Free Republic

Members of the screenwriters union overwhelmingly ratified a four-year agreement with Hollywood studios and streamers on Friday, bringing an end to a surprisingly smooth and quick process that brought a prolonged strike the last time around. Union leaders said 90% voted to approve the deal struck between the Writers Guild of America West, Writers Guild of America East and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Studios will now shift to negotiations with actors and directors. Leaders of the unions emphasized gains in health coverage. “In the face of industry contraction and runaway health care cost inflation, writers were able...

April 30, 2011 turned out to be one of Washington’s weirder nights. The president of the United States had just secretly ordered the raid that would take out Sept. 11 attack mastermind Osama bin Laden and he was about to deliver jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But it was the barbs that President Barack Obama and headliner Seth Meyers hurled at real estate mogul-turned-reality TV star Donald Trump that created a political narrative that lives on: jokes = presidential revenge campaign. (For the record, Trump has said he had a good time. He told The Post’s Karen...

Mullally will meet the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics during a four-day visit starting Saturday, her first abroad since being enthroned last month as the Church of England's top cleric. The audience comes 60 years after a historic meeting in 1966 between then archbishop Michael Ramsey and pope Paul VI, the first at that level since the Church of England was created in the 16th century, when king Henry VIII broke with Rome. Relations have been steadily improving since although in 2016 their successors noted "new disagreements", particularly on the ordination of the women – making Mullally's visit...

More Americans are choosing to walk away from difficult relationships instead of working through them, a new survey has revealed. Nearly two in five Americans — 38% — say they have gone "no contact" with a friend or family member in the past year, according to a survey of 2,000 adults conducted in March by Talker Research for the therapy platform Talkspace... Younger Americans were far more likely than older generations to report cutting someone off. The survey found that 60% of Gen Z respondents had gone "no contact," compared to 50% of millennials, 38% of Gen X and 20%...

The Mexican government says two US agents who died last weekend in a car crash had not been authorised to operate in the country.The officials, who reportedly worked for the CIA, had taken part in a raid on suspected drug labs in the northern state of Chihuahua before their vehicle skidded off a mountain road and exploded.Following an investigation ordered by President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's security ministry said that "neither had formal accreditation to participate in operational activities" and that federal authorities had not been informed of their presence.The incident comes amid at-times fraught relations between Mexico and the US...

JPPI says Beijing’s escalating rivalry with the US, alignment with Muslim nations, and adoption of anti-Western narratives is changing its previously positive attitude to JewsAntisemitism is rising in China, a country previously considered almost free of anti-Jewish hatred, according to a new research report by the Jewish People Policy Institute. Anti-Jewish tropes have moved from marginal online spaces into official media, academia, and state-sanctioned discourse, often through a deliberate and complete blurring of distinctions between Israel, Jews, and Judaism, the study found. Update: After publication of this article, the Chinese Embassy in Israel firmly rejected the findings in the study,...

California drivers could be seeing lower gas prices once a new mega-pipeline project reaches completion, flooding the state with the much needed black gold. In a recent joint announcement, Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan, Inc. said its Western Gateway Pipeline project was moving forward following the closure in the state of multiple refineries. “Customer response during the open season underscores the importance of Western Gateway in addressing long‑term refined products logistics needs in the region,” Phillips 66 Chairman and CEO Mark Lashier said. Once fully operational, the massive pipeline will stretch from St. Louis, MO. to California, and be able...

San Francisco health authorities are raising urgent concerns after a powerful synthetic opioid was detected in the city for the first time, and is already being tied to a fatal overdose earlier this month. Officials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health say the drug, known as cychlorphine, surfaced in a counterfeit pill, prompting alarm over its extreme potency and unpredictable presence in the illicit drug market. “We believe it is more potent than fentanyl. It was found we believe in someone using a counterfeit pill,” Daniel Tsai, director San Francisco Department of Public Health told ABC7. Law enforcement...

World map of gasoline prices…..Germany 9.36, France 8.80, Russia 3.30, Hong Kong 15.36…..

