-designate has failed to win in the first round of voting.

Germany’s Friedrich Merz has failed to win an initial parliamentary vote that would have confirmed his ascension to chancellor, an unprecedented and unexpected twist that extends political uncertainty for the country. Merz, who won an election in February and unveiled a ruling coalition last month, fell six short in a vote on Tuesday by lawmakers that had been expected to be a formality. He is expected to eventually find a path to power, but the result pitches Germany into yet more political chaos. February’s vote started a weeks-long period of politicking and negotiating, during which the country’s establishment was buffeted...

Taliban took in $3.4 billion in revenue over past year, boosting cash supply in wake of Biden admin's Afghan withdrawal ... The Taliban took in $3.4 billion in revenue over the last year, boosting its cash supply by 14 percent amid the return of Afghanistan as a central safe haven for terrorist organizations across the Middle East, according to a U.S. government watchdog group. The repercussions of the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to reverberate across the war-torn country, with multiple al Qaeda affiliates accessing American-supplied "weapons seized from the former Afghan National Army," according to...

A platoon commander who participated in the October 7th Massacre and was in charge of holding several Israeli hostages, as well as a Hamas sniper array commander, were photographed surrendering to IDF soldiers in Rafah.

As pharmacy deserts crop up across western Washington, a large chain is biting the dust. Rite Aid CEO Matthew Schroeder briefed employees Monday that all stores would either close or be sold as the company files for bankruptcy,.. The media outlet stated funding from investors fell short, and the company faced a series of economic issues, including tariffs, more expensive supply costs, pricier landlords, and what Schroeder called a “dramatic downturn in the economy.” According to the court filing, as posted on Kroll, to support Rite Aid during bankruptcy, the company secured commitments from lenders to access nearly $2 billion...

President Donald Trump is right to believe that Iran is in a historically vulnerable position right now. The Assad regime is kaput. Hezbollah’s effectiveness has been dramatically reduced since Oct. 7. Hama is living underground among the rubble of Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian students at the University of Washington occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building Monday evening, renaming it the Shaban al-Dalou Building, in protest against the university's ties to Boeing. A separate group dressed in all black stacked furniture to create a blockade in front of the building before toppling dumpsters to block off nearby Jefferson Road, then confronted a security officer until he drove away.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told business leaders Monday the private sector needs to be part of the solution to increase funding for local roads. Whitmer made the pitch at the annual Governor’s Luncheon staged by the Macomb County Chamber, held this year at The Palazzo Grande in Shelby Township, attended by about 430 people, including a plethora of Macomb County politicians and business leaders. While Whitmer noted the celebratory mood in the county over securing a new fighter-jet mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base last week, she brought up a renewed focus in the state to increase funding for local...

A Lewis and Clark statue featuring Sacagawea (also spelled Sacajawea), a famous Native American woman, was taken down in Charlottesville, Virginia, making it the third statue to be taken down in the city. The statue is of two White men – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – and Sacagawea, who was depicted tracking, according to historians. Those against the statue have said Sacagawea appears to be cowering, according to The Daily Progress newspaper. “It was a very offensive statue, and not only did it delineate me as a Native American, it delineated our women and their role in society,” said...

Why not? I'm all for incentives set toward beneficial outcomes. And cost-savings, too .... assuming they materialize. Throughout the last presidential campaign, as well as in 2016, Donald Trump promised a massive exodus of illegal aliens from the US. In both campaigns, Trump promised to focus on expelling more dangerous criminals first, but claimed that enforcement would prompt many to "self-deport." That seems to be working now more than in the first term, not to mention the near-complete shutdown of new border crossings in larger scale. However, Trump's efforts at accelerated deportations have run afoul of the federal judiciary, threatening...