Free Republic

As Michigan Democrats enter the thick of a competitive Senate primary campaign, one candidate is trying to position himself as an outsider who wants to fix a broken system and take on the oligarchy. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a Bernie Sanders-endorsed former public health director who has been compared to New York City’s recently elected democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He wants Medicare for all, believes big corporations are to blame for the problems in government and the economy, and insists that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must be abolished. But El-Sayed doesn’t want to be labeled a leftist or a...

Wendy’s is entering a pivotal transition period in 2026. The company confirmed it will shut down hundreds of underperforming restaurants across the United States as leadership attempts to stabilize declining sales, improve profitability, and reposition the brand around affordability. Executives are calling this year a rebuilding phase, signaling both operational restructuring and strategic reset. The move reflects broader pressure across the fast-food industry, where inflation, shifting consumer behavior, and intense competition are forcing chains to rethink pricing, menus, and store footprints. For investors, Wendy’s restructuring raises key questions about near-term performance, long-term growth, and whether the company can regain market...

Global energy markets were put on alert after Iran temporarily restricted movement in parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most strategically important oil transit routes on Earth. The move came as Tehran simultaneously engaged in sensitive diplomatic talks with the United States over its nuclear program, underscoring how quickly geopolitical tensions in the Middle East can ripple through global markets. While the disruption was limited and short lived, investors, energy traders, and policymakers immediately focused on what the action signals about regional stability, oil supply risks, and the broader geopolitical chess match between Iran and the West....

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) sent a letter Monday to senators laying out a simple way the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act can be brought to the floor for a vote without “nuking” the filibuster. The SAVE Act would require both documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot. The legislation passed the House, but is stalling in the Senate, despite 50 Republican senators who co-sponsor or support the SAVE America Act, according to Roy’s letter, which was exclusively obtained by The Federalist. As Roy pointed out, Senator Majority Leader John Thune...

Washington state moved one step closer Monday to creating a personal income tax two years after the Legislature said it wouldn’t. Majority Democrats in the Senate advanced legislation on a 27-22 vote to tax households earning more than a million dollars. Passage of the bill followed a three-and-a-half hour debate on whether this will make for a fairer tax code or harm the economy and incite an exodus of Washington’s wealthy residents. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, who watched the vote from the wings of the Senate, was all smiles as she returned to her chamber. “This is a place...

The Supreme Court has announced that it will release opinions Friday in one or more argued cases, heightening anticipation amongst legal observers. While the justices typically issue opinions at 10 a.m. ET, the exact lineup remains under wraps until the day of release. At the forefront of speculation is a landmark challenge to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The case, stemming from a lower court ruling that struck down the tariffs as unlawful, was argued before the justices on Nov. 5, 2025. A decision against the administration could unlock billions in potential...

The news of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death lands hard today, because before he climbed the ranks of national politics, he spoke with rare moral clarity about the child in the womb. His early words cut straight to the truth about abortion and about the value of every human life. In 1973, he told Jet magazine, “Abortion is genocide. Anything growing is living… If you got the thrill to set the baby in motion and you don’t have the will to protect it, you’re dishonest…” He saw abortion as an attack on his own community and on the future of children...

California is increasingly importing gasoline through the Bahamas — a workaround to a 106-year-old US shipping law that forces domestic fuel shipments onto costly American vessels. More than 40% of the gasoline California imported in November was routed through the Caribbean hub, a record high which comes as drivers in the state are paying an average of $4.58 per gallon, the most in the country, according to Bloomberg News. Gasoline refined along the US Gulf Coast — primarily in Texas and Louisiana — is first shipped roughly 1,100 to 1,300 nautical miles to Freeport in the Bahamas, where it is...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate whose booming oratory and populist message propelled the Civil Rights Movement in the decades after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died Tuesday, his family said. He was 84. "Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that “our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices” and paid tribute to a man...

Explanation: Some comets are regular guests of our solar neighborhood; others come by only once, never to return. We won’t have another chance to see Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), which is currently making its way through the inner Solar System. The hyperbolic orbit of this comet indicates that it will likely become an interstellar traveler. Comet Wierzchoś is today near its closest approach to the Earth, passing roughly the same distance from the Earth as is the Sun. The featured 30-minute exposure was taken last week in Chile and shows a 5-degree long ion tail as well as three shorter...

