Free Republic

Bill Peterson used to go to Whole Foods or Kroger for fruits, vegetables and milk. Now, he swears by private-label chain Aldi, which sells those items at a fraction of the price. The Chicago home remodeler is gainfully employed, but says the economy feels fragile. “There’s no job security … everything has gotten stupid expensive,” the 61-year-old said. Inflation remained high for several years, and U.S. consumers became more focused on value. The shift transcends income class, and experts increasingly see it as the start of a deeper retrenchment in how Americans shop, eliminating a long-held stigma among some for...

Rome fell because the Romans stopped making Romans.Elon Musk pointed to the same pattern that appears whenever a civilization gets comfortable: birth rates drop. Julius Caesar noticed it around 50 BC and explored incentives for a third child. Augustus went further with the Lex Julia and Lex Papia Poppaea, creating the ius trium liberorum, privileges, tax relief, and inheritance advantages for those with three or more children, plus penalties for the childless. The laws failed to reverse the trend. Will and Ariel Durant’s reading of history shows the cycle repeating: higher births under stress, decline once external threats ease and...

ORLANDO, Florida, July 22 (Reuters) - As Japan's yen sinks to its lowest in 40 years, Tokyo's policy credibility in the eyes of international investors appears to be sinking too. The dollar/yen rate, the world's second most traded currency pair, is now above 163.00 for the first time since 1986. Why is Japan's currency so weak? Partly it is dollar strength. Most major ​currencies have weakened against the greenback in the last few months as a second wave of the global energy shock has reignited inflation fears, pushing up U.S. Treasury yields. While most ‌developed market government debt has come...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked members of Congress in a letter on Wednesday to give Amtrak the green light to rename Penn Station, setting up the possibility the nation’s busiest train hub could be rechristened after President Donald Trump. The federal government has led the effort to rebuild the dilapidated station since last year, when Trump stripped control of the project from the MTA and turned it over to Amtrak. White House officials have since floated the idea of renaming Penn Station, which is owned by federally run Amtrak, after Trump. Duffy’s request came in a letter to Senate...

A trainee barrister who was allegedly caught driving a car bomb towards Northern Ireland in a suspected New IRA operation spent time in Syria, her lawyer said. Isobella Perrie Sullivan, 25, was arrested after Irish police said they made an 'extremely significant seizure' of a device on Wednesday. The force said the device, which was made from military-grade plastic, could have caused significant damage. It is understood to be the most sophisticated bomb seized by police since the Troubles. A man in his 40s was also arrested in the major investigation, with Irish news outlets reporting that the man was...

A Biden-appointed federal judge on Friday became the second jurist in Massachusetts to block the Trump administration's effort to end temporary protected status for migrant groups, fueling a growing clash over whether lower courts are ignoring a recent Supreme Court ruling that narrowed their authority over such decisions. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of the District of Massachusetts issued an administrative stay in African Communities Together v. Mullin, temporarily preserving TPS protections for Ethiopian nationals while the court considers whether plaintiffs may pursue constitutional claims in light of the Supreme Court's June ruling. In a 6-3 decision in Mullin v....

President Trump has set aside, at least for now, plans to sharply escalate the American military assault against Iran, with particular concern that intensifying the war could dangerously drain the Pentagon’s already diminished stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors and other air defense munitions in the Middle East. The threat to interceptor stockpiles is one of many considerations that have made a return to major combat operations a hugely risky endeavor, administration officials say. Mr. Trump and his top aides are also uneasy about the prospect of a widening war in the Middle East, the alienation of key Gulf allies who...

AIM HIGH A college professor prepared a final exam for his students. The test questions were divided into three categories, and the students were instructed to choose questions from only one of the categories. The first category of questions was the hardest and worth fifty points. The second, which was easier, was worth forty points. The third, the simplest, was worth thirty points. Upon completion of the test, students who had chosen the hardest fifty-point questions were given As. The students who had chosen the forty-point questions received Bs. Those who had settled for the easiest thirty-pointers were given...

Move comes amid concerns that Trump delegation could help Bolsonaro family cast doubt on electronic voting ahead of October’s presidential election SÃO PAULO—Brazil has denied visas to two senior Trump administration officials who were planning to travel to the country, amid concerns that they sought to undermine confidence in the electronic-voting system before October’s presidential election. The move comes as fears deepen in Brazil that the Bolsonaro family is working with President Trump and his allies to unseat leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and help return the Brazilian right to power. Former president Jair Bolsonaro is serving a...

LOS ANGELES -- Graphic testimony continued Friday on day four in the preliminary hearing for singer D4vd, as a judge weighs whether there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors are seeking to prove D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, began sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18, then stabbed her to death when she threatened to reveal their long sexual history and crater his career. A Los Angeles Police Department detective testified about explicit photographs found on Burke's phone that allegedly depicted sexual...

