On Tuesday, The Free Press had a major scoop: The State Department is launching its biggest shake-up in decades in an effort spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The reorganization, done with the help of Elon Musk and DOGE, looks to eliminate 132 agency offices dedicated to efforts like advancing democracy and combating extremism. It will also lead to the State Department eliminating hundreds of positions intended for career officials. Additionally, top officials are being asked to reduce their offices by an additional 15 percent.

Donald Trump's administration has announced a plan to phase out eight synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply by the end of 2026.

The Food and Drug Administration's decision to remove the petroleum-based artificial color additives follows mounting scientific evidence and advocacy from health organizations such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has long warned of the risks associated with synthetic dyes.

Ignoring lies allows them to fester, but fighting back adds fuel to the fire.

Jews who are concerned about the rising tide of antisemitism are in a no-win situation.

On a daily basis, we are treated as the villain of various tales told by growing parts of both the left and right. At any given time, according to the internet, Jews are starving innocent people and committing genocide; facilitating the persecution of Christians in the Middle East or trying to outlaw Christianity in the United States; stifling free speech; or conspiring to bring about World War III.

The last time the Catholic Church’s cardinals picked a pope, they wanted an outsider to overhaul a scandal-plagued Vatican. They got more of a disrupter in Pope Francis than many had bargained for.

After Francis’ stormy 12-year pontificate, some cardinals now say they want a successor who can steady the ship and defuse tensions between progressives and conservatives over divorce, same-sex relationships, priestly celibacy and other contentious issues.

President Donald Trump isn’t getting along with the news media. 

Mellona Takie can barely make it through a game of Uno these days, though on a recent afternoon she tries. Anything to keep her mind from going to a place so dark that she tried to take her own life in February, after the United States deported her, an East African, to Panama.

“Even if I see something good, in my eyes, it’s bad,” says the woman in her late 20s, who fled mandatory military service in Eritrea, under a totalitarian government, and planned to seek political asylum in the U.S.

Pete Hegseth didn’t become defense secretary because he had the resume of a great statesman.

But President Donald Trump spent huge political capital getting Hegseth confirmed because the Pentagon chief mirrors Trump’s own riotous political identity and instincts. The point of his selection was to show the conventions and traits that normally define top national security officials don’t apply in the president’s tear-it-down second term.

It’s 10am on Sunday, and people are already starting to filter through the doors of Harbour Church. Sun streams through the windows – there’s an air of anticipation as congregation members greet each other and catch up on the week just gone. Soon, the room is filling up, the sound of gentle chatter swelling as the throng grows and people take their seats. The five-piece worship band strikes up; the crowd gets to its feet; the air vibrates as more than a hundred voices sing praises to God.

Predict who the next pope will be at your peril.

An old Italian saying warns against putting faith, or money, in any presumed front-runner ahead of the conclave, the closed-door gathering of cardinals that picks the pontiff. It cautions: "He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal".

But here are some cardinals who are being talked about as "papabili" to succeed Pope Francis, whose death at the age of 88 was announced by the Vatican on Monday. They are listed in alphabetical order...

Dust off the history books and there are papal conclaves with international intrigue, royal rigging and even riots, a checkered past that belies the air of sanctity and solemnity surrounding modern papal elections.

The word “conclave” comes from the Latin for “with key.” It is a church tradition that began in 1268 with a papal election that lasted almost three years, ending only when the townspeople of Viterbo locked up the cardinals, tore the roof off their palace, fed them nothing but bread and water and threatened them until a new pope was chosen.