Free Republic

The battle over who qualifies as an American at birth has officially reached the highest court in the land. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the historic challenge to President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order restricting birthright citizenship, setting the stage for what could be the most consequential interpretation of the 14th Amendment in more than a century. Trump’s order—one of the signature actions of his America First immigration agenda—asserts that children born to illegal aliens on U.S. soil do not automatically receive citizenship, countering decades of bureaucratic interpretation and closing what critics call one of...

China’s CIPS payment system now operates in 185 countries, enabling yuan-based trade outside the dollar. 52 trillion yuan in transactions were settled through CIPS in 2023, covering 58% of China’s cross-border flows. BRICS launched a yuan-pegged stablecoin and plans rupee bonds to expand use of local currencies. The BRICS-linked Cross-Border Interbank Payments System (CIPS) has expanded across 185 countries, allowing international payments in Chinese yuan without using the U.S. dollar, according to data from the New Development Bank (NDB). CIPS was launched by China and managed by its central bank as “a real alternative for global trade settlements.” At the...

The final tally of $236.4 million is the highest price for any work of modern art ever sold at auction and also set an auction record for the artist. Until Tuesday evening, that record had been held by Pablo Picasso’s 1955 Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”), which sold at Christie’s New York in 2015 for $179.4 million. The Klimt record also marks the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby’s. “Tonight, we made history at the Breuer,” Helena Newman, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of Impressionist and modern Art and chairman of its European operations, said in a statement shortly after the...

SpaceX Starlink finally has real competition 🚀 and your internet bill may never look the same. Amazon’s new LEO network is directly challenging SpaceX, and in this video I break down what actually matters: speed, reliability, coverage, latency, and how this fight could put real money back in your pocket. You’ll see how Starlink’s upgraded low-orbit system stacks up against Amazon Leo’s fresh constellation, what this means for rural users and families, when prices could drop, and why major ISPs are quietly panicking. If you want to know how the future of satellite internet affects your wallet, performance, and options,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina man threatened to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and Charlotte officers if immigration enforcement actions did not stop. Johnathan Trent Thomas, 27, of Linwood, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to making threats to murder federal officers to impede, intimidate, or interfere with the performance of their official duties, according to Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. According to filed court documents and court proceedings, on May 14, a caller, later identified as Thomas, contacted the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and threatened to kill ICE and...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach high school assistant principal is one of two men accused of threatening violence against law enforcement, including local police officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Virginia Beach police said John W. Bennett, 54, and Mark B. Bennett, 59, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding. John Bennett is employed as an assistant principal at Kempsville High School. A spokesperson for Virginia Beach City Public Schools said he has worked for the division since 2009 and is currently on leave. He was arrested in Virginia Beach at...

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer is threatening to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress if they refuse to testify in person about their connections to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Kentucky Republican issued subpoenas over the summer demanding the Clintons appear for depositions. Through their attorney David Kendall, the couple acknowledged having some information but proposed providing it in written statements instead. Mr. Comer rejected that offer Friday, saying the committee determines how it receives testimony from witnesses. “Given their history with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,...

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright might possibly be the biggest unsung hero in the Trump 2.0 Cabinet. While his fellow Cabinet secretaries like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth regularly get the big headlines, Wright flies a bit under the radar. But, that doesn't mean he's not busy taking bold, common sense actions to push America toward policies that prioritize affordable, reliable, and secure energy sources. Regular readers of RedState will know that Wright has been taking bold action to undo burdensome regulations and policies implemented by the Biden administration. Our own Ward Clark has...

WASHINGTON — America’s largest teachers’ union accused Republicans of promoting “racist and transphobic troupes” in teaching materials for an upcoming training program, according to documents obtained by a conservative activist group. The National Education Association is hosting a training from Dec. 2-4 at an undisclosed location called “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” aimed at dismantling “strategic racism and transphobia,” the group Defending Education uncovered. The group released information on the training that is targeted for union staff and teams as part of the NEA UniServ and Organizing Training Program 2025–2026. Sessions will be aimed at “dismantling systems of privilege...

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani are taking questions from reporters inside the Oval Office after a "great meeting" - watch live above The US president congratulates the New York mayor-elect on his win earlier this month, as the pair say they look forward to working on affordability The two New Yorkers have been extremely critical of each other in the past, but today Trump says he agrees "a lot more than I would have thought" with the self-described democratic socialist "He's got views that are little out there," Trump says, but he's confident that the NYC mayor-elect will do a...

