Free Republic

Police have launched a manhunt after an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was mistakenly released from prison. Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the attack in Epping, Essex, last month. Prison sources said Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre ahead of a planned deportation. An investigation has been launched by the Prison Service and an officer has been removed from discharging duties while it takes place. Kebatu's arrest sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, where he...

The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday. “The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.” The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress....

ACA was a costly illusion.The focus of the current government shutdown circus has increasingly narrowed to Democrat demands to undo proposed reductions in very large, supposedly temporary, Covid-era Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) subsidy boosts. A major part of their public push is the claim that they are trying to save citizens money, though what they are actually demanding is that we shift the burden to future generations via increased federal debt, backed by the threat of demonizing Republicans as heartless for taking away any benefits. They emphasize the need to maintain the “great deal” the ACA offered.The problem with their...

While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion. MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago. “It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan....

President Donald Trump pulled the trigger on sanctions that European Union leaders and American neocons have long urged him to impose on Russia. An analyst for the Ron Paul Institute said this makes it “Trump’s war now.”The new round of sanctions are part of a one-two economic punch to Russia’s major source of revenue — energy. The EU also leveled sanctions. Making matters worse for the Russians are the British Storm Shadow cruise missile that hit a Russian rocket fuel plant earlier this week, indicating a recent upgrade in Ukrainian military capabilities and permissions for their use.The United States had...

The Winston Marshall sits down with Dr. Andrew Bostom, scholar of Islamic history and author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, for a sweeping conversation about the true history of jihad and the rise of Islamic antisemitism. Bostom explains how the origins of jihad trace back to Muhammad’s early campaigns in Medina, where religious mission turned to imperial conquest. Drawing from original Islamic sources — he reveals how violence, slavery, and subjugation became sacralised through theology, shaping centuries of conquest from Persia and India to the Middle East and North Africa. They explore the massacres...

President Trump is facing a growing political problem in America’s agricultural heartland, as he looks to import Argentinian beef to help bring down prices for U.S. grocery shoppers. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to quadruple low-tariff imports from Argentina, raising the quota to 80,000 metric tons per year. The news has enraged America’s beef farmers — and the Republican senators who represent them. “This isn’t the way to do it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Trump’s efforts to drive down prices. “It’s created a lot of uncertainty in that market. So I’m hoping that the White...

A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained out of view for more than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about $37 million), including fees. Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso’s partner and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the...

As the political establishment runs about with their hair on fire screaming about the upcoming horrors of a Mamdani win in the New York City mayor’s race, I laugh with delight.Include political and social “elites” and I agree 100%.First, lets get real. NYC, unfortunately like a lot of places in the country, is basically one-party rule. Therefore, whoever wins the primary has an enormous probability of winning the general election. The real fight is in the primary.Everyone knows this. Everyone. I’m not the one who didn’t take the communist Mamdani as a serious candidate and basically handed him the primary...

The EV revolution is getting stripped for parts. California’s green dream is dying by a thousand copper cuts. You can’t plug in progress when the streets are unplugging the city. VIDEOS OF CRIMES AT LINK.................... BRIEFING ... Every now and then, a story drops that’s so dripping in irony it feels like satire. Los Angeles, the city that prides itself on being the crown jewel of “green innovation,” has officially short-circuited its own electric dream. The city’s extravagant vision of “zero emissions” is being shorted out by something painfully fitting: the homeless are ripping the copper wiring straight out of...

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal letter to top California officials Thursday, warning them against any attempts to arrest or impede federal law enforcement officers enforcing immigration laws. The letter, addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom; state Attorney General Rob Bonta; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, stressed that federal agents and officers are carrying out lawful duties, and any interference by state or local officials is both "illegal and futile." The letter was sent after Pelosi, the former House Speaker, and Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday threatening to arrest...

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing. ICYMI: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued yet another reprieve for a crypto mogul who happens to have greatly enriched the Trump family’s net worth. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 to charges related to anti-money-laundering violations. Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” was released in September 2024. After months...

