Free Republic

We went undercover inside smoke shops and bodegas across New York City to answer a simple question: Would retailers accept taxpayer-funded EBT benefits to pay for alcohol or drugs? Store after store attempted to process EBT cards for kratom, a psychoactive substance that is not eligible for purchase with SNAP or EBT benefits. One clerk attempted to process the purchase as “EBT Cash.” Another processed it as “EBT Food”, treating kratom as if it were groceries. Federal law 7 CFR 278 and 7 U.S.C 2012 prohibits retailers from accepting SNAP or EBT benefits for non-food items, including drugs, alcohol, and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he'd asked President Trump for a "winter package" consisting of 300 Patriot interceptors to fend off the Kremlin amid Kyiv's war with Russia.The request follows Trump's approval for Ukraine to manufacture its own interceptors earlier this month. However, Zelensky said the process would take too long. "We need the Patriots yesterday," Zelensky said in an interview with Axios. The Ukrainian president remains committed to providing satellite imagery, intelligence or acquiescing to any other ask in exchange for the U.S. defense weapons, according to the outlet. However, the Trump administration has maintained that its...

Los Angeles is fighting its brutal summer heat from the ground up. More than 700,000 square feet of scorching asphalt in Pacoima — one of the hottest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley — was coated with a special solar-reflective material as part of an ambitious experiment to see whether simply changing the surface beneath residents’ feet could cool down an entire community. And the results could be a game changer as Southern California swelters through another punishing stretch of summer heat. Even better for overheated locals, ambient air temperatures along treated streets dropped by up to 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit...

Shabana Mahmood is bracing for another chaotic day on the Channel, with up to 700 migrants feared to be crossing in dinghies. Border Force vessel Defender is bringing in dozens of asylum seekers to Dover, while a lifeboat has been deployed to another crossing. This cohort will arrive in Kent later, while French warships are patrolling as far south as Rue as fears intensify over smugglers expanding their routes into the UK. It represents a significant intensification in patrols in that region, with three navy vessels between Fort-Mahon-Plage and Le Touquet. More than 300 illegal immigrants have already reached UK...

They Just Dumped $86B in US Debt (And Nobody Noticed) Neil McCoy-Ward NMW shows how many of the worlds nations have had their financial foundations eroded, yea eviscerated by the tactics of Iran. And the worst is yet to come.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tacgRfg1I For more, See: Psalm 83 and the shape of the locustshttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3638087/postsAnd for those who are on the Hebrew Calendar… Happy Tu B’ Av!Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love (Official Music Video)https://youtu.be/vpFfjWdhROU?list=RDvpFfjWdhROUAnd from my personal Tu B’Av events, past and future…Tommy James&the Shondell_Crytal Blue persuasionhttps://youtu.be/LN38vED24Eg?list=RDLN38vED24EgYes, the librarian… Tears For Fears - Head Over Heelshttps://youtu.be/CsHiG-43Fzg?list=RDCsHiG-43FzgBuckle up!Cuz the ride just gets wilder! John Lennon...

Full Title: Syrian teen given 10 months in closed youth care in Sweden for repeated rape of 14-year-old girl he called his ‘whore’ and a ‘dog’ The court heard how he would spit on the girl, and tell her he would kill her if she didn’t dress as he told her to, or didn't keep her coat on and zipped up during school A 15-year-old Syrian boy who repeatedly raped, threatened, and humiliated his 14-year-old girlfriend in Gothenburg, Sweden, has been sentenced to ten months in a closed youth care facility after an appeals court increased his punishment. The Gothenburg...

Leo XIV Helped Us Better Appreciate the Crisis. Here’s How to Combat It.One year into Pope Leo XIV's pontificate, this article revisits every major moment—from Synodality and ecumenism to the SSPX and Vatican II—in light of the warnings in Archbishop Lefebvre's 1974 Declaration... Archbishop Lefebvre diagnosed today's crisis more than fifty years ago, and nothing since has proved him wrong.Every so often, it is worthwhile to survey how, if at all, our thinking about a particular topic has changed over time. For Traditional Catholics who share the vision of the crisis in the Catholic Church that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre set...

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz are trying to jump-start the Franco-German engine one final time. After joint ministerial meetings in Germany last week, the leaders of the European Union’s two biggest economies have tasked their governments with striking a grand bargain that they say would strengthen Europe’s industrial defenses and revive the bloc’s automotive industry — key priorities for the two countries. The pact would fuse France’s push to reserve more public procurement contracts and subsidies for European industry with Germany’s drive to rescue its ailing carmakers, whose crisis has reached an acute stage after Volkswagen warned recently...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop attacks Latin Mass, says ‘only’ Novus Ordo is compatible with Synodal ChurchAccording to Bishop Tomáš Holub, it is the Novus Ordo that allows the integration of synodality in the liturgy, whereas this would be ‘very difficult’ with the Traditional Latin Mass.The bishop of the Diocese of Pilsen in the Czech Republic stated in a recent article that the Synodal Church needs an adequate liturgy that can “only” be the Novus Ordo Missae.Tomáš Holub, a heterodox bishop who has endorsed Amoris Laetitia and announced that he would give Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried, shared his vision...

