Free Republic

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Service (CAL OES) is working with local agencies after an earthquake swarm struck near Brawley in Imperial County over the weekend, with the strongest earthquake reported as a magnitude 4.7. As of 12 p.m. Sunday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) had recorded 354 earthquakes that struck in Imperial County, which started at 5:40 p.m. on Friday with several microearthquakes. Hundreds of earthquakes cause light to no damage Saturday night into Sunday morning in Imperial County in Southern California (USGS)Residents near Brawley reported feeling strong shaking from the 4.7 magnitude earthquake that struck at...

Spencer Pratt is officially not shying away from comparisons to Donald Trump, as the reality TV star-turned-mayoral-candidate on Sunday reposted a CNN segment in which one of the president’s former communications aides likened his campaign to Trump 2016. “I think Spencer Pratt could be the next mayor of Los Angeles, and I’ll tell you why,” said Caroline Sunshine, who worked on Trump’s 2024 run. “The last time a reality television star who was politically incorrect ran for office, he ended up all the way at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And Spencer Pratt is reminding me of the saying, ‘First they ignore...

The founder of an organic baby formula company has branded Gavin Newsom’s plan to offer free diapers to all new babies born in the state as “grifting nonsense.” Newsom announced the Golden State Start initiative on Friday, a partnership with nonprofit Baby2Baby that will give every newborn delivered in participating hospitals 400 diapers for free.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said Democrats alienated young male voters by increasingly portraying men as "part of the problem" during a wide-ranging discussion with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and Donna Brazile about masculinity, parenting and the Democratic Party's struggles with working-class men. "Well, without a doubt, though you know there's part of the Democratic Party became more and more anti-men or describing that they were part of the problem, or they have toxic traits," Fetterman said during the discussion on "Real Time with Bill Maher." "And that's why there's been such a big, big migration away from the Democratic Party...

Sen. John Cornyn reposted content from the X account “Republicans against Trump” on Friday, sharing a post featuring his criticism of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as the two Republicans are in a Senate primary battle. Cornyn's repost included a message from the anti-Trump account quoting his remarks about Paxton. “I will be direct with Texas voters: Ken Paxton is unfit for this office,” the post stated. The message criticized Paxton, saying, “By every standard that matters, Crooked Ken has failed the character test. The corruption. The legal baggage. The years of self-serving distractions while Texas needed serious leadership.” The...

The body of one of two US soldiers who went missing last week during a training exercise in Morocco has been recovered, the US Army announced on Sunday. The army has identified the soldier as 27-year-old First Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Jr, a platoon leader and air defence artillery officer from Richmond, Virginia. A Moroccan military search team found Key's body in the water along the shoreline within about a mile of the cliffs where both soldiers went missing on 2 May. US and Moroccan forces are using ground, air and maritime assets to continue their search for the other...

A Chicago man who told investigators he works as a security guard for prostitutes chained a customer to a metal pole in a basement apartment for a week, forced him to liquidate his stock portfolio and withdraw more than $32,000 in cash from two banks, then beat him so severely he suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, according to prosecutors. While the victim was confined in the apartment, one of the assailant’s sex workers, who was also allegedly beaten with a two-by-four while locked in the basement, assured the victim he would get used to the attacks, prosecutors said....

North Korea’s constitution now calls for an immediate retaliatory nuclear missile strike if leader Kim Jong Un is killed by a foreign power. The change, believed to have been adopted earlier this year, was made soon after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was wiped out in the US-Israeli strikes, the Telegraph reported. “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the revised Article 3 of North Korea’s nuclear-policy law now reads. The revision, likely agreed on by the Supreme People’s...

President Trump’s top economic adviser claimed Sunday that economic growth this year could clock in north of an explosive 6%, close to triple the expectations of most mainstream forecasts. White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett theorized that the recent capital-spending surge in March, which appears to be driven in part by an artificial intelligence-related investment bonanza from corporations, will turbocharge growth. “I think we really could be looking at numbers north of 4, north of 5, north of even 6 because there’s so much capital stock growth right now,” Hassett told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked about...

The incredible story of Yang Kyoungjong is all the more phenomenal because, while there's very little proof that he ever existed, our need to believe that he did has been so urgent that facts seem to matter very little. But that hasn't stopped at least three reputable historians from telling Yang Kyoungjong's story with confidence, and the premise of his life even became the basis for My Way, a multimillion-dollar South Korean action movie, albeit one embroidered with its own fictions. Yang Kyoungjong's story begins just after D-Day when, in an interview made for historian Stephen Ambrose years later, an...

The billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Bucks was allegedly blackmailed by a Chinese-born divorcée after he hooked up with her — and she demanded half his fortune and hid compromising material in a box of sanitary pads, according to federal prosecutors. Wesley Edens, 64, who is also the co-founder of Wall Street investment firm Fortress Investment Group and owner of the Aston Villa soccer team, had sex with Changli “Sophia” Luo, 46, after she slid into his LinkedIn DMs in 2022, according to federal prosecutors and the Wall Street Journal reported. After Edens, who was newly divorced, had a night...

Support for a 2028 presidential run for former Vice President Kamala Harris is dwindling, another bombshell report has revealed. Political allies and former aides have all shied away from a full-throated endorsement of the failed 2024 presidential nominee, and now it seems her financial backers and sponsors feel the same way, the Los Angeles Times reported. In scathing interviews from former fundraisers and donors who gave more than $1 million to her 2024 campaign, many seemed to look away rather than embrace her as a contender.

The U.S. has built roughly 50 miles of primary border wall along the southern border, 5.5 miles of buoy barriers in the water and 13.2 miles of secondary barriers, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott told Congress on Thursday (16 April 2026)... ...Scott told Congress the effort is now "ahead of schedule and we're below budget." (Planned to complete before the end of President Trump's current term - already fully funded) By the numbers: The agency anticipated that it could build about 10 miles of wall per week (at peak pace), according to an interview with the Washington Examiner....

Saturday Night Live’s cold open pulled in Matt Damon and saw President Donald Trump’s allies sharing some drinks and drowning their sorrows. Damon revived a performance for SNL this weekend and a biting cold open took aim at three men whose alcohol use and alleged abuse has made headlines: Supreme Court Justice Brett Kananaugh, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. “Hey, can I just say we are both kicking ***, right now,” Damon’s Kavanaugh told Colin Jost’s Hegseth while sitting at a bar. “Dude, can you believe I just started a war?” Jost’s Hegseth said. Damon’s...

Today, the nation’s primary threat has shifted from the Soviet Union to China, which has an economy, military, and set of ambitions that make it a fundamentally different and more menacing adversary. Within that competition, China’s construction of a fleet and military designed to challenge the U.S. Navy has degraded U.S. command of the sea to its lowest point in 80 years, undermining the transoceanic Navy’s strategic concept and ability to contribute to national policy.A new doctrine is taking shape, the theory of the Panoceanic Navy, shifting away from projecting power ashore and toward reestablishing command of the sea to...

You really have lost the plot. If Gordon Brown is the answer what was the question? Andrew Neil roasts Starmer's latest appointment:Keir Starmer: "Today I’m pleased to appoint @GordonBrown as my Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation. As Britain’s longest-serving Chancellor, Gordon is well placed to work with our international allies..."Original post on X

With the recusal of ancient Governor Janet Mills—she was just too normal to compete in today's slippery-slope-to-totalitarianism Donkey Party—Maine’s Democrats are about to nominate a guy who generates more punchlines than a Don Rickles roast. He’s really got it all. He’s stupid, offensive, a spoiled rich kid, a commie, and so much more. His schtick is that he’s just a working-class oysterman, a stubble-bearded blue-collar guy who’s going to give all those billionaires who are oppressing Mainers what for. But when anybody thinks of him, they’re thinking of him as Herr Oberstoysterfuhrer. ... That’s Excuse Number One, that he’s a...

A congressional map model making the rounds on social media this weekend is turning heads for one very simple reason: it shows Republicans winning 280 House seats. The map, shared by conservative commentator Eric Daugherty on May 10, applies compact, population-based district boundaries across the country without partisan gerrymandering. The result is a staggering 124-seat gap between Republicans and Democrats. Under the model, Democrats hold just 156 seats, with zero tossups. That is the kind of map that would give Republicans a governing majority so large it would reshape what is possible in Congress. 🚨 HOLY CRAP. A new Congressional...

Think of the Declaration of Independence as the nation’s report card. How well do we live up to it?The Declaration of Independence is a short document, not much longer than this essay. Even so, it contains three ideas that shocked the world in 1776: Each of us is born equal; God grants us all inviolable rights, including the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and “We the People” have the right to govern ourselves. Those three ideas represent America’s creed. When Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration in rooms he rented from a Philadelphia bricklayer, few in Europe...

Explanation: Orion never had a sword like this. As Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) heads out of the inner Solar System, it is putting on quite a show for long exposure cameras. Currently seen toward the constellation of Orion the Hunter, the distant Orion Nebula is visible on the upper right. Comet R3 PanSTARRS is now showing two distinct tails: a short dust tail pointing toward the top of the image and a long and wavy ion tail trailing off toward the upper left. The ion tail points away from the Sun and glows blue from excited carbon monoxide. Large particles...