Free Republic

Well, well, well. Wouldn’t you know it? After months of listening to political experts and the media tell Americans that Republicans were headed for an absolute bloodbath in the midterms, the New York Times has suddenly discovered something rather interesting. Late-deciding voters are breaking toward Republicans by NINE POINTS in seven critical Senate races. And this little revelation comes just as Americans are heading to the polls. How convenient, right? For much of this election cycle, the message coming from the polling world has been downright miserable for Republicans. Dems were supposedly surging, the GOP was in serious trouble, and...

A deadly Learjet crash in South Florida has taken an even more troubling turn. Federal investigators now say evidence at the scene indicates pieces of the aircraft separated before the jet slammed into a mobile home community near Greenacres on Sunday. Nine people aboard the plane were killed. The finding does not establish why the aircraft went down. It gives the National Transportation Safety Board a critical new trail to follow as investigators reconstruct the jet’s final moments. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy summarized the first confirmed facts after the crash: Today's plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida is a...

Idea is intended to unlock energy ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv but it faces resistance in European capitals The U.S. is backing a quick resumption of Russian natural-gas sales to Europe via pipelines running through Moscow’s wartime enemy—Ukraine—as part of negotiations aimed at securing an energy ceasefire ahead of the coming winter, according to U.S., European and Ukrainian officials.The idea, broached by U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff during trips to Moscow and Kyiv in September, would involve selling Russian gas via a U.S. intermediary to circumvent European sanctions—and could create a lucrative opportunity for American investors, people who...

The unannounced measure would tax unsold gains from 2027, and anyone who wants to defer must pay half the bill up front. Wealthy residents who leave Italy from 2027 could owe a 26% tax on gains they have not yet cashed in, under the government’s draft budget. Article 17 of the bill, which the government sent to the Chamber of Deputies on October 30, would apply the tax to individuals who move their tax residence abroad with assets and rights worth at least €800,000 (approximately US$894,000). The measure would cover transfers of tax residence that take effect from January 1,...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed an ordinance prohibiting new oil and gas drilling throughout the city and establishing a 20-year timetable to phase out existing wells. Under the new ordinance, current drilling sites are designated as "nonconforming uses" and must cease operations within two decades, unless an earlier deadline applies. The ordinance restricts the expansion and redevelopment of existing operations while establishing limited exceptions for work strictly necessary to address public health, safety or environmental threats. Bass, who is running for reelection on Tuesday against Los Angeles City Council member and fellow Democrat Nithya Raman, framed the legislation...

Anthropic’s upcoming IPO is going to make its founders very, very rich. And unfortunately for freedom-loving Americans, it will dramatically expand the liquid resources of the Effective Altruism (EA)-linked network surrounding the company, putting extraordinary amounts of cash behind people and groups that are trying to manipulate society into bending to its ideals. At a reported potential valuation of $1.5–$2 trillion, Anthropic’s seven cofounders will hold approximately $150–$200 billion in combined equity. They have already pledged 80 percent of their personal Anthropic equity to philanthropic causes. Of course, we know how that game works in politics. “Philanthropy” quickly becomes a...

The month was January 2021, only a few weeks into the mass rollout of the injection called a vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had outsourced its collection of data from the VAERS system – designed to monitor vaccine safety – to General Dynamics Information Technology. GDIT wrote the CDC a memo dated January 15. “The number of incoming COVID-19 reports has significantly exceeded the estimated maximum of 1,000 reports per day,” the memo to the CDC said. “As a result, GDIT is unable to meet processing and other timeframes (data processing, telephone inquiries, clinical inquiries, etc.). GDIT...

The national debt topped the entire gross domestic product (GDP) for fiscal 2026, according to new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). From the fourth quarter of 2025 through the third quarter of this year, the country's economic output was more than $32.2 trillion, according to the BEA's non-seasonally adjusted statistics. As of Sept. 30, the final day of the third quarter, debt held by the public was more than $32.4 trillion, per the Treasury Department. Debt held by the public is what the federal government owes to outside entities, including banks, state and local governments and foreign...

In 2008, California voters approved funding for a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles. A group of contractors donated tens of thousands of dollars to support the ballot measure. A state program manager projected that the initiative would create more than 100,000 construction jobs. Eighteen years and more than $15 billion later, not a single mile of high-speed track has been laid. The state hasn’t even laid track on the rump Merced-Bakersfield line that it wants to open in the 2030s. In a recently resurfaced video from his time as lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom said the full...

Democrats promise to lower costs, but journalists rarely ask them to explain their policies—or account for the soaring prices under Biden. Two things are missing from almost every media report attacking President Trump over affordability: acknowledgment that Democrats supported Biden’s policies during the inflation surge, which left Americans paying substantially higher prices, and any serious examination of which Democrat policies would actually make life more affordable. If Democrats regain power, their policies could make things worse. According to a recent article, House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries promises to lower grocery, gasoline, housing, and health care costs. “We are explicitly promising...

