Free Republic

One of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisers has recommended that the Defense Department cut ties with Scouting America, known for decades as the Boy Scouts, saying it is too “woke” to support, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.Tami Radabaugh, the deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for strategic engagement and a direct adviser to Hegseth, has been lobbying other senior officials to suspend the Pentagon’s decades-old relationship with the group, including arguing that when Hegseth was a host on Fox News, he decried Scouting America as an organization that had "lost what they stand for," the...

A U.S. district judge has allowed the CIA to proceed with firing its top physician, who had previously sought a restraining order against the agency, Politico reported. Last week, the CIA dismissed Dr. Terry Adirim, who had served in a top medical role in the Department of Defense and was known in conservative circles as being the "architect" of the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for military service members. In 2024, Adirim was recruited by the CIA to serve as director of the agency's Center for Global Health Services. Her hiring evoked the ire of Ivan Raiklin, a former Green...

A James Bond-esque mission to recover highly sensitive secret files held in safes aboard the sunken super-yacht Bayesian was reportedly carried out by UK intelligence service MI6 before Italian divers could get to them. The top secret documents related to yacht owner Mike Lynch’s Darktrace cybersecurity company, which has contracts with UK, US and Israeli intelligence agencies, ... ... Sources close to the Italian investigation claimed British MI6 agents removed sensitive computer equipment and data belonging to Lynch — one of seven people killed in the sea tragedy last August — from the shipwreck, before the Italian authorities started to...

Long before she was a Fox News host who pushed pro-Trump election conspiracy theories, Jeanine Pirro was an ambitious New York politician whose career stalled after she was recorded plotting to bug her then-husband’s boat to catch him in an affair. The revelation rocked Pirro’s campaign for New York attorney general nearly 20 years ago, resulting in days of front-page headlines in the city’s tabloids (“BUG THIS LOVE BOAT!” blared the Daily News cover). The conversation took place in 2005 between Pirro and the former commissioner of the New York Police Department, Bernard Kerik, a close ally of Rudy Giuliani’s....

The United States Department of Defense has recognized College of the Ozarks as a Top Performer for its exemplary dedication to honoring Vietnam Veterans. This prestigious recognition places the College among the top 15 percent of Commemorative Partners across the nation, a testament to its unwavering commitment to showing gratitude for the sacrifices of those who served.As a proud Commemorative Partner of the U.S.A. Vietnam War Commemoration, College of the Ozarks actively participates in a nationwide initiative to thank and honor over four million Vietnam Veterans and their families. Through this collaboration, the College’s efforts help ensure that the legacy...

President Trump’s opponents sought to tie him to Project 2025, which he disavowed.During his first months in office, his policy agenda largely aligned with the conservative playbook.Whether Project 2025 was President Trump’s plan for his second presidency was a big point of contention during the presidential campaign.His opponents in the race — first President Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris — aggressively tried to tie him to the Heritage Foundation’s unpopular conservative playbook, which was unveiled in 2023. Trump vociferously denied it was his plan, and the White House still does.Now, several months into Trump’s second term, what is...

Igloo is expanding a recall of more than 1.2 million of its coolers after reports of nearly 80 injuries since the initial recall was announced in February 2025, including 26 resulting in fingertip amputations, bone fractures or lacerations. The Igloo 90 Qt. Flip & Tow Rolling Coolers have a tow handle that can pinch users’ fingertips against the product, posing potential amputation and other crushing risks, according to the recall notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This column is about the assault of girls and women. It’s also about a criminal justice system that hits and misses. If federal sentencing guidelines had been followed, you probably would not be reading today about Linwood Barnhill Jr., a convicted sex offender who dirtied his D.C. police badge when he enticed two teenage girls into the prostitution racket that he operated out of his Southeast Washington apartment in 2013. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended nine to 12 years for the counts of pandering of a minor for prostitution and possession of child pornography that he pleaded guilty to. Barnhill, however,...

At least 44 of the government contracts canceled on the orders of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have been resurrected by federal agencies, wiping out more than $220 million of his group’s purported savings, according to a New York Times analysis of federal spending data. But Mr. Musk’s group continues to list 43 of those contracts as “terminations” on its website, which it calls the “Wall of Receipts.” The group even added some of them days or weeks after they had been resurrected. The result was another in a series of data errors on the website that made the group seem...

