Free Republic

Oakland director and hometown hero Boots Riley’s new film, “I Love Boosters,” pays homage to a complicated folk hero: the booster, a neighborhood figure who sells shoplifted goods at a steep discount. The topic feels particularly poignant in the Bay Area, where high-profile smash-and-grabs make headlines and drugstores put toothpaste behind lock and key.

Liberal podcast star Jennifer Welch branded President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement a “Nazi-style cult” during the Monday’s edition of her show. Welch ranted that MAGA supporters are fake Americans who need to be placed in a special historical category, much like citizens of the Third Reich. “We cannot let them besmirch the name the United States of America. Let it be MAGA. Much like when you think of Germany, you don’t associate modern-day Germany as being Nazis. You don’t associate that,” Welch said on I’ve Had It. “So we need to separate ourselves from this Nazi-style cult,...

The Trump administration has moved to seize more than 14 acres of land owned by the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces to expand border‑wall infrastructure near Mount Cristo Rey in southern New Mexico, according to court documents reported by KVIA. The effort puts federal border‑security construction on a collision course with religious‑freedom protections tied to one of the region’s most significant Catholic pilgrimage sites. If approved by a judge, the action could disrupt annual pilgrimages and set a legal test for using eminent domain against religious institutions along the U.S.-Mexico border. The civil case was filed at the request of...

The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded. Ongoing sea-level rise and the erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”. Low-lying southern Louisiana faces multiple threats, with rising sea levels driven by global heating,...

A new research tool that tracks cell phone activity has found a 42% drop in visitors from Canada to big metropolitan areas in the US that is much higher than official border-crossing data, suggesting Canadians during the second Trump administration are avoiding US cities in particular. Researchers from the University of Toronto said the tool showed a “year-over-year median decline of approximately 42% in Canadian visits to US metropolitan areas – significantly higher than official border-crossing data, which showed a roughly 25% decline”. The economies of US border towns reliant on Canadian traffic have been slammed as their northerly neighbours...

Di 2026 edition of di Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards on Saturday 9 May na anoda grand celebration of African film, fashion and storytelling, wey bring togeda di continent biggest stars for a night filled wit glamour, emotion and well-deserved recognition. From ogbonge red carpet appearances to defining career moments on stage, di ceremony once again prove why di AMVCA remain one of di most prestigious platforms for African entertainment.

This article is part of “Unaffordable America,” a series examining rising economic inequality in the U.S. and the policies that drive it. PHOENIX — The line outside a suburban office building was already 15 people long when Tiffany Hudson showed up with her 7-year-old son cradling his blanket. It was 7 a.m. At the front of the line was a woman hooked up to an oxygen tank who had arrived 90 minutes before the building opened. Like others there, Husdon had come to the Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Surprise, a Phoenix suburb, to find out why the...

The Daily Wire was once ascendant in right-wing media. Now, the “anti-woke” company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.The conservative media company Daily Wire was once a star of the MAGA digital universe, dominating social media feeds and podcast apps with a blend of “anti-woke” commentary, viral Facebook posts and culture-war stunts. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the company co-founded by conservative pundit Ben Shapiro ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for three straight months. Its sarcastic news items on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s salon visits gained millions more views than the websites of...

Influential pastors are claiming that they have been told to prepare their followers for shocking revelations about UFOs which may upend belief in the Bible. Perry Stone, a well-known evangelist, author and Bible teacher from Tennessee, warned that fellow pastors were recently invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for the release of secret files on extraterrestrials. According to Stone, the officials warned a small group of pastors with a large reach in the Christian community that the government was about to release reports and possibly videos of aliens and spacecraft which were not from this...

In recent days, a disturbing video and photos have circulated widely on social media showing two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in southern Lebanon destroying a statue of Christ on the cross. The soldiers reportedly tore the statue down and smashed it with a hammer while another filmed the act. The incident occurred in the Christian village of Debel during routine operations against Hezbollah terrorists. As a Christian who has followed the Israel-Hezbollah conflict online, I found the images as shocking and indefensible as anyone else.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) itself confirmed the event in an official statement released shortly...

