Free Republic

The Trump administration said it's ending a credit for automakers that install a so-called "start/stop feature" in the vehicles, part of a broader rollback of environmental regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The start/stop feature, which is today widely used in newer vehicles, shuts off gas engines when cars idle, such as when they're stopped at a red light or stuck in traffic. The Environmental Protection Agency described the technology as "almost universally hated" in its Thursday announcement about the broader overhaul. About two-thirds of cars are now manufactured with the start/stop feature, which is aimed at making internal combustion...

MP Rupert Lowe, who launched an independent inquiry into the mass child rape that occurred throughout England at the hands of clans of mostly Pakistani Muslim men, has called on the government to launch an investigation into cases of missing girls in grooming areas to determine whether they may have been trafficked to Pakistan as sex slaves. “I believe there are currently countless British women being used as sex slaves overseas. This may sound insane. It is not. Look at these gangs. Nobody would have believed the extent of the evil before it was uncovered. This is very real,” the...

Retired British Army Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded U.K. forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, is warning about the current sad state of his country’s military. In a Wednesday piece for The Telegraph, he wrote that the British military has an alarmingly low level of ammunition on hand. “Knowledgeable observers have suggested that our munitions stocks — from rifle bullets and artillery shells to long range missiles and drones — would see out only about a week of intensive fighting,” Kemp recounted. “That’s even taking account of the fact that our Armed Forces are now very small, having been...

The opposition leader, who is leading the polls ahead of April's elections, says Viktor Orbán's party is orchestrating a smear campaign with secretly recorded intimate videos. Hungary's opposition leader Péter Magyar has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party of preparing a blackmail campaign against him involving a secretly recorded sex tape, escalating tensions ahead of April's parliamentary elections. Magyar, whose Tisza party leads Fidesz in opinion polls, said he suspects the governing party plans to release intimate recordings made with surveillance equipment. "I suspect they are planning to release a recording, recorded with secret service equipment and possibly...

***U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled the government must pay to fly back or accept at a port of entry any of the men who are now in countries other than Venezuela. Upon arrival in the U.S., they will be detained as they fight accusations they are Tren de Aragua gang members. The judge previously ruled the government violated the due process rights of the 137 Venezuelan men, and they were entitled to a hearing. But Boasberg had left the door open for a legal process that didn’t entail their physical return. “Apparently not interested in participating in this process,...

President Trump on Thursday reacted to Pam Bondi’s House Judiciary Committee testimony on Wednesday, commending her for what he described as a “fantastic” performance during questioning over the Epstein Files. “Bondi, under intense fire from the Trump Deranged Radical Left Lunatics, was fantastic at yesterday’s Hearing on the never ending saga of Jeffrey Epstein, where the one thing that has been proven conclusively, much to their chagrin, was that President Donald J. Trump has been 100% exonerated of their ridiculous Russia, Russia, Russia type charges,” Trump said. He further slammed the “SLIMEBALL Democrats, many of them big Donors and Politicians,”...

PAM BONDI JUST PLAYED THE GREATEST TRAP IN POLITICAL HISTORY. And Congress walked right into it. Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi sat before the House Judiciary Committee. Standard oversight hearing. Routine questions. Then she pulled out a document. Labeled: "Jayapal Pramila — Search History." The room went SILENT. ⚠️ HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED The DOJ gave Congress access to the unredacted Epstein files this week. Every member got their own login. Their own computer. Their own session. What Congress didn't know? The DOJ was tracking EVERY SINGLE SEARCH. Every name they looked up. Every document they opened. Every file they downloaded....

A sleepy race to succeed Gavin Newsom as California Governor just got a little bit of a jolt, as Senator Adam Schiff publicly put his chips on East Bay House Representative Eric Swalwell. California Governor Gavin Newsom is termed out of office once the November 2026 election rolls around, though interestingly, no one is really paying much attention yet to the race to replace Newsom. We have eight credible Democrats running, and splitting up the vote so much that some pollsters have Republican candidates currently winning the race. So it behooves these Democratic candidates to do something to shake up...

The Epstein files coverup just blew up on live tv, but not in the way most people expected...

A horrible tragedy occurred yesterday in Canada when a killer, later identified as a “trans identifying woman,” shot nine people to death and injured 27 others, before turning the gun on himself. The Canadian establishment has been desperate to hide the truth about the shooter, but this was not a secret the establishment could sit on.AdvertisementThe shooting took place at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in tiny Tumbler Ridge, a remote rural community in British Columbia. The killer began by murdering two people at a home, then headed for the secondary school (grades 7-12), where he opened fire. Six people...

