Free Republic

Out of the 32,788 burglaries reported in London last year, only seven resulted in a suspect actually being charged. Data cited by the Daily Mail shows the Metropolitan Police accounted for roughly two-thirds of all recorded theft cases in the UK in 2024. Greater Manchester recorded nearly 10,000 burglaries, while South Yorkshire followed with 6,694 cases. The figures come as burglary remains a common experience for many households across the country. One in five UK adults have expressed experiencing either a burglary or attempted burglary. Because of this, the UK’s Labour Party remains under pressure to crack down on theft,...

People living in “an Islamic country” must “at least have to profess [they’re a] devout Muslim.” Those living in “the United States or a Western Europe,” however, can believe and do whatever they want. Hanson breaks down the difference between “a Judeo-Christian country” and “an Islamic country” where it’s “almost impossible” to be “an apostate, an atheist, [or an] agnostic” in those countries, on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

History suggests civilizations fall when complacency, debt, and tribalism replace unity, discipline, and reform—prompting fears the West may be nearing a familiar decline. Western civilization arose in the 8th century B.C. Greece. Some 1,500 city-states emerged from a murky, illiterate 400-year-old Dark Age. That chaos followed the utter collapse of the palatial culture of Mycenaean Greece. But what reemerged were constitutional government, rationalism, liberty, freedom of expression, self-critique, and free markets—what we know now as the foundation of a unique Western civilization. The Roman Republic inherited and enhanced the Greek model. For a millennium, the Republic and subsequent Empire spread...

Everything everywhere in the West is going to hell on three different fronts, and the weekend's news — you know, the stories I wallowed in all Saturday and Sunday instead of waiting for Monday morning — provides three perfect (and perfectly chilling) examples.... But then I had a happy thought, courtesy of the Blogfaddah himself, Glenn Reynolds. "If," he asked on Sunday, "the Intifada has been globalized, doesn’t that mean that it’s been, well, globalized on both sides?" Glenn took it a step further."If it’s a global Intifada, then isn’t a mosque or Islamic 'charity' that, say, provided the guns...

I had a visitor from the East Coast, a few weeks ago, and I drove her around the San Fernando Valley to show her what a dismal ----hole it is. But I kept missing all the encampment sites and pirate RV villages, which move around, so we ended up driving around the Encino hills, where my plan to show a visitor how disgusting Los Angeles has become led to the visitor saying that oh my goodness, this is such a pretty neighborhood. I apologized for the absence of squalor. There’s a lot of that going around. A bunch of recent...

What is now unfolding in France may soon drag the entire Eurozone into deep turmoil. The country is staggering through a fiscal crisis while locked in a political stalemate that seems impossible to break. In the bond market, the clock is ticking loudly as France’s public debt spirals out of control. This week, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu celebrated a textbook Pyrrhic victory. On Tuesday, the National Assembly narrowly approved his draft for next year’s social budget. But the win came at a steep price: sweeping concessions that will only worsen an already explosive fiscal situation. Strange coalitionsWith 247 votes in...

America warns Europe that only one of them is truly fighting to reverse the West’s decline—and the clock is running out for the other to follow suit. Nothing bothers the European elite as much as American conservatives praising the European foundations of their shared, but threatened, Western civilization. Europeans especially resent having their social-welfare state system critiqued by upstart, crass Americans. Their pique only increases as they push back against the condescending American idea that the U.S. could possibly offer any constructive advice, much less help a more civilized Europe follow the “American model.” Americans, in turn, are worried that...

Hungary’s guarded borders stand out in a Europe where migrant-driven unrest is forcing Christmas markets to shutter under rising security fears. Not surprisingly, a controversial prediction in the new Trump administration’s National Security Strategy that Europe is facing “civilization erasure” because of out-of-control mass migration infuriated European elites. The Economist attacked this reference as “shocking.” The Independent, a UK newspaper, referred to it as a “sinister conspiracy theory.” I want to set this aside for a moment and talk about European Christmas markets, especially in Hungary. These markets are an old tradition where people gather to shop and socialize in...

Donald Trump voiced concern about the current political track taken by EU countriesWASHINGTON, December 9. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump criticized the fine imposed by the European Commission on X and warned that Europe is "moving in some bad directions." Asked about the fine at a meeting with representatives of the agricultural industry at the White House, Trump called Brussels' decision "nasty" and added: "I don't think it's right. Europe has to be very careful." He voiced concern about the current political track taken by EU countries. "We want to keep Europe Europe. Europe is going in some bad directions....

The Trump administration’s new national security strategy has got lousy reviews in Europe. Nonetheless, it is a genuinely interesting document. It attempts to do something very ambitious — which is to redefine national security in civilisational terms. Conventional takes on national security centre on military and economic imperatives. The new NSS trudges dutifully through these issues. But one senses that the author’s heart is not in it. A passage on the critical issue of Taiwan asserts flatly: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan . . . is a priority. We will also maintain our longstanding declaratory policy on Taiwan.” That is...

