Free Republic

The U.K. is set to provide over 10 billion pounds ($13.3 billion) in support for Ukraine in 2027, British Finance Minister John Healey announced on Oct. 28. The announcement came as part of Healey's presentation of the U.K. budget for 2027, and amid growing pressure from the EU and Ukraine for Kyiv's partners to step up their financial support to Ukraine. "Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine poses a serious threat to U.K. prosperity and security," reads a social media post from the U.K.'s finance ministry. "That's why this budget is providing over 10 billion pounds in additional support to Ukraine,"...

A central detail in James Talarico's political origin story has been questioned in the New York Times just days out from the midterm elections as he battles to become the first Democratic Texas senator since 1993. Talarico, a former educator who currently serves as a Texas State representative, launched his original bid for office after spending two years in a San Antonio classroom as a Teach For America fellow from 2011 to 2013, when he was in his early 20s. In his initial campaign, Talarico claimed that he taught as many as 45 students at a time and that classroom...

From Dick Durbin to Michael Sacks: Cupich will recognize an abortion-funding donor at a gala for future priests Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, will participate on October 29 in a gala at which the archdiocese will present the Nostra Aetate award to businessman Michael J. Sacks, president and chief executive officer of GCM Grosvenor, who has donated $600,000 to fund initiatives aimed at facilitating access to abortion in Illinois.The recognition will take place during the annual Seminary Salutes Rerum Novarum gala, organized by Mundelein Seminary, part of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, with the goal of...

The defeated presidential candidate faces criminal investigations in his home country, which had canceled his passports SÃO PAULO—Just days after losing Brazil’s presidential election, Flávio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami Wednesday after fleeing his home country, where he faces mounting legal pressure from a Supreme Court that has already sent his father to prison.The 45-year-old senator, son of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, crossed into Argentina late Tuesday before boarding a private jet that took his family to the U.S. via Ecuador, defying a Supreme Court order barring him from leaving Brazil.Bolsonaro faces criminal investigations into alleged financial crimes, which he...

How medical freedom was eroded, and what it will take to restore it. If you raise cows and a feed mill sells you a contaminated batch, you can take the mill to court. The same holds for the dealer who sold you a mower with a faulty blade guard, the maker of a trailer hitch that shears on the highway, or the manufacturer of any other defective product. Product liability law is straightforward. Most people who farm understand it without a lawyer. Now take your daughter to the pediatrician for a routine childhood shot. If that shot injures her, federal...

Nobody circles the wagons quite like the leaders of the global left, who will eagerly line up behind just about anyone — the corrupt, the vindictive, the incompetent and even the openly evil — so long as they perceive them to be “part of the team.” Take their celebration of the disturbing, real-time collapse of Brazilian democracy for an example. Incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s triumph over Flávio Bolsonaro in this week’s presidential election occurred under suspicious circumstances. Lula’s narrow victory came only after Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin — who served as Lula’s personal defense attorney in the...

More than 2 million Georgians have voted early in person, surpassing the total from the entire early-voting period in the 2022 midterm election, according to the Georgia Secretary of State's Office. As of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, 2,045,533 people had cast ballots in person. Another 100,241 absentee ballots had been accepted, bringing the combined total to nearly 2.1 million. The state reported overall turnout of 28%, matching the turnout rate at the same point before Election Day in 2022. In-person early voting is about 22% higher than the 1,640,652 ballots cast during the full 15-day early-voting period in 2022, according to...

The Summer Olympics are two years away from hitting the streets of Los Angeles, and the event’s committee announced that legendary film producer Kathleen Kennedy will oversee the opening and closing ceremonies of content. Kennedy, who is a Hollywood veteran, will be replacing Peter Rice, who recently joined Netflix as its new chief content officer. Kennedy will be tasked with creating a team of producers that will design the look and content of the two ceremonies when the Olympics begin on July 14, 2028. Rice is still expected to serve as an executive producer for the ceremonies. The dual events...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to replace the black female head of the city’s Commission on Racial Equity after she publicly criticized him for removing any mention of DEI from its “racial equity plan” released earlier this year. Hizzoner sent a letter to the City Council this week asking lawmakers to sign off on replacing Linda Tigani with Christopher Alexander, the executive director of New York’s NAACP. The request, which was first reported by The New York Times, was quickly met with fierce backlash from the council and others in the black community who argued that removing Tigani appeared retaliatory and...

Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign is under fire after a New York Times report out Wednesday that it played a role in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan -- a Republican who almost has the same name as incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan -- as part of an effort to sow confusion and ultimately benefit Peltola's campaign. The New York Times report said it relied on 12 sources, text messages and documents that allegedly showed members of Peltola's campaign, lawyers for Peltola and senior aides at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee contributed to pushing Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican on Alaska's...

The SS United States finally has a sinking date to become the world's largest artificial reef. The 990-foot ship, which was docked in Philadelphia for decades, will be deployed in the Gulf of Mexico about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach on Nov. 12, according to an Okaloosa County, Florida, spokesperson. A sendoff ceremony will be held for the SS United States on Nov. 11. The deployment date could change based on the weather.

President Trump on Wednesday called for Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola to drop out of the race and be criminally prosecuted after it was revealed that her allies were behind an effort to bring a candidate into the race that had the same name as her GOP opponent. “Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews ahead of his trip to Ohio to campaign for Republicans there. He said any of her allies who worked to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan into the...

A federal judge who has become a frequent legal thorn in the side of President Donald Trump and his allies is now presiding over a fight to unseal the warrant used to search the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The battle over whether to unseal the search warrant comes amid two separate federal investigations into the Democratic congresswoman stemming from concerns about discrepancies between financial disclosures filed a year apart and allegations that her father committed fraud when completing immigration paperwork. Omar immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 1995, when she was 12 years old. Investigators are...

The ACLU recently outlined a pattern of police traffic stops based solely on data from Flock cameras and other license plate readers. The reports go back to at least 2025 and show how closely authorities can track the movements of most motorists. In one case from late 2025, a woman only understood the extent of the surveillance when an officer demonstrated the software following a traffic stop. As she traveled through several states on a road trip to Florida, a self-identified FBI agent ran her license plate through a database and stopped her simply because she was from another state...

A stronger alliance between Canada and the European Union would only include a financial commitment if either side joins specific programs in either jurisdiction, a senior government official said Wednesday. The next steps in that alliance are expected to be finalized and announced Thursday and Friday, during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, and it seems it will not include making Canada an “associate member” of the European Union. Several European news agencies have reported that idea is off the table, and EU members are looking at terminology around a closer association between the 27-member bloc and Canada. Prime Minister Mark...

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has increased his polling lead to 7 percentage points over Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, among likely voters in a nationally watched U.S. Senate race in Michigan. Mitchell Research & Communications conducted the statewide poll Oct. 26-27 for CBS Detroit and other Michigan television stations. It surveyed likely voters in the Nov. 3 general election. "El-Sayed is in the driver's seat for a big victory on November 3rd," the researchers said. El-Sayed was the choice of 51% of likely voters, with Rogers at 44%, in the latest Mitchell poll. Three percent were undecided, and third-party candidates...

The Trump administration is proposing to dramatically scale back a Biden-era rule that aimed to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry at drilling sites nationwide. Methane is a major contributor to climate change and is estimated to be 80 times more planet-warming than carbon dioxide in a twenty-year time frame. In 2023, the Biden administration finalized rules that were meant to rein in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. President Trump made the announcement while campaigning in Lubbock, Texas, Tuesday, saying his administration's revision, under the Clean Air Act, would save the industry billions in...

A Minnesota prosecutor on Wednesday charged conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and influencer Cam Higby with felony counts of unlawful voting and identity theft after they misrepresented themselves at polling places in August using the names of registered voters. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who announced the charges at a news conference, accused the pair of entering polling places during state primary election voting on Aug. 11 and identifying themselves using names of registered voters in those precincts without those voters’ knowledge or permission. “Both men stopped short of signing the oath we all sign before receiving our ballot,” she said....

Democrats in Alaska reportedly created a plan to find a second candidate, also called Dan Sullivan, as Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK) and Alaska Democrat U.S. Senate candidate and former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) face off against each other. While Peltola’s campaign “has repeatedly denied any involvement” in Daniel J. Sullivan announcing his candidacy, a report from the New York Times revealed that “interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit” showed that Peltola’s team was involved “with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run.”

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a new hearing on President Donald Trump's plan to convert a beloved public golf course into a world-class venue after he appeared to deny her stop-work order and say the project will start as scheduled. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the new hearing after granting a preliminary injunction Monday requested by a preservationist group and group of local D.C. golfers asking her to stop the Trump administration from cutting down trees at the park as part of the redevelopment project. The president’s apparent plan to go forward with the project in East Potomac...