[Catholic Caucus] Can the SSPX be banned from allowing the Chinese Communist Party?The question is born in the minds of many Catholic faithful throughout the world. How can we understand that Rome can consider with severity the episcopal consecrations in the SSPX that will take place on July 1st, even though it recognizes, tolerates or approves a posteriori appointments imposed by the Chinese Communist Party?This is not an artificial parallel. The facts are public, repeated, documented. For years, the Chinese communist power — officially atheist, doctrinaly materialistic, structurally hostile to the social kingship of Christ — has been directly involved...

Tariffs Fall and Investment SurgesTrade shapes power structures, and when two economies tighten bonds, the ripple spreads far beyond shipping lanes and customs desks. On Feb. 12, 2026, the Trump administration finalized a sweeping trade agreement with Taiwan that cuts tariffs, boosts American exports, and pours hundreds of billions into U.S. industry.Taiwan agreed to eliminate or sharply reduce tariffs on nearly all American goods, as duties on U.S. beef, dairy, and corn were reduced immediately to 0%. Pork belly tariffs fell from 40% to 10%, and ham fell from 32% to 10%. Taiwan also removed non-tariff barriers on motor vehicles,...

The former White House counsel under President Obama has resigned from Goldman Sachs over her ties to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Kathryn Ruemmler, who works as general counsel at Goldman, said she will resign this summer after emails released by the Justice Department revealed her conversations with Epstein, according to The Financial Times. 'I made the determination that the media attention on me, relating to my prior work as a defense attorney, was becoming a distraction,' Ruemmler told the publication. She will exit the firm on June 30. Ruemmler rose to the top ranks at Wall Street and became a key...

The State Department has just reported to Congress that the far left group ‘Code Pink’ is linked to the Chinese Communist Party. This should come as a surprise to no one. Code Pink began making a nuisance of themselves during the presidency of George W. Bush. They portrayed themselves as an anti-war group. Of course, once Obama became president and continued most of Bush’s foreign policy and the wars, they became curiously silent. Some of them were even guests at Obama’s inauguration. Now that Trump, a Republican, is president again, they are back to their old tactics of showing up...

“An Arizona sheriff is blocking FBI access to key evidence in the investigation into the abduction of U.S. television journalist Savannah Guthrie's mother, impairing its ability to assist in the probe, a U.S. law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told Reuters on Thursday. The FBI asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for physical evidence in the case, including a glove and DNA from the home of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, to be processed at the FBI's national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, but Nanos has insisted instead on using a private lab in Florida, the official said. Outsourcing forensic...

Viewership for Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX halftime performance fell 7% compared to the game's peak total, Nielsen's quarter-hour ratings data showed. Sunday's championship in San Francisco maxed out at a record 137.9 million viewers -- 134.3 million on NBC and 3.6 million on Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo -- during the 7:45-7:59 p.m. ET window as the Seattle Seahawks inched away from the New England Patriots in the second quarter. Total viewership fell to 128.2 million while Bad Bunny was on stage in the 8:15-8:29 p.m. ET window, Front Office Sports reported Wednesday. NBC lost almost 10 million viewers from the...

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for a segment of music from their 2017 film Phantom Thread to be removed from Melania Trump’s controversial Amazon documentary. The musician, who composed the score for the film starring Daniel Day-Lewis, alleged in a statement that the usage of the music was a breach of his composer agreement. “It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” Greenwood and Anderson’s representatives said in a joint statement obtained by Variety. His attorneys claimed that while Greenwood does not...

Changes could be coming to longstanding Massachusetts building codes that advocates say would make it much easier to build multifamily housing. Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Thursday establishing an advisory group to explore allowing new residential buildings with a single staircase, which is banned for those taller than three stories under the current building code. The change would make it much cheaper to build mid-sized multifamily projects, encouraging increased production “We’re all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone,” Healey said in a statement. “While the double stair...

Software stocks have been pummeled over artificial intelligence fears in recent weeks.Now, investors can add logistics and freight names to the list of stocks getting sold on worries about AI.Shares of logistics and freight operations companies C.H. Robinson (CHRW) and Universal Logistics (ULH) suffered double-digit losses on Thursday after a little-known Florida company announced a new tool that would scale freight volumes without increasing headcount....snip...Nearly three-quarters of the companies that make up the S&P 500 flagged AI as a material risk in filings, up from just 12% in 2023, according to a study by the Conference Board conducted in October.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Valentine Special Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Pull up a seat and relax. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup or a glass, and start a conversation. You never know...