In the summer of 1905, two men held a private conversation in Tokyo that the world wouldn't find out about for nearly two decades. No treaty was signed. No announcement was made. But in that room, the United States quietly handed an entire nation over to colonial rule — and set in motion a chain of events that would end at Pearl Harbor forty years later. This is the story of the Taft-Katsura Agreement, the secret deal that validated Japanese imperial ambition at the exact moment it needed validation most. We cover the Meiji Restoration and Japan's transformation from feudal...

Black women have a higher murder rate than white men.

iamyesyouareno @iamyesyouareno · 10h Black privilege is real.

The court that paused a 2023 law allowing state and local police officers to arrest migrants has now ruled that the measure is legal, a decision likely to be appealed.A federal appeals court cleared the way on Friday for Texas to act on an expansive 2023 state law that empowers state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross illegally from Mexico, the latest development in a long-running case that could have far-reaching implications for immigration enforcement in the United States.In a 10-to-7 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing...

Former Vice President Al Gore is still making climate doom predictions, 20 years after his warnings from An Inconvenient Truth proved false — this time invoking the science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow for a rapt Hollywood audience. Gore joined the first-ever Sustainability in Entertainment Honors event Thursday, organized by The Hollywood Reporter and the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, for a keynote conversation with The West Wing star Bradley Whitford. The pair reminisced about the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, conspicuously omitting its failed prophecy that Earth’s ecosystems would reach a “tipping point” of no return, thanks to human industrial...

Keir Starmer has vowed he can win the next election and that it will be a battle between Labour and Reform. More revelations about Peter Mandelson’s failed security vetting had raised concerns among Labour MPs, who are also worried about the May elections. However, speaking with The Times, the embattled PM insisted Labour could defy the odds and turn things around. Asked about winning the general election, he said: “I think we can. I think it’s going to be a very important general election. It’s likely to be Labour versus Reform. An election where the defining question is, what is...

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been indicted for fraud and is accused of having funded organizers, supervised racist posts, and coordinated transportation to the Unite the Right rally in 2017.An explosive new indictment was handed down against the Southern Poverty Law Center this week, accusing the storied civil rights organization of 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and money laundering. The Department of Justice is alleging that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million from donors to leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, Unite the Right, and the Nazi...

Amid the ruins and the devastated homes, a new hope for a better future arose in Gaza after more than two years of war PUBLISHED: Sat 25 Apr 2026, 5:46 PM UPDATED: Sat 25 Apr 2026, 5:54 PM By: Yasmin Hussein Add as a preferred source on Google Share: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp “Gaza deserves joy” read a large banner at a mass wedding for 300 Palestinian couples in the Gaza Strip, held after more than two years of war that reduced much of the enclave to rubble. More than 72,000 Gazans have been killed since the war started in...

French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested that Europe needs to strengthen its defence posture, claiming that China, Russia, and the United States are all opposed to the interests of the old continent. On a visit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Friday, President Macron continued his push for Europe to re-arm itself in light of the supposed unreliability of the United States under President Trump, who has himself long called for Europe to pay more for its own defence. Nevertheless, Macron yet again attempted to cast such a rearmament as being contrary to the interests of the...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing mounting backlash after effectively shutting down momentum to eliminate the filibuster—despite renewed pressure from Donald Trump and a growing number of Republicans who say the rule is crippling the party’s agenda. Behind closed doors this week, Thune urged Republicans to stop even talking about ending the filibuster, siding with moderates who want to preserve the 60 vote threshold that has repeatedly blocked conservative legislation. That position is now drawing fire from within his own party. Trump has been crystal clear: get rid of the filibuster and start passing laws. “I say, end the...

In a democracy, citizens must have the right to express their frustration with those who govern them. It’s not looking good for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Plagued by dismal approval ratings, he has also acquired a reputation for being thin-skinned, censorious, and authoritarian. Last week, the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg ordered Merz’s office—the Federal Chancellery—to disclose information on proceedings related to alleged insults against him, including which public prosecutor’s offices are investigating the cases and under which file numbers the proceedings are being conducted. In total, this involves approximately 300 cases. The news caused a stir and has the...