Free Republic

Many Americans will have the day off on Friday, June 19, to celebrate Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. While most stores will remain open, some services will be unavailable. The stock market and most banks will be closed on Friday. While many stores will remain open, make sure to check local store hours as they may vary by location. Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved people that the Civil War had ended and they were free. Read on...

We've been hearing stories about the ongoing leaks on the ISS for years now, but a recent story highlighted NASA's concerns with a plan that might have been far more risky. I wanted to go back and explain the nature of the problem, and how the repairs are more than just slapping flex seal tape over the cracks. An accepted way to fix cracks in thin sheets is to drill a clean hole to distribute the stress over a larger area, stopping the crack from propagating further. Drilling Holes In The Space Station To Fix Leaks In The Space Station...

How would a leadership challenge work and who could stand?MPs unhappy with Sir Keir remaining in post could try to force a leadership election. This would require 20% of the party's MPs to back a replacement candidate. There are 403 Labour MPs, so the support of 81 would be needed. Once a Labour leadership election is triggered, other candidates could join the contest if they also had 81 backers. Sir Keir would not be required to gather support as he would be automatically on the ballot paper if he chose to contest the leadership election. He would continue as prime...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has publicly accused President Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her during the G7 Summit in France. In an interview with an Italian news outlet, Trump claimed that Meloni "begged" him for a photo at the Evian-les-Bains summit. "She's probably happy I talked to her. I didn't have to talk to her," Trump told La7 TV channel. "She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly," Trump continued per the translation. "I wouldn't have taken it, but I felt sorry for her." Upon learning of Trump's...

In Germany, Antifa groups are targeting AfD politicians and anyone suspected of affiliation to the party by increasingly violent means. Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Hyparschale hall in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, venue of a regional congress of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, on April 11, 2026. - RONNY HARTMANN / AFP. Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament member Michael Meister was brutally attacked outside his private residence in Rostock on Wednesday night, in what is being investigated as a politically motivated assault by suspected left-wing extremists. Meister said he first felt “pressure in his back”...

Its scene was sketched by the Italian artist Battista Franco Veneziano before 1530; the sketch is currently housed at the Städel Museum in Germany.The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US also has a 16th-century sketch of the sarcophagus, attributed to an unknown artist.In 1882, it was included in the book Ancient Marbles in Great Britain by Adolf Michaelis.In 2010, an anonymous visitor posted a picture of the object in the Blenheim grounds to TripAdvisor with the Blenheim Palace, "a flower bed that looks like a Roman lenos sarcophagus". A lenos sarcophagus is one that is shaped like a bathtub...The...

The Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne will be the location for Indiana's Republican Convention this year. It is just getting underway with delegates beginning checking at 10:00am ET today. The three biggest items on the agenda are 1.) Choosing a nominee for Indiana Secretary of State from four contenders, 2.) Ratifying the platform, and 3.) Asserting or re-establishing delegate authority over recent chair usurpations. Keynote speaker is to be Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.

BAGHDAD — The Chaldean Catholic Church welcomed its new church hierarch during a grand spiritual ceremony in the Mar Yawsef Chaldean Cathedral in the Karada district of Baghdad on 29 May, known as ‘Golden Friday,’ celebrating the first apostolic miracle. In the special liturgical service, attended by numerous patriarchs, bishops, and faithful from around the world, Mar Paulos III Nona was vested with patriarchal authority and the patriarchal staff. Among those attending the ceremony were Mar Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch Emeritus of the Chaldean Church, Mar Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III, patriarch...

I read this website most days because as a conscientious shopper (prices, health, trends in retail) it's very interesting and sometimes eye opening. Today's offering confirms what a lot of us are experiencing - higher costs means purchasing fewer items of better quality, and Shrinkflation is pissing us off. I'm not sure how much I can copy and paste, but here goes. I reformatted for easier reading.

A business tied to a longtime supporter of President Trump was given a no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this spring. Now that work is coming under scrutiny after algae blooms have come back and turned the iconic pool in Washington a vibrant shade of green rather than the American-flag blue Mr. Trump says he chose. The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio.

Football fans in Texas for the World Cup have been embracing American gun culture, flocking to a Dallas shooting range for an experience “we don’t get in England”. The DFW Gun Range and Academy in Dallas has hosted a “little conga line of multi-cultures”, with various teams’ fans visiting since the World Cup started. Staff member Carlos Castaneda reported that visitor numbers have “kicked up” notably in the past two days, coinciding with the arrival of Three Lions supporters. Matthew Connell, 28, from Preston, said that the shooting range was “packed with fellow England fans”. “It’s been hot, it’s been...

Former President Barack Obama formally opened his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday with a call to defend democracy as three former presidents joined him on stage in an extraordinary event featuring politicians, A-list celebrities, athletes and other internationally known figures. “I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is and remind us what we can achieve when we embrace our shared responsibilities as citizens,” the nation’s first Black president told the crowd. Bono, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony and Eddie Vedder took turns on the stage ahead of...

For two decades, the Spanish town of Numantia defied the might of the Roman Republic. Numantia: Ancient Rome's Vietnam | 10:03 toldinstone | 633K subscribers | 56,715 views | June 12, 2026

I just left my car at a local tire store to get some new rubber for my Mustang. I was first in line as the store opened for the day at 7 o'clock. The manager unlocked the door, but there was no 'crew' to be seen, which I thought was kinda unusual. There are six bays but only one guy showed up for work. A white guy. I left the key with the manager as I work across the street, and I told him I'd call. He said they may not be able to get to it today....................

Today's episode: Epic Failure.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told ASML that Washington is concerned that one of its top chipmaking machines may have found its way to China in violation of U.S.-led export restrictions, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. Lutnick expressed the concerns over ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV machines, to senior leaders of the Dutch firm in a series of meetings, the report. ASML's most advanced EUV systems are roughly the size of a school bus and weigh 180 tons. The U.S. Commerce Department and the White House were not immediately available for comment outside business hours when contacted by...

As Democrats across the country criticize education programs in red states, Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is touting a major achievement in her state she hopes will serve as an education blueprint for all states, regardless of politics, nationwide. "The thing we're most excited about is the fact that so many Arkansas students are doing better now than they would have been doing pre-LEARNS legislation," Sanders told Fox News Digital on the day her office announced a "major breakthrough" in education following implementation of a 2023 Republican-backed statewide education overhaul, known as the LEARNS Act.

Meloni begged for photo with me, I felt sorry for her says Trump. 'She's probably happy I talked to her, I didn't have to' US President tells La7 television

SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket from California on a mission for America's spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for Friday, June 19, at 1:50:45 a.m. PDT (4:50:45 a.m. EDT / 0850:45 UTC). The first-stage booster, The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1103, launching for a third time, will return for a landing at Landing Zone 4 less than eight minutes after liftoff. The NROL-179 mission will take a south-easterly trajectory upon departure from Vandenberg. This will be the 14th mission supporting the...

Rolling Stone magazine has published an article promoting a leftist gun influencer who celebrated Charlie Kirk's 2025 assassination, organizes transgender militias, and believes law enforcement officers should be shot to death. The piece centers on "Yeezy," a 33-year-old Appalachian man, and his online 3D-printing firearms operation. The article, titled "This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun" and written by writer Jack Crosbie, frames Yeeze's ghost gun business as a solution for people facing potential gun restrictions, particularly trans-identifying individuals. Yeezy has positioned himself as a trans rights activist and has a history of advocating for violence against...