Trump is right to warn against mass immigration and the Islamification of EuropeLast week the Trump administration expressed its fear that Europe faces “civilizational erasure.” Its concern was articulated in a 33-page National Security Strategy that outlined Donald Trump’s world view and how America will respond economically and militarily.The sentence that caused the most reaction on the other side of the pond was the assertion that, if current trends continue, Europe will be “unrecognizable in 20 years or less.” Those trends are mass immigration and what conservative French commentators call the “Islamification” of Europe. If Europe doesn’t address these trends,...

President Donald Trump's administration has warned that Europe faces "civilisational erasure" and questioned whether certain nations can remain reliable allies, in a new strategy document that puts a particular focus on the continent. The 33-page National Security Strategy sees the US leader outline his vision for the world and how he will wield US military and economic power to work towards it. Trump described the document as a "roadmap" to ensure America remains "the greatest and most successful nation in human history". European politicians have begun to react, with Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying his country did not need...

The late conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer maintained of the U.S., “Decline is a choice.” This isn’t quite right with regard to Europe, whose great powers were kneecapped by the cataclysms of the early 20th century. France bore the brunt of World War I, suffering 1.4 million dead and 4.3 million wounded and a ruinous economic cost. As for Britain, stretched to the max, it got steadily eclipsed in power and influence by the United States as World War II progressed. The less said about Germany’s role in all this, of course, the better. And then the European colonial empires inevitably...

The United States government has warned that mass migration represents an “existential threat” to Western civilization and has warned Europe against the continuing open borders policies and the creation of two-tier justice systems that favor foreigners over native populations. In a shot across the bow against the open borders ideology that has taken hold in the halls of power in many Western European capitals, the U.S. State Department urged its allies “to take bold action and defend citizens against the threats posed by mass migration.” The diplomatic arm of the Trump administration also warned that its embassies will be actively...

In the grand theater of American decline, there are few characters so destructive as the Affluent White Female Liberal (AWFL), a suburban archetype with a Prius, a “Coexist” bumper sticker, and an unquenchable thirst for moral superiority. From the San Francisco Bay Area to the halls of Democrat power, these women, often secular, privileged, are kicking out the pillars upholding our society. Their hyper-liberal zeal promotes family breakdown, political alienation, cultural Marxism, and racial division, all while patting themselves on the back for “saving” the world. It would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous — the irony that the...

Will the death of Western Civilization occur while the United States is the global hegemon and unquestioned leader of the West? Due to Euro-socialism and decades of unfettered Islamic immigration, virtually all the nations of Western Europe are swept up in seemingly irreversible death spirals. When combined with the pathological anti-American and anti-West mindset The American Marxist fifth column has long been part of the global cabal of Marxists and their de facto Islamic allies, as both have a common objective: to destroy Western Civilization. As such, they have been determined to undermine the United States as the titular leader...

I began my career with Allegheny County Pretrial Services in April 2008. I was sworn in by a judge, issued a badge, and placed into a system built on neutrality and public safety. Our job was simple: interview defendants, verify information, review police reports, pull complete criminal histories, and present magistrates with fact-based recommendations. We weren’t advocates for release or detention. We were there to present facts. And for a long time, the system worked because facts were the only thing that mattered. Failures to appear happened, but they were usually honest mistakes. Multiple pending cases were rare. Dangerous charges...

Key Takeaways: This visual timeline attempts to plot all of the world’s empires throughout history, based on geographic area and size. The rise and fall of familiar civilizations, like the Romans, Mongols, or Ottomans can be seen, as well as modern powerhouses like the U.S. or China. Attempting to plot this all on one timeline is bold, but also comes with its many challenges and some omissions.

Bukele is now a verb. To ‘Bukele’ something is to fix a problem that liberals say is ‘too complicated’ by simply ignoring their long-winded excuses and just doing the obvious. It is named after the leader of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who has turned a country that was once dubbed the murder capital of the world into one of the safest. Meanwhile, Britain, once Europe’s most orderly nation, is mired in rape gangs, knife crime, and shoplifting. The UK doesn’t need Bukele-style mega-prisons, but it certainly needs his clarity. The problem is that our elites in Westminster have mastered the...

Recent lawsuits reveal a troubling pattern of cities working with private, fee-based lawyers. These cases lack proper legal backing, misuse courts to alter state and national policies, and create chaos when the outside legal bills are due. For example, in pro-fracking Pennsylvania, an upscale county near Philadelphia partnered with contingency fee lawyers to sue energy companies over climate change, an attempt to fundamentally transform a key business in the Keystone State. In public health, private lawyers exploited their municipal engagements to fight for years over their fees, thus delaying a multi-billion-dollar settlement to help victims of the opioid crisis. A...