Free Republic

I was -1. I wonder what it was like to see live. It likely cost him the Election and led to President Reagan.

"Americans could pay far more to heat their homes with oil this winter than last, a new analysis reviewed by Axios shows, as volatile energy markets and the Iran War deepen the affordability crisis. Why it matters: Heating bills are eating into household budgets before winter sets in, with stark divides between fuel types. By the numbers: Families that heat with oil could pay about 50% more this winter than last, according to estimates from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), up from its 31.3% projection in mid-September. The average cost of heating a home with oil is expected...

France is on the precipice of a dangerous financial spiral. The global surge in interest rates has exposed the country, once considered an oasis of relative stability in Europe’s financial markets, as one of the continent’s weakest links. France now pays more to borrow than former crisis hot spots like Greece and Italy. Its government is running a budget deficit surpassed only by the United States among its peers. Last week, a slow-burning selloff in France’s government bond market took an alarming turn as it spread across the continent, reviving memories of the eurozone debt crisis last decade. France’s 10-year...

The US debt load crossed $40 trillion in August 2026. The Treasury publishes the number and updates it every business day. $32.4 trillion of it is borrowed from investors, pension funds, and foreign governments. Another $7.7 trillion is owed to the government's trust funds, including the funds that pay Social Security and Medicare. I spent two terms chairing the House Financial Institutions Committee, reading numbers like these, page after page. The pace worried me more than the total ever did. Everyone quotes the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline when they talk about where the debt is headed. CBO is the nonpartisan...

Video posted by government forces in Yemen showed them driving armoured cars over Houthi ⁠fighters ⁠as they recaptured areas around the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait from ⁠the Iran-backed group on Monday in a deadly new phase of the fragmented country's war. The videos gave a glimpse into the brutal closing stages ​of a pitched battle for control of territory near the strait that the Houthis had captured last month. The Houthi advance sent shockwaves through the oil market and pushed up petrol and diesel prices worldwide. Fighting continued near Bab el-Mandeb ‌on Tuesday as Saudi-backed government forces battled to consolidate...

While inflation has been running stubbornly high, American paychecks are growing even faster than prices are rising. Inflation-adjusted weekly wages have risen in 16 out of the 18 months for which the government reported data since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2025. There was no data for October because of the government shutdown last year. To put it differently, real weekly wages have been positive 89 percent of the time since Trump took office. By contrast, real weekly wages rose less than half of the time—46 percent—during Biden’s presidency. During Trump’s first term, real weekly wages were positive...

NASHVILLE, TN — Prison officials admitted they were unsure how to go about executing a woman who was currently being kept alive by a ventilator that is plugged into a power outlet in the wall. After surviving two botched lethal injections, convicted murderer Christa Pike is now in critical condition and is solely being kept alive by a machine that breathes for her, which is powered by a standard 120-volt power outlet in the wall. Prison officials, who ordered the medical interventions that are keeping her alive, are baffled as to how they could execute the vulnerable death row inmate...

With just 28 days remaining until he faces off against Republican candidate Ken Paxton, Democrat James Talarico is nowhere to be found. Talarico has not been seen publicly in Texas in over a week, with his last appearance occurring on Saturday, September 26, before he took a fundraising trip to New York City.

When a federal appeals court known for its rock-bottom track record in Supreme Court reviews reinstated California's so-called gender secrecy policies in schools, parents and teachers ran to SCOTUS for an emergency injunction. The gambit worked, prompting a broadside by six justices against lower courts for ignoring a century of precedents. Now a mother and daughter in Washington state are seeking the same shortcut around the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected their plea to force a school district and state athletic association to warn them before the girl unwittingly competes against another male in girls' wrestling, as...

SEATTLE (AP) — Federal authorities arrested and charged a 30-year-old from Washington state on Tuesday in connection with a February school shooting in British Columbia. The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle says James Cody Bryant of Bellingham, Washington, communicated with the 18-year-old shooter for six months ahead of time. Bryant, who identifies as female, did not report the shooter’s plans to authorities and conspired with her to broadcast the attacks, authorities allege. “Without Bryant’s misplaced loyalty and willingness to operate the livestream, we don’t ultimately know if the shooter would have gone through with the crime,” said W. Mike Herrington,...

