Free Republic

Ministers have rolled back plans for a central element of the proposed digital ID plans, leaving open the possibility that people will be able to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work. This will mean that the IDs, announced to some controversy in September, will no longer be mandatory for working-age people, given that the only planned obligatory element was to prove the right to work in the UK. While officials said this was not a U-turn, just a tweak before a detailed consultation on how the system will function, it will be viewed as the...

If you used a digital camera in the early 2000s, there's a good chance whole chapters of your life have been erased. A generation of photos has vanished on broken hard drives and defunct websites.For my 40th birthday, I asked my friends and family members for one gift: pictures of me in my early 20s. My own photo collection from that era – roughly 2005-2010 – is devastatingly scarce. There's a blank space somewhere between my albums of printed college photos and my Dropbox folder of early motherhood snapshots. All I could find from those years was a handful of...

The incoming Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, recently told The Times, "Jesus was a black man". Jesus came for everyone, and it’s understandable that different cultures should want to present him in their own image. Here in the UK, for example, Jesus has typically been depicted as a white Westerner. But such unhelpful representations often ignore the fact that Jesus is Jewish. He came “to his own” (John 1:11) as the long-promised Jewish Messiah, and will return to Jerusalem as a Jew, specifically, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David”. (Revelation 5:5) As the Brighton-based author...

The internet is forever! At least that’s a concept most people on the internet besides CNN seem to grasp. On Tuesday, CNN made its double standard on inflation so nakedly apparent it needs an NC-17 rating. Inflation under Biden was "falling," but under Trump it's "persistent....as high prices continue to weigh on many Americans." The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report January 13 finding that core consumer prices — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — increased less than expected at 2.6 percent year-over-year in December. The all-items index increased 2.7 percent on an annual basis, in line...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump has revealed his plan to seize Australia, cash in its two-troop continent bonus each turn, wait for the other armies to deplete each other, and then launch an invasion of Asia. Trump stated that with only one point of entry in and out of Australia, the continent was set up ideally for amassing an army while avoiding early losses. "First Australia, then the world," said Trump. "We're going to win bigly, believe me. It's the perfect balance, Australia. You're cashing in that bonus, which I love, I love bonuses, they're incredible deals. You're steadily getting...

Iran issued a grisly threat against President Trump on Wednesday, broadcasting a picture of the commander-in-chief during the 2024 Butler, Pa., rally assassination attempt — with the words “This time it will not miss the target. The ominous warning was aired on Iranian state-run TV, Agence France-Presse reported. It marks Tehran’s most direct threat yet against Trump, following his repeated threats that the US will strike the country if it continues its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld a state law banning gender-affirming care for minors.

[Catholic Caucus] Extraordinary Consistory: what is its true meaning?The Extraordinary Consistory of January 2026 was not a mere consultative moment, but a strategic turning point: beneath the appearance of dialogue and “synodality,” a parliamentary model of the Church is being consolidated that relativizes the Petrine primacy and makes the neo-modernist drift allegedly irreversible, while Pope Leo XIV appears increasingly as an arbiter of power balances. The extraordinary Consistory of January 2026 should not be read as a simple consultative moment, but as a decisive step in the attempt to refound the Church on procedural and parliamentary bases, foreign to its...

I'm wondering if ICE can seize the cars of people using them to block enforcement actions. It seems to me these people are using a car to obstruct justice. If the drivers are arrested shouldn't their cars be taken as evidence of criminal conduct and impounded until their trial? This would take the car out of action for many months or longer. Other would-be assailants would think twice before doing this. And who knows what could happen to the car while in the impound yard? Tires could go flat, batteries go dead, rain could get in open windows, silicon carbide...

Late last year, the Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch penned a widely shared essay on campus “disability accommodations,” the practice whereby students with learning disorders such as ADHD receive extra time on tests or the use of “otherwise-prohibited technology.” The piece did not make for pleasant reading. Among Horowitch’s findings was that, because universities have made “the process of getting accommodations easier,” the share of students who qualify “has grown at a breathtaking pace.” At the University of Chicago, for instance, “the number has more than tripled over the past eight years.” At Amherst, a stunning 34 percent of undergraduates were formally...

