Free Republic

A federal appeals court has blocked the Trump administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of the approximately 350,000 Haitians living in the United States, CBS News reports. As News Center 7 previously reported, TPS was set to end on Friday. The new ruling extends it to Monday, July 27. TPS allows people from countries affected by war, natural disasters, or other major crises to legally live and work in the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that the Trump Administration could end TPS for Haitians.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is leading a field of possible candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination in New Hampshire, according to a new poll. In the Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire, Ocasio-Cortez garnered 22 percent backing from respondents, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg behind her at 21 percent and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) trailing at 9 percent. Last October, Buttigieg led the field with 19 percent support, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) at 15 percent and Ocasio-Cortez at 14 percent. A few months later in February, Buttigieg maintained his lead with 20...

End of the American Dream)—Does Iran have the ability to conduct 9/11-style attacks on U.S. soil? As you will see below, the Iranians are making all sorts of very serious threats and they are encouraging us to “prepare as many coffins as possible”. But most Americans do not take such threats seriously. They seem to believe that the war that is raging on the other side of the planet could never reach us. Unfortunately, the truth is that Iranian terror is a very potent threat. The Iranians used chemical weapons against protesters in January, I have documented that U.S. officials...

Florida's Tampa International Airport (TPA) is on track to privatize its security in a bid to reduce chaos and delays, angering federal workers and their union. TPA's move, announced earlier this week, comes amidst a broader push by the Trump administration to privatize airports around the country. In May, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced a public-private partnership model called TSA Gold+, which will allow private contractors to oversee airport security operations by hiring personnel and managing security equipment. That is the program TPA opted into. A record-long, 43-day government shutdown late last year, as well as lengthy partial shutdowns...

Mortgage rates continued their ascent this week, climbing to a new 11-month high, as the escalating conflict in the Middle East put upward pressure on oil prices, sparking renewed inflation fears and leading investors to reassess the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike. The average rate on 30-year fixed home loans reached 6.58% for the week ending July 23, up 3 basis points from 6.55% the previous week and the highest since early August 2025, according to Freddie Mac. For perspective, rates averaged 6.74% during the same period in 2025. "The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.58% this week," says...

The US House voted to halt President Donald Trump’s war in Iran absent congressional approval, the latest repudiation by lawmakers of the president’s handling of the conflict. Four Republicans voted with Democrats in support of the measure, which was brought Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal. The vote was 214 to 208. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett and Warren Davidson crossed party lines to support the resolution. The Senate will vote later on Thursday on its own effort to rein in Trump’s war powers in Iran.

Half of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base thought the Iran war was worth its economic costs in May. Now, just a little more than a third do.That precipitous, 13-point drop in just two months, according to a new POLITICO Poll, reveals how the president’s most die-hard supporters are starting to agree with the majority of Americans who have long opposed the U.S.’ involvement in the war. ............... The White House is “at a maximum level of frustration right now, and I was told by very senior people that the president is now fully aware that the only way to the...

SpaceX to launch 13th Starship flight test What we know: SpaceX's latest test flight is currently scheduled for Thursday with the 90-minute launch window opening at 5:45 p.m. The latest test flight will test the company's Super Heavy booster with the objective of a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn and landing burn. SpaceX said the booster's hardware has been modified to improve relight reliability. For Starship, the company hopes to launch 20 Starlink satellites and have a successful relight of an engine while in space with a controlled entry, descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The company...

On July 8, within minutes of Graham Platner abandoning his campaign for U.S. Senate, a 29-year-old Democratic activist named Cheyenne Hunt took to X to declare that his downfall would not be the last. “What happened in Maine should serve as a clear message: The days of women being sacrificed at the altar of our elections are over,” she wrote of Platner, who was accused of sexual assault. You may not have heard of Hunt, but you are almost certainly familiar with her work. A lawyer and progressive content creator, Hunt worked with Platner’s accusers to help orchestrate the media...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has voted repeatedly for resolutions to withdraw U.S. troops from the military conflict with Iran, told reporters Wednesday that the United States is “worse off” than it was before President Trump launched the war in late February. “I think the Iran war has not been a success. I’ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure we’re worse off than we were before the war,” Paul said on Capitol Hill. “If you look at the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz, that’s never happened before,” he said. “There’s...

