Free Republic

POLLS have opened in the crucial Makerfield by-election that could see Andy Burnham return to parliament to challenge Sir Keir Starmer. Andy Burnham is standing for Labour in the constituency and is set for a hard fight against Reform UK‘s Robert Kenyon. Polling stations opened at 7am this morning and will close at 10pm tonight ahead of the all important count. A Burnham win followed by a victory in a subsequent leadership challenge could see the Labour government lurch to the left with Burnham in the top job. Makerfield MP Josh Simons stood aside after Labour’s crushing results in the...

Anger and anxiety filled a packed town hall Tuesday as hundreds of Altadena residents pushed back against proposals that could transform single-family neighborhoods devastated by the Eaton Fire. Nearly 450 people attended the meeting, where residents learned that 49% of properties sold in the burn zone since the wildfire have been purchased by developers, a revelation that drew an audible gasp from the crowd. The debate centers on California housing laws, including SB 9 and SB 1123, which can allow developers to build up to 10 housing units, as high as three stories, on a single residential lot. Residents warned...

The Obama Presidential Center was billed as a lasting legacy to former President Barack Obama, and its construction was touted as an ambitious model built with aggressive goals for minority-owned and local businesses. But now, some of the very subcontractors who helped build the 19.3-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side say they are facing financial ruin as they race to recover millions of dollars they claim remain unpaid ahead of the center's grand opening Friday. Overall construction costs were reported to be $830 million in 2021, and have likely climbed past the $1 billion mark. A Fox News Digital investigation...

President Donald Trump is making life almost impossible for Senate Republicans — and these days fewer of them are willing to just let it slide. Some lawmakers that were once happy to brush off impulsive and disruptive behavior by saying they hadn’t seen the president’s social media posts or that it was just “Trump being Trump” are increasingly willing to speak out against what they view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach. The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday that upended GOP hopes of quickly confirming a new...

I’m learning to never underestimate the sores of racial discontent. have now written two essays in which the blacks introduced new social media trends to protest the Karmelo Anthony verdict. The first was where they would randomly attack and violently assault unwitting white people and accuse them of being involved with the “jury” or “jury selection.” The second involved them using AI to photoshop themselves into a picture of Austin Metcalf’s grave, making it look like they were urinating all over it. Now, for the third time in two weeks, they’ve got a new one, and this one is called...

Republican senators are growing tired of the White House throwing curveballs into things they want to get done. For example, many Republican senators want a now-lapsed surveillance law that allows intelligence agencies to spy on foreign threats to be reauthorized. The problem? They need Democratic support to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. President Trump has now twice thwarted efforts to win over that support. The first time he named Bill Pulte, the controversial head of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who had no intelligence experience, as acting director of national intelligence. Democrats and Republicans alike howled in protest. Trump...

President Trump’s scuttling of a hearing to review his pick for director of national intelligence has once again plunged Congress into chaos over who will lead the intelligence community and how lawmakers can renew the nation’s lapsed spy powers. The Senate spent the morning ping-ponging over whether members would even hear from nominee Jay Clayton, who serves as a U.S. attorney. Trump said the hearing was canceled, but Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an ally of the president, initially rebuffed him, saying the hearing would still go on. Cotton later backtracked and announced the “regrettable” decision that the...

The U.S. Labor Department told all 50 states on Wednesday that they need to get serious about fighting fraud and waste in unemployment insurance, or else they won’t get more money for those programs from the federal government. It’s the latest example of President Donald Trump ’s administration scrutinizing potential theft or misuse in state programs that get funding from Washington. While the letters went to all governors, the public announcement about them focused on issues in three states where Democrats are in charge. That’s been the case for many similar announcements from the Republican administration. “We are officially putting...

Republican senators reportedly criticized Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for pushing for the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, with Republican senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Kennedy (R-LA) challenging “his strategy.” In a post on X, Andrew Desiderio, a senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, shared that one source described the criticism of Lee’s push to pass the SAVE America Act as a “pile-on.” Desiderio also reported that Cornyn and Kennedy “complained” that President Donald Trump is “being led to believe it’s possible” to pass the SAVE America Act in the Senate. “GOP senators went after Sen. Mike Lee...