Summary Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, has been hit by what's thought to be the biggest hack in history - our correspondent breaks down what to know Cryptocurrency worth $6.3bn (£4.7bn) was stolen, with Binance saying it has now "begun recovering" some funds This theft may have happened quickly, but efforts to recover the cryptocurrency could continue for much longer, our senior technology reporter writes Binance's co-CEO Richard Teng says initial investigations point to a "compromised DevOps engineer's laptop" giving hackers access, with a follow-up statement from Binance saying it's "uncovered additional points of breach" What is Binance, and...

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter of 2026 (July, August, and September), according to the advance estimate released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent. The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were increases in investment, consumer spending, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Truth Social signed Bloomberg, Susquehanna International Group, and Jump Trading to provide faster access to President Donald Trump's posts for up to $100,000 monthly.The Truth API service provides subscribers a millisecond timing advantage, allowing software to read and execute trades in thousandths of a second to react instantly to market-moving presidential announcements.Clients pay between $60,000 and $100,000 monthly, while Trump Media has lost about $1.76 billion since 2024 and shares have fallen more than 50% this year, driving the company to monetize its platform.Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued in August,...

New York City's socialist experiment is going great. So great, in fact, that the city's comptroller, Mark Levine, is sounding the alarm after 30,000 private-sector jobs left the city in just two months. Levine calls the trend "concerning."Here's more:Private-sector employment dropped by 23,000 in September after losing 7,400 jobs in August — with gigs in finance and tourism leading the private sector in declines, according to a new report by City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office.“Despite a relatively strong tourism season, Leisure & Hospitality employment fell 7,700 in September alone and is down 17,000 jobs over the past year,” Levine wrote,...

Shares of Wendy’s jumped 15% at the opening bell Wednesday after noted investor Nelson Peltz made an offer to buy the struggling burger chain. Wendy’s shares are down 25% in the past year following a years-long decline. The chain, founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas and named after his daughter, is known for its square burgers and Frosty desserts. But same-store sales, or sales at restaurants open at least a year, have declined for more than two years. Those sales fell during the first two quarters of 2026. Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and several partners are offering Wendy’s $7.35 per...

What's happening? Two high-speed ​trains have collided in Spain, causing the ‌suspension of the line connecting Madrid to the southern Andalusia region, rail operator Adif said At least 64 people have been killed in the crash, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha said The trains crashed just after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) and the cause of the crash and full details of casualties are still being determined It's the second major deadly train crash this year, after an accident in January between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line killed 46 people The crash comes at...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced stronger bilateral cooperation with Mozambique in strategic sectors, adding that bilateral trade nearly doubled between January and August this year, during a meeting in Moscow with his Mozambican counterpart. “Trade and economic interaction is getting stronger. Our trade nearly doubled in January through August,” the Russian head of state said as he opened the meeting with the delegation led by Daniel Chapo, on the sidelines of the 8th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit, on Tuesday. Quoted in statements released by Russian diplomatic channels, Putin said the two countries shared a commitment to...

Online gambling is about to ravage many young men’s futures. An opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times recently compared celebrities promoting online gambling sites to spokespersons for cigarette companies in the past. It’s an apt comparison, considering the tension between online betting’s glamorous persona and its frequent reality of financial debt, addiction, suicide, and devastation to marriages and families. The global sports betting market is worth over $120 billion. Prediction markets, which allow the average citizen to place bets on the outcome of everyday events, are on track to reach an astounding $1 trillion in volume by 2030. Many...

Prediction markets like Kalshi are fundamentally different from sportsbooks and offer public benefits. Betting and trading look alike. What sets them apart is who’s on the other side. What’s the difference between a sportsbook customer gambling on the Milwaukee Brewers and a Kalshi trader buying a contract on the same result? Both get money if the Brewers win and lose it if they lose. It walks like a bet and quacks like a bet. But we at Kalshi operate a market, not a casino. A century ago, all derivatives trading was derided as “gambling.” What matters is the structure, not...

Lack of profits and the threat posed by western countries are raising concern about the sustainability of Beijing’s AI boomTrillions of dollars have been wiped from China’s stock markets in recent months amid increasing anxiety about the future of artificial intelligence, as Beijing races against the United States for dominance in the sector.The STAR 50 Index, which tracks technology and innovation companies on the Shanghai stock exchange, has plunged 40% since June. Other indexes of major companies dropped by about 20% over the same time period. The precipitous drop has wiped out $2.4tn from the Chinese stock market since May,...