A Republican measure that would pay essential government employees faltered in the Senate, and the G.O.P. blocked a pair of Democratic bills to pay a broader swath of workers.Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation to pay federal employees who have been working without compensation during the government shutdown, thwarting Republicans’ latest effort to weaken their hand in the federal spending fight. The defeat was part of a series of failed partisan votes on the 23rd day of the government shutdown that underscored the depth of the prolonged impasse, with neither Republicans nor Democrats showing any indication that they planned to...

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli Consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military. The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs. The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. It comes after...

Popular protestant apologist “Cleave to Antiquity” has announced that he is becoming an Orthodox Christian, catching many of his recent collaborators by surprise. “Cleave to Antiquity” is the moniker of Pastor Benjamin Merritt, who serves at a non-denominational church in Holiday, Florida. There, Merritt leads apologetics classes “Defend the Faith,” which cover topics ranging from refuting Seventh-day Adventism to addressing Freemasonry and Catholicism. Notably, pastor Ben started his YouTube channel specifically to respond to claims of Eastern Orthodoxy and has been active in the apologetics circuit since then, laying down show after show exposing the errors of their beliefs. And...

U.S. President Donald Trump said he stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from fighting in Gaza, a war he said would have continued "for years" without his pressure on Netanyahu. “He would have just kept going,” Trump told TIME in a newly published interview. “It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. But I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped him.” Trump and Netanyahu have heaped praise on each other publicly. But Trump has also shown signs of frustration with Netanyahu's hardline approach, saying in his recent speech to the Knesset...

This 1958 Porsche-Diesel Junior 108L tractor is said to have been purchased by the seller out of Germany in 2020 and has been refurbished. The tractor is finished in red with beige wheels, and power is from an air-cooled 822cc diesel single paired with a dual-range three-speed manual transmission. Equipment includes headlights, turn signals, taillights, a hinged engine cover, dual power take-offs, a drawbar, front and rear pin hitches, a red and tan-painted steel seat, a fender-mounted jump seat, and a two-row cultivator. This Porsche-Diesel tractor is now offered in Pennsylvania with a bill of sale. Porsche-Diesel Junior tractors were...

Conservatives are flaming each other over a group chat and liberals are protesting "kings." Meanwhile, Christians in Nigeria are being hunted, murdered, and buried in silence. Video has now emerged of an October 14th mass funeral. Most of these wooden coffins hold children and their mothers. This heartbreaking mass burial of Christians - mostly children and their mothers, actually happened on the 14th. Nigeria will go down in history as the country that has drunken the most Christian blood in all of human history, with zero remorse. Loud shame pic.twitter.com/YTH8Wtcbtj— J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) October 21, 2025Take note of the...

One of America’s largest convenience store chains, Wawa, boasts a cult-like following, inspiring merch, tattoos, songs and even marriage proposals. Now Wawa is hoping to expand that powerful customer loyalty found in its core markets into the Midwest and South. The company — with deep roots in Philadelphia and South Jersey — has built a reputation on fresh, high-quality food and beverages — items not typically associated with gas stations. Its signature hoagies, Sizzli sandwiches and popular limited-time offers such as the Thanksgiving-inspired “Gobbler,” have made Wawa a destination.

The family of a 21-year-old Indian-origin truck driver, who has been accused of causing a semi-truck crash that left three people dead in the US, on Friday rubbished claims that he was intoxicated while driving, saying he was an ‘Amritdhari Sikh’ (baptised Sikh). Jashanpreet Singh allegedly rammed his truck into slow-moving traffic in Southern California on Tuesday, Fox News reported on Wednesday. -snip- Back home in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, Singh’s family is in shock after they learned about the incident. The family hails from Purana Shala village in Gurdaspur. Singh’s father Ravinder Singh on Friday trashed the allegations that his...