On occasion, it is my duty and privilege to dig deep into established facts, figures, and other inconveniences so that you might gain a greater understanding of just how forehead-slapping stupid everything is. This is one of those occasions, and it starts where so many things end: with your toilet. Everything went wrong — as so many things did — during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, who put his signature on the Energy Policy Act of 1992, passed by the Democrat-dominated Congress. It was one of those feel-good laws that didn't feel so good once its provisions kicked...

The prime minister added the government is "absolutely determined to take action" on the usage of Grok to generate inappropriate AI images and that if X doesn't act, "Ofcom has our full backing" during Prime Minister's Questions.

[Catholic Caucus] Open letter to Pope Leo XIV: The heresy of Modernism lives on through Vatican IILegal scholar Raymond Marcin has urged the Pope to reject Vatican II’s path, calling it a covert revival of what St. Pius X condemned as the ‘synthesis of all heresies.’Editor’s note: Below follows the full text of an Open Letter to Pope Leo XIV by Emeritus Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America Raymond B. Marcin.(LifeSiteNews) — Your Holiness, The purpose of this letter is to express a concern regarding the path that our Catholic Church has been following for six decades...

Summary President Donald Trump insists the US needs Greenland for "national security", adding that anything less than American control of the territory is "unacceptable" It comes as US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio meet the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers in the White House Trump's demands to take control of the island have been rejected by Greenland's leaders and Nato member Denmark, of which the island is a semi-autonomous territory European powers have thrown their support behind Danish sovereignty over Greenland The Danish military says it's boosting its presence in Greenland in "close cooperation with Nato...

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has been forced to delete a post urging the 'ultra-wealthy' to fully fund city schools after it was mocked online for misspelling 'governor.' On Tuesday, the CTU posted a flyer across X, Facebook and TikTok calling on the public to push state leaders to tax billionaires, months after a report found the district is $1.6 billion short of necessary funding, according to Chicago Public Media. A damning report revealed that last year, over half of Chicago students couldn't read at grade level, and nearly three-quarters failed to reach math proficiency on state tests, according to...

President Trump has made lowering prescription drug prices a clear priority, repeatedly arguing that Americans should not be forced to pay more for medicine than patients in other developed countries. Drugmakers have publicly welcomed that message. But their actions tell a more complicated story.First reported by Reuters this week, pharmaceutical companies are raising list prices on more than 350 drugs for 2026. Many of the increases were small, but others were not, including sharp hikes on certain hospital-administered and specialty medicines that patients and providers rely on every day.Among the steepest increases were those for Demerol, a painkiller used in...

Bobby Kennedy on President Trump’s health: “He's got a he's incredible health. Dr Oz looked at his medical records and said he's got the HIGHEST testosterone level that he's ever seen for an individual over 70 years old. I know the President will be happy that I'll repeat that.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With arguments being presented on issues that will have far-reaching effects on shaping the future of American laws, society, and culture, the other eight Supreme Court justices brought in Ms. Rachel to explain cases to Ketanji Brown Jackson. The judges reportedly discussed a variety of potential solutions to mitigate Jackson's intellectual shortcomings before deciding to hire the popular YouTube star and children's educator to help Jackson better understand the complex cases being ruled on by the court. "Hi, friend! Are you a… Supreme Court justice? You are! Yay! And you're a woman of color! GOOD JOB!" Ms....

The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building. NATO should be leading the way for us to get it. IF WE DON’T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Militarily, without the vast power of the United States, much of which I built during my first term, and am now bringing to a new and even higher level, NATO would not be an effective force or deterrent - Not even close! They know that, and so do I. NATO becomes far more...

Whoopsie. Look what Tampon Tim signed into law back in 2020. As the circus over the George Floyd protests raged on, Minnesota’s Legislature updated its “use-of-force” statute, and Gov. Walz signed it into law that July.Well, well, well…Look what Tim Walz signed into law in 2020: MN law §609.066: Officers can use deadly force if a driver accelerates toward them, creating immediate life-threatening danger. No need to wait for impact—they can act based on apparent intent & proximity. JUSTIFIED.It’s real. Under Minnesota Statute 609.066, peace officers may use deadly force only when a reasonable officer believes it’s necessary to protect...