A federal judge in Vermont on Friday released a Turkish Tufts University student detained in a Louisiana immigration center more than six weeks after she was arrested while walking along a street in a Boston suburb, allowing her to return to her studies. U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she’s been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Details of her release and travel plans were not immediately available, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

What's the latest federal agency drawing the scrutiny of the Trump administration for inefficiency, expense, and administrative bloat? It's the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a federal bureaucracy long infamous for intruding into Americans' lives and making it more difficult and expensive to do business. The EPA's own administrator, Lee Zeldin, says the agency is overdue for reform. If he's open to suggestions, people who have been working on the problem for years have good ideas to offer. "Under the previous administration, EPA's buildings stood largely empty, with headquarters attendance peaking at just over one-third occupancy as the record high attendance...

SummaryUS Catholic church faces divisions over immigration, climate change and cultural issuesPope Leo faces early pushback from some conservative political leadersSome experts believe Leo could ultimately be a uniting forceMay 9 (Reuters) - As Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass as pontiff at the Sistine Chapel on Friday, he spoke a few words in English. It was a reminder - if anyone needed one - that a baseball fan who hails from Chicago was now leader of the Roman Catholic Church.For American Catholics, the elevation of Robert Prevost to the papacy was a shock, a cause for celebration and...

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth and final part in a series of investigative reports on the African Development Foundation, which gained notoriety for resisting a review by the Department of Government Efficiency. Check out part one, part two, and part three. A small, USAID-like federal agency called the African Development Foundation refused to hire white people, and treated white employees who did slip through so poorly that one soiled herself because she was afraid to leave her desk to use the bathroom, employees told The Daily Wire. The agency violated so many rules and laws that its general counsel...

Europe threw its support on Friday behind a special tribunal to prosecute President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, a show of unity on a day when Moscow marks its "victory day". At a meeting in Ukraine's western city of Lviv, ministers from almost 20 European nations gave their political sign-off to the tribunal, welcoming the completion of the technical work required to set it up. The tribunal will be set up within the framework of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog that was formed after World War...

The Rebecca Bennett campaign tells Fox News Digital the criticism shows she is a 'threat' to win the seat.. A Democrat running for Congress in New Jersey who has been positioning herself as a moderate to unseat the sitting Republican in a pro-Trump district, has deleted several social media posts promoting progressive candidates and causes. Democrat Rebecca Bennett, who is running in the Democratic primary to unseat GOP Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, is a Navy veteran and current member of the Air National Guard who has been labeled by local media as a "moderate"...

Brown University has cracked down on the Brown Spectator, a right-leaning student newspaper, hitting the paper with charges of trademark violations just weeks after a Spectator board member created a website exposing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officials. Associate Dean Kirsten Wolfe charged the Spectator with "violating Brown's 'Name Use, Trademark, and Licensing Policy' for having the word 'Brown' in the name of our independent non-profit and our website domain," Brown sophomore Alex Shieh, a reporter and board member for the Spectator, told Fox News on Thursday. On Wednesday, the board members sat for a disciplinary hearing over the charges....

At least six of the Columbia students arrested for storming a Columbia University library on Wednesday are repeat offenders, including one student who demanded humanitarian aid from university, a Washington Free Beacon review found. They had already been arrested and disciplined for their involvement in earlier campus building raids or in last spring's encampments. Of the 81 total arrests, at least 44 are Columbia students, while at least 13 attend the university’s sister school, Barnard College. Also arrested was one Barnard faculty member, Eva-Quenby Johnson, as well as two students at another Columbia affiliate, Union Theological Seminary. The masked mob...

Without mentioning his name, liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor took a veiled shot at President Trump on Thursday evening. During remarks at an event for the American Bar Association in DC, Sotomayor told lawyers in attendance to stand up and fight against unprecedented attacks. “Our job is to stand up for people who can’t do it themselves. And our job is to be the champion of lost causes,” Sotomayor said referring to Trump’s executive actions against Deep State law firms. “But right now, we can’t lose the battles we are facing. And we need trained and passionate and committed...

WASHINGTON — Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News exclusively that the government of Iran has told him that the Iranians have agreed they do not want a nuclear weapon. Witkoff, who made the explosive revelation in an exclusive long-form on-camera interview with Breitbart News on Thursday at the White House, is leading negotiations for President Donald Trump with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Witkoff is expected to meet with the Iranians, possibly as soon as this weekend, for a fourth round of talks in Oman, after two previous discussions in Iran and another in...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said a 10% baseline tariff will remain in place after a trade deal that was announced with the United Kingdom on Thursday. "The president is committed to the 10% baseline tariff, not just for the United Kingdom, but for his trade negotiations with all other countries as well," Leavitt said at a Friday press briefing at the White House. "The president is determined to continue with that 10% baseline tariff. I just spoke to him about it earlier." The agreement between the U.K. and the U.S. will open the British market to American beef,...