Free Republic

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wasn't expecting this!

Elon Musk criticized Bill Gates for his past association with the late convicted sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, following Gates’ condemnation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Gates had claimed that the proposed government reductions could lead to “millions of deaths,” prompting Musk’s pointed response. Gates continued, arguing that DOGE was endangering children worldwide by slashing USAID, as it is the United States’ foreign aid apparatus. However, the Microsoft co-founder refrained from addressing complaints regarding how many Americans do not believe that U.S. taxpayers should “pick up the check” when it comes to other foreign nations’ problems. “The...

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has alleged that staffers in Joe Biden’s administration engaged in a “cash for clemency” scheme, using an autopen to issue pardons in exchange for financial payoffs. An autopen is a device that mechanically reproduces signatures. On Tuesday, Rep. Burchett appeared on “The Benny Johnson Show” and stated, “You are gonna find staffers that were able to take forms, get them and run them through some sort of bogus legal system, then they auto-penned them.” Burchett said he believes there was a pay-for-pardon scheme happening, and pointed to a historical scandal involving former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton,...

"Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own," wrote Pope Leo XIII, in his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, laying down the basics of Catholic social teaching. The plans of contemporary socialists to seize private property, Leo XIII denounced as "emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community." The last Pope Leo's defense of private property adds no small amount of irony to the small Chicago suburb of Dolton, Illinois' plan to honor the new American-born Pope Leo XIV by seizing...

President Donald Trump’s meeting Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa began cordially — but when Ramaphosa protested against claims of “genocide,” Trump turned on a video. The video showed radical leader Julius Malema and other black political figures addressing rallies, chanting slogans such as “Kill the farmer!” and “Shoot to kill!” The video also showed threats to seize white-owned farmland, and a large memorial to murdered farmers featuring over a thousand crosses along a roadside. Ramaphosa had begun by avoiding the issue, saying instead that he wanted to focus on trade, investment, and efforts to promote peace around the...

An Ohio high school discovered that a proclaimed 17-year-old Venezuelan migrant student is actually a 24-year-old illegal immigrant, authorities say. Police in Perrysburg, Ohio, arrested Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra on Monday for identity fraud, according to a police report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Police say Labrador Sierra ... falsely posed as a minor and successfully enrolled himself in a local high school for more than a year before an investigation uncovered his actual identity. Labrador Sierra approached Perrysburg Schools in November 2023 and requested to be enrolled as a student, according to police. The Venezuelan national told...

America is at a crossroads: Will we cave to the radical left’s vision for our nation, where men win trophies in women’s sports and our border is wide open for illegal aliens, or do we stand with President Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again through America First policies? I know where I stand, and I’m running for Senate to fight for the future of our nation where taxpayers, not criminals and foreign governments, are put first. The stench of the Biden-Harris administration’s lawlessness and economic devastation still lingers in the air today. President Trump inherited a mess...

As President Donald Trump attempts to muscle his GOP agenda through a narrow House majority, Rep. Chip Roy is perhaps the most important holdout to win over. He may also be the toughest. Speaker Mike Johnson and his team have been confident they can pass Trump’s massive reconciliation bill, because they don’t believe any Republican will want to stand in the way and face Trump’s wrath. But Roy, the unapologetic fiscal hawk, is the rare GOP lawmaker willing to publicly challenge the president. He has already survived multiple calls by his own party to oust him — including from Trump...

Foreign leaders have learned that there is a nearly fail-safe strategy to surviving an Oval Office visit: show up ready to make deals and lather praise on President Donald Trump. But that may not work for South Africa’s president. Cyril Ramaphosa could be in for a tongue-lashing on Wednesday when he meets the U.S. president. His country is the rare partner on the world stage that has managed to anger nearly every faction of Trump’s party – from the MAGA acolytes fixated on South Africa’s racial politics to more traditional Republicans who believe it has chosen the wrong side in...

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is a generational chance to protect Medicaid for Americans by removing at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program.Read more in Breitbart:“House Republicans are moving to block an estimated 1.4 million illegal aliens from receiving American taxpayer-funded Medicaid as Democrats struggle to message their support for the unpopular position.The House Energy and Commerce Committee completed its markup of its portion of the budget reconciliation bill Wednesday morning after an all-night session which included a provision blocking anyone unable to verify citizenship, nationality, or satisfactory immigration status from coverage.The committee projects 1.4 million illegal aliens...

