Free Republic

A sprawling homeless encampment near the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan has been vexing business owners and passersby for months — but the city is effectively running a valet trash service for its rough-sleeping residents rather than clearing the eyesore. The steadily growing shantytowns — haphazardly strewn with all manner of bicycles, electronics and garbage — have taken over sizable portions of West 45th and 46th Streets along Twelfth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, between the museum parking lot and an Amazon warehouse.“You see how it looks? How dirty it is? How can you eat food and the next corner is smelly,...

China's 'big four' banks took the top spots in The Banker's latest global ranking, with JPMorgan Chase following in fifth place China's "big four" state-run banks are the largest in the world in terms of asset scale, a new report has found, underscoring Beijing's rising ambitions to build the country into a global financial powerhouse. The ranking released by The Banker magazine on Wednesday was topped by the four Chinese banks - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China - with JPMorgan Chase following in fifth place. Chinese banks collectively...

Even people who dislike Donald Trump tend to give him credit for one thing: getting NATO to pay its fair share. American presidents have long grumbled about burden sharing. Trump has been crude, theatrical and transactional, but the sentiment he expressed was broadly shared. And Europeans got the message. Non-American NATO countries collectively spent 1.4 percent of their combined gross domestic product on defense in 2014; in 2025, it was close to 2.3 percent.But be careful what you wish for.The usual assumption is that if Europe spends more, the United States will spend less. This is demonstrably wrong. European defense...

Bishop who warns against going to SSPX Masses took part in interfaith Hanukkah ceremonyThe bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, warned Catholics not to attend Masses offered by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) after the announcement of its bishops’ excommunications even though the San Angelo prelate has himself participated in an interfaith Hanukkah ceremony, an objectively immoral act.Bishop Michael J. Sis issued a letter on Monday reiterating the Vatican’s claim regarding the SSPX: that priests of the SSPX “unlawfully administer the sacraments” and that “the sacrament of penance administered by them and marriages witnessed by them...

Israeli Prime Minister suggested he's breaking away from the U.S. and forming a new alliance with India as Tel-Aviv and Washington butt heads over the former's strikes in Lebanon. The eyebrow-raising comments come as the apparent rift between the U.S. and Israel widens during the 4-month war with Iran. "You have to build new alliances and develop new relationships. That's what I'm doing right now with India," Netanyahu told Sharon Gal, a prominent right-wing journalist in Israel. Last month, Israeli officials denounced the fragile peace deal struck between the U.S and Iran, which seemed to disturb Vice President JD Vance,...

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead ‘thorough, transparent federal investigation’The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, Donald Trump’s anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement.In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded “a thorough, transparent federal investigation” into the actions of the taskforce, which it...

Graham Platner formally drops out of Maine’s Senate race He announced he was leaving Wednesday. On Friday, he made it official. July 10, 2026 Graham Platner formally withdrew from the U.S. Senate race Friday, clearing the way for Democrats to choose a new nominee to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins this fall. The move was widely expected after Platner was accused of sexual assault in 2021 by a Maine woman, who detailed her experience in a story published by Politico on Monday. Platner has broadly denied the allegations, but he announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign because...

For the past few days, Justine Kirby has been sporting an N95 mask every time she leaves her house to walk in her quiet Upper East Side neighbourhood. She is keeping her apartment windows closed, too, as an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease grows to 46 cases, which the city has linked to contaminated water cooling towers. The cluster of Legionnaires' infections - a serious type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria - has raised alarms among residents in the community, who packed a town hall in an Upper East side church this week to pose a series of questions to...

Exclusive satellite imagery obtained and analyzed by CNN in collaboration with the Institute for Science and International Security shows signs Iran may be attempting to rebuild its nuclear facilities. The activity raises questions as to whether Iran violated the memorandum of understanding it signed with the US in late June – even before President Trump seemed to signal its end by launching fresh strikes on the country. CNN’s Katie Polglase reports.

Arab countries attacking Iran

As the era of neoconservative dominance comes to a close, the direction of the right is seemingly up for grabs. The strict guardrails that constrained the post-war conservative movement and the gatekeeping of establishment figures such as National Review Editor William F. Buckley have now been replaced by social media platforms that are open to controversial thinkers. Gone are the days when expressing the wrong beliefs would end a person’s public career. Today, anti-establishment sentiment drives right-wing media. This new reality eliminates the default ideology that conservative youths were previously expected to adopt. The next generation should take advantage of...

