Free Republic

The right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has narrowly won Colombia's presidential election, according to the initial vote count, marking a dramatic shift in how the government will tackle the country's internal armed conflict and violence. Espriella, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, has pledged a military crackdown on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking and crime. He appeared to defeat the left-wing Iván Cepeda, a close ally of the president, Gustavo Petro. Reacting to the result, he said "today begins a new stage for our country, a stage built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who...

Ali Hcaimi has a pattern of preying on elderly people, according to the prosecution. He is currently being tried for two cases, with one involving first-degree murder and robbery, and another involving just robbery. In the first case, prosecutors say he followed an elderly woman home from a bank after he saw her withdrawing $5,000 in cash. He pushed her and took her purse, which contained medication that is critical to her health. Prosecutors say he then dumped the purse and the medication.

President Donald Trump appeared to scoop Downing Street on Sunday, announcing that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would resign before any public statement from Starmer himself. “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,” proclaimed in a social media post, in which he also asserted that Starmer had “failed badly” on immigration and energy policy. Then, Trump added: “I wish him well!” Doubts about Starmer’s political future have swirled for weeks since his Labour Party suffered staggering losses in local elections in May, and prospects of a leadership challenge increased markedly on Friday after his most formidable rival,...

California Rep. Ro Khanna once again admitted that he believes the women who have accused Maine Democrat Graham Platner of being physically rough with or mistreating them — but is standing by him nonetheless. Khanna (D-Calif.), who was an early backer of Platner, contended that the oyster farmer had redemption and underscored his goal of ensuring Democrats flip Maine’s Senate seat. “I do believe those women. And I have said that his past conduct was shameful, and I totally condemned it,” Khanna told “Fox News Sunday.” “He did two, three tours of duty in Iraq. He came back with PTSD,”...

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.98% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, De la Espriella had secured 12.95m votes, or 49.66%, just 249,901 more than Cepeda, who received 12.7m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when De la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes. De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s...

ET: The Extraterrestrial, the titular alien is seen eating and drinking all manner of human foods and beverages from chocolates to tins of beer. In reality, however, it is unlikely that an entity that lived and evolved on another world would be capable of consuming and digesting the same types of foods as we are. Professor Jose Miguel Soriano del Castillo of the University of Valencia ,,,argues that dining on the same foods that humans eat would be highly risky for a visitor from another world and that their best bet would be to instead seek out the individual nutrients...

1. Croatian team shares the importance of their Catholic faith 2. Players from Curaçao and Germany join in prayer after competing against one another 3. Lionel Messi thanks God after making history. 4. Team USA shares a moment of prayer after historic win against Paraguay - After the game, defender Mark McKenzie led the team in a moment of prayer on the field.- Star winger Christian Pulisic is known for leading several of his teammates in a Bible study he calls “Bible Time."- Goalkeeper Matt Freese recently spoke to Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast: “Right now I’m listening to ‘Bible...

~ Pledge of Allegiance~Recognized by Congress (1942) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies militaryand the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Bellamy's original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8th issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth’s Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery...

Some Black Democrats are frustrated with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-Fla.) decision to run in a South Florida congressional district home to a large Black voting population, sparking an intraparty clash that is poised to become a defining battle of the campaign season. Wasserman Schultz, a veteran lawmaker who has served in Congress since 2005, is running in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) for four years before she resigned in April. Wasserman Schultz’s bid comes after GOP-led redistricting efforts in the state reshaped her current 25th District, making it far more...

Swiss voters went to the polls Sunday and resoundingly rejected capping the country's rapidly growing population at 10 million by limiting immigration. Congratulations to the Swiss for staging a national conversation over immigration -- something the United States urgently needs to do. The Swiss have seen their population soar by more than 25% since 2000. The newcomers are for the most part workers from neighboring European countries, not migrants from the Middle East or Africa. Even so, the right-leaning Swiss People's Party pushed for immigration restrictions, arguing that such rapid population growth strained housing, social programs and Swiss identify. But...

California seems determined to prove out that old saying of President Reagan's, about government: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. California has become a veritable tax-a-palooza, and they have already driven many of the productive residents out of the state—those being the people who work, who invest, who start and run businesses, and who create jobs. From the impeccably coiffed Governor Gavin Newsom, he of the questionable finances, on down, nobody in California's government seems to understand the notion of incentives, or how they work. Now, California is...

