Free Republic

Nickolay Mladenov, the head diplomat in charge of the Board of Peace's subcommittee on the Gaza ceasefire, stressed on Friday that all armed groups in the Gaza Strip must disarm. Mladenov was responding on social media to a post by Aaron Goren, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who wondered why Mladenov refused to respond to a question on whether reports that Hamas will only be partially disarmed as part of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan are accurate. “I've made it very clear that all militants in Gaza need to be disarmed and there is...

The Times Guild Bargaining Committee sent staffers a newsletter on Tuesday detailing the latest labor negotiations. The Guild said it made a "big push to end the two-tier system The New York Times created and perpetuates by wrongly excluding jobs and workers from the Times Guild" and received a revised proposal from the company to end all hybrid work guarantees on March 1, 2027. "At that point, they would have the right to require us to work in the office five days a week and to eliminate our contractually guaranteed three weeks of remote work per year. As we saw...

Republican officials and candidates in Texas have shifted their rhetorical attack lines from the border fears that dominated recent elections to the state’s growing Muslim population, with language that echoes the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric has unnerved many in the state’s Islamic community while sending signals to Republicans outside Texas who might be searching for rhetorical targets now that the nation’s southwestern border has grown quiet. Ads for Senator John Cornyn of Texas have touted his fight against “radical Islam.” Texas Republican lawmakers created a “Sharia-Free America Caucus” in Congress....

Apparently The New York Times has snowflakes for brains as it struggled to find the climate change link in the blistering cold that has gripped the Eastern Seaboard. Times reporter Eric Niiler ran a ridiculous February 7 piece of propaganda disguised as news that was laced with a complete lack of self-awareness: The headline? “What’s Up With This Big Freeze? Some Scientists See Climate Change Link.” Niiler floated the possibility that “A warming Arctic can stretch the polar vortex, a high-altitude air ribbon, one says. The ‘wobble’ can disrupt the jet stream, causing extreme cold in the East.” At least...

Turns out even a broken clock can get it right twice a day. The New York Times just plastered their front-page with an exposé connecting the sadistic Jeffrey Epstein empire with the politically radioactive Clintons. Following the release of long-awaited files pertaining to the Epstein case by the Department of Justice, Times investigative reporter Danny Hakim took a detour away from his employer’s never-ending Trump bashing to draft a February 8 story that’s sure to make liberal heads spin: “Epstein Files Reveal Scope of Ghislaine Maxwell’s Role in Clinton Circle.” What made this even more impression was it is something...

The state can require federal agents to display identification, the judge said. The Trump administration had asked the court to block both laws, which were designed to help identify federal agents. A federal judge on Monday said that California could not prohibit federal law enforcement agents from wearing face masks unless it amended the law to also apply to state agents. But the judge did allow the state to require federal agents to display identification. Judge Christina A. Snyder of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against the mask ban, ruling that California’s new law...

It’s known as “Don Colossus.” At 15 feet tall, the statue of President Trump, mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a two-story building — a giant effigy cast in bronze and finished with a thick layer of gold leaf. For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent. Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT....

Jeannine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, on Monday threatened jail time for anyone who enters the capital with a gun. In remarks on Fox News that could deepen a growing rift between gun owners and the Trump administration, Ms. Pirro declared that if anyone brings “a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail. I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.” Her remarks prompted swift pushback from the Republican Party’s pro-Second Amendment wing, which was thrown...

At a Spanish port 50 miles northwest of Gibraltar, four Turkish Navy ships, including a brand-new amphibious assault ship that doubles as an aircraft carrier, were set to arrive Friday to take part in NATO military exercises. Heavy winds had delayed the Turkish vessels, but once they dock at the Spanish Navy port, they will form a fleet with Spanish ships, sail around the continent and rendezvous with French, German, Polish and Dutch vessels. They will then travel to Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, bringing tanks, landing craft, helicopters, drones and troops from southern Europe to northern Germany. About 10,000 troops...

The ‘nothing ever happens’ people seem to be, sadly, correct about Iran thus far, although one hopes that the brutal Islamic Republic might still be overthrown. It’s hard to know what to think, and at times like this we all turn to the experts to give their analysis of what might happen and what might follow. Foreign policy expertise is hard work, because it requires both a specific knowledge of the national culture and the relative strength of personalities. Because there are so many factors involved, analysts frequently get things completely wrong, the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles being the notorious...

