Free Republic

As the 2026 primaries begin to take shape, one swing state in particular has remained on the GOP's radar. After Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced his retirement in June, all eyes turned to Tar Heel State native Lara Trump. Although the Republican nomination would have undoubtedly been hers to claim, Lara passed on the opportunity to scoop up the Senate bid. Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, who previously co-chaired the RNC alongside Lara Trump, will instead be running for the North Carolina Senate seat, reportedly with President Donald Trump's blessing. Although neither candidate has issued a...

Summary: The video covers growing scrutiny over the 2016 U.S. intelligence assessment that claimed Russian interference aimed to help Donald Trump. Key points: Senator Tom Cotton, Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has sent a letter to the FBI questioning former Director James Comey’s actions and potential bias against Trump. Cotton accuses Obama, Biden, Clinton, Brennan, Comey, and Clapper of colluding to suppress dissent within the intelligence community that found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. The Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) is criticized as a politically directed product, allegedly influenced directly by Obama and senior appointees like CIA Director John Brennan. Former...

The Metropolitan Police Department is embroiled in controversy over allegations related to its reported crime statistics. The Washington, D.C., department placed Police Commander Michael Pulliam on paid administrative leave in May after a police union accused the MPD of deliberately manipulating crime data, several law enforcement sources told WRC-TV. Pulliam, who is under investigation, denied the allegations. Gregg Pemberton, the chairman of the D.C. Police Union, a branch of the Fraternal Order of Police, explained to WRC how the statistics are manipulated to make it appear that crime has declined. The union also warned about a larger trend of supervisors...

A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share "red flag" behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members' images, posts and comments. Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been "unauthorised access" to 72,000 images submitted by women. Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea's own privacy policy promises are "deleted immediately" after authentication. Tea said the breach affected members who signed up before February 2024. Tea lets women check whether potential partners are married or registered sex offenders...

Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St. Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin. Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city's parade, according to state television. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year's parade had been...

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Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1In today’s Gospel we are given three teachings on prayer. First, Jesus teaches His disciples what has come to be called “The Lord’s Prayer.” Second, He teaches about the importance of persistence in prayer. Third, He teaches about the fruit that comes from correct and persistent prayer. The Church Father Tertullian said that The Lord’s Prayer “is truly the summary of the whole Gospel.” Saint...

Sure, they’re upset now, but it wasn’t a problem when they were doing it (and they were doing it a lot). As you may have heard, the Texas legislature is looking at redistricting. The Dems are not happy and will likely refer to Governor Abbott as a dictator. I’m sure that they will bring up that Hitler “gerrymandered” Germany. To say the least, the other side is angry and may fly out of the state again to make their point. You may remember that the last time they tried it, some of them came back with COVID. I guess that...

"Is [the U.S. Agency for International Development] a good use of resources?" James Macinko, a health policy researcher at UCLA, asked in an NPR interview this month. "We found that the average taxpayer has contributed about 18 cents per day to USAID." That "small amount," Macinko estimated, had prevented "up to 90 million deaths around the world." Macinko was referring to a study he coauthored, which was published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. In addition to estimating that USAID programs had saved 90 million lives from 2001 to 2021, Macinko and his colleagues project that if the Trump...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that his delegation will stress the importance of China pausing its purchases of Russian and Iranian oil in a meeting with Chinese officials next week in Sweden. Bessent said in a Fox Business interview that he believes the United States can move on to such issues concerning China, given that trade is now "in a good place." He made the remarks as senior U.S. and Chinese officials are set to meet Monday and Tuesday in Stockholm for a round of trade talks. "I think that the Russian war machine would grind to a...

Multiple leftist media outlets attacked Swedish pastor Håkan Persson, the parish priest of Markaryd, after a recent social media post in which he criticized the new rainbow-colored, LGBT-friendly vestments designed to be the symbol of the progressivism of the Church of Sweden. In his Facebook post, Persson stated that the rainbow-colored chasuble and stole, designed at the initiative of the Västerås diocese, “will not enter Markaryd’s church as long as I am vicar.” While the media paints him as acting from “a hidden minority-intolerant agenda” and accuses him of discriminating against the LGBT community in his parish, the priest insists...

