Free Republic

Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, or GOARN, to counterbalance the federal government’s withdrawal, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday. (snip) California also joined GOARN in late January.The withdrawal is complicated because there is no official way to leave WHO and the United States is the only country with the ability to do so. Experts say it’s up to WHO members when the departure is finalized, and they expect the matter to come up in meetings in February and May.

The lead singer and guitarist of Mark of Cain, a legendary Australian alternative rock band, has come out as a trans woman. After a lifetime of “inner conflict,” soul searching, and channeling her life as an “outsider” into her music, Josie Scott decided to cut through the noise and go “straight to the point with little or no bulls—”… all in a single social media post. “As I’ve aged, and mortality is ever closer, I’ve decided to embrace, rather than endure, who I am,” Scott explained in the Monday post. Scott says she has struggled with “gender dysphoria” since she...

Television personality Sage Steele is back in the hot seat after telling former first lady Michelle Obama to “shut up” about Black women’s hair struggles. The former ESPN anchor addressed the former first lady on her Actual Friends podcast, criticizing remarks Michelle Obama made in November about Black women's hair and the pressure many feel to straighten it due to Eurocentric beauty standards. Why This Unique Veteran Hat is Becoming a Favorite Among Military Families Why This Unique Veteran Hat is Becoming a Favorite Among Military Families YaYuge-Hat · Sponsored call to action icon more "Shut up! I've lost all...

WASHINGTON — Composer Philip Glass announced Tuesday that he is withdrawing his symphony from the Kennedy Center, pointing to the arts center's values and leadership. "After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No. 15 'Lincoln' from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts," Glass announced in a statement posted to X. "Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony," he continued. "Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under...

Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar, the Jamaican drummer best known for being one half of the famous reggae rhythm section Sly and Robbie, has died at the age of 73. The news was confirmed via DancehallMag, though further details regarding the circumstances of his passing have not been revealed. Dunbar, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, started playing publicly in bands when he was a teenager. "I was going to school, and I was playing on the desk in school, and then I started playing on cans," he recalled to Berklee Online. "Then I told my mom I didn't...

A gun rights advocate says he has major concerns about the legality of the shooting Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti after watching footage of his killing. Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, analyzed one of the several videos taken of the shooting of Pretti on Saturday and shared his damming opinion that the killing was unwarranted on social media. Pretti, who was a US and an intensive care nurse who treated critically ill military veterans, was killed shortly after 9am on January 24, after an altercation involving multiple federal officers. Video footage showed he was wrestled...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced just one day after the U.S. officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) that his state would become the first to join the organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, in a seeming rebuke of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from international collaborations. Newsom traveled this week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was scheduled to speak at an event but was canceled at the last moment. During his trip, he met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “As President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization,...

The United States officially left the World Health Organization on Thursday after a year of warnings that doing so would hurt public health in the U.S. and globally, saying its decision reflected failures in the U.N. health agency’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump gave notice that the U.S. would quit the organization on the first day of his presidency in 2025, via an executive order. According to a press release from the U.S. Health and State Departments, the U.S. will only work with the WHO in a limited fashion in order to effectuate the withdrawal. […] The...

🚨 BREAKING: The United States withdraws from the World Health Organization TODAY, one year after President Trump's historic executive order from the Oval Office After 77 years, the USA is no longer a WHO member. LET'S GO! 🔥🔥 Good riddance. Thank you President Trump! 🇺🇸

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank assessment of how he views the world in a provocative speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, where he said the longstanding U.S.-led, rules-based international order is over and middle powers like Canada must pivot to avoid falling prey to further "coercion" from powerful actors. Without invoking U.S. President Donald Trump by name, Carney referenced "American hegemony" and said "great powers" are using economic integration as "weapons." "Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid," Carney said. As it grapples...

Last night, Tina Peters was assaulted at approximately 9PM MT in La Vista Correctional Facility. Tina was inside a maintenance closet to fill up a water unit when an inmate approached her in the closet and began striking her in anger. Tina raised her hands and pushed the inmate away in defense of herself. Per Tina, the camera showed her pushing the inmate away from her out of the closet. She was subsequently handcuffed, shackled, and brought to solitary confinement. Tina was told she is being charged with Felony Assault for defending herself against an unprovoked attack. She will be...