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — As Earl Williams drove through a historic Black neighborhood, Dewey City, in his hometown, he hardly recognized what he saw. Homes that once belonged to friends, family, and neighbors had siding covered in mold. Some were boarded up. Others had holes in their roofs. Black churches once used Oquina Creek, which runs along the neighborhood’s border, to baptize congregants. Today, fecal bacteria and other contaminants have made the water unsafe due to an aging wastewater system. “Sometimes you get the feeling like you’re in a Third World country,” Williams said. After three decades in Washington, D.C., he...

"According to His great mercy" (1 Pet. 1:3). Every dimension of life, whether physical or spiritual, is a testimony to God’s mercy. When God saved you and granted you an eternal inheritance, it wasn't because you were special or more deserving of His love and grace than others. It was because He sovereignly chose to love you and extend His great mercy to you. That's why Paul said, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran on Wednesday of flying members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into Yemen, saying Tehran’s actions helped ignite a renewed confrontation between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. "They decided to send direct flights from Tehran into Yemen, carrying IRGC elements and others into the country," Rubio told reporters. "And the Saudis responded to it." Rubio did not identify the flights, specify how many IRGC personnel were allegedly transported or provide evidence supporting the allegation. He made the remarks while attending an annual gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers...

Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities in the Gulf have prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to investigate whether Russia assisted by providing targeting information or ​advanced drone technology, said four people familiar with U.S. intelligence. These people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters, said U.S. intelligence officials have ‌not yet reached firm conclusions about the possible Russian involvement in the attacks on CIA facilities. But they cited the strikes' effectiveness and apparent precision, as well as Russia's broader technical support for Iran, as possible evidence. Reuters and other media have reported — and U.S. officials have...

President Donald Trump has placed a new condition on a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia a day after formally approving it, saying the country now must join the Abraham Accords. Trump wrote in a post on social media Thursday that the deal, which has already been signed, “will be approved,” but added, that it “is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” The president also emphasized in the post that there would be “no enrichment” even though the agreement could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for civilian reactors. The deal has...

Lizzo is officially an icon on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Gracing the July 2026 digital cover.

A Baptist pastor in Virginia has allegedly confessed to sending more than a dozen sexual images to a teenage boy, according to court documents. Kenny Baldwin, 46, has been the lead pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church since 2011. Earlier this week, he was charged with 13 counts related to sending naked pictures of himself to a teenage boy. The two met while Baldwin came to the young man’s church to give a sermon and the two exchanged phone numbers afterwards. ABC27 reports: “According to court documents, Baldwin had confessed to two different people, who then reported the confession to Troopers....

The trial of Minnesota mom Shiloh Hendrix, 37, began in Rochester this week with father Shire Jimale of a young boy accused of stealing from Hendrix's bag, who she then called the n-word in return, took the stand. Hendrix is charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct stemming from the April 2025 incident at the Roy Sutherland Playground at Soldiers Field Park. The Jimale's testimony, through a Somali translator, against Hendrix reportedly contradicted what he had told investigators during his first interview in 2025. He had not gone to police about the incident until after the video went viral...

U.S. oil just topped $90 a barrel and Brent crude is passed $100 a barrel. A number of new factors could mean this crude comeback has legs. For example, what happens if all Iranian oil suddenly went offline? It’s an outlier thought. Maybe it’s crazy. While we can’t all agree on much, can we at least agree that maybe now is the exact right time for crazy, outlier thoughts? Before I get to that, here’s a quick synopsis of where we stand right now with the nearly hour-by-hour headlines around Hormuz and energy. Angry militants in Iran continue to risk...

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows has a previously unknown Global Device ID (GDID), a permanent, unique digital identifier assigned to Windows devices that can tie a user's actions to their device. This came to light when an alleged member of a notorious hacking group was caught at an airport after Microsoft handed over his GDID to the authorities. Microsoft describes the GDID in a published complaint (via Windows Latest) as "a persistent, device-level identifier designed to uniquely identify an installation of a Windows operating system on a device, either a physical device (e.g., a mobile phone or laptop) or virtual...