In recent years, much has been made of the classic Monty Python “Loretta” scene from the 1979 film Life of Brian. To refresh our memories, the People’s Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People’s Front!) are plotting their overthrow of Roman tyranny. As Reg (played by John Cleese) is moderating the discussion, Francis (Michael Palin) espouses the inalienable rights of every man while Stan (Eric Idle) continually interrupts Francis’ “every man” statements with the addition of “or every woman,” leading Francis to eventually forget what he was saying in the first place. When Francis regains his...

After Gov. Brian Kemp called them into a special session, state lawmakers said they didn’t have enough time to draw new maps that would have taken effect for the 2028 elections. Georgia lawmakers will not redraw the state’s political maps this month after GOP Gov. Brian Kemp called them into a special session to do so. Following a major Supreme Court ruling on redistricting this spring, Kemp asked the Republican-led Legislature to consider new congressional and state legislative lines ahead of the 2028 election, since the 2026 election is already underway. But on Wednesday afternoon, state Republican legislative leaders said...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(6/18/26)[Prayer]PersonalitiesJudges 16:4-21 4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. 6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth,...

No one yet knows the ultimate verdict on the war, given all the economic, military, political, and strategic variables still in play. A memorandum of understanding released this week might end the war, or result in further American strikes—depending on the degree of Iranian concessions and compliance. But in this confusing, ongoing drama, many fabrications and distortions still circulate.

TV host Jeremy Clarkson revealed that he is battling cancer during the latest episodes of his hit show "Clarkson's Farm." In the final two episodes of the Prime Video documentary series' fifth season, the 66-year-old British television personality shared that he had been diagnosed with cancer while speaking to his co-stars Charlie Ireland and Kaleb Cooper, according to the BBC and the Guardian. "I had a medical, remember, back in May?" Clarkson said, per the Guardian. "I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy, and it is cancer, and it's aggressive, but it's really early." The "Top...

The gasoline prices in the wake of the Iran War agreement are PLUNGING even faster than I expected. Sorry naysayers. According to Gas Buddy, the gasoline price for Regular has fallen to $2.89 per gallon at a RaceTrac gas station in the Lauderdale Lakes section of Broward County. Other gas stations will have to follow suit soon.

I always liked Jay Leno; his jokes would make you groan but begrudgingly chuckle during his 21-year reign as Tonight Show host, which started in 1992 (with a brief break as Conan O’Brien took over for a bit, but that’s another story). Compared to the toxic bile spewed by today’s wastes of airtime like Jimmy Kimmel and the thankfully cancelled Stephen Colbert, however, he was a genius. That being said, I could have done without this latest bit from “Jay Leno’s Garage,” which I will describe shortly. But if you’re ever feeling down about the current news cycle or cynical...

Hundreds of grown adults lined up for hours just to buy a $2.99 Trader Joe’s tote bag. Maybe I’m getting old, but I genuinely don’t understand this. What am I missing?

WASHINGTON — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called the Washington Post his worst investment in a conversation with President Trump months before gutting the newsroom, according to a new book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman. "The people there are terrible," Bezos told Trump over dinner in December 2024, according to an excerpt obtained by The Post ahead of the June 23 release of "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump." "They don't listen. My other companies, they listen," Bezos said, focusing his ire at the business side of the publication after losing more than...

Pa. attorney general must review cases Philly DA wants to overturn, state Supreme Court rules In an extraordinary ruling from Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, if the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office wants to overturn a conviction in state court, the state Attorney General’s Office must be given the chance to review the case and make sure a proper investigation was done.The order comes as a King’s Bench petition, which is basically a mechanism for the high court to take over a case and review it. The case at hand involved Lavar Brown, a man convicted of killing two men in the early...

Donald Trump and the president of Iran have signed a peace deal aiming to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement will take 'immediate effect' and also includes a plan for Iran's 'reconstruction' and the US terminating 'all types of sanctions' on Tehran. However, the issue of Iran's nuclear programme - the main reason why Trump began his military campaign in February - remains under negotiation for a further 60-day period. Trump has said the peace agreement will stave off an 'economic catastrophe' but threatened to 'bomb the hell' out of Iran if no final deal...