Free Republic

The German government handed out a record number of citizenships to immigrants last year, rising to nearly a quarter of a million passports, with Syrian and Turkish nationals representing the largest cohorts. According to data collected by 13 of 16 federal states in Germany and provided to the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper, 249,901 foreigners were granted citizenship in 2024, the highest number since records began in 2000. This number surpassed the previous record set in 2023, when 200,095 people were awarded citizenship. Last year’s record naturalisation number is likely much higher, given that the states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) — Travelers who are looking to book last-minute flights for Memorial Day weekend may want to think twice about flying out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The air passenger rights company, AirHelp, took a closer look at U.S. airports and collected data on which ones had the most and least flight disruptions in April. It may or may not come as a surprise, but DCA ranked number five for the worst airports. Here's a breakdown. Philadelphia International Airport – 20.9% of flights disrupted O’Hare International Airport – 21.1% of flights disrupted New York LaGuardia Airport...

CNN host Jake Tapper said Tuesday on “News Central” that White House aides were hiding how much President Joe Biden was struggling to do his job because of his “deterioration both physical and cognitive.” Tapper said, “The White House physician, Doctor Kevin O’Connor, was telling White House aides that President Biden’s deterioration of his spine, the degeneration was so significant that if he fell one more time that he might have to be in a wheelchair and serve in a wheelchair for his second term but everybody pushed off the notion that he used a wheelchair until after the election....

Argentina's Supreme Court has found dozens of boxes filled with Nazi material among its archives in its basement. The 83 boxes hold documents including postcards, photographs and notebooks, as well as propaganda material, the court said on Sunday. Court employees discovered the material by chance while preparing for the creation of a museum. "Upon opening one of the boxes, we identified material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina during the Second World War," the court said. The court has invited Argentina's Holocaust Museum to help document and preserve the materials. Experts will also examine them for...

Andrew Cuomo and his then-married top aide, Melissa DeRosa, were in an “emotional romantic relationship” while he was New York governor, according to bombshell testimony obtained by The Post. But Cuomo — who is running for New York City mayor — seemingly failed to disclose any such relationship to Attorney General’s Office investigators probing sexual harassment allegations that prompted his resignation in August 2021. Another former Cuomo aide, Josh Vlasto, told the AG’s office that June that DeRosa had confided in him about the relationship, according to an unredacted transcript of his testimony. “There was a conversation with Melissa where...

Former Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) are joining the board of directors for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a prominent Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on fiscal policy. Maya MacGuineas, the president of the organization, said in a statement on Wednesday that the additions underscore “the committee’s longstanding commitment to fostering bipartisan solutions to our nation’s fiscal decline and working to put forward solutions for America’s elected leaders.” “Both former senators have been staunch advocates for responsible budgeting, but more than that, they have not shied away from working across the aisle to find solutions...

KYIV — President Trump’s special envoy to the Ukraine War urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign the now-deferred mineral rights deal with Washington during the envoy’s visit to Kyiv last week, but Zelensky’s chief of staff insisted on the Friday Oval Office signing that went badly awry, a senior US official involved with the talks told The Post. After three days of intense negotiations, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg secured the long-sought agreement with Ukraine that would have provided Washington with 50% of all future proceeds from the European country’s lucrative critical and rare-earth minerals.

On MSNBC on Monday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) argued that Democrats have “got to be at top volume level every single day. And I think if you are, your credibility of that the message that you’re sending, the oligarchy is forming, our democracy is falling, the corruption is beginning, it just has a lot more weight if you’re consistent about it.” Murphy said, “We are meeting every day, later today, to begin to build out that campaign that’s going to stop, hopefully, not just a couple of these nominees, but stop that billionaire tax cut. Again, we have faith because...

Inspectors general for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are heading for the exit before the new Trump administration takes power, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reported Monday. The departure of the agency watchdogs represents some of the first officials to remove themselves from the administrative state before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has vowed rid the federal bureaucracy of rogue and corrupt actors. To carry out those reforms, Trump nominated John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021, to lead the CIA. He also nominated...

We all have our go-to grocery store for everyday needs, and America has spoken about its all-time favorite of 2024. Each year, USA Today releases its 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for various categories, including the best grocery stores in the U.S. Nominations are made by a panel of experts, and the 10Best editors select the finalists. Readers then get a chance to vote for their favorites, and this year, it may surprise you which grocer came in the lead. Best Grocery Store in the U.S. in 2024 Hy-Vee was voted the top grocery store in America in 2024 by USA...