OPINION/ANALYSIS The Battalion student newspaper at Texas A&M university does not seem to be a fan of conservative student thought. An analysis of the 60 opinion pieces focused on politics published since November 2024 found that nearly all of them — 50 — leaned liberal (35), left-leaning (5), far-left (5), and liberal satire (5). Only 7 of the opinion political pieces were moderate or neutral, and a total of three were conservative, or a ratio of almost 17 to 1 liberal to conservative. The research was conducted by student Justino Russell, who was inspired to dig into the analysis after...

Adam Johnston @adamkjohnston Less than 3 minutes into the Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution, and we get: 1. White people are bad. 2. Native Americans had a centuries-old democracy before British colonists arrived. 3. Benjamin Franklin copied the Native American blueprint.

Democrats are now attempting the final phase of the Podesta Plan. Since the launch of the Podesta Plan in 2020 Alex Jones has been exposing the stages of the coup, from civil unrest to the Democrats seeking to have the military ignore President Donald Trump’s orders.Grok Summary of Video Transcript:The segment is from Alex Jones' show and consists of two main parts:Political Commentary (main focus) Jones claims that a recent New York Times opinion piece essentially calls for the U.S. military to refuse to follow Donald Trump’s orders and potentially remove him from office if he wins again. He frames...

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St. Klemens Maria Hofbauer (1751-1820) Click the ▶ Button to sing the Hymn in the Key of G, or play the song in a New Window ⧉https://www.sing-prayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ActOfGoodIntention-G.mp3Click the ▶ Button to sing the Hymn in the Key of D, or play the song in a New Window ⧉https://www.sing-prayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ActOfGoodIntention.mp3Let my ob-ject e__-ver be, To give glor-y Lord to Thee. If I work or if I__ rest, May God’s Ho-ly Name__ be blest.Grant me grace my all__ to give, Un-to Him by Whom I live. Je-sus for Thy help I__ plead, Mary for me in__-ter-cede. A__-men.“All the works of the scribes and...

Donald Trump has been the main character of American politics since he strode down that golden escalator in 2015. He reshaped the GOP in his own image and compelled Democrats to define themselves in opposition. Now, in the wake of this month’s sweeping Democratic victories, Mr. Trump remains a clear and present danger, but his centrality has begun to fade. The controversial deal to end the shutdown has prompted short-term scrutiny of Democratic priorities. But the end of the Trump era is opening a rare window for both parties to redefine themselves.Republicans face tough sledding, if only because Mr. Trump’s...

The incredible Apep system as seen in infrared by JWST. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Yinuo Han (Caltech), Ryan White (Macquarie University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) DOWNLOAD PDF SHARE facebook-icon twitter-icon reddit-icon flipboard-icon bluesky-icon Google prefered source badge From the very first images, JWST showed that it was going to be a revolutionary instrument, and yet it continues to surprise us. New observations from the infrared space telescope have upended previous observations of a relatively close star system. It has revealed a complexity that had not been seen before in spectacularly crisp new images. The aging star...

Explanation: Now outbound after its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on October 29, Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known interstellar object to pass through our fair Solar System. Its greenish coma and faint tails are seen against a background of stars in the constellation Virgo in this view from planet Earth, recorded with a small telescope on November 14. But this interstellar interloper is the subject of an on-going, unprecedented Solar System-wide observing campaign involving spacecraft and space telescopes from Earth orbit to the surface of Mars and beyond. And while the comet from another star-system has...

Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas introduced legislation on Friday to recover savings from former President Joe Biden’s rural broadband initiative. The $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program has not started a single project since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was signed in 2021 by Biden, drawing Ernst’s attention in a November 2024 letter to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlining up to $2 trillion in savings. Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus, introduced the Recovering Excess Communications Appropriations while Protecting Telecommunications Upgrades, Reinvestment, and...

[Donald Trump Jr was seen embracing Gujarati dance culture and offering prayers to Hindu God Ganesha at Vantara in India weeks after a major 'anti-Hindu' controversy shook the Indian diaspora in the US.] Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of US president Donald Trump, was snapped in Vantara, the largest wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre, in Jamnagar, Gujarat, this week. On his second trip to India, the American businessman had keen plans to attend what has been making headlines as one of the biggest weddings of the year. His schedule tied to the wedding ceremonies of Netra Gadiraju, the US-based...