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Sugary drinks and alcohol are not being sufficiently taxed and remain affordable, making it harder to tackle the chronic health problems caused by these beverages, according to two reports from the World Health Organization. The WHO has called for higher taxes on alcohol and sugar-sweetened drinks multiple times in recent years, arguing it would help cut consumption of the products which contribute to diseases such as diabetes, as well as raise money at a time when development aid is shrinking and public debt is rising. According to a report from WHO, sugary drinks have become more...

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it’s taking U.S. taxpayer dollars away from 66 globalist organizations, nearly half of them affiliated with the United Nations and all of which are identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.” Most notable is the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements, AFP reports. The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of so-called “climate change.” A despairing European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the...

Jack White has issued a sharp rebuke to Tim Burchett after the Tennessee congressman posted an AI-generated video of the rocker on social media. The video featured a fake version of White -- dressed as the real White did during his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction earlier this year -- declaring, "Don't even think about listening to my music, you fascist." In the caption, Burchett added his own shot, saying: "That cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry.” The clip continues a false narrative that White "forbids" any Donald Trump supporters from attending...

"Holy (expletive) i did not know all that insane (expletive) Ms. Bardot stood for," Roan wrote Monday in a post on her Instagram Stories.Grammy-winning singer Chappell Roan has backtracked on her praise for Brigitte Bardot after learning about the late French film icon's "very disappointing" far-right political beliefs. "Holy (expletive) i did not know all that insane (expletive) Ms. Bardot stood for," Roan wrote Monday in a post on her Instagram Stories. Bardot, an international sex symbol who starred in Roger Vadim's "And God Created Woman" and Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt," gravitated toward the French far-right in her later years. She...

I am in shock right now, and completely heartbroken for his family and friends. Unfortunately about an hour ago, news broke that Adam The Woo has passed away. I don't want to believe it, and it's so difficult to accept, but his father and several of his close friends have confirmed it, yet that's all the information that is available right now. I never got to meet Adam in person, but he was absolutely instrumental in my own personal youtube journey, and I always hoped one day to just have a conversation with him about the mechanics of youtube, and...

Thank you. Turning Point USA, you can do it! Thank you. It is great to see the future of America here this evening. America is going to do all right, I can tell you that, because the future leaders of America are here tonight. All right, I just heard that Candace Owens has proof that the Venezuelan boats were blown up by the Zionist state of Israel. And it is true, because Candace had a dream about it. All of Candace's dreams come true, especially the dream she had when she was a little girl about one day becoming the...

Joe Ely, the singer-songwriter who helped drive a new wave of Texas-based music that united rock and country fans in the 1980s and beyond, died Monday. The cause of death was complications from Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson's disease and pneumonia.An announcement from the family said that Ely died at his home in Taos, New Mexico, with his wife and manager, Sharon, and daughter, Marie, at this side. In 1999, Modern Twang writer David Goodman called the Lubbock-bred Ely "the consummate alternative country artist of the last 25 years,” and the passage of another quarter-century and change since that remark was...

We’re joined by Joe Gruters from the RNC to talk about the political landscape heading into 2026 and the challenges the party believes the country is facing. Gruters highlights what he sees as progress on affordability issues, praising the administration’s focus on lowering prices for everyday Americans while emphasizing that the effects of past economic policies take time to reverse. He also points to what he calls “world-class” cabinet leadership and insists that upcoming policy implementations will show measurable results. The conversation shifts to midterm dynamics, with Gruters expressing confidence that Republican messaging—and what he describes as missteps by Democratic...

“I think that’s a hard line for me now"Hayley Williams has declared that racist, sexist and anti-trans people are “not welcome” at her upcoming solo tour. Read More: Hayley Williams’ surprise 17-song release is a bold choose-your-own-adventure through hope and heartache The Paramore frontwoman announced a run of dates earlier this month, and within days she extended the tour due to “overwhelming demand”. The shows kick off in Atlanta on March 27 and include dates in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin in June. See all the info here and find any remaining tickets here. Now, she has given an interview...