Not surprisingly Champagne dominated the 2024 International Wines and Spirits (IWSC) French sparkling wine Gold medalists, winning 10 of the top 12 awards. It’s lesser-known neighbor, Saumur, in the Loire Valley, took the balance of the Gold medals. The top scoring sparkling wine, with 98/100 points, was Champagne Palmer, Solera Rosé Brut NV, Champagne AOP, 12% ABV, 750 ml. The IWSC Judging Panel described the wine as: Elegant, fruity aromatic profile suits the vibrant pink appearance. The palate is restrained with soft cream, pastry and ripe red summer fruits. Fruit intensity continues throughout with lychee showing at the mid-palate. The...

President Joe Biden’s stash of classified documents at the Biden Penn Center included materials reportedly marked top secret. About ten documents were unearthed at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC, on Tuesday by Biden’s personal attorneys. Among those, some were marked top secret, according to CBS News. Between the classified documents retrieved from the Biden Penn Center and the documents retrieved from Biden’s residence in Delaware on Thursday, the total number of classified Biden stashed is about 20. No top secret documents were reported to be at Biden’s residence.

President Joe Biden has lied a lot before and during his presidency. Here are the top 15 most outlandish lies from his career. 1) Law School Grades Biden claimed in 1987 he graduated in the top half of his class at Syracuse College of Law. He was 76th in a class of 85. 2) Arrested in South Africa Biden falsely claimed in 2022 he was arrested for trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa. The Washington Post marks this claim as false. 3) First Job In 2021, Biden claimed in Idaho his “first job offer” was from a local...

Truth Social, the social media platform created by former President Donald Trump, has soared to the top of the Android app download charts after finally being allowed in the Google Play Store this week. Upon becoming available, Truth Social quickly launched to the top of Android’s app downloads, making it not just the top social media app, but the most popular app in the Play Store overall, according to data from Sensor Tower. Truth Social has been available for iPhone users through the App Store since February, but Google had blocked the app from its Play Store for the majority...

STUART, Florida -- He's no Tom Cruise, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is definitely a "Maverick" in his latest campaign commercial which portrays the Republican as a "Top Gun" fighter pilot engaging in battle with deceptive national news media."Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your governor speaking," DeSantis begins, likening himself to Cruise's character Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the popular summer film."Today's training evolution: dogfighting. Taking on the corporate media." Much of today's 'science' DeSantis commenced his lesson: "The rules of engagement are as follows: Number one, don't fire unless fired upon, but when they fire, you fire...

GREAT NEWS. Huge wins last night in Arizona & Michigan for GREAT America First candidates. We must restore faith in our elections in order to SAVE AMERICA! On to November! 🇺🇸 MAGA

Tom Cruise's highly-anticipated film Top Gun: Maverick achieved another impressive milestone at the global box office this weekend as it crossed the $1 billion mark. In addition to becoming the 59-year-old Risky Business actor's most successful film of all time, the sequel to 1986's Top Gun became the first movie of 2022 to reach that rare benchmark after just 31 days in theaters. With those ticket sales, the movie dethroned Marvel's superhero film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($943 million) as the highest-grossing movie of the year at the global box office. It's a particularly tremendous feat as...

President (still) Donald J. Trump is a Top Gun, in his F-15.

Philadelphia’s interim police commissioner has apologized for wearing a T-shirt in the 1990s that mocked the notorious Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King, saying she’s “profoundly sorry.” The photo, from 1994, shows Christine M. Coulter, who is white, wearing a shirt that read: “L.A.P.D We Treat You Like a King,” a pointed slogan stemming from the 1991 videotaped beating of King by LAPD cops, whose acquittals sparked riots a year later. An anonymous source sent the photo to the Philadelphia Inquirer in late August. Coulter, the first female commissioner of the 6,500-member department, said during a city council hearing...

Exactly 233 years ago this week, two of America’s founding fathers documented their first exposure to Islamic jihad in a letter to Congress; like many Americans today, they too were shocked at what they learned. Context: in 1785, Muslim pirates from North Africa, or “Barbary,” had captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin, and enslaved their crews. In an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- then ambassadors to France and England respectively -- met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja. Following this diplomatic exchange, they laid out...