Free Republic

Sweden and Denmark are pouring money into defense, tightening ties with each other and Europe—and moving beyond the U.S. It’s paying off. COPENHAGEN and STOCKHOLM—Sweden’s central bank has been worrying about what cashless consumers would do if an emergency such as a Russian cyberattack took down the electrical or communications grid. And so as of July, Swedish consumers can buy essential goods using their Mastercard and Visa cards without a network connection. The central bank (the Riksbank) wants to go further by enabling offline purchases with Swish, a local mobile payments system that bypasses the Visa and Mastercard networks altogether....

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) President Archbishop Paul Coakley on Oct. 9 condemned the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan as a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” The statement comes shortly after the War Department confirmed plans to livestream the execution of Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting. Hasan, who described the attack as an act of jihad, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. A military jury convicted him in 2013 and sentenced...

Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria....

Maricopa County election employees are believed to have been seen tampering with voting equipment late at night this week, appearing to install or download something on election equipment that has already been certified for use on November 3. The county claims that they were just “working on a legitimate election task, late into the night.” But according to Phoenix-based election watchdog group We the People Alliance, the employees left for the day at approximately 6:20 pm, then returned late at night around 9:08 pm until 11:15 pm. Additionally, co-founder of We the People Shelby Busch tells The Gateway Pundit, “There...

Some Iranian leadership is being surprisingly honest about the dire state of the country’s economy, with one of the most senior security officials in Tehran warning that the Islamic Republic is going through one of the most difficult periods in its history.Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, delivered the assessment during a high-level government meeting on Saturday, October 3, attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior ministers.Iranian state media did not publish Rezaei’s comments in full, but said the security chief described the country’s current economic circumstances as among the most difficult it has ever faced.

The tiger seen mauling a man who had gotten inside the enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park has survived, say police. Shocking footage has emerged of a man inside the enclosure at the Doncaster attraction and the tiger, visibly disturbed by his presence, attacking the man who is seen shouting at the animal to stay back. The popular wildlife park will remain closed throughout today and the rest of tomorrow. Visitors reported hearing gunshots as they were ordered to leave the park shortly after 1.35pm. The speculation prompted fears from the public that the animal had been shot dead to protect...

ROWLETT, TX - Zipline, an American robotics company that designs, manufactures and operates the world’s largest autonomous delivery system, has expanded the number of brands available in Texas. Eligible customers near Rowlett, Texas, can now order food from 16 brands, including Walmart, Crumbl Cookies, Little Caesars Pizza, Popeyes, Blaze Pizza, and local favorites Village Coffee by Altara and Torta shell Taqueria.

France’s public debt has climbed to a record during the two terms of President Emmanuel Macron, unsettling investors and emerging as a defining issue ahead of next year’s presidential election. With France already gripped by deep social tensions, the candidates vying to succeed Macron are under pressure to explain how they would bring the debt under control. It now stands at 119% of gross domestic product, leaving the country’s strained public finances likely to dominate the campaign. France again won’t come close to balancing its annual state budget next year, despite a proposed 54 billion euros ($61 billion) in spending...

What we know: Officers were called to the 100 block of North 52nd Street just after midnight for a report of a person with a gun. When officers arrived, they were met with a barrage of gunfire in what an officer at the scene described as an ambush. ---SNIP--- During a Saturday morning press conference, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed the tragic passing of one of the officers. The fallen officer—identified as Shane Sieber—was a 40-year-old, 10-year veteran of the force. He leaves behind a wife, a 7-year-old son, and a 3-year-old daughter. He was shot...

This video describes the military situation in Ukraine on the 10th of October 2026 0:00 — 👋 Intro: Key events of the last 12 hours 0:13 — 💰 Deal of the year: US to buy 3M tons of russian diesel 1:24 — 📈 $4.5B revenue for russia; sanctions license until April 2027 2:29 — 🚀 Russian markets skyrocket; oil hits $129 per barrel 3:24 — ⚖️ A win-win-lose deal — and Zelensky is furious 4:16 — 🚨 Zelensky's ultimatums hours before the deal 5:21 — ⛽ Ignoring Trump 6 times: 4–5 refineries & 2 data centers hit in October 7:18...