Homosexual Jesuit praises Pope Leo for continuing Francis’ LGBT support'One of the first things Pope Leo did was he said, ‘No, I have no intention of going backwards when it comes to the LGBTQ community,' Fr. Bryan Massingale said.An avowed homosexual Jesuit priest who is known for his pro-LGBTQ activism within the Catholic Church praised Pope Leo XIV for continuing Pope Francis’ “welcoming overtures and advances” to homosexuals, lesbians, transgender and non-binary people. Fr. Bryan Massingale, a theology professor at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York City who is proudly openly gay, said in a recent video interview that he...

A white male suspect has been arrested by police investigating the murder of Ann Widdecombe. Police found the former Conservative prisons minister with 'serious injuries' after an ambulance crew called them to her house in Haytor, Dartmoor at 11.40am yesterday. In an update this afternoon, Devon and Cornwall Police said officers had begun a murder inquiry and were hunting a 'white male' who they 'believe is responsible'. Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman has now told a press conference that a 26-year-old white British man has been arrested at an address in Newton Abbot, around a 30-minute drive from the former...

A graduation ceremony is one of the most formulaic events in higher education. The main event at a graduation ceremony is a student getting their five seconds in the sun as their name is called. Then they stroll across the stage to receive the diploma they worked so hard for. At the end, students throw their cap in the air, and then everyone snaps photos. Yet, every year a handful of universities botch the simple task of planning a graduation ceremony. The result is an unpleasant experience for attendees, unnecessary controversies, and sometimes wasted resources. With graduation season wrapping up,...

After a wave of victories for avowed socialist candidates in Democratic primaries, half of the electorate is worried about how these candidates will affect Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters are concerned that these socialists could become members of Congress next year, including 32% who are Very Concerned. Forty-four percent (44%) aren’t concerned about socialist candidates becoming members of Congress, including 23% who are Not At All Concerned.

A convoy of police cars, lights flashing, tail the large yellow truck up to the back gates of London’s British Museum. It’s just before 3 a.m. on July 10, a date that has been kept under wraps for months. After the truck pulls into the museum’s loading bay, four men open its back doors to reveal a cage-like rectangular crate. Inside it is another crate, inside that crate is a metal shell, and inside that shell, folded back and forth on itself 28 times, is a precious and fragile artifact, nearly a thousand years old. The journey this truck has...

Priest in Cdl. Tobin’s diocese urges Church to ‘lift up LGBTQ people’ after celebrating ‘Pride Mass’Father Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, ignored Catholic teaching on homosexuality while encouraging the Catholic Church to embrace 'pride.'Father Alexander M. Santora, the pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, who recently celebrated the parish’s ninth annual blasphemous “Pride Mass,” wrote an article reflecting on how his parish has “lifted up” so-called “LGBT Catholics,” encouraging other parishes to follow suit.In a June 18 op-ed for the Daily Journal headlined “My church lifts up...

Over the last several years I have been posting nonstop on X about the same nightmares we’ve been living through…the COVID psyop, the experimental mRNA shots, the mandates that destroyed lives, the injuries, the excess deaths, and the relentless propaganda machine that tried to silence anyone who noticed the bodies piling up. I have watched it all in real time: the fear porn, the goalpost moving, the “safe and effective” lies repeated like gospel while real-world data told a different story. Now we have fresh, documented revelations that should have blown the lid off of everything. Instead? Crickets from the...

The MTA’s top lawyer is abruptly stepping down at the end of July with no successor immediately named — just months after The Post revealed the agency’s legal costs ballooned under her tenure. “After fourteen remarkable years with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, I have decided that the time has come for me to begin a new chapter,” the email begins, noting that her last day with the agency will be July 31.MTA General Counsel Paige Graves quietly announced her resignation, according to a June 30 email obtained by The Post. MTAGraves’ departure caps a turbulent season for the transit authority’s...

The internet is making sure the U.S. won’t exit the World Cup quietly, and Ryanair was the latest player to join the banter. The American dream of winning the 2026 FIFA World Cup was crushed in a 1-4 loss to Belgium, marking the team’s heaviest defeat since 1990. As the pomp and fanfare quickly fizzled out, memes mocking the U.S. team came pouring in, with Ryanair unabashedly joining the fun. The internet is making sure the U.S. won’t exit the World Cup quietly, and Ryanair was the latest player to join the banter The Irish airline has seemingly made a...