Free Republic

Spain's plan to grant legal residency and work rights to undocumented migrants will be the largest scheme of its kind in European history. There have been at least 1.3 million applications made, more than double the 500,000 the centre-Left coalition government expected. The deadline for applications is on Tuesday. Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister, said the amnesty was an act of justice but also of necessity, to continue Spain's strong economic growth and safeguard public pensions by bringing younger workers into the country. It began on April 16 and by mid-June 360,000 people out of 900,000 applications had been granted...

Britain is announcing one of the biggest shake-ups of its armed forces in decades, and it’s using the experience of the war in Ukraine as a model. The Defence Investment Plan, set to be published on Tuesday by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in one of his last acts before stepping down, shows the U.K. is copying Ukraine’s successful playbook to focus on “cheap systems destroying high-value targets and innovation cycles measured in weeks, not years,” the Ministry of Defence said on Monday. The move indicates how the government intends to meet the goals of last year’s Strategic Defence Review, which...

Daily Readings from the USCCBAs Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. Matthew 8:23–26While we should understand Jesus’ teachings and actions in a literal sense, the Early Church Fathers also point to a deeper, symbolic meaning—what...

President Donald Trump demanded gas stations slash prices 'immediately' on Monday and urged retailers to start targeting gasoline at around $2.50 a gallon, warning there would be 'big problems' if they failed to act. In a fiery Truth Social post, the president insisted fuel prices no longer reflected falling crude oil costs and accused retailers of overcharging motorists despite oil dropping to around $68 a barrel. 'Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!' Trump wrote. 'They're too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south. The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and...

The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says. Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, lambasted those who listened to the “vested interests” of the fossil fuel industry rather than scientists and their own citizens. “This is a dramatic warning being sent once again by nature on what it means to have a different climate system,” she told the Guardian. “What we are experiencing today [in the form of record heat] is what we knew could happen, but we have not been smart enough to...

As he aged, Jefferson spoke passionately about the prospect of meeting loved ones in heaven, assuring a bereaved John Adams after the death of his wife Abigail, that “it is of some comfort to us both that the term is not very distant at which we are to deposit, in the same cerement, our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved & lost and whom we shall still love and never lose again.” In the end, he seems to have believed in a heaven or, at least, as...

The discovery of an Anglo-Saxon tool in Kent could reveal more about where Britain's "iconic archaeological treasures" were made, according to experts. A small copper-alloy die stamp was found by metal detectorist Stephen Newbury near Lynsted, which has officially been declared as treasure by a coroner for being of significant historical interest, Kent County Council (KCC) said.The sixth or seventh century item is believed to have been used to create decorative metal foils for military equipment such as helmets. It is the only confirmed example of its kind found in Britain, according to analysis from KCC and the British Museum,...

High Point police arrested a Thomasville man Sunday morning outside a church after officers found him armed with flamethrowers, a CO2-powered launcher designed to resemble a handgun, crossbows and more than 500 rounds of ammunition during Sunday services, authorities said. High Point 911 received a call around 10:15 a.m. about an armed man sitting in a truck in the parking lot of Wesley Memorial Church on Chestnut Drive. The caller reported the man had a gun and was wearing camouflage clothing. An off-duty officer working at the church responded immediately, with additional officers arriving within minutes. According to High Point...

Lava. Ash. Horrifying death. All are known and expected outputs from an active volcano. But one volcano deep in the farthest, frozen reaches of our planet marches to the beat of a slightly different drum. On Ross Island in the Ross Sea, a deep bay in Antarctica, Mount Erebus fumes about 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Geographic South Pole. The world's southernmost active volcano, it bubbles with a permanent lake of blazing lava. And in the gas constantly pouring forth from this gate to the underworld, scientists found microscopic particles of crystalline, elemental gold. According to a 1991 research...

CUSTER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) has ordered mandatory evacuations due to the "Aspen Acres" fire, which is approximately 23,000 acres with 0% containment as of 5:24 p.m. PCSO says that due to 100-mph winds, air support is currently unavailable. Law enforcement says multiple homes have been affected, but an exact number is unavailable at this time. Officials report that 2,732 households have been asked to evacuate. According to PCSO, around 4,200 people are in the evacuation zone. Smoke from the fire covers most of Pueblo County and likely will spread across nearby counties east...

