Free Republic

Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her family have confirmed. Scales was best known for playing hotel manager Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering and domineering wife of Basil - played by John Cleese - in the classic British sitcom. The actress died "peacefully at home in London yesterday", her sons Samuel and Joseph said. They added that she was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died. Cleese paid tribute, describing Scales as "a really wonderful comic actress". He said: "Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect."

Will SNAP benefits not be issued in November due to the government shutdown? My cleaning lady, a cancer survivor receiving SNAP (she desperately needs it) just asked me, and I don't know. Does any FReeper definitively know?

Two women are facing a slew of charges after they allegedly brawled with Market Basket employees who accused them of shoplifting from a West Bridgewater grocery store Sunday. Police said Olivia Byrd, 37, of Quincy, and her sister Rahjane Byrd, 28, of Hyde Park, became argumentative when confronted around 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, screaming obscenities and assaulting two store employees.

Republican senators on Tuesday railed against the administration’s plans to import more beef during a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance.p> Officials said last week they would allow Argentina to ship four times as much beef to the US as it previously did at a lower tariff rate. Ranchers immediately panned the move, as did the lawmakers who represent them: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned “this isn’t the way to do it.”Vance sought to “explain what the administration is thinking” in Tuesday’s meeting, one Republican senator in attendance told Semafor.“There were a number that really expressed …...

Fantabulous timing for a book like this. A book, I say, that you cannot miss. A newly-discovered @DrSeuss manuscript that celebrates the United States is going be published next year, just in time for America’s 250th birthday. Featuring the @CatInTheHat, "SING THE 50 UNITED STATES!" helps teach readers the names of all the states. 🇺🇸https://t.co/AetyDXJkG8 pic.twitter.com/rO5XkIZZI1— Ajit Pai (@AjitPai) October 29, 2025Yes, adult children, we're getting a brand-new Dr. Seuss book in the summer of 2026, written by the man himself, Theodor Geisel! The manuscript was discovered earlier this year at the Geisel Library at UC San Diego. The text...

The Free Press cofounder is reportedly trying to lure some big names in TV news, as more changes are expected in the CBS newsroom Bret Baier. Anderson Cooper. Scott Jennings. Some of the most prominent — and loudest — voices in TV news are apparently on Bari Weiss’ radar as the Free Press founder tries to make her mark in her first month as CBS News’ editor in chief. As Weiss navigates her first month at CBS News, she’s reportedly considered various household names to revamp some of CBS News’ programming. The talent would ostensibly help Weiss fulfill her mission...

The FBI is reupping its call for information about an unsolved case that has vexed the agency for years: the planting of bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters the night before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The agency released several new security camera videos of the still-unidentified suspect on Wednesday, offering up a more complete visual timeline of the person's movements on foot in Washington, D.C., both before and after the pipe bombs were placed. The previously unreleased tape includes several videos of the person walking toward the DNC headquarters, where a bomb...

A misconfiguration at Microsoft Azure caused massive, widespread outages today starting around noon ET. https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status for details. https://downdetector.com/ was on fire. It's getting better.

U.S. — The American Medical Association announced the long battle with American obesity had finally come to an end thanks to EBT benefits running out amidst the ongoing government shut down. "The government being shut down is the best thing that could ever have happened to the health of the American people," said Dr. Anton Scout, a pediatrician and AMA board member. "People can't afford to get fat anymore." EBT benefits are designed to assist lower-income families with basic needs like buying soda, paying for the Internet, and going to zoos. The program has long been criticized for encouraging emotional...

For the first time, a team of scientists has found a “statistically significant” correlation between historical UAP reports and nuclear weapons tests. The researchers analyzed historical photographs taken by the Palomar Observatory in California, and they uncovered a number of mysterious bright spots in the night sky.

Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat is a deceptively simple image of a real-life murder. But a closer look at David's iconic painting reveals the political messages contained within.Great art makes us do a double take. It makes us look, then look again. Take The Death of Marat, 1793, perhaps the most famous crime scene depiction of the past 250 years. At first glance, the portrayal of the murdered body of the French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, stabbed to death in his bath on 13 July 1793, could hardly be simpler. The slain journalist, who had agitated for the execution of...

While a U.S.-China nuclear war is not inevitable due to mutual deterrence, the risk of “accidental” escalation is rising. China’s rapid nuclear expansion—adding 100 warheads annually since 2023—erodes stability. A future conventional war, fought at “blinding speed” with cyber and space weapons, could lead to a tragic miscalculation. A U.S. conventional strike on a “dual-use” Chinese target might be misinterpreted as a disarming first strike, prompting a nuclear “use or lose” response.

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” the website reads. This USDA is one of several federal agencies that have displayed messages seeking to...

The Trump administration has released a preview of the available plans sold through Obamacare marketplaces in 30 states, giving Americans who buy their own health insurance a first look at just how much prices would go up.Insurers have increased rates significantly for next year — an average of about 30 percent in the states where the federal government manages markets, and an average of 17 percent in states that run their own markets, according to a new analysis from KFF, the health research group.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its second straight interest rate cut, a widely expected move that came despite little recent visibility on the economy due to the government shutdown. In addition to the rate move, the Fed announced that it would be ending the reduction of its asset purchases – a process known as quantitative tightening – on Dec 1. By a 10-2 vote, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate to a range of 3.75%-4%. Governor Stephen Miran again cast a dissenting vote, preferring the Fed move more quickly with a half-point...

It turns out that the rank corruption that plagued the Biden FBI was worse than most Americans realized. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee released a bevy of records related to the agency’s Biden-era “Arctic Frost” inquiry. That probe ultimately became Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector lawfare against Donald Trump. As The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland summarized, these new documents show how the Biden FBI “used the Arctic Frost investigation to target Republicans in key battleground states, raising serious questions concerning whether the Democrat-led DOJ plotted with state prosecutors to bring criminal charges against Trump supporters.”What’s particularly notable about the newly...

Those of us who came of age during the Cold War remember such movies as 'Testament' and 'On The Beach', which depicted the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and USSR. We also remember real-world events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the downing of Flight 007 over Korea in 1983.Are we naive enough to believe that just because the USSR no longer exists, today's Russia no longer possesses a stockpile of 6500+ nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them anywhere on the planet?

First off, I want to be told how I am wrong. For many decades, when there was a surplus to the Social Security contributions this money was moved to the general fund and spent. In place of this spent money are $2.7 trillion of U.S. Treasury Notes in the Social Security Trust Fund Reserve. To redeem these treasury notes that merely represent the spent surplus Social Security contributions new money must be collect from taxpayers or federal deficit spending exercised. The $2.7 trillion of U.S. Treasury Notes cannot be used to demonstrate the solvency of Social Security which is often...

Brutal layoffs are hitting CBS News after its parent company announced a plan to axe more than 2,000 staff across the organization. New editor-in-chief Bari Weiss acknowledged the cuts on the network's morning editorial call Wednesday, Semafor's Max Tani reported. Weiss called it a 'enormously difficult day' for the network, according to Tani. David Ellison, the chairman of CBS News parent Paramount, broke the news about the companywide layoffs in a note to staff Wednesday morning. 'In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization,' he wrote. 'In others, we are phasing out roles that are...

Oh, this is funny…. [SOURCE]Think big picture. Think strategically, like Donald Trump. He’s trying to push Canada into a desperation play where they strike trade deals with China, knowing he’s holding a USA deal with Chairman Xi in his back pocket that will undercut Canada completely. Watch.The Free Trade Agreements being made for the USA all over Southeast and Central Asia are stunning. After over $500 billion in deals made in Japan, President Trump and team now head to South Korea.