Free Republic

Concerns came to a head during the pandemic, when carjackings surged and many of those arrested were children. Carjackings and other crimes have declined considerably.The arrest of two 15-year-olds after a government worker was attacked last week on a Washington, D.C., street was going to attract attention in a city where violent crimes committed by young people have long gripped the public consciousness.But the man who was assaulted in what he said was an attempted carjacking was not just any government worker — he was a high-profile Trump administration employee. And in the days that followed, the president lashed out,...

After the great rebuke of 2024, many Democrats seem to think their party needs to become more moderate. But there’s another theory potent on the American left that believes Donald Trump’s election shows not just that American democracy is in danger, but that it doesn’t really work at all. What the country needs isn’t just a new policy agenda; it might need the kind of constitutional revolution — from adding new states, to packing the Supreme Court — that some Democrats already flirted with under Joe Biden. That’s the kind of argument that my guest today, Osita Nwanevu, makes in...

Luismar Liendo and Edwin Perez arrived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in January. They are political dissidents from Venezuela. They were granted refugee status by the U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the Refugee Admissions Program and cut off federal funds for nonprofit groups helping refugees. World Relief had expected each refugee to receive $1,325 for the first 90 days. Dive Deeper: Luismar Liendo and Edwin Perez, a married couple from Venezuela, experienced a shocking change in climate when they arrived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, facing temperatures much colder than they were used to. Having been granted refugee status in the U.S.,...

Recent comments by America’s Director of National Intelligence have reignited calls for the United States government to reveal what it knows about the UFO phenomenon. Asked whether she had discovered anything relating to UFOs during a recent podcast with News Corp journalist Miranda Devine, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard provided a hint about her own views on the topic. “Nothing that I'm prepared to talk about today… I'm just going to say this: yeah, we're continuing to look for the truth and share that truth with the American people,” she said. Pressed on whether she thought aliens were responsible...

By ordering 800 National Guard troops to Washington, on the pretext of an illusory crime wave, President Trump has further dragged the U.S. military into domestic law enforcement, in a move credibly perceived as an ominous “test case.” This continues what the administration started in California in June as part of the its deportation efforts. Unfortunately, though we (and others) had hoped that the military would only respond to calls to action in American cities and states kicking and screaming, we no longer expect resistance from that institution. Once, perhaps, traditionalist officers might have leaned on protocol and refused to...

***Kabul is running dry, withered by scarcer rainfalls and snow melts and drained by unregulated wells. It has become so dry that its six million people could be without water by 2030 — and are now fighting about it. Its water reserves are emptying nearly twice as quickly as they are getting replenished. The Taliban administration, short of cash, has so far been unable to bring water from nearby dams and rivers to the choking city. *** Kabul, surrounded by snowy mountains and crossed by three rivers, had never been known as a dry city. But while its population has...

President Trump on Wednesday suggested that he was powerless to control President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ahead of a planned meeting on Friday in Alaska, saying he could not convince the Russians to stop killing Ukrainian civilians or hacking American court records. Mr. Trump did warn of “severe consequences” if Mr. Putin did not agree to abandon his grueling invasion of Ukraine during their discussion, scheduled to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. But Mr. Trump was dismissive when asked to address matters of national security and the horrors of war, raising questions about whether he has...

JD Vance, the vice president, sat down with Nigel Farage, a longtime supporter of President Trump whose party, Reform U.K., is leading in British polls.Vice President JD Vance began his family vacation in England last Friday with a lightning round of carp fishing. He hasn’t slowed down since, taking part in conference calls about Ukraine, huddling with Britain’s foreign minister, David Lammy, and meeting fellow right-wing political figures.On Wednesday morning, it was the turn of Nigel Farage, the leader of the insurgent, anti-immigrant party Reform U.K. He sat down with Mr. Vance, according to an official familiar with the vice...

While the world pushes false claims of Gaza starvation, the truth is far more disturbing—and far more ignored. In this critical episode of MidEast & Beyond, Amir Tsarfati and Pastor Barry Stagner unpack breaking developments across Israel’s war fronts: the end of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, the possible complete siege of Gaza City, Hezbollah’s weakening grip on Lebanon, the looming Israeli operation in Yemen, and the manufactured famine narrative exploited by global media. From fake humanitarian photo ops to spiritual deception on a worldwide scale, this is a wake-up call to the Church and the world.