The National Firearms Act has been gutted after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced that they would no longer be enforcing registration for short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, “any other weapons,” and suppressors.

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy edged out Democrat Amy Acton in a new poll of the Ohio governor’s race, breaking a string of five recent surveys that gave Acton a lead in the state that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. A new co/efficient poll, conducted on October 5 and October 6, showed Ramaswamy up 2 points over Acton, 45 percent to 43 percent among 925 likely voters. Three percent said they would back a Libertarian candidate, while 8 percent were undecided. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.49 percentage points. Ramaswamy's win ended up...

Iran demands that London Metro police crack down on protestors around the embassy. They do. Chapter 1: Crackdown on protesters 0:1414 seconds Hello everybody and welcome to Tusc TV. 0:1616 seconds This is your global news channel. Amaya Tusi and the Islamic Republic of Iran has asked the Metropolitan Police in the 0:2525 seconds United Kingdom to launch a crackdown on the anti-IRGC Iranian protesters in the name of keeping the Islamic Republic 0:3434 seconds embassy safe in London and of course the Metropolitan Police in London obeyed and 0:4141 seconds followed the orders. We have a number of videos...

A small team of 2-4 "Vibecoders" from a company called Aircraft, using Anthropics Claude AI Opus 5.5 model, fed the binary machine code for Adobe's Creative Suite of software products into Opus 5.5 and have produced a workable source code and the entire suite of products which they have released as open source. Acknowledging that plenty of bugs exist in the initial release, the company is saying within a month they should have all the bugs resolved. The implications of this are HUGE, if 2-4 people using AI can feed the binary machine code of any proprietary into a current...

This woman has become a disaster. It’s part of an embarrassing track record for Democrats in some crucial Senate races. In Maine, they had Graham Plater, who had Nazi tattoos, booted only to replace him with Troy Jackson, whose relationships would put 23 and Me through a loop. James Talarico has gone missing in Texas, which is fitting since he has an affinity for all things woke and weird; he thinks God is non-binary. And now Mary Peltola, the former Alaska congresswoman, is vying to unseat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who puts the ‘temp’ in temperamental. The New York Times...

President Trump calls for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be replaced: “I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president”

San Diego County jumped into California’s sprawling ghost gun fight this week, suing a 3-D printing filament manufacturer it says hocks material for homespun firearms in violation of state law. Working with the Giffords Law Center, the county counsel sued manufacturer Polymaker, alleging the company made a “strategic business choice” to market and sell 3-D printer filament to Californians for the express purpose of building illegal weapons. The polymer filament is sold in spools that feed into 3-D printers, allowing the devices to form designs created by their owners. “Unlike ghost guns assembled from commercially sold unfinished parts, 3D printed...

Donald Trump agreed to buy diesel from Vladimir Putin after Volodymyr Zelensky ignored his requests to stop bombing Russian oil refineries, sources have said. Mr Trump announced on Friday that Putin would "immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace", followed by another 1.5 million tons before the end of the year. The US president is facing pressure from voters over the cost of fuel before November's midterms as diesel prices have soared around 70 per cent since he launched a war against Iran. On Friday, a gallon of diesel cost $6.28, up...

A weapon discovered in 2023 on Mount Geumseong in southwestern South Korea has been identified by researchers from the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage as a Hwangja Hwatong, a handheld gunpowder weapon that fired arrows or pellets, ZME Science reports. The 600-year-old bronze weapon measures about nine inches long and weighs about two pounds. Engravings on the handle record the weapon’s name, weight, manufacturing supervisor, craftsman, and an incomplete date. When researchers compared the inscription with historic records of firearm production, they determined that this weapon was made in either 1377 or 1437. “It comes from a crucial...

Multiple people are dead after a shooting in Pennsylvania that occurred Friday night, according to local news reports. “I have not seen anything like this in my 28-plus years,” Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said. “I’m not sure that the city of Erie has ever seen the loss of life and the devastation that we just witnessed.” The suspected gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Witnesses told police they saw someone firing a weapon before authorities arrived. Police described the scene as horrific and said they currently do not know what led to the deaths.