Zion Teasley, the man who stabbed Phoenix hiker Lauren Heike 15 times on a trail in 2023, has pleaded guilty to her murder in a deal that takes the death penalty off the table and sends him to prison for life. Teasley, 25, killed Heike, a 29-year-old beauty technician, after stalking her on a hiking trail near her home. Neighbors found her body at the foot of a barbed wire fence. Police said he chased her, killed her with a pocketknife, and jumped the fence to get away.

Video of the violence with communist and palestinian flags flying from the Red-Green alliance. French police unable to control the mobs.

Scientists are as prone as anyone else to groupthink, and stifling dissent often produces disaster. Three of the costliest policy failures in recent decades—the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid lockdowns and the campaign for rapid decarbonization—share a pathology we call the Consensus Trap. Problems began with the output of complex, unvalidated models presented as facts. Institutions and public figures under pressure to appear authoritative ignored uncertainties. Along with the press, these institutions and people became arbiters of truth, amplifying the declared consensus rather than critically assessing the evidence. Once “the science” was declared, dissent was treated as misconduct. In all...

Imagine your mom and dad intentionally sent you to a bad school. How would you respond? Some 11 years ago, parents Faraji and Nikole Hannah-Jones dropped their daughter off at school for the first time. Because of New York City’s novel Pre-K for All program, they could apply for any of the 1,800 options across the city. Instead of choosing the school that was best for their daughter, they deliberately sent young Najya to a school they knew was subpar. Now they’re left wondering if that decision was a mistake. On Sept. 20, Nikole Hannah-Jones released an essay examining all...

The European Commission proposed measures on Tuesday to prepare the EU to take in countries such ​as Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova in coming years while trying ‌to reassure existing members about potential political and economic costs. The proposals by the European Union’s executive body reflect a renewed interest among EU members in expanding the 27-nation bloc, driven ​largely by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s desire to ​join the bloc as part of a peace settlement. The proposed ⁠reforms include a measure to allow other EU countries to suspend a ​new member's voting rights during the first 15...

The situation in France appeared to be escalating Monday as viral video showed a burning school with staff, students, and journalists barricaded inside. The scene, ripped right from the medieval crusades or the Jacobins’ 18th-century Reign of Terror, occurred at Nicolas Louis Vauquelin vocational high school, located in the 13th Arrondissement in southeast Paris. The spot is roughly three miles from tourist-heavy spots like the Notre Dame Cathedral, which itself was reopened in December 2024 after six years of restoration following a devastating fire, reportedly caused by an electrical short-circuit or discarded cigarette. It was not immediately apparent whether the...

President Trump’s executive order allowing a more widespread use of tax-exempt red-dye diesel is meant to lower the cost burden on Americans – but it may not help prices at the pump much, according to experts. Long-haul drivers could save a substantial amount of money using the cheaper fuel, potentially passing those savings along to groceries – but there are several roadblocks standing in the way. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, estimated that few truckers – perhaps just one in 100 – will actually be able to take advantage of the tax-exempt fuel because it’s not...

Israel's Consul-General in New York, Ofir Akunis, invited New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday evening to view the 47-minute film documenting the October 7 massacre, which will be screened in New York to mark three years since the attack. Akunis extended the invitation to Mamdani during a memorial ceremony held by the Israeli Consulate in the city, attended by some 1,000 people, and simultaneously sent him a formal letter. "In less than 48 hours, on October 7, we will screen in New York City the 47-minute atrocity film produced by the IDF," Akunis said in his speech. "I invite...

President Donald Trump weighed in on France's ongoing school protest controversy on Tuesday, saying that the unrest reflected broader concerns about immigration and integration in the country. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "What's happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!" The president's remarks came as protests and political debate continue in France over education and immigration-related issues, with the dispute drawing international attention and fueling broader arguments about migration policy in Europe. Trump has frequently criticized...

Explanation: Have you ever seen a complete auroral oval? You can't see one from the ground because it makes too large a circle around one of Earth's magnetic poles. But spacecraft high above the Earth can see them. The featured video from ESA and CAS's robotic SMILE spacecraft shows not only a full auroral oval, but using ultraviolet light, one that occurred during the day. The time-lapse covers about an hour in late July and shows visually how variable and turbulent auroras really are. The points of light on the sides are distant stars that appear to move only because...