Free Republic

The European Commission transferred more than 500 million euros to mass migration catalyst organizations Save the Children, Development Alternatives Incorporated, Catholic Relief Services, and Mercy Corps between 2021 and 2024, according to a response to a recent inquiry filed by AfD MEP Petr Bystron.For decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been darlings of the American Deep State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).In 2024, the aforementioned NGOs received $1.7 billion from the U.S. government alone. After President Donald Trump decapitated USAID, many NGOs are now struggling to survive (see here, here, here, and here).“Why does the EU finance American...

A former Cook County judge who stole large sums of money from an elderly friend who served as a Tuskegee Airman received a probationary sentence on Friday. Patricia Martin, 66, received four years of probation after pleading guilty to theft of $100,000 to $500,000, according to court records. The judge also ordered her to pay $122,763.73 in restitution and comply with standard probation conditions that include random drug testing. Martin once served as presiding judge of the Child Protection Division and retired in 2020. Prosecutors initially accused her of stealing nearly $250,000 from then-95-year-old Oscar Wilkerson, a longtime friend whose...

It was a clear attempt to project Russian power. Hours before meeting U.S. officials in Moscow this past week about their plan to end the war, President Vladimir V. Putin claimed that Russia’s forces had seized the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after a monthslong fight. The reality was murkier. Slivers of the city were still contested, according to battlefield maps and the Ukrainian military. But Mr. Putin’s claim, even if premature, reflected a trend shaping his unbending approach to negotiations: Russian forces are on the march. “The Russians do have the upper hand,” said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst...

U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that Republican-led states redraw their congressional maps to help his party retain control of Congress in next year's midterm elections has triggered a national battle over redistricting, with the eventual winner still unclear. The fight began when Republicans in Texas, the most populous Republican state, approved a rare mid-decade new congressional map aimed at flipping five House seats now occupied by Democrats. California, the most populous Democratic state, soon responded by initiating its own redistricting effort targeting five Republican-held districts. Other states, both Republican and Democratic, have followed suit or threatened to do so. Republicans...

President Donald Trump has fired his latest warning at Indiana state Senate Republicans seeking to work with Democrats in obstructing redistricting plans passed by the Indiana House on Friday. "Why would a REAL Republican vote against this when the Dems have been doing it for years???" Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social. "If they stupidly say no, vote them out of Office – They are not worthy – And I will be there to help! "Thank you Indiana!" Trump's post followed a Friday night post hailing Republicans in the Indiana House for moving the redistricting plan forward ahead of a...

Santa Barbara’s longtime Milpas Street Holiday Parade will not take place this year after organizers said many Eastside families and participants expressed fear about attending a large public event due to concerns of potential immigration-enforcement activity in the region. The Santa Barbara Eastside Society announced the decision Tuesday, saying it came “after many weeks of listening” to families, volunteers, local leaders and immigrant-rights partners who described a heightened sense of vulnerability.

They are not coming. They are already here. Across the United States, Islamic arbitration bodies quietly handle hundreds of family law cases each year — marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance — behind closed doors, with no transcripts, no appeals and no public oversight. All-male panels apply traditional Shariah rules to 21st-century American women and children. The Islamic Tribunal of Dallas was founded in 2014 as a “volunteer mediation service.” By 2024, it was deciding roughly 300 cases annually in mosque back rooms and law offices. The panel of three or four male scholars, trained at institutions such as Al-Azhar and Omdurman,...

Many of you haven't heard what Afghanistan is like, and it shows. snip InfantryDort, one of the largest veteran accounts on X, decided to use the moment to share, in detail, what things American troops saw when they were in Afghanistan to help Americans understand, perhaps once and for all, that not all cultures, practices, and beliefs are equal.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren blasted Netflix's planned acquisition of Warner Bros. and HBO on Friday, saying the deal "looks like an anti-monopoly nightmare." Warner Bros. Discovery announced Friday it has agreed to sell its streaming and studios assets to Netflix in a deal valued at $82.7 billion, setting the stage for one of the most sweeping and consequential mergers in modern Hollywood history. "A Netflix-Warner Bros. would create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market — threatening to force Americans into higher subscription prices and fewer choices over what and how they...