Calls are growing for California’s high-speed rail to be abandoned completely after revelations the estimated cost of completing Gavin Newsom’s fantasy train project has ballooned to a staggering $231 billion. The latest cost revisions for the project — revealed during a Senate Transportation Committee meeting — left lawmakers fuming after the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office flagged numerous concerns. State Sen. Tony Strickland, vice chair of the STC, said the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan continues to obscure true costs — and now he’s calling for the entire project to be scrapped.

The fatal victim of a Louisiana mall shooting which left at least five more injured has been identified as an innocent 17-year-old private schoolgirl. Martha Odom, a senior at Ascension Episcopal School in Youngsville, was killed on Thursday afternoon at Baton Rouge's Mall of Louisiana after being struck in crossfire when two groups began shooting at each other, authorities said.

The owner of social media platform Snapchat said Wednesday it’s eliminating about 16% of its global workforce, or about 1,000 jobs that will be culled in its latest round of layoffs. Snap Inc. said in a regulatory filing that the job cuts will cost about $95 million to $130 million in severance payments and related costs. “The headcount reduction is designed to further streamline our operations and reallocate resources toward our highest-priority initiatives, leveraging increased operational efficiencies to accelerate our path toward net-income profitability,” the company said in its filing. Snap had 5,261 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2025,...

King Charles III 'viscerally despises' Donald Trump privately, royal author Tina Brown has claimed ahead of the four-day US state visit next week. The former Vanity Fair editor said a royal adviser had also told her that the monarch was 'especially pained' by the President's attacks on Pope Leo XIV. Charles and Camilla's trip comes amid a worsening UK-US relationship after verbal attacks by Mr Trump on the British military, its Nato allies and Sir Keir Starmer. The King's first visit to the US as monarch is intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and herald the start...

Summary: During the period of the Revolution, slavery was much closer to being banned in America than most people realize.

Satire site the Onion says that it has — after 17 months legal wrangling — successfully landed a deal allowing it take over Infowars, the right-wing conspiracy-fueled site run by Alex Jones. Ben Collins, CEO of the Onion, confirmed to Variety details of the company’s new plan to assume control of Infowars under a deal with Gregory Milligan, who was appointed by a bankruptcy court to manage the Infowars site. Under the terms of the agreement, the Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, would pay $81,000 per month to license the infowars.com domain name and associated intellectual property including its name,...

President Trump’s decision not to attend the NRA’s 2026 Annual Meetings is bringing the group’s influence into question.The NRA’s Annual Meetings are currently underway in Houston, Texas.The Hill reported that Trump “[skipped the NRA’s] annual convention this weekend, his second snub in as many years of an organization long seen as a key political ally for Republicans.”NRA director of public affairs Justin Davis spoke on Trump’s absence, claiming the organization was not concerned by it. He said, “The president is obviously incredibly busy with worldwide affairs right now, and we’re incredibly close to the administration. We work hand-in-glove with them...

A senior cybersecurity official at one of America's most secretive nuclear laboratories left behind files after his death that an insider has claimed reveal the US government has long been studying UFOs. The documents, described as containing internal memos, scientific reports and images, were allegedly discovered among the belongings of the former head of cybersecurity at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The lab, located in northern New Mexico, approximately 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, is linked to UFO lore primarily through its proximity to New Mexico's 'Nuclear Triangle' and reported sightings of 'green fireballs' near atomic sites in the...

Rev. Franklin Graham does not believe President Donald Trump would “knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ,” weighing in on the controversial AI image posted then deleted on President Donald Trump’s account.Trump sparked outrage after many claimed the commander-in-chief depicted himself as Jesus in an image which shows Trump wearing a white robe with red sash touching a sick American. A nurse and member of the U.S. military are also in the image, which shows an eagle and aircraft in the sky along with the Statue of Liberty and American flag. Trump deleted the image and denied that he was depicting...

There’s a new forecast of the Social Security boost retirees should expect in 2027 - and it’s a huge disappointment for the millions of Americans who depend on their bi-monthly benefit checks... Older Americans absolutely rely on this so-called ‘cost of living adjustment’ or COLA, since more than 40 percent of them depend on Social Security alone for all of their retirement income. The new estimate of the forthcoming official 2027 cost-of-living adjustment shows the average Social Security benefit check will only rise by $56, or roughly 2.8 percent. The average benefits check for retired workers would increase to $2,081...