Free Republic

A federal judge ruled against one of the Trump administration’s efforts to defund NPR.The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) had slashed a $36 million contract with NPR after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at cutting funding to the news outlet. After a judge’s ruling, the CPB is renewing the contract after a judge ruled in NPR’s favor, according to the network.The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed Monday to fulfill a $36 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.The arrangement resolves litigation filed by NPR accusing the corporation of...

Countries are gathering in Brazil at the COP30 summit to take stock of climate change. As in past summits, the negotiations are starting on the back foot: countries already aren't meeting their goals to cut heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels. The world has barely budged in its efforts to combat climate change compared to one year ago, according to a new report from the United Nations. If countries stay on that track, the planet will warm by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, compared to the pre-industrial temperatures of the mid-1800s. That's slightly better than...

U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation's thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers.

For over three months, the U.S. military has repeatedly struck boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, claiming that the vessels were intending to carry drugs into the United States. Since the first attack was announced on Sept. 2, these strikes have occurred nearly every week, killing dozens of people. NPR compiled a list of these boat attacks using posts on Truth Social and X by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. These posts show grainy video footage of vessels being blown up. The administration has not publicly released further evidence that the boats were actually carrying drugs...

width="50%" Store manager Jose Pajares says he's slashing prices and stocking less food since business has slowed down at the Save A Lot in Springfield, Mass. The bulk of their customers depend on SNAP benefits, and the store depends on their business. A lapse in funding would hurt everyone. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Theresa Rios came to the grocery store this week with a shorter shopping list than usual. And she's also paying even more attention than usual to price. Walking past a shelf of items labeled "Real Bacon Bits" next to packages of imitation bacon bits, Rios doesn't hesitate. "This...

Access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth will be dramatically restricted by the Trump administration under new proposals by the Department of Health and Human Services. NPR has obtained the draft text of a proposed rule that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. It also prohibits reimbursement through the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP for patients under age 19.

Construction crews began dismantling the East Wing on Monday, even as the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has not granted approval for the ballroom itself. According to NPR, NCPC chairman Will Scharf — who is also a Trump aide — said at a September meeting that the commission lacks jurisdiction over demolition or site preparation, only the “vertical build.” At an East Room event with the Louisiana State University baseball team, Trump acknowledged the noise from the construction happening “right behind us,” and added, “They wanted a ballroom for 150 years, and I’m giving that honor to this wonderful place.”

For Emma, what could have been a simple dollars-and-cents decision was far more complicated. The choice before her: whether to accept a scholarship offering nearly free tuition to attend law school at Indiana University in her home state — or to pay $45,000 a year at the University of Minnesota. A few weeks ago, she moved to Minneapolis to start law school, a choice largely shaped by the fact that Emma is trans. She has felt increasingly like Indiana's government doesn't welcome her.

Fifty years ago — Oct. 1, 1962 — the first black student was admitted to the University of Mississippi, a bastion of the Old South. The town of Oxford erupted. It took some 30,000 U.S. troops, federal marshals and national guardsmen to get James Meredith to class after a violent campus uprising. Two people were killed and more than 300 injured. Some historians say the integration of Ole Miss was the last battle of the Civil War. It was a high-stakes showdown between President Kennedy and Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett. "I'm a Mississippi segregationist and I am proud of it,"...

There could be as many as 104.1 million people who back domestic terrorism in the U.S. Most of America believes politically motivated violence is a problem in America, and there remains an alarming 30% who believe "Americans may need to resort to violence to get the country back on course," according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. That 30% includes 11% who "strongly agree" Americans must resort to violence to force their political agenda, and 19% "agree." With 347 million people in the U.S., 30% equates to 104.1 million supportive of domestic terror, including potentially more than 38 million who...

Every so often the media rolls its sleeves up and tries to once again get us all to eat gross, filthy bugs instead of delicious, healthy, clean meat. CBS ran this segment over the weekend arguing we should eat bugs because soybean farming is bad for the planet or something 🥴 Sadly, 2025 is no exception, with NPR once again making a bid to have us eat literal larva: In markets in the capital Kinshasa, tubs full of writhing white maggots line the alleyways, and women traders fry caterpillars, spiced with chili, over charcoal fires. "The more you eat caterpillars,...

A statue of President Trump holding hands with Jeffrey Epstein appeared briefly on D.C.'s National Mall this week, only to be removed after less than a day. The bronze-painted installation, titled Best Friends Forever, depicts the two men smiling at each other, each with an arm and leg raised as if in mid-frolic. "In Honor of Friendship Month, we celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his 'closest friend,' Jeffrey Epstein," reads the plaque, emblazoned with hands making a heart shape. September is widely recognized as friendship month. Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Epstein, the...

FBI Director Kash Patel is scheduled to appear before senators Tuesday as he faces growing questions about his ability to lead the nation's premier law enforcement agency. Patel's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was put on the books weeks ago but comes at a delicate time for the director, who is a loyalist of President Trump but has no experience leading an organization like the FBI. In just the past week, he has come under criticism for his social media posts and actions during the manhunt for the man who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He's also been sued...

Over thirty people across the country have been fired, put on leave, investigated or faced calls to resign because of social media posts criticizing Charlie Kirk or expressing schadenfreude about the conservative influencer's assassination earlier this week, according to an analysis by NPR. And more may be to come:

On today's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish declined to say that celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk was inappropriate or merited criticism. Instead, with heartless detachment, Cornish simply observed what others are saying on the matter. "I know what people don't think is appropriate, so here's an example. The New York Post puts images of someone that they're saying is celebrating his death, and I know people criticize that."Audie can't say that celebrating murder is inappropriate, that it's worthy of criticism? Really? Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday morning while gathered for Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school to mark the first week of classes. Seventeen others were wounded, including 14 children between the ages of 6 and 15. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara identified 23-year-old Robin Westman as the shooter. Westman was later found dead in the back of the church from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities are still investigating her motive. The shooting is renewing debates over America's gun laws. And two of Minnesota's prominent leaders, both Democrats, are seizing the moment...

The world's leading authority on food insecurity has confirmed a famine in Gaza. In a report published Friday, the United Nations-backed group of experts finds that over half a million people parts of north Gaza are at risk of dying from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more people face catastrophic shortages as the famine spreads to other areas. "As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed. The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading," the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, report says. The images of skeletal children...

Major liberal philanthropies are pledging $50 million to keep NPR and PBS member stations afloat after President Donald Trump pulled $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the primary source of federal support for NPR and PBS, according to a Monday report. "The Knight Foundation is committing $10 million to the fund, which aims to disburse the money before the end of the year," the New York Times reported. "Together with Knight, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Pivotal Ventures and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have already committed nearly $27 million for...

When President Trump launched an effort to address crime in Washington, D.C., he argued that the source of the city's problems was clear. "This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city's local leadership," Trump said from the White House last week. "The Democrats are weak on crime. Totally weak on crime," he later added Throughout his time in office, Trump has criticized Democratic-led cities for what he calls "radical left" policies on criminal justice. Those attacks have grown sharper in recent days, as the president took the extraordinary step of nationalizing the D.C. police...

WASHINGTON — Hundreds gathered peacefully in the nation's capital on Saturday afternoon to protest President Trump's attempted takeover of the city's police department and deployment of National Guard units alongside federal agents. Starting with a rally in the northwest neighborhood of DuPont Circle, protesters chanted, "Shame" and "Trump must go now!" while demanding an end to the "crime emergency" that Trump declared in an executive order on Monday.