Legal conservatives find themselves in an unusual position: originalism has reached unprecedented acceptance within the judiciary and the bar. A majority of Supreme Court justices—including at least one appointed by a Democratic president—identify as originalists, or at least strive toward originalism. Guided by the original understanding of those who ratified the Constitution and the Reconstruction Amendments, the High Court has overruled Roe v. Wade, ended the use of race in higher education, and recognized the individual right to own firearms. But some find these successes disorienting. Originalism’s victories have triggered an important debate among conservatives. Some wonder if originalism is...

Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands announced their withdrawals Thursday from next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided that Israel will be allowed to compete. Organizers of the pop music spectacle, which draws millions of viewers globally, met earlier Thursday to discuss Israel’s participation, amid calls for the country to be excluded over the war in Gaza and threats from some members to boycott. An independent United Nations inquiry concluded in September that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s top leaders have incited genocide. The Israeli government has maintained it is conducting the...

A suspect has been charged in the Friday stabbing on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to police. Oscar Solarzano, 33, has been charged with five counts including attempted first degree murder, assault with deadly weapon serious injury and carrying concealed weapon, according to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. The male victim was found with a stab wound just before 5 p.m. near North Brevard Street and East 22nd Street, where the train appeared to have stopped between stations, Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC reported. The victim was transported to Novant Health Presbyterian with serious injuries but is...

“ A man in a bulletproof vest with a firearm was detained on Friday night after police said he appeared to be following a congressman along a Christmas parade route. The unidentified man was detained and questioned by officers after exhibiting concerning behavior at the Stuart parade, according to the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Congressman Brian Mast attended the parade, and his personnel alerted the sheriff's department and Stuart Police to the man's 'alarming behavior.'”

With its officials facing personal liability for violating "clearly established" rights, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine throws in the towel while still falsely claiming COVID vaccines can stop infection and transmission. A year and a half after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals knocked down the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine's original and revised COVID-19 vaccine mandates for discriminating against students and employees seeking religious exemptions, the school has paid an "historic" settlement to the 18 plaintiffs, their lawyers said this week. The $10.3 million settlement in damages, tuition, and attorney’s fees is one of...

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you'll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden's assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021....

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved Boeing’s long-planned acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems two decades after it was spun off, according to The Seattle Times. The decision was issued on Wednesday and allows the $4.7 billion all-stock merger to proceed under conditions designed to preserve competition in both the commercial and defense aviation sectors. In a July 2024 news release, Boeing emphasized that the transaction is intended to improve manufacturing consistency and support the company’s engineering workforce. Boeing’s total assumption of Spirit’s debt brings the transaction value to about $8.3 billion. In its complaint released earlier this month, the FTC...

The numbers out of Minnesota are staggering: Three separate plots to bilk welfare programs. Fifty-nine federal convictions. More than $1 billion stolen from taxpayers. Of 86 people charged so far, all but eight are of Somali descent. The scandal has seized headlines and put Gov. Tim Walz, seeking a third term, on the defensive. It’s huge, brazen and entangled with the seamy politics of migration and assimilation. President Trump has weighed in with characteristic subtlety: “We don’t want them in our country,” he said of Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar and “her friends” during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “Let them go back...

Free days at the U.S. National Parks have been changed to no longer include Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, just weeks after the Trump administration announced it would be raising fees for visitors who are not American citizens or permanent residents. June 14, which is both Flag Day and President Trump's birthday, will be included, according to a list shared by the NPS. Previously, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth were deemed fee-free days by the Biden administration. Most of the free days are patriotic in nature, including Presidents' Day (February 16), Memorial Day (May 25), Independence...

The reason is that free speech on X, particularly around mass migration, has exposed Europe’s civilizational suicide. Today, the European Commission fined Elon Musk’s X €140 million for, it says, breaking laws requiring social media transparency. Specifically, said the Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union, X broke the law by making its blue checkmarks available to anyone, failing to make its advertising repository transparent, and failing to provide researchers with special access to its data. “Today’s decision has nothing to do with content moderation,” insisted the Commission’s spokesperson. In truth, the Commission’s fine has everything to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the arrest of a man charged with placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties on Jan. 5, 2021, the warning from the Trump administration was clear: If you come to the nation’s capital to attack citizens and institutions of democracy, you will be held accountable. Yet Justice Department leaders who announced the arrest were silent about the violence that had taken place when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and clashed with police one day after those bombs were discovered. It was the latest example of the...