President Trump is having press conference meeting with South Africa President.. Trump has been presenting evidence of white genocide and calls for killings of white farmers to the S.A. president, and S.A. president has been denying knowledge or involvement of calls for violence against whites....

In stark contrast to the previous administration's DEI-ladened grant programs and priorities, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Tuesday her three priorities for grants are focusing on literacy, school choice, and states’ freedom. McMahon’s “first three proposed priorities” for the U.S. Department of Education discretionary grants include “evidence-based literacy, expanding education choice, and returning education to the states,” according to a news release. “These will be used in grant competitions across the Department to address the urgent needs of our students, families, and states,” the release said. The Department of Education did not immediately respond to The Center Square’s...

Delaware Democrat Gov. Matt Meyer signed a bill on Tuesday legalizing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients given six months or less to live. Meyers claimed the measure, called the End-of-Life Options Act, is about “compassion, dignity, and respect for personal choice.” The bill, which will take effect next year, allows those patients to request a prescription to self-administer and end their lives, Fox News Digital reported. “We’re acknowledging today that even in the last moments of life, compassion matters,” Meyer said at the bill signing. “Every Delawarean should have the right to face their final chapter with peace, dignity,...

A wicked Obama judge is so determined to force the Trump Administration to keep the worst possible illegal aliens in America that he is willing to criminally sanction officials who violate his outrageous order. And Team Trump is rightfully furious. As The New York Times reported, U.S District Court Judge Brian Murphy, an Obama appointee, ordered Trump administration officials to maintain custody of illegal aliens on a deportation flight that the invaders’ lawyers said was headed to South Sudan. Murphy claimed the move likely violated an injunction he issued in April. “Based on what I have been told,” he said,...

Venezuela released U.S. Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair on Tuesday in a bid to ease tensions with the United States. St. Clair, 33, boarded a private chartered flight in Antigua and Barbuda and arrived in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Richard Grenell, the U.S. envoy for special missions, oversaw the handoff between Venezuelan and U.S. authorities. Nine other Americans remain in Venezuelan custody. St. Clair and eight of the remaining prisoners were declared wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department on March 3. The ninth is expected to be designated wrongfully detained soon, WSJ...

On Sky News's "Lefties Losing It" program, host Rita Panihi plays a video of Katie Couric interviewing Jake Tapper where Tapper says Hunter was essentially acting as Chief-of-Staff. Fast forward to the 6:14 mark v=phfszGHsL4c&pp=0gcJCY0JAYcqIYzv link

UnitedHealth shares fell more than 6% on Wednesday after the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that the company made secret payments to nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers, adding to the woes of the healthcare conglomerate. The alleged action, part of a series of cost-cutting tactics, has saved the company millions, but at times risked residents’ health, the Guardian reported, citing an investigation. The allegations add to the litany of negatives that have hurt UnitedHealth in the last several months, following a massive cyberattack at its Change Healthcare unit, reports of criminal and civil investigations into the company’s practices, including one...

Top federal health officials actively took steps to “delay warning the public” for months in 2021 about the potential risks of heart-related complications from receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines... Starting in February 2021, federal health agencies had been alerted to “large reports of myocarditis” in young people who received the Pfizer vaccine, but waited until late June that year to adjust the vaccine labels to make that side effect known. On Feb. 28, 2021, an Israeli Ministry of Health official attempted to contact the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about 40 cases of myocarditis and other heart-related ailments in...

Between the Biden administration’s years-long cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline and likely concealment of his advanced prostate cancer, the Democratic Party has a bit of a PR problem right now, and it may get even worse. While Biden’s inner circle apparently saw no issue with a mentally diminished, terminally ill man controlling nuclear codes, the Clintons are back in the spotlight thanks to explosive revelations from Buzz Patterson, a former senior military aide in the Clinton White House who carried the nuclear football for Bill Clinton. In a post on X, Patterson revealed another major Clinton scandal, this time...

Key Points Target missed first-quarter revenue estimates as transactions fell, and the retailer cut its full-year sales outlook. The company has been struggling to return to growth for years, and created a new office to try to accelerate its turnaround. Target in part blamed falling consumer sentiment, uncertainty about tariffs, and backlash to its rollback of key diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for its performance.