The graffiti appeared hours after The New York Times issued an editor’s note amending its July 24 article, “Gazans are dying of starvation.” Five days after publication, the Times acknowledged that its story referenced a Gazan boy, Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, suffering from severe malnutrition, but later learned from his doctor and medical records that the child also had pre-existing health conditions. The editor’s note underscored that the article had been updated to reflect these new details.

The change comes just two months into the former Republican congressman’s tenure leading the tax agency.President Trump is removing Billy Long from his job leading the Internal Revenue Service just two months after he was confirmed as commissioner, according to four people familiar with the matter. Mr. Long, a former Republican congressman and staunch ally of Mr. Trump, is expected to be nominated to an ambassadorship, the people said. It is unclear who will next lead the I.R.S., which has had six different people in charge this year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner until a permanent...

Columbia University agitator and terror fanboy Mahmoud Khalil just let the truth slip: The “pro-Palestine” movement believes Hamas was justified and right to commit the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities, to forestall a “very imminent” Saudi-Israeli peace deal. SNIP The savage Oct. 7 attacks, Khalil told The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, were just a “desperate attempt” to “break the cycle.” What “cycle”? The one where Israel was making peace with Arab states. But, whined Khalil, Israel and Saudi Arabia were about to normalize relations “as if Palestinians are not part of the equation,” and “unfortunately . . . we couldn’t...

As New Yorkers mourned the victims of a mass shooting last week in a midtown Manhattan office building, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, inserted himself into the discourse. His comments concerned a photo taken Thursday of Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, sitting on a folding chair inside a mosque, next to Mayor Eric Adams. To her left, men in kurtas and police uniforms kneel on a carpeted floor. Hochul wears a dark pantsuit, a somber expression and, on her head, a black scarf looped over her hair. After an anonymous social media user posted the photo and asked...

Indian officials said on Saturday that they would keep purchasing cheap oil from Russia despite a threat of penalties from President Trump, the latest twist in an issue that New Delhi thought it had settled. The defiance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government reflected increasing frustration with a relationship that was once much praised but has been souring rapidly. There is a growing sense in India that its leaders should not allow increasingly volatile American policymaking to shape its choices on vital energy supplies for its huge population, 1.4 billion people. Mr. Trump said last week that as part of...

NEW DELHI, Aug 2 (Reuters) - India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of penalties, two Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday, not wishing to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. On top of a new 25% tariff on India's exports to the U.S., Trump indicated in a Truth Social post last month that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil. On Friday, Trump told reporters he had heard that India would no longer be buying oil from Russia.But the sources said there would be...

India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of penalties, two Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday, not wishing to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. On top of a new 25% tariff on India's exports to the U.S., Trump indicated in a Truth Social post last month that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil. On Friday, Trump told reporters he had heard that India would no longer be buying oil from Russia. But the sources said there would be no immediate changes. "These are...

President Trump plans to build a $200 million ballroom off the East Wing “long before” the end of his term in 2029.Experts on historic preservation are raising concerns over the feasibility of President Trump’s plans to complete large-scale renovations to the White House by the end of his term, and whether the project can be done while respecting the historic nature of the building.Mr. Trump unveiled plans on Thursday to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot state ballroom off the East Wing to be completed “long before” the end of his term in 2029. The project would be one of the...

How many times can one newspaper screw up a story?Predictably, the New York Times pooh-poohed the release of the classified annex to the Durham report. Charlie Savage wrote:Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and other Trump allies have declared that a newly declassified report on the Russia investigation provides “evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.” The reality is almost precisely the opposite… The report shows that a purported email that Trump supporters have long tried to portray as a smoking gun is instead most likely a fake. Russian spies appear to...

The recently published New York Times list of “The 100 Best Films of the 21st Century” is that paper’s most significant cultural diktat since the 1619 Project, and it’s equally fallacious. Compiled from votes by more than 500 influential filmmakers, actors, and other film-industry “professionals,” these Times rankings pretend to reflect the films that have left a significant artistic, cultural, or emotional impact since January 1, 2000.

Hours after data showed cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump implied that Erika McEntarfer manipulated the data for political reasons. Hours after disappointing jobs data reflected cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump said Friday that he planned to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, and implied on social media that she had manipulated the monthly data for political reasons. According to the data released early Friday, U.S. employers added 73,000 jobs in July, less than economists expected, and the unemployment rate rose slightly. The report on also significantly revised down the data on...