Vocal Trump supporters are demonizing Renee Good, her partner and their allies, with some even using an acronym: AWFUL, or Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. In the days since a federal agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, Republican officials and conservative commentators have called the 37-year-old white woman “very violent,” a “deranged lunatic woman” and a “domestic terrorist.” Some right-wing influencers have latched onto a different word — or rather an acronym: Ms. Good, they have said, was AWFUL. “An AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal) is dead after running her car into an ICE agent who opened fire on...

For a year, Wall Street’s dominant theme has been the so-called K-shaped economy, in which the well-to-do have powered financial activity despite lower earners’ struggles. This week, the nation’s largest banks reported a broadly disappointing set of quarterly earnings, the first stumble after a yearlong spree of rising markets and softening regulations paid off handsomely for the finance set. Results at Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all fell short of expectations, and their shares fell. Troubles ranged from delayed merger deals (JPMorgan) to stubborn expenses (Citi) to questions about the efficacy of artificial intelligence tools (Bank...

Black female professionals have seen a steep drop in employment over the last year. They are turning to each other for pep talks and résumé advice.When Nneka Obiekwe started a WhatsApp group chat in September, she was just trying to help her out-of-work friends. A consultant and skilled networker, Ms. Obiekwe, 37, is the kind of person friends turn to when they are looking for a referral or connection to a hiring manager. But since March, she had been receiving pleas every few weeks. By autumn, her network was tapped out. Most of the people reaching out were, like Ms....

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, The New York Times reported on Sunday evening, citing officials briefed on the matter. The probe is eyeing “the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project,” the Times reported, citing those officials. The investigation is being overseen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, according to the newspaper. That office is led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a former New York state prosecutor and Fox News host, who was appointed to...

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Steven Spielberg had a private meeting on Monday at the director’s Central Park West apartment, per The New York Times. The Times reported on the pair’s pre-dinner meeting on Thursday, which was confirmed by City Hall and Terry Press, Spielberg’s spokeswoman. Press additionally told the outlet Mamdani and Spielberg agreed to keep their meeting private, while Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, declined to comment, aside from sharing that he returned to work after the events. Knowledgable sources tell The Hollywood Reporter the meeting was not initiated by Mamdani or Spielberg but...

President Trump again threatened on Friday to forcibly annex Greenland, saying that he was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.” In a White House event discussing his plans to have American companies exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves under the threat of a military blockade, Mr. Trump advanced an imperialist vision of American foreign policy, where the U.S. must dominate strategically important neighboring countries because of the perceived possibility that rival powers might do so first. “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland,” Mr. Trump said, falsely suggesting that Greenland,...

The Justice Department has backed off a dubious claim about President Nicolás Maduro that the Trump administration promoted last year in laying the groundwork to remove him from power in Venezuela: accusing him of leading a drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles. That claim traces back to a 2020 grand jury indictment of Mr. Maduro drafted by the Justice Department. In July 2025, copying language from it, the Treasury Department designated Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. In November, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and President Trump’s national security adviser, ordered the State Department to do...

Several beauty trends for conservative women have emerged this year, some with a certain underlying level of humor—from the so-called Mar-a-Lago face to the "conservative girl" makeup. What all these trends have in common under the umbrella of MAGA beauty is an emphasis on hyperfeminine attire—sky-high stilettos, fitting skirts, bouncy hair, full-coverage makeup, and conspicuous plastic surgery. Greene said that while she had not previously spoken up against these trends, she disliked them. “I believe how women in leadership present themselves sends a message to younger women,” she told The New York Times. In an interview with The New York...

Every year, New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof ends the year providing a useful and compelling summary of good news from the past year to counteract the general journalistic theme of bad news dominating the headlines. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kristof refused to offer that annual summary this year. His reactionary political ethic regarding the President of the United States prevented this work. In his own words: "I’ve done these “best year ever” columns annually, irritating Eeyores. But now I just can’t. The year 2025 was a setback for humanity -- and unfortunately, the United States is a reason for the retreat.”...

Interview James Bradley: Domino Theory and media lies for imperialist wars, from Vietnam to Venezuela Finian Cunningham December 25, 2025 © Photo: Public domain Best-selling American author James Bradley talks about his latest book, Precious Freedom. Join us on Telegram, Twitter, and VK. Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su James Bradley, author of Precious Freedom Finian Cunningham, author of Killing Democracy Best-selling American author James Bradley talks about his latest book, Precious Freedom, and how the genocidal war against Vietnam (1965-75) was enabled by the U.S. media’s false propaganda of the “Domino Theory.” The theory was that Vietnam was falling under Soviet and...