New York will soon require most new buildings to be fully electric, following a vote by the state Building Code Council, according to the Times Union. Beginning January 2026, gas and oil systems will be banned in newly constructed homes and low-rise buildings, with broader mandates kicking in by 2029. Supporters say the move helps cut emissions and long-term costs, but critics argue it burdens residents and stresses an already strained power grid. The law includes exceptions for buildings with permits filed before year’s end and does not apply to renovations. New York’s building sector is the state’s largest emissions...

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger has indicated that the country is open to discussing possible NATO membership in response to growing international instability and Russia’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy. In an interview with Die Welt, Meinl-Reisinger said that Austria cannot rely solely on its traditional neutrality for protection. She emphasised that in today’s uncertain global security environment, the country’s safety depends on both investments in national defense and strong international partnerships, Caliber.Az reports.

I ride the commuter train from a law firm in Chicago to a tiny redneck town on the Wisconsin state line. Friday night, the train got stopped in the middle of the woods for an emergency. A pedestrian had been hit by a car, right on the grade crossing. The police wouldn’t let the train proceed until they cleared their crime scene. So naturally, I was telling jokes to all the yuppies in my car. A left-wing 20-year-old Disney princess, with a blue buzz cut, neck tattoos, and a double chin, screamed that I was a racist-sexist-xenophobe-homophobe-Republican-Trump-cult Nazi. That was...

The U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. State Department and other federal agencies under the Biden administration failed to prevent nonprofits from using more than $900 million in taxpayer funds to oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to support terror groups, according to the House Judiciary Committee. On Thursday, the committee released a memo based on 380 documents it received in a probe of six nonprofits: Blue White Future, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Peace Dialogue Network and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. According to the House panel, PEF Israel Endowment...

Eva Chipiuk, a lawyer known for her involvement in the Freedom Convoy and vocal criticism of Canadian institutions, has been blindsided after the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) terminated its banking relationship with her, citing risk-related concerns. According to an official letter the banking institution sent to Chipiuk, her “recent activity was outside of RBC’s client risk appetite,” and it would “no longer be in a position to continue serving her.” The bank has given her until August 18, 2025, to find an alternative financial institution. Chipiuk says the move came after a flagged transaction involving a bitcoin purchase. “The...

Something big is happening up in Minneapolis, folks. There’s this fellow, Omar Fateh, who’s looking to become the next mayor. Now, he’s not your regular candidate. He’s a Somali American who calls himself a democratic socialist, and he’s got some unusual plans for the city. Fateh wants Minneapolis to resist Donald Trump and become a “safe haven” for transgender surgeries. He’s got ideas like cracking down on police and making sure the city stays a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and things like abortions and transgender healthcare. And he’s planning to spend a lot of taxpayer money to do it. This...

In New York State, Jews have the highest favorable opinion of President Trump. Jews support Trump more than any other religious group, more than Catholics and Protestants, upstate voters, and more than white voters in general. Jews are the only identity group in the state with whom Trump isn’t underwater even at the same time as Sen. Schumer polls worse among Jews than among Catholics or Protestants.

The Trump administration has won unprecedented concessions from Columbia University in a sweeping settlement — with the Ivy League school paying more than $220 million and pledging to reverse racially discriminatory practices and resolve civil rights violations against Jewish students and workers, The Post can exclusively reveal. The settlement, under which Columbia will agree to submit to independent monitoring to ensure it is complying with merit-based hiring and admissions requirements, is likely to put pressure on other schools — like Harvard University— that have crossed the White House over tolerance of extreme Jew-hatred on campus since the Oct. 7, 2023,...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a review into how officers will be promoted and selected for command that will be led by former Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who was punished after he criticized senior military leaders for the Afghanistan withdrawal. “America’s sons and daughters who serve in our military deserve the best leaders commanding them, which is why we need to reform the promotion system at DoD — how we get those leaders,” Hegseth announced on Sunday in a video in which he appeared with Scheller. Hegseth said he has asked Scheller — whom he referred to as...