Free Republic

Wholesale prices rose at a faster-than-expected pace in January, countering hopes that inflation was easing, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The Producer Price Index which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.8%, more than the 0.6% gain in December and well ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 0.3%. On an all-items basis, the headline PPI rose 0.5%, also above the forecast for 0.3% and 0.1 percentage point more than the prior month.

Just as in France, the Left is widely seen as romantic while the Right is viewed as abhorrent. No one knows who they were or what they were doing: Just Stop Oil vandalizing Stonehenge in 2024.The recent brutal killing of the nationalist student Quentin Deranque in Lyon by suspected far-left ‘anti-fascists’ has provoked serious questions in France regarding the inconsistencies between reactions to left-wing and right-wing extremism. Also, various journalistic outlets in the United Kingdom have pored over the tragic tale, some with the tacit perspective that this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Blighty. While such lethal left-leaning violence...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20Imagine a wife asked her husband to go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of potatoes. Being literal, he went to the store, found a pound of potatoes, picked them up, set them back down, and returned home. When his wife asks where the potatoes are, he explains that they’re still at the store. Confused, she asks why he didn’t bring them home, and he responds,...

Russian forces unleashed a devastating overnight assault on Ukraine, hitting military-industrial sites, energy infrastructure, and UAV launch areas with precision strikes. Over 1,100 Ukrainian troops were killed in just 24 hours, alongside dozens of armoured vehicles, artillery pieces, and electronic warfare systems. From Sumy to Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia, Russian battlegroups advanced relentlessly, crumbling defensive lines and crippling logistics. Air defences were overwhelmed, morale is under siege, and Kyiv’s ability to resist is being systematically dismantled as Russia claims victory after victory.

Apple is launching new tools to comply with the growing number of age-verification laws both in the U.S. and abroad. As part of the changes, Apple will block the downloads of apps rated 18+ in Brazil, Australia, and Singapore, while also rolling out other features to comply with laws in Utah and Louisiana in the U.S. The company informed developers on Tuesday that it’s expanding its set of “age assurance” tools, including an updated Declared Age Range API now available for beta testing. These tools allow developers to obtain a user’s age range without gaining access to the user’s personal...

LONDON (AP) — London police said they caught a vandal red-handed — or at least with red paint — after he defaced a statue Friday of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in central London with pro-Palestinian graffiti. The 38-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage for allegedly painting “Zionist war criminal” on the plinth beneath the 12-foot statute of Churchill leaning on a cane that faces Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police said. “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine” were also painted in red on the bronze sculpture. The Dutch group...

Advocating for diverse viewpoints on campuses is now apparently akin to saying “All Lives Matter,” or pushing a supposedly sinister Make America Great Again plot. That’s according to two recent op-eds, penned by professors at Stanford and Johns Hopkins, opposing efforts to get professors and students with different opinions onto campus. Academia has lost public trust precisely because anyone not of the far-left is admonished on campuses. Accusing proponents of viewpoint diversity of being Trumpy conspiracists certainly doesn’t help. Any professor who truly cares about academia should want more views on campus, regardless of their own politics. “It’s profoundly anti-intellectual,...

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will take up a major climate change lawsuit targeting the energy industry — a case that could determine the future of similar lawsuits filed by left-wing states and municipalities across the country. The Court agreed to review Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. They granted the hearing after the Colorado Supreme Court allowed Boulder County’s state-law claims to proceed, rejecting arguments from energy producers that the lawsuit is preempted by federal law. The decision comes amid a wave of nearly three dozen lawsuits brought by leftist jurisdictions seeking to...

North Korea hacked into the computers of a Hollywood studio in 2014, and the company's former executive now blames himself—or his own childhood—for okaying a movie that angered the dictator in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un. "Curiously, I never really got angry at the North Koreans, on the assumption that if you kick the hornet's nest and get stung, you can't really blame the hornets," the former CEO of Sony Entertainment, Michael Lynton, writes in an excerpt that appeared in the Wall Street Journal of his new book, From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn't Own You. In...

Ultra-rich Americans were forced to flee by boat when one of Mexico’s top tourist destinations turned into a cartel hellscape following the killing of a murderous drug kingpin. Wealthy vacationers escaped Puerto Vallarta via the ocean when its airport shut down and narco-terrorists set up roadblocks across the state of Jalisco this week. An insider told The California Post that people were hiring well-armed mercenaries or security teams to smuggle them to the port, where they chartered vessels up to Cabos before flying back to the US. Mexico descended into a war zone when special forces killed cartel boss Nemesio...

