Free Republic

Today, Israel stands as an oasis of democracy in a Middle East where dozens of its neighbors are Islamic states or still practice monarchy. It is a cruel irony that, in a world of 46 majority-Muslim nations, the presence of a single majority-Jewish nation is seen by many of Israel’s neighbors as one too many. Thirty-one countries still refuse to recognize Israel on their maps. Some of those would love nothing less than to see Israel wiped off the map altogether. And yet Israel persists. Thanks to Israel’s courage and the decisive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities by the United...

The upbeat, Spanish music still floats through the aisles of Sav/Way Foods, the Latino supermarket in the heart of the bustling and boisterous Plaza Midwood neighborhood. But at 8:30 on a chilly morning this week, the songs on the loudspeakers are about all the Spanish you hear. “It’s been really, really slow,” says employee Bella Duran as a half-dozen shoppers silently mill about the store. “A lot of our customers have been scared to come out.” Some patrons now afraid to leave their homes are taking Sav/Way up on its offer of free home delivery. Inside the store, rows of...

Everyone should play by the same rules. That’s the basic idea of fairness most Americans understand. When it befits them, the federal government loves to hold people accountable to its rules, but the feds hate it when they’re forced to obey state law. This is especially true in the case of water rights, where the US Government would see itself as some legally exempt land baron over the state governments. This is why Paul Nettleton, Tim Lowry, Don Pickett, and the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation—represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation—stood up and said enough is enough. Case Background Twenty years...

Students and teachers have been kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school in a terrifying raid amid spiraling attacks on Christians. Armed gangsters stole the children from St. Mary's School in Agwara, in central Nigeria, officials said Friday - the second kidnapping incident in less than a week. Local residents fear that close to 100 students and staff were taken away in the early-morning assault. It comes after 25 schoolgirls were stolen by bandits in the country's northwest on Monday. Donald Trump has threatened military action over the targeted killings of Nigeria's Christians by radical Islamists. The narrative is rejected by...

The United States has threatened to cut intelligence sharing and weapons supplies for Ukraine to press it into agreeing to the framework of a U.S.-brokered peace deal, two people familiar with the matter said. Washington has presented Ukraine with a 28-point plan, which endorses some of Russia's principal demands in the war, including that Kyiv cede additional territory, curb the size of its military and be barred from joining NATO. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Kyiv was under greater pressure from Washington than during any previous peace discussions, and that the U.S. wanted Ukraine to sign...

In the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani’s election victory earlier this month, it became clear that socialism is more of a rising threat on the left than ever before. It’s also clear the GOP could no longer coast along by proclaiming “Vote for us because he’s a socialist,” assuming that people would forever have a knee-jerk reaction to that word. One issue that defined New York’s mayoral race – and, increasingly, politics throughout the country – is affordability. For millions of Americans, being able to afford rent, grocery bills, health care, and buying a home seems further out of reach than...

Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Thursday that he will run for California governor, the latest Democrat to join the crowded race to succeed outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. Swalwell, who has served in Congress since 2013, will face a list of high-profile Democrats that includes former Rep. Katie Porter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and activist billionaire Tom Steyer, who entered the race to lead the deep-blue state on Wednesday. Swalwell announced his gubernatorial run on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" On his new campaign website, the California Democrat focused on the need to...

A small group of women known as some of the fiercest MAGA stalwarts in the House have led the way in pushing back against President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on some of the most high-profile issues of recent months — many involving the victimization of women. These lawmakers have been on an island apart from their colleagues as they’ve called for the Department of Justice to release files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and supported a resolution to censure a fellow Republican accused of sexual misconduct. “I think we ran out of patience a...

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.”