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - UPDATE (6/28/2026): The excitement is building ahead of President Trump’s visit to North Dakota this week. On Sunday, we saw more action at the airport in Bismarck. Thanks to viewer Jackie for sharing video with Your News Leader. Jackie was waiting for her flight shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sunday in Bismarck and saw Marine helicopters circling on the runway. She also spotted an Osprey. Other viewers shared footage on social media of military aircraft flying over Bismarck and Dickinson. On Saturday we caught footage of some C-17s that had arrived in Bismarck. The president is expected...

San Bernardino LGBTQ+ Mass welcomes all during Pride monthThe church should be a place for healing and acceptance for all, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, Catholic ministry leaders in the Diocese of San Bernardino say.The second annual Embrace Family Mass was celebrated by Bishop Alberto Rojas at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral on Saturday in San Bernardino.“Jesus looks past labels and social barriers to see a human being in need of love, compassion and restoration to a family, to a community, and to our society,” Rojas, who leads the Diocese of San Bernardino, told those gathered at the...

An incoming solar eruption could trigger visible northern lights across parts of the northern United States, offering millions a chance to witness one of nature's most spectacular nighttime displays. A cloud of charged particles launched by the Sun is expected to reach Earth overnight, creating conditions that could produce visible auroras across parts of the northern United States. According to NOAA, the incoming solar event may generate a G1 to G2 geomagnetic storm, giving skywatchers in as many as 19 states a chance to witness the Northern Lights if weather and space conditions align. While no widespread outbreak is expected,...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)Religion Forum threads labeled *Prayer* are closed to debate of any kind.1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true...

Casualties of Legalism: Truth and Charity - Guest ArticleThe following guest article is written by Michael Kakooza, Ph.D. (Wales), who has written for Rorate in the past. It represents the view of its author and not the official stance of Rorate.In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. [In necessary things, unity, In doubtful things, liberty, In all things, charity]But should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various...

President Donald Trump on Monday took action to give Americans more freedom to fix their cars’ emission systems. Trump signed a presidential memorandum to the Environmental Protection Agency while flanked by the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin. “I think it’s very important; going to lower the price of your car, and it’s going to lower the price of fixing your car. It has to do with affordability, it has to do with a lot of things,” Trump said. Zeldin emphasized that the Trump administration is not seeking to crack down on Americans working on their own cars, as “past administrations have”...

Shankh Mitra, the Indian-origin CEO of Welltower, has been named the world’s second-highest paid chief executive. Mitra is behind only Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO with a staggering $158 billion pay package. Mitra’s compensation package from Welltower, a real estate investment trust specialising in senior housing and healthcare, places him among the highest-paid public company CEOs of the past decade, according to data from MyLogIQ quoted by The Wall Street Journal. How much does Shankh Mitra earn? In his role as CEO of Welltower, Shankh Mitra earned $821 million in 2025.

UnitedHealthcare has fired a woman who expressed sadness in a TikTok video that President Donald Trump was not killed in the Saturday shooting during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In the video, she sarcastically asked, "Aww, they missed?" "We're cooked as a country when my first reaction to hearing the news about Trump's attempt was, ‘It was probably fake,’" Alison King, who has reportedly deleted her LinkedIn account but was identified as a social media manager for UnitedHealthcare, said in the video. "Like, immediately I was like, 'Oh, that wasn't real, probably fake,’" King said. "And the second was...

You’ve probably seen it by now. A chart, passed around on social media with the kind of grim satisfaction that only statistics can produce: more Europeans die each year from summer heat than Americans die from gun violence. The implication cuts both ways—Europe’s lack of air conditioning is deadlier than America’s lack of gun control—and it has been lighting up feeds across the political spectrum ever since. Turns out, it’s mostly true. And this summer is making it impossible to ignore.This semi-true graph is picking up steam online.Hannah Ritchie’s By the Numbers SubstackEurope is currently in the grip of its...