Forget "Star Wars Night." Forget bobblehead giveaways. Forget throwback jerseys and $1 hot dog promos. The Atlanta Hawks have decided that if you're going to do a theme night, you might as well fully embrace your city's lore. On March 16, the Hawks will host "Magic City Monday," a one-night collaboration honoring Magic City — which the team's official press release delicately describes as Atlanta's "iconic cultural institution." The rest of us call it a strip club. Because that's what it is. This isn't a halfhearted gimmick, either. The Hawks are going all in, bringing in rapper T.I. for a...

Beloved; America, which was founded during the Philadelphia Church Age (from about 1600 AD to about 1850 AD - the church of the “open door” – Rev 3:7-13), was established on the bedrock of natural and moral laws and foremost acknowledged the RIGHTEOUS Person of Almighty God at its founding. Beloved, just read the Declaration of Independence, our nation's precious birth certificate, and see for yourself how Almighty God was included! Oh, how the haters love to slander our founding and twist the truth of its inception! In the fullness of time, at the end of world history, some 4000...

Two heroic off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers patrolling in Minnesota saved the life of a four-year-old boy who drowned after falling into a hotel pool. The young boy’s panicked mother approached the off-duty officers last Friday as they were eating at a restaurant in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth hoping they could help save her unresponsive son. The officers jumped to the rescue. The child had been under water for over five minutes after jumping into the pool to find a toy, the local police department said. The agents performed CPR on the child for several minutes before...

Greenpeace is fighting for its life in North Dakota's court system, where a judge has decided to order the environmental group to pay an expected $345 million to an energy company whose Dakota Access oil pipeline construction drew protests nearly a decade ago. A jury last year found three Greenpeace entities liable for numerous claims and awarded more than $660 million to Energy Transfer in damages, which Judge James Gion cut nearly in half. Once the order he promised Tuesday is formally entered, both sides are expected to appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court. The $64 billion, Dallas-based energy...

Democrats desperate to take the wind out of President Donald Trump's sails and torpedo his State of the Union address Tuesday with heckles, boycotts, and low-energy critiques may be upset to learn that the Americans who tuned in were overwhelmingly receptive to the speech and its contents. A CNN poll found that a near-supermajority of "speech-watchers" said that Trump's policies will move the country in the right direction. David Chalian, the network's political director, told talking head Jake Tapper, "64% say Trump's policies would move the country in the right direction, 36% say the wrong direction." "Look at the growth...

‘I hope they put Jack Smith behind bars for this!’ said Mark Davis, one of many conservative victims of the special counsel and ‘Arctic Frost’. The people who cheered on Jack Smith’s corrupt investigations into Donald Trump and his allies are suddenly silent after a bombshell report detailing the Biden FBI’s politically-charged spying ops. Reuters this week reported the Democrat-led FBI subpoenaed records of phone calls made by current FBI Director Kash Patel and Susie Wiles, Trump’s campaign manager who now serves as his White House chief of Staff, in 2022 and 2023 when they were private citizens. Two anonymous...

Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee implored his colleagues Wednesday to help him identify his fellow conservative senators who do not support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. The comment comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned earlier Wednesday that the Republican conference in the upper chamber was not unified on the prospect of using the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE Act. "Not unified on using the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act?" Lee posted on X. "It’s time to *get* unified. We can’t afford the consequences of inaction. GOP senators who aren’t supportive should...

Four people were stabbed and killed at a home where an elderly woman had tried to obtain a domestic violence protective order against her son. Washington state police responded to a report that a 32-year-old man was violating a protective order on Tuesday when they realized the order had never been served, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. They rushed to serve the order against him, but as they were on the way, other calls came in about a man stabbing people at the same address near Tacoma. When they arrived, they found that he had allegedly stabbed four...

@Nigel_Farage Reform has today reported the many cases of ‘family voting’ to the Electoral Commission and Greater Manchester Police. What was witnessed yesterday is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas. If this is what was happening at polling stations, just imagine the potential for coercion with postal votes. If action isn’t taken now, then we will ensure it is after the next General Election.

Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) isn’t just leading in the Texas Democrat U.S. Senate primary anymore. She’s pulling away, and she’s doing it as early voting is already underway. The latest statewide survey, conducted Feb. 2 through Feb. 16 among likely Democrat primary voters, shows the Dallas congresswoman expanding her edge over state Rep. James Talarico. Early voting began Feb. 17 and runs through Feb. 27 ahead of the March primary, which means this shift is happening while ballots are being cast. “Crockett leads Talarico 56 percent to 44 percent among likely Democratic primary voters statewide.” Twelve points. That is...