Mayor Mamdani with fanfare released a list of 960,000 owners of real estate in New York City that have been determined they could owe the pied a terre tax because NYC computers have determined they own what was billed as a market value of $5 million or more. Now there are only about 1 million residential tax lots in New York City so the first question is how did virtually every owner get put on the list?The answer is that you are subject to the tax in the first two years if your property has a “DOF valuation” of over...

As the war with Iran has continued, some are finding that the stress is bringing back old anxieties.A 4-year-old child began having behavioral problems when his father left for war.A wife whose husband works in Army intelligence is already dealing with heightened anxiety, even though he hasn’t been deployed yet.A woman found this year that she is struggling to cope with the news of conflicts at home and abroad, nearly 20 years after she lost her fiancé in combat.More than 80 percent of military families have reported elevated stress from the war with Iran, driven by safety concerns, deployment changes,...

🚨 JUST NOW: Sen. Rand Paul says he's working on a plan to BYPASS Senate Democrats and go DIRECTLY to the DOJ with Contempt of Congress findings for Fauci This would BLOCK Democrats from filibustering Fauci's contempt charge, and put it IMMEDIATELY in the hands of the DOJ THIS IS THE WAY! 🔥

[Catholic Caucus] Did Pope St. John XXIII Disobey Fatima?On the Third Part of the Secret of Fatima, part 4: Order Given, Order Thwarted?Between 1956 and 1957, there was an order from the Vatican for copies of all Lúcia’s writings to be sent to the Vatican. Of course, the issue of the third part of the Secret had arisen. It was not 1960 and the text was still within the sealed envelopes. When the matter of the third part was brought to Bishop da Silva, he ordered that the original, not a copy, be sent to Rome. To make a copy,...

Archaeologists have discovered ancient food remains at an excavation site near the traditional location associated with the Ark of the Covenant. Near East Archaeological Society's Scott Stripling breaks down the discovery. Archaeologist explains unusual find near site where Ark of Covenant was once kept | ChicagoLIVE | 13:29 FOX 32 Chicago | 475K subscribers | 19,114 views | July 23, 2026

A LinkedIn post shared by George Kollitides, head of the Pentagon’s Economic Defense Unit (EDU), gives it a more troubling meaning. The post by a mining executive described Washington as the “state as limited partner” and declared that “sovereign backing is now a competitive variable.” Companies receiving federal equity investments or debt guarantees, it says, “will have easier access to offtake agreements, permitting support, and follow-on institutional capital.” Meanwhile, “projects without state alignment will face higher hurdles, regardless of grade or jurisdiction.” Those words came from the mining executive, but Kollitides chose to amplify them. Read alongside Feinberg’s warning, they...

HEADLINES: Fauci and Rutabaga releases cause firestorm; Durable goods and other product orders up; Rs recover big in PA The News of Today is the History of Tomorrow

While talking to a British reporter, Elon Musk made what I thought was an extremely important point about the “far-right”: Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10 This 'journalist' tries to paint me as 'far-right' and racist. Elon shuts her, and the entire mainstream media, down in the most glorious way. “You support not just the populist-right, but the far-right. Very fringe parties in some countries,” the reporter stated. “No, I support the normal people. What you call far-right, falsely…” Musk replied. “Falsely… you think is the normal person?” she asked. “Okay, yes. Literally, if you go back 10 or 15 years, those...

No description has been added to this video.

Cody Peterson is a farmer and property owner in North Dakota.My family has been farming in North Dakota for generations. Like most farmers, we have lived and worked through droughts, floods and price swings that would make a Wall Street trader’s head spin. Now the government is adding an obstacle that threatens my ability to work my land. In the 1960s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to landowners across the Midwest, including the farmer who previously owned my land, with a deal. The government wanted an easement on part of the property to protect wetlands that provide habitats...

It takes a lot of extreme pretzel twisting to write in detail about Anthony Fauci's diary yet somehow skip the famous journalist who figures very prominently in that same diary who worked with Fauci to both cover up for him while also working to attack his opponents. And that journalist is Jack Tapper who, amazingly, appears not once is CNN's story on Fauci's diary published by CNN on Tuesday, "Diary entries, a subpoena and an anticipated clash: Dr. Anthony Fauci and Rand Paul’s long-running battle returns to the Hill."CNN reporters Sarah Owermohle and Adam Cancryn had the unenviable task of...