A massive fire tore through the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church in Brooklyn Friday [June 19, 2026], reducing much of the 173-year-old wooden landmark to rubble.The blaze broke out around 1:20 pm and quickly engulfed the structure, causing the iconic steeple to collapse as firefighters battled a three-alarm inferno.The church, a Greek Revival landmark built in 1853 and designated a city landmark in 1969, stood as one of the neighborhood’s oldest surviving religious institutions.***It had served generations of families. No civilian injuries occurred, though one firefighter was hurt. The FDNY contained the main blaze by late afternoon, but the damage...

Key Takeaways North Carolina attracted more domestic movers than any other state in 2025, gaining 84,100 residents from elsewhere in the U.S. California (-229,100) and New York (-137,600) remained the nation’s largest sources of domestic outmigration. While Sun Belt states still dominated migration gains, several Midwestern states posted positive inflows as affordability pressures spread across previously hot markets.

June 21 (UPI) -- The Russian government on Sunday halted fuel sales to civilians and businesses not considered vital to functioning and security in Crimea. Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, announced people would be turned away from gas stations amid a fuel shortage and logistical difficulties related to the war with Ukraine, the BBC reported. "Further decisions regarding the current situation in the republic's fuel market will be announced at a later date," he said in a post on Telegram. The announcement came amid new attacks by Ukraine on energy and transportation infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula, Politico reported....

Brave Iranian women are openly defying the theocratic country’s oppressive hijab law — despite the risks following the regime’s deadly protest crackdown. After Iran’s security forces killed at least 7,000 protesters in January, according to human rights groups, many women and girls have continued to stand in defiance of the regime by breaking the country’s strict dress code. Images out of Tehran last week show women of all ages out and about in casual clothes, including one woman sporting an “I Love NY” T-shirt. Another woman was even spotted wearing a red T-shirt with an American flag on it, with...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his so-called “Hamas slate’’ of local congressional candidates were interviewed last week by a terror-group sympathizer in a get-out-the-vote effort for Tuesday’s primary election. Accused hater Bartley Blakeley — who has several hundred thousand online followers across various platforms — posted her chats on Instagram with the far-left mayor and three House candidates he has endorsed: Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier. “I call it the Hamas slate. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of support for the Hamas slate,” said Dov Hikind, a former Brooklyn state assemblyman who is founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. “The...

Proclamation evangelism, a core missional strategy in Christian theology, invites people into a relationship with Jesus Christ via the public declaration of the gospel. Advocates of this strategy cite the Great Commission of Jesus as the scriptural mandate for Christian witness on a global scale: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’1 Proclamation evangelists prioritize ‘kerygma’, or the verbal proclamation of the gospel, over other methods as the primary means of fulfilling...

WASHINGTON, DC: A blockbuster upcoming account of the second Trump administration has exposed deep, profane fractures within American foreign policy, revealing that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent privately launched an aggressive campaign to block Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from entering the White House.The explosive details surface in 'Regime Change', a forthcoming book by The New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, which alleges that Bessent repeatedly used highly derogatory nicknames to describe the wartime leader to close associates before a disastrous Oval Office summit. (snip) The Treasury chief reportedly harbored deep frustrations over a stalled, high-stakes critical minerals agreement,...

This video, created by Black Conservative Perspective, criticizes recent actions by African leaders regarding the Juneteenth holiday. The creator argues that the recent commemoration in Ghana, which involved a reenactment of the slave trade, is an inappropriate way to observe the holiday, which he defines as a celebration of freedom. Key points covered in the video: Critique of Juneteenth Observance (0:00 - 2:05): The creator expresses disapproval of observing Juneteenth through displays of sorrow or slavery reenactments, asserting that the day should focus on happiness and gratitude for emancipation. The "Hijacking" of Juneteenth (2:06 - 4:10): The creator discusses how...

Abraham Lincoln’s perspective on slavery was not static. Initially, he viewed slavery primarily as a political and constitutional problem that threatened national unity. However, as the horrors of the Civil War progressed, his focus shifted toward a moral and spiritual imperative for total emancipation. As the war deepened, Lincoln began to immerse himself in the language and theology of the Bible, which profoundly shaped his evolving moral stance. He grew convinced that the nation’s survival was contingent upon its obedience to God’s standard of justice. He moved away from purely secular legalism to a worldview that saw the conflict as...