The Democrat-controlled Massachusetts House passed legislation Wednesday that loosens restrictions on abortions that can be performed after 24 weeks of gestation, with supporters saying the policy change will enable more residents with serious complications to remain in Massachusetts rather than needing to travel out of state to seek care. The bill scraps the four types of exemptions currently outlined in statute for life-threatening situations for the mother or fetus, instead giving deference to doctors' professional judgment. The House passed the bill on a 119-33 vote, with all Republicans who voted casting their votes against the bill. Democrats who rejected the...

A week after Iran killed American troops in Jordan, crossing President Donald Trump's red line for restarting all-out war, the U.S. military didn't launch airstrikes on the regime.Friday came and went without an announcement from U.S. Central Command about a new attack, breaking a nearly two-week streak.Sources told Axios that Trump received plans from the military yesterday to conduct strikes in Iran but didn't give a green light and instead ordered them to hold off.U.S. forces are still preparing for major combat operations to potentially resume, but Trump hasn't issued orders to move in that direction, the report added.The White...

Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke (D) was indicted on bribery charges on Friday following a monthslong state investigation into a campaign finance scandal. Luke was accused of accepting campaign finance contributions in 2022 while she was a state lawmaker in exchange for securing funding for COVID-19 testing sites. A Hawaii grand jury returned a 12-count indictment charging Luke with criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports among other charges, according to the state’s Department of the Attorney General. The Hill has reached out to Luke’s office for comment. The charges stem from allegations that Luke accepted at...

Just hours before Maine Democrats are scheduled to meet in Bangor to select a replacement nominee for the U.S. Senate, a Republican state lawmaker is asking Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to determine whether former Senate President Troy Jackson is legally eligible to receive the nomination at all...

German authorities on Saturday canceled a popular pride festival after numerous people were injured and one killed when a white van rammed the festivities in Berlin. "We are currently deployed with numerous police forces as well as rescue units from the Berlin Fire Department in the Großer Tiergarten," Berlin Police said in a translated X post, after telling festivalgoers to leave the area. Police said the injured were being treated by rescue personnel.

A Georgia teenager who was “like a nephew” to Grammy-winning rapper 21 Savage reportedly shot his little sister by accident before taking his own life, according to local news station 11Alive. Seven Shirley, 14, died by suicide after allegedly shooting his 12-year-old sister, Lyric, in the neck Wednesday afternoon in a heartbreaking accident at a home in Stockbridge, southeast of Atlanta, grieving relatives told the outlet.“Just that fast that boy had made the decision to kill himself,” Seven’s grandmother, Sharon Smith, told the news outlet through tears. Seven Shirley and sister Lyric’s family are devastated at the horrific tragedy. 11...

TEHRAN, Juy 25--RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry reported. "The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns Ukraine's attack on an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea on the morning of Saturday July 25. The attack resulted in an explosion on the vessel, killing one sailor and injuring another. This attack is a violation of Article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Charter and an act of aggression that could further fan the flames of war" the ministry said in a post on its Telegram channel. The...

Hundreds of lefty demonstrators marched through downtown Madison, Wisconsin, spewing anti-cop venom, stopping traffic and harassing diners as they protested the killing of Corey Ruiz, a career criminal who allegedly stabbed a police officer with a knife before being shot. Nearly 500 people marched from the intersection of Williamson Street and South Baldwin Street — where the 38-year-old was shot three times on Wednesday during a struggle with several police officers — to the Madison Police Department headquarters on Friday. Video showed some demonstrators stopping traffic and confronting at a female motorist who insisted she was an “ally” during a...

Several Jewish Michigan Democrats admitted Tuesday they or people they know will be backing Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in the upcoming election if Abdul El-Sayed becomes the Democratic nominee. Ahead of the Aug. 4 primary election, Jewish donors spoke with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) about the possibility of El-Sayed, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel, becoming the party's nominee for the Michigan Senate seat. JTA reported that several prominent Jewish fundraisers have already begun to see Rogers as a "hedge" and are planning to raise funds for him against El-Sayed.

Air Force Master Sergeant Logan Ireland told Military.com that a federal court's dismissal of a Justice Department motion is a "meaningful victory" for him and 17 other airmen embroiled in a lawsuit against the U.S. government.Ireland is at the center of the lawsuit, Ireland v. US, along with 17 other transgender service members from the U.S. Air Force and Space Force amid claims that they all received retirement orders prior to having those orders revoked without explanation. The personnel, who each have dedicated more than 15 years of their lives to service to the United States' benefit, filed litigation to...