A Florida man has been arrested after officials say he intentionally cut a teenager's neck. Sullivan Clarke, 13, survived the attack on Feb. 14 and is recovering from the injury, while the suspect remains behind bars. The backstory: The Clarke family was walking along Daytona Beach Boardwalk back to their hotel around 10 p.m. on Valentine's Day. They had spent the day at the Daytona International Speedway. Sullivan was on his phone, just feet away from his parents, when his mother, Lori, noticed a man walking toward him. In a split second, the man reached out and slashed the teenager's...

The crazed gunman who killed two people and critically injured three others at a high school hockey game in Rhode Island on Monday afternoon has been identified as a transgender dad who railed against anti-trans hate in family legal disputes and deranged social media rants. Robert Dorgan, 56 — who shot four family members and a family friend before he turned the gun on himself following the deadly rampage at the Pawtucket ice rink — used the female alias Roberta Esposito, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said during a press conference Monday night. “We have identified the person, the suspect,...

Thousands of Oregonians have signed a petition to get animal safety on the ballot this November, making it one step closer to an all-state ban. People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions Act (PEACE) is asking Oregonians to put wild animals at the forefront of the ballot this year, but they've acknowledged getting 50 percent of residents on board will be an uphill battle. 'We really want to make Oregon the first state to vote on something like this,' David Michelson, the act's chief petitioner, told KOIN. 'We want to get that conversation out there. So that we can...

Angry voters are storming the governors mansion in MN calling tim walz a traitor...

Ukrainian forces managed to liberate over 200 square kilometers of territory from the Russian troops last week, marking their most successful breakthrough in 2.5 years, AFP reports. According to the outlet, these gains are confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Between February 11 and 15, Ukrainian troops recaptured 201 square kilometers from Russian forces. AFP reports that Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of disruptions in Russian access to Starlink terminals.

President Joe Biden not only allowed 6 million to 10 million illegal aliens to walk across the border during his term — he also granted a “quiet amnesty” to nearly 1 million. We’re only learning this now, as the Department of Justice revealed Biden officials improperly “terminated,” “dismissed” or “closed” that many cases before the nation’s immigration tribunals. The tool for this deception was the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review — “EOIR,” pronounced like Winnie the Pooh’s sad donkey friend — which oversees deportation cases. Under Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Biden administration used EOIR to...

As high-stakes nuclear negotiations resumed Tuesday in Geneva under mounting U.S. military pressure, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taunted President Donald Trump and warned that American warships could be sent “to the bottom of the sea,” denouncing the United States as a “corrupt, oppressive empire” in decline. In a series of posts on Tuesday, Ali Khamenei published multiple statements on X escalating his rhetoric against the United States and directly challenging the President Trump and American military power. The remarks came just one day after Trump said he would be “indirectly” involved in the Geneva talks and warned that...

Moscow charges Jacques Tilly with “defaming Russian state organs” and threatens him with up to 10 years in prison, but Düsseldorf’s legendary satirist says he won’t be intimidated and is rolling out a new Putin wagon for Monday’s Rose Monday parade. Russia's prosecution of a German satirist fits a pattern of weaponizing its judiciary against foreign critics of Moscow's war in Ukraine, extending the Kremlin's domestic crackdown on free speech beyond its own borders. The 62-year-old sculptor, who faces Moscow's charges of "defaming Russian state bodies" and up to ten years in prison, sent all three floats through Dusseldorf's streets....

He was a con artist and a "race pimp." He was an opportunist, a race hustler, and a corporate shakedown expert who enriched himself by using funds earmarked for "the cause" for his own personal gain. He was an admirer of notorious racist and virulent antisemite Louis Farrakhan. Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday at the age of 84, was all of that. He was also one of the greatest orators of the 20th century, a groundbreaking political figure, one of the best political strategists in American history, and a towering figure in local Chicago Democratic politics. You can't look...

[Catholic/Anglican Caucus] Pope Leo told Anglicans ‘we are already one.’ So what about Latin Mass Catholics?Is claiming 'unity' when embracing external differences while punishing internal fidelity true Catholic unity?Recently, Pope Leo XIV told Anglicans at an ecumenical prayer service at the Vatican that “we are already one.” This statement, if taken seriously, is not a mere courteous or diplomatic remark. It is a theological claim with concrete theological implications.Words spoken by a pope imply principles about the nature of Christian unity, the Church, and the relationship between truth, worship, and communion. If